Number One

Number One:  Read the favorite books of all my close friends.

This one I just finished and I was hung up on this one the last couple months so I am pretty excited it is finished.  I wanted to read the favorite book of a few of my friends.   I typically choose biographies of people who have overcome obstacles in their lives or survival books so I thought it would be good to step out of my own choices and read the favorite book of my friends.  Danielle choose a book called Gossie and Gertie.  It was one I got for her at the dollar store a couple of Christmases ago and it was about 2 duck friends who do everything together and then one of them gets destracted....I don't know if it was Gossie or Gertie..... and doesn't do what the other one wants...until it is dinner time.   Obviously it is a children's book but it was her favorite present that year and proudly displayed in her bedroom so that was pretty easy to get through.  If we read a really good book we usually both end up reading it so we have read a lot of the same stuff.

The next was "Same Kind of Different as Me".  This was Amy's favorite book and I read it last summer.  It was about a homeless man who had a horrible life and then someone recognized the good in him and helped him find his own good and self.  It opened my eyes a little of how people do live lives of inadequate education, no family connections, and poverty.  It also showed me that there is good in everyone, even though sometimes you have to be willing to look deeper than the surface for it. 

Then I read "Daughter of the Forest" which was Ambree's.  It was a fun book based around Medieval times in Ireland.  It was fun to review the history of the British Isles and some of the folklore of Ireland.  The story was good too.  The main character lost the ability to speak at the very first of the book so I wondered how that would work throughout the book.  It did.  Even though there was tons of conflict in the story everything worked out in the end.  This is going to sound weird but the brothers were turned into swans and then were turned back into humans but one brother chose to be a swan because he had fallen in love with another swan.  When I finished the book the WJ pool closed by our house and then all the water fowl come and take it over and there were two swans in there until a couple of weeks ago, so every time I pass and see them I think of they are Finbar and his love.  "I suppose they were lovers."

"The Blue Castle" was Naomi's choice.  She had a hard time choosing.  Her favorite is Jane Eyre and no offense but I hate that story so bad, that I don't think I could get through the book, so I asked her to choose another one.   "Blue Castle" was one that I think she read as a teenager so it was about being your true self and then everything works how beautifully in the end.  It was a cute story of how a women breaks out of her tedious life living with her dominating family and follows what she wants to do and ends up marrying the weird guy in the town who ends up being the wealthiest guy ever!   It was fun to read.

Rachel and Jenna both said "Pride and Prejudice".  That was on Naomi's list too so I figured go for it.  I just finished it.  I have seen many different renditions of it in movies and TV but like most stories the book was far better.  It was just so sweet.   Elizabeth did bother me the whole way through because she was just so proud but some lines just really appeal to the romantic in the reader.  I was glad for a couple of things.  First that I did know the story because it was hard to follow who was saying what about who.  Also that I read it on my kindle so all the old English words I could touch and the definition would pop up.  I notice that I speak a little 'old English' after having been engrossed in the book for the last few days.   I did really enjoy it and want to read more of Jane Austen's books in the future.  

So that is Number One.  It was fun and gave me a little insight into what my friends like and more about them.  It also go me to read a few books I never would have otherwise.   Check.  

Number 13

Since I have lived in this house off of Pauline Drive I have wanted to paint the entrance.  It was rusting and paint was peeling off.  I feel like we live in a great neighbor but as you drive through the entrance it resembled less than the people who live there.  So using the work force and good works of the young women, we did it!!!  Mindy needed her good works project and the YW needed an activity of service.  Mindy and I planned it out and Trevor donated the paint.  (He paints for the church and we were going to use Elder Ballard's paint, however he grabbed the wrong one out of his garage, so it isn't as holy as we were planning).  The first night the girls prepared the cement by scrapping the chipped paint off and cleaned up the leaves around the entrances.  PS We expanded it to all four gates to both of the entrances to the neighborhood.  The girls also spray painted the ironworks.

 

The next week the girls painted the concrete white.  I unfortunately had parent-teacher conference so I could be there.  I really felt horrible but couldn't do anything about it.  I trusted that Mindy would be able to carry through the organization of finishing up.  It was a crazy busy night for me at conferences but I hurried home, however the girls were done.  As I drove into the neighbor I was so happy with how the girls had improved the look of our neighborhood.  I drove around the circle between the entrances a few times to look at it.   I am so proud of them for their willingness to do good works and do it with a happy heart.  I still need to go and touch up where white paint got on the iron but overall it looks soooooo dang good.   Number 13.....check.  

Number 3

Again this wasn't on the original list but it was cool as heck so I am adding it in place of learn how to make chocolate mousse.  I did try to make mousse and failed miserably so I didn't try again because it was so gross.  But it's replacement was a lot more fun.  I have a friend who is an ultra-sound specialist and sometimes has long nights in the hospital with no patients.  So one night I went in and she totally ultra-sounded me.  It was the coolest thing ever.  The first thing is I was so impressed with how well my friend knew and did her job.  She knew where every organ was first thing and didn't have to like 'look' for it really, just here it is.  I honestly couldn't pick out a lot of the organs on the screen and she explained what we were looking at.  She did my throat first and I don't even remember the name of the organ there but then showed me a artery valve that would open and close.....it was the coolest!  Then she did my stomach and showed me my uterus, ovaries, and bladder then kidneys.  The absolute best was my heart.  She put the 'wand' under my rib cage and I totally saw my heart beating.  I could see the two chambers as they pulsed.  It was incredible.  What I gained from this was not only a better understanding of my body and the human body in general, but I came away thinking how incredible the body is.  Not only just the body but life.  What makes a person, animal, or plant alive?  Our hearts beat and blood pumps without us even thinking about it.  Why?  It isn't connected to energy or a power source, it just does it's job because it is alive.  I have really thought about 'life' and how marvelous it is and how thankful I am for the miracle of life I have and all the life (people, animals, and plants) in the world. 

Number 20

This wasn't on my original list but I guess needed to happen so I will replace it as #20 because there is no way I am going to catch up on scrapbooking.  As I am getting older I felt I needed to make sure all my parts were healthy.  So in the last month I have had everything checked....I mean everything.  I won't go into detail but it isn't something I plan on doing again soon.  I had blood work done and shots and then all that other stuff.  Today I finished up with a mammogram so if all goes well with that I am healthy.  I was hoping for some weird stuff to happen with my blood work to explain a couple things but all I was told was to cut down on the french fries and eat more fish and nuts.  Probably didn't mean the fish and chips kind.  I was happy because there is a strong presence of diabetes in my family and there was no sign of that either.  So even though it wasn't fun and I hated every minute of it all I did it and can have some peace that I am healthy.  

# 40 Finish My Current Journal

Even though it is #40 it isn't the last one I need to do, but I am getting really close to finishing.  I started this journal January of 2002, so had I finished it on my birthday last year it would be exactly 10 years old.  Honestly I am not a big journal writing person.  I used to be but I don't feel like there is much variation in my daily life so it isn't that interesting to write or read.   When I got this one for Christmas I wanted one without lines so I could be more creative with it.  So I would tape ticket stubs in and the odd drawing or whatever.  It makes it a thousand times more interesting for me to look at and remember than just writing.  Here are some examples of pages.  The first is when I got behind on ticket stubs so I stuck them in and tried to explain what they were and with who.  The second is some of the pictures I did when I dabbled in watercolors.  I got really good at pine trees.  I didn't have anywhere to put them so I just stuck them in the journal.  It is fun to go back and look at these kind of things because it brings back more memories than words. 

#16

This one I have needed to do for 5 years.  My brother Fletcher fell from a constructions site almost 6 years ago.  He is fine and recovered however it was a really hard thing to go through as a family.  It is impossible to describe seeing your baby brother laying there not knowing if he will make it or not.  As a big sister I was supposed to protect him and wasn't able to or even help once it happened.  So #16 is that I wrote up that incident and what my perceptions of it were.  It was hard to write and relive.  It ended up being 6 pages long single spaced.  I will file it away for maybe his kids to read when I am gone.  During Fletcher's accident I came to really know that I love my family.  I came to know our capacity to work together for a common goal and support one another.  I came to know the deep love my parents have for Fletcher and then all of us.  The hardest was to see them go through those events.  In the very beginning when Fletcher fell, I prayed in the back room of my classroom and was let know that he would be alright so during the experience I could focus on caring for my parents as they cared for him.  It is an experience that I base my faith on.  It happens to be Fletcher's birthday today too so even though I didn't plan it, it is a good day to post it.  

#17 Grow a Garden

 Since I have lived in this house 4+ years I have grown tomatoes in a little patch under the kitchen window.  One year I grew peppers that were so hot you couldn't even eat them.  However I have always wanted to grow a garden.  Two years ago I cleared a little patch of land and plant various seeds and nothing grew.  Could be I didn't really water it and I didn't read the directions on the package and put tons of seeds in.  So this summer I was determined to grow something besides tomatoes.  So instead of just throwing seeds into the earth and expected them to grow early in the Spring I planned my garden and read each package of seeds carefully and took notes in a little notebook.  Then tilled the ground and planted.  It worked.  I have squash, onions, radishes, and cucumbers.  The peas didn't really grow or the beets but next year I will try to figure those out.  Not to be cheesy but it really a miracle.  You put a little seed into the ground and cultivate (care for) it and then you have food.  It is amazing.  The first meal I really used stuff was really like a wonder.  We had gone fishing so we ate the fish we caught and the vegetables from the garden.  The only thing we didn't provide for ourselves was the rice.  Included in this years harvest was my lavender.  As with the garden I have planted lavender I bet 4 times, one each year and nothing happens.  Last year I planted two bushes and really cultivated them with water and shade when needed and then year they blossomed.  I clipped the buds and dried them and then removed the flower from the stalk and put the flowers in a little satchel.  From two pants I got 2.5 satchel which I gave to my mom.  So #17 very fulfilling in growing a garden.