Books I've Been Reading

 

 

I know I've been absent again for a while, and as always I'm trying to resolve to write more, but we shall see if that actually comes to fruition.

 

 

At the beginning of the year, I was blogging about the books I was reading, so I thought I'd do that for a quick one today.

 

I had just finished reading some pretty heavy stuff, so I thought I'd go for something light and fluffy. These 2 Stephanie Perkins books were just what the I needed. Yes, they are YA, but they're fun and cute and still thought provoking. They aren't necessarily a sequence, but the 1st does bleed into the 2nd, and from what I understand a 3rd is coming soon. I definitely liked Anna better than Lola, but both are pretty great.

 

Now for The Book Thief. This is one of the best books I've ever read. I absolutely loved it. Its beautifully written, the characters are well-developed and relatable, and it weaves a delicate story through the scope of one of the world's most horrific tragedies. If you ever get a chance to read it, please do yourself a favor and start it. I truly do not think you will be disappointed.

Where does the time go?



 

It seems like every time I turn around, time has slipped away and I haven't written in ages. So here is a handy little recap for all interested parties.

 

 

Quinn and Lily met some princesses

 

The best picture ever taken was taken

 

Quinn has been playing tee-ball

 

I went to Vermont

 

Quinn played on some hay bales

 

He went Soarin'

 

We spent some time with family

 

We carved a pumpkin - Quinn's first!

 

And we had an awesome Halloween!

 

So there you have it! Great times have been had by all and we're looking forward to many more good times in the near future! Happy November!

First day of school

So this post should have been put up quite a while ago. In my effort to get back on track, here it is now.

 

 

Quinn was supposed to officially start Pre-K on August 27, but thanks to Hurricane Isaac, he got an extra day of summer vacation. He wasn't too upset about that. Quinn was excited about the school year starting thought, as he knew his teacher from summer care and really liked her.

 

In my attempts to be cute and Pinteresty, I bought this little chalkboard. Cute? It would be adorable, but I think my lack of picture taking skills and lack of quality camera kind of make that hard. Especially with the 2nd picture. I was trying to get his school in the background, but that really didn't work. Oh well, maybe next year. 

 

 

Here he is outside Mrs. Fryer's class. Sadly, since this picture was taken, Mrs. Fryer has moved to NC. Quinn misses her, but is enjoying being in Mrs. Stinnett's class. Here's to a great school year!!

Another Video Interview



 

A year or so ago I did a video interview with Quinn. It was fun, and I wanted to do it every 6 months, but I neglected to do so on his 4th birthday. So soon after he turned 4.5 I recorded this. Its pretty clear he doesn't 100% understand my questions, but its better than last time. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Show Us Your Life - Beauty Products

I have so many blogs I need to write, about Quinn's school, his 4.5 year interview, book reviews, makeup stuff, a bunch of stuff, but I wanted to throw up this quick blog since over at Kelly's Korner, she is doing a Show Us Your Life on beauty products. This is very quick and just some faves, so I hope its helpful to someone!

 

Makeup is something I always have a few things to say about, and these beauty products are at the top of my list lately.

 

1. I have been really into nail polish lately. Like really. I have many, many bottles, enough that I try to change my polish every 3 days or so. At least that way I'm using a lot of it. I don't do my own pedicures, but I do take my own polish. Two of my favorite brands right now are Butter London and China Glaze. The first picture below is the color Lilibet's Jubilee, which was made especially for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this past year. This color is gorgeous, as is the formula. As is the formula of all Butter London polishes. Not matter the type of polish, be it glitter, cream, shimmer, etc, they are all beautiful and very easy to work with.

 

 

The color below is China Glaze Swanky Silk, which is a gorgeous duochrome or peach and pink. Duochrome polishes are some of my absolute favorites. They look so beautiful in sunlight and definitely pick up different colors depending on what you're wearing, the light etc. China Glaze has had some great collections lately, so check them out.

2. I don't generally use a lot of drugstore cosmetics, as I have sensitive skin and I truly believe you get what you pay for. But this Maybelline undereye concealer has proven to be worth its weight in gold. I tend to have dark circles, possibly because I stay up to late, possibly because I have an adorable 4 year old who enjoys getting up at all hours of the night sometimes. Regardless, this stuff covers all those circles. It goes on easy and stays all day.

3. Finally, this is Tarte Amazonian 12 Hour Blush in Dollface. Its a great pink blush that really does stay true to color for a long time. The Amazonian blushes are great, I have another color I like really well, I think its Blissful. If you're looking for a great blush, give Tarte a try!

A Summer Snapshot

So now that summer is almost over (at least for the rest of the country, we still have a good spell of unadulterated heat and humidity to go through), I'm finally getting around to what we did this summer. It was pretty laid back and low key overall. A lot of trying to not be hot and learning to not drown, all very important things in my book.

 

 

• Quinn took a total of 8 weeks of swim lessons this summer. I didn't intend for him to take them for so long, but he was getting a lot out of it and really enjoyed it. Except the first day, when he wouldn't even get in the water. But he quickly learned to love it, as you will see later. 

 

 Sorry for the junky cell phone pic on this one

 

•  We had a fun 4th of July hanging out with family. While it was rainy during the day, we were able to get out to the local cool spot, the Costco parking lot, to see some fireworks. Here is a great picture of Quinn and some of his cousins. 

 

•  As was witnessed in my few earlier blog posts of the summer, there was a lot of time spent watching "the games". Here is my adorable future Olympic champion!

•  And now back to swim lessons, here he is at the end of the summer. Yup, jumping off the diving board by himself! It took some prodding, but by the end of his 2nd time through Level 2, he jumped off the diving board 3 times by himself. Overall, I'm very impressed with how well he has done swimming. He can now swim a pretty good length by himself, and can definitely get himself to the wall of the pool, which is really what I wanted. And to top it off, he had a great time! Thank you Brandon Sport & Aquatic Center for making my sweetheart a little fish!
  

 

 

•  And then we finally got back to Disney! That doesn't do much for the not being hot part of my summer goals, but its Disney, so who cares! Our passes came back into effect on August 17 and on August 18 we were there! We met our friends Kate, Khan, and Lily at Epcot. While we were waiting for them, we saw a short line for Sleeping Beauty. Quinn had never "met" a princess before, so he was pretty excited. She spent quite a bit of time talking to him, and I think their conversation revolved around toys and dragons. She left a very nice kiss print on his cheek, which was too cute.

 



Quinn and Aurora in a very intense conversation.





What an adorable couple!!

 

 

• And then, last Saturday, Quinn turned 4.5. Sniff, sniff, he's so big. So we of course, went to Disney. A little time at Animal Kingdom, a little food at Epcot, a great time for our family. We ended up going on the safari towards the end of the day, and it was the best safari ride I've ever been on. Lots of animals were out and we were able to see the male lion up and pacing on the rocks. He eyed our truck a few times, which while a bit scary, was a bit awesome too. The picture below is Quinn posing in front of Expedition Everest. He said he would go on that when he's bigger. 



That's pretty much our summer. Quinn's first official day of pre-K was supposed to be today, but thanks to TS Isaac, we're at home with sunshine streaming in the window. Gotta love Florida!! Look for a school update tomorrow.

Good-Bye Olympics

Since we have now all shuffled out into the bright lights of this post Olympic world, its time to pause and reflect on the past 17days and all they gave us. In bulleted form to make this quicker and less painful.

• I thought the closing ceremonies were good, a little jumbly, but I got the overall theme they were going for. I especially liked the overhead view of the stadium. Oh, and lighting it up green and yellow for Rio was definitely a nice touch.

• Yay Spice Girls!! That was a pretty cool mini reunion or whatever you want to call it. I also liked the Oasis-minus-whichever-Gallagher-brother-was-missing band doing Wonderwall. A nice 90s flashback amidst all the other British music, which was fabulous, but being a teenager in the 90s, well, that's what I appreciated most.

• Did anyone else notice that not only are these athletes extremely talented, a large percentage of them are ridiculously good looking? How is that even fair? Just out of the American female track athletes, there is an astounding number of gorgeous people - Allyson Felix, Carmelita Jeter, Sanya Richards-Ross - just to name a few. Plus there were so many teenage athletes with beautiful, glowing skin (Missy Franklin, McKayla Maroney, I'm looking at you). The 16 year old in me was doing quite of bit of glowering at that. Heck, the 33 year old me was glowering too.

• There was so much inspiration in these games, so much heartfelt goodness, its easy to write it off as cheesiness, at least for the cynics of the world. But I found these Olympics to be a nice little oasis of well, niceness. I enjoyed watching them with my family, talking about it with friends, all the so called cheesy goodness the Olympics should be.
• Back to the inspiration stuff for a moment, that American sprinter, Byrshon Nellum, who was shot through both thighs 4 years ago and now has an Olympic silver medal...I mean really!! I've never been shot and I don't have a bronze. That's pretty awesome if you ask me.
• Again to the inspriation point yet again, I get why Oscar Pistorius is so inspirational, I do. But I don't know why that is overshadowing his hotness. I haven't heard it mentioned once, and well, it definitely should be.

I was truly impressed with these Olympics. London did a fabulous job, so if anyone out there cares about what I think, thumbs up GB. There were so many great stories, from Kirani James winning the first gold for Grenada and being a seemingly great guy to the first female athletes competing from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain to the multitudes of new world records, it was all so awesome to witness. But most of all, I loved seeing it through the eyes of a very excited 4 year old. He just adored "The Games" and watched with such a gleam in his eye, wanting to know who would win, who got a world record, what would happen next. He decided that win an athlete wins a gold medal, they also get candy, popcorn, and toys. Who knew? He's getting ready for 2028. So thank you games of the 30th Olympiad for making my baby smile. What more can I ask for?

The Olympics...so far





As predicted in my last post, I've been keeping my eye on these Olympics, at least as much as is possible. I just like them. They're fun, engaging, and for the most part, exciting. Plus who doesn't like good sportsmanship and healthy competition (hear that ejected Badminton players!)? I've had some observation about the Olympics so far, so I'll try to bullet point them as much as possible.

• The Opening Ceremonies - ok, so it was not like Beijing. But c'mon people, what could be? Danny Boyle admittedly said he couldn't compete with the scope that was the Beijing Opening Ceremonies, so he didn't try. And I personally think he did a good job. Some parts were a little slow or just odd (the teenage love/cell phone part was a bit of a headscratcher, although I got what they were going for), but it was overall a good time. Plus, the inclusion, no matter how small, of JK Rowling made it tops in my book!

• I did have some high hopes for the men's gymnastics team after the qualifying round, and while it was disappointing to see them slip, they still are a great team and should be roundly applauded for their efforts. They did a whole lot better than I could have done.
• While we're on the subject of gymnastics, yay USA Women!! They were just so awesome last night. To win by 5 points is a pretty spectacular thing (from what I understand). And let me just say McKayla Maroney, you deserved a perfect score. You are amazing. And to Jordyn Wieber, way to be. On that note...

•  Jordyn Wieber is a 16 year old girl who just saw her dreams fall apart a little bit...get the cameras out of her face. Let her grieve this in peace. I was quite annoyed by that. But not as annoyed as by the rule that kept her out of the All-Around competition. It should be the top 24 period, no matter what country they're from. If they're one of the best, let them compete with the best.
• Gabby Douglas is possibly the cutest thing ever.
• One last gymnastics note...Aliya Mustafina...tone it down a notch. You are going to stroke out at 20 if you keep it up. You have a team silver medal, that's still pretty darn awesome.
• What is with all the Michael Phelps backlash? Seriously people, do you secretly have 20 Olympic medals, making you a superior (and far more judgmental) athlete? He just became the most decorated Olympian EVER. Who cares if they're bronze, silver, or gold (which most of them are)? That is simply awe-inspiring. He'll be a better swimmer at 80 than I was at 15.

• I think I'm still trying to get my head around synchronized diving. It just strikes me oddly. I totally get the challenge, but there is just something about it.
• I hate playing volleyball, but watching it is another story. Especially Kerri and Misty. I mean, they've never lost a SET in Olympic competition. Kerri has had 2 kids in the past 4 years and is still out there, being awesome (although naming a kid Sundance, that's questionable).
• BMX in the Olympics? Ok, whatever works. I'll watch.
• I truly wish I had more hours in the day to watch this stuff. There are so many things I'm missing and so many athletes to appreciate. I'm so not one myself, so their accomplishments are pretty amazing to me. Like that chick that just got gold in Skeet Shooting, 99 out of 100 shots. Wow. It doesn't matter what it is, all these athletes deserve to feel proud of even being there. I'll never be an Olympian, so my props to them.

Outside of my bullet pointing, I have to say, watching the Olympics with a 4 year old is more than enjoying. He is getting so into it, constantly asking who is going to win, who got the world record, what they're doing, all these questions. I hope he keeps that curiousness and enthusiasm alive, at least so I'll always have someone to watch with me.

Happy Olympic Day!!

Those who know me know I am a lover of ceremony, of pomp and circumstance, of any kind of pagentry really. So of course the Olympics are right up my alley. And as we all know, the Olympics are in London this year, and lets be honest, no one does pomp and circumstance like the Brits. I'm very much looking forward to the opening ceremonies tonight and all the events in the coming weeks. And yes I know there are a lot of people who show sudden interest in such things and are looked down on by the pretentious people that seem to rule the world these days, I guess I don't really care. I'm always interested in this stuff, so Debbie Downer's be gone! I'll be happily watching the Lochte vs Phelps coverage, the gymnastics, Usain Bolt, and all the glorious pagentry in  between! Good Luck to all the athletes, but GO USA!!

Debby isn't getting us Down!!

The rain has finally ended! Woo-hoo!

Ok, so these pictures uploaded backwards from how I wanted so, we'll start now and go back.

Yesterday was Ross' 34th birthday. Yay Ross. We of course went to Texas Cattle Company in Lakeland, which was tasty as always. We went for a little walk by the close to overflowing (thanks Debby) Lake Morton and took this lovely picture in front of the Volunteer Spirit statue. Aren't we cute?

Last weekend we went to a friend's birthday party and Quinn got to go bowling for the first time. He was SO excited. It took him a little bit to get the hang of it (he got the ball stuck between the bumper and the gutter, how he did that I don't know). He was so happy to be there and we had a great time.

This picture was actually his first trip up to the lane. The one above is how he excitedly would watch his ball roll down the lane.

Now these might not make as much sense since they are in the wrong order. I decided to do something fun and we did a science experiement. I tried to explain the basics of a reaction, which I don't think I did a good job on. We just did the old vinegar and baking soda trick, but I did put food coloring on the spoon with the baking soda, so it made a nice colorful foamy good time.

Here he is stirring up the green "reaction".

Excitedly watching the red foam spill out onto the tray.

Here he is with all our supplies gathered together. Doesn't he look happy?

That's a bit of what we're up to this summer. Hope you all are having a great time too!!

Last Day

Today was Quinn's last day of K3 preschool.  I wasn't too sad, although looking at the below comparison pictures does make me a little teary.  On his first day back in August, he was 3.5, now he's 4 years, 3 months.  He recognizes the entire alphabet, knows all the letter sounds, and can write his name. He's doing very well on sight words and is just so smart.  And cute.  And a little bit ornery, but what 4 year old boy isn't? He had a really good year, made some great friends, and has definitely learned a lot. What more can we ask for as parents? Now we're onto pre-K. Which means kindergarten is in the sights.  Now I am getting a little teary.

On a side note, part of the reason I titled this blog what I did is because Quinn uses the phrase "last day" for any day that has passed, from yesterday to a year ago, so it is definitely fitting on more than one level.

A Quick Update

Ugh, slacking I know, you don't have to tell me.  So here is a quick update on what we've been up to, which isn't too exciting, but hey, its what we do!

QUINN - He has started playing tee-ball, which he is really enjoying.  He is in the orangeish #6 shirt below.  He has also pretty much quit taking naps at home, which I'm really not enjoying. He likes to tell us what he loves, like "I love my new shoes", "I love my old shoes", "I love that table", "I love your beautiful shirt Momma", that kind of thing.  Its pretty cute.

KIM - Well, I had my birthday, turned a year older, then it was over.  Not bad really.  Ross took me to Bern's, which is always nice. Awesome really. Below is a picture of me and Quinn on Mother's Day at The Brunchery.  We also went to Epcot on Mother's Day with some friends, which was way fun. We've been a few times actually. It is one benefit of living in Florida. I do hope Quinn realizes how lucky a kid he is!

I have a few books I'm working through right now.  I haven't been able to finish one in a while for some reason, so I just keep adding more. I'm reading this one...

....and this one (for my Bible Study)....

...and this one (my classic for the year)...

...and I just started this today.

That's a lot of books. Hopefully I'll get through them soon!

ROSS - is working.  Which is good. 

That's us right now. Hope this finds both my readers well!