Bookclub at Christie's

Tonight was our bookclub meeting which was hosted this month by Christie Adams (my talented photographer friend) in Hawthorne. Jen was nice enough to drive Nicole and me to Christie's house.

Christie, Jen and Amanda

Jenny, Sara, Emily* (34 weeks pregnant), and Sari
*Christie actually did a photo shoot of Emily that morning, so if you click on Christie's name above, you can see the preview on her blog ... great maternity shots!!!

Nicole and the spread!

Jenny, holding up Christie's book selection, "Time of My Life"

We decided that the next bookclub will be held at my house in February, so I got to select the next book. I've been meaning to read "Water for Elephants" for about a year now, so I decided to chose that one ... something a little different from the ones we've been reading lately.

Audio of Reagan Reading

As everyone knows, I just love my iPhone. One of my favorite "Apps" is something called iTalk.

It is SO easy to use and the audio quality is excellent. Oh, and it's FREE! (Some of the Apps you can download cost money) Whenever Reagan is saying something particularly cute, I try to hit "record" so I can save her sweet little voice. It's so much easier than getting out the video camera and I seem to get much more candid words when I use this, vs. when I have the camera on her.

Every night, we read lots of books before bed. Little Miss Independent loves to read the books to me first and then sometimes, if I'm lucky, she'll let me read to her. We have such a large collection of books, yet she has a lot of them memorized. She's pretty good at telling me the story just by looking at the pictures. Tonight, she was going through a book called Winnie the Pooh, All Year Long. This is a pretty old book ... in fact, it was given to us by Doreen (John's cousin Jose's wife) so she probably used to read it to Lauren (who is now 15 years old). It's about Winnie the Pooh and Piglet doing things together through all the different seasons.

Tonight was the first time I downloaded the audio clips from my phone to my computer (a very easy process). But I couldn't figure out how to share the audio clip on my blog, since Blogger only allows you to upload video and picture files. So, I got onto my video editing software and created a video, using just a picture and the audio file. Here is the finished product - not much fun to watch, so make sure you have your headphones on, or your speakers turned up!

She's a little congested and she mumbles through a lot of her words, but in her defense, she thought she was reading to herself and she had no idea I was recording. I just love her cute little voice and the way she says some of the words.

Bookclub at Nicole's

Thursday night was bookclub at Nicole's house. I think about 16 people showed up, so it was a really fun MNO (Mom's Night Out). I thoroughly enjoyed the book, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I read this on my trip to Salt Lake, then accidentally left the book on the plane on the way back to NJ. I finally got around to checking out another copy from the library on the day of bookclub, then quickly read the last 50 pages ... not that it mattered, since we talked about the book for all of 5 minutes (AS USUAL). When I lived in Salt Lake, Wendi started a bookclub that was great: we actually discussed the book for the majority of the meeting! I'd always heard about bookclubs where no one discussed the book and I thought they sounded silly ... well, now I'm in one and I have to say, it's fun either way :)

Nicole (the hostess with the mostest) and Amanda

I had to arm myself against the mosquitoes

Ashleigh and Meredith

Michelle, Lex, Ashleigh and Meredith

Nicole and Melisa

Nicole and Michelle

The pregnant girls: Christie and Sara

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I was on one of my favorite sites, Good Reads, and I happened to come across an advertisement that got me so excited, I just had to share! Right after Avery was born, I read the book "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" and I fell in love with it.

It's been made into a movie and will be premiering on Saturday, April 12th on Lifetime! Even though I'm usually disappointed with the movie versions of books I've read, I'm so excited to see how they do with this intriguing story.

So, set your TIVOS, your DVRS, or your VCRs (if you're still stuck in the 90's and haven't upgraded to the MUST-HAVE product of the century)! I hope it's good ... maybe I'll be back to give my review :)

Shopping Success

35 books for $30!!!!! No, I'm not lying. Nicole and I went to the Scholastic Book Fair Clearance Sale this morning, where every book was only $1. We had a coupon for $10 off if we spent $50, so we combined our purchases and each took a $5 discount. I'm still on a high from this amazing shopping experience!

I Love to Read!

My friend Alexis started a book club within our mom group in September and I've loved being a part of it. When I lived in Salt Lake, I participated in a book club and it was something I really enjoyed. Once I moved to New Jersey, my reading slowed down when I started graduate school and then stopped altogether after I had Reagan. It's great to be a part of one again, even though we don't spend too much time actually discussing the book.

Alexis had a baby in August and she told me how she passed the time during all those middle-of-the-night feeding sessions by reading. So, once Avery came along, I decided to try this too. Since Avery was born (9 weeks ago today), I've read 7 books, all of which have been great. I thought it would be fun to post them here, in case anyone is looking for a good book to read. I enjoyed and would recommend all of them:

I just started this one, so we'll see how it turns out:

I ordered most of these on Amazon, so if any of you here in NJ would like to borrow them, please let me know. Also, after I finish Water for Elephants, I'll need some new reading material. I would love to hear your suggestions! If you know of a great book for me to add to my list, please post a comment on this post or send me an email. THANKS!