New Moon

Last night I finished New Moon and while I liked it, there are a few things that I didn't like about it.

*Spoiler alert* Telling ya now, if you haven't read this book or the series and you want to w/o spoilers, stop reading now! I will be spoiling it - not much, I still recommend it, but you will know more about it going in than I did.

Almost everyone can relate to the pain you feel from lost loves, however, going on and on and on about that pain kinda sucks! It sucks for you having to relive it and it sucks for those hearing about it. When asked by a friend last night what was so great, I responded "I feel like a teenage girl again" and I did. I remember my first love, I feel in love as a teenage girl. And then I married him. But between falling in love and getting married, there were break-ups; break-ups that left me feeling like Bella - with a broken heart that ached and I thought I wouldn't live through the pain. It's something I don't really care to relive thank.you.very.much. and I kinda had to reading the book. And then there was a point where I just wanted to say com'on already, get them back together and get on with it. You could see it coming, eventually, but it took forever to get there. It also left me wondering if Adam will like the book. He hasn't started the series yet, but he still plans on it and I'm curious how he will feel about this book.

I was very happy with the friendship she was developing with Jacob and think he is being too darn stubborn about the situation. Everyone can be friends dangit! Even after she gets what she wants most from Edward! But I might just be hopelessly flawed there...

And I'm glad that she still considers her parent's feelings and I'm curious how she will handle 'the change' and still having family. Her 'friends' aren't much of friends (besides Jacob, who doesn't count here) so she can cut them out without a problem, but ditching her parent's for Edward, true love or not, isn't a good idea to me. I guess I will just have to see.

I'm headed back to Target tonight, after a stop at a local used paperback book store to look around, and I am definitely picking up the last two books tonight. I almost ran out at 9:45 last night to get it - but probably would've made it to Target in time (they close at either 9pm or 10 pm?).

Back from Target: Eclipse and Breaking Dawn are NOT out in paperback, had to get it in hardcover. I don't mind hardcover, just don't like having books in a series different - yea, yea, I know I'm weird. Oh, and they were sold out of Breaking Dawn, so I'll have to get it at another time...and I didn't make it to the used book store after all - they're weird and close at 6 pm!

My Mom's Day

I took the kids to the library Saturday morning and when we got back to the house, Robert had a bouquet of roses waiting for me. They smell so great! I can smell them the second I step into the kitchen. I just love roses. My favorite, I think, if I have to chose, is the yellow ones with the red-tipped petals.

The kids got excited that we we're doing Mother's day a day early and ran to get their gifts from their backpacks. Sometimes it is so hard for them to be patient, but I love how much they enjoy giving gifts. I got a poem from Carus and two from Adam, and a painting from each. At school each month they study art in Art Literacy. It is a parent-volunteer run program that the school helps create the curriculum for. The paintings they made are from learning about Van Gogh. I think Adam understood the style a little bit more than Carus. She is a bit of a perfectionist, especially about her art. I can't wait to get frames and put them up - I think I put them in my 'office'.

Gramma took the kids Saturday night and I gave Adam directions to make Gramma breakfast of french toast and she said it was really good. I cannot believe how big he is getting, and how much more independent he gets each day.

Robert and I spend our free time test driving cars (he wants to trade his Jeep in for a sports car), going to dinner, and then out with some friends for some drinks (Robert was designated driver, like usual - I promise to be the DD next time!)

Sunday, I was woken from my nap when the kids came home. They had flowers Gramma helped them pick out and paintings of more flowers. The slide show above is of all pictures, but if you want the labeled versions check out www.flickr.com/smiles2have.

We spent the rest of the day watching shows and movies, eating popcorn, and at dinner time Robert helped me do the dishes from Friday that I had left sitting in the sink and we made spaghetti for dinner. Thank you Robert!

Thank you Adam and Carus! Thank you for my gifts, and thank you for making me a mom. You are the best kids a mom could ask for! You both are so smart, funny, and caring and make me so very proud!

I ♥ Faces Week 18 - Laughter

The theme for this week is laughter. If you go to I Heart Faces you can see all the great entries.

Or you can just click this logo and check out both the kids and adult categories.

I love when I catch the kids being goofy and picking on each other, but not caring that they are getting picked on. There are many times a week, a day, even each hour that they are just not getting along - but then there are moments that it's okay they are giving each other bunny ears or sticking their tongues out at each other, and I love that I can sometimes catch it.

In this picture, Carus is giggling madly because she thinks she is making the funniest face EVER and Adam is laughing so hard because he thinks she won't notice the bunny ears until we get the picture on the computer. Carus just thought his laughing was from her face....and shortly after I clicked she spun around and his hand didn't go down fast enough and she chased after him pretending to be mad (I got that picture too)...but it was pretend.

Come join me in the challenge/contest and keep me company :)

Happy Mother's Day

Book club

Our next book for book club was Twilight.

The book was good. I am officially completely miffed about how much the movie sucked!

I don't like the actress that played Bella, she changed the character way too much and I don't like the directing AT ALL! I have NO experience and could've done a better job!

While the book didn't feel like a cheesy teenager story, the movie did way too much. I am just too disappointed in it, so I will stop talking about it. Okay, just one more time, the movie stunk!

Okay, back to the book. It was good, I felt it was well written, and kept me turning the page. I'm definitely hooked and ready to start reading New Moon.

Incidently, I kinda got myself kicked out of the book club - or quit it - when I stood up for myself and didn't let the organizer continue to bash me, my husband, or my kids because she has a guilty conscious about being morally inept and so I'm open for a new book club. Maybe I will just start one of my own...hmm

Since I'm without a club I'm going to continue the series on my own and I didn't even have to try too hard to talk Robert into letting me buy it. I said I found a good deal online and he asked, well is it too much more in town so you don't have to wait for it or pay shipping? So, I'm off to Target after work...okay after I make dinner and will pick up New Moon and maybe Eclipse. I have that order correct, right?

Adam has asked if he can read it, and after talking with Robert and asking Facebook, I'm going to let him. I was slightly concerned about the 'intimate' situations between Bella and Edward, but there's nothing real major so I think we'll be good. He probably knows more about those situations than I think he does anyways.

I will be reading the rest of the series before him and deciding on a book-by-book basis if he can read it - but since it is a preteen/teen fave, I'm pretty sure he will get to read them all.

Also, any book suggestions for him, let me know. He has read the Harry Potter series like 7 times and isn't taking my suggestions of Where the Red Fern Grows and To Kill a Mockingbird (I want to get some classics in him as well as newbies) - Maybe he will listen to you better than me, apparently I don't know anything.

School Carnival

I'm really behind....sorry, please forgive my laziness. I'm going to try to catch up today, or in the next few days. Lets not get too hopeful now :P

Not last Saturday, like in 2 days ago, but the Saturday before that (04/25/2009), we went to the schools' annual carnival.

The PTO puts this on for the kids. It is to reward them for all their hardwork all school year. It isn't so much of a fundraiser for the school, although they usually do pull a profit. They had a new organizer this year so perhaps they allowed some of the monies to be given to the school - the economy is kicking butt and leaving our school so full of cutbacks I want to cry. I always felt our school was one of the more stable ones in the area, but this year is really testing that.

Anyhoo - back to the story. The carnival is run by volunteers. They have volunteers working the booths, the rides (inflatable jumpy things and slides), the prize shop, and the concessions (water bottles, capri suns, rented popcorn and cotton candy machines, and pizza). They work in shifts, there are three 1-hour shifts. The volunteers are the parents, grandparents, teachers, and even older siblings - the teenagers actually appear to be having a good time too! Tickets are 5 for $1 and unlimited bracelets are $10 if bought in the presale. At the door, tickets are 4 for $1 and unlimited bracelets are $12. Each game booth is 1 ticket and each ride is 4 tickets. Concessions are real money.

My first hour was the leaping frog booth. The kids use one ticket (or their unlimited bracelet) and make little plastic frogs jump trying to get them on a lily pad and then they get fake money as a prize. Everyone gets at least $1 from every game. The fake money can then be traded in for prizes.

My second hour was at this slide - you only allow so many kids at once, they have to slide, no jumping, no sliding into a pile at the bottom, no shoes, etc.

Unfortunately, unlike years past, Oregon wasn't cooperating and giving us sunny, nice, spring weather for the carnival and it rained off and on so the slides got a bit wet. I had to kick a couple kids off because they were so soaked they were shivering. I'm sure they just headed to one of the other slides though. Thankfully I had an umbrella so I stayed relatively dry.

Shoes are not allowed on the slides and Carus was running around barefoot - Adam, however, was running around in socks, which I found crusted into muddy balls 2 days later at the bottom of the hamper. EW! Boys!
The 3rd hour I spent hanging out with the kids, trying to help them win as much play money as possible. They combine it together, split it in half, and both make off with some good prizes.

At the end of the carnival, we stuck around to help clean up - well I helped, the kids mostly just ran around with the other kids with parents cleaning up.

Man, Adam is getting tall! And poor Carus might be cursed with my height. Eh, who am I kidding they are both going to be taller than me. Adam probably by the end of this summer, if not sooner. They grow up to fast *sniff*

Gramma Barbara came with us and hung out for a bit trying to keep up with Carus. When she gets excited, she runs around like crazy. Carus that is, not gramma. I think Adam slipped away real sneaky-like in 2 seconds. They're both real good at that. And she got a few pictures and then took off before it got too crazy. Thanks for coming gramma!

We parked down the street from the school since the parking lot is always a pain during school events - so as we walked back to the car - and then back to the school because Carus forgot the backpack she got with her winnings - and then back to the car again, we got a few pictures. And then I had some fun editing them at http://www.picnik.com/. There are a few more pictures on Flickr. This one above is my favorite of us three.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one. And I have it in many different edits. My current favorite picture of them. Can't believe I got it! Oh, and it was Carus's idea for the pose. Seriously she could be a model, she loves setting up poses.

I can't wait for next years' carnival. It will be Adam's last carnival as a student of the school - maybe time for him to start volunteering a shift or two? Crap, now I'm crying 'cause my baby's almost a 5th grader.

Friendships revisted

I have never been one of those cheerleaders-in-the-movies-type popular, but I know a lot of people and they know me and we are friends and I suppose that can be considered popularity.

I have had the friends I joked with, and those I skipped class with (or just get into trouble with), and those I would spend hours talking on the phone with. And I have never been too lonely - there was always someone to hang out with, someone to talk to, someone to share frustrations, someone to bitch about parents, teachers, boyfriends, life, etc. Secrets were told and kept by all - no questions, no stipulations, no worries, no strings attached.

But I have lost friends. Its sad to lose friends. I miss them - maybe not all of them, but at least a good portion of them.

There were the friends I lost when I got pregnant with Adam. People with kids and people without kids have different interests and priorities, and it is difficult to stay in touch. It might be even more difficult if those people are teenagers. There is even less in common, and of course there are parents that step in and say friendships have to be severed because 'she is a bad influence'. I get it.

There were the friends I made when pregnant with Adam after switching schools and when he was a baby, and after graduation it again became difficult to stay in touch. Different priorities and different parenting beliefs had to do with some of those friendships dying; and waiting too long to return a phone call; getting in an argument and instead of talking things out, just walking away. Things happen. And I have been just as guilty of letting those friendships die as the other party.

But there are always a few friends left - friends I've reconnected with from before Adam and friends that I've hung on to from after Adam. And there are always new friends made. I'm enjoying becoming friends with my cousins I wish I grew up closer to, becoming friends with my brothers as they grow up and we start to get along more, the friends I'm finding online and the friends I've made at work, at the kids' school, and through other friends.

Unfortunately some friendships are not really friendships. Some friends are not really friends. That fact/issue/whatever it is has me so angry and sad. This isn't anything new for the particular friendship that has me thinking, just revisiting it again...for like the 10th time...and it still hurts to feel so betrayed. To not feel loyalty from someone I have been loyal to. There are things we do together that I still enjoy - or maybe things I want to enjoy. And there are future activities that I will end up being around her. We have stopped talking before and when I call her back up and say 'hey why did we stop talking?' she says she missed me - but it isn't long before we are back in the same boat and she isn't returning my calls. I really can't be any more guarded around her with what I do and say without being downright unfriendly and rude. Well, maybe just rude in my opinion - it may be the type of relationship she is looking for from me.

So do I evolve the friendship into more of an acquaintanceship, or let it 'die'? Do I confront her and 'pick a fight' to hopefully resolve issues? Or shall I just ignore it and keep on keepin' on?