Post-Twilight Reading

A long time ago, I wondered what to read after the Harry Potter series.
I read the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, read some Neil Gaiman and life went on..but there was that momentary flash of panic after book 7.

Considering the Twilight series was what finally made our Tween into a book lover, it became very important to find something new for her to read (along the same vein, pardon the pun) after she finished the Twilight series. (Though, she does re-read them constantly, too. I've lost count..maybe she's re-read New Moon about 5 times now?) So - thanks to the Book Fairy Wendy, and some resourceful hunting of our own..we found some books for our Tween that helped get her past that "panic" after she finished Twilight.

I keep passing this list along to folks--so I figured I'll stick it here to refer to.

Our list of "What to read when you've read Twilight and need a new series to fall in love with..." (in order of how much we loved them).
It starts out YA Lit, and the list AFTER it is a bit more adult. I'll note the ones you really DON'T want your Tween to read.

1. The Mortal Instruments Series (trilogy)
by Cassandra Clare
http://www.mortalinstruments.com/mortalseries.html

The first book is: City of Bones

We loved these books so much! And, we noticed them because Stephenie Meyer apparently read them and liked them enough to review the books and put her name on the cover.. (saying she loved them, too)

She's working on a new trilogy now:
The Infernal Devices: A companion series to The Mortal Instruments
You can track progress of publication at: http://www.theinfernaldevices.com/
Book One: The Clockwork Angel, Simon and Schuster, 2010
Book Two: The Clockwork Prince, Simon and Schuster, 2011
Book Three: The Clockwork Princess, Simon and Schuster, 2012

2. The House of Night Series by P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast.
There are 5 books in the series so far, and the next book is in the series is titled: "Tempted" (House of Night Book 6)and is coming out October 27,2009.

The first book in the series is: Marked

Info at: http://www.houseofnightseries.com/
Synopsis/info on book 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marked_(novel)

3. We read a couple of different series by LJ Smith.
We liked: The Vampire Diaries series, Nightworld 1, 2 and 3, The Secret Circle series.

It's also worth noting that this fall the Vampire Diaries are being made into a tv program on CW!

http://www.ljanesmith.net/booklist.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._J._Smith_(author)

4. The Summoning and The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong.
These are the first two books (available now) in a trilogy (The Darkets Powers trilogy) being written by Kelley Armstrong - who has published for adults, but these are for YA audiences. (So they're more thrilling and angsty, not so scary).

http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/aDarkest.htm

5. Evermore, by Alyson Noël. (And a new release, a followup: Blue Moon by Alyson Noël was just released July 7.) Apparently, these books are part of the "Immortals" series.

http://www.alysonnoel.com/IMMORTALS/index_immortals.php

For the Grown-Ups:

I've really liked:

1. The Mercy Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs
(4 available, a 5th available in Feb 2010)

2. The Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews
(3 available, 4th book coming in May 2010)

3. The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris
There are 9 available now, and these are these books are the basis for the HBO show "True Blood". (The Southern Vampire Series) *WARNING - NOT for kids*

..and of course, "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer as well.

MRA means life is never dull

Thanks to our youngest child (MRA, aka Mr. Man) - we laugh a lot. Not that our other kids didn't sometimes say funny things..but this one - he's just a total ham.

Thanks to overhearing MRA and his playmates we've discovered that the ultimate threat between Kindergarten-ish aged kids is: "If you don't X...I'm not gonna invite you to my birthday party!!"

However, Mr. Man (coming up on age 5 very soon) has figured out that line doesn't work on mom & dad, because as we've pointed out to him - we're the ones throwing the party, so we'll be there, like it or not.

So.. his new threat (wait for it):
"If you don't let me do X (where x = play Wii past his bedtime, hit his sister, sleep in our bed instead of his) ..then you can't wipe my butt!!"

Yep - he seems to be under the mistaken impression that we WANT to wipe his poopy butt and that we're somehow broken up over not getting that task when he yells for one of us from the bathroom. Ha!

Two More funnies from MRA lately:
1. He was playing with Matchbox cars in the kitchen when one rolled a bit too far and ended up waaaaay under the gas range.
I said: "Oh no..sorry honey, but it looks like that one is gone for good."
Mr. Man said: "Nope.. it's gone for EEE-VIL!"

2. He's a HUGE SpongeBob fan and was looking through the garage for a bucket to wear over his head (in the SpongeBob movie Plankton controls the whole town by putting Chum Buckets on their head that control their minds).
After talking him out of that he marched around the house with a fly-swatter in hand chanting: "On Hail Mommy!" (Plankton's minions chanted: "All Hail Plankton")

I tried several times to explain it's "All Hail" not "On Hail"...but gave up when he said: "All Hail..No" (you might have to say this out loud to see why this cracked me up)..and I couldn't stop laughing.

Someone in Public Works doesn't like us

This is the 4th time in about one calendar year. And we're 2 for 2 - each time it's snowed this week and last they've destroyed our mailbox.

We've only ever written an anonymous note saying how HAPPY we are with the city's excellent job plowing. (We wrote to thank the city because we're so impressed at how quick they are to plow us out each time. Doubly impressive because we live in the rural part of our town -- it turns to dirt road just past our house.)
We've never complained. I've never tried to pass or cut off a plow while driving..
Seriously, what did we do to this plow driver?

I'm not really complaining...after all it's poor Jeff who's there and has to deal with it. I'm sitting in Austin, TX in record breaking warmth. It's going to be 87 degrees (or warmer) here this afternoon.
I better enjoy it while I can..'cause it's going to be a tough adjustment to get off that airplane in MSP tonight to below zero windchill and fresh snow on the ground.

Happiness is...no commute on a snowy day

Yesterday morning I made it just in time for my bus downtown.. but the driver started to leave without me. So, I picked up the pace a bit and started running.. only to slip on the ice (oh, yeah, forgot about all that ice!) and then did a fantastic face first slide to a stop on the icy ground. (Ouch.)
This sent everything I was carrying scattering in three different directions - but at least it made the bus stop and wait for me. Probably out of pity. Or, maybe just because Metro Transit frowns on running over passengers and I was laying in the street right in the bus' path.

So, when I heard we'd have snow today (and I figured out that I'd twisted an ankle thanks to my icy belly flop) - I decided to work from home today.

I slept in a bit. Just threw on jeans and got to work around 7:30 like usual. Only, my commute this morning was just down a set of stairs and only involved turning on some lights and starting up the fireplace. Propping a pillow up under my sore ankle and powering up the laptop and the XM receiver unit.

Lucy and her friend (yet another sleep over at our house last night) woke up after I'd been working about 2 hours.. and then had another friend come over to join them to play. As I answer emails I faintly overhear all three girls playing teacher and tutoring 4 year old Michael on his letters and how to write his name. Then they ran around giggling and playing. Miraculously all 4 kids have left me alone down here to work and haven't interrupted any of my phone meetings.

So, I'm sitting in the lower level office/cave with the fireplace running, with scented candles, my iced tea and the XM playing indie music in the background...and whenever I look up from my work I see soft fluffy snow falling outside the double glass doors. It's gorgeous - especially because I have don't have to drive anywhere today.




The music is perfect (lots of Vampire Weekend, Kings Of Leon, Department of Eagles, Ra Ra Riot) the fireplace is cozy, the dogs are curled at my feet and I'm getting work done... and now Jeff is plowing out the driveway with Michael.

Today was darn near as perfect as a Tuesday at work can get. And not just 'cause I didn't fall on the ice (yet) today.

I've been too stressed out for too long - I've lost my sense of humor.
So, yesterday and today I took some long overdue time off...and wouldn't you know it soon as I was better rested today I saw something on my work laptop that just cracked me up. I was working on some stuff yesterday from a colleague in India...and never even noticed the file name till just now.



The best part? I even have an email request that says something like: "Can you please help me with my BO issues?"

Lucy's Christmas Wishes

In case you have a hard time reading 2nd Grader it says this:

----

My Christmas wishes..
First is a Webkinz because it's fun to play with them.
Second is for everyone to be rich because then no one would lose their house!
Third I wish for the war to end because people die and we have to give our money to them and that is how people lose their houses. Then I would wish for an American Girl doll because I love playing with them.
Last I would wish for a cool new room so I can have more fun in my room.

----

I happened to help in Lucy's classroom yesterday so I saw a couple of the other kids' Santa essays. The ones I saw read like you'd expect: I want an XBOX and a skateboard, etc.etc.

I wonder what Lucy's teacher must think of us right about now.



On a related note - last night Michael went to see Santa while Lucy and I were at Girl Scouts. When he sat on Santa's lap and was asked what he wanted for Christmas apparently his answer was: "A Nutcracker. So I can give it to my daddy."

I have NO idea where that one came from - we haven't been to a performance of the Nutcracker this year, and Jeff isn't a big walnut fan.. but, I'm sure Michael's answer was genuinely thought out because he's repeated it a few more times. ("..And, and I'm gonna open nuts up for Daddy!")

So, while I can't guess at where Michael's wish came from, I think I can explain Lucy's Christmas wish list...
This past summer we made a roadtrip to Chicago - just Lucy and mommy, to go to a baby shower for my oldest friend. (Oldest, as in - we've been friends for the longest time - not as in, she's old. 'Cause we're YOUNG, okay? Young and hip and ...ah hell, never mind.)

Lucy got bored with the games she'd packed and she's afraid to read in the car because she used to get car sick. So, she wanted my iPod. I had a bunch of saved up episodes of "This American Life" from NPR and she LOVED them. I think she listened to them all. At least one of them explained some of the foreign policy shortcomings of our country entering into the war in Iraq it's subsequent impact to our nation's fortunes. Tough stuff for a 2nd grader to comprehend - but she was digging it and asking me questions. I tried to explain in terms that were simple and not scary - but also realistic. We ARE a nation at war.

Flash forward to this winter. Whenever Lucy has asked for an expensive item we've explained that the economy is bad, and our jobs and standard of living are very precarious. Again - economic slowdown, inflation/deflation -- all tough concepts for a 7 year old to comprehend - so we tried to explain it gently in a way she'd understand.

She has Kit Kittredge® the American girl doll - and Kit is one of their historical dolls who lived during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Lucy has read the Kit historical fiction books and went to the Kit movie earlier this year, too. She understands a bit about that time - that people were losing their homes to bank foreclosures, many people lived with uncertainty about their jobs and money - and that there was also a farming calamity: the Dust Bowl.

We have tried to explain that the time we're living in is not quite as bad as during when Kit lived - certainly there's no dust bowl... but that no one knows how bad things are going to get just yet, or how many people will lose their jobs and it's time to be careful with the money that we earn from working as much as we can.

In the movie - one sign that a family was having hardship is that the mothers would start keeping chickens for the eggs and use the feedsacks to make dresses for the girls. I've explained to Lucy: "Look, we aren't keeping chickens yet, right? But, it's time to be careful so that we can continue to pay for our house."
Again, she seemed to understand, didn't seem overly anxious - and stopped whining for expensive new shirts from Justice for Girls or the latest DS game she's seen on TV, etc.

Apparently, when given a writing assignment at school, our soft-hearted daughter has put the "This American Life" episodes about the costs of the war in Iraq (and high costs of rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure) together with her concerns about people losing their houses now.

And herein lies the difficult tight-rope-walk: We're not trying to make her anxious, just thoughtful and aware of the larger world around her.

While I think, on the one hand, it's good that she has things other than her own personal wants (XBOX, Guitar Hero..blah blah blah) on her mind.. we're going to have to be careful to not talk about news on the economic downturn or any of our money concerns in front of Luce..because she's a natural born worrier like her mother.

Perhaps when Santa still shows up with presents for her and her Christmas looks much like Christmases past her anxiety will ease up a bit.

In the meantime maybe it'll help if I say: "Don't worry honey. Look, we're not keeping chickens to sell the eggs yet."

iSpoiled

When the iPhone first came out a year or two ago I was immediately enamored..but the sort of enamored which would be about like having a crush on Brad Pitt. Sure, he's nice to look at, but c'mon, he's not meant for mere mortals.
That's what the iPhone was like for me. For one thing, the price was way too high. The handset itself, the data plan to go with it - completely priced beyond our means.

For another, it was only available w/ AT&T and I have been with T-Mobile for at least a decade (actually, since before it was T-Mobile -- I was with VoiceStream before T-Mobile acquired them in mid-2000) and I figured I am or was locked into another 2 year contract or something.

And then a series of events took place with just the right timing..that worked out in the most unexpectedly positive ways for me: the new 3G phone came out with a lower price, there was a bit of a change in my role at work, a corporate policy change and then a corporate cell phone provider contract change...and next thing you know - I'm on AT&T with an iPhone. It just fell in my lap.
Well, that and a little expenditure on our part.



This is more technology than I ever needed or even knew I wanted.
It's even better than I thought. It feels extravagant. I just explained it to a colleague like this: it's like going in to a car dealership expecting to buy a used Toyota sedan with high miles. It'll be reliable transportation and get you to work.
And by some strange fortunate twist in fate you end up driving off the lot in a brand new Saab convertible. Turbo. Loaded. Beautiful. For the same price.

On the one hand, I really love it. On the other I feel somewhat guilty..a bit like: "I could have bought two goats for an impoverished family in the Durame area in Ethiopia for what I've spent on a gadget that lets me check Facebook on a whim or watch YouTube while riding the bus home from work."
Was it really necessary?
Heck no.
Does it feel like a treat every time I look at it, touch it or hear it ring?
Heck yeah.

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In other news...we're about to go Road Tripping. Jeff and the kids are coming with me on a business trip. THIS should be interesting.
Normally I go to far flung places on an airplane and work myself around the clock..8 to 10 hours at the client site and then another 6+ hours in the hotel room. Work until I drop.

This time..it'll be long days at the client site, but then I'll come back to the hotel and my kids and hubby will be there. That ought to keep me from overworking a bit. It will definitely be less lonely. :)

We're going to rural Missouri. Hopefully we find good weather and interesting sites along the way.

Rock Mabama! Rock Mabama!

Mr. Man (age 4) had a kid's election at school. They voted for "red" or "blue" (after all they have really little kids at the school; infants all the way up to school agers) - but if they knew the name of the candidate they wanted they could also vote that way, too.
Michael was so excited - he had a sticker that said: "I Voted Today" and ran up to me and said: "Mama Mama! I voted!"
I said: "Really? Who'd you vote for?" and he started chanting and waving his arms:

"Rock Mabama! Rock Mabama! Rock Mabama!!"

Because we live in the north metro (and you can break down the voting statistics for our town and see that it went heavily in favor of McCain here) I asked him: "Who else voted for the same guy you did?" And he said: "Only two of us voted for Mabama."
There are like 25 kids in his class - and 2 voted for Mabama. ;)
I'm glad he had the courage to stick up for who he wanted. And if I had any doubts (based on the name pronunciation) that he actually knew who Obama is.. that was cleared up when my People magazine arrived.

As I carried in the magazine with Obama's picture on the front I said: "Michael, look who it is!"
And Michael came running and chanting again: "Rock Mabama! Rock Mabama! Rock Mabama!!"
and then he gave the front of the magazine a hug and a kiss. (No prompting at all from us - this was just his own natural response.)