52:5 The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

The continuing adventures of Pooh, Christopher Robin and the 100 Acre Woods friends. We meet Tigger for the first time in these pages, much to the delight of Matthew and Jonathan. These books are just as sweet and innocent as can be and I'm still amazed that I hadn't read them for myself, let alone to the kids. I'm glad we have read the first two now (we'll do the poetry volumes later) and that I got to share these original stories with them. I definitely recommend them as a wonderful reading time with your children (ok, maybe not 2yr olds...Nico was much more interested in climbing on everyone than listening to the stories LOL).

This new morning reading/cuddle time is working well for the most part and we are actually able to get our reading time in together. For some reason, bedtime just hasn't worked for us so I'm glad I was inspired to start this. I think it's a nice introduction to the classics and the Jefferson style of education I would like to more fully embrace. We read a chapter or two (depending on length of the chapters) and then have a quick, simple discussion. It mostly consists of asking for their opinions on what their favorite part of the story was and asking them to think ahead to what might happen next but it's getting them thinking and talking so that's always a good thing. And they are enjoying being read to and the books themselves and that is the greatest gift I think I can give them.

Grocery Game Believer!

I thought I was pretty savvy with shopping on sales and stocking up on decent deals but OMG! I knew nothing compared to this lady. With my way of shopping before, while not bad, I was still averaging $250-$300 a week plus a $500 monthly Costo trip. I haven't done a Costco trip since starting the game so I'm not sure how that is going to be affected (tho my gut says that's going to go down a bit too) but my weekly grocery bill for my 2nd & 3rd weeks using the GG lists has been...are you ready for it....$150!!!! Yes, a further savings of $100 a week! The coupons help but really, it's just getting the good deals and stocking up. I'm hardly buying anything that isn't on the list these days. I just stocked up on Campbell's Chunky soup for $.75/can! They didn't even have enough for me to run my coupons out so I got a raincheck for an additional 46 cans of soup. I admit it, I bought 20 extra coupons for this online when I saw the coupon in the paper and then the sale at the store, too good a deal not too! But serious, 5 cans of soup to feed my entire family for dinner plus me lunch the next day for $3.50! How do you beat that?!

Here is a pic of today's haul:
This is almost $400 worth of groceries. My total: $146.55! That's a savings of $245 or 63%! WooHoo!

Now the fun of trying to figure out where to store it all. Wish me luck on that! LOL

He has a lovey!

Besides Lovey Bear and Lovey Puppy, he has a small lovey. My mom bought him a satin and minky blankie from Target before he was even born and it's been in his crib the whole time, generally just sitting there but he has now decided that he loves it and likes to cover his chest with it when he nurses to sleep and then curls up with it in his sleep. It's the cutest thing ever...
Now I just need to find at least one more so I have a spare. After spending hours searching for Superhero for Jonathan or Blankie for Christopher, I know how badly they can be needed. So for anyone reading this, it's baby blue bumpy minky on one side and baby blue satin on the other with the satin edging. I will happily reimburse and pay shipping if you find one.

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Insight from the Dalai Lama:
There is almost no area of human life today that is not touched by the effects of science and technology. Yet are we clear about the place of science in the totality of human life-what exactly it should do and by what it should be governed? This last point is critical because unless the direction of science is guided by consciously ethical motivation, especially compassion, its effects may fail to bring benefit.


State of my sink: Shiny!

Insight from the Dalai Lama

Things have been crazy and I've forgotten to update these the last couple of days so I'm catching up now:

With the human population increasing and the gap between rich and poor increasing, the situation of the desperate will increase and there's every danger of more violence.

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In the Buddha's life story we see the three stages of practice: Morality comes first, then concentrated meditation, and then wisdom. And we see that the path takes times.

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Broadly speaking, our experiences fall into two categories. One type of experience is more connected with our bodies, and occurs mainly through our sense organs, while the other type is more related to what can be called "the mental consciousness" or "the mind".

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Whenever we see any disagreements, we must think how to solve them on the basis of recognition of oneness of the entire humanity.

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State of my sink: Shiny!

So many things going on again

Wow, where to start....

*We are working on Nico's sleep schedule. I know it's going to be hard and he's going to fight me at every turn but please pray that I'll be victorious in getting him on a 10p-6:30a sleep schedule with a 1hr nap around 11a. I know, it's pathetic that I'm praying for a 10p bedtime but that would be such an improvement over the current 12m.


*I'm restarting my shiny sink ticker. *sigh* I keep trying but everything has been nuts around here. I get it shined during the day but evenings haven't been good and I wake up to a sink full of dirty dishes.

*End of the semester tomorrow. I can't believe the school year is half over already! There have been ups and downs and there is still much to be done, but I'm very pleased with the progress that all the boys have made!

*That also means only 11 more school days until our 100 day party!

*I started working on my cross-stitch again! It's probably been close to a year since I worked on it (it's a Classic Pooh birth announcement for Nico). I'm working on getting myself up an hour before Nico so I can get dressed including make-up, do my sit-ups, get some tea, and have some time for quiet meditation or my cross-stitch. I'm hoping if I can make his schedule work to get up maybe 1½hrs before him (as Mark is leaving) so I can have time for both.

*With the schedule change I'm also implementing a new thing with the big boys where when I get them up at 7:30a we read a classic and cuddle on the couch for 30min. A much nicer start to the day which I'm hoping will encourage them to move a bit quicker when 8a comes around.

*I have to get Nico's birthday party invitations out in the next couple of days. How in the heck did that happen that I'm sending out invitations for his 2nd birthday?!?!?!?!

*The Whiskey Bros. tasting is this week. Mike and Rita will be spending 2 nights here this week and things will be crazy as the culmination of a few months planning finally all comes together. Please send as much positive energy as you can to Mark and Mike for this event. They've worked so hard and are so excited about this and I really want to see it be a wonderful success for them.

*On a less happy note, please keep my Godfather Kim in your thoughts and prayers. She is at an extremely high risk for breast cancer (as in it's a matter of when, not if) and they've found a lump so they are getting her under the knife tomorrow. Please pray/send positive energy that if this is cancer, it has been caught early and is easily treatable. Thanks!

Back to the trenches. I still have tons of things on my to-do list and very few of them have been crossed off (as usual)

Fabulous Conference and Nico does chores!

I saw the Maxwell's speak today on several homeschooling and family subjects. While I don't totally agree with their doctrinal beliefs (they are Christian), I do think they are wonderful speakers and have such a wealth of information to share and I feel very blessed to have been able to learn from them. I've been trying (very unsuccessfully I'll admit) to use the Managers of Their Home schedule book. Much of that has been due to Nico and my inability to set him to any sort of schedule along with how we end up needing a couple of different schedules to accommodate different activities and therapy sessions BUT I'm very excited about rereading the book and trying yet again. I had several inspirations while at the conference about a few things that may smooth things along so we'll be trying those as we work on just our morning and evening routines for the next couple of weeks while I reread the book and work on our schedule for the rest of the day. I also picked up Managers of Their Chores as that is something we are having lots of problems with here lately. I also picked up Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit (stop laughing now) as it deals with Terri's struggles with anger and depression and feeling overwhelmed with homeschooling.

And speaking of things we are trying is Nico now helping with some of the chores. He has decided that he likes to help Matthew clear the dinner table of the dirty dishes so he's now going to do that every night and I'll be working with him on putting his dishes in the sink after the other meals. I'm also thinking about seeing what else he can start doing. Yes, he needs total supervision but it would mean that he's "helping" in his own way which makes him happy and productive rather than off causing as much havoc as he possibly can (like tearing the front off one of the kitchen drawers which he did today while I was gone).

Good Grief

I never realized the length I would go to for a bit of peace and quiet (and less mess on my floors). I just bought these:
Why? Because Nico is cup picky. Always has been. I can not believe the amount of time and money I've spent finding cups he will use only to have him decide a few months later that they are no longer what he wants. *sigh* Now everything is CARS, Backyardigans, or Max and Ruby with Cars taking the lead. He'll only use his car sippy cup, otherwise it has to be a regular cup which of course is fine until he decides to see if gravity is still working (which, you know, it always is). So I just shelled out the $23 to get this 4pk from a 3rd party seller on Amazon. Now thinking about it, I probably should have checked out Ebay first but it just doesn't matter. I'm just trying to preserve my carpet a little longer.

Yet another Nico update

Saw the Golden Gate Regional pediatrician today (I'm guessing she's a developmental pedi but I can't swear to that). I didn't bring a copy of Dr. Cohen's report since I think it's basically crap but I gave her the gist of it. I'd had to wake Nico up from a 40min nap in the car so I was a bit worried about how he would do because of it but he warmed up quickly (granola bars help LOL) and performed all the fine and gross motor tests just fine, pretended to feed her baby doll once he figured out what we were asking of him (he's never seen a baby doll before, go figure LOL), and was very social and playful with the pedi and social worker.

Their impression.....definitely delayed in his expressive language skills (which we knew) and should receive therapy for that but DEFINITELY NOT AUTISTIC!!!! DUH!!! I knew that! They both could not figure out what would give Dr. Cohen that impression and agreed that it must have been a combination of Nico being sick and Dr. Cohen jumping on a few very possible indicators to push his own agenda. Lovely. Nothing I like more than being proven right except not having to prove anything in the first place, especially when it's going to take hours out of my life. *insert huge eye roll here*

So there it is. 2 specialists agreeing with me that's he's not. If the ASD clinic tries to tell me he is, I'll probably rip someone's head off because I'll know they are just doing it to do it, not because he is. The one really funny part of the whole interview was the pedi saying how quiet he was being and wondering if he was always like that or if it was because he had just woke up and the social worker shaking her head and telling the pedi she should have seen him when he was at home. ROTFL Um, yeah, what she said. (He was jumping off the table and running around like his normal maniac self when she visited LOL)

So they are starting the paperwork for his speech services. He should be able to start in two weeks with Jonathan's therapist so I'll be talking to her this week about when we can get them in back to back to make my life easy since, as we all know, it's all about making my life easy. LOL Funny thing is, there is still no freaking headway on resolving his sleep issue which is the reason I saw the stupid developmental pedi in the first place! Ugh!

In other fun news of the day, I stopped at the Disney Store since Mark had the big boys at the mall while Nico was at his appointment. They were having a huge sale and I managed to pick up 2 pairs of light-up Cars shoes for Nico (next 2 sizes up) for $7.50 each! I'm loving that deal! I also got him 2 cars straw cups which were not on sale but he's all about not using his sippy cups these days unless it's the one Cars one I have for him and he's not bad with a regular cup, until he is and makes a huge mess so I really prefer him to have a cup with a lid on for wondering around with. Mean mommy that I am.

We also went to Build-a-Bear to get the Valentine's Day puppy for Nico's birthday. His name is now Luvy Puppy and he has a race car shirt and jeans on. Nico alternately loves all over him with tons of hugs, pets, and kisses...and then he throws him. LOL I'll try to take a picture of the loving part later after his majesty wakes again. LOL

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Insight from the Dalai Lama:
When I speak about love and compassion, I do so not as a Buddhist, nor as a Tibetan, nor as the Dalai Lama. I do so as one human being speaking with another. I hope that you at this moment will think of yourself as a human being rather than as an American, Asian, European, African, or member of any particular country. These loyalties are secondary.

State of my sink: Shiny!!!

Nico update

We had his Early Start Intervention evaluation with the social worker yesterday. Still trying to figure out what the exact point and all I can figure out is that was to just observe him. She didn't try to interact with him at all or do any sort of testing with him. I answered a bunch of questions that are repeated on every single form every single department of every single agency we are dealing with directly and that was pretty much it. The biggest insight of the whole thing was her bringing up Coastside Pediatric Therapy Center as a place where he could get treatment. That's where Jonathan gets his therapy from so at least I could get them in back to back which would make my life a bit easier. I'm still not sure how receptive he is going to be to any of it since he won't even try to repeat after me most days. He is his own person, that is most definite.

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Insight from the Dalai Lama:
I believe that the proper utilization of time is this: If you can, serve other people, other sentient beings. If not, at least refrain from harming them. I think that is the whole basis of my philosophy.

State of my sink: Dishes from today in it but that's it. Christopher just unloaded the dishwasher so I'm hoping to get those cleaned up soon and shine it again.

Words to live by

A friend posted this on one of my mom's boards and I wanted to share:

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were

talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university

professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to

complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot

chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large

pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass,

crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling

them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.


When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor

said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken,

leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to

want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems

and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the

quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive

and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really

wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the

best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.


Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money

and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and

contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality

of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail

to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot

chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best

of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.


Live simply.


Love generously.


Care deeply.


Speak kindly.


And enjoy your hot chocolate.







We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to

have the life that is waiting for us.

- Joseph Campbell

Whiskey Tasting for Charity! --January 31

On behalf of my husband:

Dear friends and family,

Please mark your calendars for January 31 when my brother-in-law Mike and I will be hosting a whiskey tasting. The proceeds are to benefit the Coastside Adult Day Health Center in Half Moon Bay. We're doing this in conjunction with their annual Texas Hold'em tournament.

We have collected approximately 50 different whiskeys from around the world for the event. We have whiskey from all over America, including some from here in the bay area, Canada, Ireland, Japan and Scotland. We have traditional whiskeys, Scotch, rye and bourbon. For $25 you get a custom shot glass and the option of tasting up to twenty different whiskeys.

For more info on the event, the charity and other details please check out our web page:
http://whiskeybros.com/cadhc_jan_31_08

Please pass this invitation on to anyone you think might like to try fine whiskeys scotches and bourbons or try their hand at tournament Texas hold'em.

I hope to see you there to enjoy these exotic treats and help support a great cause as well.

Sincerely,
Mark Davis
mark@whiskeybros.com

What happens when Daddy takes them for KSW pictures

You get the Davis Ninja Boys! Introducing Christopher with the staff:

Matthew with the sai:

Jonathan with the nunchuck:

And all 4 Ninja Boys:


Christopher with the sai, Matthew with the sword, Jonathan with the staff, and the deadliest of all, Nico with the nunchucks! Run for your lives!!! LOL

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Insight from the Dalai Lama:
Some Westerners follow Tibetan Buddhism and adopt the dress-this is too extreme. The important thing is to take the spiritual aspects and not the cultural side.

Only a spontaneous feeling of empathy with others can really inspire us to act on their behalf. Nevertheless, compassion does not arise mechanically. Such a sincere feeling must grow gradually, cultivated within each individual, based on their own conviction of its worth. Adopting a kind attitude thus becomes a personal matter. How each of us behaves in daily life is, after all, the real test of compassion.


State of my sink: Shiny!

Busy and Sick...Bad Combo

Well, I'm now in the "cough your guts out" phase of this flu. It's lovely. Really. At least that's what I can assume from Mark's pushing Nyquil on me every night when I can't stop even tho we've now determined that it will knock me completely out within an hour. We discovered that unfortunately side-effect on Thurs which left me scrambling on Friday morning getting ready for our field trip. We knew that last night but I asked him to do a few simple things to make sure I could get out on time for my homeschool seminar today. Of the two things I asked....yep, neither got done and I spent 30min doing them this morning after waking up late because I wasn't conscience enough to set my alarm.

So we did make it to the Exploritorium for our field trip yesterday only 15min late. Thankfully we already have memberships so getting there on time wasn't as big a deal. We spent 5hrs wondering around checking out all the exhibits and having a good time. Big bummer of the day was that my camera battery was dead and I hadn't realized it before we went in so I could have grabbed my spare from the car. Big Cool for the day was that some of Matthew's playgroup and soccer buddies had the day off from school and were there hanging out so he got to hang with them a little bit.

The other nice thing yesterday was that I was finally able to get a Sit-n-Stand stroller for $45 (normally closer to $150). It's in really good condition except the canopy is tied on on one side but hey, for that price, I'm not complaining. I really only need it for our big walking field trips since Jonathan has such a hard time walking for hours like at the zoo.

Today I went to the Homefires Homeschool Discovery Day. It was weird being the most senior homeschooler there outside of the presenters but I still learned a lot and got pointed towards a lot of really great resources (which is why I had gone). I'm really looking forward to all the new adventures that await us.

Other than that, it's been a laundry folding and coupon cutting day. I'm really hoping to get these things caught back up quickly so we can move on.

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Insight from the Dalai Lama:
[With] warm-heartedness...there is no room to exploit or to bully others.

State of my sink: I'm not sure. Mark's been in charge of it today since I wasn't home. My goal is to make sure it's shiny before I go to bed tonight (something I haven't done the last two nights due to being drugged).

Just lovely

Nico finally, FINALLY, went down for his nap. It's 5:10p and he's been up since 6:30a. I can only let him have 30min and then I have to wake him and pray that he doesn't stay up all night. Ugh!

And Mark's flights are all booked for his Texas trip next week. He leaves Monday afternoon and gets back late Thursday afternoon. *sigh*

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Insight from the Dalai Lama:
At the beginning of [the twentieth] century, people never questioned the effectiveness of war, never thought there could be real peace. Now, people are tired of war and see it as ineffective in solving anything.

State of my sink: Almost shiny again!

Drs and Costco and Tires, oh my

Yep, just one of those "get in the car and be gone all day" days. Here's the recap in brief:

*Matthew saw the sleep specialist in neurology today. If you remember, this whole journey started because he was having problems falling asleep at a normal time and thus having problems waking up in the morning and being tired all day. I had asked our dr if I could give him melatonin and what the dosage should be. He checked with one colleague and said "No melatonin as it causes imbalances with testosterone and all these other problems". Sounded weird to me but ok, I don't have a degree in medicine. So Matthew had bloodwork done to rule anything out, a formal sleep study for apnea which we were told he passed (turns out according to the specialist that for an adult he passed but for a child he does actual register having mild sleep apnea), and then were sent on to the sleep specialist who tells us.....TRY MELATONIN!!!! *banging head into wall* At least we got the dosage information we needed.

*While talking to the sleep specialist, I brought up Nico and our issues with him. He was very sympathetic as he told me his son was the same way. It didn't get better until they were able to cut out daytime naps. *sigh* This is what I've been telling Mark forever but he hasn't wanted to hear. I'm continuing with the other crap just to make him feel like I've done everything but I know in my heart that there are no answers and we are just going to have to wait it out. On the bright side, he is now waking around 6:30a so he's going down before midnight. Still averaging less than 8hrs of sleep a night tho. *sigh*

*Mark took the boys over to Costco to get new tires put on the suburban while I was at the dr with Matt. There went $500 we didn't really have right now. *sigh* It needed to be done tho as it's been almost 5yrs since my last set and they were worn way down and I had a coupon for $60 off so the price wasn't going to get any better by waiting. At least I don't need gas this paycheck. That paid for one tire.

*Also got the big monthly Costco trip out of the way. Now I just need to find room for everything.

*Still trying to figure out this whole couponing thing. Right now I've saved $20/wk using the coupons but it's taking me hours to get them cut out and I still need to finish cutting out everything and then organize them. If it doesn't start saving us more, I'll likely stop cutting the coupons as it just isn't worth the time but I can keep playing the game to know when to stock up on things. That does seem to be worth $10 every 4wks or the $15 if I add in Rite-Aide (which would be good since I don't ever get their sales ads and I don't shop there unless I know I need something only they have).

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Insight from the Dalai Lama:
Compassion can be roughly defined in terms of a state of mind that is nonviolent and nonharming, or nonaggressive. Because of this there is a danger of confusing compassion with attachment and intimacy.


State of my sink: A few dishes and a bunch of new Ziploc containers that need to go through the dishwasher. Dishwasher currently running but sink will be shining by noon tomorrow.

What possesses him to do these things????

I've just vacuumed up the rice cakes he dumped out on the carpet. I put away the vacuum and realize that it's been too quiet for over a minute so I go in search of Nico. And where do I find him???? In the kitchen....on the floor....having just dumped out an entire brand new bottle of dishsoap on a brand new container of oatmeal!!!!

Seriously, I want to know, what the HECK was he thinking when he did this?????

House decorating fun

So during the holidays, I was worn down (quite easily I'll admit) by my children who batted their big eyes at me and said "Ppppppppppllllllleeeeeaaaaasssssseeeeee Mommy! Can we pretty please have a gingerbread house kit????? Ppppppppppllllllleeeeeaaaaasssssseeeeee!" *Note, this was not a whine but a great big, long, drawn out but without whining please on their part* And ever since then I have been besieged with daily requests to put it together but things have kept getting in the way, most recently this lovely illness. Well, in celebration of our first totally fever free day in over a week, I put the house itself together and then futzed around on the computer while they put all the candy on.

Here are the results:





Now they are begging to eat it all before dinner. Nice try boys, but nope.

In other fun today, my car died again. *sigh* Mark came out to try and fix it with no luck so I called AAA to come tow it to the shop. The tow guy tried a few tricks and managed to get the cylanoid unstuck which was causing it to not start and now it's working again. We still need to replace the part sooner rather than later but at least now we won't miss Matthew's neurology appointment tomorrow and I have a car if Mark has to go to Texas (which we still don't know for sure if he's doing or not). So I was able to do the grocery shopping after this but we did end up missing bowling.

We also missed gymnastics this morning (didn't want to infect anyone since Jonathan's fever just broke last night) and Nico's ES appointment was also canceled and rescheduled for next Tuesday. Mike did come over last night to work with Mark on Whiskey Bros. stuff since their first event is 2wks from Thursday.

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Insight from the Dalai Lama:
In general, I always state that I have three commitments in life. Firstly, on the level of a human being, my first commitment is the promotion of human values such as compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment, and self-discipline. All human beings are the same. We all want happiness and do not want suffering. Even people who do not believe in religion recognize the importance of these human values in making their lives more happier. I remain committed to talk about the importance of these human values and share them with everyone I meet.

State of my sink: A few dinner dishes but other wise looking good (we are just sitting down to dinner). It will be shiny before bed tho!

Got a few things done

But not much today. Jonathan was running 102 and my head has been fogged most of the day. I did manage to make some phone calls, cut the boys' hair (well, the big boys), do a bunch of graphic work for my Feb Mom's board, and a bit more organizing on my coupons. Gotta get that finished tomorrow tho, big time since I need to get the shopping done. Oh yeah, and I cooked dinner. That counts for something right?

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Insight from the Dalai Lama:
We [Buddhists] are all students of one teacher-the Buddha. One very kind, wise teacher. That is most important. As followers or students of this great teacher, we should take his own life as a model.


State of my sink: Just some dinner dishes at this point but I'm headed to bed. It was shiny most of the day and will be again soon!

Relapses and other fun

Thankfully I'm feeling better but Christopher is now running a fever again and Jonathan has been sleeping a lot of the day. Thankfully Matthew still seems to be doing well and Nico still seems to be healthy other than his gunky nose.

In other news, it's shaping up to be a busy week if everyone can get healthy. I've just finished canceling Jonathan's therapy for tomorrow but Mike is supposed to be coming down in the evening and hopefully some number of kids at Kuk Sool plus I have to make some phone calls about setting up a mission field trip and inquiries for Nico's 2nd birthday party (how did that happen?!). Tuesday is Nico's gymnastics and then his Early Intervention evaluation so long as he's healthy plus bowling. Wednesday may or may not see Jonathan at therapy but Matthew will still have his appointment with the sleep specialist and then we'll do the Costco shopping and hopefully Kuk Sool Wan. Thursday gives us a brief lull to actually try to accomplish some schoolwork and then Friday we are off to the Exploritorium for a CAVA field trip.

So yeah, busy busy this week.

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State of my sink: Very shiny! I bleached it tonight after Matthew dumped out the small vacuum in it which was filled with cat sand and fish food. Yuck!

52:4 Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey & Todd McCaffrey

The latest in the Pern series and the continuation of their previous joint ventures. I'm a little out of touch with the characters and since I wasn't as familiar with them as the original cast so it was a bit harder for me to relate and connect to them. Probably a good thing as it could have been a tearjerker otherwise but I did enjoy it and finished it in two days (course being sick helped a bit with that).