October

It may be the middle of November, but I am just now blogging about October. But you know what they say, better late than never right??

October just flew by! I guess I should get used to that as the holiday season gets into full swing - is it just me, or did it sneak up this year? Phew!

Anyways, it started with my 24th Birthday on the 2nd. Every year my "Birthday weekend" falls on conference weekend, so Saturday night Jon and his dad and brother, Brenden, went to the Priesthood session of conference. I was at work - and afterwards we were all going to meet at Mom and Dad Saline's house. I showed up and they surprised me with this absolutely adorable cake!

Isn't it so darn cute!?
Well, apparently our nephews weren't that interested in the pink purse cake....they were way more interested in Tangled.....
Here's Keagan and Kaleb.

And here's Collin.

Trust me, when it was time to cut the cake, the movie got paused and they were fully present and accounted for! Yum!
Well, our niece Heidi had a hard time waiting for the men-folk to get home from conference - she was trying so hard to get her hands in the cake and when she was finally able to get a piece, she loved it!!!!!



It was so great to be able to spend time with Jon's parents, Shaunalee and her sweet family, and Brenden and Nikki and their babies. Jon especially loves all of our nieces and nephews, and he is so great with them.

After cake and ice cream, we played games and laughed and just had a wonderful time! It was a fantastic birthday party!! Thank you Mom Saline!
The next day (my actual Birthday) my Daddy invited us over to their house so he could make me a Birthday Breakfast (kind of a tradition). Well, he went to get the eggs out of the fridge, and here's what happened........

Look at his sad face! Luckily we still had enough eggs for breakfast and my biscuits and gravy were so darn good!!! Yum!!!!!!!!!!
We spent the rest of the morning lounging around and watching conference (and maybe sleeping a little bit......oops)
It was wondeful!
Later on we went over to my Grams' house. Her Birthday is the 7th of October, so we decided to have a double birthday party. We had a great dinner and then, instead of cake, we had an ice cream sundae bar complete with chopped up candy bars, graham cracker crumbs and peanuts - so good!
I love spending time with family and friends!


It was a really great Birthday!!! Thank you to everyone!
Later on in the month, Jon and I noticed a cat that kept hanging out around out backyard. Well, we have a built-in grill in our backyard with a big counter top area that, it turns out, is hollow underneath. That is where the cat started living.
Just when we were about to run the cat out of our yard, we discovered this

Yup, that's right. The gal-dern cat had 5 baby kittens under our grill! Ugh!!!!
Mamma cat was doing a really good job of taking care of the kittens, and Jon and I were trying to figure out what to do. We didn't want to hurt the kittens or make Mamma leave them. We considered calling the Humane Society, but they are completely full, and we were sure they would euthanize them. So we were just letting them live there while we thought about it.
Then we noticed that we no longer saw Mamma cat anymore - or the 3 bigger kittens. It was just these last 2 kittens, and they were literally dying. They couldn't even stand up anymore. It was absolutely heartbreaking.
Even though we aren't necessarily cat people, and I am allergic, we decided to bring them inside and nurse them back to health.
I even named them...the gray one is Luna and the orange one is Lottie.

That is a picture of them right after we brought them in - don't they look so unhealthy. After a bath, some food and some time, they perked right up.

They are so stinkin' cute, but they are baby kittens which means that they were in to everything! Not to mention the fact that they were abandoned by Mamma before she taught them to clean themselves, so (warning, this might be too much info) while they were easy to litter box train, they always had terrible dingle-berries! Ugh!
They were a full time job and Jon and I simply aren't home often enough to deal with it! Molly is trained, so she is easy, but baby pets are a lot of work!
We kept saying a lot of prayers because we wanted to do what was best for these sweet kittens, but we didn't think we had it in us to keep them
Our prayers were answered and I met a girl who was looking for kittens to keep in the house - she absolutely fell in love with them and we were so relieved! Phew!!!

Finally, October ended with Halloween, and Jon's incredible costume! He spent the entire month making this entire suit of armor out of just duct tape and poster board! All of his "hinges" actually bend, including the fingers!



Isn't he absolutely amazing!! He never ceases to amaze me with how talented he is! He stood outside the door when trick-or-treaters came up, and he would pretend like he was just a decoration - then he would move or jump out at them and scare them! Don't worry, he didn't do it to the really little ones - but it was so darn funny! He's an incredible man!!!!

All the while I have been in rehearsals for "Grease" at NPC where I play Patty Simcox. We just opened this past weekend and we have 3 more performances this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.


October was super busy, super fun, and super fast!!! Bring on the Holidays!

Superheros, Candyland, Homecoming, and Dinner

This past weekend was wonderful! It was also very busy!
Jon and I went on a little date on Friday night. In classic "white mountain style" we got some dinner at Samurai Sam's and then headed to Wal-Mart to walk around and pick up a few things we needed for the rest of the weekend.
While we were there, we decided to see what is new in the world of toys (since we don't have kids, we don't always get to see the hip-happenin' new toys), and that is where Jon turned in to Thor....

...and Captain America.

I told him that we should put the Captain America picture on a campaign sign someday, "Vote for the Real Captain America!"
He didn't go for it......hmmm......
One of my very favorite things about Jon is how he can make anything fun! He is always making jokes, doing silly things, and making me laugh! I love that guy!

While we were at Wal-Mart, we found the game Candyland on sale! Since our nephews would be coming over later in the weekend, we decided it would be a fun game for them to play.
Turns out it is fun for adults too!! Jon and I played a few rounds after our date, and I won every time - he says it's because I went first every time - because the directions say that the youngest player goes first....
But, he is excited to turn it into high stakes Candyland! hee hee hee

On Saturday night Laney and our new friend (and my next door neighbor) Julie came over to help me get some baking done for Tanner's homecoming group (they were going to come over after the dance), and after the cupcakes were finished (we made chocolate peanut butter cupcakes and oreo cupcakes - yummy!) we got out Candyland! It turned intense fast! If you don't remember how to play, you basically draw a card that has a picture of a colored square. You move your gingerbread man to that color. Some cards have 2 boxes, so you move 2 times, and some cards have a picture of a sweet - ice cream, cupcakes, licorice - which means you have to move to the square with the matching picture. This can be really good or really bad depending on how far you are in the game and where the pictures are located on the board.
Well, while we were playing, we would get to the very end, and get sent back to the beginning....it was a really long game and it was very exciting!! So darn fun!


Around 11:30pm, Tanner and his Homecoming group came over. Apparently the fire alarm went off at the dance because of the fog machines, so they decided to leave when they evacuated the dance - but that meant that they didn't get pictures taken. So, my fancy husband got out his professional lights and started taking pictures. Meanwhile, I got some snapshots with my iphone....





This is Tanner and his beautiful date Brooklynn. She is such a nice girl and it looked like they were having a great time!

I was so impressed by this group of kids. They were so polite - even the young men asked if they could help me in the kitchen when I was getting some food on some plates for them, and then again if they could help clean up before they left! They were so appreciative, and just all around great kids!
It was kind of a whirlwind because they all had to be home by midnight (curfew), but I was so happy that Tanner had asked if he could bring his group here. He is such a great guy and I am so proud of the young man he is becoming!

On Sunday I got up and started making bread dough. It was fast Sunday in the Snowflake stake, and we are trying to get a tradition of having a Saline family dinner every fast Sunday, so Mom and Dad Saline and Beau and Shaunalee and their kids were coming over for dinner - and I was making Navajo Tacos.

After church I started making the fry bread...

Then the family showed up. Poor Dad Saline couldn't be there because - as a surprise to all of us, including Dad Saline - Taylor Stake did not have fast Sunday, and since he is in the Stake Presidency, he ended up at meetings for the entire dinner. We missed him and we felt so bad that he wasn't there.

But it was so nice to visit with Mom Saline and Shauna and her wonderful little family!! They all got to see our house, and we got to talk about Shauna's new house and how the renovations are coming. I can't wait to go see it! It was so fun to see Keagan, Kaleb, and Heidi. They are so sweet and they also loved Candyland! I'm telling you, it's a game for all ages.

Unfortunately, I was a lame-o at taking pictures at the family dinner, but trust me when I tell you, it was so darn fun and the kids were so darn cute!

Finally, yesterday was Jon's older brother Brenden's birthday. Jon got to talk with him on the phone, but we did miss not being able to celebrate with them. I hope it was great Brenden!

And that was the weekend! Phew!! It was absolutely fantastic!!!

P.S. On Saturday morning, Jon and I went to the rummage sale at the Catholic church and we found the most darling chairs for only $4 a piece. Don't have pictures of them yet, but I will post them soon....they are fantastic!

Blog Makeover

Well folks, over and over again I have said that I was going to give my blog a makeover, but I have never gotten around to it. My Blogging Genius sis-in-law Nikki gave me a bunch of pointers, but did I actually use them - no, I kept them on hand for "someday".

I am pleased to announce that "someday" is today!

With the help of Nikki and a newfound blog site that I am in love with called Shabby Blogs (shabbyblog.com), I have beautified and organized my online life.

No, I still don't know how to make my own backgrounds and fancy things - I am still using other people's brilliance for that - but I have learned some fun ways to personalize, and it's a really exciting jumping point for me!

The most exciting part to me is the discovery of "pages". I have now been able to organize some of my favorite blogging ideas! This "home" page will be the page for all of my personal stuff. Stories about Jon and me and the house and the dog and the family, and everything else. Then I am bringing back "The Tasty Club" blog. Some of you may remember the story behind it - if not, I will give you a refresher on that page. You will also find that I have an entirely new page for "Malori Reviews All Sorts of Stuff" where, if you're not familiar, I do precisely that, I review everything in the world. And, last but not least, I am trying out "The Good In the World" again. This is the page where I post the good stuff I see taking place in the world - because it is still there.

Anyways, this will be great because then, if you aren't particularly interested in any of these things, it's much easier to avoid reading them!

Basically, it is going to be a lot of fun for me. I enjoy writing down my thoughts and I hope you enjoy reading them.

What The Hail?!

Today started off normal. The sun was shinning. The sky was blue. Absolutely perfect weather.

I even had a conversation with the oldsters at work about how nice the weather was. They noticed that the little decorative windmills in the courtyard weren't even moving.

On the way home from work, we turned on the air conditioner.

Then I went to my mom's house to visit, we heard some thunder, and then......

WHAM!

It sounded like rocks were being shot into the house! It was so loud and kinda scary.

We looked out the window (and what did we see - can't help but finish that phrase that way, but this was not popcorn), and this is what we saw!!






Yes, that's right, it looks like it snowed!! The hail was a little bit smaller than marbles and I picked them up and they were solid ice!

It was crazy because it only hailed/rained for about 15 minutes, and it looked like this! The roads in our little neighborhood are running with water and the roofs (is that what they are called?? Or is it rooves?? Hmmmmm...... you grammar geniuses need to help me out with this one. While you're at it, what do you call more than on rhinoceros?) are covered in white.

Well, all of this insanity happened about an hour ago, and now the sun is shinning, there is hardly a cloud in the sky and not even a breeze. We have come completely full circle!

I guess that's why they say that only a newcomer or a fool tries to predict the weather in Arizona!

Sneak Peek!!

It's official!! Jon and I are homeowners! Yep, you heard it, we closed on our house on the 26th of September, and we have all of our stuff here. It is still in boxes and still mostly in the garage, but it is all here and we are slowly getting all moved in.

Here are a few pics of our house from our moving day!



This is the kitchen and the living room area - it is all sort of a big great room and I love the open floor plan!

This is a picture of our new fridge. The house came with all of the other appliances, but we had to get our own fridge, and this is the one we chose! It just got delivered yesterday (after spending an entire week without one - you don't realize how much you miss it when you can't have things like milk, butter, eggs, or even ice cream!) and I keep opening and closing it just to look!


Of course I will post more pics as I get the rest of the house put together - I am so excited about decorating and maybe even painting some walls!

Jon and I are absolutely in love with our new home and we feel so blessed because things just went so smoothly. We have heard horror stories about buying homes - things just not working out, or having so many stressful bumps in the road, but we didn't have any problems and the whole process went so fast!

Come visit us!!! We would love it!

Catch-Up

It has been since the very beginning of May since I last posted - Wow!!! It seems like instead of moving to Snowflake, I fell off of the face of the planet (as far as the Blog world is concerned).

So I'm going to give you a nutshell catch-up of what we have been up to...it's picture-less, sorry.....

We moved up here to Snowflake and we both started working right away. Jon is working for the Taylor Law Office, and he really enjoys it! It us such an improvement from his last job that was so high stress and kept him at the office until 3am! It is only him at one other attorney, so Jon is able to learn a lot more and take on a lot more. We really like everyone who works there and Jon is a much happier guy!

I am working at the Carriage House - a nursing home for the elderly that my Grandma owns. I had worked there before (about 5 or 6 years ago) so, after a brush up training course, I was back in the groove of things (who knew that taking care of the elderly was like riding a bike....). It's a good job and such a blessing to take care of these wonderful people who can't take care of themselves anymore. I get to hear amazing stories, and I have absolutely fallen in love with the residents!

I know I promised to send you pictures of the cute little house we are renting - but I haven't had a chance to do that yet, and hopefully we won't be living here much longer (I know, another move - ugh!!). You see, our house recently switched owners (long story....) and since we are no longer bound to our lease, and another house is up for sale in our same neighborhood, we are looking into buying it. This other house is much bigger and it is a short sale, so it is going for very cheap! We love it so much! We are currently working with the lender and doing all of that stuff....paperwork that goes for miles....but we are really hoping to get it and be moving into it in the next couple of months. And this move won't be nearly as bad because it is just up the road (and we have been so busy, a lot of our stuff isn't unpacked from the last move!!).

In other news, Jon and I have also started adoption paperwork. We have spent a lot of time thinking and praying over this decision and we feel like it is the right thing to do. We have always wanted to adopt whether we could have our own children or not, so this seemed like a perfect time (when we seem to be delayed on our own). Now, this process is very long and we are only in "phase 1" so don't expect any exciting news for a very long time - but we are excited to be moving forward toward a family.

Speaking of family - it has been so wonderful to be back home and around our families! It's so nice to have the love and support so close by! We are always doing fun things - I had really missed them. Of course, it has been hard to leave our family in the valley - I miss my nieces and nephews (still haven't come up with a word to combine those - I'll let you know when I do) and my brothers and sisters-in-law...but we aren't too far away from them so they can still visit.

Well folks, that is the world's fastest catch-up, but it gets us back up to speed.

I'm going to do my best to not go another two and a half months before my next post!!!

Welcome to Snowflake

This past Friday and Saturday we officially moved to Snowflake. Dad Saline and Jon's cousin Michael were nice enough to bring down a giant horse trailer and they helped us load our wall-o-boxes (which had grown quite a bit since my last post) and all of our furniture. It was a big job! In fact, Michael's mom Beth, his sister LaRee and her boyfriend all came over with their trucks to help us load some stuff! It was so nice of them to take the time to do that!

On Saturday morning, we got up and unloaded everything. This went way faster! My Mommy and Daddy were there too and we were able to unload in just about two hours! Then Mommy and Daddy and my sister Buggy Butt (Laney) helped us start the unpacking process. Phew!

I actually enjoy the unpacking part. It's fun to find new places for things, and it gives me a chance to re-organize my life. A perfect way to start a big change in our lives.

Jon's first day at his new job at the Taylor Law Offices (working as an actual attorney!!) yesterday, and he really enjoyed it! And I begin my new job at the Carriage House next Tuesday. I have worked there before - a few years ago - and it will be fun to be back.

Oh - let me tell you a little bit about our house! It is an actual house! We have lived in an actual house on campus, but it still felt like an apartment because of the way the community is set up. This is an actual house in a neighborhood with people who are established, with new families...it's just a "normal" neighborhood instead of such a temporary neighborhood. Does that make sense?

We have 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a huge backyard with grass and a sprinkler system - and our fridge has an ice/water dispenser on the door!!!! It even does crushed ice!!! Wow!!

We are so excited about the new chapter in our lives!

I will post pictures of our house and stuff when we get unpacked....right now it's just boxes everywhere! :-)

Growing Wall-O-Boxes

Well folks, as you can see, the wall-o-boxes is gradually getting bigger and bigger. We still have two weeks until M-Day (Moving Day), but between classes, Jon's work, and Easter, we are really trying to get as much done as we can early. This weekend is going to be a big push, and by the end of it, we will probably be living out of suitcases. We already only have 2 cups to use, but that is perfect - why do we need a whole cabinet of them when we aren't expecting any company, and we can just wash these two over and over again.

We had a little bit of a delay on the packing last weekend, but it was for a great weekend! The entire Saline family was down here in the valley for little Heidi's Birthday and little Elle's baby blessing. We did the birthday party here at my house, and it was great! Everything looked so cute! Shaunalee had great ideas and my entire dining room was decorated in pink and green for her "sweet pea" theme. No, I didn't get a picture of it - I was busy - but trust me when I tell you it was really cute!

Sunday we went to Elle's blessing. She looked beautiful in the amazing dress my sister-in-law Nikki made. Can you believe that? She made a blessing dress!! And it was an incredible dress!! She is simply amazing!
After the blessing we went to Brenden and Nikki's house for a little lunch/dinner party.

It was so fun to see everyone and watch all of the little kids playing with each other.

I am getting anxious to move. I don't really like the "in-between" stage. It will be nice to be up there and settled. It will be nice for Jon to be at his new job. I will be so happy to have a job again to be bringing in some extra money. It will be great to be up there with family (though I will really miss the family we have down here).

I can't wait to post pictures from our new house! Only 15 more days (not that anyone is counting....)

Thank you all so much for your sweet thoughts you wrote about my last post. We really are excited about this new job and this move - everything is just working out so smoothly, and we just really feel like this is the right move for us - and we can't wait!


As you can see, the packing process is well under way. These are not the only boxes we have finished so far, some of them are just in other rooms, and they are too heavy for me to want to move them to our wall-o-boxes....so they are waiting for Jon and his muscles to come home!

Now, I have some thoughts about moving (I know, you are not surprised - I have thoughts about everything!) and I am going to share them with you:

1) I do not like packing! My dad says that the first punishment given to Adam and Eve after eating the fruit was having to move out of the Garden (as you can tell, he does not like moving either!)

2) Even though I don't like packing, it is nice to go through all of our stuff and get rid of a lot of it. Our goal is to not have to buy any new boxes....it's amazing how much junk you collect after even just a few short years!

3) This is our 4th move in 3 1/2 years, so we have a little bit of a system. Our boxes are already labeled, so most of the time we can just make sure we fill the boxes up with what it says on the outside - we already know that the stuff will fit, and we don't have to waste more Sharpie ink

4) Sharpies go dry much quicker when you are writing on a dusty cardboard box.

5) Clothes make really great bubble wrap. Bubble wrap is kind of spendy - and, we have used paper towels in the past, but that's a huge waste! Of course newspaper works great, but when you run out - clothes or spare material are a great alternative! It's summer, so it's not sweater season, so why not use those sweaters to wrap up your breakables? You need to bring your sweaters with you, and this way your breakables get padding, and you don't have to waste an entire box on sweaters! (Dirty clothes are great too.....of course none of you have enough dirty clothes just laying around to use for a move like I do...)

6) Last time we moved we ended up moving all of our stuff at least 4 times! We would stack everything in one spot, then we would need to clean that area, so we would move everything to a different spot! When we were finally moving them into the truck, they were in a back bedroom and kind of hard to get out. Not very bright on our part! This time we are stacking everything right next to the front door - duh right? Live and learn I guess.....

7) Finally, the last time we moved a lot of our pictures and picture frames (you know, the ones that go on the wall) got all scratched up or broken...and I am trying to figure out a better way to pack them. The problem is that our pictures are all different sizes and they don't fit in boxes very well. Do any of you have ideas about packing these difficult pictures?

So, those are my (incredibly boring) thoughts about moving. I am really excited about getting up there and unpacking - I think unpacking is fun because it's always nice to put your things in a nice new place.

If any of you have any brilliant moving tips that you have learned - I am all ears! Anything to make this process easier would be so great to hear!

Movin' On Up

That's right, we are movin' on up the mountain. To Snowflake that is.

Jon has accepted an offer from Shawn Taylor, of the Taylor Law Offices in Snowflake so we will be heading up there in May.

We met with Shawn and his wife last weekend. Jon talked with Shawn for a while and then we all went to dinner at Eva's (where else?) so we could all get to know each other. I really like the Taylors! They are incredibly nice and I love how family oriented they are and the office is.

Jon was given an offer at Weisburg and Meyers down here in Phoenix (where he is working as a clerk right now), so we had a big decision to make. Don't get me wrong, we have felt so blessed to have a choice between two great jobs - there are so many people who can't even find one decent job! We are really blessed.

We weighed the decision and did a lot of praying and fasting.

In the end, we felt very strongly that the move up to Snowflake is the right one for us.

So, we are going to start packing up the house (we are going to start now - there is only about a month and I really don't want to be rushed! Then we can go through stuff and get rid of the things we don't need. It would be really nice to do some deep cleaning) and head out.

It's an exciting change for us! It will be nice to be closer to family, but we will really miss all of our friends and family down here.

Look Out Snowflake - Here We Come!!

Finally!!!

I just posted that I would keep you updated on Jon's law paperwork, but I didn't realize that I would have something to talk about so soon!

Well, last night we checked the mail, and there it was...Jon's certificate that says that he has officially been accepted to the Arizona State Bar! That means the is officially an attorney!
We not longer have to qualify it with "well, he's still waiting for his paperwork, so he's not an attorney quite yet..." because he is official!

I am married to a full fledged attorney! Holy Cow!

Our entire lives together have been in anticipation of this. When we started dating, Jon was just starting to get his acceptance letters back from different law schools and he was trying to figure out which one to attend. While we were dating he (well, we...) decided to go to ASU and he began to prepare to go. We got married and two days later he started his first day of law school. Three years later he graduated (with honors), and began to study for the Bar Exam. A few months later he found out he had passed. Then we waited for his Character and Fitness paperwork to go through. We got a letter to tell us that he passed that, and we turned in his Oath of Office paperwork....and we waited again.

But now, here we are almost exactly four years later (since we began dating and the law school process) and we have reached the goal!

I could not be more proud of my husband. I know that you probably get sick of hearing me say that, but he has gone through so much to accomplish this. It has been so hard on him, it has been really frustrating for him, it has been stressful and exhausting - and now he can breath a sigh of relief because he is finally Jon H. Saline, esq.

So fancy!

Now he just needs to figure out where he wants to work and what he wants to do with this new title!

And so another chapter in our story begins!!

Malori Reviews All Sorts of Stuff

First of all, this does not include the video that I keep promising.
Second of all, I was recently told that my posts are way too long...and I have been trying to take that advice and shorten my posts...but this post is going to be long. If you get tired of reading, please feel free to stop. You do not have to read the entire post, it won't hurt my feelings.


In my last post I mentioned my yoga class and how much I love it! I ended up needing one credit in order to stay in our student housing, so I found a yoga class that fit my schedule. I was really nervous to take it at first. I was afraid that I would be the chunky chick who had only done a "Yoga for Dummies" video in her living room and had zero flexibility. I had no idea what to expect from a real yoga class.
I was so thrilled to discover that nobody else in the class had ever taken a yoga class before! There are ladies in there who have 3 or 4 kids and are trying to lose the "baby weight". There is a middle-aged man who is trying to recover from a car accident, and many other people who are just learning. So, I was not the only one with no experience.
My teacher is incredible! Of course she is absolutely beautiful and I don't think she has an ounce of fat on her - solid muscle - but she is so patient and she doesn't judge us on our lack of flexibility. She is understanding and she modifies for our levels of ability. But, she is also very good at pushing us. She doesn't let us get away with keeping everything super easy. We break a sweat each week and we get really great stretches every week!
Now, I don't know if a class would be this fantastic if it were in an actual yoga studio place where the people who attend are hard-core yoga folks, so I might continue to take it at a Community College....but I would recommend that everyone take it! I want to take a yoga class continuously for the rest of my life - it just feels so good!


There are only two seasons of this show on Netflix. I don't know if those are the only two season ever, but I wish there were more! This show is so darn cute! It is like a giant chick-flick! Christina Applegate is absolutely adorable!
Here's the basic idea - Samantha Newly wakes up from a coma after having been hit by a car, and she had amnesia. She can't remember anything about her life before the accident. She doesn't know her friends, her parents, her boyfriend...anything! As she is going about her life, she learns, both through other people and memory flashbacks, that she was a terrible person. She was mean to people all the time, she cheated on her boyfriend, she didn't have any problems with hurting peoples feelings or breaking the law.
Now she is trying to start over as a good person, but her past keeps sneaking up on her.
This show is so funny. You absolutely fall in love with Christina Applegate's character and her best friends and boyfriend.
I really recommend it!


Ok, this picture is a little bit scary, but it is the cover of the book. I have read a few of Steven Kings' stuff in the past and have been extremely impressed by how darn talented he is as a writer. That having been said, I have not enjoyed all of his stories. I'm not a huge fan of horror, so "It" and "Carrie" were not my cup of tea ("Carrie" wasn't so much scary as it was depressing). He does have a book called "On Writing" that is awesome. It is...well...on writing. He writes about how to write. Defiantly worth picking up if you have any interest in writing.
About "'Salem's Lot" - obviously this is a vampire book, but it is nothing like "Twilight". It is set in a very tiny town that is out of the way of anywhere. Steven King has an incredible way of making you remember everyone in the whole town and you actually feel for them.
I don't want to ruin the book for you, and I think that anything I say might mess it up for you. But, it is a really great book. Not too scary and it really sucks you in. Steven King is so darn talented!



Jon and I just got some refurbished iPhone 3Gs and we also switched to AT&T. AT&T was running a sale for $50 iPhone 3G's, but we looked at the refurbished ones and found them for $20! So we got 2 for half the price of one - on sale! We didn't switch to AT&T because we wanted iPhones though. We switched because we can get two phones with data plans for less that what it costs to get two phones with no data plans with Verizon. Not to mention how unimpressed with have been with Verizon's customer service lately. When I was ordering our phones online I was able to chat with a sales representative and she was so darn nice! I was really impressed with how kind and helpful they were and they stayed online with me until I was able to check-out and complete my purchase. I know that is just a way for them to get sales, but I am telling you that they were way more pleasant than Verizon has been to us.
Now we are still really new to AT&T so I will let you know how it goes, but I am loving the iPhones! My last phone didn't have any games or anything - texting and talking and that was it! Now I don't even know what to do with everything I can do!! It's almost overwhelming! Plus, texting is way more phone when it pops up in little "thinking bubbles" - I don't know why that makes it so much more fun, but it sure does!!
What is the most exciting about this switch is the fact that we actually have phones that work! Jon's old phone would only stay charged for 3-5 minutes, then it would turn off and you would have to plug it in for 15-20 minutes in order to turn it back on! This got really frustrating when we were trying to figure out plans for the day or when Jon has to work late and he has no way of letting me know or whatever. It also makes me worried to drive without phones ya know? What if something happened?
So now, we both have phones that work and I don't have to worry about my hubby as much! Yay!


Finally, this isn't so much a review as it is me venting a little bit. As you know, Jon graduated from law school in May. He then studied like crazy and took the bar exam in July. We waited for months and finally learned that he had passed the bar exam! Then we waited (less than patiently) for his Character and Fitness report to be approved by the Supreme Court (it's a report full Jon had to fill out that told them every place he has ever lived, people who knew him in those places, and every place he has ever worked, and people who knew him there. We had to wait for the Supreme Court to mail a letter to each of these people and they had to mail a letter back about Jon's character, and they had to do a complete background check of him - which was easy since Jon has never even had a traffic ticket!).
Finally a letter came in saying that he passed the Character and Fitness part. He should be an attorney by now right? Nope, not yet. He had to fill out another form that he had to get notarized because it was his oath of office and he had to send that in to the Supreme Court. Now we are waiting for his certificate to come in to say that he is actually, finally an attorney! That should come in any day now, and it is feeling like an eternity! This has been such a long process and it is getting so frustrating for Jon because he is so ready to actually work as an attorney!
It will be so exciting when we finally get that paper - stay tuned for updates!
I'm so proud of Jon and everything that he has accomplished! He is such an incredible man and I am so lucky to have him as my guy!

I hope that wasn't too long and boring.....

Contemporary Cinema

I know I promised that I would post an awesome video of a dumb idea I had at the lake - but I don't have the video and I am waiting to get it so I can post it....

So, instead I am going to tell you about my Contemporary Cinema class.

I don't know if I told you about my scheduling nightmare this semester, so here is a really, really brief synopsis of that story:
The advisors at CGCC don't know what they are talking about, and after speaking with 3 of them and getting a huge run around, I didn't end up with any of the classes that I needed, except for the math class. Still, I needed to have at least 6 credits in order to stay in Student Housing, so I filled it in with a couple of classes that just sounded fun - yoga and Contemporary Cinema.

Well, I absolutely love my yoga class and I would like to take a yoga class every semester for the rest of my college career - shoot, for the rest of my life!

As for my cinema class - I am actually really enjoying it. I wasn't sure how I would feel about it, but it turns out I am actually really interested in film. We started out with movies in the late '60s and we have just progressed through the movies that have made an impact on culture through time. In fact, I think I could see myself looking into a future in film, like majoring in film or something.

Here is my dilemma - most of the movies we have watched are rated R. It's not as though my teacher specifically picked rated R movies, it's just that a lot of the big movies that have impacted society have been rated R. Movies like "The Graduate" and "The Godfather" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Some of these movies I have enjoyed, and some of these movies I haven't particularly cared for, but more than the movies, I really enjoy learning about how they reflected society's attitudes, or even how it molded society's attitudes towards everything. It's amazing to see.

But, I know that we have been counseled by our prophets not to watch rated R movies. I have been trying, and succeeding in this for a long time now. You see how this is a problem? Name one movie that was nominated for Best Picture this year that was not rated R (Ok, "Inception"- name 2 movies that were not rated R....). It's impossible to study film while not watching rated R films because, whether we like it or not, the big films that make an impact, are, a lot of the time, rated R.

So, while it is fascinating and probably something I could see myself going into, I don't believe I will take anymore film classes after this one. But, I am glad that I am taking this one because it truly is fascinating.

I Love Being An Aunt...

I am the oldest of 3, and my sister and brother are not old enough to be having kids yet (but it will be so darn fun when they are!!!), but I inherited the title of "aunt" when I married my amazing husband! When I first joined the Saline family, I had two nephews, Keagan and Kaleb. In fact, my Mom-In-Law was in Alaska with my Sis-In-Law Shaunalee when Jon proposed because Kaleb had just been born.
Then, about a year and a half ago, my Sis-In-Law Nikki had Collin.

-quick little story about Collin, the other day after Nikki's surprise baby shower (which was a success by the way) I stopped by her house to drop some things off that had been forgotten. Nikki opened the door and Brenden came to the door with Collin in his arms. Collin saw me and reached his arms out to me. I took him from Brenden and he gave me the biggest hug! Both of his arms with wrapped around my shoulders and his head was buried in my neck. Then he gave me the sweetest kiss on the lips (he doesn't know how to kiss anywhere else yet...I love it!) and another big hug! I thought my heart was going to explode! He is so sweet!

Then a year ago (on the 22nd of this month) my other Sis-In-Law Kimbalie had my sweet niece Emerie.
A couple of months after that, Shaunalee had another baby - the cute little Heidi.

Well, last night Nikki had my sixth niece/nephew (they should come up with a word that combines those...like niephew...or nephiece...ok I will have to work on that one...)

Welcome to the world Elle Lane Saline!!!!!

Isn't she absolutely beautiful!?! I haven't met her yet, but I'm already in love with her! She looks so much like Collin! I can't wait to get to know her like I have the rest of my niecephews (no, that doesn't work either).
Congratulations Brenden and Nikki!!!!!


Since I'm talking about my nieces and nephews (I gave up on combining the words...for now...) I had to post this picture of Emerie. I am so blessed to be able to babysit her on Tuesdays, and yesterday I was trying to catch her doing this face that she does where she grins and scrunches up her nose and her head and it so so cute...but she stopped doing it every time I aimed the camera at her....but I caught this face and it was priceless!



I love being an Aunt and I can't wait until Laney Bug and Tanner Man are old enough to have some little ones too (Ok...I can wait you guys....I can wait a long, long time! hee hee hee)

PS - I have some really great videos to post...here is a teaser: Freezing cold water, sweat pants, and a bet....do I have your attention??

Little Wonders...

If you read my last post you saw that Jon and I went to "As You Wish!" and painted some ceramic dishes. It was so darn fun!!! I promised that when Jon picked them up I would put a picture of the finished product on the blog.
So here it is!

This is my plate. My house is decorated with reds and blacks, so I wanted something that would match. I don't know if I have told you the story about "Little Wonders" before, but if I did, I will tell you again!
Jon and I met one a blind date. We went out on a Wednesday and we went out another 2 times within a week!! Needless to say, we were really interested in each other. Well, we are both just grown-up kids and the movie "Meet The Robinsons" was coming out. If you haven't heard of it you should hurry up and see it!!!! It is a Disney Pixar film and it is pretty great. Anyways, before the movie, Jon told me that I could hold his hand if I got scared (in a cartoon! Isn't he cute?). Well throughout the movie, I kept my hand available. You girls know what I mean, setting your hand on the arm rest, palm facing up...but in a way that doesn't look too desperate, but that is noticeable enough for the guy to see it....
Well, even when the movie got intense (for a cartoon movie), Jon didn't hold my hand. As we were walking out of the movie theater (by this point I am feeling kind of discouraged...) it was as though he got the courage and he just grabbed my hand....and I got chills through my whole body!!!
He tells me now that he had told me to hold his hand, but I was never the type to make the first move....
Well, that movie has a song in it by Rob Thomas called "Little Wonders" and after we had been dating for a little while, we both fell in love with it and then after we got married, we felt like this song was perfect for us. It has sort of become the theme of our marriage...the theme for our lives. And - bonus - it has a great memory attached to it for us!
If you haven't heard the song, look it up and listen to the words - it is a great pick-me-up!








This is Jon's. You have to look at his from all different views because it is so fancy. He liked this bowl with the different shape and he meticulously drew out this pattern, traced it, and then filled it in. He made it so we could put our keys in it (we don't have anything to put our keys in, so we are always losing them), but it looks so cool I don't want our keys to scratch it or chip it! Jon says that's silly, but...can you blame me? It is so darn fancy!



And finally...
I feel like I need to start an entire new segment called "things I have burned" because this is twice in a row that I have had a picture of something that I burned!
This is actually something of a miracle. Yesterday I made spaghetti for dinner. I was planning on finishing the dishes this morning and I completely forgot to go in and put the leftovers in a tupperware....well this morning Jon went in to the kitchen and he realized that the stove had been on all night! It was on the low setting with the pan over it all night long. It is a miracle that we didn't burn the house down or die of inhaling the gas or something! We made certain to include that miracle in our prayers this morning. We were so blessed that even our pot came out of it unscathed......which just brings me back to all of the little wonders in our lives.

As You Wish.....

On Saturday Jon took me on a fun date to As You Wish! That fun place where you paint the ceramic stuff and they put it in a kiln and make it all shiny and fancy. We went there for my birthday with my family, and we had a blast, so Jon wanted to go back.

Jon is always so fancy, so while I just painted some big letters on my plate - he drew his design out on a piece of paper, and then he drew it on his bowl with a straight edge and then he traced around it with paint, and then he filled it in.......he is just such an artist!

We had a blast! I love going there! It is so nice to get out of the house, sit together at a table, and just talk while we work on a fun project.
Jon is picking them up on Tuesday - I will post a picture of the finished products when we get them home!

In other news, Jon got a giant Nerf gun for Christmas from my Grams (along with all of the other boys in the family). When I say giant - I mean GIANT!! This thing is huge and it uses 4 D-batteries to power it because it works like a machine gun! You just have to hold the trigger down and it unloads a clip of darts! It is some serious Nerf-power!

Now I need to go get me a Nerf gun so I can protect myself from sneak attacks! Imagine coming around a corner and seeing that face and that giant Nerf gun!! Eeeeeeeek!!
(Note:: The darts don't hurt one bit, and Jon let me shoot him first so he could see if they hurt before he would even dream of shooting me....isn't he a gentleman)

So,I saw the craziest show ever the other night! I flipped on TLC around 11pm (yup, way to late to be awake on a Saturday night....that might explain why were late to church the next day....oops) and there was a show called "Extreme Couponing" and, while I thought it would be a show about a bunch of eccentric people and their crazy coupon habits, I ended up being inspired!! There was a 24 year old lady who clipped coupons and researched store sales and stuff - she had a huge binder filled with coupons, and they were all organized by sections of the store (ie; health and beauty, refrigerated, frozen...etc.). Well, she took her binder and a "battle plan" (she had a list of what she was getting and how many of each product) and headed to Safeway. She loaded up her cart with Barilla pasta, Ragu sauce, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, A&W Root Beer, 7Up, Sprite, and tons of other name brand things. Her total came to over $600.00. Then she handed the cashier her coupons, and as he rang them up you could literally watch the total roll down...and down...and down...until she reached $2.64. Can you believe that???? She left the store with over $600 worth of merchandise (all brand name, not off-brand) and she only paid $2!!!!! I was amazed!!
There were similar stories of other people who did the same things.
The thing that amazed me the most were the year-supplies these people had! Each one of them had enough storage for their families to live, comfortably, for at least 2-3 years! One guy had so much deodorant, he and his wife wouldn't have to buy any for 150 years! Another lady hadn't bought toothpaste or toothbrushes in over 30 years, and she had enough to last her for another 5 years!
One man had a food storage containing about $80,000 worth of merchandise ranging from non-perishable food, to frozen food, to hygiene stuff and he said that he had paid maybe $1,000 for the entire thing.
Now, I have never been one to clip coupons. I have never wanted to be the "Coupon Lady" and I almost have a fear of using them...but when I saw how much money these people were saving on things that I buy on a regular basis for full price, I was inspired to try it out!
So, I am going to start couponing. I don't think I will get as crazy as these people were (one lady dug through the recycling bins to find discarded coupons), but I think I am going to actively pay attention and strategize before I go to the grocery store. It will take me some time to build my coupon stash, but when I do, I think it will pay off.
I am going to document my coupon journey here on my blog.

Which brings me to my last topic. As you know I have a few different "segments" of my blog (reviews, Just Sayin', Tasty Club, The Good In the World...and now my Coupon Journey) and I would like to get them a little bit more organized. I have seen these fancy tabs at the tops of my friends' blogs and I think that is exactly what I need....but I can't figure out how to get them....
So my blogging-genius sister-in-law is going to help me figure it out, and hopefully I will be able to get this blog mess under control. Just another step toward my "Getting Organized" goal!