Not So Fond Farewell
It's no secret that I dislike the Scouting program. Red wants to participate, and so, we do. But if it were left up to me, he'd never don that neckerchief and blue shirt again... but, this isn't about me. It's about him.
Last night was our Pinewood Derby. It's probably one of my least favorite things about Scouting. But, again, not about me.
Red was pretty excited this year. He was hoping to break a sad losing streak. You see, his first car was shaped kinda like a funky sports car. That year he didn't win any races. Not one.
The next year we had the pencil car. It looked awesome, but still didn't win any races. Not even close.
This year we chose a wedge shape hoping that it would be a little more aerodynamic. But what Red really wanted was for it to be really fun... and so, he decided to do this with his car!
That's right... he wanted it to look like a wedge of cheese with a little mouse on top!
We don't have the greatest tools, but I cut it out with a little hand saw. Red sanded, drew the holes on and then helped a little with the drilling. Then he painted and cut out all the shapes for the mouse. I glued the bits and pieces on the lead sinker to make the mouse because the stuff we had to use is pretty nasty if you get it on your hands. Then Hubby and Red went to put the wheels on... and the nails bent. They ended up having to glue them in and, apparently, that's not such a good thing.
I wish I could tell you that his car won a race. That's all we were hoping for... just one race. But it didn't. It seems that we are the worst Pinewood Derby car builders in the world. He took dead last. Again.
Red was a pretty good sport, but he was SO disappointed. It was so hard to watch him try to smile as he told me the news (Baby Girl is sick again... bad fevers and her legs hurt... not sure what's going on, but I stayed home from the Derby with her). We're going to take him to Carl's Jr. to celebrate a job well done. He did a lot of the work on the car and I'm pleased with that. Besides, it looks AWESOME!
And even though this isn't about me, I can't help but feel a little pleased that we don't have to make another Pinewood Derby car ever again!

Winter Reprieve
It's 31 degrees in Idaho where my family is at right now.
It's 74 degrees in California where I am at right now.
Which is why they are leaving Idaho and coming here. It makes perfect sense to me! The same logic is what takes us there in the summer... it is 120 here and 80-90 there.
I thought it befitting to deck the blog out in snow white for their winter visit. It may be snowing at "home" but here they will be able to bask in the sun and play out doors. The kids can't wait and neither can I! One more day till the fun begins!
I am sorry I haven't visited blogs this last week. I probably won't this week either. I'll be back to blog reading the first week in March. Till then, have a wonderful day!

More and More and More Random

• First of all, thank you for all your kind words. Last week was hard. I wanted so badly to be in Idaho with my friend, but it just wasn't happening. I appreciated all of your thoughts and prayers.
• Blogger is being weird. It keeps rotating my photos when I download them into a post... it's turned on my computer, but when I bring it on here, it rotates them. So frustrating. Maybe when I publish it, they will rotate back... or not.
• I participated in a Valentine Swap and I got the best package! (again, sorry about the rotated picture...) I got a cute little bag, a notepad, some super yummy chocolate, awesome socks, truffles and a fun card from Earth Muffin! Thank you again for the package! So much fun! I also got a fun little valentine from Carrot Jello! I felt so loved!! Thanks Carrot!!
• My parents and my youngest brother will be here on Saturday!! I can't wait for them to come visit! We're going to Disneyland one day, San Diego another day, the beach another day, hiking on one or two days... they'll probably need a vacation from this vacation ;)
• I'm sick. I knew it would hit me. Yesterday we were visiting with friends and towards the end of the visit I started to feel blah. I felt bad because we were having a great time visiting, but I needed to get home. I don't have the flu that the kids had (thank goodness!) but I do have the head cold. So fun. I have a dream that one day all of my family will be in good health...
• We bought a carpet cleaner. I decided to try it out last night (even though I felt crummy). I read the instructions, put it all together and then decided on a small area to try it out on. I was so disappointed with the results. It left weird stripes in the carpet and didn't get the spots out. The water was dirty nasty, but the carpet still looked icky. BUT, then I got up this morning, looked at the carpet, looked at the cleaner and realized something very important.... I never turned the scrub brushes on. All the dirty water that came up from my carpet was just from me squirting cleaner on and then sucking it up. No scrubbing was involved... on one hand, I'm glad that the carpet cleaner probably works better than I thought. On the other hand, I feel like an idiot.
• The dejunking has been going rather well. We've got about 20 boxes of stuff in the hall that need to go to Good Will. I was going to do a yard sale, but I'm tired of this stuff in my house. So is Hubby. Which is why he bribed me to not do a yard sale and just get rid of the stuff. We filed our taxes. We'll pay for the STUPID termites with that money and then, whatever cash is left, is mine. It won't be much, but it will be a little bit...enough that I took the bribe and I'm gonna haul off the boxes as soon as I'm feeling better.
• Okay... enough random. I'm off to bed. Baby Girl is playing. So I'm going to rest. I hope you're all having a fabulous week. I will try to do some blog reading in the next few days, but I'm not making any promises... and then my family will be here... but I will try!

Enough
First of all... the blog is REALLY close to looking the way I want it. I wanted to change the belt to this little wavy line thing, but every time I mess with the widget HTML, Blogger gives me an error message. I'll try again today. **update...fixed it! FINALLY!!** I did finally get the backgrounds the way I wanted them. If you came here within the first few moments of my messing with it, then you would have seen yellows, oranges, teals, olive greens, and pinks. I'm sure that somewhere a rainbow was weeping.

Anyway, yesterday turned out to be... well, I don't know what yesterday was. One of my best friends from high school had a tragedy in her life. Her younger brother committed suicide. I knew this kid. Their family grew up just across the street from us. He was the typical little brother who did his best to bug us whenever he could. We, in turn, tormented him. As we grew up the teasing continued on both sides, but never in a mean way. I joked with him and he tried to get his big sister's friends to laugh. I remember seeing him at a gas station a couple of years ago and we visited for awhile. He was a good kid.

Fast forward to now... he was 28. A husband. A dad. Yesterday he found enough reasons to take his own life. And no one has any idea why.

I was pretty out of it yesterday. By the evening I just wanted something mind numbing to do. I played video games. But that wasn't enough to stop the wheels in my brain from spinning. Why would he do this? What was his thinking? Were things really so bad? Why? Why? Why? The truth is, I don't know his demons. I can't judge him or his actions. I don't know what he was dealing with. But I did have a thought that struck me...

I can't understand why anyone would take their own life because I can look around and find enough reasons to live. For whatever reason, he could no longer see those things. We have our troubles and I may whine and complain, but overall, the good overshadows my life in a really big way. And for that, I am truly grateful.

My heart goes out to this family. They have been amazing friends to me and my family through the years. I can't be there with them right now and that makes me crazy. I want to hug them and try to give comfort somehow. But I'm over 900 miles away. For now the only thing I can do is make a few phone calls, send a card with my love, pray for them, and hope that somehow, it's enough.

ACK!
Please ignore the horribleness of my blog right now... I was playing around with the template and now Blogger won't let me save any new changes!! GRRR... I promise to have it looking all wonderful and stuff as soon as possible...

Waging a War
I don't have much time... You see, I have been taken hostage by viruses and only have this small window of time to get my message out to the world wide web. Those sneaky little things are making my life a bit crazy at the moment.
The first wave came in the form of head colds. Mine is gone, Baby Girl hasn't been so lucky. It's moved from her head to her chest. The evil viruses keep her up all night by making her cough. They make her feel miserable and cranky. And sometimes, when they are feeling particularly vicious, they won't let her breathe.
The second wave has been worse than the first. They attacked Little Bug with all their might by giving him fevers, making him lethargic and causing the contents of his stomach to leave his body. He's taking his 3rd nap for today and we won't discuss the 3 a.m. wake up call that involved vigorous carpet scrubbing. Those vile little beasts!
To top it all off, they have forbidden me from blogging and are enforcing their edict by causing misery in my children. Can you imagine? The nerve! I am sneaking in a moment right now while Little Bug is snoozing and Baby Girl is involved in a movie. But it won't be long before the viruses catch me and drag me back to their dark lair.
This is the reason I haven't done much blog reading this week and I ... wait... what was that sound? They're coming! Hurry! Run! Save yourselves!! I promise to make contact as soon as I can....

Randomly Random

• I blinked. January disappeared. Do you know where it went?
• Hubby brought the laptop home again. I'm watching T.V. and blogging. I love this thing!
• I just saw a commercial for a new Disney movie. Do you remember the very first "Air Bud" movie? The one about the basketball playing dog? They now have one coming out called "Space Buddies"... why?!? The first one wasn't so bad, but come on. Isn't this franchise dead? They have one for soccer and football and hockey and... and... and...The only movie with more sequels is probably "The Land Before Time".
• The state of California has been in budget crisis for 89 days. They have decided to delay sending out tax refunds for at least 30 days. But the deficit is around 15 billion dollars. Yeah. Billion. And our lovely leaders can't seem to agree on anything. Technically they have till May to get the refunds out... but we'll see if it ever really happens.
• We have termites. We got an estimate today to see how much it will cost. Did you know that termites are very expensive bugs? Stupid little things. With the lack of tax money and the possible $1,000 to clean up the bugs... our vacation plans are now on hold. Stupid, stupid little things.
• I have been pondering some very deep questions and I need your help. When you make a root beer float, do you put your ice cream in first? Or the root beer? And what about strawberry shortcake? Strawberries or whipped cream first?
• Baby Girl has a head cold. I think I'm coming down with it too. Bah.

M'kay. I'm sure there will be more random randomness coming up, but I think that's it for now.

Simplify
I like to spend money. Hubby would testify to this. Some people eat when they're bored, I go shopping. Instead of taking Baby Girl to the park so that we can get out of the house, I take her to Kohls or Target. And, of course, we can't walk out empty handed. Then I bring the random item home and I have to find a place for it. Trouble is... usually there's not a spot for it. So, it gets set down somewhere till I can figure out what to do with it. Then the next item gets put on top of the first item... and so on and so on.

We have so much stuff that it's overwhelming. I look around and I'm surrounded by stacks of things. Piles of papers. Boxes of toys. Mountains of stuff everywhere I look. It makes me feel helpless and kind of lost. No one should feel that way in their own home. And yet, I do.

I was visiting with a friend the other day. She was telling me about how she and her husband are minimalists. They keep things very simple. They don't spend money on things they don't need. And it made me wonder about why I buy the things I buy... is it just on a whim? Or do the things in my life have purpose?

Then I was reading over at Morris Moments. You see, Julie and I have a few things in common. We both have three kids. We both love my play list (hee hee). AND we both HATE laundry!! I usually just sit and whine about it. But she DID something! She figured out exactly how many outfits each kid needed and then got rid of the rest of the clothes. SO AWESOME!! Now she doesn't have as much laundry to do.

And THEN... Yvonne at The Life and Travels of Me blogged about a cleaning system that she has used in the past and is starting up again. It breaks things down into daily, weekly, and monthly chores. It's a great system!

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I've been inspired. It's time to get rid of the "stuff". I don't need it. And I don't want it any more. The kids have too many toys. We (as a family) have too many clothes. My cupboards are filled with dishes, odds and ends containers, and small appliances that never get used.

Our neighborhood will have a garage sale... probably sometime in March. And so, I'm setting a goal. I'm going to have my home dejunked so that we can sell as much as possible on that day. That money will then go into the vacation fund so that we can maybe stay an extra day on our trip!

I've tried to dejunk before by doing one room at a time. It doesn't work for me. So, I think this time I will focus on items. For example, I'm going start with clothes. And when I get that done, then I'm going to hit the fabric and craft stuff that I don't use or need. Next up will be toys and then the kitchen. After that... the garage (involuntary shudder). I'm hoping to be ruthless. I have also created a list of questions I'm going to ask myself every time I go shopping.

• Do we NEED it? Not want... need.
• What are the pros for this item? What are the cons?
• Do I have a place where I can put it without having to rearrange anything?

Hopefully this will keep my spending at a minimum. We're hoping to get some of our big debts paid off this year. It has occurred to me that if I spend less, this may become a reality sooner. I know that's not a shocking discovery, but it's something I forget from time to time. And, like I said, I like to spend money.

So, let the dejunking begin. Let the money diet proceed. And let the overwhelming hopelessness disappear!

I Want One
I've never used a laptop till this very moment. Sad, don't you think? Hubby tried to talk me into getting one a few years ago, but I was trying to be good. We needed the money for other things. I turned the offer down. Stupid, right?
Usually when I'm on the computer I'm away from the family. Our PC is in the master bedroom. It's the only place we could really put it when we first moved in. We could probably move it into the living room now, but I'm lazy. I don't want to do it.
But, as I sit here playing around, I'm tempted. Not to move the PC, but to purchase a laptop. This is fun. I'm part of my family's activities right now. I'm carrying on conversations and laughing while blogging. Usually I'm secluded (which is also nice from time to time). But, I'm liking the mobility here... and so I'm thinking that maybe... just maybe we could look into a laptop.
I'm working on a Dell right now and I like it. But I'm wondering, for those of you with laptops, what kind do you have? And do you like it?

A Little R and R
Help! We're trying to plan a vacation and I have no idea what I'm doing! You see, about 99% of our vacation time is spent visiting family in Idaho. Planning that trip is easy. Drive for 14-15 hours (depending on how many potty breaks are made). Stay with family. Eat family's food. Participate in activities planned by family. Have lots of fun. Drive home.
See? Easy! The route is always the same and there are no worries about lodging, food or activities! But we'd like to go on a family trip this year that will take us somewhere we've never been before. So, now I'm trying to plan a trip that will be fun for a 10 year old, an 8 year old and a 5 year old that doesn't involve Idaho (to any family that might be reading this (mainly my Mom)... don't worry! We're still planning on coming up sometime this summer...). It's not a huge gap between the ages, but it's enough that they really aren't interested in the same things.
Red would love a trip where he got to play video games the entire time. He does like to get out and play but, as I blogged about before, it's not cool to be seen with the family. But, if we have activities that he deems "cool enough", he may just consent to being seen with us in public WILLINGLY. Dude.
Little Bug would love a trip that had to do with animals. Zoos, aquariums, nature preserves... as long as animals are involved, he's a happy kid.
Baby Girl just likes to go and do fun stuff. If she can run around and be a little crazy, she's good.
Hubby and I wanted to take everyone here...

(Mesa Verde)
But the hike to get to the cliff dwellings is steep. The hike involves going up and down several 8-10 foot ladders. Red would probably be okay. But I'm not sure about Little Bug or Baby Girl. We did a hike this last spring where we had to go up and down ladders and they both really struggled... I want everyone to have a good time, so I'm thinking we'll save this for when they are a little older and a little bigger.
Our tentative plan for now is this... first we're going to go here...
(Aquarium of the Pacific)
Then follow this...

...stopping along the way to play at various beaches. Then we'll go here...

I have no idea what we'll do in San Francisco, but it's somewhere we haven't been before. I found some great travel sites over at 3 Bay B Chicks that I'm going to check out. But I wanted to know if any of you have ever taken your kids to San Francisco or if you have been there on your own? What were the things you really enjoyed? What things were not as much fun? Where did you stay?
We don't want overload on activities during this trip, but we do want to have plenty of fun things to do. Any thoughts or ideas?

The Curse of the Curse
We need to find a way to talk with Red about swear words. He was reading a book the other night and came out of his room rather upset. I asked him what was wrong and he said there was swearing in the book. I asked him to show me and so he pointed out "heavens above" and "good heavens" and "he's the devil himself". I explained that those weren't swear words. He was confused and asked what words WERE swear words. I didn't know how to respond. I told him that I needed to talk with Dad (actually, I was hoping to pawn the task off onto him) and then we'd talk about it again.
Our kids haven't been exposed to a lot of bad language. We don't swear here at home. We're pretty strict about the movies we let the kids see. I am of the opinion that they'll be subject to enough garbage out in the world and they need to have a safe place to come to when everything else is crazy. And again, in my opinion, that place should be home. So, we try to keep the general crud out of our home. Maybe we're too strict, but that's how we've done things.
But now, I'm not sure how to explain this to him. Should we sit down with a list of "these are words we really don't want you to say"? Or do we just wait till he asks about a word? Any thoughts or suggestions? How have you approached this with your kids? Did you wait for the words to pop up in their vocabulary? Or did you sit down and talk about the words and explain it all? I wonder if we've made our kids too naive? And is that a bad thing? Not that I want to run out and uncover all the foul things in the world for them, but I wonder... can you protect your kids too much?

Crafty Conundrum

My kids love to draw and paint. But, they hate parting with anything their sweet little hands have made. For a long time we would put everything on the fridge. I loved the art work, but disliked how cluttered it made the kitchen look. Plus - every time you opened the refrigerator door, papers would go flying. So, we had to find a better solution.

I had originally wanted to take a piece of wood, glue clothes pins to it, spray paint it and then hang it on the wall. But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if the clothes pins would stay on very well. And what would I do if one broke? I'd have to make an entire new board. I needed something a little more flexible.

I went into Lowes with Baby Girl to brainstorm. Oh how I love that store! As soon as we walked in I saw the rope and chain you can buy by the foot. The rope was cool, but I was really drawn to the chain. I went through the pros and cons, but in the end we bought nine feet of white chain. It was .40 a foot so it cost me about $3.60. I also got nine feet of black chain for the boys room at .47 a foot.

This is the white chain on the wall in Baby Girl's room. (It's hard to see... look closely...)

Then I decided that I didn't like the way the nail heads looked, so we hot glued flowers onto them.
After that we took mini clothes pins that and hung the masterpieces from the chain...
Wah-lah! Awesome way to display the art and it's not in my kitchen any more! I put the chain in the boys room a lot higher up. Little Bug has a tendency to pull things apart. Hopefully he won't be able to reach it above the closet...I have to climb on a chair to hang things up, but the pictures won't get destroyed, so, it works for me.

Another plus with this is that the kids get to decide what goes on the chain. As soon as there is no more room they have to start making decisions on what they want to keep and what they can part with. That way I'm not the bad guy throwing things out. It will be 100% up to them what stays and what goes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will work!

What about you? How do you display your kids art work? And how do you decide what to keep and what can go?

It's a Good/Bad Thing
I had a bazillion things planned for today. That's right. A bazillion.
I was going to start with blog reading - since I'm waaay behind (sorry 'bout that). Then Baby Girl and I were going to head to a play group at the park. After that I had errands to run and laundry detergent to buy. Then, of course, I was going to do laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. While waiting for the clothes to dry I was going to work on Valentine craft stuff - which I will post about later. There were other small projects I wanted to work on today too.
But now?
Well, now Little Bug is sick. He's got a fever and seems to have a sore throat. When I tried to hand him his school clothes this morning (before I realized the fever was there) he burst into tears and croaked out "pajamas... pajamas". I shouldn't be excited, but the kid spoke without any prompts! It's always so hard when he's sick. We never know what to do for him or how to help because he can't speak. (For those of you who are new to the blog, Little Bug has Autism) This is the closest we have ever gotten to him telling us how he's feeling. Obviously today he wants to be curled up in jammies. And while I'm not happy that he's sick (and that my list of things to do is getting tossed out the window) I'm glad that he was able to express this one little thing.
So, pajama day it is! Now, if you'll excuse me... I'm afraid there will be no blog reading today. I'm off to curl up with my kids, watch Wall-e and hope for more spontaneous speech.

Exodus
We live far away from our families. Our parents, brothers, and sisters all live in Idaho. On one hand, we like living in different areas. We like seeing new things, experiencing new places and meeting new people. On the other hand, we miss our families.
This year our holidays were kind of.... lonely. We were able to go home for Thanksgiving, but then we spent Christmas and New Years with just our little family. Which is great and fine, but it was also hard to hear about all the family parties going on up north. While everyone in the extended family was getting together to laugh and play, we were sitting home twiddling our thumbs. Well, not really twiddling... it makes my hands hurt to twiddle for too long.
ANYWAY!
The point is, we missed our families and really wanted to be there in the frigid cold to participate in the hustle and bustle of the holidays. It just wasn't possible.
But we are about to witness the annual migration. You see, every year, about this time, our families get tired of snow, ice, wind, and everything that makes winter... well, winter. And so, they come here because our winter... well, it's not. It's supposed to be 81 today. We are expecting a "sudden drop in temperature" for tomorrow. All the way down to 68. We might have to put long pants on and (shudder) closed toe shoes! The horror!
Of course, 68 is much better than 11... which is the temperature in my parent's neck of the woods at this very moment. And so, in February we will see my parents and (my Mom just confirmed this) my youngest brother! He's never been down here to see us and I'm so excited to drag him around for a week.
My in-laws will be here in March! I know there are people out there who would not be excited about a visit from the 'laws, but mine are fantastic. We always have a great time when they are here. After that we have a slight possibility of seeing both of Hubby's sisters and their families. They mentioned that they would like to come and go to Disneyland. Now, I admit that they brought it up in a very casual sort of way. There are no REAL plans for them to come. But I am crossing my fingers and hoping that they will! We want anyone and everyone to come on down to play.
So, who's next? I'll take in friends as well as family... anyone else tired of the cold and looking for a warm weather retreat?
Let the migration begin!

Rats
I thought I had a few more years. Why didn't anyone tell me that when my sweet and lovely Red turned 10 he would also turn into a bit of a monster? It's like all the teen attitude has come crashing down on me and I'm totally unprepared for it! Just a quick example... on Saturday we went to the mall to look for books and just spend some time together. He kept walking behind me and so I jokingly said, "Hey, catch up! Are you embarrassed to be with me?" I laughed. He didn't. Instead he said, "Yeah. I am. I hope no one from school sees me here."
Wait... what?
When did this happen? Heaven help me. I know I'm not super cool, but I didn't think I was too dorky... maybe I am. Blah... I had always hoped that my kids would pass by this stage. That they would never hate being with me. Sigh...
And so it begins.

Eleven-ty

See this guy?

It's the same guy you see in this picture that was taken EXACTLY 11 years ago today...I wish I had a current picture of the two of us... but I don't (maybe we can fix that when you come to visit, Mom??).
If I could, I would express just how much he means to me but my vocabulary isn't big enough. So, I'll just say this...
Thank you for the last 11 years. I look forward to many, many more. You're my best friend and I love you!

It's Play Time
Do you like online games? I tend to gravitate towards them when I need a little break. It's fun to sit down to a game of Tetris or perhaps some Wordscraper on Facebook. But, what I love even more, is the thought of taking a break to play these games and having it be worth while.

There's a little guy I've gotten to "know" through his mom's blog. Parker is a sweet little 4 year old with Down syndrome. He has been in and out of the hospital too many times in his little life. He's there right now - fighting for his life. And his parents? They are fighters too. But, they are under a lot of stress. Their medical bills are stacking up. That's where the games come in.
5 Minutes for Mom is sponsoring the games. Click on the "Playing for Parker" button above or in the side bar (it's kind of buried in the side bar for now because Blogger is being psychotic... AGAIN) and a window will open. And then, another smaller window with a game will open and you can play. There are lots of games to choose from, the ones I've played have been fun, and the best part? Every time someone plays the game, money gets put into Parker's medical fund. It doesn't cost you anything to play... the money comes from the advertisements on the side. You just give a little time.
So, if you get a moment, head on over and relax. Solve a few puzzles. Enjoy a game or two and help out Parker and his family!

It's Back!
American Idol starts tonight! I'm looking forward to the new season. I really enjoyed it last year and felt like they found some pretty amazing talent. I'm sure we'll see the same thing this year...
Of course, there's always the people who think they can sing but can't. It always amazes me that these people get up there and say things like, "My family and friends all say I have a really amazing voice."
Really? They do?? You really need to think about finding new friends and maybe even a new family.... the ones you have now are apparently liars. Really big liars. And I think they might hate you... yes, they hate you enough to encourage you to go on national television and make a fool of yourself. May I suggest looking for new people to fill those spots in your life ASAP?
ANYWAY...
In the past, they have always given more camera time to the people of no talent rather than the ones that can actually carry a tune. I read an article the other day that said they aren't going to do that this year. Yes, we will still get to hear some of the people that make us want to cover our ears and cry out "Mercy! Please, have mercy! Make it stop!" But, that won't be the focus. They are going to show more of the the people who make us say "WOW!"
I know there are some people who are looking forward to the new format and others who are really disappointed that that element will be gone from the show.
If you watch AI, which group are you in? Do you enjoy watching the crazy antics of the tone deaf crowd? Or are you glad that the in-tune crew will get more of the spotlight?
Of course, the article may have just been hot air and tonight we will get to listen to Simon destroy the self esteem of many young hopefuls... only time will tell!

Reading Rainbow
Spellcheck is gonna LOVE this post! I finally started reading the 3rd book in the Inheritance series. I really loved Eragon. I liked Eldest and now I've started Brisingr. Now, I know I'm not the smartest gal in the world, but I feel like a complete moron reading this book! I think he pulled out his dictionary of huge, unused words and tried to cram as many as he possibly could into this book!
Also, for some reason, Mr. Paolini believes that he needs to describe everything. EVERY.THING. This is something that has always annoyed me. It was the reason I struggled with the Lord of the Rings books and all of the Anne books (please don't hate me). I like to use my imagination a little bit. Go ahead and tell me that the guy sat on an old tree stump, but do you really have to take a paragraph to describe it? How it groaned under the weight of the character? How it was bleached from the sun and stripped of bark from the harsh winds??? SERIOUSLY!
Maybe this is why I'm not an author... I'm too pragmatic (that's the biggest word I know). If I were writing the book it would go something like this.
"Everyone got on the dragon, fought the bad guys and won. The End."
It's a best seller, I know. I'm just not detail oriented enough. Most of the time, for me, less is more. I don't really care if the characters walk into a luscious valley covered in a carpet of vibrant grass that is glistening like diamonds with the morning dew as the golden sun rises over the distant hills. Really. I don't care. Just get to the point. Why are they in the valley? What's going to happen? Sigh... I'm probably the only one that is bothered by this sort of thing, but that's okay.
What I really want to know is if you've read any good books lately? I'm in a reading mood right now and am looking for something fun and quick to read after Brisingr. Any suggestions? Also... are you on Goodreads? If you are, would you mind adding me to your friends? If you're not, may I suggest signing up? It's a great way to keep track of the books you've read and the ones you want to read. Plus, you can add friends and see what they are reading, what they've liked and disliked.
Happy Reading!

Sidenote: I'm stealing this idea from Yvonne again :) This is for my mom... yes we felt the earthquake last night. It was centered in San Bernardino. They are reporting it as a 4.5. There wasn't any damage and no one was hurt (She worries about us living on the San Andreas fault... go figure!)

Once a Tease, Always a Tease
Yesterday was Red's birthday. I can't explain in words how much I love this kid! His heart is so big and he's so generous! Case in point: he took cupcakes to his class yesterday. He had a few left over and instead of bringing them home (which is what I was hoping he would do... I wanted one!) he shared with some other people. One of his friend's little sister was staring longingly at the cupcakes and he gave one to her. He made sure he gave one to the principal and some of the office staff. He's always been that way. When he was really little I had to make sure I always had change with me at Christmas time. We had to have something to give to the Salvation Army bell ringers. If we didn't, he would be heartbroken!
Another thing I love about Red is that he's such an amazing big brother. A lot of my attention is given to the younger kids - especially Little Bug. But, Red is not resentful. He digs in and helps when I ask and even when I don't! He's really patient with his brother and sister. I couldn't ask for a better kid!
On top of all that, he's a good sport. Which is a really good thing because he comes from a family that likes to tease and joke around. And that brings us to yesterday's festivities... we got Red an MP3 player for his birthday. But earlier in the day I pulled it out of the box and got it charged up so that he could use it before he had to go to bed. I thought about putting it back in the original box, but then I saw another little box sitting on my computer desk and used it instead.
So, when Red opened his gift he saw this... Yep - that would be a LIGHT MAGENTA printer cartridge. He was so thrilled... (Oh, and yeah... that would be lasagna on his pants...) But wait... what's this? It's taped together...YES!"Wait... what is it?" There aren't any MP3 players in our home... so he wasn't exactly sure what he was holding in his hot little hand. I think deep down he knew, but I had told him over and over that they were too expensive and that we weren't going to get him one this year. The exclamation of joy was mostly over the fact that it WASN'T a pink printer cartridge.
"What did you say Mom? I can't hear you! I'm listening to my new MP3 player!"I'm sure this will be a good/bad thing, but for right now? It's all good! Happy Birthday Red!!