Book Reviews.....

I've never done a book review, but I've recently read a few, so I thought I'd share them with my thousands of readers. (Yes, I'm aware I do not have thousands of readers!) If you'd like to see more book reviews head on over to her blog....she reads a lot more then I do!

Live Wire, By Harlan Coben

I started reading Harlan Coben when I used to travel with the Wedel Family to the beach. Valari read them and would pass them on to me. I was hooked from the first book. I have read every book he has out, and I love them. They are page turners, and relatively clean mystery books. The majority of his books revolve around Myron Bolitar, a sport agent and his friend and partner Winn. If you're looking for a page turner mystery, start with his first book and keep reading! In this book you learn more about Myron's family, it was so great! His first Myron book if you're wondering is Deal Breaker, and there are 10 books.

Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen

One of my friends down here in Pittsburg started reading this book and she said it was good. Well, Amazon Kindle had it on sale for about $5 so I downloaded it and started reading it. Jeremy and I plan to see the movie cause I love Reese Witherspoon, so I like to read the books before we go. The book is a fictional story, based on the history of the American Circus. I will say it is pretty graphic, but it is interesting. I don't know that I'd recommend reading the book, and I'll let you know about the movie. I'm guessing that they toned the movie down based on it's PG13 Rating. I would assume this does paint a pretty accurate picture about Traveling Circus people's lives and what went on. But I've never really researched it out, so I'm not an expert.

Couples Who Pray, by Squire Rushnell and Louise DuArt

The last time I was in Edmond my parents gave me this book and David and Leslie. Well, I finished it this week and now I'm convinced that it's the best idea I knew to do that I haven't practiced. It's mostly stories of couples, some famous Couples who pray together everyday. The challenge is to pray together for 5 minutes a day for 40 days. We will be starting this very soon, cause believe me if there ever was a time we needed to pray as a couple, it's now. The stories are very uplifting, and I promise if you read it, you'll jump on board too. If you and your husband (or wife) already do pray together everyday, I'm sure you would agree with me. If you don't, you should start! You can also go to this website and it offers help to get you started, for a small fee. So pick this book up for sure, or just start praying with your other half, every day for 40 days, for 5 minutes. I hope to have some more reflections to share after we start this practice.

All this to say if you're going to read one of these books I've read recently, read the last one, it's the most beneficial for you and your spouse! The others are a little more on the fun side.

Run Cooper Run...

Cooper has gotten into running the last bit of every run. I figured if he's going to sit in that stroller for 4 days a week for an hour or so, a little run would do him good. Only about 3 weeks until the longer runs subside. I'm sure the kids will be upset. (Probably not!)



I'll still run a couple of miles a day and maybe a little longer on the weekends to stay in shape. (or get in shape?!?)

Riding

Or being pushed for 7 miles is so tiring.....and not just for them!



Cooper looks so big here. Maddie is getting big too....it's a good thing there is a new baby coming! Not from me....David and Leslie are having a girl! Can't wait to meet the little sweet thing in August!

I got tagged.....

Well I got tagged.....unless Brooke knows another Michelle Y., which I guess is possible, so I thought oh why not, I'll answer the questions. I'm answering these first things that come to mind....

Four Places I go:
1. Kiowa Church of Christ
2. Pittsburg Post Office (where we pick our mail up cause they don't deliver it in these parts)
3. McAlester's Wal-Mart, to buy groceries and anything else I need on Thursday morning, where they have been out of Chocolate Chips for 3 weeks
4. A tie between Edmond or Pittsburg's Basketball Gym

Four Favorite Smells:
1. Coffee
2. Outside after the rain (while drinking coffee....)
3. Maddie....she's still got that sweet baby smell, most of the time
4. A pot roast cooking

Four Favorite TV Shows:
1. Top Chef....(All Stars is on right now...Richard is my favorite, always has been....he's in the finals!!!)
2. Amazing Race ( I beg Jeremy repeatedly to let me send in a video for us to get on this show, he always says no)
3. Vampire Diaries....I know, I'm 12
4. Project Runway....even though it isn't on right now

Four Favorite Movies:
1. Mission Impossible, the first one
2. Legally Blonde
3. Sweet Home Alabama
4. Twillight

Four Recommendations:
1. Thank God for your kids....seriously thank Him now. There is a family here in Kiowa we have become close to, they have a daughter and daughter-in-law both pregnant with boys due in April. Their sweet daughter gave birth to her baby today, and he is not going to make it, this really just breaks my heart. They've known for a while this was a strong possibility, but you always hope for the best. I'm sure the next few weeks will not be easy on them, but I also know God always works things out for the best. You might say a little prayer for them now. (Their other grandson is expected to be just fine.)
2. Enjoy life, just the simple things
3. Play with your kids, even though we live in the middle of no where I seem to get so busy, I don't realize how much especially Cooper loves it when I stop everything I'm doing, just to do whatever his little 3 year old heart desires!
4. Try to learn something you'd like to be good at (for me I'm working on sewing)

Four Favorite Things to do:
1. Run....even if I go oh so painfully slow, I love it, being outside, running with the kids...you know, I can go forever, but again, I'm super slow
2. Cook
3. Bake (yes those are 2 different things)
4. Travel

Four Things I dislike:
1. I'm disliking parents being more interested in being friends with their kids, people kids today need parents, not friends, be friends with them when they get older
2. People texting during movies, it's so distracting, espeically when I get to enjoy like 1 movie every 6 months
3. Laundry, I hate doing it, mostly folding it and putting it away
4. the scale.....

I'll skip the tagging 4 people, but maybe you'll just decide to answer anyway!

Sticking to my guns....

Cooper has been kind of potty training for a while, some days he's interested more then others. Well last week I decided enough is enough and it was time. Bribes don't really work well for him. He can tell you all the trains he gets, that he gets to go to Grandma's for a week by himself, you name it. So I resorted to this:



Those are all the toys he's lost because he hasn't made it to the potty. We were doing really good, but now it's like he doesn't care that they are up there. Now I just don't know what to do....time to give it up or should I stick to my guns?

Sewing progress

It's my goal to be a better seamstress. I'm not perfect, but I've successfully made a few items here and there. This is my first completely finished quilt:



I've got a friend who had some hand dyed burp clothes. We had a baby shower at church for some of our friend's daughter in law, who is actually moving to Kiowa! Which is always exciting to have more babies at church. I thought some
Dyed burp clothes might be nice, they weren't as blue as the look, but they turned out alright!



I had to sew a lot on these cause our lovely Wal-Mart doesn't carry the tri-fold cloth diapers. That and apparently chocolate chips, they've been out of those for 2 weeks. More projects to come!

Donkeys and Elephants

So last week I had to train in Edmond for a few days. So after the Class A and B state tourney was over, the kids and I hung out for a few days. I worked, they played with my mom. As much as she was worn out, I know she loved every minute!

We went to Miss Jane's to feed her donkeys one day. Cooper has been talking about how cute Miss Jane's donkeys are for weeks, but he has actually never seen them until last week.

As you can see he was also see he was the first person to try to ride the donkey.....it needs a little work!

Then my parents took the kids to see the Elephants, with the rest of everyone I know about, at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Cooper is still talking about how they blew trumpets, and how the elephants danced, on and on about the elephant exhibit at our house these days. He sure loves those animals!

(apparently he has a complex with people dressed up, I hate to admit I had that same problem)

And what's going to the zoo without conning your older cousin to take a pic on the lion statues? Overall it was a nice little trip, as Cooper would say we got to spend 8 days with grandma, sure those were some of the best of his life!