A Member of the Family by Cesar Millan

You can get this book @ Amazon. Some do not agree with Cesar's dog training methods. Personally I think like children, dogs are different and may require different approaches shall we say. Now don't get all up in arms about me comparing dogs and children, we have to raise and train both so I think it's a pretty good comparison. (this is mainly for my kids who are jealous of the dog and this means all 6 of you, I don't think Christi Lynn is jealous of him, she is the 7th child) A Member of the Family is worthwhile reading to say the least and the methods Cesar promotes to pick out a new puppy work, I can attest to that from personal experience. No we didn't get a puppy but we looked @ chocolate lab puppies. More on this later. The book in general? I'd give it a 7 out of 10 in general, for a dog book probably a 9 out of 10 but I can't think of one I'd give a 10 to so this one must be pretty good.
Some may not agree @ all with Cesar's choice of a pit bull for one of his dogs but I think it proves that nurture can overcome nature. Perhaps that's putting it too simply as it's more a case of the environment promoting decent dog behavior and discouraging anything else. The pit bulls name is Daddy and he is a sweetheart of a pit bull. I've known pit bulls, one of my first grand-dogs was a dalmatian pit bull cross named Polly, sweetest dog you'd ever want to know except she would lead her puppies deep into the woods when they reached about 7 weeks. (and any other puppies she thought should leave her "pack").
There are chapters by Cesar's wife and children which makes this more than a normal "dog" book. The human touch proves invaluable for finishing this book into a totally interesting read. Also the insights into different breeds and aspects of bringing a dog into the household prove invaluable. Like I said before I don't always agree with Cesar 100% but sometimes Cesar doesn't agree with himself 100%. My dog sometimes eats before me and runs ahead of me but he is just so proud he can smell the trail we have came down I hate to burst his little white fuzzy bubble. See Animals That Give Pause for more about my bichon and other animal stories.
Now about the chocolate labs? I can't remember how many there were, I wish I'd gotten some pictures but I was too enamoured with the dogs and puppies to take pictures especially when I found they had some yellow lab younger dogs. See Mugsey's Memorial for why I am so fond of these dogs. I don't know if I can paraphrase what Cesar said about picking a puppy in the book exactly but basically the idea is look for a puppy who isn't pushy or dominant but isn't shy and fearful either. It should be respectful but want attention and should give off a feeling of calm energy. Using those guidelines I picked out a little female with a black and white collar, when the dog owner got home he told me that was the best dog and he didn't even know I'd picked it out! If I'd used my usual puppy picking methods it would have been the noisiest most obnoxious one I'd picked out or the smallest one because I felt sorry for her. Not saying those won't make good dogs with the any kind of proper raising but the one that gave off calm energy is probably going to be easier to live with and train. (Dispatch was picked out for me, the owner brought him to me early because he was hogging all the food) That's what Cesar Millan's book promotes, picking out a puppy by providing specific guidelines that aren't foolproof but could help you avoid much heartache, he also gives ways to introduce a dog to a new baby or how to blend families and their dogs. Even if you are not planning on getting a new puppy or dog this is an invaluable interesting read.
Since I've had authors actually read my book reviews I'd like to say HI CESAR!!!! and Ilusion you are a saint. ;-)

Nothing to do with books but the Apple Festival Kings for two years are brothers!

And my grandsons! Semi big deal in our county, OK it's the biggest deal besides the occasional unexpected explosion or the tourists coming in April or leaving in September. Oh yeah the fairs, demolition derbys and beer gardens are pretty big deals too.

This is the FIRST and only time that brothers have won Apple Festival King two years in a row. Of course most people don't have kids 15 1/2 months apart either.

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The first picture is the Apple Festival King for 2008 Zach and his Queen, the second picture is Marcus the Apple Festival King for 2009 and his Queen and the bottom picture is of Zach, Marcus, Jacob, and Sara who looks something like her grandma.

Story is also on my NEW animals that give pause and Tresa's Blog and my old animals blog , in other words Grandma is braggin on every site she has!

This is all the more special because in different ways this year has been tough on the whole family. I wasn't able to be there for Zach and not for Marcus either but for different reasons but they know grandma is proud of them and can probably still beat them arm wrestling or wii boxing. (just had to throw that in if they read this)

Naturally Thin By Bethenny Frankel

This partial review originally appeared on my new blog TRESA'S BLOG.
The NEW and improved animals blog is HERE.


I'm only half way through but it makes sense to me. If you want to buy Naturally Thin from Amazon, you can click on it there. Bethenny Frankel writes well and despite the differences in our upbringing I didn't find her approach spoiled or unrealistic (she grew up eating in restaurants, she lived in cities, I grew up on the farm where everyone gained weight as they got older). The food bank idea is rather depressing since I'm one of those people who used to be able to eat and eat and stay @ 110 if I kept up my physical activity level. I won't say exercise because I don't exercise, I work, I hate to exercise for exercise shape and I can't see exerting that much energy and not making a physical difference in anything but myself. I suppose that is the immigrant farm person coming out in me? Back to the food bank, it seems that you have a food bank, like a bank account, makes sense, the more you exercise the more food you can take out of the bank, (the way I can think of it) if you take out too much with fudge cake for breakfast you will have fruit and vegetables and an egg white for the rest of the day? Make sense? AND the food bank continues from day to day but you shouldn't just quit taking food out or only take one kind of food out (starvation or fad diets) or the bank will get upset and not let you take so much out? Now that I've explained the whole premise of Naturally Thin (just kidding)Bethenny's recipes are a little ingredient happy and if you don't like portobello mushrooms you are pretty well up a certain cree but they are more intesting than most by far.

On a scale of 1-10 right now I'd give the book an 8 right now. Talk to me in a month if I follow it which of course I'm trying to do right now. Why? I weigh 150 again. I'm 5'4" and I can still wear a size 6 in stretch jeans, it's not so pretty as it was when I weighed about 140 a couple months ago. I'll keep trying to post about how this book does in the diet department. What made me decide to write about it this morning? It's what is going on in my life (besides having to give the dog a bath and defrost the fridge, it's an RV fridge evidently they are not frost free?) My husband quit smoking in June and has gained weight, surprise surprise. I cut down far enough where some days I have none and some days I have 3 or 4 which I consider pretty good for me. I will make no bones about it. I had to quit, I had blood clots and I'm not old or I don't think I am. Therefore I am gaining weight too. My parents were both overweight and I know what it does to you. I've never been obese and spent most of my life thin till I started working @ a computer. My husband and I plan on walking , haven't done so yet, the new tv season started! I did buy him Nike walking shoes though.

Back to the book, it's a GREAT idea and more sensible than most I've read. I started to pick up the one by Jillian Michaels because lets face it that is the body we want. Jillian Michaels book involves exercise, I won't do the exercise (I decided to quit fooling myself), I'm very muscled for my size which is a good thing and WHY I can wear a smaller size and eat more. It's hereditary, so is the fact my relatives are mostly all fat. So I'll let you know in this blog how it goes with the book Naturally Thin and my diet. I'm also trying to drink 8 12 ounce glasses of water or crystal light drink mix ( I HATE WATER) .

The book isn't bad and I ate sensibly yesterday because of Naturally Thin and it's entertaining enough I'm not skimming through. Buy it and judge for yourself. BTW this is only like the 2nd diet book I've bought in my life so that says something.


PS: You do have to exercise a bit but this book involves a little more than common sense, sometimes common sense needs to be presented in a different way to become clear to you and that's what this book does, present what makes sense, it's painful sometimes, ie no one needs more than one scoop of ice cream @ a time, but it's true!

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos is definitely in the chick lit category. You can buy Belong to Me here on Amazon. Looking for a good chick lit book to read on your early vacation, buy this one. While most of us can relate to parts of this book not eveyone has a college degree or an impossibly handsome husband (OK I think mine is handsome but don't tell him!!) but the actual story could be anyone anywhere. Marisa de los Santos has written a prelude to this book, Love Walked In, and she has a phd and writes poetry, it shows. The book is very well written, at least for me I thought I knew what was going to happen and then no it didn't make sense and then it did. New love and hope springing from tragedies and people remaking their lives are always worthwhile reading.
Overall I give this book a 9 out of 10.

Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell Part II

Ok, to be fair this isn't really part II but just another thought on the book, it's that good, needs more than one post.
Once again the link to buy the book Outliers is here@ amazon.com and the link to Mr. Gladwell's web site is here.

These two thoughts or theories on what childhood influences form successful adults from the book may be just givens for some parents. To others they may be like saying letting your children eat blue lizards will make their lives complete. I wish the book had came out and been required reading sometime before I was born. Forgive the paraphrasing and simplification of the ideas.

1. Support your child's interests and not only allow him time and materials to pursue the interests but actively encourage them. We all know about the soccer mom stereotype etc. but what if little Tommy would rather be rock climbing or be a watercolor artist? Soccer just won't cut it. My parents grade on this? My dad belonged to the archaeological society and I can tell you easy ways to distinguish a male skeleton from a female skeleton. My mother took me to the bookmobile. Other than that I was pretty well on my own, not uncommon in those days but I did feel neglected, what I would have given for a real library trip, good paints or a trip to a bookstore. I did better with my children, taught 4-H, learned cake decorating and taught my kids, they played sports because they wanted to, acted in plays, etc. How is the next generation doing? My daughter encourages every interest the children have and devotes her life to them plain and simple, sports, lessons, trips you name it. Are they spoiled (we are talking my grandchildren here remember?) OF course they are gloriously beautifully spoiled, are they obnoxious? Only when they act like grandma. They know they have it good and appreciate it.

2. Encourage your children to question new ideas or things they don't agree with and encourage them to discuss things with adults. I know every parent has uttered the words "because I SAID SO, that's why" but that isn't a good reason. IF your child has a thought as to why something should not be done a certain way listen to them @ least and give some weight to their thoughts. Encourage them to interact with other SAFE adults and make requests of them. Children who are taught to be seen and not heard all the time grow up to be invisible adults and even if they have brilliant earthshaking thoughts no one may ever know. Our families grades on this? About the same as previously although I'm not so sure the differences are so pronounced down through the generations. I did grow up talking to grown ups, my kids did too, the grandkids have no trouble doing so. The difference is in the children's effects on parental decisions, I had no effect, my children some, their children some. Why is this invaluable? About the age of 16 or 18 or 21 you won't be there to speak up for your children and they will need to and to adults who may not have their best interests @ heart or be merely distracted. In any case your child needs to know how to stand up and be counted with his/her Doctor, with teachers, cops, counsellors, sales people, landlords........ The more positive interactions they have had with adults the more finely honed their communication skills will be. The difference between two of the most intelligent men (IQ wise) in America is... one was brought up to question authority, he's a rocket scientist. The other was brought up to bow and scrape and get by as best as he can, he worked as a bouncer in a bar most of his life, didn't finish college because he didn't have the communication skills and basic life skills to make it all work.

Alas my life skills tell me it's time to go to bed so more on this outstanding book later.

Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

GOOD GOOD GOOD GREAT!!!!

Does that tell you anything? I may have to write more than one post about this book, it deserves more.

I admit I'm a compulsive reader, I started this book yesterday, read it @ work during lunch and then settled down last night and finished it. I may reread it soon. I've read Blink by Mr Gladwell but not The Tipping Point, if you read Blink, Outliers is much easier to read in my opinion and just a better book although Blink was outstanding in it's premise.

This book should be required reading for parents and teachers to say the least, sociologists will already have read it or should have, grandparents and anyone connected with children or humans (I presume that's all who are reading this?) for that matter should read this book. Some of the reviews say that Mr. Gladwell should have gone into more detail about the methods used for the theories presented, in my opinion that would have made the book duller and more tedious although I love those sort of things not everyone does. Perhaps Mr. Gladwell should do his next book on methods of statistical research which is just a fun fun subject. I'm being facetious here, OK?

The link to buy this book is here and Mr. Gladwells web page is here which is good reading in itself.

I think I will write more later, let me just say the book gave me insight into WHY Asian students surpass American students in math so often. To put the answer simply in a sentence or two asian words for numbers are shorter and more logical, when putting a numerical problem into words in your head the answer is practically a given, also humans can only remember for a certain time frame and if the name is shorter you can squeeze more numbers (names) into your memory? Make sense? NO??? That's why Mr. Gladwell devotes more than a sentence or two to it. Also centuries of labor and brain intensive rice farming in the Asian countries and success in farming being the difference between prospering and starving have helped cultivate a race of successfull natural mathematicians. Read the book, you will see why!

Outliers also gave me insight into why my own German and French heritage perhaps makes me want to nap when it's cold or rainy. It's not terribly cold but it's my day off and it's still early early spring here, snowed a couple days ago ie it's NAP TIME. Seems that the vast majority of Germans and French farmers (serfs and yes we all probably have a peasant or two in our heritage if our forefathers came from Europe) basically hibernated during the long European winters. They were VERY active during the late spring, summer, and fall but it was cheaper to just rest and wait for spring in the winter, they didn't consume so much food etc.

In my next post I'll give you more on the book Outliers and why it's so important a read. On a parting note my husband and I used to go to California quite a bit, he had trucks and drove one, of course we delivered in Los Angeles and life is quite different there than rural Missouri. There are still people here who haven't been out of the state or if they have it's just been to neighboring states, the cultural differences in the 90s were still huge between CA and MO. One observation I made was in Missouri if you get shot you probably knew the person who did it and why they were shooting @ you, in California that wasn't the case. In the chapter about the Southern code of honor and feuds Mr. Gladwell explains why this heritage of honor and revenge is so prevelent in the South compared to the rest of the country. What amazed me is I could recognize the cultural impact on my state even though my family didn't come to America till the late 1800s (and wasn't of English or Irish blood whose cultural heritage allowed the code of honor to fourish in the hills) the culture remained and flavored daily life.

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

I loved it, it's been a month or so since I read it, I'm honest don't put on, but it's a great little read. Like most reviewers I say it's main drawback is it's too short. If you find the holidays somewhat ludicrous anyway this is the book for you. From Mr. Sedaris's stint as an Elf @ Macy's to the story entitled Six To Eight Black Men, this holiday satire is sure to entertain and amuse and that's what we ask of a book isn't it?
176 pages of pure fun, Holidays on Ice is available @ Amazon.com, clicky clicky, ok I need sleep, it's my Friday. I got my copy from my local library which is a great place, despite us having like a very small county population, remember support your local library AND your local bookstore!
BTW I haven't quit reading, just started working more hours, so am reading less and what's more have MUCH less time to write. I'll try to be a little more faithful, you haven't gotten even part of my puny unmeaningful thoughts on books I am simply panting to share with you.
OK, I'll go sleep.