Read a new book (The Hunger Games)

Yes, yes, I know. I have so many other things I could update on right now. I have the wedding to update on. Brycey's birthday party, my new job, and even school, but I just had to skip all of that and add in my book review for an older book that I should have read a long time ago, but didn't, The Hunger Games.

Review

Wow! What can I say about The Hunger Games. I will first start with a public apology for not wanting to read these books. I have heard many people talk about how great this series was, but I never took out the time to read them. Then, out of pure boredom I began to read a review and added the book to my "to read" list. Now I am glad that it hit the top of my list about 6 months later. This book was wonderful. So wonderful I couldn't wait to get my hands on book 2 Catching Fire. I am in the middle of that book now. I always try to write my reviews without spoiler, but with this book it is so hard.

I am probably the only one who would pick Petta over Gale. I would go into detail but I do not want to spoil it for anyone. I like Petta. I think he is super charming and charismatic. I guess he somewhat remind me of my husband. Some of his innocence and not knowing how to hunt and gather is also appealing to me. So to everyone's surprise, I am sure, I enjoyed the book because of how often Petta and Katniss were talked about. At some times I found myself hating Katniss in Petta's behalf because of her "playing the games" and not being genuine, when Petta was genuine. 

This book rarely made me laugh, but I smiled when thinking of Petta and Katniss. And I cried during certain parts of the "games". The descriptions were so real I felt like I was the one holding Rue's hand. I felt like I received the bread from district 11. I felt the kindness and sadness of both these events. This is what I loved most about this book, that I could feel the emotion in every event. I felt like although I live in a completely different time, I could feel myself in District 12 and in the Arena, and even in the cave inside the arena. 

In any series I find that book 1 and 3 or first and last are always that best. So now I am on to see how book 2 can compare. As book 1 goes, 5 stars hands down.

Thanking God for it all

Again, months have gone by and I have not updated this blog. Today Myles is staying home because he has parent-teacher conferences and I came on here to get some ideas from the Montessori blog that I am following. I realized that I have not updated since October. So much has happened since then. Biggest news is that our wedding is only about 2 months and 2 weeks away. It has all come down to this. July 6th the 4 of us will have the same last name. I am ecstatic!

Me

Other news is I have started my masters program with Phoenix University. I am getting a master of science in psychology. So far, so good. I currently have an A in the class and I have one more week of the first class to go. I have been stressed a bit lately with work and the wedding planning but I have been taking it one day at a time. 

Ola

He has been working for a really great marketing company called mosaic. They work with marketing video games, computers, cameras, and gift cards. I think he has learned a lot from working there and I have finally convinced him to get his masters in business marketing. I keep telling him if he starts now, he and I will finish together. Ola is also enjoying our new car, and actually enjoying some of the wedding planning ( from what he tells me). 

Myles

Myles was having a hard time at school at one point. I was very worried about a possible diagnosis of ADHD. I have now worked on a reward system with him, and his behavior during school has changed. He is able to focus more and get work done. His teacher always tells us how smart he is but his access energy stops him from being able to focus. He has recently became better with focus.

Bryce

Bryce's asthma has been acting up with the weather change. I feel so bad for him because he is not able to run and play like a 2 year old should be able to because he is out of breath. Other than his health issues, Bryce is doing great. Of course he is a typical 2 year old with tantrums but his communication is so far advanced that his meltdowns are less frequent. He is excited for the wedding and even more excited to turn 3. 

Boys Easter egg hunt 2013

Family Easter Sunday 2013

Overall, things are doing good and I continue to Thank God for it all.

25 Question to ask your child each year

I saw this on pintrest and thought it was interesting. And then I a friend mentioned it and a few friends and I decided to do it with our 4 year olds. This is the answers Myles came up with at 4 years old 1 month and 10 days old.

1. What is your favorite color? Red


2. What is your favorite toy? Lightening McQueen

3. What is your favorite fruit? Carrots

4. What is your favorite TV show? Bug Bunny

...5. What is your favorite movie? Daffy Duck

6. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Noodles

7. What is your favorite outfit? Lightening McQueen Outfit

8. What is your favorite game? I don't know

9. What is your favorite snack? Crackers

10. What is your favorite animal? Cow

11. What is your favorite song? ABCs

12. What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Play

13. What is your favorite book? God

14. Who is your best friend? EJ

15. What is your favorite dessert? I don't know

16. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play football outside

17. What is your favorite drink? Water

18. What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? Play with her phone

19. What is your favorite holiday? Superhero- Halloween

20. What is your favorite sport? Football

21. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cereal

22 Who is your hero? A train

23. Where is your favorite place to go? To Grandma's house

24. What are you afraid of? Dinosaurs

25 What do you want to be when you grow up? A trainer, a trainer with trains, daddy says enginnknee (enginer)

Update: So much to look forward to

It's been exactly one month today since I last updated. I have been working so much to make sure that we have enough money to pay the bills as well as money to do some fun activities that I have planned for the summer. I have been busy, but I wanted to make time to update.

Myles

Yesterday was Myles' last day of school for this school year. He enjoyed his time at his new school. I really like the way they have worked with him. There are so many things he knows and has learned. We are excited to have him attending again in the fall. 

For the summer Myles will be going to summer camp. His first day is the second week in June, and the camp will run all the way until school starts. 

Myles has been having some health issues. He just went for allergy testing and we will get the results back on Tuesday. He has had another ear infection and this time the inner ear looked very abnormal. The doctor will know how to proceed when we find out what the results are from the allergy testing. She will also be looking into Myles' ears to see if the fluid has drained. We are praying that he does not have any hearing loss.

Bryce

Bryce has been doing well with staying home since he had to stop going to daycare. He stays home with daddy. He really seems to miss his brother a lot. He is learning so many new things. He is 21 months now. He is getting closer to 2 years of age. We are getting a bit worried because we were hoping that his bowed legs would clear up by two, but they have not cleared up yet. We still have 3 months and at 2 the doctor will take a look at them again. We may need to go and see a specialist. 

Bryce has began taking music and movement class. He likes it. He was given his own bag with little instruments as well a cute scarf that they use for some of the songs. The class meets on Mondays at 10:30am. The last class is in 2 weeks and then it will pick back up in July. 

I will be signing Bryce up for swimming classes for the summer. It will meet twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This will give Bryce something to do while Myles is in camp. 

I couldn't do an update without updating about the wedding planning and engagement bbq plans. So far the planning is going good. We are still looking to have the engagement bbq on the 4th of July. Sadly, my mother just informed me, or should I say reminded me that she has dialysis on that day. So now I am trying to think of a way I can work out the schedule so my mom can be there for most of the bbq. I may have to move it to the weekend after or the weekend before. Sigh. We will see. We have come up with a theme. The colors for the bbq are blue and brown and the decorations will say Mr. And Mrs soon to be. There were a few choices I saw and I picked the one's I liked and then let Ola have the final pick. There is still no word on whether his mom is attending the bbq or not. I hope she will because this would be a great time to meet everyone who will be in the wedding party. I have looked at a place to rent tables and chairs. We will just need 4 tables and 50 chairs. Yes 50! It look like it will be 50 people there give or take a few. We are just inviting family and people who are in the wedding party. If each of those people brings one guest then we are looking at 50 people. I am nervous and excited all at the same time. This will be a big step into planning our actual wedding. 

We also have a wedding planner that is helping up find venues that is within our budget. She and I have been in touch and she has an idea of what I would like. I am hoping to hear from her soon with a list of places she thinks would be nice. I would like to go and start visiting places soon. 

Overall the family is doing well. This year has been great so far, we have so much more to look forward to.

Engagement BBQ

The rest of this year is going to be busy, busy, busy. May we have my future SILs (Sister-in-laws) high school banquet, as well as graduation to attend. I am so happy for them that they have completed this goal in their lives and will continue on to college. In June, Ola's birthday, fathers day, and also a trip to Disney. July is our engagement bbq, August is Bryce's birthday, the boys joint birthday party, and the family reunion. September is Myles' birthday. I don't think I will be able to rest until October, but then it will be time to prepare for Christmas. It is definitely going to be a crazy, fun filled, busy, busy, busy rest of the year.

Let's go back to talking about the engagement bbq. Ola and I are having a bbq on July 4th, 2 days short of one year before our wedding in 2013. We will be inviting family, family friends, and people who are in our wedding party. We will be having it in a park in Chicago. I am somewhat stressing about all of this. I want everything to go alright. I think if we just had our friends coming to help celebrate with us it would be fine. But when you add each side of our families then there is an added stress. I am really trying to remember that it is our day and we will enjoy it even if everyone else does not. This idea goes for the bbq, the wedding and any other party or get-together that happens in between. So I have been pinning a few ideas for ice breakers and games that we can play. I will have balls and bubbles for children but I also wanted some, "get to know each other" games and activities. I am looking up some ideas, and as I look I am getting more and more excited, but the family dynamics still worries me. We still have a little bit of time, and other things to plan for as well. But this bbq is what is most on my mind.

Thinking about it all makes me want to have a whole bottle of wine to myself. (Laugh out loud) So cheers, here is to a busy rest of the year, stress free and to planning my engagement bbq.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining fertility, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now...

This was the book of the month for February with a mommy's online book club that I am head of. Book is written in the main character, Offred's voice. She talks to us as she reminisces about life before the Republic of Gilead. Life before was similar to how life is now. Women had rights, owned properties, had jobs, and some women raised family all on their own. And then something happened. And as the book goes along the narrator slowly begins to tell us what happened to make everything change completely to where now women were put in categories, and her category was handmaid. She was there for fertility purposes only, to help populate. Her name is only a name that describes whose handmaid she is, Of Fred. We go through the book seeing the struggles the narrator goes through because she has memory of how good life was before this new order took place. She has memory of a husband and her daughter and now she has none of those things.

I was astonished at how believable this book was as to what could really happen if for some reason our current government was abolished. How easily women could be oppressed. To read this as a possibility was a bit scary. How quickly things went from being the way they are now to a place that seemed so primitive in its thinking. Using the bible and biblical references to justify an unjust situation and rules. This book definitely had me asking question like, would I be resistant, a martyr, or a survivor and just go with it surviving the best I could. Would I try to be some sort of hero or she-ro? (smile). What would be my place in this terrible female oppressive world? I also said to myself, if I thought it was hard now for women, look at where we have come from, and see where we could possibly go. Scary.

The overall story was good, but I did have problems with the narrator and her lack of facts as to what exactly happened to make things the way they were. I somewhat understand because my guess would be that she herself did not know much about how she went from working, having money, and owning property to being a handmaid. But having the story told from her point of view left a lot to mystery. The ending was left a mystery as well. That somewhat frustrated me because we do not know the true fate of our narrator.

Overall I give this book 3 out of 5 stars but it is a book definitely worth reading. I have been told that this is one of Atwood's mediocre books and that she has other novels that are better. I would be interested in reading other books from this author.

My Review of The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The movie based off the book

This book was given to me for a Christmas gift. I expressed how much I wanted to read the book and then watch the movie. It took me some time to get through the book just because I have a lot going on, but it was a great book. At first the dialectic of the book turned me o a bit but the more I read the more I was able to get use to how the characters spoke. I like how the book is written in the voices of the 3 main characters and each has chapters dedicated to telling the story from their point of view.

In Detail:
I think that considering the author was from the same area, and had a maid herself, I think she did a good job on portraying what she thought a black maid would feel like. I can not say how accurate it was. I think only talking to some of the black maids of that time would tell us if she did a good job portraying it. I think a friend of mine in my book club put it best. Although the book was great, and well written we have to remember that this is a white woman doing her own thought of what she thinks the domestic African American workers of that time were like. Going off what she knows and has researched. She did an excellent job.

In the book my favorite character was Aibleen. She reminded me so much of my grandmother. Just the open heart and not super judgemental, but could tell you what you needed to hear without being mean about it. I loved her character in the book. In the movie, I would have to say that it would be between Minnie and why can't I think of her name, the woman Minnie ends up working for. Minnie was portrayed really well in the book and she kept some realism to this story that not every maid is super nice and doesn't talk back. (Smile) I loved the Terrible awful. And the woman she worked for, I loved her because she seemed to genuinely not see the difference between Minnie working for her and being friends. She never treated Minnie like she was less than she was, and her character really needed Minnie. I liked that.

I cried while reading the book, and I cried even harder when watching the movie, when Aibileen had to leave baby girl. It really hurt me because I know that child will never feel a love like that from anyone else. It sucks that Aibileen had to leave.

I did see the movie and I thought it was a good adaption. I think some parts were better than parts in the book, like the way Skeeter's mama stood up for her in the movie. You could clearly see that. The way she talked to Hilly when she came over. And even used some words from the book Skeeter wrote, to let Hilly know she has been identified. I liked that. It did not go quite that way in the book and I wish it would have. So we could have known that her mother was proud of her no matter what. There was something that they changed for movie purposes. The whole thing with Skeeter's childhood maid and how that situation went down. I did not like how the movie changed it. I also would have like to seen the scene where Skeeter and her family meets Stuart's family at the house. I liked the conversation the family had there and how this previous fiancee played a major role. But overall the movie did good.

I definitely think that Octavia was Minnie in that movie, and she deserved that Academy Award for sure.

One activity I have always loved is reading. I am not getting back to reading more and I want to share the books that I am reading with others so that maybe they can read them as well. So there will be more reviews like this on my blog. I already have two more books to write about.