From Rebecca to Juliet

Dear Juliet,

My name is Rebecca.  The Guernsey Literary Club probably hasn’t mentioned of me since they have never met me.  I too am new to their society as I have just learned of it through their correspondence with you.

Like the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society I feel my life has also been like theirs during the occupation.  Not in the way that the Germans are taking over but in the sense that I have allowed other things to take over my life the past 20 yrs.  Occupied by things of the world that I haven’t been involved in any literary works other than Super Fudge.  I think they would laugh at me if I were to take a turn during their society meetings to talk about such a simple book.

What I have learned through the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is like them, I have a new found love for reading.  The way it has taken my mind places that it had otherwise never been.  The adventures, respect for other’s opinions and experiences and the way the words on the page can change my emotions in an instance is miraculous.

I admire you and hope your new journey takes you places you thought they never would or wouldn’t have wanted.  I know my journey has and will continue to do so.

Respectfully,

Rebecca

p.s. Thanks for your great book, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.”  Now I can mark that one off my list.

Another bit of change

Continuing on from the last post lets talk about number 2.  No, not THAT #2 but the second thing I don’t like that is changing in me.

I have always hated is purses.  Just the word itself is a little silly to me.  I like the way they look, people look good with them but I’ve never been one to carry a big over the shoulder purse (did you think I was going to say something else?  You’re silly.)

Well it wasn’t until my sweet sister shared something with me that she is sharing with the world.  Her face and her story.

It started with a bag called the Miche Bag.  I hadn’t heard of it before but it’s amazing.  They made a bag in support of cancer and in doing so they have asked cancer survivors to be a part of it.

My sister is a cancer survivor and after a few photo shoots her tag was made.  A tag that comes with the purchase of the Hope bag.  It is being launched this month and if you haven’t seen the bag I encourage you to check it out.  Or check me out because I’ve been sporting it all around town and people love it.  Plus I have her tag hanging on the bag as well so naturally people do ask.  Here she is..

The bag is amazing but my sister is more amazing!

So because of my sister, what better reason to start carrying a bag.  Yep, I still refuse to call it a purse!

A New Year and a New Me

Many of you may or may not know the real me.    I have pretty good opinions on things I like and don’t like and for good reasons too.  It may just be things that are odd and annoy me or they could very well be things that go deeper that have been rooted in my soul from a very young age.  I won’t share them with you for fear I’ll probably offend some if not every reader in some way.

Among this list are two things that are changing me as we speak.

First is READING.  Here is where you either really know me or you don’t.  I hate reading.  I don’t read.  Don’t care for it, don’t enjoy it and don’t like being around people that do it.  Maybe it’s because I had a relative that read her way through her entire adolescence and never socialized with us.  I’d rather be out playing in the sun, making mud pies, laying in warm gutter water, laying on the hot cement to dry off after swimming and finding things in the field across from my house that I swore belonged to the pioneers.

I have a list, a very short list of the books I have read.  The Book of Mormon and Super Fudge.  Told you I don’t like to read.

BUT something has changed in me.  I guess I’m getting old.  I have a desire to read.  I used to say “why read when you can just watch the movie”.  My new goal is to read before watching the movie.

With that I have just finished “Secret Life of Bees” and tried to read “Hunger Games”.  I’m starting to read “Water for Elephants” and that’s just the start.  My sister and I set a goal to read one book a month and start my own little library of good books. 

Here is my list so far based on recommendations from people I trust and not just because the book cover looks cool:

 

Crossing to Safety

Geurnsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society

I Captured a Castle

The Screwtape Letters

The Help

Little Bee

The Alcheimist

Three Cups of Tea

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

In Defense of Food

 

Any other suggestions?

Stay tuned and I’ll give my review on what I’ve read from a new readers perspective.

Oh and I’ll post about the second thing on my list too….

Christmas Prep

People have asked what I do to get ready for Christmas.  Well duh, I go last minute grocery shopping with a dinosaur. 

Merry Christmasaurus!

Vote for Jim!

Please take a moment to vote for my brother in law Jim Hall.  He is in the serious category and you will want to after seeing his story.  We couldn’t make this stuff up (nor would we want to). 

So please vote for JIM!

http://www.hoopesvision.com/contest/finalists.html

Who am I supposed to be?

Things happened this past weekend that really made me question myself.  Who I am, why I am the way I am and what others really see in me (or according to one person’s opinion).  It was shocking  and a bit of reality, nasty and brutal reality to say the least. 

Then through the help of some really amazing friends I was able to rethink all the things that were said to me and start to see things a little differently.  That perhaps those harsh words may not be exactly true.  Thank you (you know who you are) for helping me get out of one of the biggest slumps I’ve been in for a LONG time!

Then I stumbled upon something I wrote down a while ago that I should stick up on my fridge:

“God dwells within you as you yourself, exactly the way you are. God isn’t interested in watching you enact some performance of personality in order to comply with some crackpot notion you have about how a spiritual person looks or behaves. Just stay as you were made, within your natural character.”

- Elizabeth Gilbert

"Eat, Pray, Love"

With that I will say that sure, nobody’s perfect.  We all have things we can work on to be a better person.  But I am reminded that the Lord has asked me to do things because of the person I am and NOT the person he thinks I can pretend to be.  I hope that by being “me” I can help someone out there love life a little bit more.

Anything going on?

When you don’t blog for a while some one may think “hmm they don’t have much of a life if they don’t blog often.  They must not have anything going on or anything to blog about.  Or the other person may see this as “wow, they have been so busy with living life that they don’t have time to blog.”  Well, let’s just say I’ll leave it up to you, the reader to decide which one is more accurate.

First up, a trip to Catalina with some great friends to celebrate 2 of their 40th birthdays!  Oh and is that a Cafe Rio we hit on the way home?  Can you tell we are excited?

 

 

 

Hosted a wild party for Abby and a few of her school friends.

Then off to Disneyland for Halloween fun.

 

Don’t forget the Ward Trunk or Treat

Then came Halloween.  Since it fell on a Sunday we “let” the kids stay home and pass out candy for the first time.

Throw in a school carnival, a bunch of activities for church, a party with friends, birthday parties and school parties this month kicked our trash.

It was a good one but ready to slow down a little bit.  Oh wait, we have more holidays ahead.  Aaaaaagh.