17,639

This is how many pages I read in the year 2009. No, I did not complete my goal of 65 books but I feel okay about that. I decided I didn't want to waste my two-week vacation in California buried in books so I decided I was okay with only reading 61. :] And I must say, I'm pretty proud of my page total. About 40 pages per day! YEAH! I thought I'd share my book list (sorry the page numbers are still there because I didn't want to go through and erase them all) in case anyone is looking for books to read!

2009 Book List
1. The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau-288 pages
2. The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau-352 pages
3. Young Pioneers by Rose Wilder Lane-192 pages
4. The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright-288 pages
5. I Sailed to Zion by Susan Arrington Madsen-192 pages
6. Beyond the Western Sea: The Escape From Home by AVI-336 pages
7. Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink-288 pages
8. Journey to America by Sonia Levitin-160 pages
9. The Touch of the Master’s Hand by Larry Barkdul-109 pages
10. Silver Days by Sonia Levitin-192 pages
11. Annie’s Promise by Sonia Levitin-192 pages
12. Beyond the Western Sea: Lord Kirkle’s Money by AVI-415 pages
13. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury-192 pages
14. Accepting Joy by Todd F. Cope-173 pages
15. Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix-160 pages
16. Weaver’s Daughter by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley-166 pages
17. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares-352 pages
18. Marley and Me by John Grogan-320 pages
19. Keeping the moon by Sarah Dessen-240 pages
20. Land of Promise by Joan Lowery Nixon-169 pages
21. Whirlwind by Cathy Marie Hake-368 pages
22. Hazardous Duty by Betsy Brannon Green-304 pages
23. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks-288 pages
24. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares-448 pages
25. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares-368 pages
26. Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares-416 pages
27. At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks-352 pages
28. American Diaries #19: Zellie Blake-144 pages
29. Saddle Shoe Blues by Carroll Hofeling Morris-167 pages
30. Saving Kristen by Jack Weyland-199 pages
31. The Work and the Glory, vol. 1 by Gerald Lund-437 pages
32. Horse Stone House by Harold K. Moon-195 pages
33. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham-240 pages
34. The Work and the Glory, vol 2 by Gerald Lund-515 pages
35. Midway to Heaven by Dean Hughes-225 pages
36. The Work and the Glory, vol 3 by Gerald Lund-541 pages
37. The Cinderella Pact-352 pages
38. The Work and the Glory, vol 4-605 pages
39. The Work and the Glory, vol 5-600 pages
40. Previously Engaged by Elodia Strain-292 pages
41. Yearbook by Allyson Braithwaite Condie-231 pages
42. Jen and Ashley by Jack Weyland-287 pages
43. The Secret Journal of Brett Colton by Kay Lynn Mangum-352 pages
44. Chasing Yesterday by Rachel Ann Nunes-272 pages
45. Bright Blue Miracle by Becca Wilhite-173 pages
46. Secret Santa by Anne Osborn Pollman-153 pages
47. First Day by Allyson Braithwaite Condie-304 pages
48. The Undaunted by Gerald Lund-802 pages
49. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom-196 pages
50. For One More Day by Mitch Albom-197 pages
51. Reunion by Allyson Braithwaite Condie-217 pages
52. Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans-236 pages
53. Christmas Rose by Robyn Buttars-115 pages
54. Pirates by Celia Rees-379 pages
55. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld-425 pages
56. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld-370 pages
57. Specials by Scott Westerfeld-372 pages
58. Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright-122 pages
59. Across the Rolling River by Celia Wilkins-254 pages
60. The War Within by Carol Matas-151 pages
61. Tuesdays with Morrie-199 pages

My best recommendations:
All three books by Mitch Albom: The five people you meet in Heaven, For One More Day, and Tuesdays with Morrie. If you only get to one, choose the last. It's amazing.
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
The City of Ember
Marley and Me (my second time reading it and I loved it just as much the second time around!)
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series

And if I can warn you against some others...
Farenheit 451...I will never read that book again.
Undaunted by Gerald Lund. 800 pages of boring.
Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. BLAHHHHH.

The rest, minus the three directly above, are all recommendable! :]

Impossible Feat?

I have 9.5 books left to read to complete my goal of reading 65 books by December 31. Think I can do it? I have faith...and also a little pride that makes me want to be able to complete my goal! 21 days and nine books means three books a week. I think I can do it! Wish me luck!

I LOVE...

...MY CALLING! I'm the Relief Society Activties Leader (or what used to be known as Enrichment Leader) and it is so fun--albeit STRESSFUL! Our activity tonight was such a success! It was called "Cultural Christmas" and we had a spiritual meeting first where our Bishop's wife spoke about Christ and the role he plays in our lives. Then we sang "Silent Night" in lots of different languages (the great thing about a student ward is there are so many sisters from other countries or sisters who served missions in other countries so there are so many different languages spoken!) The languages that we had tonight were Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, French, and English. It sounded SO pretty! Then we had a musical number by two sisters in the ward who speak Spanish and they sang "Hark the Harold Angels Sing" in Spanish which was so pretty! After our spiritual part of the program, we moved to another room and had booths where some sisters shared Christmas traditions from other countries. We had Brazil/Argentina (they did a booth together because the traditions are very similar), Spain, Sweden, and Japan. Then lots of sisters brought food from their homelands or ancestor's homelands and there were so many yummy treats (Norwegian cookies, Russian cookies, German coffee cake...and lots more)! Everyone had so much fun and learned a lot. Such a great activity! This calling is so fun!--it's almost like being a party planner...with a little bit of gospel thrown in there!

YEAH MEGHAN AND CHEYNE!

SO EXCITED BECAUSE MEGHAN AND CHEYNE WON THE AMAZING RACE!!! YEAHHHHH!!!

Salt Lake Lights & The Forgotten Carols

Tonight, the father of the kids I nanny for had three extra tickets to Michael McClean's The Forgotten Carols and so he invited Tom, my little sister Kelli, and me to attend. It was really fun! I must admit, it was a little strange but I love Michael McClean and his music so that made it great! Before we went to the play, we went to Salt Lake to see all the Christmas lights. We were really pressed for time so we didn't get to see a lot but from what we did see, it was SO PRETTY!





They had a bunch of luminaries set up that were really detailed and lots of them said things in different languages. This says "Hope" in Indonesian!

Ward Christmas Party

Ward Christmas Party: a night full of fun, friends, great food, and COLD weather!

Hair Accessories Party!

I had a hair accessories party tonight at my sister, Kelli's, apartment in Provo...and it was SO SUCCESSFUL! I was so excited to sell so many items! Since it was soooo successful I'm having one on Monday, December 21, in Sacramento at my parent's house! YEAHHH. So come one, come all! And invite your friends! Invitations via Facebook will go out next week! Get ready for your's!