BBC Top Books

The BBC apparently says most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. Apparently I'm not as big of a book worm as I originally thought I've only finished 26/100. That's a solid F. I guess I know what one of my new years resolutions is....

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen YES
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien YES
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte LOVED IT! Read it many times
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling YES
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee YES
6 The Bible SOME OF IT--ONE DAY
7 Wuthering Heights
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell HATED IT
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES
11 Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott- LOVED IT!
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare SOME OF THEM
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier LOVED IT!
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien YES
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger DOES THE MOVIE COUNT?
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell DIDN'T FINISH
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 STARTED IT
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck SAW THE MOVIE
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carrol SAW THE MOVIE
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame YES
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens LOVED IT!
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen OF COURSE
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen BEST JANE AUSTEN EVER!!!
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis YES
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 - AA Milne OF COURSE
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell YES
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown YES
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 DEFINITELY
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood O
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan SAW THE MOVIE
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen OF COURSE!
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 THE GIANT REMINDED ME OF MY FAMILY W/ PETS
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas STARTED IT SAW THE MOVIE
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 SO SO MANY TIMES
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath LOVED IT!
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
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 STARTED IT
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White CLASSIC!
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 LOVED IT!!!
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint Exupery IN FRENCH
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 LOVED IT!
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare ODDLY, NO
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo STARTED IT

Christmas Celebrations

Its been a really l o n g time since my last post. Since I'm taking a huge leap and taking more than one day off of work, I finally have some times to get to the creative side of life. We had a fun little evening the other night when my family discovered what the application "Photo Booth" on my mac does.







We had a little chuckle on this one..... something about resembling those little house elves from Harry Potter.


I told them


to look

gangster....


hmmm

the

"DeWitt Gang"













Merry Christmas from the deWitts!

PS. We got to talk to Nicki yesterday. Not that we are counting down but she comes home on February 22nd. She sounded so happy and told us we were being to trunky, she has a lot of work she wants to do. Which makes sense since we was just called to be a trainer for the 3rd time, and is now learning sign language for her last transfer!

Ode to Home Depot

dedicated to sarah, and the rogers, and all those who doubt, with hopes that they too one day will appreciate the beauty of HD....

mock me if you dare, but i love Home Depot. within those walls

are endless possibilities...






you can buy wood to make decks and chairs, rocking chairs,






the wood smells amazing too.






i love to walk past the door section






and open all the doors, its like opening the door to a new opportunity.






in the garden center, you can find seeds.






seeds bloom into things.






nails, and screws and hard cement glue hold the minds creations together.






and really...can anyone actually count the number of paint choices?

Twelve Ways I Love Christmas

I hope Sammy appreciates my spin off of the "Twelve Days of Christmas," because we all know how I feel about that song...haha! 

Christmas is one of those special times where every moment is precious.  Time seems to speed up while moving in slow motion all at the same time.  As we move towards the beginning of a new year, I wanted to pause and list the Top Twelve moments from the 2010 DeWitt Christmas.  These are in no particular order.

1: The Christmas Tree

Every year we trek into the mountains and find the perfect tree.  I have to say, this year we did not fail!  Cutting down the tree is one of my favorites.  The sleepy drive to the mountains; the crisp air; rangers with santa hats and horses with sleigh bells....The only thing missing from making it perfect was Nicki and her ability to start mischief instantaniously.

2. The Count Down

Years ago my mom made this beautiful advent calendar and every year we put it up to start counting down the days till celebration time.  Notice the ordament missing on the 4th?  Nicki and I just might have had a slight tuffle in our past about who got to put that day up....

3. Ma Mere

There is no Christmas without my mom.  Literally.  She started working towards Christmas months and months ago.  She makes the house always seem a little brighter, warmer and more full of love.  Her laugh is constant and contagious.  It helps too that she is in love with Christmas.  As soon as the kids are home for Thanksgiving all the lights go up and plans start brewing. 

4. The Phone Call

Yay!! We got to talk to our wonderful missionary on Christmas Day!  Currently she is on the Oak Harbor island with her companion and two other elders.  The work is slow, but she is steadfast and pushing forward.  Hearing her voice after over 100 days brought tears to all of our eyes.  I'm so greatful every day for the wonderful example Nicki is to our family and for the sacrafices she is making to serve the Lord.

5.  Sammy

Stylish, seriously funny, and sweet all add up to my little sister Sammy.  She keeps the family on our toes with her bubbly personality and spunky style.  I can't believe they don't sell bright neon green high top converses in stores... trust me I looked for-EV-er to try and find her a pair for Christmas.  I'm so proud of all the amazing things she has done in such a short 16 years.  Currently she is the #2 student throughout her entire highschool.  Way to go sugar!

6. Sarah Jean

Sarah Jean has been my an amazing light in my life!  We have so much fun together and go on so many adventures.  Our last biggest idea was to take my Christmas gift down to St. George and visit Grandma Amy.  We can proudly say we did it in one afternoon and had a blast.  I'm so grateful for a friend like her to
add fun to each day.

7. LOVE

I just love how during this time of year everyone is just a little bit more loving.  People go out of there way to give.  I just wish we could spread some of the love, the love, the love....

8. Papa

Dad is hilarious.  He has a great sense of humor that he carries into all of our activities.  This Christmas was no expectiation.  We were laughing so hard all the time.  I love going to the gym with him and was so excited to be able to go to a spin class with him.

9. Food, Food, Food

Need I say more than FOOD!?!

10. The Animals

Angle and Kita definitely keep us entertained.  My favorite thing in the entire world is when Sammy leaves the living room and Kita attacks Angel.  Angel frantically stands up, panting hard and avoids making eye contact with everyone in the room.  As much as we all sometimes have a hard time being patient with our sweet dog, we really do love her. 

11. Snow Shoeing

It was so fun to traverse the wild, mountain side with my ENTIRE family.  We had so much fun and mom totally rocked it.  The day was perfect and warm.  I'm pretty sure it was the start of a lot of outtings. 

12. The Gospel

So much of the happiness I experience everyday comes from the gift of the gospel in my life.  I'm grateful everyday for all the blessings it has brought to my life and for my family.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! This year is the year... lets make it the best one yet. :)