@?!%$!

Yes, that's my attempt to say bad words without saying bad words.

I finally got a chance to finish the last four rows of seed stitch on my sister's shrug tonight. I was so excited to finish it and try it on and see how it turned out.

How did it turn out? Not quite right.



You see, I messed with the pattern a little. My sister has a tall upper body. I was worried that the shrug would look overly cropped on her so I wanted to add a little extra length.

The way this shrug is constructed, you basically knit a bolero and then pick up stitches all the way around it. You then knit tons of ribbing that becomes the bottom of the back of the shrug and the neck of the shrug. You then knit seed stitch which becomes the very bottom of the back and the collar around the neck.

I added length in the ribbing. I followed the row count for the next size up to keep from going too crazy with my length and to keep proper proportions between the increases.

I don't like the extra length in the neck/collar. With my modifications, there is ribbing showing on the neck where it should just be seed stitch. The collar goes too far up the neck.



:(!

I'm going to have to rip back and get rid of the extra ribbing. I'm going to have to redo a good amount of ribbing (I think) and definitely all 22 rows of seed stitch (at around 300 stitches per row). That stinks! But not as bad as that extra ribbing going up the neck of this shrug. It must be fixed!

I'm off to pout and then to bed. The ripping will have to wait until tomorrow when I've thought out exactly how far back I have to go.

Movie Monday: More Silliness Edition

Could my child be any sillier?



J's not the only one who cracks me up these days.

May I Quote You on That?

J's latest: "I crack you up."

I LOVE my three year-old. He really does crack me up.

What Happens When Your Husband Goes to Target

Nice, huh? My home feels so classy now--like I live in a bar or maybe a frat house. At least N likes them. Everyone needs some good beer doormats to entertain their little ones.

Lesson Learned

Texas has taught me yet another lesson.

A week of over 100 degree temperatures = pool water that feels like bath water.

Lesson learned.

Book List: Knitting Edition

My three most recently read books are all in some way knitting-related so today's Book List has a theme. Kind of fun. I'll have to consider doing another one of these themed lists in the future.

Things I Learned from Knitting...whether I wanted to or not by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee: This is one of those cute little "gift books" that you see in the bookstore and wonder about, but never stop to buy for yourself. Luckily, I was lucky enough to receive it as a gift. (Thank you, Leah!) This book is great. There are so many truisms in this book like "Beginning is easy, continuing is hard" and "Babies grow." I could relate to so much of it and love Stephanie's sense of humor. A fun read and one that I will reread in the future when I need a few laughs. And, if you want some Stephanie Pearl-McPhee humor for free, check out her blog.

Spin a Wicked Web by Cricket McRae: This mystery revolves around Sophie Mae, a young woman who keeps finding herself tangled up in the middle of murder investigations. This time it is a young female artist, a fellow member of the smalltown artist co-op, who turns up dead--strangled to death with Sophie Mae's first skein of handspun yarn . Anyway, it's an interesting read as Sophie Mae gets deeper and deeper into the murder investigation. There are lots of suspects and some drama involving Sophie Mae's boyfriend and his ex.

McRae also describes Sophie Mae's new home crafting love: spinning. As a knitter, I get exposed to spinning a lot via blogs I read and fellow knitting friends who have started spinning. I LOVE the look of handspun yarn, but have never worked with it. So far I've been able to resist the seemingly inevitable move from knitting to spinning, but for some reason this book really made me want to knit something with yarn I spun myself. Spinning is an expensive habit. I think I'll try to resist the urge to try it. Wish me luck.

As an additional side note, this is the third book in Cricket McRae's "Home Crafting Mystery" series all starring Sophie Mae. The first one is about soap making. The second one is about canning. This whole "Home Crafting Mystery" thing cracks me up. Can't wait to see what home craft is used next. Any guesses?

Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber: Debbie Macomber is famous for her Blossom Street books. I have read one before, but don't remember the name of it, but it centered on Lydia who owns a knitting shop on Blossom Street. So when I saw she wrote this one, I grabbed it at the library. Twenty Wishes focuses on Anne Marie, the owner of a book store on Blossom Street. The premise of the novel is that four widows get together for a Valentine's Day celebration and decide to each make a list of twenty wishes. Their goal is to start living their lives again. It sounds a little cheesy, but it made for a wonderful heartfelt novel. I really enjoyed the story lines of the different characters as they strive to find happiness. I love that two of the characters learned how to knit and found joy in it because it has brought much joy into my life. Definitely a feelgood kind of read.

More Swim News

J is taking swim lessons at our neighborhood pool. The teacher is one of the moms in our neighborhood moms group and she is terrific! He's in a class with other 3 year-olds that meets for thirty minutes on M/W/F mornings for four weeks. This is our second week of classes and J is really starting to warm up to both swimming and swim classes. Some of the children in his class are way ahead of him in terms of both comfort in the water and skills, but he's growing and learning a lot.

Here's his first swim class:Yes, that's J hanging out in the corner by himself.

But here are some pictures from his class yesterday:

Looking cool with his new goggles.

With his classmates.

Doing "scooping arms."

Blowing bubbles.

In the pool with Ms. Abby.

He's still not too thrilled with doing things that are not with me, but we're getting there. That's just J. He's progressed a lot and we still have two more weeks to go! My main goal is for J to feel more confident in the water. I want him to be a good swimmer eventually, but for now I think he needs to be more comfortable and confident so he'll be ready to really try and learn to swim.

J just cracks me up. Just check out my little "swimmer."

Ribbing Marathon Update

I have finally completed my ribbing marathon--53 rows of 1 x 1 ribbing with around 250 stitches per row. Now I only have 22 rows of seed stitch with almost 300 stitches per row and then I'm done. Still a good amount of knitting, but I'm getting close to the end. Can't wait to see what this shrug actually looks like on, but don't want to waste the time taking it off the needles to try it on now. Hope it fits my sister and she likes it. Fingers crossed.


This is just the strangest garment--the ribbing is a big tube that will be both the back of the shrug and the neck trim. Hard to picture this tube being a cute cardigan-like garment, but that's the plan. Again, fingers crossed.

Random

Here a few random quotes that have struck me recently as

So true:
"You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you." --Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth (From The Shack)

So hilarious, but crass:
"...how much spotlight do you need on good when there's a guy over there butt-fucking his guitar with flames coming out his nostrils?" --Ted Nugent, in "Ted or Alive" by John Spong, Texas Monthly July 2009

So me:
"I am a person who loves perfection and control, although I suspect I would have a really hard time convincing anyone who has ever seen my housekeeping, wardrobe, or hair of that." --Stephanie Pearl-McPhee in Things I Learned from Knitting...whether I wanted to or not

The Best Father's Day Gift

J went shopping with me yesterday and picked out a tee ball set, Yahtzee and M&Ms for B for Father's Day. B, being the wonderful man he is, was thrilled with all his goodies.

Today at the pool, J gave B an even more special gift.

J has always been a cautious, somewhat anxious child. He likes going to the pool, but doesn't like to get splashed and is hesitant to be in the pool without holding onto either B or myself. He's slowly getting more comfortable, but has only been in the pool without holding on to us when he could touch the bottom. Even with his inner tube and his life jacket, he was unwilling to let go.

Anyway, today we were playing in the pool--N was floating around with me and B had J in his inner tube. At one point, B and J decided to sneak up on me. I had my back to J. As they got close, B gave J a big push and he floated alone over to me. Instead of freaking out, J thought this was really fun. He proceeded to "sneak up" on me over and over. Each time he went further and further on his own in his inner tube. He was doing a pretty good job of motoring around by kicking his feet underwater. I know this is no major achievement for the average three year-old, but for my little guy this was a huge deal.

B had an enormous smile on his face the whole time. Afterwards, he told me it was the best Father's Day gift he could ever receive. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful man as my husband and as the father of my children. Happy Father's Day, honey!

Book List:: A Change of Pace Love Story, a Who Cares? Whodunit, Fuel for Thoughts on Faith, and a Fun Tale of Women and their Secrets

The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks: This novel revolves around Denise, a thirty-something single mom of a five year old boy with delayed language, and Taylor, a contractor and volunteer fireman who is working hard to rescue as many people as he can. The two meet when Denise is in a car accident during a huge storm and her son wanders away in the swamp. Taylor rescues both her and her son. It's a love story that has some touching moments, some insight into parenting a special needs child, and a few parts that made me angry (why did THAT have to happen?). I didn't love it, but thought it had some good moments and I was happy with the ending. Definitely different from the chick lit romances that I tend to favor--more serious, down to earth. Overall, a decent read. Nicholas Sparks also wrote The Notebook which I really loved when I read it years ago.

Cursed by Carol Higgins Clark: This is apparently the 12th Reagan Reilly Mystery by Carol Higgins Clark, but it's the first book of hers that I have read. Growing up, I used to LOVE to read my mom's Mary Higgins Clark books. Carol is her daughter. This was another decent read. A fun mystery with some good twists. Like her mother, Carol writes with multiple narrators and lots of twists and intermingling of storylines. Although this novel was much less sinister (and suspenseful) than I remember her mom's books being. My main complaint about this book is that I never really got sucked in--I didn't care enough about the particular crime/characters. I'd give Carol Higgins Clark another try although this book left me wishing that I had reread one of her mom's books instead.

The Shack by William P. Young: This is a book I heard about a while ago, but wasn't sure if I wanted to read. My sister brought it to me when she came to visit. My aunt loved it and gave it to my mom who read it and gave it to my sister. I guess it's one of those "read it and pass it on" kind of books. My sister didn't think it was all it was cracked up to be, but passed it on all the same. This novel tells the story of Mack, a father who looses his young daughter to a serial killer. He then gets a note, supposedly from God, inviting him back to the scene of the crime for a weekend. Needless to say, this is a religious text. A lot of the book involves Mack's conversations with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. There are lots of interesting things that make you rethink the way you see faith and religion. An interesting read that definitely made me think a lot--sometimes a little too much. I felt I had to read it really slowly to try to take it all in. Life changing? Maybe. Maybe not. But a lot of food for thought. Worth the read.

The Secret's in the Sauce (Potluck Catering Club Book #1) by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson: The first in the Potluck Catering Club series, this novel is preceded by the three Potluck Club books. I have not read that series, but reading this one made me want to--if nothing else to find out the details related to the crazy prior happenings mentioned in this book. This novel is narrated by the six members of a church potluck club who have decided to start their own catering business. Filled with characters, plot twists and funny "only in a small town" relationships, this book tells the story of these wonderful women and their secrets. This was a fun easy read that came complete with some yummy looking recipes. Not a deep read, although there is a little Christian message built in, I enjoyed this book--especially after the intensity of The Shack. I will definitely keep an eye out for the other books in these series.

I wish I had a camera...but words will have to do

With all my photos and videos, you probably think that I always have my camera with me--but I don't. And as every parent knows there are always those precious moments where you wish you had your camera to capture it forever. We've been having a lot of those moments recently. Since I missed capturing them on film, I'm going to try to tell you about them so I have some sort of record to remind me of these sweet little moments.

A few nights ago, I was getting the boys ready for bed. I put N in the bathtub and asked J to pee in the potty before I put him in. (I love that they are old enough/young enough to take baths together.) Anyway, N was in the tub and J started peeing in the potty which is right next to the tub. N looked up at J, looked at him standing and peeing in the potty, then stood up and started peeing in the tub. It was so adorable. Words just don't do it justice. I, of course, had to empty out the tub and refill it with clean water, but the look of pride on N's face when he was peeing was just too cute.

Last night we went to McDonalds for dinner. Healthy, I know, but it was nice break from cooking and a rare middle-of-the-week treat. Anyway, afterwards we were hanging out in the play area. J, as always, was trying to play one of the video games which rarely work. But this time, he found one that worked and was so excited. A little girl came over and started playing the game with him and J started being silly to impress her. He must have some comic skills because he had the little girl laughing hysterically. It was so fun to see him having fun with a complete stranger. That is a huge deal for my shy little guy.

N has always been intrigued by my knitting and yarn in general. Today he got my current project out of my knitting bag and was trying to take off with the ball of yarn attached to it. After I panicked, I realized the project was unharmed and I put it safely away (must to N's chagrin). Anyway, in the process he got a hold of a piece of yarn about 3 feet in length. He was having so much fun carrying it around. At one point, he was walking pulling the yarn behind him and he kept trying to look at the end of it. He ended up going in circles like a kitten chasing its tail. It was hilarious. Of course, then he got dizzy and was trying to walk in a straight line, but was instead stumbling around like a little drunken man. He escaped unharmed and the whole thing looked like a clip from America's Funnist Home Videos (although this one was actually funny)!

Anyway, words don't do these little moments justice, but I had to jot them down so I don't forget them. If only we could hold onto these precious memories forever.

A Boy and His Dog: A Story in Photos

We're #6!

Here are the current stats for the Dallas Komen Race for the Cure:
Quick Stats:
Number of Participants: 210
Number of Teams: 61
Top Team Standings:
1 - 1:11 Lauri's Angels ($901.11)
2 - Sistas 4 Life ($675.00)
3 - Pink Busters ($275.00)
4 - Fannie Mae ($250.00)
5 - Walk for Kath and Komen ($150.00)
6 - Rockin' Ranch Moms ($135.00)
7 - Texas BUC$ for the Cure ($125.00)
8 - Couture Events By Lottie ($115.00)
9 - Support the Sisters ($100.00)
10 - RMS ($75.00)

See Team #6 with the cheesy name? That's my team! That's the name of our neighborhood moms group. It's a cheesy name, but we're nice peoples. I doubt we'll be able to stay in the top ten teams, but am psyched all the same. Thanks to my family who has made all the donations towards our team so far. You are the best!

This will be my seventh year walking 5K in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, my second year walking with a team of my neighborhood moms here in Dallas. It's not a huge task physically, but it's a very powerful experience every year. I am always so impressed with the tales of strength I witness as I walk with thousands of people, mainly women, but also men and children. I love to see the determination of the survivors who are walking because they still can. I love to see the sheer joy as relatives celebrate the lives of their loved ones who have won their fight against cancer. I even love to see the power of love and remembrance in the eyes of the children and spouses of those who have not been so lucky. For everyone, the walk is a sort of therapy, a celebration of life.

This is a cause that I feel very strongly about. I know a number of women who have battled breast cancer. Fortunately, many of those women have won their battle, but not all have been so lucky. I know that chances are high that I will continue to be affected by this disease as it attacks more of the women who I love dearly and even possibly myself.

I am not one who likes to ask for things, but this asking is not for myself, but for the many people who will battle breast cancer or be affected by the loss of a loved one. If you are able, I ask you to please make a donation. If you choose to support a different cause, I respect that and I wish you luck in your endeavor. If in today's crazy economy making a donation is not feasible, I respect that as well. Just know that every little bit helps--so if $1 fits your budget, please donate $1. Your tax-deductible contribution will fund local outreach and awareness programs for underserved communities in the Dallas County area and national breast cancer research.

Donating is quick and easy. To visit my personal page and pledge your support. place this URL in a web browser: http://www.komen-dallas.org/site/TR/Race/General?px=1414921&pg=personal&fr_id=1040&autologin=true
No donation is too small. I truly appreciate your support. Every year I am amazed by the generosity of the people in my life.

Dear N,

Dear N,
You are one of the sweetest, cutest, most adorable little boys I know. I love watching you grow and learn about yourself and the world around you. But why, oh why, have you decided that your nose is the best place to store your finger?
Love,
Mom

Top Ten Tuesday: Excuses Edition

This is supposed to be "Tales of a Knitting Mom," but I don't feel like I've been doing much knitting recently. I have so many things I want to knit this summer, but I'm way behind. When I tried to figure out why, I came up with a whole list of reasons so...

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is
Top Ten Reasons I'm Behind on My Knitting (or Excuses, Excuses, Excuses)

10. Cooking and cleaning: Yes, I do feel obligated to do them occasionally.

9. B's been traveling: B was out of town for a week. Thus I had to do all the parenting, cooking and cleaning. Without the team effort, there was less time for knitting.

8. Sleeping: I don't know if it's the heat or all the time spent outside or at the pool, but I feel like I need more sleep these days.

7. Playdate organizing: I decided to organize playdates for J and his classmates for next year. There are going to be boys in his class next year and I wanted him to meet them before the school year. This has been fun, but also another suck on my time. Lots of e-mails back and forth trying to organize things.

6. My neighborhood Moms group: I volunteered to be the organizer for my neighborhood moms group. I love this group and the former organizer needed a break so I thought, "why not?" It's been a lot more time consuming than I thought. Still glad I did it, but it's cut into my "me time" more than I hoped. I promised B that I wouldn't let it take away from family time--so I've had to lose some knitting time instead. My main issue: I want to make everyone happy. I've got to lower my standards.

5. So You Think You Can Dance: If you've never watched this show, you should because it's amazing. However, it's not good knitting television as you have to actually watch it (instead of just listening to dialogue like I do with most television.)

4. A failed attempt: J currently has one of those knob cover things on his bedroom door so he can't open it from the inside. I tried taking it off so he could get up and use the bathroom when needed. Right now he sleeps in pull-ups, but I'd like to move him to underwear. Anyway, he couldn't handle the freedom of not having the knob cover. He kept getting out of bed and wasting over an hour of my time each day fighting napping or fighting going to bed. The knob cover is back in place for now.

3. Lots of good books: I've been on a reading spree. I checked out a lot of books that sucked me in this month. I read 7 1/2 books in the last four weeks. I just checked out 10 more from the library. Will let you know how they are.

2. Two adorable boys: Yes, my children keep from knitting. Crazy, huh? I know this is shocking. However, I think they are well worth it. They've been extra adorable recently which means more things to blog about and... you got it, less time to knit.

1. Picking up stitches: It's lame, but true. I hate picking up stitches. I love the finished look, but hate the process of trying to pick up stitches evenly around a shaped piece of knitting. I put this off on my sister's shrug for several days. But this is done and now I've moved on to the sea of ribbing. Nothing to slow me down now except a small case of endless ribbing induced boredom. But that's just another excuse...

Movie Monday: Cars Edition

N and I were playing with some Matchbox cars and the Little People garage this weekend. He thought it was really funny when I made the cars go down the ramp. It was so cute that I had to film it.




It's a little silly in that N is only wearing a diaper (I'd changed him out of his swimsuit, but not into clothes yet), but, otherwise, I thinks it's pretty adorable. Hope it made you smile. Happy Monday, everyone!

Knitting Away...Slowly, but Surely

I am slowly working along on the Textured Circle Shrug for my sister. I'm doing this as part of my first official knit-along. I've enjoyed having the knit-along as a resource of information. The designer herself, Stefanie Japel, is leading the knit-along which is pretty cool. The pattern is pretty fun in its design, but I've gotten to the tedious part right now. I started a week late, but caught up pretty quickly. The body knit up quickly, but then I ended up frogging my original sleeves. I started working them on doublepoints, but then realized I could use 16" circulars instead. I thought they looked so much better on the circulars that I decided to rip and redo them. Then I had the daunting task of picking up 246 stitches evenly around the shrug.


Once I finally accomplished that task to my satisfaction, I got to the tedious part--33 rows of 1x1 ribbing (I've done 7 so far), an increase round, 12 more rows of ribbing, another increase round, and then 22 rounds of seed stitch (299 stitches per row). But then I am finished! I've already woven in all loose ends so far. Can't wait to see how this turns out. I hope my sister will like it.

Only my husband...

This is B's To-Do list he made for himself this weekend:



He cracks me up.

It all started with a little fence damage from some storms we had this week--more hanging out in the bathroom with Pepper and the boys during a tornado warning.

I love how he changed "ANT POISON" to "POISON ANTS" to make it fit better with the rest of his list.

I don't know where "TAKE OVER WORLD" came from, but it's so B.

Did I mention that he cracks me up?

Two Boys and a Puppy: A Story of Fun in Pictures

N got this cool water table for his birthday. He loves to splash the water and cause havoc.

Pepper likes to drink the water. It's Texas in June--it's HOT!

This is one of J and N's favorite games right now. The jump rope is their "hose" and they are firemen. So cute!

N in his first pair of shoes.

J shows off his cool moves. Don't know where he gets these from, but he loves to do these yoga-like poses.

This is the "bed" that J built. The tape measure is his "blanket." I love his imagination!

"Mom!"

We went to a good friend's 4th birthday party. He got a set of water guns as a gift. J got to play with one and was really excited. He was very serious as he waited for someone to squirt with the gun.

We got this fun sprinkler pool for the backyard. All three are big fans. Pepper and J really enjoy drinking from the "fountains."

This one just cracks me up for some reason. Look at that little baby chest!

At a local play village. J loved the hose in the fire station.

J loves playing in sand. He loved the sandbox at school. He keeps talking about playing at the sand when we go to the beach. So I broke down and bought some sand and put it in this container on our patio. He LOVES it! By the way, I never knew sand was SO heavy. I almost couldn't lift it out of the cart at Lowe's.

I just love it when N gives me this "I'm so funny" look.

Pepper: "It's HOT!"

I love Summer! It tastes delicious.

Movie Monday: For His Grandparents Edition

We checked a book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes out of the library recently. J LOVES it! Here are some videos of him "reading" the book to me. Only his grandparents will want to watch them all, but I just couldn't decide on just one to upload.



This is the longest movie. J is reading "Little Boy Blue" first. He doesn't really know this one so he made it up based on the pictures. He called the woman "Old Mother Goose." Next, he reads "Hey Diddle, Diddle" or as he calls it, "Hey Fiddle, Fiddle." He's more familiar with this one so he does a pretty good job with it.




This one is J "reading" Hickety Pickety My Black Hen. It's another new one so he has a little trouble. He calls it "Old Mother black chicken." He cracks me up!




This was another new nursery rhyme for J. Could you figure out what it was? This was "It's raining. It's pouring. The old man is snoring." J's version totally cracked me up!




The last one was one of J's old favorites--Humpty Dumpty. He does a pretty good job with this one. My favorite part is his ending "together togain."

For those who took the time to watch these, I hope they made you smile. Happy Monday, everyone!

Book List: The Best Movie Never Made and J. Lo, PI

I've been totally sucked into this round of library books. Here are the latest two.

She Went All The Way by Meg Cabot: This novel tells the story of Lou Calabrese, a screen writer, and Jack Townsend, an actor, who get stuck together in the Alaskan wilderness after a helicopter crash. To make matters worse, the two have a long history of hating each other and their exes just eloped together. Formulaic, maybe? Addictive, yes! This book sucked me in and wouldn't let go. I kept imagining how great of a movie it would make--part Romantic Comedy, part Action flick, some sex scenes thrown in for good measure. If you're looking for a quick read and a little escapism, I highly recommend this one.

Living the Vida Lola by Misa Ramirez: Lola is a young, hot Latina private investigator--a kind of J. Lo who could kick your butt. She's working to find a killer and a boyfriend. Not usually the kind of storyline I go for, but I decided to give it a try since the author "lives near Dallas, Texas" like me. Sometimes frustrated (in my head) with my inability to pronounce (in my head) all of Lola's Spanish expressions, I still enjoyed this fast pace book. It was fun to try to solve the mystery as Lola found more clues related to the disappearance of Emily Diggs. There were a lot of questions (related to characters and subplots) that were left unanswered so I'm pretty sure this is just the first "Lola Cruz mystery." Unfortunately, since it was just published this year, I'll probably forget all those questions by the time the next one comes out. Oh well.

A Little Knitting

Here's a little FO, another Vine Lace Baby Hat. This one is a preemie size that I made to donate to our local NICU. I like this pattern, but hated working on the little size 2 bamboo doublepoints. I felt like I was working with toothpicks. I don't know if it's just me, but whenever I work on small bamboo doublepoints, I end up with at least one needle that is bent or curved. Anyway, here's a picture and the details.


Pattern: Vine Lace Baby Hat by Sandi Wiseheart
Yarn: Click by Sirdar in White/DK weight wool-acrylic blend/less than one skein (leftover from the Pinwheel Blanket)
Needles: Size 2 Doublepoints
Size: Preemie
Modifications: None

Top Ten Tuesday: Celebration Edition

I got really good news today and so today's Top Ten Tuesday Topic is...

Top Ten Reasons Today is a Really Good Day
(nine little reasons and one very big one)

10. Both boys slept in this morning and woke up in a good mood.

9. We had a lovely thunderstorm this morning and Pepper only freaked out a little bit.

8. Now the sun is shining.

7. B is in town this week.

6. One of my boys is napping right now. (It should be two, but let's not focus on the negatives.)

5. Sophanne made me smile with her blog (as always).

4. My sister is making a really cool gift for my nephew's birthday and she's letting me be a part of it.

3. I found out that my good friend Nicole and her son are planning to come back to visit sometime soonish.

2. I had a wonderful lunch with a really good friend.

1. My cousin Christie found out today that she is officially in remission! Woohoo!

Book List: A New Take on Cinderella, I Do or I Don't and Dallas meets Dukes of Hazzard

More random library finds. I checked out 6 or so this time and I'm really excited about all of them. Here are the first three that I've read:

Godmother by Carolyn Turgeon: I love fairy tale remakes so I was intrigued when I saw this in the library. One of my favorite books of recent times is Wicked by Gregory Maguire (although I hated his remake of the Snow White story Mirror Mirror--possibly the worst book I've ever read.) Godmother is like no other fairy tale remake I've read. This is a totally new take on an often told story, the story of Cinderella. This novel centers on Lil, an elderly woman who works in a small bookstore in Manhattan. But Lil has a big secret: she is Cinderella's fairy Godmother. Something did not go according to plan on the evening of the ball and Lil was banished from the land of fairies. This book slowly reveals Lil's life now, her former life as a fairy godmother and the story of Cinderella. She strives to right the wrongs of her past so she can return to her friends and family in the land of fairies. It's an interesting read. All is not as it seems. Very interesting.

Wedding Season by Darcy Cosper: Joy Silverman is the lucky girl who gets to attend 17 weddings in 6 months including the weddings of her mother (her third), her father (his second), her younger brother and her five closest friends. Unfortunately for Joy, she does not believe in marriage. Fortunately for her, neither does her boyfriend Gabe--at least that's what they both thought. This novel tracks Joy as she experiences and reacts to the many weddings--although numerous, each is very unique and the details add some extra interest to the novel which is full of Joy's rants on the evils of marriage. I enjoyed this book and enjoyed all the different characters although some may have been a little contrived. As the wedding season continues, there is a sense of an impending train wreck and I found myself feeling anxious for Joy as the book progressed. Anyway, anyone who was ever been asked the question "So when are you getting married?" can relate in some way to this book.

Don't Let It Be True by Jo Barrett: I chose this book from the many at the library's "grab and go" fiction shelf because it takes place in Texas. As a "Texan" now, I thought it would be fun to read a novel that takes place in Texas--and it was. Don't Let It Be True is about Kat and Dylan, a couple who are both broke and trying to keep the rest of Houston society from finding out. I grew up watching Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas on Friday nights and felt this book was like those two shows combined (if you can imagine that). I found this novel to be very entertaining. The chapters are short, the characters are interesting and likable, there are some great one-liners, and the plot moves at a decent pace. It's no life-changing novel, but it was an enjoyable read.