The Help

I just finished reading The Help.

I started it Friday and finished it tonight.

And I cried through the last 5 pages.

I'm so sad that the book is over!

If you haven't read it, put it on your list of "must reads".

I would now like to have a conversation about it...let's talk.

The best card to have

Every since we moved to NWA, 5.5 years ago, I have had a love/hate relationship with our library. Actually it has always teetered on the edge of hate (which is a word that we don’t use)…very little love.

Being the reader that I am, it was one of the first locations I sought out after we moved. I was so excited to get my library card and browse the books.

I went up to the information desk to inquire about getting a FREE membership.

(That’s one of my favorite aspects of a library...all those books at your fingertips and you can have them for two weeks FOR FREE.)

The information lady/librarian asked to see my identification to start the process.

“Hmmmm, I see you don’t live in our city. It will cost you $11.00 to purchase a membership”, said my friendly librarian.

“Excuse me?!? I live RIGHT NEXT DOOR to your “city”. We share a Chamber of Commerce AND there is no library in the town that I live in.”

“I know, isn’t that just the craziest? You live mere seconds from our CITY and yes, we in fact, do share a Chamber of Commerce. However, since your address is not actually in the same place as the library, you are required to pay $11.00 to check out books.”

I was FURIOUS (overstatement)!

I actually was so upset that I did not even get a library card that day.

I know. I showed them.

Wouldn’t it have been fantastic if I had actually marched myself down to the CHAMBER OF COMMERCE and complained. Asked (demanded!) to speak to the mayor and have him explain this to me. Insisted that the CITY pay for my membership?

That would be a great story...if it had happened.

I think I went home and complained about it to Matthew (who really didn’t even understand why I wanted a library card in the first place).

Obviously I will never be the ring-leader for a picket line.

I eventually got tired of PAYING for books and went back to the CITY library and purchased a membership (even typing that sentence makes me a little ill).

Since that day I have cringed a little each time we check out books.

(Oh, and I had to renew that membership each year.)

(Awesome.)

After I had children, I ventured into the land of story time.

I’ll be honest-it was painful for me to sit and watch at toddler story time. The story time lady read picture books that 6th graders would have had a hard time sitting through. The books were a bit dull. And long. And boring.

And her expressions weren’t much livelier than Mr. Knit Knots. (If you don’t have a 2 to 6 year old, you have NO IDEA who that is. He’s a snooze.)

BUT, Nora/Elyn loved going to the library. Not for story time though.

To get MOVIES.

(You can tell we are doing a great job of raising them as readers.)

SERIOUSLY, I read like a thousand books a day to these kids and go on and on about how great reading is. And all they care about at the library is the DVD section (which is dwarfed by the VHS section. It’s almost 2010...it’s time to convert those puppies over).

We still went though. We sat through story time, I FORCED them to choose some books to take home and then we made our way over to the media section for our DVD choice.

(And heaven help you if you return the DVD late. You will need to take out a small loan to repay that late fee if, let’s say, you totally forget about the DVD and accidentally leave it in your portable DVD player and then put the player back up in your closet and, two weeks later, you are trying to check out some books and the lady tells you that your DVD is two weeks late and that will be $20 in fines. You could have bought the DVD for cheaper. Totally hypothetical.)

THEN I started wanting to reserve books.

Guess what? It cost FIFTY CENTS to reserve a book.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

We are going to have to start putting a “library” section in our budget with all the money that are getting from the Henderson’s.

(It’s sound like a very hard life, doesn’t it?)

Fast forward (thank goodness!) to yesterday.

I decided to try a new library. It’s a smidge closer to our house BUT not a part of our Chamber of Commerce (like that even matters).

I took the girls for the story time and OH MY GOODNESS-it was GREAT!

The lady had EXPRESSION in her voice, she had puppets, she didn’t read EVERY SINGLE word on the page when she noticed the kids getting restless, she gave the kids nametags so she could call them by name and she had songs/dancing!

After story time was over, she had pre-selected books that were based on the theme of the day that the kids could check out.

Her craft was CUTE (although a little developmentally inappropriate, but I DIDN’T CARE!).

The Children’s Section was HUGE and so was the grown-up section!

(And this one had DVD’s too...so Nora/Elyn were hooked.)

I went to the info desk to ask how much it would cost to get a “free” membership.

I figured I might as well give my money to a library that seemed good.

The man asked me if I lived in that town.

No.

Do you work here?

No.

Do you pay any of your utilities here?

YES!!!!!!!!!! Ding ding ding ding!

I got a FREE card (and he didn’t even require a bill of said utility)!

I could have hugged him on the spot!

Do you see how he worked with me? He WANTED to give me a free card. He knew that I needed that.

Then I asked how much it cost to reserve books.

ZERO DOLLARS! The way it should be.

I am thrilled with my early Christmas present…a library card.

Correction: a FREE library card.

AND I already have two books to read:

I had these on reserve at the “city” library FOR EVER.

I can’t wait to get started!

Happy reading to you...and if you don’t have a library card-GO GET ONE!

Hey, slacker?

For you faithful readers (my 3 faithful readers) you might have noticed I have been slow on posting recently. "Why?" you ask.

This is why:
She is making me tired...very, very tired.

Her picture pretty much says, "Hi, my name is Elyn and I am two. I get kicks out of trying to break glass with my ear-piercing screams, see if I actually cause my mom to pull her hair out, show off the force at which I can throw my body on the floor and see how many times during the day I can BEG "hold you me" to my already fragile mom."

I would like to thank God, in this public forum, for giving me the gift of amnesia. "Thank you for not allowing me to remember this horrendous stage with Nora."

When I put Elyn in her bed at night, the very last thing that I have a desire to do is rehash all the "fun" we had on my blog. I'm tired folks...tired and cranky....tired, cranky and emotional. (Matthew is loving all of those emotions right now.)

I'm tired because I'm nearing 33 and my two-year-old has enough energy and stamina to impress a liter of puppies (and her 3.5 year-old sister still requires some attention too).

I am cranky because I have had to discipline my two-year-old 246,319 times during the day.

I am emotional because I hate all the disciplining and think I'm probably scarring my baby girl (even though I know I'm not...I know, I know...it's for her own good).

So, there you go. In about a year I will pick up the posting, when she has calmed down.

But we'll probably have other issues then.

Parenting...not for the weak or spineless.

Halloween through the years

2006-Nora the poodle
2007- Nora and Elyn (1 month old)-the ladybugs

2008-Elyn, the tortoise

and Nora, the hare

2009-Elyn the flower and Nora the bumblebee

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

some pumpkin fun...part two (actually about pumpkins)

So we carved a pumpkin (and by "we", Matthew did all of the actual work).

Such determination...

Yummy!

Thankfully he has little helpers who are eager to assist!

His littlest helper doesn't look too sure...

Nope, she does NOT want to assist!

But she'll gladly watch.

Only one of them is actually WORKING.

This finished pumpkin and the mess...they played quietly and didn't fight the entire time the pumpkin was being carved so I didn't care about the mess.

Pumpkin fun with actual pumpkins...round two.

We let the girls paint pumpkins the other night and it was a big hit. Made a mess but resulted in quiet time for mommy and daddy. Totally worth the clean up!

We realized that this was the first time for Elyn to paint. She started out by using her fingers as the brush, so we taught her how to use the brush...we're awesome parents.

Nora though, was an old pro.

She is loving it! (And, by the way, SHE insists that we buckle her in each and everytime she sits in her seat...safety girl.)

Look how proud they are!

Her nose itched a little while she was painting...can you tell?

She is attempting to wash her hands here. The paper towel was blue by the time she was done.

And the finished products!

Elyn's pumpkin:

Nora's pumpkin:

Some pumpkin fun...part one

I mentioned that we had gone to the Right Choice Corn Maze last weekend. We had a great time and here are the pictures to prove that:

We went with our friends, The Grahams...here are the girls, Elyn, Gibson and Nora.

We ate a picnic lunch first and then the girls headed into the hay tunnel.

Then, they listened to each other through some pipes.

And did a little hay jumping

Then, we let the girls take a ride on the cow train.

After the cow train, we took a ride on a wagon pulled by a horse, riding comfortably in old car chairs.

This picture is a bit of a miracle, Nora touching a huge animal.

And then we shoved the girls down slides. When Elyn got to the end she cried.

Nora wanted to do it again.

So, we let her.

After the family picture, the girls pumped the water pump to shoot rubber duckies to the end.

And last, we fired the corn cannons.

The Right Choice Corn Maze was so much fun!

"Mommy, they are so silly!"

This picture has provided MUCH entertainment for Nora recently...
She loves to mimic their faces and thinks when I do it's HILARIOUS (probably because I am the funniest person alive).

She was quick to pick out the girl who is not a princess...can you find her? She is getting her face beat in by the lovely Sleeping Beauty...true royal behavior.

Nora has a new repertoire (is that how you spell it?) of funny faces to choose from now...thanks princesses!