2009 Reading List

This year I made great progress on my “required”reading.  I am shooting to read 100 books on a list I found.  The list is of books that you should read for college, but I seemed to have missed a lot of them.  I started this in 2007 with hopes of reading 10 books a year, and then maybe more.  I kicked butt this year!  So here is the list, with a rating listed.

Rating	Title	Author
**	Complete Poems	Sandburg, Carl
**	Complete Poems	Keats, John
***	A Streetcar Named Desire	Williams, Tennessee
***	The Power of Myth	Campbell, Joseph
*	Silent Spring	Carson, Rachel
****	I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings	Angelou, Maya
****	Animal Farm	Orwell, George
***	Favorite Folktales From Around the World	Yolen, Jane
****	The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin	Franklin, Benjamin
****	One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich	Solzhenitsyn, Aleksander
*	Catch-22	Heller, Joseph
****	Fahrenheit 451	Bradbury, Ray
***	A Testament Of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King Jr.	King, Martin Luther, Jr.
*****	Little Women	Alcott, Louisa M.
****	The Great Gatsby	Fitzgerald, F. Scott
***	Race:  How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession	Terkel, Studs
**	As I Lay Dying	Faulkner, William
****	The Ox-Bow Incident	Clark, Walter Van Tilburg
****	My Antonia	Cather, Willa
***	Selected Poems	Cummings, E.E.
**	Death of a Salesman	Miller, Arthur
*****	The Story of My Life	Keller, Helen
***	Millennium: Tribal Wisdom and the Modern World	Maybury-Lewis, David
****	The Jungle	Sinclair, Upton
*	White Shroud	Ginsberg, Allen
****	A Death in the Family	Agee, James
***	Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee	Brown, Dee
***	A Passage to India	Forster, E.M.
***	The Color Purple	Walker, Alice
**	Long Day’s Journey Into Night	O’Neill, Eugene
***	My House	Giovanni, Nikki
***	Mother Courage and Her Children	Brecht, Bertolt
****	The Time Machine	Wells, H.G.

For those counting I read 33 books, approximately 10,500 pages or 320 pages per book.  The hardest to get through were the poetry.  But I made it through.  I don’t know if I will do as well next year.  At this point I have read 66 of the 100 on the list.  So, maybe 3 more years.  We’ll see.

Oh, and my favorite “fun” reads of the year:

Title	Author
The Thief (series)	Turner, Megan Whalen
Fablehaven (series)	Mull, Brandon
Skipping Christmas	Grisham, John
The Westing Game	Raskin, Ellen
Tom Sawyer	Twain, Mark

I’m looking forward to the new year.  Time to sit down and make my list. 

Hawkins Family Volleyball

With my cousins, Seth and Debra, coming back in town for Christmas, we managed to pull together a family party for the Hawkins side of the family.  I managed to schedule the stake center and we put together a quick dinner of soup and rolls, and then pulled out the volleyball nets to get a family game going.  It was GREAT (okay, except for when Debra’s flash broke….I am so sorry!  I had no idea until it was over!)  I had no idea my family was so “talented” when it came to volleyball!

I think we took 100 pictures of the game.  A lot of blurry ones, but a few really good shots.  Unfortunately, there are so many, I am still trying to get through them.  It was fun spending time with family we don’t get to see very often.  Oh, and Garrick finally got to meet Seth’s daughter, Sofie.  The only child his age on my side of the family.  They had fun trying to figure out what was going on with each other.  Unfortunately, I never got the camera on them together.

See.  Didn’t I say we were talented??  Hopefully we can pull together another game next year!

Christmas 2009

We had fun introducing Garrick to Christmas this year.  It was strange experience.  With both the other boys, they were nearly 1 and were walking around for their first Christmas.  I didn’t know what to do with a child that just sat there.  (okay maybe he didn’t just sit there, since he figured out how to crawl on Christmas Eve)  However, he had a blast trying to get as much wrapping paper into his mouth as possible.

We started out with our PJ’s on Christmas Eve.  I managed to find Buzz Lightyear PJ’s for all the boys.  Yippee!!

Waking up on Christmas morning was no problem, of course. 

For those who don’t know already.  Santa visited us earlier this month and dropped off a “nice” camera.  We got a new DSLR and I am currently trying to get over the mega feelings of inadequacy when it comes to photography.  I never knew so many menus and buttons could be so intimidating.  The great thing about it, though, is I have already noticed a better quality in pictures, and I haven’t even been trying!  Oh, and along with the new camera I am finally buckling down and learning Photoshop.  Hopefully my pictures will start to look half as good as my sil’s.

Now back to topic.  It was an enjoyable, if bumpy, Christmas.  I feel that I may have learned a few things about how I want do Christmas in the future.  I love watching the whole thing through my children’s eye’s, and I love the wonder they have about the season.  Now on to planning for a New Year!

You Really Want Me to Hit That?

Wow, Christmas has come and gone with a bang.  Although I wanted to get rid of my children at one point, we still managed a good Christmas.  Please tell me that with age things get a little better??!!  Anyway, Christmas Eve was chocked full of activities. 

We started by making graham cracker houses at Grandma Rita’s.  The boys loved this, of course.  I think they ate more candy than they put on the house, but they did really well at taking charge of decorating their own.  Which was great for Alicia, since she wasn’t firing on all cylinders in the creativity department.

After dinner and a couple of gift exchanges (one for the adults, and one more for the kids) we broke out the piñata.  Literally!

The kids finally hit it off the pole and then had a blast trying to beat it to death while it lay on the ground.  Boys, sticks, and candy.  What a great combination!

After leaving Grandma Rita’s we headed over to Grandma Alice’s for, yet again, ANOTHER piñata.  Do you think they would be sick of it?

Apparently not.  Oh, and Mom and Dad get a chance to get into the action.

It gets dangerous at times, but hey, someone has to do it!  (Sorry about your nose Heather!)  What a fun way to start out Christmas!

For Those I Accidentally Forgot,

I didn’t mean too!!  I meant to post this before Christmas, but boy does the time get away from you.  Anyway, here is an image of the Christmas card I put together for 2009.  Sorry to all I may have forgotten.  Maybe next year I will just do it like this though, to save on postage and stuff! 

Thanks to all who sent us a card via snail mail or email.  We loved them all!  I love catching up with everyone’s happenings.  We hope it was a great Christmas for everyone!!

Christmas Eve Sledding

In planning Christmas Eve activities this year, Jacqui suggested we try to get together for sledding.  After a few false starts (stupid melting snow) we found a decent hill in Spanish Fork and spent the morning sledding to our hearts content.  It was a blast.  Dan and I couldn’t keep up with the boys.  Luckily with all of their cousins, there wasn’t much that we had to do.

Jacqui got some great shots of us, so thanks again for the pics.

  

There was a small jump that someone had formed.  Once Connor discovered that he didn’t want to do anything else!  What a great way to start out Christmas.  I don’t think I would mind making this a tradition!

Christmas Devotional

Tonight was the Harward Family Christmas Devotional.  I am in a hurry to get pictures up before I send off Ian’s letter.  So here is a peek at the fun. 

I just love that expression.  “Give me a break Mom.  I’m hungry too!”

We started out with a great dinner and then jumped right in to the devotional.  After the usual tussle over who gets to play the “fun” songs, we sat back for an enjoyable evening of singing and storytelling.

Grandpa gave his rendition of “The Best Christmas Pageant”  (The one with Wallis Pearling) and we all took turns reading parts of the Christmas story and singing Christmas carols.  It is nice to sit and feel the spirit of the season.

  The boys were really well behaved this year, which was a great relief to more than one person.  Connor kept himself occupied putting together Grandma Alice’s massive nativity.  Haden had fun cuddling on Heather’s lap. 

The boys even joined in the fun and sang 2 songs for the group.  I couldn’t believe it.  I feel like I can never get them to sing in primary, but boy they belted it out for the family.  (I hope you love the tape Ian!)

So time to check off one more of my favorite Christmas traditions.  Now to get all the last minute stuff done for the big day!

20 Years – Wow!

Last night was our annual Christmas Party with my “2nd” family, and I came to a realization.  My best friend, Stephanie, and I have been friends for 20 years now.  WOW!  How did that happen?

Steph moved into my neighborhood when we were 8 years old.  Who would have thought in 20 years we would still be hanging out?  Especially since we are COMPLETE opposites.  I don’t think I saw Steph wear a pair of pants for about 3 years after she moved in.  She always wore cute (okay for awhile there they were totally frilly) dresses, and looked like she had just come out of a salon.  I was a tomboy, who hated dresses and still had to have my mom do my hair.  I loved sports, Steph loved to dance.  There were times that we drove each other completely nuts, but always managed to smooth things out.

How in the world did we ever click?  I don’t know how or why, but we did and I don’t know what I would do without her.  We got married 4 months apart (exactly) and have managed to do things over the past 10 years.  Since we have had kids, we have been religious about walking once a week with each other.  I love her little family, and we love doing things with them. 

The men trying to come up with an answer.  I won’t start on how long it takes for these analytical guys to come to a consensus.  Of course, it doesn’t really matter, since the women always win!!

Last night is one of my favorite activities of the Christmas season.  We have a game night with Stephanie’s family.  Kathie & Charles always treat me like another daughter, and I love visiting with them.  There is always great food and fun games.  Not to mention the battle of the sexes for who can win the most games.  Anyway, enough rambling for now.  I just wanted to mark a milestone in my life.  Thanks for 20 years of friendship Steph!!

Book Review – Lost In Austen

Okay, since I opened the flood gates, here goes another review.  I literally stumbled on this book.  I was at the library picking up The Color Purple and was wandering around the library seeing if anything else stuck out at me.  Lost In Austen – Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure was literally on the other side of the room, and I just happened to walk by it. 

The ironic thing about choosing this book, was that I had been discussing the choose your own adventure genre (cyoa) with a friend just a couple of weeks before.  Totally thought it was for kids.  I had never read one and the idea was intriguing.  The general premise is that they take a story and you as the reader make choices throughout that determine the way things end.  Anyway on to the review:

I really liked this book when it started out.  You are imagining the story as Elizabeth Bennett (of course) and it generally follows the P&P storyline.  You kept “score” of certain characteristics (confidence, intelligence, fortune, etc)  throughout the book.  Sometimes the choices you made affected your score, other times you would gain or lose points based on things that happened in the story (your mother is a twit) sort of thing.  I didn’t really pay attention to the scoring, I just read all of the different story lines, and it worked just fine.

The fun part was that some of the choices led you into other Austen stories and you saw Elizabeth interacting with other characters (Emma, Persuasion, etc).  It tended to just be a retelling of the original stories with commentary from the author (which was entertaining at times).  I loved finding out what happened if you ended up marrying Mr. Collins, Mr. Knightly, and other such scenarios'. 

It was a cute fun book that was a nice break from serious reading.  Then I hit the end.  It gets to where you just accepted Mr. Darcy’s proposal, and all of a sudden you are getting nervous about your decision.  So you look at your Intelligence points.  If you have a low score, you marry Mr. Darcy and finish out the book as Austen wrote it.  If you have a high intelligence score, you realize that if you get married that means that your “adventure” ends and that it is better to break off the engagement and run away than to “lose” your identity and individual existence in your marriage.

Wait!! where did this feminist crap come from?  I hate the implication that only women of “low intelligence” will marry and other crap like that.  So here I share one of the last lines in the book along with the sour taste in my mouth:

“Unlike the [books] that lay before you that fateful night, however, your book will not send out the message that Woman’s only choice is to marry-and that her story will end the moment she does so.”

Final Choice – A hit and then a HUGE miss.

Christmas Music

It seems every year I am drawn into Christmas music big time.  I tend to play the piano for groups that are performing at our Ward Christmas Party and other musical numbers.  This year, thus far,  I have accompanied a women’s trio, a women’s duet, and help a men’s quartet.  Oh, and then the congregational signing at the party.  Definitely making me practice.

The greatest thing about these is the people in my ward that pick out awesome music.  They take advantage of the free LDS arrangements available on the internet.  (what would we do without the web?)  There are some real gems out there. 

The men’s quartet was “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” .  It is an  a cappella piece, and it was amazing.  We did it a couple of years ago, and I absolutely loved it.

I found a recording of it on the  Music by Andrew website, along with some great arrangement options.

The other one I loved was an arrangement for SA by Lindy Kerby of “Away in a Manger”.  It was really easy for the singers to pick up.  In fact they added harmony to the second verse without a problem.  The accompaniment was easy enough for me to sight read decently and then perform a few days later.  It has been great working with the amazing musicians in our ward.  I feel blessed to know so many people willing to share their talents.  

It’s a good thing you’re not Santa

Dan:  I’m pretty much finished with my Christmas shopping.

Alicia:  Well, that’s good.  Did you have fun  today?

Dan:  Yep, we got everything taken care of.

Alicia:  Cool.  So what did you get Garrick?

Dan:  ……..(Blank stare, crickets chirping)

Alicia:  Connor?

Dan: …….(Blank stare, crickets still chirping)

Dan:  Okay, so maybe I’m not done shopping.

(hehe, Dan forgot to get gifts for ALL of his offspring.  No, I’m not nice enough to do it for him.  I don’t think it will kill a guy to spend an hour thinking about gifts for his children:)  Disclaimer:  Before Dan gets on my case.  This is the general gist of the conversation.  Yes I summarized, except for the the blank stare.  That is totally true!!

A Little bit of Everything

I finally looked at my log and realized that I haven’t posted much.  Then I looked over my week, and figured out I didn’t have much to say about anything.  Just a lot of little things that happened.

I was busy finishing up a private Word class for work, so that took most of my energy for the week.  It is nice to have work, however, I am looking forward to the Christmas break.  Right now I’m scheduled to teach a ton of Excel classes starting the first week in January, so until then I get to enjoy my “free” time.  Which this last week has been dealing with this:

My boys love the snow!!  Unfortunate for Mom, since I hate the snow.  Okay, that is not totally true.  I love the snow, in small amounts.  As I get older, I find that my body does not like snow.  Connor was so mad that it was bad snowball snow, so I told him to get busy shoveling the driveway. 

He had a lot more fun shoveling my grass.  Go figure.  Oh well, it kept them occupied.

After finishing the class I got busy with my Christmas cards and Neighbor gifts.  Finished them yesterday…FINALLY!!  Let’s just say I’m sick of curling ribbon.  I don’t like it much to begin with, but after using raffia the last 3 years, I needed to change things up.  So when I finally get everything out I will post pictures of what I did (and probably end up apologizing profusely to all those who I forgot…I thought you were supposed to get your brain back after giving birth!)

Oh, and the other “big” thing.  I finally went in to have the mole removed from my back.  Dan has been after me for 5 years to have it taken care of.  NOT on the top of Alicia’s list.  But, since we have met our out-of-pocket max for medical expenses (thank you baby) I decided to bite the bullet.  So here is what they took off: (warning: graphic picture, okay not really, but I get razzed for not warning people)

See, not too bad.  I would show you what it looks like now, but I will spare you the inch of stitches going across my back.  Yep, an inch for that little mole.  I can’t wait until I can get them removed.  They ITCH.

So there you go.  Thanks for delving into my personal life with me.  Hopefully things will get more exciting.

Book Review – The Color Purple

Okay, I know I don’t review books all that often. Quite honestly, it is because I read too many and I don’t feel that I can keep up with it. However, I just finished reading “The Color Purple” for the first time and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

I was a little hesitant to pick it up, but it was on my “required” list this year (more on that in a few weeks), and I actually had a hard time getting it from the library. A copy finally came through and I bit the bullet. Literally. The first chapter horrified me. I knew the general premise of the storyline, (rape, incest, abandonment, poverty, etc. thus I was not to thrilled to get on with it) would be difficult to read, however, as I read I could not put the book down! No I wasn’t watching the train wreck. I became completely involved in the story.

The main character’s life was awful, but what drew me in was how it got better, in very unconventional ways. Her relationship with her sister was amazing. Though separated for decades their connection was sweet and inspiring. I loved her discovery of spirituality and coming to peace with her life. I was literally fighting off tears at the end of the book.

The thing I enjoyed the most about it was talking it through with Dan. It was the first book I’ve read in a long while that I just wanted to discuss the different themes and ideas presented. Dan was a good sport, and would just let me jabber his ear off.

I am torn now as to whether I would recommend the book. I actually loved it. However, NOT for the faint of heart. (Sorry book club ladies, this won’t be making the list any time soon). I don’t know that I would put it in my library, just because of the graphic material, but I would not be adverse to re-reading it again in the future. This was definitely a surprise “Like” for me.

NOW it is time for Christmas

So now it is time to set up for Christmas.  We tend to be busy all through the Thanksgiving vacation, so setup usually doesn’t occur until the Monday after.  Connor was really anxious to get going on everything.  He remembers the oddest things at times.  He kept on telling us how we supposed to turn on Christmas music and set up the tree, and then put on the ornaments.  So for FHE we finally pulled everything out.

Dan was great about setting up the tree.  He set up the whole thing!!  Then they boys had fun wanting to get their pictures taken.  It was fun to actually have them pose for the camera!!

Ahh, they actually do like each other!!

Pie Night (Belated)

Yep.  I didn’t think it was possible, but I forgot pie night.  Oops.  Usually we do another huge dinner complete with turkey and potatoes etc…  However due to the infamous BYU/Other team game going so late, we decided to just do Pie instead of the whole thing.  It was still a lot of fun.  We ended up with 6 or 7 pies,(about 1/2 pie per person – yum!) can’t remember for sure.  Instead of eating dinner we got busy playing games and Garrick had fun trying to join in.

The other boys had fun watching Monsters Inc downstairs with Papa Brad.  Can you believe it?  Grandpa actually sat and watched a movie.  Granted I think he was ironing his shirts the entire time, but oh well, they had fun with Grandpa. 

Aunt Heather didn’t want to get unbundled after the game.  (She struggles with the cold…ALL the time)  Heather’s roommate Brianna (Sorry I probably totally butchered the spelling) joined us for all our Thanksgiving stunts.  Thanks for being so understanding of us! 

Oh and of course they started to dress up the baby.  This is what happens when people in my family get bored.

1 – 2 – 3 Swing

My sil Jacqui sent over the pics she took of my family last week.  After we had lunch, Papa Derek took the kids out to hit a few balls on the driving range (Did I mention his new office is on a golf course?)  I had to leave for another appointment and left the camera for Dan to pull out and document the fun.  Of course he didn’t.  So thankfully, I have family that will step in and pick up the ball!  The biggest bonus is that everyone else in Dan’s family is so talented at photography that I get amazing pictures!

 

Don’t I wish that my pictures would turn out like this!  I would never stop taking pictures!  Although I would hate to see how much it would cost me to get my picture books done….so hmm.  Anyway, thanks for getting these to me Jacqui!