My Baby Shower, Finally

I know that it has been quite a while since the shower actually happened, but this is the first I have had the chance to blog about it. In a word, it was WONDERFUL! My good friend Kelly arranged a great gathering with good food and hilarious games. One of the funniest ones was me trying to guess the flavor of label-less baby food. I'm proud to say I got 3/4 right! That darned oatmeal and raisin got me stuck. And my friend Danya was kind enough to let us gather at her house since my house is NOT user friendly for more than 4 people.

I also had the chance to see a few good friends that I have not seen in quite a while (thanks for coming all the way down here Tracie and Susan!). And even my far away sisters and best friend Lisa had something for me that day. Just because Babies 'R' Us didn't deliver doesn't mean that people didn't! I'm not going to lie, next to the awesome "Memory" game that Kelly had, the best part of any shower is the presents! I should note thought that the game made me laugh so hard that I cried a couple of times. Every pair had something to do with pregnancy and so you collected things like twins, contractions, umbilical cords, and hemorrhoids. HILARIOUS! Kelly had a candy bar for each pair that made it even funnier. Example: Hot Tamales for hemorrhoids and Milky Way for breast feeding.

As far as clothing goes, if Joe was hoping for something other than pink for our little girl he may be disappointed! I got some of the cutest stuff! At the end of the shower I realized I hadn't taken any pictures with my own camera so Danya snapped a few for me, including this one of me carrying out all of my stash! What fun day it was! Now I just need to get out all of my "Thank You" cards! Heaven knows I owe a few to everyone who participated that day.

So...Funny Story

Last night Joe and I walked up the street to a friend's house. The O'Neills are in our ward and have an adorable baby they let me hold most of the time I am there. I had loaned my house key to Stacie, Joe's sister, because she is sleeping here for a couple of nights, so we just took the garage door opener with us to get in and out of the house. I don't think that this is an uncommon practice, people depending on a garage door opener or a code to get into their house. What Joe and I did not anticipate was the storm that would knock our power out for hours.

When we decided it was time to get home, due to the fact that both of us were so tired, we noticed that our neighborhood was dark. Not the whole neighborhood really, just 2 square blocks that included our house. Shoot, the alley across from us had lights on. But, to our dismay, we were without power. For those of you paying attention, this meant that Joe and I were in trouble. How do you get into a garage with a garage door opener if there is no power? Answer: you don't. It is after 10 p.m. and we are calling Stacie to see when she will be coming home with my house key but she could not answer her phone. So it is dark, raining, there is lighting dancing about, and we are locked out. We don't think that we were the only people in such a predicament because there were a lot of cars driving the 2 blocks, pulling up to a garage for a few minutes, and then driving away. There was many a person trying to figure out how they were going to park with the minimal parking me neighborhood provides.

It wasn't really all bad, though. We headed back to the O'Neill's house until Stacie called us and we were finally able to get in, but the power stayed out for hours. It is amazing how hot a house can get in Phoenix in the middle of the night with a storm raging outside. Luckily we had power again this morning and all is well. But I will forever think twice about leaving the house without my key.

Let Me Know When You're Ready

So, I have finished the book. I actually finished it on Sunday but thought that it was a little soon to post about it. I like to process the book for a couple of days. If you don't know what I mean by "the book" then you are not a Twilight fan. Let me say that I really liked it. It was not my favorite one, but it was still great. When you have read it let me know and I will be prepared to offer more critique. As it is, I don't want to spoil it for anyone.

I Love Young Adult Literature

I was looking at the blogs of some of my friends and family and realized that there is something missing from my blog. My sister Jenn clearly loves to scrapbook and craft, my mother is into family history, Melissa keeps us updated on what she has seen and read and what she loved about them, and Angela has a countdown to Breaking Dawn (that came out today by the way). I know that I talk about our trips and the baby and my school adventures that recently ended, but why don’t I have anything up about my favorite pastime; reading?

I admit that until this week I have not had much time to read this summer, but when I have time I am reading 4 books a week. I have nothing about the Twilight series even though the new book was just released (I dreamed about it two nights ago because I am so excited), there is no Harry Potter flair, there is nothing about the joy that I find in Young Adult Literature or the value of reading fantasy books. What have I been blogging about if not my favorite thing? Okay, Joe and my family are my FAVORITE things, but you know what I mean. Reading is my one real hobby and I have very little posted about it.

I want to change this nasty habit of mine and start sharing more. So let me start with telling you that I LOVE Young Adult fantasy books. I love that they are generally cleaner than adult books, faster paced, highly creative, and take me out of my reality. I love that they address modern and current social issues even though they use fairies and goblins instead of spoiled rich kids and dirty politicians. I admire authors who can so completely create a world outside of this one. Worlds that are so complete characters, laws, rules, plants, animals, games, geography, and so on that you start to believe that they have actually been there. I love it when a book makes me want to be better, travel somewhere new, try a new hobby (like sword fighting), or believe for a few seconds that some candy can really make you fly.

Now for what breaks my heart. It kills me when people refuse to read YA literature simply because it was designed for a generation younger than theirs. Have we nothing to learn from heroes and characters younger than us? Do we really think that we caught everything there was to learn the first time around? Are there no experiences or feelings that you want to recapture or relive that came from that time in your life? How arrogant of anyone to assume that there is nothing to learn, nothing of value, or nothing worthwhile in a book simply because its primary focus is teenagers.

In order to promote literacy in general and Young Adult Literature specifically, here are a few of the authors I love:

Anne Brashares (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; way better than the movie)
Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl Series; the main character is actually the villain-genius!)
John Flannagan (The Ranger’s Apprentice; great reading for boys, very like LOTR but easier to read)
Cornelia Funke (Inkheart, Dragon Rider, and The Thief Lord are all great!)
Patricia Reilly Giff (GREAT reality based stories that deal with broken families, adoption, death, and the friendships and families we create)
Cynthia Kadohata (Historical Fiction that deals with Japanese Americans)
Stephenie Meyer (Duh.)
Brandon Mull (Fablehaven and The Candy Shop War)
Tamora Pierce (Love her stuff for empowering girls, fantasy based stuff in medieval type setting; Protector of the Small Series is GREAT)
Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians; deals with ADHD, learning disorders, and Greek legend)
J.K. Rowling (Need I say more here?)

There are so many more, but I thought that I could start here. Feel free to respond with anything within the YA world that you have loved that I have not mentioned.