So pitiful

Julie has been in need of a few new stories lately, so we've pulled out some of my old Strawberry Shortcake books. They're still a little advanced to hold her interest for long, but she likes them for the most part. She doesn't get to read them by herself, because they're "Mama's special books," and she has to be very soft with them.

This morning, she and I were reading about Raspberry Tart's surprise birthday party. Raspberry was very sad because she thought everyone had forgotten her special day.



Julie was quite pathetic in her sympathy. It was pretty cute. She even whimpered.







(She did that hand thing all on her own -- no prompting. I mimicked Raspberry, and then Julie mimicked me, but I didn't try to get her to do it. It was darn cute. She did it again so I could take the pictures, but this is all her.)

You were right...

All of you were right. I was wrong. And I have surprisingly no trouble admitting it.

Having finally finished reading them, I should have read the Harry Potter books a long time ago.

Taking after both parents

At first I thought I'd call this post "Taking after her mother", but then I realized that this is a Ben thing too, not just a me thing.





For many months already, Ben has been reading one of his favorite books to Julie: The Hobbit. He reads from it sometimes at bedtime, also sometimes during meals (when we're eating at a different time), and usually while she's playing in the bath. Just this week, I started reading one of favorite books to her during meal and bathtimes: The Count of Monte Cristo. We're already through two chapters. I'm just glad I don't have a scary Gollum voice to imitate.

A nerd of ginormous proportions

I just started a new book this week for my ward's book group. It's the book that I chose, and I've been waiting for months to get around to reading it. Toward the end of last summer, a friend of mine did a review of it on her blog, and it sounded interesting and even amusing to me (it wasn't the first time I'd heard of it). So I signed up for March's book group, and indicated that this would be the book I chose. Then, not knowing all of this, my sister bought me the book for Christmas. I've been chomping at the bit to get around to it. I really must be a nerd of ginormous proportions, because I'm just so excited to read it. I've only made it through the foreword and the preface so far, but I love it! The book:

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss.

Yeah, I've got issues.

Thankful November: Day 20

Okay, so I've really fallen behind this week. I've not had the energy to think of anything to post for my Thankful November series, nor my Wishful Wednesdays or Friday Features. I apologize. I should hopefully be back on track next week.

Today (even though I'm actually writing this two days later now), I'm thankful for libraries. I went to the library this week (Monday? Tuesday? I can't remember now) and picked up a few books to read. I haven't read anything in a few months, partly because I've been on burnout of my books here at home. But I'm reading again. Yay!

Tag #1: What am I reading?

Holy taggedness! I have been tagged three-and-a-half times in the last few weeks. (The half is on a blog where the author said, "If you want to do it, then you're tagged" and I thought it was a fun one, so I'm doing it.)

So this is the first tag. I was tagged by Lisa, whom I've only ever met once, but I used to be good friends with her husband (before they were married) when I lived in Oregon.

Rules:

1. Get the book that's on your nightstand (or whatever you happen to be reading).
2. Open it to page 56 and find the 5th sentence.
3. Post the next couple of sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
4. Do not go and find your favorite book; it has to be the one you are reading now!
5. Tag five other people to do the same.

Book: The Book of Mormon
Page 56: 2 Nephi chapter 1
Sentence (verse) 5:

29 But if ye will not hearken unto him I take away my first blessing, yea, even my blessing, and it shall rest upon him.


For the book tag, I tag Kellie, Jerie, Laura, Katie, and Candice.

For those interested...

Stephanie Meyer will be on the Ellen show tomorrow afternoon.

Friday Feature: Reading & Books

Today I think I'll highlight my reading websites. Places to find book reviews or good books to read.

First we have 5 Minutes For Books. This is part of the "5 Minutes" community that includes 5 Minutes for Mom, 5 Minutes for Parenting, 5 Minutes for Going Green, and 5 Minutes for Special Needs. It is a collaborative website with book reviews, suggestions, and themes. There are also posts about reading in general. I'm still pretty new with this site, so I'm not super-familiar with it yet, but anything for book ideas, right?

Next up is GoodReads. Many of you are already familiar with GoodReads. It is a social networking site (like MySpace or Facebook) that is for book-lovers. You can add friends, see their books, and read their reviews. You can create your own bookshelf with books you've read, books you are reading, books you want to read, and any specific categories you want. You can rate books, review them, comment on other people's reviews. Let me know if you ever get around to reading everything on your "to read" list.

Third and last is the Book Nook Club. I am also not very familiar with this one yet either, but it seems okay. Also a collaborative website, it's somewhat of a book group. They choose a book for the month, read it, and then discuss it via comments on the blog. There are also book reviews.

I'm currently in the middle of reading Emma by Jane Austen. This is the first book by her that I've ever attempted, and I did so because I was inspired after watching The Jane Austen Book Club. However, I find myself increasing annoyed with Mr. Woodhouse. So far, his character seems relatively pointless and mostly just in the way. I also have a hard time with Austen's flowery 18th century prose, and the way she writes a lot of her dialogue. To the Jane Austen fans out there: Are all of her books equally odd?

What are you reading right now?

Book recommendation

I have shared this book with several people, but I think it's something that more people ought to know about. A little history first.

When Ben and I got married, I was on birth control (the Pill). I gained a lot of weight on the Pill in a relatively short time, and had a few other negative side effects. After eight or nine months on it, I stopped taking it, partly because I wanted to, and partly on doctor's advice. The very next day, Ben and I went to the bookstore and bought two books on "natural" birth control. One was not super great, the other was this. I successfully used the method laid out in this book to not get pregnant for a year. Once we settled in Cleveland and decided it was time to start "trying" we successfully achieved pregnancy the first month that we tried. That was due in part to the Fertility Awareness Method.

Many people think that this is the same as the "rhythm method." It is not. Others have also heard of temperature taking. That is not enough. This book teaches you first about your body and how it works and the signs it gives you. Then it teaches you how to read and interpret those signs, including basal body temperature.

Regardless of whether or not you use the Pill, plan to have children, don't plan to, or anything else, if you are a woman, you should read this book. It will give you a far greater understanding of the inner working of your body than your 5th grade reproduction class or 9th grade biology ever gave you.


You can purchase it on Amazon by clicking here.

UPDATE: If you have irregular cycles, but think you might otherwise be interested in this, please read the comments.

Tagged

My friend Jeannie tagged me well over a week ago, and I'm just now getting around to it.

8 Things I'm passionate about

1. Benjamin
2. Julie
   
3. Cooking
4. Reading
5. Ice cream
6. Cheese
7. Photography
   
8. Music
   

8 Books I've read and enjoyed

1. Angela's Ashes
2. The Count of Monte Cristo
3. The Giver
4. Pope Joan
5. The Nanny Diaries
6. Freakonomics
7. The Hiding Place
8. Confessions of a Shopaholic

8 Words or phrases I say often

1. I love you.
2. Your diaper stinks.
3. You're hungry again? Already??
   
4. Thank you.
   
5. How was your day?
6. I'm bored.
   
7. Duh.
   
8. You're getting so big!
   

8 Things I want to do before I die

1. Travel to lots of different places
   
2. Get a college degree
   
3. Visit Oregon
   
4. Learn to cook like a pro
   
5. Learn to photograph like a pro
   
6. Serve a mission with Benjamin when we're old(er)
   
7. Learn to quilt like my mom
   
8. Learn to drive a stick shift
   

8 Things I've learned (or remembered) this past year

1. Be prepared. (for example, when your baby decides to come 4 weeks early, it's helpful to already have your suitcase packed)
   
2. Be patient.
   
3. There is rarely such a thing as an insta-friend. Friendships take time to develop, but they're worth investing in.
   
4. Burning bridges is not the best policy. At some point in life, you will come to those bridges again. (Side note: I am not referring here to any regrets in my life or bridges I may have burnt, but rather to the fact that I have in the past year come back into contact with a lot of old friends, with whom there really hasn't been any awkwardness other than simple passage of time.)
   
5. There's always someone worse off than I am.
   
6. I've re-discovered the joy of reading, and remembered how much I love it.
   
7. Politics aren't just black and white, one side or the other.
   
8. People change, including me.
   

8 People I want to tag

If you want to do this, then consider yourself tagged. If not, then don't.

Mmmmm...chocolate!

I have lots of new pictures of Julie that I intend to post over the next day or so (I just can't keep up with them!), but I wanted to share this as well.

Yesterday my mom and Julie and I went to the Great Lakes Science Center to see Chocolate: The Exhibition before it left Cleveland. Mostly the exhibit was about chocolate, and its history and the process of making it. There wasn't a whole lot of tasting involved, sadly. There was a gift shop at the end, and of course I had to get something. They had t-shirts, cookbooks, postcard, pencils, chocolate pasta, puzzles and games, notecards, candles, and of course chocolate itself.

Well, of course I couldn't go to an exhibit like this one and not get anything. So I spent the majority of my time in the gift shop trying to decide which cookbook to buy. There were so many. I finally decided upon Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate, by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg.

This cookbook seemed like the most comprehensive of all of them, but it's also neat in that it's not just recipes, but every other chapter is informational about chocolate. It will definitely be worth its weight (and it's pretty heavy).

I also picked up some chocolate bars to try. Of course everything was super expensive, and each of these little bars cost $3.99! Ouch! But they were about the cheapest ones in the gift shop, and also sounded unique and yummy.

The Pistachio Toffee has turned out to be my favorite so far. The Carmelized Almond isn't too bad, although its dark chocolate is really dark. The Crunchy Fire is a little odd. It's got toasted pecans and chiles in it. Now, I like Mexican chocolate, but this was REALLY spicy even for me. It needed cinnamon to balance it out, or it needed to be milk chocolate instead of dark. Overall, it was too hot and bitter...some sweetness would have helped out. But it was still worth it. They're all good.

Literary musings

Today I'm inspired to share great quotes by famous authors, but not the quotes that most people know.

I started reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol this morning. It will be a quick read before the holidays and I can get another book in this month. And while I'm familiar with the story (who isn't, really?), I've never read the book. As I started it, I realized it's been awhile since I've read Dickens at all. In fact, I think the last time I read anything by him was also the first time -- Great Expectations my freshman year of high school. I really enjoyed that book. Anyway, I wasn't two paragraphs into the book today (literally), when I was laughing out loud. Let me share with you what I enjoyed:

Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

I'm not the only one who finds this amusing, am I? On that same note, am I the only one besides Dickens who actually thinks about things like that? I mean really, what is so dead about a door-nail? And all the other "similes" as he calls them, clichés as we call them...where do they get their origins? Throwing the baby out with the bath water? Who does that?

Okay, I'll calm down now. I have one other literary quote to share that had made me laugh out loud upon stumbling across it. This is from C.S. Lewis, in The Magician's Nephew. This one is funny because it is also -- unfortunately -- true. It's much shorter...here it is:

"... the trouble with trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed."

Now tell me that is neither funny nor true. You can't, because it is both. I've only read that book once, and it was a few years ago, but the moment I read that line, it became one of my favorite all-time quotes. It's very unique.

Do you have any favorite literary quotes or passages that are from well-known authors, but the words themselves are not so widely recognized? Please share.