Book Report: Home to Big Stone Gap

I just finished reading Home to Big Stone Gap, the fourth book in a series (that I LOVE) by Adriana Trigiani. I thought I'd share some of my favorite quotes from the book... (and don't worry, they won't ruin the story!)

On page 69, Ave Maria says to Iva Lou, “The most important thing I have learned as a married woman is to say a quarter of what I’m thinking and leave the rest in my head, where it belongs. I might wind up in the nuthouse, but I’ll stay married.”

On page 86, Ave Maria talks about her daughter Etta, and says… There are things she needs to experience in order to grow beyond the world we created in our home…as with most decisions your children make, you can be sure of them only when time has passed and there’s a context for their choices…maybe fate is the footwork of decisions made with loving intentions…

On page 277, again about Etta, she says, “I realize now that a happy mother may very well make a joyful child.”

I want to try the recipes for Long Winter’s Nap Christmas Cake and Uncle Louis Fisse’s Holiday Cheese Log on pages 180-181.

On page 237, about the trip to Scotland, Ave Maria says, “It’s the power of something to look forward to: it changes the colors of the world from drab to gorgeous.”

On page 278, Ave Maria says, “If only Etta knew how much I want her dreams to come true, but there is no way to say it that she would ever believe. I have a feeling she will find out the moment she holds her own baby in her arms. She’ll know it then.”

On page 287, “Etta is five months pregnant, and the worry wheel that God puts in all mothers has already started to turn.”

On page 294, their new friend Arthur says, “Sometimes we’re just too old to bother to make new friends. I’m almost there. You got here in the nick of time.”

On page 300, Jack tells Ave Maria, “You just have to live, Ave, and let life unfold. Say what you mean. You can’t always think about what you’ve lost, or what you don’t have, or what you didn’t get. Because when you do that, you’re missing out on the now. I’m here with you tonight, but I can’t know if I’ll be here tomorrow or a year from now – or if you will be. I don’t care how many plans you make, you can’t know anything for sure either. We shouldn’t let a day go by when we don’t stop and think about what we are to each other and how the best part of that is the part that changes. That’s the mystery. And that’s the part of people that’s divine. Accepting the unknown and trusting in it.”

Ahh...what a great story!

Kids say the darndest things...

For all you who are on a perpetual quest for weight management as I am, you'll appreciate how this comment made me feel. Two weekends ago, our 5 year old neighbor looked at me and said,

Are you having another baby? Because you look fat again.

And that's why I started doing the Slim in 6 workout last night.

Mt. Rushmore

We also stopped at Mt. Rushmore along the way and introduced Sophia and Heidi to the Presidents. :)

Yellowstone Adventure

Our family vacation this year was to Yellowstone! We spent nine days on the road, 66 hours of driving, over 3000 miles, and managed to not get eaten by bears or buffalo. But check out how close the buffalo got to our campsite!

Halloween

Sophia was a chicken for Halloween this year, thanks to cousin Allison who passed her costume down to her. She loved carrying around her Halloween basket and continues to like carrying it around the house 2 weeks later. Here she is dressed up at the library for storytime. Notice in the bottom picture who the only child is who is NOT paying attention to the librarian. Yes, that is my Sophia. She loves playing too much to care about listening to the stories. See the mom with the red sweatshirt in the background? Sometimes Sophia likes to go and sit in her lap to listen, to the chagrin of that mom's son. She rarely requests to sit in my lap.

Sophia, the little pig

We had dinner last night at China Buffet, after a long day of cleaning out the garage and organizing it. (The garage is a miraculously beautiful sight now, and I NEVER thought I'd say that. You can actually open the car doors on both sides now and you don't have to drive in and hit the lawnmower to make sure the door closes. It's fantastic.) Anyway, we went to China Buffet and Sophia got food ALL OVER herself. She really was a mess. And Peter was helping her do it. Though she had a bib on for most of the meal, it had to come off after Peter coaxed her into trying pepper straight out of the pepper shaker and then she spit water all over the bib. So her shirt got some food on it.

After dinner, I wanted to stop by the nun's house to say hello. It's been awhile since they've seen Sophia, and they've been asking to have us come over. Well, on the car ride over, Sophia was quiet as a church mouse. She made only one sound, and it was perfectly timed. Peter was saying to me that we shouldn't go visit because "Sophia looks like a little pig." As soon as those words left his mouth, Sophia said her one word, "Hey!"

We were holding back tears we were laughing so hard. Then she began to laugh with us, though I'm not sure she really understood what happened.

Our visit with the nuns was fun, and they didn't mind her messiness at all. :)

The Bachelor Disaster

I am in love with watching The Bachelor. Ever since Trista's season, I have been hooked. I think it is a romantic fantasy world, and I just love watching it. So you can imagine that I was looking forward to Monday evening when the season premier was on. Sophia was very cooperative and went to bed before the show started, even with a thunderstorm raging outside.

The show did not disappoint me, and I'm sure I'm going to love this season. So you can imagine how upset I was when Chris Harrison came on, announced that this was the last rose, and then our power went out! Of course I found out who he picked last, but I couldn't believe my disfortune.

My night went downhill from there...it had been raining for most of the afternoon and the news that came on after the Bachelor announced that there were thousands of homes flooded across the city and suburbs. Peter suggested I check out our basement, which I thought was ridiculous since we've never had water before. Good thing he made teh suggestion, because boy did we have water.

There was a big puddle...enough to soak every dry towel and piece of clothing we could reach. Ugh. And it just kept coming. When we blew a fuse by turning on the washing machine, the sump pump went out as well, creating ankle deep water to fill our basement hallway. Ahh! The only thing we could do was laugh, or we would have cried.

Hours later, exhausted from scooping water, pouring out buckets, laying out soaked towels on the porch, and eventually digging a drainage ditch in our driveway to get the water away from our house, we finally threw in the proverbial towel and went to bed. Thankfully the storm calmed and there was only a minor puddle in the basement in the morning.

It's bound to be an eventful season!

*Note: our library flooded during the storm too (we couldn't go to storytime this morning because the library is closed). Several of our neighbors had flooded basements as well. Thank goodness for tiling in our basement!

OK, so it's been awhile...

I'm not sure why I haven't taken the time to share my summer with the cyber world...I think it was actually a combination of being so disappointed that I couldn't get online to post daily China news while we were traveling, and then adjusting to life beyond the working world...nonetheless, I am back for today at least.

A few stories from the past few days:

Dumpster Diving
Yesterday on our walk, we found the best dumpster finds! A really cool kid pool and a small plastic picnic table. Sophia loves that table already. Peter had to roll the pool down the street about three blocks which had Sophia giggling all the way home. We had to go back in the car to get the table. It was a great way to spend our Sunday afternoon!

Purses
Sophia loves my purse. She takes things out and puts them back in. Finally I found a little bag for her to carry around as her purse. I put her plastic cell phone inside along with a few other toys. One day she was carrying it around until she found my purse. She took everything out of her purse, opened mine, found one dollar bill, and promptly took off with her new dollar and her purse. The rest of the evening she had a great time with that dollar and her purse. It was great fun watching her.