My Day

I finished yanking most of the stuff out of the boys' room so I could steam clean their carpet. Best laid plans went a rye...so the boys furniture is in the hall and in our room until I can get the steam cleaner repaired/rent one/or my mom will replace my old machine with a new one for her that I can borrow. Either way it will get done.

2. I took photos for the yearbook, again today, of High Touch, High Tech. This program is an in-school field trip. Eve's class was there today. I was able to see her with the bugs, which was the theme.

3. I was also the library volunteer for the afternoon. I really dig this opportunity to talk books with kids and adults.

4. Made a pan of baklava for my Aunt Loly's Christmas present. My mom will deliver it on Saturday. Made up the fixin's for another pan for Thanksgiving at my dad's house. I just need to buy some more honey.

5. Laughed, but though it wasn't a bad idea, when Michael said that if a movie was ever made of his life he wanted the role to go to Tim Roth.

******Current Personal Reading Book***


I'm enjoying the insights.



*********Book Reviews*******

I recommend this book to all tween girls and their older counterparts. I enjoyed the twist on the fairytale stories. There is a lot of bumps and bruises on the way to true love and the fairytale ending, but it kept the story lively. The part of the story with the leprechaun, the computer gremlins and Ding Dongs was quite amusing. Oh how I do appreciate shampoo and a good bath too after reading this book. It's fun read...give it a try.

A girl trying to figure out who she wants to be and trying to be comfortable in her own skin. This is a so so book for girls who feel a bit out of sorts becoming a tween.
I ended up reading this book on my walk to the park. I was supposed to return the book to the library because Rachel had already read it. I'm interested in the books she reads. She likes some of mine too. She will be reading The Help after she finishes My Fair Godmother. I actually read My Fair Godmother before she did because I saw it on Kim's shelfari.

*******Amazon Delivery that caused the most excitement at the house:

These new books will be our up coming family night reads:


We will actually read this one first.



:::::::::::NCIS...Power Down:

Check out the show if you have time . There is even a Dr. Who reference, which made me laugh. A Kojak reference too. I watch/watched both shows.

Ding Dong

The kids are preparing the "Ding Dong Cobbler":

It is made with yellow cake mix, Ding Dongs, marshmallows, and hot cocoa mix.



Michael cooks the Cobbler and a Chicken Gumbo concoction:


Eve with one of the ropes:



Eve plays with her shadow:





Aaron belays Rachel and Michael gives some climbing suggestions:



Aaron lets his feet dangle for fun when he gets to the top:



Noah found a handprint his size:


Eve plays on the rocks:


We all think stickbugs are so cool:


I went up on two routes. I didn't top out on the second, but I got pretty close for being so rusty. No photos because Michael was belaying me and the kids were exploring the rock formations.

***The Noahism from the trip:
***edited (Noah was misquoted by me...thanks for reminding me, Michael)
We were sitting in the tent and Noah piped up, "You know those books by that comedian..."Are you sure you're not a redneck"? We all busted out laughing. We told him they were called "You might be a redneck". His matter of fact title just seemed a heck of a lot funnier. I can't remember the point he was trying to make, but this was great for the rest of the day.

******Book Review*****



The voices are distinct for each character. Growing up in the South I hear these voices and their is some familiarity. The voice of Aibleen is one that I particularly enjoy. Kathryn Stockett does help crack the veneer of Southern gentility. There was more than one occasion when I was younger when a relative of mine would be friends with a specific black person, but whisper under their breath that they didn't want a black person to be seated next to them in a restaurant. I always found that odd.
Each of the stories were woven together so well about this community where secrets were kept, while so many people seemed to know everybody elses business. I wanted to hug Aibleen and Louvenia. I wanted to listen to Minny talk about life. I kept wanting Leroy to man up and stop drinking. I wanted Stuart to pour out all of the bourbon. I bristled at the horrors and indignanties that human beings who happened to have a different skin color had to endure by people professing to be morally, spiritually and mentally superior. Her message of mutual respect is one that, unfortunately, needs to be retold.

p.s. the story about the word Crisco is priceless.

Later, gators!

All Hail the Inclined Plane!

My dad built a ramp out of plywood, then used a rope to get their piano onto a trailer by himself. He drove it to our house, which took him another hour. Backed the trailer up our driveway and remade the ramp system to get the piano off the trailer and a ramp up our front stairs. Michael came home during his lunch hour to help dad move it off the trailer and up into the house. He wouldn't even let us buy him lunch. Eve is absolutely thrilled. Dad said he brought it because Eve wanted it so much. When she came home from school she clapped and squealed for joy and sat down to play. We just need to get it tuned because it is flat and find an instructor we can afford.





******Book Review***********



What a fun way to make a classic into something very quirky, while remaining true to the spirit of the characters. This story seems like something that was discussed over several beers and a triple dog dare to be put to paper. I thought it was a hoot.

::::::::::::::Family Camping/Climbing*****

Michael took us all to Sand Rock, Alabama to go camping and rock climbing. I'll post some more photos and tell some stories tomorrow.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I have been innoculating myself against the menace of HCOK (Halloween Candy Over Kill). I simply eat the fun sized candies in small portions throught the month to build up my resistance to the huge stash of candy the kids will bring home. I think it is working.

***Book Review***

This is like one protracted article written for The Onion. The story about a 3-legged deodorant inventor has some life out loud moments, but definitely leans to the more low brow humor end of the humor spectrum. It is an interesting exercise in writing books in a different way. There are hits and misses, but overall it was okay.

In tribute to the next book on my list, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I really like the remake of the song "Zombie" done by Miser .
You may remember the original by The Cranberries.

***Field Day***
Here are a couple of photos of Eve on her favorite Field Day center:





Here is Noah:

Noah and his class were thrilled to maintain their teacher's undefeated status in the tug of war. WOOT! WOOT!

I'm off to read! Smiles:)

Happy Birthday, Jessica

My sister, Katherine, called me last week and asked if I would make a topsy turvy cake for her daughter, Jessica's, 21st birthday. I said sure, so she and my stepmom, Alice, drove up and we shopped for the ingredients. We purchased French Vanilla cake and Strawberry cake mixes. We also got pink petal dust and rose gel coloring to use with the fondant. I mixed up the buttercream frosting for the cakes on Saturday. I put seedless raspberry in the middle of the French Vanilla like I did for the last cake creation. It seems to be popular.
Rachel and Eve wanted to help so they got to apply the luster dust to some of the stars and all of the fondant ball border. I spent the time quite amiably by listening to Pride and Prejudice playing on the television. Rachel wanted to watch it and I love the Kiera Knightly/Matthew McFadden version. It was great reciting lines from the movie while rolling, cutting and applying fondant decorations.
This is Eve helping put petal dust on the dimensional stars:



This one is Rachel putting petal dust on the balled fondant border:




This one is me making the pink bow to go around the top tier:


Rachel requests a slice of cake:


Michael says that it tastes good:

Jessica, Rachel and My sister Tracy:

My funny and cute niece, Haley:

Did I mention funny?

A satisfying outcome and a lot of laughs with my sisters. BTW, Katherine refused to be allow her photograph on the blog. She is beautiful, too. Her story of the homeless man that stopped her in traffic got funnier with each telling. Life is truly an adventure and isn't it lovely that cake is a part of that!

Smiles!

More Book Reviews

More on Middlemarch can be found on Wikipedia.
The author has a keen insight into human nature. The characters are well developed and I found myself particularly drawn to the characters of Susan and Caleb Garth. The relationship of mutual respect was one I enjoyed reading about. One of the strongest messages I recieved while reading the book was that each life, no matter how it is valued by others, has an impact. Our intentions do matter and how we act upon those to better ourselves and the lives of others matters. I highly recommend this book. Well worth your time, indeed

***The Hunger Games


Katness Everdeen is a clever, world weary 16 year-old who loves her sister, Prim, so much that she scarifices herself to be a tribute to the Hunger Games. The Games are a punishment for past rebellion against the Capitol. The setting is North America in the future.
The book is a page turner because the author writes the characters well enough that you understand their motivations and perspectives. I felt rather anxious about what Katness and the other tributes were having to go through for the sake of this post-modern Roman games. The book did not end as I would have liked, but was reasonable for the situation. This is the first in a series of books, but I'm not sure if I want to find out what happens in this future world.

*******My current book:

This book by Mark Dunn reads like a really, really long article from The Onion. The quirky, and fun concept of the book is that the author's manuscript has been accidentally destroyed and all that is left is the footnotes. The footnotes, so far, have been nutty. The main character is has 3 legs and these footnotes are what are left of the research on his life. There is a bit of potty humor that has to do with converting an Oak tree to an outhouse backsplash that made me erupt in laughter. I look forward to finishing this one up and letting you know what I think about it all.

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It's almost that time...

For Informational Purposes Only

In my perusal of different internet sites I happened upon a treasure trove of totally cool ideas. Quick...lean in...I'll share!

I'm a Font Collector. I'm fond of the free ones, especially. If you want some great free ones check out: Fonts for Peas

I love the Fonts for Peas doodles, too!

Here is the link for their RSS feed so you can be updated on the new fonts: RSS FEED


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Another great site for FABULOUS ideas and crafty links is IDIY


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I was checking for coupon codes and found the site retailmenot that worked great. Just thought I would pass the information along.

Hope this helps somebody out. If not...I still had fun.