Book: "The Selection" by Kiera Cass

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I'm surprised I like this book...I mainly checked it out because of the cover, what a fun dress that would be to wear!  (Lame, I know!)  It's a tad juvenile, kind of predictable, and has a real flavor of the TV shows "The Bachelor or Bachelorette" which I don't watch because they drive me nuts.  But regardless of all that, it was a fun read!  I'm surprised. 

"For 35 girls the Selection is the chance of a lifetime.  The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth.  To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in a palace and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare.  It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her.  Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want.  Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks. 

Then America meets Prince Maxon.  Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself -- and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined."

It is the first book of three, and yes, I'm going to go and look for the next one. 

Manti Miracle Pagent

We drove to Provo and picked up Blake, Sarah and Elizabeth then took off for Manti to meet up with Tara's family and see the pageant.  The Parkers were coming in from a fun vacation to California and they were running, way, behind and didn't get there until at least half way through the show - so I didn't get any pictures of them.  Spencer wasn't feeling well and he opted for staying in their motel.

 This is only the second time we've been to this pageant and the last time Blake was just a little kid...I'm thinking Chelsea was on her mission.  So it was almost like seeing it for the first time, really didn't remember very much about it except vague impressions.  Lots of people, fun and wonderful atmosphere.  Can't imagine setting up all these chairs!

 I can't figure out how to control where the pictures choose to download themselves here, and don't have the time right now to mess with it.  So you get what you get.  We mowed the lawn for the first time this past Thursday (we were told to wait 3 weeks - it got pretty long!)  Looks so pretty.

 We've been watching for a sofa to put in the basement.  When Diana decided she wanted me to buy her out on the longarm I ended up using the money I was saving for a sofa to give to her.  With some other expenses coming up I had pretty much decided that the sofa just wasn't going to happen this year.  Blake found another discount place in Provo and took us there this weekend, we found this set for less than half what we had found other places....I decided to get it.  You some times just need to go with the deals when you find them. 

All set up to watch the 'big screen'. 

Okay, back to the pagent.

 Our beautiful little Elizabeth....she slept through the whole thing, the best baby ever! 

Evidently I have relatives buried in the cemetery just off the temple grounds.  Daniel Henrie and others who were very instrumental in the pioneer history of the area.  Mom told me there was a large tomb stone with multiple family members buried in the area.  Couldn't find any since we didn't know where to look.  Tried to check out all the larger monuments, but came up zero.  What a beautiful place to wait for the 2nd coming and resurrection. 

Neglected to get photos the next day when Parkers finally met up with us at Blake's for a BBQ on Saturday evening.  Spencer ended up at a hospital for most of the day, not getting a whole lot of help, and still feeling cruddy.  At least we did get to see everyone for a little while before we all had to take off.  We felt badly that the end of Tara's family's big trip ended up the way it did, but for us it was a very nice weekend. 

Books: Inside Out and Outside In by Maria V. Snyder

Another good book set, Inside out is the first one and then Outside In is the second.  Just finished the 2nd and though I really liked both books, and it did end well - it left questions that I'm thinking.....what?  And as far as I can tell, it seems like there will just be the 2 books.  So I'm not happy about that, but it was a good story. 

 

I really need to get down stairs and get quilting on a large quilt with a quickly upcoming deadline, so I'm just going to do this fast.  It's a society that lives in a sealed container....out in space....they don't know it.  The original parameters of the endeavor have been forgotten over the many years and records were destroyed.  The society is quite sophisticated in some ways, and a bit behind in others. Someone figures out that things aren't as they seem, and of course there are others who don't want anyone figuring that out. There's a love story in there -- wouldn't be a good story without one. Even though the issue of leaving unanswered questions at the end isn't the best thing, I would read it again if I hadn't already.   





Book: The Second Ship

I never planned to read this book.  When we were in Boise last week I foolishly only took one book with me to read....forgetting that I would have more time and might possibly need a second.  Well, I did finish the book and then was kicking myself I hadn't brought another library book along, I currently have 5 waiting eagerly for me to get to!  I looked through mom's books and nothing really grabbed me, I considered buying a Kindle book -- there are 2 that I have not been able to get at our library that are sequels I've been wanting to read, but they were almost $10 (I'm cheap, I'll admit it).  I have some free kindle books stored on my device, but again, none were really 'speaking' to me.  So I was just bouncing around the amazon kindle book section and ran across this one, it was only $2.  Bingo.  It's kind of a Roswell/alien book, but not the typical.  I like aliens, this one sounded fun - so I got it.  Of course it's a trilogy and now I have to figure out how to get the other two. 

 

 

In 1948, an alien starship fell from the New Mexico sky...and immediately vanished behind the walls of the Los Alamos Laboratory.  Since that day the US military has endeavored to reverse engineer the ship's alien technology through top-secret research known only as the RHO Project.  Now, sixty years after the crash, the government is prepared to tell all.  Or so it claims....

 

For there is a second ship, hidden for decades just out of the military's reach.  And when a trio of students discovers it buried deep inside a remote canyon, they are changed forever.  With a single touch, the technology the government has spent billions trying to unlock is uploaded into the minds of three teenagers...teenagers who now know the frightening truth about the Rho Project.  Together they are thrust into a violent world of secrets and corruption, becoming reluctant soldiers in a war destined to alter what it means to be human.

 

Seems like lately I'm reading books that the main characters are teenagers, as this book is.  Quite a few have been categorized as YA books, but it seems like those are the ones coming out that have the really interesting story lines and less violence and sex.  This book was not YA, and was a bit more violent than what I've been reading lately, but I enjoyed the story line.  It is going on my "series to try and find the next book" list!

Celtic Woman

 

Dave and I got to attend a live concert of Celtic Woman in Boise last week.  Our daughter, Ashley, bought us tickets as a thank you for them living with us for several months last year.  She learned that we liked this group, so she surprised us with these tickets.....we just needed to get ourselves to Idaho to see it, though :)

 

It was a great concert, recognized the majority of the music, which is always more enjoyable.  It was interesting to see the wide age span of the audience, people from early 20s to quite elderly.  Not many teenyboppers, but mostly people old enough to enjoy some really beautiful music.  Many standing ovations. It was very well done and enjoyable. 

 

 I counted, and this is my 4th live concert (The Monkeys when I was about 13, The Carpenters when I was about 18, Josh Groban a few years ago, and now Celtic Woman -- all classics!!!!)  Thank you, Ashley & Dave :)

Book: Across the Universe

Been awhile since I've posted about a book.  I'm sitting here waiting for a quilting customer to show up, so thought I'd mention a book I just finished and really enjoyed.  I read about this on some book blog and it sounded good so I ended up having to order it in at my library (they have the 2nd book of the series, but not the 1st - go figure.) 

Here's what the back of the book says:
Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the spaceship Godspeed.  She has left her boyfriend, friends - and planet - behind to join her parents as a member of Project Ark Ship.  Amy and her parents believe they will wake on a new planet, Centauri - Earth, 300 years in the future.  But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, cryo chamber 42 is mysteriously unplugged, and Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber.

Someone tried to murder her.

Now, Amy is caught inside a tiny world where nothing makes sense.  Godspeed's 2,312 passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader.  And Elder, Eldest's rebellious teenage heir, is both fascinated with Amy and eager to discover whether he has what it takes to lead.

Amy desperately wants to trust Elder.  but should she put her faith in a boy who has never seen life outside the ship's cold metal walls?  All Amy knows is that she and Elder must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.

There you go.  Sci-Fi - mystery - romance - dystopian.....what's not to like?  I enjoyed it and now need to plow through about 4 other books that I have checked out before I can go and try to find book 2 of this trilogy.  

Basement update

From the high demand of concerned readers (Carole) wanting to know how our downstairs leak situation ended up.....it appears to be fine.  We are still waiting for the plumber to show up and fix the pipe that developed that teeny tiny hole, so it currently is taped and we keep that section of water turned off except in the mornings for showers, just to be careful.  Our builder and carpet guy came over to see the situation, one brought a big heavy duty fan to blow in there for a few days.  They both inspected the sheet rock, carpet, ceiling, felt under the sheetrock to the studs, and both gave their opinion that they didn't think we needed to do anything.  The carpet was indoor-outdoor and wouldn't mold since we got the water all out and dried up.  They couldn't feel any wetness behind the sheet rock on the floor and the ceiling had plenty of circulation behind it.  So we feel like we lucked out.  I still need to haul all my stuff back into the room, but kind of want to wait until the plumber does his thing first.  If he ever comes. 

Water in the basement

 

 

It's really odd how life works.  The past week we've been dealing with a water issue in the basement at another property....(not owned by us), and now we suddenly find ourselves in a similar situation at our house.    I have a storage room next to my longarm studio that is full of my fun junk.  I don't think I've been in there in at least a week.  I suddenly had an idea of something I wanted to do this evening and ran down to get something and opened the door to realize the carpet was wet and water seemed to be dripping from the ceiling.  Oh My Gosh!!!!  DAVE!!!!! 

 

 

It took a few minutes to discover that a hose at the basement floor level had sprung a leak.  There was so much water pressure that it was shooting up and hitting the ceiling and then that water was spattering in every direction covering stuff on shelves as well as the carpet on the floor. 

 

 

I had to haul out about 5 shelves worth of things to either dry out or get out of the way so we could get a rug doctor into there to soak up water out of the carpet.

 

some of my pantographs will never quite be the same, sigh.

 

Dave getting ready to empty out the first container of water that was pulled out of the carpet.

The pink towel is laid over the leak, We think we got the water turned off, but it continued to spray for awhile.  This is the continuous hot water heater, luckily there's a drain in the floor or it would have been much worse.

 

 

 

We've been a bit distraught over the other house's water issues, but now we find ourselves knowing how we need to deal with ours.  I assume we'll need to pull up carpet and pads, cut out lower sheetrock so insulation and wallboard, studs and tack strips (everything) can dry completely out and mold won't be an issue.  I'm guessing we'll need to do that in a portion of the ceiling as well where the water was hitting that for who knows how long.  It seems like a real hassle, but I know there are worse hassles down the line if we don't do this. 

 

With what I have going on in the next week I easily might not have gone into that room for at least 7 days if not more....we are actually feeling very blessed right now.  We found it and know what we need to do.  Life is interesting that way.