WebKinz World

6/6 Welcome to our new additions, Lucy, Hiccup & Blackie

Grandma Millie & Grandpa Ted are here to visit for a few days and Grandma took the girls to the store this morning to add to their webkinz collection. They were so excited! I have to add that I love the webkinz website. It is awesome for kids: pet care, games, mail to friends, a store where you can "buy" for your virtual pets with all the virtual money you earned playing games. And it's great for parents: kid and user-friendly and most importantly safe!

Cookie Wednesday & a Sleepover

6/5 Sleepover!

6/4 "Cookie Wednesday" an idea borrowed from our Beach & Bike family friends. Thanks guys!

Picnic on the Porch

6/3 Picnic on the Porch (what we did today instead of watching TV)

FAQ's

The three most frequently asked questions at my house:
1) Can I watch TV?
2) Can I play the computer?
3) Can we watch a movie in the car?

So...to avoid having to answer these questions more than 20 times a day we are making TV & computer rules. Right now that's one hour of TV and 30 minutes of computer a day, and no movies on car rides around town. But we will also be compiling a list of things to do besides the above 3 activities...Stay posted for our upcoming summer adventures...

6/1 Strawberry Jam

6/2 Catching Caterpillars

I promise there is one inside the jar. We found our new friends on a thistle plant outside the house. We're hoping that we might actually have a few chrysalis' in a few days. I'm going to have to do some research with Sadie and see how long that takes.

The Book Thief

Brilliant! Told from an extraordinary point of view, death was the perfect voice for this wrenching story. His wit, his frankness, and his asides were perfect companions to this carefully wrought novel. In the middle of the story he pauses to write and foreshadow,

"I'm spoiling the ending, not only of the entire book, but of this particular piece of it. I have given you two events in advance, becasue I don't have much interest in building mystery. Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It's the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me."

How often in an English/Literature class have we heard the intoning voice..."now why did the author choose to use foreshadowing?" And we have the typical answers, to build suspense, to pique interest to frame the story...Here the author is blatant, I love how he admits that it's not so much the ending but all the little details in between. Draw your own life metaphors in the blank...

I have to admit I have a macabre fascination for Holocaust stories. I am haunted by WWII. By it's brutality, immensity and inhumanity. The Diary of Anne Frank, The Hiding Place, Night and Number the Stars are among some of my favorites, and The Book Thief now takes it's place on my list.

This was a fantastic book! But wait until you have a day or two blocked out to read, because once you find yourself inside this story you won't want to leave.

Bicycle Counting

1 spare tire

2 bike wheels

3 flats

4 friends

The Salt Lake Century Gang

As I finished my long solo last half of the bike ride last Saturday I had my fingers crossed that my tires would be ok. The ride was supposed to be fully supported, which I thought meant that if you got a flat there would be someone to fix it, but I saw no one along the bike route and the spare tire I was carrying would not have done me much good without a tire lever and a way to inflate it...

Apparently I pushed my luck a little to far because on our evening ride today I had 3 flats, not just one but 3! and two of them were simultaneous. Thank goodness for my friends, their patience and spare CO2 cartridges!

Silver lining: Now I know how to change my own flat tires and exactly which tools I should be carrying.

Legs, Wheels & Wings

I did it! My longest bike ride so far and at a (for me) decent pace. I met my friends at 6:30 this morning and we drove up the Utah State Fair Park for the Cycle Salt Lake Century. I was a little nervous about the 7:30 mass start. Bikes and crowds of bikers make me a little anxious, add to that my exactly one week old "real" bike shoes and my not-so-lightning quick reflexes and natural grace and it's understandable. But, it wasn't bad at all. The ride out was fun, all the traffic was stopped and it was nice and cool. It was a new experience for me to ride in a pack, I decided it's actually fun to be surrounded by other bikers and had a good time. I hit my turn around at the rest stop at mile 18, my friends who were doing the 72 mile loop headed on and I turned back. The ride back was not so fun, this time all the people I passed were heading the other direction--that doesn't count--and I was alone the entire 18 miles. I guess if I want to stay with the pack I better up the mileage next time! But I finished my 36 miles in about 2:15. Not to shabby for a brand new biker and all good preparation for Little Red Riding Hood in another couple weeks!