Random Acts of Culture

I saw this and wanted to share it. This would have been amazing to experience in person. Apparently they brought in the largest pipe organ in the US, and there were 650 voices chiming in, not including the random shoppers who happened to know the song.

The Warded Man

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'm really upset that I started reading this too early. I didn't start reading the Twilight series until Breaking Dawn was nearly out--and my enthusiasm for this book is nearly the same as for that series. The problem? He just barely published the second book, and he plans on continuing the series for (if I remember the interview correctly) at least 5 books, maybe more. So, I'm stuck with this dreadful sense of anticipation for the next in the series--and it stinks that I have to wait for the author to catch me up!



This is a really interesting, post-apocalyptic world. Demons rule the night, when the sun comes up, they sink into the ground to escape. If people or animals are caught out at night, outside of warded buildings or shelters, they are demolished by the demons. Technology is non-existent, and the wards of old are lost. One boy finds himself outside of shelter, alone, at night, and faces his worst fear. He discovers that he can face down demons, and sets out to live his life without fear. As this boy grows into a man, he eventually discovers the secrets that may help human-kind defeat the demons--without and within.



The characters in this book are richly imagined, and the book explores how each character comes to make the decisions they make.



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Joy is a gift!!!

Jake came home today and taught me a song he and a friend composed. The very last line was "Joy is a gift. But this isn't the box it came in." He had me laughing so hard at dinner. I don't know if he came up with that on his own or if it's from a song he knows, but that line is an absolute classic!

Jake turned 10 the weekend before my sister's wedding, so it was completely neglected. I figure, we had fairly elaborate birthday parties when I was working, including a Chuck E. Cheese birthday, a bowling party, a couple of trips to Disneyland, mom gets a free pass from the parties this year. He did get the video game he was desperately wanting, and got to have cousins come to the movies with us. We saw "The Guardians of Ga'hule" in I-max & 3-d. The movie was very good--especially for boys, and I had 4 with me. It was beautifully drawn and imagined--I think I could have the backgrounds for this movie hanging in my house. I don't see 3-d effects (I think it's because one of my eyes is stronger than the other, or I'm just lame) so most of the effects were lost on me. But, I could see my nephews and sons dodging and trying to grab things, so I think they enjoyed it.

My 10 year old boy is a middle schooler, he bikes on his own to and from school every day. He's so bright, and he has so much potential. Sometimes I look at him, and I see all the ways my BAD parenting could screw him up, but it hasn't yet, and for that I'm grateful. Joy is a gift, and that kid is a box of it, all on his own!

Money Management

I was reading a great article in BYU magazin written by M. Sue Bergin, and I stumbled on this quote. "In the Book of Mormon, the Jaredites had two problems with their ships: no light and no navigation. The Lord solved the first problem by touching the 16 stones that then radiated light. He solved the second one by sending storms that blew the vessels toward the promised land. The Lord was in both the stones and in the storms. The Lord is in our storms today."

Very, very wise.

Hilarious posting from my new favorite website catalogliving.net

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Eilzabeth Gilbert's treatise on marriage. She writes a very interesting history of the institute of marriage. She finds that throughout history, marriage basically sucks for women--and that there really is no good reason to get married--except for love. And that truly isn't a very good reason to marry. She does find compelling reasons to marry her longtime boyfriend, and eventually learns to trust herself.

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Austenland by Shannon Hale



This was a nice quick read--brain candy really. This was the first time I ever skipped ahead to find out the ending. I loved the chapter headings listing the main characters boyfriends and what went wrong with each of the relationships--some of them were hysterical.

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The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fantastic finish to this series. This series is so well created, with believable magic systems, and interesting creatures and characters. The end was so unexpected and yet tied the book up so well.

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Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I very much enjoyed this book--I actually listened to it rather than read it. I think listening to it, told by Gilbert herself, you actually get a better sense of her self-deprecating humor, and her awareness that she know how very blessed she is, but it doesn't ease the suffering she feels. I don't feel the book is overly whiny--I guess I know what it feels like to be so damaged by life that that is all you can think of for a solid 2-35 years.

I especially enjoyed her spiritual journeys in India. The way she describes her mind interrupting her meditation--I so get that. I so get that she wants to be in the world, but not of it--that battle between heart and mind--and I truly love the way she finally gets them to agree. I wish I could get there from Italy, India and Bali like she did (sigh).

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Mullet Madness

With baseball season upon us, my son finally decided to cut his long golden locks. (It may also have something to do with the unnecessary roughness his mother employed while combing his hair every morning). So, my talented sister came over today to do a quick cut. She talked him into letting her give him a mullet for a few minutes. I can't believe we thought these were cool--I can remember Christy McNichols in The Pirate Movie in about 1982 started this trend--I had one--but not as bad as they eventually became.



Here's my handsome boy after it all was chopped off. We had a Cub Scout function where all the boys got beads and basketball awards. My boys are lucky to have some fantastic Scout leaders. Our ward has a Tiger program thanks to a parent who wanted her younger son to have the opportunity to be in Scouts--and now our Tiger pack is larger than the Wolf pack.

Our family was blessed this past month with a new little niece. I could've sworn my niece Rachael had cured my brother and his wife of ever wanting another child, but, apparently, parental amnesia kicked in, and they took the plunge for the 4th time. This little girl is so beautiful. All their kids are--my sister had my nephew Bryce with her at the grocery store when he was about 6 months, and some lady screamed and jumped when Bryce moved. She thought my sister was carrying around a big China doll. This little girl is definitely a keeper. We all fight over who gets to hold her at church and family dinners--and her siblings and parents fight over who gets to hold her at home. I practically had to pry her from her daddy's arms today. Mary Ellen says its cause he didn't get to see her ALL NIGHT (like she did) that he wanted to hold her all morning. I'm sure glad none of us are sarcastic in our family!

Finally, an update on what I'm reading right now. I just finished The Help which was fantastic, I'm in the middle of Brandon Sanderson's final Mistborn Trilogy book, and I'm also listening to Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert which I'm really enjoying. This book made a big splash a few years back, and I can see why. The book is a series of vignettes or stories from her year of travel to Italy, India and Indonesia. But it is really her spiritual journey; her year of figuring out how to be in the world but not of the world, and of finding divinity. I like her views on spirituality and can definitely see how to apply them to my own life. I don't generally do non-fiction, but I'm glad I picked this one up.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is not your typical Disney princess type book despite the title. This is a book you might give to a daughter who doesn't really like being just a "girl."

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Some more Christmas. . .

This is what happens when you don't like the Christmas present I got you. Just kidding! This is Paul nearly 1 week after nearly breaking his neck in a surfing goof. (Begin humming the song "Wipeout" in your minds--I'll do the drum solo) My husband is generally not a complainer--his father always told him "Take what you get and make no bother" which has always served him well. Well, until now that is. Saturday before Christmas, he went surfing BFE early in the morning. Next thing I know, he's telling me he had a bit of a wipeout and he's climbing into the shower to get cleaned up. He comes and lays down and is essentially useless for the rest of the day--which is pretty much how it is when he goes surfing. I drag him to a birthday party an hour and a half away, and I make him drive there. We get home and toss the kids to bed. The next morning he says he hurts too much to go to church, so I take the boys and we leave him in peace. When we get to church, a few of the guys come up and ask "is Paul okay?" Several of the guys he regularly goes with saw the whole thing, and they were really worried about him. Our doctor friend comes said he'd come and check him out. They decided that it was just a shoulder "stinger" and he told him to just keep doing what I had him doing--800 mg of ibuprofen every 6-8 hours. The following Monday, he decides to have me drive him to work rather than riding his bike. He wakes me that morning, and I go downstairs and try to wake up completely as I'm putting my shoes on. He walks out and asks, "Honey, what's the number for that spousal abuse hotline?" I look up, and he's sporting the worst shiner I've ever seen. It is about as black as the shirt he's wearing in the picture. The good news is that it wasn't horribly swollen. The bad news, I can't look his co-workers in the eye--my husband can be very inventive with the spousal abuse stories. I truly think we narrowly avoided a broken neck with this accident--it could have been so much worse. We are truly blessed.

One other way we are blessed is that I have sleepers for children--they don't nap much, but they sleep in until 8 most weekend mornings--for you parents out there, yes, I'm bragging a bit. I have nephews who get up at the butt crack of dawn most mornings (we don't have them for sleepovers very often). So, Christmas morning started at 8 am. I was up long before they were, I was chomping at the bit to get downstairs. One of the really nice things about not having a job is time to be able to wrap presents long before Christmas eve. We actually were able to go to bed before Santa arrives (midnight). I didn't get as much baking done as I'd like, and my mother was out of town for a funeral so we didn't get ANY Christmas fudge, but I did get to bed at a decent hour Christmas eve. Santa brought a lot of Legos, and several Wii, XBox and DS games plus a few books, and assorted videos. It was a good year all around, made better by the fact that I finished my shopping (for the most part) well before the Christmas rush.

Star Wars things were also a great hit. I purchased several Christmas CDs. Josh Groban is one of my guilty pleasures--I love men who can sing--and his Noel album was fantastic. I'll admit to also purchasing David Archuletta's Christmas from the Heart CD. He can sing as well, but he has the pre-pubescent boy whiny sound that I can't stand--so I'll probably donate that one. I'll wait for him to mature a little before completely writing him off however--he does sing well. Finally, Jake and I really got into the a capella show that aired over Christmas break--I used to love BYU's Vocal Point (founded by a friend of a friend) which is still going strong 15+ years later. I picked up a CD from Straight, No Chaser and a capella group, which instantly became a hit with the entire family. It has songs like "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" and the Christmas Can Can and the 12 Days of Christmas which were hilarious and all done a cappella--they are fabulous, and I'll probably look for other Cds from them.

I just had to show a picture of Christmas at my mother's place--there is a beautiful tree behind all those presents. We Morris's know Christmas!

The one guest who didn't enjoy Christmas dinner

Poor, poor Cody!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year--a gift for you. . .

I have been searching for this man since I heard "Trouble" on a dog food commercial of all places. I finally figured out who it was, and then found this video, and I had to share. Enjoy!