Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

We just read this book for the North Logan 5 pillar Book group. It was just as good the second time around as the first time I read it. There is nothing like a good end of the world book, complete with nuclear explosions.

What I really liked most is the detail of what you need and what you thought you would need but ended up being completely useless to you. I have had dreams about running out of salt. In my dream I had to walk all the way to the Salt Lake to get some but it was contaminated because of all the factories that are around it. Salt is really cheap right now and it is the next thing that is going into our food storage in a larger quantity then we currently have.

I also have to remember my sister's advice, not to put too much in the large freezer because when the electricity is out all will be spoiled in a few days.

Food, candles, fuel, shelter, arms and food are all on the top of the list too. Did you ever think that books would be important again. I take it for granted the info accessible and in seconds, right at the tips of my fingers? Google will no longer be there because no electricity no computers. Bye bye cell phones...and you better be in shape because you will be walking everywhere.

I liked this book because the hero was a guy named Randy. He was a bum and had no goals in life despite serving at one time in the army and running for mayor but when met with the challenge he rose to the occasion and took charge. He was a natural leader. The second favorite person was Alice the librarian. She tried so hard to get people to read but they watched TV and went to movies but after the disaster everyone came to learn things from the library.

Slightly broken book, healing book

Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

This book was hard to get into but after about 3-4 chapters it was making more sense. It is actually a very funny book underlined with seriousness and reality of life as a mortal on Earth trying to get back to Heaven.

It is a series of letters written from a senior demon (devil) to his nephew who is working on tempting a normal person which they call "the patient". They try to get him to break all the commandments and go to hell or be damned. They try to break the patients faith and get him to sin. All this is really a good look at human nature and the christian faith. The two main devils in the story are morally reversed. It takes a while to get it straight which person the demons are referring to when they say, "the Enemy" and "the Father". The enemy is God and the father is the devil, it is opposite to what people think.

The funny part is that C. S. Lewis is so right on about peoples failings and temptations while making fun of it all in a serious way, I guess this is called satire. I even saw myself in a few of his examples. This book really made me think about how I pray, how I think about others and what my relationship really is to God. Am I just going through the motions or do I really live a Christian life? Do I give in easy to temptations or do I stand strong? Is every thought in my head my own or did the devil put it there? Is there a flaxen cord leading me down to Hell and I don't even know it? I sure hope there are angels near to help me out!

The book dives into subjects like pride, gluttony, war, and sex, to name a few. The devils are trying to confuse and trick us into doing what is wrong. If they can't get at us then they work on the people around us or the media and they are always working on family members and spouses. Interesting...very twisted and insightful.

I would call it a Broken Book and would highly recommend this classic despite how broken it is...

Movies recently watched...

We really like Redbox, super cheap and convenient ...I wanted to just recommend a few recently viewed movies.

Australia starring Nicole Kidman as Sarah Ashley and Hugh Jackman as "Drover"! This movie takes place right around the pearl harbor attack by Japan. They also attacked Australia in an air raid. The story talks about the Aborigine people and the children that were half white and half Aborigine, which were sadly as mistreated as the African Americans in the USA during the time of slavery. Sarah Ashley has to get 2,000 head of cattle to the boats to sell before the bad guys sign the contract with the military or something but the bad guys are trying very hard to make sure she fails. She also falls in love on the way and she also bonds with a little boy and wants to adopt him. It is a movie full of adventure, drama, and of course romance. (lots of kissing near the end and my kids always gross out.) I recommend it for those of you that can fast forward through the one sex scene!

The next movie I recommend is All Roads Lead Home starring Peter Boyle, Vivien Cardone , Jason Landon, Evan Parke and Vanessa Branch. The story is about a little girl and how she works through loosing her mother, well not only she is working this through but her father and grandfather too. She really likes horses and dogs. She spends time with her grumpy grandpa and learns about life and death and how we have to take responsibility for our pets and our lives.

There are a lot of funny lines in the movie but I think some of them were suppossed to be serious. The character Poovey was really funny. He died of cancer shortly after this movie was filmed.
Poovey:" Some say cats have nine lives. Ol' Linus here has used up about 12. Ran over him twice myself. Something in that maybe. Like never counting yourself out. "

I highly recommend this one for the whole family to see at least once...don't think I could take it a second time around. There isn't much kissing and not even one sex scene. There is a lot of serious talk about killing animals and even pulling the plug on a humans. I am not sure what the movie was trying to take a stand on...for or against. And there is some very cute puppies in this movie. (for all you dog lovers out there!)

Fireproof. Starring Kirk Cameron, Catherine Holt and Ken Bevel (I think he was the best actor or at least had the best lines.) I liked this movie despite it being one of those Christian low budget type movies. It was the same people that did Facing the Giants and they are getting better at movie making. It is about a heroic fireman in a failing marriage (he is viewing porn online, is really being selfish and prideful) and he takes up his father's challenge to be part of a 40-day experiment designed to teach both husband and wife the real meaning of commitment, the Love Dare. The most exciting part of the movie was the car on the railroad track and the firemen try to save the people stuck in the car while the train is coming. I also liked the analogies that were given about marriage (salt and pepper shaker)and the real life struggle from both the husband and wives perspectives when it came to communication and gaining back trust. The best part was how it all came back to God's love for us and the Savior understanding all our weaknesses but loving us still so much that he would die for us. Movies usually don't talk about that important part of life. It was an okay movie, not a whole lot of kissing and absolutely no sex scenes or swearing. Kids would find it boring...okay my husband found it boring too. I liked it, once probably wouldn't see it again.

I also finally saw Twilight. Starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart It was pretty bad and way too much staring going on. I think they were trying to portray in love or mind reading. Way too much makeup on the Vampire. Not enough action, the ending moved right along and I wish the whole movie was like the ending. BUT I do like movies that stay true to the book. This one didn't add anything and followed the original story pretty well. Don't recommend it unless every other movie you wanted to rent is already checked out and you have a dollar to waste along with a few hours.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon is coming out Nov. 2009. Yeah for us!

Okay that is it for now. I also don't really recommend Bolt, well maybe just once. It did have a few funny lines and a lot of slobber but I don't think I could see it again. Great for the whole family and the best part was laughing at Mike laughing so hard at the funny lines.

Don't forget the Kettle Corn Popcorn!

Big Love? Big Deal

March 13, 2009, 4:00 a.m.

Yes, Mormons are targets, but let’s not get too excited about it.

By Orson Scott Card

In the aftermath of Proposition 8, it’s open season on Mormons, and the producers of HBO’s series Big Love are in the best position to give the Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) a big slap.

The series focuses on members of one of several splinter groups that have left the Mormon Church over the issue of polygamy. To understand what this means to Mormons, it’s worth indulging in a little history.

When the Mormon prophet Wilford Woodruff declared in 1890 that it was God’s will that Latter-day Saints no longer take multiple wives, some Mormons clung to the “Principle of Plural Marriage” and rejected the authority of the president of the church.

This is akin to what happened when Protestants declared that they would no longer follow the pope, and polygamist sects are about as Mormon now as Baptists are Catholic.

The fastest way to get yourself excommunicated from the Mormon Church is to advocate plural marriage.

But the polygamist sects still do most of their recruiting among Mormons, and there is a constant struggle between the church and the polygamists.

Many of these polygamists still believe that it is in Mormon temples that their marriages must be solemnized. The temple is a focal point in their religion — but if they admit they’re polygamists, they can’t get in.

So it actually makes artistic sense for episodes of Big Love to center on their effort to get into the temple. It reflects the real concerns of some polygamists, and it is accurate to show the official church as doing its best to keep them out.

You’re not supposed to enter the temples, once they’re dedicated, unless you’re a member of the church who is keeping the major commandments — which polygamists most flagrantly are not.

Big Love is not doing anything new. Anti-Mormon groups have been describing, depicting, or showing ersatz versions of the temple ceremonies for many years. Anyone who wants to know what goes on in the temples can find out with very little effort. So why are we Mormons upset about Big Love’s foray into anti-Mormon “exposé”?

It’s offensive when believers in one religion hold up the sacred rites of another religion to public ridicule. So we’re hurt — but we’re not surprised.

Mormons have always been the exception to America’s policy of religious tolerance. Throughout our history in America, Mormons have been oppressed by government, killed or driven out by mobs, slandered, and libeled — always by fellow Americans who professed to believe in religious tolerance.

So while we don’t like what Big Love is doing, we’re not doing much about it. We’ve learned by observation that protests and boycotts merely increase the publicity, and therefore the viewership, of such hostile productions as the Big Love temple episode.


So the church’s official advice to its members is: Ignore it. (See this, for more.)http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-publicity-dilemma

My favorite response came from Terrance D. Olson, a Brigham Young University professor who does research in family studies. His essay in Meridian Magazine is a lovely explanation of how tolerance works and why it elevates everyone. Those who refuse to respect other people’s sacred things, he says, hurt themselves most of all.

My own essay at MormonTimes.com, published by the church-owned Deseret News, strongly urges my fellow Mormons not to write angry letters, because anger never persuades anybody, and expressing it isn’t particularly Christ-like.

Most Mormons are seeing the Big Love temple episode in the context of the recent outpouring of hatred and bile from those who most vehemently opposed Proposition 8. Mormons have been targeted for business boycotts; some have lost their jobs because they contributed to the campaign to defend marriage.

The result is that few of us have any desire to act as the worst of our opponents have acted. After someone has boycotted a friend’s business, it makes it a bit harder for you to want to call for a boycott.

By and large, while we’d prefer that everybody handle differences of opinion peacefully, we’d rather be persecuted than be the persecutors. The few times in our history when we have departed from that principle, the results have shamed us for generations. Tolerance works better.

What Mormons keep foremost in mind is this: We’re a worldwide church. We might be going through a rough patch in America right now, as we butt heads with the oppressive New Puritans of the American Left, but that has nothing to do with how the Mormon Church is growing in Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, or Taiwan.

Big Love is just an entertainment; nothing they do will diminish the sacredness of what goes on inside our temples.

Our primary work is helping people in and out of the church to live a more Christ-like life. Now and then, when a deep moral issue is involved, we get involved in political action. But when we do, we expect that others won’t like it, and we take our lumps.

The more they attack us, the more people they bring to us as allies and, occasionally, as converts to our faith. So rave on, brothers and sisters!

— Orson Scott Card is a novelist and critic. For his take on Proposition 8, as a Mormon and prior to its passage, go here: http://www.mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/orson_scott_card/?id=4740
-------------------------------

There you have it! I think it is too bad that people have to be mean but it is their choice and we don't have to be mean back. -The Bec-ster

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

Awesome Fantasy book! New world with creative history's, traditions and interesting characters. Also mystery, magic, romance, political wrangling, religious conflict, fights for equality...I loved it!

This book from from the viewpoint of three different characters. At first it is hard to keep track of it all but I eventually got it mostly figured out. Aerlon is a city built next to Elantris the city of Gods but the Gods have all died or are dead (in a way) They are actually just not complete...and that is what needs to be figured out...how the Gods fell. Luckily there are some pretty awesome characters that come together (fate?) and help a whole nation pull through a hard time.

Princess Sarene is my favorite. She is brave and smart and knows politics! She takes on the forces of evil and out wits a few men along the way. She also finds what she really wants all along...to be accepted and loved.

It was a huge book but it was worth the time to read...almost better then a Anne McCafferey book...only no dragons...sorry.

Whole and Healing Book

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

Kids on the street...but not your typical city kids like in New York or LA. These kids are in Italy! That right there puts an interesting twist on the story. There are a lot of Italian words, places and customs that make the story so different in a way you can't put the book down. The city is full of tourists, sculptures, museums, old churches, bridges and boats. (There are no cars in Venice it is built on a series of Islands on the Adriatic Sea.)

The kids are homeless but a boy called the Thief Lord helps them find an old theater to live in and also helps them get food and clothing. He steals stuff and they sell it to an antiques dealer. The antiques guy always cheats them but a little money is better then nothing. The Thief Lord is mysterious. They all think he is brave and fearless. The little kids look up to him and want to be just like him. But stealing is bad, right?

Well they have quite an adventure staying out of the way of the cops, hiding from a mean Aunt and playing tricks on a detective. The books ending takes a very unique twist and the kids find themselves in a bad predicament. They have to make some hard choices about their future which they really don't have many options when you are without parents, money and a home.

The kids are brave and they stick together even when it gets hard. With a little imagination the ending is actually pretty fun...an enchanted Merry go round is all it takes to change your life! Want to ride it? Read the book and then decide what you would do.

Slightly Broken, Healing book

Baby sleeps most of the day!

He sleeps and I try to do school with the kids...then he wakes up and I feed him and change his diaper a couple of times then he goes back to sleep. THEN I have to try to round up the kids again to do more school. He still kind of ignores everyone and sleeps through wind rain and snowstorms...also kids singing, yelling, laughing and talking really loud right next to him. He is such a good little boy!

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke

This was a book about a little boy, a dragon and a Brownie. (what a Brownie is I still don't know... something furry and eats mushrooms). They go on an adventure to find the Rim of Heaven where dragons are safe to live. They are chased by the Golden Dragon...not really a dragon and they meet some nice people on the way and some not so nice things. They also pick up a spy and a raven or crow is following them, he is a bad red eyed crow.
Okay without giving away the story...they have a pretty interesting adventure and it was a very well written book. The book was actually written in German and then translated into English. I enjoyed it and recommmend it to anyone that likes books about dragons.

Whole Book, Healing Book

I Don't Have to Make Everything All Better by Gary Lundberg and Joy Lundberg

Awesome Book. Very insightful and great examples to apply immediately to my personal life. At first I read it in denial and thought of all the people it applied to...but after I picked the book up half way through, 6 months later, I realize that EVERYTHING in the book applies directly to ME. I am the one that needs to change and I am the one that has been going about the whole world with a critical let me fix it for you attitude. I never listen! I haven't listened probably my whole life...I always jump in with a solution to fix things and impart my great wisdom on everyone and anyone. I thought I was helping! I thought I was being nice. BUT it usually isn't what people want...I don't...why would they?

I realize I can't change myself overnight but I can try a little everyday to apply the things in this book and hopefully my relationship with my dear husband and my children and then my siblings and in laws and parents will change. Someday s I will do great and sometimes...I will slip into the old fix it attitude I feel comfortable with. I will apologize ahead of time for all the past fix its and the future fix its that slip.

Whole Book

The Law by Frederick Bastiat

This book was written in the 19th century but it is still applicable today, in fact more today then ever! It is full of truths, very insightful and inspired! He was an old French guy but such a good writer. He defends liberty on every front and I bet there aren't many that can argue with his facts on the flaws in socialism and other isms.

I like the way he says this about isms, "Please understand that I do not dispute their right to invent social combinations, to advertise them, to advocate them and to try them upon themselves, at their own expense and risk. But I do dispute their right to impose these plans upon us by law --by force --and to compel us to pay for them with our taxes....they need only give up the idea of forcing us to acquiesce to their groups and series..."

It is deep yet it is simple enough I could grasps most of it and apply it to my life today. I think I take a lot of our freedoms and laws for granted. I also think many of our laws have way too much government influence and control. This takes away our liberty and our pursuit of happiness.

So even though this book it so good and I highly recommend it to EVERYONE...Some of you might know that it took me over a year to read it! Yep I admit it. There is a lot to absorb but that really isn't the excuse I have...it was just such a dry book...in fact there isn't any adventure or romance or imagination! I kept getting distracted reading other things. AND to top all that off the book is only 85 pages long. That is embarrassing it took me so long. I think I might even read it again and why not again? Really it is good and I learned so much, I am only lazy lazy lazy.

Bastiat quotes Louis Blanc, "Society receives its momentum from power" This is the idea politicians accept. Then Bastiat says, "This will remain the case so long as human beings with feelings continue to remain passive; so long as they consider themselves incapable of bettering their prosperity and happiness by their own intelligence and their own energy; so long as they expect everything from the law; in short, so long as they imagine that their relationship to the state is the same as that of the sheep to the shepherd."

What does this quote say to you?

Whole Book

Reading habits?

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a 'L'to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (p) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen--Lx
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien-- Lx
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte-- X L
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling-X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - P
6 The Bible-X L
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte-- XL
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell—P
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman x L
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens—P
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott-- XL
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy--
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller--
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare-- P
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier-
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien--XL
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger-- X
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot-- x
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell x
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald--X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens--P
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams—XL
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh-
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky--P
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck- x
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll-X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame--P
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy- x
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens--p
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis-- XL
34 Emma - Jane Austen- Lx
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen-Lx
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe -- XL
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini --x
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden- X
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne-- X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell—
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown-- x
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery --XL
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy--
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood--
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding--P
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan-
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel--X
52 Dune - Frank Herbert--X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons-
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen- x L
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon-
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens--P
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-- P
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-- XL
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--X
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--X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom x
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—X
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton--
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad--
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery-X
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams--x
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas-P
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare-X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl--X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo- xL

My total is 36. I was surprised at how many I didn't recognize. I wonder where they came up with this motley list.

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana by Haven Kimmel

Hmm, it was a fast read and I don't know what all the excitement is about. I found it kind of boring. I wouldn't want to read it in my book group.

It is about a small time town in Indiana. It is told from a child's point of view from birth to about 10 years old. It starts our a bit charming but then gets a bit weird when she talks about the animals that are killed by her neighbors and the lack of compassion she has for life in general or the people around her. She seems precocious but is really a very obnoxious kid. I think her take on religion kind of straggled away from the plot of the story.

This memoir is nice but could really use some editing. Her sister was right...why would anyone want to read about her life as a little girl in a town of 300 and a broken family? It just wasn't what I was expecting. It never got better just blah.

broken book

The Case Against the Fed by Murray N. Rothbard

Hmmm, this was an interesting book...for all of the %10 I understood. Economics has never been my strong point. But it wasn't a total waste of time. In fact now I understand Atlas Shrugged a little better! Ha Ha.

What I got from the book is this...counterfeiting is bad and the Federal Reserve is essentially doing this very well and no one cares enough to put a stop to it. FOR YEARS!!! No one checks up on the Feds and most rich and powerful people in the history of the US (plus Presidents of the US) are all in on the scandal right under our noses. The American people are really quite ignorant of the whole thing...including me last week because we are too lazy to learn anything about banking and economics.

The solution...well it took two of the last pages to cover this one...go back to gold coins and don't print any more green paper money in the USA. I'm not sure this would work but at least it would be something since the nation is so totally in debt and the Feds got us there in the first place! They are very good liars and try to make themselves the heroes. Not!

Check out this blog for a better explanation of the Feds today and our economic crisis.

Whole Book

Empire by Orson Scott Card

Yikes, what a scary and exciting book! Written in 2006 it is amazing what some of the parallels to our society today are! It is of course fictional but makes many points about the political system and all the corruptness that is happening today.
Card makes up an American Civil War in the near future. There is all kinds of military things happening and espionage and of course terrorists. This was a fast read because I couldn't put it down. I had to know what happened next. I think he plans on making it a tv series or movie or something because it is written in tiny bursts of adventure and adrenaline scenes, one after the other....there really isn't a lot of time for getting into each characters head and developing deep dialogs or plots like Ender's Game.

What is really creepy is all the killing that happened and how important it is to defend ones family and have a plan. You have to be prepared and watch your back. You don't know who is your enemy. The police, the army the special ops, the CIA the President of the US or even the people you work with could be on the other side or just following orders from someone corrupt further up the line.

It is kind of a mystery book that unravels as it goes along. It was very good and worth reading.

Healing Book

History of Hyde Park in Utah's Cache Valley, 1860-1990 by Dale Z Kirby

This is the tour of the new town we moved to in the last 3 months. It has such a rich pioneer heritage. I just finished reading History of Hyde Park in Utah's Cache Valley, 1860-1990 by Dale Z. Kirby. The author is a direct decedent of one of the first settlers in this town and had some very interesting journal entries from his ancestors.

My favorite part of the book was finding out that quite a few of the people that live in our ward are related to the early pioneers in Hyde Park! And it is really cool that our house was built by a guy in our ward's dad, who is related to the early settlers in this valley. And the water we get from the tap is from the natural Spring that attracted people to settle here in the first place!



This is a picture of the view from the up the hill just past the church. It shows the mountains west of Hyde Park over in Logan and beyond.

The church we attend is just around the corner from our house. It is a newer stake center build in the late 1990's but one of the first things they did when the pioneers got here was build a church. They had to keep rebuilding it bigger and bigger as more settlers came into the valley. They added a gymnasium where most of the fun dances and community events were held for a long time. Basketball and Baseball were very very popular to keep the youth from getting too bored and out of mischief.



The first bishop called by Brigham Young was William Hyde. He also served with Joseph Smith in the Mormon Battalion. He was a hard worker and a fair and honest man. He organized and lead the people in Hyde Park to build a community that cared for the people, their God, the land and the freedoms we have in this country.


Many people in Hyde Park also helped in the quarries to bring the rock down for the building of the Logan Temple.

This is a picture to the East. North Logan's mountains. We look at these mountains our our kitchen window! I love them covered with snow!



Hyde Park is actually only 3.2 Square miles. There are only just under
2,000 people living here. All of the shopping and businesses are in Logan. There isn't anything here but neighborhoods and farmland. We do have our own city building, community center and post office and a few parks but the schools are all in Logan and Smithfield. But the early settlers took education very seriously. There was always schools built in Hyde Park but they are all burned down or fallen down but one, it is still used today but is part of the North Logan School district. Many many people from Hyde Park were teachers and administrators in other schools nearby. Plus the university is USU is just 4 miles away over in Logan. 4-H was very popular and still is today.



It is a really cool place to live. The early settlers used to have dairy farms, mink farms, the RS sisters got into raising silk worms so they didn't just have to wear wool all the time. There were lots of sugar beets grown here and hay. They had a train station just down the road so they could get mail and goods from other towns. There used to be a co-op grocery store and a few other stores. But in the middle 1900's the town voted to limit businesses and growth in the town because it was getting to crowded and expensive to get water to the new homes. There are also a lot of canals running all through Hyde Park. Everyone had a barn and gardens on their property. There are a lot of people today that still have horses and small gardens. There were even polygamists in the 1800's that lived here in town...until they made it against the law and the rules of the church and they had to work our other options for living and caring for their multiple families. The police and fire stations are today combined with North Logan's and even the Library. It is just a mile down the road from us but in N. Logan. So we do all of our shopping and errands in Logan where they have grocery stores and the DI and Kohl's, a tiny mall, Walmart, Home Depot, Borders and restraunts plus lots of other stores because it is a "big" university town.

Our house has a big backyard and a few fruit trees. It also has a little barn and the water is on an irrigation water share system. There are Llamas behind our property owned by one of our neighbors and most of the neighbors near us all have goats,chickens, dogs and cats.


Our cool house!

Look at the awesome icicles hanging from our roof !


We love it here! We miss CALIF. but this is where we live now. It will be a great place for the kids to just run around and have fun all summer! We can't wait to jump into the fun of Hyde Park!

25 Thing

Tagged on Facebook...here are my 25 random things about me just off the top of my head.

1. I get really frustrated trying to figure out simple things on the computer...like writing this? Did I put it in the right place on facebook? Did I do it right?
2.I love the snow! I love to ski, snowboard, snowshoe, throw snowballs and snow cave!
3. If someone else is remembering it or it is written down then I won't remember it.
4.I like to argue.
5.I like butter not margarine or other fake spreads.
6.I hardly ever ever read a book twice...I like suspense and if I already read it then I know what is going to happen next and it isn't as fun.
7.I put lotion on my hands about 6 times a day.
8.I always add water to the 100% juice container when the kids aren't looking, it makes it go further. Last night I added too much and my husband said it tasted nasty and wouldn't drink it. Ha Ha.
9.I look forward to Sundays.
10. I always go 8-10 days overdue. My babies like to bake!
11.My birthday always lands on or near Pres. day so it is like I get a holiday just for me!
12.I don't like to touch dog fur, if I do I wash my hands as soon as possible.
13. I don't mind handling and cooking raw meat as long as I hold my breath.
14. I love to talk. I am working on listening.
15. I have always wanted to go to Alaska.
16. I have never touched warm ocean water.
18.When I was growing up my family owned a small farm and I milked goats twice a day.
19. I am a really good shot with a rifle.
20. I really enjoy learning. I love to teach what I know to others.
21. I went to Wood badge this summer and am working on my two last tickets.
22. We moved in December but I haven't made any new bosom friends yet. (A term used by Anne of Green Gables if you don't know what I"m talking about.)
23. I love to read Jane Austen. I also like fantasy and fiction, but right now I am reading a history book for the new city we moved too and it is just fascinating!
24. I wore braces on my upper teeth for 2 1/2 years.
25. I am turning into my mother and I try to resist but it isn't working!

The Incredible Edible? Egg...

Well, sometimes it really gets cold in Utah. Especially in North Logan. We suspect that the poor freezing cold chicken had a very hard night in the old chicken coop and out plopped this.
Amazing. Do you feel sorry for the hen?

The Wedding Cake!

This is a long overdue post about Geoff and Anita's remade wedding cake, by me!

So first they had a reception and Anita's mom's friend made the cake. But long before that my mom planned to have an open house so her ward would get to see the newly wedded couple too. This was scheduled around the 1st of the year a few weeks after they were married. Mom asked me to do the cake. I did a few other cakes for family and they were so much more work then I ever imagined...I was thinking this time around I will do something simple, yet elegant. Fondant! Instead of using my favorite whip cream icing that can only be found in CA I will try a new kind of smooth cake.

I viewed a ton of youtube videos on how to do the fondant, originally called marzipan...it's a type of almond paste. It tastes disgusting, unless you are from Spain or Germany. It is fun to make into all kinds of shapes. It feels like slightly dry play-dough and you can make it any color. It just needs to be smooth without air bubbles for the cake and you have to do it fast or it will dry out. Simple enough, right?

I found it on sale at Michael's and it was also available online or at Walmart but not at such a good price as Michael's if you have their coupon. I also needed a few other tools and stuff for the cake so I saved the coupon each week and bought the needed supplies one at a time at 40% to 50% off. I'm so thrifty!

This is the original cake for the reception (I didn't make it.)...when I saw it I couldn't believe it was almost exactly like I was going to make it! Ribbon on the bottom of each layer and I wanted a topper on the top and maybe a bow. Her colors were green, black and white.


I was talking to Anita's mom afterward when she was just about going to chuck the whole thing...it had three layers, two were made of Styrofoam. Ah Ha! I could just reuse the bottom of the cake. Only the top was real cake and I could make another real cake for the top and change it a bit! Her mom thought that was a great idea and we took it home!

Here are two fake layers. I had to clean it up a bit and I changed the ribbon.



Then I was ready to operate:


The girls helped me make the little balls to match the bottom layer. They made quite a few before we had enough that were relatively the same size.


TA DA! Now three layers...you can't even tell one was added!



The problem was we had to take out all the roses that went up the side of the cake. Then there were holes on that side. I then needed to fill in the holes or cover them. I thought I would add a few flat flowers that I cut out with a little tiny teeny cookie cutter but it looked so tacky. So I needed a ribbon bow to cascade down the side to hide the mess. Only I don't know how to tie ribbon bows that are beautiful. I asked all my sisters and sister in laws and finally my mom said her neighbor used to work as a florist and she would probably tie it for me. She did in less then a minute...perfect!




Then I had these really poky little bride and groom toppers that I found at the dollar store for 60 cents each. They were just so cute I couldn't pass them up! I think she looks like a little Anita and he almost looks like a love struck Geoff. I covered the bottom blue part with the same green ribbon and it looks like it matches.



They are so cute!


The funniest part is the bride is actually allergic to cake and dairy and stuff. So she just pretended to eat it. That was nice of her.




AND after all that fussing and work... the rest was just thrown into the garbage. You can see the Styrofoam layers. And I walked away. The End.

These Three Remain: A novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan

Wow this was the best book to finish the series written as a spin "in" not "off" of Pride and Prejudice but from Darcy's point of view. I had so much fun with it that I pulled out my Austen book or the original P.P. and read about every other chapter going back and forth so I could hear Elizabeth's perspective and then Darcy's with all the small details filled in. He was so in love with her it was amazing he could ever get anything done...his whole life was filled with her in his thoughts and actions.

I think the author did a great job keeping faithful to the people and the events in Austen's original P.P. but adding details of Darcy's life that paint a whole picture!

SPOILERS:
If you remember in the middle of P.P Darcy gets rejected by Elizabeth when he proposes to her while staying with Lady Catherine, his aunt, for Easter. Darcy goes into a depression, treats everyone mean, then gets really really drunk one night...almost makes the worst decision of his life while attending a party of people trying to blackmail him and ends up getting saved by his really good friend that turns out to be a gov. spy! (never heard it like that did you?).

Then Darcy takes a journey of self-discovery as he tires to be the man his father would have wanted him to be and who he always thought he was...a gentleman. He has to come to term with his flaws and over come all the lies in his life about his character. He ends up thinking more about others then just himself and his family. He reaches out to help Elizabeth's little sister, he rights the mistake he made by discouraging his best friend from marrying the person he loved. He takes back some mean words he said to some friends and he confides in his dear sister and treats her like a grown up not a child anymore. He has a really funny Valet, Fletcher which he takes advice from as he quotes Shakespeare too. He puts his pride away and in the meantime Elizabeth is putting her prejudice away as she learns the truth about Wickam the evil, lying, gambling younger sister stealer and as she sees Darcy from a different point of view.

In the end it is "happier ever after" and a sigh of relief as they are finally married.

Whole Book

Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan

BOOK 2:
I am hooked on the Pride and Prejudice by Austen and this is just more to feast on. The book is all from Darcy's point of view and what he was doing the whole time he left Elizabeth's town and convinced his best friend Bingly to also.

The whole entire book he is going back and forth in his mind comparing Elizabeth to other ladies he meets, he dreams of her, he thinks of her he obsesses about her and he relies on these memories to help him through a tough decision. She was always the example of good and grounded.

This book has a bit of a twist...in fact it takes on its own adventure/mystery and is somewhat, I think, out of character for the always fair and unreadable tightwad Darcy. He shows emotion and he shares opinions and he almost falls for another girl! Yikes!

Luckily his trusty valet comes to his rescue more then once. They are really quite tight when it comes to confiding in each other about women, his love life, future and what to wear...(obviously the author was a women). It is still interesting and a good read.

The last book in the series should be even better because it will actually have the rest of the story and Elizabeth in it...this book didn't have her there once...only in his thoughts and memories.

Healing Book, Slightly Broken but kind of in a gray area.