FOR THE LOVE OF READING

So here I am, bored at work and I was just thinking about the book I'm reading at the moment. I have to say I have branched out quite a bit from the usual books I read this past year or so. I have always loved to read and am always looking for new books. Let me know if you have any good ideas! I love all types, like the popular ones: Harry Potter, Twilight, John Grisham books, Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, and ones that maybe no one has really heard of.The one I'm reading right now is "The Street Lawyer" by John Grisham. Very good. But I just wanted to mention a couple that I would recommend reading that I have found the past little bit:

#1: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
I have a hard time describing this book. It wasn't necessarily a book that I just couldn't put down, yet I couldn't wait to go read more. Definitely take your time with this book and savor it. I think I purposely didn't read it fast because subconsciously I didn't want it to end, and when it did I was very sad that it was over. I'm trying to read a lot more books so I can "forget" this book so I can read it again!

#2: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Many of you have probably read this or seen the movie, but if you haven't I highly recommend it. It is a delightful little book! It has a very good story line and keeps you entertained.

#3: A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton
I wouldn't say that I necessarily liked this book. I'm still trying to decide. It's a little depressing and sometimes makes you feel like our world is pretty crappy. That said, I still think you should read it. The author is a very good writer and probably the fact that I was so emotionally involved in the book, although in a negative aspect, only goes to show that she's a good writer.

#4: The Great and Terrible Series by Chris Stewart
There are 6 books and they are AMAZING! You have got to read these books. It makes you want to go out and get all of your food storage.

#5: Traitor by Sandra Grey
This book is set during the war with Hitler and Germany. I don't know why, but I love books set in this time in history. It is a very exciting book with a great story line!

#6: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
I have never read Sci-Fi. That is until Ender's Game. Wow, what a good book! This book takes you into a place I definitely have never been before and the ending is mind-boggling. I loved, loved, loved this book!!! It was so dang interesting. Read this book.

#7: Many books by Jude Deveraux
Ok, so the name of the book isn't many books, I just wrote that cause there's like 36 that she's written. I've only read two so far. The first I picked up at the pool at Excalibur in Vegas like a year ago. There were only two choices at the pool snack stand. Return to Summerhouse, and this other book. Return to Summerhouse sounded lame, so I got the other one. 3 pages into it, after it had sworn like 50 times I decided I wasn't wasting my time, so I got Return to Summerhouse, by the above author. This is a book I couldn't put down, and the thing is, she's not like an amazing writer, and sometimes she has some really cheesy parts in the book, yet I loved it and couldn't put it down. Then, having no idea that this author is a New York Times bestseller, I needed a book on my last vacation when we were staying at the Marriott by Disneyland, and found "Secrets" in the hotel gift shop, recognized the author and couldn't put this book down either! So now I'm on the hunt for many other books by her. Like I said, you may read these books and think "Oh Shaylee."But I'm a sucker for love stories and both of these books had love stories intertwined in them.

#8: The Host by Stephanie Meyer
I'm amazed at how many people that are obsessed with Twilight haven't read this book. It is so good!!! I loved Twilight, but holy cow I loved this book. I don't know which one I like more. Well....I take that back. Twilight has a special place in my heart. But The Host is really really good!

So there's my book info for those of you that are looking for a good book to read. Let me know if you have any good reads!!!

California! and Vegas

A couple weeks ago we went down to Californa for Justin's spring break to see his family. We stayed with them for the weekend then stayed at the Marriot by Disneyland for a couple nights. It was a much needed break from life! We went to the Orange County swap meet which I absolutely loved! I love stuff like that. I got a cute purse and shoes and Justin got some good shoes too. Then we went to Disneyland! We LOVE Disneyland!!

My absolute FAVORITE ride at California adventure!

Waiting in line for the Haunted Mansion...another favorite! Me, Justin and his sister Megan.

Me and Megan, pumped for Tower of Terror!

So Justin has a lemon tree at his house and I love it. His family probably thinks I'm weird that I'm so obsessed with it. I just love fresh grown fruit, period, and especially fruit that's not grown in Utah. These lemons were so so tasty! You could eat them raw. So we picked a bunch on a lovely Sunday afternoon and made lemonade! It was so good! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Here I am enjoying the lush fragrance of the lemon blossoms!

So to break the 11 hour drive up, we stopped in Vegas for a night with the Valletta's, good friends from our ward. I swear, Dan and Justin are a match made in heaven. They definitely fuel eachother's craziness which makes it very interesting and fun to hang out. Here they are sitting patiently on the floor like good little boys at the M&M factory waiting for the 3D movie.

Random posing by the boys.

Here we are witht the adorable Coca-Cola Bear! It was actually kinda creepy cause his eyes blinked and he could open and close his mouth and smile! I'm trying to kiss him, but I just ended up looking very out of place.....

Another pose by the boys on top of the Stratosphere.

Thanks Dan and Alisa for letting us crash your Vegas party for a night!

Still running behind!

Ok, isn't this the cutest little boy? This is Ledger my nephew, Cory and Cortney's new baby. This was at his baby blessing a couple weeks ago.

Sushi party!!!! My sister Kami had the best idea ever! To make our own sushi! She made the delicious rice and we went to town! We had tons of vegetables cute up, ginger, wasabi, cream cheese, soy sauce, crab, even eel and eel sauce! They were so yummy!!!

Here's Justin making sushi....sideways

Here are some final rolls. They were seriously restaurant quality! Loved them. We will definitely do it again sometime.

Runnin Behind!

Oh man! I am so behind with our life update. This was a couple weeks ago. A friend of Justin's from work apparently has the hook-ups to concerts. At least to country concerts. A friend of theirs works for a country station and so always has extra tickets to concerts. So the day of, they invited us to go to Rascal Flatts with Jessica Simpson opening for them down in Salt Lake. It was so much fun!

Ok, so not the best pics of Jessica, but it was so wierd seeing her. Just because you see her all the time in magazines and what not, and it was just surreal seeing her in real life. I really am not a fan of her as a person, I think she's a little bit of an idiot, but I do think she is beautiful! And she actually was a really good singer. I have to admit I was impressed. And she has awesome, awesome legs!!!! Although you can't see the rest of her body, her outfit from the waist down was a bit tacky. She had on daisy duke shorts (way short!) with these ginormous clunky shoes! I had no idea how she was walking in them.

And here are Rascal Flatts. The stage was awesome and I just love rascal flatts and they put on a stellar show!

Here we all are! Next to me is Lesley with her husband Cameron. They are the ones that hooked us up. And the two in the back are their friends. It was definitely a blast!