My Fair Lady

Kira, this post's for you. I saw a review of this book and knew that we needed it in our lives. I have a copy on reserve at the library, so scurry online and get one asap. Then we can be enlightened by the wisdom of your fashion icon. This picture would look great on your dorm wall, no? Courtesy of Ikea.
For those of you who don't know Kira, she is my second-youngest sister (second from the left) who oozes 1960s poise and glamour, a la Audrey. She can rock large costume jewelry, dainty headbands, and cocktail dresses with the best of them. She is also the one who introduced the sistas to the pure joy of ballet flats. Kaylee (the stylist extrodinaire - far right) categorized Kira's style as "urban retro glam." BYU boys, watch out for Kira toolin' around Provo this summer on her fabulous Beach Cruiser bike, complete with basket and bell. In Kira's words, it's her "classy, eco-friendly, heart-healthy alternate mode of transportation in an aesthetically pleasing shade of seafoam green." If you have to go to summer school, might as well do it with panache.

P.S. Sistas, think Kentucky Derby 2009. We can re-create the Ascot scene from My Fair Lady in a way that would make Henry Higgins (and Eliza Dolittle) proud. Start your hunt for enormous sunhats and gloves. Bex, maybe you can contact Jaimee Rose for some tips. :)

Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving

Andy and his twin sister, Betsy, turned the big 3-0 last Friday. We had lots of fun commemorating the milestone and look forward to celebrating with Andy's family in D.C. in a few weeks (Betsy lives there). I started out by making Andy one of his favorite treats for breakfast - cinnamon rolls (from a can, of course.) You can tell Ben wanted to help Daddy blow out the candles. That night, our friends from Dayton came over and we had a great time and ate one of Andy's favorite dinners - fettucine alfredo from the Olive Garden.

For Andy and Betsy's 25th birthday, we flew out to D.C. to spend it with Betsy and Andy's mom sent them a birthday in a box: Matching pink polo shirts and blue flip-flops, cake mix, balloons, the works. It was a memorable one because Betsy's roommate had a cat and Andy is so severely allergic to cats that we ended up having to stay somewhere else. Thankfully we had no such trauma this year.

Saturday night we went out to pizza with some of our friends and had a fabulous time.
With the birthday money he got from my mom, Andy bought new flowers and shrubs (and stinky mulch) for our front yard. He decided he wants to plant flowers every year on his b-day.
Here's a picture from Thanksgiving 2006 in Boston with Betsy and Andy's younger sister Charlotte.
But wait, it gets better. Thanks to Char, we have some pictures of Andy and Betsy as kids.

One Christmas they got matching cowboy/cowgirl outfits. What cute buckaroos!

Like No Other

This of course being the tagline for The Masters, the granddaddy of all golf tournaments, which was held this past weekend and was a major (pardon the pun) staple at our house. Augusta National, home of The Masters, is Mecca for all hard core golfers, of which Andy is one. As you can imagine, tickets to this hallowed event are hard to come by, but I'd love to surprise Andy one year with tickets for him and his dad. I don't mind watching golf, having grown up watching it with my dad. Personally, I'd love to go to Augusta National just to walk the fairways and see the unbelievable landscaping on this perfectly manicured course (see below).

Gorgeous flowering trees, courtesy of the warm Georgia spring.
Hats off to Trevor Immelman, winner of the 2008 Masters. He's a 28-year-old from South Africa. And as Andy will tell you, the first South African to win the Masters since Gary Player won in 1978, the year of his birth.

I can't even imagine how many groundskeepers they employ.
This shot inspires me to want to take up golf. If only all courses looked like this. A close-up of some of the azaleas on the course.

Chili/Chocolate Cook-off

A night devoted to chocolate - what could be more perfect? Last night our ward held its annual Chili/Chocolate cookoff and I finally had a legitimate excuse to eat dessert(s) for dinner. As a bona fide chocoholic I've always dreamed of such an occasion. Whoever thought of this activity is a genius.

If you think this was just another potluck, think again. Every dish was numbered and attendees voted on their favorite chili or chocolate entry. Votes were tallied and winners announced at the end. I made a triple chocolate cake (the bundt cake in the back right), thanks to a recipe from a friend who is a fabulous cook. I harbored no illusions of winning, but loved the chance to make a delicioius treat and gorge myself sick on the batter. The winner was the beautiful (and amazingly scruptious) trifle in the center of the picture. It was aptly titled, "Death by Chocolate." If that's how I have to go, I'll die a happy woman.

Oh yeah. The chili was good too. :) Yummy, yummy food.

Holy Megachurch, Batman!

Today we discovered another hidden gem in the Columbus area: The Grove City Church of the Nazarene. A friend invited us to go to the free indoor playland and I wasn't prepared for what awaited us. No joke, this is the biggest church I've ever seen. It resembled a convention center more than a church. The facilities were immaculate, complete with a huge worship center auditorium, bookstore, preschool facilities, class/meeting rooms, a really nice food court (picture a mix between the mall and Starbucks), a hair salon, and the ginormous kids' playland. Of course my camera was out of batteries so don't have any pictures to give you the full effect, but you can kind of see it behind Ben in the pictures. We will definitely be back.

Ben with his friend Dean
Ben with Grace. He got reprimanded for climbing on the front of the car and started crying.

A Fresh Coat of Paint

Last weekend, on a whim, we decided to paint our family room. As you can see from the picture, it was a neutral tan and we wanted it to a little more bright and friendly. We'd seen a beautiful yellow room in a decorating book and used it as our inspiration. But after Andy spent 8 hours painting (bless his heart), we're not quite sure if we like it. The color is nice in natural light, but shocking in artificial light.

Andy worked on a paint crew for three summers during high school so he is a pro and very picky about the color. I, on the other hand, am not much help beyond moving the drop cloth and taping the edges. We're going to leave it up for a while and see if the color grows on us, but it might change sooner than later. What do you think?

Spring, Spring What a Glorious Feeling

The title of the post is a line from a kids' song Andy learned when he was in Kinderfarm as a three-year-old. We taught Ben the whole song last year and have been happily singing it this week since spring did finally find us here in Ohio and we have been loving the 60-70 degree temperatures and playing outside for hours on end.

I love spring flowers and there are happy daffodils everywhere here. My favorite are tulips, so we'll have to plant some for next year.

On Tuesday Andy had to work late so Ben and I went to the zoo. We rode the carousel, played on the toys, and made the requisite visit to one of our favorite animals: the penguins. We love to watch them zip through the water. Other favorites: The flamingoes and the manatees.

The sandbox at a park near our house.

Ben and Andy playing soccer in front of our house. Andy was multitasking and sprucing up the yard as well.

A little bike gang - Ben and Nessie

Our friend Ross brought over his cool bike and let Ben get up on it. Ross can do all sorts of tricks and it was fun to watch his mad skills.

Andy going for a spin.

Help Wanted?

For the past ten years or so my secret dream has been to be the next Katie Couric. As a journalism major and fellow news junkie, I like the fact that she established her journalism cred doing hard news. I also admire how on the Today Show she seamlessly transitioned from talking fashion or food into in-depth interviews and more serious topics. I have followed her career with interest and rooted for her when she left NBC for CBS to be the managing editor and anchor of CBS News. I guess it's not working out as well as she or the media company hoped. Apparently her ratings aren't what they'd expected. Sadly, media is big business and ratings translate into advertising dollars. Unfortunately, the effort to attract more viewers often leads to watered-down news, which is one of my pet peeves. I think people can handle intelligent coverage that entails more than celebrity gossip, partisan pundits, and sound bites.

But I digress. According to today's WSJ, Katie might be leaving CBS News after the presidential inauguration in Jan. 2009. I just want to let the powers that be at CBS know that I am ready to take the job whenever they need me. I'm sure I won't be the first on the list, but a girl can always dream, right? I can just picture myself at the anchor desk in power suits, interviewing heads of state and covering topics of national and international import. The $15 million annual salary wouldn't be too shabby either. :)

You may rightly ask, what qualifications do I possess which would qualify me for this role? Granted, don't actually have any actual on-air experience as a news anchor, but I did do my undergrad and master's degrees in journalism/mass communication. Sometimes Andy teases me about going into journalist mode when I am engaged in a conversation and start interrogating people about their opinions on a particular topic or area of expertise. After seeing the hours and lifestyle that would be required to become a serious anchor, I decided to go the PR route, which lends itself more to freelance opportunities if I want to work while raising children. For now, I'll just have to indulge my grandiose fanstasies that my fascination with broadcast journalism, winning personality and enthusiam will catch someone's eye and they'll realize that I'm just what the news needs. When the phone call comes, I'll be ready.


The story on Katie: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120778369100203247.html?mod=most_viewed_day

These Boots Were Made for Walking

Ben is officially obsessed with his cowboy boots. I bought them for him off Craiglist in October because I wanted him to be a cowboy for Halloween, but he'd have nothing to do with them. Of course, he chose to be Thomas the Train instead. Yesterday I let him pick out his own shoes and he chose the boots and the only time they've come off since has been when he's sleeping. He calls them his "cool boots" and shows them proudly to everyone in sight: The lady at the gym, Andy when he walked in the door last night, his friends, aunties, etc. I think it's pretty cute. He says that he's like Sheriff Woody and told Andy that his name was written on the bottom of his shoe, just like in Toy Story.

Baby Shower Bonanza

One of my favorite things about our house is that the layout lends itself well for hosting gatherings. On Tuesday we held a baby shower here for one of my dear friends who is having her second baby next month. Not only did we get to have girl time and eat delicious food, but we feted Brittany, who is one of the funniest people I know. She has a very unique outlook on things and is always fun to talk to. I can't wait to meet her new little boy since her daughter Maya is one of the cutest kids ever.

Top your own cheesecake and a chocolate trifle. I heart my springform pans - the impetus for learning to make cheesecake.

Chicks and chat.
Me, Brittany, and Rachel, the other hostess.

New Wheels

To celebrate the end of the flu epidemic at our house, we went out last Friday night and got ice cream. It was the inaugural family outing in the car we got last week to replace the Subaru we've been borrowing from Andy's sister for the last nine months. Technically, it's not really a new car, but it's new to us. After lots of homework and obsessively checking Craiglist for months, we got a Honda Accord with, as a total bonus, a stick shift. Andy and I both drove a stick in high school and haven't done so since. I managed not to kill it on the test drive, as I did a million times driving to school for the first time my junior year of HS (that's a funny story for another time).

For our treat we went to a local frozen custard place, which I've always wanted to try because of its wierd signage. They post the quirkiest custard flavor and main dish combinations, mainly to get people's attention, I think. If you're wondering, a ButterBurger is one where they butter the bun. Just another heart-healthy way to liven up the food. The custard itself was so-so. I'll take Handel's or Jeni's Ice Cream any day over Culver's. We have become ice cream snobs and I'll list our local ratings in another post.


They serve alot of Walleye at this restaurant - not the most appetizing name for a fish.
Another appealing combo that I snapped last fall.

Easter

Here are pictures of our Easter events, almost three weeks late. I entertained visions of making a fabulous Easter ham complete with mashed potatoes, asparagus, and a beautiful trifle, but we ended up going much more low-key because Ben was sick and everyone we tried to invite over already had plans. We were also a little slow on the draw because we'd just gotten back from AZ a few days ealier. So instead of a big dinner we made a new fettucine alfredo recipe, which was very good. It uses real parmigianno-reggiano cheese, which sells for $21/pound (ouch!) but is one of the best I've tasted that doesn't use butter as the main ingredient.

Next year my grand plans will come to fruition - hosting an easter egg hunt followed by a festive spring brunch on the Saturday morning before Easter and then a big dinner on Easter Sunday. I can't wait!

Andy promptly eating our decorated eggs. Hard boiled eggs - yum!

Ben at an easter egg hunt organized by a friend of ours. His good friend Nessie Boo is in the back.

Did I mention that I ate almost all of the chocolate out of Ben's eggs? He can find out about that part of Easter next year. :)

Like I mentioned earlier, spring hasn't found us here in Ohio.

Dyeing Easter eggs, one of my favorite traditions. Ben eschewed all implements and went straight for using his hands.

The end result - smurf hands!

Resurfacing

We are finally recovering from two weeks of the flu (Ben the first week, me the second week) and are back to some semblance of normal. I slept in our guest bedroom for three nights because my coughing kept Andy awake. But it was actually kind of fun because it was my first experience EVER of having my own room. I stayed up reading as long as I wanted, left my things all over the floor, and just shut the door afterward. It wasn't until the third night that I finally remembered that we have a humidifier, which helped alot. I thought it was crazy that we made it all the way to the end of March without getting sick, but here in Ohio winter is still going strong, so maybe that's not uncommon. Everyone think spring!!!