family

i went south this past weekend to visit my mother, so this week i am thankful for:

1. fun times visiting my family and friends. i got to spend time with my best girl alice and my girlfriend krista, which was really nice because i don't see krista often and alice is great fun. my family is fun too, and my mother's brother and his wife were down from seattle as well as my grandparents and my sister. we ate good food and played cards, which is what my family does. everyone was down for my mom's birthday, the big 6-0.


my sweet grandparents have been married for 61 years!


i have not seen my uncle harry and his wife mary since brian and i got married. harry is hiding behind mary, who is a whole lot of fun. it was really great to get to see them and spend time with them.


i learned a new game called golf (not solitaire golf), which is insanely easy and pretty fun. my grandma, who swears - whether we play cribbage, rummy, or anything else - that she hasn't gotten good cards in ten years, of course won. she is a sneaky one, that lady.

2. generous moms. i had made another one of this blouse, this time in a plain white batiste. heaven knows a basic white blouse is a wardrobe staple. at least it is in my wardrobe. i wanted to jazz it up some and my mother's machine does fancy embroidery stitches that mine does not. i also put some fancy (for me) buttons on. it is still a basic white blouse, but now with this:


it is kind of hard to tell i think, but the embroidery stitch is little leaves on a vine. i did it in white sulky embroidery thread, which is 100% rayon and shiny so the tone-on-tone embroidery stands out. i had never used sulky thread before and i am not sure i love it. the thread kept breaking and i don't know if it was the tension or the machine or the stitch or what. maybe i was doing something wrong and i didn't know it. the embroidery turned out very pretty though and i really like it. that is basically why i love sewing, because i can make something like a basic white blouse and put my own special little touch on it, just for me.

3. safe driving and nice weather. even though we are a bit farther north now than we were in marin county, the drive is actually 30 miles and 30 minutes shorter. it was a beautiful sunny day both on the way down and the way home. i was very surprised to see some snow still, at the very tips of the san bernardino mountains:


every time we drive down together, brian gets excited when we get to san dimas, because of bill & ted's excellent adventure. (i get excited because it means the end is near[ish].) so i had to call him and tell him how EXcellent it was that i was in san dimas.


pyramid lake (in the angeles national forest, near the grapevine) looked pretty good to me. i have never stopped there but i always want to. i really like mountain lakes like that. someday...


these signs always crack me up. what, you thought sacramento and san francisco were like 100 miles apart? nope, they're right next to each other. no, really! also, i have a bridge for sale if you're interested.


* yes, i understand the sign. they still make me smile.

lost in the holiday muddle

my t3 seemed to have gotten lost in the muddle of the holidays since christmas and new year's both fell on thursdays. christmas was a blur and new year's was cleanup around the house and the sad taking down of the christmas decorations. so to get myself back on track, this week i am thankful for:

1. my husband. i am often thankful for him and sometimes it feels like a cop-out to use it here. on the other hand i am thankful for him for different reasons at different times. often lately it has been difficult to be thankful for him because my emotions are so haywire, because this pregnancy has really been kicking my butt. fortunately he is my rock, the constant, true thing in my life, even when i am hormonal and awful to him. he has been gone on a business trip this week and while it's nice to have some time to myself without the demands of marriage and living together, i miss him. the time apart reminds me of why i fell in love with him and chose to navigate life with this wonderful man.

2. baby kicks. when we got pregnant i swore to myself that i would not make this a "mommy blog" or go on and on about being pregnant. it feels like it has taken over my life and i didn't want it to take over my blog (at least, not this one). it's impossible to keep the baby out of here completely because of how being pregnant seems to consume everything and as i mentioned it is beating the crap out of me. i cannot wait to be done with being pregnant, and then she kicks or somersaults or something and it is the most wonderful feeling in the world.

3. chocolate truffles. somehow there seems to be a minor proliferation of truffles at my house, which is kind of odd because i'm not a chocoholic or anything. man, are they ever good. one pretty much does it for me so it's not like i'm gobbling them down by the dozen or anything. and wow, how is it that a little thing like a bite of a chocolate truffle can just turn your day around? yummm.

how to get into bed without waking your wife: a primer

i am more of a morning person than my husband, so i generally go to bed much earlier than he does. it's okay, because even if i stay up, i'm not much good after about 10 pm anyways. i'm a pretty sound sleeper so brian doesn't usually wake me when he comes to bed, but there was a period of time a couple years ago when i was not sleeping so well and he would wake me every single night.

the "problem" is that brian sleeps with a ton of pillows including a very large, long, fluffy one called a body pillow. when he came to bed there would be much arranging and shuffling and wiggling and organizing of the pillows, thereby waking me. one evening a couple years ago he decided he had a great solution and would get into bed without waking me. he arranged all his pillows ahead of time, so he just had to get into bed and go to sleep.

so he comes to bed at 1130 pm or something, i'm fast asleep, it's completely dark, and he decides that crawling over the pillows will also wake me, and besides, he has a better idea. WAY better. he is going to stand sideways on his side of the bed and fling his body through the air over the pillows, much like an olympic high jumper, thus landing quietly in bed on the other side of the pillows and not waking me up. what a kind and thoughtful husband he is!

except he is not an olympic high jumper. he is not even a wannabe high jumper. he has had no high jump training at all. in the dark, he misjudged where he was and how to jump and whacked his head on the headboard and YELLED (of course). not to mention the loud and disturbing THWOMP when his body hit the mattress. and he had a sore head and a splitting headache and all i could do was laugh at his misery.

the danger of drinking and walking at the same time

when he got in to louisville, kentucky, last night (business trip), brian immediately went out to t.g.i. friday's for something to eat. he hadn't eaten all day because he had been travelling, and apparently he hadn't drank anything either, because four beers made him pretty tipsy.

so tipsy, in fact, that he couldn't find his way back to his hotel. at 11pm. in 31° weather.

and called his wife to find out how to get back to his hotel. because, you know, i know louisville like the back of my hand.

brian recaptures his youth

yesterday we drove to roseville so brian could introduce me to sonic burger, a drive-in he "discovered" while in college in texas and oklahoma. what he really wanted to introduce me to was whataburger and rib crib, but neither of those are in california, so he had to settle for sonic.

brian often criticizes california for being insular and self-important, and i don't think he's always wrong in that. though i've lived here my entire life and love it, i know my state has it's fair share of cultural awareness issues. because i've never lived anywhere else, i sometimes am [unjustly] accused by my husband of not understanding what the rest of the country is like. generally this happens when we discuss food and restaurants. brian feels there is no decent fast food in california and "settles" for jack in the box. i adore in-n-out. he says the only reason i like in-n-out is because it's a california thing and i don't know any better fast food like "they" have in the rest of the country.

saturday i was craving in-n-out, so we went to burger king first so brian's mouth would be full while we were in the drive-thru at in-n-out and i wouldn't have to listen to him whine about the bad taste of california people. but apparently he had never actually had a double-double (animal style, oh yummm)? because he wanted a bite of mine to see how it was. and here he was moaning and groaning about it the whole time and he had never tasted such heaven? he said it wasn't too bad, for a basic burger (what was he expecting? confetti and mushrooms?), but i think he secretly loved it and just didn't want to let on. i think he would have eaten the whole thing if i hadn't fussed at him. score one point for me.

yesterday we drove 25 miles to the second-closest sonic burger to our house - the closest was in woodland, 23 miles away. i wanted to go there but he said no, it's easier to go to roseville. whatever. we printed out directions and off we went so i could experience my first drive-in. he couldn't take me to whataburger for their amazing ketchup but at least he could take me for a damn good burger served in my car by a girl on roller skates, just like old times. he could be bitter about california's dearth of fine fast food establishments but by golly at least he got to take his wife to a sonic.

i spotted it first, right next to a gas station. we turned in and lo - the sonic was in the gas station. i kid you not. brian just about shot himself on the spot. we went in and ordered and sat at a small table inside the gas station for lunch. brian moaned and groaned about being bitter and this is what the world is coming to and HIS WIFE JUST LAUGHS, SHE CANNOT STOP LAUGHING AT HIS MISERY, WHY ME GOD. i think i laughed for about five minutes straight, he was so bitter and hysterical.

some days i want to fill up the bathtub and hold his head underwater, because he is such a MAN and doesn't listen and doesn't do things right (read: my way) and isn't like me, and i get so frustrated that marriage is such work - and then we have an afternoon like yesterday, and i am so thankful that he is such a man and not like me.

because, me? i would have looked at the street view on google maps to know what i was looking for and known we were going to a gas station and opted to go to the one in woodland instead, the one he pooh-poohed, because that one is actually a drive-in like it is supposed to be. at least, it looks like it on google maps.

and the burger? not bad, but not nearly as good as in-in-out.

cute. but do not try at home.

i got the idea here but i don't think i would do these again. they came out very cute (though certainly not as cute as the inspiration) and i really like them, but they took much more time and generated much more swearing than i can tolerate in my crafts. i think they took about an hour each. the people who are getting these (belatedly) had better appreciate them. is all i have to say.

this is the idea that started it all. for alice and her fiancé brad, who are getting married in august, so they have something special for their tree for their first christmas together. these generated the most swearing.


two cute party dresses. i thought the beads on the wire hangers (which were such a b!tch to make, i should have gotten a clue right then) would be cute but i don't like it so much, IF i were doing these again i would not bead the hangars.


i also did a little man's tee shirt and a pink onesie, for next year's family ornaments, but i already packed them with the christmas stuff. i just hope i can find them when i need them next year.

on the bright side, they were uber-cheap to make. they take virtually nothing in the way of trims and i just cut them from felt squares which are so cheap. a mixed bag of sequins was 79¢ and i had the seed beads, wire, and some random trims already anyway. i did have to buy craft glue but that was only $3.99. if i were making a lot of them i think they would come out to 50¢ or $1 apiece. dunno how much those others sell for but i'd bet it's not cheap.

on a different note, totally loving on these:


a housewarming gift from kelsey, who brought them home from her fall trip to holland. gorgeous. thanks, gal.

2009 to-do list

2008's year of living gently will continue into 2009. i think it is not a bad theme for one's life instead of just one year. for 2009 i am giving myself a concrete, finite list of things to focus on.

- build a planter box or two (raised beds) outside and plant a vegetable garden and an herb garden.
- paint the downstairs bedroom.
- breathe once in a while.
- get a pedicure before baby arrives. can't have icky toes in the delivery room!
- send one card a week to a friend.
- create and maintain a system for dealing with the paper/mail/crap that comes into my house and collects in my kitchen.
- learn to manage roses.
- learn to enjoy being pregnant and being a mother.
- create and maintain a healthy exercise routine.
- let go once in a while.
- speak and act kindly and generously, even (epecially) when i do not feel kind or generous.
- cut our grocery bill by at least $50 per month.
- decorate our master bedroom.
- paint the family room wall.