First Day of School!

Yesterday was the Pirate's first day of school! I know there are moms all over the country who experienced the exact same thing, and it was just as shocking to them, but HOW IN THE WORLD DO I HAVE A SCHOOL KID???

Because the Kindergarten program here is a half day thing (ugh, not even half day 12:10-2:45!) he also had to swap to a new daycare/preschool. While we love the old place, she doesn't have the means to transport kids to school, especially not to a variety of schools. So we got everyone ready and first went to the new daycare. Here's the Pirate's smiling face- he was a bit excited.

And here he is with the Bug. No, there aren't uniforms, the Bug just really REALLY wanted to be like his brother.

After a bit of help extricating the Bug from the new place ("I go Westside too! I go school!") we left him there for the morning. Grandpa came over around lunch time and Mike and I went and picked up the Pirate to take him to "real" school.

He had a little problem with his lunch, therefore, new clean shirt for school. We took him in and expected to have to settle his nerves, but he barely looked back at us.

At the end of the day, he could not stop talking about what fun he had and all the new things he did. He learned to do monkey bars all by himself! (I have yet to see this in action.) He colored a book about being at school!  He ate a hot dog! Sadly, he did not learn how to read. (I guess he thought it would happen in a day?)

Overall, he had a terrific day and is so so SO excited to be a big kid.

I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.

Waiting for Baby, part 3: Hurry up and wait.

Now, we wait.

I'm at 37 weeks, 2 days today. This is as pregnant as I've ever been. With both boys being early we all, my doctor included, expected an early baby this time as well. Every day I expect to be THE day.  While I haven't gained a ton of weight, I am heavy and awkward and super uncomfortable. My shirts do not cover my belly, as you can tell in that picture since I am holding it down. I am READY.

Meanwhile, life goes on right? Thursday night we had meet the teacher night at The Pirate's kindergarten. Can you believe he starts school, REAL SCHOOL, on Monday? I can not. Last night we had meet the teacher/ open house at his new daycare.  Because kindergarten is only a half day here he had to change to a new place that will do pick up and drop off for us, as his old daycare couldn't do it. He'd been going to the same in-home place for almost 5 years. We were all a little sad about that ending. (The Bug and the Baby will continue to go to her house though, so we'll still see her!) I was nervous about not being able to attend one or the other of those events, but made it right past them with no issues.   School starts on Monday and now we wait to see if I'll make it for that as well.

While we wait, I have most of the clothes washed and ready. We have diapers and wipes. Her bed is waiting (in our room) and her blankets have been washed. Her brothers and her mother can not WAIT to meet her. (Her father is still a bit nervous.)  Every day I get messages about the baby and every time I call someone they expect to hear news. Wait wait wait.

Maybe we should think of a name for this child while we wait? (We thought we had one. One of us changed our mind. There's just such pressure to Get It Right!)

I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.

Cheaspeake Blue by Nora Roberts

(I swear, I'm reading more than just romance. Romance is just the easiest thing to talk about when you are functioning on no sleep (Hi pregnancy insomnia? I hate you.) Hopefully I'll come back to the others one day.)

So. I recently posted that I had reread Nora Robert's Chesapeake Bay Saga but that I never got around to reading the final installment - Chesapeake Blue (The Chesapeake Bay Saga, Book 4) about Seth, the kid from the first three. On a recent trip to the library I picked it up (in large print no less!) and quickly read through it. It's nice to have the followup and to see how Seth turned out, and it's amazing to me that aside from the ages of the siblings that you really can't date the books to any one decade. I was concerned that it would be hard for her to pull off a story about a kid who was now an adult without making the adults from the first set unappealing. As it turns out, Roberts handles it just fine.

In this final entry, Seth has been living in Europe as an artist for the last several years. His work has become famous but he is ready to come back to Saint Christopher to be with his family. Dru has recently come to town to escape her family, and has opened a small floral shop. Blah blah blah, they fall in love, they struggle with things, old troubles come back to haunt them, happily ever after.  Nice conclusion to the saga, the brothers (the first three) haven't changed at all but it's nice to see them all grown up and settled with families. The relationship between the brothers is still the focal point, more than with the couples. It's a very feel good conclusion and if you read the first three and bailed on this one (as I did) you can go ahead and pick it up.  It's probably not gonna knock your socks off, but it'll fill a couple of evenings nicely and you can feel good about finishing out the series.


Chesapeake Blue (The Chesapeake Bay Saga, Book 4)
by Nora Roberts
Jove
2004
368 pages




I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.

Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn

Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn was one of those books that the library only gives you a week to read. It came in the same day as The Passage by Justin Cronin but since I thought Mike and I might both enjoy The Passage, I started with the Quinn and gave the other to him.  If you're a reader of historical romance at all, it's a pretty good chance that you've read something by Julia Quinn, so you have a pretty good idea what to expect going in.  Ten Things I Love About You certainly fulfills that expectation.

This is the summary from the back of the book, and since it's so representative of the book, I'm going to post the whole thing:

Ten Things You Should Know About This Book
1. Sebastian Grey is a devilishly handsome rogue with a secret.
2. Annabel Winslow's family voted her The Winslow Most Likely to Speak Her Mind and The Winslow Most Likely to Fall Asleep in Church.
3. Sebastian's uncle is the Earl of Newbury, and if he dies without siring an heir, Sebastian inherits everything.
4. Lord Newbury detests Sebastian and will stop at nothing to prevent this from happening.
5. Lord Newbury has decided that Annabel is the answer to all of his problems.
6. Annabel does not want to marry Lord Newbury, especially when she finds out he once romanced her grandmother.
7 is shocking, 8 is delicious, and 9 is downright wicked, all of which lead the way to
10. Happily. Ever. After. 

Sounds good, no? And it was. It wasn't one of my favorites of all time, but it was good. Annabel is very much like many of Quinn's heroines: smart, pretty, not made of the same mold as the rest of society.  Sebastian is terrific. He loves women and he's not bashful about it.  He knows he is charming and handsome and he knows how to use his reputation to it's fullest. Everyone loves him at the same time as he is scandalous. The book takes place over a very short time frame, which makes it a little bit unbelievable, but we are talking about a romance novel and right there on the back it says Happily Ever After, so no real complaints there.

I do think I missed out on a little bit by not having read What Happens in London, which is Sebastian's cousin's book. It doesn't ruin the flow of the story, but I think I might have enjoyed it a bit more in order.

Ten Things I Love About You
Julia Quinn
Avon Books 
384 pages
2010
Source: library


I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.

On being Crude

Lately I've noticed a trend towards being brash, crude, intentionally shocking, and/ or juvenile in places where it just doesn't belong.  In the book blogging community itself there are a handful of bloggers who seem to delight in the panty-jokes and bathroom humor that I spend much of my time trying to train my 5 year NOT to use. I occasionally feel like I'm part of the wrong generation, as I don't see the humor or the appeal of referring to one thing, say wet panties, to describe your feelings about something else, for example, a book. Perhaps the blogger means this literally, in that he or she really is turned on by the book in question, but from reading the posts, I believe it's just being used as a shocking turn of phrase to garner attention.

By this same token, how is bathroom humor funny in the contest of the book blogging world? I admit to laughing at the occasional fart joke. If  someone were to fart and my two year old popped up with, "he FARTED!", I would laugh. If someone blogged about a memorable incident with potty training or the weird thing they overheard in the public bathroom at Target, I'd probably see the humor. But how is it funny, or even cute, to use this type of humor to refer to something like reading? Unless your book got peed on in a memorable manner? Maybe? Or was about poop? Everyone Poops (My Body Science Series) and Walter the Farting Dog come to mind as acceptable.

I spend much of my time trying to teach two young children when it is appropriate to laugh at poop and when it is not. I'm not really a prude, I see the humor in a lot of the posts on the Fail Blog. I read romance novels and sex in a fiction book doesn't turn me off the book. I just don't see the humor in using this type of talk to describe something unrelated. It feels like a cheap way to make a joke or an intentional attempt at shocking me. (You might remember I felt the same way about Screwed Up Life of Charlie The Second by Drew Ferguson, which many people loved.)  To be clear, this bothers me a lot more regarding book blogging than mommy blogging.  I just don't get it and honestly don't even want to get it. Am I the only one that feels this way? Am I an overreacting old biddy (at 35!) who will be chasing the kids off the lawn next? Is any humor appropriate at any time? Am I grossly out of touch with reality? Is my sense of humor stunted?  What do you think? 

(I'm sure someone will come along soon and tell me that I'm over-reacting. I'm not truly distressed about this trend, I just don't understand why it's funny.)


I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.

A visit with Trish (and her hot-cycle)

Yesterday afternoon my family and I traveled to Keystone, SD to see the lovely TRISH, her husband Scott and his brother. They came to town to "see the Sturgis motorcycle rally" but really, it was to see me. Unfortunately, coordinating the schedules of  5 travelers plus those of us here with jobs is a bit tricky, so we only saw each other for a couple of hours. We ate dinner at a less then spectacular restaurant that made up for it's eh-food in favor of quiet. (If you've ever been to the rally, you know that quiet is hard to find.)

Then we walked down to see their hot-cycle (if you're the Bug, motorcycle if you're anyone else) and the boys were THRILLED to sit on it. The Bug is almost in awe of it, as you can tell by the look on his face.

Then, Trish gave me a giant bag of adorably cute girl stuff. (You REALLY shouldn't have! But, uh, I love it all so thanks!)  If I'd have been thinking, I'd have taken a picture of some of it to share. It's really the first new stuff baby girl has gotten! I have to admit, I can't wait to start putting some ruffles on this child.

All in all, it was a great, if way too short, visit! And if you're a reader of Trish's (and if you're not, why not?) you should know that her place of lodging has no internet or cellphone access, so I'm guessing you won't be seeing a mid-week post from her.




I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.

Preparing for Baby, Part 2. At home.

The second of my three part ramblings. You can find part 1, at work, here.

Ok, so in addition to having your office ready to abandon it, you (if you're me) need to have your house in some semblance of order. First there's the whole "where are we gonna PUT this new person?" question to answer. In our case, the boys will stay in the room they are in (technically The Bug's room) and the toys will stay in the room they are in (The Pirate's room) and the Baby will live in our room. For a while. I expect that we'll keep her in there until Christmas or so, at which point we will hopefully have some bunkbeds for the boys.  I'm hoping that a gradual introduction will work better with the Bug, instead of just tossing him out of what he knows when this small loud person appears.

This still leaves the matter of all the baby STUFF. I've spent the past few weeks moving clothing from one dresser to another and moving dressers from one room to another. This gave us more dresser space for the boys and freed up the built-in closet (more or less) for the baby. Most of her clothes will be in there, along with the majority of the blankets and extra stuff. A small basket of clothes, her diapers and wipes, and a handful of receiving blankets will reside in our room.  I bought a new little folding cradle for our bedside (which obviously I have not yet tried, but it looks awesome) and I expect that we'll use our little cosleeper like we did with both boys. (The First Years Close and Secure Sleeper, Colors May Vary, it has a little light on it for middle of the night checks and everything. I *highly* recommend it, even with that ugly link.)  I'm not planning on buying bottles at this time, and we already have most of the other baby gear we need.  We will need to do something about the current car seat, maybe recover it, maybe replace it.  We have a good stock of diapers on hand. If the baby arrived tomorrow, WHICH SHE WON'T, we'll be ready enough.

The last part of getting the house ready is the hardest and most ongoing part. I don't want to bring my baby home to a messy house. Worse, I don't want to call someone (Grandpa!?) in the middle of the night to come stay in my messy house while I jaunt off to have a baby. Every day I'm cleaning a small section and trying (haha) to keep on top of the clutter. I figure another couple months and I'll have it under control. (Ignore the fact that I expect a baby in less than a month.)  I'd like to have the yard mowed before then, so Mike doesn't have to think about it. It would be nice to have the car all clean and shiny when we bring her home.  I need to buy some paper plates so I can avoid dishes for a few days. The list is never ending!

While I haven't quite succumbed to the traditional freak out of nesting (yet) I fully expect to go home one day soon and start scrubbing floors with a toothbrush.   With the Pirate, I had to clean out the garage the weekend before his birth. The weekend before the Bug was born I found myself disassembling the hood to the microwave because that grease HAD to go!

If you have kids, did you have a day of full out cleaning panic that signalled the baby's imminent arrival? What household changes did you make to make room for them? Were you prepared or did the baby catch you off guard, as the Bug did to us?


I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.

Three from Nora Roberts- The Chesapeake Bay Saga

One of the things I've been doing this year is rereading some old favorites. After reading the McKade series by Nora Roberts I felt the need to go dig out her Chesapeake Bay series.  I last read these while living in Alabama, so it's been a while. There are four books to the series, but the fourth (Chesapeake Blue (The Chesapeake Bay Saga, Book 4)) came out long after the first three and I never read it. I picked it up at the library yesterday, but since it's not a reread for me I'll hopefully eventually give it it's own review.




This series is built around three brothers who as adults come back together to face their father's death, and to adopt the young boy (Seth) with whom their father had begun to build a relationship.  While many of the people in their small hometown revered their father, there are some ugly rumors circling about  his death and his actual relationship to the boy. Ray and Stella Quinn had adopted all three boys as troubled teens and their love for their parents is staggering.

The first in the series is Sea Swept (Chesapeake Bay, Book 1), which focus on Cameron. Cam lives all over the world. He races boats for a living and likes fast cars and pretty models. He's called back home just in time to say goodbye to his dad. He has no intention of giving up his flashy life, but agrees to stay for a year to figure out what to do with the boy, Seth.  Anna Spinelli is the case worker assigned to the case and she takes her job very seriously. Of course, Anna is wildly sexy when she's off the clock, and is pretty modern in sensibilities. She's more than willing to have a casual relationship with Cam, so long as it does not impact her job, but then OOPS! they fall in love. Cam is definitely an alpha hero, and a bit overbearing, so it's a good thing that Anna is equally strong and forceful.

Next comes Rising Tides: The Chesapeake Bay Saga #2 (The Quinn Brothers Trilogy). This one is about Ethan, the quiet, solid, fisherman of a brother. Ethan didn't go far when he live Ray's house and spends his days catching fish. Ethan has long been in love with Grace, but due to the difference in age, plus his background, he's always felt she's out of reach. Grace, who has always been in love with Ethan, gave him up as a lost cause, got married, got abandoned and had a baby very young. She works multiple jobs to keep her indepence, but at heart craves a solid, quiet marriage.   Things between them explode in an instant, and then there is the inevitable struggle to work things out between what they each see in the furture. Ethan is really my favorite type of hero, so this is one of my favorite Nora Roberts.

Going into book three, Inner Harbor (The Chesapeake Bay Saga, Book 3), the third brother, Phillip is really my least favorite. He's a professional, moved away to Boston, likes fine wine and piano music and really doesn't do a lot for me. This really carries through to the book itself and while it is a good conclusion to the story it remains my least favorite of the three. The heroine of Inner Harbor is Sybill, who shows up in St. Christopher as a stranger, but who really has a hidden motive. She keeps her true identity a secret, which threatens not only the relationship with Phillip, but also the situation with Seth and the brothers.  Typically, my least favorite type of romance is one where one of the characters pretends to be someone they are not, or who hides a big secret part of their identity, so it's no surprise that I feel the way I do about this one. I will give Roberts credit for not drawing out the misery of the revelation or letting it become the entirety of the story.

If you're a fan of family stories, or a fan of Nora Roberts and have not picked up this series, I recommend that you do so. As always, the relationships between siblings and friends is one of her strong points and she does not fail with this series. 

Now, who wants to take bets on how long before I get around to Seth's story (Chesapeake Blue (The Chesapeake Bay Saga, Book 4)) ?


I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.