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"Do act mysterious, it always keeps them coming back for more."

— Carolyn Keene (Nancy's Mysterious Letter)

Does My Head Look Big in This? (Book Review)

Goodreads:
Sixteen-year-old Amal makes the decision to start wearing the hijab full- time and everyone has a reaction. Her parents, her teachers, her friends, people on the street. But she stands by her decision to embrace her faith and all that it is, even if it does make her a little different from everyone else.

Putting on the hijab isn't the end of the journey.  It's just the beginning of it.  p.333

This was a great exploration of one girl choosing to show her beliefs to the world and the consequences that come with those big decisions.  Amal is cool and cocky and definitely 16.  She has a typical relationship with her parents and has some great friendships at school.  She attends a prep school in Australia so when she first decides to wear the hijab she doesn't know how it will go over there.  But she works through that obstacle and a few others.

The novel is in first person and that sometimes threw the tone off for me.  Some books I don't notice it, but I was always aware of it for this book.  It made some of the conversations stilted for me.  But it was nice to be in Amal's head and see how she viewed others.  Sometimes she was paranoid that strangers were judging her and sometimes she was right and sometimes not.  There were many interesting parallels drawn to her situation and that of her overweight friend and to the Greek next door neighbor and to her Japanese friend and to some of her extended family who pretend not to be Muslim.  There was a great message of tolerance and remaining true to your beliefs and yourself.  And I learned a little about Islam and a lot about what the hijab means.


cross posted with The Little Bookworm 

ETA: corrected 

Gidget (movie)

Gidget is irrepressible tomboy who sees no reasons to hunt down boys and go on dates... until the day she is saved by Moondoggie, the gorgeous surfer.  Gidget is determined to learn how to surf and snag Moondoggie while she is at it.  But he only sees her as a little girl so Gidget sets out to change his mind.

First, I'm a HUGE fan of old movies.  I love them.  And Gidget is one of my favorites.  I love Sandra Dee and how cute is she.  I love the clothes they wear and  James Darren is so very good looking.  He is the only one of the original cast to play his character through three movies.  There are two other movies from around this time, Gidget Goes Hawaiian with Deborah Walley (who is in one of my other favorite movies, Summer Magic with Hayley Mills)  and Gidget Goes to Rome with Cindy Carol who is my least favorite Gidget.  Gidget is very excitable and funny and innocent but only annoying in the Rome movie and that has a lot to do with the way Carol plays her. 

Anyway, this was the first movie and one of the first "beach movies."  There are only two songs, both sung by Darren, so it doesn't really count as a musical.  It does always surprise me how much innuendo there is in old movies, but the humor is so clean compared to what we watch now, that it is just funny and cute.  The close ups during surfing scenes are laughable.  But it is a very fun movie.

Believe Dat!

After an nerve-racking game during which my husband and I expressed doubts to the Saints ability to win, they actually won!  This is obviously an unprecedented event in Louisiana history and there was much excitement and jubilation in neighborhoods across the state.  There were even fireworks in my parent's and in-law's neighborhoods.  And it was impossible to make a call or send a text.

It's hard to explain why this means so much.  We just don't get nice things here.  (Well, except for LSU)  Everyone stills talks about Katrina and what the Saints have meant to that city.  And it's a lot for sure.  But down here Katrina is a hard thing to mention and the sadness and desolation of that time is still with everyone.  Even the people not from New Orleans had to deal with the fallout of that storm.  I can't begin to describe the heartbreak I went home with everyday after helping the people who made it out and had no home, no anything anymore.  And things never really picked up from there.  It's just one thing after another and the politicians of our state, well, there's not a lot to say, or maybe there is too much, I don't know.

So we are use to disappointment around here.  And the Saints haven't made it easy.  We've all hung in there with them and have gotten use to not being winners and then they started winning.  And it was amazing.  Our team just kept going and winning and suddenly everyone was talking Super Bowl but with caution because we've been disappointed before.   And then they won!  And it was freaking AMAZING.  The most nail biting game ever.  I will freely admit that before this season I hadn't watched much football and I became interested because they actually had an all-around good team this year.  But my dad has been a fan forever and I grew up with it.  It wasn't the prettiest win, but it was a win.  And the Saints are going to the SUPERBOWL!  So to everyone saying we don't deserve it, we didn't win it.  Well, we did and we are going and we deserve it more than you will ever know.

If you're happy and you know it...

I talk a lot about baby names and future second children.  We really would like to have another one soon and were planning on this year.  But it looks like that plan has been paused for a year.  Between the cost of daycare and my lack of vacation time and the fact that we are happy right now just the 3 of us and the dogs, it doesn't seem to be the right time.  We'd like to wait till Bub is older and closer to kindergarten and will be happy to have a little sibling.  It just seems the right thing to do.