Don't Follow the Rabbit Trails

A phrase I love: There, but for the grace of God, go I. What an awesome, humbling statement to remember when looking on those who are lost, struggling, or less fortunate.

I saw an older mother/daughter couple in a clothing store the other day debating which top looked better. The green one or the tunic? And it made me hope that someday I'll have a daughter who loves shopping as much as me. We can furrow our brows in the fitting room together trying to decide which top has the better cuteness/value ratio...

I don't care what anybody says about technology making us less social. I am a MUCH more social person since I joined facebook six years ago. All those little status updates are an outlet for my wonderful one-liners (at least I think they're wonderful), and I get the luxury of writing a first draft, editing, and rewriting every comment before it is "out there"--a gift not given in verbal communication. On facebook I can be brave when otherwise I would be silent. Bryan said that channel 40/29 did a special on how technology harms relationships, and by their standards I have "a problem." Well... 40/29 anchors can't read a teleprompter (have you ever watched the morning news???) so I'm not going to let them judge my technology involvement. Facebook made me a better person.

So who's going to see The Social Network now that it won the Golden Globe for best picture? Put me on that list. Maybe. It's so hard to set aside time to watch movies. But hey, look at that, American Idol is on tonight. Maybe I'll tune in to see their strategy for jumping off the borderline of cancellation.

And who knew the Syfy channel could provide an evening of guilty entertainment? Oh, it must be SO HARD living as a vampire/werewolf/ghost in this modern society! I feel your pain and it makes me giggle...

There. Now I've said too much.

Sleeting Outside and in My Head

I am resigned to the fact that I will have five girls. Mostly because I want the experience of raising both a son AND a daughter, and I doubt I'll be that lucky. Although I'm pessimistic about my chances to score both female and male offspring, I do think it's really cool in this age of knowledge, technology, and custom-anything that we still cannot choose the gender of our children. You get what the Lord gives you!

Bryan doesn't understand watching the same girly movies again and again. Sometimes I wish my college roommates still lived with me so we could giggle over the Mormon Pride & Prejudice late at night. At least my future five daughters will watch chick flicks with me.

I like that Gwyneth Paltrow has a long neck and makes it look good. I have a long neck too, but I blame mine on the neck-brace I had to wear after being in a car wreck in 6th grade. I'm pretty sure it stretched it out.

I am so glad I went to public schools instead of a private or home school. I'm convinced I'd be completely dysfunctional outside my church and home were it not for the secular exposure provided by public schools. For this reason I kinda feel sorry for home school kids. Then I remember the crazy scholarships they get for being so smart and my pity is gone. Why is dysfunctional spelled with a y? I suppose its spelling should be a little off.

I'm watching the old Emma now (which explains some previous statements). "I love John! ... I hate John!" The last bit of this movie absolutely transfixes me. "Marry me, my wonderful, darling friend!" Excuse me while I go give Bryan a kiss...

I assume nobody really cares to read this blog post. I figure you must be very bored to have read this far, and you must be glad for the reminder of why you don't share your own pointless thoughts with others. But I like writing. Not that I'm very good at prose, but I really can't stay away from it for too long. One of my favorite things at work is to compose emails.

I've been thinking about pulling out my old journals and blogging the quotes of my fourteen-year-old self. I'm convinced they would be very entertaining and almost equally embarrassing. But perhaps the distance of 12 years is enough to make me laugh instead of cringe. We'll see.

Surely I'm not the only one who thinks it's weird when couples say they're "trying to get pregnant". That phrase makes me uncomfortable. As it should.

And this is one reason (among others) why I have a strict personal policy against facebook friending people I work with. My blog posts link to my facebook Notes. This nonsense is not the kind of thing you want your coworkers reading. Hopefully none of them Googled me and found my blogspot and are reading this right now. If so... grrr. Not cool.

I'm Baaack

Three weeks ago today I was in the middle of a cross-country transition… somewhere between the good life I had with Bryan in North Carolina, and the blank pages of a chapter in our lives titled "Return to Arkansas". This chapter is beginning like many good novels do: with desperation. We are currently jobless, homeless, churchless, and all our meals come from the microwave oven. We are one stolen loaf of bread away from being characters in Les Miserables. Fun times, eh?

But despite the stress of job interviews every other day, mortgage loan complications, and allergic reactions to my parent's rent-free flop house, we really ARE quite happy to be back in Northwest Arkansas! Every day that I get to see beautiful green hills outside or get to cheer on my little brother's baseball team I'm reminded of how truly grateful I am to begin this chapter surrounded by all the places and people we love best!

Sara K, the CRUSHER!!!

Ok, crushes are for more than just teenage girls, orange soda, and pro wrestling, right? I crush on people and things all the time! So here I have compiled a short list of what I've been crushing on lately. They include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Bite-sized Heath bars. Bryan picked out a big bag of these to sneak into the movie theater last week (I picked out strawberry Twizzlers) and I was shocked at how truly satisfying chocolate-covered toffee really is. Who knew?
• My new Facebook profile pic. I spent about thirty minutes doing some fine Photoshop work on an average picture of me to make it outstanding. I love the final result. Totally crushing on it.
• My husband. Nature is cruel at this time of the month.
• A hand-made heart pendant I recently bought from Etsy.com. I've been on the lookout for the perfect red heart necklace for a long time now—not too junior high, not too formal, not too red, not too expensive—and I'm so happy that I finally found the perfect pendant! Love it!• Kris Allen. SOOO proud of my Arkansas boy on American Idol!! I don't think he'll win, but I love that he's representing our publicity-challenged state so well!
• Yard sales. (I think I pretty much covered this one in my last post!)
• My grandmother's antique wedding ring. I've been in love with this little piece of jewelry all my life, and even wanted to use it for my own wedding ring. That didn't work out though, and for a long time it stayed tucked away in a safe place because I thought it would be tacky to wear a wedding set on each hand—but this week I changed my mind! Now it's out of hiding, on my right hand, and not tacky at all!
• Seagulls. I guess I've just been spending a lot more time outside and noticing them lately. They're such fun birds! I love how they always sound like they're laughing; it never ceases to make me smile!
• Pandora radio online. How does anybody ever get work done without Pandora?? Their steady stream of songs that are just to my liking helped me get through two weeks (and counting) of tracing photos in Illustrator. Couldn't have done it without ya, Pandora!
• My sister's new blog! It's all about how cute my little niece and nephew are, and Stefanie has an entertaining style of documenting their cuteness! There's a link to it on right of this page called "Borkerts the Sister".

Kansas City Curtain Call

Only a few days are left for me here in Kansas City. Then I'll leave this split-level home of six months and begin the journey that takes one month and a thousand miles to get back in Bryan's arms. Of course I'm ecstatic about that last part, but leaving KC will be bittersweet.

Things I will miss about this Midwest home include the adorable 10-month-old who thinks I'm hilarious, the evening neighborhood walks with my preggo sister, the dinners and drinks made by my brother-in-law, the plethora of shops at my city-living fingertips, the Starlight Theater productions, and the nightly viewing of seasons on DVD (currently working through 90210).

Things I will not miss include waiting till naptime to shower, getting my toes crushed by Toby's big paws, and living with roommates who have a higher mess tolerance than me.

I'm sure you're wondering if six months of Flora's cute babyness has convinced this nanny/aunt to give her a cousin as soon as Bryan comes home. The short answer: no. Flora's skills at persuasion have not advanced beyond smiles and laughs. We'll revisit this issue in a few years and see if she can formulate a better argument by then.

Crafting with Flora

Per your request, here is a picture of Flora in her "I Love My Nanny" bib that I designed for her. Another project recently inspired by my boredom was to make the letters of her name to hang on her wall. I first traced and cut the letter shapes out of styrofoam. Then I used hot-glue (the duct tape for women) to wrap the sides in white fabric.


Finally I filled the exposed styrofoam with artificial flowers, courtesy of Joann's 70% off clearance bin. The result is very colorful and fun, but it still hasn't quite made it to her wall yet!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame David Cook!

This ranks as my best Kansas City experience so far. Yesterday American Idol finalist David Cook came to KC for his big "hometown visit". We all got tickets to the Royals game so we could hear him sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". I came prepared with my mental lists of Do's and Don'ts. DO ask David Cook to marry my friend in Africa (per her request). DON'T flash David Cook (per my husband's request). And DO take lots of pictures (because you wouldn't believe me otherwise).

Here are the occupants of Section 319, Row G, Seats 10-12. Not pictured: Chris Borkert.













I thought it necessary to also document that Jim Halpert is leading a double life as a professional baseball player.









Then came David Cook! Yaaaayyyy! Wait a minute, David what are you doing to your baseball cap? David, no! Nooooo...

Flora was definitely the most excited about seeing David Cook.










He sang. We screamed. I forgot about my mental list of Do's and Don'ts. It was the best 7th inning ever.

Xanga: October 4, 2006: Daddy's Kisses

The scene: A father and daughter in a college art gallery on opening night. The role of the daughter will be played by Sara and the role of the father will be played by Daddy.

Daddy: (whispers) "What do you think that guy would do if I kissed him right now?"

Sara: (looks at the group of students and both wonders which guy he's talking about and why in the world he's asking her this question)

Daddy: (a mischeivous grin)

Sara: "???"

Daddy: (realizes Sara is wondering why in the world he's asking her this question) "His shirt..."

Sara: (realizes the several moments of trying to figure out Daddy's comment was wasted because the latino guy's shirt quite obviously says "Kiss me I'm Irish")

Daddy & Sara: "lol"
.