Book Review: Hunger Games

So I'm thinking of doing something new on here and reviewing books I've been reading. I've actually had some time for reading lately since I'm pumping at work now, so that has been really nice. Most recently, I've just finished a book that was recommended to me by my lovely friends, Carrie and Jenn called The Hunger Games.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a super fast, easy read and a really interesting story. Its a story about a place named Panem. There is a Capitol City and 12 districts. The people in the Capitol City have all the money and food and make everyone else in the districts basically starve and live really poorly. The districts stage a rebellion and eventually lose so the people of the Capitol City punish them by instituting the Hunger Games. Every year they pick 2 children, a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18, from each district to compete in the Hunger Games. The games are basically where they drop all these poor kids off into a foreign landscape with nothing to survive except what they can fight for and find on their way and leave them to kill each other. The last one standing is the victor and that person's district gets all kinds of food and riches for the rest of the year until the next Hunger Games.

All of that is really background and you find about that set up in the first chapter. I know it sounds gruesome and at first I didn't want to read this book. But I promise you, its worth reading. I mean they are making it into a movie, so it must be good, right? ;)

The main character of the book is Katniss Everdeen. She's a poor girl that lives with her mother and sister in District 12. She is a really amazing and strong character who is taking care of her family and basically keeping them from starvation. Their father died in a mining accident and Katniss goes everyday to hunt outside their district, which is punishable by death, in order to keep her family from starving. She is a smart, sassy, outspoken character and I really enjoyed the way the author portrayed her. You get a lot of her internal monologue in the book and that is great. You also get her take on the events going on around her, which give a lot of insight into her character and is a fun way to reveal the details of this world.

So really the book is about the games, obviously about survival and the unfairness of this world. Its also about finding out about yourself, struggling against adversity and a love story (believe it or not).

I don't want to say too much about the book because I want you to read it but trust me, its really good. I didn't want to put it down and I read through it super fast. There are 2 other books that follow this one and I hope to read those soon as well.

Has anyone else read the Hunger Games? I'm excited for the movie to come out. What is everyone reading now? Anything good?

TV Time

One of the things that I love about summer is the TV. If you know me you know I hate the weather when its above 80 degrees out, so it makes sense that I love summer TV. This summer, a few good new series have come out that I am absolutely loving! Of course some of my old favorites are back this year too. And sadly, one summer favorite did not make it back this year...

By far my favorite series of the summer has been Falling Skies. It is really an awesome show. Its about a group of people that are left after an alien invasion that has destroyed almost everything on Earth. Its about how they try to survive and eventually how they try to fight back against the aliens. It is definitely Sci Fi but also has a lot of great characters and relationships. It kind of reminds me of Lost, which is probably one of my favorite shows of all time. Its got great actors, like Noah Wylie, and him being easy on the eyes doesn't hurt. ;) Its also directed by Steven Spielberg, maybe you've heard of him?

I was always on the edge of my seat at every episode. Its got a lot of action, drama and great storylines. The season finale came way too quickly and I cannot wait for it to come back next summer! (Please don't cancel it, TNT!!)

The only other new show this summer that I've been into is Teen Mom. I know, I know but I can't help myself! Its just so interesting! Drama!! ha ha It follows a few of the girls on 16 and Pregnant after their babies are born and shows what they are up to now.

This isn't a "new" show because they have had seasons before but this season they are following the original teen moms again. I had not seen the original season of teen mom so I had to catch up before this one started....that was a waste of my life. LOL I watched all the reruns back to back on maternity leave and it was exhausting! But this season has been pretty good. There's lots going on with the Teen Moms now that their kids are older, and I think it is more interesting to me now that I'm a mom.

As long as I'm going with guilty pleasures I might as well let it all out...I'm glad Jersey Shore is back. I know, its super bad that I like that show. And believe, me I try not to like it, but its just so entertaining!

Yes, I agree with you that these are probably some of the worst human beings on the planet but its just so funny to watch them be total idiots. Steve and I laugh at loud every episode. Hilarious...don't judge!

A super favorite that comes back in the summer is True Blood. It is very popular so I'm sure that's no surprise. The vampire thing is very in apparently...

Steve and I really like this show. He likes it for the Sci Fi supernatural stuff I think and of course I like the love story (I'm still rooting for a Sookie and Bill reunion but who knows). Its a bit weirder this season than it has been in the past but we still like it. Its pretty crazy though. Lots going on, its almost like what could they do next!?! They are having creatures on this show I've never even heard of. Its pretty crazy. I've been wanting to read the books but haven't gotten them yet. Maybe soon...

Two other shows I love this summer are The Closer and Rizzoli and Isles. These are both great crime shows on TNT. The Closer is in its last season and I'm so sad. Its a great show, very suspenseful and with a great twist at the end usually. Also, it features a lot about her family and love life and that's really interesting too.

Rizzoli and Isles is a really fun crime show about two friends, one is a detective and the other is medical examiner. They are pretty hilarious together and the crime part of the show is really interesting as well.

Another awesome show that came back this summer is Flipping Out on Bravo. This show is so hilarious and entertaining. It follows a design business, Jeff Lewis design, as they redo houses in California.

Jeff Lewis is just an amazingly uptight, anal, immature gay guy and he really makes the show. He is so funny and mean to his employees (which include his close family and friends) there is always plenty of drama. Plus sometimes they have celebrity clients which is exciting. I also enjoy the design aspect of the show, but the don't show too much of that.

One show that was a big time favorite that didn't come back this summer is Stargate Universe. I know, Steve has really gotten me into the dorky Sci Fi shows, but this one was super good! It was always exciting and had great, great characters. I really miss it. Sad it got cancelled :(

So that's what I've been watching this summer, when I have time! What have you guys been watching? I'm excited for some of my favorite fall shows to start soon. I can't wait for the new season of Survivor, Biggest Loser and American Idol. Oh and lets not forget about football season starting! Yeah! What is everyone looking forward to on the fall TV lineup?

A Very Special Day

This past weekend, we had a very special occasion to celebrate. Baby Steven got baptized. It was really a beautiful baptism at the church where we got married, Mt. Tabor United Church of Christ. I have belonged there since I was a little kid and probably was baptized there as well. My mom went there growing up and it is just a very special place in my heart, so we thought that was the best place to do it. Isn't that a great tradition?

Another awesome tradition we honored that day was baby Steven's baptismal gown.. He actually wore a baptism dress made by Steven's mother's mom. All of Steve's brothers and sisters wore it to be baptized and our niece, Willow, actually wore it 3 years ago at her baptism! How wonderful is that? Steve's mom embroidered all their names and dates of their baptism on the gown and baby Steven's name will go on there now too. Doesn't he just look precious in the gown? He was such a good sport about wearing it.

The ceremony was beautiful. We were able to have Steven's grandparents as well as his Godparents, Tim and Jordan, stand up to support him. Here are some pictures from the actual ceremony.

The day was so special. It was filled with so much love from our closest family and friends. It was just amazing. Practically everyone special in our lives came to celebrate with us. Steven is so blessed to have such a great family and friends to support and love him! Here are some of the amazing people in our lives that just love him so much!

After church we went to Schafly Bottleworks for lunch where we basically took over the restaurant. I think I counted 25 people there. Can you believe that many people came to our baby boy's baptism!?! What a loving and wonderful family we have! Here are some photos from our lunch celebration.

My First Big Haul

So when you read the couponing craziness post did you think to yourself, "I hope she's not going to turn into one of those crazy people who post pictures of their shopping trips online." Well if you did think that you might want to avert your eyes...because look at all the stuff I got on my latest couponing trip to Target!

Guess how much I paid for all that stuff? Around $45! I think that is pretty awesome by beginners couponing standards. And that's not even all the stuff I got. I had already taken some of the snacky foods to work. Listen to all this stuff I got: 3 packs of gum, 1 package of frozen chicken breasts, 2 packages of taco shells, 2 ready to eat oriental dinners, 10 flavored waters, 2 huge bottles of shampoo, 2 packages of ziploc bags, 4 packages of easy mac (4 single servings each), 3 kraft dressings, chips and salsa. That is a lot, I think! If I would have paid full price for everything it would have been over $80. But with sales, coupons and store offers I saved about 40%! I am pretty proud of myself. This is only one of my very first attempts but I think almost half off is darn good. I hope I can do even better next time.

Here are some tips for frequent Target shoppers I have learned so far. Target offers a debit card. Its free to use and it links directly to your checking account (so its just like using your bank debit card). The best part is whenever you use it you get 5% off! That's everytime you shop at Target! How awesome is that!?! Another Target tip, you get 5 cents off your order for every reusable bag you bring in, and they don't even have to be Target bags! So you better believe I brought all that stuff home in our reusable bags. Yay for saving the environment and money!!

Shadow Box DIY

I'm a sucker for keepsakes. I think almost every girl is. I definitely wouldn't call myself a hoarder or a clutter bug, but I have a really hard time throwing away keepsakes. I always end up with certain mementos from important things in my life like vacations, family events, etc. that I just can't throw away. After our wedding and also after the birth of Steve I decided that instead of keeping these special things in a box somewhere I would make a shadowbox of them and display them at our house. 

Here is the first shadow box I made a few years ago from our wedding. It contained all of the mementos from the wedding like our invitation and program.We also had a matchbook, monogrammed napkin and picture from the reception. I also added the garter I wore during the wedding and some fake flowers that were similar to the flowers we had at our reception. I bought a few scrapbook embellishments also to add some color and bling to the shadowbox. 

This one was my first attempt and I just winged it so its not perfect. As you can see the garter has drooped a bit over the years. I still like it though and its a neat reminder of the things we had on our wedding day!

After Steven was born, I again had a pile of miscellaneous stuff that I really wanted to hold onto but didn't have anywhere in particular to put it. We already have a wonderful homemade baby book from my friend Jenn that is gorgeous but these things just didn't fit in there. Here are a few of the things we had from his birth, the first little shirt he wore in the hospital, the little hat he wore right after he was born, his first baby foot print and a few cards from family that gave us flowers in the hospital. 

So I gathered together these things and a couple more keepsakes that I could find and went to work on making a baby Steven shadowbox.  A shadowbox is really a super easy craft to make You can just buy the case from a craft store (I got mine from Michael's), pick up some scrapbooking embellishments or decorative paper while you are there, and go to town putting it together inside there. I do recommend using glue dots over push pins, although it is tempting to use push pins they really don't hold up and stay in tight. (I'm pretty sure that's what happened to our friend, the wedding garter). But glue dots or some other kind of adhesive works great. I decided to use some left over decorative paper for the background of our shadowbox. It looked really cute at first but as things started covering it up you could barely tell it was there. Oh well. Here is the shadow box in progress, you can see all the pretty papers I later covered up.

The last thing you do after you have all your keepsakes secured to the backing is to try, very carefully, to turn it over and place it in the frame. Inevitably something is not glued down enough and comes off but that's the fun of it (not really ha ha!). Here is my finished product before I put it in the frame. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. 

And here is the final shadowbox. I was able to include Steven's first cap after he was born, the stats sheet that was in his basinette they kept him in, his birth announcement, a "Its a boy" sign that was in some flowers we received, a copy of his first footprints, his hospital ID bracelet, some of the cards from family we received in the hospital and our first ever pictures as a family.

I think a shadow box is a really neat way to store things you save from a particularly important or fun experience. It is so easy to make and a great way to keep your mementos out for you to look at and remember.

Baby Steven's First Year...Three Months

Three months old already, baby boy! I cannot believe it has been that long. It feels like you are growing and changing every day lately. The things you were starting to do two weeks ago you have totally mastered and now you are starting to do new things already! Its amazing how fast you are growing up! We haven't been to the doctor lately but we have seen some 4 month olds lately that are smaller than you, so I imagine you are still at the top of the percentiles for your height and weight. Big boy!

You are learning so much everyday you are like a little sponge absorbing everything you can from the world around you. You are so alert during the days now, just looking around and responding to every sound you hear. You have really started focusing on objects near you and also faces. You started to bat at objects a few weeks ago and now you can really reach them with no problem. In fact you will bat at the same thing over and over if it makes sounds. Its amazing how fast you mastered that skill!

You are talking all the time now. You are almost always making a ton of noises and imitating sounds you hear. You are so smiley now too. We love to get your smiles and sounds on video but you are also mesmerized by the camera. Every time we try to tape you as soon as you see the camera you stare at it. That's what happened in the beginning of this video so I had to try to be sneaky to capture your beautiful smiles! (don't mind the spitting up at the end of this video LoL!)

You love to be carried outward now so you can get a full view of what is going on. You also still like to be held up on a shoulder but now you are pushing your head way up and looking all around you that way. You amaze us all the time with how strong your neck muscles are getting. Of course you have an occasional crash landing but you're still working those muscles all the time!

You definitely recognize mommy and daddy now. You smile whenever we come in the room. You also act much more shy around strangers or others that you haven't been around as much. You're little personality is coming out already!

You have definitely discovered your hands this month. You have been spending lots of time staring at them lately and have even decided they make a good snack! You suck on them all the time. 

You have started sleeping much longer stretches at night now. When mommy went back to work a few weeks ago she was determined to get more than 4 hours of sleep at a time. We tried a few things and the combination of being swaddled in a Miracle Blanket and set down a basinette called a Rock n Play has worked. You'll usually sleep now from 7pm to around 3 or 4am solidly. Just look how cozy you are in there!

Baby boy you are just the most wonderful blessing. At 3 months you are recognizing us, smiling all the time, babbling, starting to focus and bat at objects and just filling our lives with joy each and every day. We love you so much! 

Adventures in Card Making

In case you didn't already know, my gorgeous cousin, Kris, is getting married in October! Here we are on my wedding day:

I just can't wait until her big day! So excited for her (can you tell?). Anyways so I am more than honored to be a bridesmaid for her on her special day. My mom, her sisters and I are throwing her a bridal shower in September and its going to be so fun! When we were planning the shower I volunteered to do the invitations. I also volunteered for the games, decorations, centerpieces...(can you tell I'm excited!)

Anyway, I couldn't really find any invitations that I liked online or in a store and I wanted them to look really nice for her. She helped throw my bridal shower a few years ago and did an awesome job, so I wanted to do a great job for hers too! Well I had recently made some cards with my friend, Erica, and had a lot of fun doing it so I thought, "Why not make the invitations myself?" At the time I decided it I had probably over 6 months to do this so I thought "no big deal!" Right? Ha! 

I was also pregnant (and probably delirious) at the time I decided to undertake this project. It really took a lot longer than I thought it would. So anyways it came down to the wire but last week (6ish weeks out from the shower) I finally finished them and got them all mailed out! Whew! It was a close one! But I am super happy with the way they turned out. Wanna see??? (Disclaimer: This was only my second attempt at homemade cards so if you know what you are doing in card-making you might want to look away...)

Didn't they turn out cute? It's kind of hard to tell from the picture but I had a dark brown background and then a few varieties of color schemes but in this one there is green and pink paper with a coordinating ribbon. They also have a brown flower attached with a sparkly pin in the middle! I'm really liking them. I also did some in a maroon and orange color scheme, like the one below.

I think I like these colors better and they go with the colors of Kris's fall wedding.

I also ended up making registry cards because I really thought the generic ones that came from the store looked yucky next to my beautiful invitations. Plus it was only a few extra steps. You like?

Here's what they look like all together. I think it really came together nicely!

I used an additional stamp on the back of the envelope in a shiny gold color! I think it looks so cute! I'm proud of myself. I hope I get an opportunity to make more cards in the future. (Although maybe not quite so many next time :)