What I read in between BSC volumes

While I was reminiscing about my beloved Baby-Sitters Club books, I started to think about the other book series that I read during my tween & teen years (probably while waiting for the next BSC volume to appear):

 

There was The Sleepover Friends series by Susan Saunders. This series was about four girls (Stephanie, Patti, Lauren and Kate) who took turns having sleepovers at each others' houses each Friday night. Stephanie was quite the fifth-grade fashion plate, wearing a wardrobe consisting of only red, black and white clothing. I tried to do something similar but that got the kibosh pretty quickly when my mom told me that no fifth grade daughter of hers needed to be wearing black all of the time, like an elementary school Goth-in-training. I did have a red, black and white bedroom until I went away to college, so the color combination stuck with me long after I was too old for the books.

 

The Sunfire romance series, by multiple authors. I read these a bit later than the BSC and Sleepover Friends--I'd say when I was in middle school. Each book in this series had a girl's name as the title and was set during some significant event or time period in U.S. history. The plot invariably featured a plucky heroine, who was torn between the two hunky guys illustrated on the cover. Veronica was about the Pearl Harbor attack, and I remember reading Jennie (about the Johnstown Flood) and Caroline (who dressed like a boy and went to California during the Gold Rush) as well. I read as many as I could get my hands on, which wasn't many because my library only had a few and I had a hard time finding them at bookstores. My favorite was Amanda, which was set during pioneer times. Amanda was a spoiled Eastern girl who went West with a wagon train wearing a beautiful and highly impractical gray-green silk dress. I've never seen these books while thrifting but I'll keep an eye out for them from now on, since apparently lots of them do pretty well on eBay.

Another series I read post-BSC was the Satin Slippers series by Elizabeth Bernard. Even though I quit taking ballet lessons in sixth grade when I moved from Nevada to Utah, I never lost my love for it (still haven't, actually). This series was about  Leah, a dancer who got the chance to move to San Francisco and join a professional ballet company.

 

The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, of course! The Clue of the Broken Locket was the first one I ever read. I'm not sure if I read the entire series, but I'm sure I came pretty close. I even read some of the 80's updated Nancy Drew Files.

My dad got me hooked on the Dirk Pitt novels by Clive Cussler when I was in middle school and I read them all through high school as well. I loved the combination of history, archaeology (did you know I was originally an Archaeology major in college?) and our dashing hero, Dirk Pitt. Sahara was my favorite of the series, but I thought the movie version that came out a couple of years ago was a total disappointment (despite the frequent appearance of Matthew McConaughey's shirtless abs).

I read some of the Sweet Valley Twins books and a few of the Sweet Valley High series as well, but I was never enamored of those as I was The Baby-Sitters Club or any of the others. What books did you read as a tween/teen?

BSC4EVAH

The other night, I stayed up WAY past my bedtime reading blogs devoted to The Baby-Sitters Club books. I was led down the blog rabbit-hole by this post on one of my favorite new blogs, which led me to this post on one of my least favorite blogs (I know most people love Dooce, but I can't stand her. I don't like Pioneer Woman either. So sue me.)

Anyway, the comments on that last post had me rolling. Who knew I was in such good company as I waited for my monthly trip to Waldenbooks in the mall to get the latest Baby-Sitters Club book? I always had them about halfway read on the way home, except on the lucky occasions that there was a new Super Special available.

I was so enamored of the ridiculously detailed descriptions of Claudia's and Stacey's awesome wardrobes that at one point I actually copied several of them out in a notebook, presumably so that I could do my best to imitate them. I'm not sure I ever pulled it off and I highly doubt my mom would have let me out of the house in one of Claudia's artsy get-ups (I favored Stacey's cool NYC-style outfits over Claudia's hot messes) but I did my best to pay homage through my earrings. I used to spend my baby-sitting money on funky earrings--I had (among many others) one pair that said "In" on one side and "Out" on the other earring, a pair of huge gold circles with "Don't Worry" on one and "Be Happy" on the other, and a pair of black telephones with cords that fastened around the back side of my ear, .

I eventually sold my entire collection of BSC books (and the pink plastic visor I won in one of the drawings advertised in the back of the books) in a garage sale. I kind of wish I still had them so that Maren could--oh, who are we kidding, I think I want to read them all again. There's a new BSC book out this summer--Ann M. Martin wrote The Summer Before about (obviously) the summer before Kristy popped out her great idea. Maybe I'll just have to check it out from the library and relive my youth!

Estate sale goodies

My estate sale luck has been holding out! I didn't get to go to last week's sale (too far away) but here is what I found the week before:

More vintage Christmas. Surprised to find these still there on the second day of the sale! Love how the pink & aqua Shiny Brites look together, don't you?

Here you can see that darling pink snowman wrapping paper closer. I've totally hit the jackpot on vintage Christmas wrap this summer. Now what will I do with it all?

I know what I'll do with this paper--it will be headed to my etsy shop later this year. It's in perfect condition, nice and heavy,

as will this paper. It's so neat--vibrant green-blue with magenta writing and magenta glitter. The paper is nice and heavy and there is a lot of it. It would look so cool under my silver aluminum tree, but it will end up in my shop too.

More holiday goodies--a foil Easter egg, patriotic paper napkins that I used that weekend for my Fourth of July dinner, a cute New Year's tiara with vintage aqua crepe trim, and a package of unopened New Year's plates (shop-bound as well).

A cloth napkin printed with sweet purple violets, a really cool sewing applique medallion (that became part of my Fourth of July decor), a box of birthday candles, a roll of fun striped ribbon, and five--count 'em--FIVE vintage folding yardsticks!! I just about squealed when I found these in the garage. I know I can't keep them all but so far I haven't been able to choose which ones to sell and which I just can't part with.

There's another estate sale this weekend and it's in my neck of the woods, so maybe I'll have more good junk to show next week!

Epic post: My brother's wedding

I'll just warn you right up front: This is a LONG post, and there are a whole mess of photos as well. We've been home for almost a week now and I've had the chance to download and go through all of my photos from my brother's wedding, and I wanted to share some with you. I posted briefly last week when Maren's photo made the front page of the newspaper. I didn't elaborate, but there was quite the reason why that wedding was worthy of the news.

It started on a Tuesday night, the week before my brother's June 25th wedding when my brother and his fiancee got a phone call from the groundskeeper at the church where they were planning to hold their wedding reception. You see, on the previous Friday night, a freak occurrence caused a leak in an underground oil pipe. The oil spill leaked into a nearby stream--the same stream which happened to run through the grounds of the church. The groundskeeper informed them that due to the contamination, they would not be able to have their reception as planned; furthermore, Chevron (the owner of the fractured oil pipe) wanted to pay for them to move their reception to another location and also hire a wedding planner to help coordinate the change.

As you might imagine, they were all pretty upset. Even with Chevron footing the bill, June is high wedding season in Utah, and finding another suitable location on such short notice would be tough. Plus there was the matter of coordinating the flowers, the caterer, decorations, and getting word to all 400 invitees of the change with barely enough time for the mail to deliver anything. Luckily, the wedding coordinator that Chevron hired was seriously on the ball and she was able to secure them a new location and get all the details worked out in record time.

The festivities started out on Thursday night with a Fiesta at my parents' home to honor both my brother Kristjan and his bride Stephanie and also my maternal grandparents, whose 60th wedding anniversary was on the 25th as well. We had a fun backyard party with delicious food (homemade empanadas and tamales), a pinata,

 and paper lanterns and colored lights in the trees that gave the most beautiful glow as dusk fell.

That night after the guests left, my brother got sick. Horrible, nasty, kneel-at-the-porcelain-throne sick, and stayed that way the entire night. The poor thing didn't sleep a wink, and visited the bathroom every 20 minutes for another round of gut-clearing nastiness. At 6:30 the next morning, my dad took Kristjan to the ER, where they found that one of the nurses was a friend who had been at our party the night before, and she was able to expedite him so he got through the ER faster. What a blessing! They pumped three bags of saline into Kristjan and gave him some anti-nausea meds that stopped the stomach sickness but left him drowsy and pretty much out of it. They got home from the hospital at 8:15 am and raced to get their clothing together, as they had to be at the temple by 9:00 am. (If you want to read more about the temple and why we believe it's important to be married there, you can click here.)

The wedding ceremony was at around 10:30 am, and I'll tell you--my brother looked rough. Bless his heart, he looked exactly like you might if you'd been up all night puking before the most important day of your life.

 After the ceremony, the couple comes outside and traditionally takes photos for a while. That's when we all got a look at beautiful Stephanie and her magnificent wedding gown!

People literally gasped when they saw her dress. She's already a beauty but in that dress, she was a vision! Just breathtaking. I wish I had better photos of it because it was spectacular! Wow. Kristjan held up for a few photos but extreme fatigue, nausea, the 90-degree weather and a black tuxedo pretty much put him down for the count.

Thankfully, the photographer has generously agreed to give Kristjan & Steph another session so they can get the photos they wanted. They'll have to pay again for a tux & hair and makeup, but it will be worth it so they can have their treasured photos.

Between the wedding and the reception there was a small break, so Kristjan was able to go lie down and get some sleep. By the reception that evening, he looked 100% better! Still not back to his old self, but he didn't look like he was going to keel over at any moment like he did during the morning (Deanna, the ER nurse, came prepared with an IV bag in her purse just in case! :)

The reception--well, let's just say we were toasting Chevron's deep pockets all night long. :) The new location was the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. It's super swanky (AAA Five Diamond, whatever that means), and the reception was held in the courtyard amidst beautiful landscaping, a reflecting pool and a fountain.

The flowers were gorgeous! Stephanie's bouquet was a mix of pale peonies and pink roses

There were peonies and roses on the tables too,

as well as around the base of the cake. They smelled yummy!

Steph's main color was a lovely aqua blue. She found the neatest vintage typewriter in the perfect shade of aqua and used it for the sign-in table.

 Guests were encouraged to type a bit of advice for the new couple.

The food was divine, too--the highlight was most definitely the dessert bar! My brother hired a DJ to play reggae music, the perfect sound for the warm summer evening. Despite the fancy setting, the music set the mood for a relaxed, comfortable party.

Maren had a ball in her poofy pink dress. She was enchanted by Auntie Stephanie (as beautiful as she was, who wouldn't be?)

She also found one of Steph's cousins who was just her age and they ran around together (shoeless) all night. Maren even did some wading in the reflecting pool. In her pretty dress. The first time she told me she slipped in, but I'm not sure I believe that excuse for the subsequent 20 times.

The whole thing was just really, really beautiful. The setting, the weather, the food, the flowers, the music, the decor, the handsome couple:

What started out a week before being a total disaster ended up being better than they had even planned! Truly a happy ending, and it couldn't happen to a better couple.

I adore Stephanie and my only sadness is that we don't live closer together so that we could get to know one another better. She loves aqua and vintage stuff and my brother. I don't think I could have asked for a better sister-in-law! :) I'm so happy that she and my brother are finally together. I love being married and I hope the same for them and wish them every happiness in the world!

Maren's first day of Kindergarten

Big day for us today--it was Maren's first day of kindergarten!

Just what you want to do right after you've swept up the spent sparklers from the Fourth of July: head back to school. Blech.

Stinkin' year-round school. For the past two years of preschool we've been on a track schedule that allowed us to return to school at the end of July, so it actually felt like there was a summer vacation.

For the 2010-11 school year, we got booted off our previous track and put in one that gets out of school at Memorial Day, so the summer break is in June. Except, since we were still on our old track in June, we didn't get out then--we went until June 17. That means our 'summer break' has lasted all of 18 days. Whee.

Truthfully, Maren doesn't care one whit about not having a summer break. She only goes half-day anyway, so she still has the mornings to play and go to swimming lessons and the park. And for her, school is still fun--she loves to learn and do fun things and play with her friends, so she's happy to go. I'm the one grumbling about it.

One good thing about the track change is that many of our friends have kids on the same schedule, so they're all out of school at the same time. That means lots of play dates and outings are possible during those three weeks. Our next break is the three weeks following Labor Day, and then again from Thanksgiving all the way through Christmas until the first of January. That one's gonna hurt.

She got to pick out a new backpack for the big occasion and went immediately for the metallic pink Hello Kitty model. A girl after my own heart.

I didn't shed a single tear when I dropped her off. Since she's spent two years in preschool at the same school and her kindie class is only 10 minutes longer than preschool, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. Next year when she starts first grade and is in school all day long--that's when I'll cry. For now, we're happy to have a kindergartener! I know she's going to have a great year.

(And yes, she's at that age where she's categorically unable to take a normal picture.)

Fourth of July roundup

Saturday evening, we went to watch fireworks

which was a good thing, because yesterday it rained cats and dogs from early afternoon on into the middle of the night. Watching fireworks in a downpour while sitting on wet grass is not my idea of a good time, so we were doubly glad we'd gone the night before.

In between rain showers yesterday evening, we went outside and Daddy introduced Maren to the fun of Pop-Its:

And then Maren got to do sparklers for the first time as well!

Check out her patriotic outfit--she picked it out all by herself! It was sent to me in a swap last summer by Cheryl and this summer it she grew tall enough that it fits.

We had some friends over for dinner to celebrate. I was tickled to be able to use the vintage patriotic paper napkins that I found at an estate sale on Friday!

I made these red and white striped cupcakes. They were a total pain in the neck and I won't be making them again, but they were cute with the sprinkles and little red pinwheel picks!

My Fourth of July decorating was small this year. Normally I love to decorate with my red, white and blue stuff, but for some reason this year I felt very uninspired.

As usual, I did a display atop my china cabinet, but I kept it pretty spare.

The only new things this year were the red scalloped cake pedestal (after Christmas clearance at Target) and the Campfire Girls candy box that I bought at an estate sale in May (I almost typed Fireside Girls instead of Campfire Girls. Too much Phineas + Ferb, eh?)

I tried something new on my mirror as well--instead of vintage postcards, I used my tiny clothespins to hang a vintage bingo card, a vintage card of embroidered star patches (it's so cute--it even says "Be Patriotic" on the top!) and the center object is an altered prize ribbon I made using an old horse show ribbon, a jumbo Maya Road bottle cap, an old milk cap and some fun striped ribbon. (click on the photo to see a larger view)

I did use the quirky vintage pitcher with the presidents that I found a few weeks ago, but I didn't get to decorate my little white bench like I did last year because Porter would have destroyed it in seconds. (I have a feeling it will have to be empty next year as well, for that matter.) You've already seen my muffin tin table, and a few other patriotic things sprinkled here and there but most of my decor items stayed in their plastic tub this year. Funny--I probably have more holiday decor than most people but to me it feels like hardly anything!