My 3rd Eye - Day 49: All The World's a Stage

Yep, you guessed it (did you guess it?), the beginning of this week was spent at our beloved Shakespearean Festival in Southern Utah. Here we are at the fabulous Green Show before Tuesday night’s performance of “The 39 Steps” by Alfred Hitchcock. We also saw “Great Expectations” (the musical) by Charles Dickens and “Tarzan” (the musical) down at Tuacahn. Gotta love live theatre!

{the ever-fabulous Green Show, before each night’s plays}

All of the performances were packed with truly amazing talent. Our only regret was that we didn't get tickets to a Shakespeare play …or Edmond Rostand, for that matter. Remember how I’m obsessed with his writing?

Welp, there’s always next year!

If you've never been to the Utah Shakespearean Festival...you're due for a visit!

*Last year's Shakespearean adventure*

My 3rd Eye - Day 39: Tell Me The Stories of Jesus

T

This photo reminded me of one of my favorite talks from this past General Conference.

Read it here

My 3rd Eye - Day 4: Bedtime Stories

I hope you had a lovely Sunday to jump-start the beautiful week that lies fresh before you.

Oh what do you do on Spring Break...

...when all your time is FREE!

Freeee-du-hu-hummmm!

. . .

sorry,

got a little carried away

. . .

ah-hem.

Anyway, as I was saying,

If you're having trouble finding ways to spend your free time, try these:

sleep in till 8:30am (at least),

read the Percy Jackson series,

and the church magazines,

and The Book of Mormon,

make homemade granola bars (recipe),

go to the mall with Nicole and shop till you drop,

watch Biggest Loser,

attend your nearest LDS Temple,

take lovely naps in the sunlight,

find different ways to style your new haircut (that you're not too fond of),

clean your bedroom thoroughly (no massive spider moms in thar),

take a bubble bath while watching "No Reservations" (or other chick flick),

run a 5k a day out in the gorgeous (unpredictable) weather,

make meals with the Madre while dancing around the kitchen and lip-sinking oldies,

oh

and

GO TO MOAB!

Yep!

That one's on the "To Do" for the morrow.

Can't wait to shake the dust of this crummy little town (name that movie)

and hike all over

and photograph everything

and swim/hot tub

and get a little tan

and bond con mi familia!

I'll be back on Friday for more fun and relaxation

With lots of fun pictures and stories to share!

Tah tah for now, ol' chaps!

(you can tell I'm in a giddy mood when I whip out the random accents)

Live it up!!!

*sigh*

PPP Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to Catherine Newman!

Please send your mailing address to

lindsaykayphotography@gmail.com

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway

For sharing your awesome tips, recipes and motivations.

I'll be posting those throughout the next couple of weeks,

So keep 'em coming and enjoy this beautiful weather!

YAY for sun!

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day... I totally forgot... hence I'm not wearing green.Short story: a kid I work with just told me that he'd pinch me, but he thinks that I'll beat him up if he does... I don't know what that says about me... but then he added, "It's not you, it's me." Ok? Well. At least I haven't been pinched yet.

PPP Book of the Week - Part I

Madre and I have recently been reading this

If you're as "obsessed" with The Biggest Loser as I am, she should look familiar. Jillian Michaels is one of the two trainers on The Biggest Loser and, therefore, has a wealth of knowledge about balancing our hormones through a healthy diet and exercise routine to ultimately renew our metabolism to tip-top shape. Sweet huh?

You'll be pleased to know that the diet she prescribes is not excruciating either. It's all about portions and what kinds of foods are best for our healthy and fit lifestyle.

I'm taking it on, guys and gals! I'm happy to announce that I've finally worked it into my schedule to get to the gym every day, for at least 45 minutes, and now that I have the right tools (i.e. metabolism-boosting foods) to get me going, I might just get into my desired pants size sometime soon.

Wanna know a secret? Well, it's not really a secret, but when I finally get to my desired fitness goal, I'm going to buy some jeans and use them as my fitness marker for my whole life (except for when I have babies and such). That may sound like a lofty goal, but I know I can do it.

The key?

Eating nutritious food & weekly exercise routine.

They're the unstoppable duo.

If we want to lose weight or even just maintain it, we can't eat a steady diet of fried cheesecake and Big Macs everyday and expect that, just because we ran a couple laps, we'll automatically start dropping pounds (though I wish that were the case). We can do it! BAH, I'm kind of giddy.

Eat healthy.

Sweat lots.

Therein is happiness.

I promise!

That New Year Smell

Today was a good day:

I met HER!

At Anthropology (go figure!)

Yes I did and she gave me a hug!

She is just as sweet as she seems on her blog.

Oh, I love Stephanie!

Keep her in your prayers.

Then I went to the movies with the fam:

Mom, Heather & I saw Blind Side

(oh, so good!)

Dad, Mike & Bro. McConkie saw Avatar

Kara & Kylee saw The Princess and the Frog

(also a keeper!)

Then, we went to Burger King:

Everyone got Whoppers,

Except Mom and I,

We got salads

(they are bueno!)

Then I read this for hours

Had a little nap

And read some more!

Then we went to the annual New Years Eve party at McConkie's:

We played games:

Catch Phrase,

Four on a Couch,

and laughed

a lot!

Best quote of the evening:

"Man, we're just getting older every year aren't we?!"

2009 bid us farewell,

And 2010 arrived

With banging pots and pans,

Fireworks,

Kisses,

and "Happy New Year"s!

I can't wait to see what's in store this year.

For now, it's more Percy Jackson!

(Watch out Harry Potter, you have a competitor)

Wishing you a very abundant New Year!

Happy 2010!

One Last Time

...to pack

...to drive for hours

...to relax

...to bond without interruption

...to see the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Southern Utah

...to enjoy two work-free, carefree days

My favorite play of last year,

and I dare say of my life

"Cyrano de Bergerac"

by Edmond Rostand

{Brian Vaughn as "Cyrano de Bergerac" and Melinda Pfundstein as "Roxane"}

{Drew Shirley as "Christian de Neuvillette" in the Balcony Scene}

{Brian Vaughn is the crowning jewel of the Utah Shakespearean Festival. His performance was heart-melting, breath-taking and invigorating all at once. That was the first time I have ever cried at the sheer beauty of a character, his language and circumstance. Read it!}

...And then fall semester begins

I am ready for it

Bring it on!

THE Midnight Showing

That's right!

You guessed it!

Harry Potter himself, once again returns to the big screen before an audience of

fabulous, costume-clad, adoring and potentially mental fans!

I know, because I was there... in fact, I am...one of them! The sane ones I mean.

*GASP!

The HP Midnight Showing Essentials Kit:

1. a ticket to the showing...duh

2. a blank T-shirt (color of choice) from Target and a rigorous paint session ending only when vision of excellence is achieved.

*if desired, one may also choose to further explore ones "facade-adorning creativity" and prepare a costume of a character from the book and/or film.

3. Cool, perhaps even funky, shoes of your own choosing to complete ensemble

4. Tasty treats of choice for maximum enjoyability of full 2 hours and 40 minutes

5. A knowledge and appreciation for book 6 sprung from hours of nail-biting, gut-wrenching and awe-inspiring mental consumption of said book

*note however, if you have not read book 6 but are familiar with previous movies and/or books, do not fear, you will easily follow the gripping plot of this brilliantly orchestrated film

*be warned however, that any attempts to simply "skip" the indulgence and mental consumption of book 6 simply because "the movie was enough for you" would be unwise and possibly detrimental to your full understanding of "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" along with many other key components and pre-requisites to book 7. Do not cheat yourself, once you've read them all there is no going back, that's all she wrote...literally! Consider yourself warned...

6. A pair of your greatest friends and fellow Harry Potter connoisseurs (aka nerds) to take with you

Shirts say:

"Just Snog."

"I Heart Ron"

"Blast-Ended Skrewts!"

Yes, those streaks of light are the result of, you guessed it, wand-waving and spell-casting.

It's a wonder Jalene and Nicole are so calm and collected.

Conclusion:
Harry Potter in the Half-Blood Prince is a spectabulous movie.
My favorite so far!
A must see!
...if you're pickin up what I'm puttin down!
Encore HP Movie-Making People! Encore!

Bear Lake & Banana Bread

This weekend I went to our lovely Bear Lake cabin to do some yard work with my parents and my brother Pete's cute family. His son Johnny rode up with us. We had a blast, as you can see.


Johnny practiced his typing

And wrote me a sweet note

The lawn was COVERED in these

So we made bouquets




Among other things


And here is the beautiful new addition to one of my favorite places in the world, the Bear Lake cabin


In other news, I found this really intriguing blog a couple of weeks ago and finally brought myself to try one of the recipes from it. Say hello to fat-free banana bread. Yum! Don't let the "fat-free" title fool you, it's delicious!

And I finished Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, which I would highly recommend to anyone! It's very well written and such a cute story! Read the summary here!