Books, books, & more books!

So for those of you who don't know (which would be shocking) I LOVE to read.  Reading is to me what TV is for most people.  I could do it for hours and hours.  Josh I most definitely do not have this in common.  He is so sweet though and has been trying to read more to keep me company.  I carry a book with me everywhere I go because you just never know when you are going to be waiting in a long line or end up with some free time.  Sometimes it is probably embarrassing because I will read anywhere.  BUT Josh finally joined the "carry a book around with you always just in case club" on our last cruise.  I have proof:

This is real people.  Waiting in line to go to dinner and Josh pulled out his book.  I was so proud ha!  Anyways I am always looking for a good read and I just love when I find a book list that I really enjoy.  I figured I would pay it forward and make a list of books I have read and would recommend.  Everyone has different taste so if you don't like them I'm sorry, I think they're great!  I am also going to include later (probably tomorrow) the list of books I plan to read this summer.  Hope you enjoy these ideas!

The great 8 I couldn't put down:

Children of Promise By: Dean Hughes

Okay so I am currently reading these so I can vouch for the first 3.5 of them.  Absolutely love them.  They are LDS fiction revolving around WWII.  One of the coolest parts is all of the research that went into making these books.  Dean did hours and hours of research even down the weather if he mentions a specific day, so although the characters are fictional, many of the stories are full of truth.  You will learn a lot about WWII in ways you have never seen before.  It really made me look at war through different eyes as well as what it is like to be a parent in perilous times.  The stories aren't just about the church it's more like you follow one specific family (and the web of other people they know of course) through their lives as LDS people during this era.  Highly recommend them!

The Secret Keeper By: Kate Morton

So I just happened to stumble upon this book while I was recovering from surgery last month and loved it.  I'm not really much of a mystery lover but I really enjoyed this one.  It is about an actress named Laurel who witnessed her mother commit a crime when she was just a little girl.  Now years and years later as Laurel's mother is near passing away Laurel decides to dig into the past to discover a shocking family mystery.  I honestly could not put it down.  Couldn't quite put my finger on why but I highly recommend this one as well.

Out of the Easy By: Ruta Sepetys

So I chose to read this book because I found it this is the same author who wrote Number the Stars (another recommendation if you haven't read it).  She is an excellent storyteller.  This is the story of a girl with quite the hard life in New Orleans and how she wants better than what her past and New Orleans have to offer her.  It's a story about overcoming your circumstances and believing in dreams.  Once again I could not put it down.  

Nineteen Minutes By: Jodi Picoult

This one is a tear jerker.  It is the story of a high school shooting.  I'm sure the way it is written may be controversial to some so you may want to look into before you begin and be aware there are a few parts with some not so nice language.  Jodi Picoult writes very real and raw and you have to be prepared for that.  The story comes alive as you read it and you almost feel later in the day like you should be hearing it on the news because you forget it was just a story.  It really opened my eyes to think about not only the families who were victims but to also see that the parents of the boy who did it are victims as well.  It is just such an interesting story full of insight into school shootings and bullying.  It is definitely not for everyone but I found it quite the fascinating read.  

** Disclosure I'm sorry but this is my guilty pleasure! **
The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

Okay now before you go judging me as a sappy love story book lover I must say in my defense that I only like some of his books.  I think others are downright boring and predictable (sorry Sparks - but it's true).  But if you have not read this one you are missing out.  I am a country girl at heart and love a good southern love story so maybe I am a little bias but this book is more than what meets the eye.  Follow the incredible story of a 91 year old man in a car crash, a college sorority girl, and a rodeo cowboy and see where they intercept.  Also a little side note I just saw that the movie is coming out in April 2015 and I'll be honest I am quite excited.  Enjoy this one!

Memoirs of a Geisha By: Arthur Golden

So I love a good historical fiction book.  They are by far my favorite thing to read and this one was no exception.  I know it's an oldie but if you haven't read it you need to give it a shot.  It tells the story of the geisha Japanese culture right before WWII.  It is seriously fascinating.  Golden apparently interviewed a geisha before writing this book (apparently there was a lawsuit about all of this? interesting) so once again although the characters are fictional there is also a lot of fact in the story as well.  Really one of my favorite books.   Apparently there is also a movie from 2005 I need to look into.  I am behind the times!

The Invention of Wings By: Sue Monk Kidd

So I read this book while we were on our cruise (yes that same cruise Mr. Hadley was caught red handed loving reading!) and loved it.  It's a very interesting take on slavery.  That is one think I just love about historical fiction is how it can open your eyes to see the past from an angle that maybe you had missed before.  This is one of those stories.  You learn all about the limitations women were given during this time period as well as the ugliness of slavery.  You won't be able to put it down (I am sensing a theme here almost every single one of these books - minus Sparks - is a historical fiction story!  Sorry!).

Where We Belong By: Emily Giffin

I am an Emily Giffin fan.  She is the one who wrote Something Borrowed and Something Blue (also great books if you haven't read them yet).  This is kind of another little guilty pleasure fun read for me nothing historical or of great significance, just a great summer read for the beach.  check it out (:


More to come alter.  check back in the next few days to see my updated list of books I plan to read this summer.  I can't 100 % vouch for them since I haven't read them yet so hopefully they are good.  If they're not I apologize and trust me I am more disappointed than you are!  Feel free to comment adding any other books you have read that you could not put down!  Thanks (:

Memorial Day Weekend (:

Well this last week has flown by I can't believe that May is drawing to a close already.  Josh had a great week selling, three days in a row he reached his goal of selling 8 (f.y.i that is A LOT!) I am so proud of him.  Work hard play hard is the saying around here these days so Memorial Day weekend was a blast for us.  Saturday night we visited the Dallas Temple with several people on the team.  It was a really neat experience to be there as a group united in our faith and of course a fun date night with Josh.

Josh says Dallas temple is just like the one in Korea but bigger so I'm sure it always brings back memories for him.  Speaking of Korea, I planned a Korean date night dinner for Josh after the temple.  We went to a restaurant called "Seoul House."  Josh was in HEAVEN.  You should have seen him.  He honestly was like a little kid at Christmas.  I can't remember the name of the dish we ordered I will have to ask him and update this post but it cooks on a little grill in front of you and you have all of these little side dishes to add into a lettuce wrap basically.

The meat was sort of like bacon.. but different.  It was quite the cultural experience.  The people working there loved Josh and were so impressed with his Korean Language skills.  Several came over and asked him repeatedly how he was so proficient in the language, they have been studying english for 30 years and are not as good as him (their words).  It was really fun.  

Josh and like half of his team have been obsessed with this "sodapalooza" thing going on and so Josh finally got me in on it.  All of the RAcetrack gas stations let you have unlimited free refills in these plastic cups all the way through the end of July and lucky for us there is one down the street from our house so now this is our new place to go walk Skamp and get drinks (slushies included!)  So after dinner drinks and a movie night!

Josh worked during the rainy Memorial day while I took Skamp on a walk and discovered he LOVES puddles and all things water!  Every time he sees you get in the shower he wants to get in or he tries to get in the sink.  This dog is obsessed with water is so funny!

(I've never done a video before I hope it works this is Skamp having a hay day on our walk)

Josh got off early and we went with the team to a dinner movie theater.  You can order dinner during your show and they bring it out to you.  We saw the new Xmen show and had a lot of fun.  Mostly Iw as just happy it was a Monday night and Josh was home early (:

That's about all that is new with us.  Josh is working hard every day and I am working on his HVAC startup in my free time.  Good news my mom has booked tickets in July to come see us and I am SO excited!  But that's about all the news we have.

Thanks for checking in on us!  I am going to be posting my summer book list (first books I've read and love if you needs ideas and then ones that are on my to read list) in the next few days just for fun so be ware otherwise check back in next week (:

New Beginnings..A Much Needed Update from Texas!

Well it has been forever!  My apologies!  Josh and I have had quite the busy last few months and so many things have changed!  For starters I got surgery.  If you remember (I try to forget) how sick I was at my wedding you might know that I had a pylonidal Cyst on my lower back.  This type of cyst can return whenever for whatever reason, doctors don't know why.  Thankfully with surgery the return rate is less than 3% and I am just so grateful I was able to get the surgery done!  I got it done a few weeks before graduation and thanks to doctor Josh I have recovered well.

I was SO nervous!  I want to thank everyone for all of the love
and prayers that were sent my way.  And for the amazing doctors
and nurses at the University of Utah hospital - nicest people in the
world of hospitals!

As many of you may know Josh and I have been keeping our eyes out for the perfect puppy the last few months.  My surgery wasn't scheduled until 2 PM so I had all day to sit and worry about it (And starve!  That no eating rule is terrible)!  After going to the temple I tried to distract myself by looking on KSL for dogs... I just happened to find the PERFECT one and sweet Josh made it happen.  So I am happy to introduce you to the newest member of the Hadley Family: Skamp!

It may sound silly but I cannot tell you how grateful I
am for this little guy's company during these long sales days!

So sweet he always wants to be by me while I work!

Hadley Family (:

Cutest little guy. Skamp is a Morkie, 1/2 Maltese 1/2 Yorkie.

He is like a little parrot he absolutely loves to sit on your shoulder.

A few days after getting Skamp was graduation.  Such an amazing day! I still can't believe we are done with school (I occasionally have nightmares I forgot my homework or a final exam!).  We both feel so blessed with all of the support we have been given during our schooling career and to be able to graduate debt free.  I have always been excited for graduation but also apprehensive because now what?! I'm still not 100% sure what I would like to do so if you have any suggestions please send them my way!  Graduation was the last Friday we had in Utah and I got to spend the day having a girl's day with my mom.  It was perfect!

My mom is so sweet she sat through two graduations!
First she came to my individual college and then later
to the business school where I had the opportunity to walk
and graduate with Josh and the master students (and in
case you were wondering I stuck out like a sore thumb being
the only one not in a master's gown!  Awkward!)

After Graduation we had two more precious days at home that of course flew by too quickly.  Sunday night and the airport came in what felt like the blink of an eye.  After a few tears (a LOT of tears) we boarded the plane to Dallas.  So grateful for our well behaved little puppy.  We were able to take him as a carry on and he just slept the whole time, did not even make a peep.  Such a good boy!

We landed, rented a car, navigated to our apartment and went to bed (the movers had set up our bed an brought in all of our stuff, so nice!).  Before we knew it it was Monday morning and Josh was off to work.  He has been doing an excellent job these last two weeks selling and leading his team.  I am so proud of him.  In fact, today he received the "green jacket" (a green Alterra polo as opposed to their usual white) for winning the masters - servicing 20 accounts in one week.  A really big deal!  It's sure not the funnest work but Josh is so dedicated and working hard.  Send your prayers and motivation his way (:   Every week I can't wait for Saturday because that means Josh is done at 4 PM and we get to go do something fun with the team.  The first week we went out to a BBQ dinner and to the Rangers game V. the Red Sox!  Perfect date, perfect weather and perfect teams.  So fun!

This last saturday we went to the Fort worth Stockyards for some delicious BBQ dinner and the championship rodeo!  One of our favorite places in Texas is the stockyards so it was really fun to be back here.  Definitely recommend a visit here if you are ever in Dallas!

Now back to another week working!  I promise to do a much better job updating my blog now that we are in Texas and far from all of our family so please check back often.  We love and miss everyone very much and look forward to when we can come fly home and visit!  Thanks for all of your support & love (:

One year anniversary cruisin the Caribbean!

Well nothing will ever compare to Spring break 2013 [Marriage!] but I must say our Spring break this year was heavenly!  We went on a cruise to the Western Caribbean.

First we flew to Miami but didn't really see much while we were there other than the ride to our hotel and then to the cruise port.  We did see American Airlines Arena it's really pretty looking over the water and of course Josh loved it just because it was American Airlines!

Saturday morning we boarded the Carnival Liberty bright and early.  Much to our great surprise they gave us a balcony room! Basically a little piece of heaven it was such a fun surprise.  We got to sit on our balcony and watch the ship pull out of Miami to the open sea!

Our ship (:

View of Miami

So in love with having a balcony room!

The first day on the ship we played every game/sport possible: volleyball, mini golf [I won!], shuffle board, basketball, you name it we played it it was a blast.  We read a ton.  Normally Josh won't read with me but believe it or not I couldn't get him to put his book down this cruise it was amazing.

It was so mind blowing I had to capture it on film.

The first day at sea was our first formal dinner.  Once we got on the ship I realized I only had one pair of contacts and was totally paranoid I'd some how lose them the first day on the ship and wouldn't be able to see snorkeling so I took them off and only wore my glasses!

I love the towel animals they make so we documented them
every night!

Dinner- our favorite!

After a full day at sea our first stop was Cozumel, Mexico.  Our plan for Mexico was to snorkel so after we landed on the island we headed to a beach Josh had researched and how did we get there you ask?  Oh Josh just drove us around Mexico again but this time on a moped!

We were very fortunate every port we pulled into our balcony faced
the side with the sunrise.  Absolutely gorgeous every morning (: Here's
our first look at Cozumel. 

Here is Corona Beach we went to to snorkel 

Snorkel buddies!

 After a fun morning/afternoon of driving all over Cozumel Island on our Moped exploring as well as snorkeling we spent the last hour before having to be back on the ship shopping at all the fun Mexican flee markets!  A perfect day!

At least we had helmets I suppose!

Day two we stopped in Belize.  It's a beautiful place.  You have to tender to get off the ship and due to the big waves we almost didn't make it in time to get to our excursion.  Thank heavens we did because it was amazing!  We went cave tubing.  We went with a local company and we are sure glad we did it was much better than the tour provided by carnival.  First they took us on an hour and half bus ride through Belize explaining everything along the way. 

Once we got over to the cliffs we took a 20 minute hike up to the water and caves.  It was absolutely beautiful.  You get to play in the water then they tie all the tubes together and you float through the caves.  The caves are full of waterfalls, beautiful rock formations, stalagmites, and stalactites.  It was dark in the cave that's why we all have headlights and we couldn't get any good pictures but trust me it was incredible.  Once out of the caves instead of having to hike down like the people who toured with carnival we took a 25 minutes float down the river basically surrounded by jungle with rocks to jump off of and beautiful plants and animals.  

Josh is jumping in this picture!

Cave tubing was incredible.  I would highly recommend it to anyone and the company butts up is who you should go with!  Along the way when the water gets shallow they have to yell bottoms up so you don's get scraped by rocks!

Sting Ray.  So cool!

The third stop just so happened to be the most amazing and it was on our anniversary March 12 (: Best day ever.  We pulled up into Mahogany Bay Roatan and got to each breakfast on the balcony while the ship docked and the sun was rising.  Absolute perfect morning. 

Once we were able to get off the ship we joined another local tour to go see monkeys, a bird sanctuary, an iguana farm and snorkeling!  First we went to the monkeys.  There was a sloth there that instead of staying in the trees with the others preferred a chair in the sun.  We got to pick him up and hold him.

Next we got to hold and snuggle a baby spider monkey named Cuna.  Oh my goodness she was the cutest little baby monkey ever!  I was in heaven.

I'm in love!  Such a wonderful experience.  Spider monkeys are really cute and sweet when they are young but when they grow older they bond with only one person and can be very aggressive and mean.  After the spider monkeys we got to go in a cage with a bunch of other little monkeys and feed them.  Turns out they really love sunflower seeds.  They would bounce all over you and cuddle up on your shoulder.  They loved to grab the sunflower seeds out of your hand and crack them in their mouths.  They had a hay day stealing Josh's hat from him.  It was a blast!

This monkey business [HAHA] was most definitely my favorite part of the trip (:  After the monkeys they also put parrots on our heads!

the view from the monkeys!

 After the monkeys we went to the bird observatory and saw tons and tons of beautiful birds.  One who kept shouting hola to get attention!

 After the birds we went on to the iguana farm.. it was so creepy they were huge and everywhere but fun to feed elephant ears to!  We also got to hold a night monkey who loved to lick the sweat off you.  so cute!

After the iguana farm they took us to an amazing beach resort to snorkel and get some sun.  It was an incredible resort and lots of fun to snorkel and explore.

most comfortable cabana!

the view!

tonight's towel animal (:

Our last stop [so sad!] of the trip was to Grand Cayman.  All these islands were so pretty they looked like they were right out of a movie.  Here we went snorkeling.  It was quite the experience.  To get into the water you had to swim pass these huge fish that looked kind of like carp.  They were at least 3 feet long and quite wide around.  They were use to people so they didn't move out of your way when you swam through.  It was terrifying!!! But once we got through them we saw some of the best coral reefs of the whole trip.  amazing multi color schools of fish (:

right behind us is where you jump in with the huge fish!

After snorkeling we took a taxi to 7 mile beach to play in the sand and water.  It was a blast!  Beautiful beach definitely recommend it!

Today's towel animal.  Very impressive!

Our last day at sea was full of delicious dinner, movies on the deck complete with popcorn [which I made Josh come and get with me almost every night ha] and games with friends.  We met some other people from Utah and ended up having fun card game nights with them.  Small world!

Our last day at sea a man's appendix burst and the US coast guard had
to come get him by helicopter to a hospital.  It was super windy and
 the helicopter couldn't land on the ship so they had to propel a guy down and
a basket to get him.  It was crazy!

Last towel animal!

So grateful for our safety and adventure we were blessed with this back week and a half it was so fun to celebrate our one year anniversary it has been the best year yet I am so grateful for my sweet husband and how close we have grown this last year.