Challenge!

Ok, here's my challenge for the new year. I want to create a "loose" type book club. Nothing strict, no deadlines, unless you need them and then I will enforce them. Just a read and post/talk about them. I have finished all my classwork and am reading like crazy. But... I love when someone reads the same book I do, so that I can discuss it. I always pass my books onto Teaque, which is great, but it's usually a few weeks, months, (years) before we can discuss them. She is improving though. She just finished a book I read over the summer so we've been talking about it. She's now reading a book that I absolutely love and just finished a couple of weeks ago. This book is the first in a trilogy by Stephenie Meyer. It's called Twilight and it is amazing. I've never been into vampire books or movies, but this is a great series. The main character, Edward is so hot that he just draws you in and makes you fall in love with him. One of the middle schools in my district is going nuts over it and they are having a huge party and even have t-shirts made up for it. The book is being made into a movie to be released in Nov. 2008.

So here's my challenge: Anyone (Shelley/Dendra) want to read it with us and talk about it? I'm on the third book, but want to know what everyone thinks about them.

New Moon is the 2nd book and Eclispe is the 3rd. Teaque has my copy of the 1st book Twilight. Believe it or not she might finish it this week. I've got her hooked. She started it today and when she called me at 8:00 tonight she was already 80 pages into it. These are not difficult reading but very addictive. And I just found out that there is a book 4 in the works: Breaking Dawn. Oh, I'm excited.

So any takers????

Chopsticks!

Mom, Dad, and I took Makinsi to Ginza, which is our local Hibatchi restuarant, on Thursday night. We met up with Hil and Celia to help celebrate a friends 50th birthday. Anyway this is my FAVORITE restuarant and I was so excited to get to take Makinsi to experience it. She loved the cook and his skills with the spatula and knife. The fire she wasn't crazy about. She liked it when it was at the other tables, but she hid her face in my shirt when he did it at our table. But like a trooper, she didn't cry! I was so proud of her. We eat there a lot and most kids scream after the fire. She ate lots of different things off my plate, but she loved using the chopsticks. I used them with her a couple of times and then tried to go back to the spoon and she would have nothing to do with it. I'm glad I got my little buddy hooked one of my favorite things.

We used the kiddy chopsticks by the way.

Christmas Day Review

Christmas Day we spent with Brad's family. This is the first Christmas since 2001 and the first since I've been a part of the family that everyone has been home. Luke is in the Air Force and has been stationed away for most of those years so his family hasn't been able to come home. They are outside St. Louis now and made it home on Christmas Day.




The girls and the guys.

Me and my "sisters"!

Christmas Eve Review

What a busy holiday! Brad working at the mall, enjoyed his first Christmas in retail. He was really busy and worked lots of hours, but I think he really enjoyed it.

Christmas Eve we spent with my family like we do every year. This was our second Christmas with Makinsi, but the first where she really could participate. We had so much fun with her.

She helped everyone open their presents and played with lots of boxes. She got two chairs: A high class potty chair with a toilet paper holder and a magazine rack and an Elmo chair.

We all went together and got my dad a guitar. I have a feeling he'll be learning some Makinsi songs first. We stayed up late and played games with Hil and Celia like always and had a great time.

Christmas Photo Sneak Peak

It only took 4 attempts with the timer to get this picture. Not too bad! Now lets see how long it takes to get them in the mail.

Mix Up or Not?

We just opened our Dec. 12th gift, yes a day early. I opened this:

Ha, Ha, these are Brad's favorites. Brad opened this:

I think the tags got mixed up, what do you think?

The peppermints are also Bailey's favorite.

25 Days of Christmas

One of the traditions that Brad's mom started a few years ago was to give each of us a small gift each day beginning on Dec. 1st. She gives all of us a big sack of gifts and trusts all of us to open only one each day. It's hard, but I really try to make sure we do it that way. Brad and I end up opening the next days gift the night before, but we balance out and for the most part open one each day. It's fun and we have a good time guessing what each one will be. So it's Dec. 6th and in our tradition we have just opened Dec. 7th's gift. So far we have gotten:

A Mark Grace picture and the Winter Redbird pictures:

Soap and Chapstick:

UK/UL Bookmarks:

A Cubs Ornament and I got a book:
A potholder for me and a towel for Brad:
A school pillow that says "When is Recess" and a CD by this Hotty - Jamie Buckley. He's a friend of ours and wrote our wedding song! He sings for the army now as a recruiter.
And tomorrow's: Socks and a Comb! Brad was so excited!

This is the pile of the next weeks. I'm really curious about a couple of them.

This is just something fun that my MIL does. We all have a good time with it. My mom does the 12 days of Christmas and we open them all on Christmas Eve.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Just a few pictures of our Christmas decorations. I went and got a tree on Sat. with my dad and then Brad and I decorated it that night.

Bailey asking Santa for Scooby Snacks!

After making Bailey do this every year, she doesn't even fight me any more. She just lays down and waits until I get just the right picture. I wish I could teach her to smile.Of course, I had to take one of Makinsi. I love this one. She spent the day with me and I got her ready a few minutes early before Hanging of the Greens at church so I could play with her under the tree.