General update

Hi everyone!
So I got a second to breathe, I thought I would update this thing.
I've been playing Stage Manager to another play, this one is called Joyful Noise and it's about Handel's Messiah. It's pretty good really, but we've had major cast changes in the past couple weeks. Our Handel was building a prop for the play and cut one of his fingers mostly off, so he won't be doing the play anymore. We moved the guy who was playing the Bishop into Handel's spot and got someone else to play the Bishop, but that meant that two of our main characters were cramming lines a week and a half before opening night. The play opened on Thursday, and it was just about the funniest thing I've ever seen. You know those moments where two actors stare at each other in stark terror because neither one of them knows what the next line is and they both know it? Well we had at least half a dozen of those. A few key props were left offstage and the actors had to pretend they didn't need that particular thing that was ostentatiously missing, or someone would run offstage for it, ad-libbing something about "Oh I left it in the kitchen!" It was really hilarious, and I kept ducking behind the walls of the sound and light booth so that the audience wouldn't see me cracking up. But the audience seemed to like it. It's got some really cool stuff and a great message.
In other news a new group of Czech missionaries just got back, including Elder Mack (who was with me in the MTC), Sister Young (my second child), Sister Anderson (my last companion), and Sister Mitchell (the one I follow-up trained in Prague). So I'm understandably really really excited to see them. I guess they got delayed and a couple of them had to spend the night in England. Crazy, huh? And we thought it was bad when John got delayed a few hours!

Turn of the Screw review

This was posted on a site that critiques theater performances by LDS people. I'm not mentioned, but you can see how much this guy LOVED the play! Yay for Rachel and Ben!

A MOTLEY VISION: Mormon Arts and Culture

By Mahonri Stewart | 10.28.08

The other powerful Halloween tale playing in the valley right now trades vampires for ghosts… or are they? Turn of the Screw, playing at the Covey Center for the Arts, is adapted from the classic novella by Henry James with skillful artistry by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher. Drawing as much from the literary criticism surrounding the story as the actual story itself, the play poses a good many questions about what exists in our minds and what is indeed real and supernatural. It also has questions about affection and what happens when we are not given this vital and basic need. Psychological drama as much as ghost story, the classic tale follows a governess who is given charge of two children, but with the express orders that she is to never contact their guardian about them– even when, it turns out, they are in the most dire need. Soon figures from the children’s past appear to the governess as she tries to piece together why she can see these figures when no one else can (except for perhaps the children?).

As with Nosferatu, this play rises on the wings of its director. Kimberley Mellen is a revelation to me, for I had very little previous knowledge of her until now. The concepts and execution of this play in Mellen’s hands are nothing short of miraculous.

To understand the limitations set upon her (and then the amazing things she did with the space), one has to understand the Covey Center’s “little theater.” It’s not that much of a theater, it’s really just a big room painted black with risers and installed theatrical lights. And before those lights came in, I have seen productions in there where the stage manager would just turn on and off the lights for scene changes. Actors have to enter through the same doors the audience does, and often music or other performances can be heard from downstairs where the more “grand” theater exists. So, to say the least, it’s never been an ideal space. But Ms. Mellen does something splendid with the space, using it to her utmost advantage.

Instead of staging the play in its proper Victorian period, the director garbs her actors in simple black clothing and relies heavily upon masks for most of the characters except the governess. She creates a square out of shower curtains, which can be drawn back and forth throughout the play, and which have a whitish, translucent quality to them. With the curtains off-setting them, the black, large brick walls behind the actors suddenly seem less like a room, and instead take a very disturbing, clinical quality to them. As if you have just found yourself in an asylum.

As the curtains are drawn back and forth, back and forth, back and forth with increasingly reckless abandon, where this governess exists and what she tells us becomes highly debatable and we do not know whether we are being “seduced” into her way of thinking, or whether what she is telling us is real. A hand held, electric lantern is also used throughout the play, sometimes pointing at the audience (again, an uncomfortable glare), sometimes shadowing the actors in frightening ways, sometimes casting our focus (or distracting it) to and from where it needs to be. All of these elements combine to make a very visceral and highly dramatic theatrical experience. This revelation of Mellen’s talent, I hope, is only a preview of great things to come from her. She easily joins people like Chris Clark, David Morgan and Barta Heiner in my personal pantheon of favorite directors.

And, of course, half of the job of good directing is good casting. Here Ms. Mellen does not disappoint either. All of the roles are divided between two actors. Rachel Baird plays the lonely governess, while Benjamin King plays everyone else. Ms. Baird gives a startling beautiful, yet frightening, portrayal of this governess. Aching, lonely, vulnerable, yet with a repressed passion and strength, it’s one of the best performances I’ve seen all year. A perfect complement to Ms. Baird is her fellow actor Ben King, who is a force of nature in and of himself in this play. Taking on several very distinctly different roles (complimented by some very evocative masks), he is able to give us a very convincing portrayals ranging from a seductive employer, trapping the governess into a strange and often frightening occupation; to a vulnerable, yet slightly creepy young boy, quite the feat since King towers above the governess; to the housekeeper, which King does a surprisingly excellent job at, considering his manly height and physique. Between the two performers, the show was one of the best acted pieces of theater that I have seen for a very long time.

Apartment curse (continued)

So remember the horrific night we spent in the emergency room with Shawnee? Well this time we got to do it again, this time with Amanda. She was nicer, though, and we got to go in the middle of the day instead of the middle of the night. The poor girl has a bad cold and gets really bad cramps, so last week she took her prescription for cramps and it wasn't working, so she took a painkiller for her cramps, then a pill for her lactose intolerance before she ate something, then an over the counter cold pill. And man was she sick. Her hands went numb and her chest started to tighten, so I got to call Poison Control because Shawnee was nervous to do it herself. They listened very nicely and then said if she was having trouble breathing we needed to hang up and get her to the hospital. Okay...so we did that. By the time we got her there she was shaking so bad they couldn't get her blood pressure, and she kept coughing and dry heaving. They got her back pretty quick and did...nothing! They said it was just a funny reaction to the medication, not an overdose, so she would be okay in a while. We took her home and she slept most of the day. Poor kid.
Also remember when Brittany did something to her foot when they went out to get the car for Shawnee? Yeah it's broken in two places. And the silly girl is going crazy because she goes running every day of her life and now she can't. She thought she was doing well the other day so she actually went running on it. She was in quite a bit of pain afterwards, let me tell you.
So the curse continues. Let's just hope the next trip to the hospital isn't worse than we've seen so far.

Halloween

So this year on Halloween I had a Turn of the Screw performance, so I didn't dress up or anything, but after the play I went with Rachel to "Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street". They were performing it up in this really cool theater everybody just calls "the castle" because that's what it looks like. For those of you who don't know about Sweeney Todd, it's a musical about a vengeful barber who slits the throats of the people who sent him to prison and raped his wife, as well as the throats of unfortunate customers, and then his assistant makes his victims into the most popular meat pies in London. Sounds really disgusting and disturbing, right? Well, yeah, but it's also very very funny in a very very dark kind of way, like the song Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett sing about the different textures and flavors in the pies, based on the sort of person that goes into it, and the scene where Sweeney sings a very sweet song about his long-lost daughter while slitting throats. It was just really weird. Then in the end it's actually really really sad, but I have to say that I guessed the surprise before it happened. And that's all I'm going to say. :)
After Sweeney Todd I couldn't go to bed, so I sat up and watched TV with my roommates until about 2:45 in the morning, when our doorbell rang. I have to say I was not that amused to find college-aged trick-or-treaters on my doorstep. I gave them some candy but said, You do realize that it's almost 3 in the morning, right? The genius in the group answered, "Yes, but it's still Halloween!" I glared at her. Actually, it's not. It's November first. "Oh." Good night. :)
So that's a college student Halloween for you. :)

Turn of the Screw (continued) and a small world (continued)

So Turn of the Screw is going really well, we have our last performances this week, and then I'll start working on Joyful Noise, which will go off a little after Thanksgiving. The director has only been to the play a couple of times since it opened, but the director's husband came last night and he said it was fantastic! He said the lighting was "chiseled" and the sound perfect. Ha! Thank you very much!
After the performance last night I was talking to Ben, the one I already had the weird connection with, and he mentioned "Oh my sister and her husband are coming on Saturday, and their last name is Forsyth, too!" Really? "Yeah but they have an E on the end." Um...pretty sure I'm going to know who they are then. What are their names? "Um...Andrew?" Haha can you believe that? Ben's sister is Andy's wife! How weird is that? So Ben called and told them, then I talked to them, and they're coming to the matinee on Saturday. My roommates are all coming that same time, too, as well as my home teachers and a few other people from the ward. So it's going to be fun!

Turn of the Screw

So I volunteered to be the stage manager for this play, Turn of the Screw, and it has taken over my life! I have not been home before midnight this week because of rehearsals, and I'm totally stressed out all the time because I have to do sound and light at the same time and the director keeps changing it on me. I feel like one of those switchboard operators, and we've all seen Auntie Mame, right? There's no such place as San Francisco...
With that, I also had an interesting discovery. Four years ago I went to a fantastic production of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," where the guy playing Aslan was totally amazing. I mean it was completely obvious that they were going for symbol of Christ in that role and he totally pulled it off! I noted the name of the actor at the time just because I thought he was so cool, but half forgot about it. Well on this production we have two actors, a girl and a guy, and the guy is named Ben King. Well after thinking about it for a while, and after a couple things he said, I finally put it together! It was him! I had to ask him just to make sure, but it's for sure the same guy. Weird, huh? I flipped out and told him how much I loved him in that part, and he laughed and shook his head. "That was such a long time ago..." Life is a funny place.
Opening night is tonight, I hope I don't foul up too royally!

Apartment curse

So my roommates and I are cursed. I swear the following account is the honest truth, though it seems unlikely that so many maladies and accidents could strike in such a short amount of time. First, let me describe the involved roommates. Amanda is a short brown-haired girl, maybe 115 fully dressed and soaking wet. Shawnee is shorter than Amanda and even smaller. She looks like she's twelve sometimes. Brittany is closer to my height but still really really skinny, more athletic looking. So yesterday Amanda stayed home from all her classes and slept all day because her stomach was seriously upset and cramping. When I got home from play practice around 10 Shawnee was curled up on the couch in massive pain waiting for a couple guys from the ward to come give her a blessing. She has this mystery malady that makes her stomach cramp really really bad but no doctor has ever been able to figure out what her problem is. She's been okay since last December, but she forgot her medication at home when she moved up, and yesterday was not her lucky day. She got a blessing but was still in massive pain, but the only thing that's ever helped her when it gets that bad is morphine and she didn't want to go to the hospital. Around midnight she finally gave in and I sent Amanda and Brittany to go get Amanda's car while I helped Shawnee. Well while they were going for the car Brittany tripped and sprained something in her foot. Amanda got her to the car and I got Shawnee in, and we all went to the hospital. So can you see this? There's the four of us, Shawnee curled up in a ball with her head on my shoulder, Amanda holding her stomach which is still cramping, and Brittany with a swelling foot. We finally got her some ice for it and she pulled up a chair to rest her foot on. They must have wondered which one of us was actually waiting for a doctor.
So Shawnee finally gets called and we go back to one of those creepily cheerful hospital rooms (this is around 1:30 by the way), where they have her change into a hospital gown and then they take a urine sample and a blood sample. When the nurse put the IV into her arm Shawnee made me hold her hand so she could cut off my circulation. She hates needles. It was weird, too, because the nurse totally let blood flow all down her arm. I mean there was a pool of blood on her arm coming out of the little IV thing. Gross, huh? They took a massive blood sample for tests, then after a while they came back in with the morphine. The first nurse was really nice, she put it in slow so Shawnee wouldn't get as light-headed, and we hoped that it would help her pain. Did it? NO. No change whatsoever. So we called the nurse back, but this time it was a guy. Our nice female nurse had gone home. She told him it hadn't worked, that she was still in pain, so he went to get her some more. And he didn't go slow. Just shoved it in all at once. I thought she was going to pass out, she was seeing double for a long time. But still no change. So when he came back we told him so, and he checked her stats and said, "Well we'll get you some more, we can't give you too much more because we've, like, kind of given you enough to kill most people already." We all just stared after him. Was that supposed to be a joke? He didn't laugh when he said it...Shawnee's heart rate went way up, and she was really agitated. I wanted to hit the guy. So he came back and gave her some more, shoved it in there again, and still it did nothing but made her even more light-headed. He also gave her an anti-inflammatory and an anti-nausea. So what do we do now? Send her home, of course! All her tests came back normal, so they didn't know what else to do with her. They gave her a prescription for the stuff she'd left at home as well as Perkasec (sp?) another pain killer. They even had her take two of those before she left. Remember this is a TINY little girl, this was a LOT of medication. She was really shaky and weak.
We made the nurse look at Brittany's foot before he left, and he said he didn't think there was much of a probability that it was broken, but it was probably sprained pretty good and she might want to get it x-rayed. She couldn't put any weight on it.
So on the way out I supported Shawnee and Amanda helped Brittany. Shawnee made it to the lobby before her knees gave out, and I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. She didn't really like being carried, so she made me set her down while we waited for the car, but she put her arms around me and hung on to me like she couldn't feel her legs. When we got to the apartment Shawnee didn't think she could get inside, so I carried her again from the car to the apartment while Amanda played crutch for Brittany again.
This is about 3 am at this point.
Amanda and I went and parked her car, and when we got back Shawnee had crawled to the bathroom so she could wash her face, and Brittany was freaking out because her ice had run out and her foot was swelling and changing colors. Amanda got Brittany more ice while I helped Shawnee. Shawnee wanted to eat something, even though her stomach still hurt, so she ate Wheat Thins while I read to her, then I helped her to bed. Right before she got into bed she made a dash to the bathroom and lost the Wheat Thins. I haven't seen anyone look that white since my roommate's boyfriend ate a whole jar of mayonnaise. So we finally got her to bed and Amanda and I agreed to trade off checking on her every couple hours. So I finally got to bed at 3:30, but got up again at 7:30 to check on her. Turns out she couldn't even sleep, except for about an hour, because every time she started to doze off she STOPPED BREATHING. So she kept waking up coughing and gasping. Great, huh? None of us slept much, Brittany was the only one who managed to get up and limp to class, Amanda and I skipped all of ours and Shawnee cancelled everything she had to do today.
Shawnee continued to throw up everything she ate most of the morning, and she got maybe another hour and a half or two hours of sleep, but not much more. Finally she got another blessing, and the last I heard (she txted me a few minutes ago) she's had some lunch and thinks it'll stay in the same place. And when I left home she was sleeping. So I think we're out of the woods with her.
So at the hospital the other girls were laughing at me and asking why I was the only one without any serious-ish random problem. I figured I'm just lucky that way. But here's the thing. On Sunday I was walking around barefoot and accidentally kicked a big rock someone was using to prop open a door. It hurt really bad, even the next day, but I figured it was just jammed. Well this morning when I went in to check on Shawnee I happened to look down at my foot and my toe is BLACK. Pretty sure I broke it. It's got some nice deep deep blue and purple bruises. I keep staring at it trying to figure out if it's straight or not, but I think we're okay.
So yeah, my apartment is cursed. I just can't wait to see what the next trip to the hospital will be for.

In Other News...

So as far as a general update, I am being more busy than I think I have ever been besides my mission, and there's not really any end in sight. Besides school, which is always fun, I have also been called to the Relief Society Presidency (they took away my teacher calling!), and I signed on to help with a play called "Turn of the Screw". It's going to be nice to have something more recent to put on my resume, it's only a few weeks, the cast is really cool, and I actually get paid, but it's a really dark play about ghosts and child abuse, and the pay amounts to about ten cents an hour. But hey, it's something to do, right? I'm the stage manager so I help the actors with their lines and props and eventually I will be running the light and sound boards. It's been a good time. Next week is "tech" week, which means we're trying to run the play with everything that's supposed to be there, it also means that we'll be having practices that go until midnight multiple nights in a row. Then on the 16th it goes off, and performances continue every thursday, friday, and saturday until the first of November. My roommates are awesome and we have a great time together, and I'm getting to know a lot of people in my ward. All in all things are going just splendidly. :)

Aren't they Beautiful?!

Is it weird that I'm totally thrilled by these pictures? I mean those are some BEAUTIFUL pigs!

Yeah baby

Birthday list

Okay so in case you were all wondering what you could get me for my birthday (coming up on the 16th) I thought I'd help you out and post a list, starting with most outrageous and continuing in no particular order.
1. A scooter--don't laugh they get great gas mileage.
2. A computer--so I don't have to come up to campus to check my e-mail
Okay now that I'm done wishing here's some real stuff:
3. Gift cards to Target and the like, anywhere where I can get some cute clothes and/or a good coat
4. North and South (not the Civil War one) book or movie.

Please see: http://www.amazon.com/North-South-Daniela-Denby-Ashe/dp/B000AYEL6U/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1220914320&sr=8-1
and
http://www.amazon.com/North-South-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0192831941/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220914320&sr=8-3

5. Earphones (preferably small)
6. CD player or Discman
7. MP3 player
8. Blank CDs
9. Flash drive
10. Rechargeable AA batteries
11. Ever by Gail Carson Levine
Again please see:
http://www.amazon.com/Ever-Gail-Carson-Levine/dp/0061229628/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220914522&sr=1-1
12. Candy
13. Membership at Gold's Gym (I don't know how much it costs I'm just throwing it out there)
14. A Bike
15. Glissen Gloss Rainbow Blending Thread 000 Bright White
Last time:
http://www.glissengloss.com/rainbow/r000.html
16. Dangly Earrings
17. Live Free Die Hard
18. Fresh peaches
19. Money
20. Visits and/or calls

Okay there's the list, any books or movies you feel you must share with me are welcome, please don't buy me clothes I like to pick my own.
And yes I am very much aware that I haven't gotten anyone but Momma a birthday present in about two years. I never said you were obligated to get me a present. Please see Item #20. :)

Small World

Was it Aunt Gloria who always used to say that you could be anywhere, anytime, and meet someone who you had a connection with somehow? Well if it was her I'm proving her right, much to the bemusement of my roommate, Amanda. The first time I went anywhere with her it was to our bishop's house for lunch, and before we left there we found out that the bishop's wife is descended from Thomas Robert Forsyth. As if that wasn't enough, on Friday we had a ward social and afterwards Amanda and I went with a random guy named Jordan that neither of us knew and a few other people to go watch a movie at his house. After a little conversation we found out that Jordan's sister is marrying an Elder from my mission who I knew moderately well. Final example; yesterday Elder Holland gave a talk for a CES fireside and none of my roommates went, so I walked there myself. As I was coming out of my apartment complex another guy started walking in the same direction, so we started talking and chatted all the way up to the Marriott center where the fireside was. When we got there he started coordinating with some friends he was going to meet, and invited me to sit with them. I though, hey! if you've gotta sit with strangers anyway, might as well be these guys as anyone else, right? But when we met up with his friends I found that they were two elders from my mission! Elder Murray and Elder Turner, now Garen and Dallen. The guy I had just met was rather surprised, it was really funny.
so I guess it's just a small world, huh?

Big Momma's a Momma!

So yesterday morning, right after Lisa and Shawn left, we went out to check on Big Momma (the pig), who has finally been showing some serious signs of being pregnant, and she was being all distressed. We watched her for a minute, then we all went back inside. We were just kinda being lazy, then right as Momma and I started thinking about tackling the kitchen, Daddy opens the door with a piglet in his hand and yells for hot water. Well five hours later she was done, six pretty piglets (she actually had 11, but two came out butt-first and died in the birth canal and a few others just didn't ever quite get the breathing thing figured out). Four gilts and two boars, all of them rambunctious and pretty. I'll get some pictures on here in the next couple days. That was a nice happy birthday for Mike, don't you think?

Why I watch movies alone

Has anyone ever seen a movie that was maybe not Oscar-worthy but a very enjoyable flick that you liked immensely and then tried to show it to someone else? Maybe I'm just weird but it always turns into a very nerve-wracking experience for me. Every flaw and weak point in the film becomes glaringly apparent to me, and I fidget and squirm through the whole thing, wondering why I decided to show them this movie in the first place. Then, even though I can see all the flaws in the production, if the person I'm showing it to voices any disapproval at any part of the film, I feel I have to defend myself and my film and my judgment. Why is that? Why do I care? I mean I don't get riled up about hardly anything, but if you insult a movie I like I will jump down your throat. Then I'm in a bad mood because I feel like an idiot for reacting that strongly about a movie that I am perfectly aware is not the most amazing film ever, I just enjoyed it. So I guess that's why I used to go to the theatre all the time by myself. It was so I could enjoy a movie without having to make excuses to anyone else for liking it.

Big Read Books

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Place an asterisk (*) by those you’ve not read, but have seen a movie or stage performance of.
4) 2 dashes (--) means you have started it but never finished it for whatever reason
5) a ?? means you have never heard of it before

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien*
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen*
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman *
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams--*
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling*
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee*
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell--
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis*
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë*
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller --
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks ??
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier*
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger--
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame*
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott *
19. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres ??
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell *
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling*
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling*
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling*
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot*
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving ??
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll*
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson ??
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez ??
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett ??
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl*
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute ??
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen*
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen *
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery*
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas*
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh ??
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens*
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy ??
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian ??
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher ??
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett*
52. of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King ??
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth ??
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome ??
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer--
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman ??
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough ??
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett ??
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton ??
67. The Magus, John Fowles ??
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman ??
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett ??
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind ??
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell ??
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett ??
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl*
75. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt ??
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins ??
78. Ulysses, James Joyce ??
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson ??
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl??
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith ??
83. Holes, Louis Sachar*
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake ??
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy ??
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson ??
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons*
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist ??
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac ??
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel??
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett ??
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho ??
95. Katherine, Anya Seton ??
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer ??
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez ??
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson ??
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot *
100. Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie ??
I've read 28,
Intend to read 6,
Seen 28 in movie form,
Started 5 that I never finished,
and I'm afraid I've never heard of 42 of them.
So I guess I'm tied with Stef and I'm way behind Lisa. Why have I never heard of these books?
Is there a category for books you read but didn't enjoy? Because that would be 4

Aunt Kate

So I was staying with Marisa this past weekend, and her sister Melinda was there as well with her two boys, Samuel and Tyler. Samuel pretty much ignored me until we were walking on BYU campus and he was getting tired. I offered to give him a piggy-back, but he was too shy, so he asked his Aunt Marisa instead. She carried him for a minute, then said he was too heavy and put him back down and started trying to convince him to ride on Aunt Kate's shoulders, since "Aunt Kate is SO MUCH taller than Aunt Marisa, you'll be SO HIGH!!" He finally agreed, and we spent the rest of the walk steering into any tree we could find so he could grab leaves and crow about how tall he was. So hilarious!
So this morning I got this message from his mom:

I thought you guys should know. The past couple of days when Samuel has been praying he'll go through the list: "Thank you for Mommy and Tyler and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Marisa and Kate." Very cute!

So I guess I have a new nephew!

Sister Hanson's Home!

Sister Hanson--I mean Janelle

Well guess who's home! It's Janelle, my dear sweet first child. I mean greenie. Strange that I trained her and she's home two months after me, isn't it? Oh well. For those of you who don't know who I'm talking about, she's the one--

who poured hot oil through our plastic strainer
that the branch ADORED in Uherske Hradiste
and who was with me when Mary was baptized.

So I went to her homecoming talk with Marisa (Sister Lee), said hi to a couple other returned missionaries from our mission (yes I did hug the guys) and generally had a great time. Janelle and I have agreed to disagree on all things pertaining to clothing, as our tastes could not be more different. It's funny the friends you gain on your mission that you love to death, but sometimes can't imagine anyone being more different from you. Welcome back Janelle!

California

So since I hadn't seen Lisa since I got back from the CR, we decided that when Sadie was born I would go down with the family and then just stay until the family returned for the blessing and sealing. We thought that would be about a month-long stay, but as we all know Sadie decided to take her time. So I ended up staying about two and a half weeks, it was a lot of fun. I took the roles of cook and baby-sitter to help Lisa out, and when she was gone I worked on my tan line and watched Lost. Okay so I watched Lost a lot even when she was there. I caught up on seasons 3 and 4, and I have to say my favorite people were Desmond

who DID survive, no doubt thanks to me shaking my finger at the screen every few minutes and growling, You are NOT ALLOWED to kill Desmond! And Sun who laid a
major smack-down on her evil father. I was so proud.
I also held my adorable niece, Sadie, as much as I could, meaning whenever I could get her away from her parents, which wasn't all that often. The best part of the trip was when we got to go the LA temple and see Shawn and Lisa sealed to Sadie and Dudie. I had never been to a sealing before, it was fantastic. See Lisa's blog for pictures.

My thing about Blogs

Okay since people are starting to bug me about updating this thing, I will now dedicate some time and do it. But here's my question. What exactly is a blog for? Is it to keep other people updated, or is it a kind of on-line journal? Do I have to post pictures or can I just describe something without any pictorial evidence? Because I am the worst person in the world when it comes to getting pictures at opportune moments. Oh well.

RIP yet another van

No there was no ice cream involved.
Momma's been saying for weeks that she wishes we could hit a deer with this thing so that it would be saved an ignominious death from too many miles. So last night Tom and Chris (student) and I did just that. Smashed the front really good, and the poor thing made it only as far as the bottom of the driveway, where the power steering went out, and it died right after the mailboxes.
Rest in peace.

Haircut

I hadn't had a haircut in about a year, so the chick said she had to take two inches off of damaged stuff, but in the end I kinda like it.

This is something I'm working on for Lisa. This is what it looks like so far...This is what it's supposed to look like when I'm finished. Minus the dopey looking frame. And I'm not sold on the bird. Opinions?

A Place to Live

Well first thing to do was re-decorate one of the bedrooms to make it livable. Boys are gross. I wish I had before pictures, but here are some of how it looks now.

The bookcase is repainted blue and white to match the walls, and Momma found a nice comforter and pillow thingies at a garage sale, as well as a couch.











I really like this blue color, we painted two walls and the door, which Jamie informs me is a terrible interior design faux pais, but I like it.

I've never had a couch in my room, but I like it. The curtains are nice, too.

So I'm Home!
....now what?

So I came home on the 29th of August, 2008 from the Czech, Prague Mission. Hoora! Hooray! Welcome home!
So now the big question is...what am I supposed to do now?