22 Read, 18 Started.

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety. Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Ani

I have recently discovered that I am a god,

a bird,

and a prefix for a Tibetan nun.

Go figure.

Springville living

We are finally moved! Usually, moving is a way stressful experience for most people, but with every box I moved I felt better!

Oriental cravings

I should not blog while hungry. Seriously, it's bad, there are so many good recipes I've found and so little time and energy to make them with!. Today's kick is oriental food.

I am aching to try this lovely looking Wonton Tutorial by Gourmet Fury. Seriously! Don't they look so good! And so easy too! I have some boneless ribs at home that would be wonderful for it. The wonton wrappers you can get at just about any grocery store in the special produce section (walmart has them for sure).

I'm loving homemade sushi as of late! It's a lot easier to roll than I was expecting, and I love being able to put only what I want on it. There are some great video tutorials on Youtube that are great for learning how to roll it on your own. It's actually a pretty affordable meal at home depending on what you use. Alan and I love a California roll (rice on the outside) with crab, (we use imitation, I know, shame on us, but it's way cheaper and a lot easier to work with) cream cheese, avocado, and cucumber! It's especially good with a little eel sauce and a touch of spicy mayo. *EDIT: If you are looking for an alternative to the seaweed wrap for your sushi, you can use this really simple egg wrap.

My only problem with it is that I'm having real difficulty finding a good sushi rice recipe. I use a rice cooker, so the good recipes that don't require a bunch of ingredients are currently eluding me. If anyone knows of a good one please let me know!

I love the adorable little Bento boxes from Lunch in a Box. She totally makes me want to get up an hour early to make Alan and I one for work. She lists prep time for each of her boxes (most are half an hour or less, though they would probably take me significantly longer, hence the hour early for work), and there's almost 100 pages of bento goodness on her site!

I think the kitty's legs are mozzarella cheese or possibly tofu, but I could be mistaken.

(And yes, that adorable thing in the corner of the bagel box is an OctoDog, with the tutorial on that link)

Most of the dividers are silicone, so they bend and mold around the other food. My favorite are the silicone cupcake liners, because they are multi-purpose, and according to the great Alton Brown, the only single-purpose item that should be in the kitchen is the fire extinguisher.

If you're looking for a great date night with a fun twist, I love Sam Hawks Korean Restaurant in Provo, Utah. It doesn't look like much at all, but the food is SO GOOD! I love the beef Bulgogi

It's a korean BBQ beef that is to die for! You wrap it in lettuce with rice, kimchi, and other awesome goodies. If you're going in a group (5 or more) it's a good idea to call ahead and let them know you're coming, also if you know what you want order it then. They're a really small restaurant, but they are so worth the wait!

Yum!!

Creative laced tank/vest tutorial

I am planning to make one of these

With this tutorial by Ucreate

I'll probably also do it in black, with a stretchy jersey knit for the bottom rather than the lace like the example pic, Though I'm still deciding which colors to do it in. I seriously just need to spend a day of sewing at my parent's place, because my mom has the most fabulous collection of fabric, sewing machines, and crafting paraphernalia I've ever seen. One of these days Alan will have his tricked out garage and I will have my craft room sanctuary, but for now, I am happy to drive the half an hour over to their house, rather than dig my sewing machine out and re-thread it with the black, white, or brown thread that I have available.

Sewing machine

I never though to wonder, but it's cool to really know how it works now.

Babehs!

Hello, I'm Ani, and I'm baby hungry.

Scoff if you wish, but I think it qualifies as an addiction. Poor Alan has to hear about it all the time, especially when I tear up at little things like Playskool commercials or clips of babies on AFV.

I was watching a documentary the other day called The Business of being Born, and I can honestly say it's one of the best "alternative birth" (watch the documentary and you'll see how ironic that term is) documentaries I have ever seen. Sadly, that's probably because it's the ONLY one that is publicly available.

As a warning, this is a documentary about birth, so there are naked women giving birth everywhere, and you should not watch it if you have objections to boobs, bellies, butts, and baby heads. Netflix totally has it in their instant queue, so if anyone doesn't want to spend the $8 for the DVD from amazon.com you can totally come over to my house and watch it with me for the 5th time (seriously, it never gets old, and I learn so much every time I watch it).

I really really wish that I could find a doctor and a midwife as good as the ones Abby Epstein had in the documentary. I have NEVER seen a doctor that is that enlightened about birth. He admits that most births have no need for a doctor's intervention, and that outcomes for the vast majority of women (above 90%) who do not have serious complications, are BETTER outside of a hospital. Doctors are wonderful and necessary for those that need the medical intervention, and I wouldn't give them up for the world, but I do agree that medical intervention has gone too far.

I am so grateful for the wonderful advancements that medicine has made over the past few years. Lets face it, C-sections have saved a bunch of women and babies that would have not survived without that medical intervention, but they are actually part of the cause of our high infant and mother mortality rate. In the developed world (England, Germany, New Zealand, ect.) the US has the second to worst infant and mother mortality rate. In Europe and Japan, midwives deliver 70 percent of all births; in the U.S. midwives deliver a mere 8 percent of births. Coincidence? I think not!

Some may ridicule me for speaking out about this, having never had a baby myself, and yet, I have more experience than most first year medical students. I have been in attendance at 1 hospital birth and 3 home births, and I can honestly say that the atmosphere was so incredibly different. In one, there was screaming, yelling, medical malpractice, major bleeding, anxiety, exhaustion, and panic. In the other, calmness, peace, comfort, and better care for the infant and mother. Can you guess which one was which? In my experience, the home births were by far a better environment to bring a baby into the world.

Kind of a roundabout way of getting to it, but I am looking for a midwife. Because of the lack of demand for them, there are relatively few of them that can remain in practice for long enough to gain much experience, and the ones that do usually have mega long waiting lists, hence the looking before I'm pregnant. I'm also looking for a doctor who would be ok being my backup if something does happen to go wrong, so if you know one I would be happy to hear about them as well!

*Grump*

I dare you not to laugh. I just dare you.

I’ve decided that I’m going to be happy.

I've decided that I'm going to be happy.

I <3 John Bytheway! I know that most of his stuff is for teenagers, but the principals and stories he relates have just as much application in adult situations. For example, one of my favorites of his is "What I wish I'd known when I was Single". In it, he talks about people who interject their singleness into every situation.

"Hey, are you going to the concert this weekend?"

"Well, I really wish I had someone to go with, but I don't because I'm single"

Or

"Can you believe the construction on I-80 lately?"

"Yeah, the traffic gives me time to think about how I'm still single"

At first I laughed at it, but you know what? I realized that I'm that same way about pregnancy and babies. Maybe not quite that bad, but pretty close.


There's another part that stuck out to me, when he said that "An unhappy single person will almost never, by the simple act of becoming married, become a happy person" and it made me think, I'm somewhat unhappy right now without kinds, and I was definitely unsatisfied with being single, so what makes me think that just having kids will make me happy? I was an unhappy single person and I am not a very happy married person right now, so what needs to change?

The answer my friends, is that I need to change. Aubrey mentioned in her blog that happiness is more like a habit, and I wholeheartedly agree with her. There isn't a magical happiness fairy that sprinkles happiness on our lives like the last missing ingredient in a killer casserole. Happiness is like the hearty, homegrown-with-love starter ingredients. A little bit of paprika happiness is not going to help if your macaroni is rotten.


Call it a mid-year's resolution, but I am going to get into the habit of being happy. Not "I've got to put on a happy face for my friends" happy, but genuinely in-love-with-life happy. I think the biggest part of it will be getting out of my routine some more, and for Alan and I to spend more time among the living.

Wish me luck!

Jeremiah was a bullfrog!

It's amazing how influential music can be. I've woken up on the wrong side of the bed the past few mornings, and this morning was no different. I didn't take a shower because there is no water pressure (a pipe burst at out apartment complex Saturday, and still has not been fixed despite 2 plumbers), and I really wasn't in the mood to pour a few pitchers of water over my head, or wait for the tub to fill up. I loath baths unless they are specifically for the purpose of relaxation because I don't feel clean enough after taking one.  Anyways, I was driving to work and up popped Jeremiah was a bullfrog!  It's amazing how much of a difference a good mood song can make!  My whole day was just that much better because of it!

Everything Android

At the request of Shambray, this is a more detailed description of why I love android phones

The apps

Android allows you to download apps to your phone, just like the iphone (iOS) does, but there are some different pros and cons

+Most of the apps are free with Android

+ you can download a bunch of them, just depends on how much space you have on your phone

+ there is no restriction to the apps that can be developed with Android like there is with the ios. If there is already a similar app, iOS will not allow the second one, even if it's a better app. This means that Android has more duplicates, but you can find the one you like the best. Also, since there is more freedom with an app being released, the prices are generally lower to increase popularity of one over the other.

- Most apps cannot be downloaded and used from your memory card, they must be downloaded to the phone memory, so you cannot just increase your space to store more apps. I usually go through and switch out apps for games and such about once every 2 weeks

-There are less apps currently on the Android market than there are on the iOS market.

- Some apps really REALLY drain your battery, and the battery life is pretty short on my phone.

As far as apps I love:

Farm Frenzy - Game

One of the best live action games on the market, this one was so worth the full version (less than $3). You buy and raise farm animals, and produce different things with what they give you (IE, sheep give you wool, which you spin into thread, then weave into cloth). It has a bunch of levels, and you can set up multiple users with the full version. My siblings always steal my phone when I come over just so they can play this game.

ShopSavvy- Shopping barcode scanner

Anytime I see any shiny new electronic (cameras, laptops, dvds) I whip out this app, scan in the item, and find both locally and online (usually for nearly half the price on amazon.com). It even links up with the site it finds the item on, so I can order it right then and there. I'm amazed at how many barcodes it has stored, as I find almost everything from food to clothes to electronics quickly and easily. This is actually the app that inspired me to get my Android phone.

Google Maps - Maps/navigation

This app saves my butt on a fairly regular basis. Alan has his gps and I have my phone. I can pull the address from my contacts, and then it will give me turn by turn directions to the location.

The voice is a little robotic sounding, and it sometimes gives more information than needed (did you know there are apparently 5 different names for Geneva road?) but it does a great job in getting me where I need to go, and I don't need to lug around yet another piece of equipment around.

*In case you can't tell, I am really really proud of that picture

This one's for you Shambray!

Now seems like a good time to promote some lovely tutorials by some fabulous people.

First, this Family Tree picture frame by The Bird's Papaya

So cute! This would be adorable with pictures of each family member!

Secondly, this Receiving Blankets Baby Wrap by Shannon Makes Stuff

Her design is so cute and definitely would help keep your little ones snugly wrapped!

A shout-out to my peeps

A shout-out to my peeps

1. My wonderful Husband

Alan, you are the best man in the whole wide world! You put up with my crap, and don’t even complain about it (for the most part ~_^). I am so grateful that you are a part of my life, and I don’t know what I’d do without you. Some people will pull out that cheesy line “I married my best friend” and you know what? I did! I can talk with you about everything, and you understand me better than just about anyone else. I love that with a look we can read each other’s minds about certain situations (the tramp ten-year-olds in the grocery store) and that our plans for the future are so in harmony. I love that you tear up when you talk about our future kids, and that your love and loyalty for your friends and family knows no bounds. I love how safe and protected you make me feel, and how your eyes light up when you see me. I love that our strengths and weaknesses complement each other, and how selflessly dependable you are. I can’t believe that in 11 days we will have been married for two years! The time has flown by and I can’t believe how lucky I am that I get to spend the rest of eternity with you!

2. My tolerant neurotic dog

Oh poor Cleo! The things you put up with when your owners are baby hungry! You’ve been dressed in sweaters, shoved in purses, dragged with us all over the place, and you still are hopelessly devoted and sweet. And yes, you do have your own facebook page, because you’re just that cool.

I love you guys!

Android

Have I mentioned before how fabulous Android is? Oh let me count the ways!

I got my first android phone back in April of 2009. The G1, which I still have to this day (I plan to switch to sprint when my contract expires) is rather clunky, but totally worth it for the touch screen, plus the full keyboard which I LOVE.

I've had it in a case with a screen protector nearly every minute since I got it, and I would recommend it to everyone! It is so worth the extra bulk. I am someone who is prone to dropping a new phone seconds after I pay for it, so it was definitely worth it for me.

I won't go over all of the lovliness of the Android market, because it's basically old news, but I will mention the app that initiated this post: Kindle for Android!

I mean, honestly, is this not amazing! I personally am not one of those people who are Nazi's about having a physical book - I'm way more about convenience. I read books on my phone all the time right now, but I've been limited as to which books were available for cheap. One of my main reservations with the kindle is that it's freaking expensive, so you have to buy a ton of books to justify the cost of the reader. With this, I can get the books for cheap, they're with me wherever I go, and that also means one less piece of technology that I need to carry around with me.

I think this illustrates my point, and those are just some of the things that it can do! So for all those people that complain that Android phones are clunky, I say to you neener-neener!

I'm way excited about it! I've already ordered Mockingjay on it, so it will automatically upload to my phone when it releases, and is about half the price of buying the book in the store, or ordering it online with same day shipping.

Ani=content

Buying a car...A better approach.

This is awesome!

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=162601&t=1941590

Wishes, Dreams, and "What if?"

I get my hopes up way too easily.

I was watching Star Wars (yes, all of them) the other day. Many people have found such deep personal revelation and insight from the series, and I guess it was about time for me.

I would not make a good Jedi. I live far to much in the future, looking forward to the "When we have money" or "When we have kids" or "When we have a house". I suppose I've always been this way, only it's been "When I have a boyfriend" or "When I have a good job" or "When I have my degree" or "When I get married". I missed most of the opportunities available in my first year of marriage, because I was too obsessed with the future to enjoy what I have. I have a wonderful husband who loves me more than anything, a hopelessly devoted puppy dog, family on both sides that care about me, a wonderful job that I enjoy and do well at, and wonderful people wherever I go.

I still can't help wishing sometimes. I can't help just hoping that one of our big dreams actually comes true. It's not like they're outside the realm of possibility, far from it. We may get carried away in the details, but every one of our wishing have a basis in an actual opportunity that has been waved tantalizingly in our faces, but for one reason or another the bottom has completely fallen out of it. And I'm getting really sick and tired of getting back on that horse.

If wishes were fishes mine would probably look like this.

Hair!

I've been wanting a change for a while, so I convinced Jessica to give me a cut and color.

Before:

Ok, so I was out camping in this picture, so it's not the best one, but still...

During:

Without a doubt, I have the best radio reception in town!

After:

Blonde!

Because I haven't colored my hair in a while, it's really bright in this picture. It's faded slightly now that it's been through a few washings. I love it!

I also found some pretty, easy to do hairstyles here and here from I am Momma, hear me ROAR! She has a ton of really cute stuff that is definitely work checking out!

Flaming Gorge - only 3 more days of work!

I am so excited! I have been waiting for this trip for such a long time!

I'm also freaking out, because, let's face it, I'm sure I'm going to miss something. Fortunately I have saner heads involved when it comes to food, so I won't spend $50 on fruit rollups and forget something crucial like chicken. I'm planning on going shopping through my mom's pantry for part of our foodstuffs, and we'll head to costco, where she will be the only one allowed to put anything in the cart. We'll see how that goes!

In other news, our cars are almost fixed! The Sentra's strut issues will be fixed tomorrow, and I'll be taking our rodeo in to get the gear shift welded back on. Yes, this is the same gearshift that we were supposed to get fixed when I broke it off in December. We've just had a screwdriver stuck in there for a temporary fix, but I'm getting sick and tired of it. Plus, it's the one we're actually taking with us, so it's important that I can stand driving it.

On the trip we will probably be listening to New Moon, at Alan's request. He's watched all the movies with me, and wanted to know all the details that are in the books, but not in the movies. We've listened to Twilight already, and Alan is DEFINITELY on team Edward ~_^ Funny that he's chosen a side, while I'm still comparing the two. Ok, I take that back, he's primarily on Emmett's side, because he think's that Emmett is the best character, but I digress...

I have been really worried about my camera on this trip. I ordered this lovely bundle for it, which should arrive today! Our poor camera has been out of commission for months, because we haven't been able to find the battery charger. I really want to take it with us on the raft, but I'm afraid of getting it wet. Thus far the best idea I've found is a somewhat awkward one, but if the military does it to protect their guns (pun not intended) why not? I also figured that I could get some colored ones for some cool filter effects ^_^

Kaiti and Kyli are planning on coming with us on the trip, so that should make it even more fun. It'll be good to have some young blood with us until Marianne and Joe arrive. We've got the tents and such all ready, though I'm gonna get all of the extra tarps in case of rain. I'm hoping it won't be too bad, but the 10 day forecast gives me cause to worry.

I'll update with pictures when I get back!

Designer sweatshirt tutorial

I LOVE this hoodie idea from Alisa Burke! I can't wait to make one of my own!

Aliens!

This little jem has been floating around my head for a while now.

For hundreds of years we have observed the world around us and made assumptions about other life on this planet based on those observations. We see two animals making exaggerated movements towards each other, followed by intercourse, and we assume that the prior movements were a mating dance or courtship ritual. We see two of the same species year after year, and we assume that they are monogamous. We see a group of the same species living together and assume that they have a social structure.

Have you ever wondered, if an Alien came to our planet to observe us, what they would say about our species? We try and believe in true love and romance and all of that, and yet the alien would observe humans cheating on their spouses, and all the divorces, and then just to throw their minds for a loop, you have things like polygamy and same sex couples and transvestites, and prostitutes. It would be really hard to give a broad spectrum sexual classification. Would Vegas, with it's drive through weddings, be considered our courtship grounds? Would they wonder at our courtship rituals, varying from huge elaborate weddings, to picking up someone in a bar? Realistically, would they say that those who spend more time going through the elaborate courtship ritual stay together better?

Additionally, their assumptions about us would change depending on where in the world they were observing. Comparing the human that live in the US to those that live in Asia or some other country would be like comparing a house-cat to a tiger in the societal and environmental differences.

What do you think aliens would say about us?

Photo Dump Day

I should have done this a long time ago. After all, I have this nifty card adapter thing that jessica borrows on a near daily basis (I love you Jessica!) and it's about time I use it.

Ooh Pretty!

So here are all of the pictures that have accumulated on my phone as of late.

A pretty rainbow outside of work.

Playing cards with my siblings. Kaiti and Kyli decided to give me buns.

From the back...

My wedding ring all shiny after the amazing work done by Kay Jewlers.

LDS missionaries at Gunnies looking at the rifles

Work boredom in the form of plastic bubble potato heads.

You can see my candy-cane light and ice decorations behind him.

Side view of his lovely lips.

This one's story is a little bit longer. Alan and I decided that we wanted to go to strawberry reservoir fishing, so we gathered up our stuff and convinced my brother Daniel (Pictured above) and Alan's dad to come with us. We fished for a couple of hours with no luck. Daniel and I became bored, and noticed the crawdads in the lake, and decided to catch them. So with nothing more than a net and very quick fingers, we caught over 30 of them! Our total when we came home? No fish, 30 crawdads. This is the trophy picture we took for Daniel's fishing patch for scouts, to prove he did catch something, and I believe he caught both of them with his BARE HANDS! Way to go Daniel!