TTFN {Ta ta for now}

We'll miss you Dad/Grandpa

{A Wonderful Gift}

Anyone who knows me knows that I love beautiful things. I like classic, timeless, beautiful things that inspire me. I especially love artwork.

I haven't purchased much artwork for our home. In fact, until very recently we didn't really have much to display (a few Greg Olsens, a Bountiful Temple picture from my Grandma and one from Mom, etc)

Adam's grandma Peggy retired last year and since then has taken up painting. She does a wonderful job! She does a lot of landscape and floral arrangement, and has started to dabble in watercolor collage. I love it. As I was going through her portfolio I found a painting I HAD to have. It was a sweet little street corner book shop called Shelby's. I saw it and loved it instantly. Peggy said we could have the painting for free but we had to pay for the framing. I wanted it so bad but didn't think Adam would go for it.

Tonight as we got back from California Adam came and brought it to me {I had a little inkling that perhaps he had purchased it from Grandma} I was so happy! Thanks Adam!

P.S. The pictures DO NOT do the painting justice!

Goal: Ten in 30

My goal for April is to read 10 books in 30 days.

1) Blink
2) The Truth About Forever
3) The Magicians Nephew
4) Tale of Two Cities
5) The Elegance of the Hedgehog
6) The Life of Pi
7) A Wrinkle in Time
8) TBD
9) TBD
10) TBD

Wish me luck!

Book Review: Ella Minnow Pea

Last month I began to read Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. I read six pages and didn't get into it (I forgot my 30 page rule...never put a book down until you have read the first 30 pages...) so I put it on the shelf and turned to other stories. Yesterday I picked it up again and read the last 200 pages. It was phenomenal.

Ella Minnow Pea is set on the fictitious island of Nollop off the coast of North Carolina (I believe). It is an island entirely dedicated to words and the use of language. It was founded in honor of Nevin Nollop who pened the pangram "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog," a sentance which uses all 26 letters of the alphabet with minimal repitition. Because of this, the small island occupants have dedicated their lives to the use of beautiful language until one day when the "Z" in "lazy" falls off the monument dedicated to Nevin Nollop and the Island government bans the use of the letter Z. One by one the letters begin to drop off and subsequently, the use of those letters in writting or speach becomes illegal and the use of those results in sever punishment (third offence = death or eternal banishment from the island.

Ella and her cousin communicate the events through letters. As the Z is banned the Z disapears from the novel as well, as do the rest of the letters. as the novel progresses. It was SO interesting to see and watch the letters drop off and watch the effect of a tolitarian government take over society.

I LOVED it. I thought it was so amazing. It was witty and well written, an interesting concept and loveable characters. I hope I can find another book of its kind soon!

Thoughts

I'm having a lot of thoughts right now. Most of which I will not express on this blog.

I just want to say that sometimes life is a difficult thing to go through and sometimes it is not, but however bumpy or smooth the road is, the people you surround yourself with can make all the difference.

I am happy to report that I have the most wonderful traveling companion. He is my best friend and he makes me laugh when we approach bumps and pitfalls. He doesn't slack off when we are sailing smoothly, always making sure I know that I am loved.

Confused Fan of Lost-a-Flag...

The picture comes to us from Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago in a hilarious digital short called Flags! Of! The World! Basically it does a bunch of random flags and my favorite verse says:

Rasta flag.
Pasta flag.
Confused Fan of Lost-a flag.

I laughed so hard because I am indeed a confused fan of LOST. I am absolutely LOST.

I started watching Lost in the Fall of 2005 when my boyfriend Adam wanted me to get into it with him. It was the start of the second season but he had the first season so I decided to try to catch up. I did it in a matter of days. I was HOOKED. Best. Show. Ever. I then caught up with the second season but halfway through had to run off to Russia so I once again had to catch up.

The first season was amazing. The second was hit or miss until the end and then it was HIT. I am so lost at this point that it has been hard to enjoy the first half of the final season but I have to say- I'm glad it is over.

I feel like such a slave to my TV shows. I have decided to stop watching Medium and Law and Order SVU. Lost and Ugly Betty have about 7 episodes left for the series and Desperate Housewives only has one season left (which I'm debating to watch--it is pretty much scum...I don't know why I bother) After that I am d0ne with one hour dramas. I won't watch anything longer than a half hour sitcom (with the exception of GLEEEEEEE) and then I only have The Office, Community, and 30 Rock. I have made a vow that I won't watch any more TV shows that are still running but if I hear about a good series I will rent them--like I did with Alias and Gilmore Girls.

This is a worthless post. I just watched Lost and had nothing else to do ;)

My Two Homes

I was recently given the opportunity to travel with Hannah up to good ole Pleasant View Utah where I spent the better part of my growing up years. It is always a joy to see my family and so hard to leave them when the time comes.

Sometimes I confuse myself when people ask me "where are you from?" In Las Vegas I always tell them I'm from Utah, anywhere else I tell them I'm from Las Vegas.

Why I love Utah/Pleasant View:

I love my family. I love being close to them. I love being able to stay up late and talk with my sister. I love the feeling of calm and peace that comes from being near my parents. I love the clean air and the clean streets and the motivational posters as you drive south on I-15 to Salt Lake. I love the friendly people. I love the hills that lead up to my parents house, I love the trees and the foliage and the seasons. I love the presence of the church, I love the old theaters and restaurants, I love that something can be old but feel vintage instead of be old and feel trashy, I love the SEASONS, I love the mountains, the view, it is truly a glorious view, I love the space between houses and the yards and the basements and the closeness of it all.

Why I love Las Vegas:

I love Adam and he is here and this is where we made our first home, I love the struggle we have had to build our marriage upon a foundation which started here, I love being able to be independent from our families, I love the secluded drive in the desert on our drive home, I love the strip lit up at night seen perfectly from my bedroom window, I love when it rains, I love my church family, I love the absence of the church because it is not a part of daily life so you have to stand up and stand out to keep it in the forefront of your mind which in some ways makes it so much easier to be closer to God, I love the identity I've created here, I love my home, I love that I will forever be able to say that I gave birth in Las Vegas when it was 110 degrees, I love the contrast you are able to feel when you drive past the strip to the temple.

I will always have two homes. I will always love both homes. There are good and beautiful thing in both homes. The most important thing is that Adam and Hannah are my home because Home is where the Heart is and they are my heart.

"Mommy, I don't know about this..."

Adam took Hannah and I to Town Square today where they had grass. It. Was. Awesome. I've never seen Hannah react quite like that with anything. Our normally bubbly, talkative, happy girl was perplexed. She kept touching it and bouncing back. In fact she didn't like the feeling at all, or wasn't quite sure what to do with it. I haven't seen her react to a texture quite like this since she came out of the womb. She kept getting the chills. we would put her down on her tummy and she would try to lift herself so her body wasn't touching or she would hold perfectly still. The best part was when we lifted up her shirt and laid her on her back. She would try to go to the side and feel grass so she'd try to roll to the other side and ended up just making funny sounds lying perfectly still. It was the greatest. Next: SAND!

I enjoy having a girl

Recently I've been visiting www.prettyolivia.com a wonderful site for those of us without the skills or desire to make their own bows and flowers. Sure it is fun to do one every once in a while but it can get so expensive. Believe me, I've tried. I wanted Hannah to have beautiful bows and flowers for her beautiful hair. Not only that but the lady who does prettyolivia.com is in my ward. She makes QUALITY flower clips and headbands for really cheap. I think Hannah makes them very beautiful :)

Book Review: The Pact

"I love you," he whispered, and that was the moment he knew what he was going to do. When you loved someone, you put their needs before your own. No matter how inconceivable those needs were; no matter how much it made you feel like you were ripping yourself into pieces."

This book was well written, smart, intriguing, and I hated it.

It was about a suicide pact gone awry. One dead, one in prison for murder. Two families ripped apart.

Don't read it.

Happy 25th Birthday Rosal!

It isn't every day you turn 25. A quarter of a century old! This year I will turn 25 (on 10/10/10...I might explode it is such a cool birthday) but fortunately it is not yet and I can revel in my youth for seven more months. I don't normally feature birthdays on my blog of friends and family HOWEVER, since one of my closest comrades (get it, cause we were in Russia together?) is turning the big TWO FIVE I figure I'd give her a little shout out!

Seven Months

Some of Hannah's favorite things include:

Saying Da Da Da
Clapping her hands
Pulling herself onto everything
Crawling like crazy
Finding small spots to climb through
Saying Ya Ya and Ba Ba Ba
Waving
Watching Your Baby can Read (she loves watching baby MaKayla
Eating ANY kind of baby food (she isn't picky)
Mirrors
A fake laugh when other people laugh
Playing with Daddy
Snuggles with Mommy
Walks in the Morning
Library on Tuesdays
and 4:30 in the morning

The path of most resistance.

Hannah decided to make her way over to our kitchen table chairs...through her high chair.

Forget the path of least resistance with this one...she is a baby on a mission.

You did it Hannah! Good job!

Ok Baby, just look over here, slide out the front.

Oh no...

Ok here you go.

You are free Hannah

Yep. You found it. Your favorite naughty spot.

Movie Review: The Kite Runner

I had mentioned a desire to read this book about a month ago to Adam. Being the wonderful husband that he is, he decided to netflix the movie so I could save myself a book (roll eyes).

This movie was one of the most beautiful I've seen in a long time. It was a very similar feeling to Life is Beautiful. Very heavy, very lovely.

It is a story of Amir who is living in Kabul. His best friend is Hassan, the son of his father's servant. Hassan is basically the worlds greatest friend and will do anything, sacrifice anything for Amir. He takes beatings for him, defends him, loves him. One day when Hassan needs him the most, Amir betrays his friend and is left feeling depressed and guilty.

To force Hassan to leave, Amir frames him by planting a watch and some money under Hassan's mattress; Hassan falsely confesses. Amirs father forgives him, despite the fact that, as he explained earlier, he believes that "there is no act more wretched than stealing." Hassan and his father Ali, to Amir's father's extreme sorrow, leave anyway. Hassan's departure frees Amir of the daily reminder of his cowardice and betrayal, but he still lives in their shadow and his guilt.

Before making it up to him, the Soviets force Amir and his father to leave Afghanistan and they flee to America. In Afghanistan they were living a life of luxury and wealth, in America his father runs a gas station and Amir is now graduating from the local community college and working on becoming a writer.

Flash forward to 2000, Amir has now published his first book and gets a call from a friend of his father telling him he needs to return to Afghanistan.

From there Amir goes on a harrowing journey of redemption. I won't spoil anything but I will say that if you liked Life is Beautiful you will like The Kite Runner.

Oh on a side note, the title comes from a game the children play in Afghanistan where they fly kites and attempt to cut the other kites down. There are a few beautiful scenes with kite flying.

This movie made me bawl uncontrollably. You have been warned.

Book Review: The Lovely Bones

“These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections - sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent - that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events that my death wrought were merely the bones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous body had been my life.”

The Lovely Bones isn't a book I would normally read, so when I came upon it I was eager to try something new.

I have to say that I loved the first two thirds of the book. In fact I know that Alice Siebol could have found a way to end the book two thirds of the way through and I would have nothing but rave reviews, however...the last third turned into a completely different book that I stopped enjoying :(

The book starts out with the murder of 14 year old Suzie Salmon by her neighbor George Harvey. It goes into some pretty grizzly details and it is hard to fathom. It goes through the subsequent days, weeks, months after she goes missing, all that is found is an elbow.

The book is narrated by Suzie as she observes the world through her heaven. She watches her father and mother fall apart and away from each other, her sister and brother try to cope with her death, her friend Ruth and her boyfriend, her murderer George Harvey.

It is a book about letting go and moving on, not only for the people left behind but for the dead as well. She cheers her family on as they find the missing pieces and have happy moments and she holds on to George Harvey, even reuniting in heaven with girls that he murdered before and after Suzie.

Like I said, for the most part I enjoyed the book, the story, I didn't enjoy the time line and felt that I was left without closure. I wouldn't recommend this book for anyone who reads this blog but may find some people who would enjoy it among my circle of friends.