Blog Tour-The Election

This week's tour is for Jerome Teel's The Election.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :
Jerome Teel is a graduate of Union University, where he received his JD, cum laude, from the Ole Miss School of Law. He is actively involved in his church, local charities, and youth sports.He has always loved legal-suspense novels and is a political junkie. Jerome and his wife, Jennifer, have three children-Brittney, Trey, and Matthew-and reside in Tennessee, where he practices law and is at work on a new novel.


About The Election:

Ed Burke has waited a lifetime to become president of the United States. He's not about to let his nemesis, Mac Foster, stop him now...especially when he's sold his soul for the Oval Office.

Claudia Duval has lived a rough life. And finally, things have turned around for her after meeting the wealthy Hudson Kinney. But is all what is seems?

When a prominent citizen is murdered in Jackson, Tennessee, attorney Jake Reed doesn't want to know the truth. He just wants to get his client off. But as he investigates, he uncovers a sinister scheme. A scheme that would undermine the very democracy of America...and the freedom of the entire world.

God Bless Grandma J and JC Penney

In the best news of the week, The girl will be starting school on Wednesday. Grandma J found her a place at her best friend's preschool and one of her teacher's is another friend. I know she will be treated well there. We went to the mall on Monday to buy some clothes for school. At Penney's I found the plus size section for little girls. And while I find it mildly disturbing that they call it plus sizes, I found her two pairs of pants that fit!!. she got some really cute embellished jeans and some plain ones. I am going to order her some khakis online because they were sold out.

In other good news, M. has slept through the night twice now. He weighs about 13 lbs. W. is doing 8-9 hours pretty consistently. But now that the time change is upon us, I am going to have to work at getting them to start their night after 6 or 7pm. Right now they are going to bed at about 5 or 6, so when time changes it will be 4 or 5. My goal is for them to sleep from 7 to 7 or 6 to 6. M. is still struggling with reflux. He is taking zantac, but it only helps a little while. I've started feeding him his rice instead of putting it in his bottle. He likes food. It seems to be working better, too. He hasn't been able to get into a deep sleep unless he was snuggled really close, so I got a tiny hot/cold pack and warmed it up and put it in his blanket last night. It seemed to help him settle down better when he would reflux. I hope this works. I've been falling asleep at night holding his pacifier in. not the most comfortable way to sleep.

Lego Star Wars II is totally cool. I'm 91% done. I play in the middle of the night while I wait for the boys to go back to sleep. The only thing I don't like is that it is harder to use your lightsaber than in the first game. I do like all the bonus missions and that there are more levels where you fly.

I guess that catches me up.

Clothing

It's time to get some warm clothing for the older kids. I took the girl to the store this morning to get a few items. She is 3 yrs old(will be 4 in March). Generally speaking, most 3 yr olds wear between a 3 and 4T. She wears a 6/6x. Which is in the girls sizes, not the toddler sizes. This poses several problems. 1. Her legs are not a 6/6x length. 2. the clothes look too grown up for a 3 yr old. She's not fat. She's wide. She has always been big, I was too when I was little. I try not project my own issues with finding clothes to fit onto her, but it is just as frustrating to buy her clothes as it is to buy myself clothes. I bought her a pair of size 7 capri jeans. They are a little loose in the waist and the hem comes to just below her ankle, a perfect pair of jeans. I guess the good thing is they could possibly fit her for the next 3 yrs and eventually actually be capris on her. Poor baby.

Violette Between

This week's blog tour is for Violette Between by Alison Strobel.

From the book:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Alison Strobel graduated with a degree in elementary education, and in the summer of 2000 she moved from Chicago to southern California where she taught elementary school for three years. It was in Orange County that she met her husband, Daniel Morrow, and the story developed for her first novel, Worlds Collide.

Violette Between is a poinant story of a true artist. When the love of Violette's life, Saul suddenly died, she died too. Then she meets Christian, who also is morning the loss of a loved one.As Violette and Christian begin to feel something that they both thought was impossible, tragedy strikes again. Christian finds Violette on the floor of his waiting room, that she had been painting to look like a New York rooftop restaurant.

As Christian holds a vigil at her bedside, begging her to come back to him, Violette is in a coma, traveling to a place where she meets her beloved Saul. And she finds that she may not want to come back! What would it be like to choose a place between the past and the present?

From me:

What I enjoyed most about this novel was the ending. I was taken to a place that I wasn't expecting. I found it thought provoking, not only about choosing to love again after loss, but about learning how to leave the past behind to make room for the future. And before you say to yourself, “well, duh,” this is something I’ve only recently learned for myself.

One of the many things I have learned about myself as I have worked though my hoarding issues is that I was not just a hoarder of paper, bags, clothes, shoes, etc, but that much of my hoarding was an attempt to keep every memory of the past intact. This was manifested in the physical realm by boxes full of ticket stubs, playbills, Christmas cards, and totally random stuff that I was given from various people (like rubber bands, price stickers, etc.). I sorted through these boxes as we were making room for the twins, and I realized that most of it had lost all significance to me since I was delivered of my hoarding compulsion almost two years ago. I took five large plastic boxes of memories and condensed them into 2 and ½. I will probably be able to get rid of even more the next time I go through them.

I was keeping things in a box from a fear of forgetting my past rather than for any true sentimental reasons. Keeping the letters my husband sent me while we were dating makes sense. Keeping the rubber band that Josh gave me in the fifth grade doesn’t (actually, it’s kinda scary that I remember that). I threw away just about every card I’ve ever been given, but I kept my letters from my best friend M.J. (who shouldn’t feel bad if she throws my letters away, since that’s what normal people do). I threw away programs from dozens of concerts, but kept the ones I where I was a featured participant (which was a lot since I was a music major). And I kept all my high school band awards, having forgotten that I was voted outstanding flag corps member (several years), outstanding senior band person, and my academic and music letters. It is good for me to remember that I am at heart a musician, even though life and my own choices have taken me away from the music world.

So I won’t say I didn’t shed some tears as I did this necessary housecleaning, but they were the good kind of tears, good-bye tears. I am learning that I cannot allow the past to be the most important part of my now. I have found my memories to have much more meaning now that I don’t clutch them greedily. They have become a treasure instead of a burden. And I am still sometimes taken by pleasant surprise by the memories brought back by a song on the radio, a smell in the air, or even the weather.
But now I am looking forward to all the new memories I will be making with my family and making my peace with the past.

Dr. Visit Today

The boys are growing well. W. now weighs 10 lbs and has moved from the 13th percentile to the 19th, and M. weighs 11 lbs 15 oz. and moved from around the 25th to the 61st. They are only a 1/4 inch different in height, but their head circumfrence is 2.1cm different, which doesn't sound like much, but it puts W. in the 6th percentile and M. in the 34th. They had three shots and an oral vaccine. They now have a vaccine for the rotavirus. I highly recommend never having the rotavirus. P., E., and I all had it a few years ago(one of the perks of working in childcare). Everyone is fussing, so I better go, Have a nice day.

The stars were still out when we left for the bus stop today. There's just soething wrong about that.

It's been a long week. M. decided to have a bad case of silent reflux. I am fortunate in that it didn't make him cry hysterically(a common occurence with reflux), but he grunted all day and night with occasional bouts of crying. I have always called him "Grunty" because he grunts when he is hungry, gassy, tired, or needs his pacifier replugged(again and again). But you could tell he was in pain. I was exhausted, he was exhausted. He would sleep for 20 minutes or so then would make a face and start grunting or crying and have a terrible time going back to sleep. He would gag and choke and cough. I felt really bad for him. It seemed to happen suddenly, but he's been showing signs of it all along. I switched his formula(in case that had made it worse) and added some rice cereal. And I had to move him back to sleeping in his carseat. I had both boys sleeping in the bed, falling asleep on their own(woohoo!). But elevating the mattress makes them slide around too much. I think he did okay earlier in his little life because I was nursing and he was sleeping upright. But for everybody's sanity I had to quit nursing. I simply don't have the time to take enough care of myself. He got too hungry for me. And I can't spend all day nursing.

It was a difficult decision for me to make. Rationally, I knew that quitting was the right thing to do. Emotionally, I was very torn. This was the most successful I have been with nursing. I was so proud, watching my little guy plump up. Nursing P. was a nightmare. He ate every 2 hrs around the clock for almost 2 months and I would often have to give him some formula in addition because he couldn't get full. I didn't last as long with the girl. I made it 6 weeks before she would nurse for an hour then drink an 8 oz bottle. I discovered I functioned on a much higher level once I quit. I knew that would be the case again. But I knew this would be my last opportunity, and putting into practice all I have learned since my other children made it a much more pleasant experience. But I found myself not being able to eat until after noon every day and then I was scarfing down dinner whenever I could--not a healthy way to eat to fill a baby's tummy. And I was quickly becoming exhausted. I have felt so much better since I quit. Plus the boys can spend the night away and I can eat and drink whatever I want.

I can tell it's fall because I feel the urge to write poetry. The summer is not so inspiring. It's just hot. But fall and spring, for different and various reasons send me into the contemplative mood which is conducive to the writing of poetry. I haven't actually written any, but I can feel it stirring deep down in my soul.

My poor body is starting to really tell me how much it was strained being pregnant with the twins. This week my knees have begun to make themselves known. I've been trying to walk as much as possible, but I still tire very quickly. Plus getting up and down off the floor and running up and down the stairs all day hasn't made them happy. My kneecaps have been feeling like they are on fire. They were better today, so hopefully will continue to get better.

I don't have anything specific to blog about today. But I figured I should try. The weather here has been beautiful. It's a little warm today, but has been very fall like earlier in the week.

I took the girl to get her hair cut today. We had a deal, if she would stop sucking on it, she could grow it out. After a rough morning, she decided to put chunks of hair from either side of her face in her mouth and suck on them(as an act of defiance). She refused to remove them, so I took her to get her hair cut. She didn't seem to mind.

I guess that is all

Brotherly Love

We've got a lot of sharing going on over here. The Boy so generously gave his sister his disease. We caught hers early so it's not as gross. His is clearing nicely. Not much else going on here.