Ever since I rescued my mom's baby name book from the garbage, I've been in love with thinking up baby names. The thing that never ceases to amaze me is how everyone always thinks up the same names at the same time no matter how creative they think they are being. For example I've been bugging Dwight to like the name Dylan for our new baby, but last week my neighbor had a baby boy and guess what his name was...Dylan of course. For my last daughter I had my heart set on Sophie from day one, but as I watched the name Sophie soar to number # on popular name charts I went off in search of something else. My mother knows this well as she picked my sisters name early on and sure enough the neighbor who had a baby girl a few months earlier picked the same name! A few years ago we had baby blessings two months in a row for babies named Bailey. Anyway, I think its more important than anything else to love the name you pick than to be exotic. My son's name was the most popular name in the country the year he was born and I always tell him, I gave him the very best name there was, nothing less would do. My daughter's name was relatively unknown six years ago and now it is in the top ten on one of the coolest baby name websites, it is in the top 50 on all the sites.
Here are the names that were popular on Nymbler in February 2009:
Top 10 favorite names:
1. Ava (Same)
2. Ella (+1)
3. Charlotte (-1)
4. Jack (Same)
5. Claire (+1)
6. Grace (+3)
7. Amelia (Same)
8. Avery (+2)
9. Benjamin (-4)
10. Finn (New)
Monday, April 6, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
BBC book list: I've read 32...
The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' (plus) to the ones you LOVE.
3) Add a '-' (minus) to the ones you hated
4) Add a '*' (star) to those you have partially read
5) Tally your total and put it in the title.
(In my case a star usually means I didn't like it, if the book is no good I don't finish it...)
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (x+)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien ()
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (x+)
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (x+)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (*)
I've tried to read this again and again, soo boring to me.
6 The Bible (x)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (x)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell ()
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ( )
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ()
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (x)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ( x)
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 Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (x )
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ( )
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (X+)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (x-)
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ( )
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ()
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams ()
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ( )
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky ()
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (X)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (x)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ( )
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ( )
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ( )
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (x)
34 Emma - Jane Austen (x)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen ()
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (x)
37. Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (*)
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ( )
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ()
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (x)
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 (x)
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 (x)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ()
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon (x)
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (x )
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 (x)
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 (X)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ( )
75 Ulysses - James Joyce ( )
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath ()
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 - EB White (x)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (x)
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ()
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ( )
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (x)
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 ( )
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas ()
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (x)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (x)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (x several abridgements)
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' (plus) to the ones you LOVE.
3) Add a '-' (minus) to the ones you hated
4) Add a '*' (star) to those you have partially read
5) Tally your total and put it in the title.
(In my case a star usually means I didn't like it, if the book is no good I don't finish it...)
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (x+)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien ()
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (x+)
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (x+)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (*)
I've tried to read this again and again, soo boring to me.
6 The Bible (x)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (x)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell ()
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ( )
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ()
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (x)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ( x)
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 Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (x )
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ( )
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (X+)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (x-)
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ( )
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ()
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams ()
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ( )
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky ()
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (X)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (x)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ( )
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ( )
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ( )
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (x)
34 Emma - Jane Austen (x)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen ()
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (x)
37. Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (*)
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ( )
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ()
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (x)
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 (x)
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 (x)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ()
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon (x)
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (x )
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 (x)
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 (X)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ( )
75 Ulysses - James Joyce ( )
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath ()
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 - EB White (x)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (x)
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ()
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ( )
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (x)
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 ( )
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas ()
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (x)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (x)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (x several abridgements)
March 15, 2009
This is the snowman A and J made all by themselves last week. I thought they did a pretty good job. The snowman is about as tall as they are.
I played my violin at the ward talent show. I think I surprised most people since they didn't realize I played. I played "Ashoken Farewell" theme from the PBS series "The Civil War".
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
March 3, 2009: 23 weeks along
I am about 23 weeks pregnant. Yesterday A said, hey Mom you are starting to get a baby bump. Yep, I started really showing in the last few weeks. I have collected a bunch of fluffy newborn diapers. This kid is going to be pampered.
Lip-smacking good!
little a always asks for food first thing in the morning. Usually she asks for snacks, sometimes pizza if we had it for dinner, the other day she asked for lipgloss...
Family at the Draper temple openhouse
Big A and friends, the Dancing Queens
little A’s favorite clothes: she has several favorite items of clothing.
1) Yellow pajamas. These are her favorites. When its not bedtime, she snaps them on like a cape and won’t be parted from them.
2) Purple pants, she loves the print on these pants and would wear these every single day if I didn’t hide them.
3) Pink vinyl diaper cover with tears in it. These are the cheapest lousiest diaper covers invented (left over from A, little A discovered this in storage and it was love at first sight). She calls it her “colors” diaper cover. Who wants a comfy white diaper cover when there is a cheap hot pink one available?
February 24, 2009: Missionary Night
I was asked to help present at a youth night about missionary work. I was supposed to tell about serving in the United States and especially about being a sister missionary.
Idaho Boise Mission: 2 hours from were I was living when I was called.
Idaho culture: Agricultural, pictures of Jerome county fair and Buhl corn pack.
The experience: 20 % of the people are members. You can go tracting and hope to get a drink at every fifth house! I did ride a bicycle in a few areas, but mostly I walked or shared a car with other missionaries. Most of the people I taught were spouses, children, or boyfriend/girlfriend of members. We had a baptism about every three weeks and averaged teaching discussions every other day.
Why I decided to be a sister missionary: I hadn’t always planned to be a missionary, but I had a strong, extremely persistent feeling that it was something I should pray about. When I did, the answer was a resounding yes!
Companions: I had 12 companions. 3 were from Mongolia. Much of my experience was influenced by these amazing sisters and learning about Mongolia and the how the church is growing in that small (population-wise) faraway country.
The food: Members fed us dinner almost every night. They were very generous, I will make dinner for anyone, I can never repay what I’ve been given. There were lots of delicious meals. Some of my favorite things were homemade breads, rolls, and cinnamon rolls and also corn on the cob in Buhl during the corn pack.
Idaho Boise Mission: 2 hours from were I was living when I was called.
Idaho culture: Agricultural, pictures of Jerome county fair and Buhl corn pack.
The experience: 20 % of the people are members. You can go tracting and hope to get a drink at every fifth house! I did ride a bicycle in a few areas, but mostly I walked or shared a car with other missionaries. Most of the people I taught were spouses, children, or boyfriend/girlfriend of members. We had a baptism about every three weeks and averaged teaching discussions every other day.
Why I decided to be a sister missionary: I hadn’t always planned to be a missionary, but I had a strong, extremely persistent feeling that it was something I should pray about. When I did, the answer was a resounding yes!
Companions: I had 12 companions. 3 were from Mongolia. Much of my experience was influenced by these amazing sisters and learning about Mongolia and the how the church is growing in that small (population-wise) faraway country.
The food: Members fed us dinner almost every night. They were very generous, I will make dinner for anyone, I can never repay what I’ve been given. There were lots of delicious meals. Some of my favorite things were homemade breads, rolls, and cinnamon rolls and also corn on the cob in Buhl during the corn pack.
February 11, 2009: It's a boy!
Its a boy! He is due at the end of June. A and J guessed right again!
January 21, 2009: What is under your sink?
There is nothing under mine except a pile old brown grocery bags and what...a super-cute toddler!
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