Book 31 - Bag of Bones by Stephen King

I adore Stephen King. Some people think he's creepy, and they're right, but he's also a genius.

This book is a bout a writer, Mike Noonan, whose wife dies unexpectedly. In his greif, he finds he has writer's block, and decides to go to their lake house - Sara Laughs, named after an African American singer during the turn of the century. Weird things start happening to him, like hearing screams and the bell around the stuffed moose's neck ringning. He meets a widow, Mattie Devore and her 3 year old daughter Kyra and gets involved in an ugly custody battle between Mattie and her father-in-law. The story is very complicated, but SK works his usual magic and weaves it all together at the end. It is a bit depressing... and quite a bit sexual from time to time... but I didn't find it all that creepy or scary. Actually pretty sweet and lovely at times. I would add it to my list of SK books that I would recommend to people who don't like scary stories... along with Lisey's Story and Rose Madder.

Weight Loss Update - Day 30!

I have reached my 30 day mark with Power 90, so it was time to report on my progress so far. Here is the link to my weight loss blog:

Jen on the Lose

To sum up, in case you don't care to follow the link - I've lost 11 lbs and 4.75" in the past 30 days. I have only missed working out 1 day in the past 30 days, and that was this past Friday. I did a ton of walking that day though. Just nothing consistant enough to consider really exercise. Things are going great and I'm excited!

Tomorrow, tomorrow...

... my oldest baby turns 5!

I can't believe it.

I'm super excited about it though. Bill and I have decided to put her (and Isabelle) in dance class for her birthday. So yesterday I made her a tutu. It was so fun and easy to make and looks better than most tutus we've ever gotten. We'll get her a few more dance-related things for her to open at her birthday party Saturday, but she'll get the tutu tomorrow.

The only problem is when to give it to her. Bill will only see her in the morning... I'll only see her in the evening. So one of us misses out on the fun of seeing her open her gift. Maybe I'll let him give it to her since I'll be going to school to bring cupcakes. That's a tough sacrifice...

There is another kid in her class with the same birthday. The teacher sent home a calendar with all the birthdays on it, so for a few days I fretted about this. What if we both send cupcakes? Should I ask the teacher what to do? Then I decided to stop worrying about it. I did send a note to school to let the teacher know what I was planning, though.

And I got the other mom's phone number back so we could coordinate what we were doing.

Ugh.

So I called and we decided to split cupcake duty - she'll bring 8 boy cupcakes and I'll bring 8 girl cupcakes. We're both bringing drinks (I wasn't counting on that) and she informed me she bought Olivia a birthday present.

Seriously?

So off to the store we went after school.

It'll be fun. I'll get to spend a little time celebrating her birthday with her friends.

I just have to figure out what to do with the other 16 cupcakes.... hope my coworkers are hungry...