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!