Two Thumbs Up

I just finished this book and I have to say that I loved it. It was very well written. The characters were interesting and many. When there are many characters in the story, it's easy for the writer to not represent each individually and well. But, Lisa Jewell made each character as interesting as the next. I was anxious to know about each person and how things turn out for them. Each person's story is unique and, in some cases, even painful. However, the story is not heavy. It's a great read, easy to stick with and ends well. I will definitely be looking up more books by this author. And I highly recommend this book if you enjoy a story with diverse characters, a solid story, and a satisfying journey through the pages. I give it two thumbs up.

(I don't know who this kid is...but he's cute.)

North Carolina is the place you wanna be...

That's where we will be spending the summer. H is taking a job with APX installing alarms and it will be in Raleigh, NC. This is good news for a few reasons. One, it's work. And as our friend Dave said, steady work with a steady paycheck ain't nothing to sneeze at right now. It will actually pay well enough to help us get back on our feet. Two, we'll get to travel to a new place. I love traveling. I'm sure it will be a long trip with Little Man, but I'm excited. And three, we will get to spend the whole summer with some of my favorite people, Bree and Ryan. If you know Bree, you know this will be fun. She's like sunshine to be around. Love you, girl.

So, we have a LOT to do before we leave. H can start work around mid-April and that is when we plan to be there. So, I have two months to sort and pack the entire house. I plan to sort it all into three categories: stuff to sell or donate, stuff to store while we're away, and stuff to pack to take with us. I am a bit overwhelmed just looking around and thinking about it. We are hoping that the house will have sold by then. If not, then we will likely still be losing it about that time. So, this job is good timing.

Since we will be leaving in April, we will need to transfer the kids to a school in Raleigh to finish out the last 6 or 8 weeks of the year. I'm pretty sure that this will be tough for them since they've been at the same school for about four years, but I'm hoping we can make it as painless as possible. Apparently, I found out after talking to my dad, this will not be my first visit to NC. We were there when I was a baby. He said that I wouldn't go near the ocean when we visited the beach until I was safely on his shoulders. I remember seeing a picture of this, but didn't know that it was in NC. And now, I'm going there with my own little one...and his twol cute siblings. It's funny that when we went to D.C., Tiny was the same age as I was the first time I went there. Maybe, if this pattern continues, I'll also be taking them to London and Ireland, hopefully before the age that I was when I went.

So, that is the main event in our lives right now. If I am not posting as much, now you know why. I will be trying to pull off a miracle in the next two months. Wish me luck.

Book Update

I finished "The Man Who Loved Jane Austen" by Sally Smith O'Rourke and I have to say that I kinda enjoyed it. It definitely didn't ring my bell, but I thought the concept of the story was an interesting one. I can't elaborate without giving the story away, but I could recommend it for a light, fun read that isn't completely engaging or engrossing.

As for "The Bronte Project" by Jennifer Vandever...I must warn you to run away, quickly. The book started with an interesting grasp, a woman searching for lost letters from and to the Bronte's and how they would shed unseen light on their works as writers. The book was interesting in the first part, confusing soon after, and then completely worthless. The characters were fleeting, shallow, and uninteresting. I knew it was time to quit reading when I was skipping whole paragraphs and couldn't care less about what happened to the main character. It became littered with casual, meaningless sex, recreational drug use, and aimless wandering by the characters and the story. I only made it half way through the story, something unheard of for me. I hate quitting on a book, but I knew that if I kept reading I was going to be confused, frustrated and bitterly disappointed to have lost the time and energy spent to finish it. I read the reviews on the back cover and wondered if those quoted had actually read the book, or even got past the first few chapters. Because, if they did, their quotes betray them as either liars or completely without knowledge of what constitutes a good novel.

Sorry for the rant. Hopefully I will have better reviews with the next two books I just picked up at the library. More to come.

What do we do? We swim, swim, swim.

I figured that I had better post while I had a chance. We got an offer on the house and it was significantly lower than our short-sale price. But, it's up to the mortgage company to approve the amount. If it's approved, we'll likely be somewhere new in the next month or two. I can't tell you how my stomach flip-flops when I think about this. Everyone says that they are impressed with how calm I have been about everything. I think I would call it resignation, not calm. Most times, I am pretty mellow, resigned to the fact that all I can do is go with the flow and take things as they come. And then, sometimes, it all catches up with me...all the worrying I'm not doing on those other days hits me all at once. My stomach knots up, I get easily frustrated, and really depressed. I stop talking in full sentences. I feel the need to cry, or yell. I know that given the situation, it's understandable how I feel on those days. But I hate feeling like that. I constantly remind myself that life could be sooo much harder than what I am experiencing right now. I should be constantly thankful that we are all healthy, well, and whole. And besides some stress, we're actually doing really well. We're fed, sheltered, warm, and comfortable. Just stressed. These are my mantras.

The future is looking blurry. I don't know where we'll be living in a couple months. I don't know if H will be working in a couple months. But I'm thankful we have some options. We have a loving family with spare rooms available anytime for us, even if they are in NM, 14 hours away. H has a summer job that is being offered to him with the chance for us all to travel for a few months. Our family and friends are really supportive and understanding that things are tight and unsure. I am just trying to get past the bad days of worry and focus on the positives. I sound like a Tony Robbins recording. But it's like Dory said, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming."