Book Review: Theodore Boone, kid lawyer by John Grisham

John Grisham's newest thriller written for the 8-12 year old reader is excellent. Of course, I haven't read a young adult book since high school, so it was hard for me to judge its possible popularity with that demographic.

The story was riveting and it seems to me that Mr. Grisham definitely left it open for more installments about this character. The plot was good, as in most of his books, and the only difference that was readily detectable to me was the decrease in sophistication of the characters. They were likable, and I did feel as if I "knew" them, but he did not go into as much detail in developing the characters.

All in all, it was a great book. John Grisham is one of the most versatile authors of this time. I have read every book he's written, and highly recommend this book, even to an adult audience.

Christmas Corner Update

Check out today's Christmas Corner update: tips for a stress-free Holiday Season.

Join Us For a Birthday Flip-Flop Drive for Haiti

Nancy Custead, Vicki Koons, & Beth Ryall

are inviting you to join us

this year as we celebrate our birthdays by paying it forward

we’re turning 54 and our goal is to collect 54 pairs of flip-flops each

making our total goal 162 pairs of flip-flops

we’ll accept all sizes: men’s, women’s, kids, toddlers

new or very gently used

we’re donating the flip-flops to

God’s Littlest Angel Orphanage in Haiti

the drive will take place May 24 – August 26

to donate & for information on collection sites, please leave a comment on this blog

thank you for your generosity and for joining with us as we celebrate our friendship and our birthdays!

for information about God’s Little Angels check out http://glahaiti.org/

you’re welcome to forward this information to anyone interested in participating in our drive

Another Sunny Weekend at Grammy's

We had another fun overnight at Grammy's this past weekend.

It started with lunch and shopping on Saturday with Katie and the baby. I told Katie that after she turns one year old, I'd like to continue the once a month sleepovers, but I'm gonna drop the officialy monthly photos. I wanted to do that the first year for a scrapbook project. It will be fun to look back at those photos in the years to come.

Afterward, Katie dropped us off at my house and the fun began! Sunny's at the stage now where she can entertain herself for a couple of minutes without my undivided attention. However, it's not long before she's toddling into the kitchen to see what I'm doing. I really don't try to accomplish anything while she's over. I much prefer to play with her, read a book, sing a song, or walk all over the house.

She's definitely developing verbally. She'll look me in the eye with intent and spout off sentences of a language I don't understand. She's doing well with the signing too (much better than Grammy!). She signs "all done" and "milk". As a matter of fact she kept signing milk at me on Sunday, but I didn't know what it meant until Katie told me later that night! Maybe I should take a class...

Sunday night we had some of the family over to celebrate Zach's 21st birthday. Our attention was divided between watching Sunny and watching the Lakers/Suns game on TV. Guess who got watched more!

My grandma embroidered the sheet she's sleeping under for me

when I was a baby. I love using vintage linens with a family history!

Proverbs

I just finished reading the Book of Proverbs for my daily quiet time. For whatever reason, this time through I was touched by many verses. Hmmm, maybe God thinks I need some tweaking?! So, for the next several days (maybe a month or more, I really underlined a lot of verses) I'm going to be featuring verses from Proverbs in the Daily Verse column at the right of this page.

So far this year I've read Job, Romans, Psalms, Galatians, Ephesians, Hosea, Proverbs, and am currently reading Ecclesiastes. Next I'm headed to Isaiah. I'm reading from my NIV/Message Bible. Each passage is printed side by side for easy comparison. I read each chapter first in NIV, then The Message version. I'm enjoying it, but I'll be honest, I'm 90% sure that next year I'm going back to the chronological Bible.

 Not that you're really interested in what I'm reading for my quiet time, I just didn't want you to wonder why I was stuck on verses from Proverbs!

Official 11 Month Photo Brings Change in Name

I'm late on posting our official 11 month photo, somehow the month of May is getting away from me.

We had to run over to the preschool to get our photo with the baby. The first photo is of her interrupted snack time.

The first thing I noticed when I saw her was that her face is thinning out. She's looking less like a baby and more like a toddler. I think her shape is changing because of the walking, she's losing some of the baby fat.

She's at the stage where she likes to be coy and shy. She'll look at us, duck her head toward her shoulder and then smile up at us from the corner of her eyes. It's very cute. I told Dan that now she has discovered autonomy. She doesn't have to look at us, smile at us, come to us... unless it's on her terms!

Official 11-month Photo

Sharing a smile between takes

Grammy steals a kiss

Grammy receives a kiss

It's so cute, now when you ask for a kiss, she'll give you one, but only one! Ask again and she pushes you away.

Now that I've been a grammy for over 11 months, I decided to change the name of my blog to "Being Grammy". I've grown quite comfortable being Grammy, actually I love it.

I have struggled in writing the blog with how to refer to the baby. I don't want to use her real name for security purposes, but it occurred to me that as I get more grandkids I'll have to have some way of distinguishing between them in print. I read a blog where the lady referred to all the underage kids and grandkids with names of candy. It's cute, but it's not me. So I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a labeling system that fits who I am. Yesterday it came to me. I love the weather! So, I'm going to use weather terms. This baby has got the most cheerful attitude, she's a very happy girl. So, from now on in my posts I'm going to call her "Sunny".

Happy Birthday, Zachary!

Today my baby turns 21. Whew, we did it, we managed to get all of our children safely to adulthood!

Me & my youngest... the tallest!

Zach, being the youngest of four, was always a friendly kid, able to get along with almost anyone. Even as a baby, he was so friendly and held his own with other kids and with adults. He is one of the most compassionate people I know. He would constantly surprise me (especially in middle school and high school) by being friends with the "different" kids. He didn't care what others thought, he would go out of his way be friendly to the special needs kids.

Zach volunteering in the Two-year-old room at church

He hasn't figured out yet what he wants to do for a career, but I know whatever he finally settles on, it will involve helping others.

Love that smile!

Raising Zach has been a challenge, a joy, a roller coaster ride, and I can't wait to see how he chooses to make a difference as an adult.

Meeting his niece

So... our baby is really grown up. We love you, Zach!

Expanding My Blog Universe

Now that I've been writing the blog for six months, I'm starting to get more bold about exploring other blogs.

In the past few weeks in particular, I have stumbled across some really cool ones. One of the neatest things about this, is that they are all written by women who share my faith in the Lord. One of the discouraging things about these blogs, is that they look like they are professionally designed. My friend Melanie looked at one of them and confirmed that it is professionally designed.

Kinda of made me feel simple.

But then I remembered that I like simple, so it stands to reason that my blog would reflect that.

There's a lot going on in these blogs that I don't understand. Like, why and how do they do giveaways? Why does it seem like other people write posts on these blogs? How do they get to use cooler fonts on their blogs than I can? What does it mean when it says "grab my button for your blog"?

These and many other questions serve as a daily reminder to me that I am a novice blogger. It's not that I necessarily want to do giveaways, or let other people post, or let someone grab my button... I just want to understand how it all works. I DO however, want to have cooler fonts.

I was thrilled with myself when I started my second blog... when I figured out how to add pages to this blog... when I imported a free theme from thecutestblogontheblock.com...

But I'm ready to take it up a notch, or at least expand my horizons. I'm going to list some of the blogs I've discovered in the blog, blog, blog column to the right of this page. Some of them have waaay too much text, and I have to be in a certain mood to read the whole thing. Some of them are too busy for my taste, but I appreciate the elements that make up the blog.

Besides having a place to vent and to share my thoughts, the thing I have enjoyed most about blogging, is finding the blogs of friends I've lost touch with. I enjoy reading about their lives, their kids, their husbands. I enjoy catching up with them... some after several years.

Finally, if you know the answers to any of my blog questions, please let me know. It probably won't result in changes to my blog, but at least I'll know how the rest of them do it.

Christmas Corner Update

I received my 2011 Cross-Stitch Calendar in the mail yesterday. That means my Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments can't be far behind. Which means I'm in official Christmas mode.

I know I'm strange, but every year about this time I start gearing up for Christmas. I love the planning and anticipation of the holiday, and I always try to be completely "done" with Christmas by Thanksgiving so that I can have fun the month of December.

So with that in mind, I'm launching my weekly updates to the Christmas Corner page today. I will update the page every Wednesday for the next few months. In the fall, I'll probably update it more often.

I would love to hear about how you "do" Christmas. I'm always up for organizing ideas, gift ideas, decorating ideas... basically any ideas for making this special holiday more special. Be warned though, I will steal your great ideas and even publish them on the Christmas Corner page!

Katie's First Mother's Day

Yesterday was Katie's first Mother's Day. She had Dan & I and most of Gabe's family over for dinner. It was so fun to watch our granddaughter and her three little cousins together.

I wanted to do something to commemorate Katie's first Mother's Day, so I made her a frame with the baby's handprint, the date, and a few photos of Katie & the baby together.

It was so cool to be with Katie on this special day. As we were leaving, we told her Happy Mother's Day again, and Dan added "you'll now celebrate this holiday the rest of your life!" Her smile said it all.

Happy Mother's Day

I wanted to be a mom from my earliest memories. When I was in Kindergarten, the class had a special fancy baby doll. Each recess, a girl from class was chosen to play with the doll. I loved my turn with that doll. I don't remember why she was so special, or what she looked like, but I do remember the feeling I had walking around the playground with her.

When I was in Jr. High, I decided I wanted to have 12 kids. In Math class, when I should have been learning (I totally suck at Math, but I don't think this is the reason why) I would make lists of the names I would give my 12 kids (there's that list thing again). I would list their first name, middle name and the estimated year I would be giving birth to them. I would daydream about my future family often.

By the time I reached High School, a little sanity prevailed. I wanted six kids. Three girls and three boys. Or maybe four girls and two boys. I definitely wanted an even number. I knew too many kids from odd number families and someone was always being left out of the fun stuff.

When Dan & I married, I started my name list again. I had a list of six girl names and six boy names. I pared that down to my top four for each sex and started having babies. Jessica Lynn was the first name on my girl list and she was born on September 3, 1983. She was five weeks early. That was a good thing, because as impatient as I was I could hardly wait another day for her to arrive.

JD & Jessica 2009

Joseph Daniel was my first choice for a boy, and he arrived on June 18, 1985. Jessica was so proud to be a big sister! She loved to care for him and helped me every chance she got. I was so happy that I had a boy and girl. Now I didn't really care what sex the rest of them were.

He was quickly followed by the best surprise I've ever received in my life. Kathleen Renee on July 3, 1986. Poor JD, I knew I wouldn't be able to lift him when Katie arrived, so for the two weeks leading up to her birth I would try to drag him around, hoping he would learn to walk. It didn't really work. I'm not sure if that's the reason why, but when Katie was born, he wouldn't have anything to do with me for the first week I was home from the hospital. He wouldn't look at me, he wouldn't kiss or hug me, he avoided me like the plague. It's funny now, and to tell you the truth, it was funny then too! Well, kinda funny, kinda sad...

Katie & Zach 2006

Last but not least came Zachary Marshall on May 18, 1989. It was one of the hottest Springs on record. As a matter of fact, the record high for yesterday and today were both set in 1989. I remember those days well. Even though I would have gone ahead and tried for six, my OB had a different plan. I remember vividly as he was sewing me up (I had four c-sections), he was talking to one of the other doctors about fishing. He would say "the fishing was great at Lake Whatever this spring" followed by "you can not have any more babies; "next week I'm taking the boat out on Lake Whatchamacall", "this is absolutely your last baby".

I got the message. After three planned pregnancies and one surprise, our family was complete.

So, if you're doing the math, you can see that we had four kids in less than six years. JD & Katie are 12 months 2 weeks apart. I will admit that when I was pregnant with Katie I said I should be walking around with a sandwich sign on that said "Yes, I am completely out of my mind". Dan & I literally can't remember any event about Katie's first year without looking at pictures. It's all a blur. Thank goodness she was easy and flexible.

Plus, another example of my Math deficiency is that I did not figure out until Zachary was two that the boys were both born on the 18th and the girls were both born on the 3rd! Guess I was busy with other things.

I'm telling you all that to tell you this: I love being a mom. It is everything I thought it would be and more. I love the good times and I appreciate the not so good times. I love remembering their childhoods, and experiencing their adulthoods. I love the way each one of them is different, yet they all have some similar traits and characteristics. I am proud of each and every one of them, and, call me crazy, but I wouldn't change a thing about our family. They are my pride and joy.

So, thank you Jessica, JD, Katie, & Zach. Thank you for giving me the gift I wanted most in life. Thank you for making me a mom. I love you!

Finding the Beauty in a Disaster

This morning as I watching the coverage of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I saw something beautiful. They were showing the oil slick floating on top of the ocean water. The sun was reflecting off the oil in the most beautiful colors. It really was breathtaking. It made me stop and think of all the times I've seen beauty in a disaster.

When hurricanes are forming and they show the radar of the size and shape of the storm, I just think it's so awesome... and beautiful. To me, that picture shows the power and creativity of God. I feel the same way when a storm is forming. The cloud shapes and colors, the way they change as they move closer, the speed of dark clouds racing underneath the canopy of lighter clouds. I know I'm strange, but I appreciate the splendor.

Sometimes even the aftermath of storms have their own special loveliness. A lone tree standing upright and untouched in a scene of utter destruction from high winds can be magnificent. A few tiny flowers poking up through the mud after a flood can be exquisite.

And then, there's the disasters in our own lives. I know many people that have gone through terrible circumstances, yet as they're in the midst of disaster what do I see? Their beauty.

'the kissing thing'

I met a friend yesterday morning and she told the cutest story about a nightly ritual she performs with her kids. I was so impressed by it that I told her I'm going to steal her idea and do it with my grandkids. Maybe it will inspire you too.

One night when she was kissing them goodnight, she started a litany of positive comments followed by a kiss on the head. "You are smart" kiss, "You are funny" kiss, "You are good at Math" kiss, "I love you" kiss. The cute thing is that the youngest child listens to what she says to the oldest child and then calls her back into his room to ask why she didn't say the same things to him! Isn't that precious?! She didn't realize how much they enjoyed it until she forgot to do it one night and the youngest asked, "will you do that kissing thing?" My friend: "what kissing thing?" The kid: "the one where you tell me I'm funny & good & smart". My friend: light bulb moment and a tradition was born.

I agree with her comment that the kids are surrounded by so much negativity in their day, she just wants the last thing they hear from her at night to be positive and affirming. What a great (and creative) mom!

So, I'm going to start now... even an 11 month old needs positive reinforcement.

Happy Birthday, Ashley!

Ashley is my future daughter-in-law, engaged to my youngest son Zachary. Her 20th birthday is Thursday, but we had her birthday dinner this weekend.

Ashley is a great fit for Zach. He is so happy and relaxed with her. As a mom, it's so cool to see your son(s) find a woman that brings out the best in them. I've been blessed twice; first with Janel (JD's wife) and now with Ashley!

Zach & Ashley

Me & the girls

Mmmmh, this is good!

Hip-Hop Cowgirl, Yeehaw!