"Matched"

A couple weeks ago while at Costco waiting to get new tires, I decided to buy a book to read just in case I had to sit for awhile. I figured I still had other repairs to get done on the van at another repair shop and wouldn't mind having a good book to take with me. I decided to buy the book "Matched" by Ally Condie. It's about a Utopian society. Other books I have read in this genre is The Giver by Lois Lowry, and The Hunger Games by Susan Collins.

In trying to keep an ideal society, the topic focused on in "Matched" is coming of age to be given a life partner. Each person can choose for themselves to remain single or to be matched. The government has people that analyze personalities in order to decide who to match with who. With several communities in their society, it is rare that the person being matched knows their new partner.

Cassia is the main character. She turns 17, which is the age they can be matched and received word that they have found a match for her. To everyone's surprise, her match is her childhood best friend! What could be better, right? But she soon discovers they had almost matched her with someone else. In fact, the other guy's picture shows up on her disc of information about her match. The rest of the book deals with Cassia's thoughts and emotions about the decision of her partner and whether or not their society is ideal with so many limitations. Cassia's grandfather leaves her with a secret, and Cassia discovers that many people she knows carry a secret that would cause trouble with the government. Is it fair that the government watches their every move and listens in on conversations.

The book is a real page turner, I rate it 5 stars! Sara snagged the book from me after the first 100 pages and we fought over it through the rest of the book. The cost of the book at Coscto was $11 and that is the same price amazon charges for the ebook. Sara convinced me it would have been much more effective to have it on ebook then we wouldn't need to fight over whose turn it is to read. So, this is the book that convinced me to buy a Kindle! I'd been thinking about getting myself one for a couple months anyway.

Spanish Rice

I found this recipe in the cookbook my mom's ward put together many many years ago. It has been a family favorite ever since! I will caveat that I have altered the recipe for ease of my food storage! I have doubled the recipe and taken it to group get togethers and everyone loves it!

2 TBSP oil

1 cup rice

brown the rice in the oil, then add:

3 cups water

3 tsp chicken bullion

2 TBSP dry onions

1/2 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp cumin

dash of black pepper

8 oz can of tomato sauce

stir well, put lid on pan and let the rice simmer 'til it's done, about 20 min. on medium heat. It will still look like there's a little extra moisture when it's done. This is fine, otherwise it will burn.

I often put chicken breast cut into strips or bites right in with the rice and it cooks up very nicely.

The original recipe used 2 cans chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes, and 1/2 small onion chopped.

I serve this as a side dish, or with the chicken in it for the main dish, or with all the fixings for burritos or other Mexican cuisine! It's delicious!

"The Wednesday Letters"

I recently read "The Wednesday Letters" by Jason F. Wright. I picked it up at Seagull Book for a whopping $1.99 (I love a good deal)! And then I gave it to myself for Christmas. It's a story about an old couple who ran a Bed & Breakfast together and they die at the beginning of the story. As their children gather for funeral preparations, they discover there are boxes and boxes of letters in the attic. The husband promised when they got married to write his wife a letter every Wednesday. Some letters were very short due to lack of time, while other letters were long and personal. Other letters simply recapped things they had talked about or events that had passed during the week.

The farther they got into the boxes, the more surprises they found about their parents, who had been keeping a big secret through the years. The letters showed pain and sadness as they worked through very difficult times.

I'm not going to spoil the story for you. It's a good one. Mixed in with the letters and funeral planning are romance, adventure, mystery and sibling rivalries, yes, even as adults. I personally enjoyed the book very much and would give it four out of five stars! I enjoy relationships and how people react to each other so it was fun for me to see how everything plays out in the end. It's 280 pages and was a quick read.

If you'd like to read this novel, I'll gladly loan it to you! Just let me know.

The Kindle Plunge

While at Costco Thursday, I decided to buy a book to read, "Matched." I've spent hours in car shops getting the van fixed this week, and figured I might as well have something good to read next time I go in; the van is not done being fixed.

After throwing a party for Joshua, who is turning 7, I was exhausted and decided to hide in my room with my new book. As soon as I got started, everyone began bombarding my bedroom, interrupting me. Next thing I know, Sara is chit chatting and then asks to see the cover of the book and gets excited. A couple minutes later Matt arrived home from work and I set the book in my lap to talk to him. Sara grabs the book and begins to read. So much for me getting to read my new book.

Sara comments that if I had a Kindle, she and I would both be able to read the same book for the same price as what I'd paid for the one book at Costco. A little bug planted and I started to chew on the idea. I've been seriously thinking about it for two months, and I have the money saved up, so why not? I could be buying my books for less and then sharing them with my daughter and husband for all to read at the same time!

While Sara continued reading my book, I shopped online, purchased a Kindle 3 and began a search on ebay for a kindle case in hopes that I can make my Kindle look a little different than Matt and Sara's. I found a seller that sells skin plus case! Yeah! Cool colors and more unique, just what I want. I placed a bid and now we play the waiting game until the auction ends. If I don't win this bid, I will just do the "Buy it now" option and pay the full price so that I don't have to wait again.

After watching TV with Matt for awhile, I send Sara to bed. Mwahahaha! The book is MINE! Sara's halfway done already. Matt gave me his book light and shut off the bedroom lights and I continued to read. I read a few chapters and went to sleep. This morning I had to get Zack off to the Scout PowWow, so it was a good time for me to continue reading without too many interruptions. I was only a few pages away from where Sara was when I turned it back over to Sara so that Matt and I could go on a breakfast date. Several hours later when I returned home, she was done reading the book.

I am SO excited to get a Kindle of my own! Matt tried to tell me he'd share his when I bought it for him for Christmas. That doesn't work so well when we both want to read at the same time, or when he takes it to work with him. I am grateful for the love of reading that exists in our home! While I wait for my new Kindle to arrive, my list of books I would like to buy grows; however, I would love to know what your favorite books are.

Funny Memories

When Zack was about two, he came to my bedside in the middle of the night. But he did the oddest thing. Instead of waking me, he leaned toward me and started watching me. If he had touched me, I would have awoken right away, but he just stared at me. Ever feel like you're being watched? I opened my eyes to find Zack's face very close to mine. Very startled by this I screamed. I scared him, so he screamed. Both of us screaming startled Matt so he woke up screaming. It was a very startling experience, but very funny to look back on.

Matt walked into the kitchen and saw Josh with the Nutella. Matt had been looking for the Nutella earlier but couldn't find it, so he asked Joshua, "Where'd you find the Nutella?"

Josh responded, "Where I hid it."

"Why did you hide it?"

"Because every time I want some it's gone!"

Josh is a smart kid! (9 Jan. '11)

Sara was about 8 years old and had checked out an international children's cookbook from the library. It was about due and she was very upset that we hadn't made anything from it. So, I told her to choose a recipe and I'd see if we had all the ingredients. She chose an oatmeal cookie recipe, I think it was Danish. I verified that we had all the ingredients and asked her to read them off to me and I would get the ingredients out of the pantry in preparation for baking the recipe. The very last ingredient was "rolled oats."

After she read it to me, I said, "Here's the oatmeal."

She immediately responded, "Okay, let's roll 'em!"

I'm somewhat of a crazy sleeper. One night I must have been having really weird dreams. It was summer time and we didn't have the blankets on us. In my sleep I smacked Matt's bare thigh with my left hand really hard!

He woke up instantly, "What was that for?"

My response, "Oh, sorry, I thought you were one of the kids!" And I fell right back to sleep.

(No, I don't beat my children!") This took place probably ten or more years ago.

Stop, Drop, and Roll!

Coming up on four years ago, I needed to attend a one week residency for school. Since I was attending an online University, I had to travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota for this residency. My mom has a tradition of taking the kids for a week every summer, so we decided it would work out perfectly for me to attend a summer residency so that my mom could take the kids. Matt stayed home and worked during that time period.

We had waited too long to buy my plane ticket, and I ended up flying south to Arizona in order to catch a flight up and over to Minnesota. Being very nervous about the residency, I did not sleep well the night before. I don't usually sleep on a flight, but I managed to fall asleep on my way to Phoenix. The problem with this is that I was in a deep sleep when the plane landed, so I woke up groggy. When I got off the plane, I pulled out my ticket to my connecting flight to tell me how long I had before the flight left. I looked at my watch, and it said I had five minutes before my flight was supposed to leave. How could they do this to me? They had already been boarding for probably 20 minutes.

I decided I needed to at least try to make the connection, even though it wasn't likely to happen. I put my ear buds in and turned on my ipod shuffle. I had my purse over one shoulder, my carry on with wheels pulling behind me with that arm, and the book I was reading in the other hand. I couldn't run since there were too many people around, but as I turned the corner, I reached the area that is a huge straight way with the two rolling sections down the sides and open space between. This was my chance to really book it.

I thought to myself, "Self, I have been doing a lot of running and a great running song just came on my ipod. I'm wearing my running shoes, now is my chance to make good time." So I took off running. Wide open space and I was SO proud of myself. I got in a good groove with my music and I was really cooking. Then all of a sudden, my back foot bumped the wheel of the carry on I was dragging. I....was...going.....d...O....w.....N. It was like it happened in slow motion. Head over heels, I rolled. Somehow the luggage kept up with me. My book remained in my arm and all I could hear over the top of my music was a huge gasp of breath from every direction. To my left were several pilots on the rolling thing, to my right was a few regular passengers on the rolling thing. Nobody was nearby to come to my rescue. But I didn't need rescuing. After my roll I landed on my feet. In that moment I heard someone say, "Are you okay?" I responded with two thumbs up, "I'm OKAy!" And I kept running!

Oh, I was SO embarrassed, I had to get out of there fast. My knee caps took the brunt of my fall and they hurt SO BADLY. But I didn't care. I finally stopped running when I reached the other end of that wide open space. My connecting flight was supposed to be the first one on the left. I walked over to the counter, noticing there weren't many people around and figuring the flight had just left. I handed the lady my ticket and asked, "Did my flight just leave?" I was huffing and puffing and in a lot of pain.

She looked at the ticket and looked at me funny and said, "Your flight leaves in an hour, we'll be boarding in about half an hour." You've got to be kidding me. I had changed time zones and didn't even know it. I would think they would have announced that when we landed, but NO. That's what I get for falling asleep on the airplane during a short flight. How embarrassing!

As it all turns out, I survived residency, with a great deal of pain in my knees. And it took my knees a full six months to heal before I could run for exercise. If you read my previous blog post about sports bras, you may laugh and take note that it's rather obvious I haven't been exercising regularly. Hmm, I wonder why! Good thing my mother didn't name me Grace!

Sports Bras and Embarrassing Moments

HOW TO PUT ON
A SPORTS BRA.

BY ANNA LEFLER

- - - -

1. Approach the sports bra with confidence, secure in the belief that you will wear it.

2. Holding the sports bra open by its bottom edge, peer into it and locate the medium-sized opening in the center of the cavity. This is your target.

3. Take a moment to ask yourself the following questions:

A. Am I naked from the waist up?

B. Have I removed my glasses?

If the answer to either is "no," make the necessary adjustments and return to Step 1.

4. Snake your right arm through the right armhole as far as it will go. Repeat for left arm and left armhole.

5. Assume power stance: feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Hook your thumbs into the sports bra's bottom-edge elastic and pull it out in front of you as far as possible. (Note: do not let go.)

6. In one, deft motion, pull the elastic toward you and over your head. If you have martial arts training, this would be the time to release your battle cry, or kiai.

7. You should now be standing with arms pointing skyward, the sports bra encircling you at chin level, binding your biceps to your ears.

8. Remain calm. Visualize yourself wearing the sports bra while engaged in a pleasant activity, such as not watching Jersey Shore.

9. Cross your arms in front of your face, grasp the bottom of the sports bra and begin tugging it down to your chest. This process should take 2-25 minutes and can be streamlined by the removal of one of your arms (advanced yoga practitioners only).

10. If you have followed steps 1-9 correctly, the sports bra is now strapped across the rise of your bosom, compressing the breasts downward to the point that you can see your pulse in your areolas.

11. Resume power stance (see Step 5). Holding firmly to the bottom edge of the sports bra, pull it away from your body in a downward arc until it grazes your kneecaps. Then, with a scraping motion, drag the sports bra upward along the front of your body, capturing all excess flesh in its path.

12. When the bottom elastic reaches the desired altitude on your rib cage, release it. Then, while holding the top of the sports bra away from your body with one hand, plunge the other hand into the sports bra to distribute and align its contents, which should include both of your breasts.

Note: If you are unable to locate two (2) breasts in the sports bra, do not become alarmed as they are likely nearby. Remove the sports bra (see "How to Take Off a Sports Bra") and return to Step 1 of these instructions.

MORE LISTS

Now that it's been about ten years, I have decided I can handle sharing this unforgettable moment. I had been running every morning with a friend of mine. She was doing Weight Watchers and had been told she needed to do some cross training in order to get the last few pounds off. She decided that we'd start at the pool and do laps for half an hour, then our usual run. I was game. I'd lost several pounds due to her diligence as a running partner and didn't mind the challenge.

So. After swimming laps for half an hour, we headed to the dressing room to change into our running clothes. Luckily we were the only two in the changing room at the time. There weren't really separate areas to change so we basically turned our backs to each other and started the changing process. Trying to be modest, I decided to take my bathing suit only down to my waist, dry the top of me, put on my sports bra and shirt, then continue with the bottom half. Everything started out right, I dried off and grabbed my sports bra and started the process, but my skin was still damp. So when I pulled the sports bra on, it rolled. The farther I pulled, the more it rolled, to the point that it was wrapped around my head with both my arms up, quite stuck; chest hanging out and I couldn't do anything about it. After tugging and pulling a couple times I gave up and asked my dear friend for help. Of course she giggled and untangled my mess of a sports bra. In the process, I had dried quite nicely and was able to pull it down without further problems.

I don't remember swimming and running in the same day after that. If my recollection is correct, we decided it was a bit too much. In order to cross train we'd do one or the other, but not both....Thank Goodness!