Everybody is going to UCLA for the Book Festival.  I can’t go because of lack of babysitters who are able to help me out and watch the kids.  I can’t afford an all-day babysitter and I don’t have anyone willing to get them to their soccer game.  I don’t have a very big family and only a few close friends that could really take the kids and do that for me.  So, I’m missing out.  I’m missing out on Lisa See, Maria Semple, and more.   I’m horribly bummed out about it.  So, I started to remind myself… I’m only a mommy with little ones for so long.  One day I will miss taking them to soccer games.  As I told Lisa, once they’re grown and gone, there will be many years for book festivals.

This Week’s Reads

This week, I read and reviewed: 

In My Mailbox for Review

Miracle Girls, It’s All About Us, The Fruit of My Lipstick, Be Strong & Curvaceous and 20 Boys Summer.

I did pick up some books from a liquidation sale and I’m excited to rotate those into the reading schedule.  Some are classics!

Contests 

This week I announced my three winners for the Follow Me contest.  There is a big blog tour for Follow Me and it’s posting around the ”net” on April 27th.  So, there will be lots of reviews to check out!  

I have a new contest going on that started yesterday!  I’m giving away 3 copies of Who Made You a Princess AND a GRAND PRIZE WINNER will win the entire series plus a t-shirt.  I really enjoyed this YA Fiction book and so did my daughter.  It’s faith based and has a really positive message for teens/tweens.  Love that!

Reading Challenges

For the participants of  the Just For the Love of It Challenge, THIS IS OUR LAST MONTH.  Please post your April reviews HERE.  The participants of this challenge have posted some terrific book reviews.  You can find them by going to the sidebar and click onto a month and check out what’s been linked. 

On J. Kaye’s 100+ Reading Challenge…  I’m at 54 books done.  Therefore, my statistical update for this challenge is that I’m 54% completed with 30.27% of the year completed.  This puts me ahead of schedule by 21.78%.  Yeah!  That’s 3% higher than last week. 

I’m going to join in on the Classics Challenge and I need to get my post up.  Bad Sheri!

Lainey Grace Update

Unfortunately, Lainey Grace was rushed back to the hospital this week.  She’s having some trouble with her stomach and is experiencing all kinds of horrible side effects.  I believe that they are mostly attributable to the chemo.  Her white blood cell count is down to nothing and her mom, Lori, is staying with her.  Her risk for infection is so high that there is a strict restriction on who can and can’t enter her room, even hospital staff.  She’s been running a fever the majority of the week.  Every time she gets one, another 48-Hour “Stay in Hospital Clock” starts ticking.  She’s really bummed out about it and wants to go home.  Lori has been reading the Little House on the Prairie Series to her and has the DVD’s for when she’s gets tired of reading.  Lainey is enjoying that more so than the games, coloring, etc. activities that Lori brought for her. 

If I may be so bold as to ask for more prayers… PLEASE?  This little angel couldn’t get enough!  I’ve posted Lainey Grace’s photo in my sidebar and also one of her family.

In case you hadn’t read Lainey Grace’s story, you can access it by clicking HERE.  

At Home & On TV 

Now Lawrence and Eydta are gone.  I’m okay with that based on the performances this week.  If you’re into it, you can catch up on my goofy gossip (HERE).       

I got to see my nephew, Aaron, this week.  He is so cute!  His hair sticks straight up.  Adorable, I tell you.  His parents have been working with him on self-soothing and falling asleep on his own.  They’ve done a great job and it’s going great for him.  He’s also gotten two teeth.  I’m a smitten kitten.  So cute!

Nothing interesting really to report on the home front other than I’ve dyed my hair.  No more streaks of blonde.  I can’t afford the maintenance anymore.  Good-bye highlights.  I loved my old pamper-thy-self lifestyle.  When will this economy pick up?  Ugh. 

The Ollie-Wall-O-China was completed and turned in.  Ollie is depressed.  Open House Night was, well… interesting.  The 6th-8th graders did some square dancing in the gym in addition to 2 songs of the electric slide.  I don’t know why we needed 2 songs’ worth of the electric slide… but…  Let me tell you, looking at the models in the social studies classrooms… WOW!  I can’t believe some of the work that these kids and parents put into them.  It made the Ollie-Wall-O-China look stupid.  I saw working drawbridges, castles, chinese buildings… it was crazy!  All I can say is that I hope that the twins are better “project builders” by the 8th grade because I DO NOT want to build those models.  Oh no!

We’re still getting over sickness at my home and I curse the day that I got allergies.  But, we’re on the mend.

As always, my thanks to all of you for reading not only this post, but the others as well.   Your readership means the world to me!  AND, your comments are invaluable to me!

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