Hunger Games

Tayson finished reading Hunger Games.  It's a long book so it took him a few months  but as a reward he earned $37 ($10 for every 100 pages) and I took him to go see the movie.  He loved the movie and I am so proud of him for reading the book.  I was also very happy that he knew what was going on in the movie and would say things like "isn't this when .... happens?" Then we would talk about why movies are sometimes different.  Way to go finishing the book kiddo!

 

He loves to read

I love reading a good book and I love that Tayson does too.  He has been waiting for the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book to come out for a few months. He would tell us when it was coming out on a regular basis and had Todd take him to Barnes & Nobel opening day so he could get it.  He can't put it down.  I love it!

Today I finished another book

My picture for today. I have been reading the Percy Jackson series and finished book 4 today. We are starting to read the first book to Tayson now. Someday I hope he loves reading as much as I do.

A Good Book

Last night I finished the book "The Hunger Games" and can I just say it was so great! I loved it. It was a quick read and the characters were awesome. I can't wait for the second book in the series to come out in a few weeks.

Also, I got my blog book yesterday and I am so happy with how it turned out. These aren't the best pictures...but I had to use my phone to take them because my special blogging camera battery is dead.





I used blurb to make my book and I will use them again. The book cost me $67 total (I found a free shipping coupon online which saved me all the shipping costs). I decided that I want to do my blog into journals in 1 year increments so this is my 2008 book.

So here is what I did. I went to blurb's website and downloaded their booksmart software onto my computer. Then I imported my blog. One thing I did wrong at this point was the order I got my entries - mine came in newest to oldest. Then I made a journal cover and back to my book using the same basic image and title that I have on my blog right now. Then the real work started. I went through every page and found a layout that fit it better, cropped and zoomed images, changed font sizes, took out everything at the bottom (like my email address) and only left the date/time stamp from my blog. I combined smaller entries onto single pages (see the left side of the image above) in order to cut down on the number of pages. I made sure that if a spread was 2 pages long that it was laid out together rather than having to turn the page. Initially I was putting the date/time stamp in the footer so I had to go back after about 75 pages and put that back in the body and change all my footers to only have the page number. I re-read almost every entry to make sure they made sense, removed things that didn't really matter (like the Twilight trailer), and occasionally had to slim down the picture descriptions to fit in the space provided. Once I was happy with all of the layouts I was previewing my book and I didn't like the way it flowed with newest to oldest so I spent a few hours changing the order (I couldn't find a way to do this automatically and had to do it 3-4 pages at a time). Then I had to go back and make sure that all my double spread layouts were still grouped together. After that I ran a spell check and did a final preview of my site. They recommend that you print it out and look at it but I really didn't want to waste 260 pages so I placed my order. It took about 2 weeks to print and mail. One thing I wish I would have done differently is to order it with the Hardcover image wrap instead of the dust cover. I'm sure the dust cover will be ripped and ruined faster than I want. Other than that I'm extremely happy with how it turned out.

Last night Mark came over for dinner and I had just opened my book so I ask him if he wanted to know what he missed out on while he was gone and handed him my book jokingly. It made me so happy that as he was looking through it he kept stopping and reading and reading and reading. My kids love it and every time they see a page with their picture on it want me to read them the story. This is why I love keeping a journal and now my blog. I want my family to remember their lives and especially to know how much I love them.

Now I need to be better about keeping my blog updated so that 2008 has just as many great stories and pictures as 2007.

Book Review - Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

I finished this book last night. It was quite a bit different than the other 2 books I've read by Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper and 19 Minutes). It didn't seem to be quite as controversial. I really liked the main character (Cassie). It was a lot of character development and relationships with a good plot and good ending. The biggest issue I had with this book was the language.

Book Reviews

I just finished a book and I thought I would write up a quick review on the last few books I read.

The Glass Castle. I enjoyed reading this book. I'm not a huge fan of memoirs but occasionally they are fun to read. This particular one was a bit disturbing because the way she talked about how she was raised was pretty much neglect and child abuse. Her writing style was fun and she put everything into a positive spin instead of focusing on how bad her life really was.

Mrs. Kimble. This book was about a man and his 3 wives (not all at the same time). It was a good book and I read it pretty fast. It was all character development not a lot of plot or action but it was good.

House of Sand and Fog. This book had 4 main characters who all get involved in a house sale gone bad and the lengths each of them were willing to go to due to desperation and their pasts. I didn't love this book. I had a really hard time getting into this book and then even when I finished it I didn't have any love for any of the main characters.

Right now I'm reading Picture Perfect.

She loves to read

This is what I saw last night about 40 minutes after we put Claire to bed. Every (and I mean every) book from her bookshelf was on her bed and she was laying on top of them reading. She loves to pull her books off the shelf and I have to pick them up on a daily basis but they are usually just on the floor next to the shelf. When I cleaned up the books I found both of her purses, her new lipstick, 3 watches and 3 of her princess wands under the books.

We are trying to potty train her again and got her the potty watch so yesterday the music went off so I had her go sit on the potty then I got distracted and forgot she was back there (mom of the year) I walked back there after about 15 minutes and she was sitting on the potty reading books happy as could be...and of course didn't go.

OK one more book story....this morning after breakfast she went back to her room (usually she goes back to play with her vanity) but when I walked by her room she was laying in bed reading a book. A girl after my own heart. I would have loved to crawl back in bed today to read.

P.S. She obviously can't really read...she just looks at the pictures :)

Breaking Dawn

It's true I went to the midnight release party for Breaking Dawn. I go to bed very early (usually by 10 pm) and I'm dead tired by 9:00 every night. There are very few things I will stay up late for, but a good book is one of the only things that I will stay up for. Todd always laughs when I stay up reading because I can't put a book down. So it's only natural that I would stay up late in order to buy the last of the Twilight books. I have loved the series.

There were about 12 of us that met at 8:00 for dinner then headed over to Barnes & Noble to wait in line to buy the book. Thank goodness Maria and Alissa were willing to go pick up wrist bands for us that morning so we could get in and out fast. Right when we sat down to eat dinner I got a text message from Todd that Luke had just thrown up...so sad. But the good part of that is (besides not being there to clean it up) was that Todd put our sheets in the wash and forgot to put them in the dryer so I got to read that night for an hour while I waited. I'm already done with the book (which is one of the reasons I haven't posted much this week).

I need a new book

After reading The Host by Stephenie Meyers I was in need of a Twilight fix so I thought it would be a good time to re-read the series in preparation for Breaking Dawn coming August 2nd. Yes, I did this every time a new Harry Potter book came out too. I have to re-read all previous books to make sure I'm in the right mode before starting a new one in a series (possible OCD).

Sadly, I finished all 3 books last week because once again I couldn't put them down even though I've already read them all twice before. I'm sure Todd thinks I'm a bit crazy. But, now I can't find anything I want to read and I really need a new book. Any suggestions?

The Cullens

Have you heard they finished casting the Cullen Family? I'm just so excited about the movie I can't even be picky about who they cast. I'm very happy with Alice. She looks perfect! I can hardly wait for book 4 and the movie to come out later this year. I'm totally addicted and might need to re-read them all again just to get my vampire fix. :)

My Daemon - Arion

This is a fun site from the "Golden Compass" movie coming out. A Daemon is basically part of your soul.

Great Book Review Site

my 'read' shelf:


I love this site. I'm having so much fun trying to remember all the books I've read and looking at what my friends are reading. It's giving me lots of ideas for my next book. Currently I'm reading the third book in the "Golden Compass" series - The Amber Spyglass.