Book of the Week: The Salt Garden

This week's book!  The Salt Garden by Cindy Martinusen is a great book. Set in California around the year 2000 or so, this book actually follows the experiences of three different women. Sophia, a reclusive writer in her 70s, and Claire, a newspaper reporter in her mid-20s meet. Together they research Josephine, a woman who survived the 1905 shipwreck of the Josephine (named for her), which sank under mysterious conditions. It was a really fun read and made me wish I was in a lighthouse overlooking the Pacific Ocean!

             

Nerd Day!

Today I showed my true roots! Nerd activities only. Magoo and I started strong with church, and followed up with a pretty serious bout of train choo-chooing after.

I read a new book this afternoon, and L.O.V.E.D. I.T. I'll put up that post tomorrow or Tuesday! Anyway, that was the first and last nerd activity for the day.

I found this sweet Lassie puzzle in my parents' basement last night and put it together this afternoon.

                                 

I am SO not a puzzle person, but this one was only 100 pieces, so it was definitely the way to go! Anyway, this particular puzzle had me all excited so I decided to put it together in ten minutes or less, and whipped out a stopwatch. It took me much longer than that!! :( But I love the picture!  Magoo has some pretty great artwork in his room, and this would fit right in there. I should find a vintage Lassie photo to frame for his art wall.

After a viewing a short game of broski vs. canines living room hockey, the fam packed up and we went out to watch The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. So, just to be clear here, I grew up with J.R.R. Tolkien's books. My father read multiple book series to my siblings and I as a pre-bedtime ritual since before I can remember, and the Lord of the Rings series made the list of books read by dad. I loved the books, and didn't want to see the first movie they made back in 2002 or 2003, whenever they started the movie franchise, because I was afraid the movies would ruin the books for me. However, after watching the movies, I absolutely loved them!

I was disappointed that Peter Jackson chose to split The Hobbit into three movies, because it required a lot of deviation from the books to come up with enough material for three movies. That said, I (after not really enjoying the first two Hobbit movies) really enjoyed the final movie!

It was more because of the tradition of seeing the movies with my family. I've seen each of the movies in theaters with my dad, and initially with my brothers, as well, though they haven't been in the area during the hobbit movies yet. This movie was really special because I was able to see it not just with my parents, but also with my younger brother, who will be deploying in a few weeks. Plus, it was really neat to be able to say I had seen both trilogies in theater with my dad, especially since they were based on books of which I have such great childhood memories!

Dog hockey photo, so that no one would be deprived.

                    

       

Book of the Week: Halos

Last week's book of the week was Halos by the author Kristen Heitzmann.

It was definitely not one of my favorite books, nor is Heitzmann one of my favorite authors. The story seemed a little flat, the characters too stereotypical, and overall, not too interesting. I have, in the past, enjoyed another one of her books, Freefall, which I would definitely recommend in lieu of Halos!

Christmas in Connecticut..I wish!

Merry Christmas from the Midwest!

Magoo and I!

Magoo and I had a pretty special Christmas this year, with our family visiting, plus we were able to make it to the extended family Christmas for the second year running. Yes!

It was (and still will be) a pretty busy week, but he is loving every minute of it, and so am I! Uncle Slimmy came last week and will be here through the early part of January. Magoo was SO EXCITED when he arrived last week, and we are enjoying every minute he is with us, as he is deploying for another nine months at the end of January. Two sets of Magoo's aunts and uncles came for the week, and spoiled him (and still are spoiling him), and the final set will be arriving in a few more days.

With all of the family around, and special mommy and kiddo time, this Christmas was pretty great!

Opening Christmas Eve presents.

New jammies for Christmas morning!

Here is a list of Magoo and my "bests" for Christmas 2014!

Best present (Magoo): cool vacuum that spins confetti around in it's cylinder when you switch it on.
Best present (Me): my grandmother's "motherhood" ring with my uncle, aunts, and mom's birthstones in it (though Magoo was pretty generous this year, and his gifts came in pretty close, particularly a sweet pair of gloves that will keep my fingers and my new ring pretty warm).

Best present given (Magoo): some pretty stellar photo prints for his grandma and for his grandpa's work office.
Best present given (Me): either the Thomas & Friends train set for Magoo, or the stationary sets/fountain pen for one of my sisters.

Best food (Magoo): sweet peas in couscous
Best food (Me): pork tenderloin

Best song (Magoo): Heat Miser song from The Year Without Santa Claus (1974)
Best song (Me): Same!

Best beverage had (Magoo): almond milk (until he sees me drinking my tea)
Best beverage had (Me): Sleepytime tea

Best tree decoration (Magoo): Thomas train engine ornament
Best tree decoration (Me): Little sparkly Santa Claus shaped picture frame ornament featuring Baby Magoo's face.

Best movie (Magoo): Thomas & Friends Christmas Adventure
Best movie (Me): A Christmas Story


Anyway, the whole week (month, even) was a total success, and I loved every minute of it with him! Now to start celebrating his birthday. Holy cow, it's coming up fast!!

Merry Christmas and Much Love from this kid and me!

Book of the Week, Aug-Dec, '14

Since I've been away from the blog for the past several months, I have a ton of books I've read for the book of the week challenge, that I've not posted about. To simplify matters, I'm just going to list the books that I've read over the last few months here.

The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer: Artemis Fowl, Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code, Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception, Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony, Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox, and Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex. I really loved this series! Also, I hadn't realized until just now as I was double-checking the titles to type them up, but there's an eighth book, Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian, which came out in 2012. Looks like I've got another one to read during my Christmas vacation!

I also read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, one of my all time favorites from sixth grade reading class.

My mom has a book series about Cheney Duvall, M.D., with the setting in the U.S. in the years immediately following the American Civil War. The authors are Lynn and Gilbert Morris, and I'm a big fan of them, as well! That was an eight book series, which I am following up with a three book series about Cheney and her husband. The first series was about Cheney as a single woman. So I'm halfway through the second book now!

I also read the third book from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, Voyager. I read the first two of the series over the summer, and I must be honest, I am not such a fan of the series. I don't care much for the style or some of the frequent themes within the books.

Last, but not least, I really enjoyed an Agatha Christie novel, Ordeal by Innocence last week. Agatha Christie is such fun! I have a good friend from early in college that had an Agatha Christie obsession, and he always insisted that I list all of the characters in the story and rank them in order of who I thought was the guilty party, on down to the least likely to be the murderer. Oh my gosh, it drove me crazy!! I did that a little bit with Ordeal by Innocence, though, just to see how good my guess was as to who was the the murderer, and it was actually pretty fun!

Shirley Jean

It's been two months since I wrote a post on here, and while I wish I could say it is because I've been busy, that's not the reason.

Shirley Jean Beier

My grandmother died in September. She was an enormous part of my life growing up, and I am who I am today because of her.

Grandma showing the cousins some love.

                        

Grandma was possibly the strongest, definitely the most hardworking and generous woman I have ever known in my entire life.

1992

                           

While she had a very hard life with some extraordinarily painful experiences, she never focused on herself or the difficulties she endured; rather, when faced with hard situations, Grandma always looked beyond herself to do what she could to help others.  

Boone Grove Christian Church, 2011.

                                     

She was such an incredibly selfless person. 

Sue, Sherry, Shirley, and Mike, 2010.

                            

And vivacious! Holy cow, my grandma rocked!!

Grandma and Grandpa Max at a square dancing convention.

                                 

Off to the B.G.H.S. Project C.A.R.E. dance, 2000.

                                   

I am blessed in that I spent the first half of my childhood living 50 yards from her, and the second half of my youth was spent a 10 minute drive away. 

Grandma and Grandpa with Beck and Snider cousins.

                              

My mom and dad were young parents, so my father was working to establish himself in his practice, with my mom working in his office to help him get started while I was very young. 

Celebrating Grandpa Max's 90th, April, 2014.

                           

During this time, I spent Saturdays and most weekdays with my grandparents, raking leaves, coloring one of an endless sea of princess coloring book pictures, or eating fig newtons together while we watched Kristi Yamaguchi skate.

Christmas, 2011.

                           

I am so incredibly grateful that my grandmother spent the last four and a half months of her life living with me and with Magoo, and I am grateful that he was able to know her and love her, and that she was able to know him and love him. 

Meeting Magoo for the first time, 2013.

                                       

Friends!

                                        

Magoo is so young, but he still talks about her, goes in her room to climb on her bed, and gets excited when he sees pictures of her. 

Christmas, 2013.

                                        

I know his only memories of her will be the ones that he thinks he remembers because he has heard the stories so many times, and that is hard for me. 

April, 2014.

                                       

I wish he could have known her the way that I did, but he won't, so I will share her stories and love with him. 

                          

June, 2014.

                                       

He will always know how extraordinary she was and how blessed he is to have such an amazing, Christian woman as a part of his personal heritage.

       

Magoo's favorite past-time was piling his books in a slippery stack on Great-Grandma's lap!

                                    

Thank you for showing me how to see the world with a more gracious viewpoint, and for teaching me to be kind and honest, no matter the cost.

                               

                                 Really, is there a better Grandma anywhere?

                                                       

I love you, Grandma. Happy birthday.

 Shirley Jean
(11.29.27 - 9.20.14)

Popcorn Festival and other little specials!

The popcorn festival is actually old news, but it was fun and I haven't shared about it yet! 

Ahem. The Valparaiso Popcorn Festival (otherwise known as Uncle Fonzie's 28th birthday- Magoo and I are such a good nephew and sister, we called to say an extra special happy birthday) was the weekend after Labor Day, and my hometown always has a grand week to celebrate Orville Redenbacher.

We celebrate with style.

Check out this float.

 Seriously. Who else has an enormous cow with his own bag of popcorn? Obviously no one!! May I present to you the largest bovine of my childhood, the Kelsey's steakhouse cow!!

Aaaaaannnndd....

Can't forget the Shriners! Those red fezzed (fizzed? fi-ed?) daredevils with their little speedsters! A popcorn parade must.

Magoo and I didn't quite make it through the parade before it got to be a little taxing- I'd say we were one third to halfway through when we gave up and hoofed it back to the shuttle stop.

Do you see this kid??! I mean, seriously. Isn't he just the bees knees?? Sometimes he's so cute I think my brain might pop!

Here's another exciting bit of the popcorn fest- (this was the 45-minute-shrunken-to-the-attention-span-of-a-1.5-year-old-without-TOO-much-stimulation-cause-I-didn't-want-him-to-wig-out-on-anyone version) we rode on a big yellow school bus to get between our car and the fest! Magoo thought it was just the neatest thing. Check out the chops on that face!

We had a pretty good time on our little weekend jaunt- Magoo loved the parade and I had so much fun with him! We also were able to see great-grandparents, aunts, my uncle and cousins, and some friends. Oh, and we checked out a Harley Davidson motorcycle showroom- cool bikes, dude! Magoo was pretty fascinated by them. :)

Oh, you know, just hanging out at Harley Davidson, taking a break from checking out all of the dazzling motorcycles!

Books o' the Week!

I've got a couple books to list here! The week of August 20th, I read A Woman's Passionate Pursuit of God, by Karol Ladd. The following week (the holiday week), I read Aria of the Sea. This week, I am reading One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. I started reading it last year, but never finished it. No time like the present!

I've got a few more things to add, but I'm going to make a separate post shortly!

Book of the week: Four

Last week's book o' the week was Four,  by Veronica Roth. Final book from the Divergent series, and I thought it was okay. Definitely a chick book!

Lefties Unite!!

Happy Left-hander's Day!! 🙌 🙌 🙌

Book of the week: Freefall

This one was a re-read. It's an oldie!

Starry Night Wannabe

Hey there!

Magoo was gone for a couple hours this afternoon, and I thought to myself, "Self, now is a great time to do something with that gigantic canvas down in the basement that no one has touched since it was put down there six years ago!" So do something, I did!

Van Gogh is one of my all-time favorite artists- I love, love, love his style- so I decided to try to replicate Starry Night for the living room wall in my brand new apartment. (Yes, I've got the keys- WAHOO!!!) 

So, like I was saying, Van Gogh. An hour and a half later, this is what I had.

I need/want to add more white and yellow to the sky, and I plan to add the little silhouetted town, as well, but this is it for now. It's currently a gigantic gooey mess laying up high in my bedroom so no toddlers or puppies or mamas accidentally or deliberately get their fingers or tails into the paint.

It was a lot of fun, but I'm kind of sad that the canvas isn't empty anymore! I want to paint it again! ;)

I'll post a picture when I get the canvas hung where it belongs! It might be a few weeks before everything is totally dry though. Anyway, there's my fun activity for the day!

Book of the week: Catching Moondrops

This week's book! 

I'm going to start labeling the book of the week posts really obviously, starting now. That way it'll be easier for me to check to be sure I'm keeping on track!

Book of the Week: Fifties Night

This week's book of the week is a cheesy teen romance novel set in the 50s at a Laguna Beach jukebox diner. It is SO cheesy and cute! And what better way is there to read it than to the tune of The Platters' pandora station? :)

Good night!

Headstands!

If you read through my life list (I'll put the link to that post here after I learn how), you'll note that one of my big goals is to find a goal that I can accomplish along with one of my friends, each year. Their choice what the goal is, important thing is that we both accomplish it!

First one: my dear friend, Bartholomew Jones, and I are going to learn how to do headstands!! Holy moly, am I excited!!!

We just agreed on it this week, and at the beginning of the week I started practicing. I actually managed to get my feet off the ground several times, but not up straight, of course. I just sort of froze all froggily, like an upside down toad on a log. I need better belly muscles to be able to straighten up without losing my balance.

Now though, at the end of the week, my arms are super sore, and I can't even do my little froggy pose! Yikes! We'll see how I do next week!

On a totally unrelated note, I ordered a teeth whitening kit from groupon for $9.99 tonight! I love scrolling through groupon, but this is the first time I've ever purchased anything through it, although I've been super tempted by a few things I know Magoo would love! This is the first "me" purchase I've made in a seriously long time, talking over a year here, unless you count the occasional muffin or smoothie from Bible study, and I am super excited to try it out! I've always wanted to try whitening my teeth, just to see what the outcome is, although those kits are outrageously expensive and the DIY methods you see floating around the internet are always overrun with dental hygienists commenting on how horrible it is for your teeth. I'll give this a try just once and we'll see what difference there is, if there is any difference! 

Off to try one more headstand before bed!

At the beach!

Magoo and I went on vacation this weekend!! Bet you can't guess where.

The beach!!!

We had so much fun! Squawking at sea gulls, dumping sand on our laps, sticking toes and fingers in the lake, and eating cantaloupe. 

My sandy child!

It was a bit cloudy for the first half of the day, which was really nice because that meant it was nice and cool for the majority of the day. The sun came out for the last hour or two, and then we packed up and went back to town for a little frozen fruit kabob and a stroll through some downtown streets for an art show before heading home. 

We had so much fun playing and relaxing together!

I love my tiny gentleman! :)

Keep moving forward :)

I heard somewhere recently about a cartoonist who puts sticky notes of motivational sayings in random places on trains. "I am a superfly success machine," and the like.

Here's mine for the day!

Camp-a-lamping and VBS!

Magoo is officially a tent camper!

Just look at that ham and cheese!

He was so excited to sleep in a tent (which BY THE WAY, that "10 minute set up time" is a total farce!! Sheesh!!) with mama that he didn't actually get to sleep at bedtime..he was squawking and babbling well past the neighboring folks' bedtimes, but I didn't get any dirty looks the next morning, so he must not have bothered them. Whew! ;)

Speaking of the next morning...

So excited to wake up inside a tent! Oh, so much more fun than waking up behind crib railings! 

Now that he is a camper, N is basically a mountain man. Photo evidence:

Note the breakfast watermelon sans bib, sans high chair, sans tray and plate and fork. When a man has to eat his breakfast with his bare hands, sitting on the ground, breakfast dripping on his jammies, he's really roughing it! Level achieved: Expert mountaineer.

It was so much fun that I'm thinking of going again this week, just for one night in the middle of the week! Magoo's heart might pop though- that's a LOT of excitement that he may not be emotionally prepared for! ;)

Oh, we also celebrated the Polish Festival in a nearby town this week, with a fireworks display with friends and pierogies (just for me- N just had his little lunchbox food- watermelon and chicken and the like) and little booths and activities. It was a good couple days!

Hanging with one of his plethora of special lady friends..

So tonight was the kick-off for my church's VBS program, and I'm in charge of games again, along with my pal, K. Last year it was her sister and I, this year her sister is a brand new mama again (congrats), so K took over with me! We make a pretty good team!

So yeah, we have a weird animal theme this year, which means goofy animal games. Shrinking islands, and zoo crew tag.. Tonight was a lot of fun! Some of these kids are HI-larious! It is going to be a really long/busy next few days/weeks, but they will be great! 

Last week's book o' the week: Calm, Cool, and Adjusted, by Kristen Billerbeck, I believe! Chiropractic romance, oh, la!

Cardboard and duct tape and bubble wrap, oh my!

I really am almost officially done packing! *insert enormous sigh of relief* Wahoo!!! For the last week, I've only had a few things to pack and they've been buried behind remodeling materials. Tonight, I bit the bullet and moved everything out of the way so I could get to the last of my household items, which, thanks to some wobbly cardboard boxes and a lot of tape and bubble wrap, are now safe and secure in a giant stack of crap in the basement. For the next two and a half weeks, that is. And then they'll be in our new apartment!!! Oh em gee, I still can't be calm about this! So excited!

Anywho, so about my life list- I've scrapped the book list just for now. I've decided that I'd prefer to just read fun books of my choosing, at least for the rest of the summer. 

This week's book was called The American Heiress. I swiped it from my mom after she finished reading it, and I didn't put a whole lot of thought or research into it beforehand. It reminded me slightly of Downton Abbey (just noticed the cover actually mentions Downton Abbey), but only in that there were multiple protagonists, all in different stations, so things were written from the perspective of the gentry and the servants, alike. It made for a pretty fun read!

I've taken a (hopefully short) hiatus from running, what with all of the packing and family visiting, and I've also been feeling a bit crummy, probably from stress. Now that I'm done packing and all of my wonderful family has returned to their respective homes, hopefully I'll also be able to calm myself a bit and get rid of that stress. And then it's off to the races for me! Or, back to the turtle-speed laps around my country block. ;)

In the summertime

Sparta! Sparta! Sparta! Is that what they shout at MSU? Probably. But, who cares?! My Lansing move-in date is looming just a few short weeks away..EeEk!! I'm so excited and so nervous! I can't wait to start grad school, but oh em gee, I am scared to death that I'll fail out if I try to make it through as a single mom. I mean, I know I won't, but I'm the sort that is paranoid about failures, etc. So nerve-wracking!!

Anyway, I've still got a few weeks til the move and a few weeks more til classes start up. Best to focus on the present!

I've still got all of July to get through before even thinking about any of this. That means work, VBS, fairs and festivals, some major bike riding, family get togethers, wolf park, lots of fun stuff on the horizon! If there is one thing that makes me happy, it is the freedom to spend time with the people I love, STRESS-FREE. Oh, how I love it! 

I've already been at it (with a vengeance, I might add), with the visit of three different siblings and sister-out-law (that makes her seem criminal, but really I just mean my brother's really awesome, long-term girlfriend) so far this month, plus my grandma is back with us for another while.

Los bros

You can totally tell they're cool, right? Unkie Fonz and Unkie Slim enjoying the fireworks for the Fourth. My workplace put on a fireworks show this year and we all went out to see it. It would have been cool to watch them from on the lake, but there were too many trees blocking the view from the dock so we took a quick jaunt around the lake to get a better view.

There was a seriously incredible fireworks display on the fifth that I only happened across by accident this year. I ran a quick errand and was driving back home when they started going off on the other side of this giant field, so I just parked the car and sat there til they were over. They were breathtaking!

Anywho, so my brothers and a sister and an almost-in-law came this month so far, like I was saying. My brothers were just here to hang out, but my sister was here to get some serious home-organizing done, and that happened this past week. The entire house (including much of the basement) was sorted and a massive load went to goodwill, and even more yet was pitched. The best news though, is that I've got almost all of our stuff packed and stacked in one of the basement bedrooms! Yay!

The Sister and The Grandma. Aren't they so cute?

So thanks in part to me for being a box taping machine and in part to Auntie B being an all around BOSS, packing is almost done. I only need one more piece of furniture and kinda want a second piece, but it's not really necessary, so... I'm set! 

Now back to relishing my homework-free time with my magoo! We've been enjoying the summer weather with lots of outdoor activities and some air conditioning, too. ;)

Bubbles! Fun, albeit a bit confusing. Note the eyes squinched shut- you never know when a bubble might jump you!

We also did some gardening with Ah-na, as you can see:

Oh, and BIG NEWS!!! Magoo hit his half birthday this week, so we went out to celebrate!

Breakfast date at a cute little cafe. 

Magoo was flirting up a storm with the waitresses and the granny next to us who was out to breakfast with her grandsons. Fist bumps, all around!