{book review} here i go again

here i go again by jen lancaster is a breezy novel about the high school "it" girl, lissy ryder, losing it all and facing the reality of what her "itness" cost others-- and herself. through a glossed-over method, lissy is able to go back in time (again and again) in order to find the the moment that her future (and the futures of her classmates) hinges upon. it's fun. it's full of pop culture references, and it was a quick read.

honestly, this is not the genre of book that generally leaps off the shelf into my hands. given the opportunity to review it, i wanted to give it a fair shot and hopefully open my eyes to a new genre of novel. as fun a read as it was (i definitely had some chuckles), the book fell short to me. it was as fast-paced as an episode of gilmore girls, but without the depth or heart. even lancaster's main character seemed flat to me (she's vain! but she has funky taste in music!); a paper doll instead of a living, breathing woman. i wasn't sure if i was supposed to root for or against lissy. i know how to identify with the losers or outsiders from high school (hello!), but i kept waiting to discover the heart and soul of lissy; that magic moment that would allow me to see her as human. however, the essential question that lancaster explored, i can resonate with: if you could go back and change your past, would you? or has your past (good or bad) made you who you are today? there are some past experiences that i think might want to skip over, but on the whole, i hope that i've used pain or humiliation or boredom or even tons of good to grow and learn and just simply become me. i hope we'll get to explore a little more of that in the blogher book club.

are you going on vacation soon? do you have hours in your future that should be spent curled up reading? (or better yet, stretched out in the sun reading?) here i go again is a perfect choice. fun, funny, and fast.



This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own

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here are a couple of other books i've read recently:

dark places by gillian flynn. this is the author of gone girl and the title is not a lie. this book is very, very dark. flynn employs the same back-and-forth storytelling device as in gone girl, but less effectively.

under the dome by stephen king. i am obsessed with king's 11.22.63. that book is as thick as a dictionary and i couldn't put it down. i wanted to give another recent king novel a try. i wasn't as into this one, but i can appreciate king's mastery of storytelling.

the school of essential ingredients by erica bauermeister. this is a short, sweet novel of a cooking class told in vignettes. it made me want to approach cooking with more romance and less get-it-on-the-table. i am now girding up my loins to attempt beef bourguignon and homemade pasta sauce.

where'd you go bernadette? by maria semple. semple was a writer for arrested development. enough said, right? this book was hysterical. i think i read it in 24 hours.

cousinlove

tovi, cruz, abby and i loaded up our car this weekend to watch our two nephews in the bay area (side note: remember when my entire life could be packed into my small mazda? yeah, that seems like a dream to me too). so that was two adults, two dogs, three toddlers, eight naps to orchestrate over two days, approximately two thousand cuties consumed, a seemingly endless parade of poop, and frankly, a minimal amount of meltdowns! tovi and i high-fived each other all weekend long. we made it our goal to love on our nephews, give them some special one-on-one time with each of us, and start creating some awesome relationships between these three boys. it was priceless to see them laughing with each other, coming up with funny games, and the whole thing just makes me hopeful about this family that we're all building together. can't wait for the new littles to join this crew.

what {we} wore last wednesday

oh it's monday, and i think you know how i feel about mondays. i love mondays so much that i can even catch up on all things i was supposed to get done last week. like blog posts. and dishes. 

(pretend i didn't tell you that last part)

 here is what we do in our house from morning until night: we bowl.

we are bowling fiends.

cruz rushes downstairs in the morning, sets up his "track" (two buses, naturally), i set up the pins, and then let the bowling joy (or tears of frustration) begin!

there is an old family story about one of my uncles working at a bowling alley as a kid. his job was to reset the pins after each throw and for his pains he was paid a penny per pin.

let me tell you, from where i'm standing that doesn't sound like a bad deal...

I'm looking for someone to set up my pins...

I pick you!

cruz has been eating so. much. oatmeal. like, so much that we had to upgrade to the costco pack of oatmeal this week. so. much. my son has many fine qualities, but eating oatmeal neatly is not one of them so immediately after breakfast we change (after a little diaper time, of course).

my sister-in-law gave this shirt to cruz for christmas and i couldn't wait for him to wear it! too cute. 

we've been practicing our "faces." cruz calls this one "surprised."oh, i could just eat him. 

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and here's how i've been dressing the bump lately.

after 18 weeks i was officially in maternity pants zone. i pulled on a regular pair of jeggings one night before we went out, and tovi very kindly mentioned, "i think those might be a stretch."

but of all our outfits this week... this one is my favorite:

we're having a girl!!! 

wednesdays just got even better. 

out of the mouths of toddlers

cruz: lion eats meat.

me: that's true. what does cruz eat?

cruz: cruz eats bars.

me: that's definitely true. what does abby eat?

cruz: abby eats food.

me: you're right. we always ask you to get abby her food. what does mommy eat?

cruz: mommy eats vitamins.

i guess it could be worse. if he was still up at 9pm every night, he would have said, "mommy eats ice cream."

{january} 10 on 10

thursday was the tenth of the month, and once again i got close to taking ten pictures, but didn't quite make it. as my dad would say when he's being silly, pert'ynere but not plum. but that's just my dad.

so here's what we were up to on one random day in january.

6:30am. i wake up early in the morning and try to get through my devotions and making my daily to-do list before i hear babbles and snatches of song coming from cruz's room. i've been reading through the she read truth: fresh start daily devotional. every day is another story of someone in the Bible that got a fresh start or a second chance (this is basically everyone in the Bible, so it's encouraging). 

7:45am. i am getting cruz out the door for a morning at daycare. he loves daycare, so i don't tell him we are going until about ten seconds before i'm ready to head out the door as i have learned the hard way that if i tell him too early he'll just run out the front door and stand by the car. here i asked him to show me his happy face. enjoy.

8:45am. i am alone in the house and that is miraculous and wonderful. lately i have been loving going back to an old fashioned spiral-bound daily planner. love. it. it makes me feel slightly more organized and i like the visual-ness of it better than i like looking at my schedule on google calendar (although i still use that too).

 10:35am. i am getting ready for a meeting with crushcakes, a local cafe and delicious purveyor of cupcakes.

11:45am. the owner of crushcakes is awesome! as i leave, she boxed up some cupcakes for me to take home. delicious!

3pm. so two year olds are weird? cruz's latest "thing" is "bowling" with all my hairsprays. morning til night. bowling bowling bowling. fortunately for him, i have a lot of hair spray, volumizing mousse, dry shampoo, etc to make the full bowling set. i think he even slept with the hair spray. 

5:30pm. this is the aftermath of a playdate with some new fun friends. why haven't we done more evening playdates? the kiddos played, megan and i ate hummus and chatted. it was awesome. evening playdates are the best. 

7:06pm. brush 'ems! (see also: hair spray)

7:21pm. dear friend, until this very moment pictured, i had believed in my heart of hearts that i had bought food for dinner. i did not. i ended up with a dinner of leftover lemon chicken, mashed potatoes, and crab rangoons. 

after "dinner" we turned on the heat, cuddled up, and watched a few episodes of the office. lovely day.