Jessica's Jamble

This is such a phenomenon I couldn't even come up with a title for my post.

Actually, I was a little nervous to type into my blog since I haven't in ohhhh...gee..2 months! A generous 2 months. Amazingly I remembered my login and password (after a few attempts), so, here I am.

Camera-less at the moment, but there are no less that a quarter million photographs to post. Here's how it all started. I had a bunch of photographs and thoughts to record, but put it off for just long enough I felt a little overwhelmed to post them all (lame to fell overwhelmed to do something I enjoy!!!). So Laura got on my case, in a very nice way, and I promised her I would do a top ten and briefly mention everything I wanted to, started it, got to #6 or so and fell asleep. It was all down hill from there. And then the joyfully swamped Christmas season coupled with my mom's wedding and here I am, two months later.

Before I forget, I just found out my cousin, Rachel, reads my blog, so here's a little "Welcome Rachel!" Thanks for reading. And sorry to keep you all the edge of your seats for the past few months. Ha! It won't happen again. Ha ha!

A few things about my kiddos since not post goes by I don't hardly mention them in some way or another. Isaac can now buck himself out of places, but won't really fuss about being stuck. I'll turn around and he's twisted up funny with this look on his face like, "Yeah, I'm not really sure how I got here either." He is a boy in constant motion. His little feet and hands are always circling around. What a squiggler.
Natalie. A huge joy as ever. Santa, bless his jolly heart, brought her "Lightning McQueen" movie for Christmas. I promise you she has it memorized. A few nights ago the ONLY way to get her to bed was to pacify her by telling the "Lightening McQueen" story. I'm pretty sure I'm going to live a long time regretting telling her the story because anywhere and everywhere several times a day it's now, "Mom, tell me the Lightening McQueen story."---like it's some epic ballad to be passed down. And, if you think that's a little over the top, well not a telling has gone by she hasn't corrected me, "It's Guida, mom. The little blue truck is Guida." (verses "Guido"---I'm sooo not pushing it.) And when I'm all done, "Mom, what about the mishermasher machine?" (The scary thrashing machine.) Why I can't remember it after a billion re-tellings, I don't know, but it's so habitual now it's frightening!


We've been traversing hither and yon in search of ye old perfect residency program. We've found quite a few good ones. It will be such a hard choice and I genuinely would be happy in our top 6. How thankful I am for a match and for decision deadlines I cannot even put into words. One last interview and we can (ha ha ha) start making a decision regarding his rank order list. Whew. I actually LOVE this! Stressful, yes. Expensive, bigger yes. Something we've been looking forward to for oh so very long, yes yes!

So there's this book I've heard sooo much about for months and months from everyone. "Oh, it's so great." "It's amazing." "It's the book of the decade." "I think you'll just love it." And on and on. "It's about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire." Ohhh...thanks but that's not really my type of book. Glad ya liked it, but yeah, not my style. So, I sit through book club (I know, know, why go to book club when you didn't even read?) about the sequel to this book still thinking to myself, yeah yeah yeah. Sure glad I didn't bother with the first one because amazingly, the second one is about not only vampires cont'd, but werewolves. Yes, that's right, werewolves. Riiight. So, fast forward a few months to Christmas and it hits me that this book would be perfect for my younger sister. Right up her alley. Couldn't find it anywhere...sold out. So I settled for a Babymouse novel instead (which ended up being sooo not up her alley and hopefully will be able to swap her the space age ant farm she gave me for it).
Anyway, I get here to visit her and what's this? She owns them both and surprise, surprise tells me, "You've just gotta read these!" I succumb. No, that's not the right word, within pages, pathetically, I could not put it down. That phrase is so cliche with me now, but I've never meant it more truly. Picture this: every room in my mom's house has someone sleeping in it. (By the way, I'm here for her wedding.) It's late at night and I brought this little flashlight you wind up to charge the battery---praise be I thought to throw it in my bag. Since there's no where to go but my own room (with my two kids asleep) I'm winding up this flashlight and reading. How appropriate it was a YA book since it hasn't been I can't tell you when I had to use a flashlight to stay up reading. It wasn't until the clock struck 2am and after winding this flashing light countless times I finish it. I was getting sooo frustrated that the flashlight wasn't lasting long enough and I had to stop reading to wind it up again.
So, with all the festivities I had to wait (sheesh...a wedding over reading???) a couple of days before starting the next book, and I have to tell you, "You've just gotta read it!"
The second one was as good as the first if not better developed and better written. Thank you Stephenie Meyer. Thank you.
And, because I don't want to spoil anything by giving all my opinions and actually I really don't want to hash it out, I'll just tell the the books, but I'm warning you. Clear out your schedule, hire a babysitter, prepare to pay for it for a few days after getting no sleep by reading all night---I think you'll really like it. Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. Book #3 due to appear this summer!!! Aaaand, everyone, heads up: she's writing one from Edward's point of view. The first chapter is posted on-line. Oh, quick bio about the author that I got a kick out of. She's a young stay at home mom with three kids. Mormon, BYU grad. I guess she gets asked why a nice girl like her would write stories about vampires. Ha!

Since I'm in the "great new reads" mode, here are a few more. Jared and I listened to Portuguese Irregular Verbs and we just about fell off our chairs it was so funny. The only reason we didn't fall off was because we were in the car with seat belts on. If you read it, make sure to make it through the third book in the series when Professor Von Ingelfeld inadvertently becomes president of Columbia. Alexander McCall Smith. Witty, witty man. Wait, can a man be witty? Isn't that a little feminine? Ugh! I so need my thesaurus. (Which was a Christmas dream come true. That and a dictionary.)

Next, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. This book kinda swept me away. It's about a girl who teaches herself how to write by keeping a journal of her life (the "capture" part) in a falling apart castle (the "castle" part). Enjoyed every word and made me consider a few things about life and relationships. Also, Stephanie hosted an excellent book club about it. Thanks, Steph!

Lastly, The Persian Pickle Club. I've been meaning to read this for quite some time. Another great book. Each time I put down a great book I wonder, "How come I didn't know about this book before?" and "How do authors come up with their stories, characters, twists and turns?" My jaw drops.
Anyway, this a book about women, married life, and I must say, I genuinely felt terror at one point in the book. Well written.

Well, that wasn't so hard---blogging again! I'll have to remember that the next time I put off posting. :)