Mansfield Park

I first fell in love with Jane Austen's literary genious when I read Pride and Predjudice as a Sophmore (during restitution). I am amazed at the way she uses words in their purest form: making them divinely beautiful. She can convey stronger opinions and feelings in a single sentence, than any other author I've ever seen could do when allowed an essay.

Her stories are so perfectly crafted so that she can convince the reader and unconvince them again like it was our own opinion from the start. Her characters are so real, her scenes so true to life, that you can't help but feel like you have some sort of claim to them from the time you spent together. I know it sounds wierd, but if you've read her you know. She is truly gifted!

Alas, I find old english dialect sneaking into my vocabulary for weeks after I've finished a book. I drive Zane crazy talking about 'what happened to Fanny today' over dinner like it falls in with all the rest of the daily gossip.

To be honest, as much as I respect Jane's writing abilites, I had been slightly disappointed with her other works (Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, Persuasion, and Emma). Aside from wishing Lady Susan would fall on her face and Emma's pride would be wounded, I didn't much care what happened to most of the characters and the plot lines just weren't as enthraling as Pride and Predjudice. I feared I had read the greatest of them all first, leaving myself open to a disappointment with the others that might have been avoided had I read it last.

But then.... this month I discovered Mansfield Park and my love affair is renewed.


Here I must refrain from expounding for fear of exposing any of the juicy goodness you will find within. So, I make an end by stating that you simply must, must, must read this book. You're life will be forever the better; or at least you're month.

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School's been out for three weeks and it didn't take long for my little guy to turn "Mama's Boy". I've attributed his being so social to the fact that he has regularly spent time with lots of children and adults. He's never made a fuss about being held by anyone else. After just one week of being home full time with him, he wouldn't let anyone else touch him. Even Zane.

We're pretty tight these days. About a week ago, it was Zane's turn to put Hudson to bed (Yes, he takes 'turns'. Such an awesome husband!) but he was having a hard time. Hudson whimpered and whined for almost 45 min. Finally, frustrated, Zane asked me to give it a try. I walked over, picked him up, and he immediately let out a little sigh, gave me a hug, and then snuggled in and went right to sleep. I melted.

Zane however, took it pretty hard. I tried not to gloat but honestly, I'm loving having a Mama's boy.

He's been making huge improvements too. We have been working with Hudson to roll over for almost four months. I could tell he knew how but he just wouldn't. It's like he was just waiting for me: the first week I was home he starting rolling. I've been home 3.5 weeks now and he is sitting up, pivoting, crawling, pulling himself up to things, and standing with support. He loves to eat, yet he's so active that he's having trouble gaining any weight. He's still only 14.5 lbs but soooo cute!

Celine: My Love

Best Concert Ever!! My sister Sara and I are slighltly obsessed with Celine Dion, its true. We have been talking about seeing her in concert for many moons now, but with the whole year and a half off to have twins: I was starting to think she was going to have so much fun being a mom that she'd just drop off the radar and it would never happen.

But Celine's back!!!

Zane bought me tickets to her new Show in Vegas for mother's day.

I didn't think it was possible but I love her more now than I did pre-show. It is unreal what she can do with her voice. There were several times where Sara and I would just look at eachother in awe (mouths open and everything). I kept getting goose bumps during the show and I even cried a little when she sang about the power of a mother's love.

I really wanted to buy a Celine t-shirt, but they were all ugly and definately not worth $95 (even if they did say Celine). So we each bought an over priced CD from the 'Celine store' and I bought her signature scent lotion.


I love it.

The CD Sara got is called 'My Love' but I didn't realize that until it showed up on my computer while I was listening. When Sara was talking about it, I thought she was saying "Celine, my love" rather than Celine: My Love. Bha ha! It didn't even phase me cause that's kind of how we refer to her anyway.

She is truly the most talented person ever!

Oh and she's cute! I mean personality. She kept getting embarrased when people would clap too long or loudly and she has amazing stage presence.They did some awesome stuff during the show:

They made a hologram of her and she sang a duet with herself.

The stage moved; the singers would just start floating to other parts of the stage. Cool!

During the last song, she was lifted in the air on a pedestal and water danced around her.

She sang other songs, not just hers. My favs were a jazz/blues song and Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror. It sounded better when she sang it then when he did! They didn't allow cameras so these google pics will have to do.


Okay, I'll stop. I warned you I was obsessed.