Mid-Summer

already. I can’t believe it. Times moves so fast as you get older and busier. My birthday is fast approaching and I can hardly believe that I am going to be 36. I certainly don’t feel 36. It really is just a number though. From what I hear 36 is the new 25 so I guess I am okay with being 36.

Minnow is growing and growing and growing. He had his 15month check up last week. He grew 2 inches since his 12month check up–he only gained 1lbs. But he is doing just fine. He has all 8 teeth now in front. I am excited for his molars to come in as he really wants to eat heartier food.

School starts on Aug 20th. I really like being off in the summer. This was actually my first summer where I didn’t work in a long time. I think when I go back to teaching, I will not teach summer school. Ever!!! I only have 3 more classes to take to finish up my MA in English. I am taking 2 in the fall–starting Aug 20 and will take one in the spring. Then I will be done with that leg of the educational race. But to add to it all…I have applied to the Doctoral program. I am hoping to finish my EdD–Doctor of Education. I figure I might set a world record for time in school. Really it is just a ploy to avoid paying my student loans back. I know I will have to eventually and yes I know that they keep accumulating interest, but when your student loans are almost as much as your mortgage it is hard not to avoid them.

Hubby has decided that he wants to go back to school too. He is planning on getting his M.ed in Education Technology. Hubby is a computer guy–a software and integration engineer–he also creates programs for his work to use to streamline their processes. Anyway, he is hoping to get into designing programs for educational organizations, etc. So we won’t at all be busy over the next few years. One toddler, adding a baby early next year (on waiting list for her), trying IVF again to see about producing one or two bio children. Plus going to school. I think I have just uncovered a new recipe for insanity.

An Interlude

too hot to post much lately…feeling kind of lazy…here are some pictures… At the science center

Trying to grab the spring that isn’t really there. Yeah I know not fair–but really fun to watch.

Reading with Grandpa Pete and Grandma Betty who were visiting from Texas
Sitting in my jazz fest chair listening to bluegrass at the Botanical Gardens on July 4th.
Best present ever from Grandma Anne…

Favorite Books

As and English major I have had the opportunity to get to read thousands of books that I may not have picked up on my own–I tend to go for mystery and comedy/romance books with an occasionally read of the chick-lit variety–I absolutely love Nora Roberts, Patricia Cornwell, Janet Evanovich and Catherine Coulter.

Here is a beginning list of my favorite books

Paris Trout–Peter Dexter
Meridian–Alice Walker
Sula–Toni Morrison
Confessions of Nat Turner–William Styron
Tobacco Road–Erskine Caldwell
Catch-22–Joseph Heller
Confederacy of Dunces–John Kennedy Toole
Moses Ascending–Samuel Selvon
Sanctuary–William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying–William Faulkner
Vendor of Sweets–R. K. Narayan
Their Eyes Were Watching God–Zora Neale Hurston
Summer Before the Dark–Doris Lessing
Tess of D’urbervilles–Thomas Hardy
Skin Tight and Sick Puppy–Carl Hiassen
Paradise Lost–John Milton
Wide Sargasso Sea–Jean Rhys
A Room of One’s Own–Virgina Woolf
Breath, Eyes, Memory–Edwidge Danticat
Haroun and the Sea of Stories–Salman Rushdie
Pudd’nhead Wilson–Mark Twain
The Blithedale Romance–Nathaniel Hawthorne
Cane–Jean Toomer
O’Pioneers–Willa Cather

What am I reading…

I have been encouraged to share what I have been reading lately.
Here are just a few of the titles that I have managed to read and/or began reading in the past 6 weeks. I am currently in the middle of reading 4 books. It depends on my mood, which one I pick up at any given reading opportunity. I never use to be able to read multiple book at one, but when you are an English major you learn to do that from necessity.

How to be Lost–Amanda Eyre Ward
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter–Kim Edwards
Nineteen Minutes–Jodi Picoult
Body Surfing–Anita Shreve
Step on a Crack–James Patterson
The 6th Target–James Patterson
Lean Mean Thirteen–Janet Evanovich
Swapping Lives–Jane Green
Vanishing Acts–Jodi Picoult
My Sister’s Keeper–Jodi Picoult
There is No Me Without You–Melissa Fay Greene

There is a long list of books I want to read and maybe I will compile that soon and post it. I enjoy book discussions and am curious to hear about what others are reading. Please keep posting your thoughts on books that you are reading, have read, and want to read. I am very interested. Maybe a blog book group might be in order. Who is game?