I love to shop with Millie. She thinks that everything I try on is wonderful.
“You look SO cute, Mommy!” is the only thing she ever says.
Nice, right?
So the other day, I bought something very much out of the ordinary – with her special guidance.
This here shirt.
Think “Good Will Hunting”, think the bar scene when he gets the girl’s number, and the Harvard prep doesn’t – but now imagine this dialogue only with a slight alteration.
Will -“Do you like CARROTS?”
Harvard Prep -“Huh?”
Will – “Do you like carrots?
HP – Yeah.
Will -How ’bout these carrots.”
Oh, if only they had cast MEEE instead of Minnie. I would have been amazing in my carrot shirt, I tell you!
I digress —
When I put my lovely carrot shirt on this morning, the one Millie really thought I should get, I discovered something really special…
you’ll never guess so I’ll just tell you what it was,
THIS
Attached to the tags was a little bag of carrot seeds with the instructions to “grow your own”.
And grow our own we shall!
Our plan is to grow a bunch of carrots for the new woodland creature who has decided to make our back yard his abode
Awe! a baby bunny!
We have MANY woodland creatures who have made burrows of their own in our back yard:
a HATEFUL ground hog and it’s GROWING family (NOT a fan) a dozen chipmunks (barely tolerable) and millions of squirrels (also hateful)
But the baby BUNNY, well, I LOVE IT!
By the way, for your general information, we are leaving for UT today.
I will be wearing my carrot shirt and the girls will be wearing their little “Senorita dresses” in anticipation of the great Mexican food we will be eating very, very soon.
Can someone explain this current decorating trend to me?
Perhaps you haven’t noticed it – but now that I have brought this to your attention, look out! You will see this EVERYWHERE!
What is the deal with how pillows are being “fluffed” where they are made to look as though they have two pointy ears. I tried to do this to some pillows on Millie’s bed (the pressure of the trend is getting to me, see) and it LOOKED WEIRD, yo!
Please, feel free to share your thoughts on this matter.
Have you been hankering for a slide show? Well, even if you haven’t you’re getting one!
Why I feel the need to make one every so often is a mystery – even to me. Well, not really, I know why I do these. They make me feel very, very happy. I love making them as much as I love watching them.
So, here is the latest endeavor in my slide show escapades.
Without further ado, may I present for your viewing pleasure, for a limited time only, The Dawson Family Reunion!
This is only a “rough draft” version. I would like to have every single family member represented and currently the following faces are much missed: Jenny, Glynn, Stephen (we seem to have a bunch of the back of you but would love to have a few of the front of you as well), Steve, Allison, Tom, William, Gitte, Emily, Sophie, Nick, Lucy and Mary.
If you happen to be one of the above people or if you happen to have a lovely picture of them from our weekend, would you send it my way?
Stay tuned for the FINAL draft…which will be completed eventually.
Before we left on our trip I was fixating on Wellingtons. Everyone in our family was in need of them. And I didn’t want just any wellingtons, I wanted CUTE ONES, of course!
I searched way more than any normal person would for just the right thing for Clara and Millie and there was nothing out there that I liked.
Initially I settled on these, for Clara
They look alright here, but on her feet they just looked SO DARK BROWN and they were way too big and she couldn’t keep them on. So back to the store they went!
When I couldn’t find anything I really LOVED I decided I’d just pick up something at the thrift store for cheap. After all you never know what treasures you’ll find at the old thrift store!
Cute, but not what I’d been searching for. They were $6.00 so I just figured that would be that.
And then,
(I know, you can hardly wait to hear what happens next…)
While we were in England I found them! The wellies I had been searching for!
THE PERFECT WELLIES!
I know this may sound totally ridiculous to some people but these just make me happy! They are so stink’n cute! I only wish I’d bought a pair for Millie too!
I had to retire my 12 dollar brown and white polka dot wellingtons from Costco because recently they sprung a leak. At the last minute, as in a few hours before we left, I bought these…
It was an act of desperation – because I had spent all my time fretting over Clara and Millie’s wellies I hadn’t really looked for myself! I felt a little bit like a poser wearing bright RED Bendels knee high wellies – but Jan’s family was nice and told me they were “elegant”. I’m not sure if that is actually”English Code” for “tacky American”.
I’ll never REALLY know
because they are all “so darn polite!”
How about them brown stripes up the back, eh?
(FYI – they are lined in brown and cream stripes.)
Are you thinking what I am thinking?
I think these are about as HOT as a pair of Wellington’s get!
Va, Va VOOM!
Or perhaps you are thinking…
Tacky American!
(Every family needs one so I am just doing my duty!)
I mean, as a kid, sure! I loved a bunk bed – what kid doesn’t want a bunk bed? Millie is dying for one.
They are oh.so.practical – but not very charming or romantic or in my snotty opinion aesthetically pleasing.
Are you with me on this one?
Maybe not.
You may be with me on this but saying, “Lize, come on! Sometimes you just NEED a bunk bed and you gotta do it!” You may also be saying, “You are such a snob! Who doesn’t love a good old bunk bed?!”
There was a brief time when I shared a bunk bed with three other siblings, meaning two on the top bunk and two on the bottom bunk…perhaps this is why I have a small aversion to the b.b.? Hmmm. This is fodder for a therapist (if only I had one) and not a blog post, says I!
My point is this: we live in a small three bed house and the day may come that we NEED a bunk bed because I never want to leave my small three bed room house yet we would like to have more than two children.
The good news is that since seeing these….
I am beginning to re-think the bunk bed.
I could do these bunk beds!
In fact, we could have two more children and squeeze them all into one bedroom if we went with the last photo.
Sweetness!
I snagged these beauties from a website called little green notebook. She has got some other cute ones that you can check out, if you feel so inclined!
Sammy! How I love ya, How I love ya. My dear old Sammy!
‘Tis my sister-in-law’s birthday today and I am here to tell you that she is one fine woman.
Her fineness is far reaching and all encompassing.
I met her when she was around 10 years old. She was a great girl. She was good and sweet and, at the time, a little shy. She was under a lot of pressure having moved to the urban wilderness called New York from the desert paradise called Utah. Not every gentle Mormon girl has to go to a Jr. High where girls her age are having sex in the bathroom during school. I hate to be so crude, but it what she was dealing with – and it wasn’t very nice! But she got through the mess of Jr. high a la NY. She survived some crazy New York experiences and also had some downright wonderful times too. Then her family moved back to UT when she was in her mid teens. Sam’s mommy and my mommy were best buds and our family was very sad to see them go. The years passed by and we stayed connected – but little did we know what would be in store for all of us!
Most recently I have had the great pleasure of getting re-acquainted with this beautiful 25 year old woman when my brother fell in love with her and then asked her to change her last name to “Kelly”.
I remember when I first met Sam wishing that she would marry my brother Chas. For reals! I did! She is so kind and so good, just like Chas. She and Chas share a unique kind of gentleness and a serenity that just makes them so well suited. Kind of like Jane and Bingley in Pride and Prejudice, if I dare to make such a comparison (and I do!). When she moved to Provo last year I called Chas and asked him, “So, Sam Card is in town? Would you ever, you know, take her out on a date?”
I really, really, really wanted Chas to take her out on a date.
Sam is a wonderful combination of truly great qualities. She is a woman of character and true strength. She has always been willing to take the road less traveled and do the hard thing. Over and over again life has called her down this path and she has walked it with dignity. As she has walked it she has become very, very capable – in the truest and deepest sense of the word. I remember talking to Chas and asking him what it was he loved about Sam and he said, “She is so strong.”
Each one of us gets handed a share of trial and hardship in life – but I gotta say that Sam has really had her fair share. Yet, if you met her, or read her blog, or looked at her artwork, or had a long chat with her NEVER would you sense ANY bitterness. What you would sense is warmth, happiness – even a playful, joyful kind of giddy happiness. You would hear her exuberant laugh. (When she and Chas were first dating I remember my mom telling me how wonderful it was to have Sam around because her laughter would fill up the whole house!) I am so struck by this, I guess knowing a little bit of her background, I find it remarkable that she has found a way to make the ugly things she has faced into beautiful shining gems. Her trials do not define her – they’ve refined her. She is so much fun and so delightful you would never think for a minute that she had known true pain. She has been able to do what few people are able to do – she has let go of the pain she has experienced. This was, I am sure, a herculean spiritual feat – but Sam is living proof that the Atonement works. By her example she has taught me that God’s love and power are there for us if we are willing to accept it and embrace it.
Sam is very talented. She is always getting scholarships and awards. She is a fine artist (I told you she was fine, didn’t I?) Her work has graced the covers of literary magazines and been hung in hip restaurants. Her work even hangs on my good friend’s wall! She has done really well for herself, in fact she always does well in whatever she chooses to do. She is ambitious and hard working yet she is equally down to earth, easy to talk to, fun to be with and relaxed and easy going.
Here is a little peek at her art work…
Her art work is not only her passion but her profession. She just finished a masters program in art therapy. Pretty cool, no? Personally I love it when any artist is able to make a living off being an artist and doing what you love. Kudos, dear Sammy on that one!
Another peek at her art…
She comes from creative stock – her father is also a wonderful artist and her mother is a talented interior designer. She is the oldest of five girls. She is totally devoted to her sisters and to her parents. They are a family who really love and cherish each other.
Sam also loves puppies – and she is not ashamed to say so! I’m not ashamed to tell you of her love of puppies either – so put that in your pipe and smoke it. She loves ’em! She also loves her dog, Archie – very, very much. Especially when he is wearing converse all stars!
She has a very kind and loving heart.
She is also a blast!
She knows how to be sensible and fun in the same moment. Perfect example: with some of their wedding money they paid off her car loan – very sensible. A few weeks later she and Chas found a great deal on a powder blue scooter and snapped it right up – totally fun!
She is a wonderful home maker.
She is a celebrator. She celebrates the goodness of life. She is also not afraid to celebrate her own accomplishments and I really admire that about her.
She is good to the core. She really gets the gospel in a profound way.
She loves my brother and has made him a very happy man. So, clearly I am indebted to her forever for the happiness she has brought to him and to our whole family.
I’m sure that we are all familiar with the quote from Richard III.
But I have just spent the past week living it.
And I am here to report,
that once again,
Shakespeare knew what he was talking about!
“This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise
This fortress built by Nature for herself
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
This blessed plot,
this earth,
this realm,
this England.”
It kind of makes you wish that Shakespeare had traveled and written about every place on the earth, don’t it?
But this was his place, his home, his heart land — so even if he had I doubt that he would have written about any other place with so much pride and so much sincere love.
This is our place too. And we spent the last week with our people.
All of Jan’s extended Dawson family, gathered in Cumbria for a long weekend. It was truly heavenly.
There were walks, water fights, a treasure hunt, hours spent swinging on the orchard swing & building secret hideaways with the cousins, swimming in the lake, eating great food, there was lots of relaxing and talking and enjoying this beautiful, beautiful place.
The girls were in heaven.
Of course I have a bazillion more photos and I am still trying to figure out how to tell the full story of this week. But I also haven’t slept properly in over a week, have piles of laundry that are patiently waiting to be dealt with, two sick daughters and you know, all the other responsibilities that come with daily living.
So, for now, I am afraid, this will have to suffice.
And you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a long long flight.
Which was followed by two days of the pukes where mom and dad were up all night!
All of the stinking night.
Jan and I have not yet succumb to the pukes, but Millie and Clara have been doing their fair share of showing us what they have eaten long after it has been digested.
Night before last Clara was up every two hours – puking and screaming.
What a combo!
This was experienced after our 25 hour home bound flight from the UK.
just when everyone is getting sick of it and giving up their blogs, guess who is getting on the blogging bandwagon...me! That is about the time I catch on to whatever is trendy and cool, long after it is trendy and cool. At the very least I hope to amuse my sisters and my mom. I know how to pick an audience, don't I? I am not entirely sure if there will even be a theme but if you stay tuned perhaps we'll figure it out together. oxox Lize
