Yellow Wallpaper

Wedding Cake by Josi Kilpack This was a fun and suspenseful end to this mystery series; I have enjoyed reading Kilpack's books and think she is a strong writer. She did a great job wrapping everything up in this conclusion--I like the way that each of the books has had its own plot in addition to the ongoing conflicts that have lasted through the series. Sadie is a great character and I loved watching her grow through all the crazy things she went through in each book.  Three Story House by Courtney Miller Santo My reaction to this book was mixed. I think it had a lot of potential but didn't quite come together in the end. First of all, there is a lot of mystery surrounding the house and why it was built, but none of that ever gets resolved or explained in the book. I was expecting some kind of flashback or explanation at some point that would tie together all the hints and answer the questions, but nothing was really resolved. The end matter of the book included a shor...

This has been a busy, but fun, week for me and the kids. On Tuesday we celebrated P. Bibby's birthday--she is a whopping 5 years old now. A fully potty trained, sitting in a booster in the car, going to preschool, big kid. She has always had a fairly mellow, sweet personality and that is still holding true at five. She has her moments of frustration, especially with 2 older siblings who often like to remind her of their wisdom and power, but generally is a happy kid. P. Bibby loves to color and to read books, and she loves her preschool/daycare and all her little friends there. We celebrated with a party the Saturday before her birthday at an indoor play area that has a bunch of giant inflatable slides and bounce houses. Some of her friends from church and school came as well as her cousins. She had a great time with all her friends and I'm so glad I paid the money to let some other place do the entertainment and clean-up for the party. I actually didn't get to see her on h...

I'm not a fan of January--I'm sure you can look back through this blog and find plenty of posts describing all the reasons why this is not one of my favorite months. It's long, cold, and doesn't have any birthdays or anything to make things exciting. The first part of the month is always swallowed by recovery from Christmas break, and I always set too many high expectations for the new year. This January was a mixed bag. The weather was ugly--the entire western part of the country has been stuck under a high pressure ridge that's pushing all the cold and snowy weather to the east. It's been a moderately cold, hazy, polluted month around here. I've barely seen any rain or snow, and it's gotten warm enough for trees to think they need to pop out some buds. I like winter weather and feel sad that we haven't had any this year.  I've settled into work and made plans through the rest of the year. At the end of last November I interviewed for a posi...