Any Sunday that starts off with a hot cup of coffee and a stack of gluten-free pancakes can’t be bad, right?

It was long week, made longer by a conference I had to attend for work. Plus we had all of our dental appointments this week which is never fun and joy of joys…I get to go back with The Girl TWICE at the end of the month because the work that she needs can’t be done in one sitting.

On the reading front, I finished four books one of which was really, really good (The Fault in Our Stars). I was blabbing about it on Facebook and seriously, if you are wandering around looking for a special book to read, pick it up.

Next up for me, review writing and coming up with a summer reading list. A lot of you have been sharing your lists so far and I am so jealous! I love a good list! My lists are never light for summer but they are fun to make anyway.

Today I plan to just hang around and read. I am reading The Starboard Sea which I am liking very much. I also may try to watch Contagion as I have had it from Netflix for far too long. Other than that, maybe a trip to the mall. Maybe.

What are you doing today?

Tomorrow, The Girl has volleyball and then we may tackle the floors that we’ve been working on. Some sanding was accomplished last week, but more sanding has to take place before we can apply the concrete stain and as you know, sanding is messy, messy work! It gets everywhere!! Just an hour of it last weekend left everything covered in a fine dust, including the Otter Pup! She was a dusty little thing.

Sunday, we are taking The Hub out for a birthday brunch. We like to go here. It backs to the airport and the kids and Hub, love to watch the planes take off. Of course, the food is good too and they cater to kids so the buffet has all sorts of yummy stuff (crab, roast beef, eggs benedict) but it also has corn dogs, tater tots and other kid stuff. Oh, and the dessert table is fabulous! Buffets are a challenge for me as there is hidden gluten in everything so I will be armed with Benadryl and my inhaler!

After brunch, we are seeing The Avengers! I reserved our seats so we don’t have to deal with long lines. Should be fun. We hardly ever see movies in the theater anymore because I hate the crowds. I will suck it up for The Hub’s birthday though and it will be nice to see a movie before it comes out on DVD.

What am I reading? As usual, a ton of stuff. The book I am most excited about right now, that I actually have in my hands, is The Age of Miracles. I am going to start it this weekend. I wanted to start it right when I got it but the conditions weren’t right. You know how that works. Laundry was staring at me and homework needed to be done. I can’t read when that stuff is looming over me like a dark cloud. I am almost done with Swamplandia! Hmmm, I hope that it ends on a high note because right now, it’s dragging. I’ve got some other books going between Net Galley and Edelweiss. I need an app to remind me of the publication dates of these books. Sometimes I jump into a galley only to realize that it doesn’t come out for 3-4 months, which means that I can’t review it for awhile. I hate when I do that. I mean, I can write it up, but I hate to schedule posts so far in advance.

One more thing… The Boy interviewed for, and made… ASB (associated student body) for high school!! I am not ready for him to be in high school but I hope to adjust soon.

Okay, enough from me. Happy Friday!

Good morning to you! It’s still morning here in So Cal so I can say that. I’ve had two cups of coffee, loads of bacon and the sun is shining. The only damper is that The Boy is sick. Not good, as he’s got lots of stuff going on within the next few weeks. May, is his last month in middle school. That means TONS of activities which include:

• Santa Barbara with his academic team
• Six Flags with his yearbook team
• 8th grade trip to Disneyland
• 8th grade DC trip. I am going to need Valium as I am not going with him.
• 8th grade BBQ
• 8th grade awards

We do not have graduation where we are. It’s a combination of budget issues and the fact that kids thought that graduation meant they were done. For good. I think it’s sort of silly but I guess it’s one less thing to do.

It blows my mind that he will be in high school soon. Seems like just yesterday I was in high school (ahem). I’m excited for him. I just wish I could get a handle on my calendar. Between what I listed above, the show, and all of the basketball camps and track stuff I need to think about, there’s little room or anything else.

Back to today.

It’s gorgeous out. We are still prepping the floor for the concrete stain but we hope to get out a little bit later. I am reading lots of stuff as usual but right now, nothing is sticking. I just finished Emily Alone, which was great but about 30 pages into The Adults, I fell asleep for four hours! Was it the book? Or was I just tired? Not sure.

Anyway, I must throw myself into the shower and make myself look like a productive member of society. Happy Sunday to you!

Friday night, I completely lost my mind and ripped out all of the downstairs carpet. Why? Because the dear Otter Pup, AKA Chloe, Squirrel, Pupper Dog, got scared during a storm we had and did a number on the carpet. Not once, but several times and it was just too much to deal with. So, I ripped it out. Plus, this post on Pinterest piqued my interest. Stained concrete will be the end result. We spent all of Saturday doing prep work and then this weekend we will do the final prep work and then apply the stain. It will be nice to finish this weekend, but I am okay with it taking another week in order to get it right.

Here are some pictures. The first one, you can see the huge stain we made while cleaning the carpet. We have one of those home carpet cleaners. We always thought it was doing a really good job. Nope. It may have been clean on the surface, but underneath the carpet and pad… ugh. I never want carpet again.

After all that ripping, and sweeping and sealing, we went out to eat and I had one heck of a reaction from three bites of a tortilla. It was supposed to be a corn tortilla, but apparently it wasn’t. It did look a little suspect. Needless to say, after all the dust from the carpet and then accidentally glutenizing myself, I had the mother of all allergic reactions. Blisters down throat, near fainting and dizziness. It took me awhile to figure out what it was because I really didn’t think it was that tortilla. Needless to say, I collapsed into a heap and was out. The pup checked on me once to see if I was breathing but no one else did!! I woke nearly four hours later and they were eating dinner. Hello??

When Sunday came along, I was not feeling up to hitting the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, but The Girl saw the event insert and noticed that she missed Judy Blume on Saturday. Talk about guilt! I was barely functioning and I had no idea she would be so upset about missing her but it also warmed my heart a tiny bit that she was so passionate about seeing her. That said, I sucked it up and off we went.

We did not see Judy Blume, although she was there because we saw people waiting in line to see her.

I did not buy any books. I was REALLY out of it.

I took silly pictures with my phone because I wasn’t focused enough to do otherwise.

All in all, it was a fun trip. Normally, I attend the panels but I always regret not having the time to browse so this was a nice change of pace.

On the reading front, I am still juggling a handful of books and doing well, but still behind on my reviews. I suppose I will never catch-up if I continue to read. If everyone could have such problems! Ha!

First off, an update on the play. Both, the Boy and Girl got parts in the show! Not the parts they tried out for but comparable parts. They are both happy and so am I. They just had a costume fitting and it’s all very exciting. If you are familiar with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat the Boy is one of the brothers and will be singing One More Angel in Heaven (video from the film with Donny Osmond). The Girl is in a dance number. She is the Sun!

This past week, we attended Open House at the high school. They had an orientation for incoming students and when they said, “Please welcome the class of 2016″ I just about passed out. Good lord! Where has the time gone! The Boy is going out for basketball and ASB (associated student body) so he plans to be busy. Of course, basketball camp conflicts with the show he is in PLUS any hopes of us taking a summer vacation so we won’t be going anywhere this summer. I am very excited for him. High school was such a fun time for me. I hope it is for him too. Somehow, we will work around the camp conflicts.

I am slowly catching up with my review writing, but I continue to be a reading fool so pretty soon, I am going to be behind again. I’m not sure how I got so far ahead of myself but I like it. I am finishing three more books today. After the three, I will be picking up We Need to Talk About Kevin and Arcadia.

Last night, the Girl and I had a movie night and watched Hugo. What a great movie! I haven’t read the book but she is doing that today. The movie was lovely. Just lovely and gorgeously rendered. I am going to make The Hub watch it today if I can tear him away from sports for a couple of hours. Speaking of movies, I haven’t seen The Hunger Games yet. I am going to wait until the hype dies down a bit.

Well, the rain is coming down outside, the house is clean and I’ve got nothing to do but read my books. A perfect afternoon if I do say so myself! Next week, open houses at both schools (on the same night!), and more rehearsals. Happy Sunday!