Book Tour reminder...

Only one week left until questions are due. Here are the rules again in case you have forgotten. C'mon ladies, don't forget about me!

Recovering from the Hive

The recovery has been tougher than I thought. It may be partially due to the fact that Leah was up every 2 hours Sunday night coughing and crying AND there was a HUGE thunderstorm with lightning cracking right on top of our house. It was SCARY! But I have hardly been able to get enough sleep yesterday and Mike said he feels like he has a hangover even though he only had a few beers on Sunday and Leah is stuffy and hoarse. So all in all, recovery is a difficult road. BUT...

We had SUCH a great time this past weekend. I think it was more fun having stay at our house than the usual when everyone goes home to sleep. Friday during naptime the girls went out to lunch together at Buca di Beppo to celebrate the babies (our Erin, Keri's Corgan, and Christina's Kaitlynn) coming in a few months. Then we hopped over to Carolina Place mall to hit a Gymboree sale and The Children's Place. The guys had a great time with the kids in our little blue pool when they all woke up.

Friday night we had a very successful fish fry. Mike did an excellent job with the fish and Jason did not burn THAT many sweet potato slices (he redeemed himself the next night with burgers and dogs). We sat around on our newly completed deck and visited. My husband is an awesome carpenter!

Saturday was beautiful. We went to Belk Tonawanda park with coolers packed to play on the playground and football on the lawn. After a relaxing afternoon, the majority of the party went home to let the kids nap while Mike, Keith and Mike's co-worker John remained behind to rock out on the amphitheater stage. That's right, folks, they brought Mike's entire music room out there. He said it was awesome playing on an outdoor stage, like Lollapalooza or Warped Tour. We grilled out that night and again had a great time on the deck. I stayed up until 3:30am! It was so nice to catch up with all the girls while the guys played on Erica's Wii play system.

Sunday was a day of partings. In the afternoon, Erica generously did a belly photo shoot with me & Leah. As soon as she sends me the disc with the pictures, I will post some. Actually that is the reason I don't have any photos in this post at all. She was the official photographer of the weekend (a total of about 700 pics), so I will get them from her.

I am finally feeling slightly back to normal. Leah and I went to the library this morning, and we may meet Mike at the pool this afternoon if the weather cooperates. Mimi and PawPaw (my step-mom and dad) are arriving this Friday for the 4th of July. I am working on some plans for when they are here, but I'm not sure yet.

Happy Father's Day!

Top 10 reasons I am glad Mike is the father of my children:

1. He almost NEVER lets Leah watch TV when he is watching her.

2. He loves to wrestle and roll with her.

3. He talks to Erin in my belly.

4. He takes Leah on "adventures" that she will remember when she gets older.

5. He realizes how important family (ALL family) is to our children.

6. He really thinks about presents for the kids, doesn't just buy the first thing he sees.

7. He is able to tell when I am at the end of my rope and whisks Leah off for a Daddy/Daughter errand (happened yesterday).

8. He is my partner and support in all disciplinary measures.

9. He shares my beliefs in how I want to raise our children.

10. He's so much gosh darn fun!!



I love you, baby! Thanks for everything. Raising children is so much fun with you, let's keep popping them out. :)

A Movie Date

Mike & I went to the movies tonight!!! We saw Ocean's Thirteen with Bryan & Laurie & Dave. Side note: Rhiannon and Ty are back in Florida for good now. They are staying with Rhi's mom until their house in Monroe sells and Dave gets a job down there. Bryan & Laurie bring Chase to the movies and he sleeps through every one. I never could have brought Leah at this age. Anyway, Laurie's dad came over and sat with the monitor after Leah went to bed. She did great! I have only been to one other movie since we have been here (Superman Returns) so it was SO much fun. I pigged out on popcorn and peanut M&Ms - we got the ginormous popcorn bucket. Ahhhh, it felt like old days. I forgot how much I enjoyed the movies. We want to go see Knocked Up sometime soon too. Here's hoping!

Stay at home Mommy!

I am officially a stay-at-home mom! I am finished with school and am ready to tackle the millions of projects I have in mind for the summer before the baby comes. I wish my body could keep up. :) The baby's room has bedding and a dresser. She has a bookshelf, drapery hardware and paint ready to be used. I still need to find curtains but I want something simple so it shouldn't be too hard.

Leah said the cutest thing the other day. She was patting my belly and she said "Baby Erin needs her mommy." I said I know and she said "Her mommy is at work." I said "No, I am her mommy just like I am your mommy. Can you share your mommy?" She threw herself on the ground and said "NOOOOOOOOO!" and started to fuss. This may be an issue...

I just watched an episode of A Baby Story and almost lost it. The woman has a daughter and had another one. I watched the three of them snuggle after the birth and realized that I will be there soon. How amazing is that???

Tagged again

I've been tagged by Kelly in NC, so here goes...

-What were you doing 10 years ago? I believe I went home after my first year of college. I worked at The Melting Pot that summer and hung out with my boyfriend of 3 years at the time.

-What were you doing 1 year ago? I was frantically packing my house to be stored in a POD for a month, trying to decide what could be stored and what had to come in the van and trailer with me.

-Five snacks you enjoy:
1. Nature's Trail Fruit & Nut bars
2. peanut butter M&M's
3. oatmeal cream pies
4. Snickers ice cream bars
5. apples & cheese

-Five songs that you know all the lyrics:
1. Bust a Move - Young MC
2. Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice
3. Landslide - Dixie Chicks/Stevie Nicks
4. Googleheads - Laurie Berkner (kid's music)
5. Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
and MANY, MANY MORE

-Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. buy all new furniture
2. pimp out my yard
3. have a cleaning person come in once a week
4. take vacations each season
5. buy all the latest scrapbooking gadgets

-Five bad habits:
1. biting my nails
2. picking boogers out of my daughter's nose (seriously, i can't STAND to have a boogery kid!)
3. forgetting to feed my cats
4. procrastination
5. spending too much time on the toilet (especially while pregnant)

-Five things you like doing:
1. reading
2. checking out blogs
3. watching TV
4. talking with Leah
5. snuggling with Mike

-Five things you would never wear again:
1. giant bangs
2. tight-rolled jeans
3. jams (longish baggy shorts but in weird tropical fabrics)
4. jeans in many different colors
5. T-shirt clips (gathers a shirt at your hip and clips it)

-Five favorite toys:
1. my DVR (I could not live without it)
2. my computer
3. my crock pot
4. my new photo printer/copier
5. did I mention my DVR?

Update: I forgot to tag someone else!
1. Keri
2. Stacy
3. Liz
4. Christina
5. Nikki

Book Tour #2

Book: Three Junes
Author: Julia Glass
Question Due: July 6th
All Questions Listed: July 7th/8th
Post Date: July 13th


How the book tour works:

(1) leave a comment or send me an email (angelleg453@yahoo.com) saying that you're interested in participating.

(2) I will keep adding to this list of participants so people will know who is participating and where to go to read other reviews on "post day" (July 13th). You can add yourself to the list up until July 6th.

(3) read Three Junes by July 6th (about 5 weeks).

(4) create a single question that would kick off a discussion (in other words, any question that leads to more than a "yes" or "no" answer where someone can express their opinion) and email it to me on July 6th (or any time beforehand).

(5) on July 7th/8th, I will post the list of possible questions. Everyone will choose 3 questions off the list and answer them in a blog entry (if we only have 3 participants, we'll all be answering the same questions. If there are more questions, we'll have more variation on the blog entries because people will choose to answer different questions).

(6) on July 13th, everyone will post their entry. I will post my answers too and a reminder that it's post day so people can go around and read the entries and comment (start a discussion back and forth in the comments section).

It's another Gallers girl!

In case you haven't read this elsewhere, we are having another little girl join our family in August. Her heart rate was 144bpm today and she is much more active in utero than Leah was. Does this mean she will be an athlete?

Crabby Mama's Mama's Responses

At the end of the story, Lily has done everything within her power to seek forgiveness for the way she treated Snow Flower. Share an action or situation that you later regretted and if applicable, how did you make amends for that mistake?

As a young married person I underestimated and disregarded the effect of not including my mother and “natal family” in my everyday life. I later realized the impact my actions had and regretted the hurt feelings they had caused. Luckily I was able to talk about this and express my apologies before it was too late. I’m very thankful that my relationship was salvaged. No one can ever predict when the opportunity for atonement will be taken away from you due to an untimely death – as Lily discovered. I hope I am never faced with that lesson again.

As a mother, I can’t imagine subjecting my child to anything like foot binding for the sake of societal acceptance. Do you think there are any practices in today’s world that might indicate a similar symbol of female status in our society? What are they?

Women are constantly bombarded with images and messages regarding society’s perception of what the perfect female body should be. This push to be thin, beautiful and large breasted has certainly had a huge influence on girls and women everywhere. Although mothers may not be directly involved in the process – as with the foot binding – it is difficult for them to fight and overcome the harm of society’s influence.

My Book Tour Responses

Why was Lily so forgiving of Snow Flower and her betrayal, yet so angry with
her family and Madame Wang? Isn't the betrayal the same? Why are we so
forgiving of friends but not of family members?

It seems like Lily was just going along with Madame Wang and trying to save herself in the beginning of her relationship with Snow Flower. Lily would do anything to make Snow Flower trust her and develop that "old same" relationship to further her own future. I can totally understand how betrayed Snow Flower must have felt when she found out the truth. I personally would have been more angry with Lily at that point. Lily should have had the trust and courage to own up to everything with Snow Flower as soon as their friendship deepened into that "old same" relationship. Snow Flower's mother and Madame Wang were just playing the cards dealt to them as women in that society. I thought the anger was misplaced on Snow Flower's part.

How do you feel about the concept of "old sames" (being in an arranged
friendship)? Were you surprised at the way it turned out for Lily and Snow
Flower? Have you found yourself in a "sisterhood" kind of friendship
throughout your life? How was it able to last through all of the changes you
have gone through in your life?

I have a hard time time with the concept of arranged friendships, only in the sense that they force you into a lifelong commitment as with an arranged marriage. But in any society that values it the way their society did, no one would think twice about it. As for friendships that span many parts of your life, I think in today's world, it gets more and more difficult to hold on to those. People travel and move away from home more often nowadays. Even with all the communications technology, nothing beats actually being present in a friend's life. In spite of all the friendships I have accumulated throughout all of my many stages of life, I don't believe I have that one that has spanned them all. I have drifted in and out of deep relationships at different points with people who are traveling with me. I would love for one or more of those to last and move forward with me into the rest of my life.

Don't Forget!

For those participating in the book tour, today is post day. Please post your answers on your blog (that's just you Kelly).

Check out my links on the right and click on Kelly in NC to view her answers.