My kid thinks every type of food right now is a taco. This might have something to do with my recent dinner-cooking-slump. Dude, browning up some ground turkey and adding an envelope of taco seasoning to it is just so darn easy. And also, very tasty.
I had a meeting for church on Tuesday night. That meant Babboo and I had to stop and get some dinner on our way to the church.

Enter the local Arby’s.

He asked cried for a taco.

I bought him a turkey sandwich and just called it a taco.

He seemed happy about his taco dinner.

And I was happy he wasn’t crying anymore.

Other things that have happened this week:

• Taco dinner on Monday to celebrate Cinco De Mayo.
• Our first Netflix movies arrived. (We have a free month, thanks to Rhi.)
• I first DVD’s were totally the first season of “How I Met Your Mother”.
• Next, we’re getting “Battlestar Galactica“. (Shhhh! Don’t tell The King. He has no idea this is on our queue.)
• I finally enjoyed a bowl of cookie dough that I made from a Weight Watchers recipe. (I was feeling very good about this until I found out it I had eaten 15 WW points and not the 6 I had thought it was.) (Dude, why would the recipe LIE?!) (For the record, I only get 20 points a day. So um, this was not a good thing.)
• I went grocery shopping with Babboo and he only begged for a cookie for 20 minutes instead of the usual 60 minutes.
• I was able to use a $15 off coupon at Ann Taylor on a shirt that was marked down to $24.
• I helped paint trim over at the new house. The King wants the entire top floor to be done before we move in.
• I, um, sort of, um, got too busy and forgot to bathe my kid this week. This is not typical at our house. Our kid is always bathed and in tip-top smelling condition.
• I mailed off my mom’s Mothers Day present.  They arrived yesterday.  She loves them.  I couldn’t be happier.

And on that note, Happy Mothers Day to all the lovely people in the world who have enough love that they can share with those around them.

While discussing all things Clothing-Related yesterday with OperationPinkHerring (or just “OPH” for short) due to her latest Mission: Put Together (ie: let’s all try to dress better for work and then post the pictures to a Flickr group of our more put-together outfits for all to see and judge), I was all, “And what’s with the Ann Taylor Loft website tricking us and putting up loads of clothing items on sale for $3.88 and then having all of them ‘not available at this time’?”

I sent OPH the link to a super cute navy blazer that was marked $3.88 (!!) and she wrote me back immediately, “And that $3.88 jacket on Ann Taylor Loft had to be a mistake. $3.88???? I can’t even get the picture to display right now, but I’d still buy it for $3.88. ”

To which I responded, “there is TONS of super cute things on the Ann Taylor website for that price right now. But all of them are all “not available at this time” and I’m all ‘then take it down off your site, a**holes!’”

Because seriously, you can’t show me something for $3.88 and then not allow me to buy one in every color.

OPH said she likes the option to buy and return later, if needed. Although she did admit, “for $3.88, I’d buy it and keep it. And love it. ”

“You’re darn right you’d keep it and love it. I’d buy it in bigger
sizes and gain weight to fit into them for that price.”

OPH started searched the Ann Taylor Loft site with me and found a super cute dress for $3.88. “Damnit! Check it out, $3.88!!! NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE!!!”

It got even better when OPH started looking at the maternity clothes on the site and found that some of them were also marked $3.88!!

She was bold enough to even say. “I would buy this maternity shirt for $3.88 and get knocked up just so I could wear it.” (Although I had to agree with her that it was the best thing to do. I mean, you should always base your gestating on cheap clothing options.”

And then I thought, “dude, I’m calling the freakin’ 800 number for Ann Taylor Loft and getting to the bottom of this!”

I spent the next 30 minutes on the phone with a lovely Ann Taylor Loft call-agent in Salt Lake City as she looked up every.single.item marked down to $3.88 to see if she could find me anything in any size close to my own size.

Okay, so we didn’t find anything. And my heart broke a little. And my Ann Taylor gift card sitting on my desk, mocked me. But dude, I have it my best effort.

So tell me, have you ever actually had any luck finding stuff as cheap as a kicky trench coat for $3.88?

(And while it isn’t $3.88, these Shade Clothing shirts come pretty darn close.)

*This does not mean I won’t stop shopping there and that I don’t love ATL. Because you know I love ATL.

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Did I forget to mention that I had a new post up over at SeattleMomBlogs this week? Um, sorry. Go and check it out.

Oh, and you know you want to discuss all things “Lost” over at WeHeartTV.

The King drove three hours to Portland last night to see The Cult in concert. One of his good friends from college lives down in Portland and they thought this concert would be the perfect chance to reunite. This meant that Babboo and I had the entire night to ourselves. It as like our own private slumber party.
Early yesterday afternoon I decided that Babboo and I would take advantage of not having to be home to prepare dinner and would go out to eat at the local Cheesecake Factory. All by ourselves. I daydreamed about what I would order for dinner. I also gave my dessert options a lot of thought.

Unfortunately I forgot that I was also meeting Kathleen (and baby Elanor) for lunch yesterday. So by the time dinner time rolled around, I just wasn’t hungry for a huge plate of Cheesecake Factory fare. Crap.

I guess Babboo and I will just have to find something else to do to bide our time.

Hey, that was easy. Hang out at the local bookstore in the kids section. Grab a few gossip mags for Mommy. Let the night float away.

Pretty much I admit that this is better then stuffing my face at the Cheesecake Factory. Plus, we ended up making French toast for dinner. I’m loving French toast these days. (And so is Babboo.)

The King made it home safely from Portland at about 2am this morning. When I woke him up for work before I headed out the door, he assured me that he got enough sleep. I’m thinking that come lunch time today he’ll be wanting a nap.

You know what I’ll be wanting come lunch time today? The little box full of St. Patrick’s Day candy that I got from my Secret Sister last week. After three weeks of doing fun little Secret Sisters gifts, the big reveal took place last Tuesday night. Of course I was busy seeing “Mamma Mia!” with internet buddies and missed the reveal evening at the church.

For those that want to know what I ended up giving my Secret Sister…well, the second week I gave her a little black and white bag from the blogger mecca, also known as Sephora. Inside was my favorite gold eyeliner. (I love giving this little eyeliner!) Last week I gave my Secret Sister an awesome mix tape CD with my fave Rhett Miller and Old 97’s tunes. I gave her the CD on Sunday at church during my own little mini-reveal. She wrote me yesterday and told me she loves the CD. I’m not surprised. I had a blast doing the Secret Sister and can’t wait until they do that again.

And for those of you that want to know if anyone I know in real life delurked to tell me they read my site…yeah well, nobody did. I’m not surprised, really. I mean, would you delurk if you had found someone’s blog you knew in real life?
I probably wouldn’t.

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Babboo and I made the trek to my aunt’s house on Saturday to dye Easter Eggs. It’s my latest New Thing. The experience turned out just about as good as I thought it would.

I’ve often patted myself on the virtual back for being able to maintain such a secret blog for the last two and a half years. Hey, look at me, I write a blog that nobody I know in real life reads. I’m a super-spy.

While discussing my anonymity with DaringYoungMom and EveGood on Tuesday night during intermission at “Mamma Mia!”, I came to the conclusion that the vultures are closing in on my super-secret blog. It really is just a matter of time before I get that dreaded phone call from my aunt telling me she found my blog. My fellow bloggers agreed that it is only a matter of time.

(This may be closer to the truth then I care to admit since DaringYoungMom actually knows my aunt in real life. And knows her well enough that my cousin babysits for DYM.)

Gulp!

Over these last two and half years of my virtual back pats, a few people have found the blog. There was the one couple from church that found it. I died a little and then traded favors in exchange for them never mentioning my blog and swearing them to guard my URL with the life of their unborn son. Then there was the two sisters from high school that found me. And then, another girl from high school found me. All of them have sworn to keep my blog a secret. I like these girls. I trust them. And I pretend they don’t read.

It makes things easier for me.

I wonder, that while I’m busy congratulating myself on my secret keeping skills, if my ex-husband’s new wife is reading my blog and laughing because, duh, she found it. Or that maybe my high school boyfriend found it and reads it on a daily basis. Heck, maybe my mom even reads. Or worse, my grandma.

How many of my lurking readers actually know my real name, went to high school or college with me, or attended my wedding(s)?!

I really have no good reason for wanting to keep this blog separate from my “real life”. I don’t write scathing things about people I love. I don’t post (too many) embarrassing pictures of myself, my husband, or my child. The stories I retell, from my past, are retold how I remember them. If these stories were to upset someone I know in real life, it’s only my memory of how things happened, and maybe not their memories. So really, I can’t imagine that it could/would upset them.

Last week I wrote a little post about The Seven Year Itch in a marriage. In this post I briefly talked about a couple I know in real life who are getting a divorce. I didn’t share anything too personal about this couple. Nothing about where they live, what they do for livings, what their names are, or what kind of a car they drive.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from one of my blog readers who lives nowhere near Seattle and nowhere near my hometown. In this e-mail she was all “were you talking about [insert most random last name you’ve ever heard] in your post about marriage and divorce?”

Holy shiz. I was talking about [insert most random last name you’ve ever heard] in that post. Totally.

And then double holy shiz, how did she figure this out?

“First off, how do you know the [insert most random last name you’ve ever heard] family? And how did you figure out I was talking about them?”

Come to find out this couple I know in real life are the ones that introduced this blog reader’s parents to each other many, many years ago while they were young college students. Apparently [insert most random last name you’ve ever heard] and this blog reader’s family are very close and personal family friends. We had a good laugh about the odds of us being connected in this way. The situation turned out to be quite funny and enjoyable to discuss.

This lovely reader figured all of this out by some silly little post I wrote in which I never mentioned (googable) names or (googable) locations. So while the world can seem to be small, it appears that the interweb really is small.

This just goes to prove that I’m not as hidden and secret as I like to think I am on the interweb. Having this happen tempts me to send out a broadcast e-mail with my URL to everyone in my “real life” contact book. Just to get it over with.

And yet, I won’t send it out. I’ll continue to think I’m hidden. To think nobody knows. I’ll continue to pat myself on the virtual back for pulling one over on those I know.

But if you do know me in real life, if you know my real name, if you attended my wedding(s), or are married to someone I was once married to, or if we share the same parents, or have the same last name, or went to the same schools, now is the time to delurk and admit that you read my blog.

Because today, and today only, I will forgive you for keeping it a secret from me.

I promise I won’t be mad. And I won’t freak out. And I won’t block your IP address.

(You can leave a comment, or e-mail me at holaisabel [at] gmail.com)

One of my best friend’s younger brother had an affair during his seventh year of marriage. Their marriage didn’t survive the affair and they have since divorced. My friend, let’s call her Noel, is married and sitting back and watching her brother’s marriage fail was hard on her. Not only was Noel sad to see her brother and his family suffer, she was entering into the seventh year of her own marriage and started to question whether or not she was also going to also get The Itch.

Noel was worried that the Seven Year Itch might be a genetic disorder.

Of course it isn’t genetic and Noel and her husband are well into their tenth year of marriage and seem to be doing just fine. Maybe even better then fine. They have three gorgeous kids and a happy life together. I may, or may not, even be a little jealous of their life.

Last weekend, while having dinner over at some friend’s house the conversation turned to a discussion about The Itch. According to our friend (and apparently science) if you make it past the seventh year of marriage, you’re in the clear. As in, science has proven that the odds of a couple staying married after seven years goes up substantially. (Okay, so I don’t have anything to back this up. But hey, it was my friend who told us this. And he doesn’t lie. I don’t think.)

My sister sent me an e-mail on Tuesday morning informing me that the parents of one of her closest friends had split up. She was very upset to hear this, as was I. This was a wonderful couple that have been an example to me through the years. While I don’t know them that well, I’ve watched them from afar and been so impressed. They are the parents to nine kids and have been married well over forty years.

And they couldn’t make it.

While talking to my mother about this couple yesterday she and I both discussed our surprise and sadness over the end of their marriage. I figured that if you’d made it through forty years and nine kids, what’s another few more years? I mean, suck it up and move into the spare room, but stay married, right? My mom mentioned maybe not wanting to spend your Golden Years not talking to your spouse and pretending things are good just because.

Okay, all valid points. But still, if you’d made it that long…why can’t you make it a little longer?

I’m not sure what all makes a marriage of twenty, thirty, or forty years stressful. I don’t know what things come up to wear you down. I know the things that make a seven year marriage stressful. Things like careers, young children, families, home ownership, and just plain adjusting to married life. I can understand how that is a rough point in any relationship. I can also see why science says that if you can make it through those tough times, you can make it through anything.

The King and I have been married seven and a half years.

While I don’t think either one of us is feeling any type of Itch (outside of maybe some hair regrowth), I am feeling the stress of life right now.

Here’s hoping that we continue to keep our eyes on the prize and stay the course. Because, really, I know it’s worth it. And I want it.
So tell me, what are the stresses in your relationships? Go on, spill the beans, it’s safe here at holaisabel.com.

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Don’t forget to check out my latest column over at SeattleMomBlogs.

And check out my latest New Thing (a mini-facial with my pregnant girlfriend) with pictures of me in a robe at the spa. (Dude, I’ll post anything for the interweb!)

Is anyone watching The Real Housewives of New York? You know I am, and I blogged about it over at WeHeartTV. There is also tons of Lost talk over there, so come on over and join in the discussion.

Just ’cause I absolutely love the picture she drew of me, check out my spotlight over at FluentBrittish. (Did you all see that Britt got a real live comment from the totally awesome Jorge Garcia on her blog. It really was him. She verified it and everything. Holy cow.)

In true LoveisBlonde fashion, may I present you with my latest list of what I love/hate.

• love: The interweb. I don’t know why I was so shocked over your love and support on my last post. Clearly you guys are more awesome then I ever imagined. And for that I am humbled and thankful.
• hate: That it isn’t summer yet.
• love: Less then 2 months until we move into the new house.
• love: The mini series on Sally Hemmings that I’m in the middle of watching.
• hate: That slavery ever existed. I am so confused as to how a slave owner could father children with his slave, and then sell their entire family. Dude, they are his flesh and blood.
• love: The Valentine decorations Babboo and I made on Saturday. (I got the idea from Zoot.)
• love: “Lost”, again. (Head over to WeHeartTV for a discussion, via FluentBrittish.)
• hate: That I had to come into my office on Saturday for a few hours.
• love: How cute my freakin’ kid looks sitting at my boss desk.

So tell me, what are your love/hates for this week?