80. Read 20 books over a summer - Failed

Well, I won't be able to read 20 books, I might give it one last attempt when I get back from my mission, but in the meantime, I wanted to check out this list, and see how much I have read :) so... the ones in italics are books I haven't finished, the bold are the ones I've completely read :) The plan I think will be to finish the italicized ones in those 20... *I didn't italicize the ones that I started reading in a library and then just didn't take out... but there's a few of those too :/ :p

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte *this book was a little too weird to want to finish... I rented the movie, just to see what I had given up, and I decided Emily Bronte is just... really weird! so is Charlotte Bronte... but not as weird... and they have another sister! Anne... I kinda wanna see where on the Bronte scale of lunacy she sits... :p (judged on their writings)

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman *The Subtle Knife was read in french! my first french novel read by choice ;p **random fact - the translation for the title is actually The Tower of the Angels

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis *ok... call it blasphemy, but I think I've tried reading every single one, and never made it more than half way... if I even get by more than 3 chapters... :/ mind you... it was the same kinda deal for The Hobbit, but I eventually made it through that one too! so...

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis *... why is this on here twice?

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery *ditto Chronicles of Narnia

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel *ok! I would have finished this if it wasn't for a book club, and thus having to return the book... so don't tell me how it ends!

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante *had to read some for English 20IB... or something... don't think I'll finish that one...

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola *oh man! don't read this!!! haha! we read exerpts of/ the sparks notes kinda version of it in FLA 20IB, and then we watched the movie... weird!!! and by the sounds of the other books described to us that year by him... he could be put on the scale of lunacy too

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery *aka - Le Petit Prince, I think I've read it twice and parts of it over and over again! and I went to the play ;p My kids might not like this one cuz I might just read it to them a lot :p

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


... also... there's a bunch on here I can't believe I haven't read... I think I might get to do some more reading before I leave! :p plus... there's some on here I wish I hadn't read ;p and some I know I never will ;p

29. Fly a kite

A few weeks ago, my friend gathered materials for me and her to be able to build our own kites! =D a couple weeks ago, we built mine! :) quickly we ran outside to test it :) it worked!!! =D

Last week, my sister and I took it out for a real try in the big field behind our house, and it was SO good! :) I only wish the string we have was longer! :p I don't even know how long we were out there, we had such a great time... even if my cousin who joined us knew nothing about flying a kite.  In fact, that almost made it more fun at times.

50. Drive outside of Canada

I totally forgot about this one!!! but we road tripped to a wedding in Utah a few weeks back!!!! :D and we did a lot of waving at people... and a lot of singing, sleeping, reading, and most of all: laughing! :p  I laughed a lot as I sped around the curvy mountain highway with my mom clutching for her life in the back seat... :p pics were taken! though not really of me driving, but taken while we were driving and throughout the trip :) I even drove to places and like a Utahn :p which is awesome prep for my mission I think :p

Maybe you can't read it, but the sign says MILE ;p

45. Get myself drawn as an anime

My sister drew me as an anime!!! =D yay! thanks! and ... I'll see if I can scan it in :)

11. Climb 5 new trees

Pics are to come! they were taken of the first tree and me in the third tree... :p

1. The one in our backyard at the Simon Fraser house (while on the phone with Bernz ;p)

2. The one on the east side of the 10th Ave chapel (while attempting to watch the sun rise from it :p)

3. One of the ones at Sandy beach with Meli :) and lots of help from Nessa :p

4. and 5. Were in Confederation Park with my new friend J.O.

44. Go on a “date” with each of my direct family members #2

I forgot to mention a few weeks back that I went out with my mommy :)

I took her for chinese food! :D Buffet style ;) ... but we didn't take any pictures... it was kinda a lot of eating then vegging while watching The Spy Next Door.

I'll find a nice picture of us together to put up :)

Apparently we don't take pictures together?!

82. Get rubber boots

I GOT NEW BOOTS!!! :D

Pic. to come soon... not much to tell... haha! :p

41. Learn to play soccer properly - Phase 1 - Learning the Rules

So... There's a lady at work who has requested some girls come sub for her team, so me and the british intern are going out for the team! :D  I'm so excited! but... neither of us know anything about soccer! :p  so today at work, since it's been slow, I've been looking up the rules of soccer! :D and I found this awesome website that taught me the basic rules, and the offside rules! It's great!!  Hopefully I won't look like too much of a fool come game time! :D

86. Drink the eight cups of water a day for a week

I drank SO much water!!!! hahaha!! I actually tried this before, but had a fail... not that this went too much better... I had a couple days where I had to drink a couple cups right before bed... but it was all good! and actually really nice! :)  I found it was a lot easier to drink a lot of water at work... *shrug*

Drink water - our body likes it when we do! :)

80. Attend a local group’s concert

Check out their myspace here!  and they're actually even maybe better LIVE! not that their recordings aren't good, but they are such good performers!!!

It actually made me kinda sad to think I hadn't been able to make it before!!! I've loved their music since... wow! a while... haha! but still!!! SO good!!!!!! Plus! they're really nice guys!! :) They know how to work the audience, they know how to show appreciation! and they are just really charismatic :)

99. Make a list of songs that remind me of each of my siblings

I've decided that I'll have a list of the songs that remind me of each of my siblings ongoing! :)  and! eventually, when I've shared with them their lists of reasons why I love them, I'll maybe post the top 10 here too :)

Nessa

Songs:

• Soy Rebelde - Jeanette
• This is she and mum's emo spanish song... I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what it all means, yet she can sing along to just about all the words... :p
• Love Song - Sara Bareilles
• This is she and Miki's skipping song
• Mustafa - Carmen Campagne
• Actually... any song by this lady reminds me of her... haha! she has a few of the cds and reunited me with this lovely lady's music back when she was in Gr. 2 
•  Smile - Uncle Kracker
• We heard this song at a dear wedding which we made a long trip for... and both instantly loved it! <3
• Rockstar - Hannah Montana
• The Haruhi AMV we watched together at Otafest that one year... ^_^
• I feel it in my bones - Tiësto feat. Tegan and Sara
• I don't know why...  but we do enjoy it together often :)
• We No Speak Americano - Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP
• We were randomly listening to remix half hour on the radio on our rush hour drive home one day, and this random weird song comes on.  We're in a trance!!!  but! since it's remix half hour, we have no way of finding out what it is! (well... Nessa found it later on their website, but still!) Finally, after it's played in her announcements!!!  and just haunted us... She found it! and has played it at least daily ever since :p

Nano

Songs:

• Welcome Home - Coheed & Cambria
• The only song by this group that I know!!! but!  He likes them so much, when we heard this song on the preview for a movie (9), he HAD to watch it!! :p
•  We Want the Funk - George Clayton (I think?)
• He LOVES the Mastercard commercial with it!! haha!! SO funny... Look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about! :p 
• Sexy Chic - David Guetta  & Akon
• I honestly don't really remember what the story was that he told about this girl and this song... but I always think of him :p
•  Are You Gunna Be My Girl - Jet
• He kicks this song's butt on Rock Band

Miki

Songs:

•  Intergalactic - Beastie Boys
• This boy had us all SO confused and mildly annoyed for a few days cuz he wouldn't stop with: do you know that song that goes: arnernernerner arnernerner... I don't know what word it is, but it just repeats that one word?... THEN he found it!!! and wouldn't stop playing it!!! hahaha!!! I love this boy!
•  Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Bublé
• This is our skipping song ^_^ 
• Love Song - Sara Bareilles
• This is he and Nessa's skipping song
• Loser - Beck
• Not much of a story, just he likes it too much :p
• I get around - Dragonette
• This is our cat walk song ;) Horrid song really, but it has the beat ;p
• Untouched - The Veronicas 
• It's he and our cousin's song!  They can really rock out ;p
• Thunderstruck - ACDC
• It was in his football video! and so... it makes me think of football and thus... Miki :)

63. Invite a friend to take the discussions *+ How it went

I have taken the plunge.

For a while now, I've been friends with a boy from Québec, who is SO nice!  He was going through some hard decisions in his life a few months back, and I had already sent him a Book of Mormon a few months before, so I suggested a couple readings and a fast, which we did together.  He was really grateful, and I think it worked for him :)  I think he's quite ready to learn the fullness of the truth! only... I doubt HE knows that, so I've done something kinda lame, but I'm very excited about it.

I wrote him my testimony in an email, and in the last paragraph, I invited him to find the truth for himself.  I asked him to let me know if he'd be wanting to know more, and I would give him the number for the missionaries.  I reckon that's as good as it's gunna get being a pre-mi.

Please pray that he will feel the Spirit... even if I'm trying to get it through electronically...

How it went:

I got an email from him that very day! in fact... minutes later!!! but I didn't get to reading it 'til the next day, but he sent me a text too, so I knew he'd received it.

He seemed extremely grateful for the sharing and the friendship we have, but no dice on wanting to know more... yet :) I refuse to accept it as a direct rejection, cuz it wasn't really a direct question either.  Things will go well :) and he's still grateful for having sent him the Book of Mormon too :)  I can't wait 'til he learns more :)

Keep praying :) and keep sharing :) and keep being a friend - that's the plan :)

88. Read 20 books over a summer

Ok, so I realized this might be my only chance in my 1001 days to fulfil this one... so this post will probably be updated regularly as I think of more books and actually read them too.  Feel free to suggest any must reads :) *keep in mind however, that I am a SUPER slow reader!

Books Read:

1) What I wish I'd known before my mission (I had started this one before, but in all fairness, I also read all the scriptures suggested, so I'm counting it) - John Bytheway
2) Daughter of a King - Rachel Ann Nunes
3) The Sunflower - Richard Paul Evans
4) Preparing to Enter the Temple - General Authorities?
5) Our Search for Happiness - M. Russell Ballard
6) Betty and Veronica (the one with the rating board with stars on the cover ;p)

I picked the largest size cuz I reckon it's highly important, but it was too big...

3. Serve a full-time mission [another update]

So... I'm pretty sure most of you already know, but just in case... I have been called to serve in the Utah Provo mission! I will be assigned to work in the St. George temple visitor's center, which I'm still waiting for some explantion about... The shocking part : I don't report until October!!! which is awesome! but also horrible! there are more pressing reasons for horrible right now, so please feel free to give me more pros! :)

I love you guys! and thanks for all the fish ;)

*ps - Spanish speaking

3. Serve a full-time mission [update]

My Papers Are In.

I think that's the calmest I've been about it since my bishop said he was calling the stake president last night :p hahaha! ok... so maybe not cuz I did sit through choir without telling anyone...

Anyways... now we wait! You can go ahead and guess where I'll be going on my newly figured out Facebook group! :p

Thanks to all y'all! cuz I know those of you who read this are probably among the most influencial in this process and decision <3

Double FAIL!!! 74. (Junk Food) and 53. (Sleep)

so I got pretty close for both of these and had an epic fail... partially my fault both times.  Ok... totally my fault both times...

74. I made the mistake of being pretty vague, so I was thinking about doing it over anyways... oh! but also my dad only had pop for us to drink at lunch during the move this past weekend... so... epic fail

53. I was about 3 days from passing this one!! mostly subconsciously actually! but then... I stayed on really late one night... and the next... and then it was Friday! and there was a dance in L-town!! so I had to go... and then I wanted to hang with friends... so... 3am rolled around... and then the next night I didn't want to sleep either... I wandered town and even creeped my friends' house! ... they seemed to be asleep... lame... I gave up and went home... sleeping by 1am... the night of the daylight savings time switch... epic fail!

... oh well! =D more to do later :)