Catching up on books...

I am still working through The Brothers Karamazov and am in the 400s, so less than half to go! I have read a few other books in the mean time, mostly things my kids have been reading. I'm going to be short with these- you're welcome. :( (grrr....)

Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen: Hilarious. I loved this quick read. Business men would also enjoy it IF they could come to grips with the fact that it's a fictional comedy. Andy couldn't. It says it's around a 4th grade reading level, but the vocabulary in it could be made for high schoolers (financially speaking). Dawson- you would love this, you little saver! ;)

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan: I bought the entire series and read this book because ALL the boys in my class are reading and loving it! Percy, the main character, is edgy and misunderstood. He acts older than his age, battles anything the gods will send his way, survives a visit to hell, and has a sense of humor about it all. He's every little boy's hero. I'm not into the idea of not letting kids read things because they might be contrary to the truth of the gospel, like magic, witches, wizzards, vampires, hobbits, etc. I have no problem with kids reading that stuff because it's fiction. They read it knowing that it's fiction. It's not truth. Having said that, I was put off by some things in this book. The kids would say things like "Oh my gods," or "Thank the gods." At dinnertime, every person would set aside the best portion of their meal and offer it to their parent god. The book says something in the beginning about how these are "little g" gods and are tiny compared to "big G" God. However, big G God didn't seem to have any interest or involvement in the universe, the little g gods, or any mortals. He was completely out of the picture. So...in my mind, this one borders on the edge of healthy and unhealthy. My advice- you know your kids better than anyone. Use your best judgement. Definitely read it before you let your kids and make sure to talk through some of the issues with them.

POP!

At home group a few weeks ago, we celebrated our friend Daniel's birthday. We blew up balloons to embarrass him and after everyone left, Berkley found quite an interest in them. We decided to play around by throwing balloons up in the air. He was hilarious to watch- he couldn't wait for the balloons to come back down and would start crying in frustration. Gravity just wasn't fast enough...

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

The reason I didn't have this in my "What I'm Reading" sidebar is because as soon as I got it, I had read it. My book club, the Rogue Readers (motto: "leaving no page unturned") has chosen this as our first book of the year. One thing I both love and hate about my book club: I do not have the same tastes as most of the people in the club. The great part is, I get to read things I wouldn't normally read, the bad part is that I have to read things I wouldn't normally read. (The only book I've truly disliked was No Time for Goodbye. It's your typical trade paper suspense novel- I am a completely unashamed book snob.) A love for the classics is preferred, an appreciation of them is essential!

I was very excited to read this book: the reviews were raving. The book is about a high school girl named Hannah Baker who has very recently committed suicide. Before she did, she recorded herself on audio cassette tapes. There are thirteen people/events/reasons that brought her to decide to end her life. On the cassette tapes, she gives those reasons and mails them to the thirteen people they involve. Each person listens to the tapes and passes them on to the next person. If they don't get passed on, a second set of tapes will be released publicly (in which case, the people they are about will face consequences. Some of the things that happened were illegal.)

Everyone who read this book said every middle schooler, high schooler, parent, and teacher should read this book. It would be life-changing. In sum, I had high expectations. I hate going into a book with high expectations- again, I was let down. Don't get me wrong- the book was good. But it wasn't life-changing. Not like Same Kind of Different as Me was life-changing. Most of Hannah's reasons seem small, and while they do build on each other, and in the end lead to devastating events, something was missing. Certainly the actions of others affected and influenced her in deciding to kill herself. But, there was also something inside her that was bent toward her decision. I would have liked to hear more about that.I think she was also weighed down by the guilt of some of her own actions. I wanted to know how that affected her decision. I also thought it was strange to hear so little about her parents- what a small role they played! She says in the beginning, "I know my parents love me," and then they're never mentioned again.

All that to say, I thought it was an ok book, but it seemed one sided. I was confused about why she wanted to die. As the reader, I want to feel what Hannah is feeling, and I didn't feel like suicide was an option, much less the only option. If Jay Asher had gone into some of those missing elements above, a heavier weight would have been felt and understood by the reader.

A good book, but I wanted more.

Videos from Costa Rica

My camera has a video feature, but I couldn't get any of the videos onto the computer. I've figured out what I was doing wrong, so here are some videos of our trip. I don't say anything through most of them, because I quickly discovered that I don't film and do (anything) at the same time very successfully. Talking in addition ruined most of the videos. :)

These two are of the waterfall hike, my favorite activity.

The next two videos are from the rainforest. I had one going across one of the hanging bridges, but I tried talking through it and I was completely distracted. You mostly only see the railing around me. Needless to say, it's not worth putting on here. I love this waterfall because it's like its being hammocked by the rocks.

Wouldn't you like to slide down it?

Like I said before, in each city, a church occupies the very center of the town. It's the church everyone goes to. All around the church, there is a park or garden. This is where everyone hangs out during their free time. The downtown forms a square around this park, and then the houses form along the outside of the downtown area. So the church is at the heart of the town. It's so different from here, and it was refreshing. I don't know what town we're in, but we stopped when we saw the gardens. Here's a shaky clip:

Going to a place like Costa Rica, we were surrounded by beauty everywhere. It was humbling to sit in the midst of God's creation. We watched nature and saw the hand of God. We followed a trail of leafcutters, we looked to the movement of clouds, the cut of water through rock, the web of a spider, the climbing cow at the top of a mountain, the eruption of a volcano, the colors of a macaw...all put in place by God, for God. Sinless creation. I am but a mist.

Our friends, Chad and Sarabeth, took care of Berkley. (Yes, he got to spend another week with Miss Ella and was thrilled about it.) This video is of us coming to pick him up. :) My only regret is stopping the camera too early, but check out the huge butt wiggle! I love it!

Pura Vida!

We've just gotten back from Costa Rica, I've only got three days of summer left, and have no time to be blogging about our trip. So...here's a summary and a selection of some favorite pictures.

Day 1: tour San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica
Day 2: lounge around the house (laying out, reading, eating, talking, etc.) Two Can Jam party
Day 3: waterfall hike with Andy and one hour massages on the 2nd floor balcony with the cool breeze and the tapping of rain (this was my favorite day of the trip!)
Day 4: Arenal volcano, hanging bridges tour through the rainforest

If you'd like to view all the pictures, click here to go to my web album.


The hike down to the waterfall: my very favorite thing we did.


After this we went to the top of the waterfall. Now, the day before Andy and I visited this place. I told him I wanted to get a picture from the very edge, and he agreed to let me. That night we both had dreams of falling off the edge of the waterfall. So, this next picture is the one I got crawling on all fours to the very edge, practically hanging off of the edge of the waterfall, while Andy is pulling me back so hard I could hardly breathe. We both agreed afterward: totally worth it.
These are from our day trip to Mt. Arenal, one of the top ten most active volcanoes on the Earth.

Top 5 favorite things about the rainy season or Costa Rica in general:

5. I could be a green thumb here: everything grows.

4. The fresh fruit.

3. Being within a few hours of mountains, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Ocean, volcanoes, grasslands, rolling hills, etc. Adventure is never far away.

2. The year round weather varying from 60 - 85 degrees. Year round!

1. The clouds.

Top 5 things I missed while gone:

5. Sidewalks and streetlamps

4. Paved roads

3. Rules and codes (and things like time)

2. Getting anything I could ever want at the grocery store.

1. Berkley

Great trip, glad to be home, wishing I had more of my summer left! Now I'm heading to Mardel and Teacher Tools for some bulletin board border.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

I have been criticized for writing "reviews" that are always good. I am taking this opportunity to correct this and appease my husband. :)

On preparing for our trip to Costa Rica, we have a list of "American items" to bring with us for Andy's parents. We planned last night to go to Wal-Mart to get all of these items. Ever since poor month (March) we have been trying to shop at Wal-Mart for some of our things. Usually we do this on the way home from the Village on Sunday mornings. I was trying to weasel out of cooking dinner, so I let Andy pick where we could pick up food on the way. We left our house at 6:45 p.m. Andy picked the fast food joint, Krystal's. He said he was 100% positive I wouldn't like it. I assured him that I am not that picky with fast food, and how bad can you screw up a cheeseburger? But I made him promise that if I didn't like the fries that we would proceed to McDonald's next door to get me some. He agreed.

We were on our way, and I was putting on a happy face. I was excited to try a new place. There were pictures up on the wall of the food and the burgers looked great! We sit down, I'm smiling to reassure Andy that I am going to love it, being upbeat and funny. The lady comes over to bring us the food. As soon as she sets the food down in front of me, the smile disappears from my face, my shoulders droop, and I look at Andy in confusion. Why is the burger that color? Why is it so thin? Why is it shaped like a square? I look over at the enormous pictures of the burger on the wall and back to the ones sitting in front of me. "False advertising!" I vehemently whisper/shout to Andy. Nonetheless, I put this behind me, pick up my slider, and take a bite. Oh no, gag reflex! I manage to plug my nose, chew, and swallow. I look at Andy and give him a weak smile. I continue. A burger and a half later, I announce, "This is the worst burger I have ever had in my entire life. We are NEVER coming back here!" Andy, finding this very humorous, bursts out laughing, "I KNEW you wouldn't like this place! I knew you would hate it!" (Are all husbands like this?)

Each of the tiny burgers comes in its own individual box (irresponsible packaging, if you ask me). On each box is a picture of someone, the date they became a "Krystal's lover" and a quote from them. This is when I come across the box below:

Let me write for you the quote by this man, John Hires from Jacksonville, Florida: "I'm a youth pastor and I know how to get kids' attention: Preach a sermon about Krystal Lovers, then have a Krystal eating contest!" Now, when thinking about how to address this filth on my blog, I decided to not say a word. The exploding expletives in my mind would be offensive to some, funny to others, and don't quite do Mr. Hires justice. So, in order to keep my cool, I'm done talking about him.

We leave Krystal's after Andy finished his disgusting sliders. The rest of the time I let him know what I thought of Krystal and John. We headed straight for McDonald's. Andy was surprised to find that I was ordering an entire meal. One look and he recanted, but was still grinning with the hilarity of the event. We get my food and park at Wal-Mart. Here's where detail becomes important.

All of the spots around us are filled. Andy and I are sitting in the car so that I can eat my food before going into Wal-Mart. A woman comes up to the car directly in front of us. The trunk of the car is facing us. She puts all of her groceries in her trunk, and she notices that we are watching her. Not wanting her to think we're creepy, I make a show of eating my food, so she knows why we're just sitting there. When she's done, she walks around her car and gets in. But the cart is just sitting there next to her trunk! I say to Andy, "No way! Surely she's coming back for it!" She shuts the door, the engine turns, she looks back at us in her rear view mirror- I give her a shocked face with my hands in the air asking, "What are you doing? Go put your cart away!" Then she speeds off. I couldn't believe it.

Not one minute goes by, and another woman comes to the vehicle to the left of the one that just left. Again, she sees us watching her, so again, I make a show of my bag of fast food. When she's done, she brings her shopping cart around to the now empty space in front of us, balances in on the steep decline, and gets in her car. This lucky woman was facing towards us, so I stare her down like my eyes can shoot fire! She definitely sees me and knows exactly why I'm giving her this look. A flash of guilt crosses over her features. I continue to bore into her until she's out of sight. I am utterly in shock. All of the cart drop-offs must be full. That explains it! Andy gets out of the car, because he can't stand the smell of my meal. He collects the carts, and when he comes back by, he's picked up three more stranded carts to bring to the drop-off.

I've finished my meal, and we start walking through the parking lot toward Wal-Mart. On the way we pass six more stranded carts scattered throughout the parking lot, leaning on cars, tossed under trees, straddling curbs. We also pass three cart drop-offs, each one of them completely empty. "The nerve!" I keep saying over and over. We get inside only to find that no carts are available. Probably because the drop offs are all empty! We go searching for a cart and begin getting items from the list.

Two hours later we find the shortest check-out line available. During the last two hours, we have picked isles for their lack of screaming children. The place was swarming. It felt like the inside of a free-for-all ant hill without a queen. I was going insane. We wait in line for 30 minutes to check out. We get back home at 10:30 to unpack the groceries, swearing to boycott Krystal's and Wal-Mart, and being gratefully lacking in nerve.

Michelle is home!

I flew to Austin last Wednesday to help celebrate the homecoming of my cousin Michelle. Michelle has spent the last two years on mission in Tanzania teaching second grade. We have been so proud of all that she accomplished for the Kingdom there, but missed her terribly. We all waited at the airport for her to arrive- it was so great to see her and hear her voice after two years apart! I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to miss being there, and also because I was all tears. I get really blotchy when I'm like that.

On Friday, my little bro turned 23! We celebrated by going to Fogo de Chao- what a meal! Being my unabashed self, I indulged in 4 cheesy rolls, skipped the salad bar, and ate to my heart's content (long after everyone else's plates were cleared away.) This time the rankings stood: #1 the fillet; #2 ribeye; #3: top sirloin. Usually, picana, the house special, is on this list. Fogo didn't do it as well as TDB and it didn't even make the top three. I tried the lamb (again) and took one bite, grimaced, and moved on (again). I am determined to like lamb and I've no idea why.

I only got one good bite of this cake because everyone indulged while I was trying to take pictures. Poor Dustin got about as much of it as I did. Who's birthday was it anyway? He's such a sport. Happy Birthday Bud- I love you!

Throughout the weekend, I got to spend some time with Michelle. She has quite a lot of different restaurants on her list of places to eat as soon as possible. I consider eating a hobby these days, so I was more than willing to tag along.

On our last day, we headed to Austin Stone for a wrap-up of 1 Corinthians by Matt Carter. Then we had a family get together at Sandy's house. Lindsey wanted to play "parachute" so this is us playing Duck, Duck, Goose with the parachute. That little girl has us all wrapped around her finger.

Michelle, we are so glad to have you home! I love you!
All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. Psalm 25.10