The Oscars.

Last night at around 7:15 my cell phone rang.  It was my friend Delanie.  I thought, Now why in the world is Delanie calling me when surely she knows I would be watching the Oscars.  I picked up the phone and said hello very slowly ...

Delanie said, "Oh shoot.  I bet you're watching the Oscars aren't you?  Sorry, I'll talk to you later."

She knows.  I love the Academy Awards.  And I usually thoroughly enjoy them too.  And even though the critics are NOT giving James Franco and Anne Hathaway very good reviews as last night's hosts, I liked them.  I thought she was adorable (and I don't even usually care for Anne Hathaway).  Her dresses were fabulous ( I even liked her tux) and so were all of her different hair styles.  Her hair stylist was pretty impressive - an updo, then into curled locks ... into a pony tail ... then into a side sweep ... then down and straightened.  (I'd totally hire her.)

I loved all of the musical numbers too (well, except Randy Newman even though I voted for that song to win at my friend Vicki's Oscar party - only because he's won for a Toy Story song before.  I figured my odds were good.  They were.)  And that Gwyneth ... she really does sing better live than most recording artists do. Just love her.)

I loved so many of the dresses this year too.  Jennifer Hudson?  I want what she's having.

I loved Celine singing during the "In Memorium" that they have each year too ... and then Halle Berry walking out to give tribute to Lena Horne.  Isn't Halle just one of the prettiest women EVER?  (Oh, and I LoVed Reese Witherspoon ... )

During the red carpet stuff, Vicki had invited us over for dinner.  She always puts on quite the spread for special occasions and her Oscar dinner was no exception.  Great food, great decor, great treats ... it made the night that much better - that and the fact that Elliott watched them with us too.  All the way to the end!  Love that boy.

LP sighting.

How AWESOME is this plate for this car?!?!?!

P.E.R.F.E.C.T.

Goodies from the dentist.

I can't say that I LoVe going to the dentist, but I don't really mind it.  I have had some pretty awesome dentists as an adult and I stay loyal ... until I had to move from California to Utah (that was actually on my list of cons when we were weighing the move - he was THAT good) ... and when my insurance changed and the Utah dentist I had come to love and adore didn't take my insurance anymore.  Sigh.

I decided to look for a really convenient dentist this time around so I found one in the same office complex as me .... a hop, skip and a jump away.  Doesn't get much more convenient than that.  Luckily, he came highly recommended and I really do like him.  But I like my hygenist even more. 

I had an appointment for a cleaning yesterday and she and I talked about the Bachelor and how crazy Michelle is, and who we thought Brad would choose in the end.  She said how fun it was to meet my girls when they were in town a few weeks back, although she wasn't the hygenist who cleaned their teeth. She rents her basement out too so we talked about the fair market price we could charge for rent, and how expensive utilities are and how there is SO much value in having good renters, and how sad it is when renters trash the place.

My dentist also has a really great selection of magazines to read while you wait ... and the TV is always on a good channel in the lobby too.  It just made me think how much more pleasurable some things are as an adult.  I sure didn't ever "enjoy" a trip to the dentist as a kid.  Although our family dentist had a really great drawer of goodies to choose from when you left!

But actually, not compared to the goodies this guy gives ... especially knowing how expensive a good toothbrush is these days.  (I would make a comment about how insanely expensive cleaning visits are, but this is about happy little things, right?)

Special surprises.

You know, to be honest, a few weeks ago I was feeling a little sorry for myself.  Another Valentine's Day was approaching and I didn't have a special Valentine.  (Although, really, sometimes that isn't such a bad thing.)  But for some reason, this year, I was wishing that I did.  So I didn't have too much expectation for any kind of spoilage ... but I was pleasantly surprised when all kinds of things showed up for me yesterday!

Some incredibly cute and YUMMY cupcakes from a friend at church ...

Beautiful flowers, completely unexpected from this cute little bunch of love-bugs ....

 

And a box with favorite books from a friend in Cali, along with these lushish little gems - the likes of which I had never seen before!!!

WHAT?  Valentine's Juniormints?!?!?!?!   (Thanks Di.) 

LoVe!

You guys totally made my day!  LOVE YOU!!!!

Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

xoxo

First look.

(Photo by Rhiannon Nicole at Hey Gorgeous)

Sophie and I love the show Say, Yes to the Dress on TLC.  If you aren't familiar with it, the show follows brides-to-be as they shop at Kleinfeld Bridal in New York City looking for that perfect dress to wear on their wedding day.  Some brides come in with pictures of the dresses they would like to try, some describe the style that they want, and others want to try on everything.  But what I love so much about this show (besides Randy who is their fashion director and really knows his stuff), is when a bride puts on a certain dress, the consultant asks, "Is this the dress?" and then the bride breaks down and cries because she knows that that's the one. (I usually cry with her too, like I do whenever I see someone on TV giving birth - I just can't help it.)

When I was getting married back in the early 80's, it was shortly after Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married.  I tried on a dress just like Princess Diana's and I loved it!  I kind of thought that I wanted it too until the consultant said, Do you really want a dress just like Princess Diana's? So even though it was way fun to have on, I didn't get it.  I had also recently been to Marie Osmond's wedding reception when she married Steve Craig (I know, cool huh?) and thought her dress was absolutely gorgeous so I had that style in mind as well.  The dress I did end up buying had similar features to Marie's and I really did love it, but I don't remember crying when I decided to buy it ... oh well.

When I was shopping for a wedding dress with my daughter, McCall a few years ago it was pretty tiring.  (No Kleinfelds around these parts.)  We went to several bridal shops but nothing really stood out to us as fabulous.  She didn't really have a particular style in mind so we were just grabbing dresses we thought were pretty and had a few that were our favorites.  We had a top three at one store and could have tossed a coin to decide which one to buy - it really was kind of sixes.  But that isn't how you should choose your wedding dress, so I suggested we keep looking.

At the next shop we saw a cream colored dress on display in their window.  McCall hadn't really thought about cream, but we loved the style so she put it on anyway.  As soon as she walked out of that dressing room, we both just knew ... This is the dress!  It was really kind of magical.  We both knew.  It was SO much better than those other three "flip a coin" dresses and she felt like a bride with the perfect dress just for her.  And on her wedding day she really did feel like a princess bride.

I saw these pictures of a groom's first look at his bride and thought it was absolutely adorable!  How fun for them to have that moment captured like that.  Such a cute idea! 

Since it is so close to Valentine's Day, I thought it would be really fun to see everyone's wedding dresses. 

What?

Yup!  I want to see your wedding dress!  Remember how I asked you to send me your very favorite picture of yourself  (click here to see what I am talking about),  and it was super fun?!?!  Well we are still a fairly small group of readers so I would just love it if you guys would send me a picture from your wedding and tell me why you chose the dress that you did.  I think about how my sister found her dress (you, Les) and it is a pretty interesting story.  Wouldn't that be fun to share and hear each other's stories?  (Have I convinced you yet?)  So take a trip down memory lane in honor of Valentine's Day and maybe it will even help you have a better Valentine's Day because it will remind you why you married that guy in the first place. 

(And even if you are single, like I am, it was still probably a good day then, wasn't it?)

So start looking for the photo and hurry and send it to me ... pretty, pretty please ... 'cause I can tell you I would love that.  It would be a really great happy little thing!  I WILL be soliciting too - that is your warning.



After thought:  I will do the "wedding dress" post at the end of the month, so you have a little bit of time to email me your pics.  My email address is in my profile!  (Please!!!!!)

More snow.

We got some more snow the other night.  So much so that I needed to snow blow the driveway and sidewalks.  I did my neighbors' too ... and I can't say that I minded one tiny little bit.

LoVe!

Stuffed crust.

You know what makes it really hard to stick to your "Today is the Day" resolve?   Stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut ... oh my.  It is sooooo irresistable!

The only thing I ever craved during any of my pregnancies was peanut butter. 

I am kind of craving this pizza these days though.

Do menopausal women go through cravings?

J-Lo.

OH.MY.GOSH.  Seriously ... oh my gosh!  Jennifer Lopez TOTALLY cracked me up last night on American Idol.  I kept rewinding the TV over and over so I could watch her expressions again and again and I laughed every single time!!!!  I told Elliott to get his camera and that I wanted him to take pictures of the TV when I paused it so I could capture these expressions for my blog.  I LOVE her as a judge!!!!

I think America was getting a little tired of Paula Abdul ... okay, I won't speak for all of America, but I was getting a little tired of Paula.  I like her, but I was tired of her after nine years.  Enter Jennifer Lopez ....

I have always loved J-Lo anyway.  She is one of the most beautiful women to me.  I love her skin, her hair, her personality, her movies .... although last night's outfit (turtle neck and turbin???) will probably end up in the pages of the tabloids with the caption:  What was she thinking?  But she seems like a real sweetheart.

Randy?  I think that Randy is trying too hard to be the hard-knocks guy now that Simon is gone and it just isn't working for him.  Maybe they needed to just replace all of the judges at the same time - I don't know.

Steven Tyler?  I like him.  I didn't think I would, I never have before and by saying I like him certainly doesn't mean I condone his life choices or life style, but he seems like a sweetheart too.  He tries really hard not hurt people's feelings or be mean (I don't like mean people) and he can get really into a song which has got to make the auditioner feel pretty good.  I do think he wears WAY too much jewelry, but the guy has such incredible skin.  Come on.  His complexion is just beautiful ... it's flawless ... I wish I had it. 

(I actually do have his hair though.  Mine looks a lot like that if I don't do anything to it only he can get away with it - I don't think I could.  Although ... just today, I was talking with Sophie and said that maybe I should go with a bohemian look for awhile to save myself time getting ready.  Stop wearing make-up, start wearing loose funky clothes, stop doing my hair ... I could just let it air dry and pull the sides back.  What's funny is that whenever I tease her like that, about drastically changing my appearance, she has always said, "MOM, nooooo!!!  That isn't fair to us!"  This time, she actually said, "I do like your hair that way Mom."  And I might have considered really doing that, if I was about 10 years younger.  It sure would shave a lot of hours getting ready every day wouldn't it?)

O's February Issue.

This month's issue of Oprah's "O" magazine is pretty fantastic.  Just seeing the cover made me want to see what was inside.  When I found some time, I sat down and read it ... all of it.  Cover to cover.

I loved the article about Nadya Vessey, who is a double amputee, but also a life-long swimmer.  She wrote an email to a special-effects company who had won  four Oscars for Lord of the Rings and asked them if they would consider building her a tail to help her move more gracefully through the water.  They did ... pro bono.  She says the tail almost feels a part of her now ... "I'm a mermaid."  How cool is that for her?

I loved the article where Martha Beck asks 20 questions that could change your life.  One of them:  Is this what I want to be doing?  And her answer:  This very moment is, always, the only moment in which you can make changes.  Knowing which changes are best for you comes, always, from assessing what you feel.  Ask yourself many times every day if you like what you're doing.  If the answer is no, start noticing what you'd prefer.  Thus begins the revolution.

They had some pretty amazing pictures of women dressing a little differently and instantly taking off 10 pounds!  (Think Clinton and Stacy from What Not to Wear!  I love that show.  I could probably find some really great things if I got to shop in NYC with someone else's $5,000 credit card!)

There were really adorable things for Valentine's Day ... Ways to be creative ...  Great make-up tips ... Super Bowl eats that look absoultely fabulous!!!!!  And a list of 10 titles to read now.  One of them is I Think I Love You.  (Now think, David Cassidy, because the book is about him and first love.)

I was crazy in love with David Cassidy.  He was by far my biggest teen idol.  Bigger than the Osmonds, bigger than the Heywoods (if you even remember the Heywoods), and bigger than Bobby Sherman (although that one is a close race).  I can remember thinking, in my 13 year old, immature, love sick, tiger beat mind that I could not die until I had at least seen him in person.  (I really did think that.)  I thought he was the end all, be all, cutest, most talented, adorable (the list goes on) person I had ever seen.  I wanted to be a member of the Partridge Family.  (It's funny because I never wanted to marry him like most girls did back then, I just wanted to know him.  And if I was a member of the Partridge Family, I would get to see him everyday.  Although ... when he married Kay Lenz, I did want to be her, but mostly because I thought she was SO cute - and being Mrs. David Cassidy as well would have been pretty cool.)

Well, as luck would have it, about a hundred years later, when I was in Las Vegas one time, we went and saw the stage show, EFX - starring David Cassidy. (Now I can die.)  It was an awesome show too!  One of the best I have seen in Vegas.  (I saw it two more times, in fact, but on those times Rick Springfield was the star ... too bad I wasn't as into Rick Springfield because our seats were way better for those shows and he walked right past me.) 

I just read that David Cassidy is going to be on this season of Celebrity Apprentice.  You know I'll be watching that one.

 

(I was GLUED to the TV on Friday nights when this face was on primetime in the 70s.)

.

It's February.

It's February and there just seems to be a change in the air for me.  (Literally, since it is only about 16 degrees out right now, but figuratively as well.)  I have a few new goals on the horizon and I'm looking forward to them.  And they actually have just the opposite to do with all these totally adorable, totally yummy looking treats ... all ideas from Martha Stewart (of course.) 

I had a really great, lazy, dazy weekend.  I had TONS of things that I wanted to accomplish, but sometimes the joy of having nothing on the schedule that you have to do, makes it okay to then change your plan and do a lot of nothing.  'Cause sometimes a lot of nothing is just what you need to do.  I watched a lot of TV and ate lots and LOTS of treats.  Saturday I was needing some chocolate and the only thing I had was chocolate chips, so I made some cookies.  Only half a batch, but they all got eaten up.  Elliott didn't think he got his fair share so I told him I would be happy to make some more the next day.  Which I did ... but that was after Sophie said she was in the mood for some cake.  I didn't happen to have a cake mix on hand though, so she and I walked over to the Brown's house (who are the go to peeps when you need anything food wise that you don't have).  And they did ... quite an assortment of choices too.

Sophie picked out the fun-fetti cake mix and I made some buttercream frosting.  And even though I didn't have quite enough powdered sugar to get it to the consistancy I like ... it tasted pretty good and we managed to eat just about all of that cake (after we had shared some with the Brown's).  And then I made the cookies.  And even though I didn't have enough butter (doing a lot of nothing on the weekend meant that the grocery shopping didn't get done), we improvised and they turned out pretty darn good - one of my best batches in fact.

And then, on Monday, on my way to work, I called Spring and we compared notes as to who had eaten more that weekend.  And we told each other "TODAY is the DAY."  (Have you had weekends like that and then resolve to make the following Monday THE DAY?)  McCall and I also decided that we wanted to run the half marathon at Disneyland this September.  (If you were wondering if McCall and I run, we don't.  But I guess we better start, huh, if we committ to a half marathon!)

My sister, Leslie just went to "market" in Dallas, as a buyer, because she manages an little emporium shop within a big (fabulous) store here in Utah.  She was talking about how cute all the women are that she was going to be going with.  She mentioned that one of them was a runner.  And then she said, "She is a runner and I am an eater.  That's what I really enjoy doing."  And we laughed, because all of us sisters LOVE to eat.  It is so fun, such a part of any social activity and we really enjoy food, especially treats, way too much. 

And then there is our brother, who sometimes forgets to eat during the course of his work day.  (Who forgets to eat???)   He will come home from work and say he is starving, and I will think, Then why in the world wouldn't he have gone to a drive-thru and eaten?  Because (obviously) that is what I would have done do.

So starting to exercise is one of my goals and getting in a healthier state is another.  I visited with an herbalist today so she could advise me on what to take to get my well being to a state of ... well ... well being!  I told her that I had a big weakness for sugar and I was feeling the physical affects of my overdosing lately.  She said that sugar is a mineral and that my body was lacking in minerals so it was craving the sugar.  And then said that once I got those up to the levels I needed, I probably wouldn't crave the sugar so much.

I think that's wishful thinking ...