So long in between!

I am really not as good as I like to believe myself to be at this whole blogging thing. Once again it's been a month since I last wrote, and an enormous spider in the garage prompted me to come inside rather than working on our garage sale (which, luckily, is about ready). I should have taken pictures of this spider, but it has to be the second largest spider I've ever seen. The first is the Hobo, which you have probably heard my stories of--as large as my spread hand. This was an ugly black sucker, easily two inches long, crawling around on the inside of our water heater cover. After standing still in shock and watching it, my mind went through the processes of what to do with it. I thought about taking a picture since I thought no one would believe me, but my first priority was to kill it. However, I didn't see how I could physically do so with just a fly swatter, even if I could get close enough to hit it. Josh is gone for the weekend, so I went to one neighbor, and then to another who kindly came over to help me out. However, after fifteen minutes of rearranging the garage (hard to do, as it is full of furniture right now), stripping off the water heater cover, and removing any place that seemed easily accessible, we still had seen no sign of the monster. Thus, I am inside, rather than out finishing up with the garage sale things. (I haven't told Josh the whole story yet--I don't want to worry him too much).
It seems like forever since I wrote last. I've been really bad about belly pictures, so I posted the two above pictures. The second one is at twenty one weeks, and the first at 22 (blogger seems to reverse the order). I'm now at 25 weeks, and people are beginning to notice, though most tell me I'm pretty small for 6 months. Funny, I don't feel that way!
We were able to take a real vacation a couple of weeks ago! We were gone for 9 days--the longest vacation we have ever taken together! We went up to Seattle, spent a few days in Victoria where we saw the Buchart Gardens, had tea at the Empress (a dream come true), watched a black bear walk across the road right in front of us(!), and just explored. Then we moved on to Vancouver and had a blast at Granville Island, watched one of the best Shakespeare plays I've ever seen (The Taming of the Shrew done as a western--this link will take you to clips of the performance), and saw the belugas at the aquarium (Josh is sick of me singing the Baby Beluga song!). All in all, we had a wonderful time. Pretty soon here, I'm going to put a flickr photo album together so that you can view all of our pictures. Watch for it! And here's hoping that my next entry won't wait for next month!

It's a Girl!

Well, as you may or may not know, we went in for our 20 week ultrasound on Friday. Normally, I would have posted a blog immediately, but, as we were in the middle of moving (busy day!), I haven't had a chance until now. So, here she is! The first picture is of her face (beautiful already!), and the second is a profile shot. I have to say, this came as a bit of a surprise for us! We really thought that we were having a boy! But it is a wonderfully sweet surprise--girls are so much more fun to prepare for! All the sweet dresses and girly things! Anyway, we're still thinking about names, and have some that we really like, but since everyone knows she's a girl now, maybe we should at least keep the name secret! =)
We moved into our house this weekend, and absolutely love it! It's in a wonderful, quiet neighborhood, with an enormous back yard! We're still in lots of boxes, and our young married's group is meeting here tonight, but we're having fun with it. So many plans, and this time, we're hoping to stay for a long time. There's plenty of room for expansion, so we hope to keep this house for several years.
So life is great for us right now, and we both feel like the world is our oyster! God has really blessed our little family (with a little girl coming soon!!!!!!)!

Well, that turned out a little strange! I wanted to share pictures from the Japanese Garden, and they aligned themselves in quite an odd way. Oh, well. I don't have a whole lot to say today, and have plenty of work to do, but I wanted to post these pictures. This garden is up in Portland, and is probably one of my favorite places around here. The second picture is my 17 week picture, taken in front of one of the two sand gardens. The third is of Josh and I (yep, that's us in the middle) on one of the bridges. Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more to write (and more time) next week, but this one's been busy and I have to go!

New weather, new car, new house!

Wow! We retrieved the summer clothes out of storage at just the right time! Not only is it sunny and warm today (and, man, it feels so much hotter when you're pregnant!), but it's going to stay this way, with only a 10% chance of precipitation (which in Oregon is actually still quite high)! So I'm sitting here, enjoying my after-school buzz (I think I had the best job ever today, and will be back tomorrow as well) in my sunny skirt and tank top, eating my Ben and Jerry's frozen yogurt, and just enjoying a wonderful day! But I wanted to take my few minutes of sanity and solitude--well, make a few minutes, rather--to let you know what God is doing in our lives.
As you can see, I got my car in last week. It arrived on Friday, and we decided to take my belly picture (16 weeks!) with it this week. =) I have to say, I am so happy with this car. I feel fun and sporty, and it gets great gas mileage (though it will be even better when the new car feel wears off and we stop driving it like a sports car!). Needless to say, we were gone the entire weekend making up for all that time that we couldn't leave town.
The other big piece of news is that we are buying a house. This was a bit of a surprise to us, as we were starting to lose hope that we would find anything we really wanted in our price range. We had a "fallback" duplex that we had first dibs on when it went on the market, but we weren't that thrilled about that option. Everything we could afford was two-bedroom, only a little tiny bit of land, and most often a duplex. But then, a week ago Sunday, we saw a house that looked promising on Craig's List, and it was in our ideal price range. We kept thinking, "What's the catch?", but decided to take a look. We were actually the first people to look at the house (which never happens in Corvallis), though the owner was getting constant phone calls about it. We noticed that the owner said that she and her family were "blessed" by this house, which made us think that maybe she was a Christian (a Christian-owned house in Corvallis is a real blessing, as the town has perhaps more than it's share of darkness in many respects). We continued to look through the house and really liked what we saw. Then, as we were finishing up, she mentioned that the fridge came with the house. I looked, and saw a wedding picture from one of Josh's friends from high school and his new wife. I said, "So, you know Tim and Sabrina." Her response was, "I'm Sabrina's sister." As it turns out, not only do we have all sorts of friends in common (through Tim and Josh), but she teaches at Josh's little brother's school, goes to the same church as our apartment manager, and is definitely a strong Christian. It was pretty amazing the way everything worked out. So we told Aimee that we would go home and pray about it, and let her know soon what we wanted to do, and she said she would do the same. I have never had such a peace about such a big decision. I felt calm and peaceful, and we prayed on the way home. Then we turned right around and came back to make an offer, which they accepted.
Those of you who know our stories probably know that big things happen every single move that we make. This was just another wonderful example of God's providence, and we are so excited to see what He has in store. So let me tell you about the house. It's small (which we expected)--just under 1000 square feet. It has a one-car garage (so we can finally get our kayak out of my parents'), but it's built on a quarter acre lot, so the back yard is unbelievably huge, especially for the town and the price. We have so many plans for the yard! It is a three-bedroom one-bath, with lots of room for expansion. Plus, it even had air-conditioning (very rare in Oregon), which I wasn't looking for at all, but thought would be wonderful during this nice, hot pregnant summer! God really had the exact house in place for us, and we are so grateful that we waited on His timing! I will make sure to post pictures as soon as I can! God is so good!

Work! (finally)

I finally had my first day of work today! (For those of you who don't know--or if I didn't mention it earlier on my blog, I'm a substitute Educational Assistant, though I haven't had any jobs before today.) It was really quite exciting--I literally had to hit the ground running. The time that I was told that the job started was the time I would be meeting with my first kid--so I was very glad I showed up early. Though a bit intimidating at first, I felt like the day went well, and that the staff liked me. At times it really seemed as though I was in my element, though still a bit nervous and uncertain about the way things usually work. Yay for doing jobs in the field I want to work in! I have a surprising number lined up already for the future, too. Hooray!
So, I was meaning to post weekly pictures of my belly, and have completely forgotten about it most weeks. So this is a picture of me at week 14. Though I feel giant, when I look at the picture, I don't feel like I'm doing too badly. I just don't like the whole weight gain part of pregnancy! When we went in for an appointment last week, we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat. Talk about exciting! There's a part of me that always worries that something's wrong (since I can't feel anything yet), so the confirmation of the heartbeat really set me at ease. It was interesting to see the way both Josh and I think as well--for example, he heard a train (the heartbeat), while I heard a washing machine! Interesting, huh? Considering that Josh loves trains, and I associate sounds of washing machines with comforting feelings (a childhood thing), the sounds we each heard made sense. We also have scheduled the ultrasound for June 1st, and, yes, we are going to find out if it is a boy or a girl!
Still don't have my car yet! Waiting, always waiting. Hopefully I will hear something this week and put pictures up!

Pregnancy in Corvallis

Thanks to a comment by Charlotte the other day (thank you very much! I love hearing from people back in California!), I was thinking about all the things available to pregnant women now, and what it's like to be pregnant in Corvallis (which is, surprisingly, very different from other areas). I have been fortunate enough to find several little "cheats" that are working really well for me (to share my experiences with some of you who can use them in the future). First of all, my mom recommended something called "Preggie Pops". These are suckers (you can get just lozenges, as well) that are naturally flavored--ginger, mint, sour lemon, etc.--and help to ease nausea. Though I had my doubts, I was shocked at how well they work. I would be just on the extreme edge of morning sickness in an inconvenient place (such as riding in the car), and would pop one of these in my mouth and begin to feel better almost immediately. The other fabulous product I have found is the "Tummy Sleeve" by Motherhood Maternity. This is simply a nylon spandex band that fits over your tummy and the top of your pants, so that when your waist no longer fits in your pants, you can still wear them unbuttoned with no one the wiser. In fact, it rather looks like you're simply layering. In the eleven-week picture below, I am wearing one. I have to say, I love the styles right now--they work so well with pregnancy! I've already gotten a couple of non-maternity shirts that are perfect for letting me grow. And my mother-in-law bought me my first maternity shirt the other day, and it's one I can wear from now until much farther along.
And now, for my musings on Corvallis. I never really thought about it, but I'm rather a minority here. There are perhaps a handful of people my age that are pregnant. It's nothing like Roseville, where people almost seem to go there to have kids. Rather, it is often difficult to find things available to pregnant moms around here. I have looked for water aerobic classes and other things, but the only pregnancy resources available are through the hospital. This is actually because it is a small college town. Because there are very few jobs available to those who graduate and want to remain in Corvallis (at least, very few well-paying jobs), most students leave right after college. Those who do return do so only after having children. On the other end of the spectrum, it seems as though the more educated the population, the higher the age of the parents when they have children. Having an enormous number of professors in town means that we have quite old parents. My doctor even made a comment on how people in Corvallis have children abnormally late. But when you have such high education, no one wants to let their schooling stagnate while they have kids, so they go into their field immediately and establish a career before having children. This does mean, however, that there are many activities going on for small children. So my kids will be highly stimulated, but I may have a hard time getting on with 40-year-old mothers of infants (and yes, I am absolutely serious). Oh, well. At least that means that I get more attention at the hospital. Without so much competition, I get great service! And, being the only one in our group of friends to be pregnant, I get lots of attention! (Who, me?) So, maybe this will be a boring post for those of you reading it, but it was an interesting time of musing for me!
P.S. For those of you wondering about my car, it's supposed to be in any day. The dealer called 10 days ago and said a week to 10 days. I'm having a difficult time with patience, though. I feel like praying and saying, "Lord, didn't we do this patience thing already? I'm okay--I don't need more of it!"

So, today was an unexpectedly good day. Not really because the whole day was good, but, rather, a lot of little things. Things like driving across the railroad tracks and being the last car before the gates began to go down. And walking down the street and having a bum (yes, we have a few homeless people in Corvallis, though they're easy to get mixed up with the college students) stop me to tell me I had a beautiful smile. Then, music wise, my turn signal kept time with the radio at one point, they played a Reliant K song I loved (they certainly don't play enough of them), and then a Red song (which they never play)! So, anyway, it's been a fun day in Corvallis, where even the bums are friendly!
We finally started taking pictures of my belly (as you can probably tell from the picture). This is at week 11, and I'm just starting to show. Before, it was just that my waist had thickened, but now there is a small but distinguishable bump (Josh assures me that it doesn't look like I've gained weight, but rather that I am pregnant). The problem is that most of my clothes actually go to my waist, and now they aren't fitting right, as my waist is expanding! If I had longer shirts, I'd be fine with normal clothes for quite a bit longer, but as it is, I'm going to have to buy some long shirts. At least I can still wear those later!
Josh and I are starting a couple of classes this week. I knew I wouldn't last long in a college town without taking some. It's simply strange to be back in Corvallis and not be in school. However, I forgot how expensive it was! We're not in California anymore, Toto! We're taking the classes (a baby sign language one and a Spanish one) through the community college here, and that helps with the price. Not only that, but they are zero-credit classes. If we were to take a three or four credit class at OSU, it would be around $500 each! Even at the community college, it would be around $300 for both of us. There was a reason I never complained about tuition hikes in California! So, we compromised and chose the zero-credit classes, especially since they wouldn't help either of us with future schooling. But we're looking forward to them. The Spanish is great, because there has been mention of sending Josh and I to Barcelona for a few weeks to work with the team there sometime. Sounds great to me! World travel, here I come!

It's Really There!

What a day! We had my first prenatal appointment today, and it was actually exciting. I wasn't expecting it, but they did an ultrasound already. There's something unreal about pregnancy until you actually see the baby and watch its heartbeat and little legs and arms moving around. If the ultrasound was any indication of personality, we will have a real show boater on our hands! The baby didn't move until it was in full view and clear on the screen, then it moved its arms and legs in what reminded me of Josh's happy dance (and if you haven't seen that, it's pretty cute)! If you have trouble making out the image, the baby's head is pointing down, and the light spot on the left is an arm. It's hard to see the rest at this size, but we could see arms and legs, and even watch the heartbeat. I actually feel pregnant now! Before, it kind of felt like there was just something wrong with me, with nothing to show for it.
Josh is so cute! Not only is he overprotective of me--the doctor did the normal female test, and he hadn't realized what it actually entailed, and ended up a little mad at the doctor--but he is obviously excited about the baby. He started his own blog (I'll put a link on the side of my blog), and he swears that I'm showing now. It's true, my waist is thicker and I can't suck my tummy in at all, but I've only gained half a pound!
In other news, Corvallis has been its wonderful springy self lately. (Okay, side note--just an example of how forgetful I am lately, I just had to look up the difference between it's and its--and I'm an English major! How pathetic is that?) The sun has been shining, the trees are all in bloom (especially the tulip trees on campus--I'll put in a picture of those later!), and the air smells fresh and fragrant. But today, the rain has returned. After a week of sun, it's not too bad; it just turns it into a movie day rather than a go out and conquer day. =) Well, I'm off to enjoy some ice cream--a reward for me for my minuscule weight gain, and a reward for Dante for his acrobatic dance.

Six More Weeks

I am six weeks along today, and I thought I was having a relatively easy first trimester. Apparently more hormones (as if I didn't have enough of those mood-changing buggers floating around my body already) are flooding my system, and I'm becoming more forgetful, and more sick. Okay, yeah, I suppose my first indication that I was pregnant was bashing the truck into a pole, but it seems to have gotten worse. I left the house three times this past week without my purse, not realizing it until I arrived at wherever I was going. And worse yet, I've made it inside several stores, but left my money in the car. This is especially bad when grocery shopping. What do I do, park my cart and hope it stays?
But I think the worst thing at the moment is the morning sickness. I have to admit, I've still had it easy. But before, as long as I stayed away from sugar and dogs' denta-bones (go figure), I was fine. Now it's become a battle of whether or not I eat all day, since nothing sounds even remotely appetizing. Josh, in his attempts to help, asked what it was that I can eat--what things do sound good. I only have two things: anything potato, and banana bread. So, guess what my diet consists of! But I can't even make the things that do taste good, because cooking (and this is about torture) sounds even more repulsive than eating. So Josh is going to get his cooking experience (he offered!), and we may be eating out a lot, if I can find some healthy things (with potatoes, of course)!
I don't mean to simply complain--there is actually a lot about pregnancy that I do love. I love the attention (who, me?), and I love watching the pictures of how the baby is growing (especially the one that reminds me that my baby now has more brain cells than Paris Hilton--their words, not mine). I love planning the nursery and buying things that we obviously don't need yet, but are so excited over that we just can't wait. There is a lot that I love about this, but there is still that thing called pregnancy that we have to get through. Just six weeks until the first trimester is over, I keep reminding myself. Just six more weeks.

My Valentine

So I haven't had a chance to write about what Josh did for me for Valentine's Day. The last couple of years, he's scored a lot of brownie points! This year, he gave me a card with a riddle in it (four lines of things we were going to do) and had me meet him for lunch. His first line sent us to a florist, where he had a bouquet of Gerber Daisies waiting for me. Then we walked to a downtown store to pick up a beautiful necklace he had gotten by an artist I have long admired, Michael Michaud. The necklace had a beautiful Eucalyptus leaf on it (Josh's favorite tree). Then his clues sent us down to a local tea shop for a seven course Valentine tea. It was wonderful (even though I was battling morning sickness)! His last clue was for the weekend. My love surprised me by taking me to Newport for a night on the Newport Belle, a riverboat B&B. We had luxurious accommodations in the bay front, with the Newport Bridge right out of our window (I'm still trying to figure out how to post Josh's pictures of it). I felt so spoiled by my Valentine!
So we spent our weekend touring the coast, ending up in Florence before heading back for home (the picture of us is from the Florence bay front). I also purchased my first piece of "fine art" (not including, of course, those pieces which have been created for me--I didn't purchase those). It is surprisingly delicate-looking metalwork figure called "Summer Novel"--a woman in a long dress and had reading a book in her lap. Again, I have to figure out how to post the pictures!
I feel as though my latest blogs have simply been an attempt to catch up with things that are going on with me, so I apologize if I have been droning on. Now that things seem to be leveling out again (it's amazing how much pregnancy can disrupt your life at times!), I will have to continue with the day to day, and put a little more personality in it. But for now, happy rainy day! (It's Oregon's liquid sunshine!)

Our News!

Well, I feel like a bit of a putz. It's been almost three weeks since my last entry. I have an excuse, I really do. Well, actually, lots of them. But anyway, I have a little too much to say right now, and not much time to say it in. So I'll start with the important stuff first, and then I'll try to catch up next week!
We're pregnant. We found out about a week and a half ago, and my doctor confirmed it today. We found out a little early, due to my brain lapse--I hit the pole of the carport with the truck and made a nice dent in the bumper. Added to my week of simply being out of it, and a bit of nausea, Josh was a bit nervous for me, so he made me take a test--and it was positive. So now we have a truck with a bent bumper and a nice little story to tell our child! =) We're pretty excited about the whole thing (we already bought a baby sling), and so are our families, so it's a great situation all around!
I hate to make this entry so short, but I have a horribly messy house, and plans for the weekend. The Friday bug has bitten me!

Aaahh, Corvallis

It's days like this that make me remember why I wanted so badly to return to Corvallis. The sun is shining, and it's a bit chilly (Yahoo says 36 degrees), but everyone is outside. I visited the Co-op today, and the smell was so comforting. I remembered days during college of waking up in the living room on Saturday mornings (we slept in sleeping bags out there on Friday so we could be woken up by the sun, which didn't come into our bedroom), heading out to the farmers' market and then off to the Co-op to get a yummy bread that would last us all day during studying, though the search in itself was an effort to put off the homework as long as possible. I can't wait until tomorrow, when Josh and I are planning to go hiking in the area. The weather makes me go into my hippie mood, and I want to throw on my sarong and head out to the garden!
We discovered a couple of places around town that are new since we were last here. The first is the Soup Shop on Monroe (for those of you who live around here). When we walked in, I felt for some reason that I was in a place in Berkeley. It definitely had the college grunge feel (but was certainly not dirty, by any means), and, like so many places in Corvallis, emphasized their organic food. We ordered chicken noodle soup and clam chowder--normally rather boring soups, right? But the clam chowder was heavy on the herbs and very low on the cream (very delicious), and the chicken noodle was the heartiest I'd ever seen. Definitely very different and highly recommended.
I've been going through Jamba Juice withdrawals since moving here, and, to my good fortune, a new smoothie store just opened up. It's called North Shore, and is located at the bottom of what was formerly Campus Inn (now G.E.M.). Wonderful place! Good prices, friendly owners, and several selections that DON'T CONTAIN BERRIES! What a thought! Hooray!
And now, Josh's personal favorite (I got him hooked last night): Peanut Butter Mochas at Bottom's Up (next to Bare Naked Tanning on Monroe, where the campus Book Bin used to be). Again, small hole in the wall, but was that drink ever good!
So yes, we've been having fun cruising around campus and the rest of the town. Tomorrow, it's off to tour the contryside. Here's to a sunshiny Corvallis weekend!

The Orange Dream Machine

I came up with a name for my car today--The Orange Dream Machine. I'm not trying to copy Jamba Juice (though it is my favorite smoothie there), but it seemed quite applicable to this car. Besides, there aren't that many Jamba Juices in Oregon--the closest one is in Salem. So Josh and I are going to start looking around for window cling lettering to put up in the back window as soon as I get the car. I can't wait!
I have to say that I am currently loving my job. The sun came out for a few minutes today, and immediately, I was out on my front porch soaking it up and working (yes, that translates as reading. Like I said, I love my job!). Of course, the comforting warmth lasted only thirty minutes or so, but it was nice while it lasted. There's a reason that people come out in droves when it's sunny in Oregon--it just doesn't happen that often! I think when spring finally arrives, I'll take Bunny over to campus and lay out in the Quad and read just like in the college days. But for now, I'll soak up all the Vitamin D I can get! I'm reading Inkheart by Cornelia Funke for my reviews right now. It surprised me that I'm having a bit of trouble getting through it--it's simply taking longer than I realized. The way the kids rip through it, I thought I wouldn't be able to put it down. It is good, however, just not quite as engaging as I had anticipated. I did find out that the author is German, however. Go Germans! =)
Anyway, just wanted to share a bit of my sunshine!

What will I fit in my Fit?

I have very exciting news (well, at least I'm very excited about it): I'm getting a new car! We went to the car dealer to order it on Tuesday. Due to the demand for the car (though you rarely ever see one), every dealer is completely sold out. Only the lot here in Corvallis held on to one model for test driving. So, in a couple months, I am going to have my new, ORANGE, manual, sporty little Honda Fit! If you haven't ever seen one (which I'm actually betting on), here is a look: click here. Now, you may know that Josh and I were in the market for a family car, and looking at a Passat Wagon. However, due to the astronomical price and horrible gas mileage, we began to look elsewhere. The more we looked around, the more I wanted a sporty car, figuring that I have plenty of time to get old and drive a sedan, or even a Subaru. I was in the market for sporty. But try matching up "sporty" and "family", plus "room for dog", and there is very little out there. So, anyway, the Fit fit our budget and lifestyle, gets great gas mileage (which I feel ever more guilty about with the truck, due to gas prices and polution), and is sporty and cute. If I'm going to be a mom someday, I'm going to be a fun mom!
So Corvallis is still under snow! We had a pretty bad ice storm up in Portland, and we got enough of it here that hardly anyone went into work at Josh's work on Tuesday. Most worked from home, and of the handful (quite literally) who tried to make it in, at least two or three ended up in small accidents. No one was injured, but I was glad Josh had decided to stay home! On the news they showed very entertaining (only because no one was hurt, just stupid) videos of people trying to drive down Salmon Street in Portland--when it obviously wasn't driveable. It was a little fun, I have to admit, to watch people who believed their SUV's actually were made for inclement weather, go spinning gracefully, or perhaps not so gracefully, down the hill. But we all know how much I love SUV's, anyway! If you want to see the video, here it is: Portland weather. The firetruck that comes in at the end to close off the street was later hit by two more cars.
Well, that's the news here. We're beginning to thaw out, and I'm grateful to have a little more warmth. I'm not used to this cold after the California sun!

My new goal--and SNOW!

It's been awhile since I used this blog for anything. Now that I have an outlet for my original goal (in www.bookmom.net), I can now feel free to use this as a creative outlet as well as keeping in touch with everyone back in California.
I've been enjoying my time back in Oregon, getting to spend time with family and friends again. I've also loved rediscovering all my old haunts around school and the whole area. So this will be my way of staying in touch and showing my love and rediscovery of my beloved Corvallis.
Well, it snowed again in Corvallis, for the second time since we've been here. This time, however, we had more and it has stayed for longer. With the excitement of snow, I had to share it with those who would love it as much as I do: the kids. So I called up Josh's mom and she brought the kids over. The four of us, and, of course, Bunbury, walked to Walnut Park (10 minutes from my apartment) and played in the snow. We got to go sledding, have snowball fights, and make a snowman. And talk about your faithful dogs! When I let Bunny off leash, he was excited to see all the other dogs there, and would barely obey me for his excitement. However, he climbed the hill with us every time, and whenever I went sledding, he would run alongside all the way down!
So I am loving Corvallis covered in snow, and loving the festive atmosphere it brings with it. Tonight, I'm off to my college roommate's house to watch scary movies and tell each other ghost stories just like the old days.

My new project

A new project has rather dropped in my lap today. I've decided to create a review of children's books in an effort to increase parents' ability to be involved in their children's learning process, as well as to know what their children are reading. Thus, for a time this blog will be devoted to books--a perfect reflection of me! From my work in a bookstore, and through my studies in my senior seminar, it has become painfully apparent that most parents have little or no idea what their children are reading--not only what is assigned in school, but also what kids are reading on their own. Parents make the mistake quite frequently of only monitoring scholastic reading rather than discretionary, and this is where the danger lies. I am a firm opponent to censorship, but I believe that a responsible parent knows what his or her children are putting into their heads.
Along the same lines, there are many books that are contested and challenged out there (as nothing is ever banned, since banning books is against the first amendment) that are actually very good for children, and these books need an advocate--namely, me. My goal is not to influence anyone's opinion about the books I review, but rather to help parents and perhaps teachers and conscientious kids make educated, informed decisions about children's literature. This is perhaps one of the most misunderstood areas of literature out there, while also the most crucial, and thus it has become my passion. What can I say, I root for the underdog! The writing in children's literature may be more simplistic than many adult books (and actually, some are quite beautiful in their language), but the messages are not. The information and imagination contained between the pages of the best of these are very important for children in allowing their minds to grow, and in raising children who are able to think for themselves.
I plan to begin with children's books that I have read (which will take awhile just at that), and make an attempt to first cover award winners and popular books, as well as those commonly taught in the classroom, in an effort to make my site as helpful as possible. I want to give an objective look at the books I review, but also contain a sidebar with my own personal opinion, so that those who know me and trust my discretion may be able to make decisions based on my input. Again, my effort is not in censorship. Going to high school with a librarian who went through every book and crossed out the swear words--in classic literature, no less--incensed me and made me realize that there must be a better way than to either censor things or than to read until I found something objectionable. I hope this site helps, and I hope that through it we can raise a generation of children who we are unafraid to allow to read great books, a generation of great writers and thinkers that can give us hope for the future.

Furtwangler Paper

Starting

First Post!