Tonight is the twins’ 12th birthday party.  They each have a friend over for dinner and a sleepover.  They got bathing suits, cover ups, shoes, bags, towels, Twilight Paraphernalia up the ying-yang, shoes, PJ’s and a ton of clothes from Mommy (Old Navy’s prices can’t be beat!).  They even scored a computer from my brother and his wife and some cash from a dear friend (it’s going into the college fund).  We were joined by my brother, his wife and their son Aaron for a barbecue and cupcakes.  Frankly, with the exception of about an hour of extraordinary loudness, they’ve been great!  They quietly lie atop their sleeping bags watching a movie right now.  I hope they are suffering from a sugar crash and will be asleep before midnight!

This Week’s Reads

This week, I read and reviewed: 

In My Mailbox for Review

Contests 

I  announced the winners of 3 copies of Who Made You a Princess AND the GRAND PRIZE WINNER this week.  I will be posting the entries to  My Beautiful Baby Contest this week.

I am giving away 3 copies of April & Oliver by Tess Callahan and 1 copy of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Home this week.  Please see the links in the sidebar or hit the “Contests” button above to enter 

Reading Challenges 

On J. Kaye’s 100+ Reading Challenge…  I’m at 67 books done.  Therefore, my statistical update for this challenge is that I’m 67% completed with 37.63% of the year completed.  This puts me ahead of schedule by 29.36%.  I’m up by 4% over last week.  I told myself I was going to take a bit of a reading break this week, but I couldn’t sleep well so… I’m still over-reading and not sleeping.  Ugh.

Lainey Grace Update

Lainey Grace finished her round of Chemotherapy and headed home at the beginning of the week.  They were hopeful that she would be able to say home for 2+ weeks, before the next round.  However, once again she contracted a fever over 101 degrees and her white blood cell count tanked… so back to the hospital she went.    As of today (Saturday night), her counts were on the upswing and she’s been fever-free since Friday.  So, if she continues to be on the upswing, she’ll get to go home on Sunday.  Lori had a terrible eye infection and she and her husband were shuffling back and forth between home and San Diego multiple times so that Lori could see the eye doctor.  That’s several hours in the car per round trip.  EEK!  Lori gives this update on the Caring Bridge Journal:

My boys were SOOOOOO great yesterday riding in the car back & forth to and from the hospital 4 times without complaining. They have been real troopers setting their needs aside for their sister’s care, and yesterday, Mommy’s. Boys, I love you and am so proud of your servant’s hearts!!!!

Today, we can continue to read  The Secret Garden and hopefully watch the movie as we only have 4 chapters to go. Hooray!

 

 

 

Cool that they’re reading The Secret Garden. 

For all of you who have kept this family in your prayers, I personally want to thank you, again!  In case you haven’t read Lainey Grace’s story, you can access it by clicking HERE. 

 At Home & On TV 

The vote-off went as expected this week and Ty has gone home.   I was totally peeved about the scoring for my favorite, Melissa.  You can read my Dancing With the Stars Post-Show Wrap Up (HERE).       

I’m more than irritated about the American Idol voting this week.  Danny Gokey went home while Drag Queen, 80’s Glam Rock WannaBe remained.  I just want to puke.  I think he RUINED “One” by U2.  All of that “heavy metal” screaming is so OUT!  And, I just can’t get all of his cross-dressing photos out of my head.  I really thought about posting them here, but I didn’t think it was appropriate… plus, you’d never get that vision out of your mind.  ICK.  I just really don’t like him at all, any more.  I wanted Danny Gokey and Kris Allen for the final two.  I got tears in my eyes in the Kris Allen hometown video. 

Moving onto Survivor this week.  I’m SOOOO glad that Coach went home.  He’s such an oddball and I became to be just like Taj… I just roll my eyes at him.  ICK!

Thursday Night had much more to offer.  We said a final goodbye to two beloved characters on Grey’s Anatomy.  Another tear shed.  Even though I new they were leaving the show, it was still sad.  Then, I watched Hell’s Kitchen’s season finale.   I wanted Paula to win, but Danny won.  That’s okay, though.  He did a good job, too.  Sunday night is the season finale for Desperate Housewives and I’m looking forward to that.  Speaking of Sunday night finales, I watched the 3-hour finale of The Celebrity Apprentice.  My GOD that was a long show!  Joan Rivers won, which made me happy because I didn’t care much for Annie.  Dennis Rodman was such a trip on that show!  I thought Melissa Rivers looked hot in her dress on the finale… wowza! 

I watched a good move for Monday’s Movie this week and will be posting it tomorrow.  I’ve finished up some requirements for Summer School and have taken care of some issues with CitiMortgage.  I’m awaiting an appraisal and hoping for the best on my loan modification.

I NEED A JOB still.  Sad Sad Sad.

I’ve struggled more than I can say with sleep this week.  I had NO sleep at all for over two days this week.  It’s killing me!  And, when I have slept, the nightmares have been overwhelming.  I need money and sleep and I’m not sure in what order!?!

I wanted to send an extra “THANK YOU” to Josie, Bill, Terra, Danielle, and Lisa who made the twins’ birthday so special with the lovely gifts! 

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!

16 Responses to “The Sunday Salon: Twins’ Birthday Party”