myJaxonIf we don’t go crazy once in a while, we’ll all go crazy. - Hawkeye

I’m so geeked!  The fifth issue of Buffy season 8 and the first edition of First Death, the prequel to Guilty Pleasures, by Laurell K Hamilton arrived yesterday.  Of course I’ve already read them.  ;)  It was interesting to see Anita’s first encounter with Jean-Claude and her first serial killer.  Such a huge difference then her persona in Danse Macabre.

Check out Trish and my men….ain’t they cute?

So I finally did it….I created a mySpace account. My husband is kind of against it so I’ve never really looked at it before. Now that I have, it’s been kind of fun. I’ve been uploading pictures and a couple of videos. I’ve actually found quite a few people that I know and haven’t seen in a long time. It’s kind of weird seeing what they’ve been up to. We’ll see how long I stick with it. Don’t worry, this is still my main blog site. Most everything will go here, but I’m going to have fun with the other site too. So if you’re cruising mySpace, look me up.

The end of an era…the world says goodbye to Harry Potter. Or has it? Even though I have heard that JK Rowling is ending the Potter series after book seven, I honestly don’t think it’ll be the end of the Potter universe. With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling may have ended speculation on a lot of plot twists, and she may have even given Harry a future, but she doesn’t mention what happened between his defeat of Voldemort and watching his sons board the Hogwarts Express. She leaves it open to the possibility of continuing Harry’s story or at least continuing on with one of her other characters. Granted she killed off a lot more reoccurring characters than I thought she would, and in some instances unjustifiably so, but she still left a lot she could later work with. I wouldn’t be surprised to see any part of the following appear in the near future:

1. Neville Longbottom stepping up to the plate at Hogwarts - what is he going to do next? He started showing more backbone and is he going to keep it? Although we ultimately know what he ends up doing, but how did he get to that point and did he do anything else first?
2. Teddy Lupin - the godson of Harry Potter and the son of a werewolf & witch, what must have it been like to grow up as Harry Potter’s godson and having parents that were killed in the final battle with Voldemort?
3. Harry as an Auror - in the final chapter of the Deathly Hallows, we’re given an idea of Harry’s life, but it never says what he is actually did after the final battle. He wanted to be an Auror and fight magic deviants, but did he actually do it?
4. Ron & Hermoine - they were Harry’s sidekicks throughout the entire series, do they get their own stories now? Do they become Aurors and continue fighting for good?
5. Draco Malfoy - what happened with the Malfoys? We find that Draco actually acknowledges Harry in the future, do they establish some kind of relationship? Has he changed his philosophy and what happened with their family after the final battle?
6. The Weasley’s - there were so many of them and yet they worked in different areas within the magical community. Think of the stories that could be written about them…Charlie and his dragons, Bill and his work at Gringotts, Percy and Arthur at the Ministry, George and his Joke shop.
7. The Magic of Ministry - with all the secrets that went on in these halls, stories upon stories could be written. You wouldn’t need any single individual, but could have different people telling their tales of working for the Ministry and all of it’s subdivisions.

Being that it’s close to 800 pages, it really doesn’t seem like it’s that long of a novel. The story continually flows and the mystery that is Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore slowly come to life. The question whether Severus Snape is friend or foe is answered and we find out how Snape truly felt about Harry as well as his relationship to both of his parents. As the final product in a very lucrative published series, readers were definitely left with questions and “why did she do that”. In my opinion, the best books are the ones with plots that never answer all of the questions, they leave holes for the readers to think about. If a book ties off all loose ends, then what is there to discuss about it. You need to have something left to think about, to debate over, to love/cry about. JK Rowlings did it. It’s been 24 hours since I finished the book and I have a burning desire to read it again just to make sure I didn’t miss anything or that something was explained that I didn’t notice before. I’m still thinking about the story and isn’t that what any author wants?

Harry Potter is out! Yes I went and picked up my copy today and I have already started reading it. Of course I only got through the first two pages before Ian woke up. I think it’s going to take me a little longer than normal to get through it, but I will. Never doubt that.

Prunes are not that bad. Well, a jar of prunes via baby food isn’t bad until to you get to the after taste. Ian had his first taste of prunes tonight, so of course I had to try them. He actually took it better than the applesauce. Kind of surprising, but overall a complete mess was made. He is definitely getting big and he’s not crawling yet, but give him time. He has the desire, he just hasn’t figured out how to make all of his limbs move correctly yet. We’ve been taking Ian swimming and he is having the time of his life. We started out taking a raft for him to use, but Ian has more fun when he’s splashing in our arms than sitting in the water. Of course, the raft is meant for kids 6 months and older and Ian isn’t quite there yet; but, it came with a shade, so it would keep the sun off of him. We fixed this by going when the pool is completely shaded by the trees around 5pm. Perfect timing too. Ian gets a work out right before bed.

I’ve found this really great site for mothers. It’s called RaisingThem. It’s a huge discussion board where you can ask all sorts of questions and receive some pretty quick answers. There’s a bunch of different groups you can join, each with their own topic, and you can help one another. I have found some really useful tips from them. For instance, someone posted a Target coupon that gives you $1 off any two packages of baby food and you can print off as many as you want. Jesse and I went out today and picked up a bunch of different kinds. I’ve also been able to ask the other mothers different questions that I’ve been hesitate to ask my pediatrician. Not because I didn’t think they were worth asking, but because they were generic questions. For example “what kinds of food can give a baby constipation” or “nursing before bedtime…good or bad habit” or there was one lady who asked for some advice regarding her mother in law.

I think that’s all for now. I’m going to go read some Harry.