Musing Mondays - Apr 30th

Musing Mondays is a weekly event where MizB  at Should be Reading will ask a book related question and you answer with your own thoughts on the topic.

This week's 'Musing Mondays' asks:

 Do you listen to audiobooks? If not, why not? And, if so, what has been one of your favorites, so far?

I have yet to listen to an audio book, but I would really like to! This has actually been on my mind a lot lately. I have a few friends who have listened to quite a few of them, and they really enjoyed them. It does pose a couple of issues for me though. I wouldn't be able to listen to them around my kids, I don't think I'd be able to hear very clearly. Sometimes when the kids are playing nicely I will sit and enjoy a couple minutes of my book. I don't think I could do that with an audio book. So it would probably take me a while to finish it, since I don't have much kid-free time on my hands haha. The only other thing I worry about is the pace, I wonder if I would find it to slow to listen to someone else's reading. If I would find they read to fast or slow for me. But I will have to try it someday! It's on my to-do list :). If I could listen to one while I crochet that would be awesome! But I worry I wouldn't be able to keep count while listening to story.

Party day!

So today was the day of the party! It was such a wonderful day! We are all so thankful to everyone who came and celebrated the occasion with us :D. The kids had such a great time with all their family and friends, thanks to everyone for helping make their party incredible!

Phoenix was so excited to see his pre-school friends here at his house to play with him, they all had such a blast. It was our first time for him having his own little friends here, instead of just family and I think it went pretty well! Present time was a little hectic, they all wanted them to open their gifts to them at the same time haha. But once it all calmed down we got to enjoy all their presents one by one.  All in all, the day was a huge success! This mama is definitely super tired. A long morning of cleaning and decorating and setting up, then the super fun party, then re-cleaning, and we took the kids out for a ride on the new bikes we got them for their birthdays after supper :D. I think everyone in this house will sleep good tonight haha.

Today will definitely be  a day to treasure and remember, thanks again to everyone who helped make it so. Especially my mother and my good friend Sam <3, for all the help you gave me! It is so appreciated! Here's a little taste of our day :).

The table of treats I spent the entire day making yesterday, with the help of my awesome mother <3.

All the kiddies lined up for Pinata whacking!

Phoenix blowing out his candles <3

Rayne blowing out her candles <3

My birthday babies on their new bikes from Mommy, Daddy & River <3.

Taking the new bikes for a ride :)

River having a blast on the bike ride with Daddy <3

Baking Frenzy

Wow, I am exhausted! I have been preparing for the big double birthday tomorrow allllll day! My son and daughter's birthdays are just a day apart, so we have a conjoined party for them. That is until they get old enough to decide that's not cool anymore haha. I always bake my own treats, and today I spent 13 hours straight of baking and decorating. I did take one 20 min break to eat a couple slices of pizza. But ya, my back  is super sore from standing all day long. But I am super excited for the kids to see their treats tomorrow! Thank goodness my mom came over  to help me tackle all the baking projects I assigned myself. If it weren't for her I'd probably still be going right now! I could seriously not be any more excited though! We got them each a new bike and I cannot wait to see the looks on their faces when they see them  :). We've been hiding them at their grampies house, and he is going to bring to the party tomorrow. Wooo! Here's some pictures of the things I baked:

I attempted to make a rainbow cake for my Daughter. Her name is Rayne, but everyone has called her rainbow since she was born. This is a picture of the batter before I put it in the oven.

Went with a Lego theme for my son. He's Lego crazy. These are attempted lego head cake pops! My first try making them, they didn't come out as round as I hoped, but they are insanely delicious!

Lego brick graham crackers :)

My daughter's rainbow cake all decorated. I can't wait to cut it open tomorrow to see how the colors look on the inside :D

Jello slices! I got this idea on Pintrest :). I did more colors but they were on another plate.

Lego cake I made for Phoenix :D

Rainbow Cupcakes!

Rainbow cupcake!

Rainbow pudding :)

So that's mostly what I spent my day doing! I did make a few more things that I didn't get pictures of. I made some lego brownies and lego rice crispie squares. and some rainbow sprinkle rice crispie squares. I dealt with soooo much food coloring today. I'd be happy not to see it again for another year haha. Well I definitely need to collapse! What a day, tomorrow is going to be such a blast!!!

Today was Phoenix's actual birthday. He turned 5 years old. It's incredibly mind blowing. 5! omg! He is the most amazing 5 year old I know. I am so incredibly proud of the little boy he is growing up to be :). He came bursting in our room this morning at about 6am going " I'm 5 years old, I'm 5 years old!" He's been getting hugs and kisses galore!! <3 

So that's me for today :). Have a great one!!

Mario Theme?

So it's been a few days since I posted, sorry! I've been feeling extra tired lately and have been going to bed pretty early. As well was soaking up as much sunshine with the kids as possible, and planning for their party this weekend. It is drawing near and I am getting so excited, almost as excited as the kids! I'm also pretty nervous. I always get so anxious when the days get closer. I get paranoid over simple things, the food won't turn out, the cake won't turn out, people won't show, I won't get the house clean enough. Ya, I stress out a little to easy. Luckily I have my husband around to help keep me grounded<3. So aside from those things, not to much has been going on. I did crochet a few new things tho! :)

Ya, kind of got stuck on a mario theme haha. I got the pattern for the mushrooms and the bob-omb at WolfDreamer. The star pattern is from Shh! I'm Counting! 

I crocheted them all while re-watching The Guild. I forgot how funny it was :). I love that show haha. Anyway, it's pretty late here and I definitely need some sleep to prepare for the next couple days! G'night and see you again soon :).

Return of the Sun!

Today was rainy day #3! And it rained with extra gusto! I spent most of the morning making stew for the slow cooker. The weather seemed appropriate for a stew day :). But we were pleasantly surprised, because out no where the clouds went away, the sun was shining and it was so warm out! I put the kids rubber boots and and we hurried outside. We've been stuck in for 3 days now, and we were all getting a little restless.

I was glad I had made today a slow cooker meal day because it meant we got to stay out and enjoy the sun until supper was ready. We didn't have to go in to get supper ready. After we ate our yummy stew and Daddy went off to work we piled right back outside and played more! We colored all over the swing-set, played in puddles and sang songs. It felt so great to be back out in the sunshine! That was definitely the highlight of my day.

My happy baby boy <3

I get to push all 3 of these adorable monkeys <3

that's me =P

mud pudddles!

I just finished reading Eragon, the first book in the Inheritance Series by Christopher Paolini. So I am going to watch the movie and probably crochet something :). I always try to read the book before seeing the movie but I haven't really heard anything good about the movie from fans of the book. But we'll see :) Also, don't forget to check out my Teaser Tuesday on Owl Read It for Eldest, the second book in the series.

 G'night all!

Musing Mondays-Apr23

Musing Mondays is a weekly event where MizB from Should Be Reading will ask a book/reading related question, and you answer with your own thoughts on the topic.

This week's Musing Monday asks:

Other than working at a job, what is your biggest interruption to reading? What takes you away from your books?

I don't technically have a 'job' because I am a stay-at-home mom. But if you ask me, that's one of the biggest jobs out there! I have 3 little ones, the oldest turns 5  in 5 more days and my youngest is 2. So life is pretty busy around here! That's definitely where the majority of my time goes. I'm left with little time for hobbies. So playing Mommy is definitely what takes away from most of my reading time. Although, I don't really like to say that being a mommy interrupts my reading. I definitely prefer spending time with my kids and my husband more than reading. And it is much more important to me. Reading is definitely second. But if we count being mommy as my 'job' then my answer would be Crocheting. It's not easy having two hobbies with very limited free time haha. But Crocheting is my other favorite thing to do. And sometimes that takes away from my reading time. In my free time I'm usually lost in a book, or using my hooks :). Other times I'm playing games with my husband.

Review- The Bridge of Deaths by M.C.V Egan

This was a book of positives and negatives. In my opinion, the latter makes up the most part.

I'm a little sad because I feel like this book has the potential to be better than it was. It is a good story idea, and I really enjoyed the two characters Bill and Maggie, I might have enjoyed Catalina if reading her narratives wasn't so incredibly boring.

Bill keeps having a recurring nightmare about a plane crash, he goes to psychic to seek help, and it turns out this dream he is having is actually him re-living a moment from his past life. In another place far away is a part time writer named Catalina, whose grandfather died in that plane crash. She has been trying for years to write a story about said event. These two end up crossing paths as they are both digging for information about the same thing. Throughout the course of the story they exhange information, the writer supplies Bill and Maggie, his girlfriend, with the information that is missing from his dreams, and they in turn supply Catalina with the information from his dreams, since they are like a first hand experience.

As I said before, the idea is good, and I enjoyed Bill and Maggie's chapters. But When the Chapters were under Catalina's narrative, it was soooo hard to read. It's nothing but constant information, full of un-ending names and dates that she pulls from all these files she's collected over the years. I think the only way to keep track in this story is if you started keeping your own files of all the information that is constantly being thrown at you. Most of the information I found to be pretty much pointless.

With a lot of cuts, I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed this story, but as is, I can't say that I liked it. The boring, and the sections of overwhelming information, far outweighed the parts I enjoyed reading. However, if you like tons of facts I guess this is the book for you.

I gave this 1/5 stars.

Getting back to normal + Yoda

Things finally seem to be getting back to normal around here! Kiddies and daddy are all over the flu, and my back seems to be almost mended as well. But let's hope I don't pull muscles in my back again anytime soon, that was a little to painful for my liking. Glad to be almost done with that! :). Yay for saying goodbye to sickness and pain!

Today was a rainy dreary day, so even though we all felt better, we didn't get to go outside and play :(. Instead we watched some movies, read lots of stories and played with toys. We went pretend grocery shopping. We made a grocery list by drawing all the items that we needed, and then we grabbed some shopping bags went shopping! Then, using our 'recipe book' we put our ingredients into a great big bowl, and with a giant wooden spoon each we made tons of different things. We pretended to make blueberry pie, mango pie, pizza, soup and more! I just love my kids' imaginations! They can turn anything into a world of fun :).

I also finished a crochet project I started last night. A friend of mine asked me to make them a Yoda for a father's day gift. Here's some  pics of the little guy:

hehe, he's pretty cute. I found the pattern on Ravelry, where I find most of my patterns =P. Here it is if you'd like to give him a try or add him to your faves for later: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/little-yoda-crochet-tutorial
The pattern for his jacket wasn't working for me at all. It just wasn't looking the way I wanted. So I improvised a little and got it the way I wanted. Now I have a couple extra little robes laying around haha. I'm sure I'll find a use for them eventually!

Billy returned to night shift tonight, which means I'm most likely in store for a rather sleepless night. So far my plans include reading, and watching Game of Thrones :). Hope you had a great day, and have a wonderful evening as well!

Review- Blockade Billy by Stephen King

This was a super duper quick read. the book actually had two stories in it, the second "bonus" story was called Morality and it really was about half the size of Blockade Billy, which was only 80 pages.

Blockade Billy is the story behind a remarkably good baseball player who was mysteriously and suddenly erased from the history of the game, along with his team members and any games he played in. No one really knows why but Stephen King finds a player from the team he was on and he gets the whole story. The story itself is a little chilling, as is to be expected of Stephen King. The character of William Blakey "Blockade Billy" definitely has questionable mental stability. There were parts where there was a lot of baseball lingo being thrown around, and at those parts I was a little lost, being that I don't know anything about baseball or any sports in general =P. But that is no fault of Stephen King's, who is an avid lover of the sport. The book was actually dedicated to all lovers of the sport.
Overall, though, it was a good, short read. If you were looking for something to pass the time or just a really quick read inbetween other books you should pick it up.

Also, the bonus story was also decently good :) and the title for it was very suiting, and the ending surprising but at the same time, not. It seemed like a story that could have been a lot longer if he wanted it to be, but then it wouldn't have been as good, it needed to be short to pack the right punch in my opinion.

all in all, Stephen King never disappoints :) enjoy!

I gave it 3/5 stars!

Books & Flowers

Ugh, so I've been post-less again for a few days, for that I apologize. I actually spent a good part of my day in the hospital a few days ago. It turns out I have somehow injured my back, but no worries it already seems to be on the mend. I've been having to take less pills to deal with the  pain so I can only assume this is a good development haha. My little ones all got over the flu only for my husband to get it! Me and my oldest son Phoenix were the only ones not hovering over a toilet for a couple days.

 Yesterday was my Father-in-law's birthday, so there was a large incredibly delicious BBQ held in his honor last night. Nothing like ringing in the warmer weather with lots of BBQ'd food! Mmmmmm. Yes, in case you haven't noticed, April is THE birthday month around here haha. We've got my husband, two of our children, my husband's father, and one of my nephews! It's a busy month indeed! Speaking of the kids' birthdays, we got to do the shopping for that today and I cannot wait to see their faces at their party next weekend! We got them each a new bike, and they are going to be sooooo excited! I also got all my stuff for baking the goodies and cakes. I am attempting cake pops for the first time, wish me luck! I will definitely post photos, whether I fail or succeed haha. We are also trying a Pinata for the first time this year. We're hoping for nice weather the day of the party so we can beat it up outside. Seems like more fun that way :). Another first is this year Phoenix got to invite friends to his party. So far it's just been family members, and my friends kids that are his friends as well. But he just started pre-school this fall and has made some new friends. So we did up some invitations and gave them out at pre-school yesterday morning. I really hope that some of them can make it! He will be so happy to have them here!
On the topic of Phoenix and Pre-School, he surprised me by giving me a flower he picked just for me when I picked him up. I treasure those little things more than anything else! To know he thought of his mommy when he was out playing with his friends, and picked a flower just for me is enough to melt my heart!

I don't have any new crochet stuff to share, but I did buy a few books recently and I'd love to share those with you.

Deathless - Catherynne M. Valente

The Thirteen - Susie Moloney

The Calling - Kelley Armstrong

Getting new books always makes me so super duper happy. In fact, I bought Deathless just today, and I danced right in front of the clerk at the register and sang a little song about getting a new book. Ya, I have no shame. haha :). Anyway, that's me for tonight. Hope you are all well and fine! Thanks for reading my blurbs :)

Review- J.R.R Tolkien: A Biography by Humphrey Carpenter

I had a lot of fun reading this book! :D I am a big lover of Tolkien's work, so I was quite excited to get a peek at the man behind the words. It was really great reading about what kind of person he was, what things he experienced in his life that effected the things he would later write about. It was an emotional ride through his ups and downs. It was inspiring, to read about the intense amount of time and dedication he put into everything he worked on, although there was a lot of procrastination at times as well ;P. But when he was on the task at hand, he gave it everything he had and more! He strived for absolute perfection and expected nothing but the best from his self. Reading about how each of his works were created and what was happening in his life at the time and how people initially reacted to his work was really interesting and fun for me. I have always loved Tolkien and now I feel I love him even more. I love not just his works, but the person behind them. He was a really wonderful person who was well loved by all those lucky enough to be part of his life. I liked what the author said at the end of the biography about how, reading The Lord of the Rings was better than reading any biography because that story was all of him. he put a giant part of his life into that story. I literally felt heartbroken when the biography ended with his death, I felt in reading this book that I had come to know him personally and I felt as if I might cry. I think I might have to get myself a copy of this book :)

I gave it 4/5 stars!

New patterns :)

I  didn't get to make a post yesterday. As I  mentioned before the flu is running through my house so we've been quite busy! Things haven't been happening to much, the kids have mostly been laying around, being sick, drinking gatorade =P. But I do have some crafty things to share. I made a crochet sale yesterday, here's a picture of what I sold:

hehe, bunch of cuties! I just started selling my stuff, so I get really excited whenever anyone asks me to make them anything! I feel like, incredibly flattered when  I get compliments, makes me feel like a million bucks. But at the same time I feel like I don't deserve it because I feel like crocheting is so easy, and really anyone could probably do it. But I have a lot of fun doing it, so I'm really glad that some people are showing interest! I tried a couple of new patterns over the past couple days to. The first one I tried were adorable little finger-less gloves for little girls. And the second thing I tried was an awesome Bob-omb! Letting my geek flag fly :).

You can find the pattern for the gloves here.

Thanks to my wonderful daughter for being such an excellent hand model :)

You can find the pattern for the Bob-omb here.

So aside from that, there hasn't been a whole lot going on. The kids did show a little energy later this afternoon so we walked and went to the park for a bit. But before I go, I will share some pictures of my kiddies from the past couple days :).

here's my littlest one, sulking with the flu :(.

My girly, she LOVES to color, so while sick she just colored and cuddled mommy <3.

My two biggest, they are exactly a year and a day apart! They have done everything together forever and are super close! Everything I take them out I get asked if their twins lol <3. Yay for amazing sibling bonds!

Review- I Hate Hockey by Francois Barcelo

This book is FULL of surprises! Don't let the title deceive you! This is not a book all about Hockey. You do not need to be fan of or know anything about Hockey to really enjoy this book. I myself, I really really don't like sports =P, any of them really.

This book was a suuuper quick read! I only picked it up twice and it was done, Im sure I could have finished it in one go but I've got 3 kids lol so I read during nap and after they were in bed, took me like 2hours mayyybe, not even that I don't think.

the book spans like, 2 days I think. It's about a man named Antoine who hates hockey, mostly cause his father tried to get him to play when he was younger and he was horrible at it and his father made him feel like a failure because if it. Also, his ex-wife was a huuuge hockey fan. Because his ex-wife is the hockey fan that she is she insists that their son joins their towns hockey team, about 9 years down the line his hockey coach dies suddenly ( I won't spoil the details behind that) and Antoine is suckered into becoming the new coach because he is really the only one available at the time. Becoming the coach of his son's team leads him to make a lot of startling, shocking discoveries that will shock you the reader as well! I know more than once I was like...what!? =) The first discovery being that the now deceased coach was molesting his players..I won't spoil the rest of the suprises, you will have to read it to find out! and read it you should!

all in all a great book! and don't let the title discourage you, or lead you into thinking this is a book about Hockey, because essentially it is not. Antoine just blames all the bad in life on the sport and I can't say that I blame him. If I were him, I would hate Hockey to!

I gave it 4/5 stars!

Running & The flu!

So, my day today was a little rough. There is a lot of flu going around here, and I was really hoping it wouldn't hit here. But it did :(. Right when me and Billy sat down to watch Game of Thrones to haha. Two of my little ones were up most the night sick. So we were all tired today. And I kept getting bouts of  sickness myself. But we made it through the day! I even managed to do my 3rd run for week 1 of the c25k program. The running itself was fine. I ran to the superstore here cause we needed bread. But the walk home was rough! Once I started walking, I kept getting hit with waves of nausea. But I did make it! When I got home I collapsed on my bed, rested for about 10 mins, then I felt OK. Still a little on the sick side, but I don't feel like dying anymore haha. I'm looking forward to my two day break before I start week 2 of jogging. Also, tomorrow is Billy's last day shift before his 4 days off, so I am looking forward to that as well! We have two little birthdays fast approaching at the end of the month. My oldest son is turning 5 and my daughter is turning 4, on the 28th and the 30th. So we're going to do some birthday shopping on Thursday. I'm excited!


So that was my day. Hope I didn't bore you! :) I might weigh myself tomorrow to see if I lost any weight on my first week of running. Wish me luck!

Book Review: Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell

This was the first book I've read by Bernard Cornwell and I was very pleased with his writing :). It was recommended to me by a friend, it is one of her favorites. I can see why. If you are a fan of historical fiction at all, I think you should probably read this. 

The story, obviously, is a fictional story about the creation of Stonehenge. I'll admit, I didn't expect great things from this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. The amount of depth and detail put into this book is really quite amazing. Every character in this story has so much work put into it. Sometimes you can't tell if they are insane or insanely intelligent. I loved Saban right from the beginning to end. I also thought I was going to like Camaban, but that changed throughout the story. The characters grow and change so much throughout the book. I couldn't bring myself it like any of the female characters in this story, but I don't know that we are supposed to like them. Their roles are ever changing. Bernard made it so easy to immerse yourself in this fictional past that I could easily believe all of it was true. This is indeed a great book that I would definitely recommend. I'm glad my friend shared it with me :) I think I will need to read some more books by Cornwell in the future.


I gave it 4/5 stars :)

Birthday!

Today is my husbands 26th Birthday! <3 so super duper happy fantabulous birthday to him! <3 <3.

He unfortunately had to work a 12 hour shift today, but I hid a surprise for him in the fridge by his lunch. a little turtles cake with a happy birthday/love note :). While he was at work me and the kiddies made his favorite, chocolate chip banana muffins! The kids squealed and sang happy birthday as soon as he came in the door and drug him to his muffins. I couldn't find any matches...sooooo, I had to improvise a little =P.

Haha paper flames, my husband laughed at me, but he was happy! 

My littlest one helping mash the bananas :) 

Also, with help of encouragement from my friend Jenn, I joined this running program called c25k. Which is a 9 week program, that hopefully at the end of, has you running 5k. I seriously need to get it shape, so I thought this was an awesome free program that would help get my butt in gear! Today was an off running day, but I went for an hour walk after the kiddies were tucked in and billy(my husband) was entertained with his computer games =P. It was a beautiful evening, cool & warm at the same time. I did take one little picture on the way, of some sunset on the water. I thought it was pretty.

So that's a brief summary of my day today :). Game of Thrones starts in about 10 mins so I gotta go get ready for some serious watching haha. Tons of love for The Song of Fire and Ice series! I very much enjoy how true the show holds up to the books :).

First post :)

Hi Guys :)

My name is Meghan =)
Mainly, I Co-blog at Owl-Read-It with my friend Jenn, which is a book reviewing blog that mainly features YA. I made this second blog to make posts about books that don't fit specifically in that genre, and also to make post about my other love, crocheting =).

So, it probably won't be anything really exciting, just sharing things I've made, books I like, what's going on in my life as a stay-at-home mom of 3 amazing kiddies <3. I'm still trying to get everything on here up and going, so bear with me for a little bit here. I think I'll post some pictures of stuff I've crocheted later on, and hopefully put a couple reviews up to!

Thanks so much for stopping by, make sure you also check out Owl-Read-It!