The Final 20!

Okay, so as far as the 100 Books before Kindergarten goes, we did make it and read all 100 books before Kindergarten started. I just became a giant mess by the time the end of summer came and neglected everything in my life that wan't breathing. I even stopped my own personal reading! I KNOW! It shocked me, too, when I realized. As of this moment, I'm re-reading The Hunger Games series. I find it isn't as confusing the second time around. But I digress.

If you remember my original post, which you probably don't because that was way back in May and I can hardly remember last week, I mentioned that we only owned 12 of the 100 listed. We have since acquired a couple additional books from the list and we only had to buy one brand new! That's right, ONE. Between the library, thrift stores and friends/family, we were able to get our hands on all the other books.

I decided to write out the final 20 in one blog. I know it's long, but it may be months before I get my life back on track again. Actually, I happen to know that my life is going to be an inconsistent mess until next summer and maybe even then since I am anticipating a move. Hm. Maybe I'd better get used to the craziness I call life right now. It may not ever go away.

Anyway, without further ado, the final 20.

21. Eddie’s Garden: And How to Make Things Grow by Sarah Garland (★★★★) This book was similar to the other book we read by Sarah Garland, Doing the Garden, which I reviewed here. Another sweet story by Sarah Garland, the kids and I enjoyed the simplicity and realism of this story. The simple joys of life never get old.

68. One Some Many by Marthe Jocelyn (★★★★) This was an interesting take on a counting book. The title seemed strange to me before we read it but it was all about words we use to count. One. Some. Many. The pictures were in the style of color block cut outs, bold and clear. Though the book didn't elicit any strong reactions from my kids, I know they were just soaking it up. Of course, I'm always pro-vocabulary. This may be one to buy.

71. Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle (★★★★) I love Eric Carle. His books are engaging, quite educational and memorable. This story was tender and a lot of fun. A daughter asks her father to get the moon for her and he goes to great lengths, literally, to get it for her. Several of the pages opened up quite large, which had quite an impact on my kids. It was a little longer than the usual Carle book, but it was just as entertaining.

73. The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend (★★★1/2) This story is about a cat who wants to make the perfect omelette  He reasons with himself that if he built the perfect nest, the perfect chicken will lay an egg on it and his omelette is as good as his. His nest turns out to be a bit too perfect and trouble ensues. The kids loved this silly book and were able to follow the story easily. The pictures were really funny, too.

74. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin (★) Pete the cat is walking along with his white shoes on singing a song. He steps into a pile of strawberries which changes the color of his shoes. Then he steps in blueberries, changing them again (but, oddly, not blending the colors). All along he sings while he continues to step in stuff, changing the color of his shoes again. While this was a cute book, I found it unfortunate the educational opportunities were not taken. Why not blend the colors? Why didn't Pete learn to look where he was going? Is there a moral to this story? If so, it's: Life happens, you can't or don't need to take control. Good thing they're too young to read into it too much. Maybe that's the point?

83. Stanley’s Party by Linda Bailey (★★★) Stanley the dog's people go out a lot and he is left home alone. Normally, he is a good dog, but eventually he realizes that he can sit on the coveted couch and they'll never know. One thing leads to another and the dog takes over the whole house. I can still picture my 5-year-old shaking her head at the dog's naughtiness. In the end, Stanley had to mend his ways and his people learned a thing or two as well. Cute story. Beautiful, detailed illustrations. Worth the read!

84. Stella, Star of the Sea by Marie-Louise Gay (★★★1/2) Stella and her brother go to the beach. Stella's little brother, who has never been, is brimming with questions to which Stella always has the answer, right or wrong. But the real question is whether Sam will ever get into the water. This is a sweet story about a girl's relationship with her little brother. I'm a sucker for big sister/little brother stories for obvious reason. What a cute tale!

85. The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf (★★★★★) I think everyone must know about Ferdinand. I remember watching the cartoon when I was younger. Ferdinand is the gentlest bull you could ever meet. While all the other bulls run and butt heads, he just wants to sit in his favorite spot and smell flowers. The pictures are simple ink drawings but beautifully detailed. This classic story has lasted through the years as a favorite for a reason. May it last through many more generations. 

86. Strega Nona: Her Story by Tomie dePaola (★★★3/4) For those of you unfamiliar with the Strega Nona books, she is called a "witch" but is more like the town healer. For those of you familiar with Strega Nona, this is the story of her birth and learning to be a healer. Fun retelling of an old folk-tale with enough humor to keep the kids interested an entertained. Great story.

87. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (★★★★) Sylvester finds a magic pebble that makes all his wishes come true. Unfortunately he makes a hasty wish in a moment of danger that separates him from his family. Miss A was very invested in this story. She was very concerned for Sylvester and was practically yelling at the book when his family was nearby and just didn't recognize him. Any story that engages my children gets a thumbs up from me!

88. Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester (★★★★) Tacky is an odd bird. The other penguins know it an are often perplexed by his oddness. In the end, however, it is Tacky who saves them all because he is different. What a delightful romp this book was. While there are a lot of books out there celebrating individuality, I especially liked that this little bird used his strengths to help others. A message worth reading.

90. The Three Pigs by David Wiesner (★★★★★) This traditional tale literally gets blown away. While the story follows the typical pattern to begin with, the story soon comes to life when the wolf huffs and puffs a little too hard and blows the pigs straight out of the book! This story won a Caldecott award for it's beautiful illustrations and it is well deserved. The twist on the story was refreshing as well. Win, win!

91. The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka (★★★★★) I remember my mother reading us this story when I was younger. I've read a lot of story books and it says something for any book that I remember fondly after so many years. This version of the Three Little Pigs tale is told from the perspective of the wolf who paints the pigs in a very bad light indeed. According to him, the real story is about a sneeze and a cup of sugar. I'm glad my children were old enough when we read this to be familiar with the original story so that they understood the humor in this new one. While I don't think my daughter enjoyed the ugly-interesting style of illustrating, I'd say she got into the spirit of the story and had fun, which is exactly the point!

92. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Pam Adams (★★★★1/2) While this books follows the classic poem/song almost exactly, the pictures are what make the book (as well as the amusing moral in the end). In eye-popping color, the old lady continues to eat what isn't good for her, looking progressively more unhinged with every page turn. Instead of merely drawing each page with the newly added critter in her stomach, this book gradually increases the size of the die-cut hole in the page to include the newest creature. No matter how this story is told, it always amuses children, but this book adds a new dimension with gorgeous illustrations and well-placed windows.

93. Tuesday by David Wiesner (★★★★★+) The unassuming title of this book belies the stunning nature of this Caldecott winner. Every turn of the page brings new wonder to the odd happenings on what should be a normal Tuesday evening. But who wouldn't love the magic of ordinary bullfrogs flying through the air on their lily pads? The expressions on both the frogs and the other creatures they pass just as priceless as the wonder and magic this book brought into my children's lives.

95. A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker (★★★1/2) Bear simply doesn't want company, but that won't stop Mouse from trying in a sweet, polite and gentle way. While Bear becomes frustrated, my children were amazed at all the unusual places Mouse would show up and wonder aloud how in the world he could have gotten there. I will never get tired of a book my children interact with!

96. Wheels on the Bus: A Book with Parts That Move by Paul O. Zelinsky (★★★) The classic song is brought to life by moving parts in this fun book. We enjoyed this book very much, but I would hesitate at buying it myself as my children are not as gentle as I would like. Though, I would recommend this beautiful book to parents with children less inclined toward book destruction!

97. Where Is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox (★★★1/2) This book keeps you turning pages as you try to find the green sheep. There are red sheep, blue sheep, thin sheep, fat sheep. If nothing else, this is a great book for teaching colors, opposites and vocabulary to young children. My five-year-old might have been a bit older than the targeted audience but she enjoyed it anyway.

99. Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill (★★★★) This is the one book I had to buy new because I couldn't find it at either library in my area. As it turns out, it's a good thing because this is one of those lift-the-flap books that certainly would have been in poor condition if I had acquired it any other way. Spots mother is looking for her puppy so that he can have dinner. She searches all through the house, looking in every possible place. My children loved discovering each new place and lifting the flaps to try to find Spot. As it turns out, this book has not left their room since we bought it. They love it!

100. Yoko by Rosemary Wells (★★★★) Yoko's mother sends her off to her first day of school with her favorite food: Sushi! Her classmates, however, are appalled by the unusual meal, branding it "Yuck-o-rama" Yoko's teacher has an idea up her sleeve, however, to help broaden the horizons of all her students! The author of the famous Max and Ruby books sends her adorable little animal characters on a food tasting adventure in the sweet book. If nothing else, it enforced what I always tell my own kids: Don't say you don't like it until you try it!

So that finishes the 100 book challenge. I do have another list somewhere of more books to read, but I'll be darned if I can't find it. Once I get the hang of the school year, I think I'll buckle down and find the list, strike off the ones we own or read this summer and start visiting the library again.

If nothing else, I reinforced my desire for my children to love reading as much as or more than I do! There's a magical world of books out there!

Stalking My Husband

Hello All,

I discovered today that there is a website for Basic Training at Fort Jackson. They list all the units and companies as well as their Facebook pages for friends and family to send their "Hooah!"s and well-wishes.

Unfortunately, Ben is only going into Basic officially today, so the units and companies are still in the formation process. Hopefully, in the next few days, I will be able to find out which one he is in so that I can stalk him effectively.

In my great desire to find out more about where he is, I looked up the google map of Fort Jackson. As it turns out, there aren't any specific flags for the military base, only a Watch & Jewelry store that appears to be permanently closed. It took me a while to find out where the entry gate is and I only did when I tried to use the street view on the map.

Interesting Fact: Military Bases don't let street view camera cars on grounds.

Well, duh!

So, for you lovely people, I made a few pictures of the map showing a rather large area of buildings and streets that have no street view. I find it interesting... I think Ben's Map Geek-iness is rubbing off on me!

This is a close-ish view, showing a large chunk of human habitation without the blue lines of street view.

Here is a further away picture showing what I assume to be the entire base outlined in blue. The base buildings are on the lower left of the non-blue area.

Facinating!

Anyway... If you want to stalk Ben too, here is the link to the Basic Training page. As of today at 10:12AM, neither of the two Units listed are Ben's. So, just ignore those.

http://www.jackson.army.mil/sites/bct/

There are links on the side on how and when to get letters to Ben, but I'm percolating an idea on how to get him as many messages as possible without singling him out. The first comment on my last blog made me stop and think a bit about it. I certainly don't want Ben to suffer any grief via his NCOs. More on that when I get his address. 

Keep the prayers up, I know it helps! (I got a call from Ben late last night and he sounded much better!)

My Man in Uniform

Because I love you all so very, very much, I am now going to share with you one of the awesomest things EVER!

EVER!!

I got a nice call from Ben this afternoon and he got to talk to his kids. He told me that it may be the last call he can make for a while... a long while.

By way of compensation, he sent me a picture of him in uniform! I think this might hold me for a week or so. ;)

My handsome, brave soldier.

Woohoo!

You notice the super comfy-looking bunkbeds behind him? He's going to think his memory foam mattress is heaven when he gets back!

He's hoping to have a mailing address sometime in the next few days. I will post that up as soon as I have it and I expect LOTS of mail to get sent in his direction!

More soon!

Pretty as her Picture

I know I've derailed from my projected blogging. My life imploded and exploded at the same time, defying all laws of physics. I will get back to my blogging schedule soon!

In the mean time, check out this gorgeous school picture of my baby girl!!

I love my girl!

Blatant Plug

You may or may not know that Ben is leaving to go to Basic Training for the Army tomorrow. TOMORROW!

What I know you DO NOT know is that I've had a secret blog going for the past four months. This blog features the thoughts and feelings I have had about this new part of our lives. Essentially, they are letters to my husband that relate directly to our life in the Army.

I have opened this blog to the public today. It is important to me to not feel alone in this adventure.

The blog isn't extensive, yet. There are only four posts so far and I encourage you to read them all if you are interested in following along.

The URL is: http://katscratchme3.blogspot.com/

You may cry, you may laugh... I know I have.

First Day of Kindergarten

I almost thought I'd never get to the point where I'd have a school-age child. Yet again, my life has proved to me that time will march on no matter what you're doing, so take advantage of NOW.

Because I'm Pinterest addicted, I have found about 2.3 million different ideas on First Day of School pictures. I found a few cute ones and couldn't decide how to combine them all together. I also didn't have the outrageously cute I-made-this-myself-with-homemade-chalkboard-paint chalkboard. Yeah, I know. I'm a Pinterest Failure. I can live with that... today.

So, at the last moment, I muddled my ideas together and came up with a super fun idea. I hadn't seen any First Day pictures that included siblings and I just knew Henry would be sad if he didn't get to join in the fun.

"First Day of Kindergarten" with the date and a place for her to write her own name. Little Brother gets to hold a sign stating what she wants to be when she grows up!

Our new First Day tradition will include the school child's sibling holding a sign, too! Yeah, I know! I'm brilliant!!

While this looks "posey", she was actually stretching. She was not used to getting up and going so early! I must say, though, that she looks fabulous! ;)

Skeptical, much?

My big girl!

Amazingly, there were no tears when she followed the line of her classmates headed to her classroom. She was absolutely thrilled. She HAS been talking about going to school since she was two and a half, after all.

Henry had other ideas. He was completely crushed when he realized he was without his playmate for several hours each morning. There have been a lot of tears from his corner.

It's been nearly two weeks since school started and Audrey is just as excited as the first day. She's made some friends, though she doesn't always remember their names, and has even had a couple of class parties. Henry, for his part, had adapted reasonably well, though he is still clingy and sad when Audrey leaves. I'm sure it will get better as time goes on. As for me, I've been inundated with notices and forms. I can't believe Picture Day is next Tuesday. I'm panicking already about how to keep Audrey's hair where it belongs.

Pinterest, here I come.

More blogging soon, I promise. Too much to say!

It wasn't ME, I SWEAR!

This story is how my paranoia got the better of me... not for very long, but long enough to feel like a flooded pantry was my fault.


It started yesterday. Our toilet wasn't flushing properly. It would drain super slow and then make a weird glugging sound. Ben discovered shortly after that each time we flushed, a small amount of water would bubble up into our tub. Ew.

Ben had to go to work and the toilet/tub problem preyed on my mind. I researched plumbing problems online and found that you aren't supposed to put Drano down the toilet. How the heck were we supposed to take care of the offending toilet if we couldn't put Drano down it?? (Well, you CAN.. it just has to be a certain type.) I ended up getting so antsy about it that I grabbed my purse and keys and ran to the store at 10:20pm, but not before I collected money from my virtual dragons, planted seeds in my virtual garden and looked at a bunch of stuff on Pinterest to calm myself down. I got the strongest stuff I could find. I didn't get the stuff that said you could put it down the toilet because you have to measure out 10 oz and that required too much effort. AND it said that you couldn't run water in the shower for 6-8 hours after putting it down the drain.

Ben did the honors and took care of the Drano... he waited the required 30 minutes and went in to flush and encourage with a plunger. It did... nothing. Around the time he started using the plunger in the tub, I decided I had gone slightly crazy.

I don't know why a clogged shower is so horrible, but it really, really is.

Fast-forward to this morning. I wake up to the sound of Ben snaking the toilet. Oh, yeah... my bathroom is broken.

Whilst I was lying in my bed, my brain started trying to reason what could possibly have caused such a disaster. This unsavory scenario flashed unpleasantly into my head:

Whether you are grossed out by this or not, I just happen to be on my period right now. (I'm calling this particular blog a loss at this point, anyway. I mean, it's about plumbing.. er.. issues, for Pete's sake.)

Because of my monthly concerns, I immediately blamed myself in spite of my usual carefulness. I discovered a long time ago that a tampon and any.. um.. solid waste would not flush down together. That's just asking for a clogged toilet. So, to save myself that embarrassment, I learned to first flush the tampon and then take care of the rest of it.

As it happens, for the first time ever since potty training my kids, both of them had to go #2 right after I did. It all flushed okay, so I didn't worry about it at the time.

Back to this morning, I worried about it... obsessively. In my head, my imagination conjured up an impossible situation... That tampon had gotten stuck in the drain... SIDEWAYS.. THEN the deposits left by me and my children were backed up behind it. It made so much sense. Drano would NOT dissolve a tampon.. so we were screwed.

I also wondered if the new over the toilet shelf we installed the day before had somehow put weird weight on the floor and was pushing a pipe out of shape or cracked it or something... yeah. I'm not a plumber for good reason.

Ben's attempts with the snake were not successful. I thought something magical would happen, but it didn't. So, he called for a plumber. They said they would be able to come and give us an estimate at 4... PM.

Then I started to notice a... smell.

Ben did too, and he looked in the pantry where the water heater and whatnot are kept... yeah... flooded.

At that point, I realized that it was ludicrous that a silly little tampon could have caused so much havoc. I started to postulate wildly.

"Well.. that's it.. Mom flushed something weird down one of her toilets and we're flooding down here because we're below ground level."

"G-G must have flushed a toy down her toilet." Yeah.. like she has action figures in her room... I can just see her cackling as she shambles to the toilet to throw in an Iron Man toy she's hoarded for this purpose for two years.

"Someone killed someone and is flushing body parts down the toilet one at a time.. they are SOOO going to jail for this."

Mom told me later that she was worried that the non-flushable wipe she put down the toilet a month ago must have done it. (See, I'm not the only paranoid one.)

All this time, Ben was using a shop vac to get the water off the pantry floor. When that got full, he attempted to get it back up the stairs and it landed on his foot and slopped icky water all over the carpet. I was slightly more worried about his foot than the carpet. It went purple really fast.

Dad noticed that there is something wrong with the drain outside. The one in the street. I never went and looked, but whatever was wrong prompted Dad to call the City and tell them to get their people out here to fix it.

At that point, I was completely vindicated. Yeah.. it wasn't me. The clog wasn't my fault. One of my neighbors killed someone and flushed them down the toilet. Or flushed a diaper. Or put grass clippings down the manhole... Or.. well, it doesn't matter, because IT WASN'T ME!

So aside from my room smelling a bit like an outhouse for a few hours and my children complaining that their room smelled "stinky", it wasn't too bad.

But that's probably because Ben did most of the dirty work (literally) and got everything cleaned up.

I love my husband. I really, really, really do.