"I could no sooner choose a favorite star in the heavens!"

As stated in a previous post today, I got a wonderful gift for my birthday, the Elizabeth Gaskell Collection. Elizabeth Gaskell was a writer in the 19th Century who has had these books made into movies by BBC, just like Jane Austen. But that is about where the similarities end. Elizabeth Gaskell dealt with more political stuff than Jane Austen did. And Elizabeth had less romance. Although what little romance she did portray was great. :) I love the fact that they are both different, but both still offer so much pleasure.

Prior to purchasing this DVD set, I had watched "Wives and Daughters", a wonderful story about love and daily life in England in the 19th Century. I had also watched "North and South", one of the best endings in cinema history, I was almost in tears by the beauty of the moment. The movie is also about the industrial era of England and how the common man dealt with it. But the third movie I hadn't watched, it is called "Cranford". I knew that it was about a town called Cranford that is modeled after a town that Elizabeth Gaskell lived in or visited a lot growing up (I can't remember which one). Well I finally watched it last Sunday and Monday...

I LOVE it! It has everything in it; some laughter, some crying (at least 1/2 the main characters either die or come close), some romance, and some wonderful 19th century language. There was this wonderful scene where some old ladies are trying to clean a piece of old lace in buttermilk when they discover that the cat has eaten the buttermilk and the lace. They simply must get it back, so they give the cat an enema and then have it poop in a big boot. The looks of joy on their faces when the cat is pooping is priceless. Then of course the servant gets the lovely task of rinsing out the boot and out comes the brown piece of lace. They were so ecstatic. That was probably one of my favorite scenes. The whole movie was so great, and I want to go live in Cranford. I think that I will make myself an honorary citizen. Anybody want to join me???

The moral of this story is, you must watch all three. I honestly can't tell you which one is my favorite, because they are all so different. That is one thing that I love about Elizabeth Gaskell, she was a very diverse author. One word of warning, they are all about 5 hours long, but each one is so worth it. Let me know if you want to borrow any of them, or we will have a movie night and I will watch one with you! :)

Olympics 2024 here he comes!!

Tyler is a budding olympian. If you don't believe me, check out the pictures below! He just started going to a gymnastics class once a week and he loves it. Kimberlie gets to go with him and help him out. But he has no fear when it comes to doing things. I am thinking that the U.S. Gymnastics team will be wanting him to start training with them in just a few years. We may put them off until he is around or something. He does deserve a little bit of a normal childhood!
With a little help from mom he can flip over backwards.
"I love gymnastics!"
Look at that upper body strength
He doesn't even need to look where he is going.
He loves putting the basketballs in the basket, and he is the tallest kid there and the only one who could do it without parental help! That is my future football player!

Sleepover at Aiya's

It has become a tradition (ok, so only for the last year, but this is the third time) for my nephew, Tyler, to come spend the night at my house for a night during General Conference weekend. He is now 18 months old. The last two times it has been on Saturday night but this time I got him Friday night. It has been fun to see how he changes with each 6 months.
Oh, before I go on I should probably explain who Aiya is. We have always referred to me as "Auntie" with Tyler, and a few months again Tyler started calling my Aiya (pronounced I-ya) so that is what Auntie became. Then after a few times of saying it he stopped, well just this past week he has started saying it again! That was a happy day.
Sooo, I picked him up after I got off work on Friday and we came back to my house and chilled for a bit and watched a little bit of "Cars". Which Tyler loved for about 45 seconds at a time. Then we watched the BYU-Utah State football game. After about the middle of the 3rd quarter, I put Tyler to bed. I won't go into the details of putting him to bed (pretty much I just don't want his parents forbidding me to watch him again!) but after a few tears from both of us, he finally fell asleep in my room. Of course that only lasted until about 3 or 4 in the morning then he refused to sleep unless he was in my bed pretty much taking it over. Then he woke up at 5 am and thought it was time to get up. Thankfully after a bottle he went back to bed and slept for another 2 hours. :)
The next morning, he didn't really want to eat his breakfast, until I went upstairs to get ready then he ate his oatmeal and got it all over himself. But at least he ate. Then I got him and myself ready and we went to gymnastics (next post). Even though it wasn't perfect, it was so much fun and I will definitely do it again in 6 months!

It is always fun to ride in "Aiya's ca"! Especially when Josh Groban is on the radio. :)
"Hello"
What can be more fun than some magnetic trains???
How can you not love this kid?!?!
Tyler trying to show me how he jumps!
When time-out doesn't work.

My Birthday....FINALLY!

Sorry, this post has been a long time in the making! :) I have been a slacker about getting my pictures put on my computer. I just realized that I had some on my camera. I obviously haven't looked at my camera in a long time.

Well I was super lucky and got to have 3 birthday parties this year!

First I went camping with a few of my friends on the Friday before my birthday. Yes, 4 girls camping and we had a blast. We just had a simple dinner with sandwiches and veges and chips and probably other things too. Then I made a peach/raspberry cobbler (simply the best ever). For breakfast Lindsay made us this amazing breakfast in the dutch oven with hashbrowns, eggs, cheese and some bacon I believe. Perfect for a cold morning. The boy scouts who were camped next to us shared some of their corn-on-the-cob and dutch oven pizza with us. It was very kind of them. Because we are amazing campers, we were even able to start our own fire! (although we did have a little help from a fire starter) Thanks Natasha, Christine and Lindsay!

Me working on the cobbler

Christine and Lindsay (aren't they hot!?!)

An S.P. of me and Natasha

Our beautiful little fire!

Birthday Bash #2: My best friend Robin always makes me dinner and a birthday cake for my birthday and I spend the night at her house on the Saturday before my birthday. This year she made me Cafe Rio salad, it was so good (it was even healthy, well mostly)! And then she made this amazing cake that was basically a giant mint oreo cake. It was so rich I could barely eat one piece, but it was to die for! Thanks Robin!

You would be grinning too if you were about to eat this cake!

Another birthday wish about to come true.

Birthday Bash #3: The actual birthday!

I went out to dinner with some friends and then Christine and Annie bought me an ice cream cake (yeah, it was a sugar crazy weekend!) Once again, it was so amazing! Then I went to FHE and we watch Goonies (not the movie I wanted to watch, but it was still fun)! All in all, it was a great weekend. Thanks everybody who contributed and attended the festivities!

Oh, and for my birthday I asked my family to go in with me on this DVD set that I have been wanting, it is called "The Elizabeth Gaskell Collection". For anybody who has not seen North and South (not the one about the Civil War), Wives and Daughters, or Cranford, you must see. But that is a post for later, if I have time!)