Graceland

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Things About Me

Thanks for tagging me Afton. I do need a little kick in the rear to get something posted. This makes it easy...

What I was doing five years ago....
This is always hard because my life for the past 11 years seems to just be more of the same. I think five years ago I was RS Pres in the singles ward and dating a guy who was a great boyfriend but good at keeping the relationship pretty casual. I'd have to say I have fond memories of that time. I enjoyed being RSP and having an excuse to be BFF with all the women in the ward :) and the guy was just what I needed at that time in my life.

Pet Peeves.....
Unkind drivers, a messy kitchen, cleaning the kitchen, insomnia, inefficient customer service workers.

Some things I would do if I were a billionaire....
Quit my job, buy a house (not extravagant), travel the world both for pleasure and for various humanitarian causes, adopt a bunch of kids, pay to have someone besides me color my hair, workout everyday, give lots of fun gifts to those I love.. and those I don't, oh and um... invest it wisely.

Favorite Foods....
Really good lasagna, cocoa and toast, cold cereal, healthy fresh food that I don't have to shop for or prepare.

If you're looking for something to post then I tag YOU!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Weekend in Jackson

What a great weekend. Cynthia invited us to stay with her in a condo someone had offered her for the week. It was so nice to get away. The weather was perfect- was a little chilly which is great for hiking. We were afraid it would rain, but we had blue sky the whole time. I hauled my camera around but didn't take many photos. Luckily Rick had his iphone and picked up my slack. Here's a sampling...

This is just before our first hike outside of the park. That is Jackson in the background.

This is hike #1 on Friday

Saturday we did a hike/walk from String Lake to Bear Paw Lake. This is us by Leigh Lake.

As we were hiking we heard something moving in the bushes-- turned out to be a big bear! You can see is on the bottom left coming out of the woods.

It walked up the trail we had just come down.

It was exciting and a little scary!

Here we are Saturday afternoon in front of Jenny Lake just before leaving for home.

Good times!!!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Happy Birthday Katie

We had the annual slumber party for Katie's birthday last weekend. She chose her cousins as her friends to invite. We had a great time. Rick joined us for the evening. The girls prepared an interview questionnaire for him when he arrived. I told them they had my permission to embarrass him as much as they wanted. (Rick's a good sport about that stuff.) So the questions started off innocent, such as "What is your favorite color of hair on a girl?" and then turned into things like, "Which temple do you want to get married in?" They were pretty funny.

Then then proceeded to raid my closet and my Halloween wigs. They put on a fashion show/photo shoot for us. Rick and I joined in at the end- because who can resist a good wig!

This hat I made for a Kentucky Derby party a couple of years ago. I won first place!

I love this picture of Katie. She looks so angelic. That's my dress from Homecoming my senior year in high school.

See why I'm dating him- he looks great with big hair and cheesy mustache!

One good thing about this is I get to see some new ways to put together outfits from my closet. Thanks girls!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

My Personal Life

I discovered this blog http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/ a couple of days ago. I've been laughing about it since. Although, now it's hard to blog, especially about what a great guy I'm dating. All I can hear is her blog voice while I'm typing which makes me feel cheesy. (hum, I never thought about it before but I guess I do read everyone's blog with their voice in my head- I've created a pretty annoying one for this girl)

I haven't blogged a whole lot lately and let's just "blame" Rick. He takes up a lot of my time and I do think it's weird to blog about my love life (that's what the other, (not so) super-secret blog is for). Disclaimers aside, he is quite fabulous. Last night was a typical night with Rick.

We went for a bike ride after work, then he fixed me dinner. Yep, he cooks- really fabulous stuff too. Last night was tortellini with Italian bacon and sheep cheese. It was yummy. He went all out and got this french sparkling flower water- which might sound weird but was very tasty. So.... here he is.

Cute Rick

Yummy!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Homecoming

I'm late on this. My parents have been home for almost a week now and I've been tardy in posting photos. Their plane arrived last Thursday about 10:30 p.m. We had quite a crowd of family there to meet them. Many people commented to me how fast it went, but I have to say it was a long 18 months for our family. It's been fun to have them back. We had a nice weekend of family parties, BBQ, and going to hear them speak in church. Mom and I tried to do a little shopping on Saturday, but she was far too jetlagged. You know my mom is tired when she can't shop! :) Here are photos from the airport.

Mom and dad brought the boys blow guns from Borneo
(it goes well with the Darth Vadar shirt, don't you think?)

Lot's of sparkly hair clips and beaded jewlery for the girls

My Movie Reviews

Quiet Earth. B-. Another SciFi recommended by Netflix, although this one was actually interesting and enjoyable. A guy wakes up and everyone is gone. Made in New Zealand, it claims to be one of the top ten movies in the US in the year it came out (sometime in the 1970s). After it was over, we agreed that it was good, but the ending was a little confusing, so we watched the ending again with the directors comments. Lame. Apparently the whole movie was supposed to have an anti-nuclear message and the director takes credit for his movie making New Zealand nuclear free. So.... pretend you don't know that and enjoy the movie.
Sunshine. C-. Netflix. That's it. We are not trusting Netflix's rating of sci-fi movies again. The sun is dying so a crew is going with a nuclear missle to "re-start" it. I kept hoping aliens would show up or at least something would happen to draw me in. A lot of things almost happened, but when they did, it did not make much sense.
Warm Bodies. B. Red Box. I was surprised by this movie. I'm a fan of a good zombie flick, but when I heard about the plot, it seemed a bit too much. It turned out to be very entertaining. I'd rate it pretty high on the must see zombie film list and very high on the cheesy teenage romance film list.
Wolverine. B. I'm a fan of the X-Men movies. I'm also a fan of Hugh Jackman. It was hard to go wrong going in with those two biases. The fighting sequences were too long, but that was expected. If you've like the X-Men movies, you should like this one too.
The East. B. I forget how much I love the indie flicks at the Broadway. This also had an environmentalist-based plot, but was written well and I liked how it ended. A women goes under cover in an environmental terrorist group. It goes with the obvious plot of her having sympathies for members of the group and trying to balance that with her personal beliefs. Worth seeing.
World War Z. B. I was in the middle of the book and didn't want to see the movie until I finish, but I couldn't help it and saw it opening weekend. Not a big deal as they are very different. This is a different kind of zombie movie. While most are horror flicks, this was more of a suspense movie. They cut out the gratutious gore associated with most zombie movies and gave it more of a plot. Fun for zombie fans and non-zombie fans.
Silent Running. D. Netflix. I have no idea why this is rated so well on Netflix. Sci-fi movie made in the sixties with blatant environmental message. Forests have died on the earth so they are growing them in a space station orbiting Saturn. Earth decides to abandon the project and for some reason that means they have to blow up the forests. One man understands the impact of losing all our forests so he kills everyone. My description made it seem way better than it is. At one point, he programs his robot helpers to play cards and you watch them play cards for about 10 minutes. Skip this one!

My Book Reviews

The Rent Collector. B. I loved this book while I was reading it. Then the author's comments on the back disappointed me. It was fiction! I was so inspired by the "true" story of this woman living at the dump in Cambodia and learning to read. The whole way through I thought it was true. I was mad when it wasn't. Although toward the end, it started getitng a little unbelievable. It was based on real people which bothers me wondering how much is true and how much is fiction. I still recommend the book, but know what you're getting into.
Divergent. B+. Fun, quick read. YA fiction. Your basic strong female in post-apocolypic world fighting to make change. Even though the story's been told over and over, this one was very engaging. I can't wait to read the next in the series!
World War Z. B+. For staters, this is very different from the movie. It's 10 years after we won the zombie war. The book is a series of interviews with survivors. I was hesitant about the way it was written and that I wouldn't stay involved without a central character. However, the book created a very real world. So much so that when I was getting off the freeway one morning and saw some homeless people waking up under a bridge, for just second, I thought they were zombies. I also wanted to bring it up in conversation. Like when someone was talking about North Korea, I wanted to say, "Did you hear how they handled the Zombie Apocalypse?' It was a fun book. I've never read a zombie book before and I may never again, but I'm glad I read this one. It also was welcome to read a book that isn't a strong female character overcoming incredible odds. I'm seriously weary of that plot line.
Waiting to be Heard. B+. I've followed the Amanda Knox case for several years. I thought, since I knew most details of the case, this might be boring. I was surprised at how engaging and well written it was. She is a quirky girl and, while the complete lack of physical evidence makes me sure she is innocent, I can see why people think she is hiding something. The book was haunting to think the someone who doesn't understand a culture coupled with a corrupt prosecutor could put an innocent person in jail for years.
Girl Gone. C-. Maybe it was called Gone Girl. I don't remember. Book club book. I've never gotten into mysteries. This one took a while to get into, then I couldn't put it down, then it ended and I wished I never picked it up. Ridiculous ending.
The Kitchen House. B-. I have no idea how to rate this book. It was slow to start. Once things started to happen (murder), I found myself sucked in and not wanting to put it down; however, once I did put it down, I didn't look forward to picking it up again. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's similar to a bunch of other books I've read. I'm just getting weary of the genre and need to mix it up a little. Overall, an interesting read. The story of a young white girl who is indentured when her family dies on the boat from Ireland to America. Her relationship with her new family (the slaves whom she is sent to live and work with) and how her life is different from them because of the color of her skin.
The Happiness Project. D. I'm reviewing the book, but I'm not going to finish it. I knew this wasn't my favorite genre, but it was the book club pick this month so I thought I'd give it a chance. I didn't see the point of reading someone's goals. I sometimes feel like these "self-help" books are an excuse for people to feel like they are doing something to be happier, when really they are an excuse to avoid working on yourself by living through someone else's experience. Instead of reading the book, how about spend that time working on your own "happiness project". As I read, I kept thinking it should have been a workbook for readers to complete their own project while reading hers. I'll be interested to hear how others in book club liked it.