Books I've Read Thus Far, and Other Frivolities.

Here are the books I've read so far! For those who care (probably just me) I did take the effort to find the exact cover that I experienced while reading the book, which means that you are seeing what I saw. Exciting, yes? They are as follows:

1. Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Jean-Dominic Bauby
3. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne
4. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, by Truman Capote
5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
6. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
7. The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides
8. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer
9. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
10. The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
11. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
12. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
13. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
14. Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger
15. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
16. The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
17. Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami
18. It’s Kind of a Funny Story, by Ned Vizzini

I have had so much fun reading all of these! I have loved some and I have been disappointed by many, but it's just really enjoyable choosing what I'm going to read, reading it, and not having to write an essay on my feelings. Which can be fun, I admit, but it's nice not to have to do so. If you want recommendations, read 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17 if you're open minded, and 18. Those are my favorites so far. Sherlock Holmes was amazing also, but it definitely takes a lot of time to get through!

Tonight I am going to the gym with my new friend Andrea. She moved into the ward with her husband Mike and I am having a blast getting to know her! She's the granddaughter of Steve's parents' friends, the Childs. Did that get complicated? Oh well, read it a couple of times, you'll understand. Either way, she's great fun and is pregnant, due in May! She's having a little boy. So exciting! There really are a ton of babies being born lately, mostly boys, too. Two of my friends just had boys, I'm going to a baby shower this weekend for another baby boy coming, then my sister in law is due in April and having a boy, and Andrea is due in May with a boy! Good grief! Luckily my friend Jane is having a GIRL, she's due in June/July. So I'll be able to make at least one girl baby quilt.

Steve and I have been enjoying life lately, although he's had a lot of course work to do! Poor guy! My parents and brother were in town last week and it was a BLAST! I didn't take any pictures though, only because I was too busy having fun. It was great seeing Thomas in Salt Lake City again, he hasn't been to the house since the wedding! Eek! We have also done some organizing, putting up some shelves and getting our house more under control. It feels and looks really good, I'll tell you that! Our "room of shame" (a.k.a. the spare room!) is no longer quite as shameful which is great. I will have to take some pictures soon and post them.

I better be going, it's storming like crazy outside though and I just want to stay in bed! Alas, the elliptical beckons me!

xoxo

Books I'm reading this year

I mentioned in my last post that I would post the list of books I am reading this year. So, here they are!

1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams
3. Life, the Universe and Everything, Douglas Adams
4. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, Douglas Adams
5. Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams
6. And Another Thing…, Eoin Colfer, with permission from Mrs. Douglas Adams
7. Band of Brothers, Stephen Ambrose
8. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson
9. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominic Bauby
10. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, John Boyne
11. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote
12. The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
13. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
14. The Awakening, Kate Chopin
15. Holiday Murder, Agatha Christie
16. The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
17. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
18. The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
19. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
20. Bossy Pants, Tina Fey
21. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
22. Looking for Alaska, John Green
23. Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Brothers Grimm
24. Chocolat, Joanne Harris
25. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
26. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
27. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
28. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver
29. The History of Love, Nicole Krauss
30. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
31. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
32. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
33. Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
34. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
35. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
36. Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
37. The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
38. 1984, George Orwell
39. Animal Farm, George Orwell
40. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
41. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
42. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
43. The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein
44. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
45. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
46. Battle Royale, Koushun Takami
47. It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Ned Vizzini
48. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
49. Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
50. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
51. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

I'm excited and I've already read about 13 of them. If you have any suggestions for others I should read, let me know!

Last leg of the trip

This post is definitely a month too late, but oh well! It's here! We definitely got swept into unpacking, school, work, and everything else once we got home, and I feel like I've barely had time to look at our England photos, never mind post about them! But I am home working on our taxes (groan) today so I have decided to take a (well deserved!) break and finally post about our time in the motherland!

I left off talking about the 12th century church,

From left, Simon, Steve, Katie, Debbie, and Debbie's friend

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa and the little Bisbrooke Church,

Katie and Simon

Outside the Church

Side view with part of the cemetary

Grandpa in front of Low Top

The family! In front, Katie, me, Steve. In the back, Debbie, Grandpa, Grandma, Tim, Simon.

Going to the Italian restaurant,

Tim and me!

Simon and Debbie. Oh, to be young and in love!

Me and Steve. Honestly this is the best photo out of three.

Me eating my DELICIOUS Greek salad! At an Italian restaurant.

Tim.

Simon.

I don't have any photos of Katie from this dinner, which is annoying, because she looked AMAZING. But she always does. Honestly, this girl has the BEST fashion sense! Also, her hair was this brilliant red, I wanted to dye mine the same but I don't think Steve was too happy about it... He pretended he was fine, but all three of us (me, Katie, and Debbie) could tell he'd prefer I stayed my natural color. Oh well. Maybe next time.

And finally, the fantastic New Years Eve party!

Simon Cowell showed up for a bit!

the girls dancing in the gazebo!

Katie, Grandma, and me

Live long and prosper!

Steve being ridiculous.

 I didn't get too many photos as Tim wanted to take pictures so I gave him my camera for most of the night, and also I decided I wanted to just party! But it was really fun! I got to know two of Katie's friends, who are super sweet and fun girls, and also it was just fun dancing and chatting. Right before midnight, we played pass the parcel adult style (I got a shower cap!) and then after the clock struck midnight we sung Auld Lang Syne. It was VERY fun! Steve and I basically collapsed after that!

I'm a little confused on chronology as we did a few other fun things but I can't remember if they were before or after New Years! One of them was to go to Drayton to see our old house Hillside, as well as go to the neighboring town Great Easton to see the post office! We also stopped off at mum's favorite tree on the way home! All of us were a bit confused because, well, honestly it's not that great of a tree. It has a nice bench around it and I have many fond memories of sitting at it to eat sweets, but it's also in the middle of the road. Ah well, it's still lovely! It was fun to see Hillside though! We also saw the old school that Thomas took trumpet lessons from. It is up a huge hill, but we used to bike there. Mum is seriously crazy! There is a little bench that I remember resting on, but the hill up really is ridiculous! It's not a school anymore, someone lives there now.

The post office we would ride our bikes to.

The tree mum loves so much.

Hillside, my favorite childhood home.

School where Thomas took trumpet lessons.

Just to give you an idea of where everything is located, here is a quick map of the area:

 We would just bike to each of these places. I remember how fun it was! We really had a fantastic childhood. I would love to live there again. Although mum must have been bored out of her mind! Lots of things for young kids to do, but not much for adults, I think! Still, I am planning on getting super rich and buying one of the Manor houses in that area. Then I'll have horses for Katie, get Debbie to do the archaeological work on it, have Simon's company spiff it up inside, and get the whole family over for the holidays. Sounds nice, right?

We also did a fun walk around part of Rutland Water, a reservoir near Simon and Debbie's. It's ginormous! It's the largest in England! It has a cute little church that we looked at. Apparently, it used to be a town, but they emptied it out and flooded it to make the reservoir, and the church is all that's left of the town. I was a little sad that they would flood a town just to make a reservoir, because imagine all the history they flooded! But then Debbie reminded me that almost every little town in England has tons of history in it, so they just picked the most boring, unimportant one. So then I didn't feel as bad. It was a lot of fun though! Very cold!

Trying to get a nice picture of Steve is nearly impossible!

Attempt number 2!

Finally! Debbie, Katie, and Steve.

Simon and Tim

Not sure what's going on with Steve and I, but Katie looks fab!

The church.

Steve finally got his rugby shirt (thanks Simon!) and was wearing it proudly in these pictures! He's very happy with it and has worn it a few times since we got home. I think it looks great on him!

Since we've been back, it's been pretty boring! I started a book list of 51 books to read this year and I'm already a quarter of the way through it, so I'm pretty happy with that! I will post that later. We've been hanging out a lot with some new couples that have moved into our ward. They are all really great, so it's fun to have people our age in the neighborhood! We had them all over for dinner last weekend, which was fun. We had ten people shoved into our living room! We only just had enough seats for everyone! We also hung out with our friends, Jessica and Colby, which was a blast. Steve and Colby played video games, while Jessica and I crafted! We etched glass and did some watercolor painting. I etched a trifle dish, and Jessica did a pyrex for some of their friends who were getting married. Both turned out really well! Here is mine:

I'm really happy at how it turned out! My watercolor painting wasn't as impressive, but I'll post it anyway so that you can all have a good laugh:

Well I better get back to doing our taxes. This has definitely given me a good distraction! I will try to post my book list sometime this week, that way if anyone has any suggestions for other books to read, I would love to hear them!

xoxo Anna