"What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew" by Daniel Pool

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England by Daniel Pool


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a fascinating book full of facts on 19th century English life. If you like to read 19th century novels (Austen, Dickens, Hardy, Thackery) then this will be an interesting and enlightening book to read. The book explains everything from life in town, to workhouses; it describes etiquitte and society, status (and how to address someone by their proper title), the church, the government, clothing, food, servants, marriage and even entails (which makes Pride and Prejudice a bit clearer).




This book also has a wonderful glossary with definitions of words adn phrases often used at that time period which we may not know today. An excellent reference if you are ever stumped while reading.




This is a must read for anyone who loves Victorian literature.




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Soccer

Lizzy has been playing soccer for a couple months and just finished. She had lots of fun running around and playing with her team mates. Lizzy says her favourite part of soccer is half time when the whole team gets a snack.

The Kids Today

The kids today.

A couple new pictures

A couple new pictures.

Gabe is so hard to catch on camera. He moves around too much. Most of the pictures I have of him are blurry :)

Lizzy loves to wear all the same colour. She will try and have pink shorts, pink skirt, pink shirt, pink socks and even pink underwear.

Lizzy made this mermaid today from a craft book she got from the school library. The tail is made from aluminum foil and dabs of glitter glue. She had a blast making it. More about this craft and the book on my other blog.

Ballet Photos

Lizzy has been in ballet this year and really loved it. Here are her year end photos:

Cricut

I finally got a Cricut! I've been wanting one for a while now and am so happy that it has arrived. Happy Mother's Day to me! Here are my first attempts:

Isn't this giraffe absolutley adorable? It's from the Sugar and Spice cartridge.

I love using the "shadow" on the text.

Lizzy's favourite because it is tall, and the presents pop out.

I really like the colours on this one.

Having a fun time with fonts on the Plantin SchoolBook cartridge.

Happy Birthday Adam!

Adam turned the big 3-0 on the twenty-fith of April. We had a nice family dinner on his birthday and some yummy angel food cake (his favourite). He didn't have to work on his birthday (bonus!) because it was Easter Monday and the office was closed, so it was nice to relax and just hang out together. We had had a busy weekend before that. We drove the 6 hours to Edmonton for our ward temple trip. Thankfully we were able to stay with some friends and they watched the kids while Adam and I assisted with the youth baptisms then did a session together. That night we took the kids to the West Edmonton Mall, looked around, ate out and then watched the movie Rio in the big theater. Dawson Creek has one screen, and it isn't much of theater, so going to the big theater was a lot of fun. We even watched Rio in 3-D and the kids loved that. I was surprised at how well Gabe did. He watched the whole movie and kept the glasses on most of the time. When we got out of the move, Gabe even wanted to keep wearing the glasses.

When we got back from Edmonton I don't think Adam was expecting much for his birthday. But I surpised him the day after with a party! More details here on my other blog. It was a lot fun. We had a BBQ with hot dogs and hamburgers. Adam's brother and his family came out from Chetwynd (about an hour from us) and some friends and coworkers of his came too. He was so surprised! I never thought I was really going to pull it off. Lizzy kept talking about the party so I was sure Adam figured it out. But luckily for me he didn't and we had a blast.

Happy 30th hunface! I love you!

My New Video Camera

I recently got a new video camera, and it is so much fun! You can see my post about it on my other blog here. I got the Canon Vixia HF-M31 and love it so much. It's full HD with a 32 GB of memory and an SD card slot for more room. I really love that it has an external mic input and a headphone jack for more professional use (which I am used to from school). It also has a nice touch screen and is so easy to use. I'm very excited to do some fun projects and home movies with it.

I've been wanting a video camera for a while now and I received some unexpected money that allowed to choose one that I wanted. I've been having a lot of fun with my new camera and am going to post more videos on here now. I'm just trying to figure out how to edit them nicely on my computer, but for now these are going to be the raw videos.

Here is a short clip of Gabe riding his little car he got for Christmas. He's getting really good at it and goes so fast, navigating corners with ease. He's my little race car driver. This is an everyday occurence:

Tangled

I just bought Disney's new movie Tangled.

Love it! It was so well done and so magical!

We loved watching it on blu-ray in hi def. I think my favourite part was watching Lizzy be so enchanted by it. It reminded me of how much I loved The Little Mermaid when it came out. When mom bought it for us, I remember watching it 3 times in a row and being impatient while we had to wait for it to rewind. I also remember one of the best thing about getting a new movie was watching the previews, for that was usually the first time we heard about the next Disney movie coming up. It was exciting.

I loved this new Rapunzel movie so much, I think it may even be my new favourite (sorry Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast).

But don't take my word for it. Watch it yourself.
Here's a little preview:

new blog

So I've started a new public blog called Journal of a Young Mother. It's about being a mom, having kids and the funny things they do, and all the stuff in between. Check it out here:
http://www.journalofayoungmother.blogspot.com/
I've started this new blog so I can encourage myself to write something little every day. My goal is to post every day (or maybe every weekday). So please, check it out, comment, become a follower, tell people about it and enjoy the stories of my life. The more followers I have the more my writing can get noticed and it could be a gateway into getting some of my other writing published.
This is a public blog and I am keeping it separate from this blog. I am not using pictures of my kids or any names. So when you do comment, please don't use my real name.

Freckle

Gabe has a big freckle on the back of his leg just below his calf. Every time I change his diaper I think he has a spot of poop on his leg. It’s just the right colour. Even though I know it’s not poop, there’s always a startling moment, a brief instant where my heart jumps and my brain calculates where else the poop might be, like all down his legs or on my hands. Then it registers. That’s not poop, it’s a freckle. This all happens in a fraction of a fraction of a millisecond. Every time! Why am I fooled by a freckle several times a day? So I remind myself that Gabe has a poop-like freckle and I will not be fooled next time around. No sir. And then next time I change his diaper, “Aww crap (literally)! Not again. Wait. It’s his freckle.”

Halloween

Lizzy's Kindergarten class had a Halloween party. They got to wear their costumes after lunch, play games, eat snacks, and enjoy the overall Halloween revelry.

Here she is in her Simba costume at school. The hood is down and sadly that is the only picture I have of her in this costume.

Here's Gabe on Halloween in his tiger costume.

Lizzy decided to be a princess for Halloween. Here I am curling her hair into "princess curls."

Our little tiger.

The princess curls are finished! And they lasted about15 minutes. I think it took longer to actually curl her hair.

Getting ready to go out the door. You may have noticed that Lizzy changed her princess dress. She decided that this one was prettier. Her curls are already starting to fall.

They had a lot of fun trick-or-treating. Adam and I took the kids out after supper. Gabe was done at the end of the block, so I took him home while Adam and Lizzy continued on for some more loot. Gabe helped me hand out candy at home and had a blast.

It was a fun Halloween.

Once there was a snowman

In October we had the first snowfall of the season. The snow stayed for a few days before disappearing and we capitalized on that and played outside in our snowsuits.

Lizzy absolutely loved it and built a snowman right away.

Look how happy she is.

Gabe wasn't as happy, but he had a lot of fun. I love his touque.

Every snowman needs a good carrot for a nose.

The finished product. Look, they're best friends already!

Biking

We got Lizzy a new bike this fall. She absolutely loves riding it. She uses the training wheels, but Adam spent a little time teaching her to ride without them. She hasn't quite mastered it yet, but still loves to ride.

She's working so hard.

Family bike ride. I was riding behind Lizzy, pulling Gabe in the trailer and taking pictures at the same time.

I am so talented.

Another day. This is near our house on the way to the park.

Gabe in the swing at the park. It was a really beautiful day.

The Real First Day of School

This is painfully overdue. Lizzy started kindergarten in September and is loving it. She is so friendly and outgoing and is making tonnes of friends already.

Lizzy was counting down the days for school to start. It was getting closer, and I thought, "I better call the school and double check if the kindergarten class starts the same day as the rest of the school." So I called the school and the secretary assured me that Lizzy would be starting school with the rest of the classes on the first day of school.

The morning of the first day arrived. Lizzy was so excited. She picked out our favourite (new at the time) red dress to wear. We had a good breakfast, did her hair and headed off to school.

We get to the school, find her name on the boot rack and head to the class room. We see the teacher and she says hello, asks Lizzy's name and then says, "Oh. Are you a kindie? You don't start today. You start on Monday." It was Wednesday.

Lizzy started bawling. "I want to go to school!" I had to explain to her that school didn't start until 5 more sleeps. (She has Monday and Wednesday classes). Needless to to say, she was pretty upset. I felt a little upset too. I had all these emotions of sending her off to school. I felt mentally and emotionally prepared for it, and then they tell me she's not going yet. I was surprised at my reaction. Also the secretary told me to bring Lizzy for that day. I specifically asked her if the kindergarten kids started a different day than the rest of the kids. I found out later that she was new... if that's any consolation.

Anyway, after 5 sleeps, we repeated the first day of school process. Even with the same outfit.

Here's Lizzy sitting at her table on the real first day of school. I am so glad that she is doing well and loving school.

Bellybutton Surprise

Today I was changing Gabe's diaper. He was wearing a onesie, so I unbuttoned and lifted it up over his belly, and there resting snugly inside his bellybutton was a cheerio.

Mockingjay Book Review

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Mockingjay is the third and final installment in the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I loved this trilogy. I was very excited to read Mockingjay and wasn't disapointed. I love Collins's style and it makes me want to keep reading and reading. I brought this book to the dinner table with me, read parts between cooking, and read it pretty much whenever I could squeeze it in, ignoring my family in the process. I know it's a good book when I start dreaming about it (which I did).
For me the ending was very satisfying and everything concluded nicely. I like how the characters are not perfect and all have their flaws to deal with. I enjoyed the first of the trilogy the best, but all three were very good (and addictive).

If you haven't read Hunger Games yet, I highly recommend it for a fun, action filled read. Be prepared to be engrossed in this fantastic trilogy.




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Lizzy Singing

Lizzy loves to sing. I just figured out the webcam on my new computer and Lizzy wanted to try. Here she is singing Twinkle Little Star and ABC's. Notice how she likes to change the melody. It's so cute.

A Little Bit Of Randomness

Here are some sort of random pictures that I haven't fit in with anything else yet.

Gabe having a blast at the park.

Our new couch. It's soooo comfortable. Can you tell?

Gabe the Tiger.

Me and Gabe.

Going for a ride. (Well, not by herself. But she went with Daddy and had a blast.)

Kissing baby cousin James. Everytime Gabe sees him he wants to kiss and hug his little cousin. It is so cute, and I am surprised at how gentle he is with him. He doesn't look to gentle in this picture, but trust me... he is!

I really like this one.

And this one.

She is getting so big! I can't believe she is going to kindergarten soon. She is already registered and we bought a backpack, a lunch box, some school supplies, and a few new clothes. She is so excited to be going to school.

Exhausted,

Cool Dude.

Gabe is such a smiley guy. But it is hard to get a good picture of him because he is always moving. Even here while he is sitting in his high chair, he is still moving. He runs everywhere and loves to sing, dance, spin, babble (with a few understandable words) and run away from Lizzy. His favourite toy is his plush puppy, which he sleeps with.