Mes Belles Lettres

Hello friends, lets talk. Lets talk about the show Pushing Daisies. I love that show. I'm still bummed about it being cancelled. You broke my heart ABC. Every time I watch it I want pie. I love pie, pie is so delicious. I also want a pie maker named Ned. Lets talk about how it is summer, and so I am back in Phoenix with a kitchen that I feel comfortable baking in. Lets talk about fresh fruit pie, like strawberry rhubarb pie. Doesn't that just scream summer? Lets talk about how it is a holiday, and so that means a barbecue with dessert. Like home made ice cream, which needs a delicious pie sitting beneath it. You see this is my life right now. I am home, and it is summer, the time for strawberry rhubarb pie. Last year I made a strawberry rhubarb pie and I didn't get to eat any since I wasn't eating any sugar. I'm going back on the sugar ban. Tomorrow. Today though, today I ate strawberry rhubarb pie with home made vanilla ice cream. Lets talk about pie crust...

When I bought my car two years ago I was living in Utah. Thus, that was the state I registered her in. Did I get a different driver's license? NAY! It has cause problems though. People see my car and ask me where in Utah I am from. I am not from Utah. I am from Arizona. But that doesn't stick in anybody's brain. "You're Mormon and your license plate says Utah. That is all I can remember." Sometimes I would see people with AZ license plates on the road and I'd think, "hey! We're friends!" Then I'd get sad because they would think I was from Utah, and thus, not their friend. It has also caused me problems with the law. Because apparently I traffic drugs. That is what people from AZ do. Then, they drive them all the way to New Hampshire. Without getting caught. Simply by dying  their hair dark. Amazing. I know. How nobody caught me in between is beyond me. Way beyond. After all, I have an AZ driver's license and Utah registratio...

Whilst driving across the country, my mom and I took a slight detour to visit my dear friend Deborah and her cute little family. Deborah and I grew up together in Phoenix, and we both went to BYU, and we both headed east during the summer of 2009. Deborah and her husband Sam and their first daughter Abby moved to Philadelphia where Sam has been attending dental school. That was the last time I was able to see Deborah in person, so it was really great to see her and catch up, and meet baby number two, cute little Clara. Visiting was wonderful, and dinner was delicious but I had an important task before me when we arrived, to make Abby feel comfortable enough to talk to me. I knew it would be difficult, Abby has always been a little more withdrawn around other people, so despite the fact that Deborah has written numerous posts about the things Abby says during the day, I wondered if I would be equal to the task. Shortly after arriving and getting nothing but stares from her, I disco...

Barreling down the freeway at 80 mph with rain pouring down. The dark clouds above me are swirling and churning, I can see them forming cyclical shapes in the sky. The wind is relentlessly pressing against Stella as lightning cracks overhead. My heart is in my throat, every muscle in my body is clenched, I am in consta-prayer mode. My mom tries to make small talk to which I can only give one word answers. The clouds reach out, as though trying to pull the earth up into it. My thoughts center on Jackson County, MO. When the time comes, I'm going to need one of my friends that grew up in tornado country to come get me. I can't do that ever again. I just can't handle it. I also don't ever want to drive through Nebraska like that ever again.

My mom is coming out here on Saturday to drive across the country with me. Although part of that stems from her fear of my driving all by my onesies again, and her hatred of my sleeping in rest areas, I think she is mainly coming because she wants to see Vermont. She is tired of waiting, she wants to see it NOW! Sorry it is going to be cold and rainy probably. Today is mother's day and I couldn't let the day go by without reminding people that they should be jealous of me and the mother I have. You should be. I wrote an extremely long blog post full of thanking my mom for things she has done. It was long. Really really really long. And I probably still left stuff out. So, I'm posting this instead, because Disney is the best, much like my mother.