January

I've been MIA when it comes to the blog. When life gets busy, something's gotta give right? I wish I had some pictures to spice up this post, but no can do. I still felt the need to show this little blog of mine some lovin'. So here's what we've been up to!

Richie's the only one to escape the sick bug at the Garner home. Miles got over his cold in early January, but Gwen and I are just barely remembering what it's like to breathe through our noses. Unfortunately, right as we were feeling almost 100%, Gwen got some sort of UTI infection and Miles got an ear infection. Boo. Thank goodness for modern medicine.

We've been anxious increase our bank account lately so that we have money to do something besides pay the bills and buy food. The main goal being we'd like to pay off our house in lightning speed, but we'd also like to do some fun things with money, you know like buy new tires for our vehicles and paint the house. We check out ksl sometimes for part time work, usually with Richie in mind, but we came across an ad for a pre school teacher at "The Winner School" near SLC. (No losers are allowed in this school apparently.) I sent a resume and they were anxious to hire me because of my degree. Long story short, I got the job being an assistant pre school teacher on Tue and Thurs from 12-4. I get to bring the kids with me and they get free day school (like a less intense pre school). I would love to put Miles in my pre school class with me, but even with the discounted rate they offered me, it wasn't cheap. Not only do they not allow losers in the school, I guess they also shun poor people. At least that's what I've gathered from the tuition, moms driving lexus and bmw, and kids wearing more expensive clothes than I've ever bought for myself. And the whole point of this thing is to make money right? Right.
Miles has taken to it like a fish. Just cries and whines when it's time to go home. Gwen has had a much harder time adjusting, which surprises me and also makes me have major cases of mommy guilt. Once we get into a routine I think we will all do fine, but the first week I was just having a really hard time admitting that *gasp* I am a working mom now. I have never questioned myself so much in such a short amount of time. The biggest question being, "Am I doing what's right for my kids?" And that led me to question everything I've ever done as a mother. Yikes. I'm guessing that most moms/parents in general will never escape asking themselves if they are doing the right thing for their children. Which is good thing! I just need to find the balance between listening to the spirit and non-stop worrying.
Pertaining to the job, so far so good. I know my kids will grow into it, and it will be great to have something to put on my professional resume, not to mention making a few extra bucks.

Other than that, we are just gearing up for Miles' bday this week! He's been excited all month, so I hope we don't disappoint him. Can't believe he's going to be 4.

New Years

It seems like New Year's eve was an eternity ago. I was pretty sure the kids weren't going to understand the concept, but any excuse for a party is a good one, right? We made party hats, which they loved, but refused to wear. We went to Iceberg for really fatty, totally unhealthy for you dinners, always a hit. And we let them stay up 30 minutes late watching a movie and then we hit pots and pans in our kitchen, because we were too chicken to go outside in the cold and snow. The kids had no idea why we were banging pots and pans, but they thought it was great! I was impressed that Richie knew all the words to "Auld Lang Syne" and thought it was cute he told the kids about the tradition of kissing someone at midnight on New Year's Eve. Gwen was not into it. :) And that was New Year's Eve, 2012. The End.

Book Review with Attitude

I LOVE January! No, I'm not being sarcastic. January is like I've been driving in the car with the music full blast for a month, and then *click* I turn it off and there is blessed silence. I'm slowly adding to my January traditions, but I always purge our filing cabinet and organize our files from the past year and then finalize our budget. I feel on top of the mountain for the first time since October and like I have some control. It's glorious.
Another thing I love doing in January is transitioning over to a new planner. I not only plan day-to-day stuff in there, but I keep lots of lists. Movies I want to own, what to give everyone for Xmas and how much it costs, books I've read, and books I want to read. (Bringing me to my post today.) Similar to last year, I just wanted to record what I read last year for my own silly reasons and also to possibly recommend some good reads to those of you who are as persnickety about making books lists as myself. I tried to out-read myself this year, from the previous year, but I failed miserably. I guess we went for quality this year, not quantity? *Warning, this post is LONG. I don't expect you to read all of it. But check out the pictures at the end, for sure.

*Maryjane's Life book-Recipe book-Idea book: By Maryjane Butters
A friend of mine who shares some common quirky interests gave me this beast of a book. Maryjane is a former Mormon, single mom of 2, and has a farm in Idaho where she basically lives off the land. So this book is her compilation of random things she's learned, including gardening, making her own organic fuel, re purposing things, ultra-organic recipes etc. Didn't really like the way it was organized, but entertaining enough.

*God Wants a Powerful People: By Sheri Dew
I don't remember details, but it's a typical Sheri Dew book. Powerful, short, easy to read, makes me want to underline it all.

*Supernanny: How To Get The Best From You Kids: Jo Frost.
Have you ever watched that show, "Supernanny"? She's a British nanny who goes in to homes and replaces chaos with order, basically. I think it's an older show, but it was on Hulu and I found myself getting hooked. The book is basically a summary of the show. Really good practical, no-nonsense advice for raising well behaved children.

*Trowel and Error: By Sharon Lovejoy
I feel like I shouldn't even include this one. It was a browsing book, really. You know, the kind you pick up at a doctor's office or in the bathroom or something. It has a bunch of good, sometimes silly, tips about gardening.

*Mere Christianity: C.S. Lewis
Awesome. Why did it take me so long to read this? Another book where I want to underline everything and memorize it so I can spout it off and sound really smart. My favorite part was when he talks about love and how "being in love" is different from "loving someone". Although being in love is wonderful and essential, you can't stay in love forever. You'd be exhausted and unaccomplished. The idea is to let that turn into truly loving someone. Fairly short, fairly easy read.

*Ezra Taft Benson: A Biography: Sheri Dew
The first year or so Richie and I were married, we read a talk President Benson gave about money, government, etc etc and it changed our marriage. I'm pretty sure that was a pivotal moment for us. So I was very excited about running across his biography in the library. What an amazing man! What an amazing family! What do you expect from a prophet I guess, but holy cow, I was blown away. Makes me want to name a son Benson. Long read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

*Gone With The Wind: Margaret Mitchell
I was always intimidated by this book because it's so huge! However, I think I must have read it quicker than any book I read this year. It was fantastic! I couldn't finish it quick enough. I just couldn't contain my excitement and frequently made Richie sit down and listen to me explain the plot and on and on. I'm sure he loved it. :) I just wanted him to be prepared for when I made him sit down and watch the movie with me. The movie did what it could, I mean how can you condense that many pages into a normal movie? But I was disappointed it left out so many details, as is the case with most books turned into movies.


*Original Fast Foods: James and Coleen Simmons
Richie's family drastically changed their diet about a year after we got married for a bunch of reasons. This was one of the first books that they read when they decided to make changes. We are slowly but surely getting on the bandwagon, one change at a time, but it's taken me about 4 years to actually read this book. Really good information about what we eat and how it affects our bodies short and long term. Full of yummy recipes at the back.

*Maryjane's Outpost: Maryjane Butters
Another Maryjane book given to me by the same friend. This one is significantly less long, has the same tone as the first, but focuses more on living in the outdoors. Whether it be roughing it and camping, or "glamping" in canvas tents with antique wash basins. Another fun book to browse through.

*Gone too Soon: Sherri Wittwer
My sister and her husband had a stillborn baby earlier this year, Charlie. It was a sad time especially for their family, but for all of us. The most difficult part was not knowing what to say or how to help them. So my sister gave me this book which has lots of first hand accounts from parents who have lost children and what they did and did not appreciate. It was a great read.

*Rough Stone Rolling: Lyman Bushman
So I read this thinking I was so great and was going to be so informed afterwards. I even used information from it in a talk I was asked to give about Joseph Smith. Then I found out that the brethren kind of frown on this book. It wasn't too hard to figure out why. There is nothing slanderous, as far as I know, but it puts Joseph Smith on a lower level I guess. While I was reading it, I actually really appreciated a more "humanized" version of the Prophet. It made me think, "Hey, he was just an ordinary guy, but did extraordinary things." But I can see why the brethren don't require us all to read it. It was super long, and I had a hard time getting through it.

*Silas Marner: George Elliot
In 8th grade, my English teacher handed out a list of books we should read before we get to college. There's at least 100. By the time I got to college I may have read 5. However, I have kept that list pinned to my cork board ever since and slowly but surely I'm checking them all off. Silas Marner was on the list. It was short, but surprisingly hard to get into. It's an old book, so transitioning into that type of language always takes me a bit. However, once I got into it, I couldn't read it fast enough. What a twisted plot! What interesting characters! Silas is a quiet man who is dealt a bad hand, which basically shuts him down emotionally. He moves to a new town, and is "the weird guy" that little kids are all afraid of. He, the town weaver, keeps to himself and only has one thought: to make money. After he has hoarded money for decades, it is mysteriously stolen one night. Not long after, a baby wanders in to his cottage and Silas, the man who had shut down, begins to blossom again. Wonderful read.

*Ira Nathaniel Hinckley : A Biography
Ira is my great-great-grandpa and is the man who built Cove Fort. Some of his descendants compiled a history of his life and I am so grateful. It was inspiring to read about my ancestors and think that some of their good qualities may have made their way down to me. If you're a member of my family, read it! :)

*Great Expectations: Charles Dickens
Another twisted plot! Reading Dickens makes me feel smart. Like I should be saying, with a pipe, "Mmm'yes, I happen to be reading Dickens this fortnight." Or something like that. I think I'll read more of him. Pip is plucked from the bowels of poverty to be raised as a gentleman by an unknown benefactor. Really, that's the plot in a one sentence. The characters drive this book. You love some and really hate the others, and then some you love and hate at the same time! Little bit longer, but worth the read.

*Plain and Precious: Beppie Harrison
My mother-in-law let me borrow this book at the beginning of last year. An LDS woman chooses a scripture each day and then writes her thoughts on it. So I just read one entry every day when I read my scriptures. I wouldn't say it was life changing, but she writes honestly and it was entertaining.

*Jacob T. Marley: R. William Bennet
This book is to "The Christmas Story" by Dickens (mmmyes- said with pinky up!) as "Wicked" is to "The Wizard of Oz". I was afraid this Bennet guy was going to mess up one of my favorite books, but instead he enhanced it. It's written in the same style and focuses more on Marley instead of Scrooge. There are some wonderful parallels to the atonement and it was a quick read.

So now it's your turn, what were some favorite books you read this year? I need to fill up my book list for 2013.



Here comes the attitude. One day, I was in the middle of getting Gwen ready and she suddenly refused to let me put her clothes on and ran to the bathroom to brush her teeth. I decided to leave her alone cause I wasn't in the mood for a fight, and when I went in to get her about 5 minutes later, this is how I found her, cheesin' it in front of the mirror in her undies. I took about a million pictures because she pulled about a million faces, but I'll spare you the time it would take to look through all of them, and give you my favorite 3.

She had no idea I was behind her taking pictures because she was so enamored with herself. Here she is realizing I'm behind her.

And here is the ensuing fit. I was laughing so hard taking these pictures, which only made her scream louder. Would you blame me if I said I'm a little scared for her teenage years? :)

The Christmas Post

Richie's brothers and dad were kind enough to help Richie finish our storage room shelves before Christmas! After they put the finishing touches on it, Richie and I put a movie on for the kids and went and organized all of our food storage just the way we're been planning/dreaming since we moved in. It was definitely an early Christmas for us and we are so happy with the results! Of course there are things we'd like to add or change or improve, but all of that will come in time. For the next long while, we're going to be enjoying our new storage room!

We took the kids to see Santa at the grocery store. Gwen wanted nothing to do with them. She was silently stubborn and I didn't want to fight with her. Miles was beyond excited all the way to the store, and as soon as we got there he was completely star struck. He couldn't even say a word, he just smiled sheepishly and nodded.

I don't know where he got it from, but Miles has been concerned all month about the fact that we didn't have a star on the top of our tree. I didn't want to go buy one, so I told him he could make one for it. He did it almost all by himself, and he was so proud to put it on the top.

Christmas Eve was a rush to finish homemade gifts and making sure everything was ready. We spent the snowy evening with some of the Garner fam and then came home to start our very first Christmas by ourselves, in our new home. We managed to squeeze in some cookie making so we had some to leave for Santa. Good thing our fireplace is just a gaping hole at this point. It makes it real easy for Santa to get in and out. :) The kids got their new Christmas pjs and keepsake book, we read the Christmas story and put the kids to bed. Growing up in my family, it was tradition for all the siblings to sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve, so we thought we'd try it out this year with Miles and Gwen. They were both very excited and surprisingly well behaved, however about 30 minutes later Gwen was banging on the door trying to get out. She was so relieved when I put her back in her crib.

This was my first time really stressing out over Christmas morning. I stayed up till 4 trying to make sure everything was ready and trying to figure out new ways to never do it like this again! I enjoyed parts of staying up till the wee hours, but for the most part, I was wishing I was snug in my bed. So by Christmas morning I was wiped out, Richie had been sick most of the night, and the kids wouldn't conform to my idea of tradition. How dare they want to look at presents before breakfast!! :) They were so excited to see what Santa brought. After they rooted through the loot upstairs, they could hardly believe there was more downstairs. And then they saw this beauty:

Santa has been working on this since the summer. He was SO please with how it turned out, and the kids are loving it! Success!!


After the Garners came over to see what Santa brought, we packed up and headed to St. George to spend some time with the Crosbys. We made it just in time for Christmas Day Dinner and the rest of the presents. We stayed in SG until Saturday and had such a relaxing time, it was perfect. There weren't any major plans, so there was lots of time just to chill and hang out. We actually came home well rested after a vacation! Crazy! Despite getting sick and passing it on to our family. It was actually really nice to get sick while I was "at home" and have my mommy take care of me again.