THE SAVAGE GRACE

Right after Bree published her first book The Dark Divine, Brent started pestering Bree that he would like to be a character in one of her books. He would say things like: "Don't you think your books need a guy named Brent in them?" One day Bree admitted that her third book had a character named Brent and he was turning out to be a pretty big character.

So of course as soon as I got an early copy of the book, Brent sat right down to read all about himself. After the first night of reading he said to me: "You know that Bree mentioned us in the acknowledgements, right?" And NO, I didn't. So I grabbed the book right away and read the acknowledgements. At the very end of all her thank yous it says: "And a special shout-out to our dear friends Michelle and Brent Sallay--Brent, you finally made it into one of my books. I hope you're happy man." After I read that I just started crying to Brent: "That is just so nice..." Seriously, I was touched. I am so stinking proud of Bree and watching her go through this whole publishing process has inspired me and I can't tell you how lucky I feel to have a friend like Bree in my life. (Still...after all these years.)

Last night was the official book launch at The King's English bookstore. It was very fun, and Brent (who is a wolf in the alternate reality of The Savage Grace) made a celebrity appearance as well.

To see more pics, check out my photo blog. To read my review and interview with Bree, check out my book blog.

ROCKIN' OUT GUMMOW STYLE

We headed up to Idaho Falls this week to help Heidi with the Mayor's Scholarship again this year. We didn't have too much time for shenanigans, but did fit in a few rounds of Rock Band, where Stella was able to sing her favorite Taylor Swift songs. Cy remarked: "The Dirty Bedrooms are back!"

Wyn is getting so big--he can dribble a basketball like a freaking superstar, and he also never misses a basket. He is awesome at guarding his big brother on the court as well. This trip, Wyn finally started to acknowledge me and called me Shell. He has always been so shy around me and I was thrilled that he knew his auntie even though I haven't seen him in ages.

SUNNY GETAWAY

Yesterday we returned home from a nice trip to sunny Phoenix. We had a great time, and didn't do much (even though we wore out the grandma of the group). We spent time at the pool, shopped, and ate. I got a lot of reading done (more than usual), and we even discovered a very cool bookstore where the books were super cheap like I like them.

When I mentioned the trip to Stella and she realized a pool was going to be part of the adventure, she was very excited to go. She talked about it for days before we left, and the morning of our departure she was very impatient. In general she is kind of a scaredy cat, so I was proud of her when I got her to try jumping off the side of the pool. As soon as she figured that trick out we did a lot of jumping.

We had a great time and were sad to return to the snow.