Book Worm

I am a total book worm. Each semester I promise myself to read at least 1 non-textbook. For sanity sake. The #1 thing I look forward to during summer vacation isn't the fact that I don't have school, but because this means I make a book list and can read as much as I want! My ideal vacation is laying on a beach just reading. I could do it all day long.

Anyway. I thought that I would share a few of my personal favorites from this summer's book list that I thought maybe some of you would enjoy if you are searching for a good book to stick your nose in.

Disclaimer: I hate sad, sappy romance books so you will find none of those on this booklist.


1. The Hunger Games/ Catching Fire/Mockingjay: I finished this trilogy this summer and these are definitely in my top 5 favorite books of all time. The first one was my favorite but they are all amazing. So amazing that I got my brother, Kais to read them and Chris even read the first one. Let me tell you, this book keeps you on the edge of your seat and you will probably finish each one in a few days. You will stay up until 2am and wake up at 5am to start reading again.You will.  Chris' sisters and I have taken it upon ourselves to cast all the characters for the movies that will be coming out next year.

2. The Help: Since the movie came out, I'm sure plenty of you have read this incredible book. If you haven't, I highly recommend it. It's the perfect combination of happy, funny and inspiring.

3. The Same Kind of Different as Me: This book is incredibly thought-provoking and, again, inspiring. It's a quick read but it is definitely a life changing book. It's no self-help book, but by the time you read the last page you will look at your own life a little differently.

4. Something Borrowed (1st book) /Something Blue(sequel): They made this first book into a movie, which I haven't seen but I read these books a few years back and fell in love with them. They are great if you are looking for a fun and girlie read.

5. A Million Little Pieces: I read this book and #6 a few years back but they are great if you are ok with the raw description of drug and alcohol addiction then you should read this book. It's an incredible story with an interesting ending even though some parts can be a little intense.

6. My Friend Leonard: This is the sequel to A Million Little Pieces. I think I liked this book better but, again, there are some intense parts.

7. Bossypants: This is Tina Fey's new book and I'm in the middle of reading it now. Let me just tell you how hilarious she is. Every sentence is like a line from 30 Rock or Mean Girls. I was at the gym yesterday and literally laughed out loud looking like a lunatic the whole time on the elliptical.I haven't stopped laughing in 3 days


8. 127 Hours: This is the Aron Ralston Book, aka, Between a Rock and a Hard Place. This is such an interesting book. It's really long and some of it I didn't understand because I'm no mountaineer so some of the lingo was over my head but, overall, this was a great read. Like I said, it was long but it was totally worth it. Describing what it was like to be trapped for 5 days with very little food and water and then feeling like he was at the end of his rope was incredible. This man and this book are very inspiring and heart-warming (not the cutting off of the arm part but the reasons why he did it and how he came to make that difficult decision)

Ok! Well these were my summer reads (minus #4,5 and 6) and I enjoyed every last one of them. If you are in need for a good book then I would suggest any of these. They are all very different in genre and plot but all were very entertaining nonetheless.

Let me know if you have any book suggestions for me. I'm always up for an addition to my book list.

Our Current Houseguests

Do these puppies look friendly to you?

I was contemplating even putting a picture of these  horrid things up because it scares me even to look at them but I feel it was necessary to understand the gravity of the situation

The answer is no. No they do not. And I certainly wouldn't invite them into my bedroom. But yet they are consistently finding their way there. By the masses. And by masses I mean there have been 4 in there..... today. As in, 4 wasps in my bedroom in one day. And in terms of wasps, I feel as though that exceeds the  limit of flying arthropods that can be allowed in ANY home in one day.

Ok, I'm mildly freaking out because if any of you really know me you know that I am absolutely terrified of all things bees,wasps,hornets, etc. I'm not even sure that terrified is the correct term. Do you know what these things do to my blood pressure? Let me paint you a quick picture. I used to lay out in my backyard when it was a nice day and if I so much as spotted a bee flying past me I would scream bloody murder. Not on purpose! I couldn't even help it! I swear those things can smell fear. And my poor dad would come running as fast as he could to the backyard thinking that someone was cutting off one of my limbs only to realize that I'm screaming about a bee pollinating a flower 10 feet away. It sounds ridiculous and I know it's ridiculous but I physically cannot help myself from freaking out.
Anyway, that having been said you can only imagine how I react when I hear that notoriously awful buzzing near our window and I see wasps inside my apartment.

Let the panic attack ensue.

Thankfully Chris was home (otherwise I would have locked myself in my bathroom for the 5 hours that he was at work) so we busted out the wasp and hornet killer that distinctly says "do not spray inside" but what the heck else are we supposed to do when there are wasps (notice the plural) in my bedroom? I consider this an emergency. I swell up like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day balloon when I get bit by an ant or a mosquito so I can only imagine what would happen to me if one of these demonic creatures got ahold of my flesh.... hence, the wasp and hornet killer being sprayed inside. And not to be morbid or anything but I just get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I watch one of those things die. I just think to myself "haha, sucker, that's what you get when you come in my bedroom. Be sure to tell your friends. Oh wait, you can't. You're dead."
We called the front desk to have them immediately come kill these suckers but the problem comes from the caulking in the window which is letting these devil insects into my room. I'll be marching myself right into that office at 8am tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight. These house guests have officially outstayed their welcome.  Wish me luck.

Quote of the Day

Ya know those days where you see a particular quote and it literally just speaks to you? Well, today this one did :)

Work Out Motivation to the Max

Disclaimer: This post is not... I repeat not an attempt to gain sympathy or even get a complimentary comment. This is just a funny depressing incident that happened to me the other day.

Have you ever needed motivation to go work out? Some days you just don't feel like it or just get so busy that it just slips your mind? Never again will I have one of those days. Please, let me tell you why.

The best work out motivator??

Someone calling you fat to your face. Yep. Just flat out pointing it out to your face. It happened. To me. I cried. For an hour. 

Allow me to explain. My mom has a good friend that is straight out of Iran. She is the sweetest lady you will ever meet. She came to my wedding and everything. She has a thick Iranian accent and sometimes there is a bit of a language barrier and culture barrier. Well, she stopped by my house the other night and when she went to give me a hug she says "aww you've gotten fatter!" I'm sorry, what? Fatter? Does fat mean the same thing in Iran as it does in America? I'm stunned. Let the water works begin. And when tears start welling in my eyes she immediately got very concerned and said that it was a good thing, not a bad thing. Again, culture barrier. Consider the damage done. So I proceed to cry for the next hour to my mom and Lauren and of course they tried to reassure me but there is nothing to be said that will make you feel better. When someone points out that you've gotten fatter how can you recover from that?

Confidence booster huh? Maybe moving from Utah was a mistake because everyone wears big, bulky coats for 9 months out of the year so no one can tell the skinny kids from the fat kids! ha! Anyway, the moral of the story is that no longer will I have motivation issues when going to the gym. Believe me, I'll be getting my butt there on a daily basis!! 

I'm able to kind of laugh about it now but I was mortified for the first day. Like I said, this post was NOT to fish for skinny compliments or anything like that. It was just to share a funny story (I'm still having a hard time calling this story "funny" because it wasn't remotely funny to me at the time but Chris was able to get me to laugh about it)

So the next time you need motivation to get to the gym, just imagine someone calling you fat right to your face. It does the trick every time :)

Blah day but hippos make up for it

Do you ever just have one of those days that the only word to describe the way you feel is just blah? Well, today was that day. I was feeling all sorry for myself for stupid reasons and just kept feeling like I was going to be on the verge of tears, again for probably no good reason, and just overall wasn't having a happy day. But then I decided I needed to stop loathing in self-pity just because I'm a poor newlywed who can no longer afford to buy cute shoes and clothes (I mean, since when does J.Crew not accommodate the newlywed budget? aka free), I can't find a job and recently blew an awesome job opportunity (let me just tell you what a confidence booster that was), it's scorching hot outside so I can't go for jogs and my apartment stays at a constant 79 degrees despite our best efforts (high of 110 and low of 87--that's a low?). I need to count my blessings because I have sooooo many in my life! I have a wonderful husband, an incredible family (including in-laws), I live in one of the best countries in the world and I belong to the church that I believe in. I need to remember how truly blessed I am in my life. Sure, sometimes we're going to have a bad day and it's ok to feel sorry for ourselves for a few minutes but then we need to pick ourselves up and count our blessings. 

One thing that made me really happy today was getting new recipes from my Aunt Ruth. I can't wait to try them out. Another thing that made me happy was that I got to work on a new craft project for my friends' bridal shower on Monday. 

This picture is another thing that made me happy today and I hope it makes you happy too :)

But, really how can such cuteness exist? If anyone knows where to purchase baby hippos, please let a sister know

Quote to Live By

I LOVE this quote. it's perfect. this is what I want to remember every single day and i hope you do too.