We Love Books

I love that Aedan has reached an age where he loves to look at books. I have always loved books and reading and it is something I hope to pass on to him. There are few things better than getting totally swept away to another time/place through reading.

Obviously right now Aedan is more in the look at pictures, point to fun things and touch different textures stage of reading, but still he loves his “ook”.

Of course he doesn’t just look at one book at a time.

It’s way better to get out all your favorites and have them spread around you.

I love when I get sneak in with my camera and just capture him doing things like this.

Of course it is short lived, because he quickly realizes that I have that black thing that makes noise…

But check out this walking baby with his big boy haircut (man oh man, that is a whole nothing post!!).

-Lauren-

Weekend/Week Wrap-Up

Things around here have been going pretty well. We had a relaxing weekend (well as relaxing as the weekend can be with a 3 week old). On Saturday we stayed at home all day which was nice. We go some much needed yard work done and now our front yard looks much better. On Sunday we went down to the Greenbelt with one of Jon’s friend from work and his girlfriend. Aedan has now been to the Greenbelt 3 times in his 3 weeks of life…I have a feeling he is going to like being outside just like his dad.

Yesterday Jon had a job out of town for the day so it was just me and Aedan at home. He was pretty fussy in the morning, but I still managed to keep him happy (well pretty happy most of the time), clean the house and get all the laundry done. Yesterday afternoon Aedan and I went grocery shopping. I love the fact that we have a brand new grocery store right down the street. We used to drive about 15 minutes away because the old grocery store was so small and crowded. Having a new, big store so close is great with a baby. They also have curbside delivery. So after I paid for everything yesterday they gave me a number and put a matching number on my cart. Then all I had to do was drive around to the front and a couple of guys loaded all my groceries in my car for me.

Today Jon was working from home again and he took care of Aedan while I took a much needed nap this morning! Now that Aedan is asleep again I am going to start reading the new Jodi Picoult book House Rules. I put it on hold at the library a couple of weeks ago and it just came in (I’m pretty impressed it was so fast since its a brand new book).

-Lauren-

Book Club

A few of my girlfriends and I have decided to start a book club. We all love to read and it will give us a good excuse to have a girls night at least once a month!

We have just decided on our first book, we are going to read Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Since I have manages to get all my homework done for this week already, I think I am going to go get the book tomorrow and spend my afternoon reading and relaxing. :)

-Lauren-

Getting Lost in a Book

I read this on a friends facebook status yesterday, and I smiled. I absolutely LOVE getting lost in a book. I have read just about every night before bed for as long as I remember.

I remember my parent’s reading to me before bed every night and that just become the routine. I remember getting lost in the Chronicles are Narnia with my Dad, and Baby Island with my Mom, as well as so many other great stories. I am so thankful they started such a great habit with me.

Since we have been married, Jon has also picked up this reading before bed routine and I know it is something we will carry on with our children.

Over the last 25 years I have read some wonderful books, but I want to talk about the ones I have gotten totally lost in. You know, when you realize you have been reading for hours longer than you planned. When you have to be forced to put down a book. When you’re not reading the book, you are just thinking about the next time you can pick it up again. There have been a few books in the last few years, that I have gotten totally lost in…

The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer (I know such a teen book, but I still love them!)

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Mark of the Lion Trilogy by Francine Rivers

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

Those are just a handful of the books I have gotten lost in during the past few years.

Your turn, if you’re a reader, what books have you gotten lost  in lately? I am also looking for a new story to become a part of. :)

-Lauren-

Just a quick mid-week post

I’m trying to blog almost everyday…even though I don’t feel like I have much to say…sorry if its boring!

I just got back from my small group. I’ve been meeting with this group of girls for about 2 years. We stopped meeting in January. Three of the girls have had babies since then, so we were all a little busy. We just started meeting, on a regular basis, last week. I’m glad we are all getting together again. We are reading the book of James through a study guide written by Max Lucado. We have done a couple of his books before and so far this one has been good.

I’m just about finished with my newest book…Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult. I love her books and I have read most of them.

I am so excited because the first Jodi Picoult book I read, My Sister’s Keeper is going to be a movie. Its a great book and they are not just making a Lifetime movie, but a big screen movie! You can bet I will be seeing it as soon as it comes out.

I know movies are never as good as the books, but they are still fun to watch.

So, does anyone have any advice on what I should read next? I am looking for some good fiction novels for the summer.

-Lauren-

For the Twilight lovers

My sister informed me that Stephenie Meyer (the author of the Twilight series) was in the process of writing a 5th book. It was going to be called Midnight Sun and it was going to be all from Edwards point of view. Someone leaked it early before she was ready to publish it so she decided not to go through with publication. You can read the full store about what happened here. She didn't want fans of the series to miss out on the 5th book so she has made in available to anyone on her website. How cool is that! You can download from the link above. I started reading it last night and I am already hooked. I poured through the 4 books in the original series and I would have loved the opportunity to buy a 5th book, but I am happy that I can at least read it online.

What a week

I can't believe it's already Saturday night...

On Tuesday after work I headed down to Houston with the consultant I work with. We went to a 3 day conference over the VB-MAPP. It's a new assessment that can be used on children with autism. The cool thing about it that it has been normed on typical children. The research that was done to make this assessment stresses that it is so important not to introduce and try to teach skills out of sequence with kids. We tend to work with kids who are 4-7 years old but may have language and social skills at 1-2 year old levels. It is so important that we teach them at that level so they have a solid foundation before you start teaching new skills. Anyway it was great. I learned so much. I feel like I go to school and they teach about things I already know about, it gets really boring...this conference was so great because I actually learned something new.

We got back late last night and I had to be up at 5:45 this morning in order to pick up donuts and be up at the Dell Diamond for the Greater Autism Autism Walk. We had a booth set up and it was so fun to see all the kids as well as the other booths. I got home around 1, took Hiro to Auditorium Shores so he would sleep the rest of the day. This afternoon I ran some errands which included going to Barnes and Noble to pick up Twilight. I read all 4 books in the series over the summer (more like in 2 weeks). I absolutely love all 4 books, and the movie is coming out next weekend. My plan is to read the book this week and then go see the movie next Saturday!

So as I was writing this Jon came home (he wasn't supposed to fly in until tomorrow morning so it was a nice surprise). We just made a trip to our favorite store Target and picked up some miscellaneous things. We are home now and about to watch a movie...I love cold weather nights at home.

Happy Labor Day Weekend

Jon and I had a great 3 day weekend together. It was nice because we did not have anything scheduled or anything that we "had" to get done.

Friday night Jon had to work (and he doesn't have to work again until next Friday!) so I had coffee with a good friend. When I got home I decided to watch a chic flick since I rarely get to do that these days. I watched Made of Honor. I give it a C+, it was a cute movie but slightly boring and slow.

On Saturday we slept in and then enjoyed a big breakfast. After getting ready, we took a day trip to Fredericksburg. We had a great time checking out all the shops, doing some wine tasting and enjoying a great German dinner with some good beer at a local brewery. Here is where we went for wine tasting. The guy was very cool and let us try more wines than we were supposed to. I was able to try some sweet wine. I really liked this grapefruit wine. It was so good that we bought a bottle. Jon liked the heaver reserved red wines. From the winery we went to this brewery for dinner. It was pretty cool. We were able to taste the 4 beers that they brew (you can actually see the huge barrels they use to brew the beer from were you sit in the restaurant. All in all we had a great day together and were exhausted by the time we made it home.

Sunday we did our typical errand running and relaxing. Jon spent most of the day on the computer and I spent most of the day reading. Currently I am reading two books. For school I am reading The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon. It is an interesting book written from the perspective of a man with high functioning autism. I started my second book yesterday, it is The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. I just started it last night so once I get more into it I will give more of a review.


Today we took Hiro down to our favorite spot on at the greenbelt. There hasn't been much rain here so the water was pretty low, but there was enough to swim in and for Jon to go off the rope swing a dozen times. Hiro had a blast swimming with his buddy Woodrow and I had fun laying out and reading.

Well that was our weekend. We had a great 3 days...now it is back to work and school for me.

Who doesn't enjoy summer reading?

Nothing like a week off to kick off some great summer reading.

Sunday and Monday I had a bit of a cold (which always seems to happen to me, as soon as I have some time off I get sick). Oh well, I was able to read an entire book in two days. I read a Wedding in December by Anita Shreve. It was a pretty good book (not sure if it would make it on my must read list, but definitely not a waste of time). I was also able to watch some great lifetime movies! I watched the Piolet's Wife (it is also a book by Anita Shreve) and The Tenth Circle (a book by my favorite author Jodi Picoult). Lifetime is great, I am addicted to Army Wives, but that will have to be another post).

Here are some of my favorites by Jodi Picoult:
My Sister's Keeper
Plain Truth
Nineteen Minutes
Perfect Match
I think I have read most of her books, and there hasn't been one that I haven't loved reading. Most of the books are about unique circumstances that really make you think about what you would do or should do if put in the very same situation. There is always a fine line between the right choice logically and the right choice emotionally. It looks like she has a new book out called Change of Heart. I will read it soon and post a review. :)

For lighter reading I love Emily Giffen. She wrote Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof. All are wonderful summer reads. It looks like she has a new book out; Love the One Your With. I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday excited about getting the new book and when I asked about it, they told me it doesn't come out until late July (although her website says May 13).

Since I can't seem to leave Barnes and Noble without a book I started searching for a new author to latch onto. I found Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand. It's a national best seller so I couldn't pass it up. I just started it yesterday, but so far so good. I think it will be the perfect book to take with me on our weekend trip to Dallas. She also has a new book out; A Summer Affair. If I like the first one I may check it out along with some of her others.

Anyone else have some good authors on their summer book lists?