The Sunday Salon: Exciting Week!

It's been a crazy fun week! And this next week promises to be the same! I love having tons to do and lots of stuff happening, don't you?

Outside my window: Nice out there today. Very nice. I should be out there breathing that air!

I am listening to: My Classic Rock Pandora station.. currently playing Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress.

Song of the week: This song keeps coming up on my Pandora and I really enjoy it. What do you think?








TV Talk: Oh my gosh, the people on Survivor are awful this go around! And I can't tell you how glad I am to see that Colton kid go! I mean, it was sad, and all, but still. However, I loved, LOVED, the Colton on American Idol this week, singing Piano Man. LOVED! 

READING REPORT:
Books Finished:  The Hollow City by Dan Wells (loved this one! But it doesn't come out until July so I'm going to have to wait a bit to tell you all about it!) and Promises by Carolyn Twede Frank ( also really enjoyed this one... review as part of a blog tour coming up next weekend!)
Books Started: Return to Exile by E.J. Patten

Books Up Next: Gosh, I have no idea what's going to win the battle of book stack! I'll let you know next week!

I am thinking: man, I have a lot to do!

I'm grateful for: music, family, books, movie premiers, chocolate, computers, blogging friends, and sleeping.

Around the house: nothing to report in this category. I need to sweep the floor, let's just say that!

Recipe of the Week: The Pinterest recipe of the week are these ginger/chocolate cookies, which actually were not as good as I expected... the look better in the picture! Then again, I could have just royally messed it up perhaps!

Source: marthastewart.com via Suey on Pinterest

Favorite things of the week: Hungers Games tops the week for sure! Beauty and the Beast the night before that was pretty fun too. Hanging out with my sister who was here for several days was also quite fun, though we got too tired, slept too much and ate too much! Another favorite thing was when Jenny come over and we talked Dan Wells, among other things, for an hour. :)

Family Matters: My two oldest kids went to the color festival this weekend. I saw picture on Facebook that sums it up:

Only I heard there were WAY more people there... more like 50,000. So far, I have yet to experience this phenomenon... maybe some day. 

Hunger Games was very fun with my family... two sisters pictured here in Jenni Elyse's photo

... and also with my daughter and my dad. Daughter pictured here with me and Jenni Elyse:

The coming week: BLOGGIESTA! Yes, it starts this week Friday through Sunday. Come and work on your bloggish business with us as much as you can those three days. Sign ups here. Be sure to follow @bloggiesta on Twitter and use the #bloggiesta hashtag to stay informed of what's going on. I plan to post New Bloggiesta Mini Challenges on Thursday, then the starting line up post with links to your to do lists on Friday.

Also this week I'll be participating on my first ever panel discussions... one at a BYU writing class about how blogging can help authors (on Wed)... and one at the library about how to get a blog going and find a community and get readers (on Thurs.) Fun, yes? Scary? For sure yes! I'll be freaking out, but I'll also be having a ton of fun talking to people about blogging and I can't wait!


Oh, and then there's cake decorating on Tuesday with the young girls in my church class. Maybe I'll take a picture for you all.


So basically I'd say the only day with something NOT happening will be tomorrow. Here's hoping for reading time at least on Monday! ETA: Scratch that.. I just remembered there's an orchestra concert tomorrow! So yep... every evening this week. Argh.

Blog Report: Weird, I reviewed two movies this week! John Carter and The Hunger Games. That was fun, I think I'll do official reviews of movies more often. Okay? Okay. I also reviewed some books... The Savage Grace as part of a blog tour (including the Author Picks Five post too!) and a couple of recent award winners: Where Things Come Back and Why We Broke Up.

Lots of stuff besides Bloggiesta coming up this week, I have to catch up on reviews and wow, so many things going on this week! Will you be sticking with me to see how it all shakes down? I hope so!

P.S. Did you notice a little change in my blog this weekend? It's a small thing, but it felt huge for me to change it! Two points goes to whoever can tell me what it is!!!