Book Review--Psion Beta by Jacob Gowans

Psion Beta - Excerpt from 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award entry by J.W. Gowans

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jacob asked me to read and edit this book for him. He's been trying to publish it for three years and I think he'll do it. The book is excellent. It very much reminded me of The Maze Runner and Ender's Game, so boys who enjoy a good adventurous fantasy book will really like this one. I found it to be a little violent for me, but I guess that's what you get in a book that takes place during a war with people training for battle.

The characters were well developed minus one who ended up being very important at the end. He is writing a sequel book, so I'm hoping we learn more about this character in the next one. There is minimal language in the book, so be forewarned if you pick it up, but nothing horrible.

I really enjoyed reading it and stayed up pretty late to finish it (without realizing how late it was). I recommend it to anyone who likes The Maze Runner, Ender's Game, or any good fantasy adventure. I hope Jacob gets it published soon because I'd really like to see this book go far.



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Harry Potter Speaks the Freedom Language

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More Lincoln Pictures!

I can't get enough of this little boy. Today I left him on the floor after diaper change and went to check on Emma. I heard him start to coo so I grabbed the camera and was lucky enough to get some cute smiley pictures! And like any good mother, I had a hard time narrowing down which ones to post :)

This one is my favorite.

Just had to do some black + whites. For some reason I'm getting into those right now.

Family Home Evening

Tonight's family home evening was a lesson on gratitude in preparation for Thanksgiving. The kids traced their hands and wrote things they are grateful for in the fingers. Then we did the best activity. One of my personal favorites--The Popcorn Volcano.

Emma

Emma is sick. She's been sick for a while but I hadn't thought much of it until these last few days. Most of what's been going on has been on my Facebook page, but I know some of you either aren't on Facebook, or we aren't "friends" :) Which we totally should be.

Emma has had diarrhea for weeks. I was changing nasty diapers 6-10 times a day with just her, so between her and Lincoln--and we all know babies poop constantly--I didn't move much from the diaper changing station. I took her to the doctor about it last week and they said to increase her fiber intake, increase fluids, blah, blah, stuff I already knew, and to also bring in a poop sample.

Two days later Emma takes four naps. This child doesn't nap and hasn't napped since she was 12 moths old. She might fall asleep in the car around 4PM, the most inconvenient time of course, but she doesn't fall asleep three more times. The last time was on the living room floor and Megan tried to wake her up. Emma wouldn't talk, move, make eye contact, nothing. Megan and Jeremy rushed to me yelling about something being wrong with Emma.

I went to her and she looked awful. She wouldn't stand on her own, so I put her on the couch. I asked her a few questions like what her baby brother's name was and got no response. I asked her if she was ok and she shook her head slowly.

We got into the pediatrician's office quickly and they determined that she was dehydrated, probably from all the diarrhea.  We hydrate her and go home. She eats a few crackers, throws up. Throws up again a little later.

Saturday the fever starts. 100.2 and today 103.2. I took her to the hospital and they did some tests. She has a UTI, again probably from the diarrhea, is constipated (interesting since she has diarrhea, but that's what the x-ray showed) and a cold on top of everything.

What scares me is that the fever isn't really going down. It got to a low grade fever while in the hospital, but as soon as we got home it started creeping up again.

The poor thing is in my bed. The cutie woke up at midnight and happily told me she stayed in her bed all night. When I hugged her I noticed the fever was back and took her temp. I'm hoping that a good sleep and Tylenol with help her tonight.

Pray for us, please.

Simple Serendipity

My friend Sara is talented. Go here to get to her Etsy shop. Nothing is over $5. And it is all beautiful.

Perfect as our minds turn to Christmas presents!

Harry Potter Movie Clip!

A Mighty Change

 This was our family activity two weekends ago, It was warm enough that we didn't need jackets. The leaves were gorgeous. We drove around northern Ohio looking at covered bridges (and a cemetery, but that's because Nathan is weird like that).

 This is the longest covered bridge in the United States.

 Dropping leaves into the water

 You really have to click on this one to see it well. It's worth it.

Proof that Lincoln was there, too.

And here we are today.

Book Review--The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I have to say that I enjoyed The Maze Runner more than The Scorch Trials. That being said, I did really enjoy Scorch Trials. The story is engaging and curious and scary. There's a different kind of danger in this book. Both books I'd place in the YA genre, definitely not for middle grade readers, but for some reason I'd place Scorch a little higher than Maze as far as age appropriateness. Probably because of the type of violence as opposed to the amount. Maze had its fair share of violence, but most of it was with the Grievers (mechanical evil things that go after the boys). In Scorch, the violence, for the most part, is a result of people having gone mad or afraid of going mad or starving.

I've never been a teenage boy. This makes it a little hard for me to know if the dialog is true to life. There are times where I just feel like what's being said isn't real enough for me. But then I think back to the young teenage boys I've known and think, maybe it is accurate and they are just that weird and lame sometimes.

I loved the twists in the story. Dashner did a great job keeping us (I read this with Nathan) on our toes. I still don't know what I think about Teresa.

My one big beef with the story would be the same beef I had with Maze--too many slang words. I just don't think that realistically they would use them that often. I don't use slang that much, but maybe other people do and so the number of times the characters use their slang doesn't bother them. But it bugs me.

Other than that, I really enjoyed it and I can't wait for the third book so I can find out what the *shuck* is going on.



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Happy Halloween

 
We took the kids to a trunk or treat at the church on Saturday since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year.

Jeremy went through many costume ideas and finally settled on ghost, which I thought was going to be much easier than it turned out being, but oh well. He was a very cute ghost. Nathan really wanted to paint Jeremy's face and I knew from the beginning that Jeremy would not be up for it. Somehow, Nathan convinced him to do it and of course, as soon as the face paint was applied, Megan had to freak out over how scary Jeremy looked, which made Jeremy freak out and decide he didn't want the face paint anymore. Then he started worrying about what other kids would think of him with the face paint on and thought they'd make fun of him. So all night at the trunk or treat I pointed out other kids who were in face paint.

I was pretty happy (and so was Jeremy) when it was all over and it could just be washed off.

 
Emma was Tinkerbell, which apparently was the "it" costume for little girls this year. I made Emma a new tu-tu (last Halloween's was purple) using three different greens and dyed a turtleneck onesie green (I'd like to say that the uneven coloring that makes it seem more forest-y was on purpose), and just bought the wings at Joann Fabrics when I had a half off coupon. She was very excited and for weeks has been telling people she would be Tinkerbell for Halloween.

 

Megan was Tinkerbell's friend, Rosetta. I totally cheated with Megan and had her use the same pink tu-tu I made from last year's costume. It still fit and I figured she'd match Emma this way. Her wings we already had (on sale at Carter's forever ago), and all I had to buy was a new leotard (old one would have worked had she not suffered a bloody nose at dance class a couple weeks ago) and tights.

Lincoln stayed in the van. I decided it was way too cold to take him out of his warm and comfy car seat, but had it been warm enough, I would have dressed him up as the number 42. Which costume would have consisted of a piece of computer paper taped to his front with a large "42" written on it. Clever, I know.

Nathan made himself a really nice pair of vampire teeth this year, but forgot to bring them to the trunk or treat. I neglected to dress up since lately I'm so tired I consider it a huge success if I get out of my pajamas at any point in the day.

The kids had fun and this is the first year we've pretty much given them free reign with their candy. Nathan let them go at it as soon as we got home from the trunk or treat and then after church today told them they could eat whatever candy they wanted for ten minutes, which turned out to be more like half an hour. Usually I confiscate the candy and allow them a couple pieces each every day (picking through their bags when they aren't looking and eating my favorites). This way the candy lasts longer and they tend to forget about it after a while, thus leaving more candy for me.

It's probably a good thing Nathan is letting them eat what they want. He says it's better for their teeth to eat a lot of candy at once and have done with it, than to drag it out. Also, it's not like I need to be eating a lot of candy and chocolate while nursing and trying to fit into my old clothes.

The only candy he really told them they couldn't eat (yet) was the Box of Boogers. Yes, the picture at the top of this post is a box of candy boogers. We bought 8 boxes at the grocery store because they were 25 cents each. I handed them out at the trunk or treat except we kept one box for our family (minus me and Lincoln, you couldn't pay me enough to eat one). According to a little girl in our ward (church congregation), "They just taste like fruit snacks. They don't really taste like boogers." This made Nathan smile and so of course he had to ask how she knew they didn't really taste like boogers.