A story and a grateful heart.

Today was "one of those days" sure I am blessed to have a beautiful, in most cases very well behaved little girl, but tonight, her little body was possessed by some whiny, crying little toddler. ;) Does that ever happen with your kids? It happens with my little Maija angel ;) Anyway, after finishing our bedtime routine (bath, teeth, books), and feeling like I could be a contestant in something called "Canada's worst mothers" (I sure hope that show doesn't actually exist!) I sat down, and started reading, and looking through lds.org and preparing an upcoming YW's lesson. As I was looking through the web site, I came across this video.

Motherhood Series: “My New Life” video with Stephanie Nielson (NieNie)

It made me cry, it made me think, and then it made me realize how lucky I am, to have the life that I have. I'm lucky to have my sweetheart, my family, my faith, my Relief Society group, my mother, good friends, my health, and although when Maija is screaming her head off, and I'm covered in bath bubbles, tears, and buggies, even in those times, I am still incredibly blessed, even if for a moment I forget it, I'm also thankful for these reminders.

If any of you guys are interested I found a link to Stephanie's blog, it looks funny, and fun to read.

A pocket full of kisses

When we take Maija to the library we give her one of those purple bags, and tell her to have fun, and pick whatever she wants (this works great, unless we take her to Chapters...hehehe). Anyway, Maija found this really cute book at the library, and I just LOVE it!!! I think it is one of the sweetest children's books I've read in a long time. A pocket full of kisses by Audrey Penn, this is the first book we read by her, but we will certainly look for more at the library. I don't want to give away the story, but it is adorable! Happy reading.

My family

I was looking back on my latest posts, and I have hardly mentioned anything about my family. So here it goes...

Maija



Always a lot happening with her. Maija loves to play "School" we take a big piece of paper, tape it to the table, and she practices letters, painting, gluing, cutting, whatever she feels like doing, and in the last few days she has already learn how to write a few of her letters. This activity she either calls "school" or "crafts"... I have a friend who does this with her little boy (teach him his letters this way), and so I am trying to learn from her example. I know every mother thinks this,but she truly is very clever ;) Maija knows the names of all the pieces in a chess board, and she often practices this at the library with her Daddy, in the large chess board there.
She loves to sing, and can find all her favorite song in the children's hymn book.
She loves to read, she can easily sit on my lap, and read for a good hour, or two. She has a great attention span, and she is asking a lot more questions like "Mommy, how to do you say _____ in Spanish?" and then she repeats it, and says to Wyatt.."Daddy, this is how you say _____ in Spanish"
She loves the movie Cars, perhaps a little too much, and has memorized the characters, and story very well considering she has not been allowed to watch it often, her mommy is a bit of a movie control freak.
She is awesome in the pool, she can jump in, put her head under water...in other words MAIJA IS AWESOME!!!! Sorry I meant to just write about my family, but I should rephrase that, I'm bragging about them. Maija and Wyatt are pretty awesome.

Wyatt



This summer we took a road trip to BC, and it was a great opportunity to hang out with Wyatt, minus his computer. We camped for about 15 days, and it just made me realized how lucky I am. He knows and loves the outdoors so much. He knew a lot about marine biology, so it was specially neat to go to the coast with him.
At home, I hardly see his cooking skills, BUT he does really well if we are dealing with a camping stove. Not only does he have bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills, we can add camping cooking skills to his list.
He was teaching Maija about all kinds of animals, when we visited the Vancouver Aquarium he knew a TON of information, it was cool.
He took some beautiful pictures, he has a great talent for composition. He shot over 1400 pictures, but it is not about the number of shots, but the end quality, and the time he dedicates to his photography, it is cool to see how much he enjoys it. We went exploring a lot during our vacation, while Wyatt took photos, it was fun.
I was never an outdoors person, but now I love it, and the more time I get outdoors with Wyatt, the more I think that these are the best vacations ever, and more importantly our best times together. I'm glad he is patient enough to teach me about the things he loves.

Me



I'm reading lots...lately I had yet another hiccup, and read a few fun books, but I am back to reading Jane Austen. I'll post about that later. Good night.

To Kill a Mockingbird aka the greatest book ever!

Ok, so you might be wondering what happened to Lord of the Flies? I'm sorry I just couldn't do it, it took me about 5 days to read 60 pages, and even for me that's slow! So I decided to take the advise of a very wise librarian. When I went to return a few books, and told her I had not read them, she looked at me, smiled and say "Oh honey, it's not like you have a write a book report about them" So I put down Lord of the Flies, and went to my next selection To Kill a Mockingbird. Have any of you guys read it?? You really should, it is AMAZING.
This is probably the first classic, that after reading it, I thought, YES, that is a classic, and I can see why! It is thought provoking, well written, innocent, yet serious. I find that although it covers very serious topics, it is also clean. I just can't say enough good things about this book.
It also made me think of many John Grisham novels, except a lot cleaner, and a way better story. Perhaps it was the southern setting, or the court case, or the question of how truly unprejudiced our society is today, or perhaps all of the above. I'm just saying if you like John Grisham, you will love this book.
Funny side story, I was supposed to read this book in grade 10 (I think?), and did not read it, instead I tried watching the movie, but then it was in black and white, so I fell asleep. What was I thinking?!?! Just wondering if anyone has any old high school novels that you've read as an adult, and thought, why didn't I read this before?
Two thumbs up for this book.

ok so I had a small hiccup....

I know my last post was about how from now on I, Monica O, will not be reading books that were not "intellligent, good for the mind" etc etc...well...On Friday I celebrated my birthday, and Wyatt took me out to dinner, and after eating WAY too much chinese food, we went for a walk to Chapters.
Just as I walked in, there it was, the new SHOPAHOLIC book! I know this is the absolute opposite of intelligent literature, but it is SO MUCH FUN! I love reading Sophie Kinsella books. They are just like a breath of fresh air!
Her charaters are just hilarious. Becky Bloomwood gave me hope that perhaps my motherhood skills are not so terrible after all, and I laughed. In this book, the main character (Becky) is dealing with her life as a new mother of a two year old (You can see where this might relate).
I won't spoil the book for anyone that might feel like reading it, but as usual Becky makes you so angry, but at the same time makes you laugh with her stupidity!
So in light of my hiccup,here is my next question, what is your guilty pleasure book?

ps: I am as we speak reading Lord of the Flies again.

My new classics kick

Once more in my search for self improvement I'm trying once again to focus my reading on good books. Not just fun literature, but GOOD for the mind literature. So I went to my public library, like so many of my friends, I LOVE the library, and don't know what I would do with out it. Anyway, I found a few lists of most recommended classic novels (was pleased to know I had already read a few), posted them on my bulletin board, and I am going through the list, not in any particular order, since I still have to be interested in the book, and cannot make myself read a book, no matter how hard I try.
My first choice was Jane Eyre, I managed to go through high school, and a few university english courses without ever having to read it. It was enjoyable, but sad, even her "happy" ending, was well kind of lame...literally. I won't ruin it for those of you who have not read it, but if you have, what did you think?
I did think she was a great example of enduring in great trials, and always finding hope no matter what your circumstances might be.
I'm planning on posting each book as I finish it, and I'm hoping to actually write a small review, or even just a few thoughts on the book. For any of you who might be interested this is one of the many lists I found for greatest novels of all time online. If any in the list are among your favorites please let me know, or if you are interested in reading with me, and chatting about each book, I will definitely be up for that!
My next novel is Lord of the Flies.

What are we up to....

Maija and I have been busy learning new things. Maija graduated (I love saying that!) from her Mom and Tot III class, she can successfully blow bubbles, jump into the pool, and can now put her ears under the water. She loves the pool, and swimming, if it was up to her she would go to the pool everyday. It was a lot of fun to take that class, Maija had her friend Nathan with her, and she was so glad for that. He was like a little fish, and that was a good influence on Maija.
I have been taking a photography class, here are a few examples of what I have taken. I still have a lot to learn, but I am pretty lucky, that even though the class is over in a week, I still have my full time instructor at home (Wyatt is my best inspiration, and my daily instructor!). It was cool to go back to the U of C, it made me feel a little bit young, plus I also get to listen to a little bit of institute classes before my class starts.
Here are some of my favorite pictures...



This was taken in one of our many trips to the Zoo.



This was from the same trip, I love my model!



We went for a walk to Elbow Falls, which by the way is a great place to go with little ones, since it is not really a "hike" and little ones can easily walk around, and enjoy the outdoors. I used a Neutral Density filter for this picture, to get that effect on the water.



...and of course one more of my favorite little girl.