Book Club

Last night was our second Book Club meeting. It was at our house this time. We only had 5 people show up, but it is a really good group. Unfortunately we are losing 2 of them for the summer, so I don't know if we will actually be meeting until September. We did select books to read for the next 4 months though.

Our discussion was over The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It was a very interesting book. Definitely not one that I would have picked out myself. It follows the story of a preacher that takes his family to the Congo to convert the people. He never tries to get to know the people or learn their language and although he lives with his family, he does nothing to take care of them. The book takes you through the lives of his daughters and it is interesting how different they all turned out given that they suffered through the same events.

Our upcoming books:
MAY: The Giver by Lois Lowry & The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
JUNE: One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
JULY: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
AUGUST: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

Mama Bird

We've been keeping an eye on the bird nest in our Japanese Maple. The tree isn't very tall and is right in front of our house so we have a pretty good view of the nest. Mama Bird has been spending a lot of time in it lately.

Big Weekend

Darin and I both had Good Friday off so we had a nice three day weekend and got a lot accomplished. We took D's car into the shop, dropped stuff off at Goodwill, picked up some special inserts for Darin's shoes from Ideal Feet, bought some bookcases at LNT and had lunch at On the Border. (Try the Borderitto!)



Saturday we planted our first flowers since we moved in 2 1/2 years ago. We planted Zinnias, Snap Dragons and a Hibiscus. We hope they survive; it is already really hot here!



Saturday night was the Ward Adult Party. It had an Italian theme and was held downtown on the 21st floor of Dad's building. The view was pretty good. I tried to take some pictures from the fire escape but it was so windy!



We sang two numbers with the choir on Sunday. After church we had dinner at the Tanner's and I brought dessert. I made cupcake chicks for the boys and Angel Lush for the adults.

It doesn't matter how late we go to bed Friday night, Darin is up bright and early to go biking with H and P. Despite all the cuts and bruises and ripped thumb nails, he never misses an opportunity to ride.

Last night we had our first dinner group with four other couples in the ward. The W's hosted and we had hamburgers, chips with guacamole and salsa, deviled eggs, cantelope and this delicious layered dessert brought by DT. We had such a great time! After two of the couples left, the girls played Nerts which is very close to Pounce, a game I love, but I just can't seem to get the hang of Nerts. I think I lost every round. The guys went upstairs to watch the big screen tv and listen to music videos.

Next month it is our turn to host the dinner group.

I saw a bird in the tree this morning so I went out to take some pictures of it. The bird would sit there a while and then fly away but come back a few minutes later. I thought it was so nice of the bird to stay so long for me to get a good shot. Turns out I was blocking the path to the nest it was building!

Relief Society Birthday Party

Last Thursday we celebrated the Relief Society's 164th Birthday at our Enrichment Night. We had dinner and birthday cake!

Each sister was supposed to bring a baby picture and two items that represented her. These were randomly placed on tables and we had to guess to whom they belonged. It was so hard! I gave up after about 10 minutes and just took pictures.

Can you see my items?

New Toys

We got some new toys last month: an Ipod Nano for Darin and a Canon Digital Rebel XT camera for me.

We have both been getting a lot of use out of our treasures! Darin figured out that he can put books on CD onto his Ipod. Pretty cool! He just finished his first "book." The young men in the ward congratulated him on joining the technology age.

Trying Again

We're going to give this blog thing another try. Hopefully I can keep it updated!

A picture of Sammy. I took a bunch of pictures of him while playing with my new camera. He was worried I was going to steal his toy!