Tell You [a] Little Story

Today I had lunch with famous bloggers. It was delightful. Thanks for a fun afternoon, Stephanie and Courtney ! Sarah, you were missed. P.S. My darling friend Jami started a new blog . She is amazing--try her recipes and then bring me some of what you make. Yum!

Please inform me about your Girl Scout cookie purchasing and eating habits. I would really like to know. Me? I ordered three boxes of Thin Mints and one box of Samoas. Then, when they were delivered today, I bought two extra boxes, one of each. I ate one box of Samoas, pretty much by myself (mmmm, Samoas!), the kids ate one box of Thin Mints, with help from their friends. I will give the other box of Samoas to Steve to indulge in at work (mmmm, Samoas!). I will give one box of Thin Mints to my neighbor (who is inquisitive, like his wife) because he helped me with Cub Scouts and tools last week. I will anonymously give one box of Thin Mints to a lady I'm supposed to be "Secret Sistering" per a Relief Society dealio. That leaves one box of Thin Mints, that I will probably bust open on Monday when the kids are in school. I'll save just a few for them. Now, it's your turn. Please inform.

Once a year or so, springtime compels me to go shopping and splurge (by my frugal standards) on some new components of my wardrobe. Today, Isaac and Norah and I hit the sales racks at Anthropologie pretty hard and--after running into our cute pediatrician who "usually doesn't say hi to people in public" but said hi to us nonetheless--we came away with a few delightful but inexpensive treasures to adorn my person. Presenting Emily's Springtime Splurge of 07: Self-explanatory top, in a color I used to wear a lot in high school, when I wore boy clothes. It seems like skirts from Anthro last forever, they are such great quality. Bonus when they are cheap, cheap! A whimsical purchase. I think it is the first bathrobe I have ever had in my life. Because Abby bought some, and Abby is cool. I also got two other things that do not have available pictures on the website, probably because they were marked down so far. Oh wait, three other things. An awesome cropped denim jacket ...

Every year in our family we take tens and tens of photos. We like to let special events pass, let plenty of time go by so it is not fresh in our memories, and then months later empty the camera to see if we happened to record on film any of the moments of that special occasion in our family's/children's lives. It's a crapshoot. To illustrate, take our honeymoon. We actually did bring our camera, and posed for plenty of pictures on our honeymoon; but then I opened the camera and exposed the film, so we actually have no documented proof that we spent that fun week in Carmel/Monterrey, California. Oh, and then we threw away our marriage certificates, so maybe we're not really married anymore. There's little proof. Here is a little proof that the last four months really happened. Norah got bigger and looked like her Nana and got a new cousin. Isaac continued to perfect his rock star persona. We had friends and family over after Norah was blessed at church. Someone to...

A clean house. A new Newsweek to curl up with. My kids get to see their Grandma today. The eleven items I just bought at Old Navy for a grand total of $21. (Cute baby and toddler girl long-sleeved pink tees and pink turtlenecks for $.47 each. Go stock up to give as gifts!) My amazing husband who works so hard for our family. New books from the library to read to the kids. Thinking about last night's game of kickball with friends. Elliot was so proud of himself for kicking a homerun, even if he did overrun the runner in front of him, and didn't exactly tag the bases. Isaac skipped around the field and from base to base, just loving that his best friend Max and his favorite babysitters were playing with him at the park. Aaron learned how to "pitch" the kickball and get it to the right general vicinity of the kicker. The City of Phoenix's youth sports program which allows me to sign my child up for sports for a mere $20 instead of $70 plus. Plus it's much more la...

In preparation for our upcoming trip to Rocky Point, I had a very cultural dining experience today. I met some friends from high school at a Mexican diner known for their gigantic tortas, or sandwiches. The two friends I had lunch with live very far away from each other, so I think one of them literally looked at a map and picked an intersection in the middle, and it just happened to be a very Hispanic area. It was fun. The waitresses barely spoke English; I think there may have been one other couple that wasn't Latin during the hour and a half we were there; we got some curious stares; the food was authentic and greasy. It really felt like Mexico, and I had to remind myself that of course it was safe to drink the tap water. I love to try new restaurants and I would probably never in my life have had occasion to eat at Tortas la Presa on 7th St and Dunlap, if it weren't for random restaurant picking. Hooray for random restaurant picking! Then I went to Costco, where I watched ...

Go see what my little sister has to say .

It's not that I am really obsessed with celebrities. I'm not. I don't read People or UsWeekly, and only sometimes click on the salacious headlines in the celebrity section of the online Arizona Republic that try to lure me in with all sex, all the time. (For example, the headlines as of this minute include: Britney's No Lesbian, Mischa Barton's Nude Fury, and Courteney Cox's Nude Pride. My father works for a classy news organization, no?) It's just that celebrities often make for good conversation. I like to think of myself as being loving and compassionate and able to mourn with those who mourn, and so it is with great sadness that I report that Anna Nicole Smith has died. I say "report" because I might have a window of about two minutes after I post this during which this still might be news to someone. This is why I'm sad: What a crappy life. Like I said, I am not obsessed with Miss Smith and don't know all the details of her sordid expe...

I just finished this book. It may have been the most frustrating reading material I have ever encountered. It was also interesting, absorbing, well-written, not believable, depressing but also a little bit inspiring. The book is a memoir basically about four children growing up with parents who refused to provide for their children on almost every level. These children went without structure, guidance, security, food, plumbing, electricity, you name it. The parents, however, had money and opportunities at their disposal that they neglected to use to help their children. Cue my frustration. I was bugged not only because these parents ought to have been in jail--why didn't anyone do anything?--but also because I am naturally a little skeptical of memoir as a literary genre. The author begins with detailed descriptions of her life starting at age 3. Huh? So much of the dialogue, reactions, feelings, sequence of events, and actual occurrences have to have been invented. How accurately...