Book Review & a Question

Sometimes I wish I’d been an English major. Partly so I knew more about writing and partly so, when I say that I’m a big reader and people ask me if I’ve read [fill in the blank with a classic that everyone but me has read], I could say yes.

But I wasn’t. So while I love writing and reading and remember most of the English terms essential to my daily life, such as “gerund” and “participle,” I don’t know how to describe a certain type of writing.

I’ll get to that in a minute. (It will be the question I mentioned in my title, and no pressure, but I’m really counting on you all to answer it.)

Back in 1997, an unknown author published a little book called . . . [wait for it] . . . Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Remember when I mentioned not having read the books that everybody and their grandmother have read? Yeah . . . this would be one of them.

Much to my friend chelleybutton’s dismay. See, Chelley is a huge (HUGE!!) Harry Potter fan. And my lack of interest in her favorite book has been a point of slight contention between us for a while now.

She finally got me to read it, though – by giving me her copy of the book. (Don’t worry, Chelley, I know it’s just a loan!)

One night a few weeks ago, I’d finished my latest fluffy book, skimmed through my parenting magazines and didn’t feel like slogging through the serious Christian living book I’ve been nibbling on for months. So I picked up that colorful Harry Potter book and started reading.

Oh. My. Gosh. I loved it! I enjoyed fantasy books when I was younger, so this really was “my type” of book, even though I’d been protesting the exact opposite every time Chelley asked why I hadn’t read it yet. And it was so smart! And British. You know that automatically makes it better. I call it the Hugh Grant Effect.

I even found myself so absorbed in the story that one day at work, when our e-mail system temporarily crashed and I was inconvenienced trying to get a message to a co-worker in another part of the building, I actually found myself thinking, “I wish we had owls.”

Ha! I laughed so hard at myself and then, of course, told Chelley all about it. I knew she’d be thrilled that not only had I started reading her beloved book, but I was a teeny bit obsessed with it, too!

I finished it, and just in case someone else out there hasn’t read it yet either, I won’t give away anything about the ending. But I will say that I was surprised and realized I hadn’t given JK Rowling enough credit.

Chelley has loaned me copies of books 2-4 of the Harry Potter series, but I haven’t started the second book yet. I will, though. And while I’m pretty sure it won’t take me 13 years to get around to it, I told Chelley today that she may have a future fan in Annalyn. That kiddo loves picking the Harry Potter novels out of my three huge stacks of books and pretends to read them!

So here’s my question (were you wondering when I’d get around to that?): what do you call the kind of voice that Rowling uses in the book? That tone makes it clear that the story being told is a fantastical one, and it’s a little sardonic or amused. Like she knows what she’s telling us is ridiculous but it’s also wonderful, and she wants us to love it even if we’re laughing at it, too.

What is that?

One of my favorite fluffy writers, Kasey Michaels, writes a series about a female romance novelist whose main characters (a Regency heartthrob with a stuffy and semi-clueless butler-type sidekick) somehow come to life. The novelist realizes how crazy this is, but it’s happening anyway. And these silly (I know.) stories are told in the same type of tone that Harry Potter is.

So, what’s that called? Is there a technical term for it? Anyone? Bueller?

Feel free to mock me in the comments. Make fun of me for just now reading Harry Potter. Or wishing to be an English major. Or reading fluffy romance novels. Or admitting to reading fluffy romance novels.

Whatever. Just tell me if there’s a name for the type of voice or tone or SOMETHING that JK Rowling used to tell the Harry Potter story?!!

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Beauty and Losing It – Week 4

This was me in 1990. Since then I’ve lost those hideous glasses, straightened and whitened my teeth (good heavens, how could a 5th grader have such horrible yellow teeth?), gained a few million pounds and gotten a somewhat better haircut.

Oh yeah, and my mom finally allowed me to wear makeup. (And shave my legs, but let’s be honest: I’m not nearly as excited about that as I was back then.)

But in my heart? I’m still that ugly duckling . . . and I’ll never be a swan.

I know, I know. That’s a ridiculous thought. Not because I’m some supermodel, though my mom insists on calling me Beautiful Baby Girl and my husband is smart enough to say I’m pretty.

No, it’s ridiculous because I Was Created In God’s Image. And we’re all beautiful, each and every one of us. I know. I KNOW.

But do I really believe that?

Well, no. Not really. I mean, I believe it about you. Sure. But me? No. I’m a nearsighted, yellow-toothed chubby dork. No matter what I see in the mirror, a small part of me still feels like that 11-year-old girl.

I’m not asking for sympathy or fishing for compliments. SERIOUSLY. I’m just admitting to one more bit of my CRAZY. My friend Sarah has had guest posters talk about beauty all week and asked us to do the same.

So there you have it. My kind of late night, definitely stream of consciousness thoughts on beauty – or lack of.

Now don’t go planning an intervention for me. I’m not dwelling on this craziness, I promise. But it’s there. Do you have a definition of beauty – or lack of – in a dark corner of your heart?

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On a related note, I guess it’s time to talk Losing It 10, huh?

This week I went walking one night with my friend Brittany (and Annalyn who was so excited to see her friend “Bernie” and actually cooperated when I put her in her stroller). And I’m drinking lots of water. (Yes, I will mention that every week. Sometimes it’s all I’ve got, okay?!) And even though I have not written down all my food and points, I have figured the points on most my food. So there’s that.

I am committing to writing down everything I eat this next week. I did it the first two weeks and lost weight. It’s really the only way I can keep myself on track.

How did you do this last week? And what’s your goal for next week?

Each week for the next 7 weeks, Jessie from Vanderbilt Wife, Ashleigh from Heart & Home and I will be sharing a peek (or in the case of this wordy ramble, an oversized bay window) into our weight loss journeys.

If you’d like to take the challenge to Lose It (#LosingIt10 on Twitter, by the way), write about your own journey, link to this site in your post, and share a link to your blog post in our weekly carnival. The bloggers who link up at least six out of the 10 weeks will be eligible for our prize package of a six-month subscription to The Six O'Clock Scramble (a meal planning service), a Weight Watchers pedometer and a gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods.

The winner will be the person who loses the largest percentage of his or her body weight during the 10 weeks.

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On the other hand, I've got hitting the snooze button DOWN.

Yesterday did not start out well. After going to sleep more than two hours late (Thank you, Daylight Savings.), Annalyn woke up 45 minutes early.

[Side note question: Can anyone explain that phenomenon? At what age do we develop the skill of sleeping in to recover from late nights?]

So the early start turned into yelling (me) and frantic showering (me again.) and frustration over yet another chaotic morning (um, yeah, me.). Then, because I like to use stress as a reason to make poor food choices (feel free to turn away now, Losing It friends), I buzzed through the McDonald’s drive-thru on the way to take Annalyn to daycare.

This not only started my morning with 14 points under my belt (Thank you, dollar menu.), but also prompted my already cranky daughter to cry because I didn’t get her any fries.

The nerve!

It should come as no surprise, then, that I had a little – shall we say – incident in the daycare parking lot.

See, the thing is, those spots in that lot are really stinking small. And though I didn’t see it in the handbook, I’ve realized in the last three weeks that all daycare parents are required to drive SUVs or vans.

Anyway, back to my morning from, well, anyway. I found a spot and squeezed my wannabe-SUV into it. As I turned off the car, I was a tiny bit proud that I’d overcome the small spaces and SUV that was three inches over the line and a tiny bit annoyed that other people don’t know how to park.

And then I walked around to the other side of my car to get Annalyn out of her carseat. Juggling a package of diapers (Thank you, potty training FAIL.), her hat and gloves, and a sippy cup of milk, I looked up and realized that a) in my effort to maneuver around the SUV on my left, I had totally swerved into the spot of the SUV on my right, and b) the owner of that SUV on the right was standing on the sidewalk, admiring looking at my parking job in disbelief.

By that point, I’d already gotten Annalyn out of her seat. So I did the only thing I could think of and said, “Can you go stand by that lady, baby girl?”

Of course, even my small child couldn’t fit between my badly parked car and the badly parked car next to it. So we had to walk all the way around the car, stack all of our stuff on the sidewalk and say reassuringly, “Mommy will be right back. [I’m so sorry.] Just stand right here, okay? [Thanks. I do know how to park. I was trying to avoid that, oh, I’ll just move the car.] One second, baby!”

I’d like to say that’s where the humiliation ended, with me leaving my 2-year-old daughter with a stranger and backing out of a parking space.

But no. Then I had to turn a simple task – move from one parking space to another – into a 9-point turning ordeal. The other spaces were tight, too, okay? And it’s not as easy as it sounds to back up your car and re-park directly behind the original space.

[I wish I was as creative as my friend, Erin, and could provide you with a diagram at this point. I just know it would clarify any questions you might have at this point.]

Finally after at least 32 minutes (or 3.2 minutes, I’m not sure), I pulled my car safely into another space, gathered my daughter and all our stuff, apologize AGAIN to the lady who was not quite as friendly and forgiving as I’d have preferred, dropped off my kiddo, and left.

Ready to start my day. Or something.

Oh, and if you were wondering about my whole getting up early plan? Yeah. Not so much. Don’t get me wrong! It’s still a plan. And I still want to do it. But I haven’t. Not in several days.

Annnnnd this whole story JUST MIGHT be the perfect example of why I should start my mornings earlier.

I love it when I teach myself a lesson.

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Swagbucks and Amazon.com Giveaway

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? What? It’s too early? Right. But it’s not too early to start saving for Christmas!

That’s where Swagbucks comes in.

Swagbucks is a search engine that offers you the chance to win cool prizes from every time you search. You win points by searching, and you can use points to “buy” prizes that include Amazon gift cards, kids’ clothing, electronics, comic books and more.

[Yeah, I thought I’d get your attention with “comic books.”]

Seriously, though, I easily earn about 10-20 points (Swagbucks) a day, and a $5 Amazon gift card costs 450 points. That means just by searching (which is made even easier by installing the toolbar, which I did at work and at home!), I could earn a gift card each month.

That’s not to mention the extra points you can get by following Swagbucks on Facebook, Twitter and their blog.

And there’s one more way I can earn Swagbucks. It’s pretty simple: I just tell you, my friends, all about it!

If you're interested in signing up for Swagbucks, would you please use my referral code? Just click here, and it will take you right there.

As of right now (8 p.m. on Tuesday night), I have 520 Swagbucks. That means I can buy my first Amazon gift card. And because I love you – and it’s only fair – I’m going to give that card away to a reader who signs up!

That’s like getting 450 Swagbucks for free!

If you sign up for Swagbucks using a link from this post by Friday, leave a comment and tell me. I’ll draw a winner (or Random.org will draw a winner) on Saturday.

Swagbucks works for me . . . and I love it . . . and it’s my favorite way to search the Internet. So this post will be linked to Works for Me Wednesday, Things I Love Thursday and Friday Favorites.

(And don't forget to vote for the couch you want me to write about.)

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Choose Your Own {Couch} Adventure

Image by emdot

Last month at Blissdom, I attended a workshop sponsored by Hallmark. The topic was inspirational writing, and in addition to two card writers, we got to hear from Casey from Moosh in Indy and Stephanie from Adventures in Babywearing.

I heard lots of anecdotes and advice about sharing our most meaningful stories, and then the panelists challenged us with a writing prompt. They asked us to write about couches.

Actually, they first suggested we write about our top ten couches, but then they said we could just pick one if we wanted. It’s been a while since I over-achieved much of anything, but today I’m going to do that prompt one better.

I’m going to list my top ten couches. And then I’ll write about one. Which one? That's up to you. 

Vote in the comments, and the couch that has the most votes by the end of the week will get the starring role in a post next week.

In no particular order:

1. Blue flowered couch I grew up with at my parents’ house
2. Wicker couch with blue cushions that my mom inherited
3. My grandparents’ brown, gold and orange flowered couch
4. My other grandparents’ plaid couch that is called a divan
5. The bright gold, ridiculously heavy couch I had in my college dorm
6. The first couch Mark and I bought – a blue and green plaid one
7. The same couch with a red twill slipcover
8. My current chocolate brown leather couch
9. My parents’ new couch
10. Our friends’ dark green couch

I know. That doesn’t tell you much, does it? And there’s no going back. Once you pick one, you can’t go back and read the other chapters to see if they had better endings.

Yeah. I’m harsh like that. A couch blog post reader survey rules dictator.

(Unless I decide to write about the other couches later.)

[Please don’t pick a bad couch.]

{No pressure.}

So, what’ll it be?

This post will be linked to OhAmanda's Top Ten Tuesday.

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Under the influence

I spent Saturday and most of Sunday driving and scrapbooking. (Not at the same time! Don't be crazy.) My two cousins and I went to a scrapbooking retreat at a crafting bed and breakfast place a couple blocks away from my cousin's town - three hours away from my house.

The original plan was for Mark and Annalyn to go with me and spend the weekend with my cousin's husband and four kids. Unfortunately, said husband and kids spent last week puking and fighting a nasty fever. So I was on my own.

And I didn't mind at all. Driving alone for hours gave me the opportunity to sing at the top of my lungs to a ridiculous variety of music, from Lady Gaga to Hall & Oates to Kid Rock to Ronnie Milsap.

Hey, don't judge. I had to do something to distract me from the view.

As much as I appreciate the beauty of the Kansas plains - and I do - it's a little easier to enjoy the view in the spring. Or the fall. Or, basically, any season but the winter without snow.

Although I did see several calves - jumping and frolicking. Before you ask, no, I didn't get any pictures of that. Actually, the only other picture I got since Friday was one that captures what the weekend was about:

My cousins are five and six years older than me, and when we were growing up, I idolized looked up to them. Until I outgrew them (AHEM.), I wore their cool hand-me-down clothes. I practiced - for hours - the simple dance routine they taught me from their drill team days. And even this weekend, they were taking care of me - letting me borrow their scrapbooking tools and encouraging me that my layouts looked fine when I was sure they looked terrible.

And teaching me to drink wine.

Oh, I didn't mention that before? Yeah. On Saturday night, they ran to Walmart to pick up some photos and came back with two brown bags. I don't remember what kind of wine it was, but believe you me, I will find out.

I don't like the taste of alcohol, so it's never been a temptation to me. This is a good thing, considering my family history, and I've never argued with the fact. But this wine? Deeelish.

Fruity drinks - like rum punch or Smirnoff apple - are great, but I can only drink one or two, because they're just too sweet. But this wonderful sweet wine wasn't overly sweet. It was just right.

Maybe I won't find out what it was called. This could be dangerous.

Kind of like that time I went to Oceans of Fun with my cousins and wore one of their swimsuits. It was cut higher on the legs than mine that I'd worn all summer. That wouldn't have been a problem - except when I saw them slathering on baby oil, I had to do it, too. And if there's one place you don't want the worst sunburn of your young life, it's the space on your legs between your swimsuit and your borrowed swimsuit.

Who did you look up to as a child? And what did you do this weekend?

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Weekend Links

Do you use social bookmarking? I’m talking Digg, Delicious, Stumble Upon. I’ve been experimenting with Delicious and Stumble Upon, and I’ve noticed lately that some bloggers do a weekly recap of the articles they’ve tagged, dug or stumbled.

I’m not going to do that.

Don’t get me wrong. I’d like to. But I don’t know how to do it. Yes, I realize I could just look at my list and re-type it. I think there’s some automated – or easy – way to do it, though. So until I can get that figured out, I’ll keep experimenting . . . and using my old system.

What’s that, you ask? Um, yeah, it’s keeping a list of my favorite recent posts and articles on a post-it. Or maybe a half-sheet of paper if the list gets too long.

If that method doesn’t work for you, check out Christine’s reviews of social bookmarking sites and see what you like. And then come tell me how to do it!

Now for the links I want to share with you:

• Missy is raising money to adopt a baby from Ethiopia by selling the cutest shirts.
  
• Amy has the cure for your bad mood or your case of envy. I’ve thought about these words every day since reading it.
  
• Did you read all the posts by the Compassion Bloggers? I still have a few saved in my Reader. It’s hard to digest all that they’ve shared with us.
  
• Shelly is writing a series called Intentional Parenting. She is a wise mother, and I love reading about the decisions she and her husband have made with their girls. I cannot wait until she writes a book!
  
• Have you heard? Savvy Blogging is having a conference in Breckenridge this summer. I’m pretty sure this just went on my wish list!
  
• Sarah is publishing a series of posts written by five women next week about beauty. She’s calling it We Are Full of Beauty, and she wants to know what you think about beauty, too. 
• Charlie dances away to a beautiful tribute to her readers - after telling Cover Girl exactly why she deserves a chance in their video contest.

Have you read anything good lately?

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Saturday Review: A bunch of movies

I heart Juno. Even in her other movies.

Does it seem like I watch a lot of movies? My friend Mandy would say so. But then again – and I can say this, because she doesn’t read my blog and that’s what you get – I’d say she never watches movies.

So there.

Anyway, this is quite a long list of movies to review, but it’s everything I’ve watched in the last three months. So really, it’s not that many.

[Wow, who’s feeling defensive today? Weird.] – Feel free to say that in a Jim Gaffigan whisper.

Can I just tell you that I really want to segue into the reviews by saying, “Without further ado.” But I find myself wanting to say that a lot, and I’m pretty sure I’ve broken down and written it before. So I’m going to restrain myself.

[Insert smooth, not cheesy transition here.]

Sherlock Holmes: Mark, Smitty and I planned to see this movie for months. If we hadn’t had silly family obligations on Christmas Day, we might have gone to see it on opening day. But of course we didn’t. We have priorities, you know.

The movie was really good. It wasn’t as exciting as I expected, but the dry humor was right up my alley and the action scenes were interesting. I didn’t care for a particular scene that involved dead pigs, but I survived. The story itself was okay, but it was mostly the characters and dialogue that I enjoyed. Without giving anything away, I’ll tell you that the way the movie ended left it wide open for a sequel, and I’m sure we’ll want to see that when it comes out.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: I love Redbox. I really do. But sometimes they don’t have any good movies to rent. On a night when this happened, we rented – out of desperation – something we’d never heard of. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt is a remake of a 1956 movie, and it’s about journalism and politics and murder and romance. From the description, it sounded like my kind of movie.

It wasn’t terrible. But it wasn’t great, either. And it certainly didn’t have an unrealistically happy ending, which, as you know, is what I prefer.

Another review I read of this movie mentioned that it’s film noir, and I decided to do a little research. I wasn’t sure exactly what determines that a movie falls into that category. Is it the thunderstorm? The pencil skirts? The low lights or the gravelly voice asking, “What’s your problem, sweetheart?”

It turns out there’s not much of a definition. At least according to Wikipedia, film noir is a difficult genre to define. So much for my independent film study project.

Invention of Lying: I promise I’m going to get back to movies I liked here in a minute. But not yet. The Invention of Lying was terrible. The acting wasn’t necessarily terrible, but the premise is just awful.

Basically, a man lives in a world that has never discovered lying. He does and then ends up telling the world a bunch of “lies.” What they didn’t show you in the funny commercials for this movie is that the lies he tells are what we would call religious truths. You know, like God made us. Like God’s in control. Like there’s a heaven and hell.

The movie made me mad, and I considered delving into a deep discussion on the whole thing. But then I remembered that I’m not a communication student with papers to write anymore. And so I didn’t. But if you saw this movie, I’d love to hear what you thought about it.

Whip It: Loved it! Yay! I loved this movie! I thought the interactions between characters were written and portrayed authentically, and I thought the story was realistic but still inspiring. I can’t wait to watch it again.

Rudy: Mark loves this movie, and it’s been on my list of “I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen That Movie; Where Have You Been, You Weirdo?” movies. Lucky for me, it was on cable a few weeks ago and we ran across it in the middle of watching taped episodes of Psych and Burn Notice. So I watched most of it. And now I’ve seen it. And yes, it’s inspiring. Okay?

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard: I had no desire to see this movie. So Mark rented it one night when I went to scrapbook with some friends. I didn’t end up staying very long at all, and he had just started it when I got home. I watched most of it with him, and I have to say, it was darned funny. Vulgar? Yes. So if that’s not cool with you, don’t rent this one. But if you can stand bad language and need a good (no pun intended, I promise) laugh, you might try it out.

When in Rome: It was a toss-up between this movie and Valentine’s Day when we went out with our good friends, Zac and Mandy. We picked this one, and I’m glad. It was not a good movie in a lot of ways. The acting wasn’t awesome, the premise was silly, and the way it all wrapped up was nothing short of ridiculous.

But did we laugh? Oh my goodness, yes. We laughed throughout the whole movie and all enjoyed ourselves. This may be because we were almost giddy about being out, sans kids, for a whole evening. But it was also just a fun (stupid) movie.

Couples Retreat: Last, but not least (see my review of the Lying movie), we rented this last weekend on our family date. (And by family, I mean that Annalyn went to the car show and dinner with us. But she was in bed when we watched this movie. So don’t even start telling me about what she shouldn’t watch. Believe me. That girl isn’t interested in anything that doesn’t involve princesses or Elmo anyway!)

This movie was long and not that funny, and I’m bummed that it wasn’t any better. Also, I kind of wish I had watched a great movie since then, so I wouldn’t be ending on such a Debbie Downer note.

Hmmm. Maybe I should talk about the upcoming movies I want to see? Um, no. Just looked at my word count. I think I’ll stop here, downer or not.

Tell me: what’s the best and/or worst movie you’ve seen recently?

[Disclosure: Some of the links are Amazon affiliate links. That means if you buy the movie, I get a teeny tiny percentage. (Believe me, when I find something that gives me a huge percentage, I'll tell you!) Interesting fact, while we're down here talking about these links: Whip It is on sale for less than $10. Just so you know.]

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Losing It - Week 3

Today is the end of our third week of Losing It: Not Just Our Sanity. Each week for the next 8 weeks, Jessie from Vanderbilt Wife, Ashleigh from Heart & Home and I will be sharing a peek (or in the case of this wordy ramble, an oversized bay window) into our weight loss journeys.

If you’d like to take the challenge to Lose It (#LosingIt10 on Twitter, by the way), write about your own journey, link to this site in your post, and share a link to your blog post in our weekly carnival. The bloggers who link up at least six out of the 10 weeks will be eligible for our prize package of a six-month subscription to The Six O'Clock Scramble (a meal planning service), a Weight Watchers pedometer and a gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods.

The winner will be the person who loses the largest percentage of his or her body weight during the 10 weeks.

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This week wasn’t quite as good as last week, and I had one particularly, spectacularly terrible night. Annalyn and I went to the store after I picked her up from daycare, and she was A Bear.

According to my darling child, I went to the wrong grocery store. Yes, my 2-year-old daughter knows the difference between our various grocery stores, and yes, she has her favorites.

And I had the nerve to go to the wrong one.

It was all downhill from there. Let me just say, there was screaming and crying and throwing herself over the side of the cart in loud desperation. Not throwing herself OUT of the cart. Just over it, like she was passed out. But she wasn’t. She was just protesting the injustice of my terrible parenting skills and grocery store choices.

I cracked. I bought a frozen pizza. And a box of chocolate Pop Tarts. And a bottle of Coke.

I know. I KNOW!

Then, because I have a feeling you might understand just exactly how frustrating this was, I couldn’t get the Coke open.

I tried. And tried. AND TRIED. But I could not, for the life of me, get that 20 oz. open.

Despite that sad situation, I still ate more food than any one person should in one sitting. And I felt TERRIBLE. Oh, my stomach hurt so bad! I even felt sick the next morning. As I should. I totally deserved that stomach ache!

What I’m not sure I deserve is a weight loss when I go to my Weight Watchers meeting today. I did okay, but not great. And obviously had this crazy night of gluttony that was not exactly “on plan.”

So, we’ll see. I have still been drinking my water, and I have still not been exercising. But I did talk to my friend Brittany about walking next week, so I’m hoping that helps.

Oh, also – I tried Thomas’ Bagel Thins. They are tasty and only one point. But they are THIN. Yeah, I know, that might seem obvious from the names. Bagel THINS. I’m just saying that they’re so thin I wanted to eat two. And, maybe I did.

So, that’s me – the kind of good, the bad and the Pop Tart Ugly. How was your week?

UPDATE: I gained a pound back. The moral of this story? Don't buy the Pop Tarts!! (Or don't take your 2-year-old to the grocery store . . . as if I can avoid THAT!)

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It might as well be spring.

Image by ComunicaTI

Yesterday when I walked out of my office into the parking lot at lunchtime, I smelled it. I smelled flowers.

I didn’t see them anywhere. I looked all over the grounds and didn’t see a single bloom. Maybe Mark’s right, and I do have a Super Sniffer.

But it doesn’t matter. I smelled flowers!

And while it means more rain and tornado season and allergies and months closer to shorts season, that glimpse of spring is definitely something I love on this Thursday. For more things to love, visit The Diaper Diaries.

Oh, and tomorrow, that photo up there will show you one of my favorite flowers. (I guess it’s showing you today, but I won’t link up to Friday Favorites at The Other Mama until tomorrow!)

What’s your favorite part of spring? (And bonus points to anyone who can tell me where my post title came from!)

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