Independent Study

This summer I have had more time off than I originally anticipated. I really like my job at Gymboree (not so much the people I work with but that's a whole different story in and of itself) but let's face it, working at a retail clothing store isn't exaclty mind stimulating work. In fact, it's pretty mindLESS.

At the beginning of the summer I decided to make a goal for myself to read all of the Caldecott Award winning children's books; a sort of "independent study" if you will. I have always loved children's picture books and figured that since I would be teaching soon it would be wise to be better aquainted with some of the children's book classics. I found a list of all these books online and as I looked over them I was surprised with how few I was actually familiar with. Sad commentary.

The Randolph Caldecott Medal is awarded to artists of the "most distinguished American picture book for children published in the United States during the preceding year." Randolph Caldecott was a famous illustrator of children's books and the award is named after him because his art represented the "joyousness and beauty of picture books." The award first began in 1938, and was given every year since then. That means there are a current total of 72 Caldecott award winners.

I've made several trips to the local library this summer gathering about 10-15 books at a time to read and study. How can you "study" a children's book you might ask? Not "studying" like you would a textbook, but rather just reading them over a couple times, paying attention to the words, illustrations, and other details that most of the time we overlook. It's definitely been fascinating to see what makes an award winning book. It's also helped me gain a better appreciation for children's book authors and illustrators. Most of the books I have really liked, others not so much. But regardless, it has become very clear to me that to be a Caldecott winner you have to have some degree of skill and talent that is a cut above the rest.

I'm not finished yet, but it's been really fun so far. If anything, it's cemented my love of children's literature and has even got me thinking about pursuing a master's degree in children's literature or editing.

One of my favorite things in life is watching a child open a book. I love to watch them leaf through the pages...their facial expressions, their little fingers pointing to different pictures. It is the purest, most simple, and wholesome entertainment we can give to them. Take away the TV, ipods, Wii, and all other entertainment and what is left? Books.

Here's the latest batch of books I'm reading...


I actually found Jumanji at Ollie's for $3.99 and bought it, along with four other children's books that were adorable. In all I think I spent$16 on five books. Jumanji was originally listed as $18.95...it was too good a deal to pass up. Gotta love Ollie's...dig through all the other junk and you can find some real "gems." When I have my own classroom one day I will be responsible for stocking it with books...that can be expensive! I figured I should probably start accumulating books now...hopefully it will illiminate stress and hassle in the future. If for anything else, one day my kids will enjoy them.:)

Summer Update

One of my dearest friends (Nicole Shiffler) keeps telling me to update my blog so here it is! Her blog is INCREDIBLE and very inspiring. Every time I check it I leave feeling refreshed, happy, and absolutely uplifted. She definitely has a gift for the finer things in life and I am so grateful she shares her talents with others. Plus, she always has the best pictures on her blog that she takes herself. They are so professional! I absolutely LOVE her little girls, and next to my nephew Jack they are probably my most favorite kids in the world.:) Do yourself a favor, check out her blog here.

Anyway, I figured I would update this blog with the goings-on in my life recently. First of all, I got a job working at Gymboree!

I had originally started out the summer with the plan to work at a temp agency, but after calling several weeks in a row and them not having any work for me, I decided it was time to explore plan B. One day back in May I went on a crazy job hunt and applied to 6 stores in one day. It was truly a marathon! When I came home that day I was exhausted but had this feeling I should look online and see if Gymboree was hiring. I called the store and they told me they were, so I filled out an application and delivered it the next day. I know now looking back on it that it was inspiration beause they set up an interview with me for the next day, and by that weekend I had gotten the job. Hearing the stories from several of my friends about how hard it is to find a summer job I know it was a blessing from the Lord. I have come to realize that there are no such thing as small coincidences. Every event in our lives can ultimately be traced back to a loving Heavenly Father who is eager to bless us. Often times it means doing everything we can and then we receive the inspiration that leads to what we are seeking. So far the job is great. It is pretty low-stress and the clothes are absolutely adorable. I find myself walking around and sighing as I straighten and fold the itsy bitsy little clothes. Since I am a new auntie, being an employee comes in VERY handy.

Gymboree also opened a new store called Crazy 8 at the beginning of June. It is very similar clothing but the prices are lower. It also fits bigger kids (up to size 14). I will be working at both stores this summer. Come in and visit me!!!

Amber and I had a great time in Florida. We left Wednesday June 9th and got back Sunday June 13th. We saw Cirque du Soleil, went to Epcot, the Orlando LDS Temple, and Cocoa Beach. Despite our best efforts to stay sun-burn free, we got a bad sunburn at the beach...which luckily has turned into a nice golden tan. It was nice to have a break from everything and we loved spending time together. It was definitely a great memory we'll share forever.

When I got home on Sunday, I had less than 24 hours before I had to leave for girls camp the next day. This year they asked me to go as a leader to our church girls camp, which quite honestly I was less-than-thrilled about. It turned out, however, to be a really good experience...both for me and the girls. I was one of four leaders over the second-year girls (age 13) and they were just about as adorable as can be. It was miraculous how well each of the 18 girls got along. There was no drama, very little complaining, and they just had the best attitude. I also became very close to my other co-leaders. Wonderful women. The camp that the girls stayed at was called Camp Tuckahoe, which ironically is just 10 minutes from my house. I had the luxury each day during free time to come home and take a hot shower! This made all the difference.:) Although camp is always exhausting, I was suprised at how well things went.

So life has been really busy for me over here. Things have definitely settled down quite a bit and I am assuming the rest of the summer will be pretty smooth sailing. Any of you mothers out there, I am available to watch your sweet little kiddos! At this point I don't have a lot of hours at work, so any time you need a date with your husbands, just let me know.:)

This is too good

Ok, first and foremost, forgive me for being an uber sloth and ignoring my blog. I just feel like my life is not super interesting right now and so I have a hard time coming up with things to "blog" about. But, digging through some of my old mission videos, I thought to myself how funny this would be as a blog post. Here is some background...

Have you ever seen the cheese-tastic movie Free Willy? It's a total 90s classic. Well there is a scene at the very beginning when the main character (can't think of his name) is into trouble and he and his friends steel a cake from a bakery van and eat it with their bare hands in a skate park. Ever since I saw them dig into a cake with their bare hands I've wanted to do it myself. This is a dream I've had for like 10 years! There's just something about smushing your hands into a cake that seems so exhilirating to me... Well somehow my district found out about my secret desire to smush cake when I was on my mission, and so at a district meeting we got a bunch of cakes (a story in and of itself) and they let me smush the cake in my bare hands! The best part? They got it all on video. I was depressed when one day I realized I'd accidentally deleted the video from my camera. Luckily one of my companions still had it and she just recently sent it to me. So, without further ado....here's the infamous CAKE video:

Orlando, Florida

This is a very exciting post, with some very exciting news. This week my parents told my sister Amber and I that for Amber's birthday this year (May 21st) they are sending us on a trip to Orlando, FL! This is where it pays to be besties with your sister because I was lucky enough to get to go with her. We'll be going from June 9-13th, so it's just sort of short and sweet but we are sooo excited. Talk about freaking-out-excited.:)

My mom actually told me before we told Amber. I suspected something was up when my mom started asking me very strange detailed questions about the month of June. It was harder than I thought to keep in a secret from Amber, because we are pretty much the same person in that we don't keep anything from each other. Well, I lasted a whole day and it was pure torture because I was so tempted to just blurt out, "We're going to ORLANDO FLORIDA!!!" Ultimately my parents decided to just tell Amber early so that way we could plan details and she could have some advanced notice for work, etc. I made her a little card that told her about the suprise vacay and then put it in an envelope and addressed it to her from a lady named "Penny Pinkerton." At dinner I said, "Oh, Am, I forgot...this card came in the mail for you today..." She was like, "Who the heck is Penny Pinkerton?" And we all acted like we didn't know what was going on. It took her reading through it like 3 times before she finally figured out what it was saying!!! She was totally shocked. It was a total hoot.:)

More to follow on details about our sweet florida tripie!

Lactic acid burns me up

True doctrine. Seriously. Let me elaborate. In an effort to become more "cardiovascularly advantaged" my sister Amber and I have been going to the gym more regularly and even invested in a personal trainer. Looking back on it we feel like we may have been somewhat conned into it, but not all is lost because it is actually quite beneficial. One thing we've learned from the experience is that when a personal trainer is working you out, you CANNOT and I repeat CANNOT take yourself too seriously. In fact my mantra is "pride stays at the door." Let's face it, you are clearly not your most flattering when you're sweating and flalling about. But then again who really cares??? (Actually, that's not a very good question to place here since secretly we all really do care...but you get my drift.) Calories are being burned and in the long run you're the better for it, so it's definitely worth the increase in embarassing moments. Believe me. I've had my fair share of them. :)

Last week amber and I had a workout where our PT (my sweet abrev for personal trainer) focused on upper body and arms. I was secretly relieved because I figured it would be an easier workout. WRONG. We were both in significant discomfort (that is basically an understatement) and the lactic acid I'd accumulated after working out made my arms feel like they were on fire....literally....for 4 days. Finally relief came yesterday and I was able to resume full function of my arms. (i.e. actually wash my hair with relative ease and scratching my nose). I learned that you use your triceps for a lot more than you think you do. And THAT is true doctrine.

As a side note: I've been using that phrase quite a lot lately ("true doctrine.")...definitely one of the sayings I brought home from my mission. Not too many non-LDS people actually know what it means (which is most people around here). Ocassionally in class it will slip out. I had to laugh when a girl in my class looked at me and said, "true doctrine" in reference to a comment the professor made in class. Did she even know what/where that originated from?! World domination is just around the corner. Well, in my small sphere that is...

My new obsession

I'm on spring break this week. Sad to say I don't have any earth-shattering fun plans other than to hopefully secure a summer job for myself. But then again, that's not really "fun" so technically I don't have any plans. In an effort to update my blog, however, I thought I would share something I really really love. Welcome to the world of digital scrapbooking....

I've never loved the idea of old fashioned scrapbooking because the thought of sitting down and cutting, pasting, and working on tedious little details sort of stresses me out. I DO however love to organize pictures in a clean, stream-lined way. In high school I was the photo-editor for the yearbook my senior year. I think that's when I started to love to work with digital pictures and create things. Now they have all of these free programs that let you make digital photo books. My sister-in-law Lisa made a wedding book on blurb.com and it turned out amazing! I love how something so personal can look so professional. When I got home from my mission I decided I wanted to make a book of all my mission pictures, and digital scrapbooking sounded like the perfect route! Plus, I couldn't imagine doing everything by hand the old fashioned way. I have literally thousands of mission pictures and I think I not only saved time and money, but also a lot of stress and hair pulling. I'm almost done with my book and it's 200 pages long! I'm so excited and can't wait for it to be finished.:)

When my dear sweet nephew Jack was born my mom asked me to print off some of the pictures from the day he was born. I thought it would be way cuter to just make a quick little photo book instead! Here are some pictures of the book, called "Baby Jack." Lisa and Jim, we made one for you too!

Some of the websites you can use to make photo books are:

blurb.com (my favorite...thanks to Lisa for finding it!!!)

photobucket.com

shutterfly.com

He's good...

One of my last gen-ed classes that I'm taking this semester is actually turning out to be my favorite. It's called American Popular Music. Obviously my like towards it shouldn't come as a huge suprise seeing how I naturally love music anyway, but I'm learning a lot about music that I didn't know before. My prof is an amazing improv jazz pianist and we're lucky enough to have a baby grand piano in the classroom that we meet in...so as he's describing a certain principle he'll often just sit down on the piano and play a song for us...totally by ear! He's kind of a music genious.:) Anyway, taking this class has helped me sort of analyze why I like certain types of music and artists over others. One musician that I really love right now is Michael Buble. He's got that 50's throw-back voice that many have compared to Frank Sinatra. He can really sing. I've always loved that time period for it's music and Michael Buble is the modernized version. Love him.:) His newest album is quite good. It's called "Crazy Love." It still is a scoash weird for me to be able to listen to any music I want to because I have only been allowed to listen to church music for the last 18 months...but I really like his stuff and taking this class is teaching me to listen and recognize truly good music. Who would have guessed?! I guess gen-ed's are good for some things...