Book Reviews

I've been looking at this for a week and a half thinking, I should post something, but I've been sick and I don't have any pictures and I am lazy....

So, I need something up here, so I'll tell you about a few books I've read lately.



Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Wall

I really liked this book. It's based on the life of the author's grandma. She was full of spunk and drive and has a very interesting life.



Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

This novel was about a young woman who was kidnapped, but instead of just hearing about the kidnapping, you hear the story, as she tells it to her psychiatrist. It flips between her recovery and trying to discover why she was kidnapped and flashbacks of the kidnapping. Very good.



Unless it Moves the Human Heart by Roger Rosenblatt

This is the story of an English class, told by the professor. It's about students struggling to write eloquently and a teacher struggling to teach them what it takes to be a writer. It was a quick read and a nice, easy story.



Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

This is the story of ten different people and their stories. They all live in different neighborhoods of New York, and they all are touched by a man who walks on a cable strung between the World Trade Center towers. This extraordinary feat really happened, which in itself interested me, but the stories surrounding it were good, too.



The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

A good, light read for anyone who wants to actively take more time to notice the little happiness' in their lives. Good for anyone to read and it will make you appreciate things and look for the little rays of happiness in everything you do.

If you don't have the book, check out her blog, it's a good preview of what you'll read. http://www.happiness-project.com/



The Gendarme by Mark T. Mustian

This is a horrifying story about remembering a life you may have wished you'd kept repressed. Very interesting, but gruesome as it recounts the annexing of Armenians from Turkey in WW!.



Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

This is a book about making mistakes and strains on friendships in small town Mississippi. A case of two murdered girls, twenty years apart. It was a good read.

There you go. The ones in bold were my favourites.

Happy Easter

From our house to yours!!

Randoms

These are the last few pictures that I'll show of our trip.

Gracie pointing out the 'cats' that she kept insisting were in the jungle behind the beach. I keep waiting to hear there was a lion attack at our resort or something.




Swimming




A kiss for dad.



A juice break (yes, she got the occasional cup of juice on vacation, along with deserts, hot dogs, French toast, fries, etc.).





Who Dressed this poor kid?



Another climb out of the pool:







Dressed for supper



Gracie trying to get the last few minutes of joy out of our vacation, reading a gossip magazine, naked, sitting in our suitcase.....





It was fun, we're all settled back in and I'm ready to go somewhere else, again soon...

Quick Interruption

I'll return to our Dominican vacation recap soon, but i thought I'd let you know about a class I'm teaching at Artisan Emporium in Hanna, Alberta on the 30th of April.

It will be a good one! We'll be making a mini album called an onion skin album because of all the great layers that you keep peeling back to reveal more spots for photos and journaling. This is a great way to scrapbook a big group of pictures.

Here's a peak:



We'll cover binding, folding and scoring, making four different types of paper flowers, distressing, and go over a few basic design principles.

You could use it as a year in review album or if you have a number of pictures from one event, you can scrapbook all of them in one afternoon!

Come join us to make a fun keepsake for yourself, or a gift for someone special (mother's day is just around the corner).

Hope to see you there!

Kelly

Family Picture Time

We're forever in the process of taking a family picture... I promised one to my mom for Christmas two years ago and she still hasn't seen it. For some reason, we can't take a decent picture.

Hmmm.....

Perhaps, I'm just a perfectionist (or I'm in denial of what I actually look like).

We tried to take some on the trip and some of them were nice.
















It's hard to get Gracie looking at the camera, and smiling, but if you ask her to show her teeth, she gives you this:



Cute, right?? Kind of a crooked grin, but it works.

Maybe you'll get one of these ones mom...... We'll see how they look printed.

Beach Play

Gracie had a ton of fun at the beach. She didn't eat nearly as much sand as she did last summer, which was nice and she liked playing with sand and water and all the toys we had for her.






Many trips were made for more water...



She liked running in and out of the ocean and feeling the waves crashing in on her legs, but only in the very shallow water.



Deeper water was fun, but there were a few moments of frantic clawing and swimsuit pulling the first time in. Yikes!



Just so we remember that we were on this trip too..... Seems to be a lot of Gracie photos.





A quick hug:

Some more pictures of our trip.



We went exploring as soon as we got there and just after I took this, Gracie lost a shoe in the ocean. Brad had to hop in and get it. Too bad we hadn't put our suits on, yet. It was only waste deep water :)

Gracie loved the pool, in and out, in and out, in and out, all day long.









In the shallow pool, she could climb in and out, and in the big pool, she got us to push her out and then she jumped in. She got so that she was pretty fearless. She would take a few steps back and for a running start and then jump in! Hence the lifejacket.







One of my favourite moments was coming into our hotel room where Brad and Gracie were resting on the bed watching cartoons. I said hi at the door, and Gracie turned to me and said, Ola!



Cute little beach babe.