Book 19

1600s Mexico- The Aztec Prince Ixtililxochitl writes that the first people to inhabit his land came from the Tower of Babel at the dividing of tongues…Scholars dismiss his writings as myth. 

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1800s Mid Western United States- Settlers dig into ancient burial mounds and discover thousands of slate tablets covered with a strange hieroglyphic writing and drawings depicting Jesus Christ…these artifacts are denounced as a hoax. 

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1909 Arizona-a newspaper runs a story describing how a cave containing metal artifacts and Egyptian-type hieroglyphics was discovered in the Grand Canyon by a group of Scientists from the Smithsonian Institute…the Smithsonian categorically denies the account. 

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These and other amazing facts make up the world of forbidden Book of Mormon Archaeology. It is a world BYU student and Iraqi War veteran Ammon Rogers never knew existed. He is thrust headlong into this world when he asks the enigmatic adventurer John Byrd a simple question. When John is kidnapped in Mexico, Ammon joins forces with John’s beautiful daughter in a desperate attempt to not only save John, but to find his answer…an answer that will change the world…an answer one sinister foe will do anything to suppress. 

I'm a history buff! And I've always wanted to know how Book of Mormon history fit in with World History. Of course I didnt read this book taking it for fact, of course I knew that it was a work of fiction!! But I still loved it!! And it still makes me wonder how everything fits together!! It was a really good book, very short, and a super easy read!! My favorite line in the book is "Simply knowing that the Book of Mormon is true doesn't change your life. It is the process by which that knowledge is obtained that does." I thought that was a very true, awesome quote!! 

This book isnt preachy at all, for anyone that may not be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints..... it's more of a treasure hunt!! And I LOVE a good treasure hunt!! 

Quote Wall Monday

Quote Wall Monday

A Tribute To Dad

Dads!! How would we get along without them??
I am SO grateful for my dad! And for all of the millions of things he does for me!
My dad is busy! His work can be really crazy and he is also the bishop of our ward. But he still makes time to do things with my family!
I always knew I had a pretty cool dad! All the boys in the ward thought he was the best and would come over to wrestle with him. I just remember thinking how awesome he was.
My dad is truly one in a million! He is always there and I know that I can count on him for anything! He has a huge heart and will do anything for anyone!! I'm so lucky he's my dad!!

Here are just a few of my favorite memories of my dad:
**On Saturday morning's he would whistle like Captain Von Trapp from the Sound of Music so that we would line up to hear our chores
**I remember making lots of lots of cookies with my dad and eating half the dough right out of the bowl!
**I remember when he coached one of my machine pitch baseball teams
**I remember wrestling with my dad!! My brother and I would tackle him to the ground and then spend forever crawling all of him while he pinned us down and tickled us!! Sometimes he would pin us down and then have one hand over us and would ask us math questions... "If you have 5 cows, and 2 horses but one of your cows runs away, how cows do you have left"..... if we got it wrong he would tickle us! I remember sometimes getting it wrong on purpose just so he would tickle me.
**I remember him building my swing set and pushing me on the swings
**I remember lots of car rides with my dad. Once we drove out to Saltaire and looked out at the lake. I remember driving out to the airport to watch planes land and take off and how cool that was! And I remember that sometimes, when we were in the neighborhood, he would let me sit on his lap and "drive" home!
**I remember him running behind me while I learned to ride a bike
**And after I knew how to ride my bike he would sometimes follow us as we rode to school
**I remember his carrying me up the hill after I broke my arm and ankle.
**My dad is an awesome gift giver! He remembers things you say you want and then later on in the year you find them wrapped up for your birthday or for Christmas!!
**One time, I came home from school and my dad had left a note saying he loved me on my pillow with a package of Starbursts. I still have that note!!
**My dad can fix/build anything!!
**I remember my dad helping us build a huge snow fort in our yard we got feet and feet of snow
**My dad can whistle really loud without his fingers!
**When I was little and we were in really busy places I remember that my dad would put my hand in he back pocket and tell me not to let got as we weaved our way through the crowd
**I remember him taking me and my brother Eric to see the movie The Lion King at the theater
**My dad and I work really close to each other and sometimes he will call me out of the blue to go to lunch. I love our lunch dates together when we just talk!
**I remember when my dad saved me as I fell off a small cliff in Snow Canyon

Becoming A Runner

You've all seen this right?

This could not fit me better right now!!
Remember how I told you that I wanted to run that glow in the dark 5k next month? Well, I'm working on it! I've been "running" at least three days a week trying to build my way up to three miles.

Let me tell you a little about running.
I hate it.
I've always hated it.
Well, I guess that is not entirely accurate. I'm sure I loved to run when I was little and had infinite amounts of energy and wasn't packing around a ridiculous amount of extra weight!!
I remember being in elementary school and the teachers making us run a mile around the field.
I hated it!
I remember trying to say I had asthma and allergies and that I shouldn't be expected to run.
They made me run anyway {they saw through my sham..... dang}
And I totally remember being like "Oh yeah.... I totally ran around the field four times", when I really had probably only gone around twice.
My hatred of running got worse the older {and fatter} I got.
Middle school was torture.
I remember the gym teacher making us run around the school during class.
The worst part.....
She stood there with her stupid clipboard and put a check by your name every time you ran by!!
Which meant no cheating!
I couldn't get out of it.......
I had to run around that stupid school over and over.
I don't remember them making us run as much in high school {thank goodness}.
But I do remember one particular time I was forced to run outside with the track and field team.
Let's just say I was angry.....
And may or may not have said some really inappropriate things and stormed off the track!!

And now, here I am.
Trying to become a runner.
It's not as bad as I remember.
Maybe because I am doing it because I want to and not because I am being told I have to.

I'm still not a good runner.
The first time I went out I was totally heel striking and giving myself shin splints!!
That first time I cam home from running I thought I was going to die.
Not kidding!! And not over exaggerating!
I laid on the floor feeling like I couldn't breathe.
My head was spinning and my body ached!!
I thought to myself "THIS is why running sucks!! THIS is why I avoid it at all costs"!!

But I forced myself to run again a few days later.
And it wasn't quite as horrible as day one.
Thank goodness for my Aunt Wendy who I ran with a few days later who gave me some really good running advice!! It's made a world of difference!!

I'm still working on it.
And many evenings I still have to force myself to go!!
I'm not fast by any means.
I'm fairly certain that a grandpa with his walker could keep up with me and my "running" pace!!

And I'm POSITIVE a little old lady in her hover round could pass me up any day!! 

Hopefully one day that will be different!!

I haven't officially signed up for the 5K yet.

I'm still not 100% sure if I'll be ready in time.

But week three is a whole heck of a lot easier than week one so who knows!!! 

Here's to becoming a runner!! 

Books 17 & 18

BOOK 17

Had to finish rereading the series!! And I'm glad I did! I've only read Mockingjay once and that was in 2010 right after I got the book. At that point I wasn't sure I loved the book. In fact, I think I was kind of disappointed. Parts of it felt so rushed to me. But it was interesting to hear the opinions of others and read that many other people thought it was dragged out.

My opinion of the book is better than it was in 2010. There are still a few parts I feel like Suzanne Collins rushed through but it wasn't as disappointing as I remember it being!! 

And I still LOVE the ending!! Hopefully you've read this books or this might be a spoiler for you.....

Team Peeta all the way!! 

And did I ever tell you the full story of how I got this book?! 

First off, it was my friend and co-worker Megan that even got me interested in the Hunger Games series. I had heard of the book before but for some reason kept associating it with Enders Game. It wasn't until Megan explained the plot line to me that I decided to actually read the books.

I.WAS.HOOKED!

I think I read both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire in a matter of days!!!

That was in May of 2010.

The final book didn't come out until August.

And you all know how I feel about waiting for books to come out!! 

Mockingjay was scheduled to be released the day before my 25th birthday and I don't know how many times I told my mom I wanted it!! I think I even printed her a picture of the book cover so she'd know what to look for!! I was also hoping she would buy it before I got home from my vacation to California!

Well, there I was, already having a ridiculously awesome birthday at Disneyland, when we decided to go back to our hotel to change out of our Splash Mountain drenched clothes, the day after my birthday.

There was a message that I had a package waiting for me at guest services.

A package? 

For me?

At a hotel?

I didn't even realize you could send mail to a hotel guest!! 

I seriously had no context for what would be waiting for me! Even when I had the package in my hand I didn't know what it could be.

I was absolutely shocked when I opened the brown package to find my very own copy of

Mockingjay. 

It was from Megan!! She had bought a copy for me and overnighted it to California for me!!

How awesome right?!?

I'm still so grateful for her gift!! It was such a fun surprise!!! 

BOOK 18

Thomas knows that Wicked can't be trusted, but they say the time for lies is over, that they've collected all they can from the Trials and now must rely on the Gladers, with full memories restored, to help them with their ultimate mission. It's up to the Gladers to complete the blueprints for the cure to the Flare with a final voluntary test. 

What Wicked doesnt know if that somethings happened that no Trial or Variable could have foreseen. Thomas has remembered far more than they think. And he knows that he can't believe a word of what Wicked says.

The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous than Thomas could ever imagine. Will anyone survive the Death Cure? 

Alright.... I'm going to warn you right now that there will be lots of spoilers in this part of the post so if you are planning on reading The Death Cure you may want to stop now!!

I wanted to love this book series as much as I loved The Hunger Games. And maybe I shouldnt have read Mockingjay and then turned around to read this final book in the series. But I just didnt love it like I thought I would. 

Here come the spoilers...... last chance!!

I felt like this one dragged on forever!! The main characters would final gain some ground and then all hell would break lose. They got the upper hand..... things fell apart immediately. You getting my drift? It's like they could never catch a break. Obviously that was the whole point of the plot line but I kept thinking "Seriously!! Let them go a chapter or two when they are not fighting to the death". And towards the end there were pages that I was basically reading every third line because it just kept going and going with the resurgence of the bad guys!! 

Something else that frustrated me about this book was that Thomas never got his memories back. You get bits and pieces throughout all three books but you never really find out how he was connected to WICKED or what his relationship with Teresa really was. You never find out what happened to his parents or why he believed helping WICKED was a good thing.

But, in the end, those that survive do live happily ever after. And that is just the way I like a story to end! 

Always Better In A Cool Cup

I love hanging out with my friend Charmaine!! And hanging out with her is always that much better when we get yummy drinks in cool cups!!

     

 I’m seriously always tempted to buy an alcohol free margarita when I eat out just because I think the glasses are cool!!

Life In Color

I was so excited to go to the Festival of Color! Especially since my friend Christine agreed to go with me!!
Here we are on the bus ride up to the temple, before all the crazy colors started flying!

And here we are after!!




So much fun!! Here is some of what happened in between!!!

This is what we looked like when we made it up to the temple!! We already had a bunch of color thrown at us!!! But when you are walking up there in a clean white t-shirt you are a walking target!! You can hear people saying things like “Get the white shirts” or “Fresh meat”!!


After those first few pictures I stuck my camera in a zip lock bag because I didn’t want all the powder to ruin my camera. We took a few pictures…..

{Me and my friend Miranda!! She and I went together last year too and had so much fun!!}   {The lovely Christine!!}{Me, with some kinda crazy look on my face}

But after a few cloudy pictures in the bag, I decided to just take my chances and took it out so the pictures would be clear!!    

This next picture is one of my favorites. Christine and I were sitting on the hill watching all the craziness when she sneezed. She was so covered in powder that her sneeze blew a white spot on her shirt!

So in my “after pictures” you can see that I am covered in lots and lots of green. We were walking around the temple and this little kid threw a huge handful of green at us. Because he was short it powder went straight up. It went in my mouth, up my nose and in my eyes! There was a second there where I thought I cannot breathe!! I could just picture the green dust filling up my lungs!!  There were a couple of guys walking by that stopped to see if we were okay. Darn little kids!!

And here are just a few more favorites that I took with my phone!


Every couple of hours they do a mass color throwing where everyone gathers on the hill and throws their color at the same time. Last year Miranda and I went right in the middle of the crowd for one of these throwings and I vowed NEVER to do that again!! When all the powder is the the air it is so hard to breathe!! So Christine and I decided to stay closer to the top of the hill!! Here is what it looks like right before the color starts flying:
This is what it looks like right as everyone starts tossing their color":

And this is what it looks like a few seconds later when all the colors start blending in the wind!

Seriously imagine standing in the middle of that!! I think the announcer even said something about how if you are in the thick of it, it can take up to seven minutes for the dust to settle!!
The seats in my car and light gray and I didn’t want the color from our clothes to stain them, so we covered our seat in beach towels and old sheets! I used the fitted sheets the elastics would help keep them on the seats!!
I had a blast!! I cant wait to go again next year!!

Quote Wall Monday

I’m Back

I FINALLY took the pictures off of my camera so I’m back in blogging business….. mostly!!! I’m looking through all of the pictures I have and I’m realizing how much I have to blog out!! I still haven't blogged about my family’s trip to Florida that was clear back in December!! Or my cake decorating class in March!!  So it’s catch up time!! But, that means that there should hopefully be a post everyday for the next little while! And hopefully I wont get so far behind again!!

Quote Wall Monday

Book 16

Hoping to escape the troubles in her kingdom, Princess Poppy reluctantly agrees to take part in a royal exchange program, whereby young princes and princesses travel to each other's countries in the name of better political alliance- and potential marriages. It's got the makings of a fairy tale- until a hapless servant named Eleanor is tricked by a vengeful fairy godmother into competing with Poppy for the eligible prince. Ballgowns, cinders and enchanted glass slippers and Poppy's happily ever after gets complicated! 

You might read this book thinking you are getting into a regular old Cinderella story! You would be wrong!! I really enjoyed this book, but you know me..... I'm a sucker for fair tales!! 

The Avengers

Have you seen this movie yet?!?

If not I HIGHLY recommend it!! Seriously, if you have nothing going on this weekend go see this movie!!! I'm usually not a huge super hero movie fan. I haven't even seen Iron Man 2!! But I LOVED this movie!! Lots of action, hilarious one liners {Doth mother know you wearest her drapes??} and tons of cute boys!! Go see it!! You seriously don't even need to see the individual movies to enjoy this one!! 

And I made a decision...... 

Captain America is most definitely my new favorite Avenger!! 

MIB

Sorry if you came to this post hoping to find a review about Men In Black 3!! If that's what you're here for, you're in the wrong place!! In the scenario, MIB stands for Missing In Blogland!

I have so much to catch up on....
So many posts to write.....
Tons of pictures to upload....

The only trouble?

I am Internet-less right now.

I guess that's not entirely true!

 I do have my phone..... but

it's just not the same thing! 

So until I can get the Internet {or just give in and spend my mornings and the public library} here are a few things I've been thinking about {photos totally stolen from around the WWW}

Nutella Cookies

Don't these things look yummy? I actually tried a similar recipe last year to make

homemade waffle cones on my panini maker and it didn't go so well!! But winners

never quit right? I think I will have to give these another shot!! 

And speaking of baking... 

I am going to attempt to make some marshmallow frosting this weekend for

a friends birthday cake!! Hope it tastes as good as the frosting that was 

on the cake my friend Tiffany made for her girls birthday!! 

I've moved!!! I am no longer an east side resident which

is kind of sad!! The location of the house I was in

was FANTASTIC!! But, gas is so much cheaper

on the west side!! And, change is good right? 

Post about moving coming soon {hopefully}!! 

I have been thinking about lighting in my new room though!

I have a really dark corner and I'm thinking something like

this could be really fun! 

And while we're on the subject of light.....

My cousin posted on Facebook the other day about a race

she and my other cousins are going to be running in

July! I requires the use of these babies....

It's a glow in the dark 5k run!! Sweet huh?! I'm liking the idea of

running in the dark {so that no one can see me huffing and puffing

and sweating to death}. It's in Eagle Mountain on Friday the 13th! 

I'm seriously considering signing up!! 

And last but not least......

I'm thinking about doing another photo a day challenge!

{My best blogging month this year was when I did the

challenge in February}. 

Technically I'm already a day behind....

And of course the first thing had to be "morning"

which means I will have to cheat and take a picture tomorrow!

But better late than never right? 

You can follow me on Instragram at

amandam51