A Week in My Life--SATURDAY

It has been a good day. :)

Bekah and I woke up and did the usual morning thing (while Malcom slept in)... breakfast, watching TV, etc. I did some blogging (ahem, Friday's post was done this morning!) and I felt relatively good. Malcom got up and we got ready to go out. I've been planning on going to the LA Festival of Books for a few weeks and it was finally time! We headed down to UCLA, paid $10 for parking, and made our way into a book-lovers paradise.

UCLA is beautiful!

Honestly, the festival could've been better. I mean, I think we could've done it better. There were a lot of people there--like Disneyland on a Saturday in the summer. And there were lots of cool speakers, but we kept barely missing them. Stupid. So we wandered around a lot, looked at a few books in their booths, saw authors who we'd never heard of signing overpriced books, and looked for places to rest in the shade.

Bekah kept asking for a balloon because we saw so many kids with them, but it took forever to find the one booth in a sea of many that was giving them away. It was a basic request that turned into a do-or-die mission! We had to wind our way through lots of buildings and to several different sections of the festival before finding it!

 I promise, she's happy about the balloon, just not a good picture!

There was a lot of good-smelling food, but it wasn't really lunch time and everything was expensive. We did get to catch one author at the children's stage reading his book (Todd Parr, It's Okay to be Different). I was more interested in it than Bekah because I don't think she gets the whole "group story time" thing. (I gotta go to library story times more often!) Anyway, it was fun to be out and about, but because we didn't really plan our day, it felt more like being at a big outdoor book store. We were all tired and a little cranky too, so we didn't drag it out for a long time either.

We did manage to find me some cotton candy though, kinda making up for the carnival we missed last night. :P

 And of course we couldn't be there without buying books; one for each of us:

Back home, we ate a quick lunch and put Bekah down for a late nap. At least she slept this time! I was able to do a load of dishes, two loads of laundry and FINALLY finish my book for book club. I was satisfied with the ending and happy to have it done mere hours before we met!

Bekah and I played in the afternoon and watched her current favorite movie, Cars. Good times. Her play area of choice this afternoon was in one of the laundry baskets of clean clothes. She likes to get in there and pretend that she's sleeping. She asked for blanket too and spent a lot of time under there with doggy and a flashlight just goofing around. Silly girl!

Dinner was sloppy joes and tater tots--not much, but at least it wasn't fast food again! Then I headed out for book club while Bekah and Malcom went to some furniture stores. We're still looking for dressers, but they didn't find anything cheap enough.

At book club, there were our five regulars (Nanette, Teresa, Daina, Heidi, and me) and two newbies, Nanette's mom, Pamela, and a new girl in our ward, Leah. It was fun, as always. The book (Three Cups of Tea) is about Greg Mortenson and how he makes education become a reality for the poor children of Pakistan. It's a great story and really made me think. It's good to get a non-fiction book in here every once in a while; keeps me grounded! The writing wasn't my favorite, but the story is compelling enough to get me over it. We had lots of good discussions about education, religion, poverty, and our perspectives on life. I love book club!

Pamela, Daina, Nanette, Teresa, Leah, and me (Heidi had already left)

Now it's home with Malcom, chatting and vegging again. I love that we get to spend so much time together on weekends. I know he'll regret it tomorrow and Monday when he's hurrying like mad to finish his school assignments (due on Mondays at midnight). But he'll figure it out; he always does. As long as he gets A's and B's, I suppose it doesn't really matter how/when he gets it done.

I'm singing in church tomorrow so I hope that goes well. I'm conducting in Primary, but that's no real stress. I don't know how much photographing I'll get done, but I'll try. Hopefully it'll be a mostly-relaxing day. I'll still have a few dishes and whatnot, but lots of resting too!