Posted by Laurie | July 1st, 2009

Dune Road by Jane Green

I recently received my copy of Dune Road (by Jane Green) for review and wow! It was a great read - had some intriguing plot points and kept me guessing what was going to happen until close to the end. I loved Kit, the main character, she seemed to be a fairly strong and independent woman, or at least she was finding her way toward being such a woman. I definitely seem to enjoy books more that involve women who are so real. Women who have flaws, who question who they are and where they want to end up in life. Women who question society’s expectations. Maybe because that is what I aspire to be - strong and independent. Not easy with my family history.  Why do I have to have such messed up women in my family - but that is a topic for another post isn’t it?

I also loved the rest of the circle of women in this book. We women really need to find our circles and take care of each other like the women in this book did. It’s hard enough to do all the things we must do in life - manage our households, keep the kids happy and growing, find time for ourselves - a great group of friends can encourage and push us when we need it and cushion the blow when things go all wrong. And share a pitcher of margaritas to celebrate a big achievement of course!!

I’m definitely recommending that my circle of girlfriends read this book and I think you should too! Then come back here and tell me what you think and maybe we can have a nice little discussion about the importance of having a support network (not that you don’t already know how important it is I’m sure!)

I give Dune Road 4.5 stars out of 5 (holding back just a little cause while I totally understand, sadly from experience, what life can be like for an abused woman, it just didn’t sit quite right how Kit’s friend Tracy, returns to an abusive ex.) Here’s a quick summary of the book from Penguin’s site:

The novel is set in the beach community of a tiny Connecticut town. Our heroine is a single mom who works for a famous—and famously reclusive— novelist.When she stumbles onto a secret that the great man has kept hidden for years, she knows that there are plenty of women in town who would love to get their hands on it—including some who fancy the writer for themselves. Dune Road is the story of life in an exclusive beach town after the tourists have left for the summer and the eccentric (and monied) community sticks around.

Oh and I liked this book so much I have a couple of Jane’s other books on request at my local library (I especially can’t wait to read Babyville!) And can I say how cool it was when I tweeted about this book and almost immediately was followed by Jane herself?!! She has a good Twitter stream going and even better, an awesome blog that I discovered as a result of Twitter and which is now in my Google Reader so I don’t miss a post!

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Posted by Laurie | June 29th, 2009

I started working with a new client this weekend. It was interesting, as I’m often busy on weekends and don’t always answer my business line then, but this Saturday I was around home with no real plans and so I answered when the phone rang. It was a client who had some urgent work and was glad to find a virtual assistant who was actually available on the weekend. It was definitely good timing!

It can be very hard to make yourself work on the weekends, when the kids are happily running around the house wanting you to join in, or the farmer’s market calls your name. Or scrabble - good thing I got in some scrabble last weekend, lol! It’s so important to grab good opportunities when they come your way though - you never know when things are going to align just right and you’ll move your business another step forward. So I keep telling my lovely sister who finally has finished her esthetics program and is ready to get going with doing esthetics from home. She did my nails a few days ago and they look so pretty, but she needs to work on her business attitude. Always a reason for not wanting to start just yet.

Anyway, not my concern is it. What can I say, I’m a bit of an overly-involved sister sometimes. Growing up we joked that I was the mom of the family (my mom is not so much of the “grown-up” unfortunately). But sis is a grown up and has to do things her way - and I have enough mothering to do with my three wild boys!

I didn’t just work this weekend. In fact I also attended a baby shower and read a couple of good books. Books are such a nice break from the busy parts of my week, and with the cable turned off I’ve been reading more than ever! In fact tomorrow I’m planning to get a post up about my latest review book, Dune Road by Jane Green. Oh and if, like me, you’ve turned back to young adult fiction ever since the Twilight Phenomenon, can I recommend the Night World series by L.J. Smith or books by Scott Westerfeld (The Uglies, The Pretties, etc) - I am so glad I’ve started reading YA novels again, they are a perfect break from my life!

Ok, really must go to bed. Not only did I work this weekend, but late last night and I just finished another urgent project. My eyes are tired and my back is wondering when I’m going to stop sitting at the table with my laptop and actually use my home office!!

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Posted by Laurie | June 25th, 2009

My poor Big Boy. Grade one ends tomorrow (yes, we have much later ends to our school year here in Alberta, we start later too!) and he missed today and will almost certainly not be up for attending tomorrow either. He missed a fun activity today (a garage sale - sounds exciting doesn’t it?) and tomorrow is the big end of year party. Kind of sad, but he has yet another throat infection and without advil is sitting around 103 degrees for a temp. Wednesday after school he was so wiped that he fell asleep for 3 hours. He could make it through the day hopped up on fever reducer, but really not the

We will have to stop by the school tomorrow afternoon to pick up the final report card and get his class assignment for next year. And of course pick up his shoes and any leftover supplies and stuff. Should be fun lugging all that around plus a sick 7yo and the 4 and 1 year olds. You envy me of course?

Guess we’re skipping the potluck party with friends too - no point in their kids starting out the summer vacation with sickness. Oh well - could be worse, at least he’s not missing exams or anything!

Bye-bye grade one. We had some good times, and now Big Boy can move on to grade two, sniff, sniff. Darn kids - keep on growing up on me!

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Posted by Laurie | June 24th, 2009

Mostly as prep for BlogHer, I recently ordered some pretty cards. I am calling them personal calling cards, although technically they do also refer to my business also, so they are a business card. I have a simpler, more elegant card for my straight business card if you want to see that too!

It was hard choosing a personal card. I waited a bit long and so decided against having it designed for me. Not to mention I’m supposed to be controlling my budget right now, so expensive personal cards would have been a poor choice. So I went with VistaPrint and chose a pretty pink and white card with some brown accents. Kind of funny since my last business card was pink and I decided it was “too pink” but I figure a personal card can be more about my taste than appealing to my target market, as is the case with my virtual legal assistant business card.

So this is what I ordered - please don’t tell me you hate them, I already have them, lol!

Laurie Mapp Personal Card

I have about 250, hopefully plenty enough for BlogHer (will have some of my regular business cards too as a back-up).

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Posted by Laurie | June 21st, 2009

My DH and I are not the nickname type of people, no “honey” or “pumpkin” or what have you. I do always call him handsome though - cause he is!

Today is father’s day and we will be having a fairly low-key type of day, going to brunch with my dad and family and then hanging out at my father’s for a while. Considering DH has been working with my dad the past several weeks, I’m very appreciative of him being willing to spend father’s day with his father-in-law yet again! His own father lives a couple of hours away and we’ll be spending some time with him (and DH’s grandfather who is close to 90 now) soon at a big family reunion.

I’m not going to go on and on about what a great dad my husband is - hopefully y’all have equally amazing partners and know what I mean. But he really is something and I’m so glad I had children with this man, he really shares the parenting load with me, and enjoys being with his kids. So Happy Father’s Day to you my handsome husband - and to all the daddies out there - Enjoy your kids and have a great day today!

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Posted by Laurie | June 19th, 2009

So yesterday we picked up our new Wee Ride front bicycle seat for BabyBoy to sit in while we go for family bike rides.

Wee Ride on Mommy's Bike

Not the world’s best picture, but hopefully you can see his little seat there right in front of where I sit! There are places for his feet to rest and the whole setup seems very secure. It took hubby about 30 minutes to set everything up and then we were off on our first family bike ride.

It went, um, okay. My ride was pretty good, my knees were a little uncomfortable occasionally brushing up against the baby’s seat, but he wasn’t in my way otherwise, and I’m short so I was happy to be able to see over his bicycle helmet! BigBoy loved us all going for a bike ride together, the weather was perfect, only one little problem. LittleBoy could not keep up. At all. Uh-oh! Got to build up his endurance and comfort level so that we can maybe get him onto two wheels sometime this summer. The training wheels only go so fast you know.

As far as the product, I know I love getting a “real mom” review, so here you go (just my opinion, bought with my own money, not sponsored in any way, just fyi):

Seat Install - 9 out of 10 No real problems, had to use longer bolts to attach bars to front part of bicycle, but very secure and no difficulty

Comfort - About an 8 out of 10. Would love if my legs didn’t hit the seat, but really, there is only so much you can do when fitting something to a bicycle frame!

Stability - 10 out of 10 for sure. I know people with similar style seats that sit behind the adult rider and they all say that it throws off your center of balance quite a bit. This seat did not make it at all hard for me to balance, even when BabyBoy was moving around a bit.

Baby’s Comfort - BabyBoy loved, loved, loved the seat. He was very upset when we stopped at a park for a break. He wanted back in! He sat comfortably, seemed to love being able to really see all around us and I think that being in front of me made a big difference in that. Only one issue, the safety buckles were poorly designed and the shoulder straps would not stay up. Seemed way less safe and uncomfortable.

Overall - big marks for this  seat and definitely would recommend it. BabyBoy is 26 lbs and average height for a 19 month old, I can easily see him sitting in this another year or more. Hopefully through next summer when he’s almost 3 and then we’ll have to try something else.

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Posted by Laurie | June 17th, 2009

Yesterday DH and I had another long talk about money. His work situation hasn’t significantly improved (he is working, but not as his usual job, which pays much better than what he’s currently doing) and we’re both a bit stressed and anxious. In six months things will hopefully be much better, but in the short term we’re thinking about cutting some small costs and we decided to cut out the cable bill for a while! So here we are going tv free for at least the summer, for finances but also as an experiment in what life without tv is really like!

I admit I’m going to probably catch the occasional show online, but thankfully I’ve always been happy to sit with a book instead of watching television anyway. I have a couple of books and a library card so I’m set! And of course there will be plenty of time spent on long walks or hanging out at the park.

I’m also thinking about doing some bike-riding. DH and I bought ourselves bicycles last summer and to be honest I barely used mine. I love riding my bike, but tended to not want to go out when DH was home and couldn’t easily go with the kids, as 4yo wasn’t riding his bigger training wheel bike yet, he was still in love with his tricycle! And 7yo wasn’t really ready to keep up with me even slowly either. But this year they both are really enjoying their bikes and I just need to decide how to bring baby along easily.  I can either get a bike trailer or a bike seat. Last summer I should have just bit the bullet and bought a trailer - could have used it for middle child too! Now it’s just baby who needs the help though, although admittedly 4yo would probably be happy to ride in the bike trailer sometimes. Decisions, decisions - better do something soon or summer will fly right by just like last year!

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