Top Ten Reads of 2010

1. Anything But Typical-Nora Raleigh Baskin-Juvenile Fiction
I had my top ten list all figured out earlier this week, but then picked up this book at the library and it changed everything. It had to be added. The story is told from the perspective of a twelve year old boy with autism. Reading it, I felt I was getting a glimpse of what life might be like in 8 or so years. And I loved the boy's realization that he wouldn't change a thing about himself.

2. The Josephine Trilogy-Sandra Gulland-Historical Fiction
Rather than repeat myself, I'll direct you to a post I wrote earlier this year about this series. Excellent.

3. Hunger Games Trilogy-Suzanne Collins-YA Fiction
I don't normally love fantasy, but these were so good. The last one was a little bit of a disappointing ending, but I highly recommend. Kind of a combination of Lord of the Flies and The Uglies (Scott Westerfield-YA Fiction-also highly recommend).

4. The Help-Kathryn Stockett-Historical Fiction
If I had to pick just one, this would be THE best book of the year. I won't give too much away, but it takes place in the Deep South in the early 60's, told from the perspective of a group of black maids. Go and check it out from the library now.

5. Thinking in Pictures-Temple Grandin-Non-Fiction
Much like Anything but Typical, this book is written in first person by a person with autism-only it is non-fiction. Temple Grandin is an adult with autism (who also happens to be PhD in animal science) whose motto is "different not less.". She writes about her different, visual way of thinking and how this has molded her life and career. I often found myself saying "so, that's what is going on with Jakson!!" as I read. Gave me hope about Jakson's future. Loved it and love the Temple Grandin movie as well that is loosely based on this book.

6. Diary of Mattie Spenser-Sandra Dallas-Historical Fiction
Written as a journal, this tells the story of Mattie Spenser, a young bride who is taken across the plains to Colorado. It accounts the trials that she must face as a woman homesteader in the 1800s wed to a husband as a marriage of convenience. If you liked These is My Words, you will love this book.

7. A Boy's Story, A Man's Memory-Oskar Knoblauch-Auto-biography
My friend Holly edited this book, so I had been hearing about it for about a year before I had the chance to read the published version. Oskar writes about his life during the Holocaust as a Jew. It was one of the most intriguing books I've ever read about World War II. Unlike Corrie Ten Boom and Anne Frank, Oskar is quite angry about the treatment that he received during the war and doesn't mince words. I felt like I was finally reading a "real" person's account, not a saint. If you are interested in the Holocaust at all, this journal-like book is a must.

8. Total Money Makeover- Dave Ramsey-Non-Fiction
I like to try and read a financial/budget book every year to keep me on track and so forth. This one didn't really tell me anything new and profound, especially since I've previously read Financial Peace by Mr. Ramsey, but it was an easy read (everything is in layman's terms, so even I can understand) and a good goal-oriented book. Dave would be proud, we bought two cars this year with cash from our emergency fund and still have money left over!

9. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies- Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith-Fiction
So wrong, yet so right. I thought I was going to hate this book. But it was sitting on our bookshelf, so I decided to give it a try even though I considered it to be Austen blasphemy. I was wrong. It kept to the original classic with a few little diversions to keep up the zombie theme that actually helped explain some things better than the original. I always wondered why Charlotte really consented to marry Collins.... And the book club questions at the back? Priceless.

10. In Mozart's Shadow-Carolyn Meyer-YA Fiction
I love this author. She writes YA novels about somewhat obscure events and characters in history. This particular book was about Mozart's lesser known, but talented sister and how she dealt with living in her over-the-top brother's limelight. An interesting study in the way women were treated during this time period as well.

Other top 10 book lists:

• Top Reads of 2009
• Top Reads of 2007
• Top Reads of 2006

See a complete list of all the books I read in 2010 here.

Once there was a snowman

Sadly, this is the first snowman we have built since living here in Utah.

It's a pretty pathetic little snowman, but the kids didn't seem to notice and that's what counts.

Disclaimer: I realize I have professed to dislike dressing Storey in pink and then contradict myself with photos dressed head to toe in the offending color, BUT I must justify her outfit by saying that it was the only snow gear in her size at the local thrift store. And I refuse to buy anything full price, so although it pained me to put it in my cart, I did. As Storey would say, "it's perfect."

Christmas Recap in Pictures

Christmas Eve after Santa dropped off the loot.Storey's Christmas haul

I have no idea why he is making this face, but it.is.awesome.
Every kid should make this face at least once on Christmas Day.

And his alien shirt? Glows in the dark-and he has worn it every day/night since. Stinky.

Santa brought Jakson his much wished for "'mote control car"When he realized what it was, he yelled, "Oh my gosh!!"

Opening stockingsThe aftermath.After opening presents at home, we went to Aunt Suzy's house.
There Storey read to monkey from her new scripturesand then got him ready for bed.While monkey was sleeping, Storey and Jakson had a second Christmas.
Ahhh...the perks of being the only grandchildren.

Now to clean up and try to find a place for everything.

Merry Christmas!

Logs on the fire, fill me with desire....

Is it me, or are these songs getting worse and worse?
There really are so many horrible lyrics to choose from, that it's difficult to narrow it down to just one.

A sampling of this week's festivities:Obviously, this is a gingerbread house.

Not so obviously, these are salt dough ornaments, which are really yummy looking but not very tasty. Every time I saw them sitting on the counter waiting to be colored, I had to resist from biting into one

This was the first year we made ornaments from salt dough and now I'm wishing we had done it before-it was so easy and fun!

Salt Dough Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 T vegetable oil
1/2 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Mix all ingredients together. If it's too sticky, add more flour. Knead for about 5 minutes and then roll out on floured surface. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and use a plastic straw to make a hole at the top of each ornament for hanging. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Cook ornaments for about 2 hours or until hardened. Once cooled, color with markers, crayons, or paint. You can add a layer of varnish as well if you want these to last a few years. Remember to put your child's name and the date on the back of the ornaments he/she decorates!!

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time....

Not one of Mr. McCartney's finer moments.

The children informed me this morning that today is Monkey's birthday. So they wore party hats and sang appropriate celebratory songs mixed with their rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.Happy birthday, you filthy animal.

No really, he's disgusting.

My present to you....**CLOSED**

**Pattern Giveaway is closed. Thanks to everyone who participated and Merry Christmas!!
If you submitted a comment prior to 10PM on December 21st and haven't received an email with a pattern, please leave a comment with your email address below letting me know or email me at bethanycr(AT)gmail(DOT)com.**

I'm diverting from my series of terrible Christmas song titles to bring you something much better than another dose of "Christmas Shoes".

A (FREE) Christmas present!!

For the next 24ish hours, I'm playing Santa and giving away your choice of one PDF sewing pattern from my shop for FREE. There are four patterns to choose from:

• Reversible Pouch Sling-pattern works for all sizes (make great gifts!)
• Flip Flop Skirt-girl sizes 12 months-5T
• Cinch Skirt-girl sizes 6 months-8 years
• The Favorite Skirt-a women's skirt pattern, sizes XS-XL (all sizes are included in pattern)
  

You can see them here. All four of them are full of pictures and step by step instructions, so even if you haven't sewn much (or ever), these are great to start with. And the end results make great Christmas presents!

To get your free pattern, just leave me a comment with your email address and choice of pattern. I'll be taking comments for patterns until tomorrow night (12/21) at 10PM MST. Be sure to tell your friends. Please only one free pattern per person.

And be sure to check out all of the other free tutorials and patterns I have here on my blog.

Merry Christmas!!

Do they know it's Christmastime at all?

Name it. One of the very, very worst.

The stockings are hung, the presents are bought, wrapped, and under the tree. We. Are. Ready! Especially Jakson. He is really, really ready. Storey is kind of indifferent to the whole holiday (as long as pink is involved she will be happy-Santa has obliged by wrapping all of her presents in pretty pink paper), but Jakson is beside himself with excitement.

Today I told him that the elves are going to bring a very special present on Christmas Eve and he almost passed out. Literally. I think he started to hyperventilate.

Knowing we probably only have a couple of years with two "believers", we've been trying to be as festive as possible, which isn't hard when Storey insists on wearing her reindeer hat almost everywhere we go. Every night we read a different Christmas picture book-some religious and some are just for fun. We've visited Santa's reindeer (though they seemed very tired and were definitely more boring than they look in the movies), looked at lots of Christmas lights, and watched old Christmas cartoon movies about a thousand times. So many times in fact that Jakson's new favorite phrase is "good grief" ala Charlie Brown. I think the kids may actually go through Christmas music withdrawals when December 26th hits.
Tomorrow night we will start our Secret Elves project (ding dong ditch and all that) and this weekend we're making Christmas cookies which the kids will ruin with massive amounts of sprinkles. And so we will give them to our neighbors.

Ahh...the joys of Christmas.

This is my grown up Christmas list

*For fun, I will be titling all blog posts from now until the 25th with the names or lyrics of terrible, Iwanttothrowmyselfoutawindow Christmas songs. Maybe someone really important will read this blog and ban these songs from ever torturing human ears again. THAT would truly be a Christmas miracle.

I realized tonight that the presents I got for Zak were all pretty lame. But we sort of ran out of money (seeing as I had to pay for not one, but two speeding tickets this month), and so he got the shaft. Thankfully CSN (the site that sells everything perfect for the guy in your life, from a laptop messenger bag to a man chair, neither of which will be gifts for Zak) once again picked up the slack.

I'm not sure exactly what I'll be reviewing this month, but it will be good. And it will be terribly manly. Even though I married a guy who claims to look good in a cheerleading skirt.

In Disguise

Zak picked up the kids from preschool, took them to get flu shots, and then brought them home. And Storey wore her reindeer hat the whole time.

Maybe she's in hopes that Santa will say "won't you guide my sleigh" this year?

Major breakthrough: Jakson sat in Santa's lap!! This is seriously amazing since a week ago he screamed and threw himself around when I made the suggestion. There was unexpectedly a Santa at a local furniture store today (we went for the free hot dogs-how ghetto are we???) and no line. We passed him while making our way to free lunch and while we were eating he asked to go back. Not expecting much we walked back and much to our surprise, Jakson ran right up and jumped in his lap!! Guess he needed a little time to warm up to the idea or something. Storey would still have nothing to do with him. Well, she did stand about 10 feet away and yelled something about pink presents, but that was about it. She probably would have been braver had she been wearing that spectacular reindeer headdress.

Grave Matters

This is going to sound ridiculous.

Last night, I went to check the mail and managed to twist my ankle in the process. Talk about clumsy. So that I don't seem quite as uncoordinated, I will qualify my injury by saying that I was walking across the dark, open field area near our house in order to get to the mailbox and there was a dip that was hidden in the grass that I sort of fell into.

But still, that's pretty bad.

I limped home, mail in hand (we didn't even get anything good!), and after making fun of me, Zak wrapped my ankle up in a brace we had lying around. I propped my foot up and vowed to never be that anxious to retrieve the mail again.Jakson came in a few minutes later and knowing that he has a tendency to unpredictably jump on people, Zak warned him that my foot was hurting. After that point, Jakson became the protector of my foot. He wouldn't come near me and if anyone else attempted to get within a 5 foot radius of my foot, he would yell at them. When it was time for bed, he told me "Mom, stay downstairs!" and insisted that everyone troop back down the stairs for family scripture reading, something that is normally held in his room.

After scripture reading, everyone got hugs/kisses and Zak took Storey up to bed. Jakson was supposed to follow, but instead lingered on the stairs looking at me with a mournful face. Finally, I said, "What's wrong Jak?"

In this little, pitiful voice he said, "Mom, you're dying?"

Oh my.

I had him come back down the stairs and cuddle while I explained that I am not, in fact, dying. We talked about knocking his teeth out and how it hurt, but he wasn't dying then, just like Mommy wasn't dying because of her foot. What my dad would interject here is that I'm a terrible patient and I was probably just acting like I was dying. But I wasn't-I was very brave. Funny the ways kids translate things.

Unfortunately, the concern about my foot didn't last and he's back to his crazy ways. Only now it's harder it's more difficult for me to save his life. Or Storey's.

Excuse me while I crawl up the stairs to break up a fight.

Coming to Terms

Since the "shaky fist at the grocery store cashier" incident, I've been thinking a lot about stay-at-home mom stereotypes. That was certainly not the first time I've had that sort of reaction to my working status, but my attitude and confidence about the whole SAHM thing has certainly changed in the past four years.

When I first quit teaching to stay at home with Jak, I was pretty uncertain about my decision. Strike that-uncertain is the wrong word. I knew that what I was doing was right for our situation and our family. I knew it. A better word for my feeling is embarrassed. I was embarrassed to *just* be a mom. I felt rather insignificant. Like I had nothing to contribute to conversations but diaper stories. My mind's picture of a stay at home mom included big hair (not sure why), pajamas, glazed over eyes, and those little vinyl letter stick people on the back of a mini van. I remember going to our ward in Phoenix the first couple of weeks and thinking, "No one here has any idea that I'm an educated woman. They just see a fat girl with a baby." Part of that feeling likely stemmed from my being in the depths of post partum depression.... but I digress.

Another problem was that everyone else seemed to {LOVE}, big puffy heart, staying at home. I would read blogs and the moms would go on and on and on about how fabulous it was to stay at home and tickle kids all day. I often thought, "Am I missing something? Is there some sort of website that shows you how to puffy heart the SAHM life and I don't know the URL?" Because seriously, there are parts that are fun and happy and great, but sometimes it just SUCKS. I needed moms with real in the trenches my kid pooped and spread it all over the wall and I hated cleaning it up, let's sell them to the circus stories. It helped that I finally made friends with a couple of other moms that tell it like it is. And their children aren't always angels. That's one of the reasons that I try to keep it real in my posts. Motherhood is messy.

Eventually I found myself in motherhood. And I found confidence in my role. I realized that all mothers feel inadequate and judged at times, whether they work or not. I also discovered interests outside of the career I had (and devoted ALL of my time to) before kids. Politics, sewing, running a business, using coupons, finding deals--subjects that crept into my conversations, making them slightly more interesting than before. Mostly, I became even more convinced that I was where my family needed me-where my kids needed me.

I've continued to evolve my views about staying at home and motherhood in general. I know staying at home is not for everyone. For me it is, but I have noticed that too many times we judge each other without knowing the whole story. That goes for not just the decision to stay home or work, but whether or not to breastfeed, send your children to preschool, eat organic food, play with wooden toys, and a number of other ridiculous attacks---every family is different. I've learned that all moms (well, most) are trying to do their best at raising children and finding a balance between me and them.

As for staying at home--I'm no longer embarrassed or ashamed to admit what I do as a full time job. I have made (many) sacrifices so that I can play dolls and witness every meltdown. It has been a conscious choice for me, one that I feel I have been blessed for because I followed what I knew to be the correct path for us. Aren't we lucky to live in a day when women have the opportunity to make such decisions?

Anti-American Rhetoric

Every year the kids' preschool assigns each class items to bring that will be used as stocking stuffers for the troops. The teachers then put together 15-20 stockings full of chapstick, candy, toothbrushes, and other essential items to mail overseas to the soldiers.

Jakson was assigned to bring candy. Knowing that he wouldn't understand the concept of taking candy to school and not eating it, I tried to explain: "The candy is for the soldiers who help us and are sad to be away from their families this Christmas."

My explanation did not go over well. Jak is just so literal that anyone who has a gun and shoots people, even if it is to protect the rest of us, must be a bad guy. He started yelling, "Soldiers are bad!" and "I hate soldiers" over and over.

Oh, and did I mention that we were in a store shopping at this point? As he was spewing his anti-American opinions? Talk about embarrassing.

It only got worse when I tried to clarify that the soldiers were far away and we were mailing the stockings to thank them for helping us. He launched into a 30 minute meltdown because he somehow translated "mailing the stockings" into "Miss Michelle (his teacher) is leaving for an undetermined amount of time to personally take the stockings to the soldiers far away".

I just can't win.

Today, the cashier at the grocery store told me that I must have all kinds of time on my hands because I don't work full time. That's right-I sit on the couch, eat bon bons and watch Oprah all day. Self control was exercised when I bit my tongue.

Shaky fist to you lady.

Sanity Saver

Like I said before, our trip home took almost 16 hours (normally only 10) due to the icy roads. As annoying as it was, it would have been exponentially worse had we not had two things-1) a reliable portable DVD player (how did people travel with children before DVD players?!?) and 2) our brand new Taby Trays.

Saved my sanity.

I'd never heard of Taby trays, but knowing that we were going to be taking this trip with the kids, I was doing a little research online for products to make traveling easier and came across them. And where did I find the trays for the best price? Good old reliable CSN. I was able to get 2 for the price of what I'd pay for 1 on Amazon!!I was a little wary before they arrived that they wouldn't fit on the kids' carseats because any negative reviews I found had to do with the fit, but Zak and I installed them the day they came and they were perfect, even though Storey's car seat doesn't have arm rests.

The kids were able to color, eat without keeping everything in their laps (so much cleaner!), keep their sippy cups in the tray cup holder, trace letters, and stay entertained because they had a flat, hard surface to work on. I highly, highly recommend to anyone who takes long road trips with kids!

Get yours in time for your holiday travels here.

BTW-I was a little worried about the safety of the trays in a car accident, but read a review written by a mom who was in an accident that totaled her car while the tray was installed and she said there were no problems. Hopefully not something I will have to experience, but reassuring to read another mom's experience.

**Although CSN Stores provided me with the Taby Trays to review, all portions of this review are 100% my opinion.

Thanksgiving Highlights

1. Being basically without internet access for almost a week. It was a nice change of pace.
2. Venting to my mom in person instead of over the phone. I need to move to Texas.
   
3. Grandparents!! And lots of hide 'n seek.
4. My dad's assignment of "Jakson duty". He did a fantastic job. Jakson only almost killed himself once the whole trip and it was on Zak's watch.
   

5. Pie for breakfast.
   
6. Spending time with my grandma and extended family. We all got together to celebrate her 80th birthday. She loved the photo quilt.
   

7. Going to see Harry Potter 7 with three of my favorite people. Sans children.
   
8. Taking photos for some great friends. And the weather was so warm!!

9. Listening to Storey's new original song entitled "Put a tortilla chip on your shoulder" We will definitely have to enforce the "no singing at dinner time" rule. Don't have that one in your family? Well, then you aren't a Vermillion.
   

10. Listening to Jakson try to out sing Storey with "Elysse Nobby-bob" to the tune of Feliz Navidad.
11. Watching the kids play with Natalie, Goobie, and Jingle Bell Ella--the only children I know who meet or exceed their energy levels.
12. Getting home safely, even though the normally 10 hour trip took almost 16 hours! 16 hours with kids that don't sleep in the car=thoughts of throwing myself out the window onto the icy road.