I just finished reading The Silver Chair by CS Lewis. It’s the sixth book in The Chronicles of Narnia series.

Before reading The Silver Chair, I had heard mixed reviews. So, I was a little skeptical as to whether I’d like the story, especially with Eustace being one of the main characters. However, I quite enjoyed the book, even though there was quite a bit of screaming (on my part) at the characters because they didn’t see the obvious signs until later in the book. Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia is still my favorite of the series, so far, but the adventures in this story were fun and it was fun to meet the new characters (e.g. Puddleglum and Prince Rillian) introduced in this book.

I’m very excited to be so close to finishing the series and I can’t wait until I finish reading The Last Battle. It will be especially exciting to find out how the chronicles end and to see how Lucy, Edmund, and Peter find their way back to Narnia, even though Aslan told them they were too old to come back in previous books.

My rating:

Happy belated birthday, Bret! Happy birthday, Brian and Wendy!

My mom called me about an hour ago to let me know that President Hinckley had passed away. My first thoughts were how much I’m going to miss him and then how happy I am for him because he’s with Sister Hinckley again.

When I was 14 or 15, I had the chance to shake President Hinckley’s hand. He was the 1st Counselor in the 1st Presidency at the time and gave a talk at our regional conference in Logan. After the conference, those who wanted to could shake his hand. My family was one of those who did. It was such a highlight of my life!

When I was a sophomore in college, President Hinckley gave a talk at one of our institute devotionals at USU. I waited in line for a few hours, missing a couple of classes in the process, so I could get a good seat. I ended up being in the front row. It was really neat to be in his presence as the Prophet. I remember feeling peace and assurance that he was a prophet of God. There was no doubt in my mind.

His teachings have greatly touched my life. President Hinckley is the prophet in which I truly came to realize the fullness of my testimony, so I’ll miss him a little more than I do others that have gone before him. I’m glad I know I’ll have a chance to see him again and become great friends with him!

Happy belated birthday, Megan!

I had an opportunity to be in a Spanish immersion program for four years while I was in elementary school. Basically, my entire schooling from first through fourth grade was in Spanish, other than learning how to read in English. Each year, I had the same students in my classes because we all advanced with each other. It was the best school experience I could’ve ever wished for because I’ve always had a huge interest in learning about other cultures and I now have such a great love for learning languages.

Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten quite a bit because I don’t speak Spanish very often. I try to practice whenever I get the chance, but I’ve noticed I’m a lot shyer and less confident when speaking with other people now that I’m older. I’m always so concerned with speaking perfectly that I stutter big time. When I was younger, I didn’t care if I made a mistake because I knew I was just learning.

Lately, I’ve had a chance to practice a little bit with a few people here and there. However, the best thing that has happened recently is a Spanish thread at The Host Index, one of the community forums I belong to. I can talk to someone whenever I feel like talking, I can take my time when posting something in Spanish, and they all help me out when I make a mistake. I may not be speaking, but I still have to remember words and grammar in order to communicate with the others and each post’s getting easier. It’s been a lot of fun! I think this is the first step to brushing up and losing some of my fear of speaking.

Last night, I finished reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis. It’s the fifth book in The Chronicles of Narnia series.

Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia is still my favorite of the series, so far, but I enjoyed reading this story very much. I enjoyed all the adventures the characters had and all the people the characters met. At first, I didn’t like Eustace and he almost poisoned the book for me. But then, I started to ignore him and really enjoyed the story. Of course, it was very nice to see him change for the better as it made reading the book a bit more enjoyable.

My favorite part about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was how much Aslan was in this book. Sure, he was in the other four as well, but we didn’t see a lot of him. In The Magician’s Nephew, he doesn’t show up until about the middle of the book. And, again in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he doesn’t show up until a little after the middle of the book and the book focuses on the other characters until the stone table. In The Horse and His Boy, Aslan’s there a lot, but you don’t always realize it’s him until the end when he tells the characters it’s him. In Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia, Aslan doesn’t show up until Lucy sees him. But, again the story focuses on other characters, so you don’t see much of him. Whereas, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, he’s there almost throughout the entire story.

Even though I know Lucy and Edmund find their way back to Narnia in the last book, I was pretty sad when Aslan told them they were too old to return. I’m very intrigued as to why they (and Peter) get to come back. I guess I’ll find out soon enough. I’m also going to miss Reepicheep; I hope he somehow finds his way back into one or both of the last two books.

My rating:

Happy birthday, Mackenzie and Jen!

Here are the last of the Calvin and Hobbes snowman strips.

On Saturday, my Twilight friends and I had a party. It was so much fun! I had a chance to meet five new people.

We all just love our group so much. Everyone jokes that everyone in the group is “my people” because we just get along so well and just love to have fun celebrating ourselves and the world of Twilight. I’m so glad I’ve found these ladies. I really feel like I fit in and can be myself around them, which is so rare for me. I also know that if I act like my crazy self, they won’t judge me and will love me even more than they did before! They’re such awesome women!

The party started at 5:00 pm. I carpooled with Debbie, Kayla, and Alysa. We left Provo around 4:00 and we didn’t get home until about midnight! (This is how much we love to spend time together.)

We had a potluck dinner with an opposites theme to go along with the “Fire and Ice” chapter in Eclipse. We had hot and spicy wings from Wingers, a delectable white and milk chocolate truffle dessert, sweety and tangy salad, and much, much more wonderful dishes! (We’re thinking of creating a SLTA recipe book because we always have such yummy food.)

At the party, we each brought 5 things that represented us, so we could get to know each other more. I brought my iPod, a cat figurine, my Rubick’s cube, a crochet hook, and my Harry Potter bookmark.

• The iPod represented my love for anything electronic, such as computers and gaming systems. It also represented my love for music since music is such a huge part of my life.
• The cat figurine is from Japan, so it represented my love for animals, especially cats, and my love for anything Japanese.
• The Rubick’s cube represented my love for games and puzzles.
• The crochet hook represented my love for crocheting and knitting, which are about the only two crafty things I do.
• The Harry Potter bookmark represented my love for Harry Potter (of course) and my love for reading. I also told them that books have always been a part of my life. I just detested them until about five years ago.

I think I represented myself pretty well. Of course, there was no way I could encompass all of me in just five things. At first, I had a hard time figuring out what to bring, but then I had a hard time weeding out things and only taking five items.

We played Twilight-themed Pictionary, which was great fun. We laughed so much we burned all the calories we ate while we were there plus some. Our cheeks and our stomach muscles were so sore afterward.

Emily and Tawnya did such a good job planning the party. We even left with some party favors: three Twilight-themed magnets, a Twilight-themed bookmark, some candy, and a deeper friendship than we came with. I can’t wait until our next party.

Happy birthday, Zak!

Here are some more Calvin and Hobbes snowman strips. The first one is one of my favorites!