.::still blinking::.

I have had several compliments (thank you) and questions about where to get clothes. You are all so sweet. I sent an email to a friend a few months ago about where to get clothes and style and fit and so forth and will share it with you. I don’t know about people who are not near my size, but for me this seems to work. I am 5’4″ and um, slenderish. I guess. I have a butt though and it makes finding pants hard. Anyway, here goes.

I have a few cute things that I save for going out and business meetings, but when I am at home I am usually in yoga pants and casual t-shirts and sweaters in the winter. In the summer I love skirts and sundresses.

I always have my eyes peeled for cute sundresses. DownEast Basics has some really cute dresses and skirts right now. Take a look. I got a bunch of jumpers from Target last summer. Target always has stuff on clearance and I just go through it if I have some time alone, or if I can talk Gentry into behaving for 2 minutes. In the summer you only need a few skirts to be able to survive I have found. I have a denim one that I wear like every other day and then a black jumper I wear with different t-shirts under it and then a few others. A melon skirt. A white skirt, which I cannot wear with a little boy around because he is made of dirt and a strange sticky substance. And a long linen skirt. Oh and a linen jumper. You totally always look dressed up with a skirt on. Even in flip flops and a t-shirt. Just ad accessories and you are totally ready to go.

Oh, and this is of vital importance. Get the skirts and jumpers to come to your knee or to your ankle. Otherwise it might hit you in the thickest part of your calf and make you look like you have great big stumps for legs. I pretty much try to avoid this at all costs.

I get my jeans at Express in the mall, I get a few other things there once in a while. I swear that Express jeans are sent from heaven. They keep your butt covered, they have nice fits, and they have spandex for fat days/months as it goes for me. Their prices are expensive and I only feel justified in paying it for the jeans I love. The jeans have like 2% spandex so they stretch where I need it. I am sure the rest of you don’t need it. Also, you can sign up on their website to receive ads and discounts from them. So you can get $15-30 off of a pants purchase, which I totally use to my advantage.

I get everything else at Target, Ross, and once in a while Old Navy and JCPenney. This is pretty much how it works for everything. Oh and I get shoes now at Ross and DSW. They have the best shoe sales. They have an entire clearance section in the back with things up to 80% off.

Also, shoes make a big difference. Black stilettos, which take a little getting used to while carrying a kid, make your legs look like fantastic. Black boots can go with pretty much everything and make your legs look incredible as well. Then a cute beaded flip flop, which I have not been able to find yet this year, looks so much better and classier than an old navy flip flop. Although, the old navy flip flops are a good one to have for really casual outings.

I really think nice jeans and shoes make a huge difference. Everything else, just kind of falls into place once you get that taken care of.

Let me know if you all have other secrets for looking great and keeping it cheap.

I have become a little obsessed with clothes lately. So much so that I could have bought probably half of the buckets of wheat my family would need for a year with the amount I have spent on clothes. Do you do that? Figure out how much powdered milk your dinner out is equivalent to?

The white dress above was my Easter dress that I bought in November, and justified by telling jj it was my Easter dress. Except that I bought too many other dresses around that time for my little line to be true. Dang it.

I think I am done now. I have been trying to get some cute stuff for a trip in the near future. I want to look like I belong and not like a dorky tourist. Also, I have started the starvation diet again. Don’t be alarmed, by starvation I mean. One piece of pizza instead of two. No ice cream after 7, or snacks for that matter. Unless jj comes with them looking all nice and friendly. Also, less peanut butter on my pancakes. You know, just cutting back. Which I should be doing anyway, but I sure love indulgences. Three times a day. I am trying though.

Last night I dreamed that I was at Annie’s house and that she had had a bbq. It got to be really late, like 3 in the morning, before I actually left. When I did leave, there was a teenage cougar on her porch that attacked me. I had to yell and get her husband Ross to rescue me. He was unscathed as was I, which is lucky because the cougar had been hanging from my arms.

Then I dreamed that I was Mikaela, from Transformers, if only I had her naughty body. I was in hiding and had a basement in some old office building that I was living in. It had a bit of Sesame Street wallpaper and I was sad about something.

One summer. I guess I am four and Travis (my brother) is three. I remember wearing that tank top as a child. I remember digging in my Aunt Karla’s backyard and finding sprinkler pipe and thinking we had found a mine of Ivory soap. I was wearing that shirt. I must have liked it to have carved a memory into my mind of it.

You know the part of your kids being sick where you start to wonder if you have it to?

Hello and welcome to my world.

I am thinking it is pretty impossible to not git (um, did I just type that?!?) sick when your child repeatedly sneezes directly into your open eyeballs. Even though I have told him, please, Please, PLEASE, PLEASE cover your mouth when you sneeze. And then he walks out of the bathroom with my toothbrush in his mouth. I wonder how long this illicit affair has been going on. The little tramp.

I am hoping what I have going on is my monthly migraine and seasonal allergies. Hoping, hoping, hoping. Seriously. Hoping.

Also, on the upside is that he seems to have lost about half the control of most things that he had a week ago. Yesterday he spilled ibuprofen on my bedspread, today it was Twist Lime Lemon Shasta, which makes me smile inside. What a knock off. And he is kind of passive aggressive angry. For instance, lets lie here on the bed together and watch Spiderman for the 95.4th time, but that is all you can do. Do not get your laptop out. See me, closing your laptop with your fingers still moving. See me smiling coyly. See me. See me. I am not angry. I am not mad. But all attention must be on what I am doing, thinking, saying or singing.

We really have quarantined ourselves. Which is sure to prove a happy week.

We are quarantined to our house for a week. I should have started earlier with it and if we have infected you I am sorry. I found out today Gentry has Hand Foot Mouth Disease. We took him to the doctor on Saturday and they told us it was strep throat. Misdiagnosed. He has been acting weird since Thursday. With basically every symptom. Easily misdiagnosed.

He is acting really good, but man I hate having a sick kid. We are probably going to get a little nutty over in these parts just lying around staring at each other, sigh, for a week. Thank you for all your offers to help us out. If I need anything I will let you all know.

I have been mesmerized by this photographers website today. Take a look, get inspired. I am off to fill my little guys stomach with ice cream and sprite. Sickness does a sweet tooth good.

:: honesty ::

:: hard work ::

:: good + gentle friends ::

:: health ::

:: moderate weather ::

:: compassionate love ::

:: peanut butter ::

photo credits: one two three four five six

Photo from here.

I was out back talking to a neighbor this afternoon. Our kids were playing in the garage around the corner and suddenly started screaming like the neighborhood sex offender had just arrived and shared something special with them. We ran around the corner to see what was going on. They had been kicking ants and a surprising thing happened, the ants got mad and started fighting back. They were crawling up their legs and pinching like a good little ant army.

We pulled their pant legs up and quickly brushed the ants off, but the little girl Gentry was playing with was really upset. I went and got the ant poison and dumped a bunch down their hole. Bug poison always makes me think of Concentration Camps, the showers, my German art history class in college, memorials to all the Jews, I’d like to go there someday. I wonder how much houses are going for in Germany. I wonder if I could get water rights in Germany and live sustainably on a farm. Italy would be cool. When was the last time I checked for houses/farms for sale there. Oh, last night. Along with Bali. Where you could live on a tropical island for the same price as living here. Although would they let a guy who looks like he is part of Irish Mafia and his wife and child in? Not sure.

Back to the subject. I remember one time when I was little, lying on my Grandma Katherine’s floor. I was just lazying about as most 8ish year olds do when I felt a pinch on my leg. I looked down and there was a biggish ant that had just bit me, the little bastard. Those hurt. So I guess having ants in your pants is not the best possible activity for a nice spring day.

Also, the first time I saw this exact photo I dreamed about the ant that night. I dreamed it had burrowed into my skin and I could see it crawling around. You can click on the link and see my comment from 12 months ago. Frightening.

I have only ever lived in Utah, so I have been blinded by snow storms and learned that driving in three feet of snow is not impossible. I have visited other places who have their own weird weather occurances. I remember driving through Natchez, Mississippi with rain that has been coming down so hard and fast that the windshield wipers could not keep up. I remember being somewhere in the deep south in a hotel while a tornado threatened to come near our hotel, the news was on telling how to duck and cover for safety. JJ has lived in Arizona, where he says it is hot. I guess I will believe him because while I was living in Logan, the old folks would come and live in the student apartments to escape the heat of the summer. He also talks about the monsoons and dust storms. Things that I guess I have not experienced here.

Last night as we were driving home on Bangerter. We drove into a dust cloud. It was amazingly frightening. Like driving from noon directly onto a dark country road that happens to be the home of the Texas Chairsaw Massacre. First the cars in front of us disappeared and then we were in the mass of darkness, hoping not to hit anyone or thing. In seconds we could see the glowing red of the tail lights in front of us, but that was frightening as well. Like jumping into a cave and finding Satan all glowing and happy to see you. It was terrifying.

Watch one here.

:: my partially weeded yard :: the accompanying slit of sun burn on my lower back between my pants and shirt :: just right weather ::

:: happy little boy ::

:: american idol :: go David C. ::

:: little guy loving photography ::

:: small guy repeating the books on c.d. we have in the car ::

:: his new favorite song :: Latter-Day Prophets :: his favorite part is “W. Kimball” ::

:: JJ cleaning up the kitchen every night this week ::

:: friends doing well after having a new baby ::

:: burt’s bees Facial Cleanser + Eye Cream :: smells like heaven, which I am sure is good for wrinkles ::

:: midday breaks + treats + walks with mom ::