The Woods by Harlan Coben
I was in the mood for a good thriller. Picked up a Harlan Coben book I hadn’t read at a book sale for 75 cents and it delivered just what I needed.
Reading: Rosemary’s Baby
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
I also picked this one up at a book fair on a whim. I’ve always been too scared to watch the movie and I didn’t realize it was a novel. I wanted to read a scary book for Halloween this year.
Fun read! It took me two sittings to finish it. Very fast read, but very enjoyable. Now I definitely want to see the movie, it’s next up in my Netflix queue!
Reading: The History of Love
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Picked this one up for 75 cents at a book fair. I liked the title.
It was ok. It was odd with quirky characters and I started out completely in love with it. But about half-way through it just fell flat and I just wanted to finish it. It was lovely, just no lasting impact.
Science Night
I really didn’t want to go to this. Fortunately we have an elementary school with a really high level of family involvement. Which means a packed school for every single event. Crammed and crowded and noisy. I complained, I whined, I moaned, but the kids reeeeeaaaaaalllllly wanted to go, so we did.
And it was fun and they had a blast. Naturally.
Evren sorting through Owl Pellets. Apparently owls eat everything, and then regurgitate what they can’t digest? (or something…) So the kids had fun sorting through all that to find all kinds of small bones, skulls, etc. *gross*
The kids looking baffled – um, we’re supposed to light up a light bulb with a potato and a lemon? Huh?
This was my favorite. With a piece of tin foil and one battery you can light up a small lightbulb! Awesome!
Static Electricity was Ayla’s favorite. Evren walked around most of the time with a balloon on his head.
Evren made a new friend. He has always been very social.
Evren’s favorite part was learning about dinosaur fossils. They even had fossilized poop.
Reading: The Geography of Bliss
The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
Took longer than usual to read this book, but it was such a wonderful read. Eric Weiner has such a pleasant writing style, I feel like we could be buddies! I would highly recommend this book to anyone, regardless if you are looking for the key to happiness or not. And if you are looking for what makes the most impact on personal happiness? The answer is clear – you just have to read the book (or buy me a drink) for the answer.
Eric Weiner – Official Website
I am now stalking him on Facebook and Twitter.
Our First Ever Dog Bath
Never have I given a dog a bath, until now. Luckily she was a perfect angel and I had a great helper who jumped in to help.
Pretending like we know what we are doing.
Ayla picked out the fruity dog shampoo.
Nala did a really great job, she wasn’t pleased, but she stood still and let us soap her up.
Final rinse…
Turns out we have a self-drying dog!
Done!
Reading: The Year of Magical Thinking
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Didion’s husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, died of a heart attack, just after they had returned from the hospital where their only child, Quintana, was lying in a coma. This book is a memoir of Dunne’s death, Quintana’s illness, and Didion’s efforts to make sense of a time when nothing made sense. -from the New Yorker editorial review
This book is a memoir, written from a deeply personal and real place, and the brilliance of Joan Didion’s writing is undeniable. Unfortunately/fortunately I could find no personal connection to the story of grief and loss so I truly felt like I was on the outside looking in, knowing full well from the beginning that I would not form an attachment.
#26 New Pet
#26 Get A New Pet – Any Kind
We weren’t looking to get a dog, we were actually all set to get a snake, but we had a friend who needed a new home for her dog, and long story short, now we now have a new member of the family!
Meet Nala…
She’s a 6-year old Beagle, and we love her so much.
She’s our baby.
If you come near her, she’ll drop and roll over, just in case you wanted to rub her belly.
I was following her around the backyard with the camera and all she wanted was a little privacy.
Watching: New In Town
I am not a fan of Renee Zellweger, but the Harry Connick Jr. factor was enough to get me to watch this one. It was very cute, and entertaining enough. I enjoyed it.
#16 Letterboxing
#16 Go Letterboxing Again
We did finally go letterboxing again, and we went with friends this time. It was a very warm day, but it was a really nice activity to do all together. Then we all went for burgers after!
Letterboxing is a very inexpensive activity that you can do with your family just about anywhere and anytime! It does take a bit of prep work as you need to find the sites you want to visit first and map out your drive. Letterboxing North America is a great place to start, or you can just google “letterboxing” for more sites.
The concept is simple. Everyone has their own notepad, stamp, ink pad and pen. But that’s all you need! We have put together a letterboxing bag with different colored inks and markers and I made a big deal of going to the craft store before our first time and letting the kids pick out their own stamps.
The letterboxing community has hidden all over the world small boxes for you to find. It’s like a treasure hunt! You have to follow the clues to find the boxes. In the box you should find a stamp and a notepad.
Everyone who comes to the site stamps their stamp in the notepad and signs their name (or nickname) so that the person who left the box has a wonderful record of everyone who has found their box. Then, one takes the stamp from the box and stamps it in their own notebook with a note or story about where they found it. You can end up with a wonderful notepad of memories.
This is a great activity to continue when you go on vacation or travel to visit relatives in other parts of the country or the world. It’s a wonderful way to spend quality time with family and friends too.
Ok, now I’ve convinced myself, I want to go again…
Here are some pics from our last outing where we ended up in a couple of different local cemeteries that were very old. The most interesting thing the children noticed is that so many of the names we saw on the tombstones were now the names of local elementary schools.
(Of course I forgot my camera that day, so I just got a few pics with my phone. Apologies.)
Reading the engravings on the tombstones. Some of them were so old you could no longer read the writing.
Just hanging out in the cemetery. You know, like always. What?! This is totally normal.
Looking for the next clue…
