Timidity.org

My apologies for my long silence. I’ve been around but I just couldn’t think of anything interesting to say! On a personal note…it’s hot here (summer + Texas = yeah, it’s hot). Amazingly, school starts for my kids at the end of the month so it’s almost time for back-to-school shopping. That is fun but expensive. Our family is going to a water park this Friday, everyone is excited about this, we’ve been planning on it all summer.

The main gist of this post is to talk about a few books I have read recently. I love to read, but I haven’t been reading as much lately as I used to. One problem is time, the other is finding books I’m interested in reading that I haven’t read yet. However, lately I’ve come across a few good books I thought I’d mention in case anyone else is interested.

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan: I read this for an online book club I’m in. I’ve never read anything by Amy Tan but I’ve heard good things, which I now think are justified. The novel is about a mother and daughter who struggle with themselves and their relationship with each other. It started slow but once I got to the mother’s story, I was hooked and couldn’t put it down.

Marley and Me by John Grogan: This is an interesting bit of non-fiction written about a man’s dog Marley described as “The World’s Worst Dog”. The idea is simple, a man’s experiences with his dog Marley and how he enriched his and his family’s life. It is so much more then that, all dog owners and lovers should read this…I laughed and cried. If you have a dog it will make you love them more. I highly recommend this one.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale: This is a fiction novel written mainly for young people and I’ve actually read it before a year or two ago. It is a fairy tale type of story about a young girl finding her place in life and it really is wonderful (a Newbery Honor book). I loved this, it was imaginative and really sweet, a great read for any girl of any age. Boys might like it, too, but I really think it is geared toward girls.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer: I picked this one up because I have read Meyer’s Twilight series, but this book is much different. While “The Host” is marketed to adults (rather then young adults, like “Twilight”), it is not a hard read and there isn’t any objectionable in it for younger, teenage readers. This is a post invasion story in which the Earth has been invaded by aliens and human have had their bodies taken over by these parasites in order to continue their existence. One of these aliens, called Wanderer, has been given the body of a human named Melanie who does not want to give up herself very easily. Wanderer begins to sympathize with Melanie and humans in general and soon strikes out on her own to find Melanie’s love Jared and a hidden group a rebel humans who still retain their own bodies. It’s part science fiction, part romance. I was wary of reading it because while I like “Twilight”, I don’t think they are the greatest book. I don’t think “The Host” is for everyone, but I did like it better then “Twilight”, which surprised me.

Speaking of Twilight…

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer: This is the forth and final novel in the Twilight series. If you don’t know anything about Twilight, it’s a story about a human girl who falls in love with a vampire who is sworn off human blood (yet, he still craves it so the relationship is a dangerous one). This is a brand new book that only just came out on Saturday and I finished it just last night. I won’t say much because I don’t want to give anything away for anyone who might come across this, but it was a fun read if you like Twilight. The plot was not really what I expected at all, but once I got the gist of what the author had in mind it was fairly predictable in a way. Again, fun, but not terrible intellectually stimulating…just fun. Sometimes it’s nice to just read for fun and I did enjoy it. However, I’m glad to be done with Twilight, too many books like that make start to make me ill.

I’m currently reading Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier. This is a future selection for the book club I’m in, but I found it at the store and thought it looked interesting so I picked up to read ahead a little. I’m about halfway through and I’m not sure what to think yet. I’m still not sure where the author is going with it. This month’s book in my book club is The People’s Act of Love by James Meek. I have it on hold at the library so I’m going to pick it up this week and start. I’ve never heard of it so I have no idea what to expect.

In other book news, I’m also reading the Harry Potter series aloud to all of my kids. We have been doing this for a good portion of the summer and we are about 2/3 through book 5. This is one of my favorite series so I like reading it over and two of my kids have never read the books so they are really enjoying it. Plus…I do a lot of the voices so they like that. Although, unless we pick up the pace we won’t get them all done by the end of summer…

I was having fun with my camera…sorry it’s a little pic heavy (8 photos):

We received our economic stimulus check on Monday and I believe we did our part to stimulate the little economy. Last night we bought a 47″ flat screen TV. Think that’s good enough?

Actually, we were just going to save it…that’s probably what we “should have” done. But our TV situation is dire and we never did get any gifts to celebrate our anniversary in April (just dinner) so I thought this was the right time. Our newest TV up to this point is about…oh…11 years old! It works fine though so we did the great-TV-shuffle: We put the new TV in the family room, moved the 11 year old beast from the family room to the master bedroom, and we are going to throw out the very old TV that used to be there. That was the one that really needed replacing, it’s 15 years old and the screen is so dark you can barely see anything. It’s all better now…and our kids freaked out when we brought the new TV home, that was funny.

Anyway, I now feel like I have joined the rest of the modern world by finally getting a flat screen TV. All is well!

I recently became aware of the existence of the Menstrual Cup and because my experience was so positive I would really like to spread the word to other women who might also be interested.  Because this post will be “girly” in nature (but not gross or anything, I promise, just maybe a little explicit) I’m putting the bulk of this blog post in an extended post.  Please skip it if stuff like this makes you uncomfortable, but by all means if you are a menstruating woman (or know one who might be interested in this information) please read on…

Read the rest of this entry »

Everytime I hear this ad I want to die laughing:

“It’s not TV, it’s birth control.”

It’s an ad for some new show on NBC called “The Baby Borrowers” where they allow teenagers, who think raising babies is easy and all fun and games, to take care of babies and kids of all ages in order to show them that it is so NOT. I’m not particularly interested in watching the show, but I find the concept funny (well, at least the ad is funny).

I took my kids to see “Prince Caspian” last week. It was pretty good, but a lot like the first Narnia film. Still, if you like Narnia then it’s probably worthwhile to see. Now my kids are dying to see “Kung Fu Panda”…but I’m really skeptical. I don’t like seeing films aimed at mainly kids that insult my intelligence in the process. Has anyone seen it yet that can tell me if it is worth my time to see? I’m very picky about movies, I don’t want to waste my time and money on something really dumb.

Movies are too freaking expensive anyway, and whatever happened to the less expensive matinée?  I think my ticket was $7.00 instead of $8.00 and the kids were the same price as always.  Lame.  Or maybe I’m just really out of it.

I finally finished a new crochet project and I wanted to share a quick photo, take a look:

It’s a little fairy!  I made her from a pattern I purchased on Etsy.  She’s not prefect but I’m really pleased how well it turned out for my first try.  She’s so cute I’m going to definitely make another with maybe different colors and/or hairstyles.

More good news, my back/neck is feeling better.  Not perfect but better.  I’m staying optimistic.

I’ve been having this recurring upper back and neck pain for the past year or so. I get a twinge, then it gets stiff and sore. I rest and it usually goes away. But…it keeps coming back. I considered going to a chiropractor but it never lasted long enough to really justify that. Then on Tuesday, it came back again. I took some Ibuprofen and went to bed early to try and fend it off before it got worse. That totally blew up in my face, sometime in the middle of the night I rolled over in my sleep, twisted something the wrong way, and woke up nearly screaming in pain. It was seriously close to the worst pain I have ever felt and this time it was just not wanting to go away at all.

I could barely move without causing sharp stabbing pains in my neck or around my shoulder blades. This time I finally just called a chiropractor because…damn. So I went on Wednesday morning and she took some X-rays and some treatments. She suspects I have one or more pinched nerves which wouldn’t surprise me since the pain radiates and sometimes my arm goes a bit numb when this pain comes around. I went again yesterday for more treatments and her partner worked on me in the way you think of when you think of a chiropractor (with the back twisting and cracking/popping stuff). I’ve never seen a chiropractor before so I was a tiny bit worried about this part but it didn’t hurt at all, it just felt a little strange when my back popped and when he twisted my neck it made a really loud noise…or maybe it just seemed loud since it was my neck popping near my ears. He also massaged these massive knots out of my muscles which felt really, really good.

I’m still in pain, but it’s better, and I did this without having to submit to taking large doses of prescription pain killers…that’s one reason I went straight to a chiropractor instead of calling my regular doctor. Plus, I’m hoping for a permanent solution instead of just treating the symptoms and having it come back again and again like it seems to do. I also know if I was in better shape I probably wouldn’t be having these problems, so when I get all better I’m going to try and get back into doing yoga again to help loosen up those muscles and improve my flexibility.

I’m going back again today to check out those X-rays and maybe get some answers about what’s causing this and hopefully get more treatments because they seem to be helping.

So…my verdict so far…chiropractor=good.

In other news, my blog was again acting funny, it’s starting to become some kind of joke. My old Moveable Type program that ran my old blog was still installed on my server and it kept overwriting my new Wordpress installation. I would deleted the offending file just to have it continue to show up again. So if you visited my website yesterday you may have wondered what was going on, but I fixed it and now it should not be a problem again.

Today is also the last day of school for my kids so I’m going to start getting busier than usual, plus I will have to listen to moanings of, “I’m bored!” a lot more often then usual. Still, I’m hoping it’s going to be fun, my kids and I have made some plans together for summer activities to try and stave off boredom so hopefully it works out pretty well.

One more thing, I started working on a new crochet project yesterday so sometime in the next week I should have some new photos to share.

This little cutie has been hanging around our house for the past few days:

This isn’t our cat, but she (I think it’s a “she”) must belong to someone because she is wearing a flea collar. She’s awfully young to be out alone but she seems to be able to fend for herself okay and she’s really sweet and friendly.

Isn’t she a pretty one? I love cats but we can’t have any because my husband and at least one of our kids is allergic.

Here’s just one more. She was hard to photograph because she kept moving around all over and getting up close in my face, heh. But she was purring and I just love that. So, she’s not ours, like I said, but I wouldn’t mind her hanging around. However, my dogs are so silly about her being around. They aren’t mean to her or anything, just curious. My big dog is constantly begging to go outside so she can sniff the cat and the little dog is scared of it (which is hilarious because the cat is smaller than her and the little dog usually acts likes an evil maniac). Anyway, it’s really funny.

Mostly, I just took the photos for something to take a pictures of and the cat was a cute subject. Thanks for looking!

Yes…I am a cheeseball who watches American Idol.  But I can honestly say I’m glad it’s finally over, near the end it always gets a bit tedious and old, I always just wish it was over because it drags (not to mention the cheesy-ness gets hard to take).

I’m so happy this year though because…FINALLY someone won that I actually love and can get really excited about!  Yep, David Cook…I’m a huge fan.  I love his voice, his singing style, his creativity…etc.  I’m so happy for him, he seems like a nice genuine guy, too.  Seriously, ever since his first top 12 performance I have wanted him to win, he impressed me just about every single week.

Don’t get me wrong, the runner-up David Archuleta, is very talented.  Cute, too. :P  Plus they both had really great final performances, and Archuleta’s may have been a tiny bit better…maybe.  They were both great, in my opinion.  But for me, it was about overall appeal and the ability to be consistent over the entire contest, not just one night’s performances.  David Archuleta had some odd moments and weird song choices throughout the competition.  David Cook almost always chose great songs and rarely had a weak moment.  Also, as far as probable post-contest success, David Cook seems to have more going for him…I predict he’ll be fairly popular (kind of like Chris Daughtry, I love him, too…I was so mad when he got voted off season 5, but that’s another post).

Anyway, I’m already reading junk online from disappointed fans of David Archuleta claiming the contest must be rigged or that America has no taste.  Please!  Anyone who has been watching the contest from the beginning, or at least since the top 12 were chosen, knows David Cook has been just as popular as David Archuleta all along.  To be honest, I really though Archuleta was going to win even though I was rooting for Cook, Archuleta’s fans (and let’s be honest, they are mostly teenage girls) are just more vocal which made it look like he had more, I suppose.  But Cook has more all-around appeal I think and the vote reflects that.  Really, either of them could have won and it would have been good, they are both nice guys with with great voices.

So…Yay David Cook!  I’m very happy for him and I think America got it right (I don’t bother voting…I think it’s lame, but again, that’s a post for another time, heh).  I’m actually looking forward to his CD.  I already downloaded some of his show singles from itunes…and I suppose I should add that I like Kelly Clarkson, too, from American Idol, but I didn’t watch season 1 and didn’t even discover her until post-Idol so I’m not sure she really counts among idols I couldn’t get excited about.

I took a photo for the “ewwww” factor today, plus I’m testing how well the photos look/fit on my blog. Take a look:

Yep, I found this creepy thing in my yard earlier today…I did not get too close, I used my zoom lens to get the details. Nasty…and weird colors that I’ve never seen on a spider before. Anyway, I’ve fiddled more with my new blog and I’m getting happier with it all the time. I just need to make the sidebar look nicer and a few other things and then I think I’ll be satisfied. Thanks for hanging in there with me!