Limelight by Melody Carlson

Reviewed by Amanda Schafer

Claudette Fiore used to be one of those in the Limelight, but now she’s an older version of that person who has now been forced from her home by the IRS. She had it all: a mansion in Beverly Hills, a famous and wealthy husband, maids and servants to do things for her, invitations to parties and friends to shop with. But now, she has nothing, and feeling destitute, she would love to just end it all. However, it’s even worse than she thought. Her accountant has given her a budget that she must live under each month! How ever will she do it!? Thankfully, her stepson, Michael, comes over from Hawaii to help her out and give her a start back towards a more ‘normal’ lifestyle. When Claudette remembers that she is the heir to her mother’s house in northern California, Michael insists that she can make it there…and he’s willing to help her. Over the course of a few days, Michael transforms her childhood home into one that is “more to her liking.” But can she keep it up when she knows nothing about housekeeping and all those menial daily tasks?

Claudette is forced to begin relying on “normal people” in order to get through her first couple of weeks in which she runs out of money, has no heat, her plumbing explodes, and she practically burns down her house. What is it like to live like she is being forced to live? Claudette will soon find out….

Limelight by Melody Carlson isn’t quite a typical book from her. The book seems to be more “worldly” and speaks very little about God or a Christian lifestyle. Typically in Carlson’s books, there are one or two characters that are Christian and attempt to share their faith with the primary character, who is hardened toward all things “religion.” Then as the book progresses, we see a slow, but steady, shift in the heart of the character to an acceptance of Christ. However, in this book, we see Claudette only become slightly less haughty and self-righteous, rather than a complete transformation of her heart. There was very little “religion” spoken of throughout the book, but plenty of times to see how one can live a selfish and stuck-up life to the point of closing off herself from the rest of the world.

I personally didn’t care for this book by Carlson. I realize her books are considered “edgy Christian Fiction” but this one goes beyond being edgy and takes it almost completely out of the realm of “Christian Fiction.” I have enjoyed many of her other books (A Mile in My Flip Flops, These Boots Weren’t Made for Walking, and the Bloomberg series), but this was really hard for me to force myself to finish and left me very frustrated as a reader.

This review originally written for and published on LuxuryReading.com.

New Baby coming!!

Well, we've announced it everywhere except here! LOL The newest addition to our family will be arriving in early June 2010...The boys are so extremely excited! Clayton wants a girl, Brent wants a boy...I just want a healthy baby! (Although, a boy would be easier since we already have all the stuff for a boy...a girl would certainly be nice too! LOL)

YAY!

I've added a 'baby countdown ticker' to the top left of our blog here so you can keep track along with us!

White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner

Blog Tour and Giveaway: "White Picket Fences" by Susan Meissner

Reviewed by Amanda S.

In White Picket Fences, Neil and Amanda Janvier feel obligated to take in the daughter of Amanda’s estranged brother. Tally was staying with her grandmother when she passed away suddenly, and Tally finds herself with nowhere to go since her dad is out of the country and hasn’t contacted her. What will it be like living with her Aunt Amanda? Will they force her to tell why her dad went to Europe, a secret she promised to keep?

Do I want to know the truth of what happened all those years ago? If I find out the truth, how will it change me? These are the questions that Chase Janvier is asking himself regarding an incident that happened when he was four years old. Not knowing what to do, Chase keeps his secret to himself. That is, until Tally shows up at their house. Tally can tell that something isn’t right about Chase after they start working together on a Holocaust project. They interview two Holocaust survivors in a nearby nursing home and Tally notices Chase reacting oddly to certain parts of the story they are being told.

Amanda also begins to notice some pretty dramatic changes in Chase that cause her to wonder if he really does remember what happened all those years ago. But if he remembered, he would tell them, wouldn’t he? Should she ask him about it? What kind of damage would she do if she brings it up and he really doesn’t remember? Clearly, though, something is wrong and Amanda just doesn’t know what to do or which direction to turn.

Will they all be able to handle the truth when all the secrets are revealed?

As always, Susan Meissner does a wonderful job weaving a tale of deception, secrets, and twisted paths. The characters in this story have a serious problem with trust…trust in each other and trust in God, which unnerved me throughout the story. When I first picked up this book, I was intrigued by the cover: a white picket fence with a cobweb near the top. It’s so easy for people to look like they have it all-together on the outside with their pretty houses and white picket fences. But on the inside, all families have secrets and cobwebs hiding from the real world.

I always enjoy reading books my Meissner, and White Picket Fences was no different. Her books always challenge a person to really take a hard look at themselves, deep inside, to discover their true character. She caused me to ask myself how I would handle the truth if some long-ago family secret was revealed to me? Would I let it weigh me down or would I allow it to cause me to grow as a person?


This review originally written for and published on LuxuryReading.com.

Grant's Farm - Family Trip

This year, in lieu of taking a family vacation (which we had neither the time nor the money to do), we decided to do a few smaller things as a family in the month of September. One of our first things we did was to go to Grant's Farm in St Louis, where Ulysses S. Grant lived for a time.

The first part of the day when you walk into the park is a 'tram ride'--sort of a tour of the grounds. These swans were on a pond that we passed...I just *love* swans. :)

At the end of the tram ride is the center of the park where the animals are. This is the entrance to that area.

When you walk through here, the first thing you see on your left is the goat feeding area. Oh. My. Goodness. There are sooo many goats!! We decided to do the 'day pass' for each of the boys, where they would get to feed the goats twice, get a snow cone, and ride the carousel. We fed the first of our goat bottles the very first thing, as the boys were so excited about it. Well, when it came time to actually get IN the goat pen, Clayton decided he didn't want to! LOL There were just so many goats and they were just clamoring for the milk. So, Terry put him on his shoulders, but as you can see, that didn't really keep him 'safe'. LOL This goat decided to get up on Terry and drink the milk right at C's 'shoe level', which kinda freaked him out!

Brent had a blast feeding the goats...they were trampling all over him trying to get the milk, but he just had one bottle. One of the goats (below right) just decided to start eating Brent's shorts since he couldn't get the milk! ROFL (Actually, by the look of the goats eyes, he almost looked like he couldn't see very well, so I'm not sure he really knew what he was going after....)



There were these massive turtles (er, tortoises) out in there little area...you can see how big they were compared to the boys...and you can see how close the kids were to the animals.

They stopped to watch this elephant and were just really intrigued by it. (I have NO idea who those other two kids were....)

There was a 'wild bird show' that we went to and they did this little "Rat Race" with these kids. They brought out 2 rats and had the kids stand holding hands, then they let the rats go to race across the kids' arms/shoulders. Well.... Ewww. The rats went INSIDE the shirts of these kids when going across!! I told the boys it was a good thing they didn't get called on cuz we would have BURNT those shirts!!!

This was their carousel ride....why, oh why, does Brent have to make those funny faces when I take his pic??? LOL



At the end of our day, we got their snow cones and sat at the table in the 'vending area'...the boys' tongues and teeth turned the color of their slush, so of course they had to make funny faces while their mouths looked funny anyway. :)



On the other side of the parking lot was the Clydesdale stables, so we toured through there right before we left. It was feeding time for the horses, so we mostly just got rear-end-shots. :( But a very nice lady saw us snapping a couple shots of the boys by the statue and offered to take a family shot. So....just for 'you know who you are'....a family photo of us utterly exhausted LOL :

Bug Trap

One night while I was fixing dinner, Terry came out of the bathroom and said, "You need to go look at the bug trap someone made for you." See, with the cooler evenings we've had the window open and the attic fan on, and we had this hole in the screen of our bedroom window. So, someone decided to 'cover' the hole so that bugs wouldn't get in.

Well, after supper that night, I walked down the hallway and into my room and just started giggling. This is what I saw:



My two Vicks bottles and my Melatonin bottle all stacked on each other with a little fruit cup on top. You can see that he had a water bottle there and that he tried that...there were other bottles and things from my nightstand that he had tried to use.

And if you look at the second image, at the top of the hole, there is a little moth that he caught inside the fruit cup.

Very creative! :)

End of Summer 2009

So much happened at the end of the summer this year! The boys were both in ball (Clayton in T-ball, Brent in coach pitch) and they both had team pictures done. I wasn't able to get Brent's the day they did it, but I got Clayton's. Below is his team with their medals:

In July, they had their tournament for TKD and this is the picture taken in class of the trophies that were won that day:

In August, some friends of ours from church went with us to Salem and we spent some time fishing and driving around the farm. Sooo much fun. Brent, of course, was the best fisherman of the day! He caught something nearly every time he cast his line into the pond. Below is a pic of the first fish he got to keep that day and the three boys with their stringer of fish at the end of the afternoon.

This was the ONLY fish I caught that day. That is NOT my kind of fishing! LOL However, it was made-up-for by the fact that I *did* catch a snapping turtle. :-D We were able to get it out of the pond and Terry and Ron cut it's head off. (Science, anyone??? LOL) The kids were fascinated by the fact that even after its head was removed, the turtle would still continue to walk when turned over onto its feet. :-) Ya gotta love those involuntary muscles and nerves!

Terry made us all clean up brush from around the pond before we were able to fish. LOL If we hadn't, there would have been too much brush to even get to the pond bank in order to fish! So at the end of the day, I had the kids stand in front of their brush pile with their fish so I could get a picture. Then in the back of the truck, Brent wanted a closeup shot of his stringer of fish, since he caught all but 2 of them! LOL

After we got done fishing, we decided to go see the cows. Clayton and T were standing up in the back of the truck looking through the cab out into the field. LOL Just too cute not to take a picture of them! Then later, while we were parked and talking about the cows and feeding them some cubes, I got a shot of the boys sitting side-by-side on the tailgate of the truck.

On Sunday, we left right after lunch and headed back home for Pew Packers/Bible Bowl practice. Obviously, the weekend was a success, cuz Clayton was just *wiped out*, which is evident by how he was sleeping, even after the other three kids had climbed over him to get out and go inside! LOL

Summer Zoo Trip with the Youth Group

Back in July, the youth group at church took a trip to the zoo in St Louis.  What fun!  It was a loooong day, but the kids had a blast!  This was their pose of silliness on the way up there.

When we were almost done with all the walking we were gonna do, we were in the middle of a section of the zoo that only had 'one way' out.  We decided to sit and rest for just a bit and the kids decided to get their maps out and try to figure out 'how to get us out of here'.  LOL  Course, we knew there was only one way to go, but it gave us an excuse to take a break!

At the very end of the day, we were by the gate and they wanted to climb on the seal statue.  I thought a nice pic was in order!  LOL  So here they are....looking exhausted but still having fun.

Quick update...

Well, it's now July and I haven't done ANY new posting in nearly a month! Wow. Just amazing how quickly time flies and how very LITTLE computer time I have for these types of things (blogging, email, etc).

Last month (end of June) brought my birthday (I'm now a whopping 31!!), which ended up lasting 4 or 5 days! Mom and dad came down and took us out for my birthday/Father's Day..went to Lamberts! YUM!

The very last week of June and first two days of July were spent at VBS... a VERY long week, but so very worth it! I got to teach the nursery class and really enjoyed getting to know a couple of our babies there. I'd forgotten how much I truly love to teach the baby class. The boys really enjoyed VBS and came home each night talking about what they learned, and at one point even debating on who's teacher told the story right! LOL

The weekend of the 4th, we went to Salem and spent the weekend...very nice weekend. Brent got to learn how to set off fireworks this year... Eeek! He did a really good job and I just stayed out of the way. Got a couple good pics that I will have to share soon.

Friday the 10th, we went to the zoo with our youth group. Wow...what a trip! There were 40-50 people from church that went to the zoo and while we went our separate ways within the zoo, we all ate lunch together in a little grassy area outside the zoo. We really had fun and the kids were all soooo good! Again, more pictures to come...probably within their own post. I got some REALLY good shots at the zoo!

Then the next morning on the 11th, the boys had a Tae Kwon Do Tournament in Cape. They both did really well... Brent got 2nd in Form and 3rd in Sparring; Clayton got 1st in Form and 1st in Sparring! :) They were both really happy...Clayton especially, as it was difficult to peel him off of my arm when we got there. :s Brent was a little disappointed, cuz he wanted to do better than he did, but we've talked about that and plan on having him talk with his teachers (black belts) to get some ideas on what he can do to improve and also ideas on what he can do when the other person is sparring in a certain way. Hopefully, he will do better next time. :)

This week (and next) Janice is here with us to go to some ball games and to see the TKD stuff. The boys are really enjoying their time with Grandma Niecey and have already played about 100 games of Canasta. (I'm so sick of that game, I'm ready to hide the cards!!)

Therapy continues as normal....Clayton has had some going backwards emotionally, but according to the testing they are doing periodically, he's going in the right direction brain-wise. So we'll just have to see how things continue. Brent should be done with his therapies by the end of this month, while Clayton will continue for a couple weeks after that.

That about covers it for now. Hopefully, I can find some time to do pictures and commenting soon!

A Past-Dated Updated

**NOTE: This post is dated 6-3-09, simply cuz that's when I actually WROTE it, it's just taken me till now (6-18) to get it actually posted! *sigh* Life is busy....
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It’s been a while since I’ve been here to truly update….I haven’t had the time to sit and type! I *thought* I would be able to do some of my blogging during the boys’ therapy sessions with Dr Worth, but I’ve had other things to get done during those times. Well, that has changed a bit….

The boys’ therapies have been going well. Things started out a bit rough for Clayton…he was tiring out before they could finish and he wasn’t doing very well when he was doing it. So they decided to give him a ‘break’ in between each section, thinking that just some downtime (and being able to reconnect with me for a moment) would help him, and it did. He was able to complete all of his Interactive Metronome exercises in the hour. However, they dropped off the Brain Play game (where they *think* the play moves instead of having a controller in their hand). This has worked really well for the last couple of weeks and last week, Clayton was able to do 2 of his 3 IM exercises without a break….so PROGRESS! :-) Brent has been doing all of his each time and seems to be doing really well with all parts of it. He takes a ‘drink break’ about half way through and that seems to do it for him. He’s doing both the IM and the Brain Play stuff.

Last week, they got their Hemi-Stim glasses, which are blue-lensed glasses that have LED lights that blink/flash in a certain pattern. They are to wear these for 5 mins, 2-3 times a day…gradually working up to 20-25 minutes a day. We’re told that these are things they will do at home even after the therapy here stops…so this is something that is long-term. (And let me tell you…you do NOT want to have to pay for these glasses! They are EXPENSIVE!) We have a metronome ordered (and on its way to us) right now…that’s another part of their home-work that we’ll be doing each day. I’m not sure yet exactly what that will entail, but I will share when I know.

We had a very busy month of May….with 2 college graduations and 1 wedding. The second graduation we went to, we sorta skipped out on cuz it was SO over-crowded. Plus, Clayton simply wasn’t handling the situation very well….WAY over-stimulating for him. So, we went and walked around UMR campus (where Terry went to college). He showed the boys the different buildings and we found MANY opportunities for good photo shots! :-) It was really a good afternoon that we got to have together as a family….

AND, I learned out to parallel park! LOL I know that sounds silly to some people but I never learned when I was in driver’s ed. And so I was terrified of parallel parking…and would drive around and around blocks to find a spot that was either 2 car-lengths (those I could handle!) or that wasn’t parallel parking. A couple of times in Cape, I would be driving and we’d get in a spot where I’d have to parallel park and I couldn’t, so (rather than get out of the van and do Chinese firedrill), Terry would park for me from the passenger seat! LOL Yeah, I know…not smart, but it’s pretty amazing that he could do that! Anyway, we found a couple of different spots on campus that I could practice on and I was able to parallel park 3 different times. Now, does that mean I can do it in Cape when there are other cars driving past me making me nervous? Not sure. Haven’t tried yet. But at least now I have the idea down. :)

So here are some of the shots we got while on campus that day:

First, we took the boys to Stone Henge and let them play around and learn a bit about it:



They got to running and jumping from each of these surrounding rocks...so I decided to try to capture them mid-air. Kinda fun...



This was just a good shot of Clayton...one of his moments when he was sitting still...

Later, after me learning to parallel park, we walked around through some of the buildings and the 'courtyard' area...

The boys playing on the "Big Clover Leaf" and with their Daddy



For some reason, I was fascinated with 'air shots' that day!

Finally, as we were walking I just found some really good posing areas:

The week after the gradauation, was the first of the two weddings. It was a really nice wedding….if you don’t count the lighting, thunder and rain in the middle of it all! LOL The boys had a blast running through the rain and playing with the umbrellas. But they had even more fun at the reception/dance! They danced with just about everyone….at least Brent did. I think he sought out each lady-person in the family and danced with them…including me! Clayton was happy to dance with someone, dance alone, dance in a group….he didn’t care. As long as he was dancing. But when he got tired, he was DONE. He sat down on the floor and just wouldn’t move again till we told him it was time to go. We have the last of the two weddings (and the last of our weekend running for a while!) this coming Satuday. But the boys are both looking forward to this reception too…more for the dance than anything else. LOL Brent is especially happy, cuz he learned the two-step at the last one and now he wants to practice it more.

Here is a couple of shots of the cakes that Terry's sister did...beautiful!

After the dinner, the dance began...and like I said, the boys had fun!

Clayton kept going back to dance with Maggie (the bride)

But then, he'd dance by (and spin) himself too...

They 'group danced' with their cousins and of course learned the 'Helicopter' from Nathan! LOL

They had their own moves...

But then Brent learned the two-step from ReVay. (and yes, those are droplets of water on my camera lens...leftover from the rain earlier that day.)

And, finally, Janice was able to dance with Cory...so nice. :-)

T-Ball/Baseball is going okay. We’ve had a LOT of rainouts, which has definitely put a damper on Brent’s mood. Out of the last month, he was supposed to have 3 games and 2 practices…..4 out of those 5 were canceled due to rain or muddy fields. He handled the first couple okay, but this last one really got him down. He just couldn’t understand why the rain wanted him to not play! LOL He has another game this Thursday, and we’ll see if he gets to have it or not. For the one game that he did get to play, he scored his first run and also had his first RBI for the season. So he was pretty happy with that one…plus he’s on a ‘yellow’ team, which he’s really proud of cuz he likes yellow so much. The good thing is that when they have a canceled game (or a night when a game isn’t scheduled) they can go to TKD, which is nice cuz they have a tournament coming up for that on July 11. :-)

Last week, I decided to switch our therapy appointments from Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday to Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Wednesdays are just WAY too much for me to handle, what with teaching class. I don’t think it was so much the idea of needing to study and get ready for the class as it was the fact of running to STL (75 miles north)and back in the early afternoon, trying to get dinner, refresh for my class, and then driving down to Jackson (25 miles south) for worship. It was just too stressful for me to be able to cope with emotionally and mentally. I know, I’m weird. I was finding myself unable to concentrate or focus by the time I got to class. So I’m hoping that by switching to a different day and having all of Wednesday to be home I won’t feel that type of stress on Wednesdays. I hope. :)

We got part of our garden done this weekend. I say ‘we’…it was really mostly Terry and Brent that did it. They built a contraption to hold our upside-down-hanging tomatoes and cucumbers. It only took them about 3 ½ hours to get the whole thing built and then on Sunday Terry put the plants into the pots (minus 3 of the tomatoes, which I did cuz he said he was mutilating the plant to get it through the whole at the bottom of the pot). So now we’ll see how these work for us. Perhaps I can post pictures of his little contraption...it's really quite creative...

Well, that's it for this update....I'm tired. LOL I have more to tell, since it's now the middle of June...the second wedding and more therapy information. YAY! :) Hopefully it won't be JULY before I get that one done!