Feeling a Little Nostalgic?

I was reading a newsletter the other day at work and ran across this website. It's called the YouTube Time Machine. You just give it a year and it gives you a youtube video from that year.

www.yttm.tv

It's an excellent time waster! And who doesn't need a good time waster every once in a while?

Book Reports

Remarkable Utah Women

by Christy Karras

This is a collection of short biographies of over a dozen remarkable women from Utah's history. I should have expected it, but I was surprised how much polygamy played a leading role in the lives of most of the women. Really interesting and a quick read. I highly recommend for book clubs!

The Postmistress

By Sarah Blake

This was a really interesting work of historical fiction and I'm not really sure how to even describe it. It takes place as World War II is beginning but before the United States becomes involved. But the story is really more about several people on both sides of the Atlantic, as they come to terms with the violence erupting in Europe.

Packing for Mars

By Mary Roach

A quirky look at space travel. What I learned was that I do not want to be an astronaut! I don't really like to go camping because of the inconveniences involved. Space travel is a million times worse! Seriously, though.....weightlessness does still sound kinda cool.

Priceless

By Robert Wittman

This is an autobiography about an FBI agent that specialized in art crimes. I listened to it, and it was okay. An interesting mix of "Burn Notice" and "White Collar"...without the really cute guys (so maybe a little pointless).

The Passage

By Justin Cronin

This book was totally not what I was expecting. The first section really made me think of "The Road" in all it's post-apocolyptic glory. But later it becomes a really exciting adventure story with a little romance and a whole lot of super terrifying vampires. Certainly not for everyone, but I really liked it. Looking forward to the next one in the trilogy.

Book of Awesome

By Neil Pasricha

This book is a collection of posts from a blog called 1000awesomethings.com The author writes about the simple but beautiful joys in life like pealing an orange in one piece, going to bed right after shaving your legs, waking up and realizing it's Saturday, and the smell of freshly cut grass. My only real complaint was that every single entry ends with the word "Awesome". Guess what!! The word awesome can be over used. Eventually, I started putting my hand over the last line of the post so I wouldn't have to read that annoying final AWESOME!

The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise

By Julia Stuart

I don't even want to talk about this book. Other than the little bits of fascinating history about the Tower of London this was a complete waste of my time! It had been compared to "Guernsey" but it was soooooo not! Don't read this book!

Blind Descent

By James M. Tabor

Deep cave exploration is a very dangerous hobby. This book talks about a number of teams of spelunkers who were trying to penetrate the deepest cave in the world. I listed to this book on CD, so this may just because of the narrator, but the author seemed to have written each sentence as a cliffhanger and the cavers almost died so many times I could barely keep from rolling my eyes toward the end. But, it was an interesting look into an area of science/extreme sporting that I NEVER want to explore. Logan cave was enough for me!

See!!! Kids can like me!

I don't think it's much of a surprise that I'm not known as a "kid person". They often smell funny, they are loud and unpredictable, and I've just never been super comfortable with them. Even as a teenager, I hated babysitting and was always glad few people ever asked for my help.


However, the last few years I've learned that nephews and nieces are different. They are absolutely adorable and so easy to play with...most of the time. They still smell funny at times, but their little smiles, hugs and "Tarla came in her tar"'s just melt my heart.


I still struggle with kids I'm not related to. But, I'm learning to love them as well....especially the kids in my little Primary class. I'm not really shocked....you learn to love those you serve. What does surprise me is that, they are starting to like me too. Here is a little note I received from little Jessie in my class:
Isn't that sweet! Of course the week after she gave me this letter I gave a horrible lesson on tithing....complete with tears and a "You explain things weird."

Oh well! Win a few, lose a few!

Rice Krispie Treats 2.0

Months and months ago, I took some Rice Krispie Treats to party thing. I had included a large box of Nerds in with the Rice Krispies and they turned out super tastey. As we were munching, someone (I hesitate to claim the idea was only mine...but it probably was...I can be brilliant that way...while still suprisingly humble about it) suggested we try Pop Rocks! the next time.

Well, it's taken a while, but I finally got around to trying it out and, I'm telling you, they are AWESOME! It takes 10-15 packages of Pop Rocks! and you really should try to eat them as soon as possible...they still pop 12 hours later, but within 24 hours they are pretty much just regular Treats.

Before they go flat, though, they are, "A party in your mouth!" No joke.