Kelly Times Two

Here's my Aunt Ollie, "the waitress" in the article below. Here's my Aunt Polly (on the right), also a waitress, and her daughter-in-law, Tawnya, on the left. A couple of nights ago, I went to see the new movie, The Waitress , with a few friends, and I couldn't help but think about my darling aunts in California who have worked for years and years as waitresses, and how much respect I have for them for their hard work and fun personalities. One is Aunt Polly and another is Aunt Ollie. About the only similarity to Keri Russell from the movie to my aunts, was their cute waitress outfits, by the way. And their charming, friendly relationships to some of their dear, regular customers. Just talking to my sister, Tracy, tonight, she told me about this article in the news in California about my Aunt Ollie, that I just read, and thought I would share her upbeat little story on my blog. I ate lunch at The Embers in February when I was there, and enjoyed a "beef on Pe...

For family night, we went to see Spidey 3 (loved it!) and to Jamba Juice for smoothies, then off to enjoy our cool beverages in the Arboretum. What a relaxing evening with the family.

In the past year alone, I have hosted four baby showers in my home. Sierra's was three days ago, Paige's was last month, and I did one in the summer for a coworker of my husband's, an engineer named Kari. Plus this one for Mandi. Time flies! One year ago today, I hosted a baby shower for Mandi Kirk, who has since moved to California. We keep in touch through our blogs, and since I didn't have a blog this time last year, I wanted to post some pictures from Mandi's shower on the one-year anniversary of her Saturday afternoon baby shower. Mandi had made some cute art pieces for her new baby's room in these colors, so I used the same red and olive colors for the baby shower. The four-layered chocolate cake was delicious and looked nice on my SLAH Jackson cake stand. Mandi's mom owns a florist, so I supported my local favorite florist, Lakeline, and was pleased with the bouquet I had ordered. Heidi, Holly, and Kim, looking gorgeous and spectacular, as always....

When I offered to host a baby shower for Sierra, I wanted to do something different than what I've done for Summer, Mandi, Kari, and Paige's special events. All of them had girls, and since Sierra is expecting her second daughter, I wanted to bring in some other colors besides pink. I came up with the aquamarine, turquoise and sea green color scheme, and made plans for a night out under the stars with dinner on my deck outside. I refilled the oil lamps, bought a new umbrella for my black iron O.W. Lee patio table, and draped the railing with tulle. It had been cloudy, overcast, and slightly drizzling all day long, then just before seven, the rain started falling. I was so depressed about it, and we brought everything and everyone inside. By then, my hair was frizzed and my spirits too. But we went with it, and the food was wonderful, so that eased the frustration, and the shower ended up being a nice evening after all. We had King Ranch Chicken Enchilada casserole prepared wit...

It's been a week of season finales and I've been watching American Idol faithfully for the past three seasons, and have been a big fan of Blake Lewis from the start. Of course I love Carrie Underwood as she's an Okie, like me, and a country music artist too. This year, I am fine that Jordin Sparks won and think she did really well, (although was hoping for Blake) but am confident that most of the contestants will have a promising future regardless. I especially enjoyed this season's big finale show and was excited and surprised to see my cousin, the lead singer of Green Day, performing. Billie Joe sang a beautiful John Lennon ballad and I was thrilled to see him appear on American Idol. It's awesome to have such a successful and talented cousin and I'm very proud of him. Way to go, Billie Joe! (Not that he ever looks at my blog.) Billie Joe has been generous with us and provided Kelly and me with the best seats in the house for years at his concerts and the las...

I have plenty of activities and events of this past week to comment on and share, and will attempt to catch up, one post at a time as quickly as I can squeeze time in for it. I'll start off with this fun invitation. We were invited to a really enjoyable dinner party to watch the season finale of LOST on Wednesday night, and encouraged to come as a character from the television series. There were four couples attending and we had an incredible feast. The food was so delicious, but my only wish was that I had been more hungry since there was so much to choose from. Everything was so incredibly tasty and plentiful and Christine and Mike were awesome hosts. I was grateful they invited us to their gorgeous new home to watch the last night of Lost until January 2008. Jeremy's fake tattoo was a decent attempt at Dr. "Jack's" body art. The Dharma pantry was impressive and just the right touch for getting us into the Lost mindset. Amy came as "Sun" as her nat...

Apparently Star Wars came out thirty years ago today. My husband was watching something about it on the television and he didn't recognize Princess Leah on the tv special because she looked so much older. I reminded him that Carrie Fisher was most likely in her twenties THIRTY years ago, and that's why she looks older. May 25 (but in 1985, twenty-two years ago) to me was the day I returned home from my 18-month mission from The Netherlands Amsterdam mission, which also included the Flemish (northern) part of Belgium. I have a little story about that time, back in 1985. On the last evening of my mission, as those of us who were leaving the next day to return to The United States, the AP's (assistants to the mission president) told all of us that the airport in Amsterdam, Schiphol, was on strike, and that they hoped we'd all be able to leave the next day still. We thought they were joking, and when we got to the airport, we realized they were dead serious. I was so excite...

Lindsey had her end-of-the-year choir banquet in downtown Austin and wore the same dress she wore to homecoming, but with a different blouse to cover the strapless top. The night before the event, she told me she wanted to wear something different from the long-sleeved jacked I had made for her and there was no time to shop for something new. Luckily, my good friend, Michele, showed up at the Shabby Apple party hosted by Summer and Shana, wearing just the right thing. So I took the shirt off of Michele's back, and gave her one of my t-shirts to wear home. Then Lindsey tried the brown blouse on with her dress when we got home and it looked great with it. I got the seam ripper and unstitched the few seams that attached the turquoise ribbon to the side of the dress, then tied it on the outside of the brown satiny blouse and voila! It was a quick, last-minute solution. She looked so cute! Thanks, Michele!

Kelly and Lindsey went grocery shopping together on Saturday and picked up some roses for me for Mother's Day that Lindsey arranged all by herself. I love the colors she chose and Kelly said he was really glad she was there because he wouldn't have had a clue what went well together. What sweethearts. Lindsey made lunch for us after church yesterday too. The family watched the movie, Aragon, together, which we enjoyed. Kelly gave me a very beautiful Mother's Day card and what he wrote inside it, was even more of a treasure. Of course I'll keep it by my nightstand for weeks and look at it daily. I love my family. My mom had her mobile telephone turned off on Mother's Day and I tried to call three or four times. I tried her home phone first and left a message. We called Kelly's mom on the way to church and had a nice, long conversation with her and were able to wish her a happy Mother's Day, which was nice. She was very grateful, as always.

My sister Julie , who baked the bread for me, added her published Autumn Harvest Tomato Soup recipe on her blog for anyone who might want to check it out.

...because "I've got it made in the SHADE!" Check out my sale items from Shade Clothing that I got in the mail today. Thirteen shirts for $83 total. Not bad. Two were $12, but the rest were $4, $5, $7, or $8. I love wearing these shirts under things.

Kelly flew from a technical conference in Boston on Monday through Thursday to Salt Lake City to have my brother-in-law give him a root canal on Friday. (He said it actually went great and did not hurt at all because Tom is such a good endodontist.) In return, Kelly helped Tom and Julie with all their technical issues, built a new computer, helped with their iTunes, etc. They loved having my husband's help too. So when Kelly flew home last night, my sister, who is much BETTER than Martha Stewart, sent Kelly on the airplane with a loaf of freshly home baked bread. What a wonderful surprise that was. Julie has baked bread for her family for twenty years and never buys store-bought bread. She does it all--grinds the wheat to make the flour, adds all the healthy things to it like flaxseed, etc. She's amazing and my idol. My sister is an extraordinary chef and even appeared one morning on a cooking segment on a Salt Lake news program where she was invited to share her recip...

Check out the wild one in the center! This lovely pink and leopard print latex dishwashing glove, accented with a rhinestone, ribbon and buckle, is what Adele surprised me with when she picked me up for lunch yesterday. She saw these and thought I just had to have some. Who could resist? I'm now the proud new owner of these fabulous Nieman Marcus "must haves" this springtime for chefs with pizzazz. Thank you, Adele. You are the sweetest friend. (Also, to note, it was delivered in a coordinating leopard-print gift bag! A girl after my own heart!)

Adele and I enjoyed a nice lunch today in downtown Austin at the Eastside Cafe . She chose a flavorful, rich and wonderful tasting homemade artichoke manicotti with broccoli on the side. I chose a grilled salmon with coconut curry red pepper sauce and jalapeño pecan cornbread stuffing. We shared a warm ramekin of Buttermilk Pie, garnished with fresh strawberries, for dessert. It was a fantastic meal at a quaint Austin restaurant that's been around a long time, and I'm sure I'll go there again. I'll post a picture of the adorable little "just because" surprise gift Adele brought me later.