Book Review!

September Fair by Jess Lourey

When finding books for our CSI class who reads 1 fiction book relating to murder, mystery, forensics etc it gets a little difficult to find books that our good choices for our high school students. So when I read a book review on this title I knew we had to get it. Being a MN author and curriculum used book, I felt like it would be a sure win, boy was I right! I am going to go use my rest of my BN gift card to get the rest of the series, since I read the 5th book in the series. The school is going to need them too! She is witty, and writes with so much detail to us "Locals". This book takes place at the Minnesota State Fair and she describes it to a T. Using the street names and other markers that only people who have been to the fairgrounds would appreciate. Her mystery also had a good storyline. I think she writes much like Janet Evanovich, one of my favorites. A funny mystery book sounds wrong, but she got it right!
Her website....http://www.jesslourey.com/

Happy Father's Day!
Jason spent his day with his boys at Como Park and other Twin Cities Adventures!

Ever have a hard time coming up with a good book to read or buy as a gift? I have a great list for you to look at! I now have read 5 books from this list and loved them all! After feeling this way and giving a few students books from the list I can confidently say its a sure win list!
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/Choices%202010%20citations.pdf


The Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) is a gathering place for ideas, books and expertise in children's and young adult literature. Now thats from the CCBC's website. They are also located in WI down in Madison and they are known as a expert in choosing great literature and children's books. Every year they come up with a huge list of great reads! Here is what I've read so far:

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti
And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman
Once was Lost by Sara Zarr

On my shelf at home right now is:
Purple Heart by Patrica McCormick
No More Us for YOu by David Hernandez
How to Steal a Car by Pete Hautman (MN/WI Author!)
Candor by Pam Bachorz

Plus a ton more books I need to read this summer! Check out their list, has something for every reading and age level!

For months we've been trying to decide what car/van/suv to buy for me. It would be our primary family car the one we drive to soccer, to the cities and to Target. It had to have a few pieces of criteria even for me to consider....It had to fit 3 carseats, just in case! In my car we can't take any of Hayden's friends anywhere, the seats just to fit in the back. I wanted captain chairs in the middle, with 2 carseats I don't want to be climbing over seats or taking carseats out to get to the 3 row, which is another need. And of course it has to fit all my photography stuff! Good gas mileage was a plus too, and we wanted something reliable. So first we wanted the Ford Freestyle(2nd picture...I goofed!) We looked and looked for one to test drive, finally found one at Sonju in Two Harbors so we drove up there and drove it, Jason didn't like it, the transmission was a cvt and wasn't to his liking. I also left not all that thrilled with it. Than came the Pacifica, but yeah its a Chrysler, enough said.

Mountains cost extra!

The beloved Freestyle...the fruit of many, many Internet searches!

Now this is the Nimble, Zoom, Zoom, Zoom Mazda5. Hopefully the newest family member coming sometime this month! Its a Mini-Mini Van and I am so in love! It drives like a car and is basically the size of one too but its 3 rows, fits all my criteria, 30 mpg and pretty cheap!

But I can't decide on silver, grey or red. I drove the silver one and it was fine, whatever as long as its not black or white i am happy!

Thanks to the websites where I borrowed these pictures from...they aren't mine so don't use them!

13 Months! Carson weighed in at 23 pounds 6 oz and was 31.5 inches! Both were at the 60th %. Dr. Kundel said he is perfectly healthy little boy! Carson has started blowing kisses with a little mwah sound at the end....so cute! He has 8 teeth now, 4 on top and 4 on bottom. He still loves his buffy and blankets(we have 4 in rotation) His favorite food lately is Strawberries and anything with peanut butter, things he didn't really have before he turned 1. He would eat strawberries all day long if I'd let him. He also loves pizza, oh soo much, he'll eat 2 pieces, sometimes more than his brother. Animal crackers are to a new favorite. He loves, loves being outside playing in the sandbox, playing on the jungle gym or even just walking. I had him at home alone one day and the stroller was in the living room and he went up to the stroller and tugged on it and than turned to me and yelled at me, he wanted to go on a walk! So we did. He may not really talk but we sure know how to communicate! We test him to see if he knows what the heck we are talking about, and always does the command or get what we tell him, pretty sure he just chooses not to talk. He does babble, and babble and babble. Its quite entertaining trying to figure out what he is saying! He says "WhatsThis" as one word a lot especially when he sees a dog or something outside. He also has fallen in love. With Elmo. He even hears the music and he literally runs from where ever he is and stands at the bottom of the tv and than says "yeahh" He loves that fuzzy red guy! Its funny how much a like Jason and Carson's personalities are alike sometimes. Both love to lay in bed in the mornings, they just can't pop up and go. Carson loves to watch people's reactions to him, loves being the funny guy!

Carson is in size 3 diapers, 12 month clothes(Some 18m shirts for cuteness factor!), 12 or size 4 shoes.