BLOGIVERSARY

I can't believe it's been three years of blogging. How do I condense that to give you all a brief overview? On May 7, 2006, I published my very first post. You can read it here . Since that time, I have created six more blogs, one for my ongoing book reviews, three that I stored reviews for each year; one for my Book Around the States Challenge, and one for my TBR list. I think I'm getting rid of the three blogs for the reviews of each year and not do that anymore. Fourteen more books and I will be done with the Book Around the States Challenge. I just really like the colors in that blog. My TBR list in May of 2006 had 76 books on it. The last time I updated it, there were 491. Yikes. I find it interesting that I removed ten books from the original list without reading them (just lost interest) and there are seventeen still on my TBR list. I feel another personal challenge coming on. I have read and reviewed 323 books, joined 39 challenges and have just one left to finish. I had participated in 29 memes, lists, tags, or those funny web things where you learn weird things about yourself. In fact, I'm in the mood for a meme. Anyone seen a good one lately? I learned some fun things about blogging but mostly keep it pretty basic. Visiting other blogs has been fun, but started to really take a lot of time, so I try to limit visiting so much. Not to mention that those visits accounted for much of the huge growth of that TBR list. In January, 2008, I started a monthly journal entry to recap that month. I think my niece, Alyson, got me started on that and it's been such a good thing for me. Of course, the highlight of my life in the last three years was the birth of my grandson, Lincoln. He is such a joy. What else . . . I turned fifty, went on a cruise, was a Relief Society President for a while, hit a huge milestone at work, lost weight, gained it back, I can't remember what else, I'm old. All I know is that blogging has become a part of my routine. It's how I keep in touch with relatives (even those who live in the same town), and I meet new and interesting people all the time. Thanks to all of you for visiting and leaving comments.

April Agenda

April is National Poetry Month as well as Sexual Violence Awareness Month. Does anyone else see the contradiction here? The Boston Marathon is held on the third Monday of April and Arbor Day is the last Friday.

The gemstone for April is a diamond and the flower is either a daisy or the sweet pea. I love diamonds even though I don't have many and I like both daisies and sweet peas.

I did a lot of traveling in the month of April--two trips to Provo and one to Salt Lake City-- which explains the audio books I listened to this month. Much more happening in April than in March anyway.

April 4-5 General Conference. I like to stay at home and watch General Conference twice a year. There are always great talks and spiritual uplifts. If I could only stay awake through the whole thing. I really enjoyed Elder Holland's talk as well as Elder Bednar's.

April 8-12 Susan was the first of several who came to visit for Easter weekend. Mark, Greg, JennyLou and Katie also came out from Salt Lake. So I spent a lot of time at Mom's playing games and eating but missed the egg dyeing because I had to work. Mom, Cheya, Susan and I ate lunch at JB's on Thursday and tried to plan a sisters' trip. I don't know when we will ever pull this off.

April 12-14 I drove to Provo for training on Monday and Tuesday. Stayed at La Quinta on the south end of Provo. I had gone out early to get a little shopping done, but Provo is completely closed down on Sunday. Rats. The training seemed to be a bit of a repeat of other trainings but I did get in a couple of great meals. For lunch on Monday, we walked to Ottavios, an Italian restaurant on Center Street. I had a chicken wrap and tomato basil soup. The soup was scrumptious. That night I got soup and salad to go from Zupa's, my favorite place in Provo--Lobster Bisque and Pina Colada salad. Ymmmm. Tuesday, Preston took Julie, Linda and I to lunch at Los Hermanos, a lovely Mexican restaurant just down the block. It was a working lunch but great food.

April 17-19 I went to Salt Lake to visit the kids and grandkid. Again, it's all about the food. Friday night, we ate at Archibalds in Gardner Village. I had prime rib which was pretty tasteless. After we ate, we took Lincoln to see the animals they had in pens. He was pretty fascinated with the geese. It's a really pretty place. The next day we went to The District so I could do some shopping and ate at the Red Robin. I had a great hamburger and Lincoln had fun flirting with a little girl from the next table. I am disappointed in the shopping there. Cassie and I went to JC Penny's then drove to Jordan Landing for a bit more shopping. Friday night, we played dice and I won!!! The next night Cassie and I watched a video.

April 19 My lesson in Relief Society this month was "God Loves and Helps All of His Children," a talk by Bishop Keith B McMullin, 2nd Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric.

April 22-23 Traveled to Provo for a manager meeting on Thursday. I had to give a presentation on Recognition. It went okay. The meeting was a little overwhelming as usual. Lots to do.

Work - I'm glad this month is over. This is the slowest month we've had for ages. Too many people leaving Vernal, I guess.

Books -I read or listened to ten books and 2153 pages. The page count is down because four or these books were audio. My favorites were West with the Night, the memoirs of a female pilot who was the first to fly across the Atlantic traveling east to west; and North River, a great novel about New York City in the thirties. I started one book but didn't finish it. I am letting myself do that more often. There are too many good books to read to waste time on one I don't enjoy.

TV - I am getting into Castle, a great detective show with a twist. Sad to see Chuck and Julianne voted off last week. Up to that point, I had pretty well agreed with the voting. I like Melissa, but I can't imagine she will be able to dance that well with a cracked rib. My favorites are still on American Idol. I think I am still watching America's Next Top Model and Celebrity Apprentice because there's not much else on those nights. I thought Joan and Melissa Rivers were such babies last week.

Movies - Cassie and I watched Slumdob Millionaire at Jordan and Stacey's house. I really liked it and can easily see why it won the Oscar.

Overall Impression - It has been raining a lot which I like because everything is so pretty and green. However, the wind has also been raging and I hate that. My lawn is growing like gangbusters and I can't get my lawn mower started. Plus I need to spray the weeds but it rains every weekend. I hate yard work, but I really want to plant a garden this year. We'll see.