Winterize it!

Happy Thursday!

 

 

Hello-- today I am linking up with Bri for the Third Thursday Threads.  

 

 

Her challenge this month was to winterize a summer piece.  I loved the idea of this challenge, because I feel like I have been wearing the same black and gray trousers and buttondowns to work every day, so it was exciting to reach for something on the summer side of my closet.  This butterfly sundress from Target didn't feel too summery.  So I paired it some Target leggings, some boots from Amazon, and a black cardigan from Old Navy.  The bracelet was a gift from my sister and the scarf was a gift from my grandmother. 

 

When I walked out of the house this morning, I felt vaguely maternity-esque with the babydoll waistline of the dress combined with the leggings.  Evidently I wasn't the only one who thought this look read "maternity" because the cleaning lady at school commented that I was really starting to "pop".  I must have looked confused and then I had to clarify that, no, I am not actually expecting, I am just chubby.   Two whomps. This was followed up by me walking to my car parked on the street and getting cornered by a huge SUV driven by one of my student's parents who basically wanted an impromptu conference about their child's progress on the street corner.  Just when you think you've seen it all. 

 

In other news, I have added two books onto my 101 in 1001.  Sybil Exposed was sitting in the clearance bin at Barnes and Noble.  It caught my eye, so I sat down in a comfy chair in a patch of sunlight and thirty pages later I decided I wasn't leaving without it.  I'm a psychology nerd, what can I say?  I also discovered randomly at the library one day that there was a Jennifer Weiner book I had somehow overlooked.  Then Came You was an easy read that I enjoyed.  I have been choosing my reading material from the large print section of the library to avoid the waiting list.  I grow closer to being a full blown senior citizen every passing day.

 

Have a great day!

is currently...

Loving: my new school and grade level team!  Don't get me wrong, I am still quite nervous and fairly overwhelmed with switching to a new school and grade level, but I am really enjoying my new school and coworkers. I was getting completely burnt out ready for a change from my old job, and this seems to be a good fit. The climate there is so relaxed and friendly.  This week was just meetings and classroom prep time, with an open house sprinkled in the mix.  I did get to meet a few of our kids and parents.  The kids show up Monday, so ready or not, here we go...

Reading: Janet Evanovich's Hot Six.  I think  I have blogged before that Ryan got me into the Stephanie Plum series.  Since he has been working like crazy this summer and I have hardly worked at all, I have caught up to him.  We are actually both reading this book.  We tried for about 24 hours to share the same copy  before Ryan got completely exasperated with me and downloaded it to the iPad.  These books are soooo funny!


Watching: Project Runway and Modern Family, the latter I have just started from Netflix.  I am fully aware that I am extremely late to the Modern Family party. 

The other night I just wanted some mindless television to relax to in bed and ended up on the Style Network  watching some old reruns of Sex and the City.  It was towards the end of the show when Miranda has Brady and is just struggling to be a good mom and maintain the status quo as a hot shot lawyer.  Finally she ended up going to tell her boss she was cutting back on work and then walked home and put Brady to bed.  I ended up totally tearing up, raising my fist in solidarity and saying "You go Miranda, you go girl!" When I used to watch that show originally I always thought she sort of a less interesting character, but now that I am a mom, I relate to her in a totally different way.  I kind of love her and want to be her.... ANYWAYS...

Thinking About: the Save the Dates that still need to be addressed and sent, the cake people I need to call, how long it's been since I vaccummed my carpets, etc. etc.  Between starting a new job, planning a wedding, keeping up with Isaac and all of his commitments, my mind always seems to be racing and it seems like I am always trying to squeeze in one more thing.

Anticipating: some family bonding time this weekend.  We have been making great use of our season passes to Dorney Park and I anticpate a few more trips up there before the season is over.





 
I'm not going to lie, I am also looking forward to school starting.  The summer is so relaxing , but Isaac and I thrive on a full schedule and routine.  I like lazy summer days with nothing on the agenda, but I am ready for the hustle and bustle of fall.

Wishing: that Ryan has some luck on the job search.  We aren't too happy with his current job but it has been slow going finding something that is a good fit (hours, salary, commute, a neighborhood where there aren't bullets flying regularly, etc).  Keep your fingers crossed that he is able to stumble across the right job. 

Making me Happy:  So many things!  These new shoes (pink AND studded AND less than 20 bucks?!  I hit the motherload!). 

 

Lush products.  I am mildy obsessed with that store.  In the past month I have bought this and this and this (and this and this and this...).  I bought their little foot care kit and made Ryan use it with me.  Here is a shot of us in the midst of our foot mask.

 

Bueller....

I'm still here... pinky swear... Girl Scout's honor...

Here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to...

1 -  Summer vacation officially begins!

Which means we are living the dream.  There is finally time for things like haircuts:

(for the first time since February)...  and lots of time for books!!!

We have taken several trips to the library and used bookstore over the past few weeks and that is a small sample of what I have brought home. I am excited to start devouring books again. Ryan and I watched the movie version of One for the Money (and enjoyed it) so I decided to start reading the Stephanie Plum book it was based on. Ryan is further ahead in the series (I think book six). We have also recently watched and enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife (almost as good as the book!), Madagascar 3 (da duh duh duh duh duh AFRO da duh duh duh duh duh CIRCUS),and 50/50 (really well done but so sad).

 Other books I have enjoyed include A Journal of Mortifying Moments: A Novel by Robyn Harding which was great fluffy chick lit, I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella which was EXCELLENT fluffy chick lit, and a book about Stepparenting which was "eh".

I am teaching summer school a few hours a day (super easy), taking a grad class (also not too bad if I keep on top of all of the work and don't procrastinate!), writing some summer IEPS for extra cash and trying to take care of the house a little better.... maybe one day I will be domesticated... maybe...

2. Ryan has been home!

I can't remember how much I have blogged about this in the past, but Ryan's new job has been requiring him to travel for extremely long periods of time.  We were lucky to have him home for about 10 straight days this past week.  He had requested some time at home to go to his cousin's wedding, and then was able to stay a little longer.

Among other fun things, while he was home we made good use of our Dorney Park/Wild Water Kingdom Season Passes (heading up twice).

That's Isaac on the right....

We made it to another Reading Phillies game-- this time a double header that ended up going into extra innings.  An eternity for a non-baseball fan like myself, but great fun for Ryan and Isaac.

Although we had great fun when Ryan was here, there was a little bit of pressure to make every moment fun and exciting and thrilling before he had to leave again.  Our life has sort of become dealing with being apart and then trying to cram over the top fun into every second before he has to leave again.  I miss regular life as a threesome.  Unfortuneatly, it looks like once he wraps up his current assignment in Charlotte, his next stop will somewhere in Wisconsin until mid-September.  So looks like we will be in the current cycle of saying hello and then saying goodbye for quite a while.

3- Isaac Updates

Isaac has officially finished first grade, which I suppose makes him an unofficial second grader.  I can't believe how grown up he is.  His summer is consisting of soccer, soccer and more soccer.  His travel team is having twice a week practices (I just bit the bullet and ordered him over 100 dollars of uniforms for travel!). 



He is one of the tiniest ones on the team, playing with nine year olds, but he is fast and scrappy.  He was very frustrated playing intermural soccer this spring, so I am excited for him to play more competitively with kids at a higher skill level.  He is also enrolled for about 5 different soccer camps  so he will have lots of opportunities to hone his skills, run around and get out of the house. 

Hope things are well with all of you!!!

lazy sunday morning

Yesterday I got my car inspected. It needed some work but Tom was able to get me a really great deal on parts (like, I think I paid 25% of what they would have charged a regular customer who came in the front door), and of course he doesn't charge me labor. He's pretty much the best brother ever. I'm so proud of him and how successful he is. He's such a hard worker and such a caring person. He also really has no shame which used to embarass me a little bit when we were kids, but cracks me up no as he dances around the shop singing Neil Diamond at that top of his lungs with no qualms at all.

I am so glad to have that taken care of. For the first time in recent memory, it doesn't need brakes (it's a Christmas miracle! I am notoriously hard on brakes...) I got two new tire ties, he fixed my sunken four way button on my dash, put in a new turn signal switch (so my car no longer continuously ticks like a bomb when I'm driving around... felt kind of omnious...) and changed my oil. I'm going to need two new tires within the next few months and there is something with the transmission we are keeping an eye on, but for now, the Alero lives on at 167, 542 miles.

While I was hanging around the shop one of the salesman found me and tried to get me to consider a new car. As long as the Alero is running, I'm going to drive it. I don't know how I will afford a car payment again. The guy in the bay across from Tom was working on a Chevy Cruze. I might consider one of those, after some time has passed, if I can find one that is a year old or so. I'll let someone else take the depreciation hit, I think.

While he was working on my car I finished off "Fly Away Home" by Jennifer Weiner. I found a copy in a thrift store near my mom for only 2 bucks. It's the only book of hers left I haven't read, and this one didn't disappoint either. I'm also so exicted that my friend Selena is reading The Hunger Games. I loved the books and I am so excited for the movies, but NONE of my friends have read them. And she loves them.

Anyways, from there I met perfect on paper guy for lunch. Even though I am not interested in him romantically, I do like him and do want to be friends with him, even if there are certain things about him that are quite irritating. We had a nice lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (I had huevos rancheros-- so yummy!!!). He brought me a calendar he had made for me with photographs he had taken. We wandered around the mall for a bit after that.

Then I met my girlfriends for dinner at the vegan chinese buffet in Malvern, which was also delicious. I love that I have such interesting friends. My friend Jami has gotten really into gymnastics and has joined a team and is competing in meets. My friend Selena is becoming a certified tobacco prevention specialist. She helps workplaces go smoke-free and also helps people to quit. Her area of focus is smokers with mental health diagnosis such as schizophrenia. And I was home and in bed by 11:30, because I'm old.

I have a ton more stuff to blog about, but I'll have to get to it later. Have a great day everyone!

what we've been up to

I decided I wanted to do something fun for our last weekend before school starts (for me). So Isaac and I went to the Camden Aquarium for one last weekend of fun***. I didn't take any pictures, but it was pretty neat. I haven't been there since my Melmark days (and actually, we encountered a group of Melmark adults in the line for our tickets). They had tons of hands on exhibits. We got to touch a jellyfish, a shark, star fish, anenome, and sting rays. We went to the 4D movie about Sea Monsters which was a tad on the scary side for Isaac. It was a little dark inside the exhibits for cell phone pictures, but I did snap this one at a fountain near the parking lot.

(see those pale white thighs? When he's in the tub he looks like he is wearing a pair of white swim trunks)

We stayed until we had enough. As we were driving home and passing the exit for the Smith Memorial Playground, we decided spur of the moment to stop there for a while and ended up staying for like 2 hours. If you have kids and live anywhere close to Philadelphia, I highly recommend it. It was a really lovely day.

I'm exhausted now but craving brownies. Since I don't have any mixes handy, I gave this one a try. It's a super easy and delicious recipe. Even the cat loved them. She was licking the batter from the bowl when I turned my back. I am going to assume that cat germs are like alcohol and will burn off in the oven....

My parents randomly stopped by Thursday night. They were in the area visiting a friend who is in the hospital. I didn't tell Isaac they were coming and he was sooooo adorably surprised. My dad works for the Bon Ton now, which is a department store in central PA. He picked up a whole bunch of stuff from sample sales for us. My mom brought me a ton of cute clothes she got on super clearance at a Penny's sale. It was like Christmas!

Anyways, I'm officially registered for my first grad class. It's education technology and it has no required textbook, so that's good. I have to go to campus on Monday to get a parking pass and a student ID. I'm really looking forward to getting back in the swing of things again and maybe even picking up some good knowledge about my job, since, lets face it, technology isn't really my forte. It will make me feel a lot more secure about my employability once

I finish up the second certification. I'm only kicking myself for not taking care of it sooner.

I also went and spent some time at Domestic Relations this past week when Isaac was at camp. I had to pick up some paperwork in order to add M. to Isaac's birth certificate. During the Great Argument of 2011, M. gave me a laundry list of things that I had done that had hurt him. Leaving him off of the birth certificate was (understandably) on the list. I was extremely bitter towards him when I was filling out the paperwork in the hospital and decided to leave him off, purely out of spite, but I don't feel that way any longer. Of all of his grievances, I figured this was one thing I could easily fix. So I trekked out to the Norristown Courthouse, fed a meter an astonishing amount of change (a quarter bought you seven and a half minutes.... seriously). It's always an interesting crowd there, but the clerk was actually friendly and helpful, even if he did refer to me as "madam" more than once. So the paperwork is all completed. Monday I will drop it in the mail. Go me for productivity.

My stint at Domestic Relations did afford me some time to keep working my way through this novel:

I know two people have read it. The first loved it and called it "life-changing". The second had a hard time getting into it. I'm leaning more towards the latter. This book is really depressing. I'm nearly done it, but only from a sense of obligation to finish it, not because I really care about what happens. I can't say I really love it (sorry Jami).

What did you get into this weekend?

***Incidently, I did inform M. that I was taking Isaac out of the state. The last time I took Isaac to New Jersey for the day, he had a fit when he found out because I took Isaac out of the state without asking. Which is being totally ridiculous. New Jersey is a 15 minute scoot over a bridge from his house. It's not like I flew Isaac to Texas without his knowledge. BUT ANYWAYS, he got his obligatory "I'm taking Isaac to Camden" text, so I hope he's happy.

Can we talk about...

How much I loved this movie?

We read this one for my book club. The book, by Kathryn Stockett, was amazing, and the movie didn't disappoint either. The movie was very faithful to the book, but still read the book, because there are so many good details and they can't put it all in the movie. All of the major and important scenes were there though and the characters really came to life on the screen.

These two were perfectly cast as Minnie and Abileen:

These two were fabulous as well. I love Emma Stone and I thought she played Skeeter just right.

But she was my favorite as Celia Foote.

I know there is a fair amount of backlash against the book and the movie. I acknowledge that some of the criticism may be valid. I think it's pretty unsettling that the HSN has come up with a line of products based on the movie. But it is thought provoking and entertaining. Check it out!

WILW

Reading! I've been tearing through a ton of Jennifer Weiner and I've almost knocked out The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. I haven't been able to put them down. I also got a big package from Amazon yesterday with books for the next four months of book club so I'm excited to keep that up.

My new highlights. I finally have gotten my hair back to a brown I don't despise but I had her put in a few highlights for fun. It's so nice to finally have my roots touched up-- I don't think I can pull off the two tone look as well as SJP.

Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Yummy.

These new shoes. They are pretty boring looking, but they will replace a totally worn out pair I wear to school all the time. They are brand new and I picked them up from a thrift store for 4.50!

This song/routine that we have been doing the past few weeks. You really get to channel your inner diva and throw around a ton of attitude. I love it.

Thanks for stopping by...

"Different, Not Less"

Now that it's summer and I'm enjoying "funemployment" (to steal an expression from the Mormon Child Bride) I'm finally working my way through my Netlfix queue. i'm great about he watch instanly queue but the DVDs seem to sit on my counter for months.

Anyways, I recently watched Temple Grandin, an autistic woman, which originally aired as an HBO special.

.

Here is a great review of it. It is based on her book, Thinking in Pictures which I read ages ago. Temple perseveres through life in a time when mother's were being blamed for autism in their children and were being told to institutionalize their children ASAP. Being an autistic support teacher, this movie has been recommended to me by many different people. Our classroom assistants even got to watch it as an inservice one day. It didn't disappoint and of course I found myself crying through it as she struggles to be understood and especially in some scenes with her mother. I definitely recommend it and I love that it could give people a more realistic looking depiction of a person with autism, beyond the Rainman. Claire Danes really captured the nuances of her behavior: her loud unmodulated voice, the difficulty of sustaining eye contact, even her odd gait.

Anyone out there seen it? What did you think?

a few randoms

• We have had such a hot few days and it has been unbearable at work. Our school is very old and is not air conditioned. The temperatures in our classrooms have been in the upper 90s for the past two days. At least I can wear a light cotton sundress. I feel bad for the men in my school who have to wear pants and polos. Ick.
• It's not fair to be so hot before I have even had a chance to get over my allergies. I have been a snotty, sneezing, itchy, drowsy, wheezing, asthmatic mess for the past week or so. And I look scary to boot.
• I'm currently reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I tried to read it once before and couldn't get into it, but the second time around I like it a little better. It is just a compilation of letters from the various characters and it took a while to get used to that format and keep all of the characters straight in my head. I would say I'm about 2/3 of the way through it and enjoying it.
• I can now say I've made an official (if half hearted) attempt to get a summer job. I filled out a few applications, but nothing looks to promising, aside from writing IEPs which isn't very many hours. I really need the money though, so I should probably hustle a little harder. I did get Isaac enrolled in swim lessons and a few sports camps which gets me a few checks in the "good mommy" column. Lately, I've felt like the mommy that other better moms point and laugh at.
• My sister and brother in law are on their way to Alaska for the next year or so. I need to figure out a way to afford to visit them before they move.
• I ended up meeting up with the TrueDeeva herself over the weekend. It has (sadly) been a few years since we have hung out. I had a babysitter and my plans ended up never materializing so I texted her on a whim. It was fun and I will be heading out to her place for a BBQ in a few weeks.
• I got an e-mail from another e-harmony guy, who seems like a real winner. In response to my question "describe the worst date you've ever been on" he related a story about how the girl's face looked skinny in the picture she sent, but when he met her, her body was fat. Then, one of his open ended questions he sent me was "What is your opinion on society today?".... Say what?? I responded that I wasn't sure how to answer such a broad question and his response was "Well, that's why I asked you, because you're a broad."......... So in short I've met another arrogant jerk, this one who seems to have the political views of the Unabomber. Thanks, e-harmony.

Anyways, that's all I have for right now. I'll try to post some Memorial Day pictures as soon as I can gank them from my mom and dad's camera. Have a great week!

Sarah's Key

The story is set in Paris and has two interweaving stories revolving around the French roundup of Jews in World War II. One is told from the point of view of a 10 year old Jewish girl Sarah. She is awoken one morning by French police and taken with her parents. Thinking she will be back in a few hours, she locks her four year old brother in a closet. She is taken to an internment camp in a sports arena for several days and then to a work camp and the reader wonders if she will be able to escape and what will become of her brother. You can probably imagine the awful gut-wrenching places her story goes. The other story is set in the present and is narrated by a (two dimensional) American woman, Julia, who lives in Paris in an unhappy marriage. She is writing a newspaper article on the events detailed above and becomes (oddly) obsessed with Sarah's story. Unfortuneatly, about halfway through the novel, the author reveals the brother's fate and fades Sarah away. Julia is a less engaging narrator and the second half of the novel felt a little bit like a letdown. Although the plot at some points really makes no sense, it was a page turner. I had a snow day and knocked it out in 24 hours. I was definitely ignorant of the specific events that took place in France. A major theme of the novel is remembering horrific events, not simply sweeping away past history. It's a compelling story, even if the writing is a little weak.

random, shmandom

Okay, not to be a negative Nancy here, but I'm pretty much over the snowy weather. I'm also over my school district's unwillingness to ever give in a give us a snow day. When it's my time to go, I would rather it not be on my way in work on the sidestreets of Pottstown's North End thankyouverymuch. I like one or two big snowstorms, enough to use a few snow days, and then that's it. No more. For a girl who never picked up a snow shovel until last year, I have become a snow shoveling expert. I'm over it. There is a crapload of snow on the ground already and it's still coming down. Both of our districts have called for a delay, so I guess there is more shoveling in the near future. Booooooo. Here is the pile of work I took home with me from our 12:00 dismissal, ever the optimist that I would sit at home and continue forging on with lesson plans, IEPs and progress notes. Yeah right. It hasn't been touched and probably won't be unless we end up with a snowday tomorrow. We're also going slightly stir crazy. I am totally content to waste away a snowy weekend laid up in bed with a cup of lemon tea and a good book*. Isaac, not so much. There is only so many hours we can log on the wii or enduring the tedium that is Scrabble Jr. Even when we are not snowbound it is a struggle to come up with fun (and cheap/free) things to do in the winter. If anyone had any ideas I would love to hear them. *Incidently, I finally started Sarah's Key for book club. It's very riveting but might be too emotionally heavy to plow in a hurry. It might have to be one that I break up, like I did with Three Cups of Tea. I can't remember if I blogged about this yet or not, but I had a lovely time in Lancaster shopping till I dropped with my mom. I returned home and tried to make plans again with friends but again no one was around. I was determined not to sit in my house alone for the second night in a row on my weekend "off". I ended up texting WJM to see if he wanted to meet up somewhere. Turns out, he was out at his parent's house (like ten mins away) and said he would come over in about an hour and a half. That was the impetus I needed to get my house whipped into shape after turning a blind eye to the clutter and dishes for several days. I ran around like a crazy person and totally cleaned my house from top to bottom, even doing crazy stuff I knew he wouldn't even see like corralling the laundry in my closet and changing Isaac's sheets. It was lovely to wake up Sunday morning to a totally clean house. It was funny too because when I opened the door he was all, "Who shovelled this walk?!". I'm like "I shovel now!!" He came over for a little bit and then we went out to the Epicurean in Phoenixville for a bit, which was one of our old haunts. The conversation again was good. Equal parts reminiscing and catching up. I know I have written this before, but it is a very weird thing to hang out with him: a stranger who knows all about your past. It was actually nice though and better than staying home watching Netflix. Anyways, enough about that. This page fell out of Isaac's Kidwriting Journal at school so he brought it at home. I love, love, love, to read his writing. I just wish I could get him using more lowercase, especially for his name. "I saw a rainbow and there was a pot of gold and a leprachaun". Lastly, a friend recommended Ellie Goulding and I have been loving everything of hers. Here is her cover of one of my favorite songs. Hope things are well for all of you. Leave a comment if it's snowing where you are!

Saturday update

I just used this tutorial to make my new blog header. I know it looks pretty basic, but not too bad for my first try I think. New year, new look. I think it captures the basic elements of my lack of domesticity. Except I couldn't come up with an image that represents "perpetually single". =P I'm up ridiculously early for a Saturday. Isaac came in before seven o'clock. I love how during the week I have to drag him out of bed at that time to get ready for school but on Saturdays he is bright eyed and bushy tailed, climbing into bed with me. I kept laying there with my eyes closed, determined to drift back off, but my neighbor's car alarm was going off repeatedly. At about seven o'clock I gave up officially. My dad should be coming over today. I got curtains for my living room way back in November for my birthday and they have been sitting in a box in my kitchen ever since. My mom is in California visiting her sister so I managed to convinced my dad to make the drive from the Lanc to come and put them up and hang out for a while. I think it would go a long way to making my house look more cozy and homelike. After living here nearly two years, I have hardly any curtains up anywhere. I've almost knocked out Something Blue by Emily Griffin which will bring my total of books read since Christmas to 3. Some of my friends/co-workers are forming a book club, so I need to pick up the book and get working on that. I love discussing books with other people, but I haven't had a forum to do that since college. I hope everyone takes it as seriously as I plan to. The book is Sarah's Key. Anyone ever read it? I can't remember the author offhand. As much as I love my fluffy chick lit, I think I am ready to shift gears into something more meaningful. Anyways, I should clean my house before my dad gets here so he doesn't faint when he sees the state of my bathroom. I'm also trying to squeeze in a trip to the gym this morning. We made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies last night and I need to do something to try to counterbalance the five or six I have eaten since then. Plus, I am (very slowly) getting back into the groove of running again, and I am sort of looking forward to getting on the treadmill and pushing myself more. Hope your Saturday is fabulous!!

Emily Griffin

My girlfriend Jami just gave me a whole stack of Emily Griffin books.

I just finished:

Now onto: It's light, fluffy, easy chick lit, which seems to be what I am in the mood for right now. What are you reading?

Book Review

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir

I had this one on my wanting-to-read list since I saw a review of it in People Magazine and so I was excited when my mom gave me a copy for Christmas. It was refreshing to read an account of being a single Mormon girl in a big east coast city trying to navigate the minefields of dating, and LDS culture. Sure there are some books like that out there but this is the most true to life I've read to date. I guess because it hasn't been white washed and sanitized by Deseret Books. The picture she paints is accurate. I will totally vouch for that.

Here are a few excerpts from the beginning of the book:

Cue: this place. And by this place, I mean a lame dance held in a church gym..... Let's not forget tonight's DJ Brother Mo, who's wearing a polyester suit and tie with no trace of irony. He occupies the stage at the far end of the gym. To his left there's a long plastic table for refreshments: lemonade and cookies, as if we're a little league soccer team.

....If it weren't already painfully obvious, these events are organized to facilitate marriage. How else would we Manhattan Mormons meet, marry and then make more Mormons? (Take that, Sally and your seashells at the seashore). No one acknowledges this, though; that's another unspoken rule of the Mormon dance. We're all just here to "have fun". The effect is pretty horrifying. It's like watching a bunch of assembly line workers at a factory pretending they're there because they love screwing nuts on bolts. I want to should "Can't we just acknowledge that we are here eventually to screw a nut on a bolt?" But no one would get the joke, and the ones who do would be terribly offended.

However, this book may not be for everyone. I could see that more conservative members would be offended by certain parts (or even rallying for the author to be ex'd). She's very open about her faith, her doubts, and her sexuality. I was a little turned off by how much of the books focused on the importance of being physically attractive. And sometimes her naitivy (spelling?) was just annoying (she doesn't know porn is available on the internet? Come on, you only hear about porn at every single General Conference).

Overall, I give this book two thumbs up and would recommend it to my Mormon and non-Mormon single gal friends alike.

weird

OKay. I remember my mom reading this book to me when I was young.

But I have never read it to Issy.

Why?

Because I think it's a little creepy. Especially the part at around 6:44 when she climibing into her son's room with a ladder.

Non-Fiction

I just finished Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to fight Terrorism and Build Nations... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It seems a logical pick for today's topic of a non-fiction book.

It was a great read, although it took me quite a while to get through it. It is heavy on Pakastani and Afganistani geography, customs, etc., which sometimes slowed down the pace of reading. But at it's core, it's a book about one man who is changing the world by devoting himself to educating women in one of the wildest parts of the world. I have been pondering a lot this summer how one person can really make a difference and this book really helped provoke a lot of interesting introspection.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"After attending a conference of development experts in Bangladesh, Mortenson decided CAI schools should educate students only up to the fifth grade and focus on increasing the enrollment of girls. 'Once you educate the boys, they tend to leave the village and go search for work in the cities,' explained Mortenson. 'But the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they've learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls."

p.209 (emphasis added)

"In times of war, you often hear our leaders -- Christian, Jewish and Muslim-- saying, 'God is on our side.' But it isn't true. In war, God is on the side of the refugees, widows and orphans."

p. 239

"'I request America to look within our hearts,' Abbas continued, his voice straining with emotion, "and see that the great majority of us are not terrorists, but good and simple people. Our land is sticken with poverty because we are without education. But today, another candle of knowledge has been lit. In the name of Allah the Almighty, may it light our way out of the darkness we find ourselves in."

p. 257

"Mortenson urged Finley's readers not to lump all Muslim's together. The Afghan children flocking to refugee camps were victims, Mortenson argued, deserving of our sympathy.... The only way we can defeat terrorism is if people in this country where terrorists exist learn to love and respect Americans' Mortenson concluded, 'and if we can respect and love the people here. What's the difference between them becoming a productive local citizen or a terrorists? I think the key is education."

p. 258

"He likens Mortenson's returning to post 9/11 Pakistan, two months before Daniel Pearl's kidnapping and beheading, to New York City's firefighters rushing into the wounded World Trade Center. 'When Greg wins the Nobel Peace Prize, I hope the judges in Oslo point to that day,' Shimanski says. 'This guy Greg quietly, doggedly, heading back into a war zone to do battle with the real causes of terror is every bit as heroic as those fireman running up the stairs of those burning towers while everyone else was frantically trying to get out. "

p.273

"If I'm not a good ball player, I'll tell you something, I'm going to be a CPA"

Day 4 - Favorite Book Easy.

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh When I was in fourth grade we could randomly choose books from the classroom library. I found that one and read it over and over and over. While I was looking to see if I could find the particular cover I remember borrowing (it was orange) I came across this image. Holy crap! Someone got a Harriet the Spy illustration tattoo! So cool!

What is your favorite book?

show me what I'm looking for

• I just finished twenty mins of jump rope in the driveway. It's the only cardio I can do here. After Isaac's in bed I take the jump rope out. I can't do it for very long but it sure gets my heart pumping and makes me feel like at least I haven't spent my whole day being a lazy bum.
• I'm also relearning all the old jump rope tricks I used to be able to do, like skipping, crossies and swinging it around twice in one jump.
• What I really need to do is give in and get a gym membership again. There are so many that just opened around I want to take the time to compare all the costs and I just haven't taken the time to do that.
• Speaking of excercise, how about my one sneaker just vanished? I have waited almost a month hoping it will turn up and it just hasn't. I changed out of my sneakers in the parking lot by the river trail and I think one of them must have fallen out of the car or something. I need to call Nike and see if I can purchase just one shoe, because it was a brand new pair. Only me....
• I had a dentist appointment today for a filling. It hurts like hell and I still can't chew on that side. The dentist said it could be sore for possibly the next month.
• Just finished another Jodi Piccoult book House Rules. I was 207th the waiting list at the library when I saw it on a shelf at my mom's house. I am a big fan of her books generally and this book is set around a character with Asperberger's, so I was into it at first. But my overall thought was just meh. It was extremely repetitive (at least 1/3 was descriptions over and over of charactertics of aspbergers) and the ending didn't make sense. Definitely did not compare to My Sister's Keeper or 19 Minutes.
• My next book is:

• So I'll let you know how that one is.

• I've been doing more reading in my room at night since I can't watch TV. Why not, you ask? Because the cats have chewed through both of the cords I use to sync/charge my ipod and then recently Cody chewed through the cable cord, so no more TV in my room. It's ridiculous. Good thing they are ridiculously cute.

• I don't have to much to write about. My days are filled with a few hours of incredibly easy work, catchy up on odds and ends, and doing whatever I can to maintain my tan. It's a tough life, but I think I deserve it, as hard as I work during the school year.

"We need society, and we need solitude also, as we need summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest." -- Philip Gilbert Hamerton

I am a (small) step closer to crossing off another resolution. My sister got me the above book for Mother's Day and I finished it in several sittings while in Florida. I've heard Mary Ellen Edmunds speak a few times now and I have read many of her talks. She is so fabulous and funny. Her book was uplifting and an easy read. Each chapter was a different topic based on excerpts from talks she has given. Thank you Jenny for such a great read!

Summer update

We have been running around like crazy people for the five weeks or so since summer school let up and we have been having a blast! We have been doing a lot of stuff with family as my brother just moved back to the area from state college and Jenny has been home for a record breaking two months. Her boyfriend Drew joined us for about ten days and we headed down to our tradition family vacation spot of Ocean City New Jersey. It wa sa lovely week of relaxing and eating fudge and enjoying being together as a family. Isaac especially enjoyed spending so much time with his grandfather and the significant others of all of my siblings who played with him tirelessly.

Traditional Ocean City boardwalk picture. How cute is Isaac?

He wanted to be buried constantly. Aunt Jenny and Drew were happy to oblige...

Then my camera broke. Yes, the third one within the past 18 months or so and the one I just bought in April... I give up...

I also did some reading at the beach. I read:

The Pact (A Love Story) by Jodi Picoult, one of my favorite authors. It was a page turner and pretty good but it wasn't the best book of hers I have ever read. It was one of her earlier books, and she definitely doesn't have the maturity as a writer that she has in her later books.

I also read Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Aspergers by John Elder Robison which was a great book. It was interesting on it's own as a memoir but also as a way to explain how it was for him growing up with asperger's and his struggles. Many of my students have Asperbergers (the less extreme side of the autistic spectrum) so I try to read everything I can get my hands on. It was a great read!

Anyways, I will try to post more later. I have been doing a ton around my house and everything looks great. My siblings have all been helping too which is awesome. I have the best family ever!