FHE

Favorite quote from FHE tonight:

"Even Heavenly Father doesn't drink alcohol."--Ella

Caca

I know I haven't blogged for a while and now I can finally explain why. I didn't want to let it be known in bloggy land that I have been alone for the last three weeks, well as alone as you can be with 4 kids. (All you stalkers, murders, robbers you missed your chance. My husband is back and he has some big guns. Interpret that as you like.) Anyway, this has been a pretty crappy couple of weeks. (Insert a lot of complaining HERE.) This is what happened:
1) Nail in foot of a child. Mix-up in Dr. office resulting in screaming, unhappy child thinking she will have to have shot. Happily, no shot just nail in the foot and 30 dollar co-pay in Doctor's wallet.
2) 4 kids plus one mom with strep throat. Lots of antibiotics. Lots.
3) One child with hives. Blame placed on antibiotics.
4) Same child, diagnosed with Acute Rheumatic fever. Which includes 2 visits to the cardiologist, 6 vials of blood being drawn and 15 years on an antibiotic.
5) One child poked in the eye with scissors. Thankfully, child scissors and after a nice, long visit to the eye doctor child completely satisfied with the experience due to bendy, roll-up eye shades. Child fine, so Mom satisfied too.
6) 2 more eye doctor visits resulting in one more child with glasses.
7) I forgot to mention one child with Scarlet Fever. How could I forget that you ask? Well, re-read the list. That ought to explain it.

And just today, because we haven't had enough fun already, child diagnosed with walking-pneumonia and on breathing treatments every 4-6 hours. Sister feeling jealous so woke up this morning with fever. Brother not to be outdone, also running fever and baby, who doesn't like to be left out, was found sucking on sick sister's sippy cup.

Good times.

Tax Shelters and such...

I'm not sure what to think about this election hoopla. On one hand, I am happy that so many people felt empowered and voted in this election. On the other, I am sad that a good man, a gracious man and a man full of character lost. I'm not sure what this says about our country. I am hopeful that Obama can be a good President. I'll give him a chance.

However, I worry. There has been so much bias in the media coverage of the election (ie:treatment of Romney vs. Obama). Have we gotten to the point where the liberal media shapes our views and values? Or worse, is our moral compass? Does being politically correct trump moral values? I can't lie, I've been on the edge of my seat, biting my nails waiting for the outcome in the Prop 8 campaign in California. CNN says it is still too close to call, although it seems like it will be a victory for the "Yes" campaign. I couldn't be more happy about it, too. I believe down to the tip-tops of my scaly feet that that marriage is between a man and a woman. And I feel like warm cinnamon buns inside that the majority of California voters agree. I can't help but feel bad for the Gay people out there who misunderstand the intent behind my beliefs. I am not a hater. I don't hate people who are Gay. I don't. I don't want to infringe upon their rights, but I will not let them infringe upon mine either. Same-sex marriage changes what is a fundamental building block of our society. It has vast reaching consequences. It goes against the core of what has been Christian beliefs for eons. It is confusing for our children. It takes stability away from our society. I understand the desire (and I believe it is a righteous one) for people, gay and straight to want to have lasting bonds with another individual and create a family. That is part of our moral DNA. However, you can't take something that is morally wrong and make it right. And you can't confuse equality with morality.

And that is the end of my soap box for today. I am climbing down and trying to avoid the tomato's being hurled at my politically incorrect head. Anyway, I have some serious work to do today--I need to find some tax shelters before January 20th. Or an offshore Swiss bank account? Ha...ha...ha! (The "ha's" are for the IRS, on the off-chance, they are addicted to "The Bun.")

Max walks!

Crow's feet

I came home from a concert last night after seeing my husband talk to a sexily clad woman he knows from work-- I inspected myself in the mirror and discovered crow's feet.  Nice, huh. 

In case you were wondering...

If you are married to a Reynolds boy you know two things:

1) They can't (or won't) peel oranges.  You are the official orange-peeler of the relationship.  They will forego the orange before they will peel it themselves. Trust me.   

2) They always ask kids funny questions.  Case in point:

Robert (to E & J):  What's the true meaning of Halloween?

Ella (with a "DUH" look on her face): Heavenly Father!

Jackson (standing up on his chair and excitedly waving his arms):  And that BABY!

We are either doing a great job teaching our kids or a really crappy one.  

Stealing

I am blatantly stealing this post from my friend Amy (at least, I hope we are still friends). Thanks for the idea. I love to read and so I must copy, steal and support this idea! Plus, I haven't posted for a while and this is a lot easier than downloading all the photos off my camera, organizing them in iphoto and thinking of something interesting to say about them. Give me a break, I've been sick this week. Just be glad I'm not blogging all the gory details.

Anyway, The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program to encourage community reading initiatives.  This is a list of their top 100 books.  They estimate the average adult has read only six.

Bold those that you have read.  Italicize those you intend to read and *star the books you LOVE.

1. Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen***(seriously deserves that many stars, along with all the other Austen books.)
2. The Lord of the Rings-JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte**
4. Harry Potter Series-JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee*
6. The Bible 
7. Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte***
8. 1984-George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials-Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations-Charles Dickens
11. Little Women-Louisa M. Alcott**
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles-Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22-Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare(Sure enough to bold but I may have missed something!)
15. Rebecca-Daphne Du Maurier*
16. The Hobbit-JRR Tolkien
17. Bird Song- Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye--JD Salinger*
19. The Time Traveler's Wife-Audrey Niffenegger*
20. Middlemarch-George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind-Margaret Mitchell*
22. The Great Gatsby--F Scott Fitzgerald*
23. Bleak House-Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace-Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy--Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisted-Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment-Fydor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath-John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland-Lewis Carroll
30. The wind in the Willows-Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy*(One of my all time FAVORITES!)
32. David Copperfield-Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia-CS Lewis
34. Emma-Jane Austen*
35. Persuasion-Jane Austen*
36. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe-CS Lewis*
37. The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini*
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin-Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha-Arthur Golden*
40. Winnie the Pooh-AA Milne*
41. Animal Farm -George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code-Dan Brown*
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude-Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( I feel like I should get some stars after reading this book.  Read it and you'll see what I mean!)
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney-John Irving
45. The Woman in White--Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables-LM Montgomery***********
47. Far From the Madding Crowd-Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale-Margaret Atwood 
49. Lord of the Flies-William Golding
50. Atonement-Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi-Yann Martel* (Super good!)
52. Dune-Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm-Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility-Jane Austen*
55. A Suitable Boy-Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind-Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities-Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World-Aldous Huxley (Yawner!)
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time-Mark Haddon
60. Love in the Time of Cholera-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men-John Steinbeck
62. Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History-Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones-Alice Sebold* 
65. Count of Monte Cristo-Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road-Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure-Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary-Helen Fielding(Are you freaking serious?)
69. Midnight's Children-Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick-Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist-Charles Dickens
72. Dracula-Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden-Frances Hodgson Burnett*
74. Notes From A Small Island-Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses-James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar-Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons-Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal-Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair-William Makepeace Thackeray*
80. Possession-AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol-Charles Dickens(Would star but so SICK of the story that I just can't do it!  Even Barbie has a version now.  Can we say all together "OVER DONE!"  Just leave the story alone, people.  Please.)
82. Cloud Atlas-David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple-Alice Walker (I'm curious if Oprah will come after me with her secret network of spies.  Still, no star.  Why? Well, because I'm feeling a little mad about her blatant financial support of a certain presidential candidate that has representatives call my house nightly and fill my mail box with junk and interrupt my favorite TV programs! So there!  Take that!)
84. The Remains of the Day-Kazuo Ishiguro*
85. Madame Bovary-Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance- Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web-EB White*
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven-Mitch Albom*
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection-Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness-Joseph Conrad (This is a caca book. Only read if you are feeling like being depressed or you have to write an English paper.)
92. The Little Prince-Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory-Iain Banks
94. Watership Down-Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces-John Kennedy Toole(I only bolded half because I read half of the book and then got bored and seduced by another more interesting book.  I never came back.  Sorry, I'm just like that.)
96. A Town like Alice-Nevil Shute
97. The Three musketeers-Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet-William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables-Victor Hugo* (Really good book.  Especially if you skip the 100 pages on the description of the town...or was it something else?)