Contest time

I think it is time for another contest.

Up until now, our products were available only through an individual Fragrance Designer or by purchasing a Fragrance collection kit from a UB designer's website. Also, when a hostess would hold a workshop, there were always guests that could not attend for whatever reason. These guests would always want a catalog- and we didn't have one. Well, now we do. Let me tell you, they are beautiful and we have several new packages to help you create your own fun and fragrance.

So, with Valentine's Day coming up (14 days and counting- see sidebar), now would be a great time to purchase (or tell your sweetie that you want some UB product) you Valentine's gift.

I have a basket sitting at my house full of unscented Urban Botanic goodies. Leave me a comment between now and Wednesday, Feb 6, 7 pm Mountain time, and I will enter your name in the drawing to win this basket. Send you friends and family my way and get another entry.

The winner will be drawn at 7pm Mountain time on Feb 6th and will win the basket with:

Nourishing body lotion 8oz
Of course the most important feature of your Urban Botanic products is your signature scent. But still, all we hear is ranting and raving about the quality of our Nourishing Body Lotion! What can we say? We designed it to quickly quench your skin's thirst for moisture and nourishment without feeling greasy - your skin still feels good at the end of the day without reapplying! It's completely hypo-allergenic and contains amazing ingredients like Grape Seed Oil, Avocado Oil, Jojoba Seed Oil, Shea Butter, Aloe Vera, and Vitamins A, C, D, & E!

Refreshing Shower Gel 8 oz
Who doesn't love a billowing, silky lather without having to use ¼ bottle of shower gel? Our Refreshing Shower Gel is just that - refreshing… and scented oh-so-perfectly for YOUR morning routine. Hypo-allergenic and gentle as can be.

Parfum Spray 2 oz.
You're going to love your Urban Botanic Parfum Spray. This is a perfume that lasts all day and feels wonderfully silky when you put it on. Our perfume is safer than most because it doesn't contain harsh preservatives like alcohol, formaldehyde, and other scary stuff you'll find in your typical department store perfume. Instead, we use silk amino acids that don't cause irritations and perfume allergies that a lot of people suffer from.

A wonderful back loofah
Pedicure brush and pumice
Assorted other goodies
Pumps for the lotion and showergel

All packaged in a lovely Valentine bag, ready to use yourself or give as a gift. (remember UB products make great gifts for men as well).

I will contact the winner and we will work together to create a fragrance that is Original and Unique, just like you!

Gordon B. Hinkley

A sad day for those of us that belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Our Prophet, Gordon B. Hinkley, passed away tonight. He is a great, great man. I say is, because we know that he is not gone forever, just passed from this mortal realm into the spiritual realm. He is with his beloved Marjorie again.

Here are some links to articles and photos:

Meridian Magazine- favorite photos

KSL Salt Lake City

President Hinckley stories

President Hinckley's Biography

Even more blessings

Or medicine- part 2.

So I told you that my doctor had changed one of my medicines. He had given me samples and when they worked great he went to write me a prescription. However, we could not remember if the sample was the weaker or the stronger of the 2. He wrote the prescription for the stronger. It should have been the weaker. When I got home and realized it, I called and asked his receptionist to have him re-fax the correct prescription to the pharmacy. By Monday evening he hadn't done it yet.

Tuesday evening- no prescription.

Wednesday- not yet

Thursday- nope again.

I called the doctor again because I am totally out and need it in the morning. I talk to his receptionist for a bit and she puts me on hold. She comes back and tells me that they have some samples and why don't I come down and get some. Great, I can do that. Is the dr. going to write me a new prescription, though? Then she says-

Why don't you just come down each month and request samples and we will give them to you.

Really? I can do that? Is it ok? Really?

And then when I got there, she gave me a 7 week supply!

Wow.

Bad News, Good News

I have a couple of chronic diseases and have to inject myself with a medicine called Enbrel once a week. I tell you this not for pity or anything, but because that is what this post is about, the bad news and good news of using Enbrel.

Enbrel is a very, very expensive medicine. However, my medical insurance covers is and my co-pay is only $110/month. Added to the rest of the medicines I have to take my total co-pays each month is over $200. Monday I saw the dr. and he changed one of my medicines and added another and they run in the $30-50 co-pay range.

Well, I get to the pharmacy and the pharmacist tells me, "We did an audit of our medicines and inventory and reconciled it to our records. We discovered that we have been undercharging you for your Enbrel. We have been charging you for only one dose instead of 4 each month. So really we should have charged you $3,200 more. But since it was our mistake, we won't back charge you. However, from now on we will be charging you the correct price, $436.59/month."

Are you kidding me?! There is no way on earth I will ever be able to afford this. So I spent the rest of Monday in a real bad/sad mood. I cried and cried not knowing what I was going to do. It was even suggested to me that I was faking my symptoms. Then it was suggested to me that I was just lazy and why don't I quit crying like a big baby, get off my rear and get a real job so that I could purchase the medicine. Thanks for the support. This was a real dillema for me. Without the medicine, I literally cannot move and eventually my spinal colum and my ribs will fuse together, not to mention the effects of the other disease. So what to do, what to do. Change jobs, stop the medicine, quit living?

What I ended up doing was praying really hard that I could find a solution to this problem.

Forward to Tuesday afternoon. I called the insurance to see if it was really true that my co-pay was $430+. The helpful customer assistant tech that I talked to told me that yes, indeed, my co-pay for my prescription is $436.59. Then he said, "But wait, that is a specialty medicine and I wonder if it would be cheaper if you go through the specialty pharmacy. Let me look that up for you. Can you hold?"

I am thinking that if he could get it for even half I would be happy. He came back on line and said, "Ok, if you continue going to your neighborhood pharmacy a 1 month supply of Enbrel in your dosage is $436.59. But if you were to use the specialty pharmacy you can get a 3 month's supply for $25."

Are you kidding me?! I can continue paying over $400 for 4 injections or I can pay $25 for 12? I may not be a great mathematician, but this appears to be a no brainer to me. All I have to do is have my rheumatologist write me a prescription for a 90 day supply and fax it to the insurance. Then the insurance company will get the paperwork to the specialty pharmacy and my medicine will be delivered to my door.

Next thing I did? A prayer of gratitude for this wonderful solution to my dillema.

Casual Fridays

Is it just me or have the standards for what is acceptable to be seen in changed as well as everyone's attitude about it. I look at the kids at school and wonder this every single day. Now, I am not asking for them to come to school in Sunday best, (though their behavior might change if they did). Nor am I asking that we go back to the time when girls wore only dresses and boys wore dress slacks and button downs. But I am asking for some kind of boundaries here.

We have students that wear their pajama bottoms to school. I don't get this at all. I would be mortified for anyone outside of my family to see me in my pj's. You know the ones made out of flannel that reaches the floor, long sleeves and high neck and all? And they wouldn't even see that because I would have my even longer and higher robe over them. I remember the day after I came home from the hospital after a major surgery. My husband was at work, the boys were all gone to scout camp and the girls were still in bed. I had made my way to the kitchen for some medicine-in my pjs and robe- and the bishop stopped by on his way to work. While granted it was perfectly fine for me to be in my pjs and robe, being sick and all and I was in my own home after all, but I was still very uncomfortable to be granting and audience, as it were, in my nightclothes.

Yesterday one of the students showed up to school in her pj's. Tops as well as bottoms. She even had the fluffy slippers on her feet! She really looked as if she had rolled out of bed, pulled her coat on and came to school. This morning she was wearing the same thing, down to the fuzzies.

I would be a little concerned, or think that she was maybe a bit eccentric if this did not appear to be the norm. As a psych major, I have to wonder if this relaxing of dress standards is a result or a symptom of the relaxing of so many other standards. Students do not speak respectfully to teachers (or each other, I might add), they are constantly tardy, they do not seem to understand that yelling down the hall during class is rude, or why ditching/sluffing is wrong. Not talking while the teacher is talking is also something they don't understand. And when a teacher is reprimanding a student, when did it become acceptable to argue with the teacher?

Before you ask, yes we do have a policy against pajama bottoms at school, but it becomes very hard to enforce when so many are wearing them. Maybe it was the same when girls wanted to wear pants instead of dresses. Sometimes change is good, but for me, I would just as soon leave my private clothes home, in private, not on parade for the whole world to see.

I'm just sayin'

Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want

Book three in the Leven Thumps series.

3 is an odd number. Not in the mathematical, odd man out way, but in the I am different kind of way. 3 just sits there, rocking back and forth between 2 and 4, sortof like a bridge between the two numbers. And when three comes in the form of the third book of a series, odd becomes somewhat confusing. Confusing in the I'm not quite sure where this book is going sense. Maybe what 3 is doing in this case is bridging book 2 and book 4 because I am not sure that it did much else.

I like Leven Thumps. I like the way Obert Skye writes. I like that there is a place called Foo where dreams really do exist. I like that by now, when Obert tells us that the trees got up and moved, we believe it because after all this is the land where dreams live and we all know that in dreams, anything is possible.

What I didn't like about this book of the series is this:

*Clover very rarely made and appearance and when he did, he was mostly invisible and quiet.

*the chapters with Janet. I have no clue what they were doing in the book other than making it longer and taking up space. Maybe they would have felt left out if they had been (left out I mean) and Mr. Skye didn't want to hurt their feelings that way.

*Each chapter felt unfinished to me. It was almost as if a thought was started and then it piddled out before it could complete itself.

*Those chapters that were allowed to complete themselves were mostly about Leven and mostly spent inside Leven's head- too much telling, not enough showing.

I really like Obert Skye's writing style and I like the way he describes things. He is able to give you a visual in a way that you never thought about before, but you get it immediately. But this book really did feel like a filler book, in order to get from point A to point B you have to wade through stuff and you have to know stuff and this book is the stuff book. I am hoping that's what it is, anyway. I would hate to think that with all that is going on in Foo, that Mr. Skye's attention is wandering away.

Here is what is written on Shadow Mountain's web page about the series:

Foo-the place between the possible and the impossible-is a realm inside the minds of each of us that allows mankind the power to hope and imagine and dream. The powerfully gifted Leven Thumps, once an ordinary fourteen-year-old boy from Oklahoma, has been retrieved from Reality and sent to stop those in Foo who are nurturing dark dreams and plan to invade and rule Reality.

At the end of book two, with the help of Leven, Geth was restored from a toothpick to his former self, a great lithen who travels by fate. Winter suffered the loss of her gift—the power to freeze things. Will her new vulnerability be too much to bear? Leven was attacked by the Whispered Secret, and now the Secret has escaped, ready to tell the whole of Foo how sycophants die. Will Leven find Clover before it’s too late?

Hold on to your popcorn! In book three, the war to unite Foo and Reality has begun. Not only must Leven race across Foo to stop the Secret before the deadly truth is revealed, he must travel to the island of Lith, the home of the Want—the manic dreammaster who can give Leven the gifts he needs against a foreboding army of rants and other Foo beings.

If you are willing and have the courage, you’re invited for the next adventure in book three, Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want. Travel to Sycophant Run, survive the Lime Sea, and discover a new gateway to Foo and a threat beneath the soil. The fooseeable adventure will keep Foo fans captivated and wanting more!

Captivated, not so sure. Wanting more, definately, but only if it explains why book 3 was left wanting. (no pun inteneded)

Artwork for your home

Are you looking for some new art to adorn your walls? Do you have that one space in your house where nothing looks quite right? Do you want a new color scheme but are not sure what? Do you know what you want, but can't find it?

I have just the place for you.

modernSHAPE.net abstract geometric paintings by Jacob Brazell.

Here are words from the artist himself:

The singular qualities of line, color, and space have intrigued me for more than a decade. Consequently, my subject matter tends to be non-representational and somewhat geometric. I enjoy creating sophisticated, radically aesthetic images that entice the viewer. Composition and structure are major concerns necessitating countless sketches before picking up a brush. I work deliberately while relying on problems and accidents to revise and go beyond the original drawing. The painting isn’t finished until it looks “right” - a criteria that is always in flux.

Click on each paintings to see it's details. Or you can purchase them here.

Believe me when I tell you that while the paintings are amazing on the website, they do not do justice to the original, in person paintings. I love Jacob's work am thinking about commissioning him to do a piece for my basement.

It's not all in your head!

Why are some people always happy and others always sad and then there are those that are somewhere inbetween? Why is that? Is it heredity, circumstance, a choice, just the way we are, or what? I think that it is a jumbled up mix of all of them. You know, a heaping portion of heredity, add in a cup of circumstance, 1/4 tsp. of choice. Stir them altogether, insert in warm blanket, add a dollop of tears and let stew. Take out of blanket only when life insists that you have to face it head on or the roof will collapse down around your ears.

Or something like that.

I graduated from BYU 3 1/2 years ago with a degree in Psychology. I have been thinking about going back to school to get my masters or Ph.D. but was not sure in what. So I sort of put it on the back burner for a while. I have always loved working with children (hence the education degree, the 7 kids, and now working in a jr. high). I have always been the type of person that people tell things too. And it seems that the things I say or advice or listening ear I give help.

I have been helping a student at school that has some issues to deal with. One of my children has to deal with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) with depression and panic attacks. I deal with depression (we had a lesson about it in church last month- I wasn't there for it, I was too depressed to get out of bed, but heard about it. I'll tell you about it in another post). I even started another blog where my intent was to give helps for dealing with some of these things. So far I have mostly just whined and was thinking last week about getting started on changing it to what I really intended.

Kimberly over at Temporary? Insanity wrote a post on feeling blue. It started me thinking about this whole process again. Then my friend wrote me and asked me about where to go to find help for another of her friends. Then a relative wrote and told me that one of their children was not going to be able to do something that he really wanted to do, because of panic attacks, anxiety and depression.

So in some soul searching, Well not really, it was kind of one of those things I just knew, I have decided to get back to:
* seriously writing and posting on the other blog.
*seriously posting about these issues once in a while here.
*go back to school and get my master's or Ph.D. with an emphesis in Depressive Disorders
because really, when it comes down to it, It's not all in your head. Not everyone can just decide to be happy and be happy and I want to help others cope and deal with life on a real, not superficial or dysfunctional level. We all deserve to live the best life we can. And if I can help you get out of your head on into your life, then maybe today will be just a bit brighter.

I just read Michelle's post today. It is very relevant to this topic.

Just who is it that is running?

This morning as I was getting ready for work, I was listening to the news. They were talking about the presidential primaries, the democrats in particular and Hillary Clinton and Barac Obama in specific.

I was only half listening, putting on eye shadow takes so much concentration, you know. Well it does when you couple it with listening to news, giving 3 teenage boys instructions for the day and at the same time hollering out the poweder room door to the 8 year old still sleeping that she absolutley has to get up NOW!

Anyway, the reports are talking about how both the Clinton campaign and the Obama campaign are complaining that the other is bringing race into the race, blah, blah, blah, and take out the garbage, make your bed, blah, blah, blah, Sweetie you need to move because I am almost ready to leave, blah, blah, blah, Senator Clinton, blah, blah, Senator Obama, which color lipstick do I want today? blah, blah.

Then I hear it. The reporter says, "Well, the Clintons are used to running a race in which they get the majority of the black vote and this poses a problem for them." For them?? I think Why is this plural? But wait, he continued with this vein of thought throught the rest of the interview. They, the Clintons, and He, Obama. Their campaign, their run, their votes, His campaign, His run, His votes. Over and over and over.

Watch it here

So my question is this, who is running for president is it Hillary or Hillary&Bill?

Sweet Sabbath Day of Rest

I am so humbled

I got a blogger award and I didn't even know I was in the running.

Jana (aka Pez Lady) over at Mom Interrupted gave me this award. She gave it to me for the category Bloggers with Integrity award through Staying True to Your Beliefs. All I have to say is, Wow, my first blogger award and it is for integrity. I want to thank Jana for this, but I also want to thank my Mom and Dad for being such great examples to me all my life.

Now I need to award it.

Bloggers with Integrity award through

Creativity: Lindsey over at All that I am

Spirit of Giving: Melody over at Slurping Life

Staying True to Your Beliefs:Anne at 'Twas-Brillig

Keeping it Real: Kimberly at Temporary? Insanity

Social Conscience: Candace over at Dream a little dream with me..

Unsung Lullaby

I won this book during Karlene's Summer Reading Thing. Josi even shipped it to me personally, and I took it with me when I went to San Diego, but I ended up doing most of the driving and didn't get to read it. When we got home, life got in the way and I didn't get to it until Christmas break.

Stepping over the threshold seemed symbolic of a certain level of acceptance- a joining of the hopes and dreams formed within these walls to the bitter reality that those dreams were dead. They would not have a child-not ever.

For years, Matt and Maddie have held onto their hope of becoming parents. Now, suddenly faced with the reality that they will not have a child together, Matt is shocked to discover that the consequences of a past mistake may change their lives forever. Having completed the steps of repentance years earlier, Matt has chosen not to tell Maddie about his prior misuse of intimacy. But how can he tell her now- especially when she seems locked inside her own sorrow? In this story of loss, forgiveness, and perseverance, a romantic beginning transitions into a true love story made stronger through the trials the characters face and overcome together.

Published: May 2006

Josi is a wonderful writer. I love how she paints each and every scene in her books with reality, and this book is no different.

There is the scene where Maddie is mad at God for what is or rather what is not happening in her life and she lets Him know it. I swear Josi tapped into my prayers and captured this one word for word- or maybe this particular prayer is one that we all have to have with the Lord at one point or another in our lives in order to grow.

Or there is the way that Matt talks himself out of listening to the spirit. Which of us hasn't done it and used some of the same reasons ourselves. And the consequences are always worse than they would have been if we had just listened to start with.

Or how about the way Walter was so excited to be able to pick out paint? I could see the expression on his little face when he realized that it would be his, all his. Or when he got to pick out a surprise for Maddie?

And then there were the adoption issues. Been there, felt them and Josi got them exactly right, again.

I really liked this book. It was a quick read, but it wasn't light and frivilous. These people feel real emotions and express them in realistic ways. I felt their highs as well as their despairs. In fact, Matt and Maddie are people I would like to have as friends.

Winter Reading Book list

Unsung Lullaby- Josi Killpack
Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want- Obert Skye
Winter's Heart- Robert Jordan
Candy Shoppe Wars- Brandon Mull
The 13th Reality- James Dashner
A Wrinkle in Time- Madeleine L'Engle

3 words

Let me say about today's driving conditions- 4 Wheel Drive.

I took me 45 minutes to drive the 6 miles to work and I was late. But so were most of the school buses. And now 3 hours later it barely stopped.

But, I do see blue sky so maybe the drive home will not take so long.

Did you see this?

This guy and his wife had to move out of their apartment for a week while it was being fumigated. She went to stay with relatives. He didn't. He made a deal with Ikea, since most of the furniture in their house is from there. He moved in and eats, sleeps, basically lives there. Customers are even "allowed" in his Ikea apartment so long as they take off their shoes.

I am sorry, but I want to visit Ikea and spend time shopping without worrying if I am messing up someone's bedtime or whatever.

Educational accountability

Who, exactly, is responsible for the learning process at school? Is it the teacher, the student, the class as a whole, the administration or perhaps all of the above? What happens when someone doesn't claim their part in the learning process?

The term is ending this week at school. Students are now able to drop/add classes this week. The councelors are also in the process of rearranging schedules for students, adding guided study for those that need it, dropping guided study for those that are wasting their time in here. Teachers are busy getting papers graded, grades entered into the computers, making sure that all final things are done and accounted for. Some of the teachers are even bending over backwards for their students to help them be successful.

One such teacher is our Spanish teacher. She gives her all to her students each and every day. She even gives out her home phone# to her students and their parents so that she is available 24/7 to help with homework if needed. Today she had a student come to her with a drop slip asking to drop Spanish class for the rest of the year. This student is failing Spanish. This student rarely turns in his/her homework, does not bring the required books/papers to class. This student does not come early nor stay after for help. This student also does not use the homeroom period to come to the guided study center for help in Spanish. The reason the student gave for the drop request- "My teacher does not help me enough". The Spanish teacher is feeling hurt about this, but I would say- whose accountability is this?

I was walking down the hall during 1st period today. I heard a teacher giving an assignment to his class. One of the students called out, "Can't we ever do something fun in this class?" Since when is it the educator's job to entertain students? Do we have to make every class period an episode of Nikelodeon? or a game? Now, I am all for making it interesting and I do think that fun has a place, but this is a school, not an amusement park. Does each and every class period really need to be fun filled entertainment in order for the students to be engaged in learning? Whose accountability is this?

Just for the record, I think it is the teacher's responsability to present in a way that does not put students to sleep, but it is also the student's responsability to show up and engage and attempt to put some thought to what is being learned. And if it is fun that day, count it as a bonus.

Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax

"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things:

Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--

Of cabbages--and kings--

And why the sea is boiling hot--

And whether pigs have wings."

From Alice, Through the looking Glass and What She Found There

Complete poem can be found here

For some reason, this has always been my favorite passage from Alice in Wonderland. I especially like it when I have a jumble of unrelated things that are rumbling around in my head. Like today.

*The dr. gave me some new medicine along with the accompanying literature. I am not sure if I want to know the side effects or not because when they show up, how do I know if they are for real or just psychosymatic? Especially the side effects that only show up in .000001 of the population. Am I really always in that population, or just think I am? And if I'm not, then I can just ignore the side effects? Even the ones that say "if this happens get to a dr. or emergency room immediately"?

*Apparantly women only wear earrings during the Christmas season. I think I mentioned earlier that I had to go on a jewlery diet as my jewlery population was exploding. I need a new earring holder. I got the one I have when I was 13. So I headed to my local Wal-Mart to get one. They didn't have any and I was told that it is a 'seasonal item" and in stock only te 4 weeks before Christmas. After that, they are not sold there until the next Dec. The woman at the jewelry counter at Target had never heard of an earring holder- didn't have a clue what it was.I asked her where women usually put their earrings and she said, "In a jumbled mess in a jewelry box." Claires also only carries them at Christmas time. The Organization Place carries them, but they sell out within an hour of getting them in. I wonder why?

So I went to Ikea and got two of these:

and a set of these:

I am going to put the hooks in my closet and hang one of the baskets from one of the hooks. My necklaces can go on the other hooks. My bracelets can go inside the basket and then, because the basket is soft, I can put my earrings hanging on the outside of the basket.

Sweet Sabbath Day of Rest

I am not one that makes New Year Resolutions. If something in my life needs changed for whatever reason, I think I should take stock and make the change then, not just because the calendar says to. But if I were to make a resolution, I think that I would talk more about my religion and faith in Jesus Christ.

On Dec. 15, 2007, Elder M. Russel Ballard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, told the graduating class at BYU-Hawaii that conversations about the church were going to take place whether we as members participated or not. (see talk here)

What I was thinking was this, those of you that read my blog and are of my same religion, know what I believe. However, those of you that are not of my religion possibly do not know what my church teaches. With Mitt Romney so prevelant in the spotlight right now, you may have some questions. I would like to help you with those, so fire away. Otherwise, on Sundays I am going to try to blog about whatever feels right that day regarding my faith.

We do not have a paid ministry, but instead we have a lay ministry and the Sunday sermons are preached by the congregation. Our clergy is made up of a bishopric and his two councelors. These men choose 2-3 members each week to speak to and teach us regarding a doctrine of our faith. Except on the first Sunday of the month.

On the first Sunday of the month, such as today, the time is given to the congregation to bear testimonies of faith. That being the case, today I would like to bear my testimony to each and every one of you.

I know that Jesus is the Christ. He is my Savior and my Redeemer. He lived upon this earth. He gave of Himself, a sacrifice for sin and sorrow. He atoned for me, personally. Because of this atonement, I am able to repent when I transgress. Because of this atonement, I will be able to one day live with my Father in Heaven again.

I know that the scriptures were given to us to help us and guide us here on the earth. I know that we have a prophet here on the earth today. I know that he talks with Heavenly Father and receives guidence for us. I also know, that I am able to also recieve guidence from my Heavenly Father if I will humble myself and ask for it. I am thankful for this coming year and the opportunity we have to spend it studying the Book of Mormon in our Sunday School classes.

I love my family, my parents for all that they taught me and their guidance as I was growing up and their continued guidance today. My siblings and their examples to me and their love no matter what. My children, my two stripling warriors- my they be as steadfast and obedient as Helaman's sons- my two daughters who bring laughter into my life, and the other three boys who are growing into men of God, strong and faithful.

This is my testimony, that God lives and loves us. Jesus is The Christ. And I testify of these things to you in the name of Him, amen.

Friends

I got a phone call from the compassionate service leader in our ward, the other night. She called me at about 9:30. She never calls that late. Then she told me that Ganell Newman had died. I had just been thinking about Ganell and how I hadn't heard from her in a while and surely her son would have let me know if she had passed on.



Let me tell you a bit about Ganell. She and her husband owned the 5 acre farm that shared our back yard fence. When we were looking at houses to buy, that was the major selling point for me- a farm to look out at instead of 20-40 houses. We had the horses and cows coming to the fence and the kids would feed them carrots. There was a ditch that ran along the fence line and the kids would rig up "fishing poles"- sticks with string tied to them- and fish for fish that didn't exist. But they loved it.



Ganell sort of adopted me and my kids, all of her grandkids lived 100's of miles away. Ganell loved children. She even volunteered at a local elementary school. Ganell always made sure that she brought by a batch of whatever she was baking that day. Or a grocery sack of whatever her husband had harvested from the garden. She would come out back and we would talk through the fence. She even loved our dog. Even when he would climb our wood pile and jump the fence into her yard. She always said he was a "happy Mary Poppins kind of dog".

I always knew when it was time to spray the fruit trees, or till the garden or plant , because I just watched the Newman's. Ganell had the most beautiful rosebushes and her yard always smelled wonderful when they bloomed.



Then her husband had a stroke and could no longer take care of the farm. They decided to sell the farm to the church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints) but the deal wouldn't go through until after Clarence had passed on, which he did in just a couple of months. That was a really hard time as I helped Ganell pack up some of her belongings. Then her youngest son and his wife were able to come help her with the rest, and she moved to a retirement community in Northern Utah to be next to them. Her home was bought by a developer who moved it a block and renovated it and a wonderful family live there now and a churchhouse was built on those 5 acres.


You know what the last thing Ganell did for me while she still lived in the home? She gave me every single one of her rose bushes. They now line the front flower bed at my home. I think of her every time I weed, prune or smell a flower from them. They are there with my children's great-grandmother's roses and I love them.

We promised to write each other and stay in contact. And we did. Then slowly I let life get in the way until the monthly letters became a card on her birthday and one at Christmas. And then it dawned on me the other day that I had not sent her a card for the last 2 Christmases and I hadn't heard from her in about that long as well. I made a mental note to be sure and write her the first of the year- when I wasn't so busy.

Then Wed. evening the compassionate service leader in my ward called to tell me that Monday Ganell was able to leave this world and return to her loving Heavenly Father and her husband and many other friends and family members. The funeral will be in our ward building, the one built where her house used to stand. I know she is happy to be with her mother again as well as her siblings. But she will still be missed here.

Twilight revisited

I am moving some of Tawnya's points from the comment section of the last blogpost to the body of this post because she makes some good points and I want to discuss them a bit more.



good story, horrible writing & typos but somehow you wanted to keep reading and see how it ends. Even through her horrid writing, she still taps into that teenage girl fantasy with the story.

I think this is why it is so popular with the girls at the jr. high. There are not a lot of good stories out there for this age group, and Stephanie Myers does do a good job of capturing what appeals to them.



I hated Jacob as a character and thought New Moon was pointless, didn't mind Bella as much as others did, thought Edward was a good character. Esme and Alice were my favorite, though.

Pretty much how I felt. I really loved Esme, she was my all time favorite and I would love to have Alice as a friend. I wish we could have seen a bit more interaction between Bella and her other friends, though.



I thought the town not seeing the vampires was ok. Lots of kooky things happen that I ignore & you tend to see what you want to see. Not a big stretch to me. Besides. We're talking vampires. A little suspension of disbelief is needed, right?

Ok, you are right about the suspension of disbelief. I don't have a problem with there being vampires living among them, I had no problem with it at all when I read "Sunshine". But of course, in that book everyone knew they existed. I guess my real problem is that I really have a problem with stories, movies, etc. where the children are all smarter then the adults and never need the adults to help them out and the children never turn to the adults in their lives for advise etc.



Teenage love angst? Again, pretty realistic, but WAYYYYYY overdone. Not to mention that a high school girl is the least likely to see a 'destructive' relationship (not that I agree with you on that point...not every high school fling needs intervention!).

Again, I agree with you that a high school girl is least likely to see it and not every h.s. fling needs intervention, but when it ends and you shut down and/or self desctruct... And where oh where are the adults in her life? Well, I guess for all intents and purposes, Bella is the only adult in her life. Her parents pretty much checked out as soon as she was born. I guess I expected her to be "grown-up" in this area as well and was dissapointed when she wasn't. I still see it as a bad relationship if she needs Edward in order for her to be a whole person.





You aren't the first one to mention how Edward is 100+ old & should 'know' better. I didn't get that at all. Yes, he's been around awhile, but how do your sensibilities stop when you are made into a vampire at 17? He isn't really a 100 year old. He's still 17 in many ways. No matter how many years have passed.And I'm hoping a little of Edwards Victorian standards are throw out the window with the next one...

Ok, valid point- not a 100+ year old but a 17 year old having the same experience for over 100 years. But still, he should have learned something about the world in those years. And the reason I liked his Victorian standards are the fact that jr. high girls love these books. We really don't want them acting like Bella in the end of Eclipse in order to show some boy how much she loves him. There is already too much of this going on, so I appreciated some show of restraint.

Twilight series review

I finally read these three books the first week of Dec. but am just now getting around to my review of them. December gets kind of crazy that way.

Every single girl at the jr. high (or so it seems) is either in the process of reading, waiting for, just finished one or more of these books. It seems to be a favorite topic of discussion. In August and September Twilight, Bella, Edward, Jake seemed to be all that you heard. The series was on the best seller lists, copies at the library were hard to come by and you had to be on a waiting list that was almost as long as a Harry Potter waiting list.

With all of that I was ready to be blown away with a great series. I wasn't. Don't get me wrong, it was a good story though it did follow the formula for this type of story- girl moves to new town, falls in love with the outcast boy, they break up she pines for him, they get back together, face danger and resolve it by the end of the third book.

Stephanie Myers tells a good story, I did get roped into the story and want to know what was going to happen next. And her conversations did not sound written, scripted or stilted, they sounded real. But really, that many people live in a town and have no clue whatsoever that it is populated by vampires and werewolves. Bella is the only one in how many years to figure this out? Are the people in Forks really that stupid?

Twilight- I read it in 2 days. I felt like there was a good story there, but I got so sick of Bella's constant whining. As a friend of mine said, "90 pages of good story and the rest is just stupid teenage angst".

New Moon- I could have totally skipped this book. I found it kind of pointless. Again Bella spends the book either moping around feeling sorry for her self and obsessing over Edward (signs of a destructive and unhealthy relationship, some one intervene please!) or she is bent on destroying herself with Jacob's help. I think this entire book could have been 3-4 chapters in the beginning of Eclipse.

Eclipse- Again with the incessent whining and self sacrificing. Come on- Edward is how many hundreds of years old, but he hasn't learned anything about relationships in that time. Surely he watched a few episodes of Oprah or Dr. Phil somewhere along the line. At least he still has his Victorian standards. And Jacob, please, enough of the feeling sorry for ourselves and the macho I know more than my elders and will save the world all by my self.

In the end, these three books were an ok read, an ok story but didn't live up to their hype for me. And they made me so glad that I am no longer in high school and having to deal with the insecurities and cockiness of that age.

Would I recommend these books. Yes.

Would I say that they are a "must read"? No And I would say, borrow them, don't buy them.