Mom2my4

Moon Festival at the Botanical Gardens

Friends Traveling to China Again!

Our travel group has always been very special to us! We keep in touch with all of them. (LOL! Although, we need to hear from Dana more!) Honestly, we have a chat room and talk pretty much daily. We share such a bond! Remember April-- she and Sean just adopted their youngest two sweeties! Tonya still has her blog. Then there is Dana, Almaire (who we see every few months), Stacey, and Michelle. (Michelle and John were our constant companions in China. They are adopting again too!) Then there is Molly! Wow! Molly didn't have a blog last time. She has just started a new blog so everyone can follow along on her new journey. Her baby girl should be coming home soon!

**The pictures are mostly of Molly and family! Since their blog is brand new!! Congratulations to Molly, Ryan (red shirt), Liam, and Darren.

Homecoming Pictures!

It's A Bird, It's A Plane

.... it's Morgan! It's school spirt week at the high school.

Tights... Walmart      Skirt... Walmart     T-shirt...boys dept    Red Cape... made by Grandma   

fun...spirited... pictures... priceless! 

Eyes

The girls want blue eyes. :-(  They have both told me in the past week several times that they want blue eyes. I keep telling them that they have beautiful, sparkly brown eyes like Grandma. They smile and sometimes this explanation is enough and sometimes it is not. Brown eyes are the most common, but in our family blue and green seem to prevail. Mommy, Daddy, and Morgan have blue. Daniel and Uncle Chris have green. Right now we talk about everybody having different color eyes.

Grandma, Pop-Pop, and Miss Beth have brown eyes!! We make it positive. But it breaks my heart that they think they want blue eyes to be like the rest of us.

Kelsey noticed brown eyes awhile back. She would say someone was Chinese. I would ask her how she knew, she would say "because they have brown eyes." (She knew a Chinese person's eyes were different, but couldn't articulate how (almond shape).) I would tell her that brown eyes don't make you Chinese, but you can tell by the beautiful shape. Reminding her that Grandma had brown eyes and wasn't Chinese.

They are aware of differences already. It reminds me of a book, that I saw. I guess I will have to check this book out a little closer for my girls!

   **Jasmine, Darius, and Uncle Mike have brown eyes! I have more people to tell them next time they ask! By the way, I went out to Barnes and Noble to get this. It has to be ordered. :-( I will get it online through Amazon, it will be just as fast.

Fall Festival Photos... Lots of Them!

The pictures were taken my Karen, Chuck, and our friend Kim (Baylea and Zoey's mom).

Outside with Our 2 Little Ones!

Hodge Podge September Photos

What I Read and My Kindle Again!

I cannot believe it! I used to read a lot. However, lately my books have just piled up.I tend to buy books because I can never seem to finish them, so library books are returned late. Anyway, in case you missed it, I got a Kindle last April. I love it! I looked at the Sony Reader and something else. They are both fancier looking than the Kindle. The Kindle is perfect me. The best feature is Whispernet. That is the free service that lets you download books in under a minute wirelessly! Love that...no hauling out the computer, hooking it up etc. I also love the fact that Amazon will send you a sample (about 2 chapters) of any book. Try before you buy!

(BTW The links below work even if you don't have a Kindle. You can see what the books are about. )

Go Green, Live Rich   David Bach (Haven't finished yet. Amazon offered it for free on Earth Day.)

Final Jeopardy and Likely to Die by Linda Fairstein

Thirteen Reasons Why  Jay Asher I tried this book as a sample. It was a teenager book, but I was compelled by the story. It is a sad story about a girl that commits suicide and her reasons why. It makes you look at life in a different way.

No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog   Margaret Mason

Time Magazine (trial subscription)

Stolen Innocence  Elissa Wall This is a true story about a girl's escape from polygamy. I saw this book and tried a sample. Turns out it was riveting and I couldn't put it down!

Escape Laura Palmer   Another story about escape from polygamy. Who knew that I would find this fascinating?

The New York Times (trail subscription)

Family Tree Barbara Delinsky (I had seen this at the bookstore. It was cheaper at Amazon.)

Orphans of Chaos, A Fountain Filled with Blood, In the Bleak Midwinter (I haven't read these, but I always take Amazon's free books. You never know. )

Shoot Him If He Runs  Stuart Woods (This is the Stone Barrington series-- love it!)

Love the One You're With  Emily Griffin (love story by popular author)

Inside the World of Warren Jeffs  Carole Western   polygamy book. :-)

4th of July James Patterson

Raising Your Spirited Child Mary Sheedy Kurcinka (... Rachel...Morgan...)

sTORI telling Tori Spelling (This is another book that I looked at for awhile on Amazon's homepage. I finally tried a sample and found it very readable.)

One for the Money Janet Evanovich : OK . I have seen this series on book shelves for a long time. When I was at that conference in Richmond, I had nothing to read... so I tried a sample. I thought it would be really dumb. It is a light hearted mystery/crime type book. The lead character is of all things a bounty hunter in New Jersey. Well, this book was laugh out loud funny! I am hooked!

Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly, Four to Score, High Five, Hot Six, Seven Up, Hard Eight, To The Nines, Ten Big ones by Janet Evanovich... love these!

The Last Lecture Randy Pausch This is the book from the college professor who was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Good, thoughtful book, I haven't finished it yet.

Sleeps is for the Weak: Best of the Mommybloggers  Morrison and Arens I love blog books, just like I love blogs!

The Surgeon Tess Gerritsen (Free Amazon book. I haven't read it yet.)

Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World Lynne Spears (OK. I admit it. I am reading Brittney's mom's book. It is that try a sample thing again.. two chapters get you hooked.)

Eleven on Top, Twelve Sharp Janet Evanovich (I finished 11 and I am part way through 12.)

Reader's Digest (monthly)

Here is the link for the Kindle Store with over 180,000 books, magazines, etc .

So, you see... I am back to reading a lot! The books are not piling up in my house. My Kindle fits in my purse, diaper/toddler bag. I take it to school daily.

This blog is also an Amazon blog. As I said previously, every time you put something in the Amazon search box on my www.mom2my4.com page, it sends you to Amazon. You shop as normal. When you buy something, they give me 4% because you originated from my blogs. :-) Thanks! They just sent me an Amazon gift card for $35.66. I put it in my account and will buy more Kindle books!

Did I mention before that my legally blind sister-in-law can read the Kindle in the largest font?? It was a wonderful discovery this summer. She was visiting and I showed her mine. Beth is a huge reader, but has a hard time.Normally she uses her glasses, a magnifying glass, a bright light, and holds the book 6 inches from her face. This is hard because she can't relax or read new releases that are in hard cover format. (too hard to hold a hard book and magnifying glass close) The Kindle is easy to read and NOT like reading a computer screen. Now Beth can read on the biggest font with only a light and her reading glasses. She doesn't get on the computer too often and loves the fact that she can just click and a book comes to her in under a minute. (Books cost .99-$9.99 New releases are $9.99)

Amazon used to charge a dime to email yourself a file on your Kindle. Now it is free. I email myself PDF files, Word Documents, and even a jpeg or two to myself now and then. I can get reading done.

Ok...now that I have told you about my reading habits... I will come back later tonight with pictures of the kiddos. :-) I know that is what you all want to see anyway!! The pictures on this post are of Aunt Beth and the girls.

BTW the one downfall of the Kindle is the ablity to share files. You can link 6 Kindles together and share books. However, they all have to be linked to the same credit card, so you really have to trust the person you share with!! (Beth and I don't share. Not because we don't trust each other, but we read different types of books.) I guess that is ok because honestly, how many people do you trade books with anyway? The highest price is $9.99 for a new release and that's really good!

Here is a link to an adoptive mommy who is about to travel to China with her new Kindle! She is leaving soon. You can follow her trip! I wish I had my Kindle back when I traveled! Think of all the books I could take... 200 without a memory card and unlimited with a memory card!