Book Review: Departures

Departures, by Robin Jones Gunn, has 2 separate short stories of Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen. Both are young women with strong beliefs in Christ that are trying to figure out where exactly they are in life. Christy returns to the town she grew up in for her Grandparents anniversary and how much things, including herself, have changed hits her. Sierra tries to figure out if she is ready to be a woman, or if she wants to keep her childlike view of life (especially of boys) and gets confused when her best friend is emphatically ready to grow up. Both use their faith to guide them and come to terms with themselves.

I really liked these two stories, they were cute. They had a little romance, a little faith, and some innocence about them. They can stand alone, but I found out that both characters are actually main characters in two series that Gunn writes, and the short stories made me want to read the series to see how things continue to develop. I would recommend these stories to women, especially young Christian women. Those are the people that would probably be able to relate best to the characters.


* I received this book for free from the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Project #2

It's by no means perfect, but for the very, very, VERY little sewing experience that I have, I'm pretty proud of my little valance!
In real life it's not uneven, it must just be the angle I took the picture at.

DVD Cabinets

Many of you have been over to our home at one point or another (or one state or another) and know that we had those open shelved DVD racks. Those have been very inadequate for awhile now. Not only were they too small, but we had to have our couch cut off the corner of the room that they were in because Alexa likes to pull the DVDs off and destroy them. I had been looking for something big enough to hold all our movies and video games that had doors so Alexa at least wouldn't be able to see the movies, but everything was really expensive. I always watch craigslist, though, keeping an eye out for good deals and found 2 of these- for $10! Not pretty and not matching our other furniture, I sanded them and painted them and got this:

I'm quite pleased. And so far, Alexa hasn't figured out that they open and the fun that they contain :)

Happiness

For my birthday my parents gave me money so that I could buy things for the sewing machine that my mother-in-law got me for Christmas, and I finally got around to spending it! I bought lots of stuff from JoAnn's online to do several little projects that I've been wanting to do for awhile, including 2 window treatments, 2 shirts for Alexa, hemming some jeans, and making myself a tote for primary. I'm excited! Now I just have to teach myself to sew! Stay tuned for another project that I'm completing!

Aquarium trip

So, these pictures are pretty much all backwards because I didn't feel like thinking out the order and blogger sucks with moving pictures. Anyways, on Wednesday we went to the aquarium in Newport and had a lot of fun. Alexa did great and actually really enjoyed it! Here she is touching anemones (don't mind how weird her hand looks, apparently this was a very hard shot to catch because she'd only reach in for half a second) Looking at fish...

They had a bunch of art exhibits made out of plastics that they got off of beaches.

And tubes that you could walk through where the fish/sharks swam all around you.

We had a lot of fun, and were impressed with Alexa for lasting the whole time and actually looking at the fish. Now we'll have to try the zoo sometime!

When the Heart Cries

When the Heart Cries by Cindy Woodsmall is the first of a series that leaves you wanting to finish all of it! Hannah Lapp knows who she loves, but she also knows that her father will be hard to convince that the match is good because the man does not belong to the Old Order Amish. Then something happens to Hannah that makes her question everything- her belief, her family, and whether or not she deserves to be loved. Her family is almost torn apart from jealousies, blame, grudges and shame, and everything is falling down around Hannah. Whether or not she will be able to fix things is not even concluded in this book, which is why you will want to read the rest of the series. This book is very interesting as you learn things about the Amish and Mennonite communities and what happens when unthinkable things happen in them. You come to really know and like (or dislike) the characters in the books, and while some of them are rather one dimensional, the main characters are definitely round. Really, try reading these books. Even if you think they sound lame and boring because they are about Amish, because that is what I thought at first. It is one of those things though, people are people, no matter the religion.

*I received this book for free from the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

This is the little devil getting into areas we've blocked off specifically so that she can't get into them. Clearly she's quite proud of herself.
Alexa hasn't really been introduced to TV. I mean, she's seen us watch it sometimes, but we've never turned it on for her before. Then I decided to see if she'd like Sesame Street. Look for yourselves.

This attention certainly doesn't last the whole show, in fact it only lasts a few minutes at a time, but it's kind of nice. And I don't feel too bad since this is really the first time I've introduced TV to her and it's at least semi educational.

And sorry for the delay, but we haven't picked a winner for the book yet. We've been pretty busy this week. Hopefully we'll do it this weekend!