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.

Scared of Santa

http://www.southflorida.com/events/sfl-scaredsanta,0,2245506.photogallery?coll=sfe-events-headlines&index=1

This is a very disturbing website. I think the Santas are very underpaid if this is what they do in the mall all month!

Calling On Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

This is the third book in The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I started these a while ago but then got distracted and never found the next book at the library. These are simple and funny books about a princess that has adventures with dragons and witches.
This book is mostly about a not very typical witch and her cats as they all go on an adventure to retrieve the stolen Enchanted Forest Sword. Queen Chimorene, she used to be a princess, comes along too and they have all kinds of trouble with wizards. They meet a fire-witch and he helps them get the sword back. The dragons fight a war with the wizards. (wizards are bad) Anyway it was pretty silly and I loved the way the cats are so sarcastic. Can't wait to check out the last book in the series.
This is a WHOLE BOOK and was a fast read.

I'm thankful for Babies!

Baby Harmonica is home and doing well!

She is my true Mexican baby girl. Look at all that beautiful dark hair!

Thanks for the prayers and the love sent our way!

I am thankful...

In an attempt to NOT start screaming profanities at everyone that I see at the moment as I sit here and feel oh so sorry for myself and because I had the worst thanksgiving...well sadly the only one that I see is Mike because he is the only one here at the moment and would have to take the wrath of hormone changes, sorry Mike...I will attempt to make a list of all the things thatI am thankful for. I hope this works...

I am thankful for...
1. family
2.babies
3.breast pumps
4.God, priesthood blessings
5.nurses
6.squirt bottles and stool softener
7. a very competent and loving midwife
8.the midwife apprentice that followed her gut feelings and wasn't afraid to ask a question
9.my husband mike who was here for the whole thing and did excellent counter back pressure
10.chubby arms and legs and lots of hair on top
11.turkey
12.my bed
13.microwaves
14.thanksgiving to look forward too in the future that aren't like 2006 or 1999
15.visiting teachers and friends
16.pillows
17.Hawaii, I hope to go there someday
18.sister in laws
19.hot chocolate...maybe I will make some
20.insurance
21.home
22.whoppers (Burger King)
23.cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing
24.hope
25.oxygen

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Island by Gary Paulsen

Wil Neuton is fifteen, he is a pretty confident kid. His family moves to a new place and he finds an Island in the middle of a lake. He can go there and be alone and learn about himself and nature. His parents think he is nuts. They don't understand. He just wants to paint and write while he watches the fish and the loons and ants on the island. He decides to stay there for a while, just camping out and thinking and that is when it all goes crazy. Reporters come and do interviews, his parents send out a doctor to evaluate him, a girl he makes friends with falls in love with him and all he wanted was a nice quiet place to think, write and paint for a short time in the summer.
It was a good read. Kind of for a more mature teenager and a bit deep for a kids book but overall I thought it was interesting. Some of the water color paintings were in the book and a bunch of his short essays he wrote. He is a funny kid just trying to figure adults out and other people and the things around him in the world. Totally innocent but so sad that so many people freak out about the idea of a boy staying on an island all by himself.

Healing book almost Whole.

Funeral Home Evening by Patricia Wiles

This is the 2nd book in the Kevin Kirk Chronicles. It was pretty good, a lot more serious then the first book and seemed like a little episode in the life of Kevin. I liked it. Very fast read.
This kid is LDS and his family is starting to be active again...he learns lessons in life like taking care of babies and lying, that it isn't nice to judge others, not to push religion on others and how to be open to learning not just sharing what you already know all the time.
Can't wait to read the 3rd book...

This was a Whole Book.

The Rifle by Gary Paulsen

I just don't get it??? This book started out as a really great book about the making of the sweetest weapons used in the Revolutionary War. The details were so awesome I could see the rifle taking shape in my imagination from the melted steel, to make the barrel, to the hard well dried maple for the stock. The details and love and time that went into this piece of art were so awesome it almost made me cry.

Then the story takes you on a journey, a journey the rifle lived and the people the rifle came in contact with and even killed. There was some beautiful history which came to life...
The end was just too weird...it sounds like guns are good then it comes to an abrupt end with the death of a young boy killed by the gun, on accident, because no one knew it was loaded for over 200 years. The author leaves you with the lingering question in your mind...guns didn't kill people, people killed people, is this true or false? The boy that dies in this story was killed by the gun...or the people?
Interesting enough he also makes fun of people that love the constitution and the second amendment and guns but don't know a lot about history or the cold hard facts of why we have them in the first place. He makes fun in a way of people that are uneducated in what they claim to believe. I hope I don't fit in that category!
Over all I think it was a book worth reading and I wonder if the author lost a friend in a gun accident?
Broken BOOK

Snicket #10

This one was a lot better then the last...not so depressing. I love the Snow Gnats and all the inventions everyone was coming up with. The little girl has a boyfriend!
Very cute. Too bad he didn't make it out of the river with them at the end of the book.
We went to the library today to get #11 and it wasn't there!!!!! Oh the suspense will kill me!

Snicket, #9

These books are so depressing and sad...finished another one and I checked out the 10th one today at the library.

I need a happy book to read next!

The Voyage of the Frog by Gary Paulsen

This was a good book. Not for little kids but 12 and up could handle it. The FROG is a sailboat. The story is about a boy named David. The sailboat belongs to his uncle. His uncle dies and his last request was that the David scatter his ashes out to sea where you can see no land. Also he leaves the sailboat to the boy.
Well, David has a wild adventure after being surprised by a storm. He survives and keeps his head. He is hungry and thirsty but eventually starts on his way back to the cost of CA. He gets to see beautiful wondrous things in the Ocean, whales, dolphins, glow fish...
He also has a lot of time to think about his uncles death and come to terms with the whole sad thing. They had been really good friends and he misses him so much.
This was a good WHOLE BOOK.

I also read a funny book right before this called Molly McGinty Has A Really Good Day. Also by Paulsen. This book was just silly. That is all I can say.

Here is a website that has all of Gary Paulsen's books.
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/library/

Ivon passes the 100 book goal for the year!

This is Ivon's 2006 completed books list. We started keeping track around May, before that he read almost all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series and other books we just couldn't remember if they were this year or last year....so we didn't include them. All the books are chapter books ranging from 100 to 680 pages long. Thin to whopping thick books! GREAT JOB KID!!!!!!

Eragon
Eldest
(My Side of the Mountain)
Far side of the mountain
Frightful's mountain
Chocolate Fever
Collection of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories
Boys Who Became Prophets by Robinson

Star Wars Jedi Apprentice:
The Hidden Past
Star Wars Adventure:
A New hope
Star Wars Junior Jedi Knights:
Anakin's quest
Vadaer's Fortress
Promises
The Golden Globe

Box Car Children:
The Boxcar children #1
The Mystery of the Midnight dog #81
The Mystery of the empty safe #75
The Mystery of the queen's Jewels Special #11
Mike's Mystery #5
The Mystery of the stolen sword
The Mystery on Ice special #1
The hockey mystery #80
The Pet Shop Mystery special #7
The midnight mystery #95
The Disappearing Friend Mystery
The Candy factory mystery
The Mystery at Camp Seagull
The Mystery of the Back Raven
The Screech Owl Mystery
The Mystery cruise
The old motel mystery
Bus Station Mystery
The gymnastics mystery
The Mystery of the pirate's map
the mystery of the spider's clue
The Great Bicycle Race Mystery
The windy city Special #10
The guide dog #53
the Honeybee Special #15
The Blue Bay Mystery #6
The Mystery Ranch #4
The mystery at the ballpark Special #4
The Mystery behind the wall #17
The Bicycle Mystery #15
The Tree house mystery #14
The woodshed mystery #7
The ice cream mystery #94
The sword of the silver knight #103
The growling bear mystery #61
The Mystery in the sand #16
The Mystery at the crooked house #79
The Cereal box mystery #65
The home run mystery Special #14
The Mystery of the hunted boxcar #100

A Jigsaw Jones Mystery:
The case of the Great sled Race
The case of the spooky sleepover
The Case of the Ghostwriter
The case of the food fight
The Case of the Snowboarding Superstar
The Case of the Double Trouble Detectives
The Case of the vanishing Painting
the Case of the perfect prank
The case of the glow in the dark ghost

A to Z Mysteries:
The Absent Author
The Empty Envelope
The gooses Gold
The Bald Bandit
The Absent Author
The Haunted Hotel
The Yellow Yacht
The Talking T. Rex
The falcons feathers

The Secrets of Droon:
The Sleeping Giant of Goll
Into the Land of the Lost
Under the Serpent Sea
Franny K Stein Mad Scientist:
Attack of the 50 ft. cupid
The Invisible Fran

Animorphs:
The Message
The Mutation
The Hork-Bajir Chronicles
The Predator
The andalite chronicles

Jackie Chan Adventures:
Jackie chan super special day of the dragon
A New Enemy
Sign of the Ox
Enter the Viper #4
The Dark Hand #1
The Power of the Rat #8
Shenu Escapes #5
Revenge of the Dark Hand #7
The strongest evil#12
The Jade monkey #11


Cam Jansen:
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Circus Clown
Cam Jansen and the mystery of the Monster movie
Flat Stanley
A mouse Called Wolf
Henry and Mudge and the long weekend

Encylopedia Brown:
Case of the secret pitch
Horrible Harry and the locked closet


Pokemon:
togepi springs into action
pikachu in love

Magic Tree House:
Dinosaurs before dark #1
Knight at dawn #2
Mummies in the Morning #3
Pirates past noon #4
Night of the Ninjas #5
Tonight on the Titanic #17
Viking ships at sunrise #15
Stage fright on a summer night#25
Stanley Flat Again!

The Hardy Boys:
The secret of the pirates hill #36

The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine

Great book! Great Adventure! There are these two princesses, they are sisters. They are opposite, one brave one afraid. The one that wants to go on adventures and slay dragons ends up getting sick. The timid sister has to pretty much slay dragons and find the cure before she dies. Not a predictable happily ever after ending. Very creative and full of adventures and even love.

The author, Gail Carson Levine also wrote Ella Enchanted one of my favorites, the book NOT the movie.

This book is a WHOLE BOOK. Great for 9-10yr. old girls, I don't think my son would want to read it. I loved it!

My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara

This was a wonderful Classic, a Whole Book.
It is a story about a 10 year old boy that hasn't learned to be responsible yet. He lives on a horse ranch with his family in Wyoming. He loves to day dream. He is always breaking things on accident and forgetting things. His dad doesn't know what to do with him but is very disappointed. His brother on the other hand is a few years older and perfect. So of course they keep comparing Ken, the younger boy to Howard, his older brother.

Ken wants a colt of his own more then anything. He finally gets to pick one after his mom stands up for him to his dad. His dad is a serious Captain from the Army or something. He is strict and always gives the first and last word. Ken picks a wild mare born from bad blood. Her mother, Rocket, was a very fast horse but was never ever truly broken in. They called her condition, "loco". This means insane and useless. She would run right through wire fences and crash through wooden fences and they could never keep her in a pen long enough to train her. She didn't even care about the injuries from escaping. Her blood was bad and eventually every horse on the ranch was rid of so the bad blood line would be stopped.

Flicka was the only horse allowed to live because she belonged to the boy. They didn't know if she was crazy like her mom or not. She also had the blood from her dad, Banner. He was a good brave and smart Stallion.
So eventually from caring for the horse the boy learns all kinds of important lessons of responsibility and he grows up. Flicka, which means little girl, eventually becomes very sick with an infection from a cut on her leg when she ran through a fence. They are going to shoot her instead of have her suffer but the boy saves her life by sitting all night with her in a river. He then becomes very sick and spends the rest of the book close to death with everyone talking about him...

There is also a scary mountain lion in the book! There are also quite a few guns mentioned. They are a necessity on the farm. The two boys always have their 22's with them and shoot rabbits for supper weekly. The big rifle is the Winchester which the dad keeps in his truck and on hand for shooting sick horses and wild animals. The Express rifle finally gets the mountain lion in the end. And the mom sometimes has the revolver just in case she meets some wild animal while walking around on the ranch.

I read this book because Oct. 20th the 2006 version of the movie is being released. That is this week! Only the movie this time around will have Alison Lohman, a college girl, as the main character. She will of course have a boy friend, be stubborn, tom-boyish, ride horses like the other wranglers and want to keep Flicka even though her father forbids it. So even though the story is changed it has a lot of similarities to the original book and looks like a good flick...Tim McGraw, the country western singer, will be staring as her dad. Also the theme song is sung by him - My Little Girl.

I found out this book is actually a trilogy. This explains the abrupt end and leaving you hanging feeling on the last page. This book also was a TV series shown on Saturday mornings back in the olden days. It also has had a few movies already made based on the book, all with the main character Ken played by a boy. The trilogy books have also had movies made. It would be fun to track these down and watch them with the kids. I wonder if they are in black and white or color?

I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves horses! If anyone sees the movie this week let me know if you like it! I will have to wait till it comes out on DVD because it isn't my Birthday :(

The Boy That Owned the School by Gary Paulsen

Okay, finally I have found a book by Gary P. that doesn't even come close to his other wonderful books. This book stinks. So I don't even want to spend time on writing about it. All his other books were deep and had something to do with nature and this book was I guess his attempt to write about something else. Well, he failed in writing anything good. So that is that...on to something better.