L-J's Review of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I began The Hunger Games a couple of months ago while on my elliptical.  I hate being on the elliptical for long periods of time as I get bored but for the first time, I didn't mind it while reading this intriguing book.  I thus imposed the rule that I could only read The Hunger Games while on the elliptical.  I stuck to that rule until tonight.  I finally got sick of waiting to know what happened and finished it!

When I first heard about this trilogy from my friend Rebecca, I wasn't sure it was something I could get into--which is exactly how I felt about Twilight when my friend Luisa first introduced me to it.  I was wrong about Twilight and again about Hunger Games.  The basic story is of adolescents (a new bunch selected in a raffle each year) from 12 districts who must compete in the Hunger Games..  They are thrown in a controlled, video-taped wilderness (in a futuristic time), expected to kill each other off until one is left the victor.  This year, the heroine's younger sister is picked for her district, so our heroine, Katniss, selflessly offers to go in her place.

I had to exert amazing self-control to not finish this book the day I started it, but I needed something to motivate me to use my elliptical.  To give an idea of how gripping this book is, I could be on the elliptical for 20 minutes and feel like I had only been on for 5.  I wanted to stay on to keep reading.  I am actually quite impressed with myself that I did not finish it in 24 hours!

I don't want to give anything away so I won't say anything else but that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, I can't wait for the film, and I'm about to start the next book in the trilogy.

No worries over here...

While I still don't know (and probably won't ever know) who started the rumor about me being one of the ones laid off, I am happy to say that I still have a job for next year.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of those who do not.

Unless the state gives more funding, we will go through this all again next year.  Hopefully we won't have to!

So True, So False...

Rumors spread like wildfire... Some are true and some are false...  Here's today's dose of So True, So False:

"L-J was tearfully escorted from her classroom and told that she doesn't have a job next year during 5th period today."

SO FALSE!

I don't know who started this rumor but it's a complete fabrication.  I was first asked about this during passing period between 5th and 6th, then again during 7th, after school and once this evening.  I am thinking a student is the culprit but I'll probably never know for sure...

Praying for all the people who lost their job today, for those who lose it tomorrow, and that I don't lose mine tomorrow!

L-J's Review of Daniel's Gift by Barbara Freethy

I follow @NookBN on Twitter and the other day it mentioned that Daniel's Gift by Barbara Freethy was only $2.99.  Of course I jumped at the chance for cheap chick-lit.  Of course, cheap in a Nook Book often means typos which did get a bit annoying as I read.

This book is the story of a tragedy that reunites former lovers.  It is akin to a Nicholas Sparks novel though not as sophisticated or well-written.  I cried my way through the entire book and could not help but put myself in the heroine's shoes.  My favorite aspect of the book was that it definitely had a Christian perspective.  It showed how things happen for a reason and that God is often trying to teach us or show us something.

It's not my favorite book but I enjoyed it enough to zip through it.  I was intrigued from the beginning and had to know what was going to happen.  If you are looking for a good sappy novel with people learning life lessons, then you will enjoy Daniel's Gift.

Friday Night Fun!

Just your typical Friday night when you have kids:

More Park Fun!

Last night (after Kailee spent all day with Daddy), the whole fam headed to the park again.  Upon looking at a previous post, I discovered that Daddy dressed Kailee in the same top she wore when we went to the park last weekend.  Oops!

Here are some pics from last night's excursion:

Sicky-Poo

So Kailee has been Miss Fussy-Foo since this weekend.  She's been super-clingy to Daddy, which of course made me insanely jealous.  At first, it hurt but then I realized that I should take it as a compliment.  She knows that Mommy is not going anywhere.  Mommy always comes back.  She isn't as secure with Daddy because Brady has drill one weekend a month and sometimes gets sent away for a week or two.  This realization made me feel better for me but worse for Brady.  Hopefully he is at least feeling very special that Mommy's girl is now becoming Daddy's girl.

Back to the fussiness though... Every morning, Kailee has been super-clingy to me (since Brady goes to work before she gets up) and has not been her normal cheerful self.  Today, I got a call as I was driving to pick up the kids after school.  It turns out, Kailee had a gunky eye and nasty running nose in addition to a 100.5 fever.  This sealed her fate of not being able to attend school tomorrow.  Thanks to our doctor's extended hours, I was able to take her in this evening and discovered that not only does Kailee have two ear infections, but she also has pink eye.  Fortunately, the doctor prescribed enough Vigamox for the entire household in case we all catch it.

I felt HORRIBLE that it never occurred to me that she might have an ear infection.  She really has been Miss Fussy-Foo, and I had no idea.  The doctor said one ear looked worse than the poster they have in each exam room of an infection.  Basically the ear infection's severity caused the gunkiness and pink eye.  It is very common for pink eye to begin as an ear infection in small children, something of which I was not aware.  Hopefully Baby-Face will feel better soon!

Just some videos from our last day of Spring Break 2011

First let's start with this birthday video Gavin and Kailee made for Emmie (AKA, our cousin Morgan, AKA, Gavin's Godmother).  Happy Birthday, Morgan!  We love you!

Kailee the daredevil scared the bejeezes out of my when she went down this steep, curved slide head first on our church playground.  It scared her bad but that did not deter the little turkey from going down the other tall, curved slide head first 2 minutes later.  Side note: this is at Saint Michael's and All Angels in Dallas.  Does anyone else remember the AMAZING playground that was there when I was a kid????  It really was THE BEST!

I just realized this is actually from Saturday.  Gavin and Kailee love the Justin Bieber Song "Baby."  Kailee often sings along to the "oh"s but of course not as much when I'm taping her.  Gavin also loves to sing along to the song.

Tonight, Kailee figured out that Major makes a great pony.  He is such a good sport!

Let me just say that I am not ready to go back to work tomorrow.  I had so much fun in Austin earlier in the week and then home with my wonderful babies the rest of the week.  It makes me so excited for summer vacation when I'm sure I will return to Austin--hopefully to Lost Pines too--and will have so much time with the kids that I'll be begging for school to start and for daycare to be open!

L-J's Review of Sleeping Arrangements by Madeleine Wickham

After finishing Twenties Girl the other day, I was still in the mood for some good chick-lit.  Having read all of Sophie Kinsella's novels, I decided to check out her novels under her real name, Madeleine Wickham.  I went for the cheapest of the Nook books, Sleeping Arrangements.

This novel lacks the sophistication and the light-heartedness of her later novels as Kinsella.  The story is of two families that are vacationing at a mutual friend's Spanish villa.  He "accidentally" double-booked and as it turns out, two of them had a torrid romance 15 years ago--unbeknownst to their spouses/partners.  The former-lovers think it's a big joke on their friend's part and it is; though they are wrong in why he threw them together.  If you want to understand what I mean, you'll just have to read the book :).

As per usual, I could not put the book down as Wickham/Kinsella is a talented storyteller; however, the content throughout was heavier than what I was looking for.  And to top it off, the heroine did not have the witty inner-dialogue that any Kinsella fan craves.  That being said, I would not say it was overall a bad book; it just wasn't want I was hoping for, looking for and/or expecting.

Fun Afternoon at the Park

Needless to say, we are taking full advantage of this amazing weather!  Here are some pictures and videos from our park outing yesterday:

Headed out on the bikes!

My favorite picture of the day

Having fun!

Stuck!

Our little daredevil!

Mommy!  I don't want to stop for pictures!

This is the smallest slide she went down!

Here are some videos from our day:

Your 19 kids and counting

So you are actually supposed to start with your first child's name and then come up with 18 more kids based on what the Duggars had all with the same first initial.  Well I can't do that but I will do all the names I'd use without stealing from family: (we LOVE the names Chase and Ella but there are 2 young Chases and a young Ella so that would not work)

DS: Darling Son, DD: Darling Daughter
D??: Gavin Seth
DD/DS: Kailee Jane / Nolan Scott (the boy name we'd agreed on)
DD: Emerson
DD: Emory
DD: Savannah
DS: Noah
DS: Preston
DD: Kennedy
DS/DS: Mason / Emmitt
DS: Jackson
DS: Jacob
DS: Benjamin
DS: Cannon (sorry, Les, stealing your name if I have this many kids)
DD: Madison
DD: Kendall
DD: Eden
DD: Isabella

Sharing with a 4 year old and a 1 year old

This is what happens when 2 kids want to play with the same toy while trying to be nice to each other:

Gavin decides to read a book in Kailee's toy pack-n-play (toy crib)

Kailee decides she also wants in the toy pack-n-play

Kailee decides this is not the ideal situation and wants Gavin out

She can't resist the opportunity to say "teese" for the camera

"Out!  Out!  Mama Up!"

L-J's Review of Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

I started this book a few weeks ago and hadn't really gotten into it.  The premise was not something I was sure I could ever get into--the main character Lara is haunted by her Great Aunt that she hardly knew.  The only reason I decided not to give up on it was that I have thoroughly enjoyed EVERY Sophie Kinsella novel I've read.  I love her style, I always laugh out loud, and frankly she always writes the best male leads that seduce the reader right along with the heroine.  These men always find a way to appreciate the crazy that is the mental make-up of the main girl.  It's a modern fairy tale.

Usually Sophie Kinsella's character's have fun, engaging, laughable inner-dialogs.  This book was no exception; however there was also a lot of dialog between Lara and her Aunt Sadie that normally would have been inner-dialog.  I LOVED it.  It was a fun, flirty read though I definitely teared up a few times.

If you loved the Shopaholic series, Remember Me, Can you Keep a Secret?, and/or The Undomestic Goddess, you too will love Twenties Girl.

My favorite song about having kids

This song, Let them be Little by Billy Dean always made me tear up when I was pregnant with Kailee.  I had such a hard time believing I could possibly love another child as much as I loved Gavin.  I made him this video to commemorate his 3rd year of life.  The lyrics follow the video.

I can remember when you fit in the palm of my hand.

You felt so good in it; no bigger than a minute.

How it amazes me you're changin' with every blink.

Faster than a flower blooms, they grow up all too soon. 

So let them be little,

'Cause they're only that way for a while.

Give 'em hope, give them praise,

Give them love every day.

Let 'em cry, let 'em giggle,

Let 'em sleep in the middle,

Oh, but let them be little. 

I never felt so much in one little tender touch.

I live for those kisses, your prayers an' your wishes.

An' now you're teachin' me how only a child can see.

Tonight, while we're on our knees, all I ask is: 

Please, let them be little,

'Cause they're only that way for a while.

Give them hope, give them praise,

Give them love every day.

Let 'em cry, let 'em giggle,

Let 'em sleep in the middle,

Oh, but let them be little. 

The so innocent, precious soul:

You turn around, an' it's time to let them go. 

So let them be little,

'Cause they're only that way for a while.

Give them hope, give 'em praise,

Give them love every day.

Let 'em cry, let 'em giggle,

Let them sleep in the middle,

Oh, but let them be little. 

Let them be little.

Tarzan Barber

Kailee "Tarzan" Barber:

Wedding Dress Shopping in Austin!

I arrived in Austin around 1pm on Monday and was excited to head out dress shopping with my wonderful Aunt Laura, beautiful cousin Leslie, and her awesome BFF (since they were 2) Amy.

Dress Shopping Day 2

The first place we visited shall remain nameless--not only because it was not impressive, but mostly because I have no idea what its name is!  We walked around for maybe 10 minutes looking at the options by size before deciding to leave.  I'm pretty sure Leslie walked out completely overwhelmed and unsure what she really wanted.

The next place also shall remain nameless--only because I didn't catch the name--but was a nicer setup.  It reminded me of David's Bridal, to give a mental picture.  At first we were all a bit overwhelmed but soon Leslie found dresses she wanted to try on.  All in all it was a fun experience--especially when Leslie walked out with a belt on her head--but nothing really felt like the one.  She looked absolutely beautiful in everything but none of us felt any of them were it.

Fast-forward to Tuesday.  We decided to bring along champagne to our first appointment at Signature Bridal in Beecave, TX.  (If you go there, ask for Rachel.  She is AMAZINGLY AWESOME and sweet.  So sweet, we wanted to take her with us to the next appointment at a different place).  When Leslie came out in the first dress, we all teared up.  It was beautiful and we all thought it might be the one.  Then she came out in the second and explained that this one had a cut she preferred over the previous dress.  She tried on a few more--we toasted with our champagne--and finally she found one that she thought might be it.  That dress was gorgeous and she kept in on for a bit before deciding to try on the very last dress she'd picked. 

Leslie, the Bride :)

This last dress, interestingly enough, was one that Amy and I had found while perusing the options and requested that Leslie try it on too.  In fact, it was the first dress we suggested.  When Leslie came out, everything was different.  She looked absolutely delighted, happy, perfect.  We could all tell that this dress was THE ONE!  I won't give anything away but this dress combined the various elements she loved in each of the other dresses that were maybes.  I took a gazillion pictures and in each, it's obvious that this dress was meant for Leslie.  It's so her that my mom even said it's what she envisioned.  It's romantic and fun.  Leslie wore it for a looooooong time before agreeing to take it off.  She had to take it off to make it to our next appointment.

We made it to Blush in time for her appointment (by the way, they do NOT allow you to bring champagne there) and had a lot of fun watching her try on a variety of different styles.  She even tried on one with a fun skirt to humor me :).  I apparently love fun, ruffly, poofy skirts.  There was one point, where she started to second-guess the original dress.  We busted out our phones to show her pictures of the dress from earlier, and her face immediately lit up.  It was so cool!  Nothing can compare to that perfect dress.

It was such an honor to help Leslie pick out her dress and to be able to get a preview of how perfect she's going to look on her wedding day.  I am so honored to be her matron-of-honor. :)  I love you, Les!

Kailee does Animal Sounds

Love this kid:

Saturday Night Videos of Kailee

Here's what life is like with Kailee.  My favorite part of the video is when Kailee realizes she has an audience.  She immediately starts playing up to the camera.  This video depicts an event that happens at least once a day during the week and several times a day on the weekend:

And here's what she does when she wants down!

The trouble with no Facebook...

I feel sooooo out of the loop!  I am used to knowing random stuff going on with random people.  I do not know how to set up my news feed where I only get certain people's updates so I get a random selection.  It's so entertaining and fun!  I also feel bad that I'm not wishing happy birthday to anyone unless I have them on my own personal calendar.  So if I miss you, Happy Birthday!

It's been 3 full days without Facebook and I am doing pretty good.  The only times I think of it are when I am bored or have a minute to spare.  Then I'd normally open the app and see what's up.  I also love to post pics of my beautiful children but I guess I'll just have to do that here for awhile.  (Enjoy the 2 pics from this week included in this post)!

I do want to remind everyone--as I have had a few people tell me they know I've cheated because I shared the link to my blog on FB--that on my blogs, I have a FB share button.  I click it and it sends my post to FB.  It gives me the option to add a comment (which I usually do) but I have not gone ANYWHERE NEAR FACEBOOK since Wednesday morning.  So do not think I'm on FB if you are reading this from FB.

Several years ago, I was trying to do something and a lot of people said comments along the lines of, "You'll never make it," "You can't do that!," and "We'll see how long you last."  I was telling a friend about it and she said, "That makes me sad that the people you care about and are surrounded by aren't being more supportive of your goal."

In that moment, a light bulb went off.  It never occurred to me to expect anything else.  I mean, I too have made comments like that when I did not think friends/family could pull off something.  I realized how completely awful it is to say things like that.  Why would I not want to support my friends/family to do something that was important to them?  It changed my perspective and made me commit to being the one that encourages them to succeed rather than cause them to doubt their capabilities.

Now with this whole FB thing, I know that no one is intentionally trying to discourage me, they just don't think I can do it because I am openly obsessed with FB.  I am on there ALL THE TIME.  I get it.  But the thing is, if you know me at all, if I commit to something, I do it.  If I truly and 100% commit to something, it will happen.  That is something that my dear friend Shannon often reminds me of.  I often throw around ideas and say I'm not sure if it will happen, but she constantly reminds me that I usually accomplish what I say I am going to do.  Thank you, Shannon! :)

Now I don't want ANYONE to feel bad if they made a discouraging comment to me.  I know it's hard to fathom that I will pull this off.  But, I will.  I knew in my heart that this was the biggest sacrifice I could realistically make.  It was either this or caffeine and let's face it, if I gave up caffeine, no one would want to be around me including myself. :)

So good luck to anyone else giving up something so big or adding something that's hard for you (I added drinking 60-100 ounces of water a day last year and I still do it daily).  You CAN do it!  We CAN do it!

Notable things from this week that I would have posted as statuses but could not:

-Find me on Twitter @LJ_Barber

-I got rear-ended while running late to professional development and still made it on time! (No worries, no damage to my SUV)!

-Prayers for Japan and all the people affected by the earthquake/tsunami

-Yea for date night with Kalea and Matt!

-Of course when I can sleep in, my body says no thanks!

-Yea for catching up with Roni!

-PF Chang's leftovers make for a great brunch! :)

It's Official

I've given up Facebook for Lent.  I know it won't be easy--it's my quick boredom fix on my phone since it's accessible EVERYWHERE.  But that's the point.  What Christ did for us was not easy.  Giving up Facebook until the end of April doesn't even compare to Jesus' sacrifice.

In the past, I've always thought about giving up something or adding something to my life.  I'm pretty sure last year I added water to my daily life.  Yes, that might seem strange but to go from someone who had less than 1 glass of water a day to someone who has between 60-100 ounces a day is a huge change.  I did that and now it's part of my day-to-day.

I love Facebook.  I check it all the time.  It wasn't so bad before we had access at work but now it has become so easy to just click a tab and check what's up.  That is why I am giving it up.  I don't even plan to cheat--I grew up where we were allowed to cheat on Sundays.  I don't know if that was a family thing but I thought it was a church/denomination thing.  Now I'm not so sure.  Guess I should ask my mom, she would know!

Anyway, I will still update my blogs and I have a feeling I'll be on Twitter more than normal for awhile (@LJ_Barber), but goodbye Facebook.

Quick question: Is it cheating if I share this on FB?  There's a link on my blog to do that where I don't actually go anywhere near FB.  I don't think it's cheating but I don't want to be a hypocrite.  Let me know if you think it's cheating...

Just one of those weekends...

It all began Saturday morning.  We were going upstairs after breakfast and I managed to spill coffee all over Kailee's Uggs.  I put on Doodle Bops, secured the gate and ran downstairs to get the Ugg cleaner.  I couldn't find it and had just done so when Gavin came waltzing into the kitchen singing to himself.

Me: Oh my God, how did you get down here?!?!?!

Gavin: I opened the gate!

I ran as fast as I could to the stairs fearing in my heart that Kailee had fallen down to the bottom.  I have NEVER been more relieved in my life than when I saw her sitting and playing on the next to bottom step.  I almost cried in relief.  Needless to say, Mommy and Gavin had a looooong talk about how Mommy and Daddy are the only ones who can open the gate.  I explained that when he was Kailee's age, we were so careful with the gate but he didn't have an older sibling here that could open it.  He understood but I think I freaked him out with my reaction to the situation.

Then, when getting Gavin dressed, I tried to swat him with his pants on his bottom and he happened to turn and start to sit down so of course I got him right in the face.  To quote the not so nice mommy at one of Gavin's friend's parties, "Guess [I'm] not gonna win mommy of the year this year."  (At that occasion, Kailee had fallen and some rude mom said, "Guess you're not gonna win mommy of the year this year."  Seriously, who says that?)

Being a procrastinator, I had not yet bought gifts for the birthday parties we had yesterday afternoon.  So Gavin, Kailee and I headed to Walmart and easily picked out some presents.  When we got home, I got them out of the car and asked Gavin to shut the door.  While I was getting stuff out of the back of the car, I heard Kailee screaming.  I went around and Gavin was distracted by a music video on the iPod so he didn't see why the door wouldn't shut.  Kailee was in between the car and the door.  I rescued my poor baby who was traumatized for a few minutes.

After that, there were minor things that just made the day annoying.  Kailee only took a 1 hour nap meaning I couldn't get everything I needed to accomplish done.  Then Kailee spilt water and sat in it--which would not have been a big deal but she was down to her last outfit because I needed to do her laundry.  Then she emptied an entire wipes container around her room.  When I caught her, Gavin kept telling me, "Mommy, I watched her do it!"  He wanted to make sure I knew he didn't do it and didn't realize he should have told Mommy.

The rest of the day was great--the kids had fun at their parties, Kailee and I had fun times with some of my wonderful Sigmas (Sara, Melissa, Sharon, Elizabeth, Holly and Isabel).

This morning seemed to start out pretty good.  I forgot to set an alarm for church but I woke up at the time the alarm would have been set for.  I did feel bad waking up Kailee after only 8 hours of sleep--she normally gets at least 10.

Everyday while I get ready, I check in on Kailee every few minutes.  Today, one of the times I went in her room, I caught her eating gel from an ice-pack.  Talk about MAJOR freakout.  I debated for 2 seconds whether to call 911 or Poison Help (Thank you to the kids' school for providing me with the useful info last year).  I called Poison Help and as it turns out the worst that could happen is that she'd have an upset stomach.  WHAT A RELIEF!!!!

We went to church where the kids behaved as normal--Kailee of course tried to climb on the stage a few times and did not want to sit still.  She did make friends with the rector during Communion.

We came home and all seemed pretty good.  Kailee took a 3.5 hour nap, I was able to clean, do laundry & workout.  Kailee and I had fun dancing around to Lady GaGa and Britney Spears while folding laundry and putting it away.

I called Brady to see when to expect him home, finally catching him at 5 only to learn that he had no idea when he'd be leaving.  As this weekend was supposed to be one of his off weekends, it really sucks that drill fell on it.  After all the insanity of the last 36 hours, I was kinda ready for someone else to be around and give me a break.  Plus I need to grade very badly.  Looks like it might be a late night for me :(.

Since Brady wasn't going to be home for dinner, I decided to fix some frozen stir-fry for Kailee and me.  The instructions were very clear and easy yet I managed to mess it up.  I forgot to turn down the heat when the timer went off.  I stirred, but left it on high heat.  Thus, I made very burnt stir-fry.  Fortunately, some of it was salvageable but Kailee did not like it one bit.  So I had to make her a second dinner that she only kind of ate.

The reality is, sometimes stuff happens.  And despite how trying this weekend has been, I am soooo thankful that I have such minor things to complain about.  I will take this everyday if it means we don't have to suffer something worse.

The weekend is ending on a sweet note though...  Kailee called Brady "Daddy" instead of "Dada" and me "Mommy" instead of "Mama."  It's moments like this that make all the other moments mentioned in this post worth it!

"You're not in char." & "You're not the bost."

Yes, Gavin has found what might be the most ANNOYING way to talk back.  Here's an example of what we are dealing with at Casa Barber these days:

Me: Gavin, you need to go pick up your toy off the floor or else Sadie might chew it up.

Gavin: You're not in char of me.

Me: Don't talk to me like that unless you want a consequence*,

Gavin: I said "char" not "charge," I didn't say what you said not to!

He's only 4!  Isn't he too young to figure out something THIS annoying????

*A consequence in our house means a drop of mild salsa on his tongue.  It's not even spicy but he's scared of it!  Interestingly enough, he sometimes eats chips and salsa a Chuys and that's not mild.

Open House with my 2 kids

Before the official night began, Gavin, Kailee and I were eating dinner with my department.  I was talking about something to do with another teacher at another school named Jillian.  I couldn't remember her last name so Gavin leaned in and whispered, "Mommy, her last name is Michaels."  So cute, so helpful, but not the same Jillian! :)


Highlights:

~Kailee finding a peanut and almost eating it (she's allergic)

~Gavin being obsessed with a co-worker who he practically would not let out of his sight

~Kailee requesting that a young, male janitor pick her up and then blowing him kisses goodbye

~Gavin refusing to leave aforementioned colleague's classroom while she tried to talk to her students' parents

~Kailee requesting to be picked up by one of my student's dad

~Gavin farting something silent-but-deadly before slipping out of my classroom while a parent was trying to talk to me

~Kailee waving and saying "Hi!" to all the parents in the hallway

~Gavin taking my Peruvian flute/recorder/thingy into the aforementioned colleagues classroom and beginning to play it while she was talking to parents

Thankfully Brady arrived at that time and whisked the kids home.  As for my experience with the parents, I had 8 total.  8!  I have 158 students and only 8 came.  Oh well.  What can ya do?