I have a testimony of the emergency fund.

I just completed the tax-form-filling-out process through good ol' Turbotax. I have not hit "submit," however, because I'm waiting for a few last statements to arrive and also because I'm in a coma in the hospital after seeing how much I'm about to owe the government. It's a lot. Like, over $1,500 a lot.

I suspect the culprit is partially my paycheck (maybe I put down 1 exemption instead of 0?) but I also know I'm not the only person in this boat. Turbotax knew it too, because right after I screamed and passed out (knocking myself on the head in the process and coming up with the idea for a time travel device shaped like an IUD) I saw a little link on the screen that said something like "Did you just scream and pass out? Please click here." Turbotax went on to explain that for some tax payers, the discomfort they may be feeling right now is brought to us by the letters E-C-O-N-O-M-I-C S-T-I-M-U-L . . . anyway, you get where I'm going with this.

I know that it's ideal to work out your W-4s so that you break even each year. Because you don't want to owe money, nor do you want to give the government an interest-free loan. Since we see how great they are at money management. So I was just hoping to break even. And in the event that we had received a big refund, I would have gone in and adjusted our W-4s accordingly. And then fielded GH's pleas for a new television. (Looks like I'll be doing some W-4 adjusting anyway now, though. Go me!)

It does stink to discover that we will need to pay a big chunk of taxes right now. But last year, you'll remember, my goal was to get an emergency fund going. We did it, and now that's where this tax money is going to come from. And then I'll work on putting that money back the fund. Because of the emergency fund, this unexpected ginormous bill is not putting me into a panic. Other than being an annoyance (and a dasher of GH's tender television-related dreams), it isn't actually going to change my life all that much.

I chatted with a lady at work, though, who had the same thing happen to her. Usually she and her husband receive a significant refund. This year, like me, they owe money. Only, see, my friend is used to getting the refund--she was actually depending on it. They had planned a long-overdue family vacation, one involving their out-of-state children as well. Now, the trip will have to be canceled. Not only that, but they are scrambling to figure out where this tax money is going to come from. Maybe they'll have to put it on a credit card, and then they'll have the interest to deal with. This situation is causing their family disappointment, stress, and financial strain.

I feel terrible for my coworker. And even though I know that for many of us now is not the easiest time to be trying to put money aside, this has shown me that it's very much worth the sacrifice.

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"Only in Utah," as my mother would say

A sweet lady just came in and somewhat bashfully asked me if I could print her a copy of this month's Visiting Teaching message.

Best part is, it was about becoming self-reliant.

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Newbery rundown

My dad emailed me last week after the Newbery awards were announced, wanting to see how I felt about the titles they picked (especially since a lot of the ones I really liked weren't on the list). I was careful, you'll remember, not to list my choices as "predictions." If I were going to be predicting, I would have made different choices. I was just going with the ones I personally liked the best.

But let's have a look at the winners!


When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I was glad this one won. I enjoyed it, and I think I might enjoy it even more if I were to read it a second time. The occasional discussion of time travel (by kids who were reading A Wrinkle in Time and debating how such a thing would work) might put off some kids. And if you haven't yet read A Wrinkle in Time you might feel like you're missing out. (But seriously, if you haven't read A Wrinkle in Time then you're missing out anyway. In life. Because that book is good. So please go read it.)



Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. I didn't read this one during the big pre-Newbery glut, but a couple of my colleagues did get to it and really liked it. It was one of their top picks. Also, the illustrations are really cool. So if you're an audiobook person, please make sure to at least pick up a print copy and thumb through it.



Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose. Oooooh, edgy! Sort of. This is one I flipped through when I was reading books for the Sibert (nonfiction) award and I thought it looked really good. It's about Claudette Colvin, a Montgomery Alabama teen who was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus several months before Rosa Parks. But the local civil rights leaders weren't ready to launch a big campaign and they possibly didn't want Colvin to be the poster child of said campaign. By the time the Rosa Parks-induced boycott came about, Claudette was a pregnant teen who had to quit high school. (That's where the edgy part comes in, depending on what you feel your kids are ready to be reading about. It's not discussed in detail but it's for sure a thing.) This book does a really good job of showing what was going on in the civil rights scene and quite a lot of the story is told in Claudette's own (sassy) words.



The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly. I knew this book would be likely to place, but it wasn't on my list because I hadn't read it. I hear differing opinions about whether the vocabulary will put this over the heads of most pre-jr-high kids--or whether it might even be a tiny bit boring. But it's about a spunky turn-of-the-century Texan gal who wants to be a scientist when she grows up, rather than a housewife. I've put it on hold so I can read it.



The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick. Meh . . . I read the end. It was fine. It wasn't on any of our top lists.

So there you have it! I feel like the committee made some safe-but-for-the-most-part-good choices (nothing as wacky as that let's-hack-up-bodies-with-machetes Surrender Tree from last year) Has anybody else read any of these? Are you mad about anything getting left out?

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In which Masterpiece Theatre saved my bacon

I was almost dead to my sister this week, because I forgot to tell her that Masterpiece Theatre was bringing back the good stuff--most notably, Return to Cranford. Remember that one time when they aired Cranford and it was super good and made me sob until my face chapped? Yeah, it's still really good.


The good people at Masterpiece Theatre have put all of it online so you can watch it there for the next couple of weeks. It is good that they anticipated I might not be on the ball this year, woops. And this way my sister won't kill me for failing her.

I have only seen the first half so far, but the second half is waiting for me on the Tivo. Turns out that GH, in a testament to the depth of his true and extreme love for me, recorded it even though it meant that the 2nd half of the Golden Globes would NOT be recorded. For a movie/TV nut, that really is love.

Because he couldn't watch the Globes, he got online to follow some of the live blog feeds to try and keep up with the awards.

GH: You know Avatar's going to win.

Me: Yeah, and then James Cameron will get up there and say something stupid.

GH: I read somewhere that he worries he'll make a fool of himself if he wins any awards.

Me: Yeah well, it's a valid worry for Mr. "I'm the King of the World." Watch him--he'll get up there and say something in that stupid Nefertiti language from the movie.

GH: Uh . . . it's Na'vi.

(Says the man who actually saw the movie. In 3-D. At an IMAX theatre. To be fair, though, he hasn't felt the need to see it again, unlike all the weirdos who keep going back three and four times.)

Me: Uh huh. Bet you money.

(Five minutes later)

GH: Yep, Avatar won. [pause] Oh my gosh, you were right! James Cameron totally spoke Na'vi.

Me: (smugly) Of course he did.

GH: How did you know he was going to do that?

Me: I just asked myself what's the [Massengill]iest thing he could do up there. And then, he did it.

GH: I love you.

But back to my duty as Masterpiece Theatre Alerter, tomorrow night is when the new BBC Emma miniseries begins, starring Romola Garai as Little Miss Kind of Needs a Smack, Dumbledore as her grumpy dad, and Johnny Lee Miller as Mr Knightley.





Aw to the yeah. I do love me some Johnny Lee Miller (also known as Edmund from 1999's Mansfield Park).

Happy watching, friends!

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Friday cuteness

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite new pic of baby Hudson Atticus. Hold on to your ovaries, ladies (and gentlemen whose parents were perhaps not totally honest with them).


My sister Jen made him this hat, which just goes to show that she too can't not be a crafty devil. But I'm pretty sure my favorite part of all this is his pose.

"Who, Meee? I won the Most Likely to Heal Your Soul with my Preciousness award? Really?"

You know what else heals my soul? Massages. And Ima bout to go have me one. We'll see if they can do anything about the spiny dragon hatchling that has burrowed into the back of my neck and is trying to kill me.

What they will not be allowed to touch is the huge, massive, weather-altering bump on my forehead--not unless they want the entire world to be sucked into a vortex of pain. Because I'm pretty sure that's the only thing that will satisfy this monster.

I think I'd better scroll up and look at the baby Hudson pictures again.

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Getting my votes in

On Monday all the Newbery/Caldecott/Sibert/Geisel awards will be announced, and I figured I'd slip in my picks now so that just in case something I like gets a medal I won't look like I jumped on a winner bandwagon after the fact. Cuz, you know, street cred among librarians is an intense, intense thing. Shivs slipped into cardigan sleeves and all that.

I've been reading off the lists of "books with potential" that other libraries are using for their own Mock Newbery competitions. Only . . . here's a the thing. Not too many of the books I've read this year have blown me away and made me want to run out and tell everyone about them. There are certainly some that I really like, and that I think are better than the others, but nothing that really brie'd my baguette, you know?

Reading so many books in a short amount of time, though, made me notice certain trends.

This year, war is a big one. Several books are set during the Vietnam war:

All the Broken Pieces

Kaleidoscope Eyes
Neil Armstrong is my Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me

And there are a couple dealing with Iraq/Afghanistan

Peace, Locomotion

Heart of a Shepherd

I know that in kids' books one of the first thing you want to do is get rid of the parents, but a lot of these did it in some pretty depressing ways. First we had the (many, many) kids who are foster kids or orphans:

Peace, Locomotion

SLOB
Carolina Harmony

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg

All the Broken Pieces
Neil Armstrong is my Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me

And the ones who are dealing with the death or abandonment of a parent:

Love, Aubrey

Also Known as Harper
The Girl Who Threw Butterflies
Kaleidoscope Eyes

Heart of a Shepherd
All the Broken Pieces

Cheery, huh? But now on to my faves.


#1: SLOB by Ellen Potter. Technically, because of the age of the narrator, this one is YA. And it's wonderful. It's about a bright (perhaps genius) middle-schooler named Owen. Owen is the heaviest kid at his school and is busy working on two inventions, one of which is a trap to catch the person who keeps stealing the Oreos in his lunch box. I would recommend that you NOT read other descriptions of the book, because they might give too much away. One of the best things about SLOB is that you begin reading a seemingly simple tale about a fat kid's problems at school, but then it becomes much more emotionally complex (and breaks your heart) as crucial elements are revealed.

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg. This one is written in free verse, and is about a 12-year-old boy named Matt whose mother had him airlifted out of Vietnam with the departing US soldiers. His adoptive family loves him and he's on his way to being the star of the school baseball team. But he is met with some racism on the team and must slowly come to terms with his painful memories of Vietnam and of the mother and younger brother he left there.

Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry. This is another War book, about a boy named Ignatius who is left to try to run his family's Oregon ranch practically on his own while his father (along with all the other military reserve members of the community) is serving in Iraq and his brothers are away with the Army or at college. Religion plays an important element in the story--there's a Quaker grandpa and the community's new Catholic priest. This is a coming of age story that I really enjoyed.

Love, Aubrey by Susan LaFleur is one of our "abandoned/orphaned/neglected girl makes good" entries, and I think it's the best one of them. Aubrey's father and sister are killed in a car crash, and her mother pretty much implodes with grief and runs away, leaving her behind. Aubrey goes to live with her grandmother in another state, where she begins to get settled and makes friends. The book is a series of letters that Aubrey writes to an imaginary friend, where she works out her feelings about being abandoned, not only by her father and sister but also by her mother. It does have a hopeful ending though, in case you were worried.

Peace, Locomotion is the sequel to 2003's Locomotion, which I haven't read. I do like Jacqueline Woodson, though, and I really liked this. It's told in a series of letters from Lonnie to his little sister. They both live in foster homes after the death of their parents, and they communicate through letters and occasional Saturday visits. Lonnie talks about his struggles at school, the teachers who encourage him in his poetry endeavors, and his foster mother's worry over her son who is fighting (and then goes missing) overseas.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is the book with the strongest Newbery buzz. I'll be fine if it wins, even though I believe I liked SLOB better. It's about a 6th grader named Miranda living in 1979 New York City. She's reading A Wrinkle in Time, and suddenly starts to receive mysterious anonymous letters that predict future events accurately. The notes are urgent and indicate that something important is about to happen. While she tries to work this out, Miranda is also having friendship struggles and helping her mother train to be a contestant on the $20,000 Pyramid. You definitely should read this one. And then once you get to the end you will be probably tempted to go back and read it again to find the clues you missed the first time around.

Does anybody have their own Newbery predictions or favorites? (And yes, I believe those two things are frequently incompatible, since it seems that some Newbery committees are just hell-bent on choosing books that they loved the pants off of but which no child would ever want to read. Which is fine, I guess, if you take Children's Literature to mean "Literature about Children" rather than "Literature for Children.")

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Man Candy day

Hey, remember that one time when I asked you guys to pray up a job for GH so that he didn't have to work nights anymore and then you totally did it?

Well he started the new job last week and now check out what I get to look at every day.



Aw. Yeah.

Also, pay no attention to the dead tomato plants behind him. And the electronics boxes from Christmas-and-possibly-earlier that we haven't taken down to the dumpster yet. This is not a judging space.

We went to Kohl's over Christmas and kitted GH out with work clothes, including a new black peacoat. I cannot overstate how happy the new coat made me. GH picked it out. He likes it because it still has a hood (detachable, whee!) so he gets to at least feel like he's in a hoodie--albeit a hoodie that actually imparts attractiveness instead of Michael Cera-ness. I like it because hi, it's a man's peacoat and because his other jacket looks like something you'd find on a Vietnam vet. (Thanks for going through some sort of crazed veteran phase, Old Navy.)

Eye candy benefits aside, it has been so incredibly nice to be on the same schedule. We go to bed at the same time, we wake up at the same time, and then we do it again the next day! Like normal people! And about 50% of the time so far I have gotten up at 6:30am with GH and fixed a hot breakfast for us. (The other times I just stay in bed like a comatose slug and glory in the part where I'm not the one who has to get up.)

A highlight for me was when GH came home with his Casual-except-not-really-Friday shirt--a pullover that has the company name on the front. If he wears that on Friday, he doesn't have to wear a tie with it, see. All his coworkers are way excited about this and it's this thing that has been years in the making and now it's like Glenn Beck himself has appeared to cry his salty, salty tears upon them. (Remember, it's Utah County.)

Thing is, they're calling it Casual Friday but come on. I know it's actually Uniform Day. Like you're suddenly McDonalds or Best Buy employees instead of people with dreams and souls. You will recall that I have seen this sort of thing before. Once you have a radar for it, you can never be fooled again.

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Being the favorite auntie is work, people

Don't get me wrong, I'm up for the challenge, but it requires vigilance.

With GH's little nephew Carson, it's not so much about being the fave. He has two Aunts by Blood already, so they come first. And he was nice enough to just accept me as one of his "approved persons" without making me jump though too many hoops. The little strawberry milks from Gossner's I make sure to pick up for him when I'm in town help keep me on the list.

With Savvy and Ethan, however, I have to be on my game, because Spitfire is pretty tough competition and it's not like either of us are going to back down. In my dealings with The Precii, however, I sometimes feel like it's a two-steps-forward, one-step-back kind of a deal. (And yes, commence humming Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul . . . now.)

It goes a bit like this:

Steps forward: Gave Savannah her Very Special Day in which I played supporting actress (Bride) to her protagonist (Darling Twirling Flower Girl Extraordinaire)

Step back: Have not yet provided her with a baby girl cousin, like my brother & his wife have. (Seriously. My stock, she plummeted.)

Step back: Now have a husband person in my big comfy bed, so I do not have slumber parties at their house like I used to.

Steps forward: Have a husband person who came with video games. Which Savvy and Ethan love playing, even though they never seem to actually get any better at them.

Steps forward: Have a desk chair in my apartment that spins.

Step back: Never let them spin as much as they want. Also, never let them play video games for as long as they want.

Steps forward: Offered to knit Savvy the knee-socks she wanted for Christmas in the yarn she picked out.

Step back: Did not initially understand that what she actually wanted were hooker-length thigh highs, and was then resistant to her vision.

Steps forward: Took Savvy and Ethan to the BYU Creamery for an ice cream date.

Step back: Used The Mean Voice to Savvy in the car when she tried to snap her brother's neck with her hands because he was in her space.

Steps forward: GH and I take them out on a movie date as an early Christmas present, thereby giving the Gift of Experiences.

Step back: Ethan decides he does not want to watch The Princess and the Frog, he just wants to stay at my apartment and spin in the chair and play video games. We drag him off to the movie anyway, and make snot jokes in the car to try and cheer him up. He does not love the movie, and then he gets a blister on his foot, and then when his parents come to get them he gets his head slammed in the car door. (I am SO very grateful that it was not me who did this, but instead his mom whom he will keep on loving anyway.) So what was supposed to be this fun treat was instead probably one of his worst days ever.

I think Christmas was one for the forward steps, though:

These bad boys were for Ethan and Carson. I think my favorite part was watching the boys put them on and then seeing the lightbulb go off over their heads. Ethan immediately growled and lunged for his sister, who shrieked and jumped backwards in a gratifying (to Ethan) way. Carson did not immediately terrorize anyone, but let out some very impressive growls.

And then there were The Socks:

I did eventually get them long enough for her tastes (but not long enough for, say, a hooker's), and it sounds as though she loves wearing them. This then provides her and everyone else with a visual reminder that the best auntie is the one who spent 1,937 hours knitting dental floss together with toothpicks for her. (Aaaand this is the part where I'm going to conveniently forget how Spitfire spent close to the same amount of time playing Barbie with Savvy over Christmas and I played exactly none hours with her. Not factoring that in at all.)

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Resolutions, schmesolutions

I'm not going to make any resolutions. I have decided that January is not so much a resolutions kind of month. If anything the cold temperatures, gray skies, and snowy roads are more conducive to a "let's be more like bears" month. (Staying inside as much as possible, check. Grouchiness, check. Thick winter pelt, also check.)

Resolutions take energy. And it's hard to try to drum up energy when it's been dark for 6 weeks and the only place that energy is going to get you is outside, where it's cold. To me, March or April would be better for resolutions because that's when you start caring about life again. January, I have now decided and decreed, is the time to stay warm and eat soup.

So if anybody needs some inspiration, here are a few of the staple soups that might see me through the winter:

White chicken chili (with or without chicken), courtesy of Your Heart Out

Daltongirl's lentil soup:

2 cups uncooked lentils
8 cups water or stock (I use half water, half stock)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stock, chopped
1 potato, chopped
2 T olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 t salt
2 t red wine vinegar

Pick over lentils and wash.
Mix all ingredients except the vinegar in a soup pot and cook until the lentils are very soft, about one hour (30 min for red lentils). Stir in vinegar at the end and serve.

Martha Stewart's "You in a fit of health bought a 16-pound tub of spinach at Costco and now have to find some way to consume it before it goes bad and silently blames you for being a person who destroys spinach and thereby THE WORLD" spinach & pea soup. It calls for 6 cups of fresh spinach and is quite tasty. (I have never bothered with the fussy little frico bowls on top so can't say if they're good or not.)

Cream of pumpkin soup (again, never bothered with the croutons)

GH's Grammy's potato pea soup

Daltongirl's Japanese Ramen soup, which takes about 5 minutes to make. You just add loads of veggies to the boiling water (or broth, if you don't want to use the radioactive seasoning packets found in the 5-cent ramen packages) in addition to the noodles. I like bok choy, carrots, mushrooms, fresh ginger, spinach, whatever. It's good for experimenting (sometimes I add 2 Tbs of fish sauce) and for using up the stuff that's languishing in your crisper. After you take the pot off the heat, stir in 1 beaten egg per person (the hot broth will cook it) & garnish w/sliced green onion if you have it. Good stuff.

Clam chowder. This is the recipe I tried most recently and liked. Until Azucar kicks in with what she claims is the best recipe ever, it will have to do.

So. Anybody have any good soups that should be added to the list? Or just ideas of what you do in January? I am all ears!

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