I Have A Confession...

Well, you know, like everyone - there's a few things I could confess. But today I'm only confessing one thing. Who's excited to hear it???

Here goes...

I've never liked reading. Never. In school I was annoyed every time a teacher asked questions like, "What was the author thinking when he wrote this?"

My answer, "Who the heck knows? The dude is dead as are all of his friends. Therefore NO ONE REALLY KNOWS what the guy meant. For all we know he was hopped up on drugs and alcohol and really had no idea even what he meant."

Okay, I didn't really answer like that. I tried to find some sort of answer because I was a good student, but in my head that's what I was thinking.

I thought it odd that my Mom would always have a book next to her scriptures, on the fireplace, next to her rocking chair of things to read. Found it even more odd that she'd stay up at night and read them.

Then there came a summer during high school. A library was built within walking distance to my house and when I got bored, I went to the library. It was a way to get out of the house. While there I found a bunch of books by R.L. Stine written for young people. They were mysterious stories, always with a twist - but it fed right into what I found I enjoyed. I probably went to the library twice a month or more and read these books in a day or two. (Now looking on Google - there's a TON I haven't read that I may just try and get a hold of when I want a quick, fun read)




So I found that I COULD enjoy reading, but after reading all the Fear Street books that the library had and a couple others, I was left dry. Then, I got married and just felt too busy to read. Not that I had found anything worthwhile.

I marry Eric and he's been a bookie probably since he learned to read. He had a small library (which his mom so lovingly packed into two boxes and gave back to him for Christmas one year) and tried to get me to read some of the books he read that he thought I might enjoy.

The first one he gave me was some story about a girl and a dragon. (I honestly couldn't remember the name, and had to Google it) I enjoyed it for awhile, but then it just got too hard to read as it is so fantastical and heavily buried into Fantasy. Eric likes Fantasy and that's great, but I learned it just wasn't my type of book.


I think Eric was a little bummed that I didn't like that book and so he decided to keep trying. He then decided I'd like the Word and The Void Series by Terry L. Brooks. This time he found one I did enjoy quite a bit. I think what helped so much with liking this book -even though it was Fantasy- was that it was set in Modern Times. I read these books so quick that I even had to wait for Eric to finish a couple before I could read them.


Here and there Eric still tries to find books I'll enjoy. Most I don't. He's the one, however, that got me to read Harry Potter and the Twilight saga. He had started listening to the Twilight audiobook and was convinced it was a story I'd like. I was trying to avoid the whole thing. But I finally relented and let him play the first of the audiobook while we were driving to family's homes on Thanksgiving one year. I hated listening to the audiobook, but I just HAD to read it after listening to the first few chapters on audiobook.

So, for the most part I wasn't ever a big reader. Then someone pointed me in the direction of Jodi Picoult. I was hooked. Her books are also along the lines of mysterious (as in how the book is going to end) and the ending is hardly EVER the obvious answer. I embraced this author and have read every one of her books and I'm thrilled she has another coming out in March!!!

Here and there I found other books to read. Like Dan Brown's Angles & Demons and The DaVinci Code. But for the most part I've stuck with Jodi Picoult..

Then I move into this neighborhood. Utah Mom tells me about the neighborhood bookclub and starts inviting me. Eric tells me I should go and I eventually do. In this course, I've made new friends, but I've also learned that reading can be fun.

It's opened up a whole new world to me. I don't always read the selection for the month (I'm still a picky reader), but it's nice to hear about new books and there's even been a few I've read that I would've have done otherwise. Utah Mom has also pointed me in directions of books she thinks I'll enjoy and she hasn't gone wrong yet.

So a little over a month ago, October 15th, I woke up at 5:45 for one reason. To head to the Salt Lake City Library's book sale. There were 6 other girls besides Utah Mom and I that were crazy enough to wake up at this hour and go to a BOOK SALE! Utah Mom had said how great the deals were and that she goes every time they have one. It didn't take me long to find out why. Or why we went so early in the morning.

We got there around 7 and the place was already a zoo. However, I managed my uneasiness with crowds and scored quite a few books I was interested in. I was armed with my handy, dandy (okay, we maybe watch a little too much Blue's Clues in this house) debit card and was ready to go. Only to then find out they only take checks or cash. I didn't have either. Thankfully the women I was with were awesome and someone paid for my stuff as well. I paid her back later that day.

I got a little something for everyone:

• HOME RUN - Nate
  
• SYBIL - Me
• THE WESTING GAME - Tanis & Me
  
• SPY HIGH - Tanis
• TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE - Me
  
• THE BABYSITTING WARS - Shaylyn
  
• CATCH ME IF YOU CAN - Me & Eric
• HAPPY FACE, SAD FACE - Ailey
• THE LITTLE PRINCE - Me & The Kids *
• THE TEACHERS FROM THE BLACK LAGOON - Lex
• LOST SYMBOL - Me
  
• THE WIZARD OF OZ - Me & The Kids *

Because Eric's been reading since he could read, I wasn't sure what books he'd already read and he spends more time listening to audiobooks lately than reading so I went with the comic books graphic novels. Although I don't think he's even read them or remembers them at all. But that's okay because I only spent $10 for EVERYTHING!!!

Seriously. I think I should've paid about $12, but the little old lady helping my friend and I kept getting confused. I wasn't complaining.

We even got stopped on our way out by a reporter doing a story on the sale. I didn't say much, so of course I wasn't mentioned. But two or three of the girls I were with were mentioned quite heavily in the story. It was awesome. I had a great time with these ladies (and girls) and hope to go every time.


Although, from now on, I'm just gonna send Eric to look for stuff for him on his lunch break since he works kitty-corner from the library.

And I'm curious (without cheating, those of you on Goodreads) what book do you think I'm currently reading out of the above list????

-- I've become my Mom.... --

* Now that the weather is colder, and the kids will be playing outside less, I plan to read these to the kids everyday for reading minutes and because it'll be nice to spend that time together. *

What Happens Next...

Ruggedly Handsome In Provo's Temple Of Doom With A Pile Of Bones...

I am so clever with titles, aren't I? HAHAHA! Keep reading it'll all make sense, eventually!

This past weekend was another crazy one for us. We have those more often than not lately, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21 - Eric and I were invited to a Halloween Party. It was held by a neighbor and she is so good to invite EVERYONE. I was surprised at how little people there actually was. Anyway, Eric and I had decided we were going to go. And you know Eric, he doesn't like dressing up and does the littlest possible to get away with it.

This year we went as Castle and Beckett. If you know who I'm talking about YOU ARE AWESOME! If you don't, you should repent and start watching the tv show CASTLE immediately!

For those of you who don't know who Castle and Beckett are here's a little rundown:


Richard Castle is a best selling author of murder mysteries. Kate Beckett is an NYPD detective that whose expertise is murders. In one of the earliest episodes there is a murder that follows everything in one of Castle's books. Therefore, they bring Castle in as a suspect. He, of course, is innocent and it then leads into Castle working with Beckett as inspiration for his next book.

Here's our take on Castle and Beckett: (I know I need darker hair and to lose 100 lbs, but hey - we tried)





The party was a scavenger hunt around the area. I fail as a detective. We were the last group back. Partially because the guy we had call for help on one of our clues, heard the letter "F" instead of "S" which would've led us to Smith's. He will never live it down, NEVER!

After the scavenger hunt was over, we headed back to the hostess' house and just visited. A few guys played Beatles Rock Band and then one of the Guitar Heroes games. It was a nice night out away from the kids and I'm so lucky I have a little brother willing to babysit at the drop of a hat!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22 - We woke up bright and early in the morning. We're talking 4:00 a.m. for Eric as he was afraid of sleeping in and then me waking up at 6:00 a.m. We got all the kids ready and were out the door right around 8:00 a.m.

We got to Eric's parents at 9 a.m. (right when we were supposed to be there) and waited around. Eric's middle brother Greg and his girlfriend, Sava showed up shortly after and had a surprise for each of the kids: (The extra kid in the picture is cousin A.)






After 10 or so minutes, Uncle Ken came back to his parents. He had bought shoes the day before and they forgot to remove the security device, so Ken had to take the shoes back to get the stupid thing off.

We then headed out. We were headed to Provo to watch the BYU game. We left the 2 little ones with Grandma - not sure if she volunteered or was volunteered for it - we also left Tanis with her as he wasn't feeling well. Eric and I rode with Greg and Sava, while the kids opted to go with Grandpa and Uncle Ken.

Grandpa's plan was to buy each of the kids a BYU T-Shirt. He made sure to include the little ones and Tanis! Each of the kids, but Lex got a dark blue shirt. That kid always has to be different. ;) (Some day I'll take a pic of all the kids in their shirts)

After the T-Shirt shopping, we ate lunch in the Cougary/Cougareat(? -someone please correct me) I wanted a burger, so Eric got one as well. Everyone else chose healthier and went with Subway. After sitting down and looking at my burger, I decided it really didn't look very good. Ken walked by and said it looked good. I told him I'd trade him. He replied, "Tempting." He later told me that his sandwich wasn't very good either and that's why he didn't trade.

I sat with the little kids so that Greg and Sava could sit together and Eric could sit with his Dad and Ken. We all sat close to each other, but at three different tables. I had a fun conversation with the kids and loved the way they put things together. Lex wanted to know what bones were made of and all cousin A could say was that it wasn't made of anything, it was just bone!

After lunch we headed to the Football stadium. The freakin place was PACKED. Apparently it was Parent's Weekend or something. Either way it was CRAZY! Our seats were clear up in the nosebleeds (I hate that kind of height) and I was glad (not for the first time of the day) that the little kids were with Grandma.

We had a nice time watching the game, except for at one point. One minute I looked to my side and saw Shaylyn looking over the edge. The next minute I see Ken get up, walk to the egde, look over and say, "Where's Shaylyn?" My heart stopped! for just a minute!

She had sat back down next to Grandpa and I couldn't see her at first, but I did almost immediately after my heart stopped. Ken was just being silly and he felt bad that he scared me so bad.





After the game we went back to Eric's parents and had pizza for dinner. Greg and Sava had to take off to a 6 month sobriety meeting or something for Greg. It's awesome for him that he's done so well for so long. We gladly excused him.

Ken, Eric, Mom and I were going to play a game but the kids kept asking if they could play. So instead, we decided we'd let the kids play a game. Eric and I were extremely tired at this point of night, so when the kids were done with the game we headed home.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23 - The kids had the Primary Program today. Each of our kids had a small part and did great. (Especially since they missed the practice the day before)

After church we headed back to Eric's parents for dinner and a birthday party for Cousin A. and Uncle Greg. A's birthday is on the 19th, Greg's is on the 21st.

After dinner, we went out back where Aunt Wendy had set up an awesome party. The theme was Indiana Jones. She had hats, notebooks and satchels for everyone - even Ailey. She had some awesome games planned out and the kids had a blast! They even commented that A's birthday parties are always fun and they always have a good time. So thanks Aunt Wendy for such a fun party!















For Greg's gift we gave him a gift card, but I wanted to make giving it to him a little more exciting than just a gift card. So I got the idea to pack a bunch of books into a box and wrap that with the gift card at the bottom. But then I decided to go one step further and using a word or two in the title of each book - bring it together somehow....

This is the list of books:

SING YOU HOME
EMILY & EINSTEIN
HOUSE RULES
THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND
HAPPY FACE SAD FACE
THE WIZARD OF OZ
THE LOST SYMBOL
HOME RUN

The notes read thus:

"Happy Birthday, we're glad we're all HOME to celebrate it with you."
"We weren't sure what to give you, but thought about giving you a dog named, EINSTEIN"
"But HOUSE RULES won't allow that."
"Then we thought about buying you your own fishing POND but the WITCH who owns it wouldn't sell it."
"Our EMOTIONS were everywhere, so..."
"We were going to send you to the WIZARD so you could just ask for what you wanted. But the the perfect idea came to us, it's next..."
"Darn it! It must've gotten LOST in the mail or something."
"But then again, perhaps if you skim this book you'll score a HOME RUN."

Everyone got a laugh out of it and I was glad that we were able to pull something off that he wasn't really expecting!

And guess what! I didn't have any cake or ice cream. Go me!!!!

MONDAY, OCTOBER 24 - So we were really back to the hum drum of life, but if you are on Facebook you might've noticed how I kept complaining about the post office and a package being lost?

Turns out the post office did their job and returned it to my Mom cause she wrote the wrong address on it. We got it from her on Saturday night.

The package had cute little Halloween stuff for each of the kids. It also included a cute little craft that the kids couldn't wait to do. So we put these together:


It was an awesome weekend and we're glad we got the chance to spend some time with Eric's brothers family from out of town. BTW - They live in Washington State, so it was a big deal to spend time with them!

What Happens Next...

30 Days of Truth: Day 16

Hi. It's me. I've been missing again - did you notice? My sister noticed, she even called me a 'BLOG SLACKER'...Well guess what? I'm making excuses for myself again. Tuesday night of last week I felt like I may be getting sick. I ate dinner and thought it had passed so I went to book club. A few hours later it came back with a vengeance and I left.

Woke up Wednesday and was SICK. I figured it was probably STREP AGAIN, but wasn't positive. By Thursday I was POSTIVE it was STREP - we went to Instacare and yup, Strep. So yeah - Wednesday and Thursday I was totally out of it, Friday I still wasn't feeling quite up to par. Saturday I had to reclaim the house and Sunday was spent with family.

Therefore, I am going to start the truths right where I left off. Had I known how crazy the month of August would be for me - I would've held off on the truths until September. Oh well.



DAY 16 - A BOOK YOU'VE READ THAT CHANGED YOUR VIEWS ON SOMETHING

Years ago I could've skipped out on this one because I really didn't read very much. However, over the last few years that has changed tremendously. I feel odd when I don't have something to read, but I'm kinda picky about what I read as well. That's really besides the point. Now I've got at least 2 books that come to my mind quickly.

#1 - MOTHER HAD A SECRET by Tiffany Fletcher


Mental illness has always intriqued me. Not like I've got to see someone with a mental illness type thing, more of a 'WHY?' do these things happen to the brain curiousity. And you always think of "Oh, that poor soul. They are trapped inside their own head and world...", you rarely think of the families affected by this person.

This book is by a lady who grew up with a mom with split personalities. They learned to fend for themselves at a young age as Mom wasn't really 'there' and Dad was working hard to keep them afloat.

Tiffany is very open and honest with the feelings she had for her mother all those years. How she grew to resent her mother for putting her 6 (I think) children in such a place. She talks about how much she hated her mother at times. She talked about being scared to leave on an LDS mission because her mother threatened her not to go and she worried about the siblings she was leaving behind.

I loved that this was an honest account of feelings and that it is by an LDS author, who grew up a member all her life. And that they tried to show the word that they were a 'perfect' family when in all reality they were anything but!

This changed my views on just dealing with the affected person to actually looking at the family and how it affects their lives as well. I just can't imagine a life where my Mom wasn't able to care for me. It is so sad. It also changed my views on being so quiet about things that have made me upset in the past. Sometimes in order to heal - we need to air what's hurt us in some way!

#2 - SING YOU HOME - Jodi Picoult


Jodi Picoult is my all-time favorite author. I was hooked on her writing with the 1st book I've read. She's written like 15 and I've read them all. I haven't liked the all the same, but I've liked them all.

The last one I read was an unexpected read - and probably my least favorite book by her. I didn't even pay attention to what the book was about - I just bought it and read it. And woah! Did I ever have a surprise in this book. I'll admit that there were a few times I wanted to put it down, but just couldn't.

This book actually talks about a Lesbian couple fighting for the rights of one of the partners frozen embryos. Yeah, kind of an odd subject.

HOWEVER, this book was very well written. Jodi put both sides of the argument in the book and never really shows favoritism one way or the other. There's the religious side of it all and then there's the side for the Lesbian/Gay communities and for their rights.

Because gay marriage is only legal in one state at this moment in time, this couple has to get married in a state they don't reside in, which means their home state DOES NOT recognize that they are married.

Now, I haven't changed my opinion that gay marriage is 'wrong', but I do see a need for the world to give these people EQUAL RIGHTS! Seriously. I know that I shouldn't necessarily side with 'Gay Marriage', but I do really feel these people should be allowed to love each other and be with each other and have all the rights that married people do.

I don't know, my eyes were just really opened with this book about how unfair the world treats Lesbian/Gay couples in the medical field and legally. Having two brothers that are 'gay', it breaks my heart to think about all that could happen medically/legally to them that could really break their strength. I guess when you have family members dealing with the whole same sex attraction thing - your view changes. I just think that there needs to be some change. That's all.

What Happens Next...

Harry, Eliza and Frank

I'm not sure of the details, but for some reason the kids all got to dress as their favorite book character today. And of course, none of my children told me this ahead of time. They told me at bedtime last night. Lex's teacher had written a note about it on their weekly homework sheet, but we didn't do homework on Monday. But what's even worse about the fact that it was on their weekly homework sheet is that I could've seen it on Friday. I'm the one who stuffs the homework packets each week, so how I missed it - I don't know. Anyway, this is what our kids decided to dress as.

Tanis - Tanis has always enjoyed Harry Potter. We did things a little backwards in this family and let him watch the movies first, then he decided to read the books. When he decided to read the book, he read and read and read. I've never seen him so 'into' anything. So it was fun to watch and hear about the story from his perspective. So Tanis decided to dress as Harry Potter. (Thank goodness for Halloween Costumes and out of date glasses!) Shaylyn - For Christmas a couple years ago, Eric's mom and dad gave Shaylyn some simplified classics books. It took her a bit to get around to reading them, but when she did - she went full force. Yesterday, when they mentioned today, she said she was going to be Alice from Alice In Wonderland because that was her favorite. So when I woke up this morning I was figuring out how to dress her as Alice. When I got out of bed, (waking up and getting out of bed are usually 2 different time frames for me) Shaylyn informed me she wanted to be Eliza from Pygmalion. I've never even read that book so I have no idea what it's about. Thankfully the book had some illustrations, so we did our best. Shaylyn got inventive and decided that one of her "Princess Dresses" that Eric's mom made for her (also a Christmas gift one year) would work. However, she refused to wear tights and nice shoes. Lex - I had no idea what Lex was going to dress as. He doesn't read and I'm not a very good parent and I don't really read with my kids. So I was suprised this morning when Lex had it all worked out. He was going to be a Hardy Boy. Smart kid. He knows about the Hardy Boys because his aunt and uncle sent him a Hardy Boy story for his birthday awhile ago and for part of one of Eric's gift I bought him a small comic book ::ahem:: graphic novel of The Hardy Boys and Lex has really enjoyed that (And hey, I did read Eric's book with him). So Lex decided he wanted to be Frank Hardy. We tried our best. All in all, I'd have to say not too bad for last minute notice. Eh?

What Happens Next...