Bookworm

It's been a while (11 months!) since I did a little book review/rating over here, so, as promised a couple of posts ago, I thought I'd better update y'all on what I've been reading. Similar to what I did last year.....I'll start with the highest rated books. 
I got these book recommendations from a variety of sources.  There ended up being some good recommendations - and some not-so-good ones.

(If it's 3 stars or lower, don't hold me to the quality of it at all  - I can't be responsible for a sub-par reading experience you may have!)
But, YOU may have different feelings/interests, so you may like the ones I didn't, and vice versa - so that's why I'm putting them all out there.

 5 STARS = it was amazing

LOVED Noelle Pikus-Pace and her example in the 2014 Winter Olympics!

I admit, I'm totally biased on this one....MY FRIEND wrote it!!! As in, she's a published author! Good job, Tera! :)

4 STARS = really liked it

These books go on in the series, with the first number in the address increasing
with each consecutive book; from 1 to 2 to 3, but I haven't gone on past the 2nd one.

Unbeknownst to me before reading this book, it takes place in the same geographical location of my son's mission area!
It even mentioned the town of Beckley which is where he was serving at the time I read this book!
   After reading it, I asked my son, in a letter, if the information/problems depicted were fact or fiction...it was accurate - Oh dear..... 

3 STARS = liked it
Follow the Stars Home by Luanne Rice
Chasing Yesterday by Rachel Ann Nunes
Reunion by Ally Condie
Keeping Kate by Lauren Winder Farnsworth
Distant Shores by Kristin Hannah
Sense & Sensibility: A Latter-Day Tale by Rebecca Jamison
Mountains Between Us by Jenny Proctor
Heart of Gold by Jeannette Miller
What Took You so Long by Pamela Williams
For Elise by Sarah Eden

2 STARS = it was OK 
Diamond Rings are Deadly Things

1 STAR = did not like it 
Luckily, there were NONE this time!!! 

(I should do this every 6 months, so it's fewer books to list!)

Happy Reading!

 

Pretty in Pink

The [final color-coded] missionary care package I did for August was PINK.

 {the contents}

While shopping for PINK, I realized that so many pink items are.....well, feminine products!

Which he has no use for (obviously).

But, with three younger sisters helping me, we just HAD to include some first-rate pink goodies like....

Princess fruit snacks (they all taste the same, right?)

Hello Kitty band-aids

Candy bracelets & necklaces

A baby powder scented pink candle

hee hee.

(I reminded him these packages are meant to be shared with his peeps - like a family with little girls, how fun to pull a surprise out of his pocket/bag for them!)

 {the packed and ready-to-ship box}

The four pink flaps say:

"We are 'tickled PINK' about your missionary service!" 

"We hope everything in B.V. (Buena Vista, VA) is 'in the PINK of perfection!'"

"We continue to pray you 'feel in the PINK' on your mission!" <3 font="">

"PINKie promise to keep writing your detailed, fun-filled letters!"  :) 

So, that completes the Year-of-Colored-Themed-Care-Packages.  All the colored strings/cords should be cut off his secret package I sent him at the beginning of his mission by now.

 Which means he can open it up and find his special message.

Now, to decide what to do the final year......I can't waste the opportunity/easy shipping options due to his stateside mission.  My other kids may not be so fortunate with their future missions!  ;)

**************************************

To see past missionary care packages, click HERE. 

Vocabulary 401

Back in 9th grade, I did something that made a lasting impression on my English teacher.  (Wow!  Who knew that was even possible, being the younger sibling of "Mr. Genius," who'd already gone through that same school and completely amazed all the teachers?!?)  Every time I, or someone in my family, have run into her since then, she always mentions this memory she has of me.

This is what I did - and I totally thought it was the perfectly NATURAL thing to do in the situation, so I've never been able to figure out what the big deal was - when I was reading a novel, and I came across a word that I did not know the meaning of, I looked it up in the dictionary, and wrote the word & definition down in my notebook.  (I filled quite a few pages of that notebook!)  
That's it.  So, now you know a "secret" to making your mark with your teacher!  haha.

So, I still read novels these days (I'll have to do another book review on my blog soon), but usually I understand all the words.  It may have something to do with the fact that, admittedly, I prefer what I label, "easy reads."  ;)

Until.....I recently read a book by a different publisher/genre than I most frequently read......and in the first couple of pages, I found myself back in 9th grade!  I didn't know the definitions of all the words, even the context of the sentence didn't help me understand the word's meaning!  They really were "advanced" words, in my defense. ;)  So, I jotted the words down on a post-it note and got out my handy-dandy dictionary again. 
These days, I don't know where that old vocab notebook is, but now I can just document them on this blog!

So, I present to you a vocabulary lesson from the novel, Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (which happened to be a book I rated 4 STARS!) 


SURREPTITIOUSLY - obtained, done, made, etc. by stealth; secret or unauthorized
 
SLATTERNLY - slovenly and untidy
 
QUERULOUS - full of complaints; complaining
 
BESOTTED - to muddle or stupefy

ABSCONDED - to depart in a sudden and secret manner, especially to avoid capture and legal prosecution

TOREADOR - a bullfighter

LOTHARIOS - a man who obsessively seduces and deceives women, in reference to
the young seducer in Nicholas Rowe's 1703 play, The Fair Penitent 
 
IMPERVIOUS - incapable of being influenced, persuaded, or affected; impenetrable

MAWKISHLY - characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional

OBSEQUIOUS - compliant, obedient; dutiful; respectful

ABDICATED - to renounce or relinquish a throne, right, power, claim, responsibility, or the like, especially in a formal manner

IMPERIOUS - domineering in a haughty manner; dictatorial; overbearing

APPURTENANCES - something subordinate to another, more important thing

DIRIGIBLES - designed for or capable of being directed, controlled, or steered


How did y'all fare?  Were you besotted by these vocabulary words?

Am I the only one who didn't know all of these words?  I am???  Are you sure you didn't surreptitiously use your dictionary to get all the answers?!?

I've got a favorite from the list: obsequious.  I want obsequious children!!!  ;)

Five Words

One of the main things I took away from the "Queen of the Kingdom" conference last weekend was about WORDS.

Words are so important.

Right from the beginning of the conference, our presenter/mentor wanted us to write down just three words on our name tag that we wanted to be....it was just to get our mind starting to think in that direction.
There's so many words - and we could choose ANY of the hundreds of thousands that exist in our English language EXCEPT we were not allowed to choose "uptight," "rigid," or "controlling."  ;)  Those were words that had she had drawn the "no symbol" (ya know that red circle with a diagonal line through it?) on her giant post-it paper pad up front, because those traits ruin our femininity and are not characteristics of a "queen."

Later, we practiced saying general declarations that were written in our class book, out loud, with the group, to get us used to saying positive words about ourselves.
We even got to "play with" (draw from it's sheath and raise above our heads) a Gandalf-esque sword

while declaring, "I am a goddess of truth and light!"  Having a sword makes a difference, I tell ya!  (you should try it!)  It gives you the feeling that you've got power.  Like what you are saying is official, holds some clout!  ;)

Anyway, those were just some of the activities (there were many others) we did throughout the conference to get us in the frame of mind to choose words for ourself. 

By the end of the weekend, I chose five words.

Calm

Compassionate

Healthy

Energetic

Delightful

When I am going about my day; when I am wiping down the kitchen counters, while I put away clothes, when I'm on the phone with a not-so-happy customer at work.... I repeat this phrase to myself.  "I am a calm, compassionate, healthy, energetic, delightful woman."  I have been saying it daily (sometimes multiple times).  My plan is to keep saying it a lot. 
When I don't feel like getting up early in the morning to go out exercising, I say it in my mind. 
When I look in the mirror, and I think, "bleh," I say it in my mind. 
The other day, when I was leaving the check out at Costco after I'd just purchased a large amount of items (who doesn't have a large amount of items when they go to Costco?) and had had some problems that came up while checking out, I heard the cashier greet his next customer after me, "How are you today?"  And I heard her reply loudly-enough-so-that-I-could hear, "Well, I was fine until I got in line behind that lady!"  I repeated my words (with emphasis on calm, compassionate, and delightful!) in my mind over and over and over the whole way out of the store, through the parking lot, while unloading all my stuff (that caused a long check out), and even after I got into the car!!  ;)
When I got really upset at home (no!) towards a particular person (who shall remain nameless) and situation, I said this phrase in my mind all evening!

I didn't choose the words calm, compassionate, healthy, energetic, and delightful because that's what I believe I am....I chose them because I struggle to believe those things about myself.  And I can tell you, the more I have repeated that in my mind, the more calm, compassionate, healthy, energetic and delightful I have been able to feel in that moment.  Can it be that I am starting to believe them more?  It gives me strength to do things I might otherwise not have done.

These words can. change. me.
(Because that was another mantra of the conference, "For things to change, I must change.")

Just five words - out of thousands.

(Though, as I write this, it’s past meal time and I don't have any plans to make it and I let a stream of complaints and general disgruntlement flow out of my mouth earlier.  And there's the fact that I still haven't gotten around to doing some of our "SBL" outings this summer.  And when my son reminded me for the third (+) time that he STILL needs new soccer cleats due to his first game being in just 2 1/2 weeks, and my youngest [unedited] daughter asks why I have all those "red dots" on my chin…  I should have responded, “Because I’m HEALTHY…and ENERGETIC…and DELIGHTFUL…”)

So......

What are your words?

Miscues, Misunderstandings, and Mistakes

I just spent my weekend at Queen of the Kingdom with about 400 other women.
It is a training/learning opportunity and women's conference by the company, 3 Key Elements.

But, in addition to being trained all weekend, there were some funny/embarrassing/baffling parts of the weekend, too.  :)

#1  For one activity, words to a song were passed out, and we sang together.  It was a song that I was not familiar with, had never heard.  The title is, "Princess" as sung by Galen Crew.  In the song, there's a sentence where the lyrics pause....pause...pause while music is playing softly, then the final words of the sentence are sung after the pause.
So, here's my disclaimer: if you didn't know the song (like I didn't) and were only looking at the printed words on our paper, you might not get the tune/tempo/timing right, at first. 
As we were all standing and singing as a group, the leader/mentor (who was wired with a mike) was walking through the crowd, and would touch our arm, signaling she wanted us to sing with her (and louder?!)  Well, she came up to me, and at that moment, it happened to be that one part of the song with the pause!  So, I'm all singing with her (kinda louder than I had been) and I totally jumped the gun on those lyrics that were suppose to come AFTER the pause, and I sang out strong (near her mike) during the pause!  Woops!  It was heard by many!  AND the thing is; my premature entrance on my singing caused her to follow and sing at the wrong time, too!  hahaha.

#2  For another activity, we walked around the room and mingled with as many other women as we could in a designated period of time.  We were suppose to go up to someone and say, "What do you see in me?"  And then, they were suppose to just look at us, and go with their feelings/intuition and say the first word that came to their mind.  We would then switch roles, and the other person would ask us the same question, and we would tell them what we "saw."  We were suppose to write down what everyone said, so that at the end, we had a whole list of attributes about us.
So, I'm going along doing the activity, and had already talked to many when I come to a new [younger] woman and I asked, "What do you see in me?"
And she replied, "Dumb S_ _ _"
Taken back, I asked, "Pardon?"
"Dumb S_ _ _," she said again.
By now I'm thinking, Is she REALLY saying that about me?  Or is this the new "compliment" amongst the younger crowd these days?
But, just to be sure, I repeated back to her, "Did you say 'dumb s_ _ _?'"
And she said, "NO. Dumb s_ _ _."
Well, I was relieved she said, "No" but I was still hearing the same word that followed.
She must've seen my perplexed face because then she repeated it more slowly so I could understand this time, "Gumption."
"Oh, gumption!?!" I responded.
"Yes," she answered.
Whew!  I'll take it!  Following what I'd just thought I heard, that was the best word ever!  Gumption: initiative, resourcefulness, ingenuity, sense, backbone, courage, spunk.

#3 On one of our breaks, I had to go to the bathroom, and so I headed to it.  There was another lady entering the bathroom ahead of me, and the door was closed about half-way when I reached it, so I pushed it open so I could go in after her.  The lady turned and stood in front of the door opening and blocked me from going any further.
"This is a one-person bathroom," she informed me.
Huh?!?  How many bathrooms don't have multiple stalls these days?  I just assumed......
Well, you know what they say about assuming.....
As soon as I realized what was going on, I apologized profusely.  Poor lady.....she probably thought I wanted to "share" in her using the facilities experience that day - which I totally didn't!

Oh, dear.  Just a sampling of the cringeworthy things that happen to me on a regular basis!  ;)

Two Months of Summer - Gone?!?

July is over and done with - gasp! 

Here's how we spent it...

Watermelon smiles

The Logan fireworks show @ USU stadium on the 3rd
that my Uncle (waving from behind, in the red shirt) started clear back when I was a child....and I've loved going ever since!

Summer nights sunsets...

Fireworks...

...and family rounded out our 3rd of July!

Neighborhood party on the 4th of July - shaving cream and cheese puff game!

Summer cockroaches - bleh!

The girls and I went to "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" that my cousin was the Musical Director for!
And then out for shave ice - the BIG Kahuna - afterwards!

Kyle went on a High Adventure Scout Camp in the Tetons July 8-11.

Farmington Festival Days!

Hooray for the full-time missionaries in the Farmington Festival Days parade! 

(Sister missionaries in the red convertible behind the Elders)

Matt caught TWO shirts that they were throwing out at the evening festivities in the park - Brookelle immediately donned it as her new dress!

We {heart} our Farmington Festival Days

Family Night activity - climbing to the top of a neighborhood tree.

Annual read-a-thon and pizza picnic in our family room.

Katelyn got her long locks cut off!

Katelyn fed her obsession got crafty making bracelets

Katelyn & Brookelle were in the Days of '47 Children's Parade in SLC

Fresh Lime treats!

When the school supplies hit the shelves, we jumped on it! 

(Haylee's back pack pick) 

Lagoon

The new ride, Cannibal!

It's description: Cannibal lifts riders 208 feet and plunges them into a 116° beyond vertical free-fall into an underground tunnel

We ALL survived, although there WAS some crying and closed eyes involved. We also rode it while it was raining, so we were privileged to get pelted in the face with rain drops during our ride; the ride that was not open by Lagoon's season opening day because the dummies were falling out on the test runs; the same ride we noticed, as we waited in line, had a swaying/wobbling inverted loop when the coaster went around that section of the track  - Oh, my!

 

Road trip to St. George in the EARLY morning hours, as the sun is just coming up.

Nothing quite like the hot days of Summer, standing by Port-a-Pottys watching a Pioneer Day Parade!

Hooray for the full-time missionaries (again!), singing, "Called to Serve," in this parade in Washington, UT

Kyle got the silver medal running in the 16 yr. old foot race (because he was the only 15 yr. old who wanted to race, he "ran up.") and won In-N-Out Burger coupons, too!

Sparklers & firecrackers in the street to finish off the Pioneer Day weekend.

(including the "grand finale" that sent many of us RUNNING & SCREAMING, like last year!)  ;)

4-Wheeling in the property behind my parents' house

Our Annual Movie Marathon.  This year's titles: "Penguins of Madagascar," "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb," "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2," and "The Book of Life"

I attended the first day of this 2-day Women's Conference to close out the month of July.