Books

I have been reading a lot lately and just finished my latest book. I haven't had time to get a new book, don't have homework (excellent), and am avoiding Pinterest, so I am left slightly bored at work. I've been browsing blogs but not many people have updated recently so I decided perhaps I'll update.

I just finished reading the third book of this series:



Uglies, the first book, was so good. Pretties was alright. Specials was just plain annoying. I'm not even going to bother reading Extras. I really like the plot of the books and think it has awesome potential, but I just feel like they're written similar to the Twilight series--something that could be said in one sentence instead takes a whole page. Halfway through Specials it was just dragging. I think this series could have been satisfactorily told in two books rather than four.

I've made a goal to read more this year. Here's the list of books I'm hoping to check off (I'd better get a move on it!):

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Spindle's End

Pride and Prejudice
I've never read Jane Austen before.

Moby Dick
A classic that I don't really know much about
but it sounds really interesting to me.

Lola and the Boy Next Door

1984
Another classic that I have not read.

The Da Vinci Code
I know I'm like 6 years late on this one...

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Cinder

The Book Thief

Jane Eyre
We read this my junior year of high school, but as always,
I was a procrastinator and ended up reading a cliff-note version
of the book that had been passed down for years from
one class to another (which I dutifully passed on as well). I really
loved the summary but just have never gotten
around to reading the whole thing.

Atlas Shrugged
Something like 1,100 pages...wish me luck!

I'm also considering reading The Hunger Games series but I'm too lazy to get that picture since I just barely remembered it.

I also want to reread some books that I've already read and loved.

Speak

The Hiding Place

And of course have to have my annual fill of the
Harry Potter Series.

Feel free to recommend any others to me as well.

In other news, my taste buds have been turned to this loverly treat thanks to Shley:

A treat I can count on Dan not stealing as he hates dark chocolate.
Mmm!!

I also made lasagna from scratch last night! Dan loved it. I'd only made lasagna from scratch one time before, but I used an incredibly simplified recipe (that had like 5 ingredients as opposed to the 20 the one I made last night called for [recipe--and no I didn't actually use a dutch oven, just an electric skillet]) and used thinly sliced zucchini instead of lasagna noodles. Surprisingly you could barely taste the difference. But I used real noodles this time.

Anyways, I didn't get home from school til around 7:15 and started dinner (complete with garlic bread) until around 7:30. Yeah, we ate dinner at 10:30. At least Dan told me that it was the best lasagna he'd ever had (which is saying something as it's his favorite food!) and that it was worth the wait. :]


Hooray for boring blog posts. Maybe one day my life will be exciting enough to document.

P.S. I think every time I blog at work I'll post what it smells like because believe me, for whatever reason, Independent Study has some weird smells. Actually, the reason is because we share a building with BYU Food To Go.

Today it smells like aloe vera. Not like the lotion, like a fresh chop of the actual plant. The stinky smell.

How I'm Feeling Today

And it smells like old McDonald's fries mixed with rotting banana peel and green onions at work right now.

Our Wedding

All photos courtesy of Millie at Amelia Kate Photography

All pearls on myself, my mother, and bridesmaids courtesy of one of my dear life-long friends,

Jonathan Carroll (who happens to be Millie's cousin),

of Prized Pearls

(yes he totally started that company all on his own at age 23!)

Married!

The whole gang.

Had to put this one up because I love my Grandma in it.

Front right in teal skirt.

My whole family that came. No brother :[

Love them!

Dan's whole family that came.

Dan's immediate family (minus brother :[ ) and grandparents.

Jorge and Hiro!

The bridesmaids of Arizona (only minus Felly and Katherine...

although Katherine ended up having to stay in New York for an internship! :[ )

Left to right: Becca, Ashley, Lacey, me, Suzanne, Celesta, Carrie

His sisters love him so much.

Lacey made the bouquet!

Not a huge fan...but she didn't give us very many temple pics :[

Wasn't to happy about that but it's okay.

Thinking of having someone take more pics of us in front of the temple next time we're there.

The bench we got engaged on.

The end.

Keep Your Ears Peeled

You never know what you'll overhear.

Alright so I know it's actually "keep your eyes peeled," which also applies to one part of this post, but whatever.

Before I begin, please make sure to read my post from yesterday HERE.

And without further ado, please allow me to entertain you with some things that have entertained me over the last two days.

I'm not going to go in chronological order, but in funniness order.

Instance One
This morning I was walking down the hall and overheard an interesting conversation between two girls. It went something like this:
Girl 1: "Yeah, I broke my neck and my back."
Girl 2: "What!? How? From gymnastics?"
Girl 1: "No. I got crushed between two rugby players."

What?

Instance Two
Yesterday I was cutting through the freshman dorms between school and work. I strongly believe that the freshman class has the greatest diversity at BYU than the other classes, the reason for this being that it's a lot of kids whose parents made them come. Needless to say, they don't want to be here and, as such, are FAR from the BYU "norm."

I passed a boy who was dressed somewhat gothicly with a set of keys swinging from a lanyard on his neck. I stared at him a little bit confused, because I'd never seen a lanyard that went clear below the belt. Then I realized his "lanyard" was in fact a dog leash wrapped around his neck....with the leash part slipped through the handle and his keys attached to the clip at the end. Weird.

Instance Three
Yesterday I went to the social security office to officially have my last name changed. That place was full of characters.

There was a big gruff guy in there wearing super torn up jeans and a jacket with $100 bill print all over it. He was listening to a CD player with giant headphones. I sat down to wait and he sat directly across from me and kept staring at me. I awkwardly avoided his eye contact.

A few minutes after I sat down, another guy walked out of the back. He had something white in his mouth and quickly removed it with a wad of paper towels. I didn't get a good look but it looked oddly like a coke joint. He sat down near myself and the other man and started fidgeting. The big guy looked over at him, gave him a dirty look, and moved to a chair with his back to him.

The fidgety guy asked me what time it was, so I told him and he started walking around the office. At that time, the big guy turned and looked at me and made the "crazy" sign (you know, the finger going in circles around the ear) and the "he's high" sign (pretending to smoke). I nodded in agreement. He turned his chair towards me and took his headphones off and said, "My name is Brian." I felt awkward, not wanting to risk being hit on since I'm married, but also not wanting to be a jerk and ignore him. So I told him my name was Lisa.

He said a few random things to me, and then said, "Have you ever sold in your life?" At this point I was thinking, "What? No drug deal is going down here...." And I said, "No, I never have." Then he proceeded to tell me that's what he does. I laughed awkwardly and pulled out my phone to text Dan so as to appear distracted (rude of me, I know). While I was texting I could tell he was still watching me, then he said, "Okay. Well see you later then." And I smiled and said, "See you later." And he continued to sit there staring at me.

Well, the fidgety guy came and sat back down and was soon followed by another ruffian. This man looked rather disheveled, had long hair and a messy appearance, but looked a bit more normal than the other two. Apparently he and the fidgety guy knew each other, because the fidgety guy turned to him and asked how the club was.

The new guy answered, "They wouldn't let me in. I'm a suspect on the news for stealing a snake so I have to have written permission for everything."

What!?!? Luckily I got called to the desk shortly after that. I was caught somewhere between baffled, frightened, and highly amused.

Today I was telling this story to a few of my friends at work and they said, "Wait. Was the big guy B Money??" B Money is a rapper in Provo who has a few mental disabilities. And all of a sudden it dawned on me. I'd seen B Money once before at Wendy's, wearing a $100 bill jacket. But in my memory he was a LOT shorter.

So I googled a picture and sure enough, the mysterious Brian from the social security office is in fact B Money.


I feel comforted knowing he wasn't some creeper trying to hit on me, but actually a really nice guy who just has a few mental problems (that is meant in the nicest way possible, I don't know how to word it otherwise so I hope it doesn't come across as me making fun at all, because I definitely am not). One of my friends had hung out with him before several years back and said he was really funny. If only I had known I was in the company of fame!!




Finally, we got our wedding photos in the mail. I might post some of them later. I'm not too happy with how my dress looks in them. Actually I almost cried when I saw how fluffy and fat my dress makes me look, even after my aunt took 2 feet of fabric out of the skirt. :[

The King Family--Can You Help?

I read about a sweet family, the King family, who is going through an incredibly hard time. To read about it on your own, check out Lisa King's blog HERE or click on the picture below.


Last October, they lost their 10-year-old son, Noah. He suffered from hydranencephaly, a condition in which before he was born, a great portion of his brain was replaced with fluid. He was severely physically and mentally handicapped his whole life. The doctors said he wouldn't live past age 4, but through great love and care from his family, he lived to be 10.


From reading Lisa's blog, the heartache she and her family have felt from losing Noah is so apparent. They have remained so happy and optimistic, but their sorrow is incredible.


About a week ago, the family went on a vacation with aunts, uncles, and cousins. Lisa wrote about how she was sure it would be so different as Noah wouldn't be with them, but that she hoped it would be a time of healing for the family.

While on vacation, Lisa's husband, Aaron, suffered a massive and unexpected heart attack and passed away. Now, not only are Lisa and her three boys, Jalen, Harrison, and Kobe, mourning the loss of their son and brother, they are also mourning the loss of their husband and father.


Reading Lisa's blog literally brings me close to tears every single time. She is so strong and has such a great outlook on her situation, but I can't even begin to fathom the pain she is in. I can't even imagine how horrible it would be to lose Dan, and we've only been married for a little more than a month. Her life has been completely turned upside-down during the last 4 months.


One of Lisa's amazing friends set up a donation page for the King family. You can find that RIGHT HERE. If you are able, it would be so awesome if you could donate even just a little bit. They have raised almost $30,000 in 3 or 4 days from people all over the world. That is so incredible! (Sidenote--they live in Australia so if you choose to donate, make sure you change the country to USA so you can put in the right billing info.)

Just from reading Lisa's blog my heart has changed so much. I am so much more grateful for Dan and for my family and have really tried to increase my patience and love. It is so scary to think that I could lose any of them at any given moment. I really think that is my biggest fear. Ever. But I know that when you stay close to the Lord (which is so apparent that Lisa King has...otherwise I don't know how she'd be able to keep herself together so well!) you can make it through anything.

Consider helping out if you can!! And spread the word!! If you want to post it on your blog or facebook, that would be awesome. I'm planning on posting it on my facebook too once I get home. Thanks in advance if you're able and willing to help.

LISA KING'S BLOG
DONATION PAGE FOR KING FAMILY