"Shows"

A real conversation I just had:
Jonah: "I love Picio."
Me: "You do? You love Pinnocchio?"
Jonah: "Uh, YUP."

But then while fast-forwarding thru the previews, he saw the preview for The Nightmare Before Christmas and insisted on watching "Dissent (different) Halloween show." So that's what he's doing right now.

Sidenote: It was pouring rain when we woke up 20 minutes ago. The high today is supposed to be 46 degrees (the high yesterday was 82. What is this, Oklahoma?). The tomatoes got covered at 11:45 last night.

Tomatoes

We are drowning in tomatoes and loving every minute of it. We picked so many today you wouldn't believe it. No pictures unfortunately because Elora dropped the camera and now the batteries won't stay in. Probably time for some duct tape and an upgrade anyway. Last night I made Cream of Tomato Soup from scratch. Today I made pasta with garden fresh tomatoes and zucchini (thanks Raquel) and Brandon made a batch of salsa today with our tomatoes and cilantro plus Julie's fresh onions and peppers. Sometimes I wish September would never end!

Style Mentor #2

Perhaps knowing how I love Audrey Hepburn's style, you will not be at all surprised to see that my second fashion mentor is Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis. Or perhaps you'd noticed my affinity for black turtlenecks (and other colors) and large sunglasses. Or maybe you know of my love for hats (why does nobody wear pillbox hats anymore), skirt suits, modest dresses, head scarfs, clean lines, pearl necklaces, and A-line dresses. Valentino, Cassini, Givenchy; all synonymous with Jackie-style.

Birthday

On Sunday I turned 31.
Saturday night I had a girlie sleepover party up at the cabin. Six of my friends came. We talked and talked and talked and ate and talked and hot tubbed and talked and talked and had dessert and talked and stayed up really, really late. All of us have children and five of the gals slept over and were relieved to sleep in a little bit and have others on child duty. Brandon showed up at 9:30 to make us breakfast.


Here I am with Sheryl and Stacey.


Leah and Rochelle about to get in the hot tub.


Katrina and I hadn't seen each other in three years and were happily reunited.


Leah and Sheryl in the bunk room early in the morning.

I got a picture of Raquel and I too, but it didn't turn out well.

That afternoon I left the cabin and headed home, intending to go to church, but instead napped for over two hours. It was delicious and much-needed.
Andy picked me up and we headed back to the cabin where Linda had cooked an incredible dinner. Plus, Andy made a peach crisp and Linda made pumpkin spice cupcakes!


Gifts?
Linda got me hairbands, a hat, a sweater, an immersion blender, two vegetarian cookbooks (one all soups), money for a new jacket, and two 3/4 sleeve Shades t-shirts.
Andrea got me waders for fly fishing:)
Lisa A. sent me a card and a book (Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, which is hysterical so far).
Mom sent me the cutest owl clock necklace.
Lisa M., my other mother-in-law, has sent me something as well.

I received tons of birthday wishes on facebook as well as messages from three of my siblings and a card from my family in AZ. Card and a phone call from the Relief Society as well.

Great birthday!

Do You See It?

Have I ever mentioned how often I get told that I look like somebody else? Usually it's someone's friend's cousin. But I've also had several celebrities mentioned. Seriously, I must have the ultimate generic face. I was telling this to my friend a couple days ago and she said, "I think you look like Jan from The Office." And her sister-in-law said, "Yah, you do." I prefer looking like a celebrity somehow.


Melora Hardin

Body Art

Jonah is really into drawing "happy face"s. Everywhere.

Style Mentors

My SIL, Lauren, writes a blog and has like 600 followers. It's insane. Anyway, she gives me great ideas to blog about all the time. Today I am stealing her Fashion Icons idea.

My ultimate style mentor has always been Audrey Hepburn. I know a lot of it is just that I love clothing from her era and part of it is also that she has a boyish figure like me. But a lot of it is just that she had serious style. I mean anywhere in the world when you think of a trench coat, you think of Audrey. She was also often found in capris/cropped pants, ballet flats, turtlenecks, wrap tops. I love all of those things. And little black dresses? She was the queen. I have five black dresses in my closet.













Here I am attempting a little Audrey-style.

Double-breasted trench coat


My favorite little black dress

End of Summer Soup

This is what we had for dinner tonight. It was heavenly. The zucchini was from my friend Jen's garden and the basil was from mine. I got the recipe from epicurious.com but have two slight modifications that several reviewers recommended (changes already made below).

Zucchini-Basil Soup

2 lbs. chopped zucchini
3/4 c. chopped onion
4 cloves chopped or minced garlic
1/4 c. (or less) olive oil
3 c. chicken or vegetable broth
1/3 c. packed fresh basil

Saute onion and garlic in oil for 5 minutes. Add zucchini and 1 tsp. salt, saute five minutes more. Add broth and simmer partially covered for 15 mins. Puree with fresh basil in blender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I served it with garlic bread. So refreshing and light and filling and delicious!

Italian Dreams

I have now decided what I want to do with my life. I want to spend a year living in Torri Superiore, Italy as a work-exchange volunteer. Free room and board in Italy. What more could one possibly want?

http://www.responsibletravel.com/community/blogs/view.aspx?id=3203&bid=449

Elora Talks

WARNING: Some viewers may find this too cute to bear.

She does the exact same excited expressions as Jonah. I didn't even know she could say "raining" and "lighting" until I came home from the museum with Jonah and Brandon showed me this video.

Jonah Sings

Girlfriends

This is my good friend Angela. I think this is the only picture of us together. It was taken a week or so ago at her baby shower. She has a little girl named Vivian who is Jonah's age and they are best friends. She is due with her second child, a boy, on October 1st. I'm pretty sure he's coming early.
I've made some really good friends here in Heber. Angela and I try to get together every week for our kids to play. Angela is a truly generous soul. She is from Kentucky and is a pediatric nurse.
Then I've got Raquel, she has a son named Ethan who is Jonah's age and a four-year-old daughter Ellie. We used to take turns taking all four kids for two hours a week so we each got a two hour break for running errands child-free. During the summer we've been content with doing a playdate once a week. Raquel goes camping with her little family a lot. She is from a little town not far from here and works two days a week for a water company. She is spontaneous, organized, thrifty, and fun. She shares my passion for cooking.
Sheryl is a single mom to a sweet four-year-old boy. They live next door. She finished her bachelor's degree in business in June and when she finds a new job I fear she'll be moving. Sheryl appreciates an intellectual read and a funny show. She is, like Angela and Raquel, easy to talk to and non-judgemental. She is one of the other teachers in the women's class at church.
Those are my three best friends in Heber but I've got a handful of other good friends here too. I feel really lucky. I love my monthly bookclub meetings and now my monthly culinary club activities. I love the women at my church too. Social networks are such an important part of my life. My husband is my best friend, but he just doesn't appreciate a good chick flick, a whiney rant, reading a book with me, talking about pregnancy, or daily meal preparations the way my girlfriends do. Ladies, I'm blessed to have you.

Lake Powell '09

Brandon's dad has had a timeshare on a 72' houseboat on Lake Powell the week before Labor Day for 15 years now. The past few years the boat has been mismanaged and in a state of filthiness and disrepair. We went on our final voyage on it Friday thru Sunday. We bought a new timeshare on a smaller, better kept boat that we tried out Wed. til Friday. It was an exhausting trip this year with only four adults (we've never had less than six before) and two small non-swimmer children. Wed, Fri, and Sun. were basically all travel and work but Thursday and Saturday were the usual Lake Powell heaven. The crazy red rock formations of southern Utah combined with warm water, nice beaches, water sports, evening bats, fireworks, etc., etc. make for an out-of-this-world vacation spot.











Jonah did not like swimming but he LOVED playing in the sand and riding "fast" in the "little boat".











I forgot camera batteries so most of these were taken on my iphone and you can probably tell lots of them were taken by Jonah.





Jonah's new phrases of the week:
"Guess what?"
"Look at this!"