Hunger Games Addiction

Honestly... I am not much of a reader. Not that I don't like reading books per say... its just that it is very low on my priority list. Things like being social and using my creativity with crafts or photography rank higher on the list when I have free time.  However, it is easier for me to read more when I get into a series... like Harry Potter for example. Instead of trying to get interested in a new story line... I am already into the story and ready to continue when the next book comes out.

When the Hunger Games series came out everyone and their dog was reading them, because of this I knew I would love them. Although I knew this... It still took me FOREVER to pick up the first book and start reading... even when I did, I put it down several times only to pick it back up again weeks later. Not because I wasn't super into the story...  because I was. Just busy, that's all.

Well... I decided this year I needed to and wanted to read more. One of my goals with the new year was to read a book a month. I wasn't doing to well with that goal at first... but I figured I would still count it if I read 12 books throughout the year no matter what month I read them in. So I finally started to REALLY read the Hunger Games.

Once I started... I couldn't stop. Anyone that has read these books (which I am sure many of you have) know exactly what I am talking about. I read Catching Fire in 2 days... which is record for me, especially since I was working full time and doing whatever else I need to do during the week.

Now I can say that I am done and I loved it. AND I am glad that I waited to read them. #1 because I could just go right into the next book when I was done with one #2 because I have a little less time to wait until the first movie comes out (March 2012) which will be AWESOME!!

Next I am finally going to get around to reading "Beneath a Marble Sky" which I was going to read before I went to India... which you can see REALLY didn't happen. For those of you who don't know, it is the story of the Taj Mahal (which is a love story). The girls I went to India with recommended it to me.

When I am done with that book.... do any of you have any great suggestions of books I should read this year? I usually only read books that people tell me I should read.

Road Trippin

Since it was a long Holiday Weekend.... Rachel, Carly, baby Harper and I decided to take a road trip out to Arizona. This was the first time I have driven to Arizona in many years. It's a good long drive. Still a lot of fun when you have some good tunes and good company. :o)

It was SO nice to leave cold Utah (yes, I know its summer... but its still cold) and spend the weekend in the heat. All three of us happen to be spending time with family and friends that all lived in Gilbert, which made things easy for all of us.

I spent the weekend sleeping in, relaxing, chillin and talking with my sister and playing with my cute niece and nephew. Not super eventful (reason being why I didn't take a lot of pictures) but still so fun and nice to be with family. My sister and I went to the mall and Dan's siblings came over for dinner one night. I always get to see the Hixon siblings when I come to town which is a lot of fun. They are a great bunch. We also went to one of the Hixon's siblings pool. My sister and I came a little later and when we showed up, Gwen was just sitting back and relaxing in the chair with her sunglasses on. She is the cutest. One of the happiest smily babies ever. Something she does that made me laugh is when she sees that you are going into the bathroom, she waits outside the door until you come out. Ha ha... it is so cute.

One of my best friends, Nate and his wife live in Mesa... so Saturday and Sunday night they came to my sister's house to hang out with me. It was a lot of fun to see them and to get to know Emilee better. Sunday night they even brought a date for me from their ward. He was a nice guy. We all played "Things" which is one of the only games I will sit for a long time and play because its so entertaining. Jamie made up the questions and they were pretty amazing. I think my two favorite questions she made up were "Things that make you go hmmm" and "Things to do to prepare for a Zombie attack" or something like that.

I wish I could have spent more time.... the time always seems to go by so fast when I am visiting family. Late monday morning I said my goodbye's to my family and spent the rest of the day on the road back to Utah.  It was a great weekend.

On the way home we stopped in Beaver for a little break. They have this HUGE rocking chair at the gas station... so me, Carly & baby Harper decided to take a picture in it.

Hixon Family

Since I am in Arizona for the weekend, I decided to offer to take family photo's for my sister and family.  We did the short photo shoot after church and I think they turned out beautiful.

I can only take a little credit for these photo's. I used Dan's camera (because he has way nicer equipment than I do) and Dan sorted through them and edited them (although with a camera this nice you hardly need to edit). I did take these pictures though. For whatever that is worth. I was glad I could help them get a new beautiful family photo. I loved the colors.

A Side of Peaches

I love this site called "A Side of Peaches". I found out about it in the blogging world. It's a website where they sell one item a day at half price or sometimes even less... and sell that one item until it sells out. Some items are gone before noon. It's always some kind of accessory. Usually necklaces, bracelets, rings, purses, etc... They are usually more of a vintage style. Very cute and fun.

I check the website almost everyday. I have bought a purse, a ring and two necklaces that I really love for such a great price. If this is something that would interest you, you should check it out. :o) Click on the link below.

http://www.asideofpeaches.com/

Flashback Friday 14

Since I am with my sister in Arizona this weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to do another family picture. I think I was close to 2 in this picture. This is another one of my favorites. We were such cute kids.

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 67

This past week has been one of those weeks where its full of crazy business because I was trying to get a ton of things done in a limited time before I left for the weekend. I didn't quite get them all done. I think I did really well though considering everything I committed to and with the time left over that I had.

I finally started planting flowers on my back patio. I still have more to plant... but its almost back to its summer beauty. Hopefully I will even make some improvements to it this year. Whatever I do... you will get to see it because I of course will blog about it. I just love opening the gate to my back patio and smelling the flowers. Love having a garden... even if its small and all in pots.

Tonight I got a phone call from my cousin's wife's cousin, who called to ask me on a date. He told me he got my number from his cousin, who called my mom who gave her my number to give to her cousin. :o) Ha ha... I thought it was kind of cute... even though I see him pretty often around at different parties and such and he could have just asked me for my number then. He asked me out for this weekend... but I'm out of town.

The U2 concert was such a blast on Tuesday night. I got to leave work early and be in attendance of an awesome show. Since there were 50,000 people at this concert, I parked far away and rode up on the trax which were crowded... so I had to stand. I parked my car at 5:30 pm and was standing to get to the concert, standing at the concert and standing to get back to my car (which I got back to at around 12:30 am). I don't have the best posture.... so my feet and back were killing. Seriously... I have tried stretching it out and such, but after 7 hours of constantly standing with posture that could definitely be improved... my back still hurts a little. I have been trying to put heat on it.... but I really think I need a massage. Cheryl? Ready to trade again? ;o)

Today I left for Arizona with Rachel and her friend (and now my friend) Carly and Carly's baby. It was fun to leave work early and get on the road out of P Town. We stopped in St George to eat and do a little shopping at my favorite store. We sang along with some great tunes, had great conversation and I got to drive Rachel's fancy sports car. Its a nice ride.... it made me a little jealous of her car and wanting a new one.... but then I need to remind myself that I don't need one. Her car does some pretty sweet things though. Now I am here in AZ.... ready for some heat and to hang out with my sister and play with my niece and nephew and who knows what I will do while I am here... but I am looking forward to the long Holiday weekend here. Should be good times. It will be nice to relax and forget about my busy life for a few days.

Okay, please answer honestly. Do you think I look better with bangs? Or without the bangs? I have liked it both ways.... but the reason I am asking is because I am trying to decide if I want to give my bangs another trim or if I should start the process of growing them back out. I have had them since December. They have been fun... I have liked them, but I might be ready to start going back. I don't know. Thoughts? To keep? Or Not to Keep? That is the question.

Photo of the Week 65

Denver, Colorado

U2 Concert

I was not planning on going to this concert. I have to say though... I am so glad that it fell into my lap and I was able to go.

A friend that used to be in the ward was selling his tickets and my friend Ashley that I had not seen since December (because she went to Isreal for a semester and is now living in Bountiful) text me saying she wanted to go with me. I was excited. I mean, its U2. They are classic.

I left work early and drove myself up to Salt Lake, found a free place to park and took the trax up to University of Utah Stadium where the concert was being held. It was a very crowded ride up. Crowds of people heading to the stadium for this concert.

I met Ashley outside the stadium and we headed into the crowds to find a spot to watch the concert. I have to say this is the biggest concert that I have ever been to. It was completely sold out. 50,000 people were there to watch U2.

Before U2 started, The Frey opened the show. This is double awesome because it turns out I really like The Frey as well. They have a lot of great songs.

It was great that there was only one opening band. I have been to concerts where there are several and you really just want to see who you came for. Although... we had to wait for a long time after The Frey ended for U2 to come out. They displayed random facts on the screen for almost an hour. I had to take a picture of how many people blogged that day. :o)

Finally U2 came out and the crowd went wild!!!  I have to admit that I don't know a lot of there songs (especially newer stuff) but they played all the classics that I know and love. It was a great great show. The whole set up they had going on for the stage was quite amazing too. It did some pretty awesome things. It was fun to be outside too. It was the first night in a while that it didn't rain.. which was awesome for us. I think this was also the first concert that I have attended that had such a wide age range in attendance. Young kids to people in their 60's. It was great. There was a guy next to us hitting on Ashley that told us he was the coolest dad ever. And somehow... I always end up in back of the tallest guys at concerts.

At the end of the show, Ashley and I decided to get a head start on the crowd and headed toward the exit during one of the last songs. All the sudden they turned off all of the lights and told everyone to get out their cell phones as he sang a slow song. I can't tell you how magical it was looking around the stadium. The pictures don't do it justice. It was like the whole stadium was filled with the stars. It was the perfect ending to the show for me.

After the show, we ran into Jeanna, Maizy, Maizy's sister and Renae. Out of 50,000 people, we run into some friends. Pretty amazing if you ask me.... so we stuck together and found our way out and to our cars together. They are such a blast.

What a great concert, what great friends, what a great night.

*My friend Jess was also there... sadly I didn't get to meet up with her because she was in the very front... however she got some rockin pictures, so I used some of hers, some of Ashley's who brought her nice camera and then the rest are mine. *

Monday Night Party

I have a friend named Jennica. She has lots of friends. Today is her birthday. All the friends were by her side to celebrate at Applebees tonight. Popular girl. She is so popular that we were breaking fire code with all the people that we had at the table.

We thought it would be fun to pass my camera around the table and have everyone take pictures. Here is what came out from it...... good times is what came out of it.

Me and the birthday girl.

Chicken Casserole

We made this for FHE one week. I thought it was good, so I asked her for the recipe. She wrote it on a napkin... but I am pretty sure I got it right. :o) Another one of those easy and delicious dishes.

* Cook two cups of rice
* Cook 6 chicken breasts in a pan

In a separate bowl - Mix together

* Half a cube of butter (melted)
* 1 package of Ritz Crackers (crushed)
* 2 Tablespoons of poppy seeds

In separate bowl - Mix together

* 16 oz of Sour Cream
* Cream of Chicken Soup

Directions

* Put rice on the bottom of 9x13 baking dish. Then layer cream then chicken, then rice then cream then chicken then crackers for topping. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

10 Years

Well... I officially feel old. I just got the invitation to my High School 10 year reunion.

I am not sure where I thought I would be 10 years after I graduated from High School... but I am pretty sure my life is pretty different that anything I ever expected. I mean that in good ways and bad ways.

It is interesting to think about my life and what I have accomplished over the past 10 years. I feel good about where I am at.

Now the question is.... do I go to the reunion? Did you or will you go to yours?

Flashback Friday 13

In honor of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 coming out today... and because I just got back from seeing it, I thought I would do a pirates related flashback. I could do a lot of those I guess... I sort of like pirates. I guess you know this if you saw my pirate party or when I went to pirate island... and went to pirate island again. Yeah.

But this post goes back to July 2006 when the second pirates movie came out. I was living in the Devonshire and a group of people decided to have a dress up BBQ to celebrate the new movie. Dress up? Yeah, I'm okay with that.

Most people came dressed up as normal people would dress up to be pirates... then there is my dear friend Steve who is clever and nerdy. He came looking like this....

I just shook my head when I saw him. Of course he would show up with a bunch of pirated DVD's stuck to him that he got while he was in China. A lot of people didn't get it... which made it even more funny.

Just for fun I thought I would add a picture of The Black Pearl. This is the Legit Black Pearl. When we went on our cruise to Mexico, it was parked in the ocean in Encinada for maintenance for something like that. I got to see the real Black Pearl. It was awesome too. Whats up now?

Yo ho yo ho a Pirates life for me!

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 66

My friend Danny's status on gmail said "Time to build in Ark!". I don't know why... but it really made me laugh. It has been raining a lot this week. Mountain Man and I have this thing.... at the end of Winter we were really wanting the sun to come out and so he mentioned talking to the weather committee about it. I asked him how this all worked and as always he has a great explanation for everything. He is so funny. So when all the lay off's were happening at Novell and he was checking in on me he said... "Well, at least the weather committee has come through" (because it was nice and sunny then) and now I have been texting him telling him to talk to the weather committee again because I am ready for the rain to stop. Only to hear back from him telling me the committee is out on a fact finding mission in Costa Rica and will be back later. Ha! Ok... maybe its only funny to me.

Speaking of Mountain Man... his text messages are my favorite to get... because they are so funny. He is always so cleaver with his responses. I find him so funny that who ever is with me, I read his text messages to them. Little does he know he has a little fan club. My roommate was pretty excited to meet him last weekend.

So... my Grandpa's funeral or not funeral... whatever is going down is tomorrow morning. Of course I didn't find this out until yesterday and buying a ticket to AZ was almost $400 round trip and I am going next weekend and couldn't justify spending the money or driving by myself.... anyway, I really tried to make it work but it doesn't look like I will be going and I am pretty bummed about it. I really did try and think of different ways I could make it work. I know my sister is bummed about not going too. I got a really sweet card in the mail today from my good friend Desiree saying sorry about my grandpa and it made my day. She is so sweet and thoughtful.

So... I know that I started the Hunger Games series a long time ago... I mean a LONG time ago..... but I just finished it the other day. Its not that I didn't like it, I did.... A lot. It just takes me a while to get into books. I even found this one very interesting, but for the first half of the book I just put other things as a priority over reading as I usually do, so I always let it wait. Finally... I realized one of my goals this year was to read a book a month and I realized how I have NOT been doing that, but that I would still count a book a month if I read 4 books and caught up to where I should be. So I got into reading The Hunger Games again and couldn't put it down. I started bringing it to work and reading on my lunch break. I finished it and then yesterday started Catching Fire and am almost done with it (that is how much of a reader I can be once I am into a story... I'm in book prison) and then I will read Mockingjay just as quickly I'm sure and then I will only have 1 more book to read to be caught up. Not too shabby. I'm pretty determined when it comes to accomplishing my goals.

Last night I went to Institute as I normally do. There were long lines to get in, which is normal (because we have to sign a roll so they know how much food to get every week) and some guy just coming out of class came up and asked us what exciting thing we were standing in line for. I told him Institute. He had a shocked look on his face... so I said "Yep, our Institute is THAT awesome" and he walked away. Its true though... I don't think I have ever enjoyed institute as much as I do in my stake now. David Neilson is my favorite teacher... hands down.

Tonight was my last time tutoring. The program is ending (as far as getting help from our stake goes) at the end of this month and I am going to be out of town next Thursday. I think the change they are making is going to be a lot better for the kids. I am glad for the change. Now I feel like I can do things with the ward since they seem to schedule everything on Thursday nights at 7 (when tutoring is). It was a really great experience to tutor these kids for the last year and a half that I have been helping out. It has been a great learning experience for me and I hope that I have made a difference for at least a few of the kids. Although many nights have been frustrating... there were also a lot of good times. I am excited to find a new way to serve though. I am not sure what to do yet... but I am looking for something I can do somewhat regularly. I will let you know when I find it. In the meantime... I will miss the people that I would tutor with (the regulars anyway) and I will miss most of the kids. Like this little guy who I call my little Curious George. I have been reading with him the last several weeks. All he wants to read are Curious George books. He gets SO excited about them. He is a cute kid.  :o) I'm thankful for those kids and thankful for the opportunity I had to serve them. As this chapter closes... I am excited to see which chapter opens next for me.

Photo of the Week 64

There is something so charming about parasols. I love them. 

Virtual Choir

Well folks... I have nothing exciting to share as of late.... so here is a video. I had seen it before, but was reminded of it today.

What an awesome idea to join the world together in a beautiful virtual choir. I love the idea and the music.





Had I known about this sooner.... I would have submitted a video. What a cool thing to be a part of.

White Pizza

A few years ago I tried white pizza for the first time at a pizza place in Orem, Utah. I enjoyed it. I didn't have it again after that.... until I was in Florida. After Kirsten and I were done with our adventures in Harry Potter World, we went out to eat at this Italian restaurant in the down town part of Universal Studios. We both ordered a mini pizza and ate while we enjoyed a live band. I ordered the white pizza and fell in love all over again. I love it. Why have I not been eating it all of these years? I decided that when I got back to Utah that I wanted to try making it. So I found a recipe online and I made it. Its good stuff. So good in fact... that I thought I would share it with you.

White Pizza

For the Dough you can either buy pizza dough OR you can do what I did and make it. Need a recipe? Use this easy one that I posted here.

Ingredients


* 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
* 1 Garlic Clove, minced
* 5 Ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese
* 2 Teaspoons parmesan cheese
* 1 Teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
* 1/8 Teaspoon oregano
* 3/4 Cup part-skim cottage cheese

Directions

* Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.
* Heat olive oil, add garlic and cook until golden.
* Brush garlic oil mixture over dough leaving 1/2" of outer dough uncovered
* Sprinkle oiled surface with mozzarella cheese
* Bake for 10 minutes
* Combine Parmesan, parsley and oregano
* Remove pizza from oven and cover with cottage cheese
* Sprinkle with more mozzarella cheese and then Parmesan mixture
* Bake for 10-15 minutes

YUMMY!!

Grandpa Mills

Today my Grandpa Mills died. I was at my parents house when my Grandma called my dad to tell him the news. It came as a shock but at the same time... it didn't. We knew that with Alzheimer's he could go at any time. I was really sad but at the same time.... not. I love him and will miss him, but it is such a nasty disease that I am glad that he doesn't have to suffer anymore.

I have very mixed emotions right now. Death really makes me think about my life. Am I living life to the fullest? Am I loving and caring for people the way I should? Am I taking all the people in my life that I love for granted?

I am thankful that I know the big picture, that my Grandpa is in a better place and that I will be with him and all of my family again when we die. I am so thankful for a wonderful and loving family that I am a part of. I am thankful that I grew up getting to see my Grandpa Mills often and that I got to know him. I am even more thankful that I went to Arizona so much last year and got to spend time with him before he passed away.  I wrote all about my visits with him here and here.

Melvin Moses Mills

A Teacher

A Pilot

A Cyclist

An Organist 

Passionate about Cars

A Little Brother

A Husband

A Father

A Great Grandfather

My Grandpa

I love you Grandpa. Until we meet again...