Loved this book!

Let me start this review by saying that I do not like vampire books.  If the title or summary of a book has the word vampire in it I will pass it by and pick up almost anything else instead.  I picked this one up anyway and I'm glad that I did.  It is written for a young adult audience and is very clean.  It deals with normal teenage issues rather than anything gory or violent.

Eric is a 14-year-old boy living with his single mother in small town Utah.  He plays the piano, he has a crush on his pretty friend Kacey, he hangs out with his friend Joseph, he can't handle bright sunlight, and has to drink some kind of blood to survive.  He and his mother hide his status as a half-vampire by saying he has porphyria, which makes him unable to be out in the heat of the day.  He takes a few classes at the public school and the rest on-line. 

Of course, adjusting to hormones is difficult for any teenager.  Imagine adding in the desire, not only to kiss the pretty girl, but to bite her as well.  Eric struggles to rein in his strong desires but doesn't know how to do this.  His mom is human and has no experience in this area.  His dad left as soon as he found out about the pregnancy and they haven't heard from him since.  Eric's journey to learn how to cope with his vampire half takes him to Scotland where he meets some good and evil examples of the vampire world.  Some may even try to hunt him down.  Overall, it makes for an interesting story.

Shafer handles the vampire element as a genetic abnormality rather than a different species.  They are not bloodthirsty in the sense that they want to kill or even need to kill others to survive.  They only need a few ounces of blood day to survive.  I like this adaptation.  I enjoyed this book and will be happily passing it along to my teen and pre-teen children.

Did I mention I have a business?

Click the link on the left to check out my website. I started my business with The Pampered Chef in August 2011 for many reasons. I love to cook and I love cooking gadgets and paraphernalia so it's fun for me to have a business that encourages my passion/addiction. :) I also wanted a job where I could supplement the family income and potentially replace my full-time income while only working part-time hours. I have had a lot of fun with it since I started and I am glad I have the opportunity to do something like this.

In April there is a neat special going on. There is a set that isn't normally available for purchase that can be obtained for the month of April only. The Mother's Day special is a Market Tote (a type of reusable grocery bag but way nicer than the normal ones you see around) and an insulated lunch bag. They can be purchased as a set for $28 but can also be purchased individually. Here's what they look like:

I have both of these and I love them. :)

I promise that my blog is not suddenly going to become a constant Pampered Chef commercial. However, if anyone would like to make a purchase or book a show I would be very appreciative. You don't have to live in my area to do this. I have the ability to do on-line shows so my friends from all over can get free stuff. :) Just message me and let me know you are interested.

Time to Catch Up

My sister has recently joined the world of blogging (check out the link on my frequented list for "Just My Thoughts"). Reading her posts made me remember that I had a blog started but sorely neglected. Life is so busy and there are so many things that I want to do that things slip through the cracks. Blogging has been one of the things that found its way to the cracks. I thought I might try to pick things back up again. We'll see how it goes.

We moved in mid-September and came back home. The kids will go to the same high school I did. The boys are extremely weirded out by that and are worried that the teachers will hold the fact that I'm their mother against them. They refuse to accept my insistence that I was one of those kids the teachers either loved or forgot about. Luckily for them most of the teachers I had are no longer there so they don't have much to worry about.

We're living in an apartment right now but are house shopping. We'll finish out our lease in August and the plan is to be in a house by that time. I hope to be able to post pictures of our new house soon. My kids don't like being told not to run or bounce a ball or jump because people live below us. Jaydin (5) cried in frustration one day "Why do we have to live in an e-partment!?" Poor kid. It's rough being a little boy who can't run around inside. :)

Jaydin will start Kindergarten this next school year. That's just so weird to me. He's not going to snuggle too much longer so I snag him as often as I can. Kierstin is in 3rd grade. I was pleasantly surprised to be informed that she is reading on a 5th grade reading level. I promptly broke out all the books I'd been saving and she's in the process of devouring the Little House on the Prairie series. She absolutely loves them! Brydin is on his way to being a 7th grade track star and placed 3rd in his first meet in the 100 yard dash. He just had a bike given to him for helping a neighbor move and he's in love with it. Landin is a typical teenager and spends a lot of time texting on his iPod. It's his lifeline to his friends back where he considers home. I have to admit he has a really good group of friends there. I hope they stay in contact for a long time to come. I honestly like them all.

Billy and I both have good jobs. I'm glad for that. It's been a long time for me. If we plan things properly I may be able to come home and be a housewife after a couple of years. What would that be like?! I can't wait. :)

Okay, that's enough for one day. Hopefully I'll be able to find some interesting things to say every once in a while...or at least something to say. No guarantees on the interesting. :)

Family Dinner Experiment...so far so good

So I decided to actually implement the family dinner plan that I've wanted to do for a long time. Each person takes a night and plans the meal and cooks it. We started on Saturday and Brydin (11) got to start. He made fajitas, a bean dip, and a cheesecake all with minimal supervision. I was there mostly to say...Um....check the recipe again. He did a great job and Landin (13) was the only one not to eat it (anyone surprised? We weren't.) :)

Yesterday it was my turn. I made potstickers and fried rice from scratch and got premade egg rolls. The rice turned out very good. The potstickers smelled amazing the entire time I was putting them together. I had to make a conscious effort not to taste the filling...it smelled so good I wanted to see how it tasted...but the major ingredient was raw ground chicken. Church wasn't until 11:30 so I thought I'd be prepared and made the potstickers before church. I put the assembled potstickers in a baggie and put them in the fridge. That was my undoing. When I tried to fry them I found they were one enormous mass of potsticker rather than the individual dumplings I had spent an hour assembling. I was so upset! So instead of frying them the whole lump went into the oven and we just cut pieces off. It still tasted really good...just wasn't the effect I had wanted.

Tonight was Kierstin's turn. She made macaroni & cheese with hot dogs. I really don't like the mac 'n' cheese from the box that my kids love so I was happy that she agreed to make it from scratch. I also convinced her to leave the hot dogs to the side so that those who don't want the hot dogs IN the macaroni (me) didn't have to have them. She also made these cute little strawberry/kiwi "shortbreads" out of a kids' cookbook. She's 7 so her part in this was slicing hot dogs with a butter knife, stirring and adding ingredients but she didn't care. I also let her assemble the dessert basically by herself so she was happy. It was really easy. The shortbread was really the buttermilk biscuits in a tube that were baked and then cut in half. Then put in a little scoop of whipped topping, some kiwi, and some strawberries and then put the top back on.

I think tomorrow night is Billy's night. I'm liking this. If I can keep up getting menus from everyone for 2 weeks out then we might be able to keep this going. We are even eating at the table as a family...without the TV on!! Yea! It's amazing what you can do when you have a normal Mon-Fri 8-5 job. I could get used to this. :)

Fun day

Since Landin is off at scout camp with kayaking and flight simulators I thought it would be nice if we did something fun with the 3 who didn't get to go. So we took the kids to see Karate Kid with Jackie Chan. It was a good movie. My favorite part was when the lead kid (Jaden Smith) kissed the cute girl he'd been mooning over the whole movie. They are 12 so it was a sweet little peck. My 3-year-old yelled "EW!" and then for 5 minutes after that kept saying "That's so gross!" thankfully at a lower volume. Brydin (11) and I were laughing so hard. The rest of the movie was pretty good too. I liked this rendition a lot better than the original series...mostly because I liked Jaden Smith better than the dude from the original movies...and who doesn't love Jackie Chan?

After the movie we went to Sam's Club. For some reason my kids absolutely love it there. Possibly because they can get an enormous Icee without breaking the family budget. So when they wanted the candy at the movie theater I bribed them with going to get an Icee at Sam's Club after the movie. Of course, we didn't leave with just the Icee's...but that's how it works at Sam's Club. :)

I think it turned out okay for an impromptu day out. :) Now I get to spend the rest of the day doing homework.

Updated kid pics. :)

I've had multiple requests for some pictures of the kids. I have finally managed to get my computer turned on at the same time as knowing where the camera cord & camera are...so here we go. These are mostly from Kierstin's birthday in April.

Kierstin with her special cake with purple frosting that she didn't have to share (yes there was a big one for everyone else).

Favorite family gifts included this princess makeup kit from Gram.

The craft kit from the family.

And the mermaid toys and flip-flops from Grandma and Grandpa.

Her party was the following Saturday and she had a blast. We had a pinata and cupcakes.

Favorite gifts from the party....Taylor Swift Barbie (she sings too!...over and over and over again. Good thing I like her songs!)

And always the princess...of course the tiara with lots of bling was a hit.


And since I didn't manage to get any good pics of Brydin at the party here's one of him. :)

New Job!

Yea! I just got a job offer that I'm kinda excited about. Assuming I pass the background checks and drug screening I'll be an Assistant Manager at Walgreens. I don't have a start date or those kind of details but it pays enough that I will be able to pay the bills and let Billy stay home and finish his degree. This is a good thing because that will mean no daycare costs. The benefits are excellent and there is a tremendous amount of potential if I work hard. I don't like to sit still so that shouldn't be a problem. :)