the fruits of no labor

Before we were married Johnny planted me a garden with strawberries and raspberries in his parents' yard. Since we no longer live there we kind of forgot about it. But we went over today and saw these--look what we grew despite our neglect!

yet another incident with a spider

If you haven't heard about the first incident, click here, it's pretty bad. But this morning I woke up because something was tickling my face. I sat up and a spider fell off my face and into my lap. A giant wolf spider was crawling on my face, AHHHH! Why?!

summer reads

I usually read a lot as it is, but there's something about summertime that gets me into a reading frenzy. Here are the books I've read this summer and a little commentary:

#1 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I LOVED this book. It's written in the form of correspondence letters and it tells the beautiful stories of the people from an English island occupied by Germans during WWII. Highly recommend it.

#2 Mary Called Magdalene

The storyline was good and it was educational about life and society during the time of Christ, but some of the ideologies are so far off from Mormon doctrine that I had a hard time getting into it. Read it only for educational purposes.

#3 The Book Thief

This book inspired me to start my own. It's about a little girl living in Germany during WWII--it's kind of like Anne Frank, but she's not Jewish so life is a lot different. My own grandma grew up in Germany and lived in Frankfurt during WWII and I've interviewed her and collected some incredible stories. I'm in the process of writing a book of short stories on her.

#4 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

There are a LOT of swear words, so if that offends you, steer clear of this book. It's pretty good, but I think what I enjoyed most was what I learned about the political history of the Dominican Republic.

#5 Olive Kitteridge

"Olive" won the Pulitzer prize for fiction but I've read better books this year. It's a series of short stories told by different characters, all somehow involving Olive. An OK read.

#6 Unaccustomed Earth

This is a cool book. There are eight short stories about Indian-Americans and their normal, daily lives. The intricacy and exactitude about everyday life is incredible. Also, I learned a lot about their culture. Way good read.

#7 A Thousand Splendid Suns

I'm actually reading this right now, and again, very educational on the political history and culture of the middle east. It makes me aware of the simple freedoms I have that are actually a big deal.

#8 The Art of Racing in the Rain

This is my next read, can't wait! It's told from the point of view of a family's dog.

2 years!

August 18 was our 2-year wedding anniversary, woo woo! Johnny is my best friend and he makes me laugh every single day. What more could I ask for?

daisy the destroyer

Last night Johnny and I made homemade pizza that took forever to make and it looked amazing. It had the works: sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, chicken, etc. So we leave it on the counter while the oven is heating and leave the room when we hear something come crashing down on the kitchen floor. We run in and what do we find? Our dog is eating our pizza as fast as she can off the floor. Johnny was SO mad and our dog knew it, or so we thought.

Johnny takes the time to make another pizza and left it on the counter, and seriously, we took our eyes off it for two seconds, and next thing we know, Daisy is on the counter eating our second pizza. We couldn't help but laugh this time, but seriously, if you've ever seen Marley and Me, she is that dog! She is so bad sometimes. And of course, now she has the runs and is leaving us presents all over the house. Daisy!!!

Don't let this cute face deceive you

a few of my favorite things

#1 I love these moccasins. If you know me well, you know I love anything Native American and I secretly wish I was an Indian. So when a sweet girl from my primary class gave me these shoes as a present, I almost cried. I love them!

#2 Free people. I love their clothes and when I'm a billionaire and can afford to spend $100 on a t-shirt, I will shop here.

#3 Bruschetta. I made these bad boys the other day and had a hard time sharing them with anyone else. Here's a link for the recipe.

our child

Yes, we're one of those couples who has a dog instead of kids (although kids are in the near future...), but how could you not adore this sloppy, cuddly, sometimes-drives-us crazy dog?!