Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I Love Books!

For a long time I have wanted to put more book reviews/recommendations on my blog. I mean, I love it when other people recommend books for me... and since I do work at a library, for goodness sake, I should be able to recommend some good books, right?

Well, over Christmas break I read two of my favorite reads ever! And they are both very different from one another - something for everyone!

The first book is called Black Like Me. It's the nonfiction account of a white man who alters his skin color to look black. He then goes throughout the South (in 1959); the book is a journal of his experience. The book was originally published in the early 1960's, but the newer copies have a fascinating epilogue (or is it called an afterword?) about what happened to the author personally and also in the Civil Rights Movement later on. I think that this book is a must read for everyone (especially those of my generation who didn't live through the Civil Rights Movement).

The other book is called The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a novel about a girl who leaves the small town she grew up in... and ends up in Phoenix, Arizona. Along the way a little girl is (for lack of a better word) dumped on her... and it's their story. I don't want to give too much away, but I enjoyed every second of this book. My mother-in-law also read it and loved it. It's just a great story.

So, anyway... there are two recommendations from me to you! Hopefully, I'll get better about recommending more. But, no promises.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Elisa's game

Elisa made up this game... I don't really get the game, but she thinks it's pretty fun!


The video doesn't seem to be working ... but just click here and you should be able to watch it.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Pic of the day

Bubble Beard (look close)...

Slides are fun!

What beautiful weather we've been having here the last few days. It's been in the 60's... very comfortable outside. This afternoon during a trip to the park Greg told me, "We're gonna miss Arkansas." He was talking about the weather of course... we'll miss the pleasant spring-like days that seem to be sprinkled throughout the entire winter.

Anyway, we decided to take Leesi to the park for awhile this afternoon. She had so much fun on the swings and on the slide! This was her first time going down a slide. Wheee!


Monday, February 2, 2009

Life

Well, it's been a little while since my last post... it isn't that I've been so busy... or haven't had time to write. I've thought about posting. But I couldn't come up with anything to write. I feel bored with my life lately. I haven't even been taking many pictures of Elisa. Weird, I know...

Anyway, today Elisa broke through my boredom and gave me something to write about. Last night she woke up coughing several times. Each time I heard it through the monitor and thought about going in to her room to make sure she was doing okay, but sleep won out. So, when I finally went in to get her up this morning I was shocked with what I found. She had blood dried and caked all over her face. Her sheets had blood spots all over them, as did her stuffed bunny, Itty.

I totally freaked out! I felt like the worst mom in the world. What was the blood from? Did she cough it up? I finally started to calm down when I realized that Elisa was acting pretty normal. She was standing there talking and looking at her sheets and Itty as if to say, "Mom, where did this red stuff come from?" Then I realized that it was most likely just a bloody nose. I cleaned her off (this was quite a feat considering the amount of dried blood - especially caked under her nose). And we ate breakfast.

Leesi has been a little sick lately. I think it is a cold, but I also wonder if she's getting another tooth. She just had a top tooth break through this last week, and I wonder if the other one is coming right behind it. (Right now she currently has only three teeth! Can you believe it? Almost 14 months and only 3 teeth?)

Anyway, I'll spare you the pictures (yes, I did take pictures... but only so that Greg would know what he missed).

I've been pretty interested in learning to clean with greener products lately. So, I proceeded to strip everything off her bed and dump it into the bath tub with lots of salt and cold water. (As my Martha Stewart stain remover guide tells me to do)... I've been reading this book on green cleaning and it recommended using Hydrogen Peroxide (mixed with water) to get blood stains out. The salt water soak worked wonders and I think that the Hydrogen Peroxide helped too. Hopefully everything will come out good as new.