Surprise! (Sort of)

As some of you may have noticed if you have seen me lately, my tummy is expanding. Or to quote our little guy, "look at that tummy! It's ginormous!" Consequently, we are pleased to announce that we are expecting our second little one in October--so we are halfway through.

That also means that (drumroll) we found out today that we are having another boy! We're really excited for little G to have a brother as his partner in crime. So, there you have it! Suspicions confirmed!

Reading List

As many of you know, since around November I have been voraciously reading juvenile literature. I tell you, it was like tapping a hidden oil spring! Wonderful! So for anyone interested, I thought I'd make a list of some of my more favorite series that are totally worth checking out. Keep in mind that I tend to exhaust an author's entire arsenal so sometimes it's worth starting here and then reading everything they've written (which I often have). 

1. The Ranger's Apprentice books 1-4. 

I can't wait for the later books to come out. My mom said that for her, these might rival the Harry potter series. (I know--such blasphemy!)

2. Goose Girl; Enna Burning; River Secrets; Princess Academy; Book of a Thousand Days. 

Basically, Shannon Hale is the woman. 

3. Inkheart & Inkdeath

Cornelia Funke is a pretty good bet just in general. 

4. The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. LOVE IT!

5. The Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. 

6. The Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix. 

These are a little odd and took me a little bit to get into. I would recommend some of the other series ahead of these--but I am still eagerly awaiting the conclusion to this series. 

7. The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. 

I didn't LOVE the first one, but it gets better and better as the series goes on. Even Brian read and liked these and that's saying something. 

8. The City of Ember and Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau

9. The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud

10. The Children of the Lamp series by P.B. Kerr

11. The Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney

Warning! This is a really dark series that is really kind of creepy at times. I'm not sure it should be labeled juvenile and I'm not sure I would recommend it to a non-adult. 

Random Adult Fiction that I have recently read and recommend:

1. The Strangeness of Beauty by Lydia Minatoya 

I actually re-read this because we are reading it for book group. I can't put my finger on what exactly I like about this book other than to say that I think it's beautiful and it keeps me engaged even though it isn't a fast or action filled read. 

2. Persuasion by Jane Austen

I've recently discovered my love for Jane Austen. Who knew?

Hmm....clearly I have focused on the younger genre. What can I say? When you find something good you stick with it!

Goals:

More Jane Austen

The latest books in most of the series I listed above

At some point I plan on reading the newer Stephanie Meyers stuff, but I kind of feel like a dork doing it. Maybe I'll get it and cover it with a paper bag while I read it on vacation!

No wonder my dissertation isn't done, my yard is full of weeds, and my house isn't clean. Oh well. 

Numbers everywhere!

Ever since my senior year of college, when my university stopped using social security numbers and instead assigned us random ID's, I have never had the motivation to memorize my new number. Even though I new it was for my security, I missed using my old fail safe. Needless to say, any time that I need something done on campus they ask for this number and I either have to haul out my card and read it, or try to get them to look things up by my social. Likewise, for the first four years of our marriage, I wouldn't memorize my pin number for the bank. Why should I when I have a super wonderful husband who will do all my banking for me? Sure, this was inconvenient at times because I could never bank unless I went inside, but being married has crippled my banking skills anyway. I avoid the bank as much as humanly possible--which it turns out is quite humanly possible. Consequently, I wander around with no money and very inconvenient ways to look up test scores and personal information at school.

The reason I bring this up is due to the irony that I have since memorized my library card number as well as two separate pins for two separate libraries. What can I say--being able to read fiction and check out movies is important enough to me to learn this number and repeatedly use it to place holds (of which I have approximately 10). Related to this memorization, I encountered a somewhat amusing/bewildering situation the other day with a librarian. 

I couldn't find a hold that I had been informed was waiting for me, I so went to the circulation desk to ask for help. The librarian asked for my library card. Thinking that she was just used to people who were not nearly as prepared as I am, I asked her if I could just tell her my number rather than juggle my books and my two year old to try and retrieve the card from my purse. This is when that fabulousness of our conversation began:

Librarian (L): You can tell me your number, but I can't do anything without your CARD. 

Me: Why? Isn't my card the same thing? I mean the only thing on my card is my number. 

L: Well, it's for your protection.

Me: Protection from what? 

L: So other people can't access your account.

Me: Doesn't it seem like if someone was going to take the time to memorize a particular number to access information to hurt me, they would choose a better number than my library card? I mean really, why would anyone bother to memorize this number except for me? What are they going to do, check out a bunch of books and never return them?

L: (Silent angry stare)

Me: Sorry, I guess. Here's my card.

L: Thank you. 

After this she angrily found my book and walked away. I guess it would be a pretty big bummer if someone did memorize my library card number and pin, then I would have to pay a huge fine before I could check out the next Artemis Fowl or The Ranger's Apprentice books. 

The moral of the story is that librarians help to make our world a little safer, one library card number at a time. 

Man Cold

This cracks me up. I wish I could do this when I'm feeling sick and still have to be a mom. 

And that's why we don't have cable

We celebrated our 5th anniversary this last weekend with a trip to St. George. We didn't bring a camera, but our highlights weren't always necessarily Kodak moments. 

1. G figured out how to defecate and urinate in the toilet. Amazing. When we came home he told us he had to potty at Grandma's house. Luckily, though, the pursuit of candy has since won him over. We are a far cry from being out of diapers, but at least he is finally showing some interest and understanding.

2a. We got to see the St. George temple (which is beautiful) and have a conversation with the missionaries at the visitors center about their rigidity in following unnecessary rules such as forcing a half hour guided tour for an exhibit that I could look at in five minutes. Their reasoning? The artist worked really hard on it for a period of ten years. I have a number of snotty and somewhat off color responses to this reasoning which I have stolen from Eric Snider and will not post here. Don't worry, I didn't hit a missionary--I just thought about it for a minute and walked away. 

2b. Every time we went to a church sponsored museum or landmark they would offer a pass-along card with Jesus on it to little G. He would indignantly respond, "NO! I want the temple one." to which they would always respond that he could have both. He was pretty firm in his response, though. He wasn't having any of that Jesus business--the temple was all that would do. 

3. There is an In-N-Out burger in the town 5 minutes north of St. George. They had just opened the week before. What luck!

4. I watched hours of marathons of Top Chef, Project Runway, and a number of food challenges which revolved around cake. Who could ask for more? I guess B--he didn't seem thrilled by my choices all the time, although in one of the cake challenges the cake decorator lady passed out and had to be taken to the hospital. See, it's a legitimate sport!

Those are the best ones I can think of right now. Good times.