Just another day in Paradise.

Just another day in Paradise.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Why wasn't I invited to your wedding!!

So Avery is going through my things as I'm trying to organize and continuing to unpack (yes it's been three weeks) and she starts crying, more of a whine but with tears, "Why am I not in these pictures" Explanation: "Honey, you weren't born yet" (even though your parents are from Banning, we decided to do things differently and get married first, although that decision probably ultimately cost your mom the homecoming crown...)

Unfortunately not being born yet, is not a good enough reason in Avery's book and she continues to go through the pictures of various events, bridal shower, honeymoon etc. sobbing (yet still whining) and tossing them aside while saying " I wasn't here (pause, toss), I wasn't here (pause, toss), I wasn't here (pause, toss)... finally she looks at me and says "I should have been there" Period.

Luckily my camera was nearby.




Thursday, July 26, 2007

The Best Night on TV

(The clip from last weeks show w/ Sabra and Dominic doing the Jive. Sorry, it's not HD but it'll have to do.)


I love Wednesday night TV. It's the only night that I HAVE to watch. So You Think You Can Dance on Fox and Top Chef on Bravo (Project Runway coming back soon I hope ..just love that Tim Gunn). I am even more excited now that we have DVR and I can watch and re watch the dance numbers, or pause it when it might get a little risque for an attentive 3 year old (I did NOT appreciate Lacey's naughty hip hop routine last week tsk tsk) (but I did love her Samba this week! Racy but not inappropriate). And I can watch it on MY time when everyone has gone to bed and the house is quiet, except for the creepy...I mean relaxing swishy sounds the tropical foliage makes in our back yard. I thought I would watch more TV w/DVR but that it would just be more efficient. But I watch less, way less. I record a ton, but then I usually find that I don't care so much to watch it, I just feel good knowing that something was taped in case the next day I hear how good it was from someone and then it's there.

So anyhow, back to the shows...on SYTYCD I am rooting for Sabra or Lacey for the girls and Dominic or Danny for the guys. On Top Chef, I don't have a favorite I just love to watch the food.

Who are your favorites?


Monday, July 23, 2007

what do you feed a baby with no teeth?

Miles is 9 months old now and no sign of a tooth...unless you count the swollen gums, runny nose and endless gnawing on hard objects, but since that has been the case for 3 months now... I'm not sure what I should be looking for except for some gleaming white, razor sharp incisors.

So the problem is this. He does not like baby food, tolerates formula on occasion but wants to eat what we are having. He's grown tired of sucking on chicken bones and can actually gum down chicken meat pretty well. The other day I caught him shoveling red grapes in his mouth with reckless abandon. Avery had left a bowl of them unattended and he was shaking them off of the stem and eating 4-5 at a time. And if they wouldn't come off that way he would pluck them off of the stem with his mouth like Cleopatra.

To think, I had previously been carefully peeling and cutting one grape into small, hazardless pieces. Okay so I had been biting them and giving him half, but I would have never given a whole, windpipe sized grape to a baby!

So under careful supervision, and knowing that there was someone who had recently gotten re-certified in advanced lifesaving, including the baby Heimlich, in the next room I watched as he ate and ate and ate. Although I can't give truly accurate count, I'd say there were at least 30 peels that survived the trip through the G.I. tract.

So he likes grapes. He like bananas. He likes chicken, oatmeal, yogurt, bread, ice cream, whole milk and milk duds. He spits out his baby food. Even the chunkier kind.

What do I feed him?

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Gecko Sighting



This is the biggest one we've seen yet.

photo courtesy of s. westbrook

Thursday, July 19, 2007

SHARK attack!

We were at this beach on the Fourth of July for a BBQ w/Ben's dept. It's only 5 miles from our house. Yikes!!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Monday, July 16, 2007

adventures in unpacking

Today I found half of a bagel in one of our boxes.
It was 2 months mOLDy.

Hey, I thought they weren't supposed to move food.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Our new pets





Meet GloriAnn. Our Cane Spider.







Meet GloriAnn's brother. He lives in my kitchen.









Meet Pecko. Avery's "pecko", I mean Gecko.




Wednesday, July 11, 2007

a place for everything and everything in it's place.

Our 6,428 lbs of stuff was dropped off at our house today. I'm not sure what of it I have really missed these last few months. I am excited to have a bed again. An air mattress...no matter how "deluxe" it is just isn't that great. Especially when four people end up on it by morning (luckily we lose Ben somewhere around 4:30am so that frees up some space). As for the other 6,228 lbs ... I just don't know where to begin. Finding a place for some things, those we really need or love, is fun, like a giant puzzle. Challenging yet rewarding. But that still leaves a heck of a lot of stuff to find room for. We've been lucky to have good storage in all of the places we have lived, however minimal the square footage. Unfortunately, that means a lot of things get kept that should be gotton rid of. But it takes more time to sort through (trash/give away/keep or yes/no/maybe I can fit in later) than it does to just stick in a closet and forget about it.

I should be good at getting rid of junk. The women in my family are very good at minimalist living. My sister, who always looks fabulous btw, maintains a closet that actually has space between the hangers! And not a big closet either! And, I'll bet she even throws out her makeup at recommended intervals! My mom has always been one for clean and classic quality over quantity and my grandma Maggie ... never had a junk drawer in her life, cause she doesn't need one. She doesn't even have anything under her bed! Grandma Louva, although she does have a small collection of bells and a rather large collection of magnets...I think there is a fridge under there somewhere...but again, no junk drawer and nothing under her beds...no need! I have been getting better at this myself, thanks to Ben, who thinks you should only have as much stuff as you can physically move yourself. Must be the pioneer in him. Good luck moving that 50" TV buddy.

Friday, July 6, 2007

the gift that keeps on giving.

Ben and I just celebrated...I mean acknowledged our sixth year of marriage. We’ve never been exceptionally romantic and generally use such occasions to justify buying something we want but don’t particularly need or take a trip we were planning anyhow. Christmas, birthdays, same routine. This bit of practicality aside, we still usually honor the day with a card, letter, dinner, phone call, something.


This year I fulfilled my duty by getting a card the day before and I had planned on setting it out with his lunch (yes I make him a lunch AND breakfast now, if I don’t he doesn’t eat) but I couldn’t find it to sign it, plus I had the feeling that anniversary was nowhere on his radar and I didn’t want to drop any clues and save him. So he works all day (5am-8pm, that's right 5-8 not 8-5), I got one phone call around 11 and I thought he must have realized (or maybe Jenisteen, who always remembers, saved him with a phone call) the date, but no, nothing. I bite my tongue, because I want to catch him face-to-face in his neglect. I find my card, and put it out for when he gets home. Then on second thought, I hide it away because I don’t want him to feel bad for forgetting.


He comes home and wants to go eat. Since he wants to go out I think he must have remembered. But I can tell by the options of places he is running by me that it is sheer hunger that is fueling this outing, not commemoration. We decide on a Mexican restaurant we’ve been wanting to try. Chips and salsa come. Ben’s trying to shake the workday and wrangle the kids. I put my hand on his, I can hardly contain my own giddy excitement as I try to decide when to spring it on him. Should I wait until the waitress comes and make a remark like, “since it’s a special occasion I think I’ll have dessert first” or just tell him. Because I am afraid if I wait much longer I may prompt an inquiry regarding my smirk/full toothed grin I say “Happy Anniversary”. Do I wish I had a camera to record the look on his face. Yes. A split second of pure shock, surprise and distress. Eyes wide and if both of his pupils could dilate they would have. He glances at his watch hoping it can save him. It’s not often that one pulls one over on Ben so I enjoyed his discomfort however brief it was. After the initial shock subsides he becomes embarrassed and a tiny bit sheepish. I can’t contain my glee. I was right, it hadn’t even crossed his mind. Not even when his co-worker got flowers from her husband that afternoon for their anniversary!

In the end it’s fine, he got his card later that night. I got my laughs and what I love more than anything - a good story. He said that now I “have something to talk about with my friends…the gift that keeps on giving”. He knows me so well.