Fantabulous-ness

I made it to Elko in one piece, barely. Liam, of course, made things interesting. He always does. Today, however, I am at a Christmas craft all-day extravaganza with my mother in law, sisters in law and nieces for the day. Oh yeah, Evie is with us too. Should be a real fun day. Hope you’re all having a great Saturday too.

While Monday might have it’s “Hate List” (I’ve not forgotten that!  Expect to see a new Hate List soon!), Friday is a day that inspires joy and happiness and (most often) relief.  It stands to reason Friday would be a day to celebrate just what is GREAT, praise the good and share the love.  Am I right?  So let’s feel the love, shall we?  Because, people, it’s FRIDAY!!  (Woot woot!)

• How well my boys are playing together.  Sure, they’re rough and they make me cringe with all the crashing around the living room (this is mostly on Harry’s part as he is now roughly the size of Bigfoot), but Liam laughs his fool head off and he’s been taking great naps as a result.  Let’s hear it for brotherly love!
• Goodmama diapers.  I have to admit to being a little on the obsessed side with these yummy diapers (bet you thought you’d never hear that phrase, huh?).  I’m nowhere near as obsessed as some (I only have three of them to date), but I’m constantly scheming on how I’m going to acquire more.  LOVE THEM.
• Evie’s appetite.  While in the middle of the night it’s not nice to constantly have to roll over and feed her, it’s nice that she’s so much more into eating solids than Liam was.  She was practically GIDDY when I was feeding her Country Garden Vegetables last night.  SERIOUSLY!
• Kile’s work camera.  I guess I never considered that there are some point-and-shoot cameras that have a lot of the DSLR features but for a lot cheaper.  The new contributor over at PW’s Photography blog first clued me in to it.  And see that Kile’s work camera costs about what we paid for MY point-and-shoot camera over three years ago?  Makes me think that might be my best bet for a new camera.  Now the question is… do I stay with Sony or do I try another brand?

I keep thinking of things that are annoying me instead of things that are making me happy.  Heh.  I guess I really AM ready for another Hate List!  In the meantime, enjoy my list and share with me a little of what is making you happy today.  Maybe I’ll feel inspired to expand my love!

So I finished “Breaking Dawn” last night.  I’ve been holding off talking about the book until I was done, so now the time has come to give my honest and forthright opinion.  It took me a little longer than most people to finish the books, but my reading time is limited.  Still, I was reading every moment I had a chance, often while nursing Evie before naptime and bedtime.  Evie probably won’t know what to think since I won’t be holding a book over her head anymore.

I started of “Twilight” not feeling that impressed.  In fact, I was pretty scornful.  Everyone and their dog was reading these books and sometimes I tend to roll my eyes in the general direction of fads.  Not always, but more and more as the years pass.  But I was intrigued.  Who was this “Edward” fellow and was he REALLY that great? (_{note: yes he is})  So I stuck through it, even though the first half of the book was pretty dull.  The writing wasn’t that spectactular and I thought Bella was kind of a twit.  I was very tired of her “all these boys want to go out with me!  Boo hoo!” shtick.  Give me a break.

And then.  Then things picked up with the infamous trip to Port Angeles and from there, the book went a lot quicker and was a lot more interesting.  In fact, by the time we got to the baseball game, I was convinced I was reading the best book in all the world.

I went out right away and got “New Moon”.  Now, that was a different book.  And, to be honest, I still don’t get the Team Jacob people.  Sure, he was nice and all.  He helped her when she was at her lowest, blah blah blah.  But he’s no Edward.  There’s just no comparison.  And his mood swings and hasseling Bella all the time really wore on my nerves.   But, yet again, the book picked up towards the end when Alice showed up.  It was about this time that I decided I sorta loved Alice.  She was all kinds of awesome.  And I practically shrieked aloud with glee when Bella and Edward were finally reuinited.  The Volturi were creepy, to be sure, but I don’t think I felt nearly as creeped out by them as Bella was.  Though their feeding scene was pretty grisly.

Before I was even finished with “New Moon”, I had to go get “Eclipse”.  I didn’t want to chance being left with no book to read, after all.  The timing in this book had me confused for a while.  It seemed like an awful lot of action stuffed into a couple of weeks time.  Which is basically what it was.  Again, I really didn’t care for the triangle with Edward and Jacob because as far as I was concerned it was no contest.  And yes, I was annoyed at Bella for having any feelings at all for Jacob.  Tramp.  But the fight scene at the end was freakin’ awesome and the details on how the vampires are dispatched are both disturbing and fascinating.  Seriously cool.  Oh, that reminds me.  I was also annoyed with Bella’s reluctance to marry Edward.  I didn’t really think her reasons were very good ones, to be honest.  They were pretty weak.  Dude, it’s EDWARD.  I don’t care if you don’t like attention, are nervous about what people will think, don’t like to accept diamonds and whatnot or wear rings… it’s EDWARD.  Don’t make me come to Forks and beat you, woman.

And then we had “Breaking Dawn”.  I was seriously excited to read this book.  A lot of people have bagged on it and I really didn’t think it was that bad.  A lot of people complained about the story getting ridiculous by the end, but I felt it was in line with the rest of the series.  The confrontation went about the way I hoped and expected it would.  Had it actually become a FIGHT, well, I think that would have been awful.  I don’t want to give away too much about this last book, just in case some of you want to read it and haven’t read it (so, you know, NOT YOU Michelle).  But it was ALL fascinating.  The wedding to the honeymoon to the … ahem… “illness”, to Jacob’s perspective, to Bella’s rebirth and everything that came after.  If anything, I was so sad to see this last page and know that it was over.

photo credit: kimberlyfaye

_{(have you seen the new trailer yet?  GO WATCH.)}

In an effort to spread love, peace and happiness rather than festering annoyance, I’m changing the tune here and am doing a post wherein I list the things that are making me smile these days.  Believe it or not, there are a few!

• Reading “Eclipse“, but not too quickly because I can’t get “Breaking Dawn” before the middle of next week and I don’t want to be without EDWAAARRRD!
• Teething or not, Evie in all her six-month-old glory is freaking adorable.  She’s so sweet and watching her little personality emerge little by little is one of the true miracles of life.
• Liam’s delight in just about everything that he comes across.  Pesky though he may be, the twinkle in his eyes never fails to charm me.
• My iPhone.  Yes, I still love it.  How did I ever exist without it?  At the same time, I can’t believe it can really do all the things it can really do.  It’s the single coolest thing I’ve ever had.
• Rockstar energy drink, preferably in the “Punched” or “Juiced” varieties.   I wish I had some right now, even.  That stuff is seriously addictive.
• “Fringe” and “True Blood”.  These two new shows are just awesome.  They fill the void that “Lost” leaves during the fall season.
• Rachel Maddow, whiz kid of MSNBC.  I love her new show.  She cracks me up and makes crazy sense all at the same time.
• Facebook’s evil crack game, “Make Me a Celebrity” (it’s part of the Mesmo TV application).  OMG, ya’ll.  I need more entourage if I want to win more Faceoffs.
• That it is now officially Fall.  I vastly prefer Fall to Summer, but I just wish it would get cooler quicker.  I’m so tired of the sun.

See?  I’m not all doom and gloom after all.  So what’s making you smile today?