Clever

This sweater has had me all agoggle since I first laid eyes on it last fall. Unfortunately it's price tag has left it off my shopping list. My darling husband actually tried to buy it for me for Christmas, but it had been sold out for ages. Do you love it like I do? Well, look at this. And for a much more reasonable price. Unfortunately, I don't need a sweater anymore.

Did you know that you can donate to the Red Cross effort in Haiti by text? Brilliant. Text "Haiti" to the number 90999 to donate $10 via your phone bill. As of Thursday Red Cross had already raised $5 million this way. Simple. If you are LDS you can also add a donation for "Humanitarian Aid" on your tithing slip.

We bought these dresses for the little girls to wear at Em's wedding. So sweet, right? The flower accessory doesn't come with the dress so I've been shopping for something of similar size in hot pink. Any suggestions?

Brace yourself for Pinewood Derby photos in a couple of weeks. Seth and Michael have been busy brainstorming and designing . . . I'm excited to see their car plans come to fruition this weekend.

And lastly, the best granola recipe ever. I got it from Lanie, who got it from Linda who got it from somebody . . . You know it is awesome if it has been shared that many times! I halve it because it is huge. For the dry fruit I've used chopped food-storage apples and Craisins.

Mix in a large bowl:

1/2 cup ground flax seed

10 cups oatmeal

1/3 cup sesame seeds

1 cup wheat germ

1 1/2 cups plain unsalted roasted sunflower seeds

1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (any kind of your choosing) I like chopped almonds

Heat in sauce pan until melted but do not boil:

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup oil

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup molasses

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 T. vanilla

Pour syrup over dry ingredients. Spread on two large cookie sheets. Bake at 300 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool. Add dry fruit. Store in airtight container.

This granola is soft baked at only 25 minutes. If you bake longer it will be much crunchier.

Things I Don't Understand

Okay, I am going to sound old now. I am 30, and so I am allowed to do this. Here it goes:

What is with the way teenagers dress these days? Recently I saw a girl wearing shorty-short so so short shorts with leprechaun green tights and Converse shoes (actually cute Converse shoes . . . but with green tights?) and a tighty-tight so so tight tank top (with some muffin-top peekaboo and cleavage) and a SCARF! She was wearing a huge knit scarf (the temp was in the 70's) with shorts. And a tank top. This kid couldn't have been older than 16. Where is her mother? I would like to have a conversation with her mother. Because in my day we teenagers dressed respectably. Okay, we dressed like lumberjacks. That is, if we bothered to get dressed, because I think a good percentage of the graduating class of 1996 was guilty of wearing pajama pants and a t-shirt to school on more than one occasion. But nobody ever saw my muffin top, or anything like unto it. We of Generation X knew to be good and ashamed of our fat (or at least what fat we thought we had). We hid it under layers of plaid flannel and jeans that went all the way up to our waists.
And our boys looked like boys. Their hair did not require flat-ironing. It did not hang in their eyes. Our boys did not wear eyeliner. Some of them had mullets, some of them walked around with their sneakers intentionally untied, some of them allowed the waistband of their boxers to peek over their jeans (Did they tuck their shirts into their boxers to achieve this look? I don't remember.) but nobody ever mistook one of my boyfriends for a girl.
Of course, I can huff all day about the teenage set, but then I would be neglecting a huge segment of society whose fashion choices I don't understand: celebrities.
Sorry Pete, it's the hair. I can't get over it. How much time did you spend straightening it before putting on the beanie? Ashley actually looks like a normal person in this picture. It is refreshing.
I know that I have committed my fair share of fashion faux pas. The reason I can mock here is because these people have stylists. Amy Winehouse has paid a professional to make her hair and makeup look that way. Somebody probably suggested that she let her red undergarments peep out from under her tank top like that.

The hair. Oh, the hair.
The particular that really drew me to this photo was the smashing orange dress. Here is the thing; I had one JUST LIKE IT. My senior year in high school I was in a production of South Pacific. One of my costumes was an orange parachute from the military base. It was wrapped around my shoulder and secured with rope, and I wore it to great dramatic effect. I would have kept it if I had known it would soon become haute couture.

The point is, what is happening to me? Is thirty the age when the switch flips, and you can no longer tolerate the wardrobe choices of the younger generation? (I know the whole lumberjack thing drove my mother nuts . . .)
I liked that girls were dressing feminine again. Now everybody looks like they just stepped out of refugee camps. I'm not suggesting that everyone should look the same, or like we all belong in an Eddie Bauer catalog, but I have included some tips for any one hoping to avoid the gaunt, haunted, celebrity-refugee look.
1- eat
2- comb your hair
3- wear clean clothes
4- choose clothes that cover every thing on your body that jiggles
5- shower
6- don't show your underwear

There. I could totally be a celebrity stylist, don't you think?