Juliana's Tips for Cruisin'

1) Find a cute boy with a cool ride (Real men aren't afraid to sport pink).

2) Look both ways before departing on your drive. You never know if the streets will be busy with other cruisers.

3) Don't be afraid to snuggle up close to your man if he takes the turns too quickly. They're called Opportunity Curves for a reason!

4) Always put the top down when you cruise. You definitely want to see and be seen by all the peeps out there.

5) If for any reason you have car troubles while cruisin', don't act alarmed. Just sit there nonchalantly while your date shows off his car skillz.

6) Most importantly, have fun! You're only young once - might as well let the sun shine on your face and wind blow through your hair.

*Many thanks to Oliver for being such a willing participant in this tutorial.

Here We Bowl Again

Everett is an avid Curious George watcher. He loves to watch that little guy get into all sorts of messes. Lately, there's been a Curious George episode on where The Man With the Yellow Hat is on a bowling team and George learns how to shine the bowling ball and roll a gutter ball (What? You haven't seen it? Quality television folks, quality). Anyway, Everett has been a tad preoccupied with going bowling. He keeps asking us when we can go. So, we took advantage of Will having the day off on Monday (thank you Mr. MLK Jr.) and head over to the local bowling alley.

I'm not sure what it is about bowling alleys that bring out such...um, diverse? crowds. But they're there. In droves. Weird people that I swear don't usually get out in the light of day, but who seem to be in their second home at the bowling alley. Please tell me you know the kind of folks I'm talking about. We managed to avoid any strangeness and set up shop in our lane with the bumpers up and the ramp ready and off we went to bowl. Everett loved it.

Juliana, fortunately for me, is not old enough or big enough to bowl. That didn't stop her from trying to run into our lane though. Thankfully, I'm a tad quicker than she is and disaster was averted.


It was hard to tell what Everett's favorite part of the whole experience was. He was quite impressed with the shoes. And let's be honest now, who wouldn't be impressed with green and white Velcro bowling shoes?


He loved the ramp thingy majiggy.

He almost lost a hand or at the very least a couple of fingers on the ball return apparatus.

And for whatever reason, he LOVED lugging that 10 pound ball everywhere.

All in all, a good time was had by everyone. Even Everett.
It was a close game the entire time. And I was losing. Which is kind of sad since Everett's three. And the bumpers were up. But in my defense, it's hard to bowl with the bumpers! If your ball even bumps them slightly, it goes careening off in the opposite direction. Hmph!

Lucky for me Everett took over my game for the 9th and 10th frames, which propelled me to victory! Ha, ha, ha, I win again!

Final scores:

E man: 98

Mom: 101

Dad: 100

A New Blog Coming to YOU!

There's a new blog on the block kids. And if you live or have friends in the Atlanta area, then you'll definitely want to keep this URL handy: www.theyellowrosebridal.blogspot.com. On this new and totally awesome blog you'll be able to find out the latest and greatest at The Yellow Rose - a modest dress shop specializing in wedding gowns and prom gowns. You'll be in the know for all sorts of good information. Like when new shipments arrive. Or when gowns are available at a discount (like NOW - everything in stock is 20% off). Or when special events are planned (something great is cooking up for the first week in March for all the prom goers out there so mark your calendars now). So check back often and comment regularly. And definitely let us know if you have any suggestions. The Yellow Rose is here to serve all of YOUR formal gown needs. Ch-ch-check it out!

Where Did January Go?

I can't believe January is half over and I've posted nothing of real consequence. Hmm...Perhaps I'll be diligent with picture-taking and blog-posting over the next couple of weeks to make up for slacking? Perhaps...

The first part of January was awesome! The weather was gorgeous and I would even venture to say warm. In January! We took advantage of the sunshine by hitting up the local park. I was patting myself on the back for even taking the kids to play outside in January and wow, am I a great mom or what for getting my kids outdoors - only to discover that everyone else had the same great idea. The park was a madhouse! But, Everett and Juliana had fun, even though this picture of Everett would seem to indicate the contrary.

I just love that Juliana is barely big enough to play on this bouncy thingy. She was scared at first, but then I couldn't get her off of it. And yes, that is her "I'm so happy you brought me here and I love this toy so much" face. Just ignore the death grip she's got going.

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In my attempts to be a better mom I've recently started using a great pre-school-esque book that has great ideas for how to add a some structured learning to Everett's day. It's called Teach Me Mommy and it is wonderful! We learned about growing and how big Everett's gotten last week with this little project. I had E lay down on a piece of butcher paper and I outlined his little body. He then got to paint "himself". I cannot even begin to convey how excited he was to be painting "Everett". He loved it so much we had to hang it up for all to see. Can you tell what side of the paper he was sitting on? I kept trying to get him to paint the whole body, but he wasn't having it. In fact, he was very particular about the parts he painted and got mad at me for painting his feet green.

This picture is just classic Everett:

And here's one of his new favorite words:

He's taken to asking me, "Mommy, are these shoes cool?" "Mommy, is this cool?" I can't believe my three year old knows and understands what cool means. This definitely spells trouble for me since I happen to be decidedly un-cool. I thought parents were safe from cool/uncool status until sometime around middle school? Um, yeah, this is not cool!

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We had spaghetti last night for dinner. I think that pretty much sums up these pictures.

And that's a wrap. Giddens out.

2008 in (Book) Review

One of my goals for 2008 was to read more frequently. I've always enjoyed reading, but in 2008 I wanted to read more. More books, more often, by more authors, etc. I kept track of the books I read right here on the blog on my left sidebar under the incredibly witty heading of "Books Read in 2008". Clever, I know. Since we're now beginning fresh in 2009, I thought I'd give a few reviews of the best and worst books I read in 2008.

Before I begin, let me preface my list and my reviews by sharing a few insights. One, I like fiction. I did try to branch out in 2008 and read more non-fiction, but as you can see, my list is overwhelming comprised of fiction books. Two, I read mostly modern fiction, by mostly female authors. I don't intentionally do that, but it seems to be the books to which I'm most drawn. You'll notice that there aren't a lot of classics on the list and while I do plan to read more of the classics in 2009, but I highly doubt I'll be able to read ONLY the classics. While I love to read the classics in a classroom setting, complete with insightful discussion and whatnot, when left to my own devices, I seem to settle well into just plain old fiction.

And third, not included on this list are the myriad of books that I began but, for one reason or another, never finished. If you look over my list you can see I really struggled to read anything in June and July. I spent most of my time those two months beginning books and then taking them back to the library. Some of the books began, but never finished, include: A Tale of Two Cities, The Price of Privilege, Three Cups of Tea, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Skeletons at the Feast, To Buy or Not to Buy Organic?, Edmund Bertram's Diary, etc.

Now on to my reviews!

Most Interesting Non-Fiction: The Mormon Way of Doing Business by Jeff Benedict. It was neat to read the daily habits of some highly successful people in the business world. The CEOs of JetBlue, Dell and Deloitte and Touche, the CFO of AmEx and the former dean of the Harvard Business school all discuss how their faith has played a major role in why they've been successful.

Funniest Non-Fiction: Mr. and Mrs. Happy Handbook by Steve Doocy. Whenever I catch Steve Doocy on Fox News, I just laugh. In my opinion, he has a hilarious sense of humor, so while reading the book I busted out laughing quite a bit. A very light, easy read. Kind of a "Look at my life, wow, we made some pretty silly mistakes when we were dating, first married, had kids, they went to college, etc."

Most Read Author of 2008: I'm going to consider this a three-way tie since I didn't read my 4th Shannon Hale book until the very end of 2008. Out of the three authors (all women, of course), I'd say I consistently liked Shannon Hale's novels the best, even though Goose Girl, Princess Academy and Book of a Thousand Days are very, very similar (girl has a special gift, gets taken away from family, travels long distances, there's some pretend about being (or not being) royalty, definitely a guy involved (the prince), and ends up using her gift to avoid disaster in the kingdom). Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed and Something Blue are great beach reads, but there is some language and sexual content. Definitely a PG-13 rating. Love the One You're With was terrible. I hate reading about women in marriages who toy with infidelity. I also discovered that while I enjoy the books written by Sophie Kinsella, I'm less thrilled with the books she wrote under her real name of Madeline Wickham.

Emily Giffin - Something Borrowed, Something Blue and Love the One You're With.

Sophie Kinsella/Madeline Wickham - Sleeping Arrangements, The Gatecrasher, and Remember Me?

Shannon Hale - Goose Girl, Princess Academy, Book of a Thousand Days and Austenland

Best Austen-inspired read: Austenland by Shannon Hale. If you love Jane Austen or the A&E version of "Pride and Prejudice", then you will surely enjoy this little ditty. A gal named Jane has an unhealthy obsession with Colin Firth aka Mr. Darcy. So much so that her great aunt leaves her a trip to Pembrook Park in England where guests come to experience the world of Jane Austen. They dress, act, eat, dance, talk, etc. just as they did in Austen's time. It's a cute, quick read, and of COURSE there's a silly little romance. I have to admit, I totally grinned while I read this one. So fun!

Best "Fun" read: Accidental It Girl by Libby Street. When paparazzo Sadie Price takes a photo of young Hollywood 'It' Guy Ethan Wyatt, she has no idea the tables are about to turn. Wyatt takes to stalking Price as part of a plot that he put together to name Sadie the secret girlfriend of another young Hollywood hunk. Needless to say, Sadie is less than happy when she discovers SHE'S the one everyone's trying to get a picture of. Oh yeah, and there's a romance. I loved it!

Favorite Book of 2008: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. By far the most interesting concept for a book that I've read in a long, long time. Henry DeTamble has a unique gene that allows him to time travel. Only it's not cool like when Marty McFly did it. DeTamble has no control over when he travels, to where or when, or when he travels back. Henry does a lot of trying to find food and clothing throughout the novel. The book is described as a romance, and it is, but it's definitely not a sappy, sweet kind of romance. More along the lines of a romantic tragedy. I can't tell you how much I've thought about this book since I've read it. Really, really interesting. Plus, it's coming out in movie form this year. Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams play the leads.

Best Throwback to 2007: Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling. I love all things Harry Potter, so this was great as a very last tribute to that incredible series. In Book 7 Hermoine Granger learns that Dumbledore left her a book of wizardly "fairytales". Stories that witches and wizards told their kids as bedtime stories. Tales of Beedle the Bard is the book that Hermoine "translated" from Runes into English. It's short, it's cute and it's Harry Potter!

Worst Book Read in 2008: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin. Yuck. To both of them. Beauty was stupid and evil-ish (at least to me) and The One You're With was lame. I hate when I can't find at least one redeeming quality in the main character.

Worst Book by and/or about British women: English as a Second Language by Megan Crane. All it talked about was graduate school and getting drunk in the local pub. Oh, and smoking. Don't waste your time.

Worst Series: Uglies, Pretties, Specials - by Scott Westerfeld. I kept thinking the series would get better, but it didn't. I especially resented the underlying message of environmentalism and that pretty much humans today are savages. If it's going to be about the environment, then say so. Don't try to pitch a story about the earth under the guise that it's about beauty (which it SOOO wasn't).

And there you have it. I've already read a few good ones in 2009, so I'm really looking forward to reading more this year. What about you guys? Agree or disagree with my reviews? Anything I definitely need to read this year? Oh, and I'm on both Goodreads and Shelfari, so if you're on either one of those and we're not friends yet, please send me an invite today! I love to look over what other people are reading and Goodreads and Shelfari are by far the easiest ways to do that. Happy reading!