Book Review # 7

So behind, as always:

#26 - Where are You Now? - by Mary Higgins Clark. I love Mary Higgins Clark books. They are an easy fun read. This book centers on a woman trying to find her missing brother. Caroline's brother (Mack) disappeared 10 years earlier. He calls every Mother's Day to let his family know he is okay. When college girls start to disappear from the same area that Mack did, the police began to suspect that he is involved. Caroline becomes more determined than ever to find him and clear his name.

#27 - The Gluten Free Bible by Jax Peters Lowell - A lot has changed since I was last on the gluten free, dairy free diet (GFCF). There are so many more options now. Going back on the diet this time has not been hard at all. I wish this book had been available 6 years ago. Jax takes a funny positive look on living life without gluten. She gives great advice on common pitfalls when eating out and traveling. The book is full of fun recipes and advice. It is not only informative, it was fun to read - I read most of it in one sitting. I highly recommend this book to anyone living wheat free.






#28 - The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory - I decided to read this book after I saw it keep popping up on everyone's favorite book lists. It retells the story of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, narrated by Anne's sister Mary. It examines the complex relationship between Anne, Mary, and their brother George who all reside at the court and are subject to the whims of King Henry VIII. While I was swept up in the story, the book left me rather disappointed. Gregory bases the storyline on rumor and ONE historian's theory, rather than fact. I feel like she took the easy way out on writing this story because, as we all know, sex sells. I would compare it to using the National Enquirer as basis for facts about our time period. It is sad how much history she got wrong, even the birth order of Anne's family. I think this book should be labeled just fiction, not historical fiction.

#29 - Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer - Yes, another polygamy book. I read this a couple months ago and was very disappointed. Like, "The Other Boleyn Girl", this book instantly catches your interest and is a very good read. However, unlike "The Other Boleyn Girl," this book is supposedly nonfiction. Although I enjoyed reading it, I was very disappointed by the author's lack of research and biased opinion. He got so many things wrong that it is hard to trust any of the book. Instead of presenting a balanced look at polygamy, he used only anti-Mormon sources. I have heard his other books are great, however, because of his lack of research on this one, I feel I cannot trust him as a writer.

#30-36 - I'm going to lump all of Harlan Coben's books together.
I have read:
- "Promise Me"
- "The Innocent"
- "Just One Look"
- "No Second Chance"
- "The Woods"
- "Gone For Good"
- "Tell No One."
These are really fast enjoyable reads. He writes mystery books that have several plot twists. He keeps you in suspense for most of the book. I have liked them all except "The Woods."






# 37 - The Devil in the Junior League - by Linda Francis Lee. This book is so much fun! I usually have a hard time reading chic lit but I couldn't put this one down. The book follows the story of one of the most prestigious members of the Junior League. After her husband leaves her and steals all of her money, she tries hard to keep it a secret from the other Junior League members. She ends up having to hire a lawyer she considers NC (no class). He agrees to take her case if she can get his NC wife into the Junior League. It is very reminiscent of both Emma and My Fair Lady. The story is pure entertainment.

That's it for now, still behind on a lot of books but they will have to wait for another day.

I love you too much

From a couple nights ago:

Me: "I love you so much Ellie Belly."

Ella: "I love you too much mama."

What more could I ask for?

On my radar . . .

1. Read this post. Just do it. It's my favorite blog post of the week. If it seems familiar it's because I read it first at The Nesting Place and I am a complete copycat. The post is that good.

2. Letterboxing! We are going on our first hunt of the summer tomorrow. The kids are so excited. Well, Spencer's excited. Ella doesn't really know what's going on but she's excited to see Josh. Friday's are letterboxing days around here. Expect to be overloaded with pics soon.

3. After months of doing really good, I ended up back in the ER on Friday. Totally my fault. Seems you shouldn't stop taking a medication just because it has caused a lot of weight gain. Who knew??? I'm back on the medication now and doing so much better. On a related note, I found an article called The Spoon Theoryfrom But You Don't Look Sick that explains perfectly what day to day life is like when you have a chronic illness. I have learned that I have to let some things go (i.e. a spotless house) because it is more important to spend my energy on my kids (so much more fun too!).

4. Who's watching So You Think You Can Dance this season? I am so excited that it is back on! Lance and I love this show. We like to sit and critique dancers and pretend we know what we're talking about. I have to get something off my chest though - Mia Michaels is driving me crazy! Has she always been this egotistical?? I just want to fast forward every time she starts speaking. OK, I feel better now. After last night's show I have a few favorites. Can't believe I'm blogging about TV - but really, it's so good!

5. I need HELP! As most of you know, I am in charge of the crafts for girls camp for our stake this year (110 girls). On Tuesday night, I met with my committee, along with the camp director and she dropped a bombshell on me. Apparently, we have found in the back of the YW closet approx. $500 dollars worth of seashells (the number was quoted to me, I have no idea the worth of different shells). They are all tiny shells meticulously arranged by category. They are hoping we can use these as a craft project. Did I mention we are less than 3 weeks away from camp?? That we already have numerous crafts??? That I'm already overwhelmed?? I can't think of any seashell craft that isn't tacky. If anyone has any ideas, PLEASE send them my way (who knows, maybe I'll send you a hemp bracelet for helping out)!

6. One of my favorite blogs (Mrs. Fussypants) does a carnival called Fight the Frump every Friday. If you need a laugh, check this postout. It's a make-up primer for moms that she posted awhile ago.

End of the season

Picture it: Saturday, 11:30 AM, on the hottest day since (I believe) 2004. I don't do well in heat. I really don't do well in heat + humidity. When the news guy said we were under heat advisory, and all bus rides would be free, AND to stay in air conditioning as much as possible I was begging, praying, hoping that the game would be rescheduled. But who am I kidding, this is the league that didn't cancel during a tornado warning, 100+ degree weather doesn't scare us. We are serious about our baseball people.

I have no idea how the boys managed to play. I found a teeny tiny sliver of shade and I was still dying in the heat. I think that for awhile it became a game of endurance rather than skill. There was one inning where the coach told the boys they had to get three runs or the game was over. If I was a kid, I would be tempted to throw it just to stop playing.

Check out Spencer right before this crucial inning:

Can you see the sweat and exhaustion?? We were doing everything we could to keep the boys cool and hydrated. We had buckets of ice water and washcloths to put on their faces and necks while they were in the dugout. When they were in the field or running bases, we had people running water out to the kids.

Anyway, back to the crucial inning. We weren't doing too well and it looked like the game would be over. Then Spencer went to bat. He hit the ball hard enough that we were able to get a couple RBIs and he got on base. We got our 3 runs that inning and turned the game around. We ended up not winning but it was a VERY close game. Check out Spencer sliding home:

The boys finished the season 2ND in the league!

At the post game wrap up, Spencer was given the game ball:

That blur you see on this last picture is from the half eaten ice cream cone Ella decided to put in my bag on top of my camera. Good thing it was easy to clean :).

Some of my other favorite pictures from this season:

Spencer played third baseman for most of the season:

He just caught the ball here - he makes it look so effortless:This is one of my favorite shots. He is avoiding the ball on a bad pitch:

I was surprised this season by how sad I am that it is over. It has been so fun to watch the boys this year. They have really turned into great players. It has been fun to run into some of Spencer's past coaches and have them root for him even if they are coaching the other team. It is nice to be in that kind of environment. We are signed up to play Fall Ball again this year and most likely spring next year.

On a side note . . . there were scouts at the playoff game! Spencer's at the age where next year is a draft. I *might* have offended some of them when I put my chair right in front of them while muttering about needing to sit on my team's side. When I found out they were scouts and not overzealous parents from the opposing team, I briefly contemplated cheering loudly for another kid so they wouldn't know I was Spencer's mom. Why, why, why do I do these things???? I blame the heat.

Imperfectly Perfect

IDHTBPTBB!!

(It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!)

One of my most favorite favorite bloggers is hosting her first blogging carnival today. I LOVE Nester from The Nesting Place. She has the greatest ideas and I love her sense of style. Lance loves her because by following her instructions for window mistreatments I saved us over $100 dollars on our bay windows in the kitchen. I'll have to post a pic of those sometime.

Anyway, she challenged her readers to show something imperfectly beautiful in their homes and I have just the thing - the mats on the pics in my living room.

I have these two prints that I fell in love with right before we moved to VA. In my apartment they looked fantastic. However, when we moved here and put them against non white apartment walls, the mats suddenly turned this hideous orange color.

I'll show you what I mean. Please, please, please note when viewing this photo that my walls are no longer this color. This was right after moving in. Everything has since been changed from this disaster in color selection.


So I desperately needed to replace the mat color. But based on my superb history of picking awesome colors, I was afraid that changing the mats was going to get really pricey really fast. Step in my SIL Michelle. Michelle had the fantastic idea of covering the existing mats with scrapbook paper. I totally balked at the suggestion at first. (Balked - don't you just LOVE that word). How could I, a former certified framer (ha-ha), use scrapbook paper on my mats?? But then I thought about the price - $2 for paper compared to $100+ for the double mats - and I decided to try it.

Here are the end results. Once again - EXCUSE the pics. We are having a torrential downpour over here and the lighting was horrible. The paper on the mats is really not that dark brown and my wall color is actually a lovely shade but looks horrible with the flash from my camera.

I just covered the top mat so I could still have the double matting effect. There are lines but you can only see them if you are pretty close to the picture and at the right angle. And who really stands that close and examines matting?? Here are the lines so you can examine yourself.

I am excited by the possibilities for this. I'm going to hit up some thrift stores this week to see if I can find some frames and mats that I can cover up for a project in my bedroom.

If anybody has any ideas for window treatments in this room, I'd LOVE to hear them. I'm stumped.

For other FUN posts check out the Imperfectly Beautiful carnival over at Nester's place.

Happy Green Smoothie Challenge - Update and Tips

We are chugging along at this over here (pun intended). I LOVE these green smoothies. I have more energy than before and my skin seems to be looking great lately. I have missed a couple of days in the last few weeks and I can tell a difference in how my body feels on the days that I don't have one. Ella still downs these with me and Spencer will once school is out (I make them after he leaves for school). I'm pretty sure we will be doing this long past the end of the challenge - they are just THAT good. So I thought I'd share some tips if any of you are contemplating doing this.

If you missed my original post on the subject, you can read about it here.

Tip #1 (Spinach) -

Buy spinach at Costco. You get a monster bag for around $5. I use about 2-3 cups of spinach per smoothie so it can get expensive fast. I bought the Costco bag about a week ago and I'm not even halfway through it yet.

Tip #2 (Favorite Smoothie) -

We make this one almost every day: 2-3 cups spinach, 2 handfuls blueberries, 1 handful blackberries, 1 banana, 1 celery stalk, 8-10 ice cubes, water to taste.

This one is so yummy! However, it's not green. The blackberries turn it purple. Celery has a very strong taste so if you don't like celery, leave it out.

A variation on this is to leave the blackberries out and add pineapple. Super yummy and it's green!

Tip #3 (Blender/Food Processor) -

My old blender died about 2 days into the challenge. So I am now using this:



I LOVE it!! Costco has these for $59 right now which is a steal. I can't believe how quickly it does everything and clean up is super easy (which makes or breaks an appliance for me). I do spinach, celery, apples, carrots in the food processor and everything else in the blender.

Is anyone else trying these? I would love to hear your results, recipes, etc.

WFMW - Curling Ribbon

See this cute gift with the matching ribbon . . . I have a secret . . . it's not ribbon - it's the wrapping paper. My mom completely surprised me when she wrapped a gift like this last week. I had to quickly take pictures before she left with it. Maybe ya'll are light years ahead of me but I never thought of curling the actual paper. I don't think outside the box that way.

This is so incredibly easy. You do it the same way you curl ribbon, just go a little slower and more cautiously since paper breaks so much easier.

Saving money on gift wrap is what works for me this week, for more wonderful ideas visit Works for me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

My previous WFMW posts:

Sweet Spinach Bread
Library Bags
Letterboxing

Mouse House Preschool

Preschool ended for the year a couple of weeks ago and we are all so sad!
We had an end of the year picnic to celebrate. Miss Carrie made them each the cutest scrapbook of the year and gave them some bubbles. Ella still has me "read" her scrapbook to her daily.

Left to right: Sara, Ella, Eliza, Ben, and Miss Carrie - Mason refused to be in the picture.

I snapped some pictures of Eliza and Ella in the tunnel at the park - they are just too cute for words:

Ella and I made these miniature cupcakes for the party. We needed a trial run before we make the real things for her birthday party. They were a big hit:

When Spencer was in preschool, his class recorded some of their thoughts at the end of the year. It has been fun for Spencer to go back and read those. I interviewed Ella tonight about her experience in preschool. My thoughts about her answers are in itallic.

Me: "What was your favorite part of preschool this year?"

Ella: "Sharing with friends." This is HUGE with Ella. Whenever something seems unfair in her world, she whips this statement out. It seems to right all the wrongs. She has done really well with sharing.

Me: What did you like to do at preschool?

Ella: "Play at park, learn letters, umm slide, see my favorite teacher."

Me: What did you learn this year?

Ella: "Teddy Bear song" (she then preceeded to sing the song somehow inserting her cousin Maddi into the lyrics.)" Ella sings almost everywhere we go. She constantly changes the lyrics and has us howling with laughter. She is such a riot.

Me: Do you want to go to preschool next year?

Ella: I'll drive to preschool, not walk. I'll see peoples. Preschool is a good 10 miles away. Driving seems like a far better choice to me also.

Me: What do you want to learn about next year?

Ella: "Ummmm, use my paints." This is not a suprise, Ella LOVES to draw, paint, practice letters any chance she gets. I often will surprise her by buying her a new drawing pad, notebook, address book, etc. and she thinks it is the greatest gift in the world. She usually has her books completely filled within days.

It seems unbelievable to me that Ella only has one more year before kindergarten. She is still my baby in so many ways. This fall she will got to preschool 3 days a week and on the other two days we are doing a Joy school with some friends from church.

She does not quite understand the concept of summer vacation. She keeps asking to go to preschool almost every day and looks so sad when I try and explain. I'm hoping once Spencer is out of school she will understand better. Any ideas on how to explain summer vacation to a 3 year old?

Catching up with technology

I started using Google Reader and I LOVE it! If you don't know what it is, the video on this site breaks it down. Basically, instead of clicking on all the blogs in your blogroll to see who has updated, the updates are sent to Google Reader. You just check that one site instead of having to click on a million different blogs. Clear as mud, right? The video is cute, short, and is worth watching - check it out.

So, I am now FeedBurning so my site can be added to your feed reader. I have no idea what I just said or if it even makes sense. Just humor me and pretend it does. You can click on the bright orange box on the top right of the screen and subscribe to my blog. You know you want to!

Why I LOVE the Grocery Game

A picture is worth a thousand words so let's begin there:



Harris Teeter Breakdown:

12 boxes of Hamburger Helper
2 boxes of South Beach Living Bars
1 container of salt
1 can of refried beans
1 bag of snack-pack raisins
1 bag of grapes
Bananas
2 loaves of Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain cinnamon swirl bread
12 yogurts
4 containers of sour cream (FREE!)
2 Spray N Wash (FREE!)
Old English Furniture Spray

Are you ready for the total I paid:

$28.43!!!!

Before VIC card and coupons my total was $81.68 - that's a savings of $53.25. I saved 66%!

Here is what I got free:



The 4 sour creams and 2 spray n wash would have cost me $12.34.

I know it is kind of an odd assortment of items. There were pages more of items I could have bought on sale but didn't need. That's because I have been doing the grocery game since January so I have a HUGE stockpile of food at home (My own mini grocery store). I will take a pic of our stockpile and post sometime this week. The concept of the grocery game is to stock up when the item is at rock bottom price. Coupons are on a 12 week cycle so you buy what you need for 12 weeks at one time. They explain it much better than I do, here is the link.

Because I am a big fat geek, I feel the need to point out that we do NOT consume this much Hamburger Helper. It is a special treat for Spencer (the boy LOVES it) and he has it maybe once every 2 weeks.

HOW IT HAS WORKED FOR OUR FAMILY:

- Until a couple of weeks ago, my brother was living with us. So for a family of 4 adults and 2 kids, we were spending approx. $50 week once we got our stockpile. We try and buy our milk and meat at Costco (and a few other items I get suckered into) and we spend approx $100 there - so we were spending approx. $300/month total.

- Now that Aaron has moved out, we are spending approx. $30/week at the grocery store and I'm going to guess less than $50 at Coscto. Which for 3 adults, 2 kids will put us at around $170/month. Not bad, huh?

- I get most of my toiletries and cleaners DIRT CHEAP or FREE. Around the beginning of the year I got 240 rolls (12 packs of 20 rolls each) of Cottonelle Double Soft Toilet Paper for approx $20. Can't beat that. Most of my toothpaste and toothbrushes have been under a dollar or free. We aren't talking generic brands either, these are the latest greatest products that have the great coupons out for them.

Anyway, the point of all of this is that I fought trying the Grocery Game forever. I figured I didn't have the time or the space. Turns out I have both. I spend an hour on Sunday cutting coupons and that's it. So if you are debating trying it, just do it. I wish I had a year ago when I first heard about it. You can try it for four weeks for $1.00. Not bad, huh?

WFMW - Letterboxing

"Mom, I'm Bored" Summer Edition - SO EXCITED FOR THIS!!

One of the things I have on my calendar for summer this year is weekly letterboxing excursions. If you haven't heard of letterboxing before, hold on to your hats - this is way cool.

Letterboxing is like going on a real live treasure hunt. There are letter boxes hidden all over the country (and all over the world). I just looked up my area and we have 266 boxes to try and find (obviously not all in one summer). This site explains letterboxing well and is the place you go to get clues, find boxes, etc. Here are some very basic directions on how to join in the fun:

How to go on a letterbox excursion:

1. Print up the clues and head to the basic location.
2. Based on clues try and find the hidden box.
3. Once you locate the box, very carefully pick up the box so that non-letterboxers don't know what you are doing (kids love the secretive aspect to this).
4. Take the stamp in the box and stamp your logbook.
5. Take your stamp and stamp the logbook in the box to prove you were there.
6. Rehide the box.

Materials needed:

1. Family stamp that you can make yourself or buy from a craft store. Any stamp that you think represents your family.
2. Ink pad.
3. Logbook (any notebook will work well for this).

Why I LOVE letterboxing:

1. IT'S FREE!! (Besides the minimal cost of a logbook and stamp).
2. It is a fun adventure where the kids get to use their brains outdoors.
3. You go to so many different places you might normally not go (different parks, hiking trails, city monuments, etc.).
4. Did I mention it's free!

In a moment of sheer panic a couple months ago when I realized summer was looming over us, I came up with a whole calendar of activities to fill our days. I will be posting some more free (or really cheap) ideas to help keep summer fun over the next few weeks, so check back for some more soon!

For some more tips to beat the summer blues, check out Works for Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

A day in the life

Motherhood perfected in 10 easy steps:

1. Tell kids if they hurry and get ready you can stop by the library before soccer.
Watch said kids get ready and have them stand by the door.
2. Run up two flights of stairs approximately 6 times to get everything you forgot on your first 5 trips.
3. While trying to catch your breath, wrangle said kids to the car only to discover both booster seats are in grandma's car which is at work.
4. Tell children that there will be no soccer practice or scout fieldtrip due to lack of carseat. Spend approximately 10 minutes trying to coach your 3 year old in the house while she stops to examine every rock/bug/wrapper while you get more and more frustrated.
5. Remember an extra carseat which will cost you another trip up the 2 flights of stairs.
6. Repeat long walk with 3 year old (actually only about 10 ft) back to car and get everyone in. Let them know that there is now no time for library.
7. Go to soccer practice and realize the cute 20 year old teaching the class looks at you like you are a middle aged mom (which you really are) even though you still feel 16.
8. Leave soccer practice and realize that you will get your son to his scout field trip early. Revel in the fact that this will make you look so organized and put together.
9. Get lost on the way to the field trip. Show up 10 minutes late. Notice that your son is not wearing his scout shirt - in fact he is the only boy without it. So much for organized and put together mom.
10. Spend an hour in the library with the kids, picking out books and reading some books to 3 year old. Come home and make kids favorite dinner. Allow them to eat it while watching a movie.

Pretty typical day in our life, would love to hear yours!

Laying it all out there

You might wonder why I am posting at 1:32 AM or you might not, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I have spent the last hour rummaging through all the crap stuff I have piled in my bedroom trying to find a form that I need to return to Spencer's school tomorrow. I give up. I think the room ate it. Do you think the teacher will take that excuse?? We don't have a dog to blame it on.

Please, please, please tell me ya'll have moments like these.

So I had a brilliant idea. I need to clean my room. Duh, right? Bear with me, it's way past my bedtime. I always put off cleaning my room. The rest of the house is focused on and clean every day but my room is neglected, we pile everything in here, especially since I've been sick the past year. I'd like to blame it all on the illness, but who am I kidding - I just hate to clean my room.

So are you ready for the idea . . . I'm blackmailing myself. I'm giving myself a week to clear out this mess. If it's not done, I will post a picture on my blog so I can die of humiliation. After you point and laugh, you will all be so ashamed for me. One of you might feel so bad for me you might send my pic to Oprah for a room makeover - actually this idea is sounding better and better, we could use a visit from Nate. But I digress, that will not be happening because nobody, and I mean nobody (especially all of America) will see this room. I save that pleasure for immediate family members only (and Irene - but she has been sworn to secrecy).

If I don't post for a few days, send help - I could be trapped in my room under all my junk cherished posessions.

*I reserve the right to remove this post and back out of this if I wake up in the morning and realize what I have committed myself to.*

Produce stickers - who knew?

*UPDATE* - This article gives a little more info on this if you are interested.

This is such a great tip - I read about it here. Basically, the first number on the produce sticker tells you a lot about the fruit you are buying.

So . . .

- If it starts with a 9 - it's organic.
- If it starts with a 4 - it's not.

But this is the big one that I will be watching out for:

- If it starts with an 8 - it is genetically modified.

Cool tip, huh?

Sunday Summary

Highlights of this week:

1. My sister Brittany welcomed a new little one to her home. Bruce Charles Gomez was born on Wednesday at 1:12 AM. I have never seen a baby look so much like his dad. Kinda crazy. I'll add pics when I get them. Happy babymoon Britt!

On a side note, that makes 4 nephews born in a little over a year that all have a name that starts with the letter "B." Braxten, Brecken, Berkeley, and Bruce. Is there some trend that I'm unaware of????

2. Ella's future husband had his fourth birthday party Saturday. It was so fun! Irene did such a great job with her train themed cake and games. I was way impressed. Check out this pin-the-caboose on the train game:



Notice that Josh's train is the closest by far. He felt for the wheels while he was blindfolded. So incredibly smart.

3. Dr. Mario was finally released on the Wii!!! Big, big news over here. I'm tempted to stop everything and just play all day. Such joy.

4. Season finale of Lost?? Did you see this???? Unbelievable. So many questions answered and so many questions left: (SPOILERS AHEAD)

*Last season Desmond told Charlie he had to die in order to get Claire on the helicopter. But Claire wasn't on the helicopter. What gives??? Is she dead? I think she died when the barracks were bombed and when Sawyer found her she was already dead. What do you think? Why did Desmond say that?

*Wasn't Sun amazing! Do you thing Jin is really dead? Sun said 2 people are responsible for Jin's death - we know her father is one of them, who is the other - Jack, Widmore?? My bets are on Jack. Is she teaming up with Widmore?

*What bad things happened on the Island after the 6 left? I think next season is going to be amazing.

*Who really is eyeliner man? I would love to see one of the episodes dedicated to his history.

*And the biggest question of all . . . what the heck was baby Aaron eating after being separated from Claire??