History of Reading

The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six. I've bolded the ones I've read and the ones Jeremiah read are in italic

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

If you're reading this consider yourself "tagged"! I'm curious to see what you've read.

Before

Here is a picture of my hair before I cut off about 9 inches.

Good bye Childhood

These pictures to you make look like hills of dirt, but let me tell you what they really are. As a child we spent hours upon hours in these hills, we called them "the fields" We had many adventures in the "fields" . One time my sister Carrie, a friend of ours and I went out seeking an adventure in the "field". We found a large puddle of muddy water. Some how we ended up in this puddle and played in it for hours. We went home dripping with mud and laughing with the memory we just made. Another time Carrie, another friend Mike and Laura and I went out sledding on the "Hill". Well some how Laura sat on a cactus. So we decided it was time to head home. One the way Laura was in so much pain and tired she decided to sit down and sat on another cactus. By the time we made it home Laura had sat in 3 different cactus and was in much pain. We had a chocolate factory ( a wall of dirt we used to make mud pies and other treats), we went mountain biking and had an amazing childhood in the "fields" But now they are making way for the future. They are in the mist of taking down all the hills to make room for a new Jr. High and a 600 unit apartment complex. Though parts of this is really good for Casper, I am sad to say goodbye to the most amazing hill you will ever sled on. One side of this hill was very steep and had a big ditch at the bottom. And you had to hope to get enough speed to jump the ditch or you might end up like one of my friend who broke her leg when she landed in the ditch( I was to chicken ever to go down that side). So Goodbye Childhood. I loved the memories I made in the "fields". I think that saddest part for me is I was looking forward to my children going out and having their own adventures in the "fields".

One Tired Girl

The other day Isabelle was being very whinny so Jeremiah tried giving her a horsey ride. Well she ended up falling asleep on him .

Then he decided he needed a nap too.

Jackson Hole

A couple weekends ago I got to go to Jackson hole to see my cousin get married. I brought along Joseph and Isabelle since Jeremiah was staying at home taking care of my Dad. Here are just a few things we did.

The horse (Freckles) Isabelle is on she rode around for about an hour. Everytime I tried to get her off she refused. The man was very nice and let her keep on riding. He even gave her a little stuffed horse that looked like Freckles, whick Isabelle now sleeps with every night.

Squirrel Problems

Well we finally got a new camera and this is the first picture I took.

The funniest part is that the bird feeder laying on the porch is suppose to be squirrel proof. My brother Jacob and I had witnessed this squirrel trying to get at the bird feeder on Thursday with no success. On Friday I was passing the kitchen doors when I saw this sight and hurried and grabbed the camera so I could show my mom when she got home from work. My mom, brother and I left town Friday evening and got home Sunday to find out the squirrel with a buddy had knocked it down again plus Jeremiah had witnessed it eating a bird. I didn't know Wyoming had such crazy squirrels.

The Bus Stop

My three boys get to ride the bus to and from school everyday. Since we are living with my parents in the home I grew up in, I get to walk them down and pick them up from my old bus stop. It is pretty fun to see how things don't change to much. There are three power boxes that sit at the bus stop and I remember climbing on them as a child. When we arrived there Tuesday morning there were a few kids sitting on top of the power boxes. Also the old crab apple tree is still there and my kids have enjoyed a few of the crab apples I loved as a kid. One of the big things that has changed is the number of kids at the stop. When I was a kid there were enough kids at the stop to fill almost the whole bus. We had to race down to the bus stop to get our bags in line so we could be one of the first on the bus. Well since they have changed it to a "choice district" only a few kids ride each bus. My boys sit at the stop with two other boys who are a lot older. Luckly these boys are very nice and they all play together while waiting. I will say I don't look forward to the winter when its snowing a blowing. Yesterday as a I was waiting for the bus to arrive home I found out the bus had broken down and it would be awhile until they got home. It reminded me of the time my bus had barley made it up the "hill" and died at the top we could see our bus stop from where we were but we were not allowed off the bus until we reached the stop we had to wait at least a half and hour for another bus to arrive to drive us the little distance home. AHHH good memories.

We Made It

With a very packed Uhaul trailer (the biggest they had), a over flowing truck, a van pack so tight that only two people could sit in it (poor William was so squished in there Jeremiah could barley hear him as he tried to talk to him), and a little car with three car seats almost overlapping each other, we made it to Casper. I still am amazed at how much stuff we had. We even ended up getting rid of things at last second (good bye microwave and vaccume). We are so happy to be here. The boys are at there first day at school. But we already got a call from the princpal about William peeing outside (we will be talking to the couple that told William that this was fun, though I know they meant only when camping). Isabelle is having a fun time entertaining Grandpa. She loves reading to him and singing to him when she should be eating her lunch. Jeremiah will start work tomorrow and I will be busy getting everything organized. I am just happy we made with no problems with our van.

No pictures

Well one bad thing happened this last weekend in Casper. I broke our camera. We just got it in June and my clumsy hands dropped it and busted it. So we won't be posting pictures for a while. Sorry for those who come to see the pics. I know I love going to peoples blogs and just looking at the pictures.

Let The Blessings Come Flowing In.

Sorry this is a really long post. This might sound a bit cocky but boy have we been blessed this last week. Friday we headed up to Casper for my 10year High School Reunion (Go Mustangs) and also to get things in order for the big move. We had a few things on the must do list and one it would be nice list. My high school reunion was ok. It was fun laughing about the good times but as Jeremiah and I were probley the only ones there not getting drunk it was not to exciting for us. There were two good things that came out of it though. First I came to realize I was a lot more comfortable with myself then I was in high school. In High school I was usually worried what everyone there thought of my and how I looked. At the reunion I could care less what anyone there thought of me and I was very happy to realize it. The second good thing was that Jeremiah and I got to talking to one of the guys from my High school. It endend up that his father owned a construction business where they build and remodel homes, and they were looking to hire one more guy. So Jeremiah ended up getting a job. It is really good hours (I get to have my husband home for dinner and weekends for the first time since we were married) and good pay. He starts two days after we get to Casper. So that took care of our it would be nice list. We got most of our stuff done on our must do list but we soon came to realize that the biggest thing, getting the boys enrolled in school, would be a big challenge. Casper in a choice school district. Meaning everyone gets to pick which school they want to send there kids too. But not everyone ends up getting the school they picked not even if you live in that neighborhood. So we soon realized it would be really hard getting all the boys in the same school. We were actually told we would be lucky to get even two of the boys in the same school. So Tuesday my Mom and I headed up to the HILL (the main office) to see what we could do. Well it ended up the school I wanted most just had an opening that morning for 1st grade (William) but none of the schools had openings for Kindergarten (Joseph and Michael). We hurried and got William registed and left a list of the schools we were hoping to get the twins into.Within five minutes of leaving we recieved a call letting us know that there was an opening at the school William would be attending for Kindergarten and that they were just going to stick both boys into that school. So now my boys are registered into school. That was end of our must do list. We were so blessed with everything that needed to be done. Everything fell right into place for us. Jeremiah and I felt so strongley that Heavenly Father was blessing us for our desision to move to Casper. We are getting excited about the move. We have alot to do like selling a lot of furniture. So if anyone knows anyone who needs to buy a sofa and loveseat set (microfiber), sewing machine with desk, portable dishwasher, end tables, and a desk. Let me know. We really need to sell them

Party at our House

We are having a little open house so we can say goodbye to everyone. It will be Wednesday August 20. Starting at 6pm. If you do not have my address please make a comment and leave your e-mail address so I can e-mail it to you. We will start playing games around 8pm for those who would like too and there will be ice cream. Hope to see a lot of you there.

Wedding Cake

My friend Kasey, from work, got married and had her reception this last weekend. Our friend, Ali, and I oftered to make her wedding cake for her. It was a fun and challenging experience since neither one of us have ever done it before. We did many test runs which our family and friend apperciated. Then came the big day to do the real deal.

Ali was amazing and baked off all the cakes Friday night. Then after work we combined our forces at my house and started working on the cake.

The most challenging part was getting

the frosting smooth. Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law for some good tip of how to do it we had a easy time of it (love ya Shana).

The finished product

The bride and groom

I am not sure if I will ever make a wedding cake again but it was a great experience and Ali and I had way to many laughs over it.

Warning!

The following Post is long and contains entirely too much information.
I have been tagged by Jamie
How To Play This Game of Tag: Post these rules on your blog.List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself.Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

3 Joys:1.My husband Jeremiah, I love having someone to talk to you and laugh with. He is a very good father and a loving husband2.My kids, William, Joseph, Michael, and Isabelle. They are so full of energy and love for the world. I love talking walks with them and seeing how fasinating the world is through their eyes 3. The Gospel. I am so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I am find so much joy with the knowledge that my family will be together again in the life hereafter. What a blessing it is to feel joy in my heart as I read the scriptures

3 Fears:1. Spiders. I am terrified of them. I am sure if you ask Jeremiah he would love to tell you all my silly stories about him having to kill them for me. 2. Death, All I know is I am not ready to leave this earth. I have a lot more to do. 3. Loosing family. I am still working on my eternal perspective

3 Goals:1. Lose 25lbs. 2. Be the best mother and wife that I can be 3. Be a better healthy cook

3 Current obsessions:1. Twightlight series. Breaking Dawn release August 2nd. 2.Packing Packing Packing. 3. Ticket to Ride.

3 Random or surprising facts about yourself:1. When I was around 10 I flashed the boy who lived next door (not on purpose) 2. I have a love hate relationship with running. 3. When I was in Kindergarten my teacher asked what I wanted to do when I grew up and I said "A mom" She said "no what do you want to do for a job". So I thought about it and said "a teaher" because that was the closes thing to a mother.

I tag
1.Ann
2.Lizzie
3. Janet
4.Jenny

Riding off into the sunset... Sort of.

"The time has come," the Walrus said...

To Whom it may Concern:
We are moving! Unlike our half dozen or so previous moves, this time it is out of state! We will be Pitching our Tents in the Valley of the Wind, a.k.a. Casper Wyoming. Missy's Father is coming home from the rehabilitation center in August, and her Mother will be back teaching school in the fall, so we will be close by to help out. The Great Truck Packing Adventure is scheduled for the 29th of August, followed the next day by The Massively Monumental Moving March... er Drive? We have enjoyed being in Utah and getting to know so many of you who have made us feel like family, when most of our respective families were far away. We hope to see many, if not all of you, before we depart for our new Promised Land.

Do you remember when?

I am doing THE MEMORY post.

Here are the rules.
1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! If we're only blogging friends, write about a post that is most memorable. If you don't have a blog and don't know how to sign in, please comment as anonymous.
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll be sure to write one about you... either on your blog, in my comment box, or I will email you back!
3. If you know both Jeremiah and I please leave a memory of each of us. Jeremiah is really good about reading the blog and sometimes adding to it.
4. If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all ☺