About a year and ten days and some minutes ago I opened a vintage decor store called, what else?, Dunhaven Place.  It's kept me pretty busy.  Thank goodness my roses bloom whether I talk to them or not.  Still, I miss them and I miss talking to my blog friends, too.  (Why can't there be more hours in a day?)


The first week of May I attended the Whitney Awards Gala which is, as I like to say, the Oscar's for Mormons who write books.  It was very fun and by very I mean totally awesome.  I got to spend four days in Utah having a chat fest with friends and family and if my husband and children had been there, I couldn't have been happier.  (Wait--did that come out right?  Uummm, yes--yes it did.)

Between working and sitting on the couch in a stupor gorging on chocolate in an effort to distract myself from the total mess that is my home, I help the Little Guy with his homework and spend as much time as possible with the beauty on the right (the beauty on the left is best prefaced with the term "faded") before she finishes growing up (to quote her Grandpa:  "Tell her to grow but for Heaven's Sake, not up!) (she's tall) (but you got that, didn't you?) and leaves home.  (The Big Guy will be with us forever.)

Lastly, the last book I swallowed whole was Dispirited by my friend and distant cousin Luisa Perkins.  It reminds me of Labyrinth, The Neverending Story and just a tad of The Amityville Horror while being completely it's own thing entirely.  My friend Jana Winters Parkin named it.  Isn't she a genius? And so is Luisa and I'm not just saying that because she named a character after me. (Honest.)  (And aren't I bold to use that pic that I clearly swiped from Amazon?)  So, you're going to read it so that you can find my name in there, right?  I thought you would . .  .  (And to anyone who took the time to stop by, I LOVE you!--Yes!  You!)