book review!

Books I've read recently:

The Lovely Bones ::: Alice Sebold

Girl is murdered and the killer is not found. She watches her family/friends go through life without her, and tries to help them identify the killer. Definitely a good read. Her description of heaven seems a bit unrealistic, to say the least, but as the book is more about life than death, it's tolerable.

Rating: 4/5 stars!


Infidel ::: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Saw this as recommended in Self magazine. Infidel is a biography of a Somali feminist, activist, and politician. She grew up very Muslim with a prominant Muslim father, and gradually formed her own belief about religion and other practices. Very culturally eye opening and especially fascinating because it all occurs within the past 30 years. I'll throw out a warning for some graphic imagery.

Rating: A-! Because the end got a little more tediously political than I enjoy.


The Secret Life of Bees ::: Sue Monk Kidd

I figured if they made  movie on this, it had to be kind of good. Story of  14 year old girl searching for the history of her deceased mother. I liked the setting of the Civil Rights era. Definitely a "heartwarming" book.

Rating: Two thumbs up!

Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics ::: Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

I read Freakonomics a long time ago and when I saw there was a sequel, I got both to read again. These authors have an amazing capability to analyze data, notice trends, and write it in an interesting, funny, and comprehensible way. Makes me want to be an economist.

Rating: 8/10 points! Some parts, especially in Superfreakonomics, get a little too wordy and I zoned out during the global warming talk.

the Hunger Games :: Suzanne Collins

So THIS is what all the hype is about. FANTASTIC. ADDICTIVE. I'm excited I started reading this right as the third and final book is coming out. So while everyone is frantically reading Mockingjay, I'm just waiting for Catching Fire to be available at the library.

Rating: GOLD STAR! And family friendly, too! Except for the parts when people die. That can be a little gruesome.

and currently reading:
the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ::: Mary Ann Shaffer

 Not as much of a page-turner like the rest of these, but still very enjoyable. I'm having trouble keeping track of all the characters. Rating to be determined!

timpanogos, steve holt, and a new computer.

Another thing checked off our Utah to-do list: Hike Timp.

 You'd THINK the summit was actually the peak a little to the right, but depth perception gets little thrown off. Get out your binoculars and check. You'll see the little hut that marks the top.

Oh, hey Beau.

K I'm going to brag for a second. (Since that's what this whole blog thing is all about. Don't lie. You do it too.) For once, I was physically more capable than Beau. I believe these words came out of his mouth: "Do you ever get tired?" As the hours/miles went on it became clear my hours of cardio work actually pays off a little bit. Breaks are for wusses.

Mountain goats. These guys defy gravity.

Nice little climb closer to the summit.

Some genius was apparently an Arrested Development fan. STEVE HOLT!

Happy Valley. Someday I will leave you.

The aftermath. Little sunburned/wiped out Beau slept from 7pm to 9am. 

(Note the empty container of ice cream on the floor)


On an unrelated note, THIS is what $140 will get you on KSL.com:

Kids, never buy anything new ever again. Basically new computer with Microsoft and Anti Virus already installed on it. Anyone now of an easy way to get all your iTunes switched over to a new computer?

thought of the day

I realized that the reason why I favor cherry and grape flavored Jolly Ranchers is because they tend to be the ones left over. I remember feeling badly for these flavors in 6th grade and announcing grape was my favorite. I hope grape feels better now.

pioneer day weekend

Day 1- Friday
Hiking in Big Cottonwood Canyon, shopping at a consignment store for outdoors equipment, thrift stores, and the Spanish Fork rodeo.

Hotdogs and soda? Who ARE we??

They were free. Don't judge.

Day 2: Speedy Spaniard 10k and Taste of the Valley!

Why does no one ever remind me that I don't even like running? That's what I was thinking as we were getting ready to start. And during the first 4 miles. But then afterwards, I only remember finishing and feeling accomplished and sign up for another race.

Don't mess.

We were proud of our times.  I was 177th place! I don't think I passed a single person. I guess 177 people passed me. But I did beat the other 523 people, so there.

My mom found a couple classmates from her Spanish Fork High School days. They dominated the 55+ age group. Go Dons!

Beau watched safely from the sidelines.

Then, Taste of the Valley.

Several local restaurants had booths set up with samples. $10 bought you a ticket to visit each booth. The samples were fairly large and we so should have split a ticket. We were throwing away good food because we were just too full! Even Beau was refusing samples.

Day 3:

Well, nothing exciting on day 3 of pioneer weekend. We did take this random picture though, including this shirt I got at Wandering Wardrobe (my favorite consignment store ever).

CYCLECYCLECYCLECYCLE

Once upon a time, just a few months ago, I decided I wanted to get into cycling. So I bought an old but solid road bike. Bluie and I went from West Jordan to the Bingham Copper mines, the Salt Lake Temple, and to work every day. Beau wanted to join the fun, so we got him an even older and less solid bike for way cheap on KSL and great fun was had. We got a little carried away at the REI tent sale and got ourselves bike shorts, cycle shoes, and other accessories to make us feel more legit.

But of course, we started itching for newer, nicer bikes, and after scouring KSL with much patience (not really) we both upgraded. So, for a week or so we owned 4 road bikes while we were in the process of selling Bluie and Goldie. Both old bikes went to a nice couple who was a few months behind us and were just getting in to cycling as well and wanted something to get around with.

So to really feel initiated in the cycling scene, we did our first cycling race yesterday!

www.utahtourdedonut.org
The Tour de Donut is a 3 laps at 7 miles each race where contestants can eat as many donuts as they want between laps 1&2 and 2&3. Each donut consumed takes three minutes off your total time.

Just before the start. This pictures also shows the cute argyle jersey I was envying.

 

As you can probably guess, I didn't eat any donuts but Beau enjoyed 6 total. The race was SO fun and we can't wait to do another. I beat Beau by a few minutes, but that's just because he stopped to eat. :)

I didn't realize my face got so red in the heat...

Update: After checking the results, Beau placed 15th in his age group and I placed 12th. Note that these are ranked by net time, including the donut consumption. The winner ate 25 donuts for a net time of 13 seconds.

These guys decided to dress up?

Oh, and as promised, the table I painted!

This was our kitchen table that was left for us in our Provo apartment. It was a plain basic table from Ikea, and I had visions of painting it. So we took it with us to West Jordan, and now we have a colorful computer desk.  I went to Home Depot and picked out 5 pretty colors without really matching them together, and started putting down painting tape at varying widths and no particular order of color. It was fun. and took a long time.

Stay tuned for more adventures from the Dickson-Parks union.

vinyl!

My sister Page has a great little vinyl business for home decor.  Originally I didn't think I would have much use for vinyl projects, as I'm not a huge fan of the stickered writing on the wall. BUT there are so many other ways you can decorate with vinyl! And it's very inexpensive, so cheap people like me do okay.

I LOVE this poster that Page made for us for Christmas.

Also, as a side note, directly above our stove is a mirror (as seen below).

What the heck am I supposed to do with a mirror above the stove?? Any suggestions?

This was a wedding gift from Page.  It's a 12x12 floor, with the date of our wedding underneath. It helps me remember if we got married on the 27th or 28th because I get mixed up sometimes.

These flower tiles were the first project I did myself.  Page mailed me the stickers, and I put them on the 6x6 tiles myself. It was surprisingly easy and I quite like this bathroom decor. 

And this has nothing to do with vinyl but I thought this mirror was pretty sweet. 75% off at the Tai Pan tent sale YES.

Coming up in future blog posts: Why we currently own 4 road bikes and all about the table I'm painting!

wj livin

BUSYBUSYBUSY.

Things that have changed since moving to West Jordan/starting my new job:
- I haven't driven a car for about 3 weeks.
- I am in a car about twice a week.
- Sometimes, I have to yell for Beau to hear me when we are both home. This definitely did not happen in our Provo apartment.
- There are more tupperware containers in the dishwasher than dishes.
- We have a dishwasher.
- We have a TV. I gave Beau a $20 limit for a TV, and within a day he had gotten one. Free dish- so why not?
- I watch TV.
- We have a couch.
- We are in a true Utah ward. Last Sunday, a woman in Relief Society asked how I heard about the church "all the way out in Virginia". Also, there is a family in the ward with the last name "Diehl". We still haven't figured out if it is pronounced "deal" or "dill". I think maybe they don't know.

Blast, no pictures again. Time for a random archived photo. Isn't Brooklee's face the best??