Tell You [a] Little Story

What do you think of the cropped sweater vest I wore to church today? It's from Target, a size 5. That is, a size 5T. I borrowed it from Isaac's closet. The boys thought that was hi lar ious!

Is is just that I'm paying attention, or have there been an awful-- and I really mean awful -- lot of plane crashes in the last few weeks? Our friends Stephanie and Christian were in one last week.* Sarah's friends were killed in one this weekend in Cedar City. Then there's Kyrgyzstan, Barenaked Ladies, Guatemala, Madrid en route to the Canary Islands, North Las Vegas, Monticello, Colorado, Northwest Territories, experimental plane in Michigan. And on and on. There seem to be two new CNN headlines on plane crashes every time I check the news. What is going on? *I really adore and admire Stephanie and Christian and pray that God's will be done in their collective recovery. There is going to be an online fundraising effort on their behalf this Thursday and I would love to see gobs of money raised to offset a little of their mounting medical expenses. My fabulous sister Sarah is going to auction a baby quilt, and baby quilts don't come cuter or classier than Sarah'...

I ought to be upstairs making dinner, but instead I feel compelled to share the events thus far in my day. I spent the morning in my pajamas talking on the telephone, mostly about this beautiful young lady . Two children in two separate and distinct episodes thought it would be fun to go in the garage and get a three-foot-long fluorescent light tube with which to sword fight and/or bang on the stairs. Thousands of pieces, lots of vacuuming. Twice. I unearthed from a box the red binder in which I tried to record as a young woman, aged 16-21, each and every date I went on. It is truly fascinating. Who with, what we did, how long, if we kissed. I went on a lot of dates. I didn't count, but I easily went out with more than 100 different guys in those five years. I may not have a journal or scrapbooks or a record of my life, but by golly, I know who I went out with and whether the guy was a cheapskate and that my mom was pretty lax about curfews. My posterity can have it published afte...

{photo via CNN} I haven't been watching the Olympics, or any tv, for that matter since we don't have a tv connection yet (pity me), but I do know what's going on in the world, and baby, Michael Phelps is going on in the world! I know he provided plenty of drama and lots to cheer about. Eight gold medals, seven world records! I saw the frame-by-frame photos of win #7, where he was half a body length behind the Serb at the very end, and came from out of nowhere to touch the wall first. Absofreaking amazing. I am very happy for Michael, the winningest Olympian of all time. Wow, wow, wow! I'm so happy for him that I'm going to make the next thing I have to say very very small, so as not to diminish how incredible this accomplishment is. Dear Michael, please don't blow this chance to really be a hero by going and getting another DUI. Just don't do that, okay? Lots of people think you're pretty cool right now, and we don't want to be disillusioned and dis...

{Emily}

There you have it, folks.

Will you respect me less if I tell you I just read a bunch of Breaking Dawn spoilers online? Or that last summer I read the last page of HP and the Deathly Hallows first? What if I tell you that I let my husband cook every meal and wash every dish this weekend? Do you respect me less, yet? If your respect for me is still high to moderate, I can arrange to take some photos of still-full suitcases from our many vacations this summer -- lying haphazardly on my bedroom floor. And if you still don't respect me less, please know that I do not strongly advocate the Santa Claus tradition in my home, and my children very well may tell your children that he ain't real even though I tell them to keep it to themselves, thus making you mad at me and all your dreams of preserving innocence washed down the drain. Okay. Now. Please indicate which of the above is the most appalling, and I will then have the opportunity to decide if I respect you less, depending on your answer. This is a fun gam...

Steve and I just got done watching What the Bleep Do We Know?! about quantum physics and philosophy and God and rabbit holes. Anyone seen it? Mostly I just wanted to use the title of this post, which is how my Arizona-born husband pronounces the Descartes theory.