Monday, July 26, 2010

Readin', Readin', Readin'

Again, I'm going to lump my book reviews into one big ol post so if you're not so into book reviews you can just bypass this ONE post and come back tomorrow. But I've read a couple good ones lately, so here ya go.

OH--these are going to be very, VERY abbreviated. Yogi does much, much better book review than I. I'm pretty much a "love it" or "didn't like it" kind of reviewer, but I'll try to give you a teeny bit more.

Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas. This was a nice, sweet read about two women living in the mountains of Colorado in the 1930's. One of women was in the twilight of her life (in her late 80s, her name is Hennie) and the other was just beginning her life as a new wife and mother (her name is Nit). They bonded and the elder woman helped guide and prepare the younger woman for the hard life in a mining town in the mountains through her "stories" of her experiences and about the people in their town. This was a delightful, quick read that in the end will have you asking yourself if you could forgive someone after they caused you decades of pain?
I liked this book, I give it 4.5 out of Five Stars.


Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult. This was a good book, but like all (or at least most) Jodi Picoult books, was fairly predictable. This one was about a young girl born with Osteogenesis Inperfecta, the a disease that causes a person's bones to break very easily...a sneeze can fracture a rib or the simple act of jumping can break a bone in the foot/ankle/leg. Anyway...the book is about whether this family (mother) would have carried the baby had she known about the baby's diagnosis early in the pregnancy. There's all sorts of secondary story lines going on...the older sister and her problems, the mother and father and their marital problems, the mother and her best friend and a lawsuit, the mother's attorney and her desire to find her birth mother, etc., etc. It almost gets to be too much at times and dilutes the intensity of the mother's plight to better her child's life. I won't give away more of the book, but I'll just say it was good, just kind of dragged on a bit.
I give this a 3.5 out of Five Stars.

Okay--intermission time. Sing a little song, go get a drink, use the restroom, go answer the phone (oh, never mind, don't do that...if you live in Oklahoma, it's probably just another political campaign asking for your vote).

Feeling better? Refreshed? Let's get back to it.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Ok, this is going to be a quickie. I LOVED this book! I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it!!! It's a novel about a situation that too many people wanted to turn their backs on for a long time. It's about white women in the South (takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963) and their "colored" (that's not my word, that's the term used in the book) house maids. These maids who cooked, cleaned, polished, shopped and raised their children. And who were treated like poo (99% of the time). It's also about a white woman, "Skeeter" who is an aspiring writer and who somehow convinces these maid to tell their stories to her, despite the known consequences of what would happen if they were to be found out. That's all I'm going to tell you. You MUST read this book. It's was very thought provoking to me, I was constantly thinking about my grandmother's maid, Jessie Mae, and wondering, "what if...?", "do you think...?," "I wonder if....?" I knew Jessie Mae in the 70's and I think "no" none of that stuff happened here in Oklahoma. But still, it made me rethink what I always thought to be true about a situation. I loved this book so much that I went out and bought it because I'm sure I will read it again and I want it to be part of my personal library (I like to support our library, so normally I get my books from the library).
I give this book a 5+++ out of Five Stars. Actually I'd give it more if I could.


Embraced by the Light by Betty J. Eadie. This is a book about a woman's near-death experience. Actually it shouldn't be called "near" death...more like her death experience. She died and came back. This is a very thought provoking book that makes you think or re-think what you believed about Heaven and the spiritual life. Some of it I was like "huh? no, I don't think so," but other parts of it made complete sense to me. It really could be a life changing book. I just finished it this morning, and it's going to take me a while to wrap my brain around it and digest everything she talks about in the book. I liked it, it was quite interesting, I just don't really know what to think about all of it. I'd love to hear if there's anyone else out there who has read it and what your thoughts are on it. This is a toughie for me to rate, but I guess...
I give it a 4 out of Five Stars.

Thank you for putting up with this long post. I've got some more books lined up to read and several on hold at the library, so stand-by, I'll be doing another "group review" in August.

Also, I'd love to hear of any good books any of you out there have read. I'm always looking for something good to read. I'm not particular about genre, definitely like some over others, but I'm open to anything.

Happy Reading!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Getting Old Really, Really, Really, Really Stinks


I don't normally like to complain on my blog, I mean, who really wants to read a whiny, gripey, cry-baby post? Not me. But today...well, I'm going to do a whiny, cry-baby post. Because....

it really, really, really, really, really stinks getting old!

As most of you know, I run. I don't know that I'd go as far to say I'm a "runner." I mean, I don't cater my diet around running and "fueling" or do any of that other crazy stuff that hard core runners do. I run about 4 or 5 times a week.

You probably also know that a couple months ago I turned 40. And I swear to pete, the week I turned 40 things just went to pot. Within 2 weeks I had the ankle thing that ended up with a visit to Urgent Care and one of those aircast things and a prescription for arthritic joints. WHAT? Arthritis? That's not what the doc said the problem was, but he said those meds would help. They did. I haven't taken one in a month. The ankle seems to be fine.

Fast forward a month to this week. Now it's my freakin' knee and hip. For heavens sake, if it's not one thing it's another. I took my arthritis pain medicine for the past few days and it didn't help. The hip thing feels more like a muscle problem, but the knee pain is definitely joint-y feeling.

Really...what's next? Like I said, I don't like to complain, for me to go to the doctor it's got to be BAD--not because I don't like going to the doctor, but because I don't run to the doc with every little twinge of pain I have. If I can take care of it myself, I do...let's try to save on health care costs. You know...Oh, okay...let's not get started on Health Care Reform.

Anyone have any suggestions for these "old people" aches and pains I'm starting to develop? Do you find that Advil works best? Or Aleve or Tylenol? What about any certain stretches to help? I'd love to hear from you--and not just if you're a runner...anyone...suggestions, please.

I'm kind of guessing that dementia is probably next on my list. And don't even get me started on the female things that have started happening since turning 40. Geesh!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

SOS

I need your HELP!!

Take a look at the screenshot I took below.

I've been getting A LOT of these type of comments lately. All in some type of Asian character--sorry I'm not fluent in Asian writing. They sometimes have a name in it like the one above, but not all of them.

Anyway...I want this to STOP!!! Does anyone out there have any ideas on how to keep this from happening. I'm not going to change my blog so that my 'Comments' have to be approved by me. I want an open forum here and frankly, I don't have time (or desire) to be approving comments. There's a whole host of reasons why I won't go down the approving comments street. But that's not what this is about.

I want to know how to get rid of these. They are obviously blog spammers. I find it odd that they've found me since I don't have any ads (Google or otherwise) since they are often a gateway for spammers.

Bottom line...help me! I'm just looking for suggestions on where to begin. Because if it doesn't stop fairly soon, I'm going to shut this ol blog down and quit blogging. That's how serious I am about this.

Thanks, readers!!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Hot Dog

We haven't talked about Sally lately.

Poor Sally, she's a black dog...and it's been super duper hot down here in OOOOOOOOOklahoma (as in heat indexes of 110+°).

This weather can do a number on black dogs.

I think it's been affecting her more than we know. She's been dressing a little odd these days.
I guess I need to have a talk with her about appropriate summer apparel.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Lucky Seven

Today is Katie's lucky day...today she turns 7 years old!

She's a little dynamo who still believes when she grows up that it she can be a princess (or a dancer or a teacher or an artist or a clothes maker or a golfer...whatever her passion is for that day). I don't care what she grows up to be....she'll always be my little girl, my first born, my child who taught me how to be a mommy, my girly girl. What a special day today is for her and for me...remember this day and the moment she came into our lives (3:13 p.m.).

"I love you for infinity...and more" my sweet Katie. Happy Birthday!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Return Phone Call?

I hope you can see the article below...that it's not too small...read it...see my comments below.

This article has so many truths to it, even though it's a little abrasive. The majority of my friends have children the age of my kiddos and understand why I can't return a phone call right away. But I do have some kid-less friends and all-in-all most of my kid-less friends are quite understanding and know that I'm not just sitting around doing nothing. I do feel guilty when it takes me days to return a phone call, but sometimes when I have 5 minutes of "me" time, I'm going to choose going potty or showering over phoning someone.

That and I have phone-phobia.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Cinco de Patrick

Today my sweet, wonderful, only son turns 5. FIVE! How is that possible? How can that fat (and I do mean FAT), little dark headed baby that I held so tenderly in my arms 5 years ago be growing so fast? I don't know, but I do know that that little boy has brought a joy to my heart in a way that I can't explain. Maybe it's the mother/son relationship, maybe it's because we're both "middle children," maybe it's because he's my only son. I don't know what it is, but I have such a soft spot for him. For his dinosaur-lovin', Lightning McQueen quotin', NASCAR watchin', basketball playin', golf ball hittin' self...

...I love you, Patrick!

Happy Birthday, sweet boy!

And here's a little Patrick trivia for ya...he was born at 3:16 p.m., at this time of the day 5 years ago (I'm writing this at 11:30 a.m.), I was still at home...I didn't go to the hospital for another hour and a half (at 1:00 p.m.). You could say it was a quick delivery. And he weighed 10 pounds. No kidding.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Paper Dolls

Who needs to buy those sissy, baby paper dolls...
When your mom has a subscription to InStyle magazine?
My Katie will spend hours doing this. She cuts out the girls, then flips through the magazine and cuts out the dresses and shoes and purses and other fashionable things and then tapes the outfits onto the girls. She loves doing it and she also stops along the way to check out the make up, nail polishes, hair products...she always has comments on which dresses look nice and which ones she doesn't like "at all." It's really quite funny coming from a 6-year-old. I swear that I don't talk to her about this stuff. She sees me looking through the magazine, but I don't tell her that girls should dress like this or that or wear make up, etc. She just loves it...it's part of what she's made of. I don't mind, but along the way I remind her that she is beautiful no matter what. And...in case you're wondering...she's never once asked to try on my make up (painting her toe nails has been her only request) or get her ears pierced (which is not allowed until she's 13 years old).

Go ahead and play paper dolls, my sweet girl...cut up mommy's magazines...dream of wearing beautiful clothes and sparkly jewelry...but stay my 'little girl.'

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Mommy and Me Weekend

A couple weekends ago WM took Katie and Patrick up to Kansas to go visit Uncle Greg (WM's brother) and play golf (not the kids...the 'big boys') and play with their cousins. WM and I had been talking about how Josie was showing signs of really needing some one-on-one time with mommy. So off WM and the big kids went and Josie and I had our fun little weekend together...

We went to Starbucks. We went in instead of the drive-thru. Josie got her special drink.
We went swimming and stayed in the little pool the whole time, without being begged to go to the big pool. Much fun!
We She ate ketchup out of the packet and modeled her new shades we bought.
We went running with the single jogging stroller (mommy can't run and push the double jogger with the 80+ extra pounds in it, so going running with mommy was a big deal).
We played Little People without our brother or sister interrupting or telling us what to do.
AND we took naps.
We had so much fun and Josie was a delight to be with. She really did need that special time with mommy. I always talk about what a pill she is, but she was so precious all weekend. I can't wait to have another weekend with just me and my baby girl.