Day 14 of my challenge...(and 12 and 13 too)...

So, things got away from me the last couple of days and I haven't been able to be at my computer. What does that mean? I will tell you. It's been about 48+ hours or so since I have been able to sit at a computer for any length of time. When I logged onto our personal email this morning, there were 11 messages waiting for me. Now, that may not seem like a lot, but it's a lot for us. After reading, responding and processing through those, I logged into Kindermusik and I had 13. I read, responded, and processed those and logged onto my EOU email where I had 12. Mostly mass emails, so I could get through that list pretty quickly. I checked my facebook where I had 3 messages and 16 comments on things. There were well over 300+ new posts on my newsfeed, so I read through some of those and purposely visited a few people's walls to check in on what was up with them and now, here I am. :) Not to mention that I went to bed early last night (8:30) and woke up at 6 and when I turned my phone on, I had 4 messages! 4!! Between 9pm and 6am. I say all this because many days my email inboxes have NOTHING in them and my phone never rings. I was just surprised. :)

Now for my blog challenge. I am behind, so I will be putting them all in this blog.
DAY 12: 3 THINGS PEOPLE ARE SHOCKED TO LEARN ABOUT ME
I have lived many different lives. The people who are part of my life now are most surprised to learn about my other lives and the people from my other life are often surprised to learn about my current one. I will go with what people I am current associated with are shocked to learn about me. Narrowing to 3 will be a little tricky. :)

1. I grew up LDS for most of my life. I won Book of Mormon scripture chases, was a Young Women's leader, went to girl's camp every year, and worked on an LDS ranch called "Ensign Ranch" for about 6 summers of my life. Some of my best memories of my past, I might add.
   
2. I am the oldest of 9 children. Most people know this about me, but even the ones who know this were surprised when they learned it and every new person I tell is surprised. I don't know why it's surprising. I'm bossy and controlling. Duh. Where did they think I got that? :) Also, I think people have a fascination with big families.
3. I failed my first term of my freshman year of college. I graduated EOU with ??? 3.8? Pretty awesome grades. Now I teach there. I can relate to my struggling freshman in a way no one else can. I had a 1.6 GPA at the end of my first term at CWU and was put on academic probation. I don't fail many things, so that's always a little surprising for people to learn.
   

DAY 13: MY 5 FAVORITE BOOKS AND WHY
This is always a hard question to answer. I love to read when I have the time to do so and I read many different kinds of books. I do have a top 5 list, but it could change at any moment. I'll give you my current top 5.

1. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. The first time I read this book, I was enlightened about our ethnocentrism and the idea of religious conversion in other cultures. I love her writing style in this book. She takes on each character devoting the chapter and the style of that person. The first-person narrative of EVERY character. Well written. Good story. Something to ponder. Everything that a good book should have. :)





2. The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Granted, I don't fully agree with EVERY principle in his plan, but we worked his plan by creating a zero-balance budget, living within our means, and using Dave's "debt snowball" plan, we were able to pay off $23,000 in debt in about 16 months. We are now working on baby step 3 which is having a fully-funded emergency fund with 3-6 months of expenses in it. I am finally sleeping at night and not worried about where I finances go as I tell every dollar what to do. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!


3. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I recently read this with my book club. I loved the story and grew a strong connection with the characters. I think what I loved the most was the writing. It was almost hypnotic. Some of the reviewers of this book and other that have read it said it was slow. This is one case were I thought slow was good. Just like enjoying every bite of a good piece of chocolate cheesecake. I loved every word and the way the story was told by the author. It sucked me in. No, it's not a page-turner, but I would say it's quite a work of art. :)





4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This was another book club book. I enjoyed reading this book very much. The story was incredible and very well told. I HATED THE ENDING!! I think my love/hate relationship with the way this author treated his story is why it makes my top 5. I have read it over and over again just so that I could have a different perspective. I appreciate the story for what it is and enjoy the picture it paints. I did not like that he threw a can of paint on his canvas at the end. :( :) Mixed feelings, but highly recommended reading. :)




5. The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon. I think this book made my top 5 because if it's uniqueness. I seem to be drawn to that. It's unique in a similar way to my number 1. It's written from the perspective of 15 year old autistic boy. Even the pages are numbered with prime numbers. It sucked me in so much that I often times had to check the back to look at the author and read his bio and I often found myself wondering if this was his biography. He seemed to understand the inner workings of the autistic mind so well, it was VERY interested writing. The story and/or plot of the book was not the point and not why I loved it. The writing style and character choices were fantastic.

Also on the top of my reading list are several other authors (regardless of which book they wrote): Anita Shreve, Bill Bryson, David Sedaris, Jan Karon, Nevada Barr, Jodi Picoult, and Mitch Albom.

DAY 14: PICTURE OF ME AND MY FAMILY
Family has always been a little difficult for me to decipher. I was so close to extended family growing up that it was hard for me to separate from them to create my own family. I will be including several pictures of family. The first is the most recent???? (YEARS old) one that we took our our little family.....Then there is my group of siblings and their families:

Top: This Christmas at mom's
Left: Chris and Danielle in Florida
Right: Nick and Amanda in N. Carolina








Then there is extended family....the Forney's from Forney Reunion version 20.10:
Then of course, there are all those who are family and not pictured here. All my in-laws, all my aunts, uncles, and cousins on my mom's side, and the friends who might as well BE family.