The Uglies by Scott Westerfield

I feel like I am sitting on a mountain of good books. I have read my share of books and I am always eager to suggest them to people. Nothing is worse than recommending a book and the person never does read it. I feel like they're missing out on something great. They just don't know what they're missing! Ironically, I've been told by several people that I NEED to read Fifty Shades of Grey and it's sitting on my kindle but... I just can't seem to start it.

What can I say about The Uglies series by Scott Westerfield? It is a suspenseful young adult series of books. The first book "The Uglies" sucks you in by describing a futuristic world where all that matters is how you look. People are separated into two communities. One is for the young kids and teens called Uglies. The Uglies are the under sixteen year old kids who are considered to be ugly. That is where they live together without their parents until they turn sixteen at which time they have a surgery to make them Pretties. When they are pretty they get to join the Pretties community where they are expected to do nothing but look nice and to have parties. The idea is that if everyone is pretty there is no discrimination and issues among civilization.

A fun feature of the book is that our lifestyle is something studied by them as long lost history. They are fascinated by our archaic way of life. They even discuss how ugly our people are. That there were few natural pretties in our lifetime which ended up models and actresses.

This story of course has a teen rebel who throws a wrench in the perfect way of life. Tally ends up causing all kinds of chaos. She is a teen, but she isn't helpless or love sick like a certain girl who throws herself into danger just to see a hallucination of her vampire boyfriend.

The series is slightly sci-fi but not extremely so. I recommend this to anyone looking for a fun take on the biggest problem facing teen girls, being the prettiest of them all. Looks are ranked so highly that too many young people see their reflections and only see what they wish they could change. It's sad and unhealthy. It is part of why I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of these books.

Read it, you'll be glad you did: The Uglies

Look Who's Sprouting Gray Hairs

I’m getting old. How do I know? How did it suddenly dawn on me so clearly that I felt the need to blog about it? It isn’t the gray hairs. My husband found two, Katie found three, Aleigha found one. Since they say when you pull it out two grow in its place I am bound to have at least sixteen new gray hairs on top of the others we hadn’t found yet. I know that it’s supposedly a silly myth, but I will go off topic and say it is true that hair grows back thicker and darker when you shave. I have yet to find a person who agrees with the experts and says that one is a myth.

Anyhow, back on topic, I am getting old. I’ve come to this conclusion for a few reasons; the main reason being that I HATE the radio. Everything sounds like garbage to me. My younger cousin never fails to remind me that I’m just old and that’s why I like nothing. Yes maybe so. I also don’t laugh at the things I once would have found hilarious. Another reason, I LOVE to stay in. Fourth of July came and went and I was perfectly content watching NCIS all day with my husband. I’m sure if we had the kids we would have done something, but it was nice to do “nothing”. Not long ago I hated to do nothing. My husband is the king of the home-bodies. He likes nothing more than staying in. It drove me up the wall! I would plead to get out and do things. Not so much anymore. I love being technically lazy, reserving all of our energy to interact with our two big kids.

Speaking of kids, don’t they age you! As a parent I like to think I’m cool and also a MILF (woot woot). On the other side of the spectrum, I became a mom at 20 so I’ve always battled the balance of being a young adult and being a grown up mom. When I was 20 I felt like I was 25. I had to worry about health insurance for my child, doctor appointments, and over all wellness. After that I had to afford to feed and clothe her. I was jealous of my friends who had nice purses, shoes, and clothes and went on wild vacations. If I had money, who was I to spend it that way when my daughter needed things. This was my path and I wouldn’t trade it, but it aged my maturity very quickly.

Now that I’m 26, I feel 31-ish. Who knows for sure, but I imagine it’s pretty close to being 30. I have a kindergartener and first grader now. There are new needs and new wants at this stage, as well as bigger injuries. When I attend a school function or a birthday party the mom’s with kids my own kids’ ages are in their 30’s. I feel like I fit in among them but I wonder if they look at me and try to guess how old I must have been when I had my daughter. I hope they think I look REALLY young and guess 16 or 17 based on how young I look to them.

This post has no greater purpose. I just feel old on the inside, and thankfully look like a child on the outside. Can I really complain about how old I feel? My grandma birthed 16 children and lived to be 84 years old. She never stopped wearing her big costume jewelry or going to the casinos to gamble either. I love and miss you Grandma. I hope I “still got it” in my 80’s the way you did.

Grayson's Baby Suite, Part One

You may already know that I’m having a baby and that it’s a boy. We had his name picked out long before this pregnancy which makes me think that he was destined to be. Due this November is our son Grayson.

Feedback for his name has been amazing. While I didn’t ask for opinions, because quite honestly since we love Grayson it doesn’t matter if others do, it seems that our name choice is adored by many. Plenty of people have said that they love our name. To those people I say “Thank you” we love it too. Credit is due to my husband for picking it out. I don’t remember why he thought of it, but I instantly knew when I heard it that it was perfect. SO perfect, that I kept trying to convince him that if we spelled it differently that we could still use it for a daughter. He never went for it.

Something else that was decided long before we knew it was baby boy Grayson is the nursery theme. I am not a “girly-girl” so if baby had been a Jadynn she would have had a very neutral setting. No pink, no purple, no fluff, and no tiaras. Boy or girl, this baby’s room would be done in shades of black, grays, and white. Coincidentally his name is Grayson and his room has grays. Ironic I know. If you know me well I know what you must be thinking. You think the color choice is based on the fact that mom’s favorite color (shade to be technical) is black. True as that is and an awesome coincidence to boot, that is not why we (I) choose this. I didn’t want to do sports, princesses, trains, or jungles with many animals. I instead wanted to incorporate something baby-esque that both dad and I love too. So what do I love most at the zoo? Giraffes, monkeys, and penguins are my favorites. Dad’s favorite is the penguins. So it seemed like an easy no-brainer, use a penguin set. Well it wasn’t an easy answer after all.

I challenge you to find a cute penguin infant bed set. I saw two. One was ugly prints and the penguins were far from adorable. The other included penguins but other arctic animals as well which wasn’t what I had in mind. I’ll quote Barney from the show How I Met Your Mother when I say, “Challenge accepted”.

Fabrics for Quilt

I’ve made significant progress in developing Grayson’s suite though I can’t share much of it in photos just yet. I purchased a used glider from a friend and had the cushions covered in a soft gray material. My dad will paint the glider black at which time I can take a picture. I purchased a white changing table from another friend and plan to alter it as well. I have a gray bed skirt that I don’t use on my own bed and plan to trim and sew it to be used as a crib skirt. I am registered for awesome gray chevron crib sheets, and my friend Katie’s mom is making the baby quilt. I picked out the prints for the quilt myself. The pattern for the quilt can be found here.

Penguin Pillow by Katie

On Pinterest I found a penguin pillow that I thought was adorable and would help tie my theme together. I don’t plan to sew penguins on the blanket; it’s more about colors of a penguin. This pillow would help tie the theme together. The pattern can be found and purchased here. My friend Katie decided to make the penguin herself without using the purchasable pattern. I love her penguin so much more, and it will be special because it will remind me of her always.

I’ve also created three 8x8 pictures that I plan to frame and hang on the wall opposite of his crib. The pictures are of penguins from the movie “March of the Penguins” with captions at the bottom from the movie. I altered the photos in Photoshop from the original state to appear more artistic and sketched. I’ll share these later when I’ve printed and framed them.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it’s a labor of love and trust me when I say that I LOVE it. My creative side needs projects like this. Don’t be discouraged from doing this yourself. With attention to details, and inspiring ideas you could come up with something amazing and also surprisingly cheaper. Already I have spent less money total than I would have on just the crib bedding set alone. Stay tuned, I’ll be sharing more as I progress.