10 things

10 things for this, the 10th day of February.

1. I got a new calling - Relief Society instructor. I'll be teaching R.S. the 2nd Sunday of each month. Big switch from teaching Primary, hopefully I'll be effective. Overall, I think it will be a good calling and I am looking forward to it.

2. Sometimes watching the snow fall is rather mesmerizing. Especially when the Statue of Liberty stops by.

3. I love the Dollar Spot at Michael's. It might even be better than Target's Dollar Spot.

4. Recently finished reading Follow the River, based on the true-life ordeal of Mary Ingles, who was 23, married, and pregnant with her third child when Shawnee Indians invaded her Virginia settlement in 1755 and captured her. Totally amazing book. At times raw, gut-wrenching and graphic, but always inspiring, unbelievable and amazing. Great read.
Currently reading my all-time fave, East of Eden, for about the 5th time or so (reading it for a book club). First read it in 11th grade, and it's had my heart ever since. I want to spend a warm, breezy California evening with Samuel Hamilton and Lee the Chinaman.

5. Getting serious Spring fever. Green grass, playing outside, trips to the park, spring clothes (seriously over my winter maternity stuff). But not holding my breath, considering March is our snowiest month.

6. Two days until the Olympics! You can read one of Brian's USA Hockey stories HERE.

7. On the verge of getting a new nephew, as my sister Kristina is due any day. There's nothing like the excitement a new baby brings!

8. Made a fun Valentine's project. It's four 3-inch wooden blocks covered in papers with glittery chipboard letters. Can be stacked vertically-
or horizontally, which I prefer-
9. Baby boy's movements have become much stronger, making it all the more real that I am having a baby in June! Not ready to tackle the newborn phase again. Good thing I still have 4 months to get ready.

10. I secretly wish my kids didn't love grapefruit so much, so I could enjoy the fresh, juicy happiness all by myself. But alas, they are all fruit lovers like their mom, and fall over themselves with excitement when I slice one open.

And the days go by

Blogging slump. Yep. I'm in one. But I will endeavor to get out of it.

Two weeks ago - the day Brian and I turned 35 to be exact - we got a pretty significant snowfall, which prompted a snow day and snow play. We had a lovely time playing in the snow, which in typical Colorado fashion was mostly gone within 2 days, just in time for Halloween.

We had a lovely birthday dinner that evening, decided to go out as a family. My favorite part of the evening was when they brought out the complementary birthday dessert, molten lava cake. They set it down in the center of our table with 5 spoons. Lucas instantly yelled "MINE!" so loudly I'm fairly certain the entire restaurant heard him, and grabbed the cake so fast the rest of us just sat in stunned silence for a bit. We collected ourselves and explained that we all had to share it, and he curtly replied, "I not sharing" while he attacked the cake on two fronts: with his hand, and a spoon. The rest of us finally got in on the action, but he often fended off our attempts with his spoon, almost a jousting of sorts. Brian recalls that each time he broke off a piece of the cake, Lucas would have swiped it before Brian could eat it. If I'd only had a camera/video of the incident. It was classic. I'm sure it was much more entertaining to witness in person, but I wanted to record it for my memory. And yes, I am surviving 35 thus far. :)

This is for Grandma. Connor was talking to her on the phone the other day and telling her about a spaceship he built out of Legos. She asked us to take a picture and post it so she could see it:

Dancing with the Stars came to life in my living room last night. It was quite the show; at least my dancers wore clothing. Isabel asked me if she looks like Karina Smirnoff. Then we had a talk about dressing modestly.

Pretty much everything about Lucas is cute. Especially his little feet tucked under his bum when he sleeps. I love this about him.

I've read some really good books lately, all good in different ways.

There was the delightfully charming and engaging, in addition to shedding light on a region affected by WWII that I was not familiar with:

and then there was fascinating, unbelievable and inspiring, a delve into a culture and region I find truly fascinating (still bemoaning the fact that I was too sick to attend the book club discussion on this one!):
then there are the Pulitzer winners I've read back-to-back the past couple of days, both somewhat to largely disturbing but rendering me completely unable to stop thinking about them:

Can you believe the hype leading up to New Moon? Wowsers. I'm not a Twilight fanatic - but also not a hater - but I will fully disclose I am looking forward to the private screening party next Friday evening complete with Team Edward/Team Jacob buttons and door prizes. If nothing else, Taylor Lautner is H. O. T. HOT. For this reason I will be sporting a Team Jacob button.

Meeting Sandra

Sandra Dallas is a bestselling author who lives in Denver. I love her books. One of my book clubs has read 4 of her 8 novels, and surely will read more. When we discovered she was doing a book signing at a Barnes and Noble nearby, we were all over it! We all purchased her latest book, Prayers for Sale, read it, went to her book signing last night, and went to dinner afterward to discuss the book. It was a fantastic night!

Sandra is a great woman, incredibly kind and gracious. We told her that we've been a book club for 7 years and have read half of her novels. I shared with her my favorite passage from Prayers (which is set in 1936):
"You've got a good man, Mrs. Spindle."
"I couldn't ask for better. Still, I've found out a husband isn't everything to me. There's lots of things I can't talk to Dick about. I mean, he'll listen. Dick's good about that. But he doesn't understand the way a woman does. Have you noticed that about a husband?"
Hennie nodded. She'd noticed.
"I wished he'd asked me if I wanted to come to Middle Swan. I'd have told him yes, because a wife's supposed to, like the Bible says. She's supposed to follow where he goes. But he could have asked me instead of telling me. He could have had a consideration for my feelings." She added quickly, "I don't want you to think I'm finding fault."
"There isn't a wife who doesn't feel like you," Hennie told her. "That's why the Lord made friends. They can be a burden, but most times, I'm gladder for my friends that I am for almost anything, maybe even quilting. I'm proud to say I have as many friends as I do quilts."
"I'm obliged to say my friends are better made than my quilts," Nit said."

I told Sandra that when I read this passage I practically shouted "Amen!" out loud. So I was delighted to see what she wrote in my book when she signed it:
(in case you can't make it out, it says, "To Melissa Aren't friends wonderful! and then her name and date).

She was kind enough to take a picture with us, which B&N staff most authors won't do. The girls and Sandra-

She also shared some background with us on how one of the characters in the book came to be named. It was just so fun to go and discuss a book after having met its author, especially one as fabulous as Miss Sandra.

100 books and People of the Book

I've seen this on a bunch of blogs, decided to test my own "read-iness."

The Big Read is a NEA program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six. I have highlighted the titles that I have read...

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (only read the first book; does this count?)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (does reading part of it count? 'cause really, who has read the whole thing?)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So, that's 15 for me, 17 if you count parts of the Bible and one of the Harry Potter books.

On a related book note, I just finished an excellent book for this month's book club (to be discussed in Ested Park at our retreat this weekend!!!). It's People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. She is a fantastic, Putlitzer-winning author, who also wrote March: A Novel, a story of the absent father from Little Women and his Civil War experiences. March was equally fantastic. Here's the synopsis from the publisher:

"From Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated thecharacter of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine Brooks’s place as a renowned author of historical fiction."

People of the Book is also a historical fiction. Here's the synopsis:

"In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she begins to unlock the book's mysteries. The reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book's journey from its salvation back to its creation.

In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siècle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city's rising anti-Semitism. In inquisition-era Venice, a Catholic priest saves it from burning. In Barcelona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Haggadah's extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna's investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love.
Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is at once a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotionalintensity, an ambitious, electrifying work by an acclaimed and beloved author."

This book was completely powerful and the story was amazingly told. It follows the main story of the rare-book expert's preservation of the Haggadah, with vignettes about different stories that comprise the book's story of creation, and repeated rescues/ many near losses.

I would highly recommend both March and People of the Book - terrific reads!

Apples and Bees

They're baaaaaccccccckkkkk!!!! I walked into my local grocery store today, and there they were ... HONEYCRISP APPLES!!! They are the yummiest apples ever. And, they were discovered by apples experts at the University of Minnesota, who discovered them by cross-pollinating Macoun and Honeygold apples. Those Minnesotans - they always know the good stuff! ;)

You must get some if you haven't tried them yet. Oh, and for good measure, make some of Becky Higgins' Toffee Apple Dip. Just slice the apples and dip 'em in this heavenly concoction. It is SO good. I just made some tonight, but delivered it along with dinner to a girl in my ward who just had a baby. Next batch will have to stay here for sure!

toffee apple dip

TOFFEE APPLE DIP

Mix the following together & serve with apple slices:

8 oz. cream cheese
½ c. brown sugar
¼ c. white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pkg. Skor toffee bits (or crushed Skor toffee bars)

Also, I so did not know until yesterday that The Secret Life of Bees is now a movie, coming to theaters October 17! Joy! It is a truly great book, and the cast looks smashing. I totally adore Sophie Okonedo, who played Don Cheadle's wife in Hotel Rwanda.

This was the last book I read before having Connor; I finished it the night before I went into labor. I will always remember reading it in total silence and thinking, "my life will never be this quiet again." For real. I had NO idea how true that would be.

Anywho... I see a girls' night in October when this little treat hits the theaters!

Five for Friday

1. Kindergarten update: School is going well! After the first day his teacher told me Connor is a "sweet boy" and did great for the first half of the day. But halfway through the day he announced he was done and ready to go home. Clearly he is not used to being in school for a full day! He'll get used to it. He reports his favorite part of school thus far is riding the bus. I was a nervous wreck about it, but it has gone well! He also has enjoyed reading time at school, recess, and eating lunch there.
2. I had to copy it. I loved Just A Girl's pear sconce so much that I headed to my local flea market (a first for me) and found my own pair of sconces for next to nothing:
I spray painted them black, got some faux pears, tied ribbon on the stems, and hung them on either side of this artwork in my kitchen. Love!
3. Family trees. How cute are these?

My sister Lara found them on a blog and now she and I are both making our own. I'll post when mine is finished. I'm aiming for a more simple one like the green background one.

4. Olympics. Are you watching??? I am sad that gymnastics is over, but relieved that I won't have more bleary-eyed mornings from staying up late to watch them. Seriously, I was sometimes napping at 10 p.m. for a bit so I could be up until 11:30 or midnight to see results. I like both Nastia and Shawn, and am glad they both ended up with a gold apiece. My kids have been "swimming," flipping, jumping, somersaulting, "diving" and running around the house to simulate the events. Isabel calls them the "o-lipsticks" - every time they start she comes running, yelling "mom, look! The o-lipsticks are on again!"

5. Twilight and book club retreat. OK, so I read it. I finished Twilight this week and am in the middle of New Moon. It's this month's book club pick. My thought: It was good, not great. I enjoyed it for the most part, but was not consumed by it as some of you have been. Frankly, Bella gets on my nerves. But the story was interesting, even if it is about vampires. And I liked that I've been to Forks (spent a night there in the Dew Drop Inn; didn't see any rain, but we woke up to the coolest, somewhat creepiest fog ever). I am actually enjoying the second book, I'll post final thoughts once I've finished the series.

Speaking of book club, the girls and I are headed on a "retreat" late next month to Estes Park that I am SO excited for! Shopping, eating, relaxing, and a break from kids - can't beat that! Brian has never been alone overnight with the three kids (or even with two kids!)

Have a great weekend!

Where the vampires walk

Took the kiddos on a Barnes and Noble outing the other day. I had to buy my book club read for this month, The Inheritance of Loss. I normally borrow books from the library, but waited too long on this one (had to actually visit my new library and get a new card), thus the available copy was gone when I arrived. But really, this is a beautiful cover, so maybe I'll just put it on display somewhere to look at when I'm done reading it. Not really, but it is pretty. And my copy has a beautiful orange die-cut edge. Lovely! Hope the inside is as good as the outside!


I let Connor and Isabel each select a book, too. Isabel picked Owl Babies. I happen to have an owl thing going on these days. Just kinda like 'em. I had seen this book, but never read it. It is darling! She and I both love it, and have read it numerous times in the past couple of days. It's about three baby owls who get scared at night in the woods while their owl mother is off hunting for food. A real "I want my mommy!" theme. We highly recommend it.

Connor selected The Fire Cat. It combines some of his favorite things, fire trucks and cats, so it was kind of a no-brainer. A cute story, practice for his emerging reading skills.
Now to my heading. I have never read Stephanie Meyer, and have not planned to. Vampires and young adult fiction are just not my thing. But both my sisters have been absolutely obsessed with her books, and that is ALL I have heard about from them this week. On separate phone calls with them (but within hours of each call), they both mentioned how quickly they finished one of the books, adding, "and I didn't even neglect my children!" Hmmmm, sounds suspicious to me. Anyway, I might be tempted enough to venture into the series at some point, just to see what all the fuss is about.

I do, however, know enough of them to know they are set in Forks, Washington, and that the rainforests there play a role in the books. For the record, I just have to share that I actually stayed in Forks when Brian and I went to Seattle almost 2 years ago. We took a 3-day trip out the coast, and spent one night in the town of Forks, and hiked the nearby Ho rainforest. The second night we stayed just outside of Forks near "First Beach." Yep, they are all real places. So, if you have read the books and have wondered what the rainforest looks like where the vampires are, here you go:


And I lived to tell about it.

Book tag

Kind of a fun tag…

The rules…
1. Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages).
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the fifth sentence on your blog.
5. Tag 5 people.

My closest book is the book club read for this month, Lucia Lucia by Adriana Trigiani. I’ve got about 30 pages left. It’s a warm, enchanting story. From Publisher’s Weekly:

“In 1950 Greenwich Village, 25-year-old Lucia has it all: a warm and loving Italian family, a papa with a successful grocery business, an engagement ring from her childhood sweetheart, and best of all, a career she loves as a seamstress and apprentice to a talented dress designer at B. Altman's department store. When Lucia meets a rich, handsome businessman whose ambitions for a luxurious uptown lifestyle match her own, her goals for her future soar even higher. Over the next two years, however, her dreams gradually unravel.”

So, the fifth sentence on page 123 is:

“I hold my head high as Christopher leads me into the ballroom.”

Not the most exciting line, but it is a good read. I’m anxious to see how it ends!

I tag Kristina, Wendie, Kristie, Amy and anyone else who wants to play along...

My latest reads

I finished "A Thousand Splendid Suns" last night. The best way I can describe this book is that it is a beautifully written book about one of the saddest stories I have ever read. I will go as far to say I loved his book even though it was painfully heart-wrenching.

Written by the author of "The Kite Runner," which was also an amazing story, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" moved me in so many ways. This is one of those books that is a journey, and made me feel so many emotions. It left me drained and saying prayers of gratitude that I was born in this country. It has stuck with me ever since I read the last word.

It's the story of two women in Afghanistan who, despite very different upbringings, are brought together. It follows them through the Soviet invasion in 1979, through all the mujahadeen battles, into the Taliban reign. As I read, whenever I thought the story couldn't get sadder, it did. But, it wasn't done in a hopeless way, and did end on a happy note. I love this author and the glimpse into this foreign land and the excruciatingly difficult lives women lead there. His writing style is excellent: characters I feel like I know, just the right descriptions, perfect timing as the story moves along. I would recommend this book over and over again, but be prepared for an unbelievable reading experience.



This is our book club read for the month. I had high hopes for it, but was left saying "I don't get it."

It's the story of two American sisters living in Hong Kong in the 1960s, a time of great political turmoil in Hong Kong. Their father is a war photographer in neighboring Vietnam, and their mom is rather checked out. It's a coming of age story of the two sisters, who are totally different from one another. The main event of the story is when something tragic happens when they are exploring a market one afternoon with their Chinese nanny.

I loved the idea of this story, but didn't think any of it - the characters, story, etc. - was well developed at all. The author was way too into listing things (she's be describing the jungle, and then list like 8 species of plants in the jungle). I got lost in her many lists. And when the story ended, I felt like I just didn't get the whole story. It was an OK read, interesting subject matter, just not presented well.