Jude's Doctor's Appointment

Not surprisingly, Jude is still in the high ranges for height, around the 90th percentile.  He has actually gone up in weight, the highest he's ever been, around the 60th percentile.  

We have had a cold at our house this past week, and we found out at the appointment that he has an ear infection!  He has given me no indication that this is the case.  It is impossible to tell how sick Jude is because he's one of those kids that just goes, goes, goes no matter what.  He's also starting to get pink eye again, which I did know.  Soooo, we got an antibiotic that should knock both of those infections out.

The doctor was having this medical student ask Jude questions and give him smarties when he answered correctly.  Questions about what colors things are, and "if an elephant is big, then what is a mouse?"  This is all fine except that Jude gets pretty introverted when there are strangers around.  So, he wasn't really answering very often.  So, the med student said, "he's pretty shy, isn't he?" and "I understand, when there are strangers around," etc.  But, it just annoyed me because after it was all over, he said, "well, he's probably smarter than what he is showing..."  So I said, "yes, he's very smart, he knows his colors, animals, and letters; it's just that is is very shy."

Ugh.  I just wish he could have seen how smart Jude really is and didn't have to take my word for it.  I don't know if he believed me.

Funny thing, though.  I got Jude some Perry the Platypus shoes because they were really the only boy sandals in Jude's size that would work.  But, Jude doesn't watch Phineas and Ferb so he just thinks they are duck shoes.  The med student asked Jude who was on his shoes and Jude said "duck shoes" but the doc thought he was answering wrong and corrected him.  "Is that Perry the Platypus?"  Jude just looked at him like...??

Thankfully, there were no shots, so it was one of the less painful appointments.  :)

What Books Have You Read?

I got this from my sister, Kelsey.  Here is: Kelsey's List

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling (all)

5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell         

9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger 

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot 

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

34 Emma – Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52 Dune – Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses – James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad 

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare 

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl 

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Read=18

Not bad, but as an English, Literature, and Creative Writing student, you would think I would have read more of them.  Kelsey has read 34!  She is a reading machine.  :)

Projects!

I have been having a really fun time lately doing projects to decorate our house and make it feel more homey.  I revamp some things we already have, and get a lot of things from D.I. and then fix them up.  That way, it doesn't cost very much.  Here are some of the results!

I have had this toy box for as long as I can remember.  Originally, it was bubble gum pink.  Then, in the summer of 2004, I got really "creative" and started painting random things all over it.  I should have taken pictures of all sides of it; you would really get a sense of the transformation.  

 Here it is now, all one color:

We are using it for storage under our entertainment center now.  And I am still planning on adding a cushion to the top of the box, in a colorful print, so more pics on that later.

These next items are ones I found at D.I., like this picture frame.  I thought it was really interesting to look at.  This picture was taken after I removed the ugly floral print that was in it before, so this in and of itself is an improvement to the original.

 And I love the end result even more.

I liked how this thing was a little unusual looking.

 I repainted it and hung it right inside our front door for our keys.

I was really excited when I found this twelve by twelve frame, because it was a completely blank canvas.

 Justin and I picked this cool bird print off of Art.com, and I painted the frame the same blue to match the "pink box" and the tones in the print.

I forgot to take a "before" picture of this frame, but it was just a plain brown frame.  I sanded it down and painted it.  I like how chunky it is, and how the greens in the background of the photograph play off the frame color.

Our living room furniture is all browns and blacks, so I really wanted to paint everything to be bright and happy.  The colors I am using are ones that I pulled out of a bright, multi-colored area rug we bought.  I think once I get all the pictures hung, they will play really well off of each other.

To see my rug, click here!

This is the cutest wagon I found at D.I. and I just had to get it.  I didn't really know what to do with it at first.

 But look how cute it is with a couple succulents planted in it!  I just pray I don't kill them.  They are supposed to be very hard to kill...but that's never stopped me before, unfortunately.  :)

It's been a blast to remake things into my own style.  I still haven't really hung any of them yet, so that's the next step.  I will post pictures of how they all look when I do.

Ciaran!

I wanted to update everyone on Ciaran.  He is 10 months old (tomorrow) and he is my little smarty-pants.  This isn't always a good thing, let me tell you.  He has figured out how to take the outlet covers off, and how to pull Jude's legos apart so they are in even smaller pieces.

But, it's really fun how much he has started mimicking us.  Whenever I point to a toy across the room and tell him to go get it, he points at it and starts babbling.  Yesterday, Justin was leaving for work and he kissed Ciaran goodbye and Ciaran made the kissing sound at the same time!  What a cutie! 

His favorite toys are balls; anytime I bounce or toss a ball, he gets really excited. He loves to play catch with us.  No, really, Ciaran DOES play catch.  He throws the ball to us and we throw it back.  I am amazed by him every day.

He loves being outside.  Any time anyone opens the front door, he makes a beeline for it.  The other day, it was raining pretty good and I let Jude go out in it for a little while.  And, sure enough, Ciaran wasn't far behind.  He sat in a puddle and started splashing away in it.

He has four teeth now, and it wasn't fun for anyone getting them ha ha.  (I'm laughing so I don't cry.)  He is also still really clingy to me, which gets old at times.  But, it's still nice being the one person he wants all the time.  I love this kid so much!

What I Wanted to Do For Mother's Day

Take family pictures!!!

 Look at my adorable boys!

Best 6 years of my life!

My Graduation!

I had a wonderful graduation on Saturday!  Let's take a look, shall we?

Where's Jesse??

It's almost my turn!

Getting my diploma (...holder)!

I love love LOVE Ciaran's expression in this pic.

And, yes, in this pic, too (Ciaran didn't want me to put him down ever again after our traumatic 1 1/2 separation).  FYI, the medallion I am wearing is for the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and the beads are for the English Department...woot!  woot!

With my Dad and Keshia!

Check out the Dads representin'!

And with Jake and Annie!  And, yeah, Ciaran again.

Our Family!

I want to thank everyone who came out to support me, and for those who couldn't make it but really wanted to be there.  I got tons of words of support and congratulations from so many people, not to mention cards and gifts.  Thank you all!

Putting All the Kids to Bed

Or, uh, all the Superheroes.  Either way, Jude has them tucked in tight.  Good night, Batman, Iron Man, and Mr. Freeze.

Being Healthy

We love our chips, we love our treats, and we love love our soda.  We are not in denial about anything; we know we are addicted to these things, but it hasn't been a problem because we kind of like being addicted to these things.  They are delicious.  Being addicted to salty, sweet, bubbly yummy goodness is awesome.

BUT (there's always a "but"?) I have realized that it is impossible to get Jude to eat well if Justin and I aren't.  If there is bad stuff in the house, it will somehow find its way into this little boy's mouth.  I don't really know how it happens because I always resolve not to give him any of it.  But, when parents are eating something delicious, it seems kind of rude to be like, "here, child, eat spinach.  It's good for you.  It's not good for me.  Just for you."

So, Justin and I have decided that it is time we started eating better.  Starting now, we are not buying soda, chips, or candy of any kind.  We are substituting with water (none of us drink enough water, and I know for a fact I get dehydrated all the time), crackers, and fruit and veggies.  Also, we are switching from delicious white bread to not-as-yummy wheat bread.  Ugh.

Surprisingly, I think Justin, Jude and I all like fruit, veggies, crackers, etc.  But, when your body is used to eating other crap, it has to adjust back to being satisfied with healthy things.  I have discovered you have to eat a lot more healthy things to feel full...or maybe our bodies need to adjust to not being filled up so much, too.

So, here's to Day 1 of being healthy for our kids (and of course, for us).  Wish us luck!
(I already miss soda.)

Ciaran looks older every single day!

And he acts older, too!  We went to his 9 month check up yesterday.  He is still tall and skinny, that's for sure!  The doctor said he has great "stranger awareness" which basically means he was very wary of the doctor..."who are you and why are you touching me!??"

He cut his second tooth yesterday; they are both on the bottom so it will be very cute when they both come in completely.  Right now they are barely there.

He is very healthy, very happy (except when cutting teeth!), and very much a mama's boy, though he loves Justin and Jude so very much.  He lights up when he sees them.  He says "mom" and "mama" when he wants me.  He has said "dada" but not conclusively, and he knows to make the "buh" sound for "ball."  He loves playing with balls.

Ciaran wants to be involved in whatever is going on.  If Justin and Jude are playing, Ciaran has to be right there, trying to play, too.  (And Jude thinks, making a nuisance of himself. ha ha)

He is eating all kinds of things nowadays.  He loves bread, cereal, peas, broccoli, strawberries, apples, mashed potatoes, crackers...the list grows every day.  He has liked pretty much everything we put in front of him so far.

He walks along furniture VERY well, so I suspect he'll take his first step without help before long.  He stands without holding onto anything sometimes.

I love this little guy so much.  I am amazed at the differences between my two boys.  When we found out we were having another boy I thought "yay!  another Jude!"  I was so wrong.  Ciaran is completely different; he is his own person with his own likes/dislikes and personality.  It's been so much fun getting to know him.  He's growing up too fast!! 

Graduating!

I am graduating on Saturday, May 4, 2013.  Commencement is at 9:30 a.m. and my Convocation is at 2:00 p.m. in the Spectrum.  I will be getting a Bachelor of Science in Creative Writing.  I am very excited!  It will finally feel like I really am finished!

What We Watch 7

Last night I watched a movie called "Vamps."  Most people who know me know that I like supernatural stuff like this, but don't worry, I didn't subject Justin to this silliness.  And silliness it was!  Uh...I just went to describe this movie and I don't really know where to start.  I think I'll let imdb.com do the work for me:  "Two female vampires in modern-day New York City are faced with daunting romantic possibilities."  

So, what did I think of it?  Weeeeelllllll...this is the most ridiculous movie EVER.  I feel pretty confident with that assessment.  I don't think I'm exaggerating even a little bit.  Ridiculous story, ridiculous acting (especially by Sigourney Weaver and Justin Kirk...oh my), and most of all, RIDICULOUS special effects.  I can't emphasize that enough.

To be fair, I knew what I was getting into (to an extent).  This movie isn't trying to be super serious or anything.  Plus, it wasn't boring!  So that's something.  :)  

What We Watch 4-5-6 Catch-Up

Soooo I've gotten a bit behind on these.  But, I blame Justin.  He said he was going to post about Zero Dark Thirty,

but he never did!  I asked him to post about it because he liked it a lot more than I did.  I think it is very well made, and I think it is a very important movie.  (Although too long!  Justin and I agree on that one.)  But, it's just not my thing, really.  It's not what I would choose to watch.

The next night, we watched "The Sessions" starring John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, and William H. Macy and it was just fantastic.  Great great movie!  One thing, though, Helen Hunt has had some scary plastic surgery in her face.  She looks very plastic.

Two nights ago, we attempted watching "Blue Like Jazz," an indie film I found randomly on Netflix.  I say attempted because it was soooo boring, we turned it off.  Didn't even get halfway through it.  I was sad because it sounded very interesting.  Oh well, they can't all be amazing.  :)  There, now I'm caught up, and I'll try to stay that way.

Jude Michael Betts: Best 3-Year-Old on the Planet

We celebrated Jude's 3rd birthday this weekend, and had a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, some of the pictures we took got deleted accidently.  And, I forgot to take the camera to The Jump Zone.  Ugh!  But, here are some recent pictures of our awesome kid.

On Sunday, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Betts' house for cake and presents.  It was a lot of fun because it seems like Jude has become so much more independent almost overnight.  He was playing really well with his cousin, Beckham (who is 2 months younger), which he's never really done.  They were talking to each other and making each other laugh.

I could tell he didn't really like all the attention he was getting while opening presents; he seemed a little nervous.  But, he was excited for the presents he received.  Here he is in the present he got from Grandma and Grandpa Laws:

He makes an adorable Woody.  He also got some cool action figures, bubbles, legos, a race track with cars, and a new movie: Rise of the Guardians.  Spoiled kid!

Then on Monday we went to Jude's favorite place on earth: The Jump Zone.  Like I said, I didn't get pictures and believe me, I'm kicking myself.  He had so much fun and this was the first time Justin or I didn't jump with him.  He was completely fine going out there by himself.  Of course, it was much more fun when his cousins got there.  Jude, Lily (she's a few months older), and Beckham ran around together and had a blast.  

I took Jude to the drinking fountain and the whole way back he was saying "It's my birthday!" to everyone who passed us.  It was awesome.

Jude is growing up so fast and it's a blast!

Hoarders

The other day, as I flipped through channels, I landed on a show called "Hoarders: Buried Alive."  This particular episode was focusing on an elderly woman who literally spends all her time sitting in a pile of stuff in the living room.  She eats there, sleeps there, everything.  The rest of her house is completely taken over by the clutter.

She was very stubborn about changing her ways; she felt she had a right to keep all of her things.  I was shocked when they said that she has been to jail on 5 separate occasions because of health hazard and fire code violations.  They were threatening her with another lockup to try and get her to change.  What world do we live in where we lock someone up because of hoarding?

What We Watch 3

Last night we watched "The Bourne Legacy."

I am a big fan of the "Bourne" franchise.  For the most part they are very enjoyable.  This one followed suit, to an extent.  There was definitely some fun action going on and I thought the story was a good play off of the original trilogy.  Jeremy Renner was satisfactory as super-secret-agent-bad-ass.  

On the other hand, I thought this movie was way too long.  They should have kept it under two hours, for sure, and in my opinion, WELL under two hours.  The chase scenes towards the end (one on foot, as well as one on motorcycles) were not very exciting to watch.  It was just watching people run and drive, with exciting music and fast cuts.

Justin called it "The Boring Legacy."  He is so very clever.  :)

I give this one a very unenthusiastic 3 stars.  It was just...okay....eh...shrug.

Jude!

This kid turns 3 in 5 days!!

Playing In Boxes

Oh, why do we even buy toys for our kids?  They really just want to play in cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, grocery sacks, bubble wrap...

What We Watch 2

Last night I watched "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" while Justin watched the basketball game.

And what did I think of it?  I thought it was great.  Yes, it was violent and gory.  Yes, it was very fantastical. Yes, it makes me cringe a bit that they took a beloved American President and the amazing things he did, and put a supernatural spin on it all.  But, it's all kind of awesome.  Abraham Lincoln kicks vampire ass and I loved every minute of it.  It was FUN TO WATCH.

As a vampire-movie-watcher, I appreciated that the vampires in this movie were blood-thirsty monsters that need to be wiped off the face of the earth.  I've been pretty tired of the "tortured soul" vampire lately, as well as the "handsome/brooding/romantic" vampire.  It was nice to see the "horrific/killer/evil" vampire again.

I know some people are going to roll their eyes at me (Justin) but this movie wasn't "silly" as expected.  (Except maybe the scene with the horses...)  It even managed to incorporate slavery and the Civil War in semi-clever ways.  I give this movie 3 stars.

Foolish Child

Oh what a foolish child I was, thinking that snow days were behind me.  Justin warned me and everything.  But I'm just a sun-loving St. Georgian with a heart full of dreams.

What We Watch 1

I thought it would be fun to post on what movies Justin and I watch, and what we thought of them, starting now!  So, last night we watched a little number called "Killing Them Softly" starring Brad Pitt.

It is about these three idiots who decide to steal from a bunch of scary high-up mob guys at their illegal card game.  Brad Pitt is the professional whom the mob guys hire to eradicate this situation.

I think this movie is definitely a fresh point of view of the "mob movie," as it focuses a lot on the financial side of things.  It is all about the money.  What bothered me about this was that it felt like I was being hit over the head with this theme.  The story takes place during the Obama/McCain election and in nearly every scene there was audio or video of the candidates speaking about the economy, etc.  Pushing way too hard.

However, at the same time, I couldn't really find a logical connection between the Brad Pitt/mob story, and this financial information given through the candidates.  Yes, there is money involved and it is very crucial to the story, but that wasn't enough.  

I asked Justin what he thought of the movie, and this is what he said:

"...Eh.  I would give it 3 stars.  I thought it was okay.  I look at it like Brad Pitt is an allegorical representation of Corporate America.  Like when he says that he doesn't like to kill them up close and see their emotions.  He likes to do it from a distance.  Like Corporate America killing you from a cozy little office.  But it was a little preachy and not incredibly well done."

I think that I would give this movie 2 stars out of 5.  Purely as a mob movie, it was entertaining and I enjoyed many of the characters.  The action scenes and the tension scenes were very well done.  However, this movie was clearly trying to do more than that, and I feel as if it failed in that aspect.