My Gift to You: A Recommendation

In honor of my Birthdays (I say days because, as Natalie so rightly observed, I got more than one day of celebration), I am going to recommend a book for you to read:

The Hunger Games (by Suzanne Collins) --see the pic on the right--

I love, love, loved this book. It is definitely my favorite for this year; probably a favorite of all time. A patron of mine who knows I like books talked me into it. She said that if I liked Twilight, I would like this. I still don't understand what Twilight has to do with it, since the books are NOTHING alike. So please don't not read it if you didn't like Twilight. (And no offense, but as much as I liked Twilight, this one is a notch better in the writing and believability.) But Stephenie Meyer did recommend it, and she was right on the money.

The story is set at an unknown time in the future. War has caused North America to crumble into a tightly controlled collection of 12 districts, ruled by one district called the Capitol.

Because the Capitol won the war, it controls all the food and supplies of the land. To maintain physical and psychological control over its people, it forces each district (by lottery method) to supply a young boy and girl to fight in their annual Hunger Games. It is a fight to the death.

Katniss is our heroine. When her twelve year old sister is chosen for the death match, Katniss (only 16 herself) volunteers to take her place. A boy her same age named Peeta is also chosen to represent their district, District 12.

The Capitol is all about reality tv, and not only are the games televised, but the contestants are given makeovers and air time. The kids use this time to try to garner support for themselves. If they can get sponsors, they have a better chance of being the last one standing.

Peeta and Katniss form a tenuous friendship as they prepare for the games, knowing they will soon be trying to kill each other. In a stroke of genius, Peeta decides to garner viewer support by telling the audience that he is madly in love with Katniss. The audience goes wild, after all, who doesn't love a good reality romance (think Trista and Ryan from the Bachelorette)?

How will Peeta and Katniss keep up the romantic farce when they are forced to fight each other at evey turn? Better yet, how complicated will things get when the two (against Katniss's will) start to really fall for each other on the battlefield?

Only one can win in this violent (but not in your face so) but romantic (and oh so sweet) fight to the death.

It is a book I thought about long after I had read the last page. I lent it to both a college friend and my mother in law, and both of them loved it as well. It's really a book that appeals to everyone.

So please, in honor of my birthday, go out and read a book that will have you cheering for love and justice and freedom. Read the Hunger Games.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE!!!

Posted by Ryan

I want to sneak in here and wish Steph a happy birthday and tell everyone how cool she is! Steph, Maddie, Ethan and I went to the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur in Las Vegas on Saturday to celebrate Steph’s big day. Everyone one had a great time, even though our Knight was beheaded in the end. Steph had a particularly good time since eating with her hands and yelling at performers seemed to fit her personality like a glove. It also didn’t hurt that the Knight of France seemed to have a crush on her.

Steph and I have been married since 2000 and so I’d like to share some of the things I love about Steph:
· Steph is always getting better
Like a fine wine, Steph keeps getting better with age. Steph continues to try new things, the study topics, and listen to ideas that have made her a much interesting, fun, and patient person.

· Steph is a great mom
We have two awesome kids! And most of the credit for their awesomeness should go to Steph. Ethan and Maddie have really done some impressive things in their young lives that Steph has made possible. For example, Ethan just finished his second season of competitive gymnastics and made it all the way to regionals. Steph was the one who signed Ethan up, took him to practice every day, and went to every meet to support him. Steph is also the parent who got Maddie into dance and helped teach her to and Ethan to read (even though Maddie just sort of picked it up one day – pretty impressive).

· Steph is a believer...but not really
Steph doesn’t go to Church, read scriptures, say prayers or subscribe to any of the beliefs she used to. However, Steph is a better person today than she was three years ago. She’s nicer to people, more generous to people, happier than she used to be, and she’s a better mom and wife.

I’m so glad I married Steph 9 ½ years ago and hope all will wish her a happy birthday!

The Tourney of Kings

So to celebrate my 29th birthday :) we went to the Tournament of Kings in Las Vegas. It was amazing! We had the best seats in the house! Luckily for us Quinlans we were located in the Ireland section so our King (pictured above with Ethan) was Irish just like us! We cheered him on to victory in all the jousting events. There was a special rivalry between Ireland and France, and I booed the King of France so loudly he glared at me! Yeah!

Our meal was a tankard of pepsi, tomato soup, roast chicken, broccoli, potatoes, a roll, and apple pie for dessert. All consumed, of course, sans silverware. The show was phenomenal and exceeded our already high expectations. You really felt transported back in time to the realm of Arthur! Plus, the Kings were all kind of hot which Maddie and I greatly appreciated.

I have to say this has been my best birthday so far and it was all Ryan's idea!

Good News Minute

Just a quick blurb to let you know that Ethan just placed 2nd in his first golfing tournament in St. George. Yeyah!

I'm No Arborist, but . . .

I’m no arborist, but something is up with my tree.

Last October we paid John from Professional Tree Service of St. George, Utah, to come trim our cypress tree.

It looked great for about a week, then I noticed the limbs were starting to die off. In fact, since October, so many limbs have died off that our beloved tree no longer has a top. It’s a sides-only tree. Sad.

John admitted to me in January that the tree was probably in shock from its pruning.

I’m no arborist, but it seems if I were one like John I would trim trees so they wouldn’t go into shock. But that’s just me.

When I tried calling him out on my dying tree today, he shot off a snotty reply about how “I need to educate myself about trees,” which, oddly enough, was what I had contracted him for. I assumed that he would know how to trim a tree without killing it.

My mistake.

But I won’t be making that mistake again any time soon. Hence the reason for this post. I hope that when people google tree services in St. George, Utah, they will read this post and think twice before hiring an arborist that causes his leafy clients to go into shock and lose their tops.

I’m no arborist, but John, you suck.

Makeover Imminent

Hey everyone, I'm super excited to announce that soon my blog will have a new look. That's right, I have commissioned the Blog Fairy to transform my boring and blase template to something fresh and fabulous! I am excited because she has done awesome work (check her stuff out at www.theblogfairy.com).

Now, for a little update on the fam. Ethan has given us a roller coaster ride the past week. On Sunday we had to call an ambulance because he had a seizure. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen! He had had a high fever earlier that day. The paramedics told us that when we gave him Tylenol, it dropped his fever so fast that his body seized in reaction. Luckily, seizures cause no harm and aren't lasting. Ethan ended up being diagnosed with a viral infection.

We were supposed to go to Escalante on Tuesday, but with Ethan's viral infection on the mend, we decided to wait one more day to make sure he was completely recovered. On Thursday, when we had been in Escalante less than 24 hours, Ethan became listless and started coughing and vomiting. His temp skyrocketed to 103.7 so we had to throw all our camping stuff in the car and hurry back to get him to the doctor.

The next day, after doing chest x-rays, the docs surmised that Ethan had walking pneumonia. WTH? I thought there were vaccines for that!

And then, not to be outdone, Maddie went to school on Friday and vomited in front of her whole class. Luckily Grammie Q was with her and brought her home. Her face was bloodless, white as a sheet. She had a dance concert that night that we thought she was going to miss. Fortunately, Maddie was so excited to show Rog and GQ her performance that she had a late afternoon rally and was prancing around the stage that evening.

Ethan is finally better after a round of heavy duty antibiotics. Whew!

On a funny note, it seems that whenever my kids vomit, the Quinlans are there to witness the event. (Think Ryan's graduation and the program that served as a makeshift bucket.)

So that's the latest and greatest from the res-q team. Can't wait for you guys to see the new look!

Don't Make Me Laugh

Seriously. Last night Ry and I laughed so hard we couldn't take it any more. We were sick. of. laughing.

Our stomachs hurt, our brains hurt, we hurt all over. We laughed so hard we couldn't laugh anymore. It became painful to laugh, depressing even.

So don't go to the Brian Regan show if you want to be depressed. Cuz you will be. You will laugh until tears stream down your face. Then you will beg him to stop because you're in pain from all the gut-wrenching jerks that rack your body.

You will beg him to stop but you won't really mean it at first. Then, when you've collapsed and are hospitalized for sheer laughing exhaustion, you will be furious.

We had a blast last night at the show. Then we crawled into our beds like the sober drunkards we were and slept like babies.