1. May has been officially re-named (well, in my house anyway) The Month of Collecting a Lot of Rewards Miles. Mike was gone for 20 days this month on six separate flights, and I'll be gone for 6 days starting today, though on just two measly flights. I'm bad at math, but that doesn't leave a whole lot of days together, does it? We didn't spend Mother's Day or our anniversary or THE NFL DRAFT together, but such is life sometimes. You occasionally have to text one another during the NFL draft instead of watching it on the couch together. Push through and make the best of it, right? I do keep not-so-subtly suggesting that Mike use some of those miles on a quick trip to Mexico. JUST WAITING OVER HERE. NO BIGS.
2. A picture taken over the long weekend, before I had to go. We took the training wheels off Kyle's bike and Mike took him in the backyard so falling wouldn't be so scary.
I don't deserve this much sunshine.
3. As I mentioned, I'll be traveling today and I'm heading to New York for Book Expo. This will be my eighth BEA--I had to count up those years three times to make sure that was right!--and I love it each and every year. I love what I do, but I always love it just a little more after returning from BEA, re-inspired by so many smart, interesting, ambitious people. And there's also New York. Not too shabby a place to be. (And I'm on the prowl for a new favorite cupcake place--always am--if you have one to share.)
4. Totally unrelated to travel, a couple months ago (inspired by Natalie) I splurged on a Madewell tote. I'm trying to splurge on more things I'll love for the rest of my life and fewer things I'll hate in a month. Honestly, this is the most I've ever spent on any purse I've ever owned (like 98% of all the purses I buy are from Target, not a percentage exaggeration), but I haven't regretted it for a second. I love it. If you ever decide to buy the same for yourself, trust me, get it monogrammed.
5. Despite that Madewell tote (don't let it fool you!), Mike and I are acutally hardcore budgeting right now. I'm pretty proud of us, though let's not shoot confetti in the air in our honor just yet. It's been like a month. Anyway, one of the areas I've become a bit of a hardass about is our food budget. (I may have recently said without irony, "We can make it until next week without milk, BABE.") No more fancy-pants dinner recipes that require 27 ingredients. I'm now building menus based on what we have and what is cheap, easy, semi-healthy, and delicious. I should start a food blog called Cheap, Easy, Semi-Healthy, and Delicious, but it'd be like four total posts because this is not an easy formula, my friends. Still, I've lucked out on a few recipes lately, let me share them with you: Chicken & Pesto Orzo Skillet, Chicken & Vegetable Curry, Crock Pot Tacos. If you also have Cheap, Easy, Semi-Healthy, and Delicious recipes, let me have 'em.
(Chicken & Pesto Orzo Skillet.)
6. I'm hosting another round of Biggest Blogging Loser. Let me know in the comments if you want the details! Short of it is: $20 but you get $10 of it back if you make it the whole 12 weeks. (You get two "skip" weeks.) We start June 2nd.
7. Today is my little brother's 21st birthday. I've loved him since the day he was born, and that's an awfully long time to love someone. He's grown into such a special man, but he's always been special to me. I loved him so much as an adorable little toddling kid, and I loved him so much at age eight, as we went to Disneyland together, and I loved him so much at our wedding, as a 14-year-old teenager who still had no problem dancing with his sister. I hate that we're so far apart, though, and that it's been three years since I've gotten to hug him. I doubt he'll ever quite understand just how much I love him, but it's so much. Happy 21st birthday, Adam! I wish I could be there, but you probably don't want your thirty-something sister there anyway. I'll be there to buy you a drink soon.
One of my favorite pictures ever taken, hugging my brother at a wedding.