Stuff...

Today was really a pretty good day. I like when those happen. It's not that they are terribly rare, but still...I love a really good day. (Who doesn't, really?)

So, I got to sleep all night--except for Ben climbing in my bed, I was relatively uninterrupted. Levi slept all night. It is amazing how much better he sleeps when he is in a crib. That started my day off much better--sleep with do that for you.

Then I got to go to my book club meeting. I loved it! I love that us girls can sit there for hours and visit and talk about something we love (books!) and eat and just relax. I don't know how much it means for everyone else, but for me, it is seriously a highlight of my month. I love that we DO actually discuss the book, and we have a real discussion about the merits of the book, and review it, and discuss specific elements of the story, instead of just sitting around gossiping while calling it "book club." Does that make me a total nerd? Probably. Oh well. Whether it does or not, I love that I have a group of friends who love reading probably as much as I do with whom I can have an intellectual discussion about books. I love that I feel like my opinion is respected and that no one is thinking what I say is dumb.

The book we read this past month was Atonement, by Ian McEwan. I didn't love the book. I did, however, really appreciate the book. Does that make sense? I appreciate that it really did make me think. I had to work to read it...which I liked at some points, because I had to think, but I hated at other times, because it made it hard to escape into the book, which is a lot of why I love reading. I think the descriptions in the book were wonderful...but there was WAY too much of it! The author got really wordy, and while I realize that a lot of that is due to the character that was "writing" the story, it still kind of drove me nuts. I think what I need to do is read another book by the author to decide if it is HIS writing style that I didn't like, or if it was simply the writing style of the character. Sometimes it was hard to sift through the info. to get to the meat of the story though. Basically, I think the book was definitely worth reading. I will even probably reread it at some point (after I work through some of the HUGE pile I have been accumulating next to my bed) and I am sure I will appreciate it even more. I even liked the storyline--I just hated the wordiness. Overall, I gave it a 3/5. Next month's book is The Time-Traveler's Wife. I am looking forward to reading it, but I don't have it yet, so it will be a little bit before I read it. I am probably going to order it online.

As far as the soap opera of my life goes, well...Ben is trying to master the concept of wiping himself after he poops. It is NOT my favorite thing. I thought it would be a wonderful day when he was potty trained...but then I realized that at least in diapers, the poop is contained. For the second day in a row, he has flooded the bathroom by putting seriously half a roll of Charmin Ultra double roll 2-ply toilet paper in the toilet. Apparently he is trying to wipe himself, which is great, but I haven't been able to get him to understand the SMALL amount concept. On top of that, the toilet has basically come unsealed from the floor, so there is a bit of leaking going on--I bought a new wax ring and some caulk to fix it, and that is going to have to be the project of the evening. Ick. Did I mention that rubber gloves are involved in this too?

In good news, Cameron brought home Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox. I am a total dork, but I like that game. However, it is stupid with the way it restarts when you die. We have gotten fed up and are going to have a Guitar Hero III head to head! I will kick his butt, to be sure, but I still will let Cameron THINK he has a chance. :)