let's back it up

so this is "US" in st. george - memorial day weekend. we visited the sand dunes this day and the kids had a blast. i still have red sand in my house some 2 weeks later. this particular weekend we have reserved for the "tyler" family. judy tyler is my best friend since childhood. since they live in salt lake we meet half way every memorial day weekend (o.k., so we've only done it 2 yrs. in a row...but we plan on doing this for the next 40 yrs). our husbands have become good friends as they are both passionate about biking, camping, and hiking. we each have 3 kids - all close in age and all obnoxious- with the exception of quentin. while the kids run wild and our husbands ride wild - judy and i eat, shop, and enjoy eachother for as long as the time allows. we become "true, life long friends" when, as youth, we poked out fingers til they bled and we fused our bloody fingers together all in the name of friendship! we know what eachother is thinking. we laugh at the same things. we love to eat, hate to diet. love to walk, hate to ski - well, she tolerates it now and i still hate it. love cooking and baking, hate our cellulite. have been told we look like sisters - even though my nose is bigger and i have curly hair. sorry jud. loved being on our own at ricks, hated idaho. love california, hate sappiness. oh i could go on. everyone needs a best friend like judy. actually judy is everyone's best friend. everyone loves and adores her. i'm so lucky!!

we used to hate hiking and camping...but we really quite like them now. i think we've finally matured to the stage where you realize you CAN live without a blowdryer, curling iron and makup! ahhhh, thank goodness for caps and sunglasses. this is us hiking and we actually liked it.

lauren, ethan and evan at the sand dunes. evan made snow angels and was in pure heaven!

the 2 die hard bikers - they go at 5am, 11pm, rain, snow, heat, rocks, mud, poison oak...go for it.

we just can't get enough of the tyler's so we'll be seeing them again july 4th week...in oregon...in a beach house...can't wait!

just figured out that if you click on an image in this column (as opposed to the one on the right) the image will enlarge - so cool. yes, i'm just a little s l o w.

so after seeing my naked butt today in the mirror - oh why is that mirror so big???!!! - i realized that all those "3 desserts a day" in europe have finally caught up with me!!! it's that time again when i reach 125lbs and i go on a diet - kind of. although yesterday a friend said, "look how skinny you are, are those jeans a size 0" and i'm all, "NO"!!!! ....they're a size 7!!!! since when in the he_ _ did i become a size 7?!! not that there's anything WRONG with that but i can't afford to buy new clothes. hey, i have a china hutch to buy!!! it's that thing over there on the right!!!! and that chandalier above!!!! which, by the way, i've been looking for for 3 years!!! i saw it in a magazine and ripped that page out and saved it with all my favorites. well, you can image how my heart skipped a beat when i came across it on that website!! oh ya...i'm getting that too. ian says i have to sell one thing to get another. i hate it when he tries to negociate with me!!!

lastly...i am slowly reading the best book ever. it's about this 30 something

gal who takes a journey to italy, india, and indonesia. it's a true account and she is so, so real and funny. you've gotta read this gals! o.k., i'm gonna share one of my favorite parts so far: "i took on my depression like it was the fight of my life, which, of course, it was. i became a student of my own depressed experience, trying to unthread its causes. what was the root of all this despair? was it psychological? mom and dad's fault? was it just temporal, a bad time in my life? when the divorce ends, will the depression end with it? was it genetic?melancholy, called by many names, has run through my family for generations, along with its sad bride, alcholism. was it cultural? is this just the fallout of a postfeminist american career girl trying to find balance in an incresingly stressful and alienating urban world? was it astrological? am i so sad because i'm a thin'skinned cancer whosemajor signs are all ruled by unstable gemini? was it artistic? don't creative people always suffer fom depression because we're so supersensitive and special? was it evolutionary? do i carry in me the residual panic that comes after millennia of my species' attempting to survive a brutal world? was it karmic? are all these spasms of grief just the consequences of bad behavior in previous lifetimes, the last obstacles before liberation? was it hormonal? dietary? philosophical? seasonal? environmental? was i tapping into a universal yearing for God? did i have a chemical imbalance? or did i just need to get laid?" hahaha...oh my gosh i love this book.

quickly here cause i know ya'll are getting bored and annoyed. i designed this chiffonier for our bedroom. i wanted a warm grey color, but this will do. i used antique pulls i had. i picked it up yesterday and this is why i can't get the china hutch....boo-hoo.

the tv goes behind the doors. if you are ever looking for a great furniture maker i have this gal i use out of sierra madre, 'basic chic". they'll do whatever you want and it's affordable.

i'm going to bed now - it's almost 11 and i still gotta finish sewing some pillows and then read.

it was a good day - i'm so very blessed.

song of the day: "super-freak"!!