A Book Giveaway!!! (with a twist)

I'm giving away this book:
























But wait! There's a twist to this giveaway, so read on to find out the stipulations.

A childhood friend of mine gave me this book in a similar blog giveaway and I absolutely loved it! This book has a powerful message, and this friend of mine is trying to do something to help it, via her website Thrilled by the Thought. I've decided to help her cause as well. So, if you enter this giveaway, you're signing up to 1. read it (soon), 2. give it away (on a blog, to a neighbor, whoever), 3. go back to my friend's blog, thrilledbythethought.com and tell her who you gave it away to so she can track it. I'm linked to her blog, so I'll find out as it gets passed on, as she'll blog about it. Once you read it and pass it on, please let give it to someone that will agree to the same terms.

Now, let me tell you why this book must be passed around. It is a fascinating story of how one person can change many lives. Greg Mortenson was hiking the famous K2 mountain of Pakistan in 1993 when he

got lost, nearly died, and stumbled upon a tiny village. As he was being nursed back to health by the villagers, he asked to see the village’s school. What he was shown was shocking. Boys (and a few girls) were outside in the elements (without a teacher), scratching their lessons into the frozen ground. It turns out that a teacher cost $1 a day. The village was too poor to afford that salary, so they teamed up with another village to hire a teacher. Even between the two villages, they could not afford to pay a teacher to teach every day. So on the off days, the students gathered to practice their lessons.

How many American children do you know that would dedicate that much effort to school?

Mortenson returned to America and tried to raise enough money to build a school and hire a teacher for this village. It took him a long time, but he finally found a donor who was willing to give it a shot. Mortenson returned and built the school, under extremely difficult adversities. Later, with the help of the same donor, Mortenson was able to set up a fund, called the Central Asia Institute (CAI). He has since established 78 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with a special emphasis in helping girls receive their education. (You can read more about this book and see pictures of the schools at www.threecupsoftea.com).

Mortenson believes that the only way to end the terrible conflicts in these areas is through education.

So back to my friend's blog and what she wants to do to help Mortensen's cause. In her words:

"I believe he [Mortensen] is right. That is why I am giving away this book. Each time this book is given away, I will donate $1.00 to the Central Asia Institute, and I will invite any willing readers to do the same. It only costs $1.00 a month for one child’s education in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

So that is why it is important that if you enter to win this book, you must accept the terms to

1. read it soon and give it away
2. come back to www.thrilledbythethought.com to tell me about it
3. make sure the person you give it to agrees to give it away and follow the same terms you have agreed to"

So as to how this giveaway works. Leave a comment on my blog by March 13th to be entered into the giveaway. Send a friend over to my blog and you'll get two additional entries. If you blog about giveaway on your blog, you'll get five additional entries. You can do one or all three! Giveaway ends Friday, March 13th. I plan to donate each timet his book is passed along as well, so please help me and my friend keep this going!

Turning over a new leaf, or resurrecting an old one

Bill and I are a pretty active couple. Well, we usually are. While we were engaged we got kind of lazy. There were so many things to plan and so many commitments, that we just stopped planning extra things to do for fun and just kind of let life lead us along for a few months. We've been married for a month-and-a-half now, though, and we've spent the last couple weeks getting back into the groove of our active and more disciplined lifestyle.

Here's a few of the things we've done of late.

1. Started training for the St. George Marathon. It's my fourth, Bill's first, and I don't think I can really call myself a Utah Marathoner unless I've run this race, Boston Marathoner or not. Cross your fingers that we get picked to run it in May when they have the drawing.

2. Mostly finished decorating our apartment. We still have some pictures to put up from our wedding, but we picked out our duvet cover for our bed, hung some pictures, and outfitted our kitchen as much as we're going to at the moment.



























3. Went mountaineering with our friends the Johnsons a weekend ago. We hiked/snowshoe'd up a good majority of Lone Peak. We shoe-skied half the way down since it was so steep. It was tons of fun.












4. Hiked to Stewart Falls from the Aspen Grove Trailhead last Friday night. We had a busy day/evening, so we didn't get up there until 9:30pm and got back to the car at midnight. As we were leaving, a car of college guys drove up and started the hike. They were about as ill-equipped to hike it as you can be as it's still super snowy and icy up there. They had weak sauce shoes on and hardly any coats and just big flashlights to see. Bill and I seriously wondered if they'd make it back safe, but I didn't hear anything so I think they must have been fine.

5. Saturday we went shooting with Vince and Megan, Bill's brother and his fiance and after our stake conference that evening went out to Tucano's for dinner. What a fun trip! Vince has lots of guns, so we had a great time shooting out on the other side of Utah Lake.





















It feels good to be active again. I hate feeling lazy and unproductive. I'm not working full-time anymore, as of the first of the year, so it's been nice to have the chance to sleep in a lot and have a more relaxing lifestyle. I'm happy to be speeding up the pace again though. Now if I can only get the letter from BYU saying (cross your fingers) that I've been accepted into my grad program, things will be just about perfect.

Weird Formatting

So posting a bunch of wedding photos really made the formatting of my blog weird. I'll have to fix that soon. Not tonight though!

Some of my favorite wedding photos

I got 2 DVDs with 808 photos from the wedding. Yeah, that's right, 808 photos. And you know what? Most of them were awesome! Here's a bunch of my favorites, but this is seriously a drop in the bucket of all the photos we have.

Pictures are finally coming!

I'm picking up my wedding pictures after work tonight! I'm so excited!

Anyone want to comment?

So I'm still waiting for two more people to comment on my last post so I can make you something. I promise it'll be good. :)

Pay it Forward

Pay it forward...
The rules
1. Be one of the first THREE (3) bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, only I know.
2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will Pay IT Forward, creating a handmade gift- anything! for the first THREE (3) bloggers who leave a comment on their post about the giveaway!
3. The gift that you send to your friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make and/ or ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: it's the spirit and the thought that counts!
4. When you receive your gift, feel free to post about it, sharing appropriate pictures and comments! If you are not one of the first three to comment on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your friends to do the same!
SO, REMEMBER...Pay It Forward!
Let's help make this a wonderful world to live in and show our friends how much we care for them :)

I just bought tickets to Cancun!

Bill and I are going to Cancun in April after school gets out! Woot, woot! We're so excited! The best part is that we only have to pay for our tickets there and everything else is paid for by a trip we won. Woohoo! Tickets are super cheap right now and we got both our tickets for about $650, as opposed to the $1100 we saw just a couple weeks ago. Yay for prices going down!

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

Mary Kay

Last week I decided to start selling Mary Kay. What with hoping to be in grad school in the Fall (I'm still waiting to hear back from my program), and not being able to work during the year if I do get in, I feel like I need a different way to earn money that I can do on my schedule instead of set hours. I've been using Mary Kay products for years, and I love them, so I figured it was a good option. If you want to buy some products, I can hook you up. Or I can do a free facial for you so you can try out the products. They're pretty awesome, so I highly recommend it. Just drop me a line if you're interested.

On a brighter note...

So although I'm feeling exceptionally poor today, it is nice to actually have the time to blog about last weekend. My parents and Bill and I caravaned out to the Springs on Friday to be there in time for our open house on Saturday. We decorated the church Friday night with the help of some wonderful friends that still live there. Nannette and Clay Jones hosted the weekend for us and they were just so generous and wonderful about everything! We stayed at their house all weekend and Clay made us the most amazing salmon Saturday night! What a great family they are.

After decorating on Friday, Bill and I headed over to the Black's house to spend some time with Kirsten, my best friend, who also drove in for the open house. It was so wonderful to get to spend some time with her! She just moved to Craig, CO from Texas so I'm very glad that she's closer by so we can go visit them. I wish we could always live near each other, but sadly, that's definitely not the case.

Ever since my parents moved to Utah last year, I've felt just a little displaced. I wasn't really sure what to call home anymore, because I've now lived in Utah for almost as long as I lived in Colorado. Going there this weekend totally sealed the deal for me. I'm definitely a Coloradan at heart and am always going to be. I love that place!

Saturday morning I took Bill to Garden of the Gods. We didn't get to stay for very long, but we did hike around a little bit. Rock climbing there is a reason unto itself to make a trip back to the Springs.

The open house turned out great. Not too many people were able to make it, but that was actually nice because we got to talk more in-depth with the ones that did come. It was really nice and just an awesome trip. After the open house we had a good time opening our presents. We've gotten more presents over the last few weeks that I've gotten in years. It's been a fun month, that's for sure.

Who knew you could catch the flu through the Internet!

So I came home from work last night feeling rather poorly. I'd spaced out my eating throughout the day a little far, plus I'd stopped by the gym and exercised on the way home, so I thought my body was just signaling to me that I needed to eat and it was unhappy with me. The being unhappy with me part was true, but not for the reason I thought. By the time I got home I had a pounding headache and was feeling nauseous. I get the flu so rarely that I really didn't recognize the symptoms at all until I tried to eat several times throughout the evening and progressively threw it all up.

Last night was pretty much the longest night of my life. I didn't throw up anymore, but sleep didn't come so easily and it was just miserable. I was hoping to be better today but no such luck. I've spent the day mostly camped out on my couch sleeping as doing anything else seems to trigger me throwing up again. Not fun! Hopefully this is one of those 24-hour bugs and it will be gone later today, but it's sure hanging around for the moment. I think the last time I threw up was probably 5 years ago. It just doesn't happen to me. I get lots of other kinds of sick, but not nauseous. I have no idea what I'm going to do when I'm pregnant, because I pretty much hate this feeling with a burning passion.

My parents were super nice to stop by and bring me some groceries so that I could find something to eat. It was really nice to have them come. They moved to Utah a little over a year ago, and having them so close in the area is awesome!

So I've decided to place blame on my sister Tori and her family for this sickness. They are currently suffering from the flu themselves, all the way out in Pennsylvania, and she blogged about it last night. I didn't get sick until after I read it, so that obviously means that the flu can be contracted through the Internet. I even got a flu shot this year! So much for that. Just kidding! I actually feel really bad for her, as I think they're strain is quite a lot worse than mine. All I can say is, "I know how you feel little sister!"