Books

Recently, on Facebook, several people have been talking about
ten books
that have made a lasting impact on their lives.

They don’t have to be fine literature,
classics, or “deep reads”.
Just 10 books that stayed with you or shaped your life.

Instead of doing this on Facebook, I thought it would be fun to do here.
However, in the interest of being interesting, :-)
I will only do 5 books.

1. The Dick and Jane Books:These are the books that I learned how to read with.
I remember sitting at a table in Mrs. Wickham’s 1st grade class,
pouring over these books,
feeling wonder and awe as the letters came together and started to form words.
I could feel the magical world of books coming alive at that time!
Who knew that all these jumbles of letters would take me through so many time periods,
introduce me to so many interesting people
and take me on journeys to far-away lands I could never afford to visit?
Dick and Jane began this adventure for me!

2. Pippy Longstocking
Pippy lived the life that I was too afraid to live at the time.
She was adventuresome.
She was brave.
She didn’t care what people thought of her.
She was rich.
She had a pet monkey.
And she could do what she wanted, whenever she wanted.
And, didn’t we all wish to wear braids that stuck straight out from our head?
Heck yes!

3. Laura Ingalls Wilder Series

Can you see a pattern here?
Another strong, female character that wore braids!
Hummm…
I must have been a very timid child, longing for adventures.
I loved that Laura got to live on the land,
and run freely through the meadows.
The thought of a “dug-out” for a house was both
enthralling and repulsive to me.
To be surrounded by all that dirt….
Can you imagine the bugs?
Confrontations with Native Americans were also exciting and terrifying to me.
And the blizzards where Pa had to hang on to a rope, or he’d get lost going to the barn…
oh, it was so dangerous, cold and unimaginable.
I still think of this when a big snow storm hits or we see a dug-out along the highways in Montana.
Thank you, Laura, for teaching me what this is!

4. Jane Eyre
This was probably one of the first “classics” that I ever read.
I thought it would be sweet, romantic and beautiful,
which is how I envisioned that time period.
I wasn’t planning on living through the horror of Jane’s abusive childhood.
I thought she would be beautiful, not plain looking.
I wasn’t planning on Rochester being so gruff.
What sold me on the book was Jane’s integrity.
Her moral character that was imbedded deep into her soul.
Even though I knew it was wrong, I wanted her to run away with Rochester!
True love conquers all!! Right?
WRONG!!
Your ability to love yourself and look at yourself in the mirror is the most important.
Jane taught me that.

5. Ann Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
I read this for the first time in Jr. High.
When I read it the first time and every reading since,
I hope and pray the ending changes.
I pray that I’ll get to that last chapter and it will have all been a terrible dream,
that it was just an amazing/horrible work of fiction.
To this day, I cannot wrap my brain around the horror of living life
as a Jewish person during that terrible time.
I cannot imagine being a girl her age, living her life in hiding…in an attic.
Every time I read it, I’m thankful for the simple things:
fresh air, good food, freedom, security

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I find it difficult to only stop at 5 books.
Maybe another entry, another day, I will write about 5 more books that have changed/shaped my life.
I love books.

Summer Dump

What’s been going on?

A lot, I tell ya!

A heckuva lot!

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I’ll let them do the talking…

Squirt learned how to throw rocks into a lake!

Flynn’s dream of owning his own airplane came true.

Some of us participated in a major community theatre summer musical production.
And some of us acted as producer of this same musical.
And some of us grew a few more wrinkles and grey hairs.

Some learned how to goof off a little more
and be more like a wild monkey.

Also, we went panning for gold in an old ghost town

Throw in a pathetic firework show

And a fabulous weekend spent with family

And I’d say we’ve been pretty darned busy.

I have a good excuse for not blogging, or staying in touch with anyone, or doing much of anything, really.

Now, the musical is over,
and I’m trying to catch up on
*yard work
*house work
*laundry
*family time
*pastry school

I guess it will be another 3 months before I blog again.

12th Grade Paper

It’s always a treat to go through a desk drawer that hasn’t been cleaned out for a while.
As you cull through mounds of pens that haven’t worked for decades,
unsharpened pencils missing their erasers,
lone staples that have broken away from the pack –  therefore making them unusable,
and paper clips that have been straightened out so you could use the end to push
”reset” on some outdated electronic device,
you find a document that is even older than the pens and paperclips that litter the drawer….

How this document got into the desk drawer will forever remain a mystery,
the reason lost to the ages.

Besides, how it got there isn’t important.
The fact that it is there and you got to read it once again is what’s important.
Because reading it has brought such large amounts of laughter
and reflection into your afternoon.

Because, as you read it, you are reminded of the young girl you used to be.
A young girl filled with ideals, innocence, a little humor and a whole life ahead of her.
So. Much. Innocence.

I found an English composition that I wrote my senior year of high school.
(That was a while ago.)
My English teacher had us write about our life, up to that point.
The topics included
*My Early Childhood *Early School Days  *My Friends
* About Me *My Family *My Hopes For My Life

It sounds long, but it’s only 8 typewritten pages long.
Yes.
High School was so long ago, it was typed using a typewriter.
(You remember what that is, right?)

I thought I’d share some of my favorite highlights of this paper.
Moments that made me laugh out loud as I read about myself and my teenage perceptions of my life.
Maybe you’ll get a chuckle out of it too.

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“It was a summer evening, during a rain and thunder storm when my mother got the first hints that I was to be born soon. After waiting the full nine months, plus five extra days, she was more than ready.
After eight hours or so of labor, I was finally born.
The date was June 24, 196? at 5:13 in the morning. I weighed seven pounds,
two and one half ounces and was 19 inches long.

My early childhood was a happy one. Although I spent a large portion of my growing up years being grounded, I remember mostly the happy things.”

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“I wasn’t always the little angel that people thought I was.
There was always little things I tried to do without my parents finding out about.
One Sunday, I went to my Sunday School class and didn’t put any underwear on.
My mom about died because that was when the dresses girls wore were extremely short.
She pretended I wasn’t her daughter that Sunday and when we got home,
you can believe I got quite a talking to (I probably got grounded too!)
We both remember that day and she still teases me about all the little boys in Sunday School
(who are all good-looking young men now)
seeing my cute little fanny.”

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“I started kindergarten when I was five years old. I attended a private kindergarten. I made a lot of friends that year and I had a boyfriend other than Brett.
I was even brave enough to get up during one of our lessons, walk up in front of the whole
class, and give him a big, fat kiss.
He was very embarrassed.
That was a happy time.”

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“While I was growing up, I basically had the same friend.
I had one best friend who lived two houses down from me. I think that is why we fought so much.

One time we were in a real bad fight. This was the worst one...
…On this particular day, we decided to see who was the toughest of us two.
We were going to fist fight.
Just like in a real fight, we went to different corners of the yard to make our plans.
We were fans of Charlie’s Angels at the time so we
(my sister was my fighting coach, Joni’s sister was her coach)
used what we saw on the show to make our plans.
I was going to wait for Joni to get close enough, then I would kick her in the stomach.
Of course it would hurt, so when she grabbed her stomach and doubled over,
I would jump on her back and knock her to the ground.
When she was on the ground, I would sit on her and knock her senseless.
Perfect!
Only, I was so nervous I totally  missed her when I kicked and she grabbed my foot and tripped me.
I don’t think she would have hurt me real bad, but someone stopped the fight before
anything could happen.
We were lucky.”

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“During elementary school, I only made one bad choice as a friend….
….she scared me to death.
She didn’t believe in God.
She believed in Thor and Indian Gods, etc.
She told me one day I had an ugly demon following me and it wanted my soul.
She had me very scared and she finally got rid of it one night by some spell.
When she would spend the night at my house, in the morning she would tell me how she had all these demons in my house and they practiced their black magic on our various pieces of furniture.
She would also tell me that she saved me many times because her devil friends wanted to practice on me….
… She was only my friend for a year.
All my friend have since been normal.
At least they didn’t practice black magic on me.”

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“I wonder a lot about what it’s like to be old.
It scares me a lot too. I am really frightened to go into nursing homes because I may be like that
one of these days and it doesn’t look like fun.”

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“I always joke around about getting a face lift when I’m twenty.
Well, twenty (even the thought of that sounds old to me) may be a little young,
but I definitely see one at twenty-five or thirty.”

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“As I get older there is a certain way I would like to be.
I want to stay happy  my whole life.
I also want to make other people’s lives happy.
I would like for the whole world to get along and be happy.
Happiness is very important to me.”

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Well, there you have it.
My teenage brain’s perception of life.

At least I got the last part right.

(My senior portrait)

Oh yeah,
I got 100% on the paper!

Bee

There are over 25,000 known species of bees world wide.

You have
Honey Bee
Bumble Bee
Ground Bee
Wasp
Hornet
Carpenter Bee
&
Yellow Jackets
in all their varieties and species.
(There are about 4000 species in the US and 250 in Britain. In case you didn’t know.)

Then there are the other types of bees.

You have
Quilting Bee
The Birds and the Bees
Busy as a Bee
The Bee’s Knees
Bees in your Bonnet
None of your Beeswax

Of course, you’ve all heard of the
Spelling Bee!

But have you ever heard of the
Geography Bee?

I hadn’t either.
Until Scooter won the top prize in his middle school.

I didn’t even know he was competing, until one day he came home from school and said he was in the semi-finals.
And then he came home and said he’d made it to the finals.

I was speechless.

I knew the kid liked geography.
He always liked playing with US map puzzles as a kid.
He could put the puzzle together without even thinking.
He knew the states and their capitals.
But that’s all I thought he knew.
I was surprised.

I wasn’t invited to view the semi-finals (because he didn’t invite me),
but I made sure that I knew when/where the finals were.
It was exciting to watch!

I videoed him answering one of the easier questions.
(You’ll have to click on the link. I can’t get the video to embed.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMAdFDWx7kg&feature=youtu.be

There were 10 kids from his school that made it to the finals.
It was neck and neck at the end.
Scooter was competing against a classmate and friend .
To my surprise and delight,
and with my heart stuck in my throat as I watched them answer question after question,
Scooter prevailed and won.

He won a trip to the State competition.
(It was held here in town at the University)
The winner of state goes on to compete in nationals.
It’s a big deal.

Here’s what National Geographic (who sponsors the bee) has to say about it:

”Each year thousands of schools in the United States participate in the National Geographic Bee
using materials prepared by the National Geographic Society.
The contest is designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms,
spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography.
Schools with students in grades four through eight are eligible for this entertaining
and challenging test of geographic knowledge. “

To help him study, we bought books and study guides.
My house has huge maps pinned on the walls.
There’s a practice test online that he took every day
and then he’d go study the things he got wrong.

We spent hours each day reviewing potential questions.
Looking up answers to make sure they’re still correct and accurate.
Verifying facts.

Learning rivers, valleys, mountains, plateaus, ancient civilizations, history of languages
monetary systems, governments, rainfall amounts, geography terms, etc. etc.
You  name it, it’s included in the Bee.

Finally, the day of the state bee arrived.
Flynn was here for the big occasion and gave him a priesthood blessing
to help calm his nerves.
We felt like that no matter what,
Scooter had studied his heart out, so no matter where he placed
he could hold his head high and be proud of his accomplishment.

(Doesn’t he look handsome?)


In our state, only 79 kids qualified to attend.
Scooter beat 804 kids in his school.
Plus, he’s competing against kids as old as 14!! Gah!

One of the added benefits of the day was having his
most excellent school teacher be there as one of the judges.

Of course, Mr. D. couldn’t be Scooter’s judge,
but it was still nice having him there.

In the end, Scooter didn’t place in the top 10.
He felt pretty terrible.
We consoled him, dried his tears,
and stayed and watched the final round
(which he knew almost all the answers for!)
and began strategizing for next year’s bee.

Like I said, we’re pretty proud of our boy!
He’s smart, he’s cute and most importantly, he’s a nice kid.

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Another added bonus for the day:

After the preliminary rounds were over, the contestants were given a candy bar.
Scooter says it was like a Nestle Crunch Bar,
only the bits in it were hard (I’m guessing toffee).

As soon as he took a bite, his tooth felt funny.

Upon closer inspection, we found out that his back molar
had split in half.

So we called the dentist,
and as soon as the bee was over,
he had his final baby tooth extracted.

Not every kid can walk away from a Geography Bee with a broken tooth as a prize!

Don’t let the drama of the photo fool you!
The laughing gas did it’s work!
The boy was giddy and as high as a kite.
It was an easy breezy extraction made funnier when Scooter asked to see the tool the dentist was going to use.
(He used his curiosity as a ruse.)
When the dentist showed the pliers to him, Scooter grabbed them and tried to take them away.
It took the dentist both hands to get them back.
Scooter laughed the whole time.
(Little stinker.)