33 Weeks

I can tell the baby is getting bigger - my stomach is feeling tighter and she obviously doesn't have as much room to move around in there.

I have an ultrasound on Thursday; can you imagine if they told me the baby was actually a boy?

I So Don't Do Makeup by Barrie Summy

7 of 10: This wasn't my favorite book, but it was amusing enough and if I was a middle school librarian, I certainly would be buying the whole series.

Here's the problem with middle-schoolers - they are both delightful and also annoying as can be. A book with a realistic middle school heroine is going to struggle with that same problem. And, yes, this one did.

This is the third book in a pre-teen mystery series starring Sherry Holmes Baldwin. Her mother, a detective, was killed a year or so earlier and now is a ghost detective, and the two of them work together to solve mysteries.

In the first book, Sherry discovers her mother is a ghost and all the rules that govern the ghosty lifestyle, so that's not explained in great detail in this one (which, frankly, makes me want to go back and read the first one).

In this installment, Sherry has a sleepover where she and her friends try out some new makeup which they have some serious reactions to the next morning. When they return it to the mall kiosk with the news that it had such an adverse effect, they learn that several people have returned their makeup reporting pain and suffering.

Sherry is convinced that someone is out to sabatoge the kiosk (which is new and so far very successful), and she's determined to figure out who did it, even though the ghost patrol keeps telling her to lay off (her mom is up for some international position, and they are determined that Sherry not goof it up for her).

I'm honest enough to know that while this book didn't thrill me as an adult, I would have almost certainly loved it as a pre-teen. It's like Nancy Drew meets Sweet Valley Twins (oh yes, I loved those Sweet Valley books as a kid).

Advance Reader Copy received from Blue Slip Media

Tell Me What to Read: Round 12

Wow, has May flown by or is it just me? Time to tell me what to read.

This is the book I will read when school is out, and I'm enjoying my glorious summer break. Not that I'm excited or anything. . .

1. Comment with the title of one book you think I should read (any book you want). One title only, please, lest my brain explode.
2. I'll select one comment at random and announce it on the blog within the next week.
3. On the off-chance that I've already read the book you select, I'll contact you and ask for a follow-up suggestion (make sure there is a way to contact you either by blog or email).
4. I'll get a copy of the book and read it by the end of June.
5. I'll write a review of it here. Even if I hate the book, I will not hate you.

Less than Eight Weeks to Go

For some reason, I feel like I'm in the homestretch now.

Friday Night in May

Bart's sister and her husband are in town this weekend, so we've enjoyed spending some time with them, but since today is their anniversary, they opted to spend the evening together and left us to our own devices (can't blame them for doing so).

It meant, however, that we unexpectedly had a free Friday evening, and I was determined not to spend it at home, piddling away the time. 

When RA was here earlier in the year, she and NPW had visited the Harvard Arboretum and both raved about how nice (and free!) it was.

The weather was beautiful yesterday and I suggested to Bart that we go out there after work. He said, "Can we bike?"

I said, "Only if you get the bikes out of the basement and I can stand around watching you try to fit them into the back of the CR-V."

We'd planned on taking a picnic dinner to eat there, but when Bart got home, we decided we'd just eat at the house to avoid dragging all our food with us, so it was later than we planned to leave.

Happily, the park is open until sunset and since it stays light until after 8 p.m. these days, we had plenty of time to ride through the whole park.

It was beautiful. We didn't take the camera, but I am sure we'll be back dozens of times both on foot and on bike.

A perfect Friday night, which ended with bowls of cereal and charades in the kitchen.

Yes, we play charades with two people.

Out of the Ordinary

My life is not very glamorous. I live in a very small apartment, I drive a very average car, my clothes mostly come from the Old Navy clearance rack, and we eat peanut butter sandwiches every day for lunch. Not exactly rockstar living.

But yesterday? My life felt extraordinary.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from one of the publicists at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (she also was the one who invited me to the author banquet at ALA in January) and said that R. L. LaFevers (the author of the Theodosia books and the Nathaniel Fludd series) was going to be in town and they were having a little lunch, and would I like to come?

It only took me ten seconds to shoot an email off to my principal asking if I could leave early (it was a day when all my classes were early in the day, so it wouldn't disrupt my work schedule) and the principal, bless her, gave me permission.

And so, today, after my classes were done, I drove back home, parked near the train station and took the T into the city.

It was kind of a rainy, chilly day - enough to wear a raincoat, but not to carry an umbrella. I did some reading on the train and then walked past the gorgeous Boston Public Gardens to the restaurant (all I needed was a movie soundtrack!).

The restaurant was beautiful and it turned out to be a pretty small little group (seven of us in all - the author, the illustrator, the editor, the publicist, a marketing director, and a book seller from a Wellesley Booksmith, plus me).

When R. L. LaFevers arrived and was introduced to all of us, she said to me, "Oh, I love your Frugal blog." Well, I am a fan for life!

We had the most delightful time, talking about books, of course - books we've loved, movies we are afraid to see (Beezus and Ramona!), book covers, awards, Boston, weather, children (the publicist is also expecting her first baby this year, so there was much discussion on this topic). Every last one of these women was interesting and charming and nice. And they all loved books - just my kind of people.

I could have stayed all day, but my car was parked in a four hour spot and though I don't think they patrol those streets very closely, I wasn't exactly willing to gamble on that point.

They loaded me down with books for my libraries and I went home full and happy. And feeling decidedly glamorous.

The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube by Michelle Goodman

8 of 10: I loved a lot of the content of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide, although I certainly could have done without the occasional F words.

I don't have grand ambitions to start my own business, but I definitely have many projects that I want to get done and I have usually an hour or two in the afternoons after school and I'll have several weeks between the end of the school year and the birth of our baby, and even for those small potato items, I found this book, recommended by Lisa, extremely useful. 

The first chapters, which focus on figuring out what your lifelong dreams and passions are, was really helpful and inspiring to me. Even not looking for a new career, I came up with a long list of projects and hobbies I want to pursue over the next months and years within just a few minutes.

But really, what I appreciated about this book, was how specific and detailed it was about how to deal with the issues that come along with doing your own things - how to avoid wasting time, how to keep yourself motivated, and how to work it into a life with other responsibilities like children and spouses. It wasn't a bunch of high-minded talk about how life is about pursuing your passions and then giving you no earthly idea on how to actually do that, but rather just making you irritated with your own situation. I find that completely unhelpful. Instead, each chapter ends with a list of things to do, a time period in which to do them, and an order in which to accomplish them. Nicely done, Goodman.

Some of the chapters, of course, were pretty irrelevant to me (I'm not looking for a way to get paid to travel the world, nor do I want to start my own non-profit organization), but I kind of skimmed those ones and moved on with my life. I am very zen that way.

If you were looking to leave a full-time job to pursue your own employment dreams, it's got a very straight-forward guide to how to figure out how to do so - how much money you'll need, health insurance, how to negotiate part-time or flex-time work, how to make the most of the opportunities a full-time job affords while you're still there, etc - with step-by-step goals to achieve before you turn in your resignation.

On the other hand, I was impressed by the chapter about full-time jobs and what a benefit they can be. Sometimes such books are so "if you work a full-time job, you've sold out to the man" and, as Bart could tell you, I am very much a fan of "the man" since he generally passes out health insurance, a 401(k), and a steady paycheck.

The book is aimed specifically at women, but it would certainly be useful for men as well. I've already recommended this book to several friends and family members, either those looking to leave a full-time job or those working to launch their own businesses. Definitely worth reading if you're in one of those categories or even if, like me, you just want a little motivation and instruction on getting your own projects done.

Books Be Gone

Over the last few weeks, Bart and I have spent a great deal of time cleaning out sections of our apartment in order to make room for some baby stuff and to increase the amount of storage space accessible to us.

Of course, Bart and I are pretty minimalist to begin with - we don't like to have a lot of stuff and we're both quick to throw things away or send them off to Goodwill. We got rid of a bunch of stuff when we moved from Texas and even more when we arrived in Boston, and now we're finding even more things to part with. It's a good feeling.

This week's project is the giant bookcase in our entry way (displayed in all its glory here).

We realized that if we cleared off the last two levels, we could put in about ten baskets in which to store baby items, toys, games, and other various things that need a home.

Which meant a serious weed through our books.

Look, I know this is an abomination to some people - the idea of getting rid of books for any reason is just horrifying. And certainly there are some books that I will not part with for any amount of space. The hard back set of Little House books my mom bought for a quarter each at the local library when I was six. The Louisa May Alcott series that Bart's dad kindly found the missing piece of and sent to me. My copy of These is My Words, which I feel certain I'll reread many times over the coming decades.

But there are so so many books that we simply will never read again. Books that we've never read or wish we hadn't read or don't have any use for. Books that we can obtain from any public library should we ever DESPERATELY need them again.

And books that we then don't have back up and unpack every time we move (which will probably be many more times over our lifetime). Books we don't have to dust or store or shove aside for new, more beloved books.

All books are not created equal. Just by virtue of being a book doesn't mean a particular volume is worth keeping.

Which is why later this week, Bart and I will be hauling some 150+ books to our local library's book sale. And then come home to our gloriously unstuffed bookshelves.

31 Weeks

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

8 of 10: It took me a while to warm up to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, especially with the audio version, but I ended up really enjoying this murder mystery with its incredibly precocious narrator.

I started listening to this book on my iPod and I could not really keep track of all the characters or, frankly, even what was going on. I caught that. . . someone was murdered. But that was about it. I finally had to check out a physical copy of the book and reread the first 50 pages so I could follow the story line. I am not all that bright, people.

After that, it really picked up for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

Flavia is the narrator, an eleven-year-old chemist, who mainly uses her scientific knowledge to get revenge on her two older and somewhat-unkind sisters. Her mother died years earlier and her father is a bit disengaged, so the girls are mainly on their own, a fact which doesn't seem to bother Flavia much. She's happy to tinker around in her make-shift lab and explore the surrounding areas on her own.

Life is fairly average until the morning she opens the kitchen door to find a dead jacksnipe (a large bird) on the doorstep with a regular British postage stamp stuck through it's beak. As if that weren't odd enough, her father seems to be completely thrown by the appearance of this bird, far more than seems normal.

Then, when she gets up in the middle of the night to investigate some odd sounds, she hears some strange man threatening her father. She only is able to eavesdrop on part of the conversation before her father's hired hand whisks her back off to her own room, but the next morning, when she's in the garden, she discovers a dying man, who whispers one last strange word before he stops breathing.

Flavia is more startled than horrified and she is certain the dead man is the one she overheard talking with her father the night before. Is her father the murderer? And how did this guy die anyway? The police give her the brush-off, of course, but she's determined to find out the details on her own.

The storyline really took me by surprise - it was much more intricate and unexpected than I'd anticipated and by the end, I was just thoroughly enjoying watching it all unfold (as I've probably mentioned before, I am a terrible guesser, so everything surprises me).

Flavia is by turns hilariously lovable and infuriating. Much like an actual eleven-year-old girl, in fact. In the end, though, I think you'd be hard pressed not to really like her and root for her to connect all the dots before she gets herself killed.

Will I read the other books in this series? I'm not sure - sometimes it's just best to let a book stand alone. On the other hand, I don't know how long I can stay away from Flavia. She really did eventually win me over in a major way.

24 (The Version Where You See a Baby and Jack Bauer Doesn't Kill Anyone)

On Saturday morning, Bart and I got on a plane and flew to Utah.

It was a bit of a whirl-wind trip (so much so that we checked in for our return flight immediately upon arriving at the airport in Salt Lake), but absolutely worth it.

We picked up our rental car (many thanks to Priceline for making it super super cheap) and began our 24 hour blitz of family, starting with Bart's dad and stepmom, then on to a Mother's Day/Family birthday/Baby shower party (so many cute gifts - I could have died. Instead I stuffed them in my suitcase and brought them home so I can continuely snuggle the little outfits), before heading over to Merrick's house to see the main reason for our trip:

His Royal Highness, the first grandbaby. 

After spending some 6 hours with Merrick and Philip, I kind of wonder if they ever get to hold their own baby.

We spent the night at Bart's parents house and at the last minute offered up the extra beds to my parents and Crawford so they could avoid an extra couple of hours of driving (this is not the first time my in-laws have acted more than happy to let us invite people to their house with little or no notice. They are good folks). We stayed up way too late laughing and talking.

And then it was back up in the morning for a breakfast at Merrick and Philip's place (I . . .  ate a lot), before heading to church where the baby was blessed and after which Bart and I sped back to Salt Lake to catch our flight home, took the bus, the T, and a shuttle home, and collapsed in bed a little after midnight.

Since we don't drink, we've had to turn to jet lag to give us a Monday morning hangover. Happily, though, all the events of the weekend are clear and crisp in my mind. And I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

10 More to Go

A Girl

I truly didn't feel like I had a preference for a boy or a girl when I got pregnant. I think about how darling my two younger brothers were (and Crawford still is, of course) and I love the idea of having a boy. I think about my nieces, how cute and fun and dramatic they are, and I think girls would be great.

If I'd had to make the decision, I really don't know which one I would have chosen.

When we found out we were pregnant, though, I did feel like it was a girl from the beginning and that sense just got stronger as the weeks ticked by, so much so that when we were waiting in the ultrasound room for the tech to come back with the results of whether it was a boy or a girl, I suddenly felt incredibly panicked that she might say it was a boy, because it would be like losing the girl I was so certain we were having.

I do, however, have a secret pet peeve (how secret can it be if I'm blogging about it?) toward people who have this sense that having a boy first is somehow far superior to having a girl first, that children that do not have an older brother are somehow greatly deprived.

To be sure, I'm not exactly unbiased on the topic since I just so happen to be the oldest child, and I tend to think that I turned out just fine without an older brother and also that starting your family with a girl is a perfectly lovely way to go. (My sisters, who put up with a lot of bossiness from me, might think their lives would have been far improved by an older brother rather than me, but they aren't the ones writing this post).

I am particularly glad that Bart did not have a strong preference one way or another either. I have never felt for a second like he's even remotely disappointed that he's not having a son instead of a daughter or that he'd be slightly more excited if our house was filling up with blue clothing instead of pink (although he does say blue is a snugglier color than pink, whatever that means).

As a daughter who never once felt like my dad was at all disappointed that I was a girl instead of a boy (oh, how it annoyed me when Crawford was born and people said, "I bet your dad is so glad to FINALLY have a boy"), I am beyond pleased that my daughter will also have a dad that is thrilled to have her, without any regrets that she's not a boy.

Saving Maddie by Varian Johnson

After reading Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr last year, I was interested to see another religious main-stream YA book on display at ALA. I asked the girl at the booth if I could have a copy of it and she tilted her head at me and said, "well, I just have to warn you, it's a religious book."  Um, okay, then. Your sales skills are impressive.

Tragically, this book was nothing like Sara Zarr's thoughtful, practically perfect book. Sometimes I feel like reading a bad book makes me a better reader. When a book is really well-written, it can occasionally be too easy to read. It doesn't trip you up with awkward wording or have things that happen that make you say, "That makes NO sense whatsoever."

This book had me ranting and raving to Kelly about how deeply terrible it was. It had your normal problems - flat characters, trite premise, but it was really the main crux of the story that just about did me in.

The basic idea is that the preacher's son, Joshua, had this very close friend for years (a girl, of course, Maddie) and she moved away when her dad became a preacher in another city and then showed back up, except instead of the sweet preacher's daughter she'd been, she's now dressing like a prostitute, wearing heavy dark makeup, and basically scaring the daylights out of Joshua's parents who are sure she is going to lead him down a path of sin.

But Josh is determined to spend time with her anyway, seeing as how they were such close friends before, and especially because he feels a little like an outsider in his community because all the teens his age see him as "the preacher's son" and are a tiny bit uncomfortable around him. Also, he's pretty sure he's the only teenager in the whole world who isn't having sex.

It only takes about a day for Maddie to start really grilling him on the hard questions - does he do what his parents want him to do because he really believes it or because it's just easier to do what they want? This could have been a good way to steer the storyline, but it kind of went nowhere.

SPOILERS! And then. . . and THEN! After about sixty million years of going around and around Josh decides that, yes, sex before marriage is wrong and a sin. But he doesn't care. He's going to do it anyway. And THEN! Maddie falls asleep. So nothing happens. This irritated me to no end - I felt like the author just could not make up his mind about which side to take, and wanted to be on both sides at once. You can't have it both ways, friend.

And, like I said before, this was only the biggest of my problems. Let us not forget the multitude of characters and mini-plots that went exactly nowhere (the girls who wanted a church dance team! the old people Josh plays chess with! the friends that appear to only be in the book to prove to Josh that he's the only human alive not drinking and sleeping around! the girl with a crush on Josh but only appears approximately twice!). Oh, this book, it drove me insane.

It's so disappointing to have a book completely fail to live up to expectations. I should have listened to the girl at the counter, even if my problems with the book were not what she clearly anticipated.

Unintended Snobbery

You know how sometimes people are kind of snobby about things and you think, "Oh brother, it's all in your heaaaaaaaad." Mostly, I feel this way about food things - the person who swears freshly squeezed lemon juice or minced garlic is a thousand times better than the bottled/jarred version, or the person who insists that a mandolin is the only way to be a real cook.

Except, most of the time, when I try the other alternative, I find out that the snob was right and, whoops, now I'm a snob too.

When Mel from Mel's Kitchen Cafe (only my favorite recipe blog in the whole wide world) mentioned that pre-shredded cheese was an abomination (my word, not hers) and that you should shred your own cheese for a FAR superior product, I may have rolled my eyes a little. Until I made pizza with a block of mozzarella cheese instead of a bag (because it's what I had and also my block was seconds away from molding before my eyes and I couldn't bear to throw it away after paying good money for it) and my life was changed forever. Now I'm a shredded cheese snob. Pardon me.

Similarly, my sister-in-law gave me a pizza stone for Christmas. I was excited about it because I'd heard how great they were, but I figured, really, how different can it be? I mean, will it REALLY improve my pizza and other bread products that much?

Also, you're supposed to WASH your stone with water and soap before you use it and, for some reason, I was too lazy to do that. Yes, I could not be bothered for THREE MONTHS to take 30 seconds to wash my pizza stone. I am ashamed.

And then, one night when I was making pizza, I thought, "hmm, if I put my pizza on parchment paper, it won't matter if my pizza stone is not washed and I'll just use it unwashed." Which is what I did.

I'm guessing you already know what the punch line is. . . I'm totally a pizza stone snob now. I cannot tell you how VASTLY improved my pizza is.

I have never been the world's biggest fan of homemade pizza, mainly because of the crust, which was always too bready for me (I am ridiculously picky about bread products), and now I'm suddenly eating ALL the crust. It's the right texture, the taste is phenomenal, and it's crispy enough on the bottom that you can eat it one-handed (the true test of a pizza slice in my mind).

So here I am, on the dark side, looking down my nose at my formerly oft-used pizza pans, now relegated to making nothing but biscuits. And it may look like snobbery, but really, my pizza is so much tastier than it ever has been before.

Happy Days Will Come To You All Year

Last year, on Bart's birthday, I promised a non-mushy post. This year, I'm afraid I can make no such guarantee.

I think Bart and I would both be quick to say that this past year has been, far and away, the most fun and happy year of our marriage. I don't think that at any point in our relationship have we enjoyed each other and our lives together as much as we do now.

I don't have grand, wonderful things to say about our lives. Our life is ordinary - jobs, church, apartment, baby on the way - but it feels remarkable to me. Last night, when Bart got home from work, we sat in the kitchen with the windows open, eating dinner. We laughed and talked about our days, did the dishes, and settled in for a few hours at home before going to bed. It was a very typical evening, nothing specifically interesting to write about, but it seems almost magical to me.

I am so happy with my life this year, and it's Bart that makes it so lovely.

Last weekend, when I got home from my conference, after three days apart, Bart and I were doing something in the kitchen and Bart said, "I feel like we make such a good team. When we're both here, the division of labor is so easy and natural, it makes life really smooth."

We are a good team, now more than ever before.

Happy 30th Birthday.

What I'm Going to Read: Round 11

And the winner is. . . .The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose, suggested by Jenn. I'm kind of on a non-fiction kick this year, so I'm excited about this title.

Other worthy suggestions: 

• The Magicians by Lev Grossman (NGS)
• The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein (Lexiloo)
• Summer Crossing by Truman Capote (Anne)
• Little Bee by Chris Cleave (Life of a Doctor's Wife)
• Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty (Jessica)
• Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman (S)
• The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb (Meg)
• Just One Wish by Janette Rallison (Suey)
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Melanie)
• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (Saskia Tielsens)
• Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson (Carly Jane)
• The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer (Smalldog)
• The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by (Norby Family)
• The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier (Jenny)
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Elena)
• Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem by Simon Singh (RA)
• The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White (Angiegirl)
• I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies): True Tales of a Loudmouth Girl by Laurie Notaro (Crafty Ashley)
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck (Merry)
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Chrissie)
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (Amy Sorensen)
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Sherry)
• The Great Starvation Experiment: Ancel Keys and the Men Who Starved for Science by Todd Tucker (Poodle) 
• Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (Chelsea)
• The School Story by Andrew Clements (Glen Oaks)
• Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson (Yankee Girl)
• Precious Bane by Mary Webb (Melissa)
• The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (Mia)
• The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henri Goer (Megan B)
• The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded American is Tearing Us Apart by Bill Bishop (Kelly J)
• Gregor The Overlander by Suzanne Collins (Bart)
• The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester (Deanna H.)
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (Kay)
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Miri)
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Jenna)
• Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (Mary)
• Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart (Emily)
• Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (Meredith)
• The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman (ACQ)
• The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (Britt)
• Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger (Katie)

Of these, I've read:

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Chrissie)
• The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester (Deanna H.)
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (Kay)
• Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (Meredith)

29 Weeks

Like Bart, this is my last week in the twenties.