Book Buzz

So I love to read books that have a lot of buzz about them. Each year Janet Evanovich comes out with about 2 from her Stephanie Plum series and I am always eager for those. Stephanie is a female bounty hunter who constantly messes up on apprehension, destroys her vehicles and finds herself in a love triangle between the suave cop Morelli and the rugged bounty hunter Ranger. These are good fast reads. It is great to start this series if you have not already b/c you could catch up and read all of them before the next one comes out in Juneish (I think).
Another book I flew through was the Shack. This was another amazing quick read that I read b/c I knew that it had some very pointed Christian terms and explinations and I wanted to be able to know what it was saying. This was a great book for Christian and non Christian alike and really opened up my mind to the real vastness of the trinity of God. Read it, you wont be disappointed. I will have you know that that is a fiction book though. After I finished I was googleing people and places b/c I thought some of it was real and the locations are places that I have been.
I just started reading The Red Tent. 2 reasons. First, we are going to visit some friends in June and this is one of Cara's fav. books, so I wanted to read it. She is a doula and so far there is quiet a bit of mid wifery stuff in there so I can see why she loves it. Secondly, a couple years ago it came out that the husband of one of my friends (yes it is the Aldersons) was reading this book. The Red Tent is where the women would go during their time of the month or during childbirth. Basically whenever they were bleeding. So you can see why we razzed him for reading this book that his wife's book club had read. (love you tyler and michelle) Also it deals with old testament chaaracters, spesifically the line of Jacob. Very interesting. I honestly thougth that I would not like this b/c of the old test. subject, but I am loving it and find myself stealing away or putting off an nap to enjoy a few pages.
Lastly is the book and movie Twilight. I heard the buzz going around about this book last year. I wasnt really interested. I saw my future sister in law reading it but still no interest on my part. Well, my friend (Jen) was in from Tacoma last week and she had devoured the book series a couple weeks before, so I thought I would give it a shot. Doing what any red blooded american might do, I rented them ovie first. I do have every intention of reading the book too, but the movie was fabulous! I usually dont enjoy stuff about vampires and such, but I am a sucker (pun intended) a forbidden love story.
So there is my rant. My family is finally on the mend and I am really looking forward to a full night of sleep tonight. It has been about a week since a miracle like that has happened.

shamrock on the shirt

So, for my interested readers, I did not go and rescue my little kindergartener. Cold hearted I know. I went with Chris and decided that this would be a good lesson for her to learn. But, she came home with a shamrock on her shirt. Her teacher gave all the little kids who did not wear green a shamrock on the shirt. Genius woman I tell you. She is amazing! Alli proudly displayed it the rest of the day until it fell of her shirt.

Curlies and Pokies

I probably didnt spell all that right, but ok well, you get the gist. Leilani calls her curls her curlies and she calls my leg hair pokies. Each night she twists her "bangs" with her finger. Inevitebly she will get her finger stuck at some point and come to us crying. We have to cut the knot out most of the time which has created "bangs" for her. All our girls had hair that is all the same length. But due to Leilani's recent mishaps we have had to cut more and more from the front of her hair thus creating bangs. Chris' mom tried to get her to stop twisting by enticing her to pat her hair instead of twisting. It has not worked so far, but Leilani keeps reassuring us that she will stop twisting and start patting. We'll see.

As far as the pokies, I get Leilani dressed in the morning. Most of the time I am wearing capri's and I set her on my lap to get her pants on. She immediately does the inverted crab lifting herself off my pokey leg hair. I will admit that I think this is funny so on occasion I have placed her on my lap knowing full well that she would probably be repulsed by the pokies. This morning was the first time that she stopped herself ahead of time from sitting on my lap. I was impressed, but I just shaved yesterday, it couldnt be that bad. So she sat very carefully and proceeded to feel if I had leg hair on my calves. Smooth like butter. (strange analogy, I know) Anyway's that is how I get my morning chuckle.

On a seperate note I did have a dilema this morning. Allison (knowing full well) decided not to wear green today and was just going to tell everyone that she is not playing the pinching game. I told her that she might get pinched and still she refused to play the cultural game of pinching on St. Patty's day. So I drove her to the bus stop and like buzzards to the dead, the little boys were circling her and pinching. She was in tears and I called her back to the car. I asked if she wanted to wear my airfreshner (b/c it was the only green thing I had with me) and still she said no. So, I didnt know if I should go rescue her (by taking a green sticker to school in hopes that she would wear it) or if I should let this be a lesson learned. Tell me what you think and I will tell you what I did on the next post.

The Whitehouse Crawford

So, first of all we have an amazing small group. I remember thinking when we moved from Tacoma to Everett that surely God outdid himself in Tacoma. Nothing could top the group we were with there and yet he was faithful. Not to say our group in Everett was better, but it was different and amazing. We did a lot of activities and outings; camping, shopping, Whidbey Island, Leavenworth, ect. The Everett group really embodied what we had hoped for. People our age going through the same season of life as us and leaning on God for understanding in similar situations.

Well, when we moved to Kennewick I thought we were due for a not so great group. Since we have lived here we have been a part of three groups. I am now of the belief that God is showing off and giving us a little taste of who He is. He has blessed us with people who have taught, inspired, encouraged, uplifted and loved us wholly.

We recently went to the Whitehouse Crawford for a formal group date together. It was a fun ride to Walla Walla together and then we enjoyed some fine dining. It was truly an experience. First of all we had never eaten anywhere that expensive. The ambience was worth every penny. We sat with friends, enjoyed laughs, invented a board game, tasted amazing steak, took pictures and learned some very interesting things about one another.......the Crawmers.

Here are some pictures from that night.

Wordless Wednesday

Lucky You

The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me (or my child)! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.It may be a story. It may be poetry, shoes, bags, or a little invention of my own! I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. Believe me... it may blow your mind!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Sounds like fun, right? So, let's play!

Not for the faint of heart - By Chris

Okay I realize that The Littrell Show is usually authored by Jaimie, but after today's mess I had to share my thoughts. No I didn't hack into the blogspot. I stopped hacking into Jaimie's accounts when she was dating another guy back in college. This time she gave me the password.

So a little background. Us Littrell's don't get sick very often; a blessing and a curse. The curse of this is we are total wimps when we do get sick (or at least I am). I am a big bad police officer willing to run towards the sounds of bullets, but if you show me a little vomit (especially my own) I get a little faint, get sick myself, and/or curl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb. If you know me, you know I tend to exaggerate a bit. Right now, I'm not exaggerating.

So I have had a little head cold that past 24 hours. Jaimie has been doing a fabulous job of serving me as I get better (she ironed all of my work clothes for the week!!!).

So I woke this morning and was feeling a little better. As Jaimie and I got dressed for the day, Alli started freaking out and calling for Jaimie and I, as if someone had severed an important body part, like a head or something. Jaimie rushed into the living room as I thought, "What ever, Alli is always full of drama." When I heard Jaimie start to lose it I realized that we may have to start looking into a head donor for one of our children. My only hope was that it would be someone of the right gender. Then I realized, "I don't think medical technology is far enough advanced to transplant a head." Oh well...

As I rushed into the living room, I saw something much worse than expected. Danielle was vomiting all over the floor, pillow, and ottoman. The thing that got me most was that Danielle was not even trying to get to the kitchen or bathroom, but continued to vomit all over the floor. I scooped Danielle up (in not the most loving of ways) and put her in the kitchen. I walked with her to the bathroom and suggested that she shower.

As Jaimie cleaned up the puke (not that it was only her responsibility, but if I would have done it the puke pile would have been twice as big) with the life saving carpet cleaner that her father Henry gave us years ago (THANKS HENRY!!!) I responded to the bathroom where Leilani was frantically calling for Jaimie. Leilani had wet herself, but luckily for me she did it in the bathroom.

Fast forward about 3 hours, everyone is doing well. I blended Danielle a banana, peanut butter smoothie and we played a board game. Shortly after the game, I noticed that Danielle was performing headstands on the couch. I asked her if she had her puke pot with her in case she got sick. She told me no. Within the minute, Danielle was hovering over the pot emptying the banana smoothie into it. A couple minutes later, I noticed that Leilani was taking herself potty. I was so proud...that is until I saw the diarrhea trail leading to the toilet.

The up side? I don't know if our house has ever been any cleaner. If this keeps up I would suggest buying stock in a major bleach company!!!

Chris