Since the day that Oprah gave away Amazon's Kindle on one of her Favorite Things shows, my interests have been piqued in this new age of ereaders. However, I was never too serious about hunting around for the best product or to even see what was available on the market because of the high price tag. Until recently, that is.

And I'm so excited! I've been doing my research for the last several months and had my heart initially set on the Kindle, which I don't think anyone who knows about ereaders will argue, is the industry standard. It has all the bells and whistles, and I do like bells and whistles. But after further research and knowing my reading habits, I was quickly turned off to the Kindle when I realized that if I own this product, my book swapping days are essentially over. And avid readers know that books can be a huge social event as well as a self fulfilling pleasure. Not to mention that exchanging books with fellow readers saves lots of money for everyone involved. But then I stumbled upon the Barns & Noble Nook. WOOOHOOO! I immediately fell in love and found my ereader. It supports several different file formats and allows you to lend books to other Nook owners. Furthermore, it runs on the Android operating system which is growing by leaps and bounds daily. I could go on and on about the tech specs, but I won't. I'll just say that I'm in love! And mine is expected to ship on Feb. 12, just in time for a late birthday present, but right on time for Valentine's Day. And since my husband knows how much I've been drooling over this ereader, a combo gift is just fine with me, this year :)

If you'd like to check out the Nook for yourself, click here.

I've been thinking a lot about the power of music. The emotions that can arise when you take the time to listen to lyrics. Or the memories that seem to hit you like a ton of bricks because you remember that song was playing when (fill in the blank).

I was in bed the other day attempting to take a nap. I was listening to the radio spilling over from Micah's room. I couldn't fall asleep because my mind was racing from all the remembering. One song brougt back a memeory from high school. Just driving around aimlessly with my best girlfriend at the time singing at the top of our lungs just for the hell of it. But it is not only the memory that the song brings that I enjoy so much, it is the emotion. I can remember exactly the way I was feeling. I can remember how much fun I was having at that very moment and I can remember thinking that I want to remember this distinct moment for the rest of my life. And because of a song, I do. I think that is amazing!

Recently I was listening to my MP3 player and a particular song from my wedding started playing. I was on the verge of tears as I remembered dancing with my husband for the first time as a married couple. Then I realized I wasn't alone and needed to pull it together. Although I doubt most people forget special songs from their weddings, I am still surprised by the enormity of emotion that comes along with that particular song each and every time I hear it. You'd think that I would be used to it by now :)

Music speaks to me in so many different ways and on so many different levels. Music has the power to evoke tears of joy or make me sob like a small child who just skinned her knee for the first time. Music has the power to bring people together who would normally have nothing common. Music is truly magical.

Time to Reflect

The holiday season is coming to a close. The year is just a few days from being categorized as just another piece of history. Often this time of year brings us to a point in our lives where we reflect. We reflect on the things gone wrong, the things that have gone right and the things we hope to accomplish in the future...

It's been a trying year. My husband was out of work for almost half of it. But I can honestly say that it wasn't too awful. You learn to live on a lot less and be grateful for what you have.

Although finical difficulties can result in an overwhelming amount of familial distress, it can also result in some unexpected glorious times. My husband and I have been together for 7 years, married for 4. Never have we had the opportunity to spend so much time with each other or with our children. I am truly appreciative that my husband's time at home gave him the opportunity to watch our youngest child grow and develop in a way he never got to experience with our oldest. Time can't be recovered. Life only gives you one shot at the "firsts" and I thank God that we got to experience so many firsts as a family. From the milestones a toddler tackles to the puffing out of the chest as the teenage boy makes that awkward transition into a young man. Life is good .

As far as the future, who knows what it holds. Life is so full of uncertainty. I have learned that for sure. I can only hope that we can continue to remain, and grow to be an even stronger family. Of course, there are things that I hope the new year will bring, but as I reflect on the past, those "things" are of a different caliber this time. And THAT is a blessing.

Happy Halloween!!

I've always liked to celebrate Halloween but I've never been a huge fan of dressing up and begging for candy. I prefer to decorate my house (in more of a harvest theme than Halloween) and buy candy to stash around the house. I do enjoy passing out candy to YOUNG trick-or-treaters. And I thoroughly enjoyed dressing my little one up and taking him to a handful of pre-selected neighbor's houses dressed as the most adorable lion I've ever seen before we passed out candy from home. (Yes, I know that I'm biased.)


The other side of Halloween is the Dark Side. And I do believe that there are all kinds of people out there who truly believe that the evils of the world freely walk the streets on All Hallows Eve. Which brings me to the point of this post...

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?

Honestly, I have mixed opinions about this topic. I've had some strange things happen to me, unexplained noises and things breaking that shouldn't. And our late Lacie dog used to stare into the same corner of the living room while barking and growling for hours upon hours sometimes. Micah often looks up to this same spot while pointing and talking his baby gibberish. IF there is indeed some type of something lurking in our house, it really doesn't seem to bother anyone. I do get a little weirded out when I think about it sometimes. But for the most part, ghosts, spirits etc., are not something that I take too seriously nor do I think every single person who claims to have some type of paranormal experience is making it up.

In the comments...what is your opinion on this matter or do you have your own experiences to share?

I think just may be time to let this blog go...I just can't seem to ever find the time...

I've Discovered a New Disease, Where Are My Millions?!?!?

I'm am waiting on the delivery of my 3rd cell phone in about a year and a half. I don't try to pretend that I take extra special care of my devices. I've been known to allow Micah to play with my handheld computer that no child should ever be allowed to touch let alone viciously throw onto the cement during a walk. But hey, after that one was rendered no longer viable because I could only make calls using the speakerphone (which is evidently considered to be rude in public, humph) I purchased another. This time I tried to be sensible. I bought the phone used in order to side step the outrageous cost of buying from T-Mobile before my contract was set to expire. I gave up some features that I really enjoyed (wi-fi, windows mobile) but I gained a touchscreen and a 5 mega pixel camera, super cool, eh? And ever better, I tried my hardest to take care of THIS one. Micah's sweet little hands only touched this phone if he was successful on one his his gazillion telephone robbery missions of the day. (My baby is obsessed with the telephone, he OBVIOUSLY gets this from his father.) And as far as I'm aware, he never dropped it. Well the other night the damned phone started acting like a touchy menopausal woman. Evey attempt at touching the screen yielded and unwanted and WRONG response. Never doing what I wanted. I tried to remedy the problem several different ways only to end up being told by the tech guy, "There are no other possible fixes. I'm sorry, you'll have to replace the device." WTF!!! Didn't I just go through this, not even 2 months ago!!!! So much for actually trying to take care of a phone properly. And don't EVEN tell me that I should have refrained from purchasing a used phone. I was being economical, remember? So anyway, this all happened last week. Mind you, the broken phone is a touchscreen with a virtual keyboard. When the screen is acting like a psycho by responding as though you've touched whatever option is to the left of what you're actually gunning for, texting is virtually IMPOSSIBLE! Alas, we come to the discovery of the new disease. Drum roll please...

TEXTING WITHDRAW

I text all day everyday and am very grateful for our unlimited texting plan (otherwise we'd be paying some serious overage charges). I have not been able to text in a timely fashion for about a week now. I'm getting a little anxious. I've even taken to using the husband's phone to text my sister just for the sake of texting when I don't really have anything to tell her because I just like to text. And the funny thing, I never used to like to text. I was all about texting being too impersonal, pick up the phone and talk to me dammit! But now, I really enjoy the convenience of it all and not being able to send a quick message about the awesome new thing my genius baby just did (LOL) is driving me insane!!

So just remember that you heard it here first. When something happens and the cell phone towers across the nation go down, millions of people all will find themselves experiencing strange sensations that will later be diagnosed as Texting Withdraw. Hell, it may even not even be too long before we see those in recovery on some funky VH1 reality show.

And So It Goes...

At what point in life did you start to feel you're running out of time? Or have you not yet reached that point yet? I'm 31 and all of a sudden I feel as though I'm not going to get it all done. Things are starting to feel impossible. Starting to feel like I've got to do some rearranging. Is this just a phase because the end of my child bearing years are quickly approaching or maybe just because life in general has been so unpredictable the last 6 months or so? I'm not sure. But I don't like these feelings of uncertainty and maybe just putting them "out there" will help to dissolve some of the anxiety.