100 Book Challenge... Check

I posted in June about the goal I set to read 100 books in 2008.  I did it!  I actually finished back in November, and I'm very proud of myself for finishing.  I don't know if I should be, since I probably spent a lot of hours reading that should been directed toward more practical pursuits.  Regardless, I did it and I'm glad I did.  There's something delicious about devouring a book and jumping right into the next one-- and even when I didn't have the time to read a book in one sitting, it was good to have an excuse to read a few chapters before bed.  It was a good way to keep up the momentum.

I won't be reading quite so many in 2009, but I'm still going to try not to let that part of my life slip away into the busyness.  One of the best things about my new school is that they have made a priority of teaching children to enjoy reading.  Outside every classroom is a sign that says 'This week my teacher read ____ minutes.'  What a great way to lead by example!  It will be great motivation to keep up personal reading.

Without further ado, the first 100 books I read in 2008:

1. Sovereign Ladies, by Maureen Waller

2. Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes

3. The Queen of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner

4. The King of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner

5. Having a Baby Naturally, by Mothering Magazine

6. Chronoliths

7. March, by Geraldine Brooks

8. The Watsons Go to Birmingham

9. Linda Brown, You Are Not Alone

10. The Fellowship of the Ring, by JRR Tolkien

11. Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks (love this author)

12. Calculating God, Robert Sawyer

13. Family Tree, Barbara Delinsky

14. Starplex, Robert Sawyer

15. The Rumpelstiltskin Problem

16. Into the Wild

17. The Tightwad Gazette I

18. The Tightwad Gazette II

19. The Tightwad Gazette III

20. Poison Study, Maria K. Snyder

21. Magic Study, Maria K. Snyder

22. Ysabel

• 23. The Sweet Far Thing, Libba Bray

  24. Myst: Book of Atrus

• 25. State of Fear, by Michael Crichton

  26. London, by Edward Rutherfurd

  27. Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card

• 28. Bound On Earth

  29. One Perfect Day: the Selling of the American Wedding

  30. Rainbow's End

• 31. Frindle

  32. Unveiled

  33. Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife

  34. A Poisoned Season

• 35. Fire Study, Maria K Snyder

  36. Wicked Lovely

  37. Julie & Julia, Julie Powell

  38. Escape, Carolyn Jessop

  39. Penderwicks on Gardam Street

  40. Suite Scarlett, Maureen Johnson

• 41. Pushed

  42. The Invention of Hugo Cabret

  43. Farthing

  45. Bewitching Season

• 46. Bella at Midnight

  47. His Favorite Wife: Trapped in Polygamy

  48. The Luxe

  49. Blue Bloods

• 50. America' Hidden History

• 51. The Princess and the Hound

  52. Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History

  53. Masquerade

  54. Gorgeously Green

  55. Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

  56. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

  57. I, Coriander

  58. All the Lovely Bad Ones

  59. The Eyre Affair

  60. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral

• 61. The Red Necklace, Sally Gardner

  62. Things I learned about my dad in therapy, Heather Armstrong

  63. Keeper of Dreams, Orson Scott Card

  64. Empire, Orson Scott Card

  65. The Moneypenny Diaries, Kate Westbrook

  66. Lost in a Good Book, Jasper Fforde

  67. The Well of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde

  68. House of the Scorpion

  69. A Curse Dark As Gold

  70. Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde

  71. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels

• 72. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Laurie Viera Rigler

  73. The Explosionist, Jenny Davidson

  74. The Green Glass Sea, Ellen Klages

  75. Bonk, Mary Roach

  76. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer

• 77. Out of the Wild, Sarah Beth Durst

  78. Rumors, Anna Godberson

  79. Dragon Flight, Jessica Day George

  80. The Jane Austen Handbook, Margaret Sullivan

  81. Beauty Sleep, Cameron Dokey

  82. His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik

  83. Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik

  84. Black Powder War, Naomi Novik

• 85. Empire of Ivory, Naomi Novik

  86. Steal Away Home, Lois Ruby

  87. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

  88. The Witch of Blackbird Pond

• 89. The Victory of Eagles, Naomi Novik

  90. Female Chauvinist Pigs: The Rise of Raunch Culture, Ariel Levy

  91. Eragon, Christopher Paolini

  92. Eldest, Christopher Paolini

• 93. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

  94. Dealing with Dragons

  95. Calling on Dragons

• 96. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

• 97. The Other Side of the Island, Allegra Goodman

• 98. Ten Cents A Dance, Christine Fletcher

  99. Chalice, Robin McKinley

  100. Brisingr, Christopher Paolini

I think it's probably a good idea to keep a record of the hobby that takes up so much of my time.  I think I'll be doing that part next year, at least.

Ornaments

I know it's after Christmas, but I haven't taken down my tree yet.  Don't tell me if you have (coughAimeecough) because I was really enjoying having it up.  Until we moved into Mike and Karyn's house for the week, and now I just don't have to think about it.

Bear with me, will you?  I want to write about some of my favorite ornaments.  Pretend it's interesting if it's not, because I'm going to do it anyway.  Right after we got married my mom did a sneaky thing and bought us a whole stash of Christmas decorations on clearance at Target.  I love the things they carried that year-- retro glass bulbs in funky colors shaped like icicles, balls, and lights.  We also got a lot of decorations as wedding gifts (for some crazy reason, we got married six days before Christmas).  I love pulling out the decorations because it brings back all sorts of memories of that first Christmas together, which was also our first week as married people. 

Our tree this year, which was generously handed down by Isaac's sister (the one I was coughing at a minute ago, the one who tried to put her tree away ON Christmas):

I don't know why some of these are so blurry... A new camera is definitely on the wish list. 

You see here the fishing Santa that Isaac stole from my aunt and uncle during the white elephant game at the big Christmas party.  I woke up the next morning and found it here:

The beautiful angel we used to have atop the tree, the one that was given to us as a wedding gift by a dear friend of the family, was hiding on the hearth.  (She actually had her face in the corner when I found her!)

My first ornament, all Precious Moments and everything:

The beautiful glittery thing I got at the same white elephant game... I did much better here, obviously...  This one gets memorable status because that game was the funniest thing I've done with my whole extended family in about twenty two years.  Oh wait.

This out of focus bride and groom came from my parents that first Christmas, the one where we came straight from our honeymoon to stay a few days with my parents.  Oy.

 

These lovely carolers were a wedding gift from a family in the ward we grew up in.

From a college spring break trip to San Diego, a miniature Hotel Del Coronado.

This is one of those cheesy Mayan medallions you find all over the Yucatan peninsula-- but it was my first cruise, my first time in the Caribbean, and my first trip with Isaac's family. 

You can't tell, but this jeweled Christmas tree has a miniature wedding portrait in it.  Did I tell that Christmas always makes me think about our wedding?  They are permanently connected in my head.

Isaac came up with this makeshift ornament from my student teaching name badge... I'm still not sure its going back into the box with the other ornaments but at the same time, wow, this thing sure does sum up 2008 for me.  (See my little light bulb ornament?  I love those babies!)

This one I bought this year at the USU Bookstore shortly after commencement .

And I love this one from my mom to commemorate the same day.  (It says 'Class of 2008' on the scroll, you just can't tell because of the flash.  I know pictures are better without the flash, but we live in a basement and we work with limited light.)

These are our very favorite, most treasured Christmas decorations out of everything we own: the matching ornaments we made for our mothers in the first grade, complete with first grade pictures.  You know, when we were in the same class.  You had better believe I nabbed them right back as soon as they were pulled out of the boxes in 2006.  I love looking at that sweet little boy with his buzzed head and crooked grin... makes me fall in love with him all over again, just like I did the first time. 

And finally, it wouldn't be Christmas if Isaac didn't hide the miniature shuttle from the Star Trek Enterprise somewhere in the branches.  You can see it on the right in the picture above.  I'm seeing a theme here: I go for sentimental and beautiful, and he goes for weird.  Surprise.

 

Thanks for enduring through one of those 'journal entry' type posts.  My posterity will be grateful.  Right?

Graduated... Mostly

A couple of weeks ago we drove up to Logan for Utah State's commencement.  We got up there just fine, and had a nice visit with my aunt and uncle, who live in nearby Providence and are always nice enough to let us crash the spare bedroom.  When we went to bed there was not a flake of snow on the ground and I was THRILLED.  Wouldn't it be lovely to have a dry (but still frigid) walk across campus?  When I got up at 7:30 there was just a dusting on the ground-- and I was all, okay, I can still wear my cute shoes in that. 

(Sidenote: I judge all Logan weather based on the amount of protection I need from my shoes-- cute flats when its dry, shoes that hit the ankle if it hasn't snowed in a while, and my favorite black boots if I have to wade through anything more than two inches.  There is a very similar system involving which jacket or coat, how many layers to stuff underneath, and the warmth versus the cuteness of the scarves and hats.  If I learned nothing else during my four winters in Logan, I did learn exactly how to dress for the weather). 

Anyway, so I send Isaac out to start the car as I finish getting ready and lo and behold, six inches of white stuff on the ground.  Seriously.  What a fitting way to send me off into the world, Cache Valley.  So I gave up on my cute shoes and threw on the boots-- but no coat, since I could not figure out a way to juggle both a coat and graduation robes.  I'm all, whatever, its not that far of a walk anyway...

Forty five minutes, a spinout, several side streets later and we finally make it onto campus (this is normally a ten minute drive).  I run in and luckily, my friend Erica has already picked up my card.  I say luckily because they had NO RECORD of me in the graduation lists-- I'm not on the list, not in the program, nowhere to be found.  (I'm beyond aggravated by this, since both my counselor and the Registrar's office lost my graduation for application once each, and I spent hours working it all out.  All for nothing).  If I had had to wait in line and have that argument when I got there it could have been close, but this way I just jump in line and start finding my friends.  Interestingly, they required no documentation to stick me in the lineup-- Isaac joked that he should have borrowed a cap and gown and walked with me.  Might as well get the ceremony out of the way, since all the family was there anyway, even if he's still like three years away from being done.

Turns out I was right next to my awesome friend Jeanette, who is Early Childhood like me, and did an excellent job as  my personal sanity-saver last semester as we student taught together:

The College of Education was very last in the processional, so of course we W's were nearly the very last in line.  (Do you see the amount of snow here?  Seriously, people had to brush a half inch of snow off their caps when we finally got back inside).

 

I was so happy I brought an umbrella.... I was cold, but at least I was mostly dry.

 

For those who even know anything about campus, we left from the Fieldhouse and crossed 700 North to the Spectrum.  Here I am smiling because I think we are about to get inside:

But no, we had to circle completely around the Spectrum to get in through the tunnel.  Shortly after this shot I got really irritated with all the girls who wore their cute high-heeled shoes, because I got stuck behind them slowly side-stepping their way down the hill.  (How on earth do you attend this school long enough to earn a diploma and still think its a good idea to wear stilettos in a snow storm?  On a campus built on a hill?)

The speakers did their thing (the poor valedictorian had a nasty cold and could barely speak) and they read the names-- everyone's names, in fact-- but we were still done in less than an hour and a half!  Hooray for winter commencement!

These are the three girls that kept me going through Level III:

From left, Erica, Erin, me, and Whitney.  I would not have survived the hardest semester of the program without having these girls to share snarky comments with!  Nothing endures four hour classes better than sarcasm with a healthy dose of venting.  (Erica is also the lucky girl who gets to teach in the room next door to my new classroom... aren't you excited, Erica?!)

Then I was off to see all my family in the stands:

The sibs who made it

I probably wouldn't have bothered to walk if it weren't for my mom, who was supportive enough to bawl the moment I came up to her (it was a good moment).

 

And then there's my dad, who didn't cry but is very supportive anyway.  My parents rock:

And of course my sweet husband, who puts up with a lot from his teacher-wife.  One of my favorite things about Isaac is that when we got engaged there was never even a conversation about who should finish college first-- he gladly moved to Logan and got a job because he his first priority was for me to accomplish this.  He gets how important school is to me, and never questioned that I should keep going, even when the last couple semesters became very, very difficult in so many ways.  I am so proud to have a husband who backs me up in every way. 

Also a token picture of the building where I lived my life for so many semesters:

And then we headed to the Iron Gate Grill to meet up with my uncle's family for a yummy lunch.

It's important to mention my parent-in-laws, who have been pretty supportive themselves.  They came up too but somehow we missed getting a picture before lunch:

And finally, this is how I feel about the fact that I still have one class left before they will actually mail me my degree on a fancy piece of paper:

I'm not really looking forward to taking care of that. 

I'm working on sending out graduation announcements to a few lucky people... have no idea how long it will take me.  I tried to put in a picture but Shutterfly is being sticky.  The important part of the announcement is that it shows that they are giving me two degrees: Bachelors of Science in Early Childhood Education and Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education.  How cool is that?  They weren't two degrees when I signed up for this thing but they are now, and I'm not going to argue. 

 

I remember now why I never post... because it takes me an hour to write a single entry.  I have got to work on that.

Anyone Out There?

So I'm having some issues with this blog... obviously, because I haven't touched it in five months. I just got hired to teach first grade (woot!) , which leaves me with a dilemma. How do I feel about the possibility that the parents of my students can google their way onto this blog? I don't want to go private, because I love to stumble onto other people's blogs and I would hate to close mine up. On the other hand, I'm not sure I want to analyze every word I type in case a parent does find this. Another dilemma: what little free time I've ever had is about to disappear (if even half of what I hear about that first year is true, anyway). So should I just shut it down altogether? But I could also really use an personal outlet right now. And there you have it: conflict in a nutshell.

In the mean time, Aimee tagged me on this meme about my significant other. At least I know that someone would still like to read my blog.

1.How long have you been together? Since summer 2006. We have a hard time pinning down an exact date.

2.How long did we date? Almost 4 months from first date to proposal. Disgusting, I know, but there you have it.

3. How old is he? 23 on Monday. (Happy Birthday, Love!)

4. Who eats more? I hate to admit, but that is honestly a toss up between the two of us.

5. Who said, "I love you," first? Isaac did. And then there was this awkward pause... and then I said it back, and a couple of weeks later I admitted that I hadn't really meant it at the time but I did then.

6. Who is taller? Isaac

7. Who does the laundry? Isaac is so color blind I have to approve his outfits if we're going to be in public together. You'd better believe I don't let him touch my laundry.

8. Who does the dishes? I do, eventually.

9. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? From in the bed? I do.

10. Who pays the bills? We only have one bill that isn't on automatic withdrawal, and mostly we just both forget about it. Sorry, James and Karen!

11. Who mows the lawn? He does. Although, this is still a hypothetical situation.

12. Who cooks dinner? I do, although he's usually good to pitch in and follow directions.

13. Who is more stubborn? Hahaha, I so win this competition. It's not even close.

14. Who kissed who first? He kissed me, in a mutual kind of way.

15. Who asked who out? He did, but I really wasn't sure it was a date until he paid for my dinner at the end of the night. To give him credit, there was no doubt about the second date.

16. Who proposed? He did, at the first possible moment after I told him he could. We are a lot more practical than we are romantic.

17. Who is more sensitive? He is.

18. Who has more siblings? We both have four-- I'm the oldest and he's the baby.

19. What were you doing ten years ago? I was in seventh grade, and I don't think I did anything but mope and complain that entire year.

20. Five things on my to-do list: Finish cleaning the house, finish my portfolio (good time to pick up blogging again, right?), finish the laundry, make a to-do list for Christmas break (that really is a project unto itself) and pick up the cap and gown and I'm borrowing for graduation.

21.Things I would do if I was suddenly made a billionaire. Pay off the student loans, buy us a beautiful place in Herriman, buy a new car (and, um, fix the one we have), and spend the entire summer on a fabulous round-the-world vacation.

22. Three of my bad habits: Ignoring the dirty dishes, procrastinating returning phone calls, and reading a book past bed time.

23. Five places I have lived: West Jordan, Taylorsville, Boise, Logan, and West Valley

24. Five jobs I have had: Nanny, housekeeper, telemarkerter, USU Computer Labs flunkie, and very, VERY soon, first grade teacher!

25. Things people don't know about me: My biggest fear is that I'll spend my whole life teaching other people's children and never get have any of my own.

Things have been crazy and stressful and Casa Winder for more than a few reasons... number one being that my nanny family decided to end their summer vacation early and relieve me of duties. So, IF anyone is still reading this, and IF anyone is aware of any odd-job work opportunities, my schedule is totally open until I start school (!) on August 25th.

In the mean time, I'm planning on spending a lot of time with my new favorite thing:

This is the AWESOMEST cookbook ever and let me tell you, it is changing my life. We are huge fans of bread (the only that trumps good bread for me MIGHT be popcorn-- that is serious, people) and I have been trying to perfect my breadmaking skills for some time now. I stumbled on a couple of reviews for this baby and decided it fit into few goals I have going right now:

1. Eat better (better as it is defined by my taste buds)
2. Eat healthier (as in, if I make it myself it has no nasty perservatives to slowly cook our insides into something no longer resembling a human being)
3. Eat cheaper (I will spare you the lecture on rising food costs)
   
4. Save time (because I don't have very much of that right now, and even less when school starts (!) on August 25th).
5. Perfect my culinary abilities in an effort to win friends, influence people, and maximize opportunities for Isaac to brag about my mad cooking skillz.

I elected to get this book from the library because eat cheaper, which is not good english, is part of larger goal to stay out of as much debt as humanly possible while pursuing my bachelors degree and trendy new cookbooks have not been effectively worked into the budget.

There were so! many! recipes to try but they all start with one a few basic bread doughs that are fast, easy, and stay in the fridge for as long as TWO WEEKS (not that it has ever lasted that long in our house). For the Boule, which I make most often, you literally dump in the four ingredients, let it rise for a while, and stick it in the fridge till you're ready to bake. I've been getting about three loaves from each batch-- so, I make some dough on a Sunday afternoon (um, I mix when we get home from church while my lunch is heating up, and refrigerate whenever it is I get up from my Mandatory Sunday Nap) and we have fresh, hot bread with three dinners that week. If we can restrain ourselves from eating it all in one sitting, we have pretty fresh bread for all the other dinners, too. It's a chewy, moist peasant bread (that's what they call it) with a yummy crispy crust-- and that's just the first recipe. I'm also trying out Italian corn bread, Boule with my very own home-grown rosemary and thyme (my favorite), sandwich bread (which is taking some fine tuning, I'll admit), and I think there are at least 25 post-it notes marking things I want to try next. In summary: check into this book if you're interested in cheaper, healthier, yummier bread without slaving away in the kitchen all day.

The best part of this story is that my Uncle Keith, who has apparently set the goal become Candalyn's favorite uncle ever heard about my totally awesome bread and ordered me my very own copy. (He heard about my totally awesome bread from my gramme, who was bragging about it to him. My gramme is my hero, and the best cook ever, and hearing her tell someone about my cooking skills was one of the most fulfilling moments of my life).

100 Book Challenge

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to read. Growing up I read just about anything I could get my hands on; I was usually so desperate for title that found myself wandering the library shelves looking for interesting covers. (A terribly age-appropriate way to go about finding reading material, I promise). In the last couple years I found myself in the opposite situation: so many books, so little time! Between blogs, friends, and the super awesome librarians I worked with at Utah State, I was always hearing about something I was dying to get my eyeballs on. Of course, college wasn't really conducive to my bookworm lifestyle and I could never keep up. I had lists everywhere: on scraps of paper, in my journal, scribbled in the back of my planner. I could never keep track of anything for long. For awhile I tried to keep a little notebook--both for reading material and as a reading log-- but the pencil always smeared, and half the time I couldn't remember what the book was supposed to be about. I hated going to all the effort of tracking a book down when half the time it wasn't something I was in the mood for just then (the Logan Library has a frustratingly outdated system, and carried maybe half of the titles I wanted).

Enter my favorite website: Shelfari. It lets me keep two lists: one of books I want to read, and one of books I've already read. When I come across a book that looks interesting, I add it to my shelf. Then when I'm ready for something new, I browse through the cover art and maybe click on the book to read a jacket's description, and reviews from other members (I keep the maximum number of holds at the Hunter Library so I always have something coming in). When someone wants to know if I have any books to suggest, I can go to my shelf (where I can tag, rate, and review each book) and find something in the right genre. And I love having a record of the books that suck up so much of my time.

I decided this year to join one of the many groups on Shelfari and challenge myself to read 100 books this year. That's an average of two books a week and right now I'm even a little ahead-- which is good, since there's no way to keep up the pace come fall. By setting this goal, I've somehow given myself permission to stop feeling guilty about spending time with a book, and instead I've worked it into my schedule as a priority. I love letting myself get lost in a good story, but I'm also mixing in a good bit of non-fiction and I'm empowered by a lot of what I read, too. It's a nice change of pace from textbooks and lesson plans.

I've put a widget up on the left side that shows my most recent reads off my Shelfari list. I'm not sure how I feel about displaying all my nerdy interests, but there you go. It's a big part of my life and I want to put it out there.

Are you on Shelfari? Add me as a friend so I can see what you're reading, too!

Not Really My Idea of A Vacation

I have an an awesome aunt and uncle who are spending some serious time at a so-called cabin this summer. This week was an extended family get-together near their place, so my parentals collected their children and we headed to beautiful Island Park. For those of you not familiar with it, Island Park can be found in the Eastern portion of that great state, the one and only Idaho. It looks a lot like this:


And also a lot like this:


These pictures really don't begin to do it justice . The lake is breathtaking and the forest is lush and green. So green that it really catches me off guard, being that my part of the world really does count as a desert. It helped that it RAINED most of the week (let's remember that the Winders were occupying a tent) and when it finally stopped raining, well, we'll talk about that later.

The main purpose of the trip to Island Park (besides the family bondage) was to do this:


My grandfather has a nice set of ATV's that he generously shares with his family and we get to go play on these babies a few times a year. I'm not the biggest fan of four wheeling-- it's fun but not a big deal-- but the trails were nice and muddy (again with the RAIN) and so the one ride I was able to fit in turned out to a great big splashfest of the dirty kind.


This picture doesn't really show the muddy mess we were both covered in, but you get the idea. I LOVED it. The sun came out for a few short hours, and Isaac and I went off to do our own thing. It turns out that riding is a lot more enjoyable when you're not sharing an ATV and riding in a convoy of 15 or so people.

We ended up spending a good part of the five day trip huddled up under a tent trying to stay warm. Good attitudes abounded:


Yup, the joy and rejoicing were everywhere. I did manage to get through three really good books, even if I did most of the reading while hiding in the parked car.

The last night we were there the clouds parted and gave us a beautiful goodbye:

That was the last of the good feelings, because about this time Isaac was the first of several victims to fall prey to some nasty bug. It hit me during the night and by the morning of our departure my sisters and dad were starting to go, too. And then I looked out the window and what did I see?
Snow. THREE INCHES of SNOW. It turned out to be FIVE INCHES of SNOW by the time we left, because Isaac had been feeling so horrible that we spent that night at my parent's cabin, and I still had to go pack up our stuff from the TENT in the SNOW. Apparently, someone in charge missed the memo that it's JUNE. And I know that part of the world isn't exactly toasty yet, but the SNOW just kind of left me bitter. And the stomachache didn't help, either.

This is what it looked like when we left town, all four of us sick with various ailments.

They actually had the snow plows out, it was that bad. I wasn't happy but Chelle and Isaac were truly miserable... it was a long drive home. We're still recovering.

And that was our vacation. It wasn't really horrible-- we had a fun day of window shopping and lunch out in West Yellowstone, Isaac got in a couple of extra rides, and it was nice to be in a quiet, pretty place with family to talk to. But somehow it's the bad parts that are sticking in my memory.