Halloween 2012

Bookclub may have made my Halloween grinchy heart grow three times this year.  A year ago, a woman joined who is ALL about halloween.  She's one of those people who goes all out and spends a fortune in both money and time to decorate and celebrate this silly holiday.  We take turns hosting different months and as soon as we signed up for months, she hollered for October so that we could all enjoy her Halloween ambiance.

I made my usual spiel about how I don't usually dress up and don't care for the holiday but she said I had to come in costume.  I had planned on trying to find a giant pair of sunglasses or a purple wig, just for minimum effort, but when I was shopping on Amazon.com for Henry and Sam's costumes, I saw an "I Love Lucy" get up and thought, "Oh, that kind of looks like fun."  So, I bought it.

Bookclub was o.k.  My head itched all night wearing a wig and I honestly had more fun putting on my fake eyelashes than being at book club but I'm still glad I got the costume.  It's a keeper!

My kids were thrilled that I planned on dressing up.  We still didn't do jack-o-lanterns, crazy lunches or frosted pumpkin cookies and there were no Halloween decorations around our house of any kind.  I came to their school party on Friday and helped with their "healthy breakfast" classroom parties and went to the school Halloween carnival on Saturday night but didn't dress up for either.  They were too busy running around with their friends to notice anyway.  I don't know whether to be relieved, embarrassed or slightly sad that they don't seem to care at all about my lack of Halloween enthusiasm but it is nice to keep it simple.  In fact, I think it has helped me cope and come to terms with this weird tradition as an adult.



Sam and Henry's school celebrated in the morning with a student parade around the gym.



Sam loved his green man costume.  Everyone kept asking him what he was and he simply replied, "Just a green guy."





Henry was an adorable banana.  He didn't get the memo that the costume of the year was ninja.  There must have been at least a dozen there.





Healthy breakfast party.

Jay dressed up as an excavator this year.  He always goes big on his costumes and even rented a trench digger for full effect.  He stayed in character all day long, digging away, and was still at it when we got home from trick-or-treating at 7:30 pm!.  That guy sure is dedicated to Halloween!



Daniel got a turn on the machine.







Henry couldn't wait for 5:30 when it was time to leave.  We had to pick up Seth from basketball by 6 but I managed to get some pictures in front of the house before dark this year.  I'm learning.



I prefer non-scary/non-dead/non-gory costumes.  So far, no problems!



My little tigger!



He has no idea what is going on.  "What is that funny thing on your head, Mama?"



As soon as we got to the neighborhood we like to descend upon for trick-or-treating, he got grumpy and tired.



As boo-humbugy and resistent to celebrating a silly holiday for weeks and weeks, I do really enjoy watching my kids trick-or-treat.  It brings a smile to my face to hear them say the words and get excited about the fun size candy plunking into their pumpkins.



Everyone loved Sam's costume.  He got a TON of comments, mostly from adults, about how cool he looked.  Unfortunately, as soon as the sun set, he could not see.  At all.  He chose not to wear his glasses because they hurt his face when he wore them underneath the costume and the no glasses/covered face/dark sky made him nearly blind.  He told me he felt like what a moth feels like.  He could only see shapes of light.  He held onto my arm along the street and Seth would guide him up to the house but he was always relieved when someone had a big fire burning in their driveway or lots of lights on.  I was nervous about him tripping or hurting himself but once we got safely back to the car, I could laugh about how funny it was.  The sacrifices made for costumes!



Seth did not want to go trick-or-treating this year.  I put the wig and sunglasses in the car and let him choose to wear them and go with us or to stay in the car.  He went with us but was pretty grumpy.  He was either embarrassed about trick-or-treating with us or he was really tired and hungry after practice.  Still...he got free candy!



Come to my voice, Sam!



We lost him to sleep about half way through.  And we were only out for about 35 minutes.



Once home, I tried to get some more angles of his costume by putting him on the floor.



He was having none of it.



But some quick moving around gave me all the angles I needed:)  Then I picked him up and he got the snuggles he was seeking.



Such a funny pair of boys.  They traded and negotiated for about a half hour after dinner.  Sam is smart and makes some good trades for gluten-free candy in exchange for his twizzlers, kit kats, twixes and whoppers.



Happy Halloween!

My Manny Is Gone

For the past few months, I have been relying heavily on the help of my nephew when the afterschool schedule got hairy or weekends too full.  Derek was always willing to help me out of a jam when I couldn't be in two places at once and freely offered his services wherever and whenever.  I hated asking, because I hate asking anyone, but I always felt certain that when I asked Derek for help...he truly didn't mind.

I joked that he had become my manny.  He'd take Henry to his soccer game or pick Seth up at cross-country.  If I had to be gone in the evening and Seth or Jay wasn't around, he frequently had the three younger boys.  All of my boys adore their older cousin and in many ways, he's that older brother that Seth has never had.  Ever since we moved back here, Seth has been quite close to Derek.  Finally, there is someone bigger to wrestle with and Derek never, ever got annoyed with a nine, ten, eleven or twelve year old boy who, without warning, would jump up on him.  When Daniel was born, I saw a side of Derek I don't think he shows to many.  He's a total softie.  He loves all my boys but he was extra sweet with Daniel and more than once, he held a crying baby in the foyer while I taught YW or primary.  On a Sunday when we were asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting, one of the young women held him and I think he was jealous! However cranky Daniel was, Derek never seemed to get flustered.

I met Derek when he was three years old.  I've seen lots of changes in him throughout the years but this past year, I've watched him as he prepared to serve a mission for our church.  He has been called to serve in the Raleigh, North Carolina area.  His transformation from boy to man started when uncles came for the cattle drive-in in June, and he was set apart as an Elder.


From left to right:
Jay, Rex, Vaughn Sr. Jerry, Vaughn Jr. (his dad), Derek, Clark

Then, we travelled to Monticello and went through his Endowment session at the temple.



Patty, Derek and Vaughn

Last Sunday, he was set apart as a missionary and we were able to be at that as well.  I wish we were closer to my other nephews, Scott, currently serving a mission in Florida and the twins, Jacob and Michael, who are going to serve in Russia and Columbia, but I am so glad that my boys have been able to witness first hand the necessary steps in becoming a missionary.  I'm grateful for all of their examples and for the close relationship they have with Derek and hope that they will follow his examples and be missionaries as well when they have grown a foot or two.




I'll definitely miss my manny and the boys will miss a fearless wrestling partner but we are so proud of Derek!



See ya in two years, buddy!

Daniel - 45 Weeks

You know you're a fourth child when....

your mom purposely puts finger food on the floor so you can be happy without her for a few minutes.  It's good to build up a strong immunity, right?

Book Review #36 - Wolf Hall

I think I needed a good semester in English History to really enjoy this book. Hilary Mantel, who clearly knows her Henry VIIIth stuff, does not dumb down her vast field of knowledge so that someone like me, whose handle of this tumultuous time in both religious freedom, women's rights and the UKs monarchy is limited to once reading The Other Boleyn Girl, a Phillipa Gregory novel, and all the words to the "I'm Henry the eighth I am!" song doesn't have to do a head scratch or two. First of all, it seems like everyone is named Thomas. The pronouns alone and my confusion about who "he" was at any given point in the novel was enough to prevent me from loving the book. By the end, I could see that this was a big deal. It's the kind of book that makes a period of history feel very real and not so long, long ago. If only those pronouns hadn't tripped me up so much, I could have loved this one.

Book Review #35 - The Other Side of the Bridge

I read this because Mary Lawson wrote Crow Lake and it haunted me. I was not disappointed with her second book, The Other Side of the Bridge, although I think Crow Lake is the better book. The Other Side of the Bridge takes the classic story of two brothers - one bad...one good - and meshes the lessons taken from both The Prodigal Son and Cain and Abel. Throw in a woman to make it a love triangle but keep it subdued and approachable by setting it in a farming community in Canada and, voila, you have great literature! I want Mary Lawson to write more books!

Book Review #34 - Nocturnes

I think Kazuo Ishiguro is a beautiful author. This is five short stories that center around music and nighttime and while the idea is beautiful and the writing is beautiful, the book is just OK. Maybe it's my reaction to short stories. I just kept waiting for something...more...something bigger...something purposeful to happen. Or to be realized. Or to wonder. Very descriptive but ultimately unsatisfying to me.

Book Review #33 - Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

The south has a pretty solid grip on fascinating literature. I've lived in the Rocky Mountain west my entire life and I'm drawn to books about the south and all of its flavors and dysfunction. I should have liked this book. Not much happens. It's much more about stereotypes and prejudices and how, when race is involved, those universal human frailties take an even nastier course.

But, I didn't like it. I kept waiting for something to be learned or gleamed or appreciated or forgiven but it just all...happens. Like I expected it would. Not really a mystery, although the author purposely keeps the reader in the dark about details surrounding a homicide, but I did wonder "whodunit" and when I knew...I figured. I guess my complaint is that there is nothing really new or special about this small little Mississippi town and its inhabitants.

Book Review #32 - The Mysterious Benedict Society

I did not enjoy this. I don't think I was meant to. This was written for young readers and it felt like it. Lots of stupid silly stuff that prolonged an already tedious plot for the last 3/4ths of the book. I enjoyed the beginning, when the characters were being selected for the society and revealed their gifts and abilities while taking the "test" but after that, snore. But, my son did. And, as it was written for his age, that redeems the book.

Book Review #31 - The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Great book. Thoughtful. Clean. Funny. Educational. If I had a daughter to pass it on to, I would. I'm not sure I can get my boys to be interested in how different education and expectations were for girls. And while I hope I won't ever be so blatantly preferential as a grandparent, I do hope to give the kind of love and influence Calpurnia's grandfather gave her.

Book Review #30 - Graceling

So. Long. Ago! What I do remember is that I was disturbed by the loud anti-marriage message (but pro-sex message) but liked the focus on gifts and both their blessings and curses. Because it was geared for young-adults, the gifts were spectacular and powerful but I think a real conversation could be had about our much more mortal gifts and how they both enable and box us in. Things like athleticism or sensitivity or friendliness or stubborness. But, that big ol' sex message kind of gets in the way of the discussion because it takes over the book. Meh.

Book Review #29 - Magic Hour

After reading the summary, I have very little recollection of this book. It's about a feral child found in Washington State who can't speak and seems to have either raised herself or been raised by animals and a child psychologist who had some traumatic thing happen with one of her past patients that caused her to lose all her confidence. I remember being somewhat annoyed that it had a romance included between the psychologist and town doctor as the author was obviously trying to write a serious book about child neglect and abuse but apparently feels that women readers need some nookie thrown in to have any interest at all. But, because I really can't remember reading it, I'm going to save it from being thrown in the horrible pile and just brand it "o.k."

Book Review #28 - Jayber Crow

Apparently, there is an entire series by Wendell Berry set in the fictional Port Williams, Kentucky. I think I read somewhere that his is the tenth in terms of publication. Maybe reading them all would add some kind of depth...somewhere, but I don't know how because of all the books I read in 2011, this was my favorite. It is reminiscent of Gilead in both scope and message. An older barber reflects on his town, his lonely life, his unrequited love for a good woman married to a dud and what love really means. It's slow and lovely and intimately good.

Book Review #27 - Crow Lake

I've decided to just bite the bullet and write a very brief review of the books I read last year.  I realized at book club last night how many books I've read that are just in purgatory - so I'm going to send them onto their final resting place on my read list and perhaps some of you will discover a book that sounds like something you want to read.

Crow Lake is exactly the kind of book I like.  It centers around three siblings whose parents are killed in a horrible accident and the life altering decisions that were made in the aftermath.   What really struck me, however, wasn't the "oh, my life could have turned out this way had my parents not died" idea but what the siblings, namely the youngest sister whose older brothers sacrificed much to raise her in their parents stead, assumed their feelings or lives must be like because of their sacrifice.  I found myself really relating to this character.  This inner burden she lives with as well as the unlabeled judgment of her brother for not pursing his younger-self dreams only to discover later on and with so much time wasted that those were HER feelings...not his.  Loved it.

It's Not You...It's Me

A couple of weeks ago, I heard through my son, Sam, that our neighbors and friends were moving to Utah. When this friend confirmed the news through a text that same night, I drove home in a fog of tears. I was desolate. Beyond sad. Beyond lonely.

The hole this family would leave behind, both in the community and at church, is crater-sized in its proportions. While the thought of the gash their children leaving makes to our youth program and primary, as well as her and her husband's leadership roles as seminary teacher and bishopric member being sadly vacated is depressing, I mostly mourned my own personal loss. A fun friend gone. A source of advice and comfort in this little town too expensive and isolated to keep anyone for long...taken. I didn't want to live here anymore. I know that sounds dramatic but it just seemed that if this person, who I thought was going to be here forever, was moving then no current or future friendship was safe.  For years, it was us leaving our friends as medical school, residency and fellowship ended but, now, for the rest of my life, friends will move and leave me.

What made my grief seem ridiculously overdramatic and undeserving was that it had been probably close to a year since I had done anything social with this friend.  We had chatted at a few ward functions and a sent a few texts here and there that kept us from saying we hadn't heard from each other but I had made very little effort to be a friend to my friend.  Now, with plans for her to move in less than a month, we quickly scheduled a breakfast in which to meet and chat and it was delightful.  Easy.  Well...not so easy.  Daniel did tip over my water onto my lap and I had that uncomfortable upper thigh and crotch soak to show off as I left the restaurant but that kind of thing isn't what keeps me home.  It's me...not making any effort.  It's me....figuring people have better things to do.  It's me...not knowing or realizing the stress others are having and helping.  It's not hard for me to list all the reasons why I'm so unsocial these days.  I'm married to a private and socially unmotivated person.  I live on 25 acres in the freaking countryside.  I have a baby who prevents me from being a lady who lunches and older kids with busy evenings that make my daylight hours feel too precious to spend frivolously with other moms of young kids at things like MOPS.  All those realities make the excuses easier to give but the sad reality is this: I am not a good friend.

I think I make an excellent acquaintance.  I tend to be friendly and funny and genuinely interested in others. I'm such a good acquaintance that some are duped or lured into thinking I'd make a good friend.  This attention and effort on their part flatters and excites me for awhile but then something happens.  I'm not sure what.  Sometimes it's my own insecurity that I seem too desperate or needy so I back off.  Sometimes, I overshare, get embarrassed and back off.  Sometimes, someone else seems too desperate or needy and that scares me so I...back off.  See a pattern here?  Sometimes, distance and time just shift the friendship back to acquaintance mode and it seems weird to get all loud and eager again.  Whatever the reason I know that I am the common denominator in all of my current and former lackluster friendships.

A few days ago, this friend told me they are no longer moving.  Relief and joy replaced the gloom and I feel determined to show this friend that I really am her friend!  Even with this resolve and our own jokes that it shouldn't take the threat of a move to get us to hang out, I find myself managing my motivation.  My head says, "O.K.  She's staying but this is a really busy time of year and you just had breakfast two weeks ago. Don't annoy her and plan something else right away."  I'm obnoxious!

To anyone I have disappointed as a friend - I'm so sorry.  I'm sorry if I seemed disinterested.  I'm sorry if I let you down or left you alone when you needed support.  I'm sorry I seem to lack the skills to stay friends - real friends.  I promise you...it's not you.  It's me.  I'd like to be better.

Daniel - 44 Weeks

You're losing that baby look. You love getting a ride in the stroller and nine times out of ten, you are snoozing five minutes after we leave on our walk.

Daniel - 43 Weeks (10 Months!!)

• loves to rip paper (obviously)
• stands on tip toes
• loves to eat what the rest of the family is eating vs. baby food
• finally starting to hold own bottle
• sleeps from about 8:30pm to 7 am most days with 2 naps (and maybe a car map in the late afternoon)
• slightly shy with strangers but happily goes to anyone most of the time
• screams every time you get put in car seat but settles in with acceptance seconds later
• sneaks upstairs several times a day but won't try to come down after tumbling down a few times
• opens all the lower drawers in kitchen and takes out the plastic containers and bowls and cups many times a day.
• also pulls most of the books off of lower bookshelf daily
• snuggly when tired
• adorable

Book Review #26 - Beautiful Ruins

My favorite book of the year, thus far.

I don't know quite what to say.  I should probably write about why I enjoyed it so much.  I guess because it is romantic. Or because it is colorful.  Perhaps, because it has freakishly fantastic characters.  who portray human motives with so much variety and truth.  Mostly, because it's unlike anything I've ever read.

This has a really big scope.  I could say it's about an Italian man who meets a Hollywood actress in 1962 and goes to America to look for her fifty years later.  I could also say it's about a young idealist who comes to realize that nothing in Hollywood is real.  At times, it's about a man who was part of The Greatest Generation who would never be great.  Other times, it's what must be salacious gossip about two dead stars: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and their infamous affair.  It's about drug addiction and death and loss of identity and infidelity and, in spite of all the seriousness, has real humor and love added in.  How does a book about so many thing end up being so great?  Jess Walters pulls all the threads together at the end and like a brand new contemporary symphony, something beautiful emerges out of all these dismal ruins.  Something I've never heard before.  And I loved it.

Book Review #25 - Wife 22

Definitely one of the funnier books I've read in a long while.  But while I enjoyed the humor and the wake-up call the author sounds to take care of your marriage, especially if it has become stagnant with middle-age responsibilities, I didn't really believe this story.

Life is strumming along for Alice and William and their two children, Zoe, fifteen and Peter, twelve.  Except they all seem so unfriendly, unhelpful and bored.  After a particularly lackluster night out with her husband, Alice decides to take part in an apparent random marriage survey she discovers in her junk email.  She is assigned the identity, "Wife 22," and while giving her written responses, she wakes up her dormant memory of better times, evaluates her values and attitude, dusts off her old playwright writing skills and remembers she is a person worthy of interest.  The question she now faces is does she invest her rekindled  energy towards her twenty year marriage or pursue the researcher who seems so besotted with her.

Like I said, parts were tremendously enjoyable.  There is this memory Alice writes about the time her William, who she wasn't yet dating, and her old boyfriend met in line at Au Bon Pain and the situation with her embarrassment over her boyfriend's blue bandana was laugh out loud funny.  But, unfortunately, funny parts can't seem to carry a story and if I remove the humor-filtered glasses, I see a book with many flaws.  Alice is a very weak protagonist.  She is actually hard to root for.  Her husband is not a complete character.  He is whoever the author decides she wants him to be in whichever chapter.  There was never any consistency in how he was written.  Her family life is appalling in both what she expects from people and what she gives.  Her poor kids.

The writing switches between traditional narration, survey responses, emails and facebook chats.  I worry for the books longevity as it is so interwoven with Facebook terminology and technology that it will really date itself quickly.  I know this book isn't really meant to be a critical essay on modern marriage or social media so if you read it with the light-heartedness with which, I believe, the author intended, it should serve its purpose as enjoyable, anecdotal middle-aged chick-lit.

Trending

Seth has been working on identifying artifacts in his social studies class and what information they reveal about any given culture.  As I've been thinking about certain trends for awhile, I thought it would be good fun to share my opinions about some things that are happening in 2012.

• Bright Color Skinny Jeans - Skinny jeans were bad enough for 95% of the female population but now, those unforgiving pants come in fuscia, tangerine, sunflower and aqua and gold!  As much as I try to look down my nose at all the bright bottoms, I actually think they are really cute.  I wish I could wear them!  Alas, bootcut is my friend.  My kind, camouflaging, forgiving, friend. 

• Joanna Brooks - Although I am not a regular reader of her blog, nor have I read her book, Book of Mormon Girl,  I have heard of her.  Several of my Facebook friends occasionally link their status updates to her blog, usually when they agree with her opinion on gay marriage, feminism and church tradition vs. doctrine.  From what I've read, she seems smart and kind and clear in that she represents her own opinions and not the LDS church at large.  Then, for a few weeks, it seemed like she was everywhere!  The Daily Show and morning shows and talking about Mitt Romney and releasing her book and I got a little alarmed.  I get that some cultural aspects of my church are amusing/frustrating/obsolete/bewildering/cringeworthy but sometimes, the docrine gets thrown into the debate about what should stay and what should go.  I rely gratefully on the tenet of revelation and our own human shortcomings that limit the flow of knowledge from God to us - because we haven't managed to master faith and repentance yet - and I bristle a bit about the adulation of so many for one woman who, though smart and articulate, isn't called to be our prophet.  I definitely think questions, conversations and doubt play a huge part of any religion and they should!  Heaven knows I am filled with my own.  I just worry when those questions, conversations and doubts get liked on Facebook and rated on Amazon.  Still, I do plan on reading her book sometime soon. 

• Hash Tags - Oh my goodness, these took me so long to figure out.  I am not on Twitter.  I think I am enmeshed in enough social media and I can get my fill of celebrity info from reading the cover of people and Us Magazine in line at the grocery store.  I do not need them reminding me about their shows/movies/political views or product launches.  So, when hashtags started to appear on facebook and instagram, I had to google their purpose.  O.K.  I see how it can be handy if you use instagram to further your business or want followers.  I even enjoy how hashtags can sometimes be used for humor.  My problem is, because I'm not on Twitter, I feel like a faker whenever I use one.  Because, my instagram account is private and I don't want followers I don't know.  So, they are pointless, right?  And yet, that humor motive still gets me sometimes!  

• Extravagant Manicures - I have never had a manicure.  Ever.  I pick my nails.  Every so often, I see someone with a french manicure with nails only a little long and I think, "That looks nice.  I should get one sometime."  Then, I see all the crazy things people do to their nails and pictures of things people want to do to their nails and I'm glad that this is not my thing.  Because those nails look time consuming!  

• Paleo Diet - It's tempting.  I admit it.  It shouldn't be because we already live with diet restrictions in my house but you can't help but notice how healthy all those recipes look.  I know I'd lose weight.  But it also looks so, so hard.  No dairy?  I'm not a milk drinker but I love dairy. Cream cheese, sour cream, ice cream.  And beans!  I love beans.  Black beans, refried beans, pinto beans.  And rice!  I love rice.  And quinoa. Buckwheat, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't miss.  So, maybe Paleo isn't for me.  Plus, I saw this on Facebook and it made me laugh out loud.  

• Pop Music - There is no doubt in my bones that todays hits are the equivalent of disco music.  It's all beat and style without substance and still, I love it!  I am wired to love the beat!  Listening to the radio has never been so enjoyable.  Oh, I made do and sang along with whatever has been playing for the past 20 years but I haven't had this much fun since my freshman year of high school and Technotronics "Pump up the Jam" was all the rage.  That and C&C Music Factory.  It's horrible!  I'm so ashamed!  And yet...I shimmy on.  

• Gangnam Style - I don't actually know what this is.  I have heard the song on the radio and it sounds like a mash-up of Ricky Martin and LMFAO (see above to understand how I know about either).  I don't love the song.  It's in a different language.  Korean, I've been told.  So, there must be more to the story for it to make all these headlines than just the song.  

There you have it.  A tiny, wordly glimpse into fall 2012.  Won't the future be amazed?  

Book Review #24 - The Good Dream

So, I went and saw the movie Looper this weekend.  I don't watch many movies and even fewer R rated movies but it was the kind of weekend where I really, really wanted to have movie theater popcorn and diet-coke and so I looked at Rotten Tomatoes website and it was either the 12% stinky trash Taken 2 or the 95% good looking tomato Looper.  Looper sounded like an interesting premise - mobs murdering their hits by sending them 30 years in the past through time travel - and somebody from the Tony Kornheiser show recommended it, securing Jay's vote, so we went hoping the R rated parts weren't going to be too awful.

Turns out, they were.  I hated all of the blood and guts. And the drugs. And the promiscuity (This wasn't The King's Speech kind of R-rating).  Gross.  And although the story WAS interesting, it wasn't nearly worthy of its 95% ripe and red tomatoes..  The time-traveling moral of the story is if you can personally change the future for the better, you should do it.  I'm not sure it's the cloud parting, angel singing epiphany the movie critics seem to think it is but I think that's where the good ratings are coming from.

Then, two days ago, I pick up The Good Dream and read about a single thirty year-old woman named Ivorie, in a small Tennessee farming community who causes a stir in her sleepy town when she rescues and cares for an abused 8 year-old boy and changes his future. I thought, "This is Looper without the mob and strip clubs and drugs!"  It's a PG, 1950s, small-town non-time-traveling Looper!

Ivorie's brother, Henry, says this to his wife in reference to his sister, "It doesn't matter what sort of hate that boy's daddy was eaten up with.  All that was broken the moment Sarah (he is the only person that calls her Sarah.  Her name is Sarah Ivorie) went up in those hills with God Almighty filling her chest and she brought him down out of there....Love's in that boy's bloodline now.  For a thousand generations....Not bad for a day's work."

He even goes on to say that he's not chasing rainbows and knows about the rough rows to hoe up ahead.  Some readers take issue with the boy not being more emotionally damaged than the author portrays him to be in this story.  I don't know.  I'm not an expert.  I certainly image anyone who is subjected to the kind of physical, emotional and sexual abuse this boy is described as enduring would face many life challenges in his future but I don't think the book ties a bow around these two characters and declares them finished.  I think the author is saying in a more-palatable-to-me-than-Looper-way, "Do the right thing."  Even when it's hard.  Especially when it's hard.   Recommended!

Book Review #23 - The Art of Fielding

Fifty pages in, I thought, "Yes! This is what I like to read! It is already so good!"

With such a strong start, it had four-hundred and fifty pages to go downhill and, boy, oh boy, did it ever skid on down.

Henry Skrimshander is the real deal at shortstop. Unfortunately, because of his scrawny build and small-town Wisconsin isolation, no one notices. Until Mike Schwartz, Westish College's team captain and catcher steps in sets Henry on the path to baseball stardom. The Art of Fielding is mostly about the relationship and motives of these two college baseball players but Chad Harbach decides to go for what he must have considered a grand slam and ruin a sweet home run by throwing Guert Affenlight, Westish College's Dean, and his depressed daughter, Pella into the character lineup.

It's been awhile since I've read something that disappointed me so much. Books often have stronger beginnings than ends but Harbach's early plot development and delightfully nuanced characters fell short more than most. What I thought was going to be a subtle metaphor between baseball and life turned into a nauseating, immoral and overwrought drama. Characters who had flaws suddenly become one giant flaw. Everything was overdone. And then he tries to resolve the whole mess at once! Bah!

It had so much potential. This book about fielding baseballs-both literal and metaphorical, was such a nice masculine book and after my somewhat heavy-on-the-chick-lit summer, I felt some balance return reading about muscle building protein shakes and road trips via bus. As a woman, I've been told that men don't like to analyze problems, they like to fix them and if that is true, then Harbach needs to fix this book.

First problem: too much book incest. These people need to get out of themselves more. You have Henry and Mike and Owen and Guert and Pella and they are all sleeping with each other! It is icky. I know it's a small college and all but it's a fatal flaw.

The first problem directly leads to the second problem. Because these five peoples are impossibly up in each others business, all of their problems reach a ridiculous climax at the same time. Really? How convenient for your story.

The last problem is the most annoying. The end. It is so bad. You are seriously going to end your story by a feel-good group grave digging? Oh. My. Word.

I'm trying to review the book for what it was and not for what it could have been but it's hard to do. It could have been so, so good. But, it wasn't.

Daniel - 42 Weeks

We're going on our fourth week of snotty nose. Rather than wipe it away for the hundreth time of the morning, I thought I'd capture you as you are and have been for awhile. I don't know if it is the endless teething, allergies, a cold or what but you just keep producing the goop! And you hate to have your nose wiped. You scream as if your are having your toenails forcibly removed and as soon as my hand gets near your face, you start with the evasive maneuvering. The only way I can get a clean sweep is to pin you on your back, hold your arms down with my left forearm and lean on one side so you can't shake your head back and forth. We're all ready for your cute little nose to be clear.




You still smile all the day long, especially if I'm taking your picture.  And look at all those teeth!  It's like you are related to Renesmee or something.


Your eyes are like your daddy's only darker.  Not quite brown but a deep, deep green brown.



With digital cameras, it is so easy to delete the unflattering or bad picture.  An entire generation will grow up thinking they were perpetually photo ready and stunning.  I am here to keep you humble.  Sometimes, you actually blink!