Happy 4th of July

I saw this test on MSNBC and took it. I passed and and can count myself as a citizen. How did you do? Take it and see.....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25461301/



It was great to see everyone at the family reunion!

A Series of books and random thoughts

Here are some more books in my 52 books in 52 weeks:



Too stubborn to die by Cato Jarimillo. This book was given to me to be read as a true story of a holocaust survivor. I remember reading somewhere that someone was trying to debunk it. It is a story of a young girl living in Holland who is turned in by her Nazi sympathizing friends and spends 2 years in a concentration camp. Good story, not very well written. I've heard she tells a very good story when she makes a presentation in public.






The Book Thief by Markus Zusak This is a young adult novel, narrated by death. It is the story of a young girl left by a mother who knows she(the mother) faces a bleak future. This young girl, Liesel, can not read, but steals her first book on her trip to Germany. "the Gravedigger's Handbook". Her foster father teaches her to read and thus begins her life in Nazi Germany. I really enjoyed this book. The language is beautiful.. I fell in love in the first few pages. Just to quote from the first few pages.

"People observe the colors of the day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it's quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darknesses. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them."

After that first stolen book, her foster father teaches her to read. She then begins to steal books whenever she can. She steals from the piles of books at the book burnings, she sneaks into the library of the Mayor's home and steals books. She uses the skill she has learned to keep the children quiet as they hide in the basement of homes during the bombings of Munich. She even reads to a Jewish man who they hide in the basement.

"Summer came.

For the book thief, everything was going nicely,

For me, the sky was the color of Jews.

When their bodies had finished scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up. When their fingernails had scratched at the wood and in some cases were nailed into it by the sheer force
of desperation, their spirits came toward me, into my arms, and we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after Minute. Shower after shower."

Her neighborhood changes as men and boys go to war, as people disappear and as the Jew they have hidden tries to escape but is captured.



This is a riveting book with beautiful language that I would recommend to only those 12 and older. Perhaps even older than twelve. It is a dark book with no lasting happiness but alot of humanity.

It is only in hard copy and I have one and am willing to lend it.


Heartbeat by Sharon Creech.... I really enjoy her books and have read quite q few of them. This was written in a very unusual style, almost like free form narrative poetry. It was a joy to read and a very fast read.

This is the story of Annie. Annie loves to run. She learns that she loves drawing and while in her English class, she learns she loves footnotes(which she begins to use in her writing). She loves her family. Her mother is about to have a baby so she worries about her mother. Her grandfather is living with them and seems to be fading away and suffers from dementia. She has a good friend, Max who is running to escape form his current life situation.

Her grandfather was a champion runner. She loves to run and doesn't want to run with the track team. Max wants to run and "has to win". When he doesn't, he learns a secret from her grandfather, one her grandfather tells her she already knew...run for the love of running.

Doesn't that apply to almost everything that we choose to do. Granted ther are things that we all have to do. Some have to work, we all have to clean, cook, etc.... but what we choose to fill our free time with are those things which we love to do. At least that is what I would like to fill my free time with. I love spending time with people, going to the temple, reading and doing things to improve my home.

I was talking to a sister in my ward today and was reminded of a talk I had with someone when I was going through a very dark time in my life. She said "we must never SHOULD on our selves." in other words, we have a tendency to say ' oh I should do' this or 'I should have' done that. SO I have tried t adopt for myself the phrase " I SHALL NOT SHOULD ON MYSELF TODAY!" We all need to give ourselves a break! Talk about the things you are choosing to do or what you would like to do or what you have to do. Perhaps that is why I am not a good list maker and doer. It is a list of shoulds....

Another grandkids moment......and our new callings

I was recently watching the grandkids for the day while Heather was on a retreat and Jeff was at work for the day. We were playing Star Wars. Easton wanted me to be Princess Lea but I wanted a light sabre so I was Obi Wan. This was not a video game, but hand to hand combat. Taylor was pre-Darth Vader, Aniken(sp) and Easton was Orange Luke(you know, the orange flight suit). We were running and chasing each other(unfortunately, no pictures as Amy has my camera) and Easton had his light sabre tucked in the back neck of his shirt and a play cell phone in his pocket.


All of the sudden, Easton came to a dead stop. "Wait Grandma, I have to check my phone....I got a text!"


I love my grandkids and enjoy spending time with them. Easton cries now when I leave because I haven't been there long enough....no matter how long I am there! I have been curtailed lately in the amount of time that I have spent with them as I have been so tied up with Relief Society. Here is a picture of the results of the time spent away from them........my visiting teaching assignments are all made...at least for this month!



Oh that's right I didn't mention our new callings. I was called as Relief Society President and Larry was called to work with the teachers. Not what I was expecting at all, at least on my end. Larry just kept saying..."I hope I'm not too old to work with Young Men" over and over. Me, I was thinking they wanted to meet with us to give Larry a calling. But it was for me. It has been a wonderful experience. I will share more about that in a future post.

I started this post on the 11th and was waiting to put some pictures of my cute grandkids, but they are all on Larry's computer. It's now the 16th and I thought I better post it before I forget.......

Kids really do say the darnedest things!

We had the chance to spend some rehab time with Taylor and Easton yesterday. We went to the "little Dinosaur Museum" at BYU(as Taylor calls it). Easton called it the "tiny dinosaur museum". As we pulled up and parked in the handicap parking place, I pulled out the temporary parking pass. Taylor asked me "Gramma, why are you hanging a bathroom sign in your car window?" I laughed and laughed when I realized that the only place he had seen that insignia is on the signs for bathrooms! I told him that it meant that people who had a hard time walking could park in special places.

The Lines Are Drawn.......

and we are separated from all the rest of our ward. A familiar feeling as it has happened before. The news came down at stake conference this morning. Larry was released last Sunday and so we knew that we wouldn't be with the east side of our ward anymore( with a lot of confidence). However, we didn't expect to be separated from everyone west of us also. Yup, that's right . Out of all the plans we had thought of that one didn't even enter our radar. So there are 10 homes from our old ward that have been put into this already well established ward. They lost about 30 homes. But still have alot of people. I know that it was inspiration(in fact it was signed off by President Hinckley) and so we will make the best of it, as we will probably be in this ward for many years to come. I hope that we are better about retaining friendships than we were with the last boundary change. It seems that once those lines are drawn, you become so involved in your new ward that you lose the connections that you have. That is something I will have to work on. I think that we are much more open to inviting people over to spend time together now than we were then. And we have some great friends in the neighborhood. So onward and upward!We will grow together.

Surgery

Larry is now counting the hours until his surgery which will be sometime on Thursday, the 21st. He is in severe pain. Every Sunday, people come up to me after church and say "Larry is really hurting isn't he?" I admit that he is. The strain shows on his face, especially as he sits on the stand. but that shouldn't be a problem, because he will hopefully be relieved of the pain and the bishopric! Not that we are celebrating that fact, we have loved this ward and the people we are surrounded by, but it was announced in church on Sunday that our stake is once again being shuffled. It was done approx. 5 years ago and our ward was left untouched at that time. However, the bishop has said there will be big changes. So, I'm thinking new callings. Larry is hoping for the library! Me? I just got a new calling, but we will probabaly be in a different ward, so I am up to anything(except choir director, the only calling that made me physically ill for the 2 1/2 years I had it).

Hurray!

It's a GIRL! I am so EXCITED for Heather and Jeff and the boys!

The boys have been saying since day one(at least Easton has)that it is a girl. You know I really do believe that the veil is very thin until the time when children can clearly communicate their thoughts and feelings with us. I say this because of an experience we had with Amy when she was very young......

I was pregnant with Amy in the winter of 1983/84. Larry's grandmother, Rose Elizabeth Knight passed away in her early 90's in December of 1983. I loved Grandma Knight and if we would have had another girl, I would have pushed for the name Eliza Rose(Eliza for my Grandma Boyes and Rose for Grandma Knight). I know old-fashioned. Anyway, she was not alive when Amy was born. When Amy was about 3 years old, we were sitting reading stories when she told me about how she used to sit on Grandma Rose' lap. Now you have to understand that Grandma was not someone that we talked about after she died, so it wasn't as tho that info would have been in her head. We could never remember talking about grandma, let alone "Grandma Rose". We always called her Grandma Knight. I truly believe that Amy had some experiences with Grandma Rose in the short time (2 months) that They may have had the opportunity to be together in Heaven. I am grateful for my knowledge of our premortal life and our Postmortal life and the continuation of family from Heaven to the Earth to Heaven. Families can be together FOREVER!

Book Review 4 These is My Words.....

is a wonderful love story. The voice of this book is amazing. This is the story of a young girl who is raised in the Arizona territories and spends her married life in the area. The hero of this book is wonderful, the romance sweet and the heroine is strong, down to earth and innocent to love. She is very uneducated to start, but loves reading and educates herself with her reading. As she first begins to write(it's written in journal form), her writing and her language are very rough. She finds a library of books(deserted on the side of the trail in a wagon) which become her education and as she reads more, her language and her writing change. She is a very strong woman. This book is based on memoirs and journals of the author's family. As you read the book you realize that this all couldn't have happened to one woman. The details which she writes of every day life are amazing and make you realize how very hard life was in the frontier of our country as people settled where no one had been before and built from nothing. There are some wonderful scenes in the book and some very heartwrenching scenes. This was my choice for our book group, Books Without Borders, for the month of February. An enduring Love Story. We had a wonderful discussion about the indomitable spirit of the woman, Sarah and her struggles in this 20 year period. This is a great read!

The Sunflower, Part 2

Wow! In rereading, I was quite harsh about this book, but still over all, must say it was a good book, but not a keeper or a reread. Quite light and "heartwarming" as they say on the book. But, having found my copy, I did want to post some of the insights that were given as quotes from Paul's journal as chapter headings.

"American culture is a curious thing. We fret over a sport star's twisted ankle or the ill-fated marriage of celebrities, yet lose no sleep over a hundred million children living in the streets."
(Britney Spears, Anyone?)

"A patient once told me that a trip to the mall was twice as effective as Prozac."
(I believe in and practice retail therapy!)

" The surest way to minimize your own burdens is to carry someone else's."

" Today I heard an American teenager comparing her deprivation to that of our children, because her aprents would only buy her a used car. There are none so impoverished as those who do not acknowledge the abundance of their own lives."
I think I see this everyday. We just don't realize how blessed we are to live in this country, to have the food that we need, a warm place to live, we all have great healthcare(speaking of those I know), we all have the opportunity to do what we want with our lives, the right to vote, the right to express discontent with our lives and our government. I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the blessings He gives me. I try to make my evening prayers those of gratitude.

And Finally.....

"I have come to believe that the only true way we can serve God is to serve His Children."
Mosiah 2:17 "Behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

So, although it wasn't a book I would pick, nor a book I will read again, it did have some nuggets in it, which to me says you can find good in many things, if you look for it.

Book Review 3

My Third book was one I began while I was in Pocatello. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. I have already given it away, so can not go into too many details with names and such. This was a compelling book in some ways, I can see why it is still a very controversial book. Although it points out the evil of slavery(moral, physical, etc.) it also treats the slaves ( or the slave population) as a bunch of children that need direction. Tom was one that embraced Christianity and touched the lives of a family he is sold to, the St. Clairs. He has the simple faith that I admire. He shows great love for those around him, no matter his circumstances. I see a great good vs. evil in this book with the evil of slavery juxtaposed with the love of Christ as manifested by Tom. There are 2 different story lines that I followed. Tom and the young couple who escaped, Eliza, George and their son. I do, however, have to admit that there were pages that I skimmed and pages that I completely skipped because they were sooooo wordy. When she started her explanations about the evils of slavery, I read it once but could not read it over and over. This was a point that she made very often in her writing of the action of the book. There were two points in the book where characters made very long speeches about it.

One of the most disturbing things about this book was the actions of Tom's original owner, who, because he was in debt and had property, had to sell property. He chose his most trusted slave, Tom, who had a family of his own and Eliza's child. So although Tom was a trusted and valued member of the household, in the end he was still property. So although gentlemen slaveholders wanted to think they were better than men such as Simon LeGree, they weren't.

This was a serialized book, released a chapter at a time and so I thought there was lots of details. Her writing style reminds me of Charles Dickens.

I am glad that I have finally read this book, more to say that I have (I can check it off my list)than because I enjoyed it. I would recommend it as a small way to gain knowledge of the slave trade and plantation life. I have begun reading another book which I believe will be a more through examination of the topic Slaves In The Family by Edward Ball.

Book Review 2

Wow Am I behind!

The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans............. I have to admit I am not a fan of Evans' books(or for that matter Nicholas Sparks or Mitch Albom or a host of other authors that have one successful book and continue to play off that success with other books that are often the same. This is the story of two characters running away from their past. One(Paul) had been at it a little longer than the other. They meet in Peru while doing charity work at The Sunflower, an orphanage for street children. I think that Paul was a good character, but I had no sympathy for the female character. The most enjoyable part of the book for me was the captions and quotes from Paul's Journal that were at the beginning of each chapter.

PS

The Christmas cards still aren't out..... (see November post, recently posted)

2 old posts and one new one.....

I had two drafts listed that I had started and not finished. I decided that it wasn't how wonderful the blog was but that it was done so you all knew what was going on. So there you are!

Christmas and the New Year have to this point flown by with hardly a chance to enjoy them. I took off for Pocatello shortly after Christmas to spend some time with Mom and Dad as Mom recovered from an unexplained(to this point) illness. I had a terrifying adventure on the way home and am not thrilled about going back up until the roads are clear. I think that I knocked my muffler or something loose in my spin and am checking it out tomorrow after going visiting teaching at 7:30 AM!!!! There should be a law against that! But I got a new companion and the sister who used to visit her is who we now visit and they did it at 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning! I am barely functioning to tie Larry's shoes(which I have been doing for the last 6 weeks) at that time of the morning.

Speaking of Larry, he will be having surgery at the end of this month. His back is bad, he's taking Lortab to survive and the doctor has finally decided to do something about it. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that when the nurse called to change his appointment, I let her know not only how miserable he is, but how miserable I AM!!! Lack of sleep, being the main problem. Poor Larry doesn't sleep well and so neither do I. He can not get comfortable and is trying a new combination of blankets, foam pads, golf balls, pillow forms, back stretchers, leg stretchers, etc...each night.

I read on Jeremy's blog the idea of 52 books in 52 weeks. That is a great idea and corresponds with one of my Christmas gifts. Amy gave me a cool journal that I will be using as my book journal for listing the books I read and my reaction to them. It's a beautiful book and I have already made some entries into it. I will be going in a few weeks to my favorite of my three book groups and getting a whole list of books to read. Each year at our after Christmas meeting, we do a gift exchange(of books, of course!). This year three people gave Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I was one of the three. I LOVED this book. The subtitle is "One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Tome". From the back of the jacket, a short synopsis..

"In 1993 a mountaineer named Greg Mortenson drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram mountains after a failed attempt to climb K2. Moved by the inhabitants kindness, he promised to return to build a school. Three Cups of Tea is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome. Over the next decade mortenson built not just one but 55 schools- especially for girls- in the forbidding terrain that gave birth to the Taliban. His story is at once a riveting adventure and a testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit."

This was a fascinating book from the historical view and from the informational view of the country and also Mortensons's efforts to build his school. How easy it would have been to give up, but he didn't and his perseverence can teach us all something. Anything worth doing is worth doing well....and something that is very lacking in our society a Promise made is a Promise Kept! I learned more about that as we talked in Sunday School about the Oath made to Zoram by Nephi and the knowledge that they would die before breaking an oath. And yet how easily we see promises, oaths and covenants made and broken.

To go along with this book I read an article from the September 2007 National Geographic on Pakistan. And wasn't it interesting that the week after Bhutto was killed, her struggle was highlighted in Parade Magazine for all to see who don't read a paper on a regular basis.

I worry for my grandchildren.