The 19th Wife and Cleopatra

This book starts with a quote from St. Augustine, "Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe." There are two sets of characters, in various stages of struggles of faith, from two time periods: the 1860's and current day told from many narrative voices.
I really love this type of storytelling. One son of the 19th Wife is the narrator of the current day partl. One of his letters explains what I often had trouble getting my 8th grade English class to understand. "The historian writes a truth. The memorist writes a truth. The novelist writes a truth. And so on... It is not the truth, certainly not. But a truth, yes." (p. 363)
This bouncing back and forth in time with different narrators keeps the book moving as well as the juicy who-done-it murder mystery. Ebershoff isn't just telling a novella from Utah; it is thought provoking. He makes you question your own prejudice, but then explain how some prejudice (about plural marriage) is warranted. The 19th wife is asked by a journalist, "If polygamy is a religious practice, if it is part of the Mormon's eternal beliefs, why should you, or anyone, stop them from pursuing their faith? Don't the Mormons have the right to practice their religion as they please under the constitution?" The 19th wife replies, "And if someone were to say, I believe in slavery because it appears in the Bible would you say, Go then, and be free to practice it. I believe this country has answered that question rather firmly." (p. 416)
After looking for an image for this blog, I saw it was a made for TV movie available on Netflix- bring it on!
Snoresville. Seriously. This was DULL reading. I saw Stacy Schiff on The Daily Show; she was interesting and made me want to read her book. Sadly, she put all her energy and interest into her TV appearance and none in this book. Maybe it's for some history buffs, but not for me.

Last Day at the Adobe/End of Summer

We made it to the last morning of the summer program at the adobe. We did every activity and stayed from start to close. As mentioned before, Milo has been a real pill since I came home. He's better, if we have an activity. So, thankfully we have a lot of friends to visit with this week and more places I want to go and things I want to do again before the end of summer break.

Feeding the Sheep

Chicgao!

After 4 1/2 years of motherhood, I escaped on my own for a vacation to my sister's town. It was GREAT! I had very little expectations, aside from eating and drinking when I wanted, sleeping peacefully alone for as long as I desired and visiting with my favorite Kelly and her Mike. My expectations were far exceeded. Friday, Kelly took the day off and we went into the city. There we ate fancy food at Blackbird (Mike took a longer lunch to join us), hit some favorite art pieces in the Art Institute and then heard an outdoor symphony at Millennium park. As if that was not enough, we ate a late dinner at Acre followed by ice cream at Dairy Star. It sounds like a lot, but it was very laid back all day.

Saturday, we went to a Japanese Spa for steam, sauna, soak and massage. Boy, that was NICE. I really do love a spa. Ever stumped for what to get me for a gift- spa! After, I had to lay down and nap for a while to recover from all the personal attention to myself. That eve, we went to see The Help- which was good, K thought it better then the book. I thought it did a good job with the book I loved so much.
Sunday, we had this amazing brunch with a BFF of K's. Later we found the recipe for my brunch online, and I look forward to making it at home. Polenta cheesy eggs wrapped in bacon. Yum. Then we took a nice walk (in the break from the rain) by the lake and through some ridiculous, lovely real estate. Back home we went to spend the rest of the eve in the back yard with watermelon cocktails and sorbet. The one disaster was my quiche, which I have made a million times, that turned to a mess. I blame the humidity. Pastry dough is a fickle thing, and I have only made mine at home in the dry air. It was still edible, but not pretty. I cannot tell you what the best part was, as the whole weekend was wonderful. One last highlight was the flora! Everything was so lush and green- this was just a sidewalk planter for goodness sake! The other highlight was coming home to my guys. Milo was very pitiful when I left- crying and holding on to me. Heartbreak. Then he had a fine time alone with Daddy who planned lots of fun to keep them busy. He has since been a real pill ever since I have been home. Telling me how much he missed me and how he likes Mommy better all the while not listening, sticking out his tongue, hitting and spending more time in time out than all last month combined. I guess it's like when you go out of town and your pet pisses all over the place. That's love.

Helicopter Pad

Milo playing on the hotel (see next post) helicopter pad. We stayed in style, but we drove our own car to the hotel :)

Heaven

We have spent the last two weekends in San Diego at this amazing resort where the owner is a huge fan and friend of Steve Tyrell. Anytime Lyman is playing and staying there, I work it out so I am too! Milo is very spoiled by the experience; he threw a tantrum this time because he didn't want to walk to the restaurant where the band gets a big discount, he wanted room service! I didn't have room service until I was 25! My mom recently told me she has never ordered room service and my 4 year old wants, "food in the room!"
Lyman's buddy Jon is the best. Milo loves to play with him and by that I mean hang on him, climb on him and tease him. It's adorable.

Can you find Milo and Lyman in this lovely garden?

Nice, right?

At the Adobe

My friend Jenny was really into this Adobe Ranch last summer while I was working summer school. This summer, I said I would be there every week too with my free time, but have only managed one day with all the other fun we have been having and the scorching heat. The people at this historical home organize a really nice program for kids with activities, crafts and music. Maybe we'll make it next week for our last chance.