Five Things for Friday

1. Rick Santorum's out and Mitt Romney is in! I know it's not official yet, but it's pretty much as close as you can get. This is very good news for a right-leaning, Independent Romney-supporter like me. And for those who say Romney is a flip-flopper who isn't conservative enough...guess what? Moderates get more done because they can work with both sides of the aisle much more effectively (hello to being a productive Republican governor of liberal, Democratic Massachusetts!). Give me a moderate any day! Especially a successful, smart, highly capable (and handsome) one like Romney. And to think that he was in my church stake in high school and I (metaphorically speaking) rubbed shoulders with him and Ann at youth activities! I seriously knew he was destined for great things back then when he ran for the Senate and was running Bain Capital but still took the time to come to things like Seminary graduation and stake youth conferences where he and Ann genuinely seemed to enjoy hanging out with a bunch of teenagers. I'm so proud of him! (Ha ha.)

Ann Romney is a wonderful person. And in light of the recent controversy over her supposedly "not working a day in her life," in solidarity with her and mothers everywhere who make the choice to stay home to care for their children, I'd like to say that all good mothers are working mothers regardless of their workplace, and that I really do think that it's the hardest, most rewarding job in the world.

One last political note:
I'd like to change the prediction I made a few weeks ago when I said that it would be a Romney-Santorum ticket running against Obama. I no longer think that Romney will choose Santorum as his running mate. I think it could be Rep. Paul Ryan or Senator Marco Rubio, or maybe even New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Or someone else entirely. In any case, I'm looking forward to the race for President!

2.  I miss Downton Abbey. I heard that a major character is going to die in Season 3. My guess is that it will be the Dowager Countess. I read somewhere that Maggie Smith wasn't sure she wanted to keep on doing the show, so I bet it will be her. Plus, she's the most logical choice since she's old. I sure would miss her though. Her character has some of the funniest lines, such as:

And I can't wait to see Mary and Mathew finally get married! It really IS going to happen, according to the show's producer.

3. I got an e-mail from Barnes & Noble yesterday saying that J.K. Rowling's new book is now available for pre-order:

The Casual Vacancy
For her first novel expressly for adults, "Harry Potter" creator J.K. Rowling introduces readers to the denizens of Pagford, an idyllic town in the English countryside that's bubbling with intrigues. Pre-order this guaranteed blockbuster today.

So I of course jumped on that bandwagon and ordered it. The funny thing is, I only read the first Harry Potter book. I saw all of the movies and I enjoyed them, but I just didn't get into the books. Peter liked the books, so we own the whole Harry Potter series, and I plan on giving them another try when John wants to start reading them. In any case, I think J.K. Rowling is very talented and I love her rags-to-riches success story and how it all came from her imagination and her writing ability.

(FYI, The Casual Vacancy comes out on September 27th at a cost of $35, but if you pre-order it from Barnes & Noble, it's $21.)

4. Each month I like to burn a new Yankee Candle jar so that our home can be infused with its sweet and unique scent. The candle I got for April is "Fluffy Towels." It has a pleasant cottony scent, but after awhile I think it starts to smell more like wet towels than fluffy towels. So if you come over to my house this month and it smells a little like wet laundry, that's why! 

5. I'm beginning to feel like Job. First I hurt my sternum, and then when it got better, I came down with a bad head cold. Now that the head cold is starting to go away, I've developed a weird splotchy rash on my lips that is totally drying them out. What the heck?! I wonder if its from one of the lipsticks I'm testing for Parents. Also, after weeks of mostly clear skin, my face is starting to break out. And my hair, which had recently been showing promising signs of growth and volume, has suddenly turned limp, flat, and lifeless again. I hope that my body is just going through a quick ugly phase and that things will get back to normal soon. Very, very soon. My pride can only take so much battering.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Moisture Beads

I'm not talking about the moisture beads that are found in some body washes, although those are nice. I'm talking about the moisture beads found in nature, the pure, clean, and pretty ones.

I like the beads of water on the tips of the grass here...

Nature in its simplicity is a thing of grandeur, don't you think?

The Sweet and the Sour

There have been a series of mishaps in my life over the last few days. Let me recount five of them for you.

1. Sam threw my iPad into his water table and now it doesn't work.

2. I woke up one morning last week with random pain in my sternum (breastbone), which got worse the next day and ached on and off for days. I don't know how it happened. So once again I had to take a break from my new-found exercise habit. 

3. Now that my sternum seems to be almost healed, I have a head-cold.

4. I'm suffering from hair despair. Sometimes I hate my thin hair and how it won't cooperate with my vision for it. :-(

5. No matter how hard I try I just can't seem to get and stay organized with my life the way that I want to. I know I have perfectionist standards when it comes to these things, but that just makes it all the more frustrating.

So it hasn't been the best week for me. However, there have been some good things that have happened, and to balance out the negative with the positive, in the spirit of gratitude and counting your blessings, I will now list five of those good things. (Exclamation marks mandatory-!)

1. I have an iPad "1" and if it can't be fixed I'll get to upgrade to a newer version of the iPad!

2. My mother is visiting from Massachusetts for a week!

3. We spent the day in beautiful Nauvoo, Illinois last Friday. That place is amazing! Especially if you're a member of the LDS Church who loves history like me. :-)

4. I read a good book last week--Jane by April Lindner. It was a modern-day retelling of my favorite book, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I really enjoyed it! And then on Saturday night I finally watched the movie version of Jane Eyre that came out last year. That was good too. Hooray for Jane Eyre!

5. Peter and I went out on an actual date Saturday evening and had dinner at one of the best restaurants in Iowa City. It had a really nice vibe like the restaurants we used to go to in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Hartford. And it had a perfectly delicious filet mignon too, I might add!

So the moral of the story is that I've found that for every negative in life there's at least one positive to counteract it, and often more. It doesn't change the fact that I'd like this cold to go away ASAP, and that I'd love for my hair to grow thicker and longer ASAP, and that I'd like my iPad to work again, and that I want my life to get organized just right and stay that way. But those things all pale in comparison to the many daily blessings in my life. It may sound a little trite, but it's true. And that makes all the difference in living a happy, optimistic life instead of a negative, pessimistic one. Choose to be positive! (Wow, who knew that this blog post would end up being a motivational pep talk? I didn't!)

Wordless Wednesday: A Lovely Springtime Evening

 

Well, almost wordless anyway. I love where I live!

Train Hair

One night a few weeks ago after the kids were in bed I heard my 2-year-old Sam fussing up in his room. I went in to check on him and he just stared at me in a somewhat alarmed, tentative fashion. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Then he turned his head to the side and there it was. The wheels of one the little toy trains he brought to bed with him had somehow gotten tangled up in his hair!

I brought him downstairs and called for Peter to help me. I thought we were going to have to cut it out, but Peter was able to disentangle the train from Sam's long locks without Sam even crying. And even better, I snuck in a quick, very much needed haircut since he was being so calm and patient in spite of a train having just been stuck to his head. If that's what it takes for Sam to cooperate for a haircut, then, well, I don't know what to say to that.

Then he went back to bed and was soon sleeping peacefully. 

All is well that ends well! (Although if you look closely at the bottom left corner you will see that at his insistence the troublesome purple train is back in the crib with him. Will we ever learn?!)

Five Things for Friday

1. Tonight Peter and I are going to see The Hunger Games. I'm excited to see it! I/we would have seen it last weekend when it came out, but he was in Rhode Island for the weekend, so I couldn't go. I read these books last year and I loved them, and Peter also enjoyed them. I think Katniss Everdeen is awesome, and Peeta Mellark has earned a special place in my heart.

Believe it or not, I'm a long-time fan of archery. I used to be pretty good at it too! Not as good as Katniss though. But then again, who's as good with a bow and arrow as Katniss is? 

Helllooooo, Peeta!

2. I'm not usually into music videos that much but I saw this one a few days ago and I loved it. If you are a fan of Jane Austen or of that time period in history when long pretty dresses, beautifully written letters, and properly courting gentlemen were in fashion, you will definitely appreciate this cute song and its lovely singer from New Zealand. She expresses my sentiments of that wonderful bygone era perfectly!



3. Remember how I wrote about my three New Year's resolutions in January? I'm happy to report that I've been working on one of them: I've started exercising again! It feels great, even though I don't always feel like doing it. Fortunately I get quick results from exercise and so I'm able to see an immediate difference in my muscle tone and how I feel overall, which helps to keep me motivated. I do Pilates and I really like them. They're pretty low-impact but very effective and some of the stretches and breathing methods are really relaxing. I have a personal trainer named Laura who teaches me in the comfort of my home at times that are good for me. I just pop her into the DVD player and we're good to go. :-)

I think that when we exercise, both our present and our future self will thank us for it, don't you? I found this on Pinterest. (Ahhhh, how I love Pinterest, but I think I've mentioned that before.)

 4. You have to watch this video, so please, just take a few minutes and watch it--trust me! I saw it on Wednesday and I've been thinking about it ever since. This happened on the show Britain's Got Talent recently. It's a really good reminder of: 1) not judging a book by its cover, 2) the influence of loyal friendships, and 3) the power of beautiful music. It makes me cry when I watch it because it's just so darn awesome!



5. General Conference is this weekend! It's one of my favorite weekends of the year! I love the spiritual uplift and motivation and enlightenment that I get from Conference. And then next Sunday is Easter, and next week my mother is coming to visit. Good times!

I hope you have a great weekend!

My Lucky Lips!

Recently I was informed that I'd been selected to be a Beauty Tester for Parents magazine. How did that happen, you might ask? It must have been that they took one look at my picture and knew they had to use me somehow in their Beauty department. Ha! What really happened was that I saw a request for beauty testers in their magazine, so I went to their website, answered a few questions, forgot about it, and a few months later heard back from them that they were going to use me. Yay!

Not only do I get a bunch of free beauty products, many of which haven't been released to the public yet, but I also get to give them my opinions on them after trying them out. Add to that the fact that I love the New York City publishing scene for both books and magazines (I almost worked in this industry when we lived in New Jersey after we were first married, and I took publishing courses at New York University where some of my instructors were big-time editors at these places). So this is my connection to that scene, even if it's not on an editorial level, and that makes me happy!

Last Saturday I received my first package of beauty products in the mail. They sent me fourteen different lipsticks to try out. Fourteen! And some of them are from higher-end brands like Clinique. I may never have to buy lipstick again! I've tried about half of the lipsticks so far, and I'm happy to report that I've found a new favorite lipstick in a beautiful shade, and a couple of other good ones too. On the other hand, some of the colors are too dark for my fair skin and in one notable case I looked like I had applied neon pink chalk to my lips. For those of you who know me from everyday life, if you see my lips looking particularly funky, bright, dark, or pretty one day, now you'll know why.

This is going to be fun!

What We Did in March

My blog break is now officially over, and I didn't get any of the clean-up/redesign work done on my blog that I was planning to do. Oh well. I've been busier than I thought I'd be. With what, you might ask? Well, since you asked, I'll tell you: 

• First, at the end of February, I got really sick with a nasty stomach bug. I was out of commission with it for about two days, and it left me weak and not myself for about a week after. The real tragedy is that I no longer enjoy the taste of my long-time favorite cookie, the Samoa/Caramel DeLite Girl Scout cookie, because I'd been eating those just before I got sick. This same thing happened last year with their peanut butter patty cookies ("Tagalongs"), and they still don't taste good to me a year later. Maybe this is nature's way of getting me to back off from the Girl Scout cookies, one at at time, year by year. While that may be a good thing, I don't think I like it very much. I love Girl Scout cookies, darn it!

• Next was John's 7th birthday party with his friends on March 3rd. I don't particularly enjoy planning creative birthday parties for my kids; instead, my style is to have it at a fun place of my son's choosing, supervise the kids playing at the chosen place, and provide lunch and the cake. Voila! It's simple and doesn't require an over-exertion of creativity or time on my part. That works for me. And more importantly, it works for John!

 Check out that cake! Needless to say, he loves Angry Birds. (Also needless to say, I didn't make the cake.)

This is just a cute picture of John the next morning with his newly added to collection of Angry Birds, as well as Sharkie, his class mascot that we had as a guest in our home for a few days while John was the Star Student of the week in his class that week.

 

• Next, we got our wills done, which I think is rather creepy and morbid. Our boys are now officially "heirs" and will be taken care of should we die an early death. It is my fervent hope that getting our wills done will not turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, at least not for a long, long time.
• Then was John's actual birthday on March 8th, when my little boy turned seven. I can't believe he's seven!

I wrapped all of his gifts and set them out on the table the night before.

Also the night before his birthday, I hung these streamers over his bedroom door after he went to bed as a fun surprise for when he woke up in the morning.

We had tacos for dinner at John's request. It's one of his favorite meals. My mother always made us whatever we wanted for dinner on our birthdays and I'm continuing the tradition. (Fortunately for me, my kids tastes haven't gotten too fancy yet!)

And look! I made the cake this time!

• After all of the birthday excitement was the excitement of Spring Break! We went to a really fun indoor water park resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin for a few days, which is about 3-1/2 hours north of us. It's called Kalahari and it's the largest indoor water park in the state. We had a great time! John was so sad the day we had to leave. I kind of was too, to be honest. I love vacations. We told him that maybe we'll go back there for a long weekend in the fall. We had lots of fun. 

John loved climbing across the "lily pads."

 

Sam would wake up each morning saying "waterslide" and couldn't wait to get to the water, but once there, he would exercise an abundance of caution and wouldn't even go down the little slides without me grabbing him and taking him down against his will.

Kalahari has a long, awesome lazy river that connects to their wave pool and they also have a good one in the kid's area.

 

The wave pool:

There's also an indoor theme park at Kalahari that has an awesome ropes course where you're attached to a carabiner so that you don't fall to your death or a painful injury should you lose your balance. You get really high up off the ground on the second level. John did this three times! He is fearless. I went once with him. It was a little scary crossing skinny ropes up so high, but I couldn't get too scared because my child wasn't!

 He's on the first level in these pictures. There's another level above that to get through before you finish!

Sam had fun toddler-style. I like how this picture of him on the swing ride is all blurry except for him.

We did some other fun things, like pet an adorable baby lion and eat lunch at a restaurant where a little train delivered the food and drinks to our table, which Sam loved. And I tried something new and got a mud body wrap at the resort's spa. It was a great trip! 

• When we got home, we were welcomed with warm and mild weather. It felt like early summer, which is very unusual in March. It was awesome! We had a nine-day stretch of temperatures in the 70s and 80s, and it broke records. Buds are opening up, flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, and Sam got a sunburn on his arms. In March! It's crazy but I love it.

 

I call this our "Popcorn popping" tree.

• St. Patrick's Day is a must because I have Irish ancestry and therefore so do my children. Thanks to Pinterest (have I mentioned before how much I love that site?), I got creative and crafty for it for the first time ever. My kids made rainbows out of Froot Loops and we played a fun "Things that are green" Bingo game and another game that I found on Pinterest.

And of course we wore green and drank green milk for breakfast (and I bought a box of Lucky Charms for breakfast, which in conjunction with the Froot Loops made for quite the sugary weekend at our house. Usually we eat Cheerios, Chex, and Frosted Mini Wheats!).

• And last but not least, John won his Cub Scout Pack's Pinewood Derby race, thanks to the help of a talented, helpful friend who helped Peter cut the wood and put the car together. This Saturday it will race at the regional tournament. Go John! Or rather, go John's car! 

Look at that grin. He was so happy to be the "Grand Champion"!

So those are the things I've been up to during my absence from the blogosphere. It's been a good month!

Wow, that was a long post! The way I see it, I just wrote at least three or four blog posts in one. Now I don't have to write again for awhile, right? Ha ha, just kidding. Stay tuned this week for some exciting news that I have to share with you about lipstick! (Yes, lipstick.)