Matched Book Signing

Today my mom, sister and I went to the book signing for this book:

It was so much fun! We got to hear Ally talk about her inspiration and writing process. The whole time I just kept thinking how cool it all was, and hoping that one day I will be doing the same thing.

She then signed all of our books. 

One day I will!

(I also came home and read half the book in one sitting. I encourage you all to do the same.)

Libraries

So you know that scene, in Beauty & the Beast? The one where he shows her the library and says it's hers?

I totally get why she falls in love with him.

I would marry a scary beast just to have that library. (Only sort of joking.)

One day, I will have an awesome library. Or at least an awesome room full of bookshelves that I can escape to to read my books in peace and quiet.

A secret library. Even better.

For now I keep myself content using our lovely public library system. Which I am so grateful for.

Brian would kill me if I bought all the books I end up reading.

And it's not going to get any better.

I bought 3 new books in St. George at a used book store.

I have "inherited" at least half a dozen from my mom as she's cleaned out her stash.

Brian says I can't even go to the library until I finish those books I already have at home.

But that doesn't mean I can't keep adding to my list of books I want to read.

I have 178 books on my "to read" list.

I'm not even joking. Go ahead. Check that I'm telling the truth. www.goodreads.com I'm on there. You can find me.

(In fact you should find me if you're on there because that's how I end up adding even more to my list. I love seeing what everyone else is reading.)

That's how I find new genres that I never would have picked up before. Like "dystopian". Never heard of it before I read The Uglies. Now I love it.

But besides that, I also subscribe to lots of book blogs, which talk about all the new books coming out or that have come out, which I then have to add to my list.

Like these two.

 

I know I've got a problem.

It's how I'm ever going to find enough time in my lifetime to read all the books on my ever-growing list of "to read" books.

Reading

Last Sunday, the 9th, I got 3 new books for my birthday. I also borrowed a book from my sister.

I read all of them by Saturday.

I recommend them all:

My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions, by Becca Wilhite

Being Sixteen, by Allyson Braithwaite Condie

Band of Sisters, by Annette Lyon

The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

The author of Being Sixteen, Allyson Condie, has a new book coming out at the end of November. It's called Matched. I can't wait! You can visit her blog here.

My Latest Read

My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions by Becca Wilhite


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My mom gave me this book because she said the author's "voice" sounded like me. I have to agree and say I totally loved it! It's a really quick read, but I found myself giggling and squealing for the characters. (Inside my head of course, because I read it at work today.) I'd recommend it to any girl interested in a fun, quick read. (And I have a copy if you're close enough to want to borrow it.)

My only problem now though, is that I find myself both more encouraged and more discouraged to write. Hearing someone's voice that sounds like mine actually out there and published is great, except that it makes me feel like now I really don't have anything unique to add the the world of literature. I guess I just have to try or I'll never know.

What I'm (Still) Reading...

I have come to realize that I am a fiction reader. I love the stories. I love plot twists and character interactions, and dialogue. So it goes to reason that I am not a big reader of non-fiction. Things like biographies. But I got a recommendation to read the biography of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. So I checked it out from the library.

Well it was due yesterday, and because I didn't want a late fee, I turned it in. But I'm only on Chapter 15! I had it for a month, but because I had a hard time getting into it, I didn't finish it. I really want to finish it though. Partly because I just want to finish what I started, and partly because it is kind of interesting. I need to finish the book to give my full review though.

Hmm... Maybe I'll start giving book reviews too, along with my recipes. :)

The point is, if anyone has a copy of this book that they ARE NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF READING, and are willing to lend it to me, I'd very much appreciate it. I'm a book lover, so I take really good care not to rip or bend or get anything on books that I borrow. :)

If not, it's OK. I'll just reserve it at the library again and start again in a month. :)

Friday!!!

That's right folks. Three exclamation points. Because today is Friday, because I got to sleep in with my hubby, and because my boss (along with everyone else in the office) is gone today, so I have the place to myself.

I could probably throw a few more on there, but that's just getting ridiculous. Here are some more reasons I'm happy today:

1. I talked to my sister last night for about 3 hours! I love talking to her and we can go on forever.
2. I got paid today. Always a good thing.
3. My sister gave me some really good ideas of what to write my book about.
4. Brian seemed happier today after I resolved a slight kink in our vacation plan this summer.
5. Tomorrow is Saturday and I'm am going to IKEA! For the first time! (Thanks to Marci, I must go & browse.)
6. The sun is shining. I love the sun!
7. January is just about over. One month closer to warm-ness.
8. I feel like the Wii Fit is making a difference. You may not be able to see it, but I feel it.

Survey:

After talking to my sister last night and getting some ideas about what to write, she also suggested I post a chapter every once in a while on my blog. My reason against this is that, 1) No one wants to read that, & 2) Even if they do, what if I actually publish the story one day? Then no one would buy the book.

So my question is: If I did post a chapter on here, 1) Would you enjoy reading it? 2) Would you still buy the book if it were published one day?

Have a Fabulous Friday!

Our Long Weekend

Well we started off the weekend going to dinner with my parents and brother Friday night. My mom also informed me that Nat and her husband got 5 tickets to the Draper Temple Open House for Feb. 20th, so they're coming up from St. George that weekend, and we get to go with them. And Phil. :) I'm excited.

Saturday we had the fun opportunity to take our car into the shop once again. Yes, the very same car that we had to get a whole new engine for this last summer. The "check engine" light came on about a week before but he doesn't drive the car that much and didn't have time to take it in until this weekend. So we drove out to the mechanic that replaced the engine (on 27th S. & 27th W.) and he did a couple tests. I had also driven because we didn't know if we'd need to leave the car there. He finally reset the light and said it was the Catalytic Converter, and that the whole problem may be that it's just too cold, so it doesn't think it's working properly. I don't understand completely, but owell. He said drive it a few more days, if it turns on again we need to bring it back in for some more tests.

Shortly after getting home and then leaving again to go to the store, it turned on again.

The mechanic said it should be OK to drive as long as the light is not flashing. If it starts flashing we are to pull over immediately and get out of the car. How reassuring. I'm getting kind of sick of all the problems we've had with this car. My Jeep is older and sounds like it's falling apart and the only problem we've had with this is something to do with a belt and we fixed that ourselves. (Well my father-in-law did, for which I'm eternally grateful.) But I don't want to sell it because we still have a lot to pay off on it and I don't know if we'd get any profit on it. We'll figure it out though.

The one good thing on Saturday though was that Brian got a call from work saying he didn't have to come in. It's a bike shop. It's winter. They have 1 customer per 2 hours. So that was nice for us.

After taking the car in we went to help our friends Matt & Val move into their new/first home. Well, the car stuff took so long that we missed the moving part, but we did get a tour of their new house and then went to lunch with them at Zupa's. If you haven't been there, you should go. I love it!

Then we went home and did some grocery shopping and then Brian had to go into school to do Bishopric stuff and I did laundry. Exciting I know.

Sunday was my first time teaching for this year. I was pretty excited all week long because the lesson was about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. But then of course, come Sacrament Meeting, I was a nervous wreck. But I think the lesson went well. I had lots of comments from people and I love that! Then I know that I'm at least getting through to someone.

After church we went over to some friends' apartment and played games with them and another couple. We had a blast! I love to just get out of our apartment, and especially to hang out with other couples. I always want to invite people over, but I feel like our place isn't big enough for more than one other couple. I guess no one's is. :) But it was fun nonetheless.

Oh, I also got a book recommendation for Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. I've already reserved it at the library & I'm going to get it tonight. Anyone else read this? Any thoughts?

Yesterday, even though it was a day off from school and work, Brian still had to go into school for most of the day. I thought it would only be a few hours, but I forget how much they have to do sometimes, & Brian likes to stay ahead of things so he doesn't get more stressed later. So I spent most of the day folding laundry and watching Gilmore Girls, and cross-stitching. I know, I'm lazy. But I enjoyed my day off from work.

When Brian got home we did our Wii Fit workout. We haven't been perfect at it, but we've done pretty good. I'm not as sore afterwards as I used to be, so I count that as progress. :) I've also been able to up the reps on certain exercises so I think that counts for something too.

Then we went to Training Table for dinner. I know, all that hard work down the drain because of Ranch Burgers and Cheese Fries. They're too hard to resist though. :)

Then we came home, watched one TV show & went to bed. Ahh, the exciting life of the Glads.

This morning, Brian didn't have his first class, because the teacher believes that Inauguration Day should be a holiday as well. I happen to agree. Especially because I had to come into work and I can't get the speech to come up on my computer so I missed it. :( I'll have to watch it later.

That's all that's going on with us. Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday weekend!

Christmas 2008 & New Year's 2009

As we all know, life gets hectic around the holidays. And so it was with us. But it was good to be busy with family parties, lunches w/friends and just getting to spend time together.

This year we spent Christmas Eve with my family, as usual, because of the Barlow Christmas Eve Bash. All of my mom's family (along with my dad's parents) comes to my parent's house for Christmas Eve. We have a big dinner and play games and do a gift exchange. Then we usually sing carols or have a little program, and then the Christmas story is read from Luke while someone plays Silent Night on the harmonica. This is significant because my Grandpa Barlow did this every Christmas before he passed away. Then we all sing Silent Night together and everyone goes home for the night.

This year was the Walker year. Meaning me and my sister were with our family instead of the in-laws. I don't know when this tradition started, but we all used to sleep in the same room Christmas Eve. Because we're older now, and bigger, and some of us have bad backs (Phil, hereditary, and Adam, fell off a roof), some of us need to actually sleep on a bed instead of the floor. So we had to split up into two rooms this year. But it was still fun.

We woke up Christmas morning around 7:30 and got dressed and ready for the day. Most people think we're crazy that we have to get dressed and do our hair before we open presents but it's our tradition and we like it. (Well, Brian thinks we shouldn't have our kids get dressed, but I am insisting on the next part.)

Then we all line up to go downstairs, youngest to oldest, with our eyes closed. As you can see, my mom leads us so we don't fall down the stairs. Also, even though Adam is older than Phil, we let him stand behind Nat because they're married. I still insisted on standing behind Brian because I am older than him. :)

Then we all eat the traditional breakfast of Monkey Bread, orange juice and hot chocolate. When we were little my parents positioned the table so we couldn't look at the presents and the tree, but we have too many people now. We still try not to look so it keeps the suspense going.

Then we can go downstairs and look in our stockings. And then finally, after building all that suspense, we can go upstairs and open presents!

This year, like last year, we tried to make it to all the obligatory visits. We did Christmas morning with my family, then we drove the mile down the road to do presents with Brian's family and talk to his brother Derek on his mission. Then we drove up to Bountiful to have lunch with my family and extended family up there. Then my family usually watches a movie and naps and plays games, but we had to leave so we could catch the late lunch at his grandparents house in Salt Lake. It was nice to see everyone but just not as relaxing as I want Christmas to be. So we decided that from now on, until we have kids, we'll just stick with one side of the family for the holiday. (Though we'll probably still do both families in the morning because they're only a mile apart.)

We did get to go home early though and have just our own little Christmas with a movie and cookies.

We spent most of the Christmas weekend at my parent's house because my sister and brother-in-law were in town. We went out to eat, a lot, and played games, and watched movies. And I got to have those well-loved chats with her that I miss so much.

For New Year's Eve, we hung out with Brian's family. We went bowling, had pizza, and watched a movie. His youngest brother Stuart was so excited to get to stay up late, but then by the time 11:00 rolled around he was ready to go to bed and wanted everyone to leave so it would be quiet. :)

Another fun thing we did over the break, was shopping. We realized that we still had a bunch of gift cards from our wedding that we hadn't used and thought now would be a good time to do that. And sadly for Brian, most of the shopping was for me. He took me out to dinner, and then we went to exchange some shoes I got that didn't fit, and then we went to Seagull Book, and I got a new book and a shirt, and then we went to Deseret Book and I got 3 new books. Oh, and did I mention that I got 5 books for Christmas to start out with? :) I love to read. I've already read two of my books and I'm starting on the 3rd. I got the whole Twilight series, even though I've read it before, because I wanted to have it to keep. And I got the Host. So I'm waiting to read those again, until I read my new ones.

This week I started back to work full time, after having a really nice break of only working a few hours each day the past couple weeks. Brian still has this week off before he starts back to school for his final semester!! He spent most of the break working on his portfolio to apply to Grad school here at the U. It looks fabulous and I'm really proud of him. Hopefully we'll be getting to stick around for another couple years here. :)

Sneak Peak

This is a preview of what I've been up to. I borrowed the first three from a friend on Thursday night. I finished them on Wednesday afternoon the next week. Then I borrowed the last one from another friend on Wednesday night & I finished in Saturday afternoon. I could not put them down. I loved them! They were the first on my list of books to read after I graduated and I'm so happy I read them first.

Of course then I spent an hour on her website reading the outtakes and the beginning to her other books. I can't wait to read those too. If anyone has a list of their favorite books, or just books they'd recommend I read, send it my way. I'm more than willing to read anything as long as I don't have to analyze it or write a paper about it. :) And as long as it's a good book, meaning good standards, not just "good" according to the world.

I find out my grades tomorrow so I'll post about that soon. :)

My BFF & My Bike Shop

On Thursday, we spent most of the day with Brian's family for the holiday. We had "Mountain Man" breakfast, and then when I went to lunch, Brian & his dad worked on a project together.

As mentioned previously, I missed all the baby showers for my best friend Val's first baby. So we went out to lunch together on Thursday to catch up. We went out to Training Table and had a really good chat.

Val is due on August 8th. (08/08/08) I'm so excited for her. And I'm excited because I'm the 3rd phone call that her husband's going to make when the baby's born. Just the moms, and then me. :) I'm special I know.

For her present, (the first of many) I got her this book. My dad read this book to me every night before bed when I was little. So it's literally the first book I ever read. :) I still love it.

Lunch took over two hours, and we could've gone on longer. I love just talking to Val. We went back to her house and talked with her mom for a while, and it all ended up making me more baby hungry. Go figure.

After I got back from lunch, we went to the movies with Brian's family. I got a little overheated and sick, but I drank almost a whole Gatorade and felt better. We stopped by my mom's house real quick and I opened a time capsule I'd made in the 8th grade. Wow. I don't know what I was thinking when I put some of that stuff in. But it was pretty funny to look through.

Then we went back and did fireworks with Brian's family.

Brian and I had an epiphany the other night.

We went to Barnes & Noble to get Val's gift, and as soon as we got in there I started going crazy. I was getting so excited over all of the books and all the ones I wanted to buy for our kids, or just for me to read. (I know this must seem weird to most people, but I love that place.) I never go in there because I either don't have money to buy all the books I want, or because I've been in school for the past 6 years and don't have time to read for myself. So I was really happy to be in that store.

Brian just looked at me like I was crazy, and then all of a sudden had this realization. He turned to me and said, "This is your bike shop." And just like that it all clicked. We both understood each other on a totally different level. Brian loves bike shops and I love to read, and neither of us really understood that until this moment. It was awesome. It just made us both laugh.

Brian's always felt bad about how much his bike stuff costs, because I've never really bought a ton of stuff for myself. But now he realizes what trouble he's in because I'm almost done with school and I can start reading for fun again. This'll be great. :)