Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Today I finally finished the Diary of Anne Frank. It was a pretty slow read for me, but as her diary progressed she became increasingly moving and inspiring. Her attitude and courage through such frightening and confining circumstances was inspiring to me. She was optimistic and continually filled her time with books and learning. Throughout the book her insights to life become more and more profound--much beyond her fourteen years. Anyways, I loved it and think everyone should read it. (Reading it in school doesn't count)

I'll share the highlights from my favorite journal entry. In it she is relating a conversation she had with a young boy named Peter who was in hiding with her family. She asked him, "Quite honestly, I can't imagine how anyone can say, "I'm weak, and then remain so." After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character? The answer was: "Because it's much easier not to!" This rather discouraged me. Easy? Does that mean that a lazy, deceitful life is an easy life...I thought a long time about the best answer to give Peter, how to get him to believe in himself and above all improve himself...How can I make it clear to him that what appears easy and attractive will drag him down into the depths, depths where there is no comfort to be found. We all have hopes for much happiness but we must all earn it for ourselves. And that is never easy...Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction. "

Can you believe a fourteen year old girl wrote this? I think it is so insightful.

One more quote that is actually related.
"How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to their minds the events of the whole day and consider what has been good and bad. Then, without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve quite a lot in the course of time."

I think I will put this quote by my bed. I think Anne Frank was an amazing young girl. So sad her life was cut short with such great potential. I wonder, though, if through her death she actually influenced more people for good. Who will ever know.

Captain underpants

Tonight I read captain underpants with Carson. It was obviously his pick. It was halarious. If anyone ever wants to see their son come alive with literature--captain underpants is the key. He used expression and different voices for the characters. I have to say--despite the ridiculous potty talk I loved it--I was totally cracking up.

Our trip to Italy

Our first day we went to the the Palatine, the Forum and the Colisseum. I loved it. It was so facinating to see these ancient ruins right in the middle of the city.

It was our ten year anniversary this year so Matt and I decided to go to Italy to celebrate. Stephanie was kind and brave enough to babysit for 10 days. She did an amazing job. The kids loved her and the only damage was a minor dent in my car:)




We had a six hour layover in Paris so we hopped on the train and saw a few of the sights. We saw the Cathedral of Notre Dame, The Louvre, The Eiffel tower(from afar), and the Arc de Triumph. Paris is Beautiful and definitely has it's own architectural look. We were pretty tired since it was the middle of the night back home. We also discovered at this point that I didn't have my wide angle lens. This made it impossible to get wide angle shots. We were pretty sad.

First day of school

The first day of School. Claire is going into 4th grade and her teacher is mr. Bethel. Carson is going into grade 2 and his teacher is Mrs. Garcia. Ella--little Ella--is going into K and she is so excited. Her teacher is Mrs. Harrah. We are all happy with the teachers we got and the kids are enjoying school as much as can be expected. Here's Ella with Joey Pilimai--they are in the same class.