Two Thumbs Up

Two thumbs up for Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I'm not in the mood to elaborate and I have pies to make, so I'll just say, one thumb up from my mom (who has a masters' degree in Reformation Europe and an encyclopedia of Elizabethan knowledge on call in her brain), and one thumb up from me (who doesn't know nearly enough about Elizabeth to claim any expertise, but who liked the movie anyway).

What a Putz.

Vandal Punches Hole in Monet Painting

Article

Here's a great article from our local paper about Latter-day Saints and some common misconceptions about us. It's an interview instead of an article, and I think that's why I like it. (As opposed to this week's not-so-positive Newsweek Magazine article on Mitt Romney's convictions.) In this one, nothing is taken out-of-context, the church representative did a great job being concise, and let's just hope somebody read it. :)

Thanks to Jodie for the link!

Book Deal

My friend Erika is a deal diva. Somehow she always knows about the best sales. She practically steals stuff from CVS every week, let me in on Olive Juice's latest bargains, and rocks the Gymboree sales like nobody's business. Yesterday, she blogged about an incredible sale on kids' books at Amazon. 80% off over 1400 titles (other books are on clearance, too). She got over $300 worth of books for about 50 bucks. Children's books are my weakness, so I had to check it out. Here's my loot. Twenty books for $33, including shipping. Boo-yeah!

And, ya, I did look at all 1400 titles. Couldn't help myself. None of these were over $2.50.

Thanks, Erika!

1. Curious George and the Dog Show: An Early Reader
2. First Words
3. George and Martha Back in Town
4. Scholastic Q & A: How Do Bats See In The Dark?
5. Mustang in the Mist (Animal Ark Hauntings #8)
6. Glitter Unicorns Stickers (Dover Little Activity Books)
7. My Daddy Snores
8. Galoshes
9. Sweater
10. Zathura: The Movie Deluxe Storybook
11. The Big Book of the Civil War: Fascinating Facts About the Civil War, Including Historic Photographs, Maps, and Documents
12. Well Done, Worm!: Brand New Readers
13. Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid
14. Whatever
15. The Mystery of the Lost Mine (Boxcar Children Mysteries)
16. Small Acts of Kindness
17. Rosalie and Truffle, Truffle and Rosalie
18. Minute Mysteries: Brainteasers, Puzzlers, And Stories to Solve (American Girl Mysteries)
19. My Friend Rabbit
20. My Big Science Book : Simple, Fun Experiments for All Young Scientists (Smart Kids)

Your turn!

The War on PBS

When I was a teenager, there was a documentary shown on PBS called The Civil War, made by Ken Burns. It completely changed the way I thought about history and the unimaginable sacrifices people have made in this country. I remember crying through it with my mom, hearing old letters read, listening to the powerful soundtrack, and being extremely moved and humbled. One day, I'll own the entire series on DVD. It's very powerful, and I suggest you somehow get a hold of it so that you can see it, too.
Well, Mr. Burns has apparently done an incredible job on his new documentary, about World War II, and it premieres on PBS this Sunday night. It's called The War. I'm sure it will be very difficult to watch, but you can be sure I'll be watching.

Kleenex box on my lap.

Get excited!

Thursday nights! A weekly dose of Tim will have to hold us over until Project Runway 4!

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

My Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English

20% Yankee

10% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

A Great Idea

One of my favorite design blogs is called How About Orange. She always finds the best ideas, projects, and pretty things. Here's my latest favorite website she has shared: Pandora. You may already know about it. I'm slow like that.

Here's what you do:

Go to Pandora.com.
Sign up (free, yay).
Create a new station.
Type in an artist.
Pandora will play songs by that artist and find others you might like who have the same sound.
Then you can listen to your own personalized radio station while you read blogs.

Go try it. It's fun.

Tech-savvy brother Elliott also recommends this site for your listening pleasure.

Pretty Song

Just loving this song today. It's nothing new, just a nice Norah Jones ditty, but it's the kind of song I like to listen to when I'm alone in the car, since it never, ever happens.
Either something like this or ABBA. Really loud.
Oh, I forgot absolute and utter silence. Sometimes I listen to that, too.

What do you like to listen to when you're alone in the car?

just like thin mints, only "thinner"

Yum. Thanks, Target for placing them directly in front of my face in the checkout line!!

Your Library

I was browsing through my sister's Real Simple* magazine by the pool in Hawaii and came across their recommendation for a website called LibraryThing. You can catalog all of the books in your library (up to 200 free, then there's a fee). It's a great way to see what you have and to determine your preferences for new reads. In fact, once you start cataloging, the website will even recommend books that it thinks you would like! Sure, Amazon does this, too, based on things you search for and things in your wishlist, but my recommendations are always kid books or dental anatomy manuals. My LibraryThing account is all my OWN books. Yay for things just for ME. ;)

Check it out here!

And here's more info.

Image of color-coded bookstore found here. You should see the other ones.

*Steph, I stole your magazine, btw. Thanks. :)

For Once,

I'm glad I don't live in England. This poor family (please ignore their frighteningly bad taste in clothing) is being absolutely terrorized and driven from their home because they have four red-headed children. (fyi, i have three of those myself and am asked at least once daily "so where does the red hair come from?")

I'm glad my neighbors are so tolerant.

Click here to read the story.

Our New Favorite Song

by one of our old favorite bands (Travis):



I'm really just killing time until Stephanie calls me with news regarding the gender of her third-born. (How I managed to NOT find out the gender of dear little Miles is a mystery to me, because I am absolutely dying to know what Steph's baby will be, and she's not even Me.)
So, baby steps till twelve o'clock . . .

Children's Book of the Week installments will resume next week. I'm just not in book report mood today. Because I'm still wishing we were sitting by the Kea Lani pool right now, to tell you the truth.

update: steph called. her wish came true, as audrey put it. click here to see!

In the News

Just a couple of interesting articles regarding people of my faith in the news lately. I thought I'd share. The first one's mostly for Neal, since he has an intense amount of, um, "respect" for Rev. Al Sharpton, who recently visited with LDS Church leaders. Click here to read the article.

This article is about a Mormon girl in California who was sent to the principal's office for the words she used as a comeback for some mean kids at school. It all culminated in a law suit. So ridiculous.

In other uninteresting and completely random news, I'm thinking of changing my name to
L e l s i e because every single time I try to type L e s l i e, it comes out Lelsie. Lelsie's kind of cute, don't you think? :)

And I'm changing t h e to t e h.

You're welcome.

Don't Judge Me.

But help me instead. I don't own a Crock Pot, never have. Recently, I keep hearing all about them. They're all the rage again, I'm seeing recipes and cookbooks for them, my friend, Phoebe, even has Crock Pot Wednesday on her blog, but I've yet to actually ever use one. Crock Pots aren't really part of my history; I don't remember my mom ever having one, I didn't register for one when I was engaged, and didn't receive one for a wedding gift.

But now, you know what? I think I want one.

I mean, now I acutally have space enough to store one in my kitchen, and the more children I have, the more the smell of beef stew the minute I walk in the door from church sounds appealing. So, tell me, girls, do you think a Crock Pot is a good purchase? What kind of Crock Pot do you have? What size should I get? And what is your favorite crock pot recipe?

Comment below with your suggestion on a size/brand, and when you get around to it, email me your favorite recipe (my email is right there, in the sidebar). I'll even post my favorite on From Our Kitchens to Yours. How's that for motivation, eh? Eh?

Thanks, ladies! You're a collective peach.

No More Secret Tans for Utah Teens

Have you heard about this? Apparently, there is a new law in Utah (and other places) that mandates that if you want to go fry yourself in a tanning bed (can you glean my opinion on this topic?), and you're under 18, your mom or dad has to come in and say that it's okay. This comes after new studies in Europe have shown that exposing yourself to UV rays like the ones in tanning salons increases your risk of malignant melanoma from 2 to 7 times. You can't tell me that people thinking you've just been relaxing on vacation (even though it's the middle of February) is worth dying of skin cancer. Utah, which ranks in the top five in per capita deaths from melanoma, is joining 26 other states that regulate teenagers' use of tanning beds. The story (on NPR) also mentioned that tanning salons are now notorious for locating themselves within walking distances of middle and high schools.
Neal and I were talking about this, and I thought, "isn't tanning kind of on its way out? I thought people were smarter now and that spray-on tans were the new rage."
Apparently not.

Click here to read the article.

News from P-Town

My sister, Julianne, and my brother's wife, Mimi, graduated from the BYU this week, both with oustanding grades and very high hopes for the future. Congratulations to two incredibly smart, beautiful women! You can see pictures over at my dad's blog.

In other P-Town news, the good ole Cheltsea condo just may be leaving the family after 12 years. They've accepted an offer, and let's hope it closes, right, Dad? Yes, it's the end of an era, fare thee well Chelsea Number Three! Let's have a moment, all of us who spent so much time in that place.

Rachel, Kristen, Stephanie, Mike, Mabel, the only child born into the condo, Neal, Keith, Ginger, Lisa, Amy G., Mrs. Dub & all of Steph's other roommates (can't remember who all lived there, but feel free to comment), and all of Julianne's roomies, too.

Afrin is Evil

I have a cold. And when I say cold, I mean I haven't breathed through my nose in a good 5 or 6 days. I had no voice for three of those days, and I'm not getting any better. Once upon a time in Los Angeles, I went to an ENT to ask him why I can't breathe very well at night when I'm sleeping (even when I'm not sick). He told me that the inside bridge of my nose is too skinny (à la M. Jackson), and I have a condition he called "cartilage collapse," which means that when I inhale through my nose, my nose collapses, to an extent, and prevents air from flowing. It's not something they can fix, just one of those annoying little things. It's one reason I swear by these little guys. But Afrin saves me when I'm sick. If you haven't ever used it, you ought to give it a shot next time you're stuffed up. It's amazing how quickly it will clear up your nose. But I only use it right before I go to bed for a few reasons:

1. It really hurts, as in a major burning sensation that makes it feel like you've snorted liquid fire.
2. It's completely addicting, both to me and my nose.

It says you're only to take it once in a 24-hour period because if you take it more often than that, it actually makes you sicker. I really really want to use it right now, but I know I shouldn't and I'll be sorry if I do, even if I would be able to breathe seconds after using it. Last night, I had to really prep myself with deep breathing before the squirting because I knew it was going to hurt. How can something so wonderful be so terrible at the same time?

Because it's evil. That's how.

Sunday Guilt Trip

From an email forward going around among my friends at church:

Scriptures and Cell phones

I wonder what would happen if we treated our scriptures the way we treat our cell phones.

What if we carried them around in our purses or pockets?
What if we turned back to go get them if we forgot them?
What if we flipped through them several times a day?
What if we used them to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated them as if we couldn’t live without them?
What if we gave them to kids as gifts?
What if we used them when we traveled?
What if we used them in case of an emergency?
What if we upgraded them to get the latest version?

Something to think about.

Homework

If you haven't been researching the presidential candidates, you might want to start thinking about it and talking about it with your friends and/or your spouse. (Not that you both have to support the same person, of course, but you know, those husbands come in handy for political discussion, at least mine does. In fact, we spent all our pillow talk time last night talking about this very thing.) Although it is early in the process, this part of the election is actually much more important than you might think. The funds raised by each candidate this early on pretty much determine who can go the distance. Sad, but true. Money does make the world go 'round. So go read my dad's blog first (hehee), then click

Here for Mr. Romney.
Here for Mr. McCain.
Here for Mr. Giuliani.
Here for Ms. Rodham-Clinton.
Here for Mr. Obama.
Here for Mr. Edwards.

Read up a bit on each of them and how they feel about the issues that are important to you. Or go here (or somewhere like it) and read about others who are considering a bid. It's our country, guys, we're grown ups now, and we need to know about this stuff. Don't just choose someone because someone else did, make up your mind for yourself. I'm not a huge political junkie, but I do think it's fun and necessary to know what's going on. At least so you can carry on an intelligent conversation about the state of things, in case the opportunity arises. Be a good example for your kids and take a stand on something or someone! Talk about it in your families, it's important for our kids to see that we are involved in some way, even if it's only a trip to the voting booth a year and a half from now. Ok, enough pep talk. Get to work!