Fool Moon, Grave Peril, and Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

A few weeks ago Joe talked me into reading one of his current series (of which there are currently 14 books) and after I read the first book I liked it enough to read the second one, Fool Moon.  That was good enough that I then read the third one, Grave Peril.  That one was really good and I started Summer Knight, the fourth one, and finished it when I should have been napping during our Disneyland trip.

All to say, I am indeed hooked!  The writing got less choppy by the third one and they are actually pretty quick reads! Harry Dresden is a local wizard that is a bit of a rogue.  In the second book there are a bunch of werewolves that are wreaking havoc, in the third book there are vampires that are plotting against him and in Summer Knight there is a big faerie war that he is trying to prevent.  Not really my normal cup of tea for sure but I am enjoying them just the same.

In fact, I am enjoying them enough that when I started by book for book club that it took me awhile before I kept wondering when the wizard was entering the story.  (There is no wizard in my book club book.)

Photo A Day March 13-24, 2013

It has been awhile since I have updated my photo a day, more than a week's worth!  Anyway, I have been trying to capture some of the things around the house that wouldn't probably mean much to anyone else, but might to us once those things are gone.  We also celebrated two friends getting married last weekend.  Joe was the best man and Taelin was a flower girl and while my intention was to get a lot of pictures the frenzy of the wedding prevented that from happening.  And, Taelin got her first sinus infection this week so there has been a little bit of down time during the day which has been helpful as we recover from some restless sleeping nights.  

Yep...we did all that in 9 days!

march 13, 2013
some of her favorites to snuggle and sleep with

march 14, 2013
peas growing (you should see them now)

march 15, 2013
just a day around the house

march 16, 2013
at the rehearsal brunch

march 17, 2013
after the ceremony...right before she fell asleep at the reception

march 18, 2013
and a new dress up dress was born!

march 19, 2013
fully decked out for the rain

march 20, 2013
sinus infection blues

march 21, 2013
bath toys...that got used since she is sick but haven't been used in awhile

march 22, 2013
bedtime books

march 23, 2013
at the scrapbook convention...where I may have purchased a few things

march 24, 2013
laundry sorter
Notice the empty white sack.
It is empty because it was the first thing I did after waking up and getting reading this morning was to empty the non-white clothes that were in it to wash.  Last night, before going to bed,
Joe discovered that there were two blue bags and one white bag.  (We have had this thing for years.)
  He also discovered that I much prefer the whites to go in the white bag and the non-whites to go in the blue bags...like we have been doing...for years.
He claims we haven't ever done it like that.  He also has a really, really bad memory.
Anyway, I am mostly telling this story because people that know Joe will laugh (particularly his mother) and to show that balance in our laundry has been restored.

Photo A Day March 5-12, 2013

Spring is coming!  And we have the sniffles.  But spring is coming so we are working through our sniffles.  

Our yard is showing great signs of new growth and we have been adding to it a little bit too.  I can't even begin to example how excited I am about this coming spring/summer.  I think I have officially changed from a  "fall" girl to a "spring/summer" girl.  (See how I just skipped over the "rainy winter" girl.)

I hope that we get over our sniffles soon (I seem to be the biggest holdout) because we have some fun stuff planned for the next couple of weeks!  

march 5, 2013
new growth....spring is coming

march 6, 2013
dance party at the Crowe's...they happen quite frequently

march 7, 2013
sniffles = sleeping with Mama (I not so secretly LOVE it!)

march 8, 2013
planting peas

march 9, 2013
my new poppy
I have commitment issues when it comes to planting things in the ground.

march 10, 2013
a little blurry but that cookie was as big as her head

march 11, 2013
homemade noodles for chicken soup

march 12, 2013
t-ball...spring is coming!

2013 Garden is Born!

When talking to my parents a few weeks ago over Skype, my dad asked Taelin and I if we had planted our peas yet.  Our answer was no, of course, because it was still February and who plants peas in February.  Then my dad said something to the effect of, "Well, Grandpa used to always plant his peas in the last week of February."

My daughter, not really knowing how the whole name thing works, understandably thought my dad meant himself, because that is who Taelin calls Grandpa.  Who he really meant was his dad, my grandpa.  I did try to explain a little but the seed, pun intended, had already been planted.  Grandpa said we needed to plant peas in February and Taelin did not forget to remind me...over and over and over.

Well, it wasn't quite February but we did get the peas planted yesterday.  Not outside because at some point we will have like 3 weeks of non-stop rain and the poor little things would drown, but just little starter seeds to keep inside. And with these little 8 pots, our 2013 garden has officially been started!  We have some big plans, including building another box and leveling the ones we have, but all that can wait until later.

Here are some pictures of the official kick-off!

at some point I need to get a different bin, but this works for now

reading the directions

by far her favorite part

Now we wait!  And just in case you were wondering, we made sure to call Grandpa that night to tell him that we planted our peas...even if we were a little late.

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. ~Author Unknown

When Taelin woke up on her birthday last month, she started a list of things that were different now that she was 4.  They mostly involved things that she thought she could now do by herself or things that she didn't have to do anymore.  I don't have any proof, but I think she had been generating that list in her head for awhile because she just kind of rattled them off one after the other.  Such a little list maker already!

Most of the things haven't really made a difference one way or the other in our daily routine.  Things like standing on her stool to brush her teeth instead of standing on the counter or brushing her hair by herself, with a final check from me.  If you had to look for a theme surrounding the things on her list, they are all her wanting to be more independent.  That's what I want, right?

I suppose that is mostly true but this morning I will admit that I got a little teary when I rolled over to turn my alarm off and I heard Taelin singing in her bed.  Why, you ask, would that cause me tear up?  Well, mostly because I know those little moments are becoming few and far between.  You see, before turning 4, Taelin stayed in her bed when she woke up and waited for someone, usually me, to come and get her.  It was never anything we told her she had to do.  I, probably like many moms, worried when we changed her crib into a toddler bed that she would be getting up and down all the time.  But she never did.  She stayed in her bed every night after tucking her in and in the morning she would stay in bed until someone came to get her.  

There were many mornings that I would wake up to her singing at the top of her lungs or calling out "Mama...Mama" like a British police car.  I will fully admit that most of those mornings, especially my days home with her, I would lay in bed a little longer to listen to her sing.  Most times they were songs that we sing together, but every once and awhile she would be singing some melody that was completely her own creation.  Those were the mornings that I stayed in bed even longer.  

This morning though I realized that it was the first morning since turning 4 that she was waiting for me and singing to pass the time.  All of the mornings so far since being 4 have been either me waking her up or her just getting up by herself and coming to find me.  So, this morning when I heard Taelin singing, I got teary.  Those mornings that I so loved, are changing.  

And then tonight... 

Remember this picture?

This picture was my photo of the day on January 14.  It is a picture of part of our nighttime routine.  After showering (she rarely takes a bath anymore) she and Joe race to see who gets to pick the first vitamin and after getting hugs and kisses she and I go off to her room.  She picks out a book to read and she sits on my lap as I read.  Then she gets tucked into bed and I sing her a couple of songs.  A couple hugs and kisses and she rolls over to her side to fall asleep.  

It is honestly one of my very favorite parts of my day.  I love the whole thing but my most favorite part of the whole routine (other than watching Joe and Taelin race for vitamins) is reading to her.  And tonight, she decided that she was just going to sit beside me...ya, know...because now she is 4.  

Apparently she is liking her new list of "now that I am 4" and is adding to it but quite frankly, I don't at all.  Most everything was the same and I still got to read to her but it just wasn't the same.  She wasn't snuggled down in my lap with her head leaned up against me.  She wasn't rubbing my leg with her thumb like she usually does and it was harder to plant a kiss on the top of her head when I was turning a page. I couldn't help but get teary when she first sat beside me and told me that "this is where I sit now when we read a story."  

Man, I hope that isn't true.  

It will probably be like the singing.  I doubt that there will never be a time again that she sits on my lap to read a book.  I am sure that there will be loads of times she will want to (I am almost sure that I am sure) but tonight wasn't one of those nights and there were be more like it.  

There will be new things that start to happen, like how every Monday we paint our toenails because she goes to gymnastics and it is more fun to jump on the trampoline when you have pink glitter on your toes.  And all of those new things are going to be great too.  It's just I wish some of the other things would stick around too.  It sounds so cliche, but people are not kidding when they say that the time goes by too fast.

I like butterflies.  But I think tonight I have a whole new appreciation for caterpillars. 

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

Joe has been (I think for years) wanting me to read this series that he has found and fallen in love with.  When Joe and I first met, he read so much that I couldn't have ever imagined him not being a reader and in some ways I was right.  He "reads" all the times, but his reading now is more in the form of audio books.  He listens to and from work and before bed every night for who knows how long and he goes through books like nobody else I know. This book is the first in a series that follows a modern wizard as he, I presume because of the first book, aids in fighting crime while having a hard time keeping out of trouble himself.

I finally got around to reading the first book and was pleasantly surprised, although I shouldn't have been.  There isn't a book that Joe has recommended I read that I didn't like.  

Harry Dresden is a modern wizard that is called on to help the police department solve a double murder.  The setting assumes a certain dispelling of belief in terms of wizards, demons, faery, vampires although not any of these are known or accepted by everyone.   Harry is a bit of a lone ranger and as a wizard-for-hire, also gets called upon to solve some other cases.  In true series fashion, the unrelated cases he starts with at the beginning are all neatly connected by the end.  

I was at a disadvantage that I knew that were 13 more books (yes, 13 more at this point in the series) so I was never really worried that he was somehow not going to survive. There are quite a few things that are set up for a series and I am excited to see how they get played out.  The book was a quick read and I definitely enjoyed it.  I don't know that I will make it through all 13 before I pick something else up but I have no doubt that I will read them all.

Human life is purely a matter of deciding what's important to you. ~Anonymous

The other day I was talking to a friend casually about our plans for the weekend and I mentioned that we were heading to the coast with some friends for a couple of nights.  She replied, "You are going somewhere again!  Can I be part of your family?"  I smiled and said, "I do have a pretty good life!"  The more I have thought about that over the last few days, the more I agree with it.  I do have a great life and I would like to think that there have been purposeful decisions that I have made, along with Joe, that makes it a great life.

One of the things I love is going places as a family. Getting away from our life and home somehow makes the time off we have together on the weekend longer.  Do and seeing new things or old favorites has always been something we like and it is becoming even more fun as we get to experience things with Taelin.  Our time is going to go fast with her so we are going to live it up now while we can.

Here are some pictures from our trip...

I love those smiles

We stayed at a new place and there were some cool tide pools on the beach.
Joe can not resist a chance to climb on rocks.

She was trying to tell me how big the ocean was.

Why is it so dang hard to get her to look at the camera
when we actually have a chance to get a family picture?!?

The view from our condo balcony.  We slept with the window open both nights!  

My friend Tiffany texted me while we were there and wanted to know if we were at the coast.
She had seen the picture above that I had posted on Facebook and she recognized the
view because it was out her window too!  She and her husband we staying just two hotels down!
We were on our way out of town but she and her husband came down for a little bit
and her husband snapped this picture of us!
We don't always see each other much so it was a great random treat to see her!  <3

In addition to spending a lot of great time together, I actually got to spend a couple of hours by myself which doesn't happen a lot when we are traveling. (Thank you Joe!)  Since we were going to the coast, I took the opportunity to do something I have on my list and have been wanting to do since we moved to Oregon.  Glass blowing!  A few years ago, I bought my sister a glass blowing experience at Jennifer Sears Glass Art for her birthday but for some reason I didn't do it with her.  What was I thinking?!?  Anyway, I was planning on making a float but when I got there, they had a couple of new things that weren't on their website so I decided to make a votive candle holder.

It was a very cool process and Andrew, my guide for lack of a better term, explained things step by step and gave me a chance to do something along the way.  While there were a lot of the technical things I couldn't do, I made a lot of the decisions along the way. I did get to turn the glass, add the color on, turn the glass again, make the swirls in the glass and then of course got to blow!

It took about 40 minutes but it went by so quickly because there was so much information.  Because I was by myself and was actually doing it, I don't have any pictures of me doing things but I did take a couple at the end after he cut it off of the metal pole and was applying the base.

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Finished product at home!
While it makes a cool candle holder it also made the perfect vase for tulips! 

It was kind of spendy, which is why I think I always have talked myself out of doing it, but I am so glad that I did it now.  A candle holder/vase is actually something I can use all the time!  It was a great experience and will remember the fun I had every time I look at it!

Photo A Day February 26-March 4, 2013

It is kind of funny how this particular series of posts is turning out to be one of the highlights of my week!  Here's what the past week has been like...

feb 26, 2013
As if I wasn't having enough trouble getting Taelin to like going to school,
I picked her up with a shiner from a collision from playing tag.
 "And she didn't even say sorry..."

feb. 27, 2013
What I took right before a 5 hour afternoon nap.
Turns out I wasn't sick, just allergy season rearing
 it's ugly head sooner and harsher than expected.

feb. 28, 2013
When do I think I am going to find time for all
 the professional reading I keep dragging home?

march 1, 2013
one of the baby chicks that was hatched in one of my teacher's classroom.
we went to go visit but Taelin would hold one
because she was pretty sure it was going to eat her.

march 2, 2013
weekend at the Oregon coast...LOVE IT!

march 3, 2013
I was feeling very optimistic that the sun outside was as warm as I wanted it to be.
 I was wrong.
My tennis shoes and socks were on too long after this photo!

march 4, 2013
Happy Birthday to my friend Tiffany's little girl Lucy Mae.
Light pink tulips and sunshine to honor and remember a little girl that is so loved and incredibly missed.