My Little Dragons

What can I say, we like to dress up.

"seek ye out of the best books"

I have always loved to read. I used to read a book a day during middle school (they weren't the thickest books in the world but they weren't picture books either)!

A while ago I became distraught while flipping through this silly book I have that I pretty much live by, 101 Things To Do Before You Die by Richard Horne. One of the things I was supposed to be doing before I die was to 'read the greatest books ever written' and included was a list of 85 classic books. I had read 4. Here I was a high school and college graduate, I considered myself to be semi-smart, I mean I watch Jeopardy almost every night! But it hit me like a ton of bricks- I was not well-read and it truly bothered me.

So being the determined and driven person that I am I googled "classic literature list" and found two list that I liked (one was divided into three categories, Adult, Young Adult and Children). I compiled two lists and came up with this master list. I am finding these books a yard sales and thrift stores for a quarter or dollar a piece, and I am going to be marking the books off one by one as I read them. Then when, someday, I read them all I will start over. This is how I am going to go from semi-smart to completely smart.

Feel free to use my list to make yourselves completely smart too! 

What's in a name?

Probably the best complement I ever received was given by my mom when she told me I was a Renaissance Woman. The complement came when I was eight months pregnant with P. Boy and I was cutting her hair into a cute bob in my bathroom. We had just eaten my delicious homemade Alfredo pasta (a family favorite) while sitting on benches that my buddy Heidi and I had made from wood and our bare hands, we were eating from a table that I had got from a yard sale and gave a fresh new coat of paint to which, if I might say so, made it look I paid a couple hundred dollars for it at Pottery Barn. In the other room was the dresser and kids table I had got for free then painted them super bright, fun, vibrant, neon-esq purple, green, orange and pink. I was also in the middle of sewing P. boys blessing (similar to a Christening) romper. I had also just made a batch of my famous chocolate-chip cookies for a thing at church. I guess you could tell that I was nesting- or maybe I am just awesome, I agree with both! Either way my mom was impressed with all my sweet abilities and gave me the complement that made me glow!

This wasn't the first time my mom had complimented me, of course not! But it was actually reminiscent of a crazy time a few months earlier when Rachel, my oldest sister, was about to be married. She was in Texas and the wedding was being planned in a matter of months (this is not abnormal for my family or religion for that matter). At the time, I was altering my wedding dress to fit Rachel (it turned out p-e-r-f-e-c-t).

My mom and her were talking constantly about details of decorations, most of which my mom already owned, and the food, all of which was being hand preparing by us. The cake was a bit of a challenge as it was originally going to be paid for by a friend, but last minute Rachel found out she would have to pay, something like $50, which is a good deal for a wedding cake but two things made $50 seem like a lot. First, the cake was little, I mean small, even tiny. It was just supposed to be big enough for Rachel and Jason to take pictures cutting it and then feeding each other a bite. Second, Rachel and Jason were flat broke. So when I heard that Rachel was going to have to spend $50 on a cupcake I thought is was crazy. I told my mom that we could spend a dollar on a cake mix at the store and that would could make Rachel a beautiful cake, after all how hard could it be?

My mom laughed at me and said something like,

"Oh, so your gonna made the wedding dress and the cake?"

"Well, why not?!"

I guess thats just how I get down. If theres something to be done, something to make or something to do- hey I can do it! It usually turns out to be quite interesting and fun too!

Here I will refer you to Elder Uchtdorf's talk, “Happiness, Your Heritage,”. This talk is my talk, it was given just for me. It lifts me every time I hear or read it; you'll understand why its relevant once you read it! (p.s. they even made the talk into a small coffee table book). 

So, I guess I am creating this blog because I feel that I was deserving of the best complement anyone ever gave to me because I do have a great set of skills, from cutting hair to sewing to making perfect, I mean perfect chocolate-chip cookies. I am a give it a try kind of girl, a Jill-of-all-trades if you will, I am a Renaissance Woman!