Book Club

So last year in May, the Relief Society Presidency approached me about doing a book club.  I guess my reputation for loving books has been leaked.  I was thrilled that they asked me and so I got to get it all lined up.  The best part has been that I can veto books if I feel that they are inappropriate.  Anyway, we have been doing this a little over a year now and we have read quite a variety of stuff.  Here is a rundown of what we have read and whether or not I would recommend them.

June 2012

For the very first book, I got sole choice, so I thought it would be fun to start by poking fun at the classics and what better way to do that than by reading The Classics Reclassified by Richard Armour.  If you haven't read this one, you really should.  It is a great mockery of such classics as The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick and Julius Caesar.  In case you haven't read anything else by Armour, you should.

July 2012

Our next pick was The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  I was surprised to find that this book followed the movie fairly closely.  I guess I should put that the other way round.  The nice thing about the book was that it filled in more background on some of the characters.  It also gave Inigo and Fezzik a bigger and more heroic role at one point.  Can't give too much detail or it will spoil the read.  As to my recommendation, come on!  It's Princess Bride!  Who doesn't want to read that and then watch the movie because they can?!

August 2012

We did one of my top 5 favorite books for the month of August;  A Lantern In Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich.  If you have not read this book, go online or go to a book store, buy it, read it, read it again!  So love this book.  It has so much heart and so many wonderful things about motherhood.  It is definitely worth reading.

September 2012

I don't know how many of you have seen the movie Ella Enchanted with Anne Hathaway in it.  It is a cute and fun movie.  The book is way better.  In fact, the movie doesn't stick to the book very much at all.  Ella Enchanted is one of my favorite teen lit books.  It is light and fun but makes the point that compulsory obedience is not a good thing.

October 2012

For October we read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Technically it falls in the category of classic literature.  Why?  Don't ask me.  I didn't like it in high school.  I didn't like it when I had to read it again in college.  I didn't like it when I read it for book club.  I think it is a rather stupid book.  I have honestly never understood the hype around this book.  Not really worth the read unless you are desperate.

November 2012

Our book for November was one I had not heard of before.  Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck is the first in the series of the same name.  It is the story of a girl who helps a two princes who have been cursed to live as tigers for about 300 years.  It takes place mostly in India and goes into mythical Indian beliefs so it is pretty cool.  Also, I found out after I read it, that the author is LDS.  Usually I tend to avoid books by LDS authors.  However, this was really interesting.  I liked it enough to invest in the rest of the series.

December 2012 & January 2013

We decided that trying to have book club in December was just not practical.  We thought instead that we would pick one book to read over a two month period.  As a result, we ended up with our first non-fiction selection.  We chose The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  We thought it was appropriate with the new year coming and resolution making on the brain.  The book is Rubin's experiences as she spends a year trying to be happier.  While I didn't always agree with her particular goals, I did find a lot of what she had to say about goal making and ways to achieve them to very insightful.  In fact, after reading this book, I actually don't think making goals is such an onerous task.  I would recommend it as an interesting read.

February 2013

I love The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baronees Orczy.  I was thrilled when someone else suggested it for book club and even volunteered to host it.  My only regret is that we read it before I had the movie.  The movie is great.  The book is great.  I don't know why it is but I love books that are tied to real events in history.  This one is all about heroics during the very bloody French Revolution.  The hero is hilarious but also outright amazing.  This is a book most definitely worth the read.

March 2013

In March we chose The Giver by Lois Lowry.  It is a quick read about a futuristic and controlling society.  I had read it before and enjoyed reading it again.  What I didn't know is that it is actually the first book in a 4 book series.  Bet you didn't know that either.  I have yet to read the other three books but I plan to eventually.  From what I understand, they are all from different perspectives and fill in all the details about the whys and hows of the society.  I will let you know what I think of the rest when I get a chance to read them.

 April 2013

This is the first book that I would most definitely not recommend reading.  I would say it would be a total waste of your time.  We read our second non-fiction book entitles MWF seeking BFF by Rachel Bertsche.  It was a stupid, stupid book.  It is Bertsche's personal story about spending a year trying to find the ideal BFF by going on one friend date a week.  If I met this woman in real life I would not want to be her friend.  She came off as incredibly obnoxious, selfish and needy.  Besides, it also appeared she does not understand the concept of being married and spending time with your spouse.  She made it seem as though spending time with family was something that wasn't good enough for her.

May 2013

Our book from May was Matched By Ally Condie and is also the first in a three book series of the same name.  I really enjoyed this story.  It is a futuristic society and a love story and it is perfectly clean.  I liked it enough to buy and read the other two books as well.  It is also a really quick read.  I finished each of the books in a day a piece.  The author is also LDS, which is again something I usually try to avoid, but this series was a lot of fun to read.

June 2013

Our book for June, These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner, is a good but not a great book.  It is one that I wouldn't necessarily recommend you read but I wouldn't tell you that you shouldn't read it either.  It is the fictitious diary of Sarah Agnes Prine from 1881 to 1901 and takes place mostly in the Arizona Territory.  Now don't get me wrong, I know people then went through a lot of hardships, but this book is a little ridiculous on the hardships.  I just felt like if you could imagine a hardship from that time, it happened.  The beginning of the book, particularly, was a bit much to swallow.  It is also the first book in a three book series.  I haven't even looked at the other books.  I have absolutely no interest in reading the other books.  That probably tells you where I stand on this book.

July 2013

In July we read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  I have to say that after all the hype I had heard about this book, it was a major disappointment.  It also falls in the good but not great section.  The story takes place in Nazi Germany during WWII and the narrator is death, which was intriguing.  However, there is a lot of swearing in German.  I don't know what the words meant exactly and I don't want to know but it was clear that it was swearing.  It completely detracted from the story.  Would I read it again? Probably not.

August 2013

For this month, we are reading Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson.  This was actually recommend by Sarah.  One of the girls in her book club convinced Sarah to read it and then she passed on the recommendation to me.  I love this book!  It is funny.  It is laugh out loud fun.  I found myself chuckling through most of the story and laughing outright in some places.  It is a regency romance and it is clean and funny.  I completely recommend this book for a good read.  Surprisingly, again, the author is LDS.  I hope this does not mean I suddenly have a thing for LDS writers.  Then again, I never will read the twilight series and that's an LDS author so I think I'm safe.

So that is now an up to date list of some of the things I have been reading.  Hopefully, it gives you some ideas if you are in need of something new to read.

A Collection of Randomness and a New Year

Among the other things that happened around the changing of the years, was that we went to the doctor and had the ultrasound done that would tell us how that baby was doing and what gender the baby was.  Nolan and Shelby were excited that they were going to get to see a picture of the baby in mommy's tummy.  They were a little uncertain about the ultrasound room, but once we showed them the pictures, they were excited.  The most exciting news was that we were having a boy.  Nolan was very certain that we were having a boy and the mere suggestion that we might have a girl would cause him to throw a fit.  We asked Nolan what he thought of the name Maddux, and he said it was a good name.  Good thing we got his approval!

Ryan and I have decided that we much prefer to stay home and have a relatively quiet New Years celebration.  For Christmas, we get the tv shows we like on dvd from Pat and Bobbie, so that's what we watch on New Year's Eve.  We also whip up some chili, not homemade because I am just not that good, and some homemade cinnamon rolls.  We also have a veggie platter, some crackers and some summer sausage, topped off with some sparkling cider.  Yum!

Nolan and Cora going to their Sunbeam class

With the changing of the year, Nolan made another leap in growing up.  He became a Sunbeam.  He was sad to leave nursery because he loves Sister Marsh, Darius and Brother Daily.  However, he was excited to be in big kid primary and to have Sister Leal as his new teacher.  It was also very reassuring to him that Cora and Elliot would be in class with him.  I am happy to report that he did really well his first Sunday as a Sunbeam.

Shortly after Nolan graduated from nursery to primary, I got released from primary.  I have to admit that I was not too upset about that.  I had been serving in primary for nearly two years and I was more than ready to start going to Relief Society again.  I did get a new primary calling, but it is as Activity Days leader so I don't have to be in primary on Sunday.

Christmas 2012

Christmas this year was a lot of fun.  This was the first year that Nolan was really excited about Christmas.  From putting up lights, tree and decorations to Christmas morning to taking everything down, it was one big delightful experience.  Nolan loves Christmas.  I am more than ok with that.  I kind of like Christmas myself.  As always, we went shopping the day after Thanksgiving for our tree and got it all put up and decorated.  Then, of course, it was time to decorate the outside of the house.  We have a gazillion strings of Christmas light so I can do just about anything I want.

Lots and lots of lights 

The finished train

 Our next major Christmas activity was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  The wards here do a gingerbread house display and nativity display with cookies and chocolate milk the hour before the devotional.  We participated in the gingerbread department this year.  Nolan and Shelby wanted to make a train for the display.  We didn't have a lot of time to do everything from scratch, so we kind of cheated and bought the gingerbread cutouts from Walmart.  We did, however, add a lot more candy than what came with the kit.

Correct way to eat a gingerbread train

 The kids were very proud of their train and had a lot of fun telling everyone at the devotional that they had made a train.  After the devotional, they could hardly wait to start picking off pieces to eat.  I honestly think they mostly ate the candy and that Ryan and I finished off most of the actual gingerbread.







Our next major Christmas event was the ward Christmas party and this year we got to have Santa Claus.  The kids were very excited about seeing Santa and also a little nervous.  They didn't know that Santa was actually Papa.  We were very curious to see if they would recognize their Papa when it was their turn, but they didn't.

   

Shelby with Santa

Nolan and Santa

The kids had a lot of fun through out the month doing advent calendars, making and delivering treats, getting treats from other friends and having a small Christmas party at our house.  Finally, it was Christmas Sunday, which meant that Shelby got to wear a cute Christmas dress.

Shelby's Christmas Dress

 I was very lucky that Nolan and Shelby never even once tried to open any of the presents under the tree.  They never once even touched them.  The same cannot be said of the Christmas ornaments.  Shelby thought they were little toys she could just take off any time she wanted and play with them.  Thankfully, she couldn't get into anything breakable.  When it seemed that Christmas just might never get here and Nolan and Shelby would never get to open presents, it got here. We were very successful in convincing them that Christmas and Santa couldn't come if they were awake so they were good little kids and went to bed at a nice reasonable hour.

Our Christmas Tree at night waiting for Santa

Our Christmas Village and Nativities

Santa left some presents behind

Very full stockings

We actually had to wake our kids up Christmas morning.  They aren't big enough yet to think about getting up at 4 am to open presents.  I am so not complaining.  Once we got them up and reminded them that it was Christmas morning and that Santa had come, they were pretty excited to get downstairs.

They knew exactly which gift went to which kid

Nolan and Shelby really had a lot of fun opening their own presents, and also watching everyone else open presents.  They were just as excited to see what they got as what everyone else got.  It was a very enjoyable morning.

Nolan's Gifts

Shelby posing with her presents

Ryan's stash

My little pile

After some yummy Swedish Pancakes for breakfast, we headed out to Pat and Bobbie's house for more presents and Christmas Dinner.

Nolan opening more toys

Shelby put all her new clips in her hair

The kids had a lot of fun opening up a ton of little presents and Grandma and Papa's house and then getting to play with Uncle Mike (Pat's brother).

Shelby's 2nd Birthday

I realize that I am skipping November, but I promise to get to that eventually.  In the mean time I am going to skip to December, specifically Shelby's 2nd birthday.  When I asked Shelby what she wanted on her birthday cake, she said she wanted a baby so that is what she got.  We also had to celebrate her birthday a day early because we just had way too many things going on that week.  Best thing about turning 2 is that you don't know your days yet so you can celebrate whenever you want.

Baby Cake

Yay for birthday cake!

Blowing out the candles

Shelby was very excited about having cake and she liked the baby.  She was really excited when it came to opening presents.  She definitely liked what she got. 

New baby

Princess Book

Opening her new ponies

All her fun new stuff

September and October 2012

Somehow I got too excited as I was updating my posts and I managed to skip the entire month of October.  I also missed Ryan's stitches and a trip to Denver.  I will start with that story since it was actually in September that that occurred.

Ryan's Stitches

So on the afternoon of September 13, 2012, the kids and I had loaded up in the van and had driven the very short drive over to North Platte Jazzercise so that I could go work out and Nolan could play with his friend Taleigh.  Her mom also works out.Right as we had pulled up and turned off the van, my phone rang.  I answered it, wondering why Ryan would be calling, and was informed that Rick was taking him to the ER to get stitches.  Instead of working out, the kids and I drove over to the ER and met up with Ryan and Rick there.  It was a some what yucky sight that met our eyes.  Ryan had blood smears all over his face.  You could see were the blood had run down his nose and there was blood on his shirt.  He also had quite a bit of blood on his hands. After Ryan got checked in to the ER, he was able to tell us what had happened.

Ryan was working on a car and had it up in the air.  He was using a giant wrench to loosen up a bolt and the wrench slipped and slapped him on the forehead.  He was hit hard enough that he all but fell down.  He thought, at first that it wasn't that bad, but then he went up to the bathroom and saw how bad it was, so Rick took him to the ER. By the way, Rick is the service manager at Firestone and a really nice guy.

The ER doctor came in and gave Ryan about 9 stitches.  I did not watch.  In case you have forgotten, I HATE needles.  Nolan and Shelby, on the other hand, thought it was so cool and watched every stitch.  After we got home, Nolan wanted to have stitches too, so Ryan gave him some temporary stitches.

The boys and their matching stitches

Denver Temple 22 September 2012

The only weekend that we were able to go to the temple in September, the Winter Quarters Temple was closed.  It was kind of nice to be able to go to the Denver Temple for a bit of a change.  The nicest part was that they had padded chairs for doing initiatories.  It was also, nice for the kids to get to go to a different temple.  It was a beautiful day so we enjoyed roaming the temple grounds.

Nolan had fun playing in the grass

Shelby pulling trains in the grass 

They thought it was pretty neat that they
could take a picture with Jesus

The Denver Temple

The kids really liked the benches behind the temple

Shelby at the bride's bench

They wanted to get in the fountain in front of the temple

They can't wait until they actually get to go in

After enjoying some time at the temple, we were able to go and visit our cousin Heather and her girls, who had just moved to Denver.  We had a nice dinner and visit and then drove home.

First Snow

After a ridiculously hot summer and next to no autumn, we had our first snow on October 6.  This was also the day of General Conference.  The kids were really excited to see the snow even if it didn't stick.

They would have gone out without their
coats if I would have let them

Shelby wasn't too sure what to do once she
got out in the snow

Nolan was just thrilled to be getting snowed on

Nolan had to dust off the jeep on his way to get in the van

Halloween

 Well, for Halloween this year, we were going to be toiletries.  Ryan was going to be a toothbrush, Me some tooth paste, Nolan a bar of soap and Shelby a loufa.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get the costumes made the way I wanted them to, so at the last minute we had to come up with something else.  We settled on being the 4 seasons.  My only regret it is that I didn't have a cd of Four Seasons music to play during the trunk-or-treat.

In the morning the little "pre-school" group that a few of us were doing, met at my house for a Halloween party.  All the kids got to were their costumes and eat a lot of candy.

Nolan and his friends
R to L:  Josh and Caleb Sonderager, Emily Odle, Lindsay
and Matthew Blomstedt, and Nolan

Nolan was Fall and he liked that he got to
have a dirty face.

I sewed snowflakes on Shelby's dress and
put light blue eye shadow on her face so
she could be Winter

Ryan go to be Summer so of course he had to
wear a Baseball cap

Me as Spring

All of us at Trunk-or Treat

We also somehow were unable to get real pumpkins this year.  Apparently there was actually a pumpkin shortage.  We had to improvise.  Yes, mine is totally the MLB logo.  Nolan made the one on the top and Shelby's is the tornado.

Our jack-o-lanterns