The Glass Castle

So I never reported back on The Glass Castle and I didn't end up reading all of the other books I said except for Royal Panoloply which I will report on. Instead I read the rest of the Maze Runner series and loved them. I will also write more about them.

But anyways, The Glass Castle is cray cray. Like you need to read it. Now. Its about this girl who has the most insane parents on the face of the planet and about how she grew up. It is almost unbelievable and seems like it has to be fiction at times. But its not. Its her life. And she turns out pretty normal. The most frustrating part of the book is that her parents are really really smart but suck at being parents slash normal humans. As I read this I pretty much told Devin about the whole thing so now he says he doesn't need to read it. But he still should. Because it is that good.

In conclusion, I give the book an O for Outstanding.

Side note. I found this ladies blog who reviews books for those of you looking for something new and good to read. Its called blogginboutbooks.com. She reads and reviews close to 200 books per year and I have to say I agree with most of her reviews. She rates her books A-F and tags her book reviews by rating so that can find just all the books she rates A and get new suggestion on what to read. Check it out. You'll thank me later.

Bebe Gabe!

So Gabe and I hang out at Amanda's house frequently. Its pretty awesome because it gives me something to do and gives Gabe a pretend brother and sisters to hang out with. Today Delia said their morning family prayer and said thanks that Annie and I were there. She forgot about "Bebe Gabe" as Gwen calls him. So for the rest of the prayer Gwen whispered to Delia getting increasingly louder, "Bless bebe Gabe! BLESS bebe Gabe!"

"BLESS BEBE GABE!!"

It was hilarious. I love their loveship.

2 Months Old

Gabe is 2 months old and we are finally out of the "feel like we are playing house" mode and it feels like he is actually ours. For the first month I kept wondering when his mom was going to come get him because I felt like I was just babysitting someone else's kid. Here is what he is up to.

• Smiling!!!
• Sitting up(ish) with a hand supporting his back.
• Cooing like crazy. Especially when he hears music, someone is singing to him or he is taking a bath.

1 Month Old

Gabe is 1 month old and loving life. We can't get enough of him. Here are some things he has been up to.

• He laughs during his sleep. (cutest thing ever)
• He is learning to hold his head up and love to lay on my chest.
• He hates to be swaddled.
• He loves bath time and his swing.

Devin claims that he loves to watch football. I'm not so sure on that one. But Devin loves to make him do adult things i.e. watch youtube videos, listen to music with him, and read 18th century poetry. You know so he becomes an intellectual. By 2 months Devin will probably have him smoking a pipe while wearing his reading robe.

Book Reviews

Here is a list of books I have read recently and my thoughts on them.

The first set of books is my crush on Young Adult Fiction. Specifically the fantasy/sci-fi genre.

City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare




This book was suggested by a student who I tutored who loved them and said it was the best series he had read in a while. When I first started reading this book my thought was "Eh. Do I really want to have to immerse myself in a new author's world of all things mystical?" My answer after reading the book. "Meh". I would give it an S for satisfactory rating. The romance story within the book is compelling enough but there is a twist at the end that I guess doesn't resolve itself until like the 3rd or 4th book? And that my friend is a lot of reading. I looked up the spoiler and haven't decided if it was worth it to read 1,500 more pages to get there. Although I have heard the second book is better. If you are going to read this series just be prepared for a new world of vampires, werewolves, spells etc. And to kind of feel like a nerd.

Matched
Author: Ally Condie


This book was suggested by my friend Erica on her blog. I feel like the author did a good job of keeping to the point and keeping me interested without being too wordy and descriptive. It was a pretty quick read but was very reminiscent of "The Giver" by Lois Lowery. I think it is difficult to come up with a new concept of a dystopic society without repeating some similar ideas from other books. For example this book has certain responsibilities coming at certain ages, jobs being assigned by ability, and a predetermined death date for those aging so they can die with dignity. It was very similar to "The Giver" but with a romance story intertwined. Hence the name matched. This story focuses on how the main character is matched with her perfect mate and the ceremony and rituals surrounding that. I think the second book is slated for November 1st and I will definitely pick it up. It will be interesting to see what happens. She did a good job of leaving it open for the next book and I am assuming there are many more layers to the society they live in.


The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Our school nurse suggested this book to me. It is about a group of boys who lose all of their memories and wake up traveling in an elevator that opens to a giant maze. There is a group of 50 or so boys ages 12-18 stuck in the maze trying each day to find a way out. The walls move every night and so it is a harder task then it would seem. Shortly after the main character arrives in the maze a girl arrives in the elevator, the first to enter the maze. This was another adventure story with a romantic story line. It was pretty good. I enjoyed the author's creative setting. He did a good job a setting the scene without being annoyingly descriptive. I give it an S+.

Not trying to be Debbie Downer about the last three books but I have to say that once you have read "The Hunger Game" series, "Twilight" series and/or "Harry Potter" series then the this genre is kind of destroyed for you. A book has to really have good character development and a compelling story to compete. Thus my satisfactory ratings. They are all series books and I like them enough to give the second book a try but beyond that...well we'll just have to see.

The next few I have read in the last week or so. Apparently I switch from the above books to memoirs? I didn't do it on purpose but it's kind of how it worked out.

I'm Down Author Mishna Wolff


I LOVED this book. I will warn you there is a fair amount of swearing so those faint of heart, you were warned. The story is about Mishna, a girl born to a white, hippie mom and dad until the dad resorts to his roots and the parents divorce. She then grows up living with her dad who has turned back into what he was in high school, a white home-boy. It goes through her life trying to fit in with the "sistas" even though she has no rhythm or natural swagger. She does a really good job of telling the story from an appropriate perspective for the age she is at the time in the story and its awesome to see her perception of her dad grow over time. It is hilarious and awkward and I loved it. I give it an O for outstanding.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Author Amy Chua

This book was very entertaining. The mom is intense but I didn't judge her for it. She works really hard to help her girls become something amazing. And yeah, she kind of yells at them to get them there but overall the end results are pretty impressive. I give this book another O for outstanding. Great book and I got tired just by reading all the mom did. I really don't know how she had hours in the day to do it.

Books in cue- "The Glass Castle" to finish out my memoir list, "A Reliable Wife", "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", and "Royal Panoply". I will report back.

Domestic Bliss

Sometimes I get into domestic moods (read: Emily says she is taking a break from making dinner and that if we want to eat we'd better get in the kitchen). So tonight we made some homemade pizza with fresh basil from Annie's garden thank you very much.

Just call me a gourmet super chef. Okay I am like light years away from that. However I am really looking forward to having the time to be more home-ish.

I recently resigned from my teaching position amid mixed emotions but the strongest feeling that I needed to stay home. As I continued to think about it, different parts from The Family Proclamation ran through my mind, cementing that I needed to be home. I never thought it would be so hard to quit and move forward with life. Don't get me wrong, part of me is SO excited to have a break from writing lesson plans, dealing with attitudes and not working 60 hours a week. But I really do love my job. I love the chance I have to influence a group of 12-14 year olds are still trying to figure out who they are and what they stand for. And I love when my students start to enjoy learning.

Like when they have to be told to shut the book because they are so hooked they can't stop reading or when they finish a writing project and talk about how it is the best they have ever written and are proud of their work.

In fact, a few days before I told my principal I was going to be leaving, she came to tell me about the perfect schedule I was going to have the next year (4 hours of teaching and 3 hours of time to do testing, department head work and my prep). I had to call Amanda to have her re-convince me that I wanted to leave. To strengthen my resolve, I frequently hold this bundle of joy and remind myself that the biggest influence a child can have on their life is their parents.

I'm so grateful for a supportive husband who let me choose whether I continued to work or stopped and for his ability to have faith in our decision that we will be okay (even if our bank account doesn't agree with that). While I won't have the opportunity to work with the kids at school I care about so much, I know that this new adventure will be even more amazing and fulfilling. And we get to find out what we are having on WEDNESDAY! Happy one day before our five year anniversary to us! Best present we could get! Updates to follow.

Happy Mother's Day!

So this post may be a tad early but most of mine are a tad late so let's call it even. I've been thinking a lot about the upcoming Mother's Day and had to give a few shout outs to all the amazing women who have influenced my life.

Of course, I have to start with my mom. I was at mutual tonight and was talking to a few of the ladies in my ward and they were commenting on how well Annie did at mutual and how easily she had assimilated into the ward. They were saying how she seemed to do so well socially and I explained to them that she had always interacted with her typical peers. When she was younger, my mom kept her out of special programs as much as she could in order to allow her to learn the appropriate way to act socially. If this meant she had to coach softball and basketball and go to orchestra classes with Annie so that she could participate she did it.

The women both commmented on what an amanzing woman my mom must have been and they were right. I could write novels on how amazing my mom is but to spare you the reading, I will just talk about the things I am most recently realizing about her. Even with her being gone, I feel like I know just what she would have me do in regards to Annie because she was so clear on what her goals were for her and on what she saw in her future. So even though I may stumble along the way, I am so grateful for a mom that had the foresight to share with me those plans so that I have a clear roadmap to follow. Annie is kind of amazing and she got it all from my mom. I work with parents everyday that either don't advocate for their student with special needs or that are too overbearing and speak up in such a way that the teachers become unwilling to help their student because they are so demanding.

I remember coming home from school and being able to tell it was an IEP meeting day because of the cupcake tins and cookie sheets dirty in the sink. My mom would bake all day long to bring each person involved in an IEP meeting a plate of treats recognizing that if these teachers were going to spend time helping her daughter, the least she could do was bring them some goodies. She always tried to balance the services she was receiving from the school with time spent volunteering at school functions and donations given to the classroom. I remember even in Annie's seventh grade year when she wasn't feeling well, her volunteering to be the class pen pal and writing to the student's in Annie's class every other week. Like I said amazing.

Oh sisters. How I love them. I seriously don't know what I would do without them! I think after our mom died we just molded together and just took on the roles of what we were good at to make things work. Emily took care of the girls at the El Moro house and helped them survive emotionally, physically and mentally when things were crazy. She is also the cooking wife of the Jetcher house and is always coming up with new tasty things to eat. Amanda helps so much in supporting the girls bringing all her kids to swim meets with sonic slushes in tow for Annie and Julia to slurp on after swimming. She also teaches us all the homemaking skills she has aquired and is my pregnancy bible. She has all the answers I want. I am so grateful to have theses older sisters to look to and to learn from! Then Julia has always selflessly helped with all things Annie. The girl has shared a room with Annie since she was 4 and is an amazing example of being stalwartly obedient even when she could have made so many excuses to not choose good things. And Annie is the glue that holds us all together. Constantly teaching us how to act better, cracking us up with her hilarity and reminding us to read scriptures, say prayers etc.

Whenever I think of this house, I always think of all the ladies in the Lyn Rae ward that I learned from. You can't live on this street without gleaning from their wisdom. And not only that but all the ladies in the Kimball stake who I got to spend time with at girls camp, talking to at Vista Cleaners and learning from at church meetings. They are such amazing women who are devoted to serving others, raising their children the best they can and lifting up those around them. My family was so blessed to be supported by the people who lived in that ward and stake.

Maybe I am just feeling nostalgic, or hormonal or eh who knows...bloated? But this Mother's day I just want to say thanks to all those lovely ladies who have helped shape and mold my character, who have been shining examples of what it is like to balance busy schedules and still come out with their sanity in tact, and who have taught me to rely on the Savior for my support.

Happy Mother's day to all ya'll! And just know that I am striving to be a bit like you.

Stumblies

So if you come to our house, you are most likely to find all of us on computers ignoring each other. You will hear occasional chortling and then continued ignoring of all others present. This is because we have found our new true love, Stumblies.

Essentially, you register, check off a list of things you like, and it provides you with endless hours of internet entertainment. The best thing I checked on my list was cats. Because it gives me lots of cat videos and the ability to hack Butt's facebook page with cat videos and pictures so everyone at BYU-Idaho know that she is a crazy, obsessed cat lady. (Remember how I named Julia, Butts, and how all of her roommates at school call her that now? Oh ya me too. )

So here is a gem I found on Stumblies that I will share with you. It is 25 rules on how to be a cat. Enjoy.

For the faint of the reading heart, there is also a video at the bottom.

Anyone can be a cat. All you have to do is follow the rules.

Rules For Being A Cat.

1. Anytime you go in or out a door you must pause at the threshold and contemplate whether you deign go through that door. You must do this until a much larger being is ready to give you a boot in the ass. You may then go through the door.

2. Anytime any flat object is laid upon the floor, you must go to the exact center of that object, lie down, and go to sleep.
3. If you see any space anywhere that is just about your size, you must get into it and look around.

4. Kill.

5. Want a good place to be a cat? Try anyplace it would be inconvenient to have a cat.

6. Anything that was OK the last time is not OK anymore. If you wanted to be picked up the last time, you no longer want that. If you liked Swiss cheese the last time, you no longer like it. If you wanted your head scratched the last time, you now regard anyone who wants to scratch your head as a mortal enemy of cats.

7. If two doors lead into the house off a porch and someone opens one of them, you want to go in the other one. You will not enter the first door, but will wait until someone opens the second door. Then you will enter the house.

8. Unless you decide you don’t want to go through that door either.

9. If you do go through that door, see Rule No. 1.

10. Kill.

11. Center of the room? Bad idea. Better stick close to the edges, and pour yourself sideways around the furniture.

12. If you share a house with a larger being who is stronger than you, who provides you with meat and drink and so on, you must disregard that being. You must treat that being with utter indifference.

13. Unless you did that the last time.

14. Kill.

15. Occasionally, you must act as though you are absolutely insane. You must chase shadows, spring upon ghosts, do battle with invisible beings, arch your back and somehow become larger than you are.

16. If anyone sees you doing this, you must stop at once and pretend you were not doing it, and treat the being that saw you with utter contempt.

17. Occasionally, you must disappear for three days to a week, then return home and sleep for 36 hours without moving a muscle except those necessary to breathe. When you get up, you will stretch and then kill something.

18. Want to try something fun? After sitting in one place for several hours and watching an empty room, go someplace else in the room and watch things from there.

19. Kill something and leave the parts you don’t want in the kitchen. Or under the dining room table.

20. Stick one leg out in the air at an impossible angle and lick it for several minutes. When you get tired of licking it, just leave that leg sticking out in the air and stare off into space.

21. Any human caught lying down is your property, to inspect, walk over and jump onto or from as you see fit. The face is a good jumping-off place.

22. Just because you are more handsome, more self-possessed, more relaxed, wiser, and a better athlete than humans does not mean you are superior to them. You are also superior to them for other reasons.

23. You need not obey the law of gravity.

24. If you follow all these rules, you may be a cat.

25. Unless the cats change the rules.

Here is a video we also love.

Thanks Stumblies for making our lives complete!