I'm not a reader but...

I do get swept away in a story from time to time. Such is the case with Persuasion. I know I've already mentioned it, so I won't dwell on it much more.

But I am such a fan of Ms. Anne Elliot. I loved her character. She was so graceful and proper and kind. She was reserved and cautious in her demeanor. She was clever and smart. She was well-loved and respected. Does it get much better than that?
I loved how she was cautiously optimistic. For those who don't know the story, Anne and Captain Wentworth were quite in love, engaged in fact. It was the happiest part of her life. But he was still more "potential" than "achievement" so she was convinced to let him go. Throughout the next 8 lonely years of her life, she hadn't ever found the same love and connection as existed with Captain Wentworth. She maintained a pleasant, confident attitude while surely aching for a different life.

After eight years, the two found themselves back into the same social circle. The story of Jane Austen's life showed in Becomming Jane was pretty depressing so I was worried Anne and Captain wouldn't find a happy ending. But this was not the case. Captain Wentworth finally proclaimed his love for Anne which she happily reciprocated. In the end, she got to be with the only one she's ever loved. She wasn't destined to a life of lonliness, she didn't have to find a second best. That is great.

Jane Austen said her characters would always get the happy ending her life never had. (The two portraits above are said to be Ms. Austen)

And so completes my second great novel of the year. (I know, not very many but better than nothing). While in Europe this spring I read The Fountainhead (Drew's reccommendation) . I could not put that book down! (Read: I could not turn my ipod off!) It was completely engaging. The writing was great, the characters were so intriguing, and it really made you think. (Which is better - Peter Keating with his positive view of humanity and drive to impress those around him, or Howard Rourke with his absolute honesty with himself and courage to live a life consistent with his personal values, even when making him an outcast?)

I don't have lots of time for leisure reading, but having a good book to turn on while driving, cooking and cleaning makes me so happy. So what should be next? More Ayn Rand? More Jane Austen? The book about the dictionary?

Better late than never.

So.. sorry for the lack of posting over the last couple days. I've spent every spare moment on this:
Jane Austen's Persuasion. This was Annee's Book Club selection for family Beach Week 2008. At that time I purchased the unabridged mp3, but the week didn't turn out to be a great reading (listening) week for me. I've picked it up again over the last couple weeks and I can't get enough!!

What will Ms. Anne Elliot do? Is Captain Wentworth really coming back to her? Will she regret dismissing Mr. Elliot? Ahh! I'm only 2 hours away from knowing all the answers. Church starts in 5 hours. Hmm...

Mini Home Tour - Fall 08

So, I feel like I've done a lot of surface level posts recently. Posts about things instead of ideas. This post won't be any different. There's a time and season for everything. For now, I'm keeping it light.

Besides, I've promised my sister-afar-off that I would send photos of my room as it shapes up. So here you go!

This is my bedroom in its current condition. (Sorry, bad lighting on the photo..) The new rug from Shabby Chic has arrived and is much loved. It's pretty faint so here's more of a close-up shot from the website. I think I will paint the headboard white, and somehow embellish it a la Shabby Chic/vintage style. Obviously the walls still need to be taken care of, and all my decor accessories need to be arranged throughout the room. But those decisions have yet to be made.
I still enjoy using the white dresser and mirrors. The mirrors need to be hung on the walls and I need to properly accessorize the top of the dresser. Can you see my hat box in the corner there? (Ignore the still shrink-wrapped red desk accessory, that's for a post-to-come.)
I found this beautiful hat box at Decades Vintage Clothing in Salt Lake a couple years ago and LOVE it, but I've never really done it justice. I need to find a great place to showcase it in my new bedroom.

Now, how great is this green chair!
It was here in the house when I moved in and happens to go perfectly in my room. I love having a reading nook (although face it, I mostly read blogs and online news and only listen to conference/Dr Laura/books on tape. I'm just not a big reader...). Thank you to Haley for the beautiful vintage pillow cases the I will be putting to proper use shortly.

Lastly, my most recent find at the Springville Antique Mall:
Isn't that a darling message? "Let a smile be your style" - truly words to live by. (Flower candle picked up at Zara Home in Madrid, pair of birds from SAM.) And for $6 it will be even more delightful to look at as I walk out the door.

So there it is. I only have 13 days left to hit the move-in-and-fully-decorate-in-30-days goal. This weekend I'll need to tackle the various sewing projects (bedskirt, family room pillows and curtains, etc) and figure out what to do with my walls. And prepare for my Trust & Estate Tax exam.

It's official!

After much contemplation and decision and indecision and rethinking and planning and endless discussion, I have made up my mind about where to go when I graduate. As many of you know, the options most seriously considered were LA (back to the hometown area), Dallas (Drew has done a good job selling me on the city), and Washington DC.

My internship in Boston produced a full-time offer with PricewaterhouseCoopers that I have been working to transfer to another city. As of this morning, I have been officially accepted into the McLean, Virginia (DC Metro) office! Starting next fall, I will be working at Tyson's Corner. Anthropologie is 200 yards from the office. Beautiful.

In the next several months I'll have to figure out where to live and figure out how to move across the country. I think a trip out to DC will be in order. Because Steve works in the PCS group they told me I will have to work in the Core Tax group - for independence reasons they can't have siblings working in the same group. It would've been fun to have Steve as my boss (I think?) but I'm sure I'll still be able to see him. It will be so much fun living near the SAZband family!

I'm excited to finally have something solid to look forward to. Now I just need to finish my masters and take the CPA exam, ya know, no big deal...




P.S. Have you ever heard of this cool website polyvore.com? You can mix and match images from anywhere on the web, to create outfits, interior designs, or any kind of collage. It's quite a fun distration when you need to take a break from Word Whomp.

I'm a wimp

"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?"

Another year older and wiser too

The end of summer brings the first of the Zackrison Fall Birthday Series, with Christine turning 21 on August 30.

Woohoo!

We had a fun family gathering on Sunday night which included a delicious and deluxe grilled steak dinner along with a stack of coordinating gifts.

My favorite gift is the pair of dictionary earrings Sarah found on Etsy to go with the book of mystery and intrigue about the writing of the Oxford dictionary (The Professor and the Madman - waiting on CZ's upcoming book review). This gift was based on Christine's excitement over her visit to Oxford, England earlier this year (see the end of this post). Clever right?
But when CZ opened the gift, there was a bit of a denial a la Barbie-color-forms type* about her love for Oxford and dictionaries and earrings overall. So we'll see if she uses them. We had a great time putting the gift together, and that's all that matters right? ;-)

*There may or may not have been an incident in my childhood where a set of Barbie colorforms was purchased for me for Christmas which gift brought tears and accusations to those assumed to have added that item to my Christmas list. I still stand by my position - that was not my handwriting.




























Happy Birthday CZ! Here's to hoping it's your best year yet.

One last trip...

I owe Courtney's family a huge thank you for inviting me to CA with them at the end of August.

Kirstin (my new roommate!) had already started law school and wasn't able to join them for the week of family vacation in Newport. I was lucky enough to fill her spot!

On my first night in CA, we headed up to Malibu to visit the Frames for dinner. It was a lovely evening! And great to catch up with Haley before she heads out to DC for the semester. You really can't beach being right on the beach, outside, listening to the surf.

Courtney (former roommate) and I enjoyed walking around Crystal Cove, pedicures and plenty of time by the pool.
Zack and Ana were SO nice to come out of their way to visit me! It really made me feel special and loved. And great to see Jack! You can't help but smile when you look at that kid.

Kristen joined us for a night out to dinner at the hip and swanky Javiers. (Rumored to be a hot spot for cougars. It did not disappoint!)

After dinner was over, we contemplated what we should spend the rest of the evening doing... Thank you corporate perks for answering that dilemma for us! We headed up to Anaheim for an evening at Disneyland to enjoy the best part of Kristen's corporate finance job. It was tons of fun.

Little hands, big fun

I forgot to post these pictures we took on the last day of my moving. Wanted to be sure to put them up here. These kids are tons of fun. Thanks for all the help!
May I also introduce you to my new coffee table (from Pottery Barn, pictured here in Downeast Home where I found it). Isn't it cute? Pictures of the room it goes in to follow...

Can't stop thinking about Nienie

NieNieDialogues is one of the first blogs I started reading being referred by my sister Sarah. (Sarah was spotlighted as one of NieNie's Friday Faces a couple months after Scott was featured. Check them out!)

I was instantly captivated by her style and charm. (LOVED this collection of beautiful vintage things. I love secret glimpses into her life like this one. )

And inspired by her cheerful, yet realistic, depiction of motherhood. (All-time favorite story: the Lock Out. I plan to use this one, particularly during the hours of 4-6 when kids can't think of anything to do other than TV. I was pretty guilty of this as a child. I long for a feeling like she felt on this day:

Today's highlights included:

1. the deadly combo: listing to motab (love is spoken here) + changing a diaper = sobbing my eyes out. sobbing because of the confirmation i received that I know what i am doing in my life right now is exactly what i am supposed to be doing right now.its awesome.

And by her fun and flirty depiction of wifehood. (Have you seen their love letters?)

I'm jealous of her blog and how beautiful it is with such an established style. I can't imagine how she has time to edit all her photos and put together such fun posts.

And most of all, I LOVE her home decorating with silhouettes. Look at what a great idea this is!

I haven't been able to stop thinking about the plane crash Stephanie was in with her husband Mr. Nielson. It's quite surreal and really makes you think twice about your life and the path it will take. The life path of the whole family has been altered which makes you wonder, is there something huge and life-altering in MY family's path?

Anyway, I participated with the 100s of others who released balloons of hope in her honor. (More from Sarah here) And I was delighted to bid on the charity auctions held to raise money to cover the costs of their extensive burn treatment. I fell in love with these beautiful fabric banners. I'm not sure exactly what I'll do with the dream banner yet, but I'll find a way to fit it in.
I know I'm behind in posting about this, but I didn't want to let the time pass without adding my echo of love and support. You can follow the story on Nie's sister's blog cjanerun.

What would YOU do in this situation?

I have a small dilemma.

You see, I'm settling. Which means I'm baking.

I've noticed that when I move somewhere new or enter some new phase of life I tend to want to cook. Suddenly I'm overcome with new recipes I want to try, old recipes I want to recreate. I start watching the Food Network again and browsing through food magazines at the checkout line.

The problem is, I don't really have a kitchen set up yet. So I cook at Sarah's.

This is the basic circumstance surrounding today when I could not think of anything else nearly as important as baking some Carrot Cupcakes. (I'm sure my tax professors will understand why coming late to class was inevitable..)

But it's been several months since I baked this delicious treat, thus I forgot to half the delicious Cream Cheese Frosting used to top the Carrot Cup-o-Delicious.

Which brings me to the current predicament about which I ask your feedback. What should I do with the extra 2-3 cups of decadent cream cheese frosting? Don't hold back, I'm in the mood to try something complex. Or simple. Or both.

Just don't let me spend more time on allrecipes.com...

End of summer activities

Coming back from Jerusalem brought many things.

First and most importantly, it brought mexican food back into my life.

Second, it brought homelessness.

I moved out of my apartment and into a box truck with the help of an old friend (read: saint) Han. My box truck moved to a lovely spot in front of the Wiley's (read: angels). There the box truck held all my precious belongings for about 10 days, safely guarded behind bike lock and key. I kept it on the street just long enough for Wileys to get awkward questions from the neighbors. (Maybe Oliver can add Moving Truck Driver to Scott's resume of Wal-Mart greeter?)

The Wiley's were so nice to let me take over the guest room (and parts of the basement and garage) for a few weeks. It was so fun to hang out with them. June is a riot! I invite any of you to give crashing at their place a try. (Ha!)



In my first weekend back, three great things happened.

1. Jason & Annie got married.
   
   I like to say I had a part in creating this marriage. Because I did. (Story too awkward for blog-posting...)
   
   
2. I went boating with Courtney.
   
   One morning instead of attending my planned Education Week classes, Courtney and Dan decided to show me what I SHOULD be doing with my free time. I haven't been wakeboarding since some random family trip to Lake Powell years ago. It was fun to try it again. I didn't get any pictures of me behind the boat, mostly because each attempt lasted only seconds which is not very picture worthy. It was a lovely afternoon - much thanks to Dan, Courtney's brother who was so patient and drove slowly for me, the boat-chicken.
   
   
3. I went shooting with Jowy.
   
   This was so awesome! Jowy is my favorite friend from Jerusalem. He was nice enough to include me on his shooting trip with his friend Zach. They are quite expert at blowing things to pieces. Jowy brought a box full of old mission and Jerusalem memorabilia that he used as targets. My favorite target was a cup of Mountain Dew. Check out this video of me successfully hitting the cup, on the first attempt!
   
   

Needless to say it was so much fun and a great way to experience shooting a gun for the first time. I hope they'll let me come with them again. (I hear great things about shooting Shasta cans in the snow...)


Oh and also!! Sarah and I spend 5 hours organizing the storage unit! Sarah's face was priceless when I lifted the door for the first time as she caught a glimpse of the chaos and disorganization. Unfortunately I didn't snap a photo for a good before/after shot, but it's a huge improvement. We went through every item, threw/gave away tons, repacked into new boxes, labeled and dated each one, then repacked the unit. It was a hot and dusty process and by the end June was so over it but the feeling of accomplishment can not be beat! Plus it's great to get that off my mega to-do list.

It's hard to fully capture it, but this is a big improvement...

So there you have it! I'm back! I'll post about CA, CZ's Bday, and NieNie before I begin on the most exciting part of my current life - decorating my new house! And Downeast! And the Springville Antique Mall! I can't wait to get feedback from y'all on the many decisions I must make.


(Wait... am I in school? Oh yeah, minor detail.)

Once upon a time... I had a blog.

Hi, remember me?

Can I BE more annoying? Every time I post I talk about how I'm not going to be lame anymore, going to post more regularly, shoot for everyday.

And then I don't.

So sorry.

It's time you all realize I regularly fall vastly short of my personal expectations.

Yes my last name is Zackrison. And yes this trait is genetic.



Now, lets get on with things shall we?

Beautiful Welcome Back to America flowers. So glad to be back!

Jerusalem Close-out

Here I will post parting thoughts about Jerusalem. Mostly for my our record-keeping-sake.