Living Full on Life

2014-15 Book Club List

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Our Alpine Book Club has been going on for almost ten years. It has been so enriching – even if no one really reads the books! When we first moved here to Alpine, I was complaining to an old friend who was in my Virginia book club. She moved to Seattle the same time we moved here and we were both trying re-create the wonderful book club we had just left. I was a little frustrated that no one really read the books we were supposed to be discussing, with the exception of two or three ladies. She sent me this refrigerator magnet that I love:

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For this group we generally choose books that are recommended by at least one member of the book club or by a trusted source to avoid reading books that are inappropriate. We like to stick with PG rated books! For nine of the twelve months we select books from each of the following categories:

• Biography/Autobiography
• Classics
• American History (for July – can be fiction or non-fiction)
•Human suffering (Cultural Revolution in China, Holocaust, Khmer Rouge in Cambodia etc…)
• Juvenile or Young Adult
• Christmas
• Halloween/Mystery
• Christian book for Easter
• Parenting or self-help book

2014-15 Reading List

We have some really interesting titles this year!

December: A Certain Small Shepherd by Rebecca Caudill
January: To Mormons with Love by Chrisy Ross
February: Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
March: Driven: An Autobiography by Larry H. Miller
April: The Power of Everyday Missionaries: The What and How of Sharing the Gospel by Clayton Christensen
May: Running for my Life: One Lost Boy’s Journey from the killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games by Lopez Lomong
June: Still Alice by Lisa Genova
July: River of Doubt by Candice Millard
August: Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less by Terry Ryan
September: Cinder by Marissa Myer
October: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
November: The Five Love Languages by Gary D. Chapman. You may choose to read any (or all) of the books. The 5 Love Languages original, The 5 Love Languages of Children, The 5 Love Languages Singles Edition, The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers…There is even a 5 Love Languages Military Edition!

My Name is Katniss

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I ordered some pizzas yesterday from Papa Murphy’s for our Beckwith family get together. The guy asked me for my name. I told him Candice, he wrote “Katniss”.  My name has been butchered in many ways, but that is the first time ever it has been mistaken for that name! Made me want to go get myself a weapon…

Some Holiday Rememberances

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The holidays have been so wonderful! I have wanted to write for many weeks about some of the extraordinary and memorable experiences we have been having but have been so busy with either holiday preparations or working on the functionality of my new blog. It is amazing how difficult this process has been! Everything I want to do on this blog I have had to look up some tutorial on how to do it! Or watch a YouTube video, or read long, boring articles on my question. It has been very tedious. I really want to just jump into the creative part of this instead of getting mired by the technical part. However, instead of waiting to get everything perfect I need to just record a few things. I will start with Thanksgiving. This year, we decided to have Thanksgiving with just our own little family. AND, we decided to eat out! For any of you out there, and as a reminder to myself, if you want to eat out for Thanksgiving dinner book your reservations early! Most ski resort restaurants provide amazing feasts as well as a few restaurants in Salt Lake (and there is always Chuck a Rama). We chose to go to Little America, downtown SLC. They do not take reservations and when I called they said it would be about an hour wait. We showed up at 11 am which was THE WRONG time to come. We waited for almost three hours! I stood in line, chatting with those around me while Grant took the children to Temple Square and then we swapped and I took the children to the Grand America to see the huge gingerbread house. When it was finally our turn to eat, the wait was certainly worth it! The food was amazing! So fresh, so varied, so delicious! Shortly after we started eating (it was after 2pm by this time) my friend Katie and her husband showed up. She said they come every year and arrive after 2 and only wait about 10 minutes. So now we know the secret! We had a great time, even with the wait.

littleamerica…

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New to WordPress

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I had this little seed of an idea. Why don’t I try to make  a really useful blog? One with all of my stuff on it, recipes, articles, links, thoughts, book reviews and lists…as well as my online record of our family. Here I am letting that seed take sprout and working really hard to make it all come together. It is terrifying and exhilarating all the same time.  We’ll see if it works out as I hope…

Wants vs. Needs

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We decided to follow some good advice and give our children something they want, need and something to read for Christmas.  Anna was asking for many, many things and so I said, “Wait Anna, you already told me you wanted those Frozen dolls, now you are telling me you want something else.” She replied, “But Mom! Frozen stuff isn’t something I WANT! It’s something I NEED!”
Smart, smart girl.

Ode To Lizzie

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My little girl is 12! She has been eagerly awaiting this day for…12 years! No, I’m kidding, it just seems that way. This last year of waiting to be twelve has been torture.  Twelve means the following things for Lizzie (not in order of importance): She gets to wear makeup and dangly earrings, she gets to babysit other people’s children and go to the Young Women’s program at church for girls ages 12-18, and she is old enough to go to the temple. All such wonderful and exciting things!
So what is Lizzie like at 12? Today I got to introduce her to the other girls in the Young Women’s program at church. I got two minutes but could have taken an hour to describe this incredible daughter o’ mine. So here I go…
Lizzie. Sweet Lizzie. Twelve years ago you were born 7 weeks early. You weighed 5 lbs 10 oz. Your birth was induced because you were dangerously anemic. (A blood incompatibility.) Seconds after you were born you were placed on my chest, next to my heart and I was allowed to hold you for what I think was less than a minute. I was totally smitten by your tiny perfection. Then you were whisked away by the huge team of doctors and nurses that were waiting to take care of you. You were given a blood transfusion and then spent a month in the hospital to grow and to learn how to breath and eat. You were the sweetest little thing, though you looked like a giant in the NICU with all those other preemies. (Some who weighed less than two pounds!) That month of waiting for you to come home was probably much like the last month has been for you waiting to turn twelve! It seemed to last for an eternity. Every little thing was a celebration, when you ate by yourself, when you breathed by yourself, your first poopy diaper…

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