Miles to go before I sleep

Yep. I have to pick up Emily from the airport in Sac tonight after 11pm. Her flight from NYC is supposed to land at 11:18. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for her luggage and can get by with the free 30 minute parking. If not... oh well.

Got a free CD in the mail today. Matt Maher's Empty & Beautiful pre-release CD arrived and is already loaded into my iTunes. I just need to plug in my iPod and update it now. Many thanks to Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer for announcing this freebie.

Looking forward to tomorrow night's American Idol. I haven't heard yet what the theme is... I'm very curious. Last week's results were quite surprising. I can only imagine what this week will bring.

Read a really good book last week and have been meaning to mention it here, but I kept forgetting. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah is the story of two girls who become friends in the 8th grade and how that friendship grows and changes as they go through life. If you grew up in the 70's/80's/90's, you'll find yourself reliving scenes from your life as you are reminded of the music/tv/pop culture of the times. Kate and Tully's unlikely friendship, forged as outsiders in their school, spans over 30 years. We see them make tough choices, bad choices, impossible choices... And in the end, you will feel as if you knew both of them.

Help, I've fallen behind and I can't catch up!

At least that's how it feels. I have been wanting to post for what seems forever, but there just hasn't been a good time. Either that, or the body just wasn't willing. I'm fighting some kind of crud (I think I'm winning now) and also single-parenting this week. Brian is in Missouri visiting his mom and will be back after work on Friday.

I had to take Emily to the doctor yesterday. She called me from school and said she couldn't hear out of one ear and was dizzy. Turns out that ear had quite a bit of fluid build-up and was rather red as well. She's on high-dose Amoxil for 5 days (1 gram TID ... 3x a day for non-medical folks).

The kids and I went to see a free sneak preview of August Rush on Saturday. Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur and the Invisibles) shows his stuff again... His character travels the gamut of emotions in this film and Freddie makes it believable. I am wondering what kind of roles he'll be getting once he gets out of the child actor years. The music in the film is wonderful. Robin Williams was scary.... he played a Fagin-esque (how's that for a new word?) character who collected street kids in an abandoned theater and had them playing music on street corners to earn him money. Once you suspend belief and get past the whole idea of a mystical kind of ESP/awareness, it is much easier to enjoy the whole premise of the movie (young boy looking for the parents who never knew he existed).

I've managed to work on that reading challenge list some more. Just one book left to read from my original list (Barefoot). I really enjoyed How Starbucks Saved My Life... it was an easy read and just made so much sense. (And if you've ever wondered what it was like to work as a barista, you'll get a firsthand account.) Other books I've managed to get through are Split Ends, by Kristin Billerbeck, and The Oak Leaves. On the nightstand: Alaska Twilight, by Colleen Coble. For the carpool lane: The Book of Jane, Anne Dayton.

3 down, 17 to go

Well, I've finished the 2 Karen Kingsbury novels on my list. Those are almost always a quick read for me. I really liked them both. I'm not sure I've read one of hers I didn't like yet. I've also finished Blameless. That was one I had in the car with me this week. I've always wondered how folks could have more than one book going at a time, and I finally figured out a way it works for me. I keep one on my nightstand and one in the car; the latter one I read while I'm in the carpool line at Emily's school. Blameless was an easy read, not an extremely involved story. Think of it as an adaptation of Job for modern times. It was OK; I would actually have liked there to have been more to it.

On my nightstand now is Paula Deen's memoir. My exposure to Paula is pretty limited, as I do not watch The Food Network, so I've not seen her show. I did see her in Elizabethtown, though. And to my knowledge, I've only tasted one of her recipes.... that was just a couple of weeks ago at the ladies' breakfast at church (for inquiring minds, it was her Baked French Toast Casserole). So far, I am thoroughly enjoying this selection. It is delightfully written in southern dialect, complete with dropped g's on verbs ending in g, and colloquialisms that set me chuckling. The funniest thing about it is that Emily came in to talk to me last night after I'd been reading for a while and she stopped me in the middle of our conversation to ask, "Who have you been talking to? Your accent is back." I guess I don't have to actually hear southern to speak southern!

Anyone still here? Anyone finished Book 7?

I know, it's been a while. I have been trying to keep up with things around here and limiting my time online. I can't even begin to remember what we've done around here in the last week, so I won't even try to write about anything more recent than the last day or 2.

I took the kids to Borders on Friday night to the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Ball. Some of our neighbors were going (they had pre-ordered there at Borders, unlike me... I did the Amazon pre-order). The kids had a a great time participating in some HP Trivia and enjoyed free samples of drinks from the coffee bar (not coffee drinks). Things started getting pretty crazy around 11:45 or so, so we came on home.

Emily had me take her to the BX late yesterday morning. She bought her own copy of Deathly Hallows and began reading it shortly after we got back. Brian dragged me out to the garage to help him get it cleaned out so I could park in it. My book arrived about halfway through the process and I hated putting it aside until we were done. I finally began reading around 5pm, but had to stop several times for dinner prep and the meal. Once we were done eating, it was nothing but Harry, though. I finished up around 11 or so. No spoilers here from me, but I am convinced JK Rowling is a pure literary genius. Loved the book. I will definitely reread it at a more leisurely pace the next time.

Today I have a TON of laundry to fold and put away. Part of the work we did in the garage yesterday involved going through the bins of outgrown clothing and sorting into items for Goodwill, stuff for the younger kids to grow into, and stuff they can probably wear now. I was washing and drying laundry anyway, but with all the things I pulled out of the containers, I just about tripled my laundry work. Much of today will involve a "fashion show" with the kids trying on clothes.

Oh, and Rory has caught up with Campbell in the height department. Actually, she's just a tad taller than him. Only took her 3 weeks. When I took her to the vet this week for her next series of shots and her microchip, she had gained 8 pounds in 3 weeks as well. I'll try to take pictures to post soon.

Potpourri

Naw, not the kind you smell.... I just have several things running through my head that I want to talk about and don't know where to start first. Lessee... how about books? The Spring Reading Thing started 4 days ago (is that all?), and I have knocked out 6 books from my list. I cannot say enough good things about Karen Kingsbury's Firstborn series. "Life-Changing Fiction" is her tag line and I have to wholeheartedly agree. I am still processing much of what was revealed to me through the characters and situations in the stories. And I want/need to go back and read the earlier Redemption series, as well!

The last book I read this weekend reminded me of why I stopped reading Stephen King in the first place. There was a time I liked his writing, but it seems like the last 10-15 years, his works just haven't appealed to me. But I heard so many people say that Lisey's Story was so awesome that when I saw it on the shelf at the library, I thought I'd give it a try. It did nothing for me. I didn't feel a connection to the characters at all. It was.... stupid. Give me a good Dean Koontz novel any day. Next on my list: The Westing Game. Once I get through the fiction books I have on hand, I'm sure the rest of the list will go a bit slower.

And then there was much rejoicing. Tonight was the finale of Grease: You're the One That I Want. I don't think I've ever followed any competition as closely as I did this one, at least not since the first year or two of Star Search (I guess I can say I remember Rosie O'Donnell and Brad Garrett back when...). I definitely had my favorites and was quite thrilled when they both made it into the top 4. And even more pleased to see that in a rare if not unheard-of occurrence (that being that America and I actually agreed upon something), they won! Congratulations to Broadway's new Danny and Sandy, Max Crumm and Laura Osnes. Now, who wants to bankroll my trip to NYC to see the show???

Great day with the kids today. Everyone was up and ready to go to church on time with no fuss. It was a good time of worship and we got to hear a singing group from William Jessup University. I also found out that one of the coaches from Halle and Joel's gymnastics gym attends there. She and her husband came in a little late and sat by me today. I was sitting behind someone I thought looked familiar and then afterwards Emily pointed out that it was her PE teacher. I think I could get used to worshiping with folks I might get to see more than once a week.

Straight Up

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for agreeing to review it here on my blog.

Straight Up is a book about 2 women (cousins) dealing with the losses life has handled them in very different ways. Georgia is a musician, the daughter of a deceased jazz pianist; her cousin Fairly is an interior designer whose parents were killed in a car crash while she was in college. The book is told in first-person narrative throughout most of it, jumping back and forth between Fairly and Georgia, with occasional third-person prose about characters named Clarissa and Mary Margaret.

I had high hopes for this book. After all, one of the main characters was a musician, and I love music. It really wasn't one of those books that grabs a person right away. By the author's own admission she shies "away from the 'bang out of the starting gate' formula," feeling that it gives the reader a "chance to get to know the character a bit more." I'll have to admit that the first person narrative does enable a person to see the characters perhaps more deeply than in a book written in the omniscient third person. One of my favorite parts of the book was a very simple 2-line statement by one of the characters:

People see me as a birdbath.
I am a well.

Maybe it was because I related to that particular characterization. But that was about all I could relate to. I couldn't connect with much else in the characters' lives.

I did have a hard time getting into the book, but by about 1/3 of the way through, I knew I had to finish it. However, this isn't a book with a neat and tidy ending, where all your questions get answered. I probably had as many questions after I finished as I had when I started. I can't say I hated the book, but it also didn't leave me wanting to tell all my friends to read it.

Apparently, I am in the minority. The bulk of the reviews I read at Amazon are full of accolades and high praise. This isn't one I'll be rereading, as I am often prone to doing with favorite reads.