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!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
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....
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....
Friday, April 11, 2008
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.......
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.......
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
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.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
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.
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