Milestones, Tallies and Entertainment Randomness

With all of the Fall holidays and activities I have been documenting, not to mention illnesses, our family has had some milestones pass as well. While I hope to give each of them some more attention on the blog soon, I thought I better point them out before too much time passes.

1. As of October 23rd, Jake is officially 4 1/2 years old. That means we are less than 6 months away from having a 5 year old getting ready to start kindergarten next Fall. Where did the time go?

2. On November 20th, our rotty Utah celebrated his 10th birthday. Utah was our first baby - our Christmas gift to each other the first year we were married. He has been the most loving and fun dog but there was a time when we never thought we would have the fortune to have him around for so long. In 2002, at only 4 years old Utah blew out his knee and required extensive surgery. The following year, his other knee went out necessitating a second surgery and recovery process. At the time many people could not believe we spent the exorbitant amount of money for him to have these surgeries but seeing what a full life he has lived, I have never second guessed our decision. And anyone who has ever heard him "sing" to Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused knows what a unique personality our 100+ pound baby has. Happy birthday Utah!

3. On December 1st (since there is no 31st in November) Jadyn is officially 2 1/2 years old. She has grown so quickly and learns and says something new and funny everyday. I love watching her little personality (even when being a drama queen) emerge and I also love how different she is from Jake at this age. I will definitely be expanding on this at a later date.

4) In the last 4 months I have immersed myself in the Twilight universe (this is obviously not news). The final tally for my reading of the series is as follows: Twilight: 4, New Moon: 3, Eclipse: 3 and Breaking Dawn: 2. When re-reading the series for the third time, the movie came out, necessitating that I go back and read Twilight AGAIN so it was fresh in my mind and I never really intended on giving Breaking Dawn additional reads. While I did enjoy it much more the second time, it is not one I could read over and over. I think the only book I have read 4 times or more is Interview with a Vampire and it certainly was not in the span of 4 months. And no, I do not know what my obsession with vampires could possibly mean about me. However, this series has reminded me how much I love reading and so today we have a milestone as I am starting a book not written by Stephanie Meyer, although it was personally recommended by her: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

5) A little Fall TV update. I have again had the misfortune of having two quality shows that I am invested in be canceled: My Own Worst Enemy with Christan Slater and Lipstick Jungle with Brooke Shields. So far Fringe is holding on but barely. I am very displeased with the recent story lines on Grey's Anatomy and still very intrigued by the new story lines created by the jump in time on Desperate Housewives.

BUT the two shows I have most found myself looking forward to are reality. Dancing with the Stars turned out to be a very entertaining season. Although I truly believe that based on technical skill, Brooke Burke deserved to win (even though her partner Derek annoys me to no end), it was Lance Bass that I was rooting for. I loved how much he improved throughout the season. I loved the unique fresh routines that him and his partner Lacy brought the floor and I loved how confident he became. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner - this was the show to watch for me. The second show I love is the Amazing Race. Last week (warning: spoiler if you are not up to date with your TiVo) when Dallas and Toni got eliminated I was brought to tears. Not because I was disappointed that they did not make it to the final (although I was) but because I was just blown away by the closeness of this grown man and his mother and the amazing amount of respect they had for each other. I saw that and hoped that one day I could have that kind of relationship with Jake when he is a young man. And with as fast as time has seemed to fly by lately, he is going to be that young man before I know it!