Reading

I LOVE a good book!  I mean who doesn't? :)  In fact, I have really been enjoying my time over these last few weeks to read!  Some of my favorite authors are Nicholas Sparks-good books but when I try to remember the plots from some of his books, they all seem to run together:)  Jodi Picoult-I love how she takes topics that are relevant and morphs them into a very good story!  Of course I loved the Harry Potter books and then there is the Twilight series...couldn't put it down and can't wait for the last movie to come out in a couple of months (GIRLS NIGHT!!!).  I enjoyed the Hunger Games series as well!  Most recently I've read the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris.  The True Blood series (on HBO I think) is based on those books.  I've yet to see the series, but have been tempted to go and rent a few seasons to watch and see what I think.  Most recently....I was sucked into the Fifty Shades of Grey series!  Yes, there is sex...a lot of sex....but for those of you who have read them, there is a love story there....and I am a sucker for a good love story!  I mean, what girl doesn't dream of some handsome, very rich bachelor falling in love with her and sweeping her off her feet....ok, so maybe it doesn't exactly happen that way, but I still enjoyed the series.  In fact....I've read the whole series twice in 8 days!  When I find a good book/series, I get a little Obsessive/Compulsive about finishing it....I stay up late trying to suck in as much time as I can in the books.  I'm a fast reader, so I devour books quickly...then when I reach the end I'm worried that I read too fast and missed some important details...so then I start the journey again.  It makes Tony furious because he can't understand why I would want to read the same books over and over (oh and maybe because I totally ignore him while I read!)...but if they are good, I love getting lost in the story all over again:)  I've done this with all of the recent series that I have read (sans the Sookie Stackhouse because there were just too many of them!).  With Twilight, I had to physically remove the books from my house so that I wouldn't start on them again, I put the Hunger Games away in a cabinet so that I wouldn't seen them laying out...and now I need to do the same with the Fifty Shades series!...because I'm tempted to start them again:)  Although, I have read it a few other recent books on the iPad...so it is hard to "remove" them from my proximity:)  But I am determined not to read them again....so I went downstairs and picked up my copy of Twilight....maybe just a quick chapter before I turn in for the night:)

I'm Sure It Won't Be the Only Time

Towards the end of our summer school program, my mom brought Owen out so he could see all of the buses lined up to take the kids home.  (he loves buses, so I thought he would enjoy this)  While we were outside looking at all of the buses and getting kids loaded, one of the assistants (who knows me, but doesn't really KNOW me) asked when Owen would be getting a little brother or sister.  I quickly responded "He's not!" and then turned to say something to him.  My mom, who was standing there with us, was a little shocked by my abrupt answer and starting talking a little more to the person trying to fill the awkwardness.   It felt a little liberating to say it out loud....and didn't bother me like I thought it would....and I'm sure it won't be the only time I'm asked that question in the future......

Purging Complete!

Well, the purging is complete at our house. We had our garage sale over the weekend. I am not a huge garage saler, so I really wasn't looking forward to it. They are a lot of work, but thankfully my mom was available to come over and help me go through the several totes of baby items that I had.  I was amazed at how much stuff we had accumulated over the past 2 1/2 years! 

It was a little hard to go through the stuff, but surprisingly Tony had a harder time with it than I did. We definitely saved some of his special outfits and toys as we went through things, but we still had a ton of things to put in the sale. I also had some friends come over to pre sale on Thursday night before we started on Friday. 

We had the sale on Friday and Saturday. Friday was crazy busy! We barely had time to sit down at times. Tony's aunts and my mom came to help with the sale (one aunt and my mom put stuff in the sale also) and to help with Owen. He definitely did not like his stuff being out there, and of course any time he saw a toy he liked he wanted to get it and play with it again. They were all toys he hasn't seen in more than a year!:) both days someone finally had to take him and leave the house because he just couldn't handle being there, or rather yet it was just easier for him to be gone:) As busy as Friday was, Saturday was not! We finally started packing up about an hour before we said we were because it was SO hot and no one was coming. I still had some things left, so I bagged up the baby things and sent them to a pregnancy resource center and the rest of our household things went to Goodwill. It was all gone by the afternoon and it felt pretty good.....we are continuing to move forward and this was one of the first steps.