May Love List

• warm evenings
• sitting on the front porch
• chocolate milk
• spring rainstorms
• hiking
• planning (friendly) pranks
• a daily routine
• roommate dinners
• flying kites
• bubbles
• bubble gum
• playing guitar
• Hebgen
• long weekends
• homemade salsa
• talking to my siblings on the phone
• daylight savings
• listening to music in the morning
• my little car
• clothespins
  

the Beginning

From Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury:

Grandfather smiled in his sleep.
Feeling the smile and wondering why it was there, he awoke. He lay quietly listening, and the smile was explained.
For he heard a sound which was far more important than birds or the rustle of new leaves. Once each year he woke this way and lay waiting for the sound which meant that summer had officially begun. And it began on a morning such as this when a boarder, a nephew, a cousin, a son or a grandson came out on the lawn below and moved in consecutively smaller quadrangles north and east and south and west with a clatter of rotating metal through the sweet summer grass.
...God bless the lawn mower, he thought. Who was the fool who made January first New Year's Day? No, they should set a man to watch the grasses across a million Illinois, Ohio, and Iowa lawns, and on that morning when it was long enough for cutting, instead of rachets and horns and yelling, there should be a great swelling symphony of lawn mowers reaping fresh grass upon the prairie lands. Instead of confetti and serpentine, people should throw grass spray at each other on the one day each year that really represents the Beginning!

(They mowed the lawns on campus on Tuesday, and this is how it made me feel).

April Love List

• homemade cookies
• baseball (it's just so American)
• school
• phone calls
• stake conference
• sunny days
• books
• the David O. McKay library
• meeting new people
• getting to know people
  
• my mom
• Alison's spring mixes
• mornings
• organic yogurt
• feeling lucky
• pictures of my niece
• making plans
• sitting on the front porch
• Sunday naps
• yoga
• kites
• sidewalk chalk
• the Reading Center
• mountains

I'm a bit late this month... sorry.

each year inside the next one

From "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros:

What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don't. You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. And you don't feel eleven at all. You feel like you're still ten. And you are—underneath the year that makes you eleven.

Like some days you might say something stupid, and that's the part of you that's still ten. Or maybe some days you might need to sit on your mama's lap because you're scared, and that's the part of you that's five. And maybe one day when you're all grown up maybe you will need to cry like if you're three, and that's okay. That's what I tell Mama when she's sad and needs to cry. Maybe she's feeling three.

Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That's how being eleven years old is.

You don't feel eleven. Not right away. It takes a few days, weeks even, sometimes even months before you say Eleven when they ask you. And you don't feel smart eleven, not until you're almost twelve. That's the way it is.

That's the way it is with twenty-one, too.

hello there

The following is the result of excellent people who know languages other than English that were willing to help me out with a Geography project tonight:

LANGUAGE- WORD FOR "HELLO"
Spanish- Hola
French- Bonjour
German- Guten tag
Mandarin- Ni Hao
Italian - Buongiorno
Arabic - Salam Alaikum
Portuguese- Ola`
Tagolag - Kumusta Kayo
Sabuano - Kumusta Ka
Japanese - Konnichiwa
Taiwanese- Li Ho
Cantonese - Lei Hao
Thai - Sawa Dee Kaa
Hawaiian- Aloha
Samoan - Malo
Tongan- Talofa
Hindi - Namaskar
Russian- Drasvuytsey
Albanian- C'kemi
Swedish- Hej
Dutch - Hoi
Norwegian- Hei
Greek - Geia Sou
Icelandic- Hallo
Slovenian- Zivjo
Turkish- Merhaba


I'm not sure if these are all correct (or spelled correctly...) but it sort of puts the world in perspective, right?

March Love List

• strawberries
• the window open at night
• daylight savings
• peanut butter
• pie
• flats
• first grade at Burton Elementary
• vacuumed floors
• clocks
• playing guitar
• cardigans
• e-mail
• bagels
• laughing with my roommates
• my desk lamp
• old photos
• making plans
• good conversation
• not having to wear a coat
• pencils with erasers
• lemonade
• finishing projects
• counting down to the last day of the semester
• crocuses
• cereal for breakfast with fresh fruit
• visits from family
• the e-cards that my grandpa always sends to me
• Student Ambassadors
• the Anthropologie catalog
• people I meet at the Math Lab
• successful pot roast
• quilts
• showers in the morning
  

THE TOP TEN PROJECT

I love books.
I think I always have.
I remember memorizing the words to Little Mouse, the Red, Ripe Strawberry, and the Big, Hungry Bear long before I truly learned how to read. And my mom read aloud to us classics like The Wizard of Oz and The Secret Garden. My second grade teacher read to us everyday after lunch recess--books like Charlotte's Web and Ramona Quimby that not only entertain, but teach as well. Then in high school I had a stream of phenomenal teachers who encouraged risky books. It took me a while to get used to the idea that some books are not written to be liked, but rather to be respected. Over the years, I'm sure we all have books that have had an intense impact on us, whether they be large books with vivid pictures or paperback novels.

The PROJECT: Name your top ten. The ten most influential books to you, personally. (And no fair listing the scriptures--we all love them...)

Here is what I came up with (for the moment, at least):
1. Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. This is a book that inspires me every time I read it. I love the illustrations and the message.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I never read this book in high school, though I always wanted to. During my freshman year of college I finally got around to reading it, and was moved by Lee's skill in writing. The character of Scout is so innocently complex- brilliant.
3. The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare. I actually read this for the first time in a children's literature course I took last year. Though it is not a church book whatsoever, it really gave me a new perspective on Jesus Christ. I suggest it to everyone now.
4. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. To be honest, I hated this book while I was reading it. Looking back, though, this book was the beginning of a completely new chapter in my literary growth. I appreciate it now.
5. Bloomability by Sharon Creech. One of my all-time favorite authors, despite her juvenile target audience. This book is one I can go back to anytime and learn something new every time I read it.
6. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. This is NOT a sci-fi exploration, though it is by Ray Bradbury. I love this book for the way it captures so many vivid scenes. The imagery and experiences are some that everyone can relate to.
7. Small and Simple Things by Marjorie Hinckley. I want to be like her when I grow up.
8. Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk by David Elkind. I would never have read this if it weren't for Sister McManus and Ed Psych. It really contributed to my philosophy of education.
9. Magical Hands by (I can't remember). This book is sort of a family "epic." It reminds me of my Dad. Not to mention the illustrations are excellent.
10. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This book eased me, who tends to prefer American Lit, into British Literature. Though I am still partial to American writing, I now definitely have a soft spot for the "mother country."

There are still plenty of books that I have not read that might end up on this list as soon as I get to them. A few titles I hope to read in the near future include:
Man's Search for Meaning
Anne of Green Gables
Little Women
Mere Christianity
Utopia
Jesus the Christ
Catcher in the Rye

Please respond to this post with your top ten picks.

ps. Britt- thanks for the use of your photo