I like to move it, move it!

oh, wait. . . no, I don't. Moving and packing sucks! This weekend Cass and I packed up both our cars with his junk and drove to my house. This morning he carried on to Cedar, and we unloaded my car's worth of his stuff into the garage. But here is all my stuff! 

One wall of my room *just tilt your head a little*  (also I'm very excited and grateful for my new vacuum -- courtesy of some amazing Swallows :) )

The landing of the stairs. . . it's almost entirely books and shoes!

Tilt your head once more to see the foot of my bed with some of our new bedding -- The large quilt on bottom is from Grandma Swallow. 

 

 

 

So this is what I have packed so far . . . now just to get it to Cedar!

Sweet Grandmas, Quilts, and Weddings

My grandma passed away January 15, 2007. She was the mist kind, loving, selfless woman I have ever met. I won't go into brag-mode, but suffice it to say I consider myself blessed to have had her example. I sure hope she wore of on me.

As I plan my wedding, I am oft thinking of how things would be different if she were here. She was both an expert seamstress and quilter. She made stockings for all of us by our first Christmas, would randomly make us quilts, sewed my baptism dress, and was apparently finishing my mom's wedding dress on the way to the temple! While Grandma probably would've sewn my wedding dress, what I wanted most was a wedding ring quilt. You know, one of those old school ones that take forever to make and represent eternity. Well my mom loves my brother-in-law enough to make him a stocking last Christmas, but she doesn't love me enough to make me a quilt. And so I was resigned to store bought quilts until someone taught me to make my own.

This weekend I was thrown a lovely shower by my sweet new aunts and girl cousins. Grandma Swallow was able to leave her mission for the afternoon and come as well. And she made me a gorgeous quilt! I was just blown away that she would take the time out of her busy schedule to make me -- someone she hardly knows-- such a wonderful gift. Even the aunts and Grandma McCoy. I have met these people once before, and they were also so kind and welcoming. It was great!

And yes I love and miss my grandma. But these women will be wonderful togave in my life as well.

yes I said yes I will Yes

Happy Bloomsday, y'all!

In case you don't know, Bloomsday is the day in which Ulysses takes place, as well as the date of Joyce's first date with his later wife, Nora. Ulysses is actually in her honor, I believe. Apparently Dublin is the place to be today . . . Maybe next year?

So go read Joyce and celebrate his special day! Or atleast take someone on a date; she just might end up your wife!

Cuz crazy is perfect, so I will be perfect. . .

So . . . my life is a little crazy. I've been a little busy. But here's the run down on my haps as of late. 

Saturday I took the kids to 7 peaks. I sunscreened them and totally forgot about myself.  That sure hurt, and I learned my lesson! It was nice to just relax and read in the sunshine though. 

Tuesday I headed up to Salt Lake to have dinner with Cass and his boss. BBQ -- Delicious!

Wednesday the lovely ladies in the ward threw me a shower, and I was pleased with the attendance of ladies from the old ward and some friends -- as well as a very special friend's mom! Highlights were my new cookie press, my stack-able cooling racks (which I'm way too excited about!) and being able to chat it up with Nattie Cat :) Downside: I don't know Cass we'll enough, apparently, and ended up having to stick about ten pieces of gum in my mouth, which really isn't that big!!

Saturday was a crazy busy day! I had the eye doctor- lovely- and am not too much worse (yet I never ever ever! drive home from the eye doctor -- not safe!!). Then Cass came down and we headed to the Stone Family Reunion for lunch and some games. For dinner we headed up to meet Cass's best friend (and his wife, sister, and brother-in-law) who I have never met before. I was a little nervous.  I don't like meeting new people.  But I think it went okay.  They were nice. I don't think I was too weird. Afterwards we continued north towards Cass's homestead for the night.

Sunday we went to church and played with Cass's fam.  His baby sister is a doll. She's hilarious and I love her.  She's crazy fun. However, that evening I fell ill.  Cass drove me home and I took to bed for quite a while.

But! I still made time to read in the last little bit, leaving me with these lovely reviews to dispense for ya'll:

The Center of Everything : A Novel
I have had quite an adventure reading this book. You see, I got to page 214. And I read it, and finished it. And then my eyes went up the next page, and it didn't make sense. I read it again. Nope. And I checked the page number. It was not 215.  So I trekked to B&N where they didn't believe me that I bought the book there-- but we finally got sorted. About a week later it came and I was finally able to finish this lovely novel about the coming-of-age of a Midwestern girl in a America with a crazy mom, a crush on the neighbor, and a hottie friend who  dates the neighbor.  Best part: the mom was a teenager when she had our main character and has younger sisters close to the age of her daughter. At a family dinner, the Mom's sisters think their dad called her a Horse. Nope. Not it. Not horse.  I found this to be a great novel with both hilarious and touching moments. It's cited as akin to To Kill a Mockingbird.  I'm not sure I would classify it as such, but close as a coming-of-age novel.

 

 

And now I try to ---

-finish my thesis . . . Oh Isadora Duncan. How you plague me. I wish we could be friends. But I think we're on to the easier part now. . . I hope.

-print, address, and send announcements.  They should be done on Monday from the printers, so I suppose I shouldn't stress until I actually have them in my possession. 

-I also work every day, which I nerdily spice up with my myriad of howstuffworks.com podcasts.

-I also babysit twice a week, which is a nice respite from life. :)

-I have a busy, busy weekend!

-My mom's gong out of town next week, which doesn't really require any extra work from me - unless there is an emergency

-Not go insane! :)  

Beaches by Iris Rainer Dart 

So. No lies. I picked this book up because it had Bette on it and cost a dollar. I originally took it with me to 7 Peaks on Saturday because  I figured it would be easy to read in a loud, crazy environment.  Which it was.  But it was still a cute book. I enjoyed it, as I enjoy most books about friends throughout the years. Beaches is nothing special, but don't let that turn you off.  It's still touching and cute.

 The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1)

So I guess Rick is starting to rival Philippa, but I really enjoy reading "Matthew" books! They're easy to pick up and put down with my schedule and don't require too much thought. This series is similar to the others of Rick's, but it is about the Egyptian Gods and magicians.  I did like that he switched it up with the mortals being "blood of the pharaohs" and magicians instead of being demi-gods. I also like this because I do not know as much about the Egyptian Mythology as the Greek or Roman. Similar to my prior review on Rick, I just love that he can get kids to read. I don't care what kids are reading, as long as they are. However, I did not like that the chapters switched back and forth between Sadie and Carter (the main characters are brother and sister), and at times the action got a little rushed. However, if you're into "Matthew" books like I am, I'm sure you'll enjoy this.  

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

I did not enjoy this book at all. It was not fluid. It was consumed with sex. It tried to be literary, and I just feel that it really failed. I will not be recommending this to anyone anytime soon, nor rereading it. So if you love it, maybe you can talk me into it. But I doubt it. I'm sure part of the problem was that I had misconceptions about the book when I picked it up, but even after I figured the setting and everything, I didn't like it. It took me quite a while to get through it for a book I thought I would enjoy. I almost didn't finish it, but I have moral issues with not finishing a book. So I trucked through and hoped it would get better. It didn't.  Don't waste your time.  

Engagements

Last weekend, Scott Myler took some fantastic engagements for us! Here are my favorites :) 

Let Your Inner Tiger Roar?

So the other day I was reading one of my favorite mommy blogs, Suburban Turmoil, whose post was about Tiger Moms. And I'm not a mom, but it got me thinking.

I'm already a tiger, so I will totally be a crazy tiger mom. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm much less of a tiger now than I used to be. I can acknowledge When I didn't do my best, when someone gave a better interview or audition than I. But then there are the days I sit and wonder how I have had such an easy time with jobs I am seemingly unqualified (or at least under qualified) and am yet struggling to find a job in my field in Cedar. And at first I get a little 'tiger-y' about it. Almost to the point of entitlement. I mean, I'm Good!!  I have Experience!! But do do other people. And that's okay. I'll just keep trying. And so I've got to ditch the tiger sometimes. As my mom would say, be a duck. And as Dory would say, just keep swimming. And so I just keep going, keeping my tiger to myself. 

However, the tiger is very helpful sometimes. It gives me confidence. It helps me stick up for myself. Maybe we all need a little inner tiger, as long as we know when to cage it! But I think it will come in handy once I'm a mom. All kids need an advocate in their corner.  I look forward to being the biggest cheerleader for my children, and silently sulking when they didn't get the solo, even though they don't care.

The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar


I have a habit of picking up a book without knowing anything about it. The Bell Jar is no exception. I'm not really sure how I made it this far in life without reading Sylvia Plath, but I do know who she is. At least, I know she's a writer, a poet, and that she killed herself by sticking her head in the oven. (apparently shortly after the publication of this book)

But I digress. We're discussing The Bell Jar.

And I really enjoyed reading it. Esther, the main character, is very real, very well written.  I really felt as though I knew her. Which makes sense, because it is loosely autobiographical.  Plath suffered from terrible depression, which is very clear in the reading. I can't imagine anyone having written so well about depression unless they have experienced it themselves. Having experienced depression myself, I know how Esther and Plath feel, and I wish someone had been able to help them. Depression isn't always something you can just snap out of. It's not always something terrible; sometimes it's just the blahs. People don't always understand and then aren't able to help. Plath does a great job at illustrating that.

 I recommend this book for anyone who would like more insight into depression.

Happy Reading!

Zelda's Cut

Zelda's Cut

As ya'll know, I love Philippa Gregory. However, Zelda's Cut is probably my least favorite of her works. I really like the concept -- a literary author being forced to write trash that sells for money to support her sick husband who thinks they  have much more money than they do -- but I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. It both came out of nowhere and was completely acceptable for the characters. I really don't know. 

The novel is cleverly odd, and deals with a lot of important issues without actually talking about them. It was kind of nice, though, to just experience the issues and their affects. It does, however, discuss the concept of creating a person or an idea, and who has ownership over it. It talks about gender and sexual orientation. It's about self discovery. And, of course, it's about Art verses Entertainment. 

So. . . do I recommend Zelda's Cut? I'm not really sure. If you've never read Ms Gregory, it will probably turn you off to her, so don't let it be your first. But if you're feeling daring, or just want to discuss it with me, give it a shot. I'd love to hear what you think. 

Nightlight

Nightlight: A Parody

You know, I heard this book was hilarious. And it was funny, but not quite hilarious. Can't say that I loved it. Def did not live up to the hype.  So if you are bored and have absolutely nothing else to read and need a laugh at vampire lovers, go for it. But don't go out of your way to read this. 

The Lost Hero

 

The Heroes of Olympus, Book One: The Lost Hero

My brother Matthew has been bugging me to read this book for months, and it finally reached the top of my list this weekend. The Lost Hero follows the Percy Jackson series, but is not necessarily dependent on such. It is about three kids, demigods, named Jason, Leo, and Piper.  Jason has no memory, Leo unintentionally killed his mother in a fire, and Piper's father has disappeared. The are all together on a field trip when disaster strikes and Annabeth arrives to take them to Camp Half-Blood, the camp for demigods.  It gives them a home, keeps them safe from the monsters, and provides a learning environment for them: about themselves, mythology, weaponry.

The story is about Jason and his quest, which Leo and Piper accompany him on, to retrieve his memories and allow all of them to understand their strange visions.  It involves Greek Gods, their Roman counterparts, mythology, important players in Greek mythology, monsters, fights, adventures, and a robotic dragon. 

I found the story delightful to be honest.  I love  mythology and I love catching all the secret little throwbacks Riordan makes to mythology and history. It's great that it's for children, so I can read it quickly and also because I think it's great for kids to read. It's even better when they read things important or relevant, but don't know it. Of course, Greek myths are not of vast importance in today's world, but I still feel that they should be known. So read it! And give it to kids to read!

Am I Unpatriotic?

I have recently been accused of being unpatriotic, which is, of course, showing a lack of love for one's country.  Now, I'm not the first person to stand up and die for my country, but I am most definitely American, am I not? 

I say the pledge.

I  support the troops. 

I vote. . . when I remember 


I believe in and support the constitution.


I have studied up on American History.


I would love to see American historical sites. 


But . . . I'm also more versed in British Monarchs and their consorts than American Presidents. I would take a trip to the Tower of London over D.C.  I would meet Queen Elizabeth II over President Obama. I have multiple non-fiction and historical fiction novels taking place in Europe, but none of early America. I'm much more fascinated with European History than American. But I grew up with American History. My ancestors settled the colonies.  Other ancestors settled the West. I know their stories.  I've heard them all my life. 


Perhaps I'm more interested in histories of the monarchs than of the presidents, because the histories of Europe are much more personal.  No American president had a sister as Queen of France.  No American president had their wife beheaded.  No American president rebelled and started a church of his own (although a presidential candidate did . . .).  No first-lady sucked at English, had an almost impotent and very incompetent husband.  


Clearly I'm more into the gossip rags than the political import. But does that make me unpatriotic?

Happy Birthday to Isadora Duncan!

Isadora Duncan: A Graphic Biography from Emma Keefe on Vimeo.

Isadora,

Happy Birthday! You are so crazy, I hope you know that.  But you are also phenomenal. You revolutionized the dancing world, and I can't help but love and hate you at the same time, although I am starting to hate writing about you. My paper is way too long and taken far too many revisions.  I loved your book, though. It was super trashy! And, actually, I mean that as a compliment :) It's all nice and gossipy about your lovers; I feel like I really got to you know! Have a great birthday, and make sure your scarf is in the car before it drives off!

Love,

Jayme

The Virgin Blue

I really didn't like this book!

Okay, that's out of the way. So The Virgin Blue is about this girl, Ella, who moves to France with her husband. Turns out, she's of French descent, but her folks emigrated during the Catholic/Huguenot problems. In stereotypical novel fashion, she starts researching her ancestors, and librarians are more than happy to help her, going out of their way and spending their own time to research her family. The French must be a very helpful people.

Then the novel will flash back to Ella's ancestors. I enjoyed these parts much more, which I have found is generally a problem with this sort of novel. I am always more interested in one of the two stories, usually the historical.  Maybe if it was used more sparingly, as a frame, or a bookend, I would be able to stand it better. 

With these history books, especially Catholic/Huguenot ones, an element of magic is generally present in the women. I'm kind of fascinated by this idea; that men have religion and women have magic. Rephrase: There is a certain mysticism to these women and their rituals, but it isn't like they're casting spells. Just that they believe in a spiritual goddess or female power to help them. This, of course, becomes a major problem for Isabelle, the ancestor, in this book. 

Spoiler: Ella cheats and it bothers me. I don't like her character at all.

And to finish my unclear and scattered review of this book, I feel like Isabelle's story ended quickly and unclearly (whereas she could have an entire novel to herself) and Ella's was unnecessarily drawn out. It was just weird. It got really staccato-y at the end, especially Isabelle's story. I just didn't like it at all. Don't read it.  

It's Not a Contest

In high school, well, all growing up, really, life seems like a race or a contest. Who has the best grades, who's wearing designer clothes, who made the team, whose boyfriend is cuter, more popular? Who doesn't have a boyfriend? It seems it's all about the boyfriend -- but not because you like him. Because you WON him. You beat out the other girls, and she with the best boyfriend wins.

So my guilty pleasure teenage tv show is Secret Life of the American Teenager. And the girls, in typical teenaged tv fashion, fall in and out of love with each others' boyfriends and baby daddies from episode to episode. And they finally called each other on it, on dating (and sexing up) boys just to make the other girl mad, not because they care about the boy. And it only hurts them in the long run. And it really made me think.

Turns out, life (and love) is not a contest. It's more like a matching game. Some people get flipped over once - boom! - match. Some people get flipped over lots, but no bueno. Some people don't get flipped over for a long time. And that's okay. Our match is not necessarily better or worse than anyone else. Just like in the matching game, all matches have equal points. It's in finding the match that we 'win' so to speak, and become happy. And truly happy people would want others to be happy to, wouldn't they?

And so, just remember. It's not a contest; it's your life.

Look forward to my next post in this series: It's Not a Race.  

The City of Ember

This reminds me of both Lois Lowry's Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger as well as Margaret Peterson Haddix's Running Out of Time. This is by no means bad.  City of Ember is written as young adult sci-fi, or perhaps just young adult fiction, but it is still a good read. 

It's about a city entirely in darkness, powered by an underwater generator powered by the river.  They are running out of resources, however, and the lights often flicker and the blackouts are getting longer and longer. It's told from the perspective of a 12-year-old girl and how she tries to solve this problem for herself, her family, and her city. 

It's easy and a fast read. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot as a child; I did enjoy it now. There are a few things that are rather juvenile in her writing and the plot, but it is juvenile, so it's all good. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the aforementioned books and doesn't consider any reading to be 'below them.'

Steinbeck: The Under Appreciated Artist

I find John Steinbeck to be one of the most under appreciated artists of his time, often overlooked in favor of Fitz or Hemingway.  Now, it's not so much that I love him, but I revere and respect him. I value his work and his place in my library. However, I'm not super into short stories, and I'm definitely more into East of Eden and Of Mice and Men, but I did still enjoy The Red Pony.

The Red Pony is a compilation of four short stories about a farm boy named Jody and his different experiences of coming to age. He learns of the fallibility of adults as he strives to become a man, and in the end, he finally does. He learned responsibility, how to work, how to be leader, how to take care of others. And the story is complete.

This is accompanied by another short story, entitled Junius Maltby, about a boy named Robbie who is raised unnecessarily (and unknowingly) in poverty by his intellectual of a father. However, the community wants to interfere, for Robbie's sake, and it leads to problems.

I did not find either of these stories particularly interesting, or noteworthy, but I don't feel that my time was wasted by reading them, either.

The Story of my Weekend

This weekend was fairly lovely, despite the world ending and the seemingly unrelentless rain, not to mention the construction. So Saturday, Cass and I met at the mall halfway between our houses and had lunch. We then walked around the mall and tried to find something to do. Even movies at the theater didn't look good. So we decided to redbox it and go to Cass's dad's house. We picked Easy A because, you know, we love trashy teenage movies for a dollar. And it was hilarious! Trashy, yes. But definitely hilarious. I think I might be getting old, though, because the patents were, by fat, my favorite characters. The things they said, the way they acted, it was great.

After the movie, Cass's dad, Morrell, took us to dinner at Fridays. It was really nice. He's a sweetie and it was great to just hang out. After dinner we went back to the house and watched tv. And then it took me two hours to get home because of construction.

Heresies of Nature

"Boy, you and Job and Anne Frank . . . Believing despite the evidence"

Margaret Blair Young

This book tells the story of a 'traditional' Utah family in a not-so-traditional situation.  The oldest daughter has left her husband and the mother  is dying from MS. The father and two girls still at home struggle to take care of the mother and continue on with life.  This book is about choices, struggles, faith, finding faith, losing faith, holding on to it despite everything. This book is about your faith being tried, about having hope for the future.  Its about families and relationships. It's about life and its trials. 

I really enjoyed this novel.  It made me cry a lot-- especially at the end. However, right before I loved it, I hated it terrible. I couldn't understand why people would make such choices, how life could be so hard, why anyone would hurt someone else in that way.  But then it ended. And it was beautiful. It gave me hope. 

The Little House

As you know, I absolutely LOVE Philippa Gregory. She could write just about anything at this point, I'm so hooked.  I've been trying to get my hands on this book for some time, but it was rather hard to find for a reasonable price. So I finally got my hands on this book, and devoured it in three days. 


The Little House is about a woman, Ruth, who, having no family of her own, is completely enveloped by her husband and his parents.  They are very controlling, forcing a move to a house down the lane, and taking over the care of the baby -- who they made Ruth give up her career to have. Ruth never wanted the baby, not now at any rate, and suffers from horrible postpartum.  The novel discusses her journey through her depression, her relationship with her husband, her baby, and her in-laws. And ends with a nice little twist, which I shall not divulge. 


As always, I enjoyed the novel by Gregory, it was the first of her non-historical fictions for me, and I strongly recommend this book, especially to mothers (even though I know nothing about motherhood firsthand). She seems to have quite the grasp on the situation Ruth is dealing with, and presents it in a great way. It is not a light book, but it is easy and enjoyable to read. The characters and the story were easy to relate to, and very realistic. I loved it. Now ya'll go read it!

The Gideon Trilogy

Linda Buckley-Archer

A few months ago, I ran out of books to read. Okay, just kidding. But I wanted to read something light in the form of juvenile or young adult fiction. So I went through Matthew's books and found  The Time Travelers. It's about two kids, city-boy Peter and farm-girl Kate, who accidentally end up in 18th century London. The series continues -- as various problems arise from time travel -- with The Time Thief and Time Quake. 

Buckley-Archer brings an interesting perspective to time travel, and does it in a manner that does not get two confusing and tangled up, as most do, which is why I generally do not dabble in time travel literature, but she presents it in a clear, understanding manner. There is no traveling to the past or the future and hiding from themselves, no meeting themselves in another age, none of the usual time travel problems found in fiction. Of course, there are problems to the time travel, which is discussed most clearly and efficiently in the third novel, but they are more of the moral and ethical dilemma. 

I really enjoyed this series. It was a light easy read and was perfectly suited to reading over the course of months, whenever I found the time during my busy school schedule. Surprisingly, Matthew never finished the first book, claiming he didn't like it.  Both my mother and I feel that he would have enjoyed it if he had finished. It's promoted as a book for kids who love Harry Potter, and I definitely support that assessment. I highly recommend this series for children of all ages :)