Read-a-thon!

So in the last little while Brecklyn and I have had a new common interest.  We have been reading.  So now Brecklyn comes over with her backpack full of her favorite books and sometimes her laptop and says that she wants a read-a-thon!  So, alright, we read.  She likes to read "Nancy Clancy" books and I have been into reading "Amish Fiction".  I find the Amish people quite fascinating and when we went back East on an LDS History Tour, the tour bus took us to an Amish village.  We got to stop at some shops and see some of their wares, including their famous quilts, which were gorgeous and intricate, to say the least!  I have a few Amish dolls that I purchased, the kind with "no face" on them.  So different!

Well, when I went to Poland late last September, I decided I would be alone without company for quite a few hours and so bought two books at Wal-Mart that I could take along to read during "down-time".  So I read these books and had to have more.  Bought a few more and went to the Highland City library and they had some more, as well.  A couple of the authors that write Amish fiction are Linda Byler, and Beverly Lewis and Wanda E. Brandstetter.  So I have been exchanging them back and forth with my mom, who also seems to enjoy reading Amish fiction books.  Although they are fiction, the fiction part is only the persons mentioned in the stories, not the customs or traditions.  they are just woven together to make some interesting reading.

So Brecklyn and I do just that, we read.  The minute she comes over, she wants to read and in a very particular way...we get on grandma's bed, crawl under the covers and read.  Occasionally there is the glass of milk and chocolate chip cookie, along with that.  Breck and I are both cookie monsters, much to grandpa's chagrin as he crawls into a "crummy" bed.  I do my best to take care of that...but you always miss a few crumbs.  Then Brecklyn loves to cuddle up to me and have me read to her.  Actually she prefers to read to me about Nancy Clancy.  It reminded me of a story from many years back....

Back when Jamie was a little, little girl, she too, liked to crawl in under the covers with me and either read or watch TV till it was bedtime.  One night she was sort of sitting up in the bed next to me when her dad, the now infamous "grandpa" came in and said, "Jamie, time for bed".  Her response was a loud and resounding, "NO!" and with that firm "no" she threw her body and "head" back and hit me hard!  Her very hard head hit me smack in the middle of my face, between the forehead and top of my nose.  Instantly I was literally seeing "stars" and not the nice kind...also, the pain was horrific and the nose went into instant "nose-bleed" mode.  Yes, I had to pop right up and take care of that.  I was really dizzy as I jumped up.  I finally got the instant nose-bleed under control and eventually the intense pain simmered down to tolerable.  The next day was Sunday and we had later services around noon or so.  By 11:00 I bent over to put on shoes and felt dizzier than ever in my life.  And after that the dizziness did not stop.  I ended up not going to church as planned and the next day the dizziness had not stopped.

Spence took me to the doctor who said I had a concussion.  He said I would be like this about  2-3 weeks and then it would slowly go away.  Oh my, it was Christmas time.  I was so dizzy when it was Christmas Day, that I couldn't go to the Christmas dinner at Spencer's parents in South Jordan.  You can see how long ago this was, because they moved to Las Vegas years ago and then at that time my parents were in California.  But thank goodness, that is now all just a funny memory that came to mind as I was thinking about Breck's read-a-thons and grandpa coming in at 8:00 pm and saying it was time for Breck to go home.  I was glad not to get "nailed" yet again!

So here is a sample of what I am into reading:

And only a sample, and that is because I am still watching German movies.  And so here is a sample of that!

So this is how I have been spending these dark wintry and very cold nights. Just as an "aside" note, back when I was a girl about Brecklyn's age, my friends, Cindy and Carolyn and I would go to the tiny Elmore, Minnesota town library on a weekly basis, by foot, of course and check out all the Nancy Drew, Hardy boys and Box Car Children books and Little House books we could get our hands on.  Those were our faves and then we'd go home grab a blanket and sit in the shade reading till the day was over and then it was on to "night-games" although I doubt we called them that back in the day....