Wight Family: November 2007

Friday, November 30, 2007

Something Random for Today

Ok, so Elise and I are reading this crazy book, and I just can't put it down. When I get reading it, I just get sucked into it, like light into a black hole. I get a thrill from reading. It makes my day, but it has to be quite random itself. The book we are reading is A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett. He writes the way a child thinks, I think. I love his style. It is the first book of his that I've read and I think I'll be going back to the library to find another as soon as we're done.

I really should wait until I'm done with my talk for church on the 9th, but that just feels like a monster I want to hide in a closet and forget about. We finally, after being married for 8 years, moving 6 or 7 times to different wards, been asked to speak. We thought that we'd never be asked and we were VERY OK with that. We love church, but speaking, ah!!! And then they give us the second broadest topic to possibly talk about, Joseph Smith. This really opened my eyes, as I know just about the general stuff and the historical stuff, but the topic doesn't have limits really, thus making me very overwhelmed. So maybe I should finish that before I get vacuumed up into another world....

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

My First Slideshow

The Original First Blog

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

So our family so far

Since this is our first page, and my first "post" or whatever. I think I'll be brief. There are three of us. We long for more, but they just aren't here yet. There are four of us if you count our new puppy that we affectionately named Blue. She is a beautiful silvery gray weimaraner. There are five of us if you count our original cat Shadow, she is 17 years old! If you count all of our barn cats, we are a large family of eight, but really, I don't think that ALL the barn cats count, only the one that I secretly love. He is beautiful. A coal black with pumpkin orange eyes set close together and the softest fur ever. Elise named him King of Egypt. She was learning about Egypt in school for some reason.

Our home: We just moved into the old farm house. It is about 85 years old, and we love it. We really are having mixed head conversations about leaving ever. We are just renting, so eventually we should have a "HOME" of our OWN for financial reasons, but really, why leave? The yard is in, the sprinklers work, there is a garage, a fenced yard, it is great. We really like living next door to my husband's parents. They are just three fields way. Next door to them are Aunt Sharon and Uncle Brad and their beautiful family.

What we do: Right now, Mike and Elise are playing cars on the living room floor in their pajamas. I'm listening to a training call for my home based health and wellness business. Mike is really enjoying NOT trucking. (Maybe that is just me talking there... I LOVE that he's home for dinner each night. I don't miss the money, or the alone time) He did that for 7 years. Ok, he did long haul for about 3 or 4 years. Before that he was in a truck, just home every night. Right now for work he is helping design, manufacture, and install solar, wind and water power systems with probably the best businessman we've ever met. We are so blessed. Elise does the kid thing. Kindergarten, dogs, horses, and movies about horses. She's just getting into Barbie dolls, which I am trying to get used to. There is so much more to life than toys and we've got lots of it up here. Of both I guess. Vicki (that's me) I, hmmm. I do lots of things! I'm an Herbalifer, a SquareFootGardener, and I love hardware and I don't mind hard work. What I really want to do with my life is write and inspire people to learn more about their history, and the history of the world around them. And I love to make people laugh. A lot of people wouldn't realize it, or at least don't seem to, but, I feel like such a funny person all over inside, and funny things are always flying around my head.

Posted by Wight Family at 7:34 PM

Our Second First Blog!!

OH WHAT A DAY!!! Wow, so between forgetting my passwords and gmail letting me log in to my ancient account and start a blog (the account has LONG been dead) I've had to get well, creative.

So hopefully, I can copy and paste my blog from last night that took me quite a while to get done and I'll start all over. I'm not going to mess with it. I got a NEW account, I refreshed a few of my old email accounts and stored the passwords somewhere hopefully safe where I won't forget where is. (And I really am a natural brunette, which does NOT excuse or explain my brain behavior, sometimes.)

~Vicki

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Book Reviews

Ok, so in order to write better, I will be continuing to read more and I'll be making one change to what I do when I read, I'll also be reviewing the books I read. I am hoping that this will help with my current writer's block. I'm really not in the "mood" to write, but I'm not in the mood for much of anything. Strange how that happens!! So I'll start this tomorrow. hahah!

I've read lots of books lately. I'll summarize them, and leave my thoughts about them, I have no idea if anyone will be looking at this post or not.....

Master, by Toni Sorenson: Oh my what a wonderful book. I loved this one. It was full of details (though I wanted more), description of landscape, miracles and the life of Christ with the feel of a novel. You could see the life of the Savior and the apostles and the time of the Romans. It was well written and I couldn't put it down. Better at the scriptures at keeping my attention, but full of the same stories.

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini: Khaled has a unique way of sucking me into the world he created. His words are descriptive and hypnotic. I could not put this book down AGAIN. This actually is the second time I read this book. First read through I read it in about two days total. I sat down with it right after work on day two and read through until 4 am. I even had work the next day. EXCELLENT read. Second time around I spent more time "chewing" instead of "swallowing it whole". Again, a wonderful, masterful read. I love how he ends his books. It is like a sugar or adrenaline let down though. You get so high and so excited and then you crash. The emotional wrap up is like after crying your eyes out for an hour and then rehashing it, but you can't cry, it is nearly emotionless.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini: Again, another marvelous novel!! I had a hard time putting this one down at times too. I get so caught up in his characters and their lives and emotions and the mystery of the middle eastern culture. Maybe at times I feel like I could relate to the women because I sometimes want to cover all up and walk around like a ghost, no one can tell my emotions if they can barely see my eyes. But, hey, having a bad day every once in a while is no reason to take up wearing burkhas!!! Again, another great book. I will read this one again, and I'd recommend it to friends.

Almost Sisters: The Company of Good Women, Nancy Anderson, Lael Littke, & Carroll Hofeling Morris:
Of all the books most recently read by me, this one boosted my heart and boyied up my spirits! I did not devour this book, I savored every moment with these dear women. The language is smooth, the story is catching, and the characters build as the pages turn. Deenie, Erin and Juneau are just like "us". They are very human and their flaws show to us and to each other. Their journey is continued in two more books. The cliff hangar ending of book one sent me immediately to purchase book 1 and 2 (I borrowed this copy from a friend) for me and for a friend! Don't wait to buy these books as a set, you'll hear Deenie's words of wisdom in your ears when you go to sleep and want to put them on your walls. You'll see Erin and her quirky beauty in your friends and want to tell them all about her! You'll see Juneau when you see your little girls and wonder about how they will turn out.

I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story, Michael Hastings
I just finished this book not ten minutes ago. It is so fresh in my mind. The language is harsh. Lots of F-bombs. If you can handle reading those, or get through them it is a great story. It is a love story; it is a biography; it is a documentary. I enjoyed this book, the end is really intense. The beginning was fast paced as well. In the middle I had to put it down for a couple weeks. If you are having "drama" of your own, don't read this yet. Get the drama over with and then pick this one up. I enjoy war books, histories, details, the nitty-gritty of all that. Hastings is a powerful writer, a gutsy guy, and an apprehensive lover (but how many guys aren't?). I felt like I was in Iraq. Dirty, hot and very very tired. His accounts are well written, quoted and placed. He risked his life so we could have this account, the accounts from his embeds, his news articles. And he lost his love, his only love, in a dangerous place that we are for some reason involved in. Stunning. Factual. The title says it all really. I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story.

Three Tickets to Peoria: The Company of Good Women, Nancy Anderson, Lael Littke, & Carroll Hofeling Morris:
Like my above review, another charming book! I started this one on Monday morning and I finished by Wednesday morning. I love these ladies. They write with such reality. So plain. Erin and Cory's plight in this book really surprised me, but it turned out well. Just as I thought it should, every detail. I personally find the authors' work inspiring as a future writer myself. I am also inspired by the character's spiritual strength and real-ness. Deenie continues to amaze me, and yet not surprise me as she is the definition of a Utah Mormon Super-Mom, right down to the depression and the sense of loss. I love how in this second book each woman again has another trial, but so does Gabby! In the first book, she was everyone's idol with no flaws. This one we see it all. We feel it all and we wonder many things that should, hopefully, be answered in book 3, Surprise Packages which is due out anytime now! You can pre-order online at deseretbook.com or anywhere you buy good books! (I personally shop online at amazon for books that aren't going to be read more than one or two times, if at all possible.) Good luck to any of you COB's!!

My Gratitude Box

I was thinking the other day, while we were up in the wilderness, that I have so much that I'm grateful for, and I need to write that down somewhere.... Hmmmm.. blog that!! So here we go.

In no particular order:
Brand new SOCKS, I really do love them. They aren't stretched out, they smell AND look good.
My new hat. Camo with ARMY in pink. Cute.
That I live in Eden. It is always beautiful here. Really, come visit. You will find something that you think is beautiful any day of the week!
Elise. She always makes me laugh. Ok, sometimes, she makes me feel so much like a MOM, but the rest of the time she's great fun.
A wood burning fireplace. It really is cozy and it beats the furnace with heating. Strange, but true!
That I can sing. I might not do it well enough to make big bucks, but I'm good enough I like to hear me!
Elise lets me sing to her every night before bed. I am so grateful that she loves me that much. No one else asks for a bedtime song and that is OUR quiet personal time EVERY night.
My husband. Not only do I have one that is taking care of me, but he likes to and WANTS to. We get to be together forever and we both want that to be a happy thing. And I'm grateful that he is letting me just sit here and type.
For my testimony. Jesus loves me, and you too. He suffered for my sins, he knows what it's like to have a cold and to want children; he knows what it's like to BE ME. He died and resurrected so I could too, and so will my family, and we'll be together forever. He restored the true gospel to the earth again through Joseph Smith, a boy with a big WHY, and trust and faith that he really could get an answer if he asked.
That I had time to wash laundry, that I have a washer and dryer that work, and soap and water to put in the machine!! Cause washing it outside in this weather would not get done!

January 31, 2008-
I'm greatful that I have a car, and a husband that drove me to SLC today to the viewing of my dear prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley. His passing on Sunday shook me. I guess in my childish and selfish mind that I truly thought he'd live forever! Or at least to 125. I was, just as many other people have expressed, immediately impressed after my initial shock that he is with his dear Marjorie, and that is just where he needs to be. At peace, with his loved ones.
And microwaves, cause Mike just got home, and I've done NOTHING for dinner as of right now. How about Mac'n'Cheese???

Elise's Guess Game

Ballet Guess Game.
I changed the rule. Now no yab yapping yapping yapping. And NO asking somebody else the law, and especially don't ask me to show my own self and No Cheats! Just let me do the rest of the magic.
SO, lets start with how many pets I have.
Next I want you to guess how many pets I have counting 2 horses, 2 chickens, 1 dog, actually I don't have any chickens. I do have 2 ducks and 13 little quails and 14 chicks and have you guessed yet??
Hurry up?
Stick around on Ballet Guess Game, we'll be back after these eleven messages!

Next time on Ballet Guess Game will be right back on Taco Bell at Tuesdays, weekdays and Fridays. Oh, and especially Wednesdays. See you next time!!!!

Publishing Updates

You never knew it did you? I love to write. Really. And I'm so serious about it I have a personal list of books to WRITE.

So, in my endeavor to write better and be a published author of a book before I turn 30 (that is in less than 2 years) I have started to write book reviews. This month I submitted, albeit at the request and suggestion of a good friend of mine, a book review of a book I just love. And I'm in the local newspaper!!

Ogden Valley Newspaper July 15th issue. Go ahead, I accept praise all day! ;) Love you all for checking in on me and routing for me! ~Vicki

Wight Family