Water for Elephants


The first time I heard of
Water For Elephants
was on a beach in Connecticut. We were there for Jake’s cousin’s wedding and David was running around the beach.
I saw this woman reading the book and got it confused with another one and when I realized my mistake, I asked her
how it was. She said she was liking it, but didn’t seem enthusiastic enough for me to want to place it on my library queue.



A few weeks ago, I was at Kepler’s and saw the book again. I decided I wanted to give it a try. I got it from the library three weeks ago and it’s been sitting around, waiting to be read.
Despite being on vacation, I haven’t read much at all in the last three weeks and I was getting worried that something was wrong with me.

Turns out nothing was wrong with me, and everything was wrong with the books I was trying to read. I picked this book up since it was due back in two days and I wanted to at least check it out.
And, man, am I glad I did. I read it in two days and loved loved LOVED it. I can’t even tell you why. I fell into the story immediately and enjoyed every single minute of it.

Despite the unusual setting, this is a timeless story and fantastic writing. Highly recommended.

David and Franklin



David doesn’t normally play with other kids very often. He doesn’t
dislike them or anything. I just think he’s not used to it since he was
at home so much of his life. Or so I’ve been telling myself. That
coupled with his speech delay had me a bit worried. But if I had any
worries that he liked other kids, that worry was put to bed this past
weekend when we went to San Diego.



When my friend Nicole and her 3.5 year old, Franklin, met us at the
mall, I had no idea Franklin and David were going to hit it off this
well. The ran around and played for hours. They climbed trees, they
chased each other, they tickled each other, they danced together, and
they even hugged! It was the most amazing thing to watch and brought
tears to my eyes.

I loved seeing David have such a good friend and laughing out loud with
him. Such a pity they don’t live closer to us.

Photos from Pacific Beach IV



Last one from Pacific Beach.

Photos from Pacific Beach III



More Pacific Beach.

Photos from Pacific Beach II



More Pacific Beach.

Photos from Pacific Beach I



I wanted to upload some photos from our San Diego trip. Specifically at
Pacific Beach. Hope you like them.

The Encyclopedia of my Ordinary Life



This was for an altered item contest sponsored by Sassafras Lass at AMM.
This is an item that was originally designed for photo storage. I
decided to alter it to do a CKU class I read about called “The
Encyclopedia of my ordinary life.” This is normally a class where you
pick three items with each letter of the alphabet and create a layout
for each letter, so you end up with a full album. It’s based on a
book
.

I loved the idea and wanted to do it too but I found the layout format
too confining. For some letters, I had way more than 3 items and for
others I had none. So when I saw this container I thought it was the
perfect idea. This way, I can put 8 under one letter and none under
others if I want. I also included a sample page I made so you can see
the kind of stuff that would go in it.



Gentle



Sketch number 10 for 1-in-48. Journaling Reads:

We saw this beautiful cat on our walk in the neighborhood today and you
were excited beyond words. You watched it from afar and shrieked with
joy. Even the cat could tell that you were having a lot of fun so it
didn’t run away. David, I love that you love animals as much as I do and
that you’re so kind and gentle around them.

The Love of Reading

Every night, after we put David in his crib (yes, he is still in a crib
and he will be until he learns to climb out of it!), I read him a book.
Last week, we started reading the Cat in the Hat and it has quickly
become his favorite book. As soon as Jake puts him down, he starts
chanting “Cat, Hat, cat, hat!” until I show up with the book. Then we
both sit down and I read.

Tonight, I switched to another Dr. Seuss book and when we finished he
said, “More Cat in Hat” and so we read another and then he said “more”
and I said “No more tonight my love, we’ll read more tomorrow.” I so
hope he is like that for the rest of his life.



If I am able to pass on my love of reading to David, it will be one of
the best presents I could ever give him.

Peony In Love


I absolutely loved Snowflower and the Secret Fan so I was thrilled when I heard about Peony In Love
I couldn’t wait to read more of Lisa See. Yet, it turns out the book is terrible. I mean it was so bad that I put it down 5 times. I told myself that I had to get to page 100 before I made a final decision and then at page 101, I gave up. It was bad and
it got exponentially worse. What a shame it is to see an author, who can obviously do ten times better, write such a mediocre (actually it isn’t even mediocre) book.

On Chesil Beach


I’ve been a fan of Ian McEwan for a few years now and I absolutely loved his previous book, _Saturday_, so when I saw he had a new one, I couldn’t
wait to pick it up. On Chesil Beach is a tiny book
and I read the whole thing in an hour. While the last 5 pages were fantastic, I can’t say that for the rest of the book. It was bleh. It went on and on and about
something I didn’t care too much to read about. I didn’t care about the characters enough to care. It was sweet, elegant and a fast read but it was definitely not up to his potential.

Bookends

I had never read a novel by Jane Green before I
picked up Bookends
I picked it up because one of the staff members at Kepler’s recommended it and I dream of starting a book store and so reading a book about that seemed a lot of fun. While
she is a really quick read, I wouldn’t qualify her as pure chicklit. She’s a bit better than that. Her writing is relatively good. Her characters are 2.5 dimensional. I can
definitely see myself reading more of her, especially when I need a mental downtime.