Book Review: Dead Ever After

It's such a bittersweet moment, the end of a series.  Despite the fact that I wouldn't have minded if the Sookie Stackhouse series went on indefinitely, it is now officially over.  I received my copy for Mother's Day and wasn't able to put it down until it was finished.

Coming back to finish this story took a bit of memory refreshing.  It had been a year since the previous book came out.  Then there was a season of True Blood, in which the plot is absolutely different.  So I had to really think about which plot line went where.  Harris helped out with little refreshers in the book, without making it seem like too much of a review.

So how Bon Temps end up fairing?  Do the vampires take over?  Do the fairies and the witches have it out?  Well of course I'm not going to give any spoilers to that.  There are tons of people online making their hatred of this book clear.  I don't agree with them in the slightest.  I loved this book.  I loved how it ended.  It made me happy.  I need for some other people to read it so that I can talk about it with them!

Oh, and if you plan on reading it and don't want the ending ruined, do NOT google search the book in any way.  When I was looking for the cover picture to post, there were all kinds of spoilers abound.  So read first, search later.

One thing that I do think this final book was lacking in was more of an ending for all of the characters.  I understand that with a dozen books there are going to be a lot of characters that the readers have grown to love and invest in.  And while we get an ending for Sookie, Harris leaves us hanging on where some of the other players end up.

You know how at the end of some movies there is a reel that shows each person and underneath is a written blurb about what they ended up doing?  I wish there had been an epilogue that shared how everyone ended the series.  My guess is that Harris was more leaving this up to the readers' imaginations.  I can't say that I blame her - she's gotten death threats over how she mapped out Sookie's future.  I can't imagine how angry some of these people would be if she was more specific about the secondary characters!

I am admittedly sad that this series is over.  Charlaine Harris has other, shorter series and I have read pieces of those.  Sadly, the library's collection is incomplete.  I hope that she will continue to write, and I look forward to reading whatever she dreams up next.

Clarksville Little League Parade

We had a long and chilly day, as did many other baseball families.  Bright and early at 8:30 this morning, we were getting ready for the annual Clarksville Little League Parade.  Each team in the league had a "float" and we traveled all around Clarksville, waking people out of their weekend slumber.  Daven really wasn't sure what to think.

As you can see in the background, we had firetrucks to accompany the troop.  One of papaw's fellow police officers led the parade, while many others blocked off traffic so that the kiddos could ride around safely on a variety of different trailers and trucks.

I rode on the trailer with Daven and his team while daddy drove around and watched us from a couple different spots.

After the long parade route, we ended up back at the ball park, where they handed out trophies for the best floats in each division.  There was a scare and a pause in festivities when one of the coaches had a seizure.  Luckily, there were plenty of nurses there to help take care of him until the ambulance could arrive (Aunt Lauren and Uncle Gary were part of the group that helped him) and we hope that he is going to be ok.  It was startling to see, but all of the kids did a great job staying calm and remaining out of the way.

Our team won for the tball division!  I'm sure that the dugout moms made that possible.  All we did was show up to an already decorated trailer.

After all of this, we took a lunch break as a family to Arby's and then Daven played a game.  I didn't actually get any pictures, but he was a trooper and actually got up to bat twice.  He didn't run the bases, but it's progress!

We all took a nap when we got back home.  Phew, what a day!

Applesauce Dots

Food is more fun when it's frozen, right?  Well, maybe not all food. But since yogurt dots were a hit with Daven a while back, I thought I'd try the same thing with applesauce. 

Put some applesauce into a plastic sandwich baggie and snip off one of the corners. Squeeze little dots onto a baking sheet. You could also just spoon some onto the sheet if you wanted. Then pop into the freezer for a few hours. After frozen, you can move them from the sheet to a baggie or container to save freezer space.

Just as I thought, Daven couldn't wait to eat these. They will certainly be nice snack for the summer!

Daven Says

Earlier this morning we were in Daven's playroom and we both seemed to notice at the same time that his pull-up was less than fresh.

"Ew, Daven. We need to change that. "

He looks down and gives it a squish. I cringe.

He then pats his crotch and says, "It looks like there's a baby in here. "

I think I said ew, although I'm not really sure. It certainly caught me off guard.


Later that morning...

I finally convinced him to change out of his pjs. With his shirt off, he said, "Look, mommy. I have tiny boobs. See, right here. ". He pointed to his nipples.

Then as his clean shirt was getting put on, he said, "This shirt like a bra for my boobs. ".

Oh dear.

Book Review: AfterLife

Although we meet Wes at the end of his life, there is more life after death. Wes becomes a member of the living dead. But these aren't mindless zombies eating human brains. Their souls are still alive, and after proper preservation of their newly dead bodies, as well as a tutorial on how to feed their soul, the dead blend into every day society.

Wes is reborn into the AfterLife; the good guys of the living dead. He soon discovers, however, that there is another organization with ill intentions, and they are angry that they did not get to recruit him first.

The premise of this book is an interesting one. Cloward creates a world different from anything else I've read or seen. While most living dead stories take place in an apocalyptic scenario, everyday society functions as usual in the new world that Wes is learning to be a part of.

While I found a bit of the midsection rough to get through, I enjoyed this book overall. As with all good vs evil, expect a showdown at the conclusion. It's an interesting one. Also, don't expect a happily ever after. There's a second book in the works to expand on the story. I'm curious to see what happens next.

If you enjoy a good book where things aren't always what they seem, give this one a try.

Easy breadsticks

If you are friends with me on fb, you may have seen me post a link a while back about 2 - ingredient pizza dough. It was a success, and of course I Instagrammed the finish product. Tonight I made it again, only this time for breadsticks instead of pizza. So what do you need to get started?

Self-rising flour
Greek yogurt

The few places I've seen the recipe, most call for equal parts of both yogurt and flour. You'll need extra flour, however, when kneading the dough and rolling it out. One cup each makes a decent size.

After I mixed, kneaded and rolled the dough, I cut it into breadsticks using a pizza cutter. Then I brushed on some olive oil and sprinkled garlic salt and oregano.

Next, I put it in the oven for about 15 min at 400 degrees. I ended up also adding Parmesan cheese to half of the batch towards the end. It gave the more flavor, although they were good either way.

I had some leftover spaghetti sauce that I used to dip and it was delicious. Even though adam only ate a single stick, he swears that he liked them. I think I may have eaten half of the sticks. Oops.

Daven Says

"If you eat too much of this popcorn, it will make you have to go poop. "

Yes, yes it will.


I've been slacking on this type of post because Daven says something funny every day, but I haven't gotten it all written down fast enough to get an exact quote.