Happy 8th Birthday to My Precious Love

My daughter will be 8 years old on Tuesday! This birthday post comes early because I will be with family all weekend and won’t stop to reflect on her first 8 years of life.
*********

Halle Joyce,

You have been the light of my life since the day you were born. I learned how to be your mom without a guidebook or internet forums. It was all instinct and lessons from your loving grandma whom you clearly adore. We started out together, sharing a bedroom, in your grandparents’ house which I’m sure you vaguely remember. We moved out when you were four after we met Garrick and Isaiah and became our own family.

I’ve loved watching you grow and develop your own brother/sister relationship with Isaiah. When you’re a mother yourself you will better understand why that matters so much to me. Though you aren’t of blood relation, both of you know that you’re siblings and love each other as such. To love so freely and without hesitance is something that I hope stays with you always.

I’ll never see a giraffe at the zoo without remembering you yelling at them “hi neck!” or “bye bye neck!” I’ll never comb your hair without remembering the short ringlet curls you had as a toddler. I will always be proud of your daily efforts to learn two languages. I will do my best to remain patient when your curious mind churns out questions about the world around you. I appreciate your desire to understand the how and why of everything. When I hear “let it snow” at Christmas time I will remember how you used to ask me to sing “frightful” to you. When you say Isaiah’s name I’ll remember how you couldn’t pronounce it with the I, and called him Zaiah. I will smile every time we kiss goodnight and you remind me “don’t close my door all the way”. With a reminder every night for the last four years I promise that I will not close it all the way.

Thank you for always listening to what I say, 90% of the time, with very little grief. You’re an amazing girl, wonderful daughter, and awesome sister. Me, Garrick, Isaiah, Grayson, and everyone who knows you, love and adores you. Thank you for being you.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” 
― Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!

Kisses,

Mom

Tonight is the Beginning of Their End

My favorite romance series is coming to an end. It is very sad when an author says “I’m sorry guys; this will be the last one.” Tonight at 9:00 pm PST I will begin to devour the final book in the Night Huntress series written by Jeaniene Frost. Thank you Amazon once again for the magic that is whispersync. Instead of waiting for a store to open with the book on the shelf I will receive it automatically at midnight on the east coast. Which is still early enough for me to start reading and not stop until… well… who needs sleep? I can even read it on my phone under the covers when it gets too late! Book hangovers are better than the alcohol induced.

Who wouldn't stop
and look at this one?

I first discovered Cat and Bones after Twilight. I know and I’m sorry. But Twilight was my first vampire series and like most of its following I realized I needed more bite in my life. Well at Target, my home away At Grave’s End. A story about a half vampire female who was a vamp assassin sounded right up my alley. I very belatedly (halfway through the book) realized I wasn’t reading book 1 in the series and with much effort made myself stop. This was pre-kindle days so I had to go to the book store and find the first: Halfway to the Grave. This did affect the reading experience for book 1 and 2 slightly. I knew some important facts that I wasn’t supposed to know, having said that, Jeaniene Frost is such a great writer that her books were still wildly entertaining. Let’s not gloss over the fact that they’re “steamy” as well.

from home, I liked the cover of

Steamy = sex. WHAT? Yes, they have sex in the book. This baffles some people. I don’t see why. How many movies have you seen with love scenes? Full frontal nudity? It happens. Is that the best part of this series? It is definitely not. Cut those pages out and it’s still a hell of a series. There’s well described fight scenes, plot twists, friendships, betrayals, secrets, misunderstandings, cursing… all things I want in a book.

One of my favorite things about Cat is her “potty mouth”. I relate to that. Sorry that I’m not sorry for it. Even better is her inner monologue. She thinks things that are just so hilarious and it’s even more amusing if someone near her reads her mind. Cat was wronged early in life and finds her way by carving through bad bad vampires. Of course she gets thrown for a loop when she meets her match, Bones.

Oh, Bones. His character is just too good for his own good. If a fictional character makes you smile thinking about them, please hand the author an award. It’s not about the way he’s described physically. It’s his characteristics. Jeaniene Frost dangles him out there with the traits a good amount of women look for in a partner: loyalty, strength, brilliance, and a fierce need to protect. Don’t we all want to feel so cherished that our partner would do ANYTHING to protect us? Frost could tell me he has mismatched eyes (which admit is kinda cool) curly purple hair and polka dot skin. It wouldn’t matter. When a character is described my mind materializes its own image and sound for their voice based on the characteristics that are expressed in the story. That’s what makes Bones my favorite lead male in any book I’ve read so far.

I am excited and terrified of the release of Up From the Grave tonight.

The story has become so special to me that you’d think I knew them in real life. It’s no secret that when I read, I dive into the story and live there for a while. It explains why I want to force my friends to read my books and demand they report back to me. Sorry girls, I’m just so enthusiastic when I really love a good story. Four out of five friends I recommended this series to loved it and follow Cat and Bones with me. That sounds like a fake dental statistic for commercials but I swear to you that the numbers are real.

No Year's Resolution!

The last post was in November 2013?! Has nothing in my life amounted to a blog post in the last two months?

I don't make New Year's resolutions. I'm one of those super cool people who think they're super cool because they don't need a new year to make changes. Some 8% of resolutions are actually kept. The gym is packed every January - February before it burns out. So why mention it?

For years I've said, "I'm going to run a marathon one day." You can imagine where this is going. I haven't ran a marathon yet. In December I started paying more attention to my food choices and daily water intake. I also started doing yoga again almost everyday. I even tried to do it while the baby was still awake simply because my daughter wanted to do yoga with me. Look how that turned out.

Today after work I'm going to start "running". I've downloaded an app with a plan to get me to the Shamrock Run in March, a 5k. I have friends with the same goals so if the app doesn't get me there, I know them dragging me along will. I didn't make this plan anywhere near the new year holiday so it is NOT a resolution. Remember, I'm cooler than that. ;)