Books I’ve Read

August Edition

Fablehaven:  Keys to the Demon Prison by Brandon Mull

I’m so happy to say I finished this series.  I liked it, but I didn’t love it.  Listening to the audiobooks was probably a bad call.  Some voices I loved, others I hated.  I often felt like I was trudging through a Sunday School lesson, and I couldn’t believe that Seth kept making the same stupid mistakes book after book after book.  Having said all that, though, I think they are a great series for those in the tweener age range.  Megan (14) loves them, and I think Ian (11) would love them if I could get him to take the plunge.  (He’s not a big reader of anything. )   The last book was action packed, not at all boring, and I loved how the ending wrapped up all the loose ends that had been developed over the first 4 books.  I’m glad to say I finished the series, but once was enough for me!

  Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross

This was our book club pick for August.  A friend of mine has been trying to get me to read this for years, so she finally picked it for book club, so I would be forced to finally buckle down and get it done!  It’s a fictional telling based on a myth (not widely known) that back in 800’s there was a woman Pope.  It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book of this magnitude and her research on the Dark Ages was thorough and educational.  The book was extremely well written.  The plot was plausible and believeable.  What I didn’t really like was Joan’s character.   How she handled some situations bothered me.  But I think I was in the minority on this point, and almost everyone LOVED everything about the book.  I would love to get my hands on a copy of the movie version that was made a couple years ago, but it’s not available in DVD in the US.  If you buy it on Amazon, you have to have a special DVD player that will play DVD’s coded for Europe.  Weird, no?

Do You REALLY Remember?

I love this image.  The only two times I’ve been to NYC were both in 1999.  This is what I remember the Manhattan skyline looking like from the Jersey side, where we took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty.  Do you ever notice how we often classify time now?  I often say, “oh, we did that pre-nine-eleven”… like when we able to park our cars, walk into the airport, and wait for people to arrive by plane at the gate.  Or when we could put scissors or box cutters in our carry-ons.  (Why would anyone WANT to put a box cutter in their carry-on unless they had evil intentions?)  But I did pack a bag full of scissors and razor-bladed scrapbooking tools and carried them onto a plane in 1999.  Airport security did check my bag, but when they saw what it was, they realized I was a harmless housewife, and sent me through.

I will never forget that morning, over 10 years ago.  I was getting Taylor ready for school.  He was in 1st grade. Megan was a preschooler and Ian was just one.  I never have the TV on in the mornings (too much of a distraction), so I was clueless that the world had been plunged into chaos.  Eric had already left for work, and I got a call from him on his cell.  He had heard the news on the radio and told me I needed to turn on the TV.  I sat in horror as I realized what was going on.  How could this be happening?  Do I take Taylor to school?  Is it safe to leave the house?  In the end, I did take him to school.  I was in the minority though, as only about half the kids showed up that day.  Looking back, I am glad I did it.  Terrorists want us to be afraid.  And as Americans have shown over the last 10 years, we will NOT cower to them. 

I remember the first anniversary of 9/11.  I think as a country we were still grieving.  I think we expected “round two”.  When it passed uneventfully, I think we took a big collective sigh of relief.  And so many other 9/11’s have passed since then, each bringing the thought, “another year, and we are still here”.  Things have been so quiet on the terrorism front, that it’s easy to forget.  (Well, until you go to the airport.)  I have spent the last few years of my life without watching the news.  I have also worked hard to shield my children from watching and seeing senseless hate and violence that happens every day in this cruel world we live in.  I find my life is so much happier without a daily dose of depression that comes with the “news”.  Because of that, Ian (who is 11 now) has never seen the footage of the 9/11 attacks.  In discussing it this week, he admitted, he didn’t even know what “9/11” was.  That’s when I decided we had to act.  If we are not careful, the painful memories of that day will be lost in just one or two generations. 

I DVR’d a couple programs airing on Fox News last night and we sat down as a family to watch one that was basically a “recap” documentary.  I wanted Ian (and all my kids) to understand the horror of terrorism and the lessons we’ve learned since then.  I was dreading it, though.  As I feared, it brought back every emotion I had then.  Especially hard for me were the interviews with the wives of the Flight 93 heroes.  Living in the bay area in 2001, this story was especially important to us.  About half of that plane were Bay Area residents since it was the one bound for San Francisco.  Two men in particular had called their wives from the plane and so we knew details about what was happening in the plane.  I’m still amazed at the courage ordinary people showed when they figured out they were being taken hostage on a suicide mission.

It was a hard program for us all to get through.  I kept using the “skip 30 seconds forward button” on the remote.  Hearing the phone calls to 911 were unbearable, and I would not let my kids see the footage of people on fire jumping out of windows in the towers 60 stories up.  (That is the one image that will haunt me forever.)   Ian kept leaving the room, and at one point, I found him in the other room crying.  We cried together, and I explained to him how important it is to remember how sad this makes us.  And to remember how lucky we are to live in America.  We finished the night by watching Music and the Spoken Word by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Tom Brokaw was the special guest narrator and it was very well done.  It took the feeling of sorrow from our home and replaced it with peace.  Music can do that for the soul.

I know that I will never forget the pain of September 11, 2001.  Now I must teach my children to “never forget”.  It was hard to re-watch it all again last night, but in doing so we honor those whose lives were lost that day. 

My brother inspired this post.  Yesterday, he broke his blogging silence and wrote a very moving post about 9/11.  You can read it here.  Thanks, Adam, for inspiring me to get this jumbled mess out of my head and into cyberspace.  Love you, dude!

Comfort Zone

I was spotlighted today in Primary… you know the drill where they have everyone stand up and then when they say something that doesn’t describe you, you sit down?  Ultimately, when they are done reading all the clues there will be just one person left standing.  They started with “This person likes to go the movies and eat buttery popcorn with her family….”   I instantly knew it was me.  I remember writing that on my questionnaire.  FYI, I also like eating Cheese Enchiladas and Brownies.  My favorite primary song is Scripture Power, my favorite book of scripture is Alma (all sixty-something chapters), but oddly enough, my favorite Book of Mormon prophet is Abinadi.  When I “grow up”, I want to be a Photographer…  and I enjoy learning about Photoshop.   I was actually kind of embarrassed when that said that last part aloud.  I knew they would… because I did write it down, but when I heard it being said out loud today by someone else, it felt weird and overly ambitious. 

I was first exposed to photography my senior year in High School when I joined the Yearbook staff.  My neighbor was also on staff and she taught me a few things about developing film and making prints in the dark room.  I was fascinated by it.   Since then, I’ve dabbled off and on in the world of Photography, but never really jumped in with two feet.  After all, I got married during my sophomore year of college and had a baby 2 years later.  I was working full time and dreaming of the day I’d become a full-time stay-at-home-mom.  Being a mom has taken precedence over all my career ambitions, so it’s just been a hobby here and there when I had the time for it. 

Now that my youngest is in 1st grade, I feel like it’s time for me to have some kind of grown up life.  Part of me craves the opportunity to take some classes and really focus on my passion.  Part of me is terrified.  I’ve gotten so comfortable being a hobbyist, and a stay-at-home-mom that I am nervous about putting myself out there.  I’m nervous about being critiqued.  I’m nervous about actually working for real paying clients.  

But thank goodness for friends!  After hearing my spotlight today, a friend told me about a Photography class she signed up for at the local rec center.  It’s 5 weeks, 2 hours a week and super basic, focusing on portraits.  It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you have.  She is already signed up and encouraged me to join her if there are still spots left.  I came home, checked it out and YES!  there are still openings.  It starts Tuesday night, which is about the only night of the week that I don’t have other conflicts.  Double bonus! 

It’s time for me to stop fantasizing about being a Photographer and actually do something about it.  I have A LOT to learn, and I’m ready to take the plunge and get to work!   Thanks again, Robin, for the positive peer pressure.  This girl surely needed it!

Back to School

I don’t know where the last few weeks have gone.  If we still lived in California, our kids would have just started school this week, so it’s still not super late to post back to school photos, right?  And truth be told, this post is really for the grandma’s…. does anyone else care?  I won’t be offended if you don’t care! 

   

For the first time in a long time, Taylor wasn’t very nervous about school.  That’s good… Megan needed him to be a rock.  She was SUPER nervous! 

Now that she’s been in High School a full 5 weeks, she loves it.  The first week was rough.  She had a really hard time with the homework load (5+ hours a night) and she got lost and was late to class a couple times.  The possibility of ASD was more than she could handle.  By day 3, she was physically sick with anxiety over everything.  She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t sleep and she felt nauseous around the clock.  Eric gave her an extra blessing and I gave her some Meclizine to help her sleep and tame the nausea.  There were a lot of tears shed and I wondered how she would ever adapt, but she did.  Every day got easier and now she loves it.  I think the only thing she dreads is the Friday Swim Academy routine.  Friday is the day they do weight training, and it’s hard.  But she LOVES seminary and most of her other teachers.   Taylor loves his schedule.  He is taking AP Biology and Honors Chem, which keep him very busy.  Of course, he LOVES swimming and swim team is already well under way.  His goal is to make it to the State Meet this year. 

   

I wasn’t able to get a picture of all four kids together because Taylor and Megan started school before these two were even out of bed.  They love the shirts I got them for the first day of school.   They are both obsessed with Angry Birds and Lego Star Wars.  I still can’t believe Ian is in his last year of Elementary School and Brayden is in 1st grade.  I still don’t know what to do with myself, sometimes… but that’s a subject for another post.  Brayden has had a rough adjustment to first grade.  I can’t really explain why.  I think it’s just become a complete reality for him that when he’s at school, he’s not the “baby” or the “center of attention” in his class.  He’s had all kinds of problems, from pee accidents to crying meltdowns.  It’s getting better, but we are currently having to resort to a sticker chart for good behavior.  If he’s had a good day at school, he gets a sticker.  When he accumulates 10 stickers, I will bring McD’s to the cafeteria for lunch.  Ian LOVES school so far.  He has his first male teacher and he LOVES him.  All the kids love him.  Mr. H is like a rock star to these guys.  Ian’s only struggle with school is his reading assignments.  Each quarter he needs to read 4 AR books.  For Ian, that’s tough.  He hates reading, so we have a deal similar to Brayden’s.  Every day that he spends 30 minutes reading his AR book, he gets a sticker.  I’m hoping these two reach the 10 sticker mark at the same time.  That will minimize the amount of McD’s I have to eat next week!

The boys (meaning, Ian) didn’t want me going with them to the bus.  So I did what a good mother does, I waited 2 minutes, grabbed my longest lens, and followed them, like a stalker, to the bus stop!

I’ve decided it doesn’t matter how long or short summer break is.  When you get down to the last week or two before school starts, the kids get jittery.  Summer was glorious until the last week before school.  Then the tempers started to flare, whining ensued and arguments abounded.  It was enough to make me GLAD to send them all back!  The sight of the school bus taking the boys away to school for 8 hours was the greatest thing in the world!