Move over Brutus  

Posted by Julie


Right now, Buckeye Chuck is my favorite Buckeye animal!  

Why? 

Because unlike that Punks-a-somethin' Phil,
Buckeye Chuck says there will be an early spring this year. 


Can I get a 
HALLELUJAH! 

Here's a link to the article in The Marion Star if you don't believe me
(or if ya just wanna check it out).

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I Am the Messenger  

Posted by Julie

I have read so many books lately.  I actually read one in less than 12 hours the other day.  Ok, it was a YA book, but still give me some credit.  (This should really be a testament to how dull my life has been, I actually have time to READ!)  Here are my thoughts on some of them.



I really enjoyed Zusak's writing style in The Book Thief, so I decided to try out another of his novels that is supposed to be more light hearted and humorous.  I Am the Messenger acheives this but if you're looking for something actually humorous and funny, this isn't the book to grab. I still enjoy Zusak's style. It's very conversational. He makes it seem so easy; easy to write and easy to read.  And this book has a positive message to it.  Unfortunately, I think his story falls too flat at the end. Still worth the read though.

My Antonia... well, let's just put it this way:  It's literature.  Ya know, classic, gotta-read-in-college kinda literature.  Let me also add that I am a plot driven reader.  I enjoy the challenges of the characters and how they overcome them.  I like the thrill of the who-dunnit or the how-they-gonna-accomplish-that kinda thing.  If you're like me, you may wanna skip this one (unless of course you actually have this as required reading or something).  Cather is so wonderfully descriptive and her passion for the land and it's people are apparent, but I kept waiting for the plot to start... and it never really did (or only faintly at best).  If you like classic, descriptive literature, you'll love it. If not, skip it.







Among the Hidden by Margaret Haddix.  
Why am I reading a YA book, you may ask. I was impressed by this series long before I ever read this book.  It is the series that FINALLY interested my pre-teen boys in books!  D & S read them several years ago and couldn't stop talking about them.  D has been in love with reading ever since.  THANK YOU MARGARET PETERSON HADDIX!!  And as an adult, I can see why they liked them so much.  Keep in mind that the book is simple for the younger reader, but intriguing, and adventurous enough to keep even an adult interested.  I look forward to reading the rest of the series.














By the way, check out my writings at The Distracted Writer.

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My Other Job  

Posted by Julie

Like I don't have enough of them, right?  

Besides, mother, wife, teacher, etc, etc, etc, I have taken on the role of writer.  At least I am trying to (remember Resolution #1?).  I have been faithful at trying to take myself seriously in this capacity.  So far, it's been fun! I've revisited and revised a few of my short stories I wrote years ago, started some new ones, and made real progress on my novel (though I still have a loooooooong way to go). However, I seem to have neglected blogging here a bit again.  (By the way, this blog is not intended for anything but keeping up to date with my family and friends.  If you are interested in my writings, check out The Distracted Writer.)  


Mostly, it's because other than this (and Resolution #2, of course) I have been a pretty boring person.  I think the winter will do that to a person.  It's dull, gray, and boring. We haven't even had the yearly (traditional?) dumping of snow this year.  What snow we've had has been given to us a little bit at a time.  It melts occasionally, and then we get a little more.  A rather boring cycle has occurred even in our weather patterns!

So I write, read, and workout in any free time I may get.  And I take kids to and from school. And I go to work. Not much to write home about. LOL

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The Other Julie Beddoes  

Posted by Julie

Have you ever Googled yourself?

Come on, admit it, you have.

We all have.

I took it a step further this last week and Googled myself for images of me and my family. It actually started with the kids, as I was a bit paranoid as to what could come up if I searched them. Then for the heck of it, I did myself, my hubby, and a few others.

Now, I don't think I have a very common name, but I know there was at least one other Julie Beddoes in the world. I hear she's a journalist and writer in Toronto, Canada. Well, apparently, she and I aren't the only ones.

Meet the other Julie Beddoes


See any resemblence?

Me neither...

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Rose Clouds  

Posted by Julie


While on my way to drop the girls off at school this morning, I was very busy thinking of the condition of the roads I was travelling as well as the thoughts that the snow would most likely be melting quite a bit tomorrow. I was very absorbed in complaining in my head about the slosh and sludge that we'd be enduring when Cora drew my attention to the sky which was brilliant shades of pink and red.

"Mommy, doesn't that look like a sky full of roses!"

She was so excited about the beauty of it, while I had missed it all along. Nothing like a child to make you slow down and take notice of the world around you.

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Snow Forts  

Posted by Julie


N helping the boys build snow forts in the backyard.
(this is him with one of the boys friends)

Now if I could just get him to shovel the driveway with them too!

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Bubble Bath Time  

Posted by Julie


This picture was just too cute not to share!

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Speaking of Darth Vader  

Posted by Julie

Airsoft is contagious as demonstrated by N who has caught the bug from his brothers.

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New Year's Eve  

Posted by Julie

Had fun on New Year's Eve! We really wanted to have a party at our house this year like the big ones we used to have, but realized we don't know a whole lot of people since moving back to Ohio. So, we just invited some friends over and their kids to play Wii games and sit around chatting. It was a pretty good time.

The kids put on a little cheer for us and our new year.


The boys (big and little) enjoyed a mini-airsoft fight until a certain person (BRET THOMPSON) decided it would be funny to shoot me in the butt with one...

I promise you, NO ONE dares to do that again... I made an example of the perpetrator, so I have no more worries.


1 comments

Darth Vader  

Posted by Julie

Ok, you know me (or maybe you don't) and my Star Wars fanaticism, but in our new house, we have this fireplace that reminds us of Darth Vader's helmet! Seriously, take a look:



So you can guess (or maybe you can't) what I call it when we light him up...

Yep! Lighting the funeral pryor! LOL

We light him up fairly often since he warms up the front half of our house really well and we have generous friends who have supplied us with lots of free wood. I was originally very nervous about N and Vader when we first bought the house, but luckily he leaves it alone. I think he can tell that it is dangerous.

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Leaves  

Posted by Julie

Here are some more pix of the many, many, MANY leaves we have to look forward to each fall in our new house. Again, these are from a few months ago, but I have a lot of catching up to do on my blog posting!


I know that only N and Little C are in these pix, but none of the other kids were home that night. Sorry!

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Open House  

Posted by Julie

Don't remember if I posted this or not so sorry if this is a duplicate.

A few months ago, we did an open house at my work (Kumon) and the kids got to have their face painted. They were pretty well done and were so cute. S was a bear, Little C chose to be a cheetah and Big C a butterfly.

.

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Guitar Hero Strikes Again  

Posted by Julie


Caught N in D's room messing around with the guitar again... this time the electric one. So D took some time out to show his bro a thing or two. He's so nice :)

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Hair Cut... Finally!  

Posted by Julie


Got it done finally! Her hair and mine were driving me crazy, so we finally got them cut. I wanted to give her some bangs, but she didn't want them so I let her do what she wanted. The lady screwed mine up though and cut my bangs way too short. Good thing they grow back quickly!

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Resolution #1 in Effect  

Posted by Julie

It is 6 days into the new year, and I have kept at least 1 of my resolutions (still working on #2). I have been writing. Granted, not seriously, but it's something.

This was a challenge given to me by a friend who, obviously, wasn't expecting me to actually do it. He jokingly challenged me to write a haiku of all one syllable words on the fall of the USSR.

Well, I'm up for a challenge :)

Enjoy, but keep in mind that this is not a serious try at traditional Japanese poetry. Can anyone find the symbolism?

The Fall of the USSR
Built walls of tense fear,
Made by ice and gun, don’t stand;
Felled by cosh and blade.

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Book Review  

Posted by Julie

I recently finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


This was a surprisingly good book. I enjoyed the twist of the narration and the authors writing style. I am usually annoyed by being able to predict what happens in a book, but the author tells the story interesting enough that telling us what is going to happen in the story is part of the enjoyment of the book. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in historical fiction.

I did finally finish "My Life In France" by Julia Child for our book club. The book was interesting but it isn't something I would have picked up on my own and I'm not even sure if it would have keep my attention all the way through if I didn't have to meet with the group to discuss it. I know who Julia Child was but had no idea how she became a world renown chief. All I can say is, now I do. It is not a page turner, but if you like autobiographical books, cooking, or France, this book is for you.

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Update #1  

Posted by Julie

Now, on to the updates...



For Thanksgiving, we went to my family's in Illiniois/Iowa/Wisconsin. Confused? Yeah, well they live in that tri-state area. Mom in Wisconsin, sister in Illinois, nearest actual city is in Iowa. Strangely enough, they are all about 3 miles away from each other (thank you Mississippi River).

Only spent a couple of days but got to do something I haven't done since I was 4 years old...
We went to the Fenelon Place Elevator (or what we locally call the 4th Street Elevator). It was much more nerve racking this time (I find the older I get, the more things scare the crap outta me!) but I don't feel too bad cuz the kids look pretty nervous too :)

Here's some pix:

Going Up
From the bottom, looking up

My neice and Little C on the ride up. We really squeeze us all into to do it in one trip.

D and Big C getting cozy

The View From The Top
S and N at the top with the Julian Dubuque Bridge and the Mississippi River behind them (it's Illinois on the other side of the bridge).

Little C up top with Dubuque and the Mississippi River behind her (it's Wisconsin in the background here).

Family photo op

Going Down
This was the scary part. Especially after we found out how it operates on a single cable pulley system... yeah, a single cable holding us all back from plunging to our deaths!

At the bottom, there are a bunch of cute and cozy shops to wander through. We went to the little candy shop at the very bottom of the elevator. (By the way... I cannot believe I'm posting this picture of myself! Don't be surprised if it disappears when I come to my senses!!)

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New Year, New Start  

Posted by Julie

Ok, so I have decided to just start typing. Gotta begin somewhere, right?


Well, I will slowly catch up on all the stuff I have missed updating everyone on, but for now I am here. And I have been thinking a lot about my new year's resolutions. I know a lot of people think they are stupid cuz no one ever keeps them anyway, but in reality, new year's resolutions are goals, and I like goals. I have always been encouraged to set goals, and I have found that even if you don't reach a goal, trying is usually better then sitting around doing nothing.

You usually gain something from the journey, even if you never reach your destination.

My goals for this year, you ask...

I hesitate to mention them, only because I fear that putting them out there and not reaching them brings scorn and shame upon me. But on the other hand, in the end I may serve as "either a good example, or a horrible warning."

So here they are:
  1. Lose a significant amount of weight - too vague? Well, I've tried to set a certain pound-age amount and have given up when it becomes apparent I'm not getting there. So a "significant amount" could be 20lbs or it could be 100lbs (hey, 20lbs is at least a dress size!). I realize that losing weight is a very cliche resolution, but I need it more than most people. I would really like to discover the underlying, subconscious reason behind my inability to lose weight and see if I can reverse a trend. Any suggestions??
  2. Write - Specifically, I would like to get my novel written (the one that has been running around my head for 5+ years but won't manifest itself on paper). But if nothing else, I'm just gonna write... stuff. Yeah, just creative stuff. Maybe here, maybe just in a notebook on my end table, but I'm gonna write it.
So there you have it!

Now that I have shared mine, what are yours? Maybe in some way, we can help each other out.

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It's been a while...  

Posted by Julie

I know it's been a while since I've posted.


WE'VE MOVED!

In fact, we are still moving. Tomorrow we will finally finish and not a moment too soon! At least when you move from state to state, you do it all at once and when you are done with the old house, your done, and don't have to keep going back. I feel like I'm mentally so far beyond it, I don't want to keep going back to the old place. But it is almost done. Yippee!

In the mean time, I am really enjoying the new place. I am really grateful for my hubby for being inspired when I didn't even want to look at this place. He's so smart :) But don't tell him I said that! LOL

One of the things I love the most is having a yard!! It is so nice to let N finally go outside to play and not have to chase him out of the road and stress all the time. I plan on doing some pix or video of the whole place soon, but for now, enjoy this video of D giving N a bike ride around the back yard.

video

Quality, bonding time between brothers! In fact, we have pretty much had non stop backyard football games since the day after we moved in. I think the yard is getting more use then the rest of the house. Of course, the nice weather is to blame for that. Too bad it won't last.

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