spring break '11

Remember when spring breaks went something like this "I went to Padre Island ........." Yeah, well those days are over.  This year the kids and I did an assortment of activities.  Some fun and others...well, not so fun.  It started Friday when my bouncing baby boy turned 13.  He is officially a teenager with size 10 shoes and a deeper voice.  Had a little party with the fam and he got what he wanted.  money.  Saturday and Sunday M & A went to their dad's and P came over here so I had 2 kids and we did nuthin.  Not a thing.  P went home Sun and me and S went to the zoo Monday afternoon.  Saw a baby hippo, cutest thang!  Tuesday M & A came home and we all went to the dentist.  Isn't that what everyone saves their Spring Break for?  All good, but me.  It seems that silver fillings will break your teeth over time.  F-bomb, I suppose that will cost  a fortune.  I also moved into my new office over spring break, made another run to the dentist, this time in TOPEKA AT 8 AM!!!!!!  Jeez that's early.  The kids had friends come and go along with going over to others some.  Saturday night went to see Rango.  Not a kid movie really.  About half way through you could hear all these little kids go "Is it almost over yet?"  M loved it though.  So it's a high school cartoon.  Today we went all the way to Wichita and went to the Museum of World Treasures.  So Cool!  A must see!  Dinosaurs, mummies, shrunkens heads, a large portion of the Berlin Wall, the scarecrow's rake.  The kids loved it, I loved it.  The Big Man was kinda in a mood, so I have no idea how he felt about it, but he didn't bitch so I guess he's ok with it.  Not a bad Spring Break, just no 'party on, Garth.'  Gonna go to bed now.  Exhausted!

the Shape of Mercy review

Recently I read the Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner.  I really like Meissner a lot.  She is such a wondferful writer.  I love the way her books go back and forth between the past and present telling the story connecting the characters, and creating a parallel storyline.  This is the second Meissner book I have received from waterbrookmultnomah.com and I will definitly be reading more by her. Her characters are genuine and I care about them. I care as if they were real people.  This is an awesome read. 
  Shape of Mercy is a parallel story about  Mercy, a young woman in Salem during the witch trials and  Lauren, a college student in present day hired to translate Mercy's diary, and Abigail, an elderly woman who owns the diary.  The book goes back and forth telling the story of Mercy, an accused "witch" in Salem through excerpts of the diary and Lauren, discovering who she really is while reading the diary and getting to know Abigail.  The book starts with Lauren going against what is expected of her from her extremely wealthy parents by going to a state school and taking a job.  The job is to work for Abigail translating the diary as well as putting in into digital format.  She grows throughout the story and comes to a realization through lessons learned from both Abigail and Mercy that to judge someone by their cover and to judge someone by who they truly are still makes her someone else's judge.  Will be reading more of Meissner and that is a promise.