“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot


Very interesting story about a woman whose cancer cells ("HeLa") were grown in culture in the 1950s and have been used in a myriad of ways in science and medicine since then, and all without her family's consent. This is an ambitious book which covers decades and was written over the course of ten years. At times, I got a little lost in the details of the science of genetics and had to push my way through some chapters, but I still enjoyed learning about the unique and difficult story of Henrietta Lacks and her family.

View all my reviews

“The Perfect Storm” by Sebastian Junger

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very well-written story that pulled me very quickly. I knew practically nothing about the life of a modern commercial fisherman, so this book was a real education in that way. It gave me a tremendous amount of respect for the work they do and the constant challenges and dangers they face. It also gave me an incredible feeling of awe and respect for the power of the sea. Parts of the book went into more detail about boats and fishing than I cared to know, some of it I couldn't quite understand, but overall, it was a great book that skillfully told the true account of this sad story.

View all my reviews

Erica’s 14th

Dateline: February 12, 2014. The Midwest is locked in something the weather people are calling a “Polar Vortex.”

The days are short. The nights are bitter. The icicles are long.

Cabin Fever is setting in. People are considering drastic measures to survive.

They try to come up with new ways to stay warm.

But it may be too late; morale starts to drop and sinister ideas are formed. Is this the end?!

But what’s this? A birthday! A visit from Grandma and Grandpa! Gifts and good food! We’re saved! Hooray!

We feasted on a dinner of seafood and a chocolate birthday pie. And we laughed and toasted and celebrated another year with our child #3, Erica Danielle.

One of Grandma and Grandpa’s gift was a 14th-birthday doll figurine 

It wouldn’t be a birthday without books, and Erica got several, including the Sherlock Holmes mystery she’s looking at here.

It also wouldn’t be a birthday for Erica without a Reese’s heart!

And now, for a trip down Memory Lane. This was taken when Erica was about 3.

Here are a couple pictures of Erica from some vacations: Virginia Beach in 2003 and Pigeon Forge in 2004

Erica and cousin Kate when they were about 4. They’ve always been so close.

This was taken on Erica’s 8th birthday; I was about 6 months pregnant with Grant. :-)

This has always been one of my favorites. It was taken on the 4th of July when Erica was 6.

  

Erica holding Whiskers (I think).

From her 11th birthday:

I love these taken in 2010 with baby Trent, just before Erica turned 11.

 

Another favorite from last Fourth of July:

Happy 14th Birthday, Erica!!!

“In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a difficult, fascinating read. Very well done and made me want to find out more about the people involved, including author Truman Capote. At the same time, it was such a sad, horrible crime against a completely innocent family that I can't read it a second time. That would be the only reason I won't read it again, and why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. A 5-star rating is for books I'd re-read. I definitely understand why it is a modern classic in the non-fiction novel genre. Masterfully written.

View all my reviews

Brooke’s 10th

Brooke’s birthday this year was sandwiched by snowstorms. In fact, we needed to reschedule the party due to snowstorms and extreme cold, all due to a “polar vortex” they called it. Obviously these extreme winter conditions did nothing to dampen Brooke’s enthusiasm. In fact, I could almost say there is NOTHING that will dampen Brooke’s enthusiasm. I often tell people she is a very happy-go-lucky girl.

One of the things Brooke asked for was a pair of cowboy boots.I wasn’t sure where to start looking for those, but Mick came through: he found this great pair in just her size at Rural King!  Yes, she was v-e-r-y excited. 

Here’s the funny story about these boots. I had asked one of the older girls to wrap the birthday gifts in our bedroom. Somehow, the boots got overlooked. When Mick got home, he found Brooke reading a book in our room, about a foot away from that box! HA! Obviously, she didn’t notice them and we were still able to surprise her.

And here’s the cowgirl heading off into the sunset on her pink “pony.”

Another funny story: it turns out that Mick brought the bike into the house a little bit too soon. Also, he might have overestimated Trent’s ability to keep a secret. While Brooke was waiting upstairs for her grand entrance, he brought the bike in from the garage and hid it under a blanket behind a chair in the living room – all while the other kids were watching with great excitement. Trent just had to tell somebody about the bike Daddy just brought in, so he ran up and told Brooke.  :-P  She was a good sport about it and showed proper excitement when she pulled the blanket off.  :-)

Ah yes, you can really see that blond tint to her hair in this shot. I clearly remember being the first thing I noticed about her when she was born. She looked like the others … but she’s BLOND!  :-D

This next picture was taken at the State Fair when she was 18 months old. The girls were sitting on bleachers set up for the purpose of watching a cow give birth. Brooke was just excited about getting to sit on the bleachers by herself.  :-D

 

 

Quite possibly my favorite picture of Brooke ever.  :-)

Courtney’s Sweet Sixteen

What’s a girl to do when she’s planned and daydreamed about something for months, even years?! Well, you drag out the actual event for almost 2 weeks! I can’t remember when Courtney first started talking about her 16th birthday; I know it’s been at least a year. Easily. Who knew it would end up being more like a birthWEEK or birth-week-and-a-half.  :-)

Two weeks ago, we were being socked by a winter storm, followed by two days of arctic temperatures (I think the high temperature was –11 one day) which the experts said was caused by a “polar vortex”. The storm hit on Sunday; Monday and Tuesday were the extremely cold days, Courtney’s birthday was on Wednesday. Since it was still very cold and snowy, I had to work and Grandma was sick, we decided to postpone the party. But we decided to have a little celebration here at home with just us. Since I had to work all day, that ruled out anything homemade for dinner and cake. Kroger came to the rescue with jarred spaghetti sauce, frozen meatballs, frozen garlic bread and even a chocolate fudge cake! We had a few gifts for her to open and rescheduled for the following Sunday with Grandma and Grandpa.

 

Grandma and Grandpa were able to make it on Sunday and we were able to do all our usual birthday stuff: nice meal, homemade Strawberry Shortcake for the birthday dessert, all three verses of Happy Birthday, and gift opening in the living room.

 

The Strawberry Shortcake was delicious – tasty, fresh fruit year-round has got to be one of the nicest benefits of living in the Modern Age. The recipe I follow for the shortcake is very simple; I got it from a Strawberry Shortcake cookbook Mom gave to one of the girls years ago. I use it every time we have this dessert. I often use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the shortcakes, but sometimes I use a flower-shape, which is what I did this time. This is what Mick’s plate looked like. Can you tell it’s one of his favorite desserts?

When Mom picked out her shortcake, she found that she just couldn’t bring herself to eat it – er … him ... Her?

Ha!  The two “eye” holes were made from the candles. I promise we were not intending this when we were hurriedly putting the candles in the shortcakes! It was the only shortcake that looked like that – with the perfectly placed sideways crack for a smile. :-) We all had a good laugh at it, but strangely, no one could bring themselves to eat it!  :-D  It sat on the counter for a couple of days until two hungry little boys snagged it and I caught them hiding under the barstools nibbling on it.  :-D

We also planned a “friend” birthday party, with 21 of Courtney’s closest friends on the guest list.  ;-)

Here is the invitation we emailed:

 

On Wednesday evening, Courtney’s friend Moriah flew in for the party. Thursday found central Indiana getting hit with another winter storm; nothing like the previous one, but more snow and cold. Thankfully, the roads were cleared quickly. On Friday, Rachel made 8 homemade pizza crusts and a huge salad, Texas Sheet Cake and Orange Bars. Meanwhile, I picked up cousin Holly and brought her up from Indianapolis with me, and then, around 5:30, everyone else started showing up.

I think we had a total of 17 guests who were able to come. Our friend George made on good on his threat to crash the party, but he was only here for a short time, while waiting for friends to pick him up when they dropped off their girls.

The girls all had a great time eating, chatting, laughing and making bracelets together.

 

 

 

 

The fun continued on into the weekend, with 3 cousins and Moriah here Saturday night into Sunday morning, and cousin Holly and Moriah here Sunday night! Last night, around 9:00, the girls pushed back the dining room table and started doing some impromptu dances to Irish jigs, and when I got into bed around 11:00, I could hear them laughing downstairs while they played Apples to Apples.  It’s been an exciting week and I think I can safely say it lived up to all the months and months (years?) of build-up.  :-)

I’ll end with just a few pictures of Courtney through the years. Keep in mind, the vast majority of my pictures of her before the age of 10 have not been scanned yet!