visiting Utah

Joe is in the worst and hardest year of pharmacy school (I've also heard rumors that the first semester of the third year isn't all that great either. Hooray!) so the kids and I packed up the car and we headed to Utah.

I got to see my new niece for the first time and she got blessed too! Too bad she won't really let anyone else beside her mom hold her. We played outside and Jovi did NOT like it! She was always complaining about it being too cold. It was in the 40s and 50s. Heaven! My parents recently returned home from their 18 month mission so they and my kids got reacquainted for the three weeks we were there. We also got some library story time in at the local library.

I celebrated my 32 birthday! Jovi had to sample the cake before we sang Happy Birthday. Chris and Vickie and their families came over. We went to The Jump Zone where the kids jumped, swung, and played on tramps and foam pits. Having Uncle Eric and Uncle Chris and grandpa throw them in the foam pit was heaven for my kids. We've been in Arizona for about two years now and I have been going through some withdrawals with some local companies in Cache Valley. I went to The Pepperidge Farm outlet store and stocked up on toffee covered milanos and gold fish crackers. We've already ate through 2 bags!

It was good to be around other adults, see family, and have help. Did I mention I was seven months pregnant?

book review: Caught in the Middle

PG

I was really surprised at how much I really really really liked this book! I loved the writing, I loved the story, I loved characters, I loved that the heroine made a really tough choice at the end that I 100% agreed with and cried and cheered because she made it and followed through.

book review: A Draw of Kings

PG - a little more violence in this book.

I have mixed feelings about this review because I have loved this series and was uber excited to get the third and final book. And for free nonetheless (I received a copy from Bethany Publishers)! See my review of Book 1 here and my review of Book 2 here. I am pregnant and had a lot of down time (I'm getting huge in my 3rd trimester) so I was able to quickly read this book.

Of course, our hero has to go on ANOTHER quest to save the people who have detested him this entire time. I'm getting to the juicy part where I find out who is going to be crowned king and sacrifice himself for the kingdom when PLOT TWIST and things change and there is hope. At page 431 I'm thinking I'm gonna like this ending when I turn the page and ....

nothing.

The book ended at page 432 when there are 464 pages! Are you kidding me?! I felt like the characters in "Monty Python's: The Search for the Holy Grail" when they're in the caves and reading from the walls:

MAYNARD:  It reads, 'Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Arimathea.
    He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle
    of uuggggggh'.
ARTHUR:  What?
MAYNARD: '... the Castle of uuggggggh'.
BEDEVERE:  What is that?
MAYNARD:  He must have died while carving it.

I'm hoping that Mr. Carr did not, in fact, die before writing this ending because that would be awful. I do, however, hope that you read this trilogy because it is fantastic! Just make sure your copy isn't missing the last 32 pages.

activity cubes

I saw this idea from a child blog I follow and they are also all over Pinterst, of course. I have very active kids. They are constantly moving, playing, teasing each other, and being kids. They are also really good at pushing each other's buttons, including my own. This art of button-pushing would usually end up with one or both crying and one or both in their rooms for a time-out. But timeouts weren't working. I saw these activity cubes and inspiration struck! 

What if these helped my kids get a long better? What if I could use these instead of timeouts? Doesn't that sound wonderful? 

Epic fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. 

My kids love these dice so much that they love playing with them, but they cannot seem to grasp the concept of sharing and end up fighting over the dice. I tried to referee and got smacked in the head with a corner of one of the die.

My version of this activity cube is as follows:

I used two dice instead of just one. This way the number dice tells how many of the activity they need to do. My activities included:

Flap like a bird.

Spin in a circle.

Run from the front door to the back door.

P.E. (This one has more detail to it that I'll explain in a bit).

Dance Party!

Hop on one foot.

There were so many activities that sounded fun to me, so I cheated and made the P.E. have 6 additional activities. They include:

1. wall sit

2. somersaults

3. jump

4. sit ups

5. push ups

6. jumping jacks

So, the number dice tells the kids which sub-activity they do and how many/long they do that activity. It has been so much fun watching my 5 year-old do these activities. The jumping jacks and push ups are my favorite to watch! 

So, this obviously isn't taking the place of timeouts but this is a fun thing that my kids like doing. What do you do for those "timeout" times?

book review: Unspoken

PG

This book WAS. SO. LONG! I finished it about 2 weeks ago but it was so awful I didn't want to relieve it again!

There are three parts. If the dust jacket caught you like it caught me, let me save you some time. The first two parts you, the reader, are introduced to Bryce and then Charlotte. Bryce has a coin shop and Charlotte has recently inherited A LOT of coins from her grandfather. Charlotte goes into business with Bryce where she sells him the coins and he resells them, i.e. they make a lot of money.

Charlotte has a murky past where she was kidnapped and the cops didn't find her for 4 years, but her and Bryce start up a relationship and they fall in love, sort of, and get married (Charlotte has to get married in order to inherit even more gobs of money).

Fast forward to page 297 and start reading from there.

This book had about 3-4 different sub-stories that were obviously going to connect in the end and they did. Seriously, skip the first two parts and start at page 297! The last part was good and almost made reading this book in its entirety worth it.

**I received a copy of this book from Bethany House to read and review.

TPiR 101

I've always had dreams of coming on down at The Price is Right. I would watch TPiR with my dad every chance I got. Even now I watch TPiR with my kids; eating popcorn and playing along with the games. The lights, the games, the prizes, everything was so enticing to me and looked like a lot of fun! Me and a couple friends in college tried getting on the show during spring break and during the Bob Barker era to no avail.

Fast forward a lot of years. Joe is starting his second semester of his second year of pharmacy school and I'm hoping me and the kids get to see him at least on Sundays. I was looking at TPiR tickets and saw they were doing a baby shower special (bonus that I'm pregnant) AND it was during Joe's Christmas break. We got priority tickets and made a fast 2.5 day trip to California. We saw my sister and her family, went to TPiR, and then drove the 8 hours home so Joe could make it to his rotation by 4 p.m. (which we made, barely).

Here are a few things I learned about TPiR:

1. The set is TINY! I'm talking teeny tiny. The show makes it look like a GINORMOUS room with loads of space. Nope. They have the showcase area where they occasionally play a game, three "rooms" where they have the fold-away doors to reveal really BIG prizes, and the main floor where everything else is played.

2. It is loud. A man on stage has to show cards of the people who are called to be contestants. One game they revealed three prizes: a computer, washer/dryer/ and another prize. I didn't hear or see that the computer was an iMac and was totally adamant that the contestant was totally wrong with her selection.

3. There are A LOT of cameras. So many, in fact, that it's really hard to see the games being played on stage. I had to watch what was going on on one of the mounted TVs.

4. George Gray is pretty awesome. 

5. It takes 4 hours to get through screening. And four hours on bleacher type seating to a pregnant lady is torture! But, you get to know the people around you pretty well.

6. Food is available. During the 4 hours of screening, we were lucky enough to get offered an actual meal. Buy one. It is a lot of food and pretty expensive. They also provide snacks. My advice: bring something to eat with you.

7. Wear a catchy shirt. Most of the people who made an effort to make a shirt or dress up in non-normal attire were seated where the cameras saw them the most. Joe and I were front and center, about 5 rows back.

8. Don't blow the interview. Part of the screening process is where a producer comes out and briefly chats with wannabe contestants. They want to know who you are, what you do, and where you're from. Come up with catchy things to say. Our producer did not like my answer of being a mom. In fact, he kind of mocked me and moved on. Jerk!

Since it was a baby shower special, only pregnant women were selected as contestants. I wasn't selected and did not win a new car. Bummer! The entire audience did receive a fancy-smancy diaper bag though.

Our shirts centered around us not knowing what the gender of our baby was. Joe had recipe cards and I had an oven. Joe and I were invited on stage where we met Drew Carey and he opened our card for us. We're having a ........ tune in to The Price is Right March 3. They may show our gender reveal during the show, or they may just air it on their website.

Book Review: Chasing Hope

PG

I really really really enjoyed this book! I've been sick with this pregnancy and haven't read a book in about 10 weeks. I sat down tonight and finished the entire thing!

Sabrina Rice is a talented runner and Olympic hopeful when she's diagnosed with a life changing disease. She quits running and pursues other dreams until she meets a high school student with raw running talent. She's thrown back into the world of running and has to meet those feelings and heart ache she has never fully faced when she could no longer do the thing that kept her passionate about life and God.

I loved how the supporting characters also had their own hopes that they were chasing and how all the characters' lives were entwined with each other; my own choices could and do impact others lives! I also loved the little Bible study insights on Moses and the Children of Israel.

A major lesson throughout the book is never assume. Assuming only hurts.


**I received a copy of this book to review.