Teaser Tuesdays!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. You can play too! Just do the following:

*Grab your current read.
*Open to a random page.
*Share two (or more) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.
--BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!-- (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

*Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

If you have a Teaser on this lovely Tuesday, leave a comment on this post with your link!

My Teaser is From: The Serpent’s Tale – By Ariana Franklin

Synopsis: (Taken From Amazon)
When Rosamund Clifford, Henry II's mistress, is poisoned, Dr. Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar must draw on her formidable forensic skills to try to uncover the killer. The prime suspect is Henry's estranged wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who once plotted to overthrow the king. Adelia reunites with Rowley Picot, now a bishop as well as the father of Adelia's child, and the two set out on a dangerous journey, during which they brave a blizzard and Eleanor's band of ruthless mercenaries.

Teaser: (I’m giving you two separate passages, because I can’t choose one over the other!)

From the beloved Gyltha, aged nursemaid, completely backwoods and completely lovely:
“Get ‘er used to it,” Gyltha said. “Her’ll see plenty of hangings as she grows. My pa took me to my first ‘un when I were three year old. Enjoyed it too, I did.”
---pg. 238

And from Adelia, the splendid protagonist:
For motherhood, while another joy, had burdened her with a tearing and unexpected anxiety, as if her senses had been transferred into the body of her daughter, and by a lesser extension, into that of all children. Adelia, who’d once considered anyone below the age of reason to be alien and had treated them as such, was now open to their grief, their slightest pain, any unhappiness.
---pg. 86

Note:I am falling in love with the work of Ariana Franklin! I just finished Mistress of the Art of Death, the first in her ‘Adelia’ series, and I happily and anxiously dove into Serpent’s Tale. What a wonderful blend of wonderful things! I could best describe it as a hybrid Medieval-times-meet-CSI: New York-meet-Morgan-Freeman-and-Brad-Pitt-in-Seven-meet-fabulous! Seriously! It’s a forensic science, historical-fiction thriller, no kidding.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas -- may you get everything you wished for. Make the most of the magic!

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eve and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post and feel free to steal the button and link back any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Want to share your loot? Leave a comment on this post and link back to your blog – I would love to check out your shelves!

I made a quick trip to the library today to supplement my stocks for the long holiday. Here’s what I came back with:

Sugar – Bernice McFadden

The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbery

Moloka’i – Alan Brennert

The Given Day – Dennis Lehane

The Red Scarf – Kate Furnivall

Audio Books:
None this go ‘round…

Kids:
1,2 Buckle My Shoe – Jane Cabrera

The Belly Button Fairy – Bobbie Hinman

And it begins....

We had our first big family Christmas get-together with my in-laws over the weekend. The two smarmy adult boys - BD and BDB (BabyDaddyBrother) - in the family have both been called up to work on Christmas Eve, which is a total buzz-killer, and so we gathered up the kin on Saturday night instead. The Muffin was of course primed and in top form, having not had a nap, and so by the time he and my nephew unwrapped their bow and arrow sets, the entire family realized that we were all alarmingly on the wrong side of Indian law. Lucky for us, the Muffin’s aim leaves a bit to be desired, although my dear sister-in-law did take a shot to the forehead. The joys of Christmas, yes? I came out rather well I must admit. My two favorites: a Book Buddy from my mother and father-in-law, and a pair of ridiculously comfy Tempurpedic slippers from my brother and sister-in-law. (In fact, I spent a good deal of the latter half of the evening crammed into a corner of the couch, slipper-clad and with my latest read nestled charmingly into my new Book Buddy. I was very content.) Now, I’m trying to decide if I’m happy or sad that Christmas is only four days away. Not that I don’t love Christmas – I do, that’s the point. It just seems that by the time it gets here, it’s already gone. Most of the excitement for me is in the excitement itself. Once Christmas Day has passed, my outlook feels a little bleaker knowing I don’t have it to look forward to anymore. *Sigh* Ah well, I’m trying to enjoy these last few days. Tomorrow is ‘Bring-your-small-ones-to-work Day’ at my agency, and both the Muffin and I are beyond thrilled! He’ll get to hang out in my office with me, (hopefully being adorably well-behaved), watch movies with the other kids, and even hang out with Santa. Don’t worry, I am packing the portable DVD player, play-doh, and plenty of crayons and coloring books. I’m sure it will be quite interesting – I promise to take lots of pictures!

The Amazing Book Buddy --

I'm forever propping books up on pillows in my lap to read, but they always slide and fall. The solution: book buddies! You slide the front and back covers of your book under the ribbons, (they're adjustable for different sizes, hardback, paperback, etc.) and you're ready to go!

And who can resist Tempurpedic anything? I love that made-just-for-NASA foam stuff!!

Friday Firsts

The first line can make or break a reader’s interest. Just how well did the author pull you in to the story with their first sentence? Participating in this weekly book meme is extremely easy, so bring it on!

(And don’t forget to link back to Well-Read Reviews!)

*Grab the book you are currently reading and open to the first page.
*Write down the first sentence in the first paragraph.

*Create a blog post with this information. (Make sure to include the title & author of the book you are using.) Did this first sentence help draw you into the story? Why or why not?*Link back to Well-Read Reviews in your blog entry.

Share your Friday Firsts here! Leave a comment – if you don’t have a blog, just share your book’s title, author, and first sentence. If you do, don’t forget to link back so I can visit!

My Friday Firsts is from: The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown

House of the Temple
8:33 P.M.
The secret is how to die.

Thoughts: Nothing like getting straight to the point eh? Definitely grabs your attention. I’m wondering who’s dying, why they’re dying, and if that tweed jacket-clad Robert Langdon, (the McGuyver of academia), can save them all.

Synopsis: (Taken from Amazon.com)The Lost Symbol begins with an ancient ritual, a shadowy enclave, and of course, a secret. Again, brilliant Harvard professor Robert Langdon finds himself in a predicament that requires his vast knowledge of symbology and superior problem-solving skills to save the day. The setting, unlike other Robert Langdon novels, is stateside, and in Brown's hands Washington D.C. is as fascinating as Paris or Vatican City.

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eve and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post,), feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Want to share your loot? Leave a comment on this post and link back to your blog – I would love to check out your shelves!

Here is the haul from my last foray to the library:

Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins

Love Walked In – Marisa de Los Santos

Mistress of the Art of Death – Ariana Franklin

Sarah’s Quilt – Nancy E. Turner (Sequel to “These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine”)

South of Broad – Pat Conroy

The Castle in the Forest – Normal Mailer

The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown

The Serpent’s Tale – Ariana Franklin (Sequel to “Mistress of the Art of Death”)

The Star Garden -- Nancy E. Turner (3rd in the Sarah Agnes Prine series)

Audio Books:
Eat, Drink, and Be From Mississippi – Nanci Kincaid

Comfort Food – Kate Jacobs (author of Friday Night Knitting Club)

Kids:
Farmer Joe and the Music Show – Tony Mitton

Splat the Cat – Rob Scotton

Your Own Big Bed – Rita M. Bergstein

The Great Divide – Dayle Ann Dodds

The Wriggly, Wriggly Baby – Jessica Clerk

*Teaser Tuesdays*

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. You can play too! Just do the following:

*Grab your current read.
*Open to a random page.
*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. --BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!-- (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
*Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser: Catching Fire – By Suzanne Collins

Synopsis: (Taken From Amazon)
Every year in Panem, the dystopic nation that exists where the U.S. used to be, the Capitol holds a televised tournament in which two teen "tributes" from each of the surrounding districts fight a gruesome battle to the death. In the first book in the series, The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, the tributes from impoverished District Twelve, thwarted the Gamemakers, forcing them to let both teens survive. In this rabidly anticipated sequel, Katniss, again the narrator, returns home to find herself more the center of attention than ever. The sinister President Snow surprises her with a visit, and Katniss’s fear when Snow meets with her alone is both palpable and justified.

Teaser:
“Can you save him?” I ask my mother. She says nothing as she wrings out the cloth and holds it in the air to cool somewhat.
“Don’t worry,” says Haymitch. “Used to be a lot of whippings before Cray. She’s the one we took them to.”
---pg. 112


Note:
I finished The Septembers of Shiraz last night, so the first time I cracked the cover of Catching Fire was just now, to find my teaser. I must tell you, I hands-and-feet-down LOVED The Hunger Games, which was the first book in this series, and I have been on the wait list at my library for this one for weeks and weeks. If this novel comes anywhere close to Hunger Games, I am sure I will be anxiously waiting for the third book, which is due out in August of 2010.

What are you reading? Leave a comment on this post and link back to your blog with a teaser of your own!!!

It's a Miracle!

There are actually several miracles worth mentioning on this gray, drizzly, and altogether mood-dampening Monday. The first is that I’m still breathing. The second is that I haven’t (yet) inflicted any permanent damage and/or scarring upon myself or any of those unlucky souls who happen to find themselves around me. The third is that I still have fingernails. I was really pleasantly surprised about that last one; usually the fingernails are the first casualties of my high-drama-get-in-your-storm-shelter-and-cover-up-with-somethin’-sturdy mega-meltdowns. (God love it, I must be growing up!)

As you most certainly should be able to devise at this point, I did not have what one would refer to as a ‘great’ weekend. I would not even call it ‘pleasant’. In fact, it would probably be quite reasonable to get a bumper sticker made that proclaimed, “I SURVIVED THE WEEKEND OF 12/12/09”. Now just to be up front - from here on out, you will not find cheerful anecdotes, or optimism, or silver linings, or even a moral to the story. This is my pity-party, and I’ll cry if I bloody well want to. (And I do. OH, how I do.) It’s all down-hill from here lovelies, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Do you remember the story about King Midas, where everything he touched turned to gold? Wouldn’t that just be wonderful? Well, I have lived the Alice in Wonderland upside-down and through-the-looking-glass version of the story…everything I touched turned into a big, fat, elephantine pile of crap. That rotten apple of a vehicle that we JUST replaced the entire engine on -- yes, that’s the one -- exploded again. A.G.A.I.N. I opened the laptop on Saturday morning to find the ‘Black Screen of Doom’. (Again, we just replaced the hard-drive on that ridiculous excuse for a computer in August of this year. “Dude, you’re getting a Dell! I’m so sorry….”.) The DVD player in my car gave up the ghost, which is just akin to a nail in your coffin if you are going on a two-hour foray to God’s Country with a toddler. And because we had no DVD player, the best I could do was music from my iPod. When I attempted to unplug the iPod car dock from the cigarette lighter, half of it broke off. INSIDE the cigarette lighter! AND, I lost my voice. I know, right? Of all things, ME losing my VOICE. Someone call in the Calvary! I told my dear friend Jess that of course I was forced to listen to a ridiculous amount of snarking, “Blah, blah, MY! Isn’t it just too quiet? Blah, blah. I didn’t realize how QUIET it is! Blah, blah.” Jerks. I had been sounding a bit froggy since last Thursday, but Sunday morning when I woke up, there was literally nothing. Not even the tiniest of squeaks. Today, I related to several people that I feel like a scratched and skipping Barry White CD – you’ll get a few sensuous bass notes, and then just dead air. BabyDaddy of course finds this extremely entertaining and repeatedly asks me to emit such phrases as “ C’mon over heah baby, ‘dis Barry White speakin’…” Yeah, he’s a jerk too.

To be fair, I know I said no silver linings allowed, but there was one large upside to the whole nasty mess. My Grampa turned 80 on Saturday! We got the whole family together, and even though I’m sure I was less than cheerful company, we had a really good time. He even said in church on Sunday that it was “Probably the best birthday I ever had.” And for a man of few emotional words, that was a lot! The Muffin was on-hand to help him blow out his candles and we all had a good night of just being together. Sometimes that’s the best gift of all.

Oh – after church on Sunday, my family all went out to eat together at the neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Do you know what the fortune in my cookie said?

“Don’t Panic.”

Go freakin’ figure.

Friday Firsts

The first line can make or break a reader’s interest. Just how well did the author pull you in to the story with their first sentence? Participating in this weekly book meme is extremely easy, so bring it on! (And don’t forget to link back to Well-Read Reviews!)

*Grab the book you are currently reading and open to the first page.

*Write down the first sentence in the first paragraph.
*Create a blog post with this information. (Make sure to include the title & author of the book you are using.) Did this first sentence help draw you into the story? Why or why not?
*Link back to Well-Read Reviews in your blog entry.
*That’s it!

My Friday Firsts is from: The Septembers of Shiraz, by Dalia Sofer

When Isaac Amin sees two men with rifles walk into his office at half past
noon on a warm autumn day in Tehran, his first thought is that he won’t be able
to join his wife and daughter for lunch, as promised.

Wow. It’s interesting that his first thought isn’t, “Why the crap are there men with rifles in my office?” This is the thing that blows my mind about some parts of the Middle East. Men walking around with rifles are not surprising, maybe even commonplace. It seems the people there almost expect things like this to happen because, I guess, they so often do. I’ve been on the wait list at my library for weeks for this book, so I’m excited to dive in. It puts me in mind of ‘The Kite Runner’ and ‘Land of 1,000 Sons’ by Khaled Hosseini . I hope it is just as good!

Synopsis: (Taken from Amazon.com)
Sofer's family escaped from Iran in 1982 when she was 10, an experience that may explain the intense detail of this unnerving debut. On a September day in 1981, gem trader Isaac Amin is accosted by Revolutionary Guards at his Tehran office and imprisoned for no other crime than being Jewish in a country where Muslim fanaticism is growing daily. Being rich and having had slender ties to the Shah's regime magnify his peril. In anguish over what might be happening to his family, Isaac watches the brutal mutilation and executions of prisoners around him. His wife, Farnaz, struggles to keep from slipping into despair, while his young daughter, Shirin, steals files from the home of a playmate whose father is in charge of the prison that holds her father. Far away in Brooklyn, Isaac's nonreligious son, Parviz, struggles without his family's money and falls for the pious daughter of his Hasidic landlord. Nicely layered, the story shimmers with past secrets and hidden motivations.

Wednesday Wordle

Long winter nights bode well for blogging. This new-found freedom is exerting itself in almost daily posts...aren't you completely proud?

It's Teaser Tuesday!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. You can play too! Just do the following:

*Grab your current read.
*Open to a random page.
*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. --BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!-- (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
*Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – By Alan Bradley

Synopsis: (Taken From Amazon)

It's the beginning of a lazy summer in 1950 at the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey. Up at the great house of Buckshaw, aspiring chemist Flavia de Luce passes the time tinkering in the laboratory she's inherited from her deceased mother and an eccentric great uncle. When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen burners to solve the crime herself, much to the chagrin of the local authorities. But who can blame her? What else does an eleven-year-old science prodigy have to do when left to her own devices?

Teaser:

“If there is a thing I truly despise, it is being addressed as “dearie”. When I write my magnum opus, A Treatise Upon All Poisons, and come to “Cyanide,” I am going to put under “Uses” the phrase “Particularly efficacious in the cure of those who call one ‘Dearie’.”
--11-year-old Flavia Sabina de Luce, pg. 62

And one more for road. (Just because it spoke to me.)
“…it occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No…eight days a week.”
--Flavia Sabina De Luce, pg. 57

Note:
I’m still in the first half of this book, but I am ever-so-slowly watching it meander up from the “Okay, You Have my Attention” category to the “It’s Official: I Adore You” category. What a darling, caustic, precocious protagonist-- I love books with strong characters!

One Week Later....The Thanksgiving Edition!

The Sappy

I am thankful for another year with my son. A little boy who gets more dramatic, more intelligent, more frustrating (have you ever tried to reason with an almost 3 year old?), more funny, more loving, and takes up a bigger part of my heart with each passing day. A little boy that thinks one kiss from his Mommy holds more power than a warehouse of Band-Aids and Neosporin. A little boy that makes a bow and arrows out of a coat hanger and drinking straws and shoots the pretend buck that lives under the sink because he aches to be ‘just ‘wike my Daddy…he’s weawy cool’. A little boy that puts his chubby, chocolate pudding sticky hands on each side of my face, pulls our foreheads together and says, “I wuv you Mama. Do you wuv me? Yes? Or No?” A little boy that makes me realize that there is still purity in the world, there is still innocence, and there is still joy.

I am thankful for the BabyDaddy, who is so much more than just a BabyDaddy. He is my best friend, my protector, my comedian, my cleaning lady (SCORE!), my cheering squad, my ‘what-the-heck-are-you-thinking’ reality meter, my partner in crime (all misdemeanors I assure you), my compass point, and my rock of Gibraltar. He makes me laugh, lets me cry, and has stood resolutely by me through every single event of importance in my adult life. He gallops through the hallways of our tiny house, a human Secretariat, (or more realistically, Seabiscuit), with the Muffin as a miniature jockey squealing, “Giddy-yap Mr. Pony! Faster!” and whipping him with a plastic golf club. Now ya’ll, if that ain’t love, I don’t know what is. He is a good man, a good worker, and a good friend. He is the official love of my life.

I am thankful for my Mom. As Moms go, she’s pretty much got it down. If one day goes by that I don’t thank the dear Lord I have her, it would be one day too many. My Mom has magic. Real magic – the kind that counts. With her, the sky is bluer and the grass is greener. Adventures lie around every corner; ordinary couch cushions become walls of great castles where knights and dragons wage war and good always triumphs. A walk in the yard becomes a treasure hunt for pirate’s gold. There really is a Santa Claus, magic is alive, and miracles happen every day. If I have learned one thing from my Mom over the years, it is to believe. Believe in everything. Believe in life, believe in love, believe in God, believe in joy, and believe in fairy tales. Believe that you create your own happy ending, and your story is whatever you will it to be.

I am thankful for my in-laws. (Now THAT is probably something you don’t see every day!) Is it hard to live two hours away from the home I grew up in? Yes. But when you have a second set of parents who treat you like one of their own so completely it even makes the words “in-law” seem totally insignificant, things are much easier. If their love for their son and for me is boundless, their love for the Muffin cannot be put into words. Although I have chosen to be a working mother, I don’t feel afraid for my child while I am away. Because he is able to stay with his grandparents, the only thing I get nervous about is whether or not he will want to come home with me when I arrive to pick him up. (The answer to this question is usually a most resounding “But, I DON’T go to home ‘wight now. No, I DON’T!”)

I am thankful for my grandparents. They are the trunk of our family tree. They hold us together; they are where we began; they are our center. If you could see a person’s soul through their skin, I think theirs would be so bright it would blind you. They have seen financial comfort and financial hardship, the births of new generations and the deaths of the old, miracles and tragedies. They have remained steadfast in their love for God, family, and each other for decades. Although my heart hurts and my head spins to think of a day without either of them, I know it will have been both my honor and my blessing to have had them in my life.

I am thankful for my friends. More often than not, my friends are the Krazy Glue that patch up my cracks and keep me from falling apart. They are all different, and each is her own unique blend of fabulous. They give advice, hatch plans, pass the Kleenex, pass the wine, entertain my child, and entertain me. For you girls (and you each know who you are), I am eternally grateful.


The Purely Superficial

On the superficial side, I am so thankful for everything in the ‘comfort’ food group. (I mean YOU twice baked sour-cream mashed potatoes!) I ate so much over the holiday I almost puked. When I didn’t puke, I ate some more. And, as a famous man once saith in Genesis, “IT WAS GOOD.” I have yet to get on the scales – that will be a New Year’s Day cry-and-swear-never-to-eat-another-stinking-crescent-roll-until-next-year thing. I hope all of you had a lovely Thanksgiving, with lots of wonderful things to be thankful for.

Edward Cullen is beautiful....and unfortunately fake.

It's a shame he isn't real isn't it? Well, maybe not when you consider the host of issues we'd have to deal with if he was real. You know, vampires, werewolves and such. That part of things might not be too pleasant. But just to look at him.... **SIGH** And it's not even a Robert Pattinson kind of thing, because oddly enough, I really don't get my knickers in a wad over him personally. Only when he is EDWARD. That's altogether different.

So, in honor of the fact that I'm going to see New Moon with Ames tomorrow (seriously A. BabyDaddy owes you something terrible - he was going to have to suffer through it with me before you so graciously volunteered), and also in honor of all things Twilight, I decided just to take a few moments to dwell on the many ways one can show one's devotion to the fan club. Professions of loyalty run the gamut, as you will soon see.

You could buy the jewelry -- I am seriousy tempted by chunky, vintage pieces, so I could realistically see myself wearing Alice's choker, or Rosalie's pendant...

You could purchase the Barbies -- I hear Edward even has vampire-sparkly skin. How clever!

You could hang your Edward stocking by the chimney with care... 'though Santa might be frightened -- what a ferocious stare!




You can even find him as wall art. Oh darlings, I did try to persuade BabyDaddy, but he thought that might be just a smidge creepy in our bedroom. Silly BD....




Some of the fans might even go so far as to profess their Twilight love in a more permanent way. (Now THAT, my friends, is certainly taking it to a 'HO, nudda, level.)

There is definately more than one way to show your Twilight love.....however, I think I'll just stick to something simple and classy. Sorry BD - you know I love you!

The Muffin

As several of you already know, we spent the majority of Sunday afternoon and evening in the local emergency room with the Muffin. After a follow up on Monday with the pediatrician, he was diagnosed with pneumonia, along with an ear infection. Bless his little heart, he was put on a nebulizer to help him breathe, a steroid, and an antibiotic. Hopefully, we'll be able to knock it out soon. He is doing much better, breathing easier and no fever for the past two days. There has been some drama with a new pediatrician attempting to put him on a strong steroid regimen for chronic asthma (additional to the steroid he is already on, and it would be much more powerful). However, since he doesn't have chronic asthma, and his breathing problems were a result of the pneumonia, BabyDaddy and I didn't agree with this and have decided not to give this to him. The pediatrician was very disappointing; when we called the office with our concerns about the medication, and hoping for some reassurance, we instead got a call back from the receptionist saying that the doctor said, "It was our decision". No discussion, no reassurance. Needless to say, we immediately scheduled an appointment with our normal pediatrician in the practice, (who was out this week), and will let her know how this has played out. In the meantime, thanks so much to all those who have sent the Muffin get-well cards, called, or prayed. We appreciate it!!

Sunday Thanks

I am thankful for for afternoon naps with kids and dogs. I am thankful for situations that make you worry, because they are the ones that test your faith and make you strong. I am thankful for having grandparents that instinctively know what you need, when you need it, and unselfishly swoop in to save the day. I am thankful for sunny fall afternoons, flea markets, and power wheels. I am thankful for Candyland, and for the joy that comes when the red gingerbread man (BabyDaddy) gets stuck in the Chocolate Swamp, and the green and yellow gingerbread men (Muffin and I) whup his tail soundly. I am thankful for a sermon that makes me think. I am thankful that BD finally brought my fall decorations down from the attic, and that I restrained myself from kicking the ladder out from under him when he did. (Holy cow, already! Did you realize this is stinking NOVEMBER? I've been asking him since August.) I am thankful for Cracker Barrel's apple streusel french toast. I am thankful for today.

I think it was equally enjoyable for everyone.

"Daddy, I 'fink you are too fat for my truck. You make it go WEAWWY slow..."



The library was giving away these old books for free!


Can you tell I took several? I used them all over the house...

I finally got around to taking pictures of the Muffin's new 'big boy, no-baby-rubber-duckies-allowed' bathroom. We have been infested with silly monsters! My in-laws and Jess-from-the-Country commented that the color (Parakeet Green) was "bright". I took that as a compliment. I have lived far too long with a neutral color palette. I'm ready to be bright!