The Walking Dead

How many hours are in a day when you don't spend half of them watching television?

When is the last time any of us REALLY worked to get something we wanted?

How long has it been since any of us really NEEDED something that we WANTED?

The world we knew is gone.

The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility.

An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe causing the dead to rise and feed on the living.

In a matter of months society has crumbled.
no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV.

In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living.


So, technically this /\ is just the description for the first volume, but I figured it works best this way. For the record I have no intention of reviewing further volumes in the series, but I do plan on reading them all. It's one of those things where I feel like I'm cheating. As much as I appreciate Graphic Novels and Comic Books I don't really feel like I've accomplished as much as when I read a novel. Generally (depending on how much time I have) I can polish one of these volumes off in a day. If I didn't have children and could read from cover to cover without breaks (like I used to) I would probably be done in an hour. 

I have battled with the idea of reading these graphic novels ever since I really started to enjoy the Walking Dead TV series. However, one thing kept me saying "why bother?" and that was the lack of Daryl Dixon in the comic books. I LOVE Daryl. To the point that it seemed unnecessary to read any Walking Dead material without him in it. I even often complain about episodes that don't have enough Daryl in them. I also think that part of me didn't think there would be a point if the books were so different because some characters were in them and not the TV show (and vice versa) that was a glaringly obvious difference that was promoted by Daryl. If they were going to be so different, what was the point of reading the graphic novels? Perhaps I should just accept the TV show as it is and ignore everything the comics have to offer. To be honest, the books are quite different, but this last season, with the arrival of Negan (who was highly anticipated and quite the media draw), I felt I couldn't ignore them anymore. 

I am still, to a point, taking what they have to offer with a grain of salt. MANY things about the original story have been changed, so what's to say anything "predicted" won't also be changed in the future? 

They are pretty great though. I have enjoyed them to this point, even if the storylines are a bit different. If you're a fan of the show (or just Zombie stories in general) you should give them a go. I find them still entertaining after watching the show, just maybe treat them as source material for a show that is "loosely based" on them. ;)

The Nest

On a wintry afternoon in New York City, Melody, Beatrice and Jack Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo, who has just been released from rehab. Leo’s bad behavior before entering rehab, culminating in a car crash while under the influence—a nineteen-year-old waitress beside him—has left the Plumbs’ joint trust fund—“The Nest,” as they’ve taken to calling it—endangered. All four siblings, at very different places in their lives, believe that this money will solve a host of self-inflicted problems and their consequences. And until Leo’s accident, they’d been mere months away from receiving it.

Can Leo get the Plumbs out of this mess, as he’s always been able to do for himself before? Or will the Plumb siblings have to do without the money and the future lives they’ve envisioned? As the siblings grapple with family tensions, old histories, and the significant emotional and financial cost of the accident, Sweeney introduces an unforgettable cast of supporting characters: Leo’s stalwart ex-girlfriend who now thinks that maybe, just maybe, he is capable of change; the waitress whose life was shattered in the accident; the Iraqi war veteran who falls in love with her; and a retired, grieving firefighter with a very big secret.

Tender, funny and deftly written, The Nest explores what money does to relationships, what happens to our ambitions over the course of our lives, and the fraught but unbreakable ties we have with our families. 

I'm going to chalk this one up to the fact that the marketing for this book really worked well on me. I follow a couple different publishers on Facebook, and I get their emails and stuff because I have purchased a few ebooks in the past, and this is a book was one that sounded good and I put it on my "to-read" list when I was first notified of it's pending release, and then I was continued to notified about it for the next few months. THEN I found it at Costco... so having been constantly reminded of it for months, I just picked it up and gave it a go.

This is one of those books that there really isn't anything wrong with, but it just isn't really going to be all that memorable. I didn't really like or dislike any of the characters, the plot was paced fine, but nothing really big happened to make it a real page turner... it was just "fine".

One of the issues may have been the sheer number of characters that narrated chapters in the book. If Sweeney had stuck to just the 4 siblings perhaps it wouldn't have seemed so disjointed, but once you get offspring and spouses and tenants and acquaintances  involved it all gets a bit convoluted. Having more than one narrator can sometimes be frustrating,  but having about 10 is a bit ridiculous. That being said, A Song of Ice and Fire has way more than that and somehow pulls it off for me, (maybe it seems more justified because of the great distances between characters?) so maybe Sweeney just needs to refine her technique a bit more.

The greatest highlight of this book is that I realized the only think I like almost as much as a birth story is a coming out story. I believe that homosexual relationships are very underrepresented in fiction so I LOVED reading about a gay couple's relationship. It was honestly the only thing I can really say I loved about this book. And it only lasted one chapter... not exactly enough to give it an all around high praise.

In conclusion, I wouldn't disuade or encourage anyone to read this book unless they were already interested. If it was on your "to-read" list already, maybe give it a shot. You might like it more than I did for different reasons. But I wouldn't recommend it just off the cuff to whomever was looking for a good next book to read. This is really a take it or leave it kind of book. 

Plant Babies...

I am still very much an amateur gardener, but over the last year or two I've learned a few things and gradually I feel like I am getting better at it.

My biggest struggle has been with tomatoes. As much as I would LOVE to be able to grow a crap tonne of them and just eat tomatoes all summer, until this year I had not been at all successful. The first year I grew them, I started out with them in an egg carton, and put WAY too many seeds in per cup. Then I tried to thin them out by plucking the weaker ones, then I dropped the carton one day and that was the end of my tomato attempt that year. Then last year I put fewer seeds per cup, and I got them to sprout, but then they wilted shortly after sprouting and I couldn't get them to come back. This year, after reading a blog from a friend of mine that is an AMAZING gardener (seriously, he has written books, is a regular expert on CBC radio, lectures at the University on occassion, he gets commissioned for landscaping and garden design all the time... the guy is a gardening genius) I determined that my issue was that my tomato plants weren't getting enough sun. I don't have any spot in my house that gets sun all day that is easily accessable and safe from little hands, that first year I tried moving the carton every hour, but that's why the drop happened. So I got a grow lamp. Best call I have ever made.

And these are just the ones that made it!

These babies are the ones I kept for myself to plant in the garden. I am so proud of these little buggers. I only kept room in my outdoor planter for a few plants thinking that I wouldn't get as many as I did, so, these guys are the winners!

However, when you compare them to greenhouse grown plants, mine pale a bit in comparison.

This is why I don't get paid to garden. The bigger plants I bought from a fundraiser to support a couple of little boys that need international surgeries. (Just a note: this picture is of one of my "winners" about a week before the other picture was taken, so he still looks pretty small in this one. But. Still. Comparison wise, it makes a good point)

Regardless, they are all healthy and happy little plants and they have now been adopted out to their new homes. Given that there were 30 (THIRTY!) extra plants that I did not need, I asked my mom if one of her classes at school might want them for a Father's day project or something. So the Grade 4/5s at my mom's school will now be their plant mammas and pappas.

I am getting more and more into this whole gardening thing! :)

A Child Called It

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it." Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son.


This is one of those books that would just not go away. I hadn't heard of it until I started working at Coles in the fall of 2000, but it was already hugely popular by then. If I am not mistaken, my manager at the time had read it and raved about it. But I don't read popular books because I'm a book snob, so I left it. Every so often it would pop up in conversation, and so many people I know loved it and talk about it to this day. So after 15 and a half years, and yet another person telling me it was their favourite book, I figured I would give it a go. Something that has been popular for so long, at very least, I figured was worth my time.

I feel like I am treading on broken glass when it comes to criticizing this book, because how can I give credit to the topic of abuse without praising (possibly) the most popular book shedding light of the topic? So, as much as I didn't like this book as much as many others, keep in mind that I do appreciate the subject of child abuse and I don't think it doesn't happen. I am just completely judging this book on itself, not the topic of abuse.

I think the problem starts with autobiographies in general. In my opinion, almost all autobiographies and memoirs have some element of fiction to them. Frankly, they are based on the author's own opinions of themselves and I don't think many people see themselves as clearly as they see others or others see them. In comparison, the author of a biography has to base their writing on hard facts, so they are generally far more accurate. The other problem is that often people that are not famous that pen memoirs or autobiographies have to answer to an editor before their book gets published. In 2006, there was a big controversy surrounding the book A Million Little Pieces by James Frey (haven't read it, sorry no link ;) ), because it was chosen as an Oprah book club pick, and then it was discovered that there were many aspects of the book that were falsified. When I heard about this, all I could think, when I heard what had been changed or made up was like it sounded like an editor went to town to the point that his story wasn't true anymore. In the case of A Child Called It, I am sure there are some parts that are over edited by an editor. There are some instances where the story is embellished to make it more "entertaining". The best example I can have about this takes place in the first chapter of the book. This part actually is in reference to his escape from the abusive household David was in, but was so cheezy and hollywoodized it was almost unbelievable. As a result I ended up questioning the validity and honesty of almost everything that happens in the book.

As one can see from the book description, this book is not for the faint of heart. The level of abuse that happens is absolutely appalling. I feel compelled to state that I know levels of abuse to this severity happen. There is no doubt about it, however I do question whether it happened to Peltzer. Some family members have gone on record stating that it didn't happen to the levels described in the book. Although one brother did back up Peltzer's account, he also published a book and gained profits off of this alleged abuse. Which is another thing that makes me doubt Peltzer's legitimacy.

This brings us back to the writing style and validity of the story. For such a serious topic the writing style is extremely unpolished. There is a waiver at the beginning stating that it was on purpose to show the perspective of a 4-12 year old, but it wasn't done very well. I feel like the writing needed to be better to give this issue the attention it deserves. I feel it should have been edited more for grammar and style and less for content.

The best thing I can say for this book is that it draws attention to an issue that everyone needs to be aware of. Abuse happens and we cannot remain complacent with hoping that someone else will deal with it. If you want to read a book that will create an urge to become an activist for child rights, then this may be the book for you.

However, overall, if you want to read a book about horrible abuse that happen to children and may give you nightmares (which is what I believe the intended reaction to A Child Called It was), then I would suggest reading Push by Sapphire. Although Push is classified as fiction where A Child Called It is non, I think that the same shock value is there. Sapphire was a counselor that combined attributes of several of her cases to create Precious, so in the same context we KNOW that these abuses happen to children, but she doesn't have to compromise her integrity to tell her story.


P.S. I am not sure why my blog does not like having the text all blue, but it often refuses and I am not sure how to fix it. So just so you know, I'm not unaware it's happening, I just am at a loss of how to correct it :/

Mini Update...

... because there is really not much to report.

Brayden's surgery went well. He was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday, after only 5 days (we were expecting 7-10 days), he and Roland stayed in Edmonton for another couple nights just to be on the safe side, and then they traveled home today!

Brayden is still very sore and on Sternotomy Precautions (which are very different from the ones Dominic were on back when he was an itty bitty!) meaning he can't lift more than 5 pounds or push himself up on his arms to get out of bed or anything. No contact sports. No lifting his arms above shoulder height. He also is still on regular tylenol and advil. And he still seems pretty tired (it's before 10pm and my 14 year old is already in bed) He's got a few other restrictions, but nothing major by any means.

But all is on the mend! And he's doing great!

Thanks for all the well wishes and positive thoughts!

My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologies

'Granny has been telling fairy tales for as long as Elsa can remember. In the beginning they were only to make Elsa go to sleep, and to get her to practise granny's secret language, and a little because granny is just about as nutty as a granny should be. But lately the stories have another dimension as well. Something Elsa can't quite put her finger on...'

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy. Standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy. She is also Elsa's best, and only, friend. At night Elsa runs to her grandmother's stories, to the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas. There, everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

So when Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has hurt, it marks the beginning of Elsa's greatest adventure. Her grandmother's letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones-but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman's bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove. It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.


This book had me laughing out loud in the dentist's office in the first 8 pages of the book. I remember thinking to myself, "MAN, I hope the entire book can keep up this momentum!", but I was highly doubtful, and apparently right...Not that it was bad. Actually, I really liked this book. But that first chapter sent my expectations sky high in the humour aspect., but it still was an amazing book. 


Backman has an extremely effective way of writing from a child's perspective without making the writing seem juvenile. Often when author's write from a child's perspective you either have the undignified semantics (like Room), or a disconnect from the child's psyche and ability compared to their writing (or thinking?) style. Backman was able to avoid both of these issues by making Else extremely bright and yet have her learning constantly throughout the book. There are times during Elsa's conversations with adults that if they say a word she doesn't know, she leaves to go find out what it means (usually finding a computer to check wikipedia). It gives her a credibility for her large vocabulary and makes it OK to use words far beyond what a 7 (almost 8) year old* would normally use. She also has great perspectives on issues that may be a big deal to a child but not an adult. For example, when talking about her birthday she says "no child with a birthday two days after Christmas ever gets the same amount of attention as a child born in August of April" (not to mention, WHOA! It's like she's talking directly to me!). We all recognize that it's not ideal to have a birthday close to Christmas, but sometimes I don't think we realize how much that actually effects a child. It certainly effects Elsa, and she has an extremely articulate way of letting the readers know. 

Being that Elsa is so intellegent, it seems important to note that Harry Potter seems to be a bit of prerequisite reading for this book. That obviously wasn't a problem for me, in fact, I particularly enjoyed the references, but is something to be aware of. Being that Elsa is a well read 7, almost 8, year old, it is to be expected. It makes me wonder just how much of an influence Harry Potter was on the initial transcript of this book. Perhaps it was more closely related before the book went through the editing process. Not that it actually matters, the book is what it is NOW, not what it was during the editing process, but... still... it's an interesting thought. 

An enjoyable side note to this book is the interesting choice of chapter titles. All of them were extremely relevant without spoiling of the plot. Most of the chapter titles were objects, and their relevance was not revealed until the moment the reader is made aware of their existence. It was a very effective way of drawing attention to miniscule, yet important details without underestimating the reader, and also gave a method for the reader to be able to look for specific parts (which is the point of chapter titles, right?) without giving anything away.

I really feel that this book is a lot more involved with the reader than most. There is this element throughout the book where Granny's fairy tales from another land (the land of almost awake) are woven into the reality of Elsa's life so fluidly that it had me questioning which came first, the tales or the reality? But then I came to the conclusion that it didn't really matter. However the reader decided to interpret is acceptable. I would never be able to argue one way or the other than someone that felt strongly in that regard. There were times when I really wanted to skip over the fairy tale parts to get back to the "real" stuff, but the fairy tales added to much depth to the story and gave so much more insight into the characters that although they seemed frivolous at times, they are actually completely necessary to understand the story in it's entirety. 

This book is a complete and total recommend to pretty much everyone that enjoys reading fiction. If you need some "Street Cred" in order to read a book about fairy tales and 7 (almost 8) year old girls, then know that this book was originally written in Swedish and was translated to English. And you probably haven't heard of it. It's not ridiculously popular, so that leads us to the fact that it is a great book with high accolades that deserves to be translated into a multitude of languages, unlike some that are just translated to other languages because it got really popular (like 50 Shade of Grey, or the Twilight series or something) 

* Elsa flips between stating she is an "almost eight year old" or "only a seven year old" depending on whether she wants to be seen as more mature, almost an adult, or a child that too much cannot be expected of". I loved her interchanging response to how old she was.

Another Heart Surgery...

... and no, it's not Dominic this time.

Brayden has been seeing the same cardiologists Dominic has since we got custody of him back in 2008. Prior to Dominic being born, I was under the impression Brayden just had a heart murmur that they preferred to keep an eye on. Nothing big. Nothing concerning. However after Dominic was born and Roland and I became uncertified cardiologists ourselves, we discovered that Brayden has a VSD or Ventricular Septal Defect, which are fancy ways of saying he has a hole in his heart. Up until his cardiologist appointments last year, there was no concern. His heart was stable and there was no plan for closing his hole. But last year they noticed that although the hole did get a bit smaller, it was in primary position to start effecting the function of his aortic valve. This year, it was confirmed during his ECHO that it was in fact making his valve "floppy" and that he now needed surgery to close the hole and fix the valve.

Siblings picture before Brayden heads off to Edmonton!

So Brayden and Roland traveled to Edmonton on Wednesday, for his preadmission clinic yesterday, and to prep him for his surgery today. He is second case, which means he goes in just after lunch.

It's interesting the arch Brayden has gone through since we started taking him to these cardiology appointments. I think initally it was just like any other doctor's appointment to him, no real concerns came from it, but it was required he do them every year. When Dominic was born, he went through a phase of "I wish I could have surgery" (which is REALLY weird in my opinion. Did he think it was like a vacation?), perhaps because of the attention that Dominic got from having surgery after he was born. Then as Dominic's heart got more stable, Brayden's became more of a concern and I think he regretted his wish to have surgery. Once it became a reality, he didn't want to do it. Up until they day they left, he really wished it wasn't happening. Roland said yesterday after talking to all of his doctors about what to expect, he's a bit more relaxed and accepting of his situation.

Here's hoping that all goes well today! Send Brayden your best thoughts! (or maybe even text messages to Roland's phone to pass on messages to Brayden?)

Update on My Little Sweet Pea

Rosalie is growing SO FAST, I am struggling to keep up with her. Her last day of preschool was this past Tuesday and I think she will miss it this summer.

It really does blow my mind how much she has learned this year. I remember prior to her starting preschool she knew that her name started with R and what an R looks like, and she'd know a few letters by sight, but now she is spelling her whole name and can name almost all of the letters. She is so interested in reading and writing that I went out and got her a couple of letter and number work books that we can do over the summer to keep her momentum going (a couple are Star Wars themed by the way, absolutely her choice I swear). She's working on counting but it's not her strong suit. She can count to 6 all by herself, and can get to 12 with assistance. It's just remembering which order they go in is so confusing! But she's getting there. It's a relief that she isn't one of those prodigies that will be doing Trigonometry in Kindergarten. I don't know what I would do with a kid that was smarter than me when they are 5. ;)

She went to her first traditional type Birthday party this past weekend, and she had an absolute blast. I was a bit worried about taking her because we haven't had that kind of birthday party for her yet, ours generally only consist of family, but she wasn't even remotely concerned about that. She really enjoys playing with other kids but is so fiercely independent that she ends up taking off on her own whenever she has the opportunity. I think she has a bit of an introvert streak in her, which is something that I am going to need to learn how to embrace being a relatively extroverted person myself.

She is fearless when it comes to heights and slides

She's growing like a weed! I can't wait to see how much she grows this summer and we do have a lot of plans for shenanigans in the next few months. We're planning lake time, and outings with friends in town, and she'll get to be a flower girl for the first time (and she is so excited), and so much more. Bring on the summer adventures!