One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to write a children's book. Well it took me a while but I did it! It's just a basic, simple, silly story based on a game I play with my kids. I learned this from my parents and grandparents and now my own kids love it too. You probably even play a version of it with your little ones (or have in the past).
Here's my story:

I'm Gonna Getcha!

When I was little my grandma said to me
(slowly, slowly, slowly)
She said "I'm...gonna...getcha, getcha, getcha right there!"
And she'd tickle, tickle, tickle til I giggle, giggle, giggled.

Now you're my little one and I love to say to you
(slowly, slowly, slowly)
I say "I'm…gonna…getcha, getcha, getcha right there!
And I tickle, tickle, tickle til you giggle, giggle, giggle.

Now you've got a little sister and I love to say to her
(slowly, slowly, slowly)
I say " I'm…gonna…getcha, getcha, getcha right there!
And I tickle, tickle, tickle til she giggle, giggle, giggles.

One day you'll have a little one all your own and you'll love to say to them
(slowly, slowly, slowly)
You'll say " I'm…gonna…getcha, getcha, getcha right there!
And you'll tickle, tickle, tickle til they giggle, giggle, giggle.

I just submitted it to Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories contest. The winner gets $5,000 and their book will be published and inside Cheerio boxes in 2011. WOW! Wouldn't that be an honor! You can enter at http://promo.simonandschuster.com/spoonfulsofstories/. There's no limit to how many times you can enter so I'm definitely going to get busy writing and enter some more stories. This one was just hastily written in about 10 minutes while I was changing diapers this morning. Can't wait to get busy! You can enter until July 15th, 2010. Get busy writing! :)

"I love you to the moon and back". Oh, I love the book Guess How Much I Love You! Easton tells me he love me two times (his way of saying a LOT) and I tell him I love him to the moon and back. Kristin at La Dolce Vita makes beautiful jewelery and is giving away a gorgeous necklace with this sweet quote from Guess How Much. I would love to win but if I don't, I hope someone I know wins! Go check it out!

La Dolce Vita

We are taking part in the Read for the Record event today. It's a world-wide event to see how many people can read Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to kids. I LOVE this book and so do the kids. Click >

http://www.readfortherecord.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage

for more information about Read for the Record.

While my mom was here, she bought me the book Twilight. Now I don't know that I normally would have read this book because it's about vampires but since my mom and Jason's mom really loved it AND my mom bought it for me, I decided why not. Oh, it's so good! I read the first one in only a few days and bought the second at Costco and devoured it too. Now I'm waiting for the next one to come out at Costco or Walmart (where they're cheaper) or for a copy to become available at my libary. I normally do NOT like books about weird stuff like vampires and werewolves but these also have a really interesting plot aside from that. Besides, I don't usually like books about magic but LOVED the Harry Potter books simply because the writing just really draws you in and grabs your attention, so I thought maybe the same would hold true for this series. Yep. I'm addicted. Thanks, mom! :)

I got Easton's ABC book in the mail yesterday. It is SO nice!!! I highly recommend Shutterfly for photo books! The pages turned out great, the colors were bright and true-to-life and the cover is very professional looking. I can't believe I made this book with photos I took. Hopefully, Easton will like it. I will definitely be making more photo books for gifts. I'll probably try out some different companies based on the prices they're offering but Shutterfly gets two thumbs up from me.

For those of you that I'll be seeing in OK, I'll be sure to bring E's book so you can see for yourselves what a great job Shutterfly did on the printing. :) Can't wait to see you!

I just finished reading this amazing book. You've got to read it!

http://www.amazon.com/Mistaken-Identity-Families-Survivor-Unwavering/dp/1416567356/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219851290&sr=8-2

From Amazon.com:

Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family. This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt?
Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found. And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving
student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet
on the brink of new beginnings. Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale
of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of
the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable.

So much to do! Where do I even start? I've decided to go through my many cookbooks and combine all of my cookbooks and recipes to make one cookbook with all our favorite recipes. I have all of these recipes and really only use a couple out of each of these books. (If you've given me any of these cookbooks...Thank you! But I've really got to consolidate!) Oh boy! This means I have to flip through every magazine, cookbook, or cut out recipe I've saved. And I have a TON!
There's these:





And these:





And also these:




Normally, they're all hidden out of sight under my baker's rack until I need a recipe. Then I have to try to remember which book it's in, shuffle through all of these until I find that book, flip through the pages until I find it and then I can make the recipe. That takes forever!


Plus, THIS is my to-do pile. The plastic container is where I put coupons to file, stuff to put in file cabinet, wedding announcements I've saved to remind me to buy wedding gifts, a magazine with an article I wanted to save. Just a bunch of miscelaneous stuff that I need to do.

Like I said, where do I start? I guess I'll just try to do 1 or 2 maybe even 3 small things a day until I'm done. At that rate though, I just might be done by Christmas. :) But boy, won't it be nice to have all my recipes in one big fat book?!

All of this to do plus laundry, dishes and getting my scrapbook stuff organized so I can finally go to my friend's and scrapbook. Whew! I'd better get busy!

***Update***Easton took a long nap so I was able to get through 20 (yes, TWENTY!) of my cookbooks and copy my favorites and put them into my "favorites" binder. YAY! That's a good start! Too bad I still have about 3 or 4 times that many recipes to look through! Now the question remains...what am I going to do with all those cookbooks after I've gotten all of my favorite recipes out of them? Any ideas???

Hmmm...I could give them away to people who comment on this blog. Leave me a comment if you want a free gently used cookbook.

Blogging, blogging, blogging when I should be working.

I've been really disappointed in some of my recent library books.
For example:

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey - Yes, I heard all the controversy about how he made a lot of this stuff up but I wanted to read the book and see what all the fuss was about. And I HATED IT! Yuck, yuck, yuck! If he didn't actually go through all that stuff then he has a messed up imagination to come up with all those gory details. GROSS!

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - I thought I would love this book. It sounded so interesting! I did like part one about her travels to Italy. But the language of the book is just so flowery and dramatic that I couldn't make myself read any more.

Two books that I read only partway through and quit. I almost never quit reading a book before I've read it cover to cover but these books, even though they were much-talked-about bestsellers just didn't do it for me. Sorry if you liked them or even loved them. They just weren't my cup of tea.

Here's a list of the books I currently have checked out from the library:
1. Cash : the autobiography / Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr
2. Johnny Cash : the life of an American icon / Stephen Miller
(I kind of got on a JC kick here and am loving reading about him. I can hear his deep, rich voice reading the words to me as I learn more about one of my favorite singers.)
3. Beautiful lies : a novel / Lisa Unger.
4. Sliver of truth : a novel / Lisa Unger.
5. The garden of Ruth / Eva Etzioni-Halevy.
6. The song of Hannah : a novel / Eva Etzioni-Halevy.
7. Attracting birds, butterflies & other winged wonders to your backyard / Kris Wetherbee ; photography, Rick Wetherbee.
8. Baby proof / Emily Giffin.
9. Burpee-- the complete vegetable & herb gardener : a guide to growing your garden organically / by Karan Davis Cutler ; photography by David Cavagnaro.
10. Creative tabletop fountains : 30 projects to renew your spirit / Marthe Le Van.
11. How to grow more vegetables : and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine / by John Jeavons
12. Kitchen garden planner / written by Darrell Trout.
13. Loving Frank / by Nancy Horan.
14. National Audubon Society North American birdfeeder handbook / by Robert Burton; introduction by Steven W. Kress.
15. Vegetable gardening : from planting to picking : the complete guide to creating a bountiful garden / Jane Courtier and Fern Marshall Bradley.
16. Virginia bird watching : a year-round guide / Bill Thompson III and the staff of Bird watcher's digest.
17. The budget gardener / Maureen Gilmer.

So now you can see what I'm reading about lately. Vegetable gardens, how to attract birds to my backyard and make a tabletop fountain, the Man in Black and a few chick-lit books and mystery/suspense novels thrown in for good measure. Gee, I'm a dork. :)

One of the things I've been doing lately is reading. When my eyes are crazy I can't do too much of it and when they're not too bad I read voraciously, as though making up for lost time. I've always loved reading as many of you know so it shouldn't come as a surprise that this is the way I usually unwind.
Here's what I'm reading now (or have on my coffee table waiting to be read):

T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton One of her Kinsey Millhone alphabet series of books. I LOVE these books! Can't wait for the rest...Hurry up, Ms. Grafton! Can't you write more quickly?! I'm in the middle of this one and am having a love/hate thing with it as I do with all good books. If it's a good, interesting read I love it and completely immerse myself in the characters and their story but hate when it's over and feel a little like I'm missing a friend. Sounds weird, but if you're a reader like me you know what I mean.

I really enjoyed The Red Tent by Anita Diamant and found some more books by India Edghill along the same lines. Queenmaker is about King David's wife. Wisdom's Daughter is a novel about Solomon and Sheba. I LOVED Queenmaker and can't wait to get started on her next book. They are fascinating!

Woman in Red by Eileen Goudge

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

Double Cross by James Patterson Can't wait to start this one. It's the newest Alex Cross book and I've been on a waiting list for at least a month for this one. Like the Grafton novels, once you read one...you're hooked!

Anyway, that's what I'm reading now. Anybody else reading anything good?