10 Things I Did This Week

1. I finally finished 50 Shades of Grey. NOT my favorite book, that's for sure. Read my review.

2. We took family pictures with Eric's family, here they are.

3. I'm an awesome employee and so I got enough 'work dollars' to cash in for a gift card. I chose Old Navy, and can't wait to get shopping this weekend.

4. We watched The Hangover 2. Good movie, way too similar to the first, but still funny and a good watch. I still want to see part 3.

5. Chloe had me up for about an hour around 2am one night. She played. Madi woke Eric up, so he came down to investigate once Madi was back to bed, and so we watched America's Funniest Home Videos together in the middle of the night.

6. The girls became obsessed with Dora the Explorer. They both like to try to sing the song anytime they see her anywhere - which is often because she's on Chloe's boots, one of our bowls, and on tv a lot. It's adorable really.

7. I ate a lot of chocolate. And chips.

8. I started reading 50 Shades Darker. Am I crazy? Maybe.

Family Pictures

Once upon a time, I mentioned that we took some family photos with Eric's family. I don't have much to say today anyway, so here they are. 

The whole family: Eric, me, his brother's girlfriend, brother in the white hat, two sisters, sister's boyfriend, his mom up front, along with Chloe, Madi and the two other grandchildren of the family. 

Eric's mother and the grandchildren. I love that they treat Chloe like family too.

Book Review: 50 Shades of Grey (Book 1)

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I finally finished the book 50 Shades of Grey. Just the first one. I haven't ventured far into the second book yet. It took me  from October 2012 - May 2013 to read this book. It's no secret that I was never a huge fan. I lean closer to the 'despise' end, actually. 

The book is about Ana, a college student, who meets Christian, a rich, gorgeous business man. They're both intrigued. They have another run-in. They both want to get involved. Better yet, read the 50 Shades of Grey synopsis from Amazon.ca. 

"When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. 

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires. 

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever."

Here is my review from Good Reads.

"I wanted to read the series to finally find out what all the hype was about. I heard it was somehow related to the Twilight series, and just like Twilight, hype is all it was.  

Like Twilight, the storyline was really dry and boring. Very little 'meat' to it. Nothing to keep me interested at all.  

This book is the opposite of a book I couldn't put down - I had to struggle to get myself to pick it up.  

Basically, Ana meets Christian. He's successful and rich, but most importantly he's so gorgeous everyone in the world has to stop and stare. Of course, he develops a 'thing' for Ana, the poor, weak, clumsy, pathetic excuse for a college student. I feel she's still has the mentality of a junior high student. It feel like the writing of this book is geared towards junior high students, but has the erotic scenes geared towards adults. It doesn't match up.  

The plot had more juice to it in the middle when Jose (Ana's male friend with a crush on her) was around to try to make Christian jealous. After that, it was all 'sex with Christian'. That is the sole thing in this book that matters, of course, because virgin Ana has turned into an immediate sex goddess.  

Speaking of 'goddess', Ana uses the phrase 'inner goddess' enough that halfway through the book I began cringing every time I read it.  

I've heard the other two books are better, and after a lot of deliberation, I am going to give them a chance. Although I hated book #1, I'm trying to go into them with an open mind. Hopefully it won't take me another 7 months to get through book #2."

If you hate the book and are in the mood for a laugh, the first part of this review was pretty great. Have you read the book? The whole series? No spoilers on the next two books please, but what did you think? 

Some of My Favorite Posts

May 21 - Links to My Favorite Posts

Of course I have some linked in my Important Posts page, but this is a fresh list. Some old, some new. Here are ten:  Chloe's birth story Meeting Eric Video: The Annoying Orange terrifies my child  *Note: Now she laughs and sings along with it. Chloe fails at Cake Smash photos 2012 in review What I'm most afraid of Advice to my daughters A weekday in my world 10 things that make me really happy About Night Terrors
Send me a link to one of your favorite blog posts! 

A Weekend and a Phobia Realization

The weekend was kind of a busy one. I got to spend Saturday alone with Chloe. It was the first time in a very long time. In the morning, we bought some toys off someone - a Dora the Explorer backpack and accessories, and a vacuum. The kids are a huge fan of the new toys. 

In the evening, a friend came over and we had homemade lasagna with salad and garlic bread. It was good, but I still haven't perfected my lasagna. This time it was too dry. Again.

On Sunday, I spent most of the day with my girl again, but then went to work an evening shift at my old job. Front desk at a hotel. It was a busy night, but nice to work with people and speak to adults. Eric is one of the only adults I talk to most of the time. Some outside interaction was nice. 

We had a family day on Monday, and took the girls to visit Eric's family. Upon his mother's request, we got family pictures done. Each family individually, each couple, then everyone together. I can't wait to see them. Then we had a BBQ, which was amazing, and by then it was getting later so we went on our way. The kids missed naps so they slept the whole way home. 

Sunday night I finally finished 50 Shades of Grey (a review on that tomorrow!) and sat around being lazy with Eric. The usual. 

On a more serious note, I did some research and asked around about my intense throwing up phobia. I've always had this fear but its gotten way out of hand these past couple of months. Everything I've read and heart, points at stress being a big factor in why the symptoms have gotten crazy. I did the math, and it seems I got a little crazier around the time we moved Madi in. Just that realization alone has helped me calm down a little, to the point where all day yesterday I was able to eat without the phobia crossing my mind once. That's a start. I considering talking to my doctor about actually getting help, but I don't know if I want to go that far yet. At the same time, it might be the only step towards getting people to understand how much stress I'm actually under. 

In the meantime, I'm already expected to 'babysit' Madi for her mother in about two weeks time, giving up yet another weekend alone with Chloe. She expects us to babysit, because she kept Madi for us (and Chloe for one night too) when we moved. Under normal circumstances I would feel like we do owe her this weekend of keeping Madi. On the other hand, I kept Madi for three weekends for her because she refused to take her and, in her words, didn't care how it affected us. 

I had no idea how much it was really affecting us. 

Still, I will look like the bad guy when I say no.