Kayaking

Yesterday Pat bought a new kayak. We are planning to go to LP ("Lake Powell," for the joyless uninitiated,) sometime in late August. Can I just give a virtual squeal, people? Not only did Pat get an AWESOME kayak for tricks (360s with one stroke?!), but it will be a vacation. You have no idea how sweetly that word types out. Especially in italics. One more time... vacation.

Not that I am clamoring for a break or anything. By day, I research potential schools/states, work on my personal statement, and write articles for ehow.com. By night, I lead a secret life: I am SUPERMILKWOMAN!

My life is awesome. But even superheros need a vacation once in a while. (vacation...)

xxxxxx

This post is dedicated to grandparents who watch babies. and super-nannies (Cooper, you know who you are)

Berret's adorable sneeze.

Ber is a solid boy. I am a poser.

That man that hath a tongue...

...it's Ber!

YouTube - Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

YouTube - Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

YES!

Yellowstone Warning

Pat!!

Read! http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=11652653&hl=2

Watch out for Bison!!

xx,

Angie and Baerchen

Forever 21's Maternity Line

The Gloss has been raising some hubbub over Forever 21's new maternity line (read here), noting that it is "interesting" that the line is only available in 5 states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Texas, and Utah), 3 of which are in the top 20% of states in teenage pregnancy rates. I don't find it particularly "interesting."

First, Forever 21 is hardly a strictly "teenage" store. If anything, it markets to women in their twenties and older, hoping to look (forever) 21. I mean, come on--their game is in their name, people! Also, as, having babies seems to be the latest celebrity trend, it seems natural that more stores will provide more fashionable options for pregnant women. What was once hushed up, ignored, or avoided is now celebrated by that high-style crowd--and consequently, consciously or not, by the little people, too. Celebrity mothers are fashionable, and the masses are filled with hot, indignant shame that their pregnancies are filled with sweatpants rather than silk pants. Where can they turn for affordable but stylish options? Forever 21. And it's not like pregnant women are all celeb-ophiles--it's simply that with the onset of so many beautiful women's public pregnancies, as well as the increasing amount of women in the workplace, people have begun to realize that pregnancy doesn't have to be nine months of bad taste.

The fact that their maternity line is available in all of its roomy glory online hardly indicates a teenage target audience. On the contrary, it makes the release, for all intents and purposes, a nationwide one. The Gloss conveniently glossed over that facet of the line's launch.

While I am sure that Forever 21 did their research in choosing to launch their line in states where it would be most successful, it's a move that can hardly be considered to encourage or even take advantage of teenage pregnancies. Has anyone looked at the statistics in these states for pregnancies in general? I simply submit that the majority of people buying these clothes will not be pregnant high schoolers. Just sayin'.

New Post...

...so that I do not have to re-live childbirth every time I visit my blog (which is pretty much daily, to stalk look at my favorite blogs conveniently located in one happy column on the right).

I read "Mansfield Park" today, and for some reason, found it kind of depressing. What?! Jane Austen, depressing?! I think it is because I feel that Austen's uncannily REAL depiction of Fanny Price, the main character, highlighted some of my own faults. Those sentiments she gave Fanny--of rejoicing in being overlooked, of an unwillingness to offer opinions on the pretense of modesty--sentiments that Austen painted with all the praise these qualities deserved in Victorian society, are feelings I have too often. And, in case you haven't noticed, the Georgian era's been over for 200 years. My conclusion? Fanny Price, be gone! I will enjoy you in print but will no longer entertain your spirit in conversation--now that I know that it's YOU I have been entertaining. So there.

Man, I should be an exorcist.

Well, Pat is off for ten days interpreting for an 80-year old German couple at Yellowstone. In the meantime, I am working at my family's B&B in Spring City, filling in for my sister who took a 2 week vacation. Coming here always leads to introspection--a town of 500 and a slow business will do that to you. Though business is not quite so slow--we've had 5 rooms rented this week and will have 4 next week. That is about as much as I can handle with a 2 month old.

Ber is actually growing up! I had my doubts. But yesterday he was so PRESENT, gurgling and smiling and practically hyperventilating in hoarse ecstasies when I gurgled and smiled back. It was his first adorable conversation. OUR first conversation! That moment has made the 2 months (well 4, counting his last 2 months in the womb) of sleepless nights bearable almost bearable. I never knew with such conviction the correlation between sleep and sanity (not to mention patience, cheerfulness, etc.). Seriously, people, you want me to drive?