If Charlie is Jared, Then here is Melanie

This girl would go perfect with who I have picked to play Jared.

The Host;Character

If you picture this guy as Jared, the book will get better.

SmartRemarks: The Host

Before you begin reading my review, I need to say this; Contrary to what you are about to read, I really did like this book. It's a like though, not a love. We hardly know each other.

First off, there were sooooo many similarities between The Host and another Stephenie Meyer book we all know and LOVE (not just like).

She continues to gab on about smells. We always have to hear how someone is smelling. I think Stephenie has a bit of a fetish with smells. And I can guarantee that before she was writing these books she sold Scentsy candles. They're wick less you know. To be fair, I am not a vampire (yet) a werewolf, or an alien. Apparently Stephenie has done a lot of research about all 3, and maybe she knows more about how they smell, or the things they can smell. All I know is, I can't wait to smell Edward, and I wouldn't mind smelling Jared. Not that I like Jared, I'm just curious.

She also continues to use the words "hiss" and "flank". Flank was seriously used on every other page. 620 pages divided by 2=310 times at least. Now I am not really complaining about this, I have grown quite fond of these words, I'm just saying they were used just as much, if not more, in the Twilight series. Don't you think a new series deserves a new favorite word?

There was a lot of burning skin going on in both books. Edward's skin burned when Bella touched him. Bella's skin burned cold when Edward touched her. Wanda/Melanie's skin burned from her temple to her cheek bone when Jared touched her. Actually I recall Edward using that same stroke on Bella's face. From the temple down her cheek. I thought, "Maybe there is a nerve ending there that is more sensitive." So I had Dwight stroke my cheek area. No burn at all. Am I dead inside?

On page 213, Melanie was so mad she bit her tongue and tasted blood. Jacob did this countless times. Again, a new series deserves a new way to react to anger.

There was also a lot of lifting "with ease" going on. No Vampires or Werewolves this time, just strong men that were able to lift the women up "with ease".

Let's move on. The beginning of the book was torturous! It took me forever to get into it. It started to get good when she was captured, but she hung out in that cave forever too. I think Stephenie eventually does a good job of helping you get to know her characters well. I like that about her. For some reason this is all I could picture any time Ian was mentioned.

I have no idea how she described him to look, but this is how he looked to me. Way groovin. Anyone who falls in love with a worm and then says she's gorgeous is groovin. I liked how the book ended, all fixed and happy. But I didn't like Wanda's new body. This is who I pictured for that.

There were a lot of church references again. She used the boiling frog analogy, a sacrament meeting talk favorite. There was the whole Satan's plan thing. And the law of consecration thing. My testimony didn't grow as much with this book as it did with the Twilight series, but it's ok, I went to church this whole month.

Foto Friday

My sister Erin and our roomate Celeste.

Too cute, huh?

I am just here to help

I decided I needed to do another installment of parenting tips. I know you gize are all struggling out there with out me helping. I got quite a few good ones this week.

#1 It is not a big deal if your kids are sitting on the curb waiting for you to pick them up after school. It teaches them patience. I remember waiting many a afternoon at the orthodontist when I was a kid. And look at me, I'm totally fine! It is especially ok, if you had good reason. Like trying to win a blog contest. Which I did, so it's fine.

#2 A great way to promise your kids things you don't actually plan on getting for them is to say, "You bet! As soon as we win the lottery." For example, we are getting a new dog, as soon as we win the lottery. Easy enough, yes? Your kids will be so happy, and sometimes even check the winning numbers for you, to see if you won. You only need to ever buy one ticket, then just keep showing them that same ticket to check for numbers. The odds of this backfiring on you are like 1 in 200,000,000 so I would go for it.

#3 It is perfectly acceptable to tell the neighbor kids they are grounded from your house. Sometimes, it can work as a deterrent for future visits after the grounding wears off.

#4 Bisquick can be used in just about every meal, and I am going to prove it starting tonight!

I Concede, Sara

There's no way I will ever be as photogenic as you.

Sara, flanked by her ducks.

I guess I should have saved these up for "Foto Friday", but I am sure I'll be able to find more!

You Don't Know What You Got Until It's Gone

You go about your day as usual, taking for granted how easy some things come. Then BAM!! It's not so easy anymore. I now know how it feels. Tonight I suffered a severe trauma. I was at mutual. We were doing humanitarian stuff....quilting, making hair ties, and this coloring packet thing. All very important. I started out at the quilting station, but after about the 10th time I pricked my precious fingers, I made the decision to move to another location. (I was just glad Edward wasn't around) So, on I went over to the hair tie station. I had to take these plastic flowers, and hot glue rubber bands and ribbon onto it. Simple enough... I thought the glue gun was out of glue, it wasn't coming out so fast. So I began to put in a new stick, but then some super hot glue dropped out onto my thumb. The pain was excruciating (Morgan's all know what I mean) I immediately pulled off the glue, only it wasn't glue, it was my skin that had melted from the heat. I tried to suffer through the pain, but alas I could no longer. I made a trip to Wal-Greens (sorry I forgot the trivia game, I had other things on my mind) and I got some first aid necessities. As you can clearly see from the picture, it is pretty serious.

What I realized from this whole experience, was that I really need my thumb. I couldn't turn on or off the lights in my car with my left hand. I had to reach over with my right hand to do it. And even now as I type this post, the difficulty is phenomenal. I have no idea how I am going to do my hair tomorrow, that is the hand I hold the curling brush in. As soon as it heals, I am going to be so grateful for my thumb. (Please feel free to use this message in your next talk)

Check it out

I was taking a nice little walk around Wal-Greens tonight. And this caught my eye. There are a few of you out there who seem to think they are king of The Office. So the next time I have $14.99 on me and I don't already have a cart full of cheap drug store make-up, I am going to purchase this. Then, I will post several trivia questions. Whoever gets the most right will recieve one Shrewt Dollar. As soon as you get 100, you can trade it in for your own spotlight post from me. Then we can start the argument again as to who is the most neglected. It will be fun, don't ya think?

Ode to Anna

I was just reading a comment left on a blog from my old roomie. I decided to dedicate an ENTIRE post to her, so she will know how much she is enjoyed, loved, and should never feel "left out". Sorry if it embarrasses her, but everyone needs to be spotlighted once in a while.

When I graduated from high school, not so many years ago, I went straight to BYU. I had never been on my own, I didn't even like to spend the night at friends houses. My new "roommate" drove up to Boise to pick me and my junk up, and drove me all the way to our new home in the projects of Provo. I was a big time nerd, who had no clue about living on her own. I was depressed, I wasn't really wanting to go to college yet. As soon as we got to our new home, she helped me move everything in. She made me feel like it was OUR place, and took me right away all around the apartment complex to introduce me to everyone she knew. Never once did she make me feel like I was just her lame cousin she HAD to hang out with. I had the best summer ever living with her. She protected me from the creepy double date we met on the freeway. We wrote a killer song for a family reunion...."Grandma Bailey" sung to the tune of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby". It was a hit for sure. We had many nights staying up laughing, mostly making fun of all of you, but it was super fun. She was very generous and shared all her cool stuff with me, even though I had nothing cool to share with her. The only thing she never let me use was her pillow case with her boyfriends picture on it, but I understood, some things are just off limits. When my mom came to visit, she offered her bed to her, which I really should have done because it was MY mom, but I was not that bright, and Anna slept on the floor. We annoyed the crap out of our other two roommates, who had been good friends with Anna before I got there. And she never acted like she cared. She was always so loyal to her nerdy cousin. She ended up moving back home at the end of the summer. But, she was nice enough to come up and visit me the next year. I spent another 2 years living in those projects, and none of them could ever compare to that first summer.

Even though she probably won't want to be friends with me anymore after she sees the awesome picture I am posting, I will ALWAYS be her friend, and total BCF.

This was us, the weekend of our debut album, "Grandma Bailey".

Happy Birthday!

I just want to give a shout out for my good friend Bella. (She used to be married to my boyfriend) Today is her birthday, and since she is now alone throughout eternity, I wanted to cheer her up. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! You are so lucky to be 18 forever. And I am sorry I stole your man, but you have all eternity to find a new one. Have a great day!

I am sure "Renny" will have something great planned for you too.

A New Doo

Well, I finally did it. I let Ella's luscious golden locks be cut. It actually wasn't that hard of a decision. They weren't really luscious golden locks anymore. They were more like tangly, ratty, stringy locks that were always pulled back in a pony tail or Laura Ingal braids. Similar to her Aunt Sara's hair growing up. (see Jenny's birthday post to Sara)

Apparently she had enough to donate to locks of love. Aren't we so giving? Some poor soul is going to get a wig made up of food encrusted, ratty hair.
I almost felt like I should be holding on to these things for a scrap book or something, given it was her first real haircut (yes, she's seven). But, I don't do scrap books. Anyway, they will sort of end up in a scrap book, since they will become a wig, and someone will wear that wig, and someone will take a picture of someone wearing that wig, and then someone will put that picture of someone wearing the wig made up of my daughter's first haircut, into some sort of photo/scrap book. I decided it is pretty much the same thing.
Here she is getting is styled.
And here is the final unveiling!! I love it, so if you don't, then there is no need for you to comment. Only praises are welcome on this post.

Time to say GoodBye

Can you guess what might be in here?

It was a sad day for the Thurston kids. Our chickens finally started laying eggs, after months of feeding and taking care of them. But, everytime one of them layed an egg they would cackle up a storm. Since we aren't really supposed to have chickens in our neighborhood, we started to get worried about ticking off our neighbors with the noise. Dwight's bro has a lot of land, and a load of chickens to boot. So I called and asked them if they wanted FIVE more. (They of course did) It was a piece of cake to get Lil' Puddin' Tater, Bessie, Bertha, and Luigi in the box.

Mario was another story. I had to chase him toward the boys, while they got prepped to grab him. (This was our lovely chicken yard. The chickens layed their eggs in the center blocks, so soft and cozy)

Mario was their fav, so we got a final farewell shot with him.

We got them all loaded into the car and headed out to the in-laws. I was feeling kind of bad, cause it was their pets, but the kids were having a great time on the drive. Then we got there and they helped take all the chicken to their new coop, and made sure their cousins all learned the names of their new chickens. As we were pulling away, heading home, the melt downs began. Apparently the kids didn't think that their cousins chickens were as well cared for as their own. (I guess a couple of them had beaks that were busted off....sick) The kids didn't get that their cousins chickens were just a source for eggs, while ours were pets that happen to lay eggs. It's been a pretty emotional week ever since. I finally couldn't take it anymore, and I may have promised to go look for some sort of new pet this weekend when Dwight is around.

Calvin's day sure perked up though. He had scouts today. It usually lasts about an hour. After two, he was still gone. I was starting to get a bit worried, and was just about to head over to look for him, when he came running in the house with the BIGGEST grin on his face. He was yelling for everyone to come see what he made. HIS VERY OWN TOOL BOX!!! Now he has someplace to keep his chizzles and screw drivers. (**a note for some of you who haven't been around Calvin much, he likes to chizzle letters into things like cars and trucks, especially if they are brand new. And he likes to take apart things like vacuum cleaners, dvd players, video game consoles, or anything else that would cost a load of money to fix or buy) But look how happy he is.

I am blessed

I just got home from church. You know, that one place you go to get blessings? I don't know how it goes for you, but the first thing I do when I get home is lose the church duds. So today I get home, head for my room. On the way I decide to get a head start by unzipping my skirt, only it was already unzipped. hm, odd? I turn to Bailey and Calvin and I say "has my skirt been unzipped like this all day?" They both said "yes", like it was not big deal. Not one single person at church said a word to me.....what a bunch of perverts.



I have had quite a few of these sorts of incidents at church. Just the usual though, you know, like forgetting to put on my makeup before I go, or my bra, whatever. No one EVER says anything. I think next week I will forget my skirt altogether. Then we'll see who stays quiet.

Movie Review

Last night I went out with a couple of my BFF's. We just wanted to get out, without kids, and go do something that would make us laugh and also that required no thinking, or exerting any energy. So someone suggested we see House Bunny. The previews did look funny. Okay, I'm in! It really didn't matter to me if it was good or bad. I love bad movies. Some of my favs: To Justin from Kelly (a must see) and Grease 2. I am also a fan of horrible shows, i.e. "Saved by the Bell". I don't know what it is that draws me to these sorts of things. As I watch them I am always embarrassed for whoever is participating in the show or movie. Anyway, I have to say this movie was pretty bad, but not quite up to the so bad it was good standard that I hold so high. There was a point in the movie where I found myself laughing really hard, not at the movie, but at the movie. Sadly, it was not enough to recommend it for my good, but bad, picks. It sort of stooped to dirtiness to get a laugh sometimes. That's right, my friend picked out a sort of dirty movie. I guess it's one of the many reasons we've been friends for so long. So I will suggest to you all, if you are interested at all in seeing this movie, wait until it comes on TBS and they replay it for six weekends in a row, probably followed by a Harold and Kumar movie.

On another note, there has been a few comments about our blogger reunion. (Jenny and I were talking about it anyway.) We are kind of serious about it. We were thinking about a weekend in October, mid to end. Jenny suggested Forks, in a joking way, but then admitted she was serious. I wasn't sure about it, until I saw this. It is the official Forks, Washington website. Way too awesome! When you pull it up, you need to make sure you pull up the map of the town. There are arrows pointing to points of interest. There is one pointing to the Forks police station, and it says "Bella's father works here." I thought the book was fictional, but apparently Charlie does exist, and not only that, but he is still working at the police station! There was also an arrow pointing to Forks community hospital, and it says "Bella came here and was treated by Edward's father". So I am thinking, Carlisle is still there working too! Seriously, how could anyone pass up this opportunity! I am thinking, one of us could "accidentally" get some sort of cut and need stitches and we could all take you to the community hospital and have Carlisle give you stitches. So, who's in?

More parenting tips for you all

My friend Dalana went and had herself another baby. (She did have a little help in the matter) So, today I went and met my new friend Cole. Super cute! He loved me too. I meant to only stay a few minutes, knowing how it feels to just have a baby. You need to use the bathroom a lot, you're not very comfortable, you need to nurse, and let's not forget all the "visits" you get from those nurses, massaging your uterus. Anyway, my few minutes turned into about an hour. Rude, I know. But, I just couldn't help myself.

Howie was pretty into the little tyke also. He kept wanting me to show him pictures of him when he was a baby. Then he asked me to show him pictures of me making him a baby....... Don't worry....I didn't. As if I would even know which ones are the ones when he came about anyway. Come on, who keeps track of those sorts of things.

But, I did come across this beauty. It shows just what a great mom I am. It was Calvin's 6th birthday. We have a tradition of breakfast in bed for your birthday. One of many traditions I try to keep up with that I enjoyed as a child.

You can clearly see the amount of time and effort that went into this special birthday breakfast. For those of you who are having a hard time with the clarity, I will give you a run down of what is on the menu. 1. A bowl of Lucky Charms. (Note the amount of marshmallows, this lets me know it must have been a fresh box). 2. A plastic cup of water to drink. (Calvin hates milk) 3. Three Andes mints. (A favorite of mine and anyone else who patrons the Olive Garden).

If I were my own mom and dad, there would have also been bacon, eggs, and a wide assortment of juices to drink. PLUS, the cereal would have included a prize that would have been resting on my tray for only me to enjoy. So I know I keep saying this, but I REALLY need to get started on that parenting book!!

what is it? The Book Club from Down Under?

Alright, I guess I should start by saying, I'm a little obsessed. I read the half finished manuscript of Midnight Sun twice. What's that you say? "SOMEones has a lot of time on their hands". Well, it's no gluing penny's on a dashboard, but I still had the same feeling of accomplishment when I was done. And although after talking with St. Jenny about it, I do feel a little bad critiquing an unfinished novel. But since I have NOTHING bad to say about it, I will proceed. I loved it. I loved how I got to know the Cullen family better, I liked getting to feel how his family life was. I liked being able to hear what everyone was thinking. I liked getting to know her friends better through their thoughts, and I also liked that I found myself not liking many of her friends. There were a few things that I read in Twilight thinking, "Did I miss something? An inside joke?" And they were all explained in Midnight Sun. I also liked that I no longer wanted Bella to ever be with Jacob, only Edward. Who doesn't want a guy to feel about them like that? Don't you gize all agree? My favorite thing about the book was in one of the last chapters she wrote. He kept going on making comments in his head about the ugly sweater Bella was wearing, like it was helping him to not want to attack her. Like this one: "For a brief fraction of a second, I was overwhelmed by the idea of holding her in my arms at a dance-where she would surely wear something pretty and delicate rather than this hideous sweater." or "I was grateful to the unbecoming sweater that she wore". There was another one too, but I don't have THAT much time, geesh.
Really the only thing I didn't like was that it isn't finished. Hopefully she will finish it, or maybe I could help her out if she needs me to. I'll be waiting and rereading till I hear from her.