Book Blurb: "Terabithia" and "Jip"

My all-time favorite book as a child was Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. If you haven't read it, you should. It rocks! I didn't re-read a lot of books as a child (I don't re-read a lot now either, for that matter) but I've re-read this one countless times. Even as an adult I think I've read it two or three times. I can't wait to read it to my kids, but they're still a little young for it. Plus, I know I'm gonna cry cuz this book always makes me cry! Anyway, I found several different cover images online, but I wanted the cover I was familiar with so I scanned my copy. It has the right cover, you see. :)





You probably know they made a movie out of this book. When I first heard about it, I was so excited! Then I saw the preview. First, if I hadn't read and loved the book so much, I think I would have liked the movie. It looked pretty cool. But I was irritated because half the preview was nothing like the book at all. It's like they made it into a fantasy or something, and this book is NOT a fantasy. Like, at all. It's weird. Stinkin' Disney.



Here's what's on the back cover of mine:



"We need a place," she said, "just for us. It would be so secret that we would never tell anyone in the whole world about it." She lowered her voice almost to a whisper. "It might be a whole secret country, and you and I would be the rulers of it."

It was Leslie's idea to create Terabithia, their secret kingdom in the woods where they reigned as King and Queen. There no enemy - not their teacher Monster Mouth Myers, their bullying schoolmates, Jess's four sisters, or even Jess's own fears and Leslie's imaginary foes - could defeat them. Jess's friendship with Leslie, and the worlds of imagination and learning that she opens up to him, change him forever and enable him to cope with the unexpected tragedy that touches them all."



Typing that brought the story back to me and gave me chills. I think I'm gonna leave this on my desk and put it in line for books to read. I LOVE this book!



Anyway, last time I was at the library looking for books to read to the kids (we finished Mouse and the Motorcycle by the way - it was fun!) I saw more books by Katherine Paterson. I picked out this one for myself. Jip, His Story:

I read it and all I can say is "Wow." This lady did it again. Like Terabithia, it's an award-winner. And like Terabithia she pulls no punches. Even though these are children's books, I think they're more than appropriate for adults. Her execution is flawless. Her characters are fantastic. Her themes and storylines touch on serious subjects that not just any writer could handle. After reading Jip, I recalled a couple things I read about her awhile ago. This is from a really interesting bio on her site. She talks about how much she loves writing, but then she says this:

"But there are days when I wonder how on earth I got involved in this madness. Why, oh why, did I ever think I had anything to say that was worth putting down on paper? And there are those days when I have finished a book and can't for the life of me believe I'll ever have the wit or will to write another.

Eventually a character or characters will walk into my imagination and begin to take over my life. I'll spend the next couple of years getting to know them and telling their story. Then the joy of writing far outweighs the struggle, and I know beyond any doubt that I am the most fortunate person in the world to have been given such work to do."

At the time I wondered about her feeling like she could never write a book again. After reading Jip I think I understand. Her books are intense to read. I can't imagine what they must be like to write.

I also think this little snippet about her is funny:

"Despite her years of experience, crafting her stories and plots is still not easy. Usually, when a novel is not quite complete, Paterson becomes frustrated with the novel and feels that it can't be finished. She then complains to John [her husband] who simply acknowledges that she's reached 'that stage' again. This sends her back to her desk in a huff to get the novel finished."

I think Brian and Elyse can relate to that. It's reassuring to know that even phenomenal writers like her go through the same crazy emotional behavior experienced by writers like me.

Anyway, she's a phenomenal writer. There were several other Paterson books on the library shelf. I think I'll just have to read them all.

I yelled at a goat because the voices told me to

I got the following in an email and my sentence made me laugh. What's yours?

"Type out the sentence you end up with, in the subject line and forward to your friends...also, send it back to the person that sent it to you."

Pick the month you were born:

January------- I kicked
February------ I loved
March-------- I karate chopped
April---------- I licked
May---------- I jumped on
June---------- I smelled
July----------- I did the Macarena with
August-------- I had lunch with
September---- I danced with
October------- I sang to
November----- I yelled at
December----- I ran over

Pick the day (number) you were born on:

1--------- a birdbath
2--------- a monster
3--------- a phone
4--------- a fork
5--------- a snowman
6--------- a gangster
7--------- my mobile phone
8--------- my dog
9--------- my best friends' boyfriend
10------- my neighbor
11------- my science teacher
12------- a banana
13------- a fireman
14------- a stuffed animal
15------- a goat
16------- a pickle
17------- your mom
18------- a buffalo
19------- a Smurf
20------- a baseball bat
21------- a Ninja
22------- Chuck Norris
23------- a noodle
24------- a squirrel
25------- a football player
26------- President Bush
27------- David Letterman
28------- an Ipod
29------- a surfer
30------- a llama
31------- a homeless guy

Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:

White--------- because I'm cool like that
Black--------- because that's how I roll
Pink----------- because I'm crazy
Red----------- because the voices told me to
Blue----------- because I'm cute and I do what I want
Green--------- because I think I need some serious help
Purple--------- because I'm AWESOME!
Gray---------- because Big Bird said to and he's my leader.
Yellow-------- because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange -------- because my family thinks I'm stupid anyway.
Brown--------- because I can.
Other---------- because I'm a Ninja!
None---------- because I can't control myself!

Happy Birthday Brian!!!

My wonderful husband turns 37 today. I've known him since he was 19, and it amazes me to think of the man I've watched him grow into. He's an excellent husband, father, and friend. I'll say more below, but first things first.


I decided it would be fun to put up an old pic of Brian. I considered a baby picture, but as I was looking through our pictures when we were first married, I knew I had to pick one of those instead. Forgive me if I indulge in more than one. I just love this man, and these bring back such sweet memories.

Hee hee. He always makes me laugh. That's just one of the things I love about Brian. As a husband he is endlessly patient and ever considerate. I always know he loves me because of the way he treats me. He's affectionate and thoughtful and never fails to show appreciation. I can always count on him to be there for me - whether it's to come home early so I can teach Art Masterpiece, listen to me vent when I've had a bad day, or simply give me a cheerful "Hi Honey" when he walks in the door. I'm so grateful for him and what he brings into my life.

As a father, he excels. These children know their daddy loves them. He plays with them, listens to them, teaches them and - most importantly - picks on them. LOL. He keeps the humor in our household. He's a family man, and feels pride in being so. He's devoted to both me and the children and we all know it. He teaches the children how to pray, how to try new food (John loves fish!), and how to pump up a soccer ball. He knows how to give his sons comfort when they needed, or a kick in the pants when they need that. :) He really is a wonderful father, and for that I'm so grateful.

He leads our family with love and patience. He provides for us, and it makes me happy to see him doing well in a job he loves. He's a man of many talents. He's an excellent manager, chef, and teacher. He loves photography, model planes, WWII books, and random facts. If he ever offers to grill anything for you, say YES!

There's so much I could say about him, and yet none of it seems enough. I'm proud of him. I love him. I'm grateful to have him by my side.

Happy Birthday Honey.

Cinco de Mayo Party - a little bleary eyed...

I give you fair warning, when we went to the Cinco de Mayo party put on by our ward, we accidentally brought the super lens for Brian's camera. This is the lens that really demands a tripod, otherwise it's hard to hold the camera steady and you end up with blurry pictures like this:



Or this:



But it was just about IMPOSSIBLE to get all three kids to put their faces in these cutouts at once, so blurry or not, this was as good as this shot was going to get.

Aside from the camera mishap, the one negative of the evening was Ben's cough. It started shortly before we left and was pretty mild. By the time we were sitting down for the opening prayer, he was coughing over and over again. I took him to the private bathroom off the foyer to get a drink, etc, and his coughing just would not stop. It got to the point where he was coughing on every single exhalation. It was pretty concerning. Eventually we got it to settle down some and he was able to eat a tiny bit, but for the most part he was miserable:




Other than that, it was a good party. We tend not to go to a lot of the ward social functions, but I forget that this ward really knows how to put on a party. In addition to the great decorations and picture opportunities, they had delicious food, entertainment, and a ton of crafts for the kids to do.

Here's a pic of John decorating his sombrero:

Here's John in his poncho (you can see the string for his sombrero around his neck). He and Ben are shaking their maracas. This was the one thing Ben felt like making.

Even though this pic is blurry and his eyes are closed, I can't leave out Christopher:

I suppose I should confess what ultimately made us to go to the party. Nylene called the night before (or was it early that day? I can't remember now)... anyway she called to see if I would help in the kitchen. I checked with Brian to make sure it was okay that I committed us to go, and he said he would work in the kitchen instead. I tried a little to tell him he didn't have to, but I didn't try that hard. The kitchen is really Brian's arena more than mine. And I think he was a lot more helpful than I would have been. He really knows how to handle lots of food like that, especially when it seems things are running low. So yeah, we went because I bailed out of helping out. How's that for brownie points for getting into heaven? LOL.

As for Ben's cough, this was not the first time we had to deal with him coughing, though it had never been this bad. He's always had issues with coughing off and on, but as soon as I decide to take him to the doctor about it, it goes away for several months. Well, about two weeks prior to this party, he was coughing so bad at night that it took forever to get it to stop. Then when he finally stopped he was wheezing. That was a first. I got him into the doctor right away. I'm not going to mess around with wheezing. Well, long story short he had a bad sinus infection and all the draining etc, which will bring on coughing. We couldn't hear him wheezing anymore, but the doctor could hear it with his stethoscope. So he gave him antibiotics for the infection and another medicine to use as needed to open up his chest.

When we got home from the party this night, he was all done with the antibiotics, but I gave him that chest decongestant. Not even two minutes later he was crashed out on the couch. Poor little guy. I took him into the doctor the following Tuesday. We already planned to test him for asthma once the infection cleared and I was sure that would be it. But no, Ben does NOT have asthma. Thank goodness! The doctor thinks he may just have sensitive airways (as many people do in the Valley these days) and I think he may be right. I've noticed on really windy days (like yesterday) he'll end up coughing for awhile (like he did last night). I ended up giving him more of that chest decongestant last night (something we don't want to have to do more than twice a week, or he'll end up on daily medication) but it didn't seem to work as well or as fast. That makes me wonder if something else is going on. Or if he just needs different medication. Sigh. He seems so little for all this. Poor kid.

More camera info...

In the comments, Kimmy asked what made us choose that camera. I thought I'd answer here in case she doesn't revisit comments.

I knew nothing about digital cameras so I did a quick Google search (gotta love Google!) and found this article. It's geared for businesses, but told me what I needed to know.

We wanted something basic so it wouldn't cost too much. I realize megapixals are all the rage, but I think that's something you can go nuts about. For our needs the lowest (3) would be too small, but 4 or 5 would do just fine. I didn't want lots of battery expenses in the future, so I looked for something with a Li-ion rechargeable battery. I trusted the name Canon out of pure ignorance. I didn't do any research on them, so I'm relieved to hear these are supposed to be good cameras. I wanted optical zoom, which this has. That's really all I looked for. I wasn't too fussed about it.

The final decision maker was price though. This retails for $300-500 depending on where you go, and we paid a little less than $125 including shipping. Not too shabby, and less than what we would have spent on film and developing over the next two months. Well worth the investment.

The fact that it will make my new blogging obsession easier is a just plus! ;)

The 21st Century Approacheth!!

In the Cook household, that is.

We finally, finally, FINALLY decided to get a digital camera. I've wanted one for a long time, obviously, but felt it was too expensive. Well, two things persuaded me otherwise. The first was the Father's and Son's campout. Between the cost of film and developing, we must have spent a good $80 on pictures. That's a camera right there. But it didn't quite click with me then, because I wasn't the one actually at the store shelling out the cash for that. And because it's a rare thing for us to buy/develop so much film.

The second thing that finally did it was when I bought film the other day. That stuff is expensive. The only reason I was doing it was so I could take pics of Leeanne and Jenna, and the boys' Spring Sing concert, otherwise I would have just skipped it. I stood there in the store mentally adding up the cost of developing those rolls of film. Then I thought about all the pictures we'd be taking during our Texas trip coming up and our campout in July. I thought "we could just buy a digital camera for less than all that." So that's what we did.

Course, I have no desire to pay retail for a camera. Ebay is perfect for stuff like that. So I did a little bit of research and got a nice camera for a smokin good deal.

It ships on Saturday. Squeee!!

More Magic

This isn't so creepy, LOL.

Rather Cool Street Magician

I like this guy.

Broccoli Cheese Potato Soup Recipe

Here's something that, shockingly, all my kids will eat. Even Ben (provided I serve it with crusty bread he can dip into it). This made enough that we froze half of it for a future meal. Later I read that potatoes aren't supposed to freeze well, but our leftover soup turned out just fine (the mystery is solved, Mom :).

6 cups water

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

4 potatoes, chopped
1 pkg frozen broccoli (I used a head of fresh, chopped)
1/2 Tbsp pepper
1 tsp garlic
1 dash salt

1 cup grated cheese

Milk

Boil water. Add chicken until almost cooked through. Add all remaining ingredients except cheese and milk. Cook till thickened. Add cheese and enough milk to bring to desired consistency. (I kept mine pretty thick, but Brian said he would have added more milk.) Stir till cheese is melted in.

Easy and yummy.

Being a Mommy My Way

In my quest to give myself more of a break as a mom, I've decided I don't need to do what everyone else is doing. I'll give you an example. Deb is really good about taking her kids to the Fun Van. It sounds like such a cool activity, and she's told me about it several times, but I've never gone. I kept thinking I should go, though. I even went so far as to get the schedule online and print it out for my bulletin board. It took me months of looking at that schedule and not going to realize something. I don't want to go. And that's okay. Not going doesn't make me a bad mom. It's just that there are different things I'd like to do. I'm giving myself permission to play to my strengths, and do the things with my kids that I enjoy doing. No one can do it all, right? I just need to decide what's important to me. What do I want to do with my kids? Once I asked myself that question, the first thing that came to mind was reading books to my family.

Now, I don't mean reading books to my kids. I've been doing that forever. I mean a longer story that I read to everyone, Brian included. This is a tradition I've always wanted to start, but the timing never seemed right. Now my youngest is finally at an age where I thought he could handle listening to me read longer stories. (My goal is to continue this tradition even into the teen years...we'll see if they let me...)

I wasn't sure when we were going to work this into our routine. Like everyone else, we're busy, and the idea of scheduling in one more thing just sounded stressful. But I decided to take it one step at a time. We started with a trip to the library. I told the librarian what I wanted to do and the ages of my kids and she gave me great suggestions. We checked out several books and brought them home. Ben helped me pick which one we'd start with: The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. I'd never read it before, but it sounded like fun.

Rather than put the book on the shelf with all the other library books, I set it out in plain sight, hoping that seeing it often would help me think of an answer to the "when" question.

That Sunday we were getting ready to go to grandma's house for dinner, a good 15 minute drive. Seeing the book on my way out the door, I grabbed it on impulse, wondering if they'd let me read it to them on the way. Turns out, this is an excellent time. After a couple trips to grandma's house, we're now more than half way through the book. We can get in a chapter or two on the way there and a chapter or two on the way home. When I get to the occasional illustration, I pass the book around. The first time we got home without having finished the chapter, Brian circled the block until we finished it (his idea). The second time we arrived home in the middle of a chapter, he was going to do that again, but for the sake of saving gas I asked him not to. I assured him we could sit in the driveway until I finished reading and that satisfied him. LOL. We're all enjoying the story. I mean, with a motorcycle-riding mouse, how can you go wrong?

I don't know if our reading will ever make it out of the car and into the house, but for now I'm satisfied. This is one of those things I've always wanted to do, and I would have kicked myself if I let the years go by without getting it done.

I have a few more things on my "mommy to do list," including getting these kids to the art museum more regularly. It's been years since we've been there. In fact, I don't think Chris has EVER been there. It's not that I think trips to the art museum are an indispensible requirement of childhood or anything. But my dad took me when I was a kid and I have very fond memories of that. It opened up my view of the world. It made me appreciate how much bigger the world is than me. It made me open to "culture and stuff" as my dad would say. So, art museum trips might not be high on everyone else's list, but it's high on mine.

And I've decided my list is the one that matters most.

My Mother

Me and my mother

My Mother's Day blogging would not be complete without a tribute to my mother. I've always loved my mother. Her love and encouragement gave me great self-esteem growing up, and the feeling that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to. My parents divorced when I was young, and so I watched my mother fill the difficult role of single mom. Even as a child I was amazed at everything she had to take care of on her own. Now that I'm a mother, I'm even more amazed. And grateful. I'm grateful for all her love and support, and I'm grateful for all the millions of little things she did to take care of me. So much of motherhood is filled with the minutia of daily life - cooking, cleaning, caretaking. So often these tasks go unnoticed and unappreciated (though I have to stop just long enough to say that Brian excels at both noticing and appreciating all that I do). I'm grateful to my mother for doing all this. I'm grateful to her for teaching me how to choose friends wisely, for camping trips in the mountains, and for a bear birthday cake I'll never forget. I appreciate the love she still shows me and the faith she still has in me. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

Mother's Day

My children

My mother

It's about 4:30 on the morning of Mother's Day, and I've been awake for about an hour and a half now. Chris was up coughing and by the time I got him a drink and cough medicine and patted his leg while he went back to sleep, I was wide awake. It's an odd thing being a mother. While part of me bemoans my loss of sleep while peeling myself from my comfortable bed, the other part of me knows there's no one else I'd rather have comforting my child in the deep of night.

So here I am pondering Mother's Day and what it means to me. On the one hand, Mother's Day rocks. I get beautiful flowers, Brian takes care of all the household duties to give me an entire day off, the children give me homemade gifts (which I always love because it was their hands which made it), I get to listen to talks in church about how important mothers are, and as an extra bonus, the Elders Quorum are taking over Primary so I get to go to Relief Society like a normal person. What a peaceful, relaxing day I have ahead of me. And the fact that I'm up in the middle of the night isn't stressing me out because I'll just be able to sleep in while Brian takes care of the kids.

Then there's the other element of Mother's Day which goes beyond all that lovely surface stuff: self-evaluation. How am I doing as a mother? How are my children doing? Are their needs being met? What can I do to do better? In the end, will it be enough? Just how much counseling are my children going to need?

Honestly, it takes a lot of effort not to torture myself when I think about these things. And, honestly, I think about them a lot. I worry I'm not parenting my children in the way I should, or could. I worry these years are going to pass by and I'm going to have a long list of regrets and "I wish I would haves." I worry my children are going to have more "issues" than normal because I'm managing to screw them up. Does everyone feel like this? Sometimes I wish I could just push the pause button so I could get myself together and make sure I'm ready to give them everything they need. But would I ever feel ready?

I pray about this a lot. My feeling, more than anything, is to enjoy them, love them, encourage them, nurture them. I'm trying. And I'm trying to forgive myself when I fall short.

Girly Screams of Terror

Well, since we are without a digital camera (for now) I'm hard-pressed to come up with new blog entries. So I'm stealing one from my blog on the weight-loss site I'm on...


So this morning I stepped out of our side carport door to go put clothes in the dryer (we have an outdoor laundry room) and I see this huge wasp hovering about six inches from my face. (Insert girly scream of terror here) I run back in the house and slam the door shut and decide the laundry can wait.

About two hours later I remember I still have to put the clothes in the dryer, but I also need to water my roses in the backyard. So I go out the back door, water the roses, and then go through the gate to get to the laundry room. Ahead of me is the side carport door and nearby is, guess what, that stinkin wasp. Now, I don't even know the last time I saw a wasp around here, so why is one suddenly hanging out by the door I must go in and out of at least a dozen times a day?

I look at the top of the door frame and find my answer. It's a momma wasp. And she's building a nest.

Well, that's just not going to fly.

So I start putting the clothes in the dryer and begin forming my plan of attack which will not include, I hope, me getting stung.

Then I hear the carport door open. My three-year old has decided to come out and join me. I rush out and see the door about three inches open. I can't see Chris because he is still inside and the door opens away from where I'm standing, but I can see the wasp just fine and she's VERY near the opening. "Close the door, honey, quick!" I say. "Quick, quick, quick." He shuts the door, but not quick enough, and now he and momma wasp are in the house together. (Insert unflattering explitive here.)

So I go running to the door, more girly screams of terror start echoing through the house (this time from my three-year old), and in a flurry of panic and confusion I get Chris to a place of safety.

With a great deal of stealth and armed with a can of Raid, I go hunting for the wasp which is still in my house somewhere. I manage to find it, spray it with the Raid while doing some weird ducking and lunging, and end up watching it die in convulsions on my window ledge. It's oddly satisfying.

But now for the nest. Years ago I caught a wasp in the process of building a nest (it looks like a little mound of hardened dirt if you've never seen one - like a termite hill or something) and I just knocked it down with the broom handle. It was all hollow inside and crumbled to dust. No biggie.

But not this nest. Oh no. THIS nest was FILLED with little eggs. "UUUGGGHHH!" I say when I first see them, "Gross!"

"Yeah," Chris says. "Gross."

I keep knocking it down, not so successfully suppressing my shudders of revulsion. "Nasty!"

"Yeah, nasty."

So then the nest is all in pieces and I have all these little eggs on my carport. As I go to sweep them up I see that some of them had either started to hatch or were forced to hatch by their encounter with my broom handle. All these little legs are sticking out and they look like tiny white spiders with great big butts. I like spiders about as much as I like wasps. (I like big butts even less, thus my membership on this site.) I sprayed the eggs and all the freaky little babies, just in case, then swept them away. Then I sprayed where the nest used to be, just for good measure.

The whole experience was totally disgusting.

So here's my question. If I do a Google search, do you think it will tell me how many calories you burn when you chase down and kill a mommy wasp, then massacre her disgusting little brood?

Just curious.

Sneezing Panda

Since everyone else is posting up videos on their blogs, I thought I would too. Here's a little something for your viewing pleasure.

Book Blurb: The Hiding Place

Okay, in my opinion, this is one of the few books that I believe should be required reading for everyone. This amazing true story shows us human courage and compassion at its finest.

Here's a blurb:

"An old watchmaker in Holland. His two daughters, Corrie and Betsie. Simple, ordinary people. Yet these three unlikely heroes became the center of a major underground operation: To hide Jewish refugees from the occupying Germans. These kindly, law abiding people broke every rule in the book to save the lives of the men, women and children being hunted by the Nazis. Their home became a hiding place, but the cost of their bravery was betrayal and in the dreaded Ravensbruck concentration camp, they had to create another hiding place for those around them."