Archive for August, 2008
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
My review
Well, the day has finally come. I have finished all 1462 pages of Monte Cristo. Here’s what I thought:
This book was AMAZING! I can’t imagine what they could possibly have taken out to make the abridged version. If you’re considering reading one or the other, I recommend taking the plunge and reading the unabridged.
The character development is absolutely incredible. I feel like I know every character personally.
If you’re planning on reading either one, just be aware that if you have seen the movie, the book ends quite differently. I personally prefer the way the book ends, but some prefer the movie’s incredibly convenient way of ending.
Quotes from the book:
“In politics…there are no men, but ideas–no feelings, but interests; in politics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle.” (pg 124)
“For in prosperity prayers seem but a mere assemblage of words until the day when misfortune comes to explain to the unhappy sufferer the sublime language by which he invokes the pity of Heaven!” (pg 150)
“…to learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy makes the other.” (pg 195)
“Tell the angel who will watch over your future destiny…to pray sometimes for a man who, like Satan, thought himself, for an instant, equal to God; but who now acknowledges, with Christian humility, that God alone possesses supreme power and infinite wisdom.”
“He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die,…that we may appreciate the enjoyments of life.”
“…until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, ‘Wait and hope.’”
Proving the Book Wrong. 1st Edition.
What “the book” says:
“Hiccups
Q: My baby gets the hiccups all the time–and for no apparent reason. Do they bother her as much as they do me?
A: …Unlike adult hiccups, they’re not bothersome, at least not to baby. If they are to you, try letting your baby nurse or suck on a bottle, which may quell the attack.”
What I say:
Cami absolutely, undeniably, without a doubt, HATES the hiccups. Maybe most babies don’t, but mine…definitely does.
Any tips to help get rid of hiccups besides nursing them away are welcome!
A day at the Dentist!
So, this morning, Blair was able to squeeze me in to get my teeth cleaned at the school. I have to admit that I was a little bit nervous, but for no good reason. Blair was awesome, and I’m now convinced that they ARE teaching him something!
For so long, this life that Blair had been living what with “school” and “clinic” had been a little bit surreal. I mean, how was I supposed to know that he was really in there practicing dentistry when I’d drop him off at the front door? Well, it turns out that it’s for real, Blair is going to be a dentist, and is already quite good, if I do say so myself. Just check out my pearly whites that he cleaned so nicely! (ignore the baby fat…hopefully we’ll have that taken care of here soon…)
It was also really nice to be able to put some faces with the names of people that he’s talked about over and over again. Like Brenda.
Cami hung out with Brenda, the scheduler, while Blair worked on me. She wanted to see the dentist, too, but we told her she had to wait until her first tooth came in. She did get to sit in the chair for a second, though, just for fun 
.
So, it turns out that I have quite the cavity. I guess we’ll be making another trip to the dentist in the near future. At least Blair gets to use me as a competency. Yay for caries! (is that how that’s spelled??)
Tennis Anyone?
Does anyone in the sound of my voice play tennis? It’s been a long time, and now that I have a clean bill of health, I’d love to get back into it. Anyone up for it?
Cami’s Blessing
It’s a few days late, but I thought that I’d better write some thoughts down before I forget to. Blair is home and keeps telling me “It’s daddy-daughter time!” and I keep butting in and playing with Cami, too, so I finally had to remove myself so as to let him have some undivided time with his little girl. This should keep me occupied . You’d think I get enough of her all day long, but as it turns out, she’s just too cute to handle!
Cami sure is loved because Thursday night (Aug 7th) her Grandma and Grandpa Brown flew all the way from Utah to see her get blessed. On top of that, her Aunt Julie came from Montana on Friday, and her Aunt Crystal came on Saturday from Utah as well!
Friday we went down to the river to take a ride on the Belle of Louisville. It was such a fun time, and Cami didn’t even seem to mind all the wind. Blair loved looking at all the functioning of the steam engine with his Dad, and Blair’s mom and I hung out with Cami. I’m so glad we got the chance to do that! It’s one of those things that, when you live in the city, you tend to not make time for all those special things about that city. I still haven’t been to the Slugger Museum or Churchill Downs or … anything else for that matter. I’ll have to make a point to do those things before we leave.
Friday night Julie flew in and even though it was past our bedtime, Cami just couldn’t wait to meet her cousin Conner. Conner is SUCH a cute little guy with super dark hair and the cutest chin I have ever seen. He’s just a month and a half older than Cami, so they are going to be best buds! I can’t wait until they both get a little older and can play together.
Cami and Conner
Saturday we did some grocery shopping to prepare for the after-blessing festivities, and Crystal flew in around 2. We just took it easy that night and had a good time being together.
Sunday, my family (Mom, Dad, Michael and Emmalie) got up bright and early so they could be in Louisville in time for church at 9. Mom worked her magic on the blessing dress that I was blessed in as a baby by replacing some elastic where needed and getting it all cleaned up for Cami. It meant so much to me to be able to have her blessed in that dress. I like to get a little sentimental once in a while. She looked absolutely beautiful!
Anyone who was there knows how beautiful the blessing was. Blair did such a good job at relaying the love and blessings that Heavenly Father has for our little Cami. One thing that Cami was blessed with was Cheerfulness. Today while I was sitting in the glider, playing with Cami after a feeding, she locked her little eyes with mine and just laughed. It made me remember that part of the blessing and I just couldn’t help but get a little teary eyed. She makes me so happy. For an instant, I found myself forgetting how hard it was to get this little girl into the world.
I would love to end this post on that happy note, but I just have to add…Sunday evening, when Blair’s parents’ visit was drawing to a close, I remembered that I wanted to get the pictures that Blair’s mom had taken on her camera of the weekend onto our computer. (we kept forgetting to take ours with us…) SO I popped out the memory card, stuck it in my little card reader thing, and hooked it up to our computer. I still don’t know exactly what happened, but all the hundreds of pictures that were on her memory card suddenly disappeared. Most of those pictures had already been saved to their computer at home, but the last 2 weeks were lost…and there’s still a chance they’ll be able to fix the card, but I’m doubtful. Of course it had to be me to be the one to screw it up, right? So, needless to say, I have very few pictures to add to this post. Luckily we did get a couple of shots after that had happened to at least have proof that they were here. Fun, huh? Ugh…
Anyway, Cami is officially Camille Ann Brown. We call her Cami, Goose, Baby Bug, Munchkin, Kitty Whiskers, Camerkins (it just slipped out one day!) and everything in between, so we’ll see what she ends up going with. I put my money on “Goose”.
Amen…
…To this post on my brother’s blog, Simply Perceptive. Check it out:
Payday
This little girl rocks my world. Especially when she smiles.
