Battle of the Grandmas

Battle of the Grandmas is written by Anthonette Klinkerman and is in appearance a children’s book. Klinkerman writes from a school teacher and mother’s perspective.

Klinkerman’s Grandmas are easily relatable for many adult readers of the story. It revolves around 3 grandparents and a young girl named Madelyn. In order to win her affections each of them tried to earn the title of “best grandma” by giving the greatest and most extravagant gifts to their granddaughter.

Through the telling of this story one can assume that the little girl must be the only grandchild based on the gifts that she receives. This story holds a definite moral for all of us. Physical presence and attention is more important that any gift that we can give to our child.

The younger the child, the happier they are with anything to share with you, whether it is a box, a craft you have made, a store bought toy, etc. Many times in a younger child’s life they will be just as happy, if not more so with the box the toy came in.

This story shows that all that the girls wanted was to be able to spend time with her grandmas, not the plethora of gifts she was receiving. She reached the point of gift reception that she began to dread getting a package in the mail. Their love seemed to be more for a façade than actual love to her because instead of being there with her, they were sending store bought “love”. Upon accidentally all sending their granddaughter the same book, this started an all-out gift giving trench warfare. The grandmothers started worrying more about competing with one another to send the best gift rather than what it was that their granddaughter really wanted/needed from them.

Battle of the Grandmas consists of 34 pages of full-length color cartoon-like illustrations. The story is told in a rhyming format. The lettering is easy to read and perfect for children with a slightly longer attention span in the age range of about 3-8 years old.

Overall I give this book 4/5 stars. I love that the moral is one of quantity over quality of relationships. It was a quick read, but it did seem more directed at an adult, and my 4 year old rated it low on re-readability. It is a great book to read if you are into teaching lasting values with your children, children’s book, illustrated books, sharing, grandmothers, gift-giving, etc.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Christmas Gone Wrong: Dumb Criminals Part 5

I have missed learning about some of the many dumb criminals out there, so thought it was time to come back and do one more before the year was up.  Tragically, the vast amount of dumb criminals on a day to day basis would enable me to write these blogs for a very long time without running out of stories.  Today I decided to focus on dumb criminals that messed up celebratory occasions.

To start us off I want to talk about 34 year old Krysta James.  She was charged with stabbing her fiance' in a fight over the wedding color schematic.  Now I know that this can be a stressful time, but the worst person you can stab would be the man that is about to marry your crazy ass, pick someone less likely to mess up the rest of your life, such as the caterer ;)  Oh, and did I mention that this also happened on Christmas Day.  Merry Christmas to you haha.

You can read the full story at: Woman stabs man during domestic dispute

Decorating the tree with family should be a happy time...  but not if there is only an ornament with your brother's name and none with yours according to Lewis Atwood.  Atwood was charged with assaulting his mother while decorating the Christmas tree once he discovered that there was in fact NO ornament celebrating his name.  This caused him to punch his mother in the face four or five times.  Apparently he was intoxicated at the time and lead to a misdemeanor assault charge.  I have a feeling that one of his previous outbursts had caused his mother to long ago smash the ornament with his name on it....

The full story can be found here: Man attacked mother in Christmas ornament dispute

If you are a marijuana user, wouldn't you want some as a Christmas present.  Apparently Randy Jesus Valdiva thought this was a very clever way to smuggle marijuana, by placing it in Christmas presents.  This was no small operation however, he had 20 pounds worth of marijuana in large boxes that were wrapped to resemble Christmas presents.  He was stopped by police as they said that he had criminal indicators and he allowed them to search his van.  Inside the presents was enough marijuana for a street value of $160,000.  It could have been a great plan if he wouldn't have gotten stopped.

The full story: Man smuggling marijuana in Christmas presents

Christmas tree decorating can be dangerous business.  In South Carolina a huge fight ensued among three sisters over Christmas tree decorating as a result of two sisters starting to decorate while the third was still at work.  The women were aged 24, 61 and 76.  A male relative tried to calm the tensions, but things escalated from there.  As a result there was yelling and shoving by all, enough so that at some point the police were called.  No charges were brought but the incident still shows how important Christmas tree decorating can really be.

View the story and police report here: Christmas tree decoration fight

And last but most certainly not least is the most heinous of all: A South Carolina woman,Patty White,  who has confessed to killing a family friend and burying her under the Christmas presents...  Why might someone do such an awful thing?  Apparently over some money, she killed her and then stole some debit cards and tried to get cash out of her accounts.   The woman who was killed, Michele O'Dowd was letting White stay with her because she had fallen on some hard times.  What better way to say thank you for having such a kind heart, and a Merry Christmas to you.  :(

The story can be found here: Woman buried under Christmas presents


You can find the previous Dumb Criminal Articles here:

Social Networking Gone Wrong

Women on a Rampage

Robbers at their "Best"

Incriminating Themselves

Happy Third Birthday

Today marks the end of the first three years that Liam and I have spent together as a family.  Never in my life have I known such love and been so thankful as I have in the past three years.  I never knew what life was all about until I look into his eyes, heard his first heart beat, felt his first kick, saw his first smile, heard his first laugh.  Just when you think that there is no possible way that you could EVER love someone anymore than you already do, he finds a way to blow past the barriers of your heart and make it even bigger and even fuller.  I have been so blessed to be chosen as his mother in this lifetime.  There is absolutely no accident that him and I were paired with one another.  I do my best to teach him every day but instead end up learning more than I could ever teach.  I Strive to be the best mother that I can be and live up to the daunting task of giving him the life, teachings, love, happiness that he deserves.  I only hope that he can look back and know that I have tried my best on good days and bad days.  That each time I saw his smile my heart burst with love, and felt his little arms around my neck and his kiss upon my cheek.  I am so lucky to have such an amazing being in my life.  I can't wait to spend many more years to come together.  I love you so much my little Liam, and I hope that you know your worth in life and how many people love you.  Happy Birthday to my number one man, Liam.    Three birthday parties for his third year :) 

Liam's Third Birthday Party

Despite many attempts by the weather to dissuade us, Liam's birthday party was a huge success.  He had tons of great friends show up and got lots of amazing new things to play with.  Thank you to everyone for the support and birthday wishes for him.  We were blessed to have grandma Gina and auntie here to help celebrate with him.