My favorite things

Here are some of the things I can't live without these days.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips

This is the BEST beauty product I have come across in years.  Forget painting your nails or paying for expensive manicures.  These strips take about 10 minutes to put on and they stay for WEEKS without chipping.  They go on dry so there is no drying time so there is no way to smudge them.  They come in tons of cute patterns including special-edition patterns around certain holidays.  Here are some of my favorites:

Spun For You (Limited Edition Halloween)

 Bling It On (Regular Line)

Kitty, Kitty (Regular Line) 

Hot Wired (Limited Edition Halloween)

Winter Funderland (Limited Edition Holiday)

Filtrete Water Station

Joe bought us one of these for Christmas last year, and I love it so much!  You just place the whole base under the tap and it filters the water and fills up the re-usable plastic water bottles.  They are easy to take on the go, and I have been drinking significantly more water since we bought this.  We even bought 4 extra bottles because we go through the water so fast.  The only complaint I have is when people in my house don't fill them up.  Funny story -- I recently did a little experiement to prove to Devyn and Joe that they never fill them up, but I learned in the process that I was actually the culprit!  

Google Calendar

This is the most amazing calendar app I have ever used.  I literally could not function without it.  It lets me color-code appointments into different catergories (work vs home) and use little symbols to break them down even further (court, CFTMs, meetings, etc.)  The BEST part about it is that I can "share" my calendar with people, namely Joe, so instead of calling me to say, "What are we doing on Friday night?" he can just look in his phone!  Or, when I have a late night at work, he doesn't have to worry about me, because he could see my client's address in my calendar if I disappeared.  I haven't tried this yet, but I could even create appointments slots and share the calendar with my workers to schedule meeting times with me.  So cool!

Chevre (Goat Cheese)

I love all types of cheese, but goat cheese is especially marvelous.  Try drizzling a little honey over it and warming it up in the oven.  Heaven!

Google Music

I haven't used this a lot yet, but from what I can tell so far, this is an amazing idea!  Basically you upload all your music from your hardrive to Google's "cloud", download the app to your phone, and then you can play all your music directly from your phone without it clogging up your memory.  That means I can "store" all 100gigs of music on my phone.  Cool!

Frederick's of Hollywood Full-Figure Corset Bra

I swear to God, this is the most comfortable and supportive bra for girls with big boobs!  The lady at Frederick's made me try it on, and I didn't want to because it looks so frumpy on the hanger, but it looks HOT once you put it on!  I buy 2 or 3 now every time I go to Vegas.  They are really reasonably priced, too -- only $36, and frequently on sale on top of that.  Try one out!



Liane Moriarty

I was introduced to one of her books earlier this year in my Book Club and I absolutely loved her.  I immediately when tout and picked up her other 2 books.  Her writing style is smart, sassy, funny, realistic, and heartfelt all at the same time.  I highly recommed her books.

 What Alice Forgot

The Last Anniversary 

Three Wishes

Corona

I don't know what my deal is, but I just really love Corona lately.

Kostizi

This is the world's best discount website!  They sell gift cards to restaurants and bars all over town for huge discounts, sometimes even over 50%.  Joe and I go to The Point After by our house about 2-3 nights a week for dinner because we get the gift cards for so cheap.  I had to invest in an expandable check folder to organize all my awesome gift cards!  The coolest thing about it is that they are trying to get all the restaurants on board with using a card so all balances would be stored in one place rather than seperate paper gift cards.  Some restaurants already use the card and I'm hoping more join soon.  Paperless is the way of the future!  Also check out the sister companies, Big Deal Utah and the CW Store.

Update

I can't believe it has been 5 months since I updated this thing! Time really does fly. I figured I better check in with all (2 or 3) of my readers and let you know what we've been up to.

 

At home...

 

Joe and I are still stuck in our "upside down" condo. We'd love nothing more than to be able to sell this condo for what we owe on it, but we'd lose about $50K if we sold it today. We just want a house! Lately we've been thinking about buying a house anyway and renting out the condo until we can sell it, but it would sure make for a tight budget and I'm not sure I want to make that sacrifice right now. We actually made an offer on a house a few months back, but it wasn't accepted, so we're just keeping our options open for now until we find something we really love.

This is the house we put an offer on

Joe's ceiling masterpiece

 

My family...

My baby sister, Devyn is still living with us. We love having her here, especially since she finally turned 21! We just back from a weekend in Vegas to celebrate the big day. Sadly, we all came home "losers", but that's just par for the course in Vegas. Devyn is working part time as a preschool aide at Pingree School for Autism. She loves her job and I love hearing the funny stories about her kids. We're really proud of all her hard work at school and in her career.

Joe, Kyle, and Devyn in Vegas

Devyn, me, and Alisha in Vegas

I haven't spoken to my brother, Tyson, in over 18 months now. It's been a difficult thing to deal with. I love him and miss him, and hope he's doing well. 

Cayden is growing faster than a weed. His voice has gotten so deep and he is actually taller than me! I can't believe he is in high school. This kid is so smart -- he currently has a 4.0 GPA!! We try to do a game night or a date night every month or so to stay in touch with him.

My parents have had a rough year. My dad took a new job last year but was laid off a few months later due to budget cuts. He's been looking for a new job for a few months now, but the right thing just isn't popping up. On the other hand, my mom got a new job. She decided it was time to scale back on the Mary Kay thing and time to stop working for my grandparent's travel agency since they are retiring soon. She is working as an administrative assistant for a group of salesman, and she really seems to be loving it.

Mom & Dad

My beautiful cousin, Kristyn, got married a few weeks ago. I was honored that she asked me to officiate her wedding! I got ordained as a minister online for free in about 5 minutes. It was super scary but also very fun! I had a great time putting together a ceremony specifically for her and Colt that included Dr Seuss (her favorite author) and a unity painting.

Me officiating Kristyn & Colt's wedding 
 

The gorgeous Kristyn Peterson Cannon

Joe's family...

Joe's mom and her long-time partner, Don, got engaged last year. Their original plan was to get married in Vegas on 11/11/11, but they decided to postpone that and build a house this year instead. It should be done by Christmas and we're excited to go see it! They are planning to get married in their backyard next spring. It should be beautiful.

Joe's brother, Shawn, booked a trip to come visit us next January. We're excited to see him and spend time with him!

At work...

I've been a supervisor in Tooele for nearly a year now. I can't believe how fast it has gone. I really love the job even though there have been some pretty difficult moments and some hard learning experiences. I didn't realize how much different it would be to manage workers than to manage clients, so that's been an adjustment. But overall, I'm happy to go to work every day, and I'm not planning on leaving Tooele anytime soon. I have a great boss, a great co-supervisor, and some really great workers on my team!

This is my view every morning on my drive to work :)

Joe is still chugging along at E*Trade. He has had a couple opportunities to work on special projects this year and he has really enjoyed the variety. I'm excited for the Christmas party next month -- you can't beat the prizes, entertainment, food, and open bar they have every year!

Noah's Event Center, the location for the annual E*Trade Christmas Party

Misc Activities...

I've been a Big Sister at Big Brothers Big Sisters for the last few years. I have been matched with my current Little, Alivia, since February, and let's just say it's been a very challenging experience. Liv has had a really tough life that has been lacking healthy role models and experiences to learn how to be a normal kid. We've had some really rough patches in our Match, but luckily we have a really good Match specialist that is always there to support us. It's been a tough decision, but I've decided to end the match at the 1 year mark (that's the minimum commitment) and take a break from the program. I need some time to decide if Big Brothers Big Sisters is the right charity for me, or if I want to volunteer my time and energy in another area.

Me and my bowling team (Joe, Liv, Kyle, and Devyn) at the annual Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl For Kids Sake fundraiser

I went a little overboard and committed myself to 3 books clubs this year! I manage "Books & Brunch", a collection of DCFS workers and friends from grad school. I think I'm the only one who consistently reads the book each month, but that's okay! I enjoy the brunch dates and time to catch up with friends. We're always looking for new members so let me know if you want to join! I also manage a book club at work, and I joined my friend Natasha's book club. I haven't been able to make it to all the meetings for those, but I have been proud of myself for reading all 3 books every month. Check out my Goodreads page for titles and reviews :)

 

My favorite bookmark