ONLY ONE BOOK LEFT TO GO!!!!

Well, if you read my blog...which not many do, you might be wondering why I still have one one book to go. I should be at 50 with the last two books, but if you read my blog, which not many do, you might have noticed that I have a book listed twice on my list of 2006 completed books. That makes one more to go!

I have been busy getting ready for Christmas, changing the baby, burping the baby, feeding the baby, playing with the baby, sleeping, and listening to a baby scream from reflux a couple hours each evening and almost all night. I have also been busy trying to keep the place clean so the ants will go away. I have also been trying to blog! (must keep my priorities straight) I don't know what to read next! I am trying to read Standing for Something but it doesn't have any adventure or romance in it. I was thinking of going to the library but dragging 4 kids with me this early in the game is suicide in the library!

For instance: Today I attempted to try again to get to Target and pick up my pre-ordered Christmas cards. I thought it would save some time by ordering online....I thought it would be easy and fast! I was supposed to pick them up yesterday, of course the only Target with the picture place is the one on Hesparian in Hayward. I live further then you think from this part of the world...there isn't even a straight shot to this Target from where I live. So of course I set out to do a few errands on the way. First we stop at the recycle place so the kids can get money for last minute presents. Then we head to the bank...the line is longer then heck. Then we go to the theatre to meet Mike, but I got the time wrong for the movie so cancel that idea and everyone is in tears...then we go to the dollar store so the kids can spend their money on presents, oh and the 4 year old needs to use the toilet so we go out of our way to get to one but she piddles her pants right before we get there. After that we head to the pizza place to make up for missing the movie. (it is my sons Birthday and the movie was the thing we were doing for that.) After the pizza we head home to cook it and have Family Home Evening and Birthday. Four year old piddles her pants again right before we get home. Of course I am sick of cake so I didn't make one but luckily I have some rice crispy treats left over from the wedding last weekend and surprise surprise the ants haven't found them yet in our kitchen. Almost suicide.

So today we try to run the errand again and see the movie...this time I got the right time. We meet up in Dublin and the movie is good (not as good as the book but good enough). Then we head to the bookstore, then back toward Hayward but of course now there is lots of holiday traffic. I am determined to pick up the darn cards so we plow forward. We only make it to Castro Valley and the baby is screaming. We pull over to feed and reassure her we still love her. Then we make it to Target, FINALLY!
They don't have the complete order. The nice lady looks everywhere and they decide somehow it got lost in ciber space...they have on record I made an order but the order didn't come through. Now the baby is crying. The pacifier works sometimes. We decide to do the whole thing over right there in the store with the picture employees help. Only it isn't working on the computer touch screen thing. The kids are getting out of hand...they all need to use the bathroom. They are bored. I am trying not to spank any of them and use my nice voice but they are really pushing my buttons. By now the baby is screaming and I am just trying to finish the order...everyone in the store is giving me those mean looks like I am the worst mother in the world....So two Target employees are helping me with my order and two employees are trying to get the baby to stop crying. AND the kids need to use the bathroom again! Long story short...I didn't kill anyone and the baby stopped crying and I got my cards and they gave me a discount for my troubles...almost half off. I grabbed them and ran....fed the baby...started driving home...got stuck in more traffic...baby starts screaming again...pull into a Taco Bell. I feed the baby again and run in and buy some tacos for the starving kids. We are almost home...the baby is screaming again...we pull into the carport and she falls asleep. WHEW!

I am so hungry!

I just don't think I can go to the Library this week. Tomorrow I will take a day off...NO ERRANDS! I guess I just try to put too much in all at once but there are only 6 days till Christmas and I can't find Parasols! The kids want to go see Santa but that is not a good idea because they will change their wish lists this late in the game and the ELF is done! Well, almost...

Blogging is so therapeutic, I feel much better now. I hope no one starts throwing up!

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Here is a real delight! A children's book about nonsense with a little logic and humor.

A little boy goes to the jungle to rescue a baby dragon. Of course he has a cat to help him pack and plan for the trip. He out smarts most of the wild animals in the jungle. Good thing he had a bunch of gum with him, a toothbrush, magnifying glass, comb and a lot of lollipops!

This is an exciting adventure and even has cool illustrations to go with the story. I can't wait to read the other two books in the series! The dragon is so cute.

Whole Book!

Persuasion by Jane Austin

Whole Book. I loved this story! It was like Pride and Prejudice but takes its own twists and plot turns. Of course it was a happy ending and it was romantic but it wasn't sappy romance.

I always get all the characters mixed up when reading books so I made a list of the characters with a few facts next to their names as I went. There are just too many Jane's, Elizabeth's, Anne's, Marys, Captains, Charles and Frederich's too keep straight. Okay so I exaggerate, but still I got them all mixed up because first off, Jane Austin makes the longest paragraphs. She doesn't make it simple like, saying a quote and then saying it was said by so and so then starting the next sentence on the next line. IT is all lumped into one paragraph!

Second, I only got to read the book for 2 min. stretches because I was trying to read while I nursed the baby and she kept needing to burp or choke or spit up or something so my reading was all broken up and hard to keep track of what was actually happening. I ended up reading some parts over and over again.

This book was pretty short. Only 117 pages...not like other Austin books. It also took me a while to figure out what they meant by BATH. Everyone was going there, to take a bath? I was very confused at first. At least everyone was clean.

If you are a Jane Austin fan and haven't read this one...go find it and read it! Well worth an afternoon.

The Innkeeper's Wife by Lynda M. Wilson

This is a special Christmas book. I really like it because it is written from the perspective of a midwife at the birth of the baby Jesus. Of course it is fiction, we don't know if a midwife was there or not. It makes me feel good to think that someone was there to help Mary as she was in labor and to coach her in delivering her son. Maybe there were Angels there, maybe Joseph was inspired to know what to do...we don't know.
This story has the innkeeper's wife there to help them. It is a beautiful testimony of that night and the Shepard's coming afterwards to see the baby because of the angels appearing to them on the hill. I love it!
If you haven't read it, next time you are at desseret books or seagull book and tape grab a copy and take a few minutes to read this short story! I also like the illistrations too!
Whole Book

50 books in the year 2006!!!

Well, so much for 100 books...I will reach the 50 book goal. I'm reading Persuasion by Jane Austin and will have it done before the new year. Also Standing for Something by Gorden B. Hinckley and A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion by the Demille and Diann Jeppson. (I don't know if I will finish that last one it isn't exactly one to read straight through.) That will put me at 50 I believe...the new baby is slowing me down!

I didn't read all the books I had planned for the year...I got distracted with a few series and of course that whole Gary Paulsen spurt...he is a really good author, what can I say?

Most of my books are children's classic fiction. I didn't read anything too heavy this year. Next year maybe I will tackle more adult classics. My book clubs have some pretty interesting lists made for the new year.


Becky's Book list completed 2006
The Innkeeper's Wife by Lynda M. Wilson
Early Morning Cemetery by Patricia Wiles
Calling On Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
The Island by Gary Paulsen
Funeral Home Evening by Patricia Wiles
The Rifle by Gary Paulsen
Snicket #10
Snicket, #9
The Voyage of the Frog by Gary Paulsen
The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
The Boy That Owned the School by Gary Paulsen
Dogsong by Gary Paulsen
Boys Who Became Prophets by Lynda Cory Robinson
How To Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward
The Winter Room by Gary Poulsen
Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler
Chocolate Fever by Robert Kinnel Smith
River Secrets by Shannon Hale
My Mom's a Mortician by Patricia Wiles
Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen
The River by Gary Paulsen
Series of Unfortunate Events-book 8
Series of Unfortunate Events-book 7
The White Mountains #1
The City of Gold and Lead #2
The Pool of Fire #3
When the Tripods Came #4.
The DeVinci Code by Dan Brown
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kinsolver
White Teeth by Zadie Smith.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
The Princess And the Pauper by Mark Twain
A Murder, A Mystery And A Marriage by Mark Twain
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Prairie Dog Town by Janette Oke
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Man Of The Family by Ralph Moody
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Anne of the Island (book 2) by L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Avonlea(book 3) by L.M. Montgomery
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
The One Minute Teacher by Constance Johnson
Collection of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories
The Innkeeper's Wife By Lynda M. Wilson

Early Morning Cemetery by Patricia Wiles

Whole Book
This is the 3rd book in the Kevin Kirk Chronicles. It was silly as usual. This time Kevin has to deal with all kinds of things...like a psycho lady that threatens him, a seminary class that goes on field trips to cemeteries and they do gravestone rubbings, the death of a loved one...telling the truth, dealing with people that judge you because of your religion, and learning to drive also a mystery to solve...
The Kirks pretty much show what it means to be a family and stick together.
What is really funny is I forgot to read to the end of the book before this one and had returned the book to my sister in law thinking I had finished it. Then she mentioned something that happened in the book and I said...that must be in the 3rd book because I don't remember reading that. Well when she loaned me the 3rd book she also sent the 2nd book back because there was my bookmark still in it but 5 more pages to go till the end. So I read them and it all made sense about him losing his finger...it was in the last 5 pages! Silly me...you can tell my mind wasn't really in the book....must have been pregnant or something...Ha Ha.