Crazy Eights

I got tagged by my friend Becki, and since I haven't done one of these in a while, I figured what the heck!

8 FAVORITE SHOWS
1. House
2. So You Think You Can Dance
3. The Office
4. Ummmm...I don't really watch TV
5.
6.
7.
8.

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY
1. slept in
2. got the girls ready for church
3. was spiritually uplifted during Sacrament meeting - the girls all behaved and I could actually pay attention!
4. taught Sharing Time in Primary
5. improvised dinner when my original plans fell through
6. talked on the phone with my in-laws
7. played the piano
8. read

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO
1. Chris becoming a real licensed architect
2. Mela coming to visit in June!
3. going to see Chris's completed project in Anaheim
4. going to that other awesome place in Anaheim
5. no more pull-ups at night
6. no one waking me up at night
7. weekends
8. Girl Scout Cookie sales being over with for the year

8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS (not in any order)
1. Marrakesh
2. India Grill
3. Pastini's
4. Trio (Salt Lake)
5. Nuestra Cocina
6. Nostrana
7. Red Robin
8. Moonstruck (does a chocolatier count?)

8 THINGS ON MY WISHLIST
1. a bigger car, so the kids can bring friends places
2. a house with a yard
3. more good books
4. more time!
5. Rosie the robot from The Jetsons
6. a day when I don't have to sweep the kitchen floor after every meal
7. a date with my hubby
8. peace on earth

Okay, now I'll tag 8 people (who can do it if they want, but don't need to feel pressured in any way!)...Emily, Carrie, Angie, Heidi, Sarah, Danielle, Kara, Lori, Pamela (okay, so that's 9 - maybe only 8 of you will do it!)

Picture tag

My friend Nicola gave this tag to anyone who wants to do it, so of course I jumped at the chance. Here are the instructions: Go to your My Pictures folder (or wherever you keep your pictures). Open the 4th folder and post the 4th picture in that folder. Piece of cake!

Here's my 4th-4th picture:

That's Vicki four years ago when we went camping at Bridger Lake with Chris's family. She wanted so badly to go fishing with Grandpa, and she even brought along her plastic dollar store fishing pole with the huge purple hook just for the occasion. How could a grandpa possibly say no to that? They looked so cute walking down the road together that I couldn't resist snapping a shot of them. It's been a family favorite ever since. In fact, the entire extended family loves it, because if you know Grandpa E., then you know he LOVES to fish and he LOVES his five granddaughters. So fishing with a granddaughter would pretty much be the best day ever for him. This past May, for his birthday, Chris's amazingly talented brother-in-law Russ turned this picture into a painting. Check this out:

Pretty impressive, huh?

Anyway, that's my picture. I'll follow Nic's lead and tag anyone who wants to do this one*. And who wouldn't? :)

*Backstory and family history optional

Banned Books Week

Angie, avid reader that she is, tagged me with this one.

How to Play:
1. Copy this list.
2. Highlight the ones you have read in RED.
3. Tag 5 people to play.

The ALA list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000:
1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

I'll tag...Emily, Kara, Nicola, Danielle, & Rachel...but only if you want to!

Memory Tag

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together.  It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.  It's actually pretty funny to read the responses.  If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

More tagging

Kara tagged me with this one.

List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names.

3 Joys: Chris, my girls, the Gospel

3 Fears: spiders, losing loved ones, being lonely (which is not the same as being alone!)

3 Goals: lose 10 lbs., finish college, travel to England (and the rest of Europe) with Chris

3 Current obsessions/collections: cooking from scratch, So You Think You Can Dance, Girl Scout patches (this is both an obsession and a collection)

3 Random surprising facts: My hair is currently about 1 inch long (this may or may not be a surprise, but it's probably still surprising) and I will never go back to long hair, I've just recently started thinking that it might be cool to be a nurse, and I cannot stand chalk. I don't even like to touch it. Those great big giant sticks of sidewalk chalk make my teeth hurt and turn me into a hand-washing OCD nut.

Okay, I hearby tag: Carrie, Angie, Emily, Nicola, and Rachel (that's what you get for admitting you read my blog!)

Page 123

I've been catching up with all the blogs I read and I just discovered that Angie tagged me. Fortunately, it was only yesterday :) Anyway, here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment to the person who tagged you once you've posted your three sentences.

The nearest book that had at least 123 pages (Fox in Socks, while a literary classic, only has 61) was Emma Lazarus by Esther Schor. It's a biography of the woman who wrote the poem on the Statue of Liberty (you know, Give me your tired, your poor...) I'm only on page 65, and sadly have been for quite some time now, so this is new to me, but here you go:

"Given the circumstances, a more brazen, impolitic poem is hard to imagine. She drew her title, 'The Crowing of the Red Cock,' from a sentence in the famous New-York Times article: 'The peasants have a technical name for the deliberate firing of towns -- the 'red Cock' is said to crow.'

Across the Eastern sky has glowed
The flicker of a blood-red dawn,
Once more the clarion cock has crowed,
Once more the sword of Christ is drawn."

(There are two more lines to that stanza, and three more stanzas to the poem, btw) Now I'm motivated to finish the book! Thanks, Angie!

Anywho, I tag...Emily, Nicola, Kara, Danielle, and Mela.

Tagged...

Okay, so I’ve been tagged by two different people and haven’t responded to either of them yet. Danielle, your tag was too open-ended (list 5 things about myself? With no helping questions? I can’t think like that!), so I’m just responding to Carrie’s. At least there’s a little direction to this one!

What was I doing 10 years ago?
Hmmm…I have 3 kids…I can’t think back that far! Okay, 10 years ago I had graduated from Ricks and was spending the year living with my parents and working at Rite Aid. Ah, Rite Aid. At Christmastime. I think that was the year the registers all quit working. On Christmas Eve. In Park City, the craziest, busiest winter resort town in Utah. We had to ring EVERYTHING up by hand. Fun times.

What was I doing 5 years ago?
Working as a recess teacher (a term I prefer to “duty”) at Challenger School. And living in what we fondly refer to as “the 70’s apartment”. You know, the one with the brown and orange linoleum, brown shag carpet, and harvest gold appliances.

What was I doing 1 year ago?
The same thing I’m doing today, apparently: enjoying the beautiful Oregon winter weather (and if you’ve ever been to Oregon in the winter, you’ll catch the sarcasm there). Keeping busy with a 1st grader, a preschooler, and a 1-year-old. Probably just starting my Christmas shopping.

What was I doing yesterday?
Hanging out on Webkinz.com with Vicki. It’s where her pet Chihuahua Rosey lives, and she was showing me around. And baking cookies. And reading stories. It was a good day.

5 snacks I enjoy
Anything chocolate, cookies, cheese, fruit, more chocolate

5 things I would do if I had a million dollars
Sign my kids up for all the sports/dance/gymnastics/preschool/piano lessons that we can’t afford to sign them up for right now, buy a piano (which would be useful when we sign the kids up for piano lessons, buy a bigger car, build the cabin that Chris designed, and buy you a green dress, but not a real green dress…that’s cruel. Oh, yeah, and save save save!

5 places I would run away to
England, the rest of Europe, the Carribean (‘cause I’ve never been there but would love to), Utah (not exactly exciting, but that’s where family is), and…I can’t think of a 5th place.

5 T.V. shows I like
House. So You Think You Can Dance (NOT Dancing With the Stars). Ummm…I don’t really watch T.V.

5 things I hate doing
Laundry. Looking at my kids’ closet. Laundry. Mopping. Laundry.

5 biggest joys of the moment
Vicki, Lexi, Ellie, Chris, imagining the girls’ faces Christmas morning

And now I tag…Danielle and Nicola…and anyone else who’s reading this and has a blog and hasn’t already been tagged with this one or tagged me with it. Ha!