Valentine’s Day with Gage

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This year I was happy to find Shrek Valentine cards, he’s one of Gage’s favorites.  He practiced writing his name on them – with lots of help.

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I was invited to his class party where we decorated bags to collect cards and had snacks.  Doesn’t he look so grown up passing out his cards?

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After school and lunch with Grandma where we went through his bag, we went to the community center and passed out more Valentine’s Day cards.  I have no pictures of this because I was too busy encouraging and enjoying the fun.  We had extra stickers and on Thursday Gage let me put Fiona on his hand.  As of this morning she was still there.  Must be true love.

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We had lots of fun this year and he loved redecorating his Valentine’s with the stickers he received from his teacher.

I hope you all had a day with as much fun!

Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio

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Blackberry Winter: A NovelBlackberry Winter. Finished audio 2-6-14, rating 3.75/5, fiction. pub. 2012

Unabridged audio 10 hours 6 minutes.  Read by Tara Sands

Seattle, 1933. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, goodnight and departs to work the night-shift at a local hotel. She emerges to discover that a May-Day snow has blanketed the city, and that her son has vanished. Outside, she finds his beloved teddy bear lying face-down on an icy street, the snow covering up any trace of his tracks, or the perpetrator’s.
Seattle, 2010. Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge, assigned to cover the May 1 “blackberry winter” storm and its twin, learns of the unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth. In the process, she finds that she and Vera may be linked in unexpected ways…

from Goodreads

I read The Violets of March a few years ago and loved it, so I was happy to see a quick return visit to our friends on Bainbridge Island in this book.  I still love Jio’s writing, but this one missed the mark of being great read for me.  Still good, still want to read her other books, but this one won’t be making my favorite list.

I like the alternating storylines, and that’s a good thing since everyone seems to be doing it these days, and Jio does it so well.  We start with Vera, a very poor single mom trying to raise her young son during the Depression-era.  She has to work at night and sometimes has to leave Daniel alone in their small apartment above a tavern.  As the story moves along we learn who Daniel’s father is and why he’s not in their lives anymore.  Claire is the modern-day storyline.  She is a reporter who has married into a very wealthy family, but has suffered a loss that is causing the crumbling of her marriage.

As with any alternating storyline plot there are always going to be coincidences that connect the two, you expect it and accept it, but there were just so many in this one, too many for my logical brain to accept.  And I did have a likeability problem with Claire. She was whiny for much of the book and I get that that was the place she was in at the time, but it didn’t make me all that invested in her story.  It was Vera and Daniel’s story that drew me in. I wanted to know what had happened to him!

A note about the audio production, I hated the voices the narrator used for the men.  She was fine otherwise, but the men in the story suffered.  I checked the audio out of the library.

I liked this one, didn’t love it, and can’t wait to read more from Jio.

Sibling Quiz – guessing closed

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In yesterday’s mailbox post I said that author Laura Moriarty was the sister of  Liane Moriarty and Sheree thankfully pointed out that I was wrong.   Australian Laine has two sisters, but they are Nicola and Jaclyn.  Oops! But it did give me the inspiration for this quiz about siblings!

Take your best guesses, be entered to win a prize.  No cheating (using the web to help find answers) or copying.  You have til Sunday to enter.  All extras can be found here.

Leave your guesses in the comment section.  You only need to guess one to be eligible for a prize :)

I’m giving you the fictional family name and how many siblings there are and you fill in the names.  If you tell me what book they’re from you’ll earn 2 extra points 🙂  Don’t worry-I’ve provided all the names you need at the bottom.  You just need to put them in the right spot!

March (4)  Jo, Meg, Beth, Amy (Little Women)

Bennett (5)  Elizabeth, Jane, Mary, Catherine, Lydia (Pride & Prejudice)

Everdeen (2)  Katniss, Primrose (The Hunger Games)

Pevensie (4)  Peter, Edmund, Susan, Lucy (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)

Lear (3)  Goneril, Regan, Cordelia (King Lear)

Boatwright (3)  August, June, May (The Secret Life of Bees)

Finch (2)  Scout, Jem  (To Kill a Mockingbird)

Dashwood (3)  Elinor, Marianne, Margaret  (Sense & Sensibility)

Weasley (7)  Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny  (Harry Potter series)

Fitzgerald (3)  Anna, Kate, Jesse (My Sister’s Keeper)

Siblings-Katniss, Elizabeth, Jo, Lucy, Elinor, Marianne, Scout, Ginny, Anna, Kate, Meg, Jane, Jem, Goneril, August, Regan, Peter, Edmund, Amy, Beth, Primrose, May, June, Cordelia, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Lydia, Mary, Jesse, Margaret, Fred, George, Catherine, Ron, Susan

Happy Guessing! Answers to last week’s Cover Me quiz here. Leaderboard here.

Mailbox Monday – February 10

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mmb-300x282Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

IMG_5360I received The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh from Lloyd (The Book Sage) after a win on his blog. He raves about it so I’m excited 🙂  Thank you Lloyd!

I received a copy of Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen from the publisher and since I already purchased a copy it looks like there’s a giveaway coming up!

I picked up While I’m Falling by Laura Moriarty for under $2 at Barnes & Noble yesterday 🙂

So what showed up in your mailbox this week?

Weekends with Gage – A long week of hellos and goodbyes

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This last week has been a looooong week.  I took a 2 1/2 hour nap today and feel human again.  Here’s what’s been going on this week…

Goodbye Scout. We adopted Scout in August 1998 when she was around 3 months old.  We had to say a sad goodbye on Wednesday after 15 and a half years.  I admit that I still hear her meows around the house.  Gage knows that she lives in Heaven now and not with us. What he understands about that is a mystery.  Some cute kitty pics I could get my hands on fast.

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Hello Flu!  It started with vomiting early last Sunday morning, followed by a runny nose, cough, fever, not eating.  A week of sleeping in bed with mom, watching Madagascar way too many times, three trips to the doctor and a very sad boy who didn’t get to go to school or do anything fun.  Not that he had the energy for it.  Jason and I snuck away for dinner last night and came him right after to another fever.

Goodbye Marissa.  Marissa is one of Gage’s ABA tutors who has been coming to our house to work with Gage for the last year.  She is such a positive person and was so good with him.  We will all miss her, but she earned her Master’s degree in December and found  job in Pittsburgh.  Her last day was this morning.

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Hello Grandma and Grandpa!  They are here and not a moment too soon.  They moved into their apartment on Monday and have been over every day this week to give me some help/relief/distraction with Gage.  It’s so nice to have back-up. I think I could get used to this.

Goodbye (fingers crossed) Flu.  Today is the first day all week that Gage hasn’t woken up with a fever. Yea!  He may actually be able to go to school tomorrow.  Double Yea!

Cover Me Quiz – guessing closed

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Take your best guesses, be entered to win a prize.  No cheating (using the web to help find answers) or copying.  You have til Sunday to enter.  All extras can be found here.

Leave your guesses in the comment section.  You only need to guess one to be eligible for a prize :)

As the final wrap up to last year (yes, I know it’s February already!) I just want to see if you can recognize a few covers from last year’s books.  I know the book mark spoilers make it more difficult!

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1.The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs  2.Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen  3.The Engagements by J Courtney Sullivan  4.The Last Word by Lisa Lutz  5.MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood  6.Inferno by Dan Brown  7.Identical by Scott Turow  8.The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty  9.Daddy’s Gone A Hunting by Mary Higgins Clark  10.Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman

Happy guessing!

Mailbox Monday – February 3

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mmb-300x282Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

I received 3 things things in the mail this week.  Two books and a canvas bag.

IMG_5333If You Were Me and Lived in Turkey by Carole P Roman is part of a children’s book series that I’ve posted about before and I’m looking forward to sharing it with Gage.  Schism by Michael Phillip Cash doesn’t look like something I would read at all, but I will give it a few chapters at least. Both of these were surprises from Red Feather Productions.

IMG_5336This Agatha Christie canvas bag was a win from Dewey’s 24 hour read-a-thon last October sent from Harper Collins, thank you Angela!  Can you believe the size of the box and amount of packaging used to send me a flat bag?  I love the bag, but hate the waste.

So, what came in your mailbox this week?

January movies and $ for charity

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I started using Letterboxd this month thanks to Sandy.  If you are interested in rating your movies and keeping tabs on your friends, check it out (sort of like Goodreads).  I’m stacybuckeye if you want to follow me and get a few more than 5 words about the movies I watched.

Last year, thanks to your participation, $100 was given to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, thanks to Heather.

I hope that you will take a few minutes to participate when you can each month.  It’s fun for me and for everyone else who reads it.  I’m not looking for a critical review, just a few words about how you felt about the movie.

Add your 5 words (or less!) to mine and earn $1 for charity.  Once we get to $100 the person with the most reviews will choose the charity.  Click here to see the past winners, the charities they chose and the other reviews you can add to.  Anyone is welcome to join in at any time.

We’re starting at $4 from a few extras last month.

Madagascar Theatrical Poster.jpgMadagascar, 2005 (Cast (voices)-Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer)     Grade B+

Eating meat bad, fish okay.

Fun for kids.  (Veens)

Friends, loyalty, and surviving nature!  (Heather) 

Wacky zoo animals. Incredibly funny.  (Michelle)

Cute and fun fix :)  (Sheree)

47Ronin2012Poster.jpg47 Ronin, 2013 (Cast-Keanu Reeves)     Grade B-

My much needed Keanu fix.

Ruby Sparks poster.jpgRuby Sparks, 2012 (Cast-Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Annette Benning, Elliot Gould, Antonio Banderas)       Grade C

Dark, Quirky. Pretty messed up.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 film).jpgThe Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956 (Cast-James Stewart, Doris Day)    Grade C-

Love Jimmy & Doris. Inane plot.

Que Sera, Sera. Love Doris!  (Michelle)