Mindless Mom Ramblings

A day all about Lola

2009-07-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Lola had a meeting with a talent agency in L.A. I've been blowing it off and rescheduling several times because I really have conflicting feelings about it. When we called to cancel last time, I was feeling pretty much like that was it, better left alone. But Dan was the one to make the actual cancellation call and wouldn't you know it, he ended up rescheduling it to last Tuesday. I decided I would just get it over with and go. I really despise driving to L.A. and this is a major factor to me. How will I be able to commit to drive her there if she gets called to audition for something?
This meeting was just to see whether or not she will be a client so maybe nothing will come of it, which I will be so fine with.
Anyway, it was about 7 hours round trip for a meeting that lasted all of 10 minutes (max!). The highlight of the day was a much-needed, relaxing dinner at a great restaurant at Stone Brewery, that I wouldn't have even known existed, if it had not been for my friend Sabrina. The food is fresh, local and organic. The ales are pretty darned good too. After our dinner, we took a walk in the yard, crossing over ponds and creeks on a little bridge and there was a big clearing, lined with picnic tables and benches, bamboo trees and other abundant vegetation. Lola was tickled pink at this discovery. We will definitely be going again soon!

Day Camp

2009-07-15T10:39:00.001-07:00

Lola is going to day camp every afternoon this week. It's a great little camp called "Earth Detectives: A solution to Pollution". It's at the natural history museum, which the kids adore. The class focuses on different wildlife everyday. Today, it's gray wolves and sea otters. Then the kids are given "assignments" to reinforce what they learned that day. Lola loves it! Elise loves that we spend the 3 hours strolling around the park and playing by the big koi pool.

Here are a couple of pictures of when we picked her up on the first day. They had studied polar bears that day, hence the polar bear mask she is wearing!

When it rains...

2009-07-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

Just a few short days after Lola lost her first tooth, she just lost another! So, the tooth fairy had to pony up another bill right after. It's pretty cute, though, she spent the first bit of money she got on buying frozen yogurt for her and her sister. How thoughtful!

More on San Jose

2009-07-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share some pictures from yesterday, which was my only full day in San Jose. These were taken in the morning...Pierre and Nathalie came over to my hotel, where Pierre set up his webcam and we were able to chat with his kids (who are with Nathalie's parents). Lola was so excited all morning to see her cousins online, but then got super shy as soon as we could see them on the camera! Afterwards, we took a walk across the street. There is a great park there, with fountains that spurt water up from the ground. All around the park are restaurants and stores, etc...it was really quaint, I loved it.
We had some lunch and then walked over to the park. The girls were really anxious to play and stretch their legs for a while. After some play time, we drove on over to Pierre's brother Ted's house. They have a really nice communal pool and we spent the rest of the afternoon there swimming, talking and laughing. We had one last dinner together and the girls were so pooped, Lola fell asleep at the restaurant. Too bad I forgot my camera at the hotel though...I have no pictures from the afternoon and evening.
It was tough saying goodbye to Pierre and Nathalie. I feel as though I've known them forever. We are planning a huge reunion for August of next year, in Lac St. Jean, where all our family is from (and most still lives).

Do you know the way to San Jose?

2009-07-08T00:01:00.001-07:00

I haven't been able to get that tune out of my head for several days now.

So, here's an interesting little family factoid about me. I have a whole side of my family that I've never met. At least, before tonight anyway. I had never met a single person from my dad's side of the family ever. Oh no wait, there are pictures of me with my paternal grandmother when I was an infant, but that's it. When my mother was alive, there was some kind of something that must have happened long ago....don't know what it was but all I know is that she strongly discouraged communication between my father and his 9 other siblings (and their offspring...of which there are many).
This bothered me a lot my whole life. My mother's side of the family was small...I had not even a handful of cousins and we barely saw them. I knew that somewhere out there was this huge family that I belonged to, but I didn't even know if they knew I existed or vice versa.
Most of my paternal cousins are a bit older than me....my father is 8th in line of 10 kids and he is in his 70's....plus he didn't even start having kids until he was in his 40's. So most of my cousins are easily in their 40's and 50's. But not long after my mom passed away, my father reconnected with his siblings and we are finally becoming a family again.
A few years ago, I started corresponding (via email) with one of my cousins and he is actually close to my age. His mother (my aunt) had her children later in life, as did my dad. She actually passed away before I ever met her, but my dad speaks fondly of her and tells me that she was a great woman who was very loved.
So, my cousin, Pierre, and I started to chat. We are so happy to be connected now. When he told me he would be San Jose, I knew I had to come out and meet him and his wife Nathalie. They live in Alma, the same town where my father was born, in Quebec. The reason they are out here is because Pierre has also recently reconnected with brothers and sisters from his father's previous marriage. Pierre didn't know, until recently, that he even had brothers and sisters and they didn't know either. Pierre has developed a particularly strong bond with Ted, his brother, and is here in San Jose to visit with him for a couple of weeks.
So after a long car ride with girls, I arrived in San Jose today and got to meet not only my cousin, but his wife and his brother. It was an emotional night for all.

To round up our day of travel: Everything went actually pretty well. We left the house at 6 am, hit horrific traffic in L.A. (as was expected), made one potty break, then had lunch in San Luis Obispo, at Big Sky Cafe. The food & service were really excellent. Lola fell asleep in the car soon after lunch and when we stopped in Salinas for a potty break, we noticed that her tooth fell out. We can't find it anywhere and she was rather upset by this. I calmed her down by telling her that all she has to do is draw a picture of the tooth and write a note to the tooth fairy that her tooth is lost and that will be good enough. But the she thinks she may have swallowed the tooth and, secretly, that is what she's really afraid of.

Some photos of our trip....the restaurant, the Salinas gas station potty when we discovered Lola's tooth was first missing, Pierre and his brother, me and Pierre.

Out with the old, in with the new....

2009-07-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

I was originally going to title this post, "so my little girl is growing up" or something of that nature, but then I realized that a lot of posts are titled very similarly. But yes, this post is about yet another rite of passage...Lola losing her two bottom baby teeth. She is very excited about the whole prospect of the tooth fairy visiting her at night. I think it's really funny that here is this 5 year old girl who does not believe in Santa Claus or the Easter bunny or anything like that, but the tooth fairy??? Holy cow, the tooth fairy is alive and kicking in her mind and bless her soul for that.

(Although, we did have to have a talk about the economy and how the tooth fairy is frugal during such tough financial circumstances and can't possibly afford to hand out $20's for every tooth anymore, as she was told was the 'going rate' by her little friend.)

Poor thing, though, she is experiencing some discomfort and finds hard to chew a lot of foods. She's eating avocados, miso soup, tofu, fruit, etc...In addition to losing her two bottom teeth, the new ones have already cut the gums right behind the old ones, plus she is just breaking her 6 year molars in. 4 new teeth at once.
As much as she's excited about losing her baby teeth, I can feel she's a teeny weeny bit overwhelmed with all this growing up business that she's been doing a lot of lately. She's a little extra sensitive and has been crying a bit more than usual. I'm trying to be a bit more patient with her and give her a little extra love. Oh and yah, we need to find/make a tooth pillow (or pouch) pretty darned fast. I think it's going to be another day or two max!

Just a funny picture, nothing more!

2009-07-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

I just really like this picture. The expression on her face is priceless.

Princess Sophie

2009-06-30T22:40:00.001-07:00

Last week, Lola attended a theatre day camp through our local recreation center. The camp location was at a nearby middle school auditorium. The class worked all week on their very own play, which they presented to parents and friends on Friday. The kids got to name and create their own characters, develop the plot to their story and make up their own dialogue (which some guidance from their instructor, of course!!). It wasn't all about the theatrics, either. They played really creative games that honed in on their imagination skills. I was really impressed when I saw them in action. Lola loved it. For the performance, she played Princess Sophie, but didn't actually have any dialog. She said she didn't really want to talk! Wow, I've never known Lola to NOT want to talk, but ok!!! Nonetheless, she was ecstactic and truly proud of herself and the group accomplishment. It was great and despite her being so young for such a long day camp, I would totally send her again next year, if she wants to do it.

Camping & 4th of July Festivities

2009-06-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went tent camping for the first time as a family. We have camped a few times before in a camper or cabin, but this was a first time tent experience for us. I took just Lola for the first half of the weekend, while Elise stayed home with Dan. We didn't have any camping equipment so there was a bit of a mad rush to get the stuff we needed. It worked out great. Definitely a good first time experience for us. The campground itself wasn't a huge hit with Dan...it was beyond dusty and didn't have many amenities. He really prefers a few frills, like a pool or activities for the kids, etc...Although it was a bit more basic than he was expecting, he still had fun, which I'm glad for, considering he doesn't particularly care for camping anyway.
One of the highlights was the girls waking me up at some unGODLY hour (what was up with the crows performing an operetta at 5 am??) and taking the kids out on a little nature walk to see what wildlife we could spot. Although, the wildlife was sparse (that's actually a really good thing, considering some of the creatures we COULD have run into), we got great photos of the sun waking up and poking through the enormously tall trees.

The kids were besides themselves with glee and that is really what was important. They loved it and now we will be making it a much more regular activity for our family.

The calm before the chaos...

2009-06-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

I know the expression is "calm before the storm" but storm sounded a little negative to me and "chaos"...well...chaos is just more of an accurate depiction.
Lola and I are going camping tomorrow and today is the only day I have to get everything done.

Lola has been in a theatre day camp everyday this week and tomorrow she and her class are performing a play that they've been practicing all week. I'm thrilled for her. She's very excited. I was apprehensive for the first couple of days that she was going...the age range is really wide, 5-16 years old. And I realized that Lola was the youngest and had to keep up the same schedule as the others. The first couple of days, she really had some adjustment. She was a more emotional than usual and had a bit of a chip on her shoulder. It's a long day for a 5 year old....typically, day camps for this age group are only 1/2 days, but Lola's is a full day.
She seems to be doing ok now, though, and I can't wait to see the play! We are hoping to leave for the campground soon after the cast party.

So, since I knew today would be a bunch of running around and packing, I decided to take Elise out to breakfast after we dropped Lola off at camp. It was really nice. I tend not to do much with Elise when Lola isn't around. I always feel guilty that she's missing out! I need to get over that, though. Anyway, we had a nice breakfast. Elise built endless "castles" out of cream containers and butter packets. It was cute.

Great Leaps Forward...

2009-06-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

There's been so many recent accomplishments around here. Seems to be theme of this blog lately! In this past week, there's been at least one major accomplishment for each of us that has us beaming. Well, maybe not Dan...he's got ongoing drama in his business life. Poor guy.
First, the girls are now sharing a bed together at night, which means one very important thing: they are no longer hogging our bed!!! Yay! And it's been going so smoothly, we're kicking ourselves for not having started this sooner. Now, all of a sudden, they are happy to go to bed and, incredibly, they are sleeping all night. I'm surprised that we've not had a single middle of the night visit to our bed, which was happening all the time with Lola before we decided to put Elise in there with her. We're so happy for them and for us. We're all sleeping so much better!

Next, I got an idea from my friend, lifeineastcounty...she put up a chart for her girls and they are given stickers to encourage them to get along. I think at the end of the week, they get to go out for ice cream or something similar. I tried this with my girls recently too. Elise has begun using the potty quite regularly now so she gets a sticker on her chart for everytime she goes. Today was an especially good day...only one time did she not make it to the potty and it was because she had fallen asleep. I hope this is the real thing. It would be really nice to be done with diapers.
Lola also has a chart now too. She is learning the intricate art of being respectful of others around her. This means no interrupting when others are talking, especially nagging while one is on the phone, and being patient. For example, if I say "hmm, tomorrow we might stop off and get a smoothie before going to blah, blah, blah..." This means that while I have every intention of following through with my thought, it may not happen RIGHT THIS SECOND. She has a really hard time waiting. And I completely understand!! I get it! I get that she is only 5 and that waiting is a really hard concept to grasp. And while I'm perfectly understanding of her enthusiasm, what I'm not ok with are the 100 questions I have to answer before the actually event takes place...they are all really the same question, but posed in 15 different ways. That I asnwer over and over. And over again. It's enough to make me say, "you know what? Forget the f%$#ing smoothie!!!".

So yeah, we're working on that!

As for my own accomplishment? I just harvested my very first potatoes! I don't know why I'm so happy for myself about this, it's probably not that hard of a task! But for some reason, I'm really invested in my garden...I'm still so shocked that I have managed to grow something! Before this, I had the least green thumb possible and I'm known for unintentionally killing every plant that has every graced my home. But this garden is so beautiful and prosperous, despite me. Probably one of the most rewarding things I have done since birthing my children!

We also have some family visiting and it's always great to hang out with them. We've watched Dan's cousins, Nicole and Colette, grow up from kids into thoughtful, considerate and very wise young women. They are incredibly aware of their responsibility to our planet and strive to be good global citizens. They are very 'in tune' with themselves. It's a great to be around them and it rejuvenates my own pledges to a natural family environment and the earth.

All in all, a great week around this house.

Lola's big day, Part 2

2009-06-13T00:47:00.000-07:00

After graduation this morning and a rather short appearance at playgroup, we had to get ready for the county fair, where Lola was to perform with her gymnastics group. The group's performance was amazing and cute. I'm still in awe at how such young little minds can remember all the steps and execute them with such finesse!
After Lola's show, we hung out in kid's section of the fair. She and Elise rode rides, ate all kinds of crap that they would not normally eat at home, played carnie games and had the time of their lives.

A huge day for Lola, Part 1

2009-06-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

Today was major. And a couple of weeks leading up to day were chaotic too. Lola graduated from Kindergarten this morning and then had a gymnastics performance this evening at the county fair opening day. That's just the actual events that happened today...and while they were fantastic and awesome in their own rights, they are not exactly all of what made this day so major. There's an emotional layer underneath...us, as parents, watching our little girl grow leaps and bounds and Lola herself, realizing what big steps she took.
Let's break it down.
Lola's graduation...this really should be a whole other post because it should include how fabulous our kindergarten year was, how great her school is, how great her teacher is, how wonderful our part-time school/homeschooling program has worked for us, how involved the parents were, etc...etc...All that wonderfulness aside, the graduation was emotional and super cute. I was probably more emotional today than I was the first day Lola's school. Today, there was an element of saying goodbye. I mean, it's just for a few weeks before first grade starts, but since her school is moving to a new location, it seems more like an end to an era.
Lola seems so much older now than the beginning of the year! The teachers provided a slide show of photos that they had taken all year long...all our field trips, swimming, skating, dancing, gardening and whatnot. It was amazing to see how much we had done during the year....it flew by all too quickly. It was a cute graduation. The kids sang really creative songs about what they learned at Kindergarten and what they were looking forward to in the first grade! Afterward, we feasted on goodies that we had brought, potluck style.

Quick update on our trip

2009-05-06T21:45:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, bad packer that I am, I forgot some major stuff for this trip. The camera battery charger, the patch cord to upload photos from said camera, any warm and/or waterproof clothing items that would have been extremely helpful for this trip and my phone charger.
We are in the pacific northwest on an island off the coast. The weather is cold and rainy, totally unlike where we came from.
Luckily, the wifi works...very occasionally, but I get pockets of wifi opportunities here and there. I had to break down and buy disposable cameras (2 for 1 on sale though, score!). My phone is dead, nothing I can do about that. A hurried trip to Kmart (there are very few options here) got us a couple of extra sweaters that are already dirty (no laundry facilities!!!). We'll have to make a trip into town tomorrow to find some boots or shoes for Lola because hers got wrecked by all the hiking and beachcombing in the rain that we did today. They weren't in fabulous shape when we started, though. I was kicking myself for only bringing 2 pairs of shoes for her on this trip, but I had no idea the island was this rugged and every other pair of shoes she owns are sandals. We live in southern California after all, what the hell do we need with boots???

But, all that aside, we are having a FABULOUS trip! The reason for our pile of dirty clothes and the thrashed shoes is because we are getting out there on the shores of these islands and digging our hands and feet into mother earth. We are hiking, beachcombing, birdwatching, wildlife observing and history learning. On our beachcombing adventures today, we found clams, mussels, oysters, crabs, sea glass and hermit crabs. Even a bald eagle graced us with its presence! In the parks we found mama ducks leading their babies ducks in the lake, and learned about the Maiden of Deception Pass.
Robins, goldfinches and rabbits visit us frequently in the front yard and we watch boats, ships and barges drift past us all day long.
It's been an amazing trip so far and worth every penny.

I have some really great photos (I hope!) that I cannot wait to share.

Chickpea cookies.

2009-04-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

Sound appealing? I assure you it's not nearly as appealing as it sounds. Last night I attempted to make "chicken" nuggets, using chickpeas. But since I didn't actually have any recipe (well, I did actually, I just didn't know it....long story!) and don't own a copy of Veganomicon, I decided to wing it. How hard could chickpea patties possibly be, after all?
Well, as it turns out, not that easy! I just started throwing stuff in the food processor and then adjusting/adding new ingredients until I got a somewhat desired consistency.
Chickpeas, spinach, carrots, olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, vital wheat gluten, chickpea flour....it was going ok until I decided to add a couple of eggs (why? I don't know), then the batter was way too...wet. A cursory search in my cupboard revealed that I had no more chickpeas, but I did have a can of black beans. In they went.
The final result, even after adding a bunch more flour, was pretty runny, much like pancake batter. I spooned small amounts onto an oiled cookie sheet and baked. Out came my chickpea cookies. They are not terrible tasting...the kids ate them with ketchup. I had a few with hummus spread on top. Dan took one bite and that was it.
Little does he know that I am serving them again tonight, falafel style, with pita and yogurt sauce. A nice greek salad to round it out.

Ballet school dropout? Maybe.

2009-04-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in ages, I know. Either there just hasn't been anything interesting happening around here lately, or I'm just really not motivated enough to be creative with the introspect.
Whatever. I did finally get inspired to blog today because I took Elise to her very first ever ballet class. I have done a toddler "parent & me" gym class with her once before this, but today's ballet class was her first 'non-me' class.
To backtrack slightly, the parent participation class that we had previously done, was a 9 week class...30 minutes, once a week for 9 weeks. It took Elise until about the 7th or 8th week to finally participate in a majority of the scattered activities. She had clear favorites, like the parachute, that she would participate in every time, but others she was less fond of...like the warm-up. Some she grew to like.
Anyway, since she opened much during the span of that 9 weeks, I thought she might be ready for something new, like this ballet class.
Well, she looked awfully cute, but she spent most of the 30 minutes outside the building, either pouting, crying or trying to talk me into taking her to the playground across the street instead.
It was frustrating because she was the only one there who refused to participate...it was the first class of the series so there were all these moms, dads and even grandparents there, taking pictures of their little princesses, all doing everything the teacher told them to do.
And then there WE were.
Elise running to the corner and me, on the floor, trying do all the little exercises to show her how FUN it all is!
She studied the class a little bit, sometimes even copying the hand movements they were doing to the tune of the song they were all singing. But mostly, she just climbed on and off the bench and then, at one point, Lola accidentally stepped on her hand and that made her cry. Loudly. I swooped her up and took her out of the room, not wanting to disrupt the class.
I don't know how I should've handled the situation. It definitely felt wrong to scold a 2 year for not participating in a ballet class that she clearly didn't want to do, but I must admit, it was embarrassing to have all those eyes on me... eyes that probably judged me, at least a little bit, for not having more "control" over my child. Or at least, this is my insecurity.
Instead, I just took her outside and tried to provoke her interest in the class by pointing out the things they were doing. We stayed for the whole class, most of time we were outside looking in the window. Whenever I would ask her if that looked like fun, she would agree with a big grin on her face. Then I'd try to get her to join the class and she'd meet my face with her stern expression and say "NO, mommy".

*sigh*. I don't know why this upset me so much today. I guess it's moments like these that I wonder what I'm doing and doubting if I'm doing anything right. Please let me know if you have experiences to share!

Making do...

2009-03-23T22:05:00.001-07:00

Poor Lola. Pretty much her whole weekend was a bust. All the things she was excited about didn't actually come to fruition. On Friday night we were supposed to join some friends camping and we promised her we would do s'mores by the fire. We even went out together and bought the supplies. But Friday night provided us with a series of mishaps and our get-together didn't happen. To make matter worse, Lola would up with a high fever on Saturday morning, which means she did not get to attend a birthday party that she had really been looking forward to. We had even bought a new dress for it just the day before.

Since she was feeling a lot better by Sunday night, I thought the least we could is fire up our dinky little grill and roast some marshmellows. She was thrilled. We ended up making the gooeyest s'mores she'd ever seen. She was pretty happy after that.

Our little getaway gone awry.

2009-03-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

We decided at the very last minute (read: 11pm on Thursday night) to get away for a night on Friday. Well, there's pros and cons to planning a trip last minute. It's fun to be spontaneous, the kids get a kick out of it and it's great to get away. The cons...well, I rushed around like crazy on Friday morning, not only to pack our stuff but also going away, even just overnight, means my garden and guinea pig get neglected for 2 days. So, I took care of the garden stuff...watered the plants and seeds, then turned and watered my compost bins. I gave Henry and big salad and new hay to tide him over but didn't have any new bedding to clean up his cage with so I had to make a quick run to the pet store. My MIL came over later that day to clean up his cage and play with him a while.
So, now we were organized and, after a quick stop at playgroup, we were on our way. Here's the other little "con" about spontaneous getaways...the potential for miscommunication. I really, truly thought that the plan was for me to pick Dan up from his business meeting. He really, truly thought that we were just going to meet later in the day at the hotel (not even close to where his meeting was). I cheerfully called him, after I took the girls dress/shoes shopping, to let him know we were only a few minutes away from picking him up. That's when we had our "oh" moment and realized how badly we had miscommunicated. Turns out, he had left the meeting long ago and had accompanied the friends that we were planning to meet to get their camper and stuff that they needed for the weekend.
So the girls and I just spent the day by ourselves. We did a bit more shopping and slowly made our way to the town where our hotel was. We got there around 5 and found out that Dan and our friend were stuck in L.A. traffic with no hopes of getting out of it anytime soon.
We ordered some room service and kicked back in the hotel room to wait for Dan. We tried the pool but it was too cold so we came back to our room to hang out.
Despite the fact that Lola slept in the car most of the way to the hotel (very unusual, she never naps anymore), she konked out at 8:30. Elise, who barely slept in the car, was bouncing off the walls and totally hyper well after 10 pm, then she finally fell asleep!
After a series of mishaps, Dan finally reached the hotel room but it was late and the kids were asleep, all we wanted to do was go to bed.
Lola woke up 13 hours later, bright pink and really hot. She stayed in bed all morning and wouldn't eat or drink anything. Poor thing is sick as a dog. I guess that explains all the extra sleep yesterday. We are home now and she is still laying down. At least she's chatting a bit now...she has been so quiet and lethargic all day. I don't think I've ever seen her quite like this. If you know Lola at all, you know how energetic and incessantly chatty she is. It's very weird to see her like this.
She is so considerate though...she has been looking forward to a birthday party for a friend, but told me a little while ago that she doesn't think she should go. She said she didn't want to make anyone else sick. That is pretty mature for a 5 year old. *sniff*

Birthday weekend

2009-03-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

This weekend we celebrated Dan's birthday, which was on Sunday, and our friend's little boy's 2 year birthday at the park on Saturday. I like when Dan has a birthday because it means that for 3 months, until my birthday come along, we are the same age. Then my birthday hits and I'm back to being older than him again.
We went out to dinner on Saturday night with a couple of friends. Sunday, we had planned to drive up to Carlsbad to meet some other friends for lunch but it turned into a whole day adventure. We took the kids to the beach and never figured anyone would be going in the water, but next thing we know, the kids and all are soaked completely from the waist down. I normally have a huge box in my car full of extra clothes, sweaters, diapers and so on, but we took Dan's car, of course, so we had nothing. We had to stop in one of those little beachwear stores and get us some dry clothes.
We ended up having dinner at a Mexican restaurant that had these great firepits. Not to mention their yummy margaritas and nopales! Poor Lola...her underwear was still soaked so we laid them on the edge of the firepit and dried them right up!
It was a fun day and we were exhausted by evening when we started going home. The kids fell fast asleep and stayed asleep all night.

Knock knock!!

2009-03-01T22:59:00.000-08:00

Making our Happy Place...

2009-02-21T22:05:00.000-08:00

I've been in a funk about our house for quite some time. It needs so much work, it's overwhelming. There are actually just a dozen relatively small things that can be done that would greatly improve our feelings about this place. Then there are several much larger projects that will cost mucho dinero and will have to be placed on hold for the time being.
So we've embarked on a quest to knock out the little things. Things have been nagging at us for the whole 5 years that we've lived here.
I knew a garden would make me very happy so I've made that a priority for myself. I'm so tired of having to buy every single piece of organic produce, even herbs. There's no reason not to grow them myself. My dad built me planter boxes a few weeks ago. So the next task was to finally clear out all the railroad ties and all the junk that has accumulated in the side yard (conveniently, where we can't see it on a daily basis). We got that all hauled away this morning and set to work on our garden projects. There was a garden in the ground when we moved in here, but because the garden was outlined with the railroad ties, I didn't want to use that soil. We cut out the grass where the new planter boxes are set and put it on the patch of dirt that was the old garden. With grass seed covering the bald spots, we're hoping that will look normal one day! As soon as I get some soil in the boxes, I'll be ready to plant.
In the front yard, there's this shabby little strip of dirt that lines the front of the house. When we first moved here, it was really nice, full of impatiens and beautiful gardenias...all of which I promptly managed to kill with neglect. And it has remained shabby ever since.
Today, I planted some pretty azaleas and new impatiens and hopefully, we'll get that old gardenia bush to bloom again. I even have herbs planted in my pots.
We all worked really hard today, even my dad and the girls. We never expected to finish all today, but we did. The best part was watching the girls play outside ALL day, enjoying our yard. They have never really played outside much here.
I took a few minutes off to put up my feet and drink a nice cold beer. I watched a bit of the action and snapped some pics.
Meanwhile, important stuff was happening on the inside of our house. One of the major eyesores for me is the flimsy curtain hanging in our front entry closet. The curtain is constantly falling down and just basically looks really bad. Also, our front door has a big glass cut-out that has been broken since we moved in...large shards of glass are being held together with masking tape. That's attractive.
Our friend is a contractor and agreed to take pity on us and install the closet doors (brand new, in the package, sitting in our garage for at least 2 years) and fix up the front door. The closet doors are a pain because they have to be cut to fit our non-standard size closet, stained and finished. There was no way we were ever going to get to the project, mostly because we'd have no clue as to how to do it.
So today our friend worked hard to size them and install them, tomorrow they'll get stained. It is already such a VAST improvement, we just keep staring at them. I can't wait to see the finished project! I wish we would have done this a long time ago!

Nature Walks & Opossums

2009-02-21T21:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I took the girls to Ant-Sized Adventures, a great little nature program for preschoolers. The focus of this class was on raccoons and opossums. We learned a lot about each and sang cutesy songs about them. Elise was not into the classroom portion of this at all and pretty much pouted on my lap the whole time, but she did get into the nature walk. Especially the furry caterpillars we encountered along the way. Lola's favorite part was getting to meet a live opossum after the nature walk was over. Our adventure ended with a craft, then we had lunch outside the visitor's center with some friends. It was really nice. We are signed up for another adventure next month. I hope Elise will share some of Lola's enthusiasm next time!

Rainy Days

2009-02-07T20:17:00.000-08:00

It's been raining on and off for a couple of days now. We had plans to have dinner tonight in La Jolla with friends, but just then the rain started to pound around the dinner hour and we decided to skip it. The kids had been on top of themselves and us all day so they were a bit ornary by the days end and, I must admit, that did factor in to whether or not we wanted to drive all the way to La Jolla for dinner in a restaurant. But that still left us with the dilemma of how to entertain them until bedtime. We had played games with them all day. Board games, imaginary games, tickle fighting, you name it. We were tired.

I thought this last resort might work. I offered to set them up in the living room and pretend to camp. I got out a nifty tent that a friend gave us. It opens completely on one side so they were able to lay their sleeping bags inside and still have a nice view of the T.V. We rented "Horton Hears a Who" and made them some popcorn. With the lights off and flashlights in their hand, they were so eager for their little camping adventure. Elise didn't pay too much attention to the movie and never stayed in the tent for more than a few seconds at a time...until, of course, the popcorn came out. She is her father's daughter, after all.

Lola made it through the whole movie but is still sleeping soundly in the tent as I write this. Elise fell asleep in my bed with her hand in a bowl of frozen peas. Don't ask.

Got a haircut...

2009-01-30T21:39:00.000-08:00

And I'm pretty happy with it. It's always a good thing when you walk away from your haircut and love it.

Show biz...maybe not.

2009-01-30T20:45:00.000-08:00

We got a phone call on Wednesday evening from a child talent agency that both Lola and Elise are signed up with. We've never been called for anything from them before so I had pretty much forgotten about the whole thing. Anyway, they called wanting to know if I could bring Elise to an audition the next day in L.A. I said sure. Turns out Dan was going to be in nearby Orange county for business so we made a plan to each do our thing during the day and then hook up for dinner with our friends later on.

I packed up the girls, a bag of clothes, snacks and off we went to north Hollywood. The drive wasn't too bad, except for very strong winds and our vehicle seriously in need of an alignment. Elise had been in good humor all morning and slept the whole way there, so I was really hoping she would be in good spirits once we got there. However, she woke up grumpy and didn't have the patience to be in studio long enough for her turn to come up. Moments before her name was called, she kept persistently taking my hand and walking to the exit doors and saying "ampa", meaning she wanted to go home to Grandpa. When her moment came, she cried, frustrated that we were still there. I knew there wasn't much of a chance that she was going to cooperate with the photographers so we just left. The only caveat is that now it was 4 pm...in L.A. There was no way to get out easily. We were stuck in massive traffic and Elise was still very upset that we were not home. She cried hysterically all the way to Tustin, where I was meeting up with Dan at our friends house. The minute we got off the freeway exdit, she calmed down.

It was a great finish to a stressful day. I really don't enjoy driving in L.A., especially not during rush hour. Elise screaming in the back seat did not help the situation much. We had a nice dinner, then gave the girls a bath and put them to bed. Afterwards, we got to unwind with some wine a soak in our friends hot tub.

This being our first experience with auditions, I learned a lot and I really don't think this is something I would want to do again. Unpredictable moods are just part of the nature of the beast in toddlers. But because of that gamble, it makes all the driving, stress and time involved seem to really not be worth it.

Oh! And I forgot the funniest part of all! The ad was for a brand of baby formula!

Henry, the guinea pig!

2009-01-26T09:46:00.001-08:00

Here is the cutie. He's a nice little cavy, only about 6 weeks old. Although he is still adjusting to his new surroundings, he's pretty nice and has never nipped at anyone yet. The girls just adore him. I have been trying to build a little pen for him so that we can let him out of the cage to run around. We tried a kiddie pool, but he was able to get over the sides. So now we have some wire mesh to put around the pool and hopefully that will work. Before figuring out how to escape the kiddie pool, he did really seem to like it. He was squealing and running around. His squeal is the cutest sound ever! So far, his favorite foods seem to be kale, apples and carrots.

Introducing.....Henry!!

2009-01-24T20:47:00.000-08:00

Or at least Henry's new home.
Tomorrow, we are going to be parents to a new little 5 week old guinea pig that Lola has already named Henry. We've only seen pictures of him so far, but he sure looks like a cutie. Today, we went and bought his cage, food, water bottle, etc...

What prompted Henry's arrival was a promise that Dan made to Lola. He really wants Lola to start sleeping in her own bed every night so he made her a deal. He promised that if she slept in her own bed every night for a week, she could finally have the guinea pig that she has been begging for. Relentlessly....for quite a while.

Well, it goes to show what the right motivation can do because Dan has never been successful in this arena before and believe me, he has tried! I think Lola was just finally ready for it now, as every morning she wakes up so proud of herself for making this big step.

That's Henry's story. We're excited to finally meet him tomorrow and we will post photos, of course. If all goes well, we will soon get him a companion. Lola has already named the companion Sam! We will probably need to build a new cage at that point. The one we have is 3 1/2 feet long, which will be ok for our little one, temporarily.

Oh, where do I begin?

2009-01-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

One day, soon, I would love to stop with all these "update" posts, where I try to cram 2 weeks (or more) worth of stuff into one post. I realize I could actually just make a zillion posts in one day, I don't really have the patience for it, so, as a result, you are getting the condensed one post version. When I get my new laptop in a couple of weeks, I should be able to resume regular blogging.

Anyway, to be perfectly honest, there's probably not much that was newsworthy recently, so I'll tell you all about our day at the Children's Museum last Sunday. The girls cannot get enough of this place. They like some of the same exhibitions and then they have their separate favorites. For instance, Elise can't stand the tire pillow room. She only lasts about 3 minutes in there. But she does love the rainforest house, which loses Lola's attention quickly. They both love the bubbles a lot and can spend a lot of time out on that balcony.

Aside from this little trip, we've done a few nature hikes, but I have no photos to share. We've been easing back into the routine of Lola going to back to school after a 2 week break. I think it was harder for us, as parents, to get back into the routine, than it was for Lola. She loves her school and is thrilled for school days, so it's really a matter of getting back in the habit of packing her lunch the night before and getting her clothes ready, etc...oh yeah, and waking up on time.

I've been spending a lot of time trying to find ways to get my dad some work, which he really wants, but it's been hard. I can't get him a work authorization from INS because he is not being sponsored by an employer. We will try to find odd jobs for him, but in the meantime, I think I have found some volunteer opportunities for him, which will help to keep him busy. I think boredom has begun to set in....

I will definitely be posting more in the next few days as news comes in!

The living dead.

2009-01-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

That's what we all look like in this house right now. It all started New Year's Eve. The day started out nice...did some shopping, picked up takeout from one of my favorite restaurants, Sipz, and then we all went to the park for a picnic. Once we got there, Lola ate a little and then said she wanted to go home. She then proceeded to laydown on the park bench until we were all ready to go. Now, if you know Lola at all, you're thinking this is completely out of character. My kid does not stop talking or running unless she is asleep. Sure enough, soon after coming home, she began throwing up. Must have caught the stomach bug that Elise had a few days earlier.
We really don't care much for New Year's eve festivities and never go out, even if a babysitter plops right into our laps. But I do insist on cooking a really good dinner and we open a bottle of good champagne. This year no one was into even doing that, so we held up our eyelids with toothpicks and attempted to make it to midnight, awake.
The next day, Dan came down with the bug, but fared pretty well, didn't even throw up. Yesterday, we decided to drive up to Julian, even though we knew the snow would be gone because it was the first time in a few days that we all felt ok. I felt weirdly tired and achy, but didn't think much of it. By the time we got home around 4 pm, I started throwing up something fierce and didn't stop, (at least once or twice an hour) until 2 am. Dan took care of the girls for me and got them to bed. I couldn't get up to save my life and kept thinking that if it continues, I will need to go to urgent care. But I finally fell asleep and woke up feeling a tiny bit better this morning so I had some veggie broth. It was very refreshing. Now, it's noon-ish and I'm thinking I will even take a shower today. I hate stomach bugs. They make you feel like death is at your doorstep, but at least they are mostly brief. If someone had told me yesterday evening that I'd be blogging at noon the next day, I wouldn't have believed them.

So, I also have some great pictures to post and write about, but my laptop took a dive, most likely permanently, I'm afraid. Dan ordered me a new laptop, but it will be a while before it gets here. I really liked my Mac, but I got the steal of a lifetime and had bought it used off a friend for $200. I can't imagine I will ever find a deal like that again. If I tried to buy a new mac, I would have paid $1,000 more than what the dell cost. There is just no way to justify that one!

Anyway, I will attempt to upload my recent photos to my pc and try to salvage some of these potential blogs...wish me luck!

An Update!

2008-12-28T19:47:00.000-08:00

We've been totally lagging on the blogging front. With good reason, we've been terribly busy with Christmas, friends and whatnot. I'll post some xmas photos soon, but in the meantime, here's a little rundown of the last few days:
I went to a fun little party on Friday night, just girls. It was great, especially hanging out with some I haven't seen in too long a time. There was a karaoke machine and one of my friends happens to be miss Karaoke Queen. I had only heard about her karaoke prowess before, this time I actually got to witness it! It was loads of fun!
That night, we got home pretty late and Elise decided to pull one of her "awake in the middle of the night" stunts. Not good timing AT ALL.
The next day, Saturday, was mellow and I just cleaned while Dan took the girls out of the house. I was looking forward to a good nights sleep, but jeez, I was wrong again. Elise woke up at 3 am and proceeded to puke at least a dozen times for the next 2.5 hours. I have no idea what happened, but it was pretty scary because she's never puked before and I have never, ever seen her that pale. Her lips and cheeks were the same very pale color. I contemplated taking her to urgent care, but she did finally fall asleep and woke up at 7 am, in very good spirits. She has not eaten or drank barely a thing all day today though. I'm hoping she will feel better tomorrow. And maybe sleep all night.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-25T22:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas eve was nice. First, Lola and I went to the Grinch play at the Old Globe, then, afterward, headed over to my in-laws for dinner. The lack of meat-eating in our household has caused a bit of a commotion amongst some family members during this holiday season, so I was a bit anxious about this, but it turned out really well. Dan's stepmom made a delicious vegetarian lasagna and then served meat on the side. It was a perfect solution.
The girls were absolutely loaded with gifts from their grandparents and aunts/uncles. We also brought their stockings with us for them to open because we had long promised them they could open stockings on Christmas eve.
They got so much stuff, we could have easily just stopped there. Next year, we will definitely be more conservative. I didn't consider all the stuff they would get from other people....oops.
Anyway, we all had a nice time and the kids were asleep by the time we got home, which is always nice.

the Grinch!

2008-12-24T23:52:00.000-08:00

Lola and I went to the Grinch That Stole Christmas at the Globe Theatre. It was a spectacular production and Lola loved it so much! Her favorite part is when the Grinch drank the whole glass of milk that was meant for Santa and then burped at his dog, Max. We will probably make this our little tradition for holiday seasons to come. We really enjoyed the production and the experience too!

Grandpa and Elise (again!)

2008-12-24T23:45:00.000-08:00

I know it seems like Grandpa and Elise are the only two in this house and I swear that's not the case, but it's just so often that Elise seeks out Grandpa and interacts with him so much that there's just so much photo opportunity here. With the holidays so looming, Lola has been busy with school and friends. She spends a lot of time with Grandpa too, but I haven't seen to be getting as many photos lately....

Hummingbird's nest

2008-12-24T23:39:00.000-08:00

This is so cool, we've never had one so close to us, that we've seen anyway. We looked up info on hummingbirds and Lola found this great video on youtube that showed the whole process of a hummingbird nest, the chicks that were born and how they learned to fly. She was fascinated and can't wait to see the process with our own nest.

High Waters

2008-12-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Nope, not talking about pants that are too short!

We went to the local lake yesterday and saw trees appearing like they were growing out from inside the lake. With all of our rain lately, the water is really high.

We brought a bike for Lola and a little scoot toy for Elise. Lola kept swerving all over the road, making sure to get in the way of every single bike-rider, despite many warnings to stay on the right. Elise pooped out and abandoned her ride toy, which is why Grandpa is carrying it most of the time!

Breakfast with Ampa

2008-12-16T21:08:00.001-08:00

I want to post often during my dad's trip, not only to keep a log for us and the girls, but also for my dad's lady friend, Monique, who is back home in Montreal. My goal is to post everyday, or every other day. Wish me luck!
Anyway, here's a cute pic of my dad and Elise sharing breakfast after Lola went off to school this morning. They are both eating peanut butter toast with orange slices! I love it!

Rainy Day

2008-12-16T20:34:00.000-08:00

Monday morning, we woke up to rain. I was actually happy about it. My dad had just arrived late the previous afternoon, so it seemed like the perfect excuse to not be terribly busy (ok, in truth, we stayed in our p.j.'s till at least noon!).

The kids begged to go play outside in the rain. I tried opening up the back door for them, but the wind was blowing the raindrops really hard and RIGHT inside the doorway, pelting poor Elise in the face. Well, she didn't think this was turning out to be such a good idea after that. Outside in the front, though, it was mellow(er), so they played out there. This lasted until I finally noticed the constant water and mud that they were dragging in, then I quickly reached my threshold. They had bored of being soaked by then anyway. Any excuse for hot chocolate, I tell ya.

Elise never really got the hang of carrying the umbrella OVER her head as you can see. It's just this accessory that she drags along....Lola finally felt sorry for her and held her umbrella up for both of them.

Grandpa is here!

2008-12-15T11:38:00.000-08:00

Or "Ampa" as Elise calls him!

My dad drove all the way here from Montreal! Understandably, he is tired of the harsh, cold winters. We are so happy to have him and really glad that he made it here safely. The ice/rain storms have been following him on his entire road trip, except for a day or two where the weather was nice. And now that he gets here, it's raining!

The girls are really thrilled "Ampa" is here, especially Elise. She asked about him everyday for a week before he got here. She's say "Mommy, where's Ampa?" with a questioning look on her face! So cute. I'm so glad my dad gets to bond with his only grandkids.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust??? What???

2008-12-14T23:08:00.000-08:00

Yes, you heard me right.
Yesterday, I made a pizza crust out of cauliflower. I was incredibly skeptical at first. I mean, really, who wouldn't be? I am trying to eat less processed flours/sugars, therefore, I was very anxious to try this recipe. Especially after reading the comments that other readers had left behind.
Well, I made it and it was delicious! Everybody in our family loved it. I never even told them it was cauliflower until after the fact. I had my friend, who is gluten-free, try it and she loved it too. I piled it up high with vegetables and we were good to go.

So, seriously, it was easy. Cook cauliflower. Put cauliflower in the food processor until chopped into tiny bits. Mix chopped cauliflower with an egg and some shredded mozzarella cheese (1:1 ratio). Press mixture into desired pizza crust shape on a cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. Load toppings and cheese, then set pizza under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese.
You can see from the photos that the crust was hearty enough to hold on the barrage of delectables that I piled on top. And it can be frozen after the first initial crust baking stage. I will be making lots of these, thus explaining why my husband could be seen at our local grocer's with 6 bags of frozen cauliflower in his cart.

Another 4 am blog post...

2008-12-13T04:29:00.000-08:00

I haven't been up like this in the middle of the night for a long time. There was a time, not too long ago, when Elise woke up at this time of day quite frequently. But she's been sleeping through the night very nicely for a couple of months now.
Until tonight.
Don't know what happened and why she does this. All I know is that it's annoying as hell, but it could be worse and it could be happening during the week when I have no help the next day. But it's Saturday and I know I'll be able to make up my sleep later on. She's been up for an hour now and shows no sign of even being tired. I've been trying to get her sleepy but she's fighting me tooth and nail.
We hooked up with a newly pregnant friend tonight and drove through the Holiday of Lights at the fairgrounds. It was at least 8:30 before we ended up driving through the festive light displays and, Lola, the reason why we were even doing this, had already completely passed out in her car seat. We tried in vain to wake her up for the lights. Elise fell asleep soon after and we were stuck. It was a pricey outing at $14 per car! The kids would have liked it, I'm sure, but I won't be doing that again anytime soon.

Pickled Radishes

2008-12-10T22:19:00.000-08:00

I had soooo many radishes from my CSA, I didn't know what to do with them all. When I lamented to a friend, she suggested pickling them. I did 3 bunches tonight. They turned out fantastic. I didn't follow a recipe really, but went along guidelines from recipes that I looked up. I washed and sliced the radishes, then tossed them with salt in a bowl. I let them sit for a few minutes while I mixed up about 2/3 cup of apple cider vinegar, with a couple of tablespoons of sugar in a large jar. I added mustard seeds, dill seeds and red chile pepper flakes. Lots of those because we like our food nose-running spicy.
Then I drained the radishes and patted them dry with towels. I added them to the vinegar mix in the jar and shook the jar like crazy to mix them up. I divided the batch up into smaller jars.
3 bunches of radishes made enough to almost fill 2 16 oz jars! We only have one and 1/4 left though, because I've eaten most of one of the jars. MMMM!

How did I think this was a good idea?

2008-12-10T21:21:00.000-08:00

Elise and I picked Lola up from school today at 1 pm and we headed over to a local lake/park area nearby. This lake is cool because it has these wood and metal structures, made to look like little houses, that the kids can climb, big logs cut down for the kids to walk across and one of the logs is cut out and made to look like a car that they can sit in. There's a creek (which was dry today) and a lake nearby, complete with ducks. If we feel up to it, there's also some swings and a slide on the other side. Most times we just play by the wood stuff.
Anyway, it got very chilly there by around 3:30 so we headed home. On the way, I was feeling really happy and told the kids that I thought hot chocolate sounded really good. I had just bought some organic, fair trade cocoa from Trader Joe's and also their artisan marshmellows.
Upon seeing her hot chocolate with marshmellows, Elise was ecstatic. She insisted on having a spoon and proceeded to spoon every bit of that hot chocolate into her mouth as best she could. Her coordination is still that of a 2 year old, however, so very little actually made it into her mouth. Once she saw how much of it was on the table, she tried scooping it up with her hand to drink it.
Oh my.

When Bad Clothes Happen to Good People...

2008-12-10T21:12:00.000-08:00

I always see articles with this title in the celebrity gossip rags, but actually, I think Elise looks splendid in her sister's nightgown, baby sock on one foot, my black sock on the other and some stickers on her forehead for good measure! Later, she decided that her pink hat would complete the haute fashion look.

Oh and the hair! Just fabulous! The bed-head look that didn't come from a fancy pomade or hair dressing. It came from actually sleeping in bed, along with a mama who did nothing to fix it.

ahhhh!

San Juan Capistrano!

2008-12-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

Today, Lola and I took the train to San Juan Capistrano all by ourselves. I was a little nervous because I don't do a whole lot a trips by myself...I tend to depend on Dan a lot, I admit. But I really wanted alone time with my first child since I never seem to get that anymore. She is blossoming so much and I feel like I'm totally missing it sometimes. Especially, during the holidays....November was kind of a lot of work because of all the houseguests and family functions that we had going on.
We had a great day today and I'm really glad we went. Lola was so happy all day, with nary a tear or spot of attitude all day. And, without a toddler screaming, running away and throwing one tantrum after another....well, it wasn't nearly stressful at all and I kinda needed that too. Elise is extremely awesome, don't get me wrong, but she's also 2 and not the most reasonable human being right now.
We went to the petting zoo for a while, where Lola got to feed some guinea pigs and rabbits. Then she took a ride on a pony for a couple of laps. There was a playground there too and she played with some kids on the slide and swings. Afterwards, we went shopping at the antique stores and gift shops. She picked out a few ornaments for our xmas tree. Apparently, today was a good day to be in SJC because there was a tree-lighting ceremony this evening and a whole party, complete with Santa Claus and all that stuff. We didn't get to stay for all that. Had I known about it, I probably would have arranged our trip differently, but I didn't want to be in a town I don't know very well when it was dark out. It seems like a pretty safe place, though. I'm just a bit of a worry wart, I guess.
I really would love to do this trip again soon. Oh, and the upgrade to business class on the Amtrak...totally worth it.

Oh my.

2008-12-03T17:07:00.000-08:00

What else could I possibly do, but get this on video and get pictures? Elise painstakingly emptied water out from a straw sippy cup so she could slurp up the puddles of water on the table. She was so proud of herself! Too bad blogger isn't letting me upload the video, for some reason...I really want you to see how she's licking her chops and saying "yummy" over and over!

Oh Christmas Tree...

2008-12-03T12:06:00.000-08:00

If you have a memory of an elephant, you might remember last year when Dan and I had some disagreement about the Christmas tree. He prefers our plastic tree, I prefer a real tree. In an effort to compromise, we decided that we would take turns. One year, the fake tree, the next year a real one. This is the year we get to have a real tree, so we went over to a really nice tree farm and picked one out. I'm really happy with it. It's nice and full...actually, it looks a lot like our fake tree, but I'm not telling Dan that!

Ice skating time again...

2008-11-30T00:22:00.000-08:00

Once again, it's Uncle Tony time, which means ice skating for Lola. She is so incredibly lucky to have her uncle who purposely packs his ice skates with him every trip (he, his wife and baby live on the east coast) and takes her skating. Lola looks forward to this so much and I'm so glad that despite living so far away from each other, they can still have this bond.

4 Generations of Duncans

2008-11-29T23:34:00.000-08:00

All the grandkids were together for the first time and it will be a long time before they are all together again. They are all adorable babies. There are 4 generations in this picture. Great-grandpa is 89 years old and the youngest great-grandchild is only 4 months!
It's been pretty neat and insightful the last few days...there's been a spot of family drama here and there, some of which goes back a couple of generations, but what holiday would be complete without that? If I had a few DAYS, with nothing to do, I would write about it, but I don't! It's been fun despite a few bumps in the road.

Don't you just hate it when....

2008-11-27T23:08:00.001-08:00

You really want to vent and blog about something that is very upsetting to you, but you really can't. And it's just in case the one person in the world whom you don't want to read your blog and probably doesn't even know what a blog is, just happens to read your blog that day.
That is kinda how I'm feeling right now. I really, really doubt there's any chance of my little vent being read by that person, but why take the chance?
Anyway. Suffice to say, there is something that I'm dying to vent about and it somewhat (read: pretty much) blew my holiday for me. Next year, I will definitely do things differently.
There!!!! I vented!

How did your holiday dinner go?

Birthday Bubbles

2008-11-22T15:21:00.000-08:00

Today was Elise's birthday. We got an early start and went out to eat breakfast at a nice restaurant in the "downtown" area of our town. The kids were amazing. I was thankful because it's not the kind of place that a lot of people bring kids too. In fact, our kids were the only ones we saw, except for a young baby in a high chair. Anyway, during breakfast, we planned our day and decided to hit the Children's Museum. The kids LOVE it there. Dan talked me into going straight there after breakfast, even though I was not at all prepared....no diapers, no water, no nothing. It all worked out just fine, though. We even scored a parking spot right across the street. They really enjoyed the bubbles part and that is where we spent most of the time. Elise doesn't know how to blow the bubbles yet. You can see in the photos that she is trying to actually blow bubbles out of the bubble wand....like one would blow through a flute or something! She had everyone around her giggling!
Elise fell asleep on the way home, her first nap in several days.
While she was asleep, Lola and I made her cake...vanilla with cream cheese frosting! Last year, when Elise turned 1, I was super tearful and couldn't get over how fast the year had slipped through our fingers. I'm not as sad this year. Elise is a lot of fun and I'm guessing I'm in for even more of a good time in the future! She is so awesome!

Happy Birthday, babykins!

Snobby Joe's

2008-11-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

I had really wanted to try these since seeing them here by Veganmomma. The original recipe is from Veganomicon. I made a couple of small changes...added basil and used red lentils. I also served it spooned over quinoa, instead of on bread. Not quite "sloppy joe" style anymore, I realize that, but I just thought quinoa would go over better in my family then bread. Also, per Lola's request, I sauteed a Smart Dog that I sliced up. Ew. Everyone else had it without that addition and it was delicious!

Monkey in the Garden...

2008-11-15T18:59:00.001-08:00

Ok, there is no monkey in the garden and this post actually has nothing to do with monkeys or gardens at all, but I just thought the title was catchy. Sorry, hope you weren't expecting something more exciting! Anyway, really all I wanted to talk about is that lately I've been feeling kinda down on myself. I've been feeling rather frumpy, actually. I haven't been taking the time to do anything with my hair, just the standard ponytail everyday. No make-up and nothing more exciting to wear than a t-shirt and a pair of sweats. Unless, of course, we're going out, in which case it's a t-shirt and a pair of JEANS. Huge difference.
I think this is totally fine if that is what you makes you happy. The only reason it makes me unhappy is because how I look on the outside is not at all how I feel on the inside and I think that is important. Perhaps some may think this to be vain or shallow...maybe they're right, but all I know is that my self-esteem greatly affects every aspect of my life, so when I'm not feeling very good about myself, it's huge.
Anyway, so with feeling frumpy comes feeling a bit outdated. Up until maybe 10 years ago, I always had eccentric hair, dyed various shades of purple. I finally grew it (plus many blond streak jobs that followed) all out and have had my own real hair color for 2-3 years now. I'm in the mood for drastic change!
I really wanted to cut it very short, dye it, etc...Dan, who much prefers my hair long, convinced me to try out some bangs and color first before chopping it all off. Because I am super impatient, I didn't wait for an appointment with a professional, I just started lopping off my own bangs willy-nilly until I somewhat acheived the look I was going for. There'll be much for my hairdresser to fix, but I thought it was a decent first effort.
I've also been watching way too much of TLC's "What Not to Wear"....I feel a lot like many of the women on that show....they are too self-concious of their bodies to buy clothing that actually flatters them. Like a lot of those women, I also stick to a basic uniform of black t-shirts and jeans and I would like to know how to incorporate more color and different kinds of cuts into my wardrobe.
Anyway, wish me luck. I just know that I am happiest when I'm exercising regularly and I feel like I fit well in my own skin, be it hair, make-up, clothes or the complete lack of. So long as I'm happy!

A big day...

2008-11-14T20:46:00.000-08:00

Today was a big day for us. Playgroup was only 2 miles from our house so I decided I would put the kids in the bike trailer that doubles as a jog stroller and "run" there. It was way hotter than I thought it would be and, crap, my kids are heavy! But it was fun and I'm glad I did it. The way back home was a little more harried because the stroller handle just completely fell off the stroller and required a mid-trip repair. Luckily, I was going up a steep hill when it happened...not going down, as this stroller has no brakes! yikes. When I finally got the handle back on, I noticed one of the front wheels wobbling very badly and about to fall off. We were only 1/4 mile away and it stayed on until we got home. I'll have Dan fix it before attempting to take it out again.
Elise spend at least 70% of playgroup sitting in the jog stroller. Not sure why, exactly...she just really wanted to be in it. It was nice to not have to chase her down the hill onto the street though! She also wore a dress that was made for her birthday by our good friend urbanhousewife, who is most fabulous with a sewing machine!
I also included a photo of Elise with her little friend...I love it when they connect because it's always so "catch me/chase me" kinda cuteness. So pure and 2 year old-ish.
Oh, in case you're wondering why I didn't take pictures of Lola...she was no where to be found. She was way too busy playing with her friends that she only came by the blanket for the occasional sip of water or bite of snack.

Bread on roids!

2008-11-12T13:51:00.000-08:00

I was *this* close to giving up ever making bread again, until I found this recipe. This is my second time using and *great scots* look at the sheer size of these loaves! And they are the same size, for the first time ever. They not only look amazing, but are light, fluffy and taste delicious. Perfect for sandwiches!
I followed the recipe to the T. The only thing I did differently was use coconut oil in place of the olive oil. I melted the coconut oil down to a liquid because I didn't want to mess with the dry ingredient/wet ingredient ratio. Making bad bread is so frustrating so I wasn't taking any chances! The only negative?? I've already eaten 1/2 a loaf....

Growing up too fast!

2008-11-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

Today, we went to the lake with some friends and had a great day. I'm freaking out a bit at how fast the kids are growing up. For example:
1. Just yesterday, Elise named a stuffed animal for the very first time. A dog she named "Woofey".
2. Today, she is swinging on the big kids swing. gulp!
3. We had one of the coldest mornings we've had in a while...I go to help Lola get dressed for school (another story in itself!) and find that NOTHING fits her...her warm clothing from last year is way too small and I am mortified at how unprepared I was! jeez, since when did she stop wearing 4T....how did I not get that memo????
4. To top off her new, upgraded clothing size is her equally astonishing leap into vocabulary. I sometimes feel as though I'm talking to a miniature adult. Awesome!

It's all coming at me so fast!!! Where are the speedbumps when you need them???

Maddening Bread.

2008-11-06T21:01:00.000-08:00

I've been making my own whole wheat bread every week for a couple of months now. I often wonder WHY I do this because I'm terrible at it. Most of the time, the loaves don't rise properly and one of the loaves is always way smaller than the other, no matter what I do. Today, I made 2 loaves that were the worst yet. I thought I finally realized the problem so I made 2 more loaves, trying to avoid the mistake. Those 2 were better, but not much. I noticed yet another mistake so I gave it one more go. Jeez, am I obsessive or what? This time I researched online for a new recipe and found one that looked promising. It's done completely in the mixer and it was really detailed, which is totally what I needed. These came out much, much better. Now I know my main mistakes were not using enough flour and not kneading long enough.

Above photos are of the first loaves. You can see how wimpy the rise was. And the crust is rough and dense.

Much better!

A New Day!

2008-11-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

I couldn't vote this election and it was killing me. In the end, it worked out exactly how I wished it would, so I am very happy. Here is Elise after voting with Daddy!

Lola raids the closet

2008-11-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

My shirt and shoes. She sure can pull an outfit together!

Temecula

2008-11-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

Our friends needed to drive up to Temecula today to pick up wine, since they are members of a couple of winery clubs up there, and asked if we wanted to join them. I needed a distraction since we had just dropped off my dad & girlfriend at the airport so we decided to go. With the kids. Yikes.
We learned quickly that the kids fared way better outside the tasting rooms, for obvious reasons. We went to about 3 wineries and all had nice outdoor areas very suitable for picnicking and twirling around. I planned ahead well and had a mini-cooler with cheese, apples, crackers, etc...Lola was really interested in the grape-growing too.
We ate at Thorntons, where there is a large fountain that the kids loved.
I had crayons and play-doh for the kids, which entertained them for a few minutes, but proved to be no match for the fountain.
At the last stop, some nice staff gave them each a lollipop and the kids enjoyed that, plus all the hay everywhere.
It's stressful to bring kids to wineries and I wouldn't do it often, but today actually turned out very nicely. Lola said it was the best day ever and Elise fell asleep for the night on the car ride home. They were happy and exhausted.

Halloween!

2008-11-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Our first trick or treaters this year, was a group of teenage-ish boys. They were maybe 13 years old, not quite old enough to shave but a bit too old to be trick or treating for much longer. I was a little worried that they were going to express great disappointment at treat selection, which was basically the leftovers of Lola's pinata stuffing...little halloween toys, mini play-dohs and a few little candies. I was surprised at how excited they were about the play-doh! Actually, our treats went over well for most of the night, especially the play-doh, so I will keep that in mind for next year. We don't get very many trick or treaters so it wouldn't be too hard.

Across the street, the church puts on a big Halloween carnival. They park their cars in the parking lot and decorate them. There were some really cool ones, I wish I would have taken some pictures! Anyway, the trunks of the cars are open with candy or treats inside and the kids can just "trunk or treat" from car to car. We've gone every year, since Lola has been trick or treating. They also have a big jumpy jump and a train ride that Lola looks forward to very much.
I got lucky again this year....the girls each had a piece or two of candy and then forgot about their bags. They are stashed somewhere. Usually, this is the part where I go through it and eat all my favorite candies, but they didn't get really good stuff this year, just a bunch of chocolate. I'm really more a gummy bear/licorice kinda gal...

Lola decided to ditch her plans on being a witch and was a princess (again!) instead. Despite most people thinking Elise was an angel, she was actually a butterfly.

Balboa Park

2008-10-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

We visited Balboa Park with the grand'rents the other day. It is so beautiful, I always wonder why we don't come here more often. The girls had so much with the fountains, but actually, that part kinda stressed me out. You can see why in the photos. Elise will go to the big fountain and stand on the edge until her toes stick clear over. Like she is taunting me!!! She'll look back at me with this laugh...such a character, she is!

Lola is very interested in the bugs and plants. We talk about those a lot. She also liked all the differently decorated globes sculptures that were on the prada.

Later on, we heard music and decided to follow it. It sounded live and I assumed it must be a band playing somewhere. It turned out to be a single musician playing a horn instrument along with a cd player of an orchestra. He was so good! The girls just loved him. He played a lot of theme songs from Disney movies, like Aladdin and Lion King. Although, Lola hadn't seen those particular films, she was awestruck all the same. She began to dance all over the lawn where the man played. She was in her own little world! Later, Elise decided to join her, but really just ran around in tight little circles, making herself dizzy, then falling and starting all over again! It was such fun to watch!!!

Birthday Party

2008-10-30T18:38:00.001-07:00

We combined birthday parties for both Lola and Elise since they were born exactly 3 years and one month apart. We felt it was a bit much to expect the same people to come to two different parties, one month from each other! ha ha! The night of their actual birthdays, we will enjoy a nice dinner out with friends & family.

Anyway, it was all good fun. Lola has always wanted a halloween party, so that is what we did this year. Our family dressed up as the Addams Family...well, more or less...Lola was Wednesday, I was Morticia and Dan was Gomez, but Elise...well, there is no baby girl character for Elise so Lola just made one up. And hence, Saturday was born!

Here is a pic of our family (the pirate is Dan's father) and I also threw in a couple of group photos of all who dressed up in costume!

Jumpy Jump

2008-10-28T04:55:00.000-07:00

Elise's first time in a jumpy jump. As long as there was no one else in it, she loved it! Can you tell?

Birthday

2008-10-22T00:37:00.000-07:00

Trying to catch up here...

The day of Lola's birthday, she went to school and enjoyed the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins with her classmates and then later on, we went shopping for Halloween stuff for the party. She chose the restaurant for dinner that night and we invited a couple of her friends to join us. She got our gift from us at dinner...at first she was like "whatever, it's not the one I asked for", but has been playing with it ever since. We got her a ladybug rainboot, raincoat & umbrella set. When I had been shopping for them, (months ago!), I showed her the two different patterns and she told me then that she liked the flower pattern best, but when I went to buy it, her size wasn't available. I didn't think she'd really remember, but I clearly underestimate that girl!

Is it weird to take photos of your baked goods?

2008-10-21T20:31:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking yes, yes it is. For me, anyway, because it's not like I have any special photo-taking talents. And I'd like to say that this photo is just an exception since they are Lola's special birthday muffins for her class tomorrow, but I'd be lying. I'm sure I will continue to post plenty of photos of mundane, everyday breads and muffins.

Birthday muffins, you ask? Why yes! Lola requested pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (with icing, but we compromised with India Tree colored sugar sprinkles) to bring to school and share with her class. Lola will be 5 tomorrow, I just can't believe it.

Anyway, I finally wrote down the pumpkin bread recipe, per the request of a couple of playgroup mamas and then tweaked it for these muffins. They are still vegan, but much more of a "treat" then the bread. With the addition of chocolate chips and the sugar sprinkles (oh and a cup of sugar!), they are much sweeter than what I usually bake. But, holy cow, are they delicious!! In my very humble opinion, you'd never really guess that they are whole wheat, vegan and not all that terrible for you. Don't get me wrong, not a health food, by any stretch!

I think I might make these for Lola's bday party, in lieu of a real cake....

the Rents!

2008-10-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

I picked my dad & his girlfriend up at the airport today. It's so great having them here!! They are such good sports and stayed up until at least 11 pm, even though it was 2 am for them and they had been traveling all day from Montreal.

My brain is fried, which is usually what happens the first day I get together with my parents because I do a lot of switching back and forth from french to english. I haven't spoken french since the last time I was with them, which was January. When I'm speaking french, I have to search for words a lot now, even common little words. So frustrating because I grew up bilingual. But this is such a minor thing because it's so nice to have my dad and M here. Lola loves them so, and even Elise recognized my dad. She took a look at him, pointed and said "PaPa!". She has only seen him once in her life!
After dinner, Dan taught my folks how to play Tiger Woods golf on the Wii. They loved it! My dad's girlfriend, M, is a total natural and ended up kicking Dan's ass! Ha!
Lots of fun to be had in the next couple of weeks, but it makes me realize how much I miss Montreal!

mmm! looky what came out of the oven today!

2008-10-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

So, I've been super anti-social this week because I'm trying to wrap up this lingering home projects (that I started in the summer and never finished) before my dad gets here on Saturday. And it's not like he's going to care one iota if the office is finished or that my front closet is organized, I just like to use important dates, like his arrival, as deadlines. Seriously, if I didn't, NOTHING would ever get done in this house.
My poor, mistreated children are beginning to show the effects of being homebound for 3 days. You'd think that Lola been literally locked in an attic for years...she's so dramatic! I made sure we baked our pumpkin bread after school, as promised, and they played outside for a long time, but when Dan came home and asked about her day, she made a big fuss about how she did absolutely nothing today!

Anyway, this vegan pumpkin bread was the fruit of our labors and it's really tasty. Sometimes vegan baking can be tricky, but this one is really moist. I didn't follow a recipe, just threw ingredients together until I got the texture of the dough that I was looking for. I bought sugar pumpkins from Trader Joe's and baked them for the pumpkin "meat" in this recipe, which usually I used canned pumpkin. The fresh pumpkin is good and not at all difficult to do. I used stevia to sweeten the bread, since we're trying to cut back on sugar. There's plenty, so I'm sure I'll be bringing it along to the next playgroup for sharing!

Big Day, Sleepy Kids

2008-10-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

What a day today! Totally chock-full of activity...hopefully, the kids will sleep like rocks tonight and maybe, just maaaaybe, sleep in past 6 am!
Elise woke up at 5 am this morning and Lola, at 6 am. We thought it would be fun to go out for breakfast so, by the time we rallied ourselves and got the girls dressed and whatnot, it was 10 am. Elise fell asleep before we even got 5 minutes away from the house. We had taken 2 cars to go to restaurant because Dan's mom joined us, so I just drove Elise home, where she continued to sleep for 3 hours! After the others finished their breakfast and came home, we tackled cleaning out the garage. We do this about 4-5 times a year and it's always such a big job. I found stuff I haven't seen in years though! We worked until around 2:30, then got ready for an outing to Seaworld. Holy cow, was it packed there tonight. I have been there on a Saturday in the summer and it was never as busy as it was tonight! But, it was fun and the kids had a blast. Elise rode on her very first park ride and she loved it!
Even though the girls were obviously tired, we decided to push the envelope by going out to dinner. Where? You guessed it...Sipz! I really had to try it again. And it was just as good as yesterday! The only negative was that my kids were obviously not in the mood for a dining out experience. Lola would not eat anything and Elise was all over me. She also dumped a bottle of soy sauce all over herself and broke a sake cup. All the way home, all we could smell was soy sauce.
The good news is that the kids fell asleep on the way home. I had the good sense to clean Elise up before getting in the car so it was a nice and easy transfer to bed when we got home. Now we are chilling out to the harmonic sounds of explosives (for training) from Camp Pendleton. This is supposed to go on all weekend. Hearing them is like a steady reminder of what is going on outside "my" world of kids, school, diapers, etc....

A New Fave!

2008-10-10T22:53:00.001-07:00

I love when I find a new great place to eat! Today, after visiting the aquarium with the girls, I had hoped to finally try out the very much raved about Sipz with another mama friend of mine. But, by the time we finished the aquarium, it was noon and I knew that Elise would never stay awake long enough to drive over to the restaurant. I called my friend and told her I thought we'd just drive through La Salsa or something instead so I wouldn't have to get Elise out of the car. Lola was extremely disapointed at the change of plans and made it loud and clear to me. I made her a deal that if Elise was asleep by the time we reached the exit on the freeway, then we would just keep driving home. If she was awake, then we'd go ahead and go to the restaurant. I was soooo confident that Elise was going to pass out instantly, I wasn't worried at all. Well, what do you know? Elise was awake & showed no sign of passing out anytime soon. Even still, I tried to talk Lola into just ordering and bringing the food home, but she wasn't having it. We had to eat IN the restaurant!
Well, I'm sure glad we did because it was fabulous! Delicious, every bite. I had a vietnamese noodle soup with soy "chicken" and potstickers. Now, I have no idea what is in that "chicken" and I'm not sure I want to know (well, I do actually because I'd love to find out how to reproduce it in my own kitchen!), but holy shit, it was heaven in a bite. I can't stop thinking about it! I had to actually resist braving rush hour traffic on a Friday to pick up a bunch of different entrees for dinner tonight. But I'm sure going to do exactly that tomorrow!

As I'm writing this at 4 am...

2008-10-07T04:01:00.000-07:00

Why am I up at 4 am? Well, why else? Elise is having trouble falling back asleep...At least this time, it's not the usual episode of night-wakeness. Typically, they last around 3 hours, with Elise nursing for at least half of that, wide awake and ready to play. Tonight, she is sick with a stuffy nose and cough. You can tell she really wants to go back to sleep, but just can't and she is understandably quite frustrated.
We've also begun the journey of weaning (well, not totally, but keep reading) and I think it's been a confusing time for the both of us. Anyone who knows me or has read my blog for a while knows that nursing has always been a rough road for me. What started off as incredibly painful and uncomfortable has only become less so in the last two years, but never completely free from discomfort. I vowed to commit to 2 years, nonetheless.
Anyway, I did not wake up Sunday morning and decide today was the day or anything dramatic like that. We were on a family weekend getaway in the desert with some friends and my mother-in-law, who took care of the girls on Saturday night, while Dan and I let loose.
The girls slept in their grandma's room all night and it was the very first time I've slept apart from Elise. But she did great and the next day, didn't even ask for milk. Before we knew it, it had been over 24 hours since I had last nursed her. I had a decision to make and it was a tough one. Either we go back to the way it was before, with her nursing every hour or two and me cringing and resenting it all or we take this opportunity to make some changes. At first, I got the bright idea to wean completely, but I realized quickly that she is still a baby and so not ready for that. But it doesn't mean we can't compromise. I've always said that if we could just cut back to once or twice a day, I think I could tolerate for a longer period of time, so that is what we're doing. Since Saturday evening. And it's going pretty well, I have to say. I avoided doing this sooner because I really believed there would be a huge protest on her part, but that hasn't really happened. Well, the first night was rough, I won't lie. But it gets better every minute.
And we are getting better too. The first day, we didn't even realize it, but the second day was strange. I almost felt like she was avoiding me and I was avoiding her. I know this is going to sound so strange, but I believe we were confused about the status of our relationship. Nursing has been such an integral part and all of a sudden, it was gone. She started coming around on the 3rd day. We are snuggling and playing together again, like she's realized that we can do this without it always ending in nursing!

New Blog!

2008-09-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to creating Lola's blog about our adventures in homeschooling! I've been keeping a journal, so I thought it'd be way more efficient to get a blog going and be able to add pictures (eventually, once I get my camera fixed!).

Now, onto my other two dilemmas. The first is how to help Lola decompress from a whole day of school. She is really emotional and feisty when I pick her up. Then we get home, where she quickly proceeds to find her spot underneath my skin and I end up getting crazy irritated with her. I know she is super wound up by her long, high-energy day but doesn't really know what to do with it all. At first, before I recognized this to be a pattern, I sometimes arranged for her friends to come play after school, but each time resulted in her just completely losing it. Obviously, we have stopped having after-school playdates, but it hasn't really helped much so far. I wish I could find a way to get her to have some quiet time to herself for a little while after school, but Lola is definitely not one to surrender to being mellow without a fight. I really believe it's best for her, so this week we are going to start mandating of hour of quiet time after school (read books, color, play quietly, etc...) and see how this goes.

Dilemma number two isn't really a dilemma, just a situation that I see needs some tweaking. It's now 9 pm and Lola has been in bed for over an hour, but is obviously not sleepy or going to sleep anytime soon. The problem is that during the weekend (Friday to Monday, for us), our routine isn't as consistent and she invariably goes to bed later and sleeps in later than she does when it's not a school night. Something for us to work on...

House of Pain

2008-09-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

In the span of about 2 hours this evening, Elise tripped on her own feet, landing with her head hitting a wall corner. Lola fell in the bathtub, hitting her head on the porcelain soap dish. Then Elise was running onto the bathroom's wet floors and slipped, landed on her back, smacking her head on the cement tile floor.
There have been many tears (mine) and goose eggs (theirs) in this house tonight. I didn't even bother putting away the arnica, rescue remedy or the bumps-n-bruises stick. Now everyone is asleep peacefully. I am finally beginning to unwind and decompress with a glass of wine.

Must be a full moon tonight??

Definitely a FIRST in my mommyhood career so far....

2008-09-17T22:35:00.000-07:00

Elise was sitting and eating a small bowl of frozen peas this morning as I was trying to get ready for the day. I don't know, she just really likes them. Anyway, later she comes to me pointing to her nose and trying get me to look at it. She grabbed my fingers and started making me scratch her nose. It was the weirdest thing! Her right nostril was clearly red and irritated from her clawing at it. I looked up her nasal passages but couldn't find anything that might be causing her agitation. I finished getting ready and got her in the car so we could go pick Lola up from school. Maybe about 30-40 minutes had passed since this little nasal incident. I put Elise in her car seat, buckled her in, then went to kiss her nose, (as is our little car ride ritual), when what do I see but the brightest, greenest and biggest PEA I have ever seen, stuck up her nostril!!!
Well, that explained a lot! Any efforts I made trying to get it out with my fingers just ended up pushing the pea further up the nasal passage. I finally managed to get it out by massaging her nose in downward strokes from top to tip until I coaxed it to her nostril opening. And then, with a big *pop*, out it came! So in case you're ever in the position of having to coax a pea from your baby's nose...remember this technique as it was very effective for us!

What a prime photo opportunity if I would have just thought of it!!! sigh...

Pear Picking in Julian

2008-09-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

We had a great day visiting Apple Starr Orchard in Julian today. We went for apples, but we were a bit too early so we picked pears instead...red bartlett, green bartlett and bosc. They are a cute little certified organic orchard that just happens to be on the same road as a couple of wineries, so, of course, we had to check those out as well. One of the wineries proved to be pretty good and we bought a few bottles from them. We will definitely go back to Apple Starr in a couple of weeks to get some apples. I still don't know what I'm going to do with all these pears, but I'll figure out some good recipes, I'm sure. They are delicious!

Oh, and there were a ton of great photo opportunites, but unfortunately, my camera seems to be broken. *snifff*

Kindergarten....

2008-08-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

I went to the Open House for Lola's new school, where she will start Kindergarten next week. It's absolutely amazing to me that my little baby is old enough and big enough and independent enough to be at this stage of her life. Trust me, if this hasn't already happened to you, you will also trip out when it's your turn!
I'm very confident in the school that we've picked. So far, it's the school I've been searching for since Lola was a baby. Being their first year open, I'm sure there'll be some learning curves and some challenges, but I believe in their teaching philosophy and their enthusiasm so much, that I'm willing to rough it out and help whereever I can. When Lola was a baby, a school like this didn't even exist yet, but so fortunately for me, it will open it's doors next week, just in time for Lola to start kindergarten. She'll only go 3 days a week so not much different than her preschool schedule...but that makes me really happy. Kindergarten isn't going to be this enormous change where she is in school 5 days a week, all day long. I just don't think she'd dig that too much. But, who knows, maybe she'll love it so much, she'll beg to go everyday? I'll deal with that if the situation arises. But for right now, I'm thrilled.

Single Mom

2008-08-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm a single mom today and tomorrow while Dan is off on biz in S.F. He comes back tomorrow, but Lola was soooo upset about him leaving that I decided to pack the days up with as much activity as possible, therefore, hoping to alleviate the meltdowns.

Today, we went to a playgroup that I have not been to, at least consistently, in months. It was my very first playgroup EVER and I really do love it. I remember when Lola was little and I started going, I felt "not alone" for the first time in a long time. Especially, that I was pregnant with E and planning a homebirth...the list goes on.

That was a couple of years ago. Fast forward to today and there were so many new faces and I realized I was the one that was "new"! It was fun, though and we even bumped into a local homeschooling group consisting of very cool mamas that I hope to get to know better in the next year.

Lola mooching all the lovely strawberries from said homeschooling group. I promise I'll make it up to you all.

Elise, after I finally lured her away from the strawberries with our own, very boring, peanut butter/jelly sandwich. She looks very disapointed.

Bad news.

2008-08-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

This girl is a longtime friend of Dan's and his first customer when he broke off from his uncle's company and started his own business 8 years ago. From what we've heard, apparently, her 2 small children were there when it happened. Very tragic.

Can you guess where we were today?

2008-08-09T17:41:00.000-07:00

Socks

2008-08-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

Elise, all of a sudden, is obssessed with socks. She wants to wear them all the time. So when we got ready to run some errands today, I attempted to take off the socks before putting on her sandals, but that got her so fired up! She just kept pointing to the socks, crying!

So, needless to say, here she is in a pair of Lola's bright green socks and her sandals. I have a feeling that I'm in for many years of fashion-related stubborness. And I couldn't be more proud.

Bad Mommy Day...

2008-08-06T23:16:00.000-07:00

Today is one of those days I wish I do over. I was totally distracted because of some dinner party I was hosting and, therefore, spent most of the day trying to shoo the kids out from under my feet. My friend brought her kids over for a little bit, which helped, but that short time was their only entertainment for the day. My poor Lola gets the most of my frustrations because she's older. I feel so bad. This dinner party didn't have to be a big deal, but they were clients of Dan's, so I was out to impress. But lately, I feel like I'm putting so much priority into things that don't matter as much as my kids too. I feel like I need to refocus my energy...Mommy-time is super is important, I do realize that, but I also feel that I can stand to prioritize a bit better and maybe then I wouldn't get so impatient with the girls. Who are being...well...kids. And for such a short time, in the scheme of things....
Argh! I totally missed the Mommy 101 class. Maybe I slept in.

I know what you're thinking....

2008-08-06T09:10:00.001-07:00

You're thinking that I'm just posting a cute video, hoping to masquerade the lack of any serious blogging.
And...er...perhaps you're right. It's just that, well, I've been really, really busy with office/house projects that went unfinished for way too long. I'm almost done and I will be back to full-fledged blogging once again.
Oh and, yah, my recent discovery of Facebook might have played a teensy, tiny role....

Updates

2008-07-31T11:40:00.000-07:00

I can explain. I got a new computer. Really! I still haven't tried uploading photos from my pc to my new laptop or from my camera to the laptop. So, I'm lame.

Here's a bullet point rundown of what's new:

got a new laptop...a mac! I have coveted one forever. It's secondhand and I got a great deal on it. It's just lovely.
Saturday, we got a limo and went wine-tasting. Most of the wines were just so-so, but there were a few gems. All in all, a VERY fun day that ended with us at a waterslide park. I had never been to a waterpark before, but it was so amazingly fun! I felt like a kid!
Lola showed me a piece of paper on which she had been drawing. My jaw dropped when I saw it! She had drawn a sun and wrote in the middle S-U-N! Holy smokes, I did NOT know she knew how to spell sun! It now hangs out on our fridge door. My little girl is growing up fast!
Elise has a new hobby. She pretends to be a dog! She will crawl around on all fours, yipping and yapping. Here's the best part: when she gets to you, she starts licking you! It took me a while to piece it all together. I could not figure out for the life of me, why my 19 month old was obsessively licking my pant legs!
Elise is growing up too. She has started trying to sing songs that are familiar to her, like the ABC song. It's pretty cute.
pictures/video to follow soon!
I bought the girls each a new pair of shoes. They are identical because Lola just loves wearing the same thing as Elise. The shoes have lights that light up when they walk. This provided Elise with non-stop entertainment for a whole day...she tried to catch the lights as she walked! Too funny!!!

Beach Day!

2008-07-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

Today was a beach day...it was supposed to be yesterday, but I ended up working on some loose ends that really needed to get tied up. I was getting so much done that I didn't stop until it was too late to go. Lola had a martial arts class at 5:30 and there was no way it would have been worth it to try to go and come back in time. So I promised we could go today instead.

I have a low, low tolerance for the beach. I know I should love it, but I just don't. It's not that it's not fun, it's the hassle. And the sand. Oh, how I don't like the sand everywhere.
Elise is at a tough age right now...she wanted to just run headfirst into the waves and got pissed off everytime I would try to hold her hand or hold her body when the waves would crash in. It didn't help that the lifeguards kept warning us about the rip current every few minutes. I felt like I didn't have enough eyes and hands while we were in the water. I finally convinced the kids that ice cream at home was way more appealing than the beach.
We're planning to go again for a friend's get-together on Saturday too, but this time Dan will be with me and I think the beach we're going to will probably have calmer waters than this today.

Elise the Daredevil

Can I have a bite of your ice cream?

2008-07-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

2008-07-15T22:00:00.001-07:00

These were taken from inside the car as we were driving alongside the Payette river to Boise. The fog is incredibly dense and just literally sits on top of the river. This was a beautiful drive.

Murray, ID

2008-07-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

We had a short stay in this historic mining town. This was once a booming hotspot and now it's almost a ghost town. The Sprag Pole restaurant has decent food (um, minus the coffee...pretty much undrinkable) and the museum is pretty extensive, you'd be surprised.

I didn't think I would find mining history interesting, but I have to admit, I was fascinated. I was especially fascinated with one of it's more famous residents, Molly B'Damn.

ahem...more pics....

2008-07-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

I am really trying to give you all the "short" version of our trip and trying to pick out the best photos that represent different aspects, but I really could not pass up showing you what we got to look at every day. It's just too awesome. I must have taken about 50 photos that were just of trees, mountains and rivers. And it was pretty cool to imagine early explorers and their expeditions, like Lewis & Clark. This area is surprisingly still relatively unspoiled.

This was a gorgeous mountain pass, only a few miles from Montana.

Dan and his cousin Matt, enjoying the views.

More trip pics

2008-07-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

4th of July...our friend's parents have a condo overlooking the Coeur D'Alene lake. They take their fireworks display pretty seriously. They were truly spectacular. I'm not usually very into the whole fireworks thing, but these were really fun and the kids loved them. Although, Elise fell asleep before the grand finale.

This was our first day at the camp site. The river is unusually high because of the very long winter they experienced this year. Typically, this spot on the river is very shallow and the kids can play in the rocks.

One benefit of all the flooding were these neat little sand lots that were left behind. Lola is playing with her cousin Noah here.

A frog!!! The highlight of the camping portion of our trip.

Sharing the frog. I totally forget what they named it. It was cute, whatever it was.

New and Improved Trip Blog

2008-07-15T21:05:00.001-07:00

The kids digging for bugs...

Nice views

Elise was pretty happy to run around endlessly

Lola with her cousin Myria

hmm. Do you think Lola knew I was taking a picture???

Idaho trip, part deux

2008-07-08T22:41:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we begin the second leg of our trip...we are driving south and we are told it's a beautiful drive, albeit somewhat dangerous in parts. I have soooo much to blog about this trip, but I really wanted to do it with the related photos, so, as a result, I've been mum about the whole thing. I forgot my camera cord so no photos until we get back.
In short, we got here, then spent 3 days visiting the resort (of which we are proud owners of a waterfront lot that is totally undeveloped because the economy bombed on us) and stayed in a lovely little condo. Next up, camping in the mountains. We had campers to sleep in so it wasn't so "roughin' it"....running water, etc...The folks we camped with do it every weekend and they do it BIG. They busted out the karaoke machine once the young'uns were asleep, tummies filled with s'mores, then things got really interesting!
More fun days followed...picnicking, strawberry-picking, visiting family, etc. The kids are in heaven because there is, no joke, a trampoline in every other yard here, plus the grammas and aunties are all slipping them popsicles and gummi bears. I'm trying hard to just look the other way, while I cringe inwardly.

more after our long drive tomorrow....!

Happy 4th, folks

2008-07-04T10:29:00.000-07:00

We are having fun up here in northern Idaho. The weather is whacked, but that's ok. Today, it looks like rain and we're secretly happy about that because it's been super hot and muggy up until now. I have tons of photos of our girls, deliriously happy playing with their big ol' pile of cousins. But, of course, I forgot my camera cord to upload any photos, so that will all have to wait till we get back. We'll be in the north for a few more days, then head south near Boise. We miss our friends, but we're having fun!

This is so wrong...

2008-06-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

One of these days we'll actually scrape together a couple of dimes and buy our kids a bonafide sprinkler! But, at least, our method is pretty eco-friendly!

Seaworld at night

2008-06-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

First, please let me apologize for making you all suffer through my terrible picture-taking. It's painful, even to me.

Saturday night, we went to Seaworld. We're not big fans of crowded places so it seemed like a pretty overwhelming idea to go to Seaworld on a Saturday, in the summer, knowing it was going to be flooded with people, but some friends were here from out of town and that was the only time they could go. So we went. But it really wasn't too bad because we didn't even get there till 6:30 pm...parking was fine, we didn't have any trouble finding a place to eat and even had plenty of seating options for the Shamu show. We wanted something that wasn't right up front but still kinda in the splash zone. Lola wasn't too keen on the idea of getting splashed. She started to get very upset so we got her a poncho and that really helped assure her that she wouldn't get wet. I really didn't think we were close enough to get wet anyway.

The show didn't start till 9:30. Elise was SO excited, she could hardly stand it. She kept screaming happily and clapping hysterically every time a whale jumped out of the water! Everything was GRAND until the very end....Shamu came along and splashed the whole edge of the pool with his big ol' tail and we got positively soaked down to our very cores! We got splashed twice...the first time caught us so off-guard...Elise was just jumping up and down, all happy one second, then bawling the next! She was so upset! I didn't have a chance to calm her down before we got splashed again, even harder than the first one!

Lola, sitting in her huge poncho, was the only one among us who was perfectly dry. I had to change Elise into an extra outfit that I had packed for Lola!

It was a really great time though. I will definitely do Seaworld at night again.

Lola going ice skating with her uncle Tony

2008-06-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Every visit from uncle Tony means that he and Lola go ice skating together at the ice arena near our house. She absolutely loves it. I need to sign her up for lessons, but I always seem to miss the deadline. This fall, I will definitely get her into it. Maybe even hockey. I can just see her....hockey stick and a tutu.

What happens when I leave the CSA box on the floor....

2008-06-17T10:25:00.001-07:00

My filthy car

2008-06-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

After dropping Lola off at preschool today, I decided I couldn't take one more minute in that filth, so here I've been all morning cleaning my car out. I took out the car seats and found a sea of half-eaten snacks, twigs, rocks and dried flowers. I even scrubbed the car seats...there they are sitting in the sun to dry.

It still needs a lot more cleaning...I'm actually contemplating taking it to the car detailer place down the street from me. I loathe to pay for car cleaning because I know I have a hose, bucket and driveway right here at home and can do it myself for free, but I think I might surrender to the convenience of getting it done with quickly so I can go pick Lola up in a nicely cleaned car.

Which will then proceed to get dirty again right away. Why do I bother???

Oh, the elusive tasty vegan sausage....

2008-06-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

I tried making vegan sausages once...I had a recipe that people raved about, but for some reason, I didn't find them particularly appealing at all. Just like eating a bunch of bland, steamed dough. MMM? Me thinks not.

I decided to give them another try, using a different recipe. I had heard about vegan dad's blog and that he had lots of recipes there. This is my new favorite blog...every picture on his blog looks positively mouth-watering. I made these ones last night and can I just say, "amen!"! They are fantastic! Even my oh-so-carniverous husband is sure to tickled in the gastro zones.

Not only are they delicious, but they also use beans in the recipe, which makes me very happy. The other recipe I tried had only wheat gluten and flour...I didn't feel like I was getting much nutrients out of it. Now, I have some of my own ideas and I'll be creating a recipe soon, which I'll post.

I have no idea how I'll prepare these yummies for dinner tonight...on a pizza???? In spaghetti? In a bun with yummy marinara sauce and peppers? The possiblities are endless. Any ideas???

Great weekend!

2008-06-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

We spent a nice weekend downtown. We left the kids with Dan's mom late Friday afternoon so we could do our run in Balboa park. After the run, we checked into the hotel and headed immediately for the pool. The water was ice, but I didn't care. I jumped in and started swimming around. Good thing there was hardly anybody there because, at one point, I was doing the back stroke and realized that one of my boobs was totally hanging out of my bikini top! Nice! I looked around but it didn't look like anyone saw. Mortifying, all the same!

After the swim, we pigged out on the seafood buffet in the hotel's restaurant and we were about to the head to the bar on the 40th floor (my friend informed me that it was a "must see"), when Dan's mom arrived to drop off the girls. So instead we put the kids to bed and called it a night.

Saturday morning, after breakfast, we loaded Lola and Elise in the double stroller and ran to the airport and back to the hotel. More swimming and then we went to the Muscular Distrophy Association event at the Embarcadero. Our hotel was walking distance, which was very nice. We didn't use a car all weekend...what a change from our normal routine. I really liked it.

The event was fine...it was supposed to be all you can eat and drink, but they only had meat to eat...I ended up eating a plain hamburger bun with some tomato slices and a bag of chips. Seriously. The beer sponsors all ran out of beer really quickly also, which was pretty lame.

Oh well, it was for a good cause so I won't complain too much. Lola had a good time and enjoyed dancing in the front of the bands.

Later on, we headed to the Padre game. The Padres won so Dan was happy. Some friends from out of town called us after the game...they had just arrived in SD, checked into their hotel and were just stepping out for a bite. They wanted us to join them since it was right around the corner from the ballpark. I was a little apprehensive...we had to walk a few blocks past these crowds of scantily clad girls and cologne reeking guys, all waiting to get into the cluster of fancy nightclubs and bars. And there we were, negociating the sidewalks with two little kids in tow.

We got there, though, and the restaurant was mellow. I got a picture of the girls before Lola fell asleep at the table. This is one of the very few photos we took all weekend. I'm kicking myself for being so forgetful...we had lots of good photo ops. Speaking of forgetful, you'll also notice I forgot the flash. oops.

My Man Rocks.

2008-06-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

Dan threw me a surprise party at a nearby Mexican restaurant that we've been frequenting for many years now. We had a whole banquet/party room to ourselves, which was really nice because the kids got to run around and wreak havoc, pretty much unnoticed. They couldn't believe their good fortune!

That was really cool of Dan to throw this little party for me, especially considering my real birthday present is our weekend that we are spending downtown with the kids.

Ummmm....so after the restaurant party, a few of us reconvened at my house and, well, we broke into the Wii American Idol game. We sang with such gusto, I can't believe the kids slept through our screeching and hollering. But then again, they didn't go to bed until almost 11 pm and that is waaaay late for them.

Speaking of waaaaay late, we also didn't wrap the party up until at least after 1 am. We had so much fun, though, it was way worth it. Even though I was seriously dragging butt this morning.

Happy Birthday to ME!

2008-06-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

I'm 35 years old today. Dan's got some kind of shenanigans planned for me tonight, but I don't know what. I'm going to try to be prepared and clean the house today. One year, he threw me a surprise party at the house, but it was filthy and I was a tiny bit embarrassed.
Only a tiny bit, because, after all, it was my party!

Yesterday, I went to the dentist for the first time in many years. I'm too embarrassed to say how long it's been, but suffice to say the number is in the double digits.
I was sure there were going to be all kinds of issues, but the exam didn't turn up anything new, except one little cavity. There's all kinds of issues in my mouth, mind you, but these were existing problems that had previously been worked on and need to be redone. My main issue is getting my gums healthy again, then redoing some old cracked fillings. Fun stuff!
I actually feel so much better now, like a big weight is lifted. I avoided the dentist for so long, thinking there was just a huge mess in there and to find out that it's really not that bad is such a relief.

:)