Book Review x 4

Thanks to the relaxing Hawaiian vacation at the beginning of the month, I finished not one, not two, but FOUR books this month! Quick reviews of each:

The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale. I really enjoyed this book - got completely sucked in and couldn't stop! I regularly laughed out loud and had to read bits and pieces out loud to Tim while we were on the plane, the beach, trying to go to bed, etc. Shannon Hale is an LDS writer who has written several YA novels and a few adult novels centered around the idea of literary or movie romance and if it has a place in real life. This book is about a Mormon housewife who meets her movie crush and hits it off in a best friend kind of way. Fair warning, this book might also make you cry (her husband gets cancer) but I felt like it dealt with real emotions in an honest way that made me love all the characters. Four stars!

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. This is the woman who wrote The Secret Life of Bees, which I loved, but this book was very different. It's a kind of "coming of middle age" tale about a woman who goes home to take care of her mother and deals with the question of what her life has become. Her mid-life crisis takes on the form of an affair (with a monk, no less), which I did not appreciate, and the story revolves around some very dramatic and kinda far-fetched plot points, which had me rolling my eyes occasionally. Beautifully written, but it just didn't resonate with me. Really, this story was about a woman coming to terms with herself, which I firmly believe we all have to do at some point - accept ourselves as we are, alone, without relationships to define or control us. I just couldn't relate at all to her process of coming to that point. Two stars.

Bossypants by Tina Fey. Yes, that Tina Fey. My mom brought this book to Hawaii and I needed something to read so I breezed through it. It was funny, naturally, and had a few moments of poignancy. Lots of interesting stuff about Tina Fey's work and her stint as Sarah Palin on SNL. Plenty of words, idioms, and stories to be offended at, though, which made it less fun to read. If you don't mind swearing and crude language, I'd give it two stars. If you do mind those things, probably skip this one.

Yearning for the Living God: Reflections from the Life of F. Enzio Busche edited and compiled by Tracie A. Lamb. Elder Busche was a general authority for many years in the LDS church and this book is all about his life as a young boy growing up in Hitler's Germany, his conversion to the LDS church, and his many, many years of service in the Church. He shares some really amazing stories and beautiful messages. I especially appreciated his description and explanation of what it was like to grow up in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. I gained such a depth of understanding from just a few pages. My mom lent me this book quite a while ago and I'm so glad I finally finished it. Highly recommended - four stars!

My life right now

You know you're pregnant when...

You find yourself eating (and really enjoying) broccoli at 11:00 at night.

You cry during the first 15 minutes of The Fellowship of the Ring (the part where Gandalf lights some fireworks for the little kid hobbits...yeah...)

Nine and a half hours of sleep at night doesn't feel like enough.

Foods taste good for exactly two and a half days, and then they become the most vile-sounding foods imaginable.

You can't remember what it's like to not feel sick all the time.

None of your pants fit. None.

You start thinking in terms of weeks, not months.

You eat foods based on how easily and how tastily they will come back up. (Water takes first place, sorbet takes second, strawberries are in third.)

You can answer the same questions (How far along are you? How are you feeling? When are you due? Do you know what you're having yet?) over and over and not get annoyed, only more excited for what's coming.

Life Update (and a Big Announcement!)

The first week of March was spent lounging in Hawaii and since we got back (sad day), the month has flown by. Tim and I have both been trying to get caught up at work, Tim's been fighting off some kind of flu, we had a St. Patrick's Day party last weekend, and oh, what the heck, I'll cut to the chase: We're having a baby! I'm pregnant, expecting, adding to the family, however you want to say it - we're having a baby and we are thrilled!!!

I'm 14 weeks along, due September 18th, and yes, I've been really nauseated and throwing up some and yes, I've been exhausted and yes, I'm starting to feel better but not all the way and yes, I'm very happy about this. Well, not the throwing up or exhausted part, but the other part is pretty awesome. I've been to the doctor twice and both times we got to see our tiny baby on a mini ultrasound machine and everything looks good. Today we even watched the little one kick and wiggle around a but - it was amazing! Tim is over the moon excited and has been incredible - so supportive and concerned and helpful and making all kinds of runs to the store the second I ask. The last two months have been kind of rough on both of us but I think it's getting better. Hopefully. Still working on it.

Mostly, it is just so good. It's been about a year since we started trying for this and we're so happy to be moving forward. I can't wait to meet this little person in about six months and as strange as it may sound, I'm really excited to meet who Tim and I will be as parents. This year is going to be a wild ride but I'm so excited!

Real(ish) cratfy-ness

We work pretty far in advance at the magazines, so a couple of months ago we were putting together our March/April issue of Simply Handmade and we needed a few extra projects. I volunteered to make something and here it is!

Very springy, right? I really like how it turned out. And the best part was seeing it in the magazine all these months later!

Hawaii: The Trip

Hawaii still feels like a beautiful dream that I unwillingly had to wake up from. It was like being suddenly dropped in the middle of summer and then having to go back several months to winter (albeit a very mild winter). It felt like being in a foreign country (I was very strongly reminded of Brazil's jungle wildness) but without the language barrier or undrinkable tap water. It was a vacation, in every sense of the word, and I loved it. Must go back someday.

It rained a lot while we were there, as it is wont to do during the winter months, but that didn't stop us from doing almost everything we wanted to do! I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked because of the rain (my poor camera was pretty wet the last few days we were there) but I think I got the important parts.

This is the view from the back porch of our wonderful friends' house. Yes, that's the ocean over there. (And yes, that's a spot on my camera lens.)


First order of business: getting shave ice at Matsumoto's!


We spent that first afternoon lounging on the gorgeous beach with very calm waves.


This is the beach next door to our house - literally 100 steps. Hey tourists, whatcha lookin' at?


This guy! We were there for his shuffle-forward-pull-rest-repeat back into the ocean after snoozing on the beach all day. The beach is a home for lots of sea turtles so I think we saw at least one everyday we were there.


After a session at the Laie Hawaii temple...


...which was absolutely gorgeous! (Why hello, sunshine.)


This is not the beach where they filmed the pilot episode of Lost, but this is where we ended up while looking for that beach. Rachel and Jase did find it eventually but it was about a mile and a half up the coastline.


Swimming in Waimea Bay. Supposedly this is where you get the biggest surfing waves during the winter but the water was as calm as a lake while we were there. So beautiful!


Our next-door beach first thing in the morning. Just incredible.


I spy with my little eye four family members "supping" - stand-up paddling. Tim and I opted out but they all really liked it and it looked really fun!


One morning we got up super early and went to Hanauma Bay, which has some of the best snorkeling on the island. It was my first time snorkeling and it was amazing! There is a reef protecting the bay so there are tons of fish, plus a happy little sea turtle that we swam around with. So. Cool.


Tim and I went to the Waimea Valley Botanical Garden and I took about a hundred pictures of all the beautiful flowers and plants. It was raining most of the time so we got pretty wet but it was a very nice walk. And the best part? At the end of the valley is the Waimea waterfall which is the waterfall they used in Lost. (!!!) If you don't recognize it from the show, that's because it was about 14 times larger than normal thanks to all the rain. Still, we were really excited to see it!


The rain and storms the last few days we were there made the waves crazy huge. Like, the lifeguards wouldn't let people go in the water. These pictures don't really do it justice, but these waves were intense.


Okay, I think we've already established that we're total nerds, but one of the highlights was finding the beach camp from Lost! Do you recognize it? It was, once again, raining hard so we didn't stay long but we were super excited to be there.


Hehe, I like this photo. We should probably post it on some crazy fan site somewhere...


Tim and I made a stop at the nearby Dole Plantation for some super-yummy pineapple ice cream topped with very fresh pineapple. De-licious!


Our last day in Hawaii was spent mainly at Pearl Harbor. I've already forgotten the name of this submarine (Tim just told me it was the USS Bowfin), but we got to tour it and it was pretty cool! I learned a lot about submarines during WWII and I also learned that I wouldn't have survived for long - it got very warm and a tad claustrophobic down there.


We took the ferry out to the USS Arizona memorial, which sits over the sunken battleship in the harbor. We watched a movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor right before going out and the whole experience was very somber and pretty meaningful. The memorial was open and the rain was almost torrential (see picture below) so I didn't get too many good pictures. I liked this one though.



And that was our trip. Things not pictured: lots of reading, watching movies at night with the fam, going to the turtle beach nearly everyday, lots of shopping, and lots of restful relaxing. It was wonderful, in spite of the rain, and I seriously can't wait to go back. We're all scheming on how to do that now - it looks like we're hooked!

And we're back

After flying through the night to get home and crashing the next day, we're back in Utah and almost feel normal. Almost. I don't know being away for just a week was so disorienting but it was. Hawaii was fantastic and relaxing and lovely - pictures and details to come!