Karli’s Comments (group member since Feb 23, 2010)

Karli’s comments from the Busy as a Bee Books group.

I LOVE my Bee-friends...thank you all, it's so wonderful to feel supported.

The calendar would be fine, except our kids don't do a ton of activities, so there would be too many "open" slots. I really treasure my time with the kids, and have been very reluctant to sign them up for too much, (and probably why they told the kids that they could be in gymnastics, because Grandma and Grandpa would take them to and from! Which of course I want to blanket veto just because it's completely crap for them to instigate things like that!) OK, so I digress...my other feeling is it gives them more access/info than I'm comfortable with. If I've got times marked off, then if I don't tell them what we're doing they'll ask, but it's not their business to know what we do every evening.

Ashley, I think we have some of the same strategies. :) I don't tend to pick up when it's them. The machine gets it or I give the phone to Mike. And you're right, they DO act like children at times. They want what they want NOW and aren't above childish behavior to get it.

I'm leaving town this weekend for my sister's baby shower, and am going to tell Mike he has to tell his folks it's time to back off. Over New Year's I think they may have gotten the hint (or else taken offense to the point they are "punishing" us by not calling, but oh well!) We didn't answer when they called and ended up leaving town on NYE. Then when Mike talked to them on the phone they announced their plans to take Gabe to a movie and have Kasia and Cheryl do an activity together. Mike told him no, that we were out of town. John then said they'd do it Monday then, and again Mike told him no, that they were staying home with me.

I honestly wonder if they don't understand that my kids are MY favorite people too - that they aren't a burden, a bother or that I want to have time away from them. I am away all day at work - I LIKE having our family time together. I'm going to have to have Mike try get that across too...

I think even just venting in a safe space, typing things out and thinking about it is soothing and helps me organize my feelings too. Thanks so much guys.

Finished - and I LOVED this book. I loved the characters, the style, the prose the story - I didn't want it to end.

I love that it's set in 1999 - I was a senior in college, newly married, turned 22 at the end of that year - so I remember this year vividly so all the IT discussion, pop culture references etc were spot on. I only would have liked it more if it was longer. Lovely first book of the new year!

I did the "buy two get one free" at B&N last week, and found myself checking goodreads to see who ranked them and how high. Ended up with

and

I hate books with the movie covers, but it was on the bargain table, and all TPB, so I compromised.

yes, I've already read 25% of it, and it's very enjoyable fluff. :) I think New Year's Day requires something light and enjoyable!

OK, a plea for all you reasonable people who have in-laws are ARE in-laws...

I have been totally overwhelmed by the amount of time and energy my in-laws have been devoting to my family since my father-in-law retired. (the terms "smother" and "stalking" come to mind)

Because my children are their only grandkids and we live in the same town, they are close. I don't begrudge this. I've arranged that every Friday they can pick up the kids after school and have a couple hours with them. However, this was in the hopes that it would help curtail their weekend drop ins where they show up at my home unannounced and sit for a few hours. Nope, didn't work.

And things are getting worse. They'll announce to the kids that they will do things/take them to things and not ask us first. When we tell them no, that we have other plans they will then show up unannounced at our house (or they even showed up at the daycare when I was picking up the kids) as if to verify that this is in fact what we're doing. They called me at work last week to confirm that I'd made arrangements for the kids to be picked up after school after I'd cancelled a playdate that they'd arranged without checking with me first. I am overwhelmed. So much so that I actually ended up in ER last week and spent 5 hours there due to a panic attack. (they feel just like heart attacks. I've never been so scared in my life)

And so I'm to the point where we have to make changes, and I don't know really how to do it. I want my husband to have a serious talk with them, but doubt it'll happen. My father-kn-law is loud, blustery, talks over people and gets pissed (read, can be a bully). Mike has baskically dealt with this by ignoring it his whole life. Cheryl is a manipulative cryer. I'm a fairly assertive person, but when it's my in-laws it's such touchy territory because I don't want to make things difficult for my children. They adore their grandparents, and I don't want that to change. I'm just a mess.

To be fair, my job is incredibly stressful and I know is part of the built up anxiety that got me into the ER with the chest pains. And John and Cheryl are not awful people. They are just incredibly overbearing and I'm not sure how to deal with it anymore. Do you guys have any advice for me? :(

I started this one today to give me something a bit lighter to pair with . I do like it so far - only about 10% into it so far.

Stephanie wrote: "Karli wrote: "I've been plugging away at The Secret History which I am enjoying, but it's quite a dense book. I was telling my husband I really should put my glasses on when I read it..."

All of the characters in the book are very pretentious, but when I read the author question/answers a the end I think that the author must be rather pretentious herself. She was very dismissive of a lot of the questions and you could almost read irritation, as though she thought the questions were beneath her.

It's rather fun to follow this one up with - it's another book that's set in the college classroom and the discussions remind me of my old seminars.

I did finish which was another enjoyable Sookie Stackhouse novel, but seemed much more a transition book that's setting something big up than a story in and of itself. There was some action, but it wasn't as much a book that would hold very well together on its own.

After finishing up The Secret History yesterday I've started The Marriage Plot and Dead in the Family.

It's awesome! I've only run into a few cases where the books aren't formatted for Kindle. I love it!

I've become quite addicted to the library books for my Kindle - there is typically a wait for them, but how lovely to just go online and request and download from home. I still love my trips to the library, but the convenience of this is rather delightful.

I bought myself a subscription this month! I'm excited for my first issue - which I'm sure will take awhile. But am excited to get it!

Sally906 wrote: "Karli wrote: "I've been plugging away at The Secret History which I am enjoying, but it's quite a dense book. I was telling my husband I really should put my glasses on when I read it..."

I know, but this is a physical book I got from LizVegas on the last exchange. :)

I've been plugging away at The Secret History which I am enjoying, but it's quite a dense book. I was telling my husband I really should put my glasses on when I read it, the font is very small. :)

I read which is a challenge book for my son - and I can see that it may be a bit challenging for him. The prose is beautiful, but certainly not much like what he's used to reading.

I have to admit I have no idea how you managed to be so upbeat when you were working those insane hours. I'm of the opinion you're pretty amazing. And this is a good group to just be honest and admit that sometimes stuff sucks. :) You do what you need to and vent when you want. We'll still like you!

Loretta wrote: "Just celebrated (and boy did I celebrate!) my 30th birthday this past weekend. Still not sure how I feel about it, though I suppose I should be glad that I've got a good job and good friends.

Thi..."

I got into a total funk at 30 - a lot because I didn't know what was next. I had this whole list of stuff I wanted to do before 30...and I did all of them. So I wasn't really sure what was left for me next! It's 4 years later now, and I've pretty much recovered. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Enjoy an amzazing decade.

I LOVED THE KINDLE FIRE!!!!

I think we may end up adding one of those to our family too - especially with Gabe getting the iPad, it'll be good to have a second tablet option for Kasia to play with too. Keeping my fingers crossed that Gabe is good at sharing with his sister. (I'll probably MAKE him share with his Mama!)

The fire has a lovely screen and a good interface, although I wasn't wowed by the Amazon interface - I thought that could have been better.

I adore my iPhone, it's the best toy I've ever gotten, so I know the iPad will be a hit.

Kristen wrote: "Karli, I'm really interested in reading 11/22/63. Sounds like it's a pretty fast read! I'll be looking for your review of it before I pick it up :)."

It was AMAZING. Go get it now!!!

Elizabeth wrote: "can anyone tell me how to add an image in a posting here? i know i can click on the (some html is ok) but i don't get the directions. each time i've attempted to add photos, i can't.

thanks."

I use Mike's photobucket account to do it, that formats for html posting.

Well, we got my son an iPad for his birthday (and by "we" I do mean everyone who buys him presents pooled here, us, my parents, Mike's parents and my sister!) and I bought Mom a Kindle Fire for Christmas. I have to get her Kindle set up yet, that may be a project for today. She's gotten into re-reading Agatha Christie lately, and I was really pleased to see how many of those are free for Kindle, so I'm going to load her up with several classics, her Agatha Christie and some games and see how it goes. I'm going to just authorize her on my account, because I have a feeling that she will end up having me do her purchasing and such anyway. Their house isn't a WiFi environment, so she will either have to hook up with USB or come visit me to get new stuff, so it should work.

I still have to get Gabe's iPad started up and get some apps downloaded for him - it's no fun to open your only birthday gift and have to hand it over to Mom to get running. :) He's going to have to go to bed early one night - birthday party is Sunday!