The Fab Five

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Halloween Trunk or Treat 2017

It's no secret (or shouldn't be) that Halloween ranks at the very bottom of my list of favorite holidays. It's the worst! So, as happenstance, or luck, or just Will being awesome, would have it, Will took care of equipping all three kids with their costumes this year. I think the only part I played in any of this was Juliana's headband.

Mr. Navy Seal. As the neighbor girl said, "Everett, that's legit!" It really is. This kid is in military heaven.

Miss Greek Goddess. This one has trouble figure out what in the world she wanted to be for Halloween this year. We scoured many a web site in search of something - anything! I love this cute costume and this cute girl.

This little chick is quite taken with Diana, aka Wonder Woman. She decided way back in the summer that this would be her costume. I love that she made the decision and nothing else persuaded her. She is a determined one, this gal!

The trio before we headed out for our ward's Trunk or Treat. Being in Arizona means that no one thought twice that Juliana might need a jacket. Nope. Temps are still in the 90's, which means I was in shorts and a t-shirt and still sweating right before we headed out the door. Time will tell if I start to miss typical Fall weather...

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Gettin' My LBD On

Random fact #39371 about me? I'm kind of a nut about Jane Austen. More specifically, Pride and Prejudice. Sure, I like all Austen's novels (some more than others), but if there's one book I keep coming back to time after time, it's Pride and Prejudice. What is it about that novel that I love?

Take it away, internet:

"What is it that makes Pride and Prejudice such an appealing story in our technological modern age? The story seems to have the right formula to make female hearts flutter, as well as enough comedy to keep the men laughing. The characters are well formed, with some like Lizzie and Mr Bennet laughing merrily at others, while some, such as Mr Collins, require laughing at. Modern readers can identify with Pride and Prejudice because human concerns have not changed that much over time. Many of the themes of the book are also concerns of our contemporary society. Love, marriage, money and security are things many of us worry about just as much today as those in Austen's time. Most significantly, Pride and Prejudice has a happily-ever-after ending in which our favourite characters Mr Darcy and Lizzie, Mr Bingley and Jane find their true love and reside thereafter in rather nice stately homes." (http://www.damaris.org/content/content.php?type=5&id=435)

Yes. That. That's why I can read and re-read the novel, and then devour spin-offs, re-tellings, and modern adaptations without getting bored or thinking, "Haven't I read this before?"

Around a year ago, I stumbled across a Pride and Prejudice re-telling so fun, so clever and so addicting, I couldn't stop watching. I've shared this gem with a few folks, but gosh darn it, it's time the rest of you Austen-reading, Pride and Prejudice-watching, Mr. Darcy-loving folks jumped on board! May I present, "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries":

What is The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, you ask? Well, according to the official web site, it's "an online, modernized adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice" So yeah, that's what it is.

While there's nothing "new" in this particular version of Pride and Prejudice, the way the characters have been re-imagined as young twenty-somethings in 2013 is really clever. Lizzie, along with her sisters, Jane and Lydia, are run-of-the-mill central California girls. Lizzie has decided to do a video blog (vlog) as her thesis for her Master's in Mass Communication. Her BFF, Charlotte Lu, helps her out.

Of course, some neighbors move in - Bing Lee and his sister, Caroline. Add in the usual gang - George Wickham (a sexy swim coach), Ricky Collins (founder of a digital media company, Collins and Collins), William Darcy (CEO of Pemberley Digital - of course), and his sister, Gigi. Even Darcy's friend, Fitz, shows up. And we hear about Mr. Collins' boss - Ms. De Burgh and her cat, Annekins.

Part of the charm of this particular re-telling lies in Lizzie's impressions. They are hysterical!

All the usual feelings surfaced while watching this 100 episode version. Lydia is annoying, Jane is sweet, Lizzie is too judgmental, Collins is SUPER annoying, etc. What I didn't count on was character development with Charlotte, Fitz and even Gigi. Sure, the creators took a few liberties with the plot, but overall, these characters stay true to Austen's originals.

The Lizzie/Darcy interactions are fantastic. It feels like it takes FOREVER to finally see Darcy (not until episode 59!), but it is so fun/awkward/fluttery when they're on screen together.

Anyway, I know this is reading like an advertisement for The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, but honestly, I just need more of my friends to watch it, if only so we can share the jokes. LBD isn't going to change lives and yes, it's a bit silly, but man, it is lots of fun to watch. So, take some time, watch a few episodes here and there and let me know what you think!

Oh, and apparently, I'm not the only LBD fan out there. The production won some awards, so if anyone asks, you can tell them you're watching an award-winning show! ;-)

And if you need more Jane in your life, check out my friend's Latter-day Jane page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/latterdayjane where you will find Austen-esque advice about love, life, dress and decorum, pleasing manners (or lack thereof) and the English language.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Bookin' It To The Library

A few months ago I fulfilled a dream of the sixth grade girl inside me and got a job at the public library. I work VERY part-time hours alphabetizing books as they are returned and then making sure the books get shelved properly. My official title is library clerk, as I am not a librarian, since I do not have an MLS degree (Masters of Library Science, for those not in the know). Apparently, jobs at the library are pretty popular. When I interviewed, the manager told me I was one of 12 candidates they were interviewing. Twelve! For a part-time job! At the library! I was sure there wasn't a chance in Hades that I'd get the gig, but get it I did and I've been giddy about it ever since.

I was asked at the interview what I thought my favorite thing would be about working at the library. I immediately answered, "the books!" I've been thrilled to discover I was correct. The books - their titles, their subjects, the authors' names, etc, have been my favorite thing by FAR about working at a library. Another incredible perk is a few hours a week of quiet time. I don't have to talk much and the most pressing thing I have to think about is remembering that H comes before I and that N is after M. I joke with my co-workers that I come to work to relax.

Since having children has done a permanent number on my memory, lately I been taking pictures of books that I find interesting/funny. Who knew the library was a comedy show waiting to happen? I thought I'd share some gems that I've found recently.

The Title Made Me Laugh:

These all happen to be non-fiction books. I'm not sure why, but I find the non-fiction titles funnier than the fiction.

I actually wonder if this one is funny...

I audibly gasped and then busted out laughing when I found this one.

My only hope is that Greg Glendell has made millions off this book. Proof that you can find ANYTHING at the library.

I flipped through this and it did look like a fun read. I'll have to remember to read this one.

The Cover Art Is Completely Ridiculous:

I find more hysterically awkward/non-sensical covers in the harlequin section. It's one of my favorite sections to shelve because it is pure comedy gold. The titles in that section are usually terribly cliche - "Too Hot to Handle", "Tempting Fate", "Lucky Charm", etc. and there's always, always, ALWAYS some kind of skin showing.

"No risk, no reward." I love it! What a shirtless guy has to do with the plot, I have no idea, but this one had me laughing for awhile.

The author's name caught my eye initially, but I also enjoy the font of the title and just the title in general. If this strikes your fancy, be sure to catch "How to Tame Your Duke" by the same author!

YA Reads:

I am a not-so-secret Young Adult Fiction lover. It's slightly embarrassing and I am probably getting old enough that I should graduate into adult novels, but the YA stuff is simply fun! I always request my YA books ahead of time so I'm not that creepy older woman in the teen section.

With a title like this, how can I NOT want to read it?

This is probably old hat for all you Twilight lovers. Even though I, regrettably, read ALL FOUR BOOKS IN THAT BLAH SERIES, I'd never heard of the spoof. Just read the back - it sounds awesome. Plus, I have it on good authority from a reliable source (ahem, T-bone) that it's pretty good.

Non-Fiction Reads That I May Actually Read:

You had me at "avocado"

I act like an old person sometimes and love Reader's Digest (At least, I've been told by more than one person that RD is an old person's magazine. Is that true???). This book is like my birthday and Christmas Day all rolled into one. Wait, what?

Love me some Stacy London.

I'm all about big personalities and high drama. Sign me up!

Yes, please.

Seriously, the library is a dream. I've had more than more patron tell me they haven't been in a library in years and that hurts my heart just a little. Go, go to your public library! Author Neil Gaiman said recently, "But libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information." Gaiman's entire remarks addressed the importance of reading fiction and of the public library. It's a tad lengthy, but so worth the read. Find it HERE.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Team Giddens - 10 Years In The Making

Will and I celebrated our 10th anniversary last week. Double digits. For whatever reason, 10 years as a married couple seems like a significant milestone. Will and I keep shaking our heads at each other like, "Can you believe it's been 10 years? I can't believe it's been 10 years!" Like any passage of time, it simultaneously feels like yesterday and like forever ago since we got married.

We got married on a Friday morning and had the reception Saturday night. I had two gorgeous bouquets - a small one of red roses that I used on Friday and another, larger one for Saturday that included all sorts of red and white flowers. I thought I would beat the astronomical increase on roses at Valentine's Day by getting married eight days prior. Uh, I didn't. Word to the wise - eight days is not enough. I don't remember the particulars, but I do remember the roses were expensive!

Over the past DECADE, whenever Will's gotten me flowers, I usually suggest that he get something other than roses. There are plenty of gorgeous flowers out there, but roses wilt quickly and I feel like they're too cliche (dumb, I know). I adore tulips, orchids, daisies, etc. They smell wonderfully and last seemingly forever. So I was surprised as anyone when Will came home on our anniversary with a bouquet of 10 red roses, one for each year we've been married and very reminiscent of my wedding bouquet.

As for the rest of this post, I've struggled for about five days with what exactly to write. I have so many tender feelings about my life with and marriage to Will that I simply prefer to keep private. And no one wants me to go on ad nauseam about how much I love Will and how great our marriage is. And since I decided long ago to always speak positively about Will to others, I'm kind of left without a leg to stand on, blog-wise.

But I will say this: I have loved the past ten years of my life. They have been better than I could have imagined. I get to laugh every day with the funniest person on the planet. The past decade has also brought plenty of challenges, some more difficult than others. In any situation, I'm so glad Will is mine. He has helped to polish my rough edges and as a result, I have become a kinder, more compassionate person (trust me, I had nowhere to go but up!). He celebrates my accomplishments and is the only person's approval I care to earn.

Simply put - being married to Will has been a dream come true.

Ten years down. A bazillion, million, eternity more to go!

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Snow-tel 2014

In this never-ending saga of the Mid-western winter from h-e-double-hockey-sticks, there was snow forecasted for Tuesday. Everett and I have both become obsessive about checking weather.com to see the hourly, updated forecast. When I saw the snow was scheduled to hit late morning/early afternoon, I wondered about school closing early. Sure enough, we got word at about 10 a.m. that school would be dismissing two hours early.

Around the same time, Will called to let me know that he'd been asked to spend the night at a hotel downtown, about a block away from his office building. His entire office building was closing at noon, due to the snow, and the managers wanted to make sure someone could be there first thing Wednesday morning. Will thought it would be fun for the entire family to stay at the hotel and I agreed.

Once I got everything together and picked up the kids, we headed downtown. The entire car ride all I could hear was, "This is so fun!" and "I can't believe we're going to a hotel!" and "I'm so excited!" Needless to say, we've got to get these kids out more.

The kids and I spent THREE hours at the hotel pool. We were the only ones in there (shocking!) and it was fabulous. It was a perfect way to watch the snow fall - inside, in swimsuits. I suppose we could try that at home during the next storm, but I'm not sure it would be quite as fun.

Spending time at the pool brought back wonderful, WARM, summer memories. If we ever get to experience summer again, it will be so fun to spend it at the pool.

Aside from the pool, the other big hit of Snow-tel 2014 was that we got two adjoining hotel rooms. The kids were mesmerized by the TV. In their room! In front of their bed! They were in heaven.

Juliana did tell me on the drive down, "I'm so glad we're getting two rooms!" When I questioned her as to why she said, "This way I can get some sleep and not have to listen to Daddy snore." Ha!

So while a winter snow storm raged outside, we enjoy incredible, delicious hotel food and we were all happy. The kids, because hello, hotel food. And me, because hello, I didn't have to cook.

In true hotel fashion, none of us slept well. A small price to pay for swimming indoors during the winter!

Will left bright and early. And the kids awoke to the news that school was cancelled. Again. I can't even with all the snow days we've had. I think we're on #7 or #8. Basically, we have no days off from now until May 23rd. Except for Spring Break. Ugh.

The kids and I took our time getting dressed and then decided Waffle House would make the perfect snow day breakfast. Waffle House's are a little harder to come by in St. Louis than in Atlanta, where there are 1.5 million in metro Atlanta alone. Not ones to be discouraged, we braved the roads and enjoyed that fine dining establishment.

And then we came home and spent 20 minutes trying to get up our driveway. I love snow! It makes regular tasks like walking and being outside and driving up your own driveway so awesome!

So, I busted out the layers and got to work shoveling. Luckily, our nice neighbor with the nice snowblower saw me out there working. I decided I would let him help me. Because I'm nice like that.

I would say I'm sooooo over this snow, but there's more in the forecast for Saturday. And next Tuesday and probably 58 more times before Spring gets here. So, I guess I'll put on my big girl snow pants, and wool socks, and jacket, and gloves, and scarf, and simply enjoy? it. Is that what people do with snow?

Saturday, February 01, 2014

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

2014 marks Everett's first Pinewood Derby. He's been looking forward to building his own Pinewood Derby car for awhile now. He and Will discussed the specifics, because let's be honest, I'm no expert, and Everett decided on a classic car shape: the wedge. (I'll have to appeal to Will's extensive Pinewood Derby knowledge for verification of that last sentence.)

The other major, pressing, super important decision was color and theme. Christmas brought us the new Star Wars trilogy, so now we have the entire hexology(? Is that the right term?). All three kids have spent a minute or 500 watching that fine ode to cinematic awesomeness, so we've been on Star Wars overload lately (a wonderful place to be!). Everett wanted a black car, a la Darth Vader. And Star Wars stickers, a la Star Wars. It was more difficult than it should have been to find regular old Star Wars stickers. Or more accurately, it was more difficult than the effort I was willing to put forth. After the second store, I figured Angry Birds Star Wars stickers were just as good as the real thing. Even better, really. Thankfully, Everett is easily pleased and he agreed.

There were a total of 29 cars in the Derby. The cars were all so cute! I think 8-10 year old boys are wonderfully goofy and awkward. It does my heart good to see that they all act about the same.

Here's a close up of E's homage to Star Wars. It was tough narrowing the sticker choice down to only three. Even though Everett chose "Darth Vader black" as his car color, he's a sucker for the good guys. Luke, Obi-Wan and R2-D2 fit the bill quite nicely.

The top four fastest cars raced a final round of four races (each car raced once in each lane).

This boy was beside himself waiting for the results.

And victory was his! Well, third place was his. He was thrilled! And so was I! And so was Will! In addition to a certificate, Everett also took home a pretty "sweet" trophy.

Bah-dum-dum. Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week!

Monday, January 27, 2014

I'm Bringing (my) Blogging Back

The intrepid blogger and a veritable vision in pink, am I right? ;-)

tap, tap, tap

Is this thing on?

I've decided I'm bringing 2008 back. At least, my 2008. You know, the one where I was a (more) prolific blogger? Yeah, that 2008. I've been cleaning up this here blog, changing header and sidebar pictures, clicking on links to see who's actually still blogging (um, not many of you), and I've been inspired by the few, the proud, the faithful bloggers who have continued blogging in the midst of internet-wide downturn. My kids are older, I kinda, sorta have more time on my hands, there's practically no evidence of Giselle on this thing and dangit, I may not have the most fascinating life on the planet, but there's a thing or twenty I could blog about!

So, here I go. Again. To 2014 and more consistent blogging! About my family, my life, my interests, my opinions (get ready). Hellooooooo internet! It's good to be back.