HAPPY NEW YEAR

New Year's Eve...spending time at home with the kiddos and my niece, my BF and her 2 kiddos...playing some wii, eating some snacks, watching the ball drop (IF we last that long). No "adult" partying for us this year. I think this is the first New Year's Eve in about 8 or 9 that we haven't had a sitter and gone some place. I never even tried for a sitter this year, just wasn't "feeling" being out and about. I don't even think the kids know what NYE even is because we have never celebrated it with them. I am looking forward to just relaxing...well, as much as you can relax with a house full of wired up kids!

Pictures to come
Stay Tuned...

Fa La La La La, La La La La

Well, it's all over except the UNdecorating, which I will save for when the kids go back to school next week. David is off this week on vacation, so we are just enjoying our time together and chilling out. Everyone ended up sick at some point, but we managed to make it through Christmas Day without incident and then David started with it around 11pm, but by then we were just happy to be through the day. It was a wonderful day and everyone was very happy with all their gifts and being together. Here is a pic of the kids from Christmas Eve night...it's almost impossible to get all 3 in one decent shot. Brody looked just like a little elf in his Christmas PJ's and Mikayla and Dylan loved their footie PJ's...Mikayla, bless her heart, had been throwing up all night on the 23 and had just started feeling better around 4pm on Christmas Eve, you can tell she wasn't "quite" right in her picture! Next thing on the list, having Brody's 2 year old Birthday party on Saturday...

Thanks to my friend Jill...I have been elfed

Even though I haven't been able to watch the actual dance yet (dumb site is bogged down) I do have this lovely little picture to share with all of you. THANKS Jill, you have MADE MY DAY!! According to Jill this had to be done for me because after all I AM the CHRISTMAS ELF (on crack, but she didn't say that) XOXO Jill!

Christmas Eve, Eve!

It's Christmas Eve, Eve and my "shower power" from yesterday (see post) is holding strong. I have been playing the Holiday Music Station on the TV and wrapping presents and in general I am feeling GREAT!! I think I have finally come the full 360 out of the funk!

HO, HO, HO!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS

Now if I can just be lucky enough to find a showing of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation today things will be PERFECT!!!

It's amazing what a shower can do for you

So all you Stay at Home Mom's or Mom's currently home with sick kids
CAN I GET AN AMEN???

I have been TRYING not to get down today, even though I was up all last night with puking Brody and managed maybe 2 hours of sleep (interupted by puke sessions of course). I have been trying to shrug it off and be all Fa La La La La, but around 4:00 PM I was almost on the final spiral in to the depths of dispair. Then I decided to take a shower...why would that be something to do at 4pm when I am not going anywhere or doing anything? Well, as I was doing something (don't remember what right now) I got a whiff of pit (funny I am admiting that here for whomever to read) and then I looked in the mirror and THEN I looked at the calendar & Holy crap it has been more than a few days. I guess between me being sick, then in the funk of "My Christmas is going to suck" and then Brody getting sick well Shower feel to the wayside of the "TO DO" list.

So, I quietly signaled to Mikayla that I was going to slip away to the shower...'cause God help me if the boys even caught the idea that I might be thinking of it I would not have been alone for more than a second before someone would have wanted to jump in fully clothed (Brody) or someone else would have had to ask me the secrets of the Universe that MUST be answered at that exact moment (Dylan). Anyway, so off to the shower I went...

I must admit I came out feeling, almost, like a new person...I even blow dried my hair, put on moisturizer and contemplated plucking my eyebrows (which I didn't, thought the pain might trigger the funk). It's amazing how that one little "just for me" (although from that whiff of pit it might have been for everyone in my immediate vicinity as well) made me feel sooooo much better. As I stood in there lathered up with my super rich, shea butter, creamy, (cheap) body wash I found myself SMILING and thinking NICE thoughts about Christmas being a couple of sleeps away. All of a sudden much of the crappiness I have been harboring (trust me I have been "putting on" a somewhat decent act) melted away with the grime and slime (my hair was GRROOOSSSS). I even took the time to rinse and repeat, ok I NEVER rinse and repeat (cause I'm frugal, BUT I like relatively expensive shampoo/conditioner). So there was another "just for me" thing and this one didn't even matter to anyone else (except the budget when I run out of product a day early LOL).

I honestly can say that this simple thing of a shower, alone, probably no more than 15 minutes (and that's with blow drying the hair) I made a turn around. I picked my (much cleaner) self up out of the spiral and boosted myself a little higher in the spirit. I mean HONESTLY I NEED to just STOP IT and think of all the wonderful, amazing things I have to be thankful for at this time of year. I am sure there are many, many families out there that freaking WISH a 12 hour stomach bug was all they had to worry about, instead of their child laying in a hospital or there house being forclosed on or their job being lost or someone in their family that just died. I have a wonderful husband, 3 healthy children (minus the ocasional bug or allergy), a warm house, a LOVING family, AWESOME friends and more. I have the "means" to provide my children with nearly every thing on their Christmas "Wish" list, when there are many people that will worry about one single meal every day not just Christmas day (and I will say we have done our part to lessen the strain on some of these people this year). I need to GROW UP

I am DONE, I am done falling in to my spiral of Bah Humbugism (like my made up words?) I'm BAAACK...Puke or no Puke, Exploding poo or no Exploding poo, LIFE GOES ON...My family NEEDS their "Christmas Elf on Crack" and by GOD I am going to deliver AND because I really FEEL that way now, not because I am faking it out!

MERRY CHRISTMAS PEOPLE, LOOK AROUND, BE THANKFUL!

I don't want to be a Bah Humbuger, but...

Gimme a break! I don't know how much more I can take before my normal "Christmas Elf on Crack" self breaks for good. I have always been "THAT" person at Christmas...the one who starts doing the countdown on Dec. 1, the one who will call you up on the 20th and tell you it's Chrsitmas, EVE, EVE, EVE, EVE. The one who had to have all sorts of Christmasy, Holiday shirts (and makes her kids wear them too, but hey right now they enjoy it, so it's not really "Making" them...yet), and earrings and Santa Hats. It wouldn't be surprising to catch me in "The bad place" with a Santa Hat on. I am the one playing the ALL Holiday music channel in the car, the one leaving the Merry Christmas message on my voicemail Dec 1 etc. You can get the picture...as I said before Christmas Elf on Crack" no exaggeration.

Well, something is trying to pull me down, the "Bah Humbug" forces taht be are trying their damndest to squash my Christmas Spirit. I will be totally honest that they have managed to win a little bit of the battle too. I even blogged about it earlier this month, having a hard time getting "in the spirit" OMG, what??? Me??? NO WAY! How could that be?

2 years in a row Christmas has been difficult (to say the least) due to, for the most part, sickness. Yesterday we missed our first family Christmas party (the same one I cussed people out at last year) because I was in the bed all day with some sort of fluish 12 hour sickness. I totally quarentined my whole family and wouldn't let them go to the party either (even though they were all 100% healthy at the time). So, at least I know for now that if anyone else (outside my household) gets this it wasn't because of me. Unlike last year when we single handedly managed to infect 50% of the county with the puking/crapping death for Christmas/New Years.

As of today I feel 95%, I am a little "weak" feeling from the fever and stuff yesterday, but other than that I am on the road to recovery. For now all the kids and David are ok...will they get it? I really hope not, but who knows? I will just be thankful it seems to be a pretty quick (12 hour) thing and not many other symptoms other than the fever, chills and body aches.

I really don't want to become a Bah Humbuger, but I really need to catch a freakin' break already SERIOUSLY!

How could it be? 2?? NOOO WAY!

I can't believe that in 8 short days my little baby boy will be TWO years old!! This past 2 years have flown by so fast I can't even begin to explain it! I look back to the time I found out we were going to be having a 3rd baby and though I can't say that all of my emotions were happy (or sane), I can say I wouldn't have it ANY other way. Brody is such a charmer and such a happy, great little guy. Even when he is throwing a tantrum or being a "buster" he still has the cutest little personality. He is EXTREMELY polite, saying Thank You, Your Welcome, Please and I'm Sorry without being prompted. I think he will be the "most likely to be the class clown" out of all 3 of my kids. Brody is also a very handsome little boy, we don't go anywhere that we aren't stopped (multiple times) by people exclaiming over how cute he is. He has a cute little goofy way he cocks his head and grins that will melt even the coldest of hearts. He is so smart and because he is also tall for his age he gets mistaken by most people to be older than he really is. This little guy might have been the biggest surprise of my life, but he has completed our family in ways we could have never imagined. There is no way I could sit here and even fathom what life would be like without my little Goobie. Here is a sample of his birthday invitation (Yes I added his clothes size because only family and close friends are invited and they would all call me and ask anyway, tacky? I don't care)

Jingle all the way!

Mikayla at her school Christmas program last night. It seems like every year the "theme" of the program has been about Santa being "lost" in some way, shape, or form. It was interesting and not without it's quirks and funny (unscripted) moments. One of the "Reindeer" had a toddler sister that made her way on to the gym floor (stage) and made a show of getting picked up by her sister (in the program) and put down, then toddling around etc. I think most people thought it was cute, I think the Music director was a little annoyed. Oh well, she should get used to it, because something like that always seems to happen during kids programs. It's also the things that make them so memorable..."Remember that year "K" got down and ran on to the stage?"

Mikayla was "Elf 4" and had a few quick lines. She loved singing the songs. She also looked pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself. Don't know why some of the elves (including Mikayla) decided to flip their hat fringe up? I guess that's the new "hip" way to wear your elf hat! We had a nice time and Mikayla was thrilled that David and I were both able to attend as well as both Maw-Maw and Pa this year. (Thanks Liza)

Pictures from the cookie making

Here are some pictures from our cookie making, baking, decorating party at my Mom's house on Wed. The kids had a BLAST and did a great job. Everyone left happy with cookies for Santa and a huge sugar high! (Note: No pictures of me because I am the baker HAHA!)

Before they got their dough, we had about 30 cookie cutters to chose from
I think this is the only picture with all 7 kids in it.

Here they are working with their dough, getting it rolled out to cut

That's my Sister and my Mom helping the kiddos

Here they are doing the decorating, colored icing, sprinkles and

all kinds of goodies. I think some ate more than they got on the

cookies! Again, My Sister, Mom and Liza helping out (and eating too)

Some of the finished product, we had trains, trees, angels, bears, Stanta, Stars,

Reindeer etc. Pretty much every Christmas cookie you could think of!

Oh and of course the "after party" everyone dancing around

to Cyndi Lauper's "Feels like Chirstmas" song!

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza!!

Today we will go to my Mom's when the kids get home from school to do our yearly Christmas Cookie make and decorate. It's always a lot of fun and the kids have a BLAST. There will be 7 kids there, the oldest being Mikayla(9), then Dylan(5) and Anthony(6), Lilly(4), Alexis(4), her buddy Nevaeh (4) and last, but not least Brody( almost 2). 7 kids ages 9 and under woohoo! It's funny to see because some of the kids are very intent on making cookies, while others mainly eat the goodies! I don't know how many of these cookies anyone is actually comfortable with eating afterwards (anyone other than the creators themselves).

I am so happy that my kids have such fun Holiday Traditions to take part in. Yes, it will be a mess and we will have to spend almost as much time cleaning up (kids and tables) as we do actually making the cookies...Yes, there will probably be at least 1 runny nose in the bunch...Yes, it will loud and chaotic, BUT that's not the important thing. The important thing is these kids get together with their family and friends to do a project and have a great time! I was thinking the other day how we have these special traditions and one day my kids will probably have some of the same ones.

Here are a few of ours (in no particular order):

Christmas Cookies at MawMaw's

David and Kids building a Gingerbread house (no help from me other than pics I take)

Christmas Parade (No matter how cold or if it's snowing)

Christmas Eve here with Family and Friends

Christmas PJ's given to the Kids on Christmas Eve

Christmas T-shirts kids get to wear throughout the month

Toys for Tots donation (Gift from each of our kids, something from their age group)

Salvation Army Donations (Every time we go to a store the kids get to put money in the collection cans they call the people there "Ringer Dingers" LOL)

Christmas Brunch at Maw-Maw and Pa's Oyster Stew and Breakfast Casserole

What are your Christmas Traditions??

Fustrating

Dylan is having skin reactions again...you can go back to my posts around March, April, May if you need a recap. Bottom line, we took him for pretty extensive allergy testing and he only reacted to a couple of things (2 we knew 2 we didn't) all 4 of those things are outside and guess what? He hasn't been outside or exposed to any of these items. He started breaking out on Sunday, it was mainly above his waist. I had to run out and get Benadryl (I suck for not having it on hand, as it is a MUST have for Dylan....bad Mom moment), by the time I got the meds in him he was horribly uncomfortable and I felt sooo bad. I automaticaly assumed it had something to do with the sweatshirt he was wearing, I didn't recall him wearing it yet this season and thought maybe it had been washed at someone else's house or something. I figured the outbreak would be over with once the shirt was discarded...WRONG. He woke up Monday morning with some break out and I gave him more meds. I don't like having to give him meds before school because I never know how he will react to them. He went to school on Prednisone 3 weeks ago and had one very bad morning (had to put him on the bus kicking and crying). He came home with no breakout and then about 2 hours after getting home he started breaking out. This has pretty much been the pattern for the past few days. I thought today we had narrowed it down to a quilt that has been packed away all year. It is a Christmas quilt and only comes out for Christmas, but that quilt has been out since we decorated Monday after Thanksgiving...I have that in the wash now, but sure enough he started breaking out this evening again.

This is BEYOND frustrating...the breakouts that he is having right now are only about 1/2 as bad (maybe he 1/4 as bad) as the ones from the Spring when he was swollen up and his eyes were swollen shut and he looked like he weighed 80 lbs instead of barely 40lbs. etc, but he is uncomfortable and requiring meds every 8 hours. I haven't called the Dr. yet because I was trying to narrow it down before calling or God forbid have more testing done (he hated that), but I might have to give up and call tomorrow.

Grrr...my poor guy and his crazy skin, he is sooo much like me with his skin/immune system it isn't even funny...nice genes I passed on eh?

Winter Social Pictures

Here are the promised pics from the Winter Social at the kids school. The kids had a blast and they were OH so cute!


Dylan, Mikayla and Anthony at the social...I think they all 3 got told at some point that they were the best dressed :)

Mikayla before at our house, notice the chin? It had been itching at school a few days before and she ended up rubbing it on her shirt until she rubbed the skin OFF! Isn't that nice?

Dylan, Anthony and one of their kindergarten buddies play "air guitar" to the new "Beat it" they were SOOO cute, and even slid across the gym floor on their knees while "playing" it was the most freaking cute thing EVER

Anthony, Dylan and their friends...NOTE: Dylan has a HUGE crush on the little girl sitting beside Anthony. He would never admit that to anyone other than Anthony or his Dad though

Dylan at home before...I didn't get a full body shot with the "Shiny Shoes"

Dylan with his crush and Anthony. HE made SURE I got this picture. Her Dad was funny and tried to pay me for a copy of this pic.

Winter Social

Tonight is the Winter Social at school for the kids. They started having a Winter and Spring Social when Mikayla was in 2nd Grade and they are a big hit with the kids. The PTO puts them on, supplying food, a DJ, a few games and pictures for the kids. The DJ plays mostly dance numbers like The Electric Slide, Macarena, Hokey Pokey etc. and takes a few requests of apropriate tunes (I am sure we will hear some Hannah Montana and Taylor Swift this year) and the kids have fun dancing and spinning around.

Dylan was not so excited, at first, about going to a "dance"...Mikayla always calls it a "dance". Of course once I explained to him that he didn't have to dance and there were other things to do there he was happy to go. Actually he is excited to go now because I am letting him wear his Christmas "Dress Up" outfit complete with his "Shiny" dress shoes that he LOVES and would wear to school EVERY day should I let him. Most of the kids "Dress Up" for the winter social, so it will be cute to see what the other kids wear.

It should be a fun time tonight, I am going to take plenty of pictures, I mean come on, like I can miss taking pics of Dylan's first school dance, errr, I mean, "Social"

Gingerbread Houses and Christmas Trees Oh my...

Today was "Holiday Project" for the Kindergarten class, so of course I was there in all my "Head Room Mom" glory HAHA!! I also had my partner in crime and BFF Liza, as well as our other go to project/party person. There are only 13 kids in the class and we had 2.5 hours them to do a Ginger Bread house and Christmas Tree. We had a ton of candies and a ton of royal icing...you would think this could have been a messy thing, but these kids ROCKED. They were all (well let's say 98% of them) totally perfect and did a great job with their project. We barely had to wipe the tables off after each group of 3 would leave. They did a great job and it was fun to watch each of their personalities come out in their "art". There are a couple of REALLY shy kids in the class, they were the kids that put like 3 or 4 pieces of candy on their house and tree and had to be urged and coaxed to use more of the probably 1/2 lb. of candy each of them had. Then there were the 2 really hyper kids that ended up with a collage of a TON of frosting and all the candy sort of dumped on in no particular design or order. Most of the kids used 3/4 of their candy and ate a few pieces (expected) and tried for some sort of over all design. They were CUTE...we teased them about Santa coming and tried to get them to come out of their shells by telling us what they had asked Santa for etc. we would tease the boys about Hannah Montana and ask the girls what color dirt bike they had asked for etc. they all thought that was funny.

It was a really fun afternoon and I enjoyed chatting with Liza and the other Mom about various things. I LOVE watching the kids and seeing how they interact with their peers (of course I really enjoy watching Dylan because he is so different *good* at school). We will be up there again next Thursday for the Holiday Party & the fun surprise of a nice gift card for Miss S from her class. Should be fun

Purge

Today was the day of the big pre-Christmas kids room purge...I have to pick a day when David is off, the kids are in school etc. so I can get in their rooms and get rid of "stuff" in order to move in more "Stuff" after Christmas. Of course I really prefer to do this on a day when David is working and someone is keeping Brody because David gets stressed out over the amount of crap I throw away. Today I did all 3 kids rooms I had (3) 30 gallon trash bags of throw away and several bigger "donate" items from Brody's room. Part of me gets MAD that I have to go in and clean my kids rooms, but when I start throwing away stuff it somehow makes me feel BETTER haha!! Of course I have ALWAYS giving the older 2 the option...keep your room clean and I won't go in there and throw crap away. However, neither one of them get with that program so I go in for the purge a couple times a year...always before Christmas, usually before their birthdays and maybe one other time. It's crazy the amount of 100% crap that they accumulate...I mean, we don't go buying them toys all year long or anything, but they do get stuff from other people, from school and/or church etc. all this makes for a lot of crap.



Today my biggest throw away in Dylan's room was Transformers from last Christmas...I will tell you all that Transformers was the BIGGEST bunch of crap, bad toy making, bad toy buying we have ever made :( He got tons of them and they were all too hard for him to transform (and for us too honestly), pieces broke off so easily it wasn't even funny. I kick myself in the butt for spending money on those crappy toys!! It's ok though because the Transformer "phase" was pretty short lived and he won't miss any of the stuff I threw away today! I had not thrown it away before now because thinking about throwing $ out the window makes me want to puke HAHA!! Mikayla's room didn't have much to purge out of it, mostly papers and note books and some very LARGE stuffed animals I have been hanging on to for sentimental reasons...stupid me because they didn't mean anything special to "her" so what was the point? Brody's room was mostly packing up stuff he has outgrown or has no interest in. The Leap Frog learning table (circa 2002), Pop On's table and blocks (Circa 2003) all stuff that was "passed down" to him. I have several bigger items like that to donate. Baby toys tend to get a little more wear out of them to pass down or donate, they don't have a chance to get messed up or broken before the kids "grow out" of them.

So that was my big "thing" to do today...glad it's over with, now the kids will have room for their new stuff from Christmas to be moved in. Oh and Brody's birthday stuff too...I also thought of something else to get Brody for his birthday (that's hard ya know, buying bday gifts for a birthday 2 days after Christmas). I am going to get him a new bed set for his car bed...with the Cars theme, he LOVES Cars

OK, so I am getting random...

When the kids get home from school...

...they act like they are on crack!! Or whatever it is that you can be "on" that makes you loud, makes you act like you have no sense, makes you act stupid etc. The noise level in this house right now is beyond too much. The kids act like they have been pinned up in cages all day and just got let out. I am about ready to go look for a job that has me out of the house until my kids have been home from school for a couple of hours. My brain feels frazzled...I go from things being pretty calm for most of the day to double crazy with extra loudness to top it off. This is yet ANOTHER reason I can't stand the winter...it's too darn cold for the kids to stay outside and run off this energy that they have (without risking more sickness). During the first 4 months of school we hang out outside for at least an hour and even though they are still loud and stuff it's not so bad because they have 3 acres of land to run around. Now they just come inside and do the same stuff in this cracker box of a house we live in. Note to self: Next house should be a 2 storey with a full basement YEAH RIGHT!!!

Do your kids act like this?

Yep, he still reads my blog

A few weeks ago I had a post titled "The N key" fussing about the N key being broken off my lap top. I breifly mentioned something about a new, blue lap top and Christmas coming...

David reads my blog (I sort of forget that)...I got an early Christmas present! A brand new BLUE Laptop...YIPPEEE it's actually a MINI Laptop and it could very likely fit in one of my larger purses! It is awesome and even though I was caught up in the books and didn't play with it much the first week I had it, well I am having fun with it now. It's very cute and light and TINY! I really love it, even though David thinks I don't (again, with the books) The only thing that bugs me a little is the backspace is in a little bit of a weird spot and I am having to get used to that...oh and the actual mouse clickers are on the left and right of the touch pad instead of underneath. Other than those little things it rocks and I LOVE IT! Yes, honey I love it, I promise!!!

Thank you honey, I love you, you rock!

Calendar

My calendar is rocked out for this whole month. In fact things don't really slow down until after Brody's bday party, which we have decided to have 1 week AFTER his ACTUAL bday which is 2 days after Christmas and happens to fall on a Sat. this year.

Most days I have something important, a "must do" to do and some days I have multiple "must dos" the kids are the main reason for that because of school and church and stuff that they are in. It is going to be a crazy ride, but at this point I really don't mind (that much) as long as everyone can stay well.

I must admit I am a little "gun shy" about Christmas this year. The last 2 have been BEYOND crazy (bad) for us. 2 years ago I was in labor (off and on) from the night before Christmas Eve until Brody's actual birth on the 27th. Christmas day 2006 was/is a HUGE wrapping paper filled BLUR for me. The only actual thing I remember was Mikayla getting a jewelry box from my Granny...I remember because it was my Granny's and she gave it to Mikayla and me being the big, pregnant, hormonaly blob went in to a crazy emotional spiral with lot's of snot and tears. Oh and I remember my Mom got me some PJ's with tinkerbell (?) on them. Last year was 10 MILLION times worse because we were all in various stages of the puking/crapping DEATH plague. David and Dylan were horribly sick on Christmas Day, Mikayla and Brody were getting over it, but they were still too sick to actually enjoy anything. All our Christmas pictures from last year are lovely with pale greenish/yellow faces and dark circles under the eyes. We actually ended up infecting pretty much everyone in our immediate family, close friends and extended family...IT SUCKED BAD!

So, I have been holding my breath and doing a lot of begging, praying that this year will be great and we will all be well or as close to it as humanly possible! I will fully admit I am anxious and feeling crazed at just the thought of having something go wrong this year.

Stay Tuned...

Cold...Brrrrrr

It is so coold here and it is snowing...have I mentioned how opposed I am to cold weather/winter weather? Oh yeah, I am totally a person that is meant to live in a place like Florida or Arizona or something. It is soooo cold outside today and guess what? Christmas parade is tonight, Oh JOY and of course we are totally 100% obligated to go because Mikayla is in the parade for the first time and she is OVER THE MOON about it. I will admit that David DID give me the option to stay home in my nice, warm, toasty house and not go, but ya know I am a Mom and this is just one of those many Mom duties that we are obligated to do. So, I will bundle up as much as humanly possible and pray that I don't get frost bite. I am sure that everyone else will be just fine...Dylan, even though he is more cold natured than any of the others will be so excited that will be enough to keep him warm...David and Mikayla are just naturally hot blooded so they will be totally comfortable and little man Brody gets to stay home with MawMaw, Pa and Granny and not even know the difference! So, wish me luck that I come back not a block of ice!

Twilight...

So my friends Jill, Laurie and Joan did soooo much talking about the Twilight Series I finally bit the bullet and started reading it...well I am a reading, good book addict so believe me when I say I fell...hook, line and sinker in to this 4 book series. Yeah, and it took me just over a week to read ALL 4 of the books (these are NOT short books at least 3 of them have around 750 pages)! OMG, I haven't read this much, in this little time and enjoyed ever single word of it since...well, since I didn't have kids! I have been reading a series of books for a few months by JD Robb (Actually Nora Roberts using a pen name), but I have read all the 20 something books and there are no new ones out right now. So, yes I have been reading all along, but those books are just "something to read" they are Good, but they are also light 350 page or so books that I read in the span of a week or so. Not the kind of read until you eyeballs feel like popping, read until you have a headache, read until it is 2 hours PAST your NORMAL bed time, read and ignore stuff like laundry, phone calls and even OMG ***INTERNET TIME*** books! The Twilight books have totally consumed every spare second of spare (and some not so spare, you saw laundry and to be honest dishes suffered too) time. CRAZY I tell ya!

I will just say this, if you like a good book, if you like a little fantasy, a LOT of wondeful, heart fluttering (not sex) romance, some action, AWESOME character development and a AWESOME story all around, you should try reading TWILIGHT...now if you don't like it? I won't hold it against you, it's probably not for every single person out there (although it's hard to imagine why not LOL). If you do like it, you can come back here and tell me how you couldn't put it (them) down and how your eyeballs are sore!