Giving up Facebook for Lent was the best thing I could have given up. First, it was a sacrifice for me as it was my number one place to go when I had a free minute (or even less than that). Second, it was something I knew I could cut out without cheating at all, something I've never done for an entire 40 days. Even when I added drinking water last year, there were days I didn't drink my allotted amount. This year, I have stuck with it completely.
It hasn't even been difficult. At first, it was hard, but I just removed the app from my phone and the link on my bookmark bar on my computer. It's not even in my computer history anymore. I expected it to be harder for me, but I easily adapted to life without Facebook... Until today. Today, I am hungry for Facebook. I figured it out and I have just under 76 hours until I can get back on! Now that it's so close, I am eager to catch up with people that I only talk to through Facebook. I want to see pictures, find out who has had babies (thank you so much to those who shared the births on blogs outside of Facebook), see if people had exciting news to share. I'm so impatient now. It's kind of like Christmas for me!
As seen on this blog, my extra time has been put into reading thanks to my Nook Color. I take every spare moment to enjoy a few pages in a book. While Brady watches sports or whatever on TV, I sit by and read instead of playing on Facebook. My reading speed seems to have increased even more thanks to this.
I know it was good for me to give up Facebook. However, I have a feeling if I wake up in the middle of the night Saturday night / Sunday morning, I will be getting on Facebook on my phone if it's after midnight! :)
Yesterday morning I got a call from the daycare saying that Kailee had thrown up. Thankfully, Gavin already had plans to spend the night with YaYa and Poppa so Mommy could focus her attention on sicky-poo.
While Kailee did not throw up once I picked her up, it was apparent that she was not feeling that great. After a 3.5 hour nap, she still wasn't interested in eating, and preferred to cuddle with Mommy and watch 5 episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba. We had a lot of Mommy-Kailee bonding time and here are some pictures that document our 2-days.
Before beginning Dead and Gone, I tried to find synopses of all the prior novels to refresh my memory of what had happened. I still don't remember a lot but after reading this book, I understand why. So much stuff happens in one book, let alone in the 8 I had already read. I kept a running synopsis on Goodreads as I read this one for future reference. Basically, A LOT happened.
This novel focuses mostly on the shapeshifters revealing themselves to the world (about a year after the vampires had done so) and the war going on in the fairy world. There's a lot of action, some romance, and a lot of death. I am not a fan of all the death but it's a part of the novels. I think I'm becoming desensitized to it in these supernatural books.
Regardless, I enjoyed the book because I love the series. I am curious to read #10 and then 11 when it comes out soon. I'm invested enough in the series to keep with it, though I definitely will keep running synopses from now on!
As I listened to Mommywood on a road trip last summer, I discovered the awesomeness that is listening to Tori Spelling's Audiobooks. Uncharted TerriTORI might be the most revealing of all of her books. Tori shares a lot of herself in this autobiography. She is absolutely adorable, a little kooky, and a normal person. She's a workaholic and a perfectionist, constantly self-critiquing; someone with whom so many of us women can identify. I enjoy hearing all of her stories and I appreciate how open she is about all of her idiosyncrasies.
Listening to Tori's audiobooks makes traffic bearable and road trips fly by. I highly recommend anything she's written. I may even go back and listen to sTORI Telling even though I read the book a couple of years ago. There's just something endearing about hearing Tori read her books. LOVE her!
And in case you were wondering, yes I do watch all of her reality shows! :)
Diary of a Mad Fat Girl is a quick, fun, feisty read (and cheap, only $.99 ebook). I love the filter-less Ace who says exactly what's on her mind. This novel reminds me of the antics of Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich's series except, Ace is extremely confrontational and fairly fearless. The supporting characters are hilarious just like those in Evanovich's books.
If you are looking for a fun, fast, and lighthearted read, this is a good selection.
I don't know the date the colic began, but I do know our nights of endless screaming (5:30pm - 12:30am) ceased on October 15, 2009 (it was a Thursday and Roni, John and Jeremiah arrived in Dallas the next day for AC homecoming). Since that date, Kailee has more than made up for the hard times. She was a cheerful, easy baby until she became mobile. Then she became TROUBLE. We've always had to watch her more closely than Gavin; she's sneaky and quiet. She's been a diva since birth but always knew that Mommy would not give in. We've survived cry-it-out successfully on multiple occasions (Daddy had trouble sticking to it so Mommy had to retrain her a few times). Just when things were beginning to calm down, The Terrible Twos struck.
They began on April 14, 2011 (yes, yesterday) with a long, drawn-out fit over not being allowed to take her toy stroller in the car. She arched her back, kicked her legs, threw her head back and refused to cooperate as I forced her into her carseat. She then got so worked up as I was driving that I thought she was going to make herself sick. I pulled over to attempt to calm her down. It didn't work that well. By the time we arrived at school, she was composed but not warm towards Mommy. She hardly looked at me when I left her classroom.
When I picked her up from school, she was happy to see me and eagerly went to Gavin's room. That's where the trouble began: I wouldn't let her eat crayons. Mean Mommy! Kailee went from happy-go-lucky to enraged spaghetti-arms-and-legs baby in a matter of seconds. I carried her out screaming, flailing, bucking her back.... It was not pretty. This episode ended with me running back into the school to get a spare paci that I did not hesitate to pop in her mouth. I openly admit that I was weak and gave in! We didn't even take away her paci all evening.
Even with an all access pass to the paci, by the time Kailee went to bed last night, she had thrown 2 more similar tantrums. Here is tantrum number 3, recorded in the car on the way home from helping Kalea and Matt move a piece of furniture (Well, Brady helped anyway).
This morning she had another meltdown over the stroller and then again when it was time to leave Gavin's room after school (nope, I did not let her eat the crayons once again). It doesn't make a parent look great when s/he has to carry out a fit-throwing toddler 2 days in a row. Thankfully, we avoided any more tantrum fun after getting home though Kailee considered having one over a water hose connector when we were leaving my brothers' house (By the way, it was great to see Lee, Alex, Holly, Joey and Nick)!
I don't know if we are quite ready for another round of the Terrible Twos. With Gavin it was more like the Terrible Threes so we've only barely had a break. It seems like he just stopped throwing fits when he didn't get his way.
Speaking of Gavin... One of his teachers let me know that he had not been listening/following directions very well. He also had begun head-butting again (an issue we dealt with last year). We had been struggling with his lack of interest in following directions at home before this, but after diligent effort, things had been improving for us before his teacher notified me. Gavin is on green most days (they have a traffic light system for behavior) so I assumed all was great at school. Whenever he was on yellow or red, there usually was an incident.
I felt like our efforts at home were not successfully transferring to school so we sat down with Gavin and really talked about what was going on. Gavin is a reasonable 4-year-old, but he is 4 and doesn't always think things through. Whenever he wasn't listening/following directions, I pointed it out to him and reminded him what he needed to do. He did have to serve some time-out sentences here and there, but he understood our goal and began to try harder. Everyday this week, when I picked him up, he greeted me with "I didn't head butt today, Mommy!" and when I asked if he'd listened and followed directions and he said, "Yes!" Neither teacher disagreed with him so I'm taking it as the truth. I am VERY proud of my little man.
While he was making efforts to do the right thing, I made efforts to praise him more. Gavin thrives on praise, something I don't think I'm particularly good at giving. I have made sure to acknowledge all the good things he's doing, and I can tell it makes him proud of himself. I feel bad that I haven't been better about pointing out the good things he does. I notice everything, I just need to make sure he knows I notice.
I am thankful things are improving with Gavin, now if we can just get our sweet Kailee back...
I joined an online book club and our first meeting will be to discuss The Brink by Mark Fadden. The author will be at the meeting so I will be sure to write a follow-up to this post about that experience.
The Brink is an action-packed conspiracy-theory novel that is engaging from the beginning. The first page opens with drama that continues throughout the entire book. I could not put it down, yet it seemed to never end. I don't know how Fadden was able to come up with such a crazy, intricately webbed story. Just when I thought I had something figured out, something else would happen to change everything. Thus, Fadden makes the reader feel the frustrations and distrust that the main characters feel. By the end of the book, I didn't trust anything that happened until I had finished reading. Only then could I be sure what was genuine and what was a ruse.
The Brink reminds me of a cross between a Nelson DeMille novel and the movie National Treasure. Unfortunately, it is less sophisticated than what DeMille produces and more depressing than National Treasure. The first 30 pages introduced 27 new characters--that I had to write down to keep track of. I have enough trouble keeping track of main players, let alone a gazillion other people who may or may not turn out to be important. There is no doubt in my mind that Fadden wrote this novel in hopes of having it adapted into a movie. There's not a lot of internal dialogue (which as seen by the Twilight movies does not translate well on film) and the book is maintained through action and dialogue. I could easily envision this story on the big screen.
What I liked the most were the short chapters and fast-paced action. I did want to put it down, but with the many interruptions that come with being a mom, I appreciated the organization of the book. It's definitely a quick read.
NOTE: I had the honor of attending a book club meeting with the author. Fadden is a pretty cool guy, very energetic, enthusiastic, witty, smart, down-to-earth. It seems the many characters and the short chapters are the two things he hears about the most. I agree completely! Here's a picture of me with Fadden.
