14 Days of Love: by Beth

Our guest post today comes from the fantastic Beth of {Estrasasanda} (which is how one of her favorite elementary students pronounced "extravaganza"). Every day with Beth is definitely an "estrasasanda", so her blog is aptly named. She's my sister-in-law and one of my best friends to boot (a two-fer if you will). Not a day goes by that I don't praise my brother's cleverness in getting her to marry him--best thing that ever happened to our family (besides my birth, and, later on, me finding Dan which were also blessed events). Beth is not only funny and crafty and brilliant, but she's also generous and patient and a real good listener (though she probably wishes I'd shut up more, I wish it too.) People don't come better than Beth.

Here's what Beth loves:

1.{www.goodreads.com}- It's hard for me to find a good book to read. On goodreads you can connect with friends from your email list (kind of like a bookworm's facebook) and see what books your friends have read, how well they liked them, and what they liked about them. It's helped reinvigorate my reading repertoire in the last while. BTW, favorite reads of late: {The Thirteenth Tale}, {These is My Words}, {Apartment Therapy}, {The Robe}, and {The Thief} (series).

2. Napoleon Dynamite. It's still my favorite movie of all time and I bet I don't go one day without saying a line from the movie. I also try to train my kids along these lines. When they come home from school I ask them how their day went, and if we're on the same wavelength, they'll say, "Worst day of my life, what d'you think?" Also, I have a Napoleon Dynamite Neon light clock hanging in my kitchen as I write this. (And I also have {this one}.)

3. Happy Hour at Sonic = a 44 oz. strawberry limeade with PEBBLE ICE for $1.08! Normally I hate soda, and the idea of chewing on ice usually disgusts me. But all that changes with a bun in the oven and I crave this treat more and more these days.

4. {Marilyn's alphabet dates}. Joel and I decided to try this for ourselves. We had our first date of the alphabet just recently. My turn. We had Asian food (Sam Hawk; Korean restaurant; ate two plates of Pork Bulgogi), had an Appetizer (baked potstickers), Absence (actually this wasn't planned. But I had to use the totie while Joel paid the check. When he finished he turned around, couldn't see me, and assumed my Absence was part of the "A" date. He's always making connections, see.) and Art. We were going to go to an art exhibit, but it closed too early, so instead we drew pictures of each other. In all it was the most unique date we've had in years.

5. I'm not so much into the ice cream, but Joel took me {here} a few weeks ago and I've craved it ever since. They put fresh mangoes and fresh blackberries on our yogurt! It was delicious!

6. Clothes. My favorite places to shop the clearance racks: {Shade}, {DownEast}, and {Old Navy}. And {cute shoes}. Feel free to {donate}. I wear a {size 10}.

7. Leaving messages on Megan's phone of me {singing}. I'm actually pretty good.

8. Church - It feels good to go there. I always feel better for having gone. People like me there. I get to sit and not clean up after my kids (once sacrament meeting is over) for two hours while people talk about things that have the possibility to transcend my mind to a higher plane. I love it.

9. Summer. I was so afraid of the prospect of having all four of my kids all day, everyday last summer, but we had the best time. We made this enormous poster where we listed everything we wanted to do during the school vacation. When we were bored we'd look at the list and figure out when to do it. It turned out to be the best summer of my life and boredom never surfaced, I swear.

10. {IKEA} - {Things there} cost like {$1.00}, so even though by the time I check out I've spent $100, I love going there. I feel like {fun design} is suddenly accessible to me.

11. Running - This is something that I love in theory. I never exercise when I'm pregnant (hello 40-pound weight gain!) and it takes me a long time to recover from having a baby. I refuse to run when I've been up all night with a baby, so pretty much in the last 9 1/2 years of marriage and almost dang five kids, I''ve run for about 6 months of it. But when I do run, it feels great. And I like to think about how good my body feels when I'm in shape. Long live endorphins and the Provo River Trail!

12. Pedicure - I allow myself one each time I get pregnant. They cost $30 which is ridiculous to me, but my neighbor, out of the blue, offered to give me one and she said she'd even paint little Valentine decals on my toes. Well, I've never had ANY decals of ANY sort on my toes!

13. Going out to eat - {Thai Ruby} has been our favorite restaurant for seven years now. If you go, I recommend ordering the House Special (pineapple curry soup) and SF7 (green beans and chicken with curry paste) together and then sharing your meals. Sooo good.

14. KSL Classifieds - It's like the bargain bin at a thrift store. There's a lot of junk that no one should be spending money on, but when I have a couch from D.I. that I bought 10 years ago whose cushions are slouchy and slidey, and another couch handed down to me that is the exact beigey color as my walls, whose cushions are coming apart at the seams, KSL classifieds is a wonderful, if tiny, spot of hope. Maybe some generous person will list their awesome dark charcoal gray, microfiber, tailored, modern couch set (only 1 1/2 years old!!!) for $150 and I'll be lucky caller #1 who snags the deal. Please bless.