Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Wordless Wednesday: The Entire Month of March

Book Character Dress Up Day: Catwad and Blurmp

Reading while we wait on the bus.


Skippy always sits close to my yoga mat and stares at the ground or sits far away and stares at me.

Elise working on her class art project.

The outfit Elise picked out for picture day.


Playing with the guinea pig (Carter's class pet) after school.

Pinewood Derby

Our Odyssey of the Mind team at the state tournament





Elise's 8th Birthday Party at My Little Dollhouse

Elise seeing Maribel arrive at her party.














Took our friends to the Gathering Place while they were visiting.



Playing in the sand with the girls.






Elise finally caught on to the goofy faces.


What Elise bought with her birthday gift card.

Riding the new carousel at the aquarium.







New jellyfish touch tank at the aquarium




Ready to head to Texas for spring break!

Carter wanted in a picture too.

Doseum in San Antonio our first night there.




Eric Carle Exhibit at the Doseum

The Alamo






The river turned green for St. Patrick's Day







Sea Life Aquarium in San Antonio
















Legoland in San Antonio








Making her own minifigures in the store.












Watching for Ang's boyfriend to arrive.


At my cousin's wedding.







Elise having her first caffeinated drink since it was almost her 8th birthday. She was very excited!


Table set up for Elise's birthday breakfast.






Playing games at Cici's for her birthday.

Elise was thrilled her Uncie J came to eat with us.



Elise watching Carter's Odyssey of the Mind team perform at state.



Ready for Viva Zarrow with a Mardi Gras theme.

With Elise's class project we won in the live auction.

Hurricanes!




Elise asked for dog toys for her birthday so she could play with the dogs with them.


























Photo Drop: Rest of February





Decorating cookies on Valentine's Day.

Ty made me bookshelves for Valentine's Day and I sorted books by color to make a rainbow.

The haul from my 27 valentines at school!



Elise not feeling good when she came home from school early after throwing up.





Another load of cookies from the cookie cupboard!

Rained on my run and Ty said it was hard to take me seriously when I was talking. I walked into the bathroom and saw why when I looked in the mirror!

Choir Performance



Elise found my phone while I was loading up cookies from a booth and took pictures with her friends.
















Thursday, March 2, 2023

What I Read: February

I had this all typed up and ready and forgot to ever post it. February was mostly for romance. I also had a couple picks I read for black history month.

Books:

  • Book Lovers by Emily Henry- I adored this one. It was so sweet and I loved the main character. I loved that she was a high powered business woman, but still allowed to have the happy ending. There were so many sweet moments that gave me that tingly feeling as I was reading!
  • Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith- I picked this up at the bookstore because I wanted something fun for February and the cover was cute. I didn't realize it was a YA book. I read all book genres, but this one was just not good. It was boring and I had a hard time finishing it even though it was short!
  • Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman- I was so excited to read this novella after reading all the graphic novels. It was really cute, jut like all the Heartstopper books. I love Nick and Charlie's story!
  • My Monticello by Joceyln Nicole Johnson- The book jacket on this one made it sound like one narrative. I was expecting a story that wove multiple character's storylines together. Instead it was multiple short stories followed by a novella. I didn't like it overall, but the ending was good.

eBooks:

  • Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson- I really liked Nothing to See Here. It was weird but also funny. This one was also weird, but not funny. He has a way of making you really like these super strange characters. 
  • Rouge Protocol by Martha Wells- Book 3 in the Murderbot Diaries series. I always love these and the humor in them is great!
  • My Own Miraculous by Joshilyn Jackson- I was excited to read this short story about Shandi Pierce from Someone Else's Love Story. It was good but not as good as her books.
Audiobooks:

  • Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow- I bought this years ago at Goodwill and would start it and stall out. This time when I started stalling out, I decided to switch over to an audiobook and even then I struggled to finish. The beginning was boring since I read George Washington by Chernow and his and Hamilton's stories during the Revolutionary War were so intertwined. Much of that section in this book was very similar to that section in Washington's book. I thought his book about Washington was a lot more interesting and had way more information that was new to me in it than this one, but that probably was because I started with Washington when I started reading books about the presidents. Then Hamilton's feuds with Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe were both detailed in books I read about them. Add in the other books I've read about Eliza Hamilton and there really wasn't much new in this book. Still, I had to read it since it inspired the musical Hamilton!
  • Hang the Moon by Alexandria Bellefleur- I loved Written in the Stars which I read in December so I was excited when I saw there were other books in the series. This was the 2nd one and focused on 2 different characters than the first book. I enjoyed it even more than the first book in the series! It was really cute!
  • Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson- This book was so good! It kept me guessing and thinking for most of the first section of the book. I started it as an audiobook and then it returned before I finished it so I read the rest as a book because I didn't want to wait to get the audiobook back to finish it. Now I'm desperate to try black cake!
  • The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez- I was absolutely loving this book, like full 5 stars on Goodreads loving it. Then she pulled the whole, I'm going to break up with you to protect you but not tell you that and let you think something else twist. I was so irritated and it ruined the book a bit for me. I was also a bit annoyed by the epilogue. It annoys me when authors add an epilogue to the end of the book where it's years later and they're married and she's pregnant. Spoiler alert if you didn't already know this one would have a predictable ending. The characters in this one were all amazing and overall I still loved the book. I'd give it 4.5 stars.