New Style

I went shopping on Friday and I got stuff that was totally out of the ordinary and completely not me....dresses. I was actually looking for a bathing suit, which I got but I am not posting photos for obvious reasons, and I ended up getting a dress while helping pick one out for a friend. I am much more of a skirt and shirt kind of a girl. I don't think I have owned a dress since my freshmen year of college, but the dress was $12.99 and it is summer so I thought what the heck. I also got the blue one to go over my bathing suit. The bathing suit looks o.k. It is sporty, it is Nike, it looks like a tank top and boy shorts and I should be able to really swim in it this weekend with the boys.

My bathing suit is underneath the dress.

Will someone please take 3 inches off my hair.

Post Mortem Apology

I love a good brunch. It is early enough in the day that I feel like I can order what ever I want and not feel guilty because I have all day to work it off. Well, the other day some friends and I who were all reading the same book called Femininity, by Susan Brownmiller, one of the pioneers of the feminist movement, went to Beasuas in Portland. Brunch was amazing! I had the french toast and oatmeal. The conversation was great, we talked about the book, which was about the history of purpose of beauty, who defines beauty men or women, why women want to be beautiful for the attention of men or other women, does beauty matter to God, does is matter to kids, and many many more things of that nature. Why is thin considered beautiful in some era's but not others, why do women bind their feet and wear corsets, when did it become socially acceptable even considered edgy and rebellious to have short hair, wear pants, and have ambition. It was a great discussion and a great brunch. The funny thing is, the afternoon emails. Whenever we get together there is always a flurry of post mortem of apology emails. It's hilarious. I have my theories as to why, here are a few:

1. Women have an inherent nature to not want to hurt people's feelings.

2. When we get together we are just so excited we just don't think before we speak, thus we say stupid things. ( I am mostly speaking for myself here)

3.The conversation gets so deep that it takes a long time to process and when you finally have you can send out an email saying what you "really meant".

4. You just really like these people and hope beyond hope that you'll be invited to the next lunch.

Nonetheless, I have to say, the post mortem emails are some of my favoite parts of the lunch. It is funny to see how people thought they were being offensive. To be honest have never been offended by any of the things they were apologizing for, but they are still fun to read, I hope they keep coming and I hope I keep getting invited back.

In Femininity Brownmiller called the bob haircut "an anguished act of rebellion".

My ideal hair-cut in a perfect world.

Mad Max

We just finished Soccer season. To be short, Max hated it, but we still loved watching him hate it.

Max's Mothers Day gift

Inspite of what he looks like in these photos I know he loves me. This was at a little tea party at Max's pre-school. They served us lemonade and brownies, sang us songs gave us flowers and cards. It was a great day. I love being his Mom.

What a man what a man what a mighty good man

For Mother's Day Spencer gave me what I wanted most. A 4 hour break from being a mother, and I used that break wisely on Saturday. I went into downtown Portland and shopped my little heart out. I tried things on that were too expensive that I could never afford, I didn't just shop the sales racks I looked at the new stuff too, I let the sales people help me and call me by my first name and bring me stuff to try on. It was a great day. Spence really knows how to treat me right. And as an added bonus, yesterday he went and got some take-and-bake pizza's for today, he even said he's going to bake them. So at the risk of looking like a bragger, here is what I did for Mother's Day.

I love downtown Portland. It takes me exactly 22 minutes to get there, that includes parking.

I decided to see if I could find shoes to go with my new Banana outfit. I did!

I took these while driving across the I-5 Bridge coming back into Washington. It was so beautiful, I just couldn't resist. I wasn't looking into the camera, I just held up the camera and pushed the button.

I got myself some new perfume from Banana and some new shoes from Nordstrom Rack. Heaven forbid anything should happen to Spence, but if it does, a Mr. Steve Madden will be my back-up plan. Let's just say the man knows his way around my foot.

This is what I wore on Mother's Day.

I went with the blue, and I always look down in these

photos because my hair and makeup aren't done.

Holly, I know you are probably thinking I need a belt.

Brownies Part 2, the baby shower

Here is part two to my brownie making post. This part involves the actual baby shower. Yesterday I made the brownies with the good chocolate and last night we had the taste test.

Compare the 2. The top is made with Hershey's, the bottom is made with the good stuff. It is thicker and it tastes richer. Here is the party. It went really well, but I have to say that the overall consensus was that after about 5 bites of delicious brownies, all of them tasted good. And truth be told, I think my favorite one was the Trader Joe's brand.

But here was really my favorite part of the shower, the frosting. Amy brought some fresh strawberries and I just sat and dipped them in my own little cup of frosting.

Becky L can sure throw one heck of a baby shower.

Like a fish needs a bike.

Well I caught it. I caught the cocoa taste testing brownie experimenting bug and I need it like a fish needs a bike. (I actually stole that expression from Gloria Steinem and her original quote was "a women needs marriage like a fish needs a bike" and while I completely disagree with philosophy, I think she nailed it when it comes to me and anything with real butter.) Anyways, Becky L and I are having a baby/chocolate shower for Amy on Thursday night, (please email me if you want to come, everyone is welcome) and we decided that we were going to have blind taste tests with brownies using the worlds finest cocoa and some basic store bought brands. So tonight I decided to experiment. Here are my results.

Far left: Hershey's/ Middle:Costco's brand/ Far right: the stuff Becky L ordered

the batter

the recipe

The results. I actually only made 2 batches. I wanted to make the good stuff on the actual day of the shower. I have no explanation for the thickness. The one on the left is the Hershey's and the on on the right is the Costco brand. The one on the right was much better, but I don't think it had that much to do with the cocoa. I am just a really big believer in UNDER COOKING brownies! The recipe says 350 for 25-30 minutes, which I did for the first batch, the second batch I didn't set the the timer I just watched, but I bet it was around 18-20. Anyways, I am sure I have much better things to do with my time, like fold the 2 loads of laundry that beckon me, or scrub my cabinets with a toothbrush because one of my children who shall remain nameless dumped a half a jar of spaghetti sauce, or I could probably tackle any of the bedrooms, but who cares, it was just a brownie taste testing day, which is unfortunate, because as I said, -like a fish needs a bike.