Jodi Picoult - Excellent Author

I am on my third book by Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes. The first two books I read by her were My Sister's Keeper and Vanishing Act. I love and hate her books all at the same time. Her writing style keeps you at the edge of your seat and it is very difficult to put her books down. She leaves you wondering what you are missing; what surprises she has in store for you. Even once you have put the book down, you find yourself thinking about the events in the book throughout your day. She writes about very current issues and sometimes very controversial issues. The thing I love most about her books is also the thing I hate. She has a great way of getting you involved emotionally to her characters and to the events that are happening in her books. And when you feel like your emotions can take no more and you feel that the story is coming to an end and you can relax, that is when she brings out the big guns and hits your emotions with a surprise twist. There is always a surprise, something you were not expecting that sends your already emotional state spiraling. This is the part I hate and love. Usually when I have finished reading the book I am emotionally exhausted. But after a little time, I realize, an author who can get you that involved with their characters is worth reading again.

Teething - AHHHHH!

Okay, so this teething phase is not much fun. Addison is very fussy, she is drooling over everything and she is chewing on EVERYTHING!

I happen to notice this week that her crib has teeth marks on it now.

This picture only shows a few of the numerous teeth marks that are now on her crib.

Daniel and I have been trying to come up with a way to stop her from teething on her crib. The Internet offers a few different products that can go over crib railings to protect them, but they looked so simple, we thought we might try to make something ourselves.

Then last night it hit me. Why don't we tie her bumper around the railing. Now this fixes the problems with her chewing on her front railing, but not the back, because the back is solid and has no place to tie the bumper to. Then I realized that if we just lower her mattress again, then she will not be able to reach the top of the back railing. We need to lower her bed anyway, because she is at a height now were she could climb out if she really wanted to.

So we have solved another baby dilemma and this one didn't even cost us any money. YEAH!

Where did Spring go?

I love Spring. I love being able to open all the windows and air out the house, with the breeze flowing through our house. I love it when you can cool the house down at night just by opening the windows.

But where did Spring go this year? It went from Winter (too cold to open the windows), to a few weeks of Spring (but with high pollen, so we didn't open the windows), and now it is HOT! Way too hot to open the windows! I am talking 90's hot. And it is suppose to get hotter. I completely missed Spring and I wish it would come back!

Gone are the days of being a speed demon

Okay, for those of you who know me, you know how much I love driving and how much I love driving FAST! I have been up to speeds of over 100 on interstate, though that was back in my college days. I had all the fancy radar detectors and I knew the rules of when and where you could get away with driving fast. But more than just driving fast, my favorite thing to do was to be at a red light when I knew that the person beside me was going to try to get in front of me and I would hit the gas in my little green BMW and see them in my dust as I zoomed in front of them.

Well, those days are over. About a year ago I traded in my wonderfully fast BMW for a Ford Escape (a more family friendly vehicle). Needless to say, my Escape does not have the same going power as my BMW had, but I must say it does have more acceleration power then you would think. It has still been an adjustment. Not being able to accelerate quickly when getting onto interstate roads or at red lights has made me have to change my driving style. But until recently I was still driving fairly fast.

Then gas prices went through the roof. And I have come to the realization that saving money is more important that getting to where I am going faster. Also, the fact that there are very few places I HAVE to be at, at a certain time helps in not having to hurry. I have actually started driving just the speed limit. Do you have any idea how hard that is for me. I feel like I am going the speed of a snail. I have to set my cruise control or else I will find myself speeding again. But I have definitely noticed a savings in gas. I used to have to fill up the Escape every week and many times I would not even make it a week. Now I can typically make it a week and a half and sometimes I can go almost two weeks without filling up. Also, I used to get about 21 to 22 mpg, but now I am getting around 24 to 24.5 mpg.

The really funny thing though, is I used to be one of those people who would look at the people going the speed limit, thinking they were crazy. I have gone past cops going 8 to 10 over the speed limit and they don't even blink. So I have always thought that it was crazy for people to not at least go a few miles faster than the speed limit. It is not like they are going to get a ticket. But now I am one of the cars that faster cars pass and I am sure that they think I am crazy for going as slow as I am going.

But if going slower means I can go more places, then so be it.