Book Review #6--The Mormon Way of Doing Business

We bought this book for Jason's dad for Father's Day but before we gave it to him Jason and I both read it. Because it is written by an investigative reporter it reads like a long article and is a very fast read on an interesting topic.

Among those highlighted are the CEO's or CFO's of JetBlue, Deloitte & Touche, Dell, American Express and the president of Harvard. It's amazing to see how they have reached the pinnacle of success in their business careers and personal life and how their membership in the church has shaped them to be incredible business leaders. All have remained faithful to their wives, they don't work on Sundays, they follow the word of wisdom, have served missions, are faithful tithe payers, and all have served as bishops, many while serving as CEO's.

The most interesting part of the book was a recap of the events following 9/11. Three of the CEO's and their companies were greatly impacted and all three emerged from the tragedy stronger than before.

This was a very inspirational book, motivating me to step it up in some areas of my life.

Vacation!

I always have such good intentions of posting while on vacation....Yet here I am doing another recap post.

Our vacation was quick and fun. We traveled to SLC through Boise and had fun spending the night with jason's brother Matt and family. We didn't arrive until 11:00 at night but they were all waiting up for us and the kids stayed up until about 1:00 am playing with their cousins. We hung out the next morning and then visited with our friends Glen and Angie who live in Boise. Jason and Glen were missionary companions, roommates and then we ended up living in the same apartment complex after we graduated from BYU. They have a large backyard with a long hill and they made a slip and slide out of six tarps. The kids played the entire afternoon and were content little travelers as we made our way to SLC.

We slept in the next morning and decided to go to Cafe Rio for lunch. We then headed to Provo and drove the Alpine loop. We ended up at Aspen Grove where we plan to do a family vacation next summer. Then it was off to BYU. We haven't been to campus for several years and wanted to check out all the changes. I didn't recognize most of campus. They have redone so much of the campus. We bought all the kids BYU t-shirts and had fun walking around. As we were walking past the library I heard someone call my name. I turned around and didn't recognize the person and she quickly told me that she knew me from my blog. It turns out that she was Jay's sister. It was so fun to meet her and I'm so glad she was bold enough to say hi to me. It was so hot and the kids were cranky so we hit one of our favorite byu spots, the creamery, and bought the kids an ice cream cone.

We ended our night with a visit to Jay and Lucy's new home in SLC. Jason was too late to unload the truck but he was able to help set up beds and hook up the washer and dryer.

Friday was a lazy day. Jason watched the kids while my sister Rebekah and I went shopping. Later in the afternoon we went to a fun pool by my sister's house. The kids all had a great time and kept cool (we're not used to the heat in utah). When we got to the pool we realized we didn't have the battery in our camera.

That night we went to dinner with our good friends Alan and Becci. They were our best friends after we graduated from BYU and moved to Portland. It was so fun to see them and catch up on life.

Saturday was the big event and the reason for our trip. 17 years ago Jason went to BYU study abroad in Jerusalem and his group was having a reunion. It was so fun for Jason to catch up with everyone. It wasn't quite as fun for me since I didn't know anyone but I hung in there. My brother and two sisters took the kids ALL day for us. Thank you Amy, Rebekah and Jethro. My sister Rebekah even let us borrow her BMW so we could arrive at the reunion in style.

We managed to squeeze in a visit to my grandparents and had such a great time visiting with them. It was so nice to chat without the kids interrupting us.

It was a great trip and fun way to start the summer.

On The Road Again

We're in Boise, making a pit stop on our way to SLC. We went a different way from Spokane to Boise (Highway 95) and had the best scenic drive. Jack screamed for a lot of the trip so it was nice to have the scenery to calm us.

Before I left I had one last hurrah with Lucy. She treated Kariann, Rebecca and I to lunch at Luna and I tried not to think about her moving. Luckily I get to see her in Salt Lake for one last goodbye.

Book Review #5--Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton

Cry, The Beloved Country is such a well-known title to me, yet I've never read it. I bought it awhile ago at Costco when I was leaving on a trip and needed something to read. I never got around to it and put it on the shelf and recently rediscovered it. I didn't think I would like it but I was determined to read it.

I ended up loving this book and would rank it as one of my all time favorites.

There are so many levels to this story. It is a story of racial injustice and the beginnings of apartheid in South Africa. This is a country and a topic I know so little about and now I am intrigued. The writings of Abraham Lincoln are referenced in this book and now I want to study Lincoln and learn more about him.

This is also a story about the strength of the family and how when the family unit is torn apart society suffers. I thought of the Family Proclamation several times throughout the novel. Ultimately this is a story of forgiveness and the gift it to forgive someone. It is about how tragedy is sometimes necessary for a greater purpose to be accomplished. These are some of the themes I love. I found this book very moving and I was unable to put it down. It is so rich, yet easy to read and understand.

I was surprised at how much this book affected me. It left me wanting to strengthen my family and be more forgiving to others. It gave me greater respect for cultures different than mine and the values we can learn from them. This is a definite must-read.

Father's Day 2007

Happy Father's Day!

I'm so grateful my kids have such a great dad.

The Graduate

Cheesy 12 year old grin






Today Eli graduated or was "promoted" from 6th grade to 7th grade. It turned out to be an emotional moment as I watched a DVD of all the 6th graders. It was so cute. They put up a baby picture, their kindergarten picture and then their 6th grade picture on the screen all at once. I remember so many of these kids from kindergarten and I got all choked up thinking about how they are all grown up now.
Sea of graduates and admiring parents

The kids were told to dress up for the event and Eli took it all the way wearing his sportcoat and pink tie. He won the presidential academic award and luckily had a tie for the tie pin he recieved.

Our Principal

Eli and his friends Jared and Dustin

Eli and Ms. Hentges

And now it's the last day of school. The kids were up early and ready to go, just as excited as they are on the first day of school. They get out early today and we are going to meet friends at the park and then head out to our lake cabin to celebrate. Here are pictures from the first day of school and today.

I Love Blogging!

Thanks to Kristi for this very creative end of the year school gift. Emma's teacher is retiring this year so we used it for her retirement gift. It was so easy. Lucy asked the kids the questions to get "100 things we love and will miss about Mrs. Harvey" and cut all their responses into the size of a $1 bill. I collected the money and assembled the book. In all the years I've been coming up with teacher's gifts I've never had one that was so easy and stress free. Mrs. Harvey loved the gift and thought it was so creative. She asked Lucy and I where we got the idea and we told her from a blog. Very foreign to her.

Since I already had the padding compound I decided to make notepads for the other teachers as well. I tied a chocolate bar to the pad with a ribbon and called it good. Such an easy and very affordable gift.

Just another reason why I love blogging.

Emma just walked in the door as I was typing this. She had a fun date with her grandma and grandpa and went to see The Sound of Music. She loved it. I can't believe she was able to sit through it.

Book Review #4 Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

I consider myself a "girlfriend" type of girl, meaning I get along well with other women and quite frankly depend on them for my sanity. I love philosophying, empathizing, gossiping and getting advice from my girlfriends.

I loved Snowflower and the Secret Fan because that is basically what this book is about, the timeless theme of enduring friendship between women. The novel is set in 19th century China and follows the lives of Snowflower and Lily from age 7 onward. At the time women were isolated and illiterate and so a secret language was formed allowing women to communicate with each other. It seriously reminds me on a primitive level of blogging.

Lily is the narrator of the book so we see the story through her eyes. Snowflower and Lily are chosen to be "old sames," meaning the stars have basically aligned for them to be best friends forever. Using the secret language they exchange letters on a fan. As they grow their lives take different directions due to circumstances beyond their control. Both girls enter into arranged marriages and Lily finds herself as happy as one can be in an arranged marriage. She has a kind mother-in-law and a kind husband. She successfully gives birth to two golden sons and a daughter. Snowflower, because of the sins of her father, cannot qualify for a good match and marries a butcher (not a good profession in ancient China) and is subjected to a life of abuse and heartache.

The book points out what women have done through the ages, unfairly judging each other, and hurting the very women whom they are closest to. Snowflower and the Secret Fan is an easy read, packed full of fascinating facts about ancient China. I almost couldn't read the book due to very graphic descriptions of the Chinese practice of footbinding. It sounds like torture but all in the name of beauty. Sound familiar?

While this is a story of 19th century China the themes of female friendship are universal to our day and setting. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a girlfriend type of girl.

The Calm Before the Storm

So, things are pretty mellow around here these days and today I realized it must be the calm before the storm. In exactly one week the kids will be out of school and I will have 6 young un's to keep content. I plan to read, swim and lounge around with the kids, enjoying each other and hopefully teaching the oldest kids some new skills to make them more self-reliant. That's what I think every summer though and instead I struggle to keep everyone happy and it seems that all we accomplish is producing one meal after another. I've decided to hopefully nip this in the bud and hired a babysitter for twenty hours a week for the entire summer. Maybe with two of me we'll get some stuff done.

The end of school will be a milestone for us as Eli moves from elementary school to middle school. How am I old enough to have a child in Jr. High???

Tonight I went to our ward book group for the first time in ages. I used to go faithfully and then the book group fell apart. Luckily tonight all of my favorite people were there so it was quite enjoyable. We discussed our favorite children's books and I got lots of great ideas of books that I had never heard of. I am most excited to read the Empty Pot by Demi and surprise, surprise it's a Chinese tale!

Book Review #3--The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

I've always considered it a great blessing to know who I am, where I came from and where I'm going. Knowing these things about myself makes it easy for me to make good life decisions. Not knowing these things causes Gogol, the main character in "The Namesake" to live an unfulfilled life. Gogol is the first born of Indian immigrants. He is born in Boston while his father is in graduate school. Gogol's father takes a job in the U.S. and never returns to India. Thus Gogol is raised by Indian parents in America. He knows the traditions and customs of his Indian heritage but they are foreign and strange to him because he is at heart an American. As a result no one can really understand him and this leads to a series of disappointing relationships, including those with his own family.

Gogol's biggest problem is his name. While his name has deep meaning to his father, the meaning isn't made known to Gogol until later in his life.

I found this book to be a good read, catching my attention and keeping it throughout the book. It gave me a lot to think about since I am raising children who may at some point in their lives have an identity crisis due to the fact that they were born in China but raised in a caucasian family and will be very American. Hopefully they will know who they are, where they came from and where they are going.

SPT-Color My World

Nothing like a SPT to get me back into the blogging mode.

I love this challenge. I am very drawn to the true primary colors. My favorite color has always been blue. I love it. I've had these couches for over 10 years and I still like them. In fact this same fabric was featured in a recent magazine spread and it made my heart soar that I can still get away with using this furniture. (With my destructive kids I have made a pact to not replace anything for at least five years when I can guarantee it will not be destroyed).

I also LOVE red. For years I was afraid to use it but when we redid this built-in entertainment center a couple of years ago I took the plunge and painted it red. I think it turned out great.

I also love red dishes.

Finally I love yellow. Every room in my house is painted a different version of this paint color. It is Columbia's beach grass. I had it in my old house and transferred it to our new house. So many people have used this same color in their homes. I had an interior decorator pick the color for me and she should get a royalty for every person who has used it.

I've recently discovered a few shades of purple in my wardrobe. I bought all three of these shirts this spring. Notice a common thread. Maybe my mom is rubbing off on me. She loves purple and looks so good in this color.