find your look

I've been reading a couple chapters of Tina Fey's autobiography Bossypants when I get in bed at night. I end up giggling to myself, by the light of my booklight, like a crazy person. Sounds a little creepy I know. But just let me just give you a tiny taste and you'll understand.

"It can't be said enough. Don't concern yourself with fashion; stick to simple pieces that flatter your body type. 
By 19, I had found my look. Oversize T-shirts, bike shorts, and wrestling shoes. To prevent the silhouette from being too baggy, I would cinch it at the waist with my fanny pack. I was pretty sure I would wear this look forever. The shirts allowed me to express myself with cool sayings like 'There's No Crying in Baseball' and 'Universtat Heidelberg', the bike shorts showed off my muscular calves, and the fanny pack held all my trolley tokens. I was nailing it on a daily basis. Find something like this for yourself as soon as possible." 

Do you see the type of invaluable information this book has to offer? Love it. That Tina Fey and I share our sense of fashion. However, when I went through that phase I was only about 8 years old. (Though I must say, thanks to the cycle of fashion, today's trends are not too far off the mark).

The Book Thief

Of all the hundreds of books I've read, very few are able to really just take my emotions, grab them in their hands, and use them at their will. This book was one of them.

At times I felt complete despair; yet there were others I felt so full of love, pride and happiness, my heart wanted to burst. There were times my eyes were welled full of tears and I didn't know how I could bring myself to keep turning the pages. Times that I was so thorougly captivated by the prose, I was on the very edge of my seat and literally felt like I was down inside the bomb shelter hearing the sirens wailing. There were many times where I was up til the silent hours of the night reading in bed with my booklight. And most of all, times where I would close the book for the night, stare at my husband and baby sleeping so peacefully, then give them big kisses and hold them with all my might.

Because I do not think the summary on the back does the book justice (or even touches the surface of the book's story) I am going to attempt to give a quick synopsis in my own words (don't worry, no spoilers).

The book is narrated from the perspective of death, who is weary and exhausted from being overworked during the WWII years. As he travels down to earth to collect souls, occassionally a certain person or story would strike his attention. In this scenario it was Liesel Meminger, a 13 year old girl who is dropped off to live with foster parents in Molching, Germany. It is from a third person view of her life that we watch Hitler rise to power, Nazi Germany in full force, a Jew hidden in the basement, the air raids of WWII, and friendship, love, life, death, sorrow and happiness. We witness Liesel (who does not know how to read at the beginning of the book) realize the power of words and that they are Hitler's means of fighting the war. We watch her use words to defy him, fight back, and save people rather than wound them. Amidst all of this, we watch her grow, find courage, and develop touching relationships.

This subject is one that's hard for me in the first place. It is so extremely difficult for me to comprehend people so out of touch with the spirit, that fellow human life meant nothing to them. It shatters my heart that any person could look at another (regardless of race, color, religion) and feel not an ounce of remorse in destroying them, their families, their relationships. I think it sums it up well when death says, "I am haunted by humans." I love the irony in his statement. We are all so fearful of death, yet what humanity is capable of is terrifying. While death haunts our thoughts and sleep, humans haunt his.

The truly great thing about this book, is that it's able to take such a dark period of history and show the beauty that existed within it. The incredible love, courage, and sacrifice that often gets overshadowed in the textbooks. The people whose hearts were so big, their love was able to overcome the fear and they would sacrifice everything for the sake of it.

If you haven't read this book yet, I would highly recommend to go do it. It will take you on a roller coaster ride and make you question which character you would have been.

I just found this *fanmade* trailer online. Doesn't watching it just send chills down your spine? I had to click play again as soon as it ended the first time. Note it is not the actual movie, because they havent started production on it (it is clips from other movies), but it gives you an idea of the story's intensity. I am actually a little dissappointed it is being turned into a movie, just because there is so much depth that film won't be able to capture. Still excited to see it come to life though.

The Help

I just finished the book The Help this morning. Very touching and thought provoking book, almost brought me to tears a couple times. I had a hard time holding it back during the last 15 pages!

 Anyway, my friend Anna posted the trailer on facebook tonight. (Check it out!) I had no idea a movie was even being made of it! Needless to say I can't wait for August! However, I am little skeptical about their casting choice for the main character, Skeeter. They've chosen Emma Stone (and I guess it's hard for me to picture her outside her previous roles in Superbad and Easy A). She just doesn't seem to fit the role to me - physically or personality-wise. Her attitude is much sassier and sarcastic than I perceived Skeeter to be. For those of you who have read it, what do you think? I am not making any judgments yet, I am interested to watch the film and see if wins me over. Definitely an interesting choice though!

If you haven't read the book, I'd highly recommend it!

Hmmm...

I saw the most "interesting" discussion earlier on Good Things Utah (Utahs version of The View) that I couldn't help but post about it. They advertised the segment by saying "Stay tuned to see what addiction women are struggling with - the equivalent of pornography for women." So I'm thinking... shopping? tanning? working out? You know, the normal addictive behaviors for women.

Turns out their guest speaker was talking about reading. At first they began by saying "romance novels" (which would make more sense), but upon further clarification they explained they meant books like Twilight. She was crazy! She went on to say how women are getting addicted to being "turned on" by Edward, to the point that they are holding their spouses up to an impossible standard, and even failing to get turned on in their real life relationship anymore. Wow. wow. I don't know who the people are that led to this lady being on the air, but they must be some unbelievable Twi-hards.

Her thesis was that men are very visual and women are emotional, therefore reading is our porn.

THEN she said we should moderate how much we let our children read, in order to prevent them from getting unrealistic expectations about life and relationships, and to prevent them from getting turned on at too young of an age.

Here is my argument with this whole ludicrous theory:
We might as well ban every romantic movie ever made for "giving girls unrealistic perceptions of life." Ladies probably shouldn't have fantasized about Clark Gable all those years ago, considering it supposedly has such ramifications in marriages.

I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. haha. Forget about enchancing your literary knowlege, increasing your vocabulary, cultivating yourself, and learning the power of creativity and imagination... apparently reading is something that we should limit for our children these days. I am all for censoring the content of what they are reading, but other than that I will fully encourage reading in our home. I would so much prefer my children read than waste their life away in front of a TV or video game.

Anyway, I just got a kick out of that interview and thought I would share!

*In the defense of Good Things Utah, the show is not normally so odd and I enjoy watching it. They just happened to have a special guest on today :-)

Yours Truly

I never wanted my blog to become one of those that only posts pictures and updates about their babies, that no one particularly cares to read besides family. I am realizing though how quickly it's becoming that way. It's hard because you are so excited and in love with your little bundle of joy that you can't help but gush! And let's be honest, what life of her own does a stay at home mom really have left in that first while after bringing a new baby home? Unless you want to read about how walking to the mailbox to check the mail, and going to the dumpster on the other side of the parking lot have become eventful enough that I actually look forward to it each day?

It is late and both Jared and Emmett are asleep. I should probably be sleeping too, but it's hard to close my eyes when this moment of pure, interrupted peace is so rare. And so, for the sake of my blog, and for that little part of "me" that is down there hibernating somewhere, I am going to try to dig down deep and post what little I can pick out of my brain that doesn't have to do with bills, diapers, Jareds school schedule, or the sink full of dirty dishes.

Yesterday while I was clearing out the last of the medical bills I've had stacked up on my kitchen counter (yes, I had so many that it's taken me 8 months to deal with all of them. Thank goodness the state is footing the bill for my million dollar baby!), I came across three giftcards to Target clear back from our wedding. When we moved to Utah I wanted to bring them with us just in case there was a balance on any of them. I got online and found out that I had $90 on one of them! I was totally surprised, and so grateful I fought the urge to chuck them! So tonight we went to Target and bought a whole bunch of bath/toiletry items we're out of, and the board game Stratego. An entire cart full of stuff and not a penny out of my bank account! I was stoked. Not to mention, I'm a product junkie so my new bath stuff gives me a little bit of excitement. There's just something about new conditioner to wash your hair with, and new shaving cream to shave your legs with that gives a girl something to look forward to!

Speaking of beauty stuff, this past weekend I splurged and went and got a pedicure with my sister Kaity. And here I am 4 days later, the nail polish is already missing off my big toe and my pinky toe! I am so mad! Who pays $25 to have nail polish put on that lasts 3 days? I could have got better results with a 99 cent bottle of nail polish at home! And it's not like I've spent money and time on myself often lately, which just makes me that much madder! I think I'm going to march back down to the nail salon and tell them their nail polish was poor quality and insist that they repaint my toes! I don't mess around.

I recently read "The Other Boleyn Girl" and have since been fascinated by the history of Anne Boleyn. She was King Henry VIII's mistress who schemed to work herself into the Queens's throne, and eventually ended up getting executed with charges of adultery, incest, and even witchcraft. It was alleged that Anne wanted so badly to carry the Kings son (and thus ensure her position as queen) that she slept with her brother George hoping he could impregnate her. Both she and George were beheaded along with an entire group of men at court, with accusations that Anne had committed adultery with them all. It is still unknown whether these accusations have any truth. It is possible that Anne was so determined to rise to power that  she basically "sold her soul to the devil", but then again Henry VIII had about seven wives during his life (at least I think it's seven) and had to find ways to get rid of the old one when he found a new replacement. So who knows? I just don't think she really could have done that, I'm skeptical. If she did, she puts todays golddiggers to shame!

Anyway I should probably go to bed but thanks for listening to the ramblings of my crazy, chaotic mind! Hopefully it was somewhat entertaining. Until next time!