i so desperately need a new book to read. i have shelves full of old favorites, but i want something new. so i want your recommendations. here's the thing, though: i can't translate anything written over a century ago and i don't care to decipher any "deeper meaning" through symbolism. i just need a good story. an easy read. i'm all about easy reads. even if it's long, that's okay. i just like the easy stuff. i'm not really reading for anything other than some mindless entertainment right now. my favorite book may be To Kill a Mockingbird, but I think that's an exception, because I learned to love it at a young age, I was sort of tricked into loving it so much. My recent favorites have been:
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (pretty much all his other books are on my to-read list already)
Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
most novels by Emily Giffin
Is that any help? Hopefully. Because I'm in serious need of some help over here! Our development's pool opens in a few weeks and I need something to take with me on saturday afternoons while I try to get any color at all in my skin! We also have lots of camping and traveling to do this summer, so books are a necessity! I'd love some gospel literature as well if you have any suggestions for deseret book!? (keep it light, though. I'm not looking for Jesus the Christ or anything (right now, at least).
i started a private blog, so i've been giving more attention to that lately, plus also, we've been more busy than ever! a few updates:
1. I have loved every minute of my new job. It's still extremely overwhelming, and I'm starting to feel like I'll never get the hang of it all, but I think it will just take a little more practice! The guys in the shop are hilarious and also really nice, and the customers are awesome. The shop definitely has a good reputation. Plus also? It's pretty funny to take the company car for a spin every once in awhile :)
2. Sean and Chloe are having a BOY!!! I am getting a new nephew! I married into 2 nieces and a nephew, and even though Addi was still a baby when I met Devin, it will be so different to have a niece/nephew born since I've been an Ashby! It's been fun to watch Chloe and Sean through the pregnancy, and the other night, Chloe brought over the DVD of the ultrasound and we got to watch! I had never seen a video of one before and I was totally amazed by it! You could see the tiny little heart beating inside baby ashby's chest, and you could see his brain! He is going to be so, so gorgeous! Sean has already nicknamed him "blue" because as Chloe has tracked the size of the baby with those fruit things, Sean got hooked on calling "it" (at the time) "baby blue" - now it definitely fits, being a boy and all! I am so excited for them to be parents. They will be so great!
3. We are moving in ONE WEEK. Holy cow. Where did this last week go? Now all the sudden we have TONS to pack and move in the next week. It's going to be exhausting! I keep looking at the pictures I took on my phone from when we first walked through the house, and it gets me more and more excited. I can't wait! Devin has already set up the internet and i'm pretty sure even the utility bills. The only thing left to do is sign the lease officially and get those keys!!! (Did I mention there's a pool?!)
4. Kelli's birthday was on Wednesday! My big sister is 24! It's weird to think that my husband is older than my older (est) sister. I've just always seen her as so much older and more mature! We get to celebrate at dinner with Kelli, Sean and other friends tomorrow. I love my cheech SO much! I wish she didn't live so far away :(
5. Strawberry soda. I forgot how much I loved this stuff. When I was at UVU, I would buy a can of Welch's at one of the little cafes in the LA building almost every day, and then forgot it existed. When Devin was craving soda at the grocery store the other night, and we saw there was a sale... I couldn't help but get some! So good. So, so good.
6. Shortly after Devin started working for Momentum, the owner and his good friend, Jeff, commissioned him to build a team-building program for businesses. This week, the program launched! Not only am I so excited for the kinds of things this will mean for the gym, but I am SO proud of Devin! This is the kind of thing he is going to school for, so for him to be getting this experience right now, while he is just starting the Outdoor Rec. Management program is HUGE! I'm a proud wife :) read more about the program here.
7. It's wedding season. Which means that Devin just finished up editing the last photos he's taken, and it also means that our weekends are booked for receptions of dear friends. Tomorrow? A mission companion. And next Saturday (which is also move-in day!), our dear friends Brit and Joe! So happy for them!
8. My One Tree Hill marathon has finally reached season 2. I love this show so much. I just forgot for... several years... haha!
9. We are PUPPY SHOPPING! If anybody has any information on affordable mini australian shepherd puppies/breeders in Utah or Idaho, please let us know! We are willing to drive pretty much anywhere in the state to find the perfect puppy! We don't need any show dog AKC kind of stuff. Just a cute little guy to be a family dog. Now that we will be living somewhere puppy friendly, we won't last very long without a puppy!
10. I would also like recommendations for a good new book to read! I'm fresh out! Not that I've had much time for reading lately or anything... ha!
i teamed up with one of my best friends from high school, Chelsey, to throw our other best friend, Valeri a killer baby shower (maybe that's an inappropriate term...) we had a build-a-library shower for little baby girl jones, and it was a smash (i figured i'd just keep going with the inappropriate terms...). i have never spent so much time at Pebbles in My Pocket in my life! not even for my wedding! and it was great. and worth all the work!
for starters, i put my amateur skills to work on an invitation. (another thing to make note of: this entire shower could have easily been sponsored by pinterest.com...). and I've gotta say... they turned out darn cute. i hand stamped every single little triangle, one at a time. and even though it was tedious, it went by quickly, and i'd do it again! i love how they turned out
next, the actual party:
I was put in charge of the cake. which turned out surprisingly well, with the help of my husband (who knew i married a baking-emergency expert??). a pintereest idea, for sure:
chelsey and justin had made sugar cookies, chelsey's amazing mom, Cindy had made delicious raspberry lemonade, and there was also a fruit bowl I put together, and Loni/Stef made lemon bars:
we kept the bunting banner theme going with the other decorations, including this banner (which I made at Pebbles in My Pocket) and the onesie banner.
these were the first girls i ever met in high school, and we've stayed so close ever since! i love them!
lots of girls came, and we had a great time getting TMI from val about pregnancy (which is typical. and expected.)
we played a hilarious game where Loni put different foods through my food processor and Val had to guess what they were... we were mostly nice...
and I put together some little bags of popcorn as party favors with chelsey. turned out great!
it was such a great time. Val got loaded up with cute clothes and books, loved her Addison Renee Boutique headbands, and we all had a fun time! obviously, the colors were pink, yellow and grey. yellow and grey, because that's just Valeri, plus Bayli's nursery colors, and pink... well because, she's a girl, of course! I was so happy with how this turned out and was proud of how well everything came together! There was also a cute picture line of all the sonograms of Bayli, that I didn't take a picture of. She has huge lips and she's gonna be SO PRETTY! I can hardly wait. Valeri is progressing perfectly, and could have this little girl any day now and I am so giddy! I love Val, and am so beyond happy for her. To watch her be a mother is going to be so much fun! She will be amazing, so I'm glad she's going first so I can learn how to do it!
2. "When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later, you will discover that simple, childlike and mysterious secret: life is fun." - Benjamin Hoff
3. Neon pink toes.
4. Slowly but surely finishing this series [again].
On Friday, I didn't have work, so after getting my eyelash extensions refilled by the amazing Baylee Taylor (let me know if you want extensions and I'll give you details! she's awesome!), I had lunch with one of my best friends, Valeri. That night, Devin and I headed down to Velour to see our good friend, Cory Mon play! Devin and Cory have been close friends for several years, and he promptly introduced me to his music when we started dating. He isn't your typical provo hipster artist. not at all. his following is actually a lot more centered around the Salt Lake area, and he's not like anything I've ever heard. As I've gotten to know Cory a little, I have gained so much respect for him. As a person, as a musician, and as a friend. He is one of the most respectful, kind-hearted, hilarious individuals I have ever met, and I am always impressed with him. After watching him play, it is so obvious how much his music means to him, and I feel like that is an aspect of the industry that a lot of artists tend to lose site of. It was refreshing to see someone who is still performing for the sake of the music.
This was the first time I have seen Cory perform live, since the other times he's performed in Utah lately have all been in 21+ venues. I was amazed! He was so good live, and he shared the stage with his good friend, Wes Kirkpatrick, who I am guaranteed to start listening to on a regular basis. So great! A band called Lady and Gent opened for Wes and Cory, and they weren't too bad either! They had won battle of the bands over the summer, and I loved their harmonies. It was such a great show, even though we didn't get home until 12:00, it was totally worth it. (Oh! Plus also, Dustin Christensen played with Wes. And we love Dustin. He does a lot of his own singing and songwriting, and he's also in one of our favorite bands, The Lower Lights, a hymn revival kind of band.)
On Saturday, Devin and I shot a wedding in Draper for a couple we've been working with for a few months now (we did their engagements and bridals as well). It was awesome to finally see everything come together for them. We got to the temple way early and finally got around to shooting (um. the draper temple is SO windy. poor Jill (bride), her veil kept flying out! There were probably about 80 people at the temple, and I thought that getting all the group pictures was going to be impossible. To get 80 people to listen to one person? yeah right. Devin is the man! He got everything done so fast, and it all looked so great. I heard a guy behind me saying "whoa. this guy is business! he knows what he's doing!" -- it's true, it's true.
After the temple pictures, we decided to head to Salt Lake to do a little shopping and get some lunch.
1. We headed to Trifecta, one of our favorite stores. Our good friend Brittany works there, and they sell those Middle Kingdom vases I'm always raving about. We caved and bought 3!
our three new additions.
our ever-growing collection!
2. Brittany recommended we had lunch just a few doors down that The Soup Kitchen, so we did! I had the best creamy tomato soup ever, with a California sandwich. It was delicious!
(photo not taken by me)
3. On our way back to the car, Devin did something I think he will regret. He let us go into Central Book Exchange. I was immediately engrossed in the stacks and piles of books all over the store and ended up leaving with 7, and only paying $32! I would post pictures of books I got, but they will all be gifts, except for an AWESOME copy of To Kill A Mockingbird that I've never seen before (which is weird).
(photo not taken by me)
After all that, we headed back to Draper for the reception, which was in a huge backyard. It was awesome, and Devin got some amazing shots, including family pictures for the groom's family of 24 adults! We didn't shoot any kids, and we still had tons of people! Again, it would have been a huge challenge for any photographer, but Devin did so great, and handled it all so well. I was even frustrated and I was hardly doing anything! He is just that good I guess.
Other things:
4. My new earrings. I think they're my new favorites.
5. After the reception was over, we drove home but stopped at the grocery store to pick up some last minute things for dinner on Sunday (we are having Devin's family over. It's our turn to cook!), and we stumbled upon THIS. Wild Berry 7-up. It's delicious! Way better than the pomegranate that I thought I loved. I'm nervous it won't be around for very long, so we have plans to go back soon and stock UP.
on thursday, i finished reading The Help... I wish it wouldn't have ended. Especially since it seems like it ended in the middle of something big. Nothing has been resolved! I hate that! Maybe the movie will end more resolved and that will suffice. it was an amazing book. and you wanna know what's awesome? it says "this could be one of the most important pieces of fiction since TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD... if you read only one book... let it be this." RIGHT on the cover. How cool is that? TKAM was sort of a groundbreaking novel when it came out, and I agree with that statement entirely, because The Help focuses on the same general situation. TKAM is largely about civil rights, but it's kind of disguised, being told from the view of a little girl.
after I read, and Devin watched an episode of Top Gear, we went to Sean and Chloe's softball game. Their team 10-run-ruled the other team, which means that in the first 5 or 6 innings of the game, they were already up by 10 runs, so they just called it. Sean and Chloe are both AWESOME. Chloe was on 1st base and Sean on 3rd, i think. They had awesome plays, like Chloe almost doing the splits to catch a ball! We sat by Chloe's parents and her friend, Lee, and Chloe's Mom said it wouldn't be a real game if Chloe didn't come away with some sort of injury, hahaha. She's so awesome. I was so impressed with their team! They all hit awesome balls, and they were all really fast! The other team didn't even have a chance. It was totally worth going, even with all the mosquitos!
Friday was great. I feel like i'm really starting to get into the swing of things with this nannying. I had to remind Aria several times to only color on the paper, not her hands... and Carter and I got along a lot better. I feel like he was pulling a typical 5-year-old trick for the first couple days, trying to get things past me. Lying about rules, and trying to bend them.... but I think he understands now that he can't fool me, and gave in and now we're friends, haha. Next week, Carter and I will make him a piggy bank. I'm not sure what to do with Aria. She's only 2, so she can't quite grasp the arts and crafts thing yet. All she wants to do is watch Dora, haha. We're also going to the Zoo next week! I think I'm more excited then they are... hahaha
During nap time on Friday, I put Aria down, and she is always so good about it. We walk upstairs and she says "night-night", because she knows it's time to sleep. She goes right into her crib and lays down. She's a doll! Friday, though. She did the same, but for the first 15 minutes of nap time, she was singing... loudly.. to her bears. It was hilarious. I went up and peeked in and she looked at me like "...what?" and I said "Aria it's nap time" and she got this attitude like, "oh yeah. i forgot!" and laid down again. Oh boy.
I got off about 20 minutes early, and I had asked devin on a date for tonight (aren't we cute, haha) the plan was to take some blankets, pillows, a movie and dinner up to south fork and picnic in the bed of the truck, but when Dev got home it was raining a little. we decided to head to Shoots, and invited some friends. it was so much fun! shawn and alli came, and they're both awesome. i love my friends. they're the best of the best. we spent a good amount of the time hanging out in the bed of the truck in the parking lot talking about... you name it! it was awesome. anyway, i love dating my husband.
another thing...
oh. also.. somewhere in all of that... FICTIONIST, that band that we love, who's guitarist is the brother of our good friend TJ... they got SIGNED. To ATLANTIC RECORDS! how awesome is that? I think this is an appropriate time to say... I TOLD YOU SO. I said they'd be big. And whaddaya know. Awesome.
Saturday, Devin and I ran some errands in the morning and watched some football, and then we went and took family pictures with my family! I'm so excited to see how they turned out. Dev took them and I think he did such a great job! We even brought Sammy and Buddy, which was a risk, but they were great!
After pictures, we had pizza and watched the BYU game. The TV at my parent's house didn't record it all the way, and my Dad couldn't just NOT finish the game so he came to our house and watched it with Devin while I was online-boot-shopping.
It's a hard task, that online-boot shopping. I love slouchy boots, but Devin said he likes the equestrian style better, so I started looking at those, and ended up really liking them! I found the perfect pair at piperlime and ordered them! I don't know if I can wait for the weather get cold to wear them!
on Sunday, we slept in and watched big bang theory... 2 of my favorite things to do! we went to church, and only had a few kids in nursery, and they were all so great! Devin has become the one they all go to when they cry. They won't even consider me! It's so cute though. They were all so well-behaved. It was awesome.
Sunday night, my dad was set apart as a high priest! We had some family and friends over for dessert and it was good to catch up with our family friends. I am happy for my dad, except we keep teasing him that it just means he's old now! haha
Today is Monday, and I have definitely not recovered from the busy weekend. I feel so tired and like I can hardly keep up with Carter and Aria! I have been snapping a few pictures of them, though. Mostly because they're adorable. And I LOVE the wood floor in their house! It's in the front room, kitchen, and down the stairs into the living room, and it's beautiful! I love it.
Devin has class tonight (boo!) so I'm going to my brother's choir concert with my parents while he's at school. The rest of the week seems like it will be pretty busy, but I think we can handle it. I'm hoping to spend my free time at home making things I can use with Carter and Aria. fingers crossed!
