The Tea Rose

A friend of mine pinned this book and wrote that it was on par with the Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher. Since I love epic novels and enjoyed the Shell Seekers I repinned it.

I liked it but I didn't love it. Having said that I was glad to find out that it is actually the first of a trilogy, and I definitely plan on reading the other two. While the first book is complete in it's own right, I can definitely see how it would be possible for the story to progress.

The story starts off in London in the late 1800s and tells the tale of Fiona Finnegan. She is a poor teenage girl living with her family in a rough area of the city. She works at a tea factory but she and her boyfriend (who works as a produce seller at the local street market with his family) dream of someday having their own shop together. Given the time period and locale, Jack the Ripper is part of the story, but in a way that I felt was forced at times to add more drama and tragedy to Fiona's already rough life. 

I have to admit the story was pretty predictable, but I think that kind of went with Fiona's relatively naive character.  The first part of the story is a rapid series of tragedies that befall Fiona, and it felt like the author was rushing to get Fiona to New York which is where the majority of the story takes place.  Fiona sets off for New York in the hopes of connecting with her uncle and starting a new life there.  On board the ship she meets a man named Nicholas Soames who is also trying to start a new life after experiencing his own hardships and tragedies. They become friends and he is an important of her life from then on. 

Fiona becomes stronger and more ambitious as time goes on.  Women of this time period were stereotypically meek and were not expected to have any ambition besides finding a husband who can provide for her.  Fiona meets a lot of resistance as she strives to reach her goal, but at the core she has good friends and family who believe in her and support her.  

While the book ends in a believable way, I have peeked at the descriptions for the next two and do look forward to reading them after the others I picked up at the library today, probably starting with this one.

.

Forever Young by Rod Stewart

This was played in the season finale of Glee, and I thought it very appropriate

I have loved this song since it was first released and still remember the video of Rod riding in the back of some old pick up with a little kid.  I always thought it was a sweet song, but the first time I heard it once I had kids, I started singing along and really thought about the lyrics.  It made me cry.  Parents of older kids always tell you to cherish the young days as they go fast, I can already see myself writing this out to each of them somehow for their highschool graduation, maybe just in a card, or maybe in some kind of frame. It says what I think most parents feel but may not be able to express as eloquently (I know I couldn't). Either way, now I get goosebumps every time I hear it.


May the good Lord be with you
Down every road you roam
And may sunshine and happiness
surround you when you're far from home
And may you grow to be proud
Dignified and true
And do unto others
As you'd have done to you
Be courageous and be brave
And in my heart you'll always stay
Forever Young, Forever Young
Forever Young, Forever Young

May good fortune be with you
May your guiding light be strong
Build a stairway to heaven
with a prince or a vagabond

And may you never love in vain
and in my heart you will remain
Forever Young, Forever Young
Forever Young, Forever Young
Forever Young
Forever Young

And when you finally fly away
I'll be hoping that I served you well
For all the wisdom of a lifetime
No one can ever tell

But whatever road you choose
I'm right behind you, win or lose
Forever Young, Forever Young
Forever Young ,Forever Young
Forever Young, Forever Young
For, Forever Young, Forever Young

Recovering from a busy weekend

Saturday morning I finally took Little Hugger to Land of Nod to order her bed. On the ride up I warned her that even though we were going to pay for it today we may have to wait weeks for them to deliver it. I forgot that being in Chicago, the warehouse is local, and they're going to deliver it next Thursday. So not only does she get her bed before first grade starts, she'll get it before the last day of Kindergarten. She was eager to get bedding too, but I managed to convince her we should look elsewhere too. Land of Nod has really nice stuff, but it is expensive.I'm planning on a trip to IKEA before the bed is delivered.

I let her pick where we went for lunch, and lucky for me she picked my favorite pizza place - NY Slices - the closest I've found to NY style pizza in this area.

This weekend was our 12th anniversary. We went out for dinner Saturday night as that worked better with the rest of our plans. We had some gift certificates to Lettuce Entertain You so rather than going to the same old steak place, I picked Cafe Ba Ba Reeba. Sangria and tapas seemed like a good way to kick off summer.

After dinner we went to a nearby bar for a couple of beers and then back home where we had a bottle of champagne that had been chilling in the fridge for I don't know how long waiting for a worthy occasion.

Sunday we had some friends over for a barbecue. We grilled kebabs and had potato salad. For dessert, I made brownies and the flag strawberries which didn't turn out as cute as the picture because I overcooked the chocolate but still tasted good.

We had set up a kiddie pool in the backyard for the kids to play in which worked out well as it was 90 degrees. They all had a blast and one of the neighbor boys came over to join the fun.

Our friends have a little girl who is just a couple of months older than our Little Man. She's already potty trained and we're still working on it with Little Man.  At one point the kids all went upstairs to chill.  Little Man needed to use the potty, so I took his diaper off and stayed upstairs while he went.  He peed on the potty and then ran into his room where the little girl was reading.  He squatted down next to her (bare-assed) and said very excitedly, "I peed on the potty".  She briefly looked up at him, and then went back to her book.  I guess she wasn't impressed.

Monday we all got up early to head down to the parade. My husband and daughters were walking with Indian Princesses and I walked with my son and my women's group. There weren't a lot of people, but my son had fun throwing candy to all the kids. The route was about 2 miles long, and he managed to walk about half of it, before sitting in the stroller. We headed home for a while to relax (and forced Little Reader to take a nap because she was so tired from the day before) before heading to another BBQ. This time I made the berry tarts arranged like a flag. They were a little time consuming but not difficult and turned out well. They also happened to be the only dessert at the barbecue so were appreciated.

There were about 16 adults and a bunch of kids. Some good friends of ours and other were neighbors of our friends. The kids all had a great time playing in and outside.  Overall a very successful (but exhausting weekend).  I had hoped to finish my book, but I was too tired to get very far.