Read One Non-Fiction Book a Month

I've heard somewhere before that sucessful people read at least one non-fiction book a month and since I want to be sucessful, I decided I would try it. It's been a while since I've read a non-fiction book. I really like to get lost in a story and its characters and you just don't find that in non-fiction, but for the sake of sucess I wanted to try. While I was at book club last month some of the girls were talking about kids and a couple of the girls said they were reading a really good book on parenting called Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood: Practical Parenting from Birth to Six Years so I figured since one day we might have some kids and moms are always saying how they never have any time to read, I thought I would read it now while I still have time. Anyway, it was a good, easy read and had some great ideas on parenting. Now that I'm done I was wondering if anyone has any other good suggestions. I'm open to everything; self-help, biographies, historical events, etc...

Eat More Chicken at Chick-Fil-A!

So get this, I slept in a parking lot last night. It’s a good story, here’s how it goes. In a shopping complex close to my house they built a Chick-Fil-A. My brother in law, Brian, heard from a friend of his, that at the grand opening of a Chick-Fil-A they give the first 100 customers a years supply of free combo meals. Now anyone who has ever eaten at Chick-Fil-A knows how good their food is; the chicken sandwich topped with two pickles, their classic waffle fries and don’t forget the fresh squeezed lemonade. I mean how could you pass up on a free year’s supply of combo meals. I knew I couldn’t, so when Brian told me a couple of weeks ago that the grand opening would be May 22nd, I started preparing myself for the blessed day when it would rain down free chicken from the heavens (and rain it did.) We have had such lovely weather that I was actually looking forward to spending the evening of the 21st outside, however this good old Utah weather sent us a curve ball and it turned cold and raining the day of the 21st. I was a little hesitant and thought maybe I won’t go after all; cause is it worth being miserable stuck out in the rain and cold just for some free chicken. What I failed to consider was that my brother in law had all this well thought out and came prepared with a tent, sleeping bags, extra blankets and even a portable space heater, so it was more like an awesome adult slumber party instead of a night in the cold. I arrived around 7:00pm the evening of the 21st. I helped Brian set up our tent and we scoped the place out. The rules stated that once you were checked in you could not leave the area they had roped off even to get something in your car, so we made sure we had everything we needed before we went to check in. My sister-in-law, Pam was coming later that evening and I thought to myself why not share this joyous occasion with others, so I called my sisters to see if they wanted to come and share in the fun. Rebecca, and her boyfriend, Dallin, didn’t have anything going on and being the adventurous souls they are, thought it sounded really fun and came on over and joined us. When the three of us checked in around 8:00pm we were numbers 55-57. When Pam checked in around 9:45pm she was number 90, by 10:15pm they had given the last number away, so we hunkered down for the night. During the festivities that night Chick-Fil-A handed out chicken nuggets and ice cream to everyone, it made me that much more excited for my free year’s supply of chicken.

Enjoying the festivities! Jacob Evans, me, Pam & Brian Slade

They did the last roll call around 11:15pm and then we all went to bed. Neither rain, nor wind, nor dead of night deterred us from our goal, though they all sure tried. We stayed snug and warm inside our tent while it was raining and blowing outside. At 6:00am in the morning the Chick-Fil-A staff woke us up, this was the moment we had all been waiting for. We stood in line according to our number waiting for the doors to open and at 6:20am they finally did.

Rebecca, Dallin and everyone else standing in line in the morning.

We were lead in through the door and greeted by Chick-Fil-A personnel, they were banging pots and pans and there in the middle of all the excitement and commotion was what we had been waiting for, our free year’s supply of combo meals. The definition of year’s supply is 52 combo meals. I’ve got myself 52 coupons for free combo meals from Chick-Fil-A that can be used anytime within the next year. Maybe if you’re nice to me, I’ll treat you to lunch. :-) In our group of die-hard Chick-Fil-A fans we had 7 people, that is 364 free combo meals and that my friend is a lot of chicken. Eat more chicken! Eat more chicken! Eat more chicken…

Chick-Fil-A Fans!
Front: Rebecca, me, Pam. Back: Dallin, Brian, Vaughn, Jacob.

The Host Discussion and Signing

The Fan Club

I love Stephenie Meyer, she is author of the Twilight Series which I also love, so when I heard she was coming to Salt Lake to promote her new book, The Host, I knew I had to get a ticket to attend. The event was Saturday and I went with my friend, Cassie, who is also a die hard Stephenie Meyer fan, and who I owe a deep gratitude to, for introducing me to Stephenie Meyer’s books in the first place. The event was a book discussion and book signing. We were able to hear Stephenie answer some questions about The Host and how she came up with the idea for the story and characters. She was also kind enough to give us some updates on the Twilight series books and the movie too. She signed my copy of The Host and wrote "To Sue" I mean how cool is that :-) she also signed my copy of Twilight, (again thank you Cassie). While I was walking around waiting for the event to start I met Alphie, from the Twilight Lexicon, which was an added bonus because I love that website. It was fun to be able to attend and scream and act crazy for one of my favorite authors. Long Live Twilight and Stephenie Meyer too!

Shopping Spree

On Friday I went on a shopping spree for some new jeans. My sister told me I would look skinnier and cutier if I would wear some jeans that fit instead of the old, baggy, faded ones that I currently have in my wardrobe. The words were harsh but true and I had to agree with her. I set out on a mission and I accomplished it. I bought myself three pairs of jeans, that all make my butt look really cute, for less than $60. The truly amazing thing about the whole experience was that there was no crying involved while trying on all these jeans. :-) Since I was already out and about and the stores were having some great sells I picked up a few shirts and a jacket too. It was good to revamp my wardrobe cause now I'll be all cute and sassy for summer. (Plus I'm helping out the economy.)

Pedicure

For Christmas my dad gave my sister, Rebecca and I a gift certificate to go and get a pedicure at a local salon. We waited until now to get them so everyone could see how cute our toes look in sandals. I had them put a little flower on each of my biggy toes, it looks so cute. I’ve decided that during the summer months I’m going to keep up my pedicure so my feet will always look cute.

Alma Mater

The other day I received a letter in the mail from Dixie College asking me to donate some money to the school. If this request had come from any of the other schools I attended while on my journey to getting my bachelor degree I would have thrown it in the recycle bin without a second thought. But the request came from Dixie and anyone who knows me, knows I love, Love, LOVE Dixie. I loved going to school there, I loved the wonderful friends I made, I loved everything about my experience at Dixie. My blog name even got its origin from Dixie. (While attending school in St. George I wrote a monthly article in our family newsletter called Sue’s Fun in the Sun, it just made sense to use that as the title of my blog too.) So I will be donating to the school because I hope through my donation that it can help someone else and that they can have as wonderful experience as I did.