yogafied

My dear friend Corinne is putting her training to good use - teaching yoga classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Until her own studio is finished, she is renting some space at Om & Garden on the west side of Colorado Springs. I was lucky enough to attend one of her first classes this Tuesday! I love the space, and Corinne is certainly a talented instructor. She studied in an ashram in India, an experience I am terribly envious of!

If you are interested in trying out yoga for the first time, or are somebody who has done it before, I highly recommend checking out Corinne's classes. You can find more information about them on the Yogafied facebook site - or please contact me and I can get you more information. The first class is a mere $8, and from there only $10-12.

lovely ladybugs

I don't know why, but there was an explosion of ladybugs in our little garden this week. I can't remember ever seeing so many of them. Bree, of course, was thrilled, but not quite gentle enough with them. She was so excited and doesn't seem to understand yet that she might hurt them. What can you do? I tried to protect them, but sadly we did have some casualties. If anyone happens to have an explanation for the sudden ladybug population burst, I would love to hear it. My friend Molly read in Time for Kids that they are endangered. How terrible! We checked again today and only found a few.

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
If it hadn't been for my friend Marika, I'm not sure I ever would have bothered to read anything by Jodi Picoult. I had read the backs of her books and thought, no thanks. They tend to deal with current event situations, coupled with moral dilemmas. Teenage date rape, stem cell research, infanticide. Nothing at all that makes me think, "Now that sounds like a good book!" Well, Marika raved about Picoult and so I gave her a chance, and I'm glad I did.

Somehow Jodi Picoult manages to tackle difficult topics in a way that is readable rather than overwhelming. I enjoy the way she relates the same story through multiple points of view. In Change of Heart, June Nealon loses her husband and daughter to a man hired to work in their home. She is pregnant at the time, and when her second daughter needs a heart transplant, the murderer (now on death row) offers his heart. You see, the description sounds so gloomy and heavy, but Picoult has a way of making it work. This was not my favorite work of hers, but it is a good example of what she does so well.


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Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book has been on fire at our school, so I decided to see what it is all about. I am disappointed, I was hoping it would live up to the hype, but for me it did not. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is actually the journal of a kid named Greg. Included in the book are clever cartoon drawings, and I can see why so many kids, boys especially, are eager to read it. The trouble is, it is really written for the middle school crowd. Greg is sarcastic and lazy, and does things that are mean. Not exactly the type of role-model you'd want for young boys. But the thing is - they love it. The second graders at my school can't get enough of this series, and it is written at a level they can read. With that in mind, I will grudgingly take this book back to school with me at the beginning of the year and place it on the shelf, even (gasp) within my students' reach.



Whatever gets them reading.


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hanging with Parker and Molly

This week Bree and I did one of mommy's favorite things - paid a visit to the Klenovich family! Parker and Bree had a great time hanging out together, and even played a few games of "Mine!" as the photograph illustrates. (Parker's big brother Jackson was spending the week with Grandma, we missed seeing him.) Molly and I enjoyed chatting and catching up after too long apart. We took the kids out to lunch at a new, trendy spot called Diego Zhang's. The kids had delicious mac and cheese while Molly and I tried a few different mini burgers. It was a lovely day with friends, we can't wait to do it again!

Dora Live!

For Bree's birthday, we got her tickets to see Dora LIVE - The Search for the City of Lost Toys in Denver at the Temple Buell Theater. When we purchased the tickets online, it seemed so far away. Now the adventure has come and gone the way they always do, and all we have left are the memories and a picture. I took this picture of Dan and Bree walking toward the theater, and wouldn't you know it immediately after I snapped the shot, the camera turned itself off and a screen popped up that read, "Warning - battery exhausted." As Swiper would say, "Oh man!" I swear I had charged it the night before! Luckily, our day only got better from there.

We told Bree all morning that we were going to see Dora and Boots, and she seemed to understand perfectly because when we got there she kept repeating, "Dora, Boots!" We went in to the theater and of course had to part with more money at the gift stand, where we purchased the t-shirt and a light up "flashlight." The usher showed us to our seats and handed Bree a blue cardboard star which she immediately decided would look better if she bent it in half. We sat for about 15 minutes or so waiting for the show to start, and she did get a little antsy but didn't do too bad. It helped that a voice kept coming on which said, "Our show will be starting in ____ minutes!" I did take a few pictures with my cell phone, sadly they are really small:

I felt better when a lady sitting next to us got yelled at by the usher for trying to take a picture inside the theater. Misery loves company, right? The show soon began and I found it brought tears to my eyes, it was so exciting. Bree was enthralled as all of the show's characters appeared on a spectacularly designed set, singing and dancing and encouraging her to join in. I had a hard time deciding what to watch, the stage or my daughter. She spent most of the time in her daddy's lap just watching with wide eyes. During the intermission we took a little walk around the theater and enjoyed some raisins, and then it was back to the show! Needless to say, we had no problem with her sitting and watching like we had initially feared - she was too interested in the show to get restless. I can't wait to do something like this again! Maybe we'll even get brave and try a movie this summer for the first time...

After the show we walked down to one of our favorite restaurants, Bubba Gump's, for a yummy shrimpy lunch. Then it was back in the car for the drive home. What a wonderful family outing!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
"It is not unknown for fathers with a brace of daughters to reel off their names in order of birth when summoning the youngest, and I had long ago become accustomed to being called 'Ophelia Daphne Flavia, damn it."

I enjoyed this little mystery very much. Getting to know the feisty protagonist eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce was a treat and I look forward to reading future books about her. Set in England in the 1950s, Flavia sassily makes her way through various clues determined to solve a mystery which began with a dead bird, a stamp, and a missing piece of pie. And then there's the dead body that turns up in the cucumber patch. This is a satisfying, fun mystery that is not without a dark side. Can't wait to read more about Flavia!

I won this book on the Goodreads website in a contest called First Reads. The publisher sent me an Advanced Reading Copy, which still contains errors and is not yet ready to be sold. It was fun getting this book in the mail, and I am signed up with high hopes of winning more in the future!


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Jeani's Wedding Shower

Congratulations to Jeani and my brother-in-law, Scott! They are getting married on July 13, 2009. Jeani's shower was this weekend and it was fun! Lorraine was such a good sport during the toilet paper bride game. We won for best design! Jeani got a lot of great gifts. I think she did an awesome job registering, I was envious of the kitchen gadgets she received.

haircut #2

Before...

After (notice the magical lollipop!)...
Bree and I went back to Kiddie Kutters for haircut #2 today. Her bangs were getting in her eyes, so it seemed logical to get them trimmed. Looking at the pictures, however, I'm not sure it was an improvement. What to do with her wild hair? Her daddy doesn't want us to cut it, and I was curious to let it grow in the back and see what it does, but I've seen some little girls lately with the cutest short cuts... It's tempting. At least those bangs will have some time to grow out before our trip to NY and Scott and Jeani's wedding!

Butterfly Pavillion

Spiders? Tarantulas? Oh my! Last weekend Mom, Bree and I headed to Westminster, Colorado to visit the Butterfly Pavillion. This is one of my favorite Colorado spots to visit. We used to take our second graders on field trips here before our curriculum changed, and I just loved it. I miss that field trip... Anyhow, my visit is never complete without spending a few minutes getting acquainted with Rosie, a Chilean Rosehair Tarantula. You see, I'm not a big fan of spiders, especially large, hairy, creepy ones like Rosie. Blame it on the wolf spiders that invaded my childhood home. In particular, the mommy wolf spider climbing up our curtain that dad smacked with a newspaper - sent tiny babies flying everywhere. Mom would come home from her night job to find me sitting in the middle of my room with the light on, watching all around in a circle convinced the spiders would come crawling after me. Given those formative experiences with spiders, I wasn't too excited during my first trip to the Pavillion when the option to hold a tarantula presented itself. However, I am also a student of psychology, and I know that the best way to overcome a phobia is through facing it. So face it I did. (It didn't hurt that my second grade students did it first!)

Rosie is surprisingly gentle. Speaking to one of the volunteers, I learned that there are actually quite a few of the rosehair tarantulas in captivity at the Pavillion. They trade them out on a consistent basis so as to not tire them out. The nickname "Rosie" came from the name, Chilean Rosehair. I think it's cute.

I love to hold Rosie for a few seconds on each trip. This time around, I also had Bree in my lap and that did make me a little nervous. The volunteer cautioned me to hold Bree's hands down so she couldn't grab for the tarantula, which I did, and Bree didn't even try. (Luckily!) Hopefully she will not have the same phobias about spiders as I did growing up. I've come to appreciate them more, knowing how much good they actually do in our circle of life. In fact, there is a small spider camped out by my bathroom sink as we speak, and I am content to let him stay. On the other hand, when my co-worker Gail asked me last week if I wanted to share a black widow spider with my class, I didn't hesitate to refuse! (She is always bringing creepy-crawlies in to work, crazy lady!) I'll save my black widow spider story for another time...

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Did this entire book really take place in just one day? Very similar to the DaVinci Code, just not as much of a page turner. I was surprised to find that the plot was almost identical; symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a mysterious death of a CERN scientist. He meets the man's daughter and together they embark on a whirlwind of events to save the Vatican. Almost every chapter ended with a cliffhanger, which held my attention to the novel. You have to remember, though, that it is FICTION. So many of Brown's ideas come from fact. Here are some websites to check out when you finish reading:

a blog which lists errors

CERN's site with info on the book


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Birthday Pics - Finally!

I finally made time to post a few pictures from Bree's 2nd birthday party at the pool. We had a great time, she is such a water baby. We started swimming lessons at the same pool today!