February Focus

February is named for a Latin term that means purification. It seems the Romans held a purification ritual on February 15th every year. Hmmm, maybe I will try that next year. In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl"; when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice. Sounds pretty, doesn't it?

February is Black History Month which many of you have seen fit to honor by reading books to learn more about our country's balck history. Other important days include -- Feb. 2, Groundhog's Day, a very meaningful and important day; Feb 14, Valentine's Day (blech); Feb 29, Leap Day, a very weird day; and, most importantly, Feb 4, my birthday.
Good thing I've added this little information piece since it's been a really slow news month.

Feb 4 -- As mentioned above, it was my birthday. It was very low-key. A friend from church, Julie Justice, took me to lunch at 7-11. (It's a restaurant in Vernal that's been there long before the convenience stores were created.) She gave me an LDS fiction which looks like a fun read. How can you go wrong with a book? That evening was spent doing my shift at the temple, a perfect way to end the day.
Feb 5 - Feb 8 -- I took a trip to Salt Lake to visit my kids and get my baby fix. (see previous post) Lincoln is hardly a baby any more but toddler fix sounds wrong.
Feb 14 -- I went to the movie with Lisa Labrum who is a co-worker. Her husband was out of town so a matinee on Valentine's Day sounded great. We saw "Confessions of a Shopholic." I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It was very funny and pretty relevant to our current economic mess. Mothers, take your children to see this movie to teach them the dangers of credit card debt.
Feb 22 -- I gave my Relief Society lesson based on the conference talk, "Winning the War Against Evil." I am so blessed to be able to present the lesson to a group of sisters who participate and offer such good insights. These lessons would be so boring if I was the only one talking. It's an amazing talk printed in The Ensign and I learned a lot.

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Work - We didn't come close to our goals this month. Things are slowing down so much. Blame it on a rotten economy and the fact that we live in an oilfield town.

Books - I read eight books this month but True North took so long and was very boring. I only read 1965 pages, less than half of last month's total. Of course, one book was an audio and another was a children's book. Four of the books were rated a 4/5. I rated one book 4.5, another 4.75 and finally, gave out one 5. Overall, that means I had a very good reading month. The "5" book was A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny, a mystery set in a small town in southern Quebec. I'm really enjoying Penny's series and look forward to the next one.

Movies - I saw THREE movies this month. That's almost unheard of. Cassie and I saw "Taken" with Liam Neesom, very riveting. He's such a good actor. I mentioned "Confessions of a Shopaholic." The last movie I watched at home on a quiet Sunday afternoon: "The Errand of Angels." It is a movie about an LDS sister missionary is Austria and was pretty good for that genre.

TV - I have been faithfully watching The Bachelor. Since the finale took place in March, I'll save my comments for next month. I'm watching American Idol for the first time this season and thinks it's great. I hate it when a singer I like puts in a bad performance but have been very impressed overall. Plus I really like Simon. He's incredibly mean but hilarious as well. I think most of these contestants have watched the show from the get-go so they shouldn't be so surprised when he puts them down, but they always are. I remain a Gray's Anatomy devotee although I think Derik's melt-down was over the top. And of course, I caught a lot of the Awards shows. I must be in the minority but I thought Kate Winslet's dress was ugly. But I was so glad she won. I've always liked her even though I haven't seen this particular performance. Hugh Jackman was a great host and who knew Anne Hathaway was such a good singer?

Overall impressions - I managed to jot down two things I was grateful for: midwinter thaws (this was right before that huge snowstorm hit on the 2nd) and my family. I obviously need to spend more time concentrating on this piece. We did have some awful weather at the first of the month, but it is truly looking like spring is just around the corner. I love those 60 degree February days, don't you?