2013 favorites

Books

This was definitely a year of nonfiction for me. For fiction, all I had listed were Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver and  Rainbow Rowell's books- Fangirl, Eleanor & Park, and Attachments. My nonfiction list is much longer- The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne, Bomb by Steve Sheinkin, The President Has Been Shot! by James Swanson, Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward, The Fight For Home by Daniel Wolff, Zealot by Reza Aslan, Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh, and Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton.

As for children's books, Brayden loved any and all of Mo Willems' books, the Scaredy Squirrel books by Melanie Watt, the Ladybug Girl books by David Soman and Jacky Davis, Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, Chu's Day by Neil Gaiman, The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, and Journey by Aaron Becker.

Movies

Without a doubt, my top two were Fruitvale Station and Before Midnight. I also enjoyed The Place Beyond the Pines, The Great Gatsby, and Frozen. Movies from 2013 I want to see but haven't gotten around to yet include: 12 Years a Slave, Long Walk to Freedom, Mud, The Dallas Buyers Club, The Butler, and American Hustle.

Brayden also loved Frozen, as well as Despicable Me 2 and Home Alone.

Television

Thanks to Netflix and Hulu Plus, I watched A LOT of television in 2013. I finally watched all of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and loved it. I re-watched Veronica Mars because of the movie being made. I binge-watched House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Arrested Development (re-watching the original three seasons and watching the new fourth season), Scandal, and The Walking Dead. I continued watching and loving Parks & Rec, The Daily Show, and Modern Family. The last week of the year I started Doctor Who and The Big Bang Theory and have continued catching up on those.

Brayden's favorites were Phineas and Ferb, Super Mario Brothers, Dora the Explorer, and The Aquabats Super Show.

Podcasts

Citizen Radio, Rachel Maddow, This American Life, Radio West, One Bad Mother, and Welcome to Nightvale

Dancing through life

Just in case you need something to make you smile today...

 

 

Buying a house and breaking my foot

We started looking for a house in April, but none of the houses we looked at worked for us. Even if we liked it, we just were not fast enough in the current market. It seemed like every house we looked at already had an offer in. Our realtor (Adam's aunt) called us one day and wanted us to look at a house immediately. We would be the first potential buyers to see it, because it was for sale by owner and not being advertised on the real estate websites. We liked it, but couldn't afford the asking price. We offered $10K less, and he counter-offered. We still felt it was too high and decided to back down. Adam kept thinking about it though, and wanted to submit another offer a week later. That offer ($144K) got accepted!

We wanted to close in 30 days, but our credit union was up front that they were backed up in the loan department. We ended up closing in six weeks... but not before I broke a bone in my foot. Our loan officer was nice, but overbearing. She waited until a week before the finance deadline before going through our paperwork and needed SO much documentation for different things, one of which being an account statement for the account our down payment money was in. We sent it in two different times before mid-June. On June 17th, the day of our financing deadline and one week before closing, she needed it for a third time. I'm still not sure if she misplaced paperwork, or possibly just needed to make sure we hadn't spent the money in the week since we had submitted it last. I printed an up-to-date statement and sent it with Adam. Somewhere between him and the bank's scanner, something went wrong. Some pages were scanned twice, some not at all. I was so frustrated. The loan officer said it could wait until tomorrow, but I just wanted it done. I got Brayden ready to go and we headed outside. We had to walk to Adam's work (5-10 minute walk) to get the paperwork and the car. I fell while walking there. After taking a long break, I kept walking (mistake) and eventually got the paperwork in. I figured I would just be sore for a few days. When I woke up the next morning, I couldn't put any weight on it. I called in to my work and headed to an urgent care clinic. After x-rays and a CT scan, they decided I had a lisfranc fracture. I was given crutches and a referral to an orthopedic doctor. They fit me in the next day and let me know I would be in a hard cast for a month to six weeks and a walking boot for a few weeks afterwards.

The timing couldn't have been worse. We had only packed about 5% of our stuff and we were supposed to move the next week. Work was picking up because of summer reading and another shelver being on vacation, and they were all of the sudden short a shelver for four-six weeks. I knew it would ruin the summer for Brayden. I felt like I was letting everyone down, but we made it through.

We closed as planned on the 24th. I did what I could packing-wise (not much) and I cancelled/set up utilities. We moved a lot of our stuff on the 27th. It took Adam another few weeks to get everything over though. We had a break in moving for Brayden's 4th birthday on July 2nd. Adam thought he finally had the condo ready to list on the 11th, so we had our realtor (and Adam's aunt) come by. She gave him a long list of things to do, so from the 11th until the 18th he was basically at work, working on the condo, or asleep. It was a very hard week for all three of us. We listed it on the 18th, though, and got multiple offers over the weekend. We signed an offer today. It's less than what we paid for it four years ago, but sometimes that happens.

As for my foot, I get to start bearing weight on it soon and plan to go back to work (in a walking boot) next week. Honestly, I can't wait to go back. Now that Brayden is older, I am a better mom when I work. It was so hard for us to be stuck inside most days for the last five weeks. It was also hard on me to have no control over what was happening over at the condo. Adam may have been working slow sometimes, but it was still a lot faster than I was getting anything done. Asking for help is another thing that does not come natural for me, yet was something I had to do. Breaking my foot was definitely a learning experience, a very trying one. I'm so glad our families kicked in and helped as much as they did. My parents drove me to my doctor's appointments and took me out to eat after. My brother let me borrow his wheelchair. Adam's family helped him with the condo. My sweet coworker brought a wonderful dinner and her daughter (our babysitter) took Brayden swimming to give me a break as part of a YW service project. Another friend brought Iceberg shakes and sat with me to visit while our boys played.

Moab

I don't know how many readers I have anymore, seeing as I last wrote here in February, but a few people have asked me to keep going. I don't really know where to start, but I guess I'll write a few update posts and then try to get back to book reviews, typical mommy posts, and my political rantings. For right now, I only have access to a tablet, so my posts might lack pictures for awhile.

We went on a trip to Moab in March. It was the first time I have ever been there and I loved it. I do t know why I'm always surprised when I find new places/sites in Utah that I love, but I am. We spent our first night at Goblin Valley State Park. We stayed in a yurt, which was really fun. Brayden loved exploring the "goblins." My favorite part was laying in the sand in a small canyon behind the yurt with Adam and Brayden looking at the stars. It was also nice to be so disconnected. I think the only other place I haven't had cell service for an extended period of time (more than 12 hours) in the last few years is at Adam's family ranch. 

The next day, we made it to Moab. Over the next three days, we hit Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park, and Canyonlands National Park. I loved all of them. I love the park system and (political rant coming) I'm disappointed in Governor Herbert's attempts to take away what is now federal land. I just don't trust his administration to not try to make money off the land. Anyways, back to our trip. We did a lot of hiking (for us, anyways). More hiking then I have ever done in a three day period other than Pioneer Trek. I was so sore by the end of the trip, but I was glad I did it. I know it's cliche, but I think the Delicate Arch hike was my favorite. It was a little nerve-wracking to hike that trail with a three year old, but worth it. 

I also enjoyed the town of Moab. We hit up many eateries (my favorite being the Moab Brewery), a thrift store, the local library, and bookshop. On our last evening there, we took the scenic drive to Castle Valley. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but one of my favorite non-fiction authors (Terry Tempest Williams) lives there and writes about southern Utah so beautifully that I wanted to see the town. One of the books I read on the trip was her book Red.

I really fell in love with Moab and hope I get to go again someday. I went to the children's museum in Ogden with a friend six weeks ago. In one room, they have a map of Utah on the ground. It really hit me how little of Utah I've seen and how much I want to see. I hope we will eventually be able to travel more.

Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Sometimes, you just have to admit how wrong you were. Here is my confession: I was wrong about Hillary Rodham Clinton. As a Republican, I had typical Republican views of her. Even when I became a Democrat (and a feminist), I didn't like her. Part of it was that I was caught up in the Obama craze of the 2008 campaign. I insisted that I didn't want the first woman president to be someone riding their husband's coat tails. When she did an amazing job as Secretary of State, my view of her started to change. After reading her memoirs, I can't believe that I continued to think of her in that way for as long as I did past my Republican days.

She was accomplished in her own regards before she even met Bill Clinton. She kept her name after marrying him until giving into pressure to add Clinton for HIS political future. (Myth I used to believe: She only added Clinton when she wanted the name recognition for her political career.)

One part I loved and completely relate to right now was this part: "I joked about the Irish television personality who had recently welcomed a group of women lawmakers to his show by asking "Who's minding the children?" I smiled and said "I long for the day when men are asked the same question."

It drives me nuts that Adam is hardly ever asked this, even though we both work. And as much as I love the man, he annoyed me recently when he wouldn't tell his boss the reason he needed a specific night off each week was that he needed to be home with Brayden because I was going to have to work that night each week. All he would say to his boss was that he needed Thursday nights off. His boss ket scheduling him anyways, which I think might not have happened had he explained his reasons for needing it off. (Anyways, back to the book review-)

I also related to her take on abortion. I had read a quote by her last year that I agree with- "abortion should be safe, legal, and rare." It was interesting to read a longer explanation of her views. "When I defend my pro-choice position in the debate over abortion in our country, I frequently refer to Romania, where pregnancy could be monitored on behalf of the state, and to China, where it could be forcibly terminated. One reason I continue to oppose efforts to criminalize abortion is that I do not believe any government should have the power to dictate, through law or police action, a woman's most personal decisions."

She went into more detail of the Lewinsky scandal than I thought she would. Reading that part was hard. It made me wonder something, though. One argument against her is that she only stayed married to him for her own political career. I don't know if I believe that anymore. I think that she got flak from both sides of that issue. At the end of the day, it was her decision to make and she made it. I almost think people (not me, but some people) would have respected her more had she left him.

I wanted her to write more about her first few years in the Senate. Hopefully she'll eventually write another memoir that focuses on her time in the Senate, her time as Secretary of State, and maybe even her time as President. I know I'll vote for her if she runs in 2016.

Utah Senator Mike Lee and the Violence Against Women Act

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was first signed into law in 1994 by then President Bill Clinton. From Wikipedia: "The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave unprosecuted. The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice."

The bill ended at the beginning of 2013 after failing to be reauthorized during the 2012 legislative session. All of the women in the Senate (with the exception of Nebraska's Republican Senator Deb Fischer) co-sponsored the bill to be brought for a vote during this session.

Utah's own Senator Mike Lee was one of only eight senators to vote against considering the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. It is likely that Lee is against added provisions that expanded the number of visas available to illegal immigrants who are victims of domestic abuse (a provision that has already been dropped), as well as provisions that protect LGBT victims of violence and Native American victims of domestic violence. However, Senator Lee is somewhat infamous for explaining away his very partisan votes with his extreme beliefs about unconstitutionality.

Lee has not spoken about his vote today, but his argument against the 2012 bill can be found here: "The Violence Against Women Act oversteps the Constitution’s rightful limits on federal power. Violent crimes are regulated and enforced almost exclusively by state governments. In fact, domestic violence is one of the few activities that the Supreme Court of the United States has specifically said Congress may not regulate under the Commerce Clause. As a matter of constitutional policy, Congress should not seek to impose rules and standards as conditions for federal funding in areas where the federal government lacks constitutional authority to regulate directly."

For ways to contact Senator Lee, look here. You can be sure I'll be sending him an email myself. If I get a response, I'll be sure to post it.

Cross-posted from Remember in November

Currently

Humming Mumford & Sons- When I don't have an audio book to listen to at work, I usually end up shuffling through Mumford & Sons songs

Drinking Nothing at the moment, but I seem to have gotten myself hooked on Diet Coke again

Worrying about doing our taxes and what bills we'll get for Brayden's surgery

Working on my first coursera class, the Remember in November blog following the Utah State Legislature, and getting back into going to the gym

Wondering about preschools

Reading Letters From Exile: The Correspondence of Martha Hughes Cannon and Angus M. Cannon and Paranoid Park by Blake Nelson (Just goes to show the very wide variety of books I read!)

Wishing that I had a few more hours in the day

Remembering the good things in life

Beginning to think about my identity outside of "Mom" a little more

Getting more and more interested in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

A pigeon, a panda, a paper bag princess and more!

Brayden and I have a thing with picture books right now. Seriously. At this very moment, we have 43 picture books checked out from the library. I think it's because we are so cooped up with all of this snow. Anyways, I just wanted to document some of our favorites.

Chu's Day by Neil Gaiman- Written by the famed author Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Adam Rex, this book is a winner for my preschooler. It's so simple that it's brilliant. Chu is a panda bear who is prone to big sneezes that cause bad things to happen.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka-Brayden is really into fairy tales right now, especially The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. I brought this one home not knowing if he would really get it. It's about the wolf and his side of the story. He's not as bad as he made to be, you know? I doubt that Brayden does understand all of it, but he likes reading it and has requested it a few times.

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch- This book is a classic. If you haven't read it to your child, please do! It's all about a princess saving her prince (who may not end up being her prince after all). Thanks to my friend Miri at through the looking-glass for pointing this book out to me.

Now Catch a Cold by André François-If a book could be called subtly hilarious, it would be this one. It's like those kid's movies that are actually funnier for adults. In this book, colds are animals. The book starts out with some extinct "animals," but explains that colds have survived "because, from the time we are little children, we are taught to never catch a cold." All of the different colds are described and drawn, like the common cold, the hay fever cold, and Brayden's favorite- the head cold.

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems- We're on a major Mo Willems kick right now. Brayden loves all of the Knuffle Bunny books, but he especially loves the Pigeon books. His favorite is The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! He likes to read the part of the Pigeon. It's so adorable I decided to record him reading it.

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! from Megan Bishop on Vimeo.


This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers- This book is about a boy, his many rules, and the moose he thinks is his pet. The Illustrations are my favorite part of this book, but you've got to love lines like this: "Sometimes the moose wasn't a very good pet. He generally ignored Rule 7: going whichever way Wilfred wants to go."

Open This Little Book by Jesse Klausmeier- The librarian at my work who maintains our Facebook page chooses a book of the week and posts it up on the page every week. Last week, she couldn't narrow it down and ended up picking three- this book, Never Catch a Cold, and another picture book called Black Dog by Levi Pinfold. All great books for different reasons. This one is cool because it's more interactive than most books. It's very meta: "Open this Little Red Book and read about Ladybug, who opens a Little Green book and reads about Frog, who opens a Little Orange Book..."

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin- This is a very cute book about dragons and how much they love tacos, parties, and especially taco parties. You just have to be careful what you put in the tacos, because they hate spicy salsa. Brayden loves this book. It makes me want to have a little playdate taco party with storytime and a dragon or taco related craft. I might just have to do it.

No Sleep For the Sheep! by Karen Beaumont-This book is about a poor sheep that can't get any sleep because of all of the other animals waking him up. It's got a great rhythm and Brayden loves piping in with the different animal noises. Thanks to Janssen at Everyday Reading for recommending it.

Movie Monday

The Perks of Being a Wallflower- This movie is definitely my favorite movie out of the four I have seen this month. It's based on a novel of the same name by Stephen Chbosky. It is one of the best book to movie adaptions I've seen, probably because the author of the book wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. This movie reminds me of my high school experience, even though I didn't do drugs or anything. There's a scene in particular that was me in high school. Really, it still is like me. It almost made me cry how much I could relate to it. The main character is at a dance, standing against the wall by himself, bobbing his head a little bit. He sees two kids that he hung out with once at a football game and decides to be brave, slowly making his way over to them. I know it may sound like a silly scene, but it was really beautiful.

Game Change- This movie is also based on a book that was written about the 2008 election. The movie focuses on the McCain/Palin campaign, specifically after McCain announces Palin as his running mate. I'm a political junkie, so I loved this movie. After loving Tina Fey's hilarious take on Palin, I didn't know how I would feel about Julianne Moore actually trying to play Palin seriously. She pulled it off, though. And for those who might think I loved it because I'm a democrat who hates Palin, think again. I don't like her, but this movie had an effect on me like the movie W did. I actually felt sorry for her (and for President Bush in the movie W). If the book/movie is at all truthful, she was really thrown into the fray without much vetting or preparation.

Take This Waltz- I was browsing on Netflix when I saw this movie. I hadn't heard of it before, but I saw it had Michelle Williams in it and took a gamble. It's a very interesting movie. (It is rated R for some explicit scenes at the end, which may or may not be real). This review says it better than I can. I will say one thing, though. Michelle Williams is one of my favorite actresses right now. Her performance in this rivals her performance in Brokeback Mountain, in my opinion. (This reminds me, I still need to see Blue Valentine). She has definitely moved on and up from Dawson's Creek, and that's coming from a Dawson's Creek fan.

The Queen of Versailles- This is another Netflix pick. This movie started out as a documentary of a rich family building what was to be the biggest house in America, a replica of Versailles. It ended up being about the recession, the real estate bust of 2008 (including the time share business), and a family trying to build the biggest house in America. The family in the movie is super rich. hey have maids, nannies, drivers, private jets, etc. They've started work on their new house when the real estate bust happens. Their money comes from the time share business, so they start losing. Banks start pulling out funding for a new resort in Vegas and they don't have enough to continue working on their new home.  Throughout the movie, I went back and forth hating the people (fishes and lizards found dead because no one thought to take care of them with the maids gone) to feeling a little bit sorry for them (he mom compulsively buying even though she knows she shouldn't).

Alex Webb

Another exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art that I was pleasantly surprised by was a collection of photography by Alex Webb. From the introduction to the exhibit: Alex Webb uses his camera to explore the poignancy and color of street life, co-mingling cultures, and socio-political tension in places that fall on the periphery of Western culture.As a photographer Webb resists the tendency to merely illustrate or document certain conditions such as poverty or oppression, rather viewing his role in parallel with that of a novelist creating evocative images that reveal what is intensely tragic, beautiful, or perplexing in a particular locale.

I don't think that this exhibit had much of an effect on Adam, but it did on me. These photos are real- they have flaws. I'll admit I don't read more global literature very much, but photographs of daily life in other countries just fascinate me.

I love this photo. The spinning ball, the architecture in the background, the boys all just doing their own thing.

I am so curious about the story behind this photo! Do all of these shows belong to one woman or do they belong to many women? Why are they there?

 He has a blog called Two Looks with his wife, who is also a photographer. He'll be giving a lecture at the museum in March, if anyone would like to go with me.

Nativity by Brian Kershisnik

We headed down to the BYU Museum of Art last week to see a Heroes exhibit. Although the statue of Captain America holding Saddam Hussein's decapitated head was, shall I say, interesting, the exhibit was just okay. However, there were so many other things there I was so impressed with. One painting in particular really touched me.

This is a painting called "Nativity" by Brian Kershisnik.Honestly, I wouldn't have expected this painting to affect me. I'm in a somewhat resigned place with my faith right now. One of my many issues is that I don't really believe the scripture stories in a literal sense. However, maybe that is why I love this so much. This painting goes against the literal story in some ways. Baby Jesus is not "white," for one. And while it is very likely that Mary breastfed Jesus, I don't think I've ever seen an image of it in art ever before. I love that two women and a multitude of angels are present with Mary and Joseph.

I'm not sure if this is a permanent piece at the museum or not, but I recommend going down to see it in person if you can. This painting is one that you have to see in person. The magnitude of it is just astounding.

2012 favorites

Books

Fiction-
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Nonfiction-
How to Be a Woman and Moranthology by Caitlin Moran
Refuge and When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
From Housewife to Heretic by Sonia Johnson

Television
Modern Family
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Portlandia
Parks and Recreation
Downton Abbey
Mad Men
Homeland

Movies
Pitch Perfect
Miss Representation
The Dark Knight Rises
Jeff Who Lives at Home
Safety Not Guaranteed
Ruby Sparks
Brave

And since I didn't see as many movies as I have in years past, a list of movies that I still want to see and may have ended up on my favorites list: Zero Dark Thirty, Les Mis, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Lincoln, Skyfall, Bully, Silver Linings Playbook, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Argo, Flight, The Hobbit

2012 Roundup

- I decided to go back to work at the library system this year, and I'm so happy I did. I quickly got hired on at the Millcreek Library. I got to help stock the library. It was an amazing experience.
-We bought a new (to us) car this summer, a 2003 Mercury Sable.
-Brayden did his first soccer "season" this fall. It was so cute to watch 3-5 year olds running around the field.
-Brayden announced one morning that "superheroes don't wear diapers" and has been potty-trained ever since. I am a huge fan of waiting until they are ready, even if it means they are almost 3 and a half.
-Brayden had his first ER visit in October (pneumonia) and his first surgery in December (an abnormal but benign growth of hand tissue and muscle at the base of his thumb). It was a short procedure, but we were still so nervous. In the waiting rooms, Brayden played with the most adorable two year old girl that was down at Primarys from Montana to have open-heart surgery. I'm so grateful he has been as healthy as he has and also grateful that we have such an amazing children's hospital.
-I read 124 books this year. Not my highest, but close. Over half of that was non-fiction.

Currently...

Humming "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons

Drinking Mexican hot chocolate (Abuelita)

Worrying about everyone on the East coast facing the tropical storm Sandy

Working on organizing our home better, especially Brayden's toys, art supplies, and old clothes

Wondering about the election results next week- the races I am most concerned about are President, Utah's 4th district Congressional seat, SL County Mayor, and Millcreek incorporation

Reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and the new issue of the Exponent II magazine

Hobbling around. In the midst of a small arthritis flare-up that I think might be connected to the changes in the weather

Wishing that either I had gotten the job I applied/interviewed for or that we had been able to get a discounted tuition scholarship to the preschool that had an opening starting this week for Brayden

Remembering how I felt this week four years ago. I was SO excited about Obama. Now I realize that I, along with a lot of his supporters, had expectations of him that were near impossible for him to reach. There has been some disappointment, but I still trust him. Four years later, he still gets my vote.

Beginning to think about Christmas. It's not my fault! People keep putting Christmas books on hold at the library, so it has been on my mind.

Getting annoyed about Brayden's bedtime routine going downhill lately. He was going to bed so easily for a few weeks, but apparently it was too good to last.

Do Not Ask What Good We Do

If you've paid attention to any political news the last two years, you know that Congress hasn't accomplished much lately. I just finished a book on this very subject- Do Not Ask What Good We Do by Robert Draper. I learned more than I needed to know about the ineffectiveness of the 2010-2012 U.S. House of Representatives. Read ahead at the risk of getting angry.

"What made 2010 different was a rising tide of economic distress, coupled with the growing belief that the Democrats were only making things worse. Unlike many of the other Blue Dogs, Giffords had voted for the complete unholy trinity: stimulus, cap-and-trade, and health care. The latter vote set off an ugly conflagration of attacks- the very least of which were snarky ads featuring a Pelosi double instructing a Giffords stand-in who would bleat, "Whatever you say, mama Nancy." More ominously, an anonymous assailant blew out the windows on her district office. Sarah Palin's PAC website showed a map of congressional districts with crosshairs covering twenty of them, representing Democrats who had voted for health care. Arizona's 8th district was one of them. Giffords went on MSNBC to warn Palin that "there's consequences to that action." (36)

-I remember hearing about this after Giffords was shot. It made me so upset. Knowing more about the situation just makes it worse.

"Obama had made a strategic mistake, McCarthy thought, picking a fight with Paul Ryan (on the budget). "I think Ryan's in his head," he would say. "Think about it. Ryan's a young guy. Ryan's risen fast. Ryan's got a great family. Ryan's got a lot of comparisons to the rise of where the president is. It's not so smart to raise him up by picking him as an enemy."" (143)

-Ryan is featured quite a bit in thie book. It was interesting to read about him now that he's Romney's VP pick.

"And she (Pelosi) had resisted the temptation to say "I told you so" to Obama- who, back in December, had disagreed with the Speaker's belief that they should raise the debt ceiling during that lame-duck session. The president's belief had been that the Republicans would and should be equal partners in the debt ceiling discussion- implying, she thought, that he believed the Republicans would treat the matter in a reasonable fashion." (259)

-This totally makes sense to me. Whenever Republicans tell me how radical they think Obama is, I just have to laugh inside because I really believe he was trying to be centrist and work with the Republicans as much as he could.

"In short, whatever pressures to govern the freshmen faced were drowned out by pressures from the right. On top of that, their reelection fortunes depended on money from conservative donors. Blake Farenthold had raised a meager $102,000 during the third quarter of 2011. Farenthold couldn't stand asking people for money and was troubled by a system that dictated raising and spending a million dollars every two years so as to keep one's seat." (271)

-A million dollars every Congressional campaign. Infuriating. We need campaign finance reform yesterday.

"The Florida freshmen (West) wasn't quite sure what vision was being articulated on November 1, when the Republican leadership brought to the floor House Concurrent Resolution 13, which reaffirmed "In God We Trust" as the official motto of the United States. "There are few things Congress could do that would be more important than passing this resolution," cosponsor Lamar Smith intoned." (272-273)

-Seriously?! The guy seriously believes this was one of the bets things Congress could have been doing? Aargh!

Pride

This is one of the most moving moments I've been able to witness. Over 300 Mormons marched in the SLC Pride Parade right behind the Grand Marshal. Over 300 Mormons were willing to set aside their Sunday morning to show their love for LGBT people. The applause and cheers this group got were the loudest I heard.

I'm so glad I got to see it. I wish I could have marched with them, but I had signed up a month ago to work at a booth for the library. It was so fun to talk to people and encourage them to visit their local library. A few people asked about this story, and assured people that the Utah Library Association would soon be issuing a press release in favor of the circulation of this book.

Between watching most of the parade and working at a booth for a few hours, I'd call my first Pride Festival a success.

Toddler reads

One of the downsides to working at MCC before it opened was seeing all the new books I couldn't check out! You better believe I had everything turned in before April 11th so I could check 30 items out on opening day. I had been in a bit of a reading slump this year and that quickly turned around. I hope to get back into writing reviews, or at least mini reviews of some of my favorite reads this year.

Another benefit of working in the library again is that Brayden has loved going to the library since I started working there again. Whenever I see promising picture books, I bring them home. I decided around May 7th to start keeping track of the books we read on Goodreads. We ended up reading 50+ books in May. I'm so glad he loves to read. Adam doesn't read much, so I've tried extra hard to instill a love of reading in him.

I thought it might be fun to list some of my favorites and some of Brayden's favorites and then the ones that we both love as well.

Mom's favorites

The Family Book by Todd Parr- I love Parr's books. Bright illustrations, tolerance, and compassion. Brayden liked it too and had such a big smile when I read about families liking to hug.

Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya- Amazing up-close photographs. Brayden likes it too, but I think he'll like it more as he gets older.

Peek-a-Boo, I Love You! by Sandra Magsamen- Brayden picked this for me for my birthday. Aww.

Brayden's favorites

Birds by Kevin Henkes- Great illustrations, simple text. We read this one at least 20 times this month at Brayden's request.

No, David! by David Shannon- I think this book reminds Brayden that we love him even when he hears "no."

The Wheels on the Bus: A Read-Along Sing-Along Trip to the Zoo by Jeanna Willis- He likes the skunk verse the best- "The skunks on the bus go stink, stink, stink."

Universal favorites

Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas-  Brayden thinks this book is just hilarious. I like the simple introduction to rhyming.

Fiesta Babies by Carmen Tafolla- Fiestas and siestas... need I say more?

The Foggy, Foggy Forest by Nick Sharrett-"What can this be in the foggy, foggy forest?" Each page asks this and you see a black silhouette on vellum before you turn the page to see what it was.

MCC

So, umm, hi there. I know I've basically been radio silent here. I've got a lot of catching up to do. I need to write about books, weaning, and everything else we've been up to. Luckily, it hasn't been like the last time I took a long break. I have not been knocked down by an arthritis flare-up. Quite the contrary- we've just been busy living life!

I'll start with work. As I mentioned before falling off the face of my blog, I went back to work. I work at the Millcreek Community Center- it's a library, a rec center, and a senior center all in one! I'm a shelver just like I was before. Here's what the library looked like when I entered on March 5th.

Painters, computer tables with no computers, and shelves- empty, empty shelves. I just have to out myself as a nerd and admit that the potential of these bare shelves made me giddy inside. A new library when so many "experts" proclaim the library is dead? Awesome.

I met my new coworkers. All very nice and extremely welcoming. We had no books to shelve (yes, that was a tad bit funny), but we got to work labeling shelves. I spent my second day mostly shelving graphic novels.

We shelved all of the brand new books first. While the library was closed, new books were still being ordered and kept in storage for us. After that, they started bringing us the books the Millcreek staff had boxed up. The boxes felt endless...

We shelved a lot of them, decided some should be deleted, and worked like crazy for a few weeks getting all we could on the shelves.

As we got closer to the opening, it got interesting. Things were happening, to be sure- like the new library sign that was not there one day and there the next. However, we did get to a point where it seemed like the library staff had run out of things to do. So we started spiffing up our collections and cleaning off old due date stickers from the older books.

We had to do some shifting when our beautiful shelf ends came in, and that helped keep us busy until opening.

April 11th finally came. It was a whirlwind five weeks, but we were all so excited to open. Mayor Peter Corroon was present for the big ribbon cutting ceremony. I am so sad he lost his campaign to be Governor, and even more sad he isn't running for County Mayor again. He has done so much good in Salt Lake County, especially building this combined agency, LEED-certified building during a time of economic hardship.

And then the doors opened and we got to work welcoming the public. We had so many festivities going on that day. The Wild Thing, tours, showing off and explaining our awesome new sorter machine, crafts, animal shows and more.  Adam and Brayden had been asleep when I left for work that day, so I didn't expect to see them there. But Adam took Brayden on his first bus ride to get there and I am so glad he did. Brayden got to meet and dance with the Wild Thing and he loved it. In fact, saying he loved it would be an understatement. He's still talking about it six weeks later.

And there you have it. How a library goes from empty to open to the public in five weeks. We've been open for six weeks now, and we just went "live" on the system today. Administration wanted to make sure that Millcreek patrons got first dibs at our new, never been checked out collection. I'll just confess that I checked out dozens of board books that first week. Board books that hadn't been chewed. I think you get the point. Anyways, today we went live and that meant our items were open to go out on hold to patrons at other libraries. We had 1,300+ items to take off our shelf ad send to other people. Even more evidence that libraries are not dead. Good thing, because libraries are where I belong.

30 before 30

Well, I'm 29 now. Here's my updated 30 before 30 list. I changed some of them. Arthritis limits me somewhat, like with learning the guitar. I changed some of the craft ones because when I couldn't think of 30 things last year, I finished my list off with some silly crafts from Pinterest. Anyways, here it is.

1- Read all of the books I own or get rid of them (I'll give myself 3 extras, plus any books I get for my 30th birthday).
2- Create and print a book of some of my blog posts.
3- Make at least one book for Brayden.
4- Research my book idea, decide if there's something worthwhile, and if there is, start writing it.
5- Make homemade pizza.
6- Have a baby, or at least be pregnant or trying. I'm very indecisive on this. When I started the list 2 weeks ago, it was to have another baby. Now I just don't know. Maybe it should be to make up my mind. :)
7- Try Thai food.
8- Go on a birdwatching expedition.
9- Eat at The Melting Pot.
10- Donate to Kiva.
11- Take a cooking class.
12- Milk a cow.
13- Save and plan for a 10th anniversary trip in 2013.
14- Go camping.
15- Go on a trip to somewhere in Utah I've never been (Moab, Bear Lake, etc).
16- Eat vegetarian for one month. I tried this in February. I made it halfway through and caved on Valentine's Day.
17- Make or buy a growth chart for Brayden.
18- Throw a cookie exchange party.
19- Make this family portrait this summer (around B's birthday).
20- Go on ten hikes.
21- Spend a night away from Brayden.
22- Do more canning this year and next, and maybe even attempt canning tomatoes (or tomato sauce). Karen, can we do this together? I'll need your help. :)
23- Organize photos taken since Brayden's birth by month and back them up. FAIL- Our external hard drive shut down. We'll send it in for data restoration sometime, but I am so glad I put so many pictures of Brayden on FB. I'll be making cds of what I do have very soon.
24- Buy or make a keepsake box for Brayden to hold trinkets like the hospital bracelets, coming home outfit, etc.
25- Make a surprise ball for Brayden for his birthday or Christmas.
26- Go to a play.
27- Make this Christmas decoration.
28- Introduce Brayden to Star Wars.
29- Go to the midnight showing for Harry Potter this July.
30- Sell condo and buy a house, if the market allows it.

1st day of Spring

Picking up bugs and running around! What more could a two year old

ask for on the first day of Spring?