I'm turning into a...

BOOK

WORM!

Or maybe just a nerd. I don't know. But I have been reading a lot lately.

My turning into a book worm is probably due to some/all of the following reasons:

1) Reading books is a good way to keep from doing my homework or other things I should be doing, as I just can't get as mad at myself for putting off things I should be doing to read because well, at least reading is a good thing, right? It's like when I was a kid...I knew that if I was supposed to be, let's say weeding the garden or something, but it was too hot outside and the potato bugs and their promiscuity was grossing me out, that reading was a good second option. Because if my mom caught me down in the cool basement reading I'd be in a lot less trouble then if she caught me sleeping or playing Nintendo or fighting with my brothers, etc. Now that I'm in charge of myself I guess I do the same thing. If I don't want to do what I should be doing then I at least try to chose something I know my mom would approve of. Moms do that to you.

2) I'm getting old and I think that old people read a lot.

3) I like reading. Even though it takes longer to read than it does to watch a movie, reading sticks with me more. You get to imagine things your own way.

4) I've discovered the greatness of books on tape (aka books on iPod) and how you can listen to a book and multi-task by cleaning or exercising. Then you really feel good about yourself. And it makes me feel less like a time waster when I'm doing mundane tasks like cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc.

5) I, for the first time in my life, am part of a book club. I can't say we're really too serious about it or professional. We get together at a restaurant once a month and usually spend the whole first 98% of our time just chatting and then we talk about the book at the very end, if for no other reason then so we can call ourselves a book club.

Anyway, this month's book club book is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I just finished listening to it tonight and I loved it. It is kind of a detailed story, especially at the first, but the details really give you a feel for life in Brooklyn in the early 1900's and most of the details become important later in the story. I would highly recommend the book. It is one of the best books I've read/listened to in a long time. I listened to it though so maybe reading it would be different. (5 Becca Stars)

Other books that I can remember reading recently and what I think...

To Kill a Mockingbird: How in the world did I make it to age 30 without ever reading this book? I don't know why I never had to read it in high school as I took an AP Literature class and had to read what felt like every book in the world published at that time. The only reason I even read it now was that I was at DI right before going to Panama, looking for a book to take with me, and it was 50 cents and the DI was closing for the night so I just grabbed it as it was the first book that I recognized the title to. Anyway, I'm sure most of you have read it already but I liked it and would recommend it to those who haven't had to read it. (4 and a half Becca Stars)

The Help: I really liked this book. I listened to it on tape and I thought the reader did a good job and would highly recommend it. It is about the southern U.S. during the 1960's. (4 and a half Becca Stars)

The Book Thief: I really liked this book. It is about the Holocaust but from a little non-Jew German girl's point of view. And the narrator of the story is death, which was interesting. I've read a lot of books on the Holocaust but most are written from the Jewish perspective and from inside the death camps so this was a new good twist. (Warning: Do prepare yourselves to hear/read "Oh, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" about 100 times.) (4 and a half Becca Stars)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Crazy title but a good book. It is just a simple little story but I learned a lot and would recommend it. (4 and a half Becca Stars)

Things Fall Apart: I really liked this book. It is pretty short and is an easy read. It was written in the 1950's by a Nigerian. It is very famous so you all may have already read it. I will warn you, if you haven't read much about Africa it might freak you out a little. Just some of their beliefs/actions are a little crazy to us, like killing twins and stuff. (4 and a half Becca Stars)

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers: Actually a really interesting book. If you are at all squeamish though I wouldn't recommend it. For those who aren't easily grossed out I would highly recommend it. So, it all depends on you. (4 Becca Stars)

The Family That Couldn't Sleep: I had to read this for a class, but it was pretty good. For other nerdy science types I would recommend it, but for non-science-lovers, I would not. It is about Prion diseases like Kuru, Fatal Familial Insomnia, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (human version of Mad Cow disease), etc. Oh, and if you like hamburgers then I would highly NOT recommend this book to you as you will never want to eat hamburger again. (3 Becca Stars)

The Forgotten Garden: Very detailed and kind of weird but I liked it anyway. I don't know if everyone would like this but I liked it. (4 Becca Stars)

The Alchemist: Okay, so it seems that EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD loves this book, but I honestly didn't love it that much. It was okay. It teaches a lot of good lessons and actually has a lot of things that could be tied to the gospel, but I'd rather just read the Book of Mormon. You get more points in heaven for reading that anyway. (3 Becca Stars)

Eat, Pray, Love: I wouldn't really recommend this book to my average blog reader. As an older single woman there were parts of her book that I totally related to and liked, but overall, I wouldn't recommend it. (2 and a half Becca Stars)

The Painted Veil: The book was pretty good, but the movie is better, and the book and movie are pretty different. (3 and a half Becca Stars)

The Female Brain (aka: the new Men are from Mars Women are from Venus): I didn't really like this book. I mean it was okay but I didn't feel that it really taught me anything new. All I really got out of it is that men and women are really different which complicates life. Duh. I already knew that. The science behind why men and women are so different and don't really get each other is interesting, but I felt like I'd already learned all those things in biology class. (3 Becca Stars)

Well, that's all the books I can think of for now. I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I post this, but oh well. Email me or leave a comment if you have any specific questions/comments about any of the books.

I hope my list gives you some ideas for books to read or not to read this holiday season. Oh, and if you have recently read any books that you have love love loved then please let me know in your comment. I'm looking for some new good reads.

Baby Shower 101

Throwing a baby shower...

Step 1: Have a cute little grandma that says "Have the potentially wild (based upon Kim's bridal shower) baby shower at my house." Thanks grandma.

Step 2: Have lots of good food. People like food.

Step 3: Invite lots of friends...

and of course family.

Step 4: Have the future grandma there via Skype. Oh, and have her dress up. And be the ONLY one at the party that dresses up.

I'm still trying to figure out what my mom was dressed up as. The only way I can describe her is as a "Punk Rocker Pumpkin." I'm pretty sure that's what she was aiming for. And may I just say that my mom looked way weirder/scarier via Skype than she did in this actual picture. Those eyebrows are pretty crazy though. Although I have seen worse on women here in Utah that just don't quite ever figure out how to draw on their eyebrows after menopause.

Anyway, thanks Mil for dressing up and joining in on the fun even though you were 6000 miles away.

Step 5: Invite lots of people...the more the merrier. We had over 25 there! I like a big group. Things tend to get a little wild. Just my style...

Oh, and have activities to try and keep people entertained. Since it was Halloween we had some cheesy little Halloween baby shower things like: decorating "little pumpkins," guessing facts about the little "baby a brewing" like weight, name, hair color, etc., and writing advice to Kim, or things your "mummy" did to make you feel special when you were a kid.

P.S. my mom, who is famous for little sayings like that(second only to my Aunt Jenny), helped me come up with them. I'm not that creative/cheesy.

Step 6: Gifts, of course. And Kim got so many nice and thoughtful gifts. I love the little Batman costume Pam made for the little guy. I hope he likes dressing up as much as his dad does. I think Lee will be a little disappointed if he doesn't.

And may I just pause here to say that now that my first nephew is soon to be born I finally have an excuse to shop for baby clothes...and I do. So, my gift was clothes for the kid. Because, as an older single girl there are two things you don't want to be...

1) Bitter

2) Crazy

And one of the weirdest things you can do as a single girl is to start collecting baby clothes. That just has "Crazy" written all over it. I think it is right up there with having a scrapbook of wedding dresses, rings, and reception ideas all gathered up. Psycho. No one wants to marry the crazy girl. But, now I can legitimately enter the baby section of any store and not be seen as a psycho. It is a great and liberating feeling. Because shopping for baby clothes is fun!

Kimmae opening one of her gifts. She was a pretty fast gift opener, a talent everybody likes to see in a baby shower guest of honor.

Step 7: Of course you must have a few cheesy baby shower games to make things fun. These are a must...even if it requires your 83 year-old grandma to have to drink apple juice from a baby bottle. Sacrifices must be made in order to have fun. Thanks for being a good sport grandma.

We also had people guess how big around Kim's little belly is. Some people were off, WAY OFF, but we had a few guess right on.

Step 8: The after party. A must have. This happened spontaneously when I called my brothers to see if they wanted to come eat leftover brunch from the shower. They were there in a flash.

The after party was pretty much the same as the shower except it was the man version of the party. Lee even had his belly measured to see if he was bigger around than his 7 month pregnant wife.

My brothers did a very good job of helping me clean up the extra food. They were pretty amazed at the food. I think they must have just been hungry. You'd think it was the first time they'd ever eaten. I heard things like,

Russell: "Wow, do you have food like this at all these girl parties you have?"

Me: "Yes, even better sometimes."

Russell: "Can I come next time too?"

Me: "We'll see."

Lee: "How much did these sausages cost? They are so good."

Me: "Like 4 dollars a bag or something."

Lee: "That's only 20 cents per sausage patty. Amazing! I could take these to work to eat."
Me: "Yes, however they each have 200 calories."

(I guess my warning didn't worry Lee as he went to the store that night and bought some sausage.)

Ty: "I call for the last pumpkin waffle!...Oooh are those sausages?"

So the boys cleaned up the food. Boys are so good at that. And at making you feel like it is the best food they've ever eaten or ever will eat. Then they helped me put away chairs and clean up.

And then Lee had to see if he could stick out his belly and make it look like Kim's. And...he could.

And fortunately there were exactly three little candy bags left from the shower, so the boys each got a party favor for coming to the after-party party.

Thanks again to everyone who came and everyone who wished they could have been there. Well, until one of those other two boys decides to get married, it looks like my job as a shower planner is done.

Oh, and sorry I didn't get good pictures of everyone who was there. I just didn't take as many pictures as I should have. I'm sure you are all devastated to not have your picture on this blog post. Maybe next time...

Banana Laffy Taffy Anyone?

Here's the candy all separated, organized, counted, and ready for shipping to Brazil. Why did I count EVERYTHING, you ask? Well...

1. So that I could know just how much candy I bought for under 40 dollars (once you subtract out the cost of the Halloween decorations) and once again feel awesome and lucky for getting it so cheap.

2. To make things easier when my mom makes the little candy packages for all of the missionaries. Since I don't have 150 of some things and have way more than 150 of other things she can plan out how to divvy up the candy and all the missionaries will get their fair share...especially since my dad has already been showing some of the missionaries pictures of all the candy I'm sending.

3. To stop me from eating it before I get it shipped off, because I don't want to have to re-count or re-organize it. And, since it is counted, if I did decide to eat any more I'd know exactly what I ate.

4. To stop my dad from eating it when it gets to Brazil. Since it is all counted he can't claim that he "only had 2 pieces" or something, as he has maybe been known to do in the past.


So, here's the final count. And this doesn't include all of the candy I've already eaten and given away (which is quite a bit)...

• 200 Fun Dip Packs
• 300 Reece's PB Cups
• 1200 Dum Dums
• 175 boxed of Milk Duds
• 80 packs of Runts
• 90 boxes of Nerds
• 102 Sweet Tarts (Does anyone eat these other than at Halloween and Valentine's Day?)
• 96 Smarties
• 640 Kit Kats (oops, perhaps a few too many!)
• 76 Whopper packs
• 110 Hershey's Bars (Candy for boring people)
• 110 Almond Joy
• 360 little Twizzler packs
• 166 Strawberry Laffy Taffy
• 181 Banana Laffy Taffy (Yuck!)
• 63 Misc Reece's candy...Fast Break, Reece's Pieces, Fast Break, and Whipps
• 128 other random candy...Take5, suckers, Dove Chocolates, Hershey's miniatures, etc.
  

I'm for sure not sending all of the Dum Dums or Fun Dips, as those will last, and I can take them to share with the kids in Panama next year. Besides, they don't get much candy and they won't know that Dum Dums and Fun Dips are kind of the bottom of the candy barrel. And, kids like gross/weird candy. Looking back I can't believe that as a kid I used to spend money on bubble gum cigars, wax candy lips, ring pops, weird gummy stuff, etc. What is wrong with kids' taste in candy?

Anyway, I'll probably give away some of the Kit Kats too instead of shipping them all, as I could give each missionary 4 and still have 40 to spare!

But my big dilemma is...do I even bother sent the banana Laffy Taffies or should I just throw them away or scatter them throughout Pioneer Park? Do real people actually like banana Laffy Taffies? Will any of the missionaries like them? I don't want to scare the Brazilians away from North American candy since it is usually the best. They must make banana Laffy Taffies for some reason, but I don't know anyone who likes them. Even in my family, and we AREN'T too picky when it comes to candy, the banana Laffy Taffy was a frequenter of the reject candy drawer.

Missionaries are a pretty easy crowd to please when it comes to food though. So maybe the banana Laffy Taffies will be okay. Some missionaries in my parents' mission once ate a pan of brownies that someone made for an object lesson in church that was made with no sugar and double the oil or something. So, I'm not really too worried about sending some borderline gross candy, but I just don't want to waste precious shipment space that could be used instead to send my parents "necessities" like tortillas, Hershey's syrup, tomato juice, etc. That's why the banana Laffy Taffies may be on the chopping block.

Waffleishous

After the Baby Boy Batt Halloween Baby Shower Extravaganza this past weekend (pictures coming soon), I got a lot of requests for the pumpkin waffle recipe. And, as I cannot remember specifically who wanted it, I'll just post it here for blog fans and leeches alike. That way you can just copy the text and print it off.

And let me just tell those of you who weren't at the baby shower...these waffles are delicious and well worth the time and calories. I highly recommend them.

So here it is...

Becca's Super Famous & Delicious Pumpkin Waffles

(Actually, it is my Aunt Jenny's recipe, but let's not get technical.)

The Waffle Part:

Combine these dry ingredients...
2 cups flour

2 T Baking Powder

1 T Cinnamon

1 T sugar

1/2 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. coriander

1/4 t. salt

Next, separate 4 eggs and beat the whites.

To the yolks add...

1 and 1/2 cups milk

1 cup pumpkin

3/4 cup margarine or butter (melted)

1 T. vanilla

Now, mix the wet and dry ingredients and then fold in the egg whites.

Then, cook the stuff. On a greased waffle iron.

Most Delicious Buttermilk Syrup Part:

(a must have)

Bring the following to a boil...

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cube margarine or butter (but butter is better)

1 cup sugar

1 t. Karo syrup

Once that boils, turn it town to LOW heat and add...

1 t. baking soda

1 t. vanilla

WARNING: When you add the baking soda the syrup will grow about 10 times its normal size! I am not kidding. Remember baking soda volcanoes as kids? Yeah, that is what will happen to your syrup if you don't make it in a REALLY big pot. It will make a big mess all over and you will hate yourself for not heeding my warning.

Oh, and I hardly ever use the coriander in the waffles because I usually don't have it. It is optional.

Well, that's it. ENJOY!

Eat This Couponers!

6 bags dum dums (200 count)

4 packs Fun Dip (50 count)

8 packs multi-pack Twizzlers

8 bags Milk Duds boxes

7 bags Whoppers

10 Kit Kat (Jumbo size bag)

16 mixed bags of Reeces, Almond Joy, Hershey's, etc.

2 Reeces Lovers Assortment

1 Bag mixed Hershey's Candy (50 pieces)

1 bag Reeces PB cups

2 jumbo bags of Reeces PB cups

3 bags Reeces/Kit Kat mixes (75 count)

2 bags Dove Smooth Milk Chocolate

1 bag Hershey's Miniatures

1 bag Reeces Fast Break

6 Willy Wonka mixed bags: Nerds, Laffy Taffy, Runts (100 servings)

5 packs Halloween balloons

10 packs spider webbing

9 packages of big napkins

5 packages of small napkins

1 Happy Halloween sign

4 packs of plates

All this: $45.99

Look on fellow shoppers' faces: Priceless

Here's my cart before I went back and grabbed about 10 more big packages.

Here's my overloaded cart waiting to be loaded into my car.

Now lest you all get an image of me laying on my bed passed out from diabetic shock with melted chocolate all over my face, let me tell you what all this candy is for.

For the past year and a half I have sent a lot of candy to Brazil. Most of the rest of the world is candy deprived as far as I'm concerned (exclusions are: Japan with HiChews, Germany with gummi candy, and Belgium & Switzerland with chocolate), and Brazil has major problems in the candy department. So, after every holiday I head to the stores to get the discounted candy to send down to Brazil for my parents and their missionaries.

Last Halloween I bought discounted candy and then we made little bags of candy for a zone conference treat for all 190 missionaries. I started shopping the day after Halloween and went around to several stores gathering the best candy at the best prices I could find. Most of the stores start out at 50% off and then move it up to 75% off later in the week. So, knowing what to buy and when was kind of like playing the stock market...you buy some of the good stuff at first at 50 % off and then hold out hoping you'll be able to buy some more good candy at 75% off and get a pretty low average price without missing out on buying the good stuff.

BUT, this year I got super lucky. I was a little worried since November 1st was a Sunday and I would be a day behind all of the non-Mormon bargain shoppers. But, good things come to those who wait (and keep the commandments) I guess, because I went to Albertson's today and they still had quite a bit of good candy left.

So I'm standing there looking through the carts of bargain candy which was marked at about 50% off trying to decide what was worth it at that price when the store manager, who was nearby organizing some stuff, says to me,

"Hey, whatever you want can be 50 cents for candy and 25 cents for decorations."

To which I replied, "Even this ginormous bag of Kit Kats?"

Manager guy, "Yup, any of the candy."

Nice. So I start to chuck stuff in my cart as this candy is now 90%+ off and I'm now way less picky on what I want to buy. I tried to figure out how many pieces were in each bag so that I'd get the right amount for the 150 missionaries my parents have right now. But once other people in the store (including mostly employees) got word of the new price the manager had given me I got some competition. So I decided to just buy pretty much all the candy other than candy corn and candy packaged with fall colors that I could get my hands on, without starting a fight in the freezer aisle, and figure out if I had the right amounts of candy later.

So I just filled up the whole stinking cart. It was hard to push. And I got a lot of weird looks. And one lady started pulling stuff out of my cart since she thought it was the sale cart and not my cart, so I had to move it to the next aisle over while I finished grabbing the candy I wanted.

Also, because most Brazilians don't celebrate Halloween they don't sell Halloween decorations there. And earlier this year I ended up buying a bunch of Halloween decorations at full price to send down to some people in my parents' ward who wanted to have a Halloween party. So, that's why I stocked up on some cheap decorations too...so I'll be ready for the Brazilians' requests for Halloween decorations next year.

Checking out took forever since apparently I was the first one the manager had given this new price to and they hadn't updated the price in the computer. So every one of the 100 plus items I bought had to be hand entered. Poor checker lady.

This may all be sort of dumb but I was super excited to get $500 + worth of candy and decorations for less than 50 bucks. Some of those big bags of candy were originally 12 dollars each, so it really added up. I guess my life is boring, but being the first one who got the "manager's special" made my day. I love a good deal.

It was almost as good as when, as a kid, my mom and aunt found the Frito Lay dumpster. We aren't too poor but we aren't below dumpster diving for outdated chips either.

Anyway, now I've just got to get home before my roommate does so I can explain to her why our guest room is completely full of candy so she won't think that I'm a complete pig/weirdo.

Just One Reason I Might Be a Spinster...

Because seriously, what guy wants to wake up to this in the morning?

Yup, that's me. Just seconds after waking up a few days ago. Every once in awhile I somehow create these masterpieces while I sleep. I know...amazing. I don't know how I do it but it just happens occasionally. I guess my creative genius only shows itself in my sleep, but subconscious in your sleep creative genius is better than none at all.

My friend Julia promised me that if I would document my crazy morning hair and blog it that she would stop being a big blog leech and would start leaving comments.

See what I have to do to get leeches to comment? I have to put humiliating, no makeup, no shower, pictures on my blog. Oh well, anything for a comment.


So here's a picture of the right side of my head...

and one of the left...which was even more amazing/disgusting than the right side.

So somehow in my sleep my hair formed itself into a perfect mohawk. My friends think that since my hair can form such a great mohawk that I should dye my hair black, pierce my nose and eyebrow, paint a fake tear coming out of my eye, and go goth for Halloween. I'm not so sure about that. I'd hate to stain my pillowcase.

Anyway, I'm sure you're all wondering,

Did you go to bed with your hair wet?
Did you have more product on your hair than usual?
Are you sure you didn't just form your hair into a mohawk using massive amounts of hairspray?

And the answers to those questions are no, no, no. My hair was just how it normally is when I went to bed and I woke up like that.

So, I remember one time a long time ago seeing an Oprah about this lady whose husband had never seen her without makeup and without her hair done and they'd been married like 20 years or something. She would just get up early in the morning and shower and get ready before he could see her in all her ugliness. So she went on Oprah and Oprah brought her husband on the show and the lady came on the show without her hair done and with no makeup and her husband didn't stop loving her and so the lady was all liberated, etc., etc.

So, that's probably what I'll do. If I ever get married I'll just get up early in the morning and get ready before my husband is awake and then he'll never see how amazingly disgusting my hair is in the morning, until one day years later, I'll go on the Oprah show and she'll set me free. I'm guessing that's how things will be anyway. Unless I marry some secret unrelated to me bachelor blog leech and then he will already know and accept the truth about me. Well, we'll see how things pan out.

Dear MOM and Dad, don't read this post. Love, Becca

I miss my parents. A lot. Today I was organizing some photos and came across this one from a little over a year ago at the airport before my parents left. Seeing the picture made me kind of sad.

Three years seems like a really long time. But really it has gone and will go quickly. My parents are just 2 and half months short of halfway. I think I'm going to start counting the mission time like my dad does...he rounds up. So, since they are past the one year mark, really, in his mind (and now mine) they are done with 2 years. It just seems better that way.

I know that for any active LDS family, having your parents leave for awhile to go and serve is inevitable. I know I'm not the only one. I shouldn't whine. And, some people don't even have parents or have nasty mean parents that wouldn't be missed. So, I guess I should consider myself lucky that I have parents who are missed.

And I know you're probably thinking, "Becca, you've been to Brazil three times since your parents left 15 months ago...the longest amount of time you've gone without seeing them is 6 months...stop being a big baby."

I know, I know.

But it is the little everyday things I miss.

• Being in the same time zone.
• Shopping with Mil. (I miss shopping with my mom, not shopping in general as I really don't like shopping.)
• Being home, looking in my parents' fridge, thinking they have no food, only to have my mom come home and whip up a masterpiece out of nothing and then getting to eat that masterpiece.
• Going back to my dad's office to catch him watching "Cinderella Man" on his tiny little TV for the 5th time that week while "working."
• Having it cost 40 dollars for gas to drive up to Idaho to visit the parents rather than a 1000 dollar plane ticket plus a 200 dollar visa.
• Whomping. (What my mom calls it when my dad and brothers start wrestling each other.)
• Not having it not matter where I spend the holidays.
• Seeing my dad's sheep grazing on the hill. (They are at a sheep babysitter right now.)
• Things just being normal. Or as normal as they get with my family.

I guess what got me thinking about all of this is that last week my mom almost got to come to SLC for a few days to bring a sick sister missionary home for surgery. I wouldn't have been in SLC anyway, since I was in Panama at the time, but it just got me thinking of how fun it would have been to meet her at the airport, take her to Cuccina Toscana where we'd spit an order of gnocchis with arabiatta sauce followed by a desert of molten lava cake, and then take her shopping, where she would probably go CRAZY at the prospect of being able to once again buy American clothing and food.

So, secretly in my evil heart, I hope another sister gets sick. Just kidding. Okay, maybe kind of not.

Well, maybe instead of someone having to get ill one of my brothers will get married and then at least my mom (but sadly not my dad) could come home for the wedding. There's always hope.

Anyway, sorry for the WHINING. I'm going to stop now. But let me just promise all of you readers out there, whose parents haven't left yet...you will want to whine. So, don't judge me too harshly now, lest I judge you right back.

Done.