One Happy Lady

Charles F. Gulbrandsen

2011-08-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

This is Matt's grandfather, Charlie. Charlie passed away yesterday morning at his home in Arizona. He was diagnosed with cancer just before my mom passed away. Matt and I are both so grateful that we were able to visit him last weekend. I don't remember anything about my own grandfathers, so it has been really wonderful for me to have Charlie these last several years. He had such a long and full life - and was so loved by so many. For my part, I will miss him dearly.

My understanding is that since his diagnosis a few months ago, the prayer below brought him a great deal of comfort:

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone." (Thomas Merton)

It seems like forever ago...

2011-07-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

It seems like it's been forever since the wedding.

Matt and I got married on March 19, 2011. I know it's cliche, but it was truly the happiest day of my life. It was the first time (and maybe the last) that everyone that I love and care about most were in the same place, at the same time. I have never felt such overwhelming love and happiness around me. And while there were a few folks that were unable to attend, I was so amazed at how many people traveled from all over the world to share our day with us. We had 3 days of family, fun and new beginnings.

So many things have happened since the wedding. When I look at the timeline, I'm amazed that we've survived. Two days before our wedding, I lost my job (my company disintegrated...wahoo!). Thankfully, we saw that one coming - which meant that I was able to find a new one - and I was able to pack up my office and client files (all 150 boxes) before we left for our honeymoon. But the downside was that it added an inordinate amount of stress in the days leading up to the wedding.

After the wedding, we had an amazing honeymoon in England for 2 weeks (don't worry, I'll eventually post about the wedding AND honeymoon) and returned home to get settled in before I started my new job.

The following few weeks unfolded in a way that has left me feeling shell-shocked (still...). A few days after we got home, my mom ended up in the hospital - the cancer had spread to her heart. Her doctor (who knew how adamant she was about avoiding treatments that were more likely to cause harm than to cure the cancer), suggested that she may not want to pursue the treatments that *might* have relieved the problem. She decided NOT to pursue treatment and was advised that she had, perhaps, 3 months left.

Talk about a reality check. Two days after starting my new job.

So, I attempted to get as much work out of the way as possible so that I could get enough flexibility in my schedule to spend plenty of time with my mom.

This would have been a good plan, except that 2 weeks in, her cancer progressed exponentially. One day she looked and felt fine and, literally, 2 days later, she was gone.

My mom passed away on May 4 in the wee hours of the morning. It was exactly 13 years after her mother passed away (well, not EXACTLY...grandma passed on May 3).

I didn't get to say goodbye.

I'm not sure I'll ever forgive myself for it. Ever.

I was there when she passed, but by the time Matt and I arrived, she was so incoherent, I'm not sure she knew we were there (I think she knew...I hope she knew...).

I know many people who have lost a dear relative and have said that being with them at the moment they passed was beautiful and dear. I don't know what's wrong with me, but frankly, it was the worst experience of my life. Nothing has ever scared me that much...I still have nightmares about it. It's an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone. But maybe I'm just weaker than most. Who knows.

I sat with her and told her I loved her, stroked her hand and her hair....but I also hid. I hid in the living room so that I wouldn't have to see her or hear her. I'm so ashamed of that.

When my mom was first admitted to the hospital in March of 2010, she and my stepdad finally got "a song" - you know...like "they're playing our song." They never had one. But in the many trips my stepdad had between the hospital and home, he kept hearing the same song on the radio. Eventually, he shared it with my mom and after that, it became an anthem for them. It was their song.

During one of my weak moments on the night of her death, while I was hiding in the living room, I could hear my stepdad playing the song to her. I'm so glad she got to hear it and that they were able to share that moment in the minutes before she passed.

I listen to that song almost every day. It still makes me cry. But, it makes me feel connected to her, too. And I'm glad it still makes me cry. I don't want to be "over it" yet - I don't feel like there is any value to "getting over" my mom. I hope I never "get over" her. I'm glad my heart still aches when I see photos of her. I'm glad that I loved her enough that I am still struggling with this.

And while I am so amazingly grateful that she is no longer in pain, I still selfishly wish that she was here. I was sure that the months after our wedding would be the happiest of my life - and I was so sure I'd be able to share that joy and happiness with her.

I suppose we are still sharing things with her...differently than before, but still sharing.

In any case, I haven't posted for quite some time. I think I've been hesitant to acknowledge everything that has happened between then and now.

But it's Life. And I'm grateful for all of it - the happy and sad, the beautiful and the "scary." And I'm hopeful that time will heal these wounds. I'm hopeful that whatever choices I make and whatever my life looks like, my mom would be proud.

Sooooo, to wrap up this hiiiighly depressing and dramatic post, I leave you with Mom & Gary's song.

Quick Update!

2011-03-13T12:02:00.001-07:00

I think I got a job! I haven't signed the papers yet, but I think it's a real offer. Better benefits, more vacation, working with the same people (people that are AWESOME)...

Sigh of relief.

Now I can relax and enjoy these last few days before getting married. YAY!

Big Plate

2011-03-06T09:19:00.001-08:00

(completely irrelevant photo...it has nothing to do with this post...except

that this is the guy I get to marry. Whoa. How did I get so lucky?)

In addition to the normal "crazy" in life, the past couple of weeks (continuing into the next couple as well) have added some new fun things to think about:

Umm...I need a job. Apparently my company is going under. It's mayhem.

I have TWO reports due next week - usually I have 2 reports every 9 to12 months. So this is big. Huge.

I am 13 days from my wedding and 15 days from my honeymoon. Holy crap.

Since I will probably be on my honeymoon when my company implodes, I have to pack up my whole office before I leave. Oh, and an entire "library" of client files. Picture me, a roll of tape and 50+ boxes. Bahh.

So the bad news is that in addition to my wedding, I've got TONS of work-related nonsense to fret over.

The good news is that it will all be over soon. 13 days from now, I marry Matt. Happiest day of my life, right? Right. So I'm hoping that by the time the 19th rolls around, the other hubub will be over and I'll be ready to relax and enjoy our big day with family and friends. And I'm sure that by the time we get back from our honeymoon, I'll have a new job waiting for me.

And then life will go on. No more wedding planning. No more worrying about my paycheck bouncing. Just life.

I can't begin to express how excited I am to just get back to normal life again. But this time, with my husband.

Yep.

HAPPY 2011!!

2011-01-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

Another new year. I feel the same way I did last January 1: I feel like last year combined the worst moments I've ever had (mom's cancer) and the best (getting engaged).

Overall, I think it was a good year. It was a year we got better at NOT taking anything for granted. It was a year that we were more excited about our future than we were scared about it. It was a year with LOTS of family.

I barely posted at all during 2010 and I can't pretend I'll be any better in 2011...at least until AFTER the wedding (and honeymoon)!

Thanks to all of you for the support last year. From comments on the blog to encouraging emails, phone calls and texts - I (we) couldn't have done it without you. I am so grateful to have all of you in my world.

I'm excited (and a little anxious) to see what 2011 holds for us. I'm sure it will be a good year - I LOVE odd numbered years. Plus I'll be a Hennessy soon.

Cheers to new beginnings!!

sweet photo, right? credit goes to our super awesome friends Danielle and Jared over at SidebySide Photography

He dood it...

2010-08-25T10:05:00.001-07:00

YAY!!! Dare I say it: FINALLY!!! After 5 and a half years, my handsome man decided he was ready :) Lucky for me, he was totally worth the wait...every minute of it.

I am so excited and I think Matt is as well. Hopefully I will have the time sometime soon to post more! Sorry to be so slow to get this info around to folks - I'm sure you could have guessed that I'm trying to avoid this becoming a topic on Facebook - but of course I wanted to share it with those few of you that I share my real life with here on this blog.

Here he is!

2010-07-18T21:57:00.001-07:00

What do you think? Cutest kid ever? Yeah, I think so too...

Little Guy

2010-07-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

I think I'm in love.

Our best friends, Sarah and Cesar, just had their first child. And I met him today. And he is amazing.

And I can't stop thinking about his perfect little self.

Christian James has stolen my little old heart.

I swear I will post photos when I get some.

Happy Lady

2010-05-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

Before I get going, I realized that in my last post, I said March 14, 2009 - I meant 2010 - it's only been a month and a half....not a year PLUS a month and a half. This is all still pretty new for us. But since the new year, I've never actually switched over to writing "2010" properly...it's May...hopefully I get it figured out some time soon.

Okay...so why am I a happy lady today? I have no flippin' idea. But I'm gonna go with it.

Last week had more bad days than usual...I'm not sure why - nothing bad happened - I was just down. I didn't do a great job of dealing with work stress and that made all the other stuff harder to deal with, too. I'm finding that I have to be pretty proactive about not getting too "down" about life...or it can get out of hand. Last week I sucked at that. Hopefully next week I will do better.

BUT...today has been great. I finished an accounting exam this morning and have spent the rest of the day working on projects, snuggling dogs, watching basketball and now (my favorite), watching the History Channel.

Reasons why I feel lucky today:

Matt - he makes life so much better than it would be without him. There are a million reasons why, but today it's because he has had me laughing almost non-stop.
My mom and Gary sound like they had an awesome day the other day...they went to the beach, had a lunch date...it reminds me that you can still have super fun days and good times even while you have lots of other nonsense on your mind...like cancer.
I asked my dad to come stay with us in early June - he sounded really excited - it made me excited too.
The dogs. They just can't get enough of my lap (or Matt's) - it always makes me feel loved!
Life - today has been great - but it's been pretty average - between my test, cleaning my bathroom, making some lemon curd, sewing some curtains, and watching some good, old fashioned TV - today reminded me that normal is good.

So there it is - a good day. And looking forward to a good one tomorrow as well.

On another note, my mom goes in on Monday to see if the radiosurgery on her brain has done any good - I'm nervous and excited to hear about how it is going and what the next steps are - I'm a girl who likes a plan :) Please keep her (and her brain) in your thoughts and prayers!

Word of the Day

2010-04-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

CANCER!!

Okay, maybe it's more like a theme in my life right now. Am I the only one that feels like I'm seeing more and more people being diagnosed with cancer these days? Is that just part of getting older? Not. Fun.

So I haven't really posted for a while and one of the reasons is that I'm not really sure what to write. Or how to write it. Or how to avoid sounding overly dramatic without avoiding reality.

Here goes (for those lucky few that don't already know the story):

Sunday March 14, 2009 I got a call from my stepdad at just about 8am. I was laying in bed, reading a book. He started the call in the most careful way that he could "Don't worry, everything is okay, but we're at the hospital." What followed was an explanation of the events of that morning...he had rushed my mom to the hospital after thinking she had possibly just had a stroke (I think it turned out to be a seizure). She had a CAT scan that indicated a few masses on her brain.

After more scans of various types, biopsies and all of that medical stuff, we got news that still seems impossible to me. My mom was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer that had spread to her brain and lymph nodes (and just the other day, we found out it is in her liver as well). My mom is not a smoker -- she is vegetarian, all-organic (and has been for as long as I can remember), and active. She didn't have ANY symptoms...not even a cough. How could this possibly be true?

I still feel like I'm fumbling around stupidly. I still don't know what to do or say. I still don't know how to feel. My usual inclination would be to expect the worst and hope to be surprised. But in this case, I feel like "expecting the worst" is too close to "giving up" - and I don't think any of us are ready to give up.

She's 54, for Pete's sake!

On any given day, I either feel totally positive about it...or totally depressed and overwhelmed by it. I haven't found the middle ground yet.

Some days, all I can think about is how I might deal with life without her. Those days involve lots of fear, tears, anxiety, depression, sadness, frustration...

But it has all been tempered by the moments when I know that this experience has also allowed me to feel overwhelming love and kindness from the most unexpected places, hope like I have never had before, gratitude that is damn near infinite...

We are lucky to have so many people thinking of us and praying for us - they send kind words, thoughts and messages. I have not had the time or strength to properly thank everyone - but it has meant the world to all of us.

Whether you are someone who prays, sends happy thoughts, or whatever, below are the things I think we need help with at this very moment:

The doctors (particularly my mom's incredible oncologist) to have the wisdom to determine the best treatments that make the most sense for my mom
My Mom, to have the strength and desire to fight this until it is gone
My Stepdad, to have the strength to keep her going and to be what she needs - but to know that there are a boatload of folks just a phone call away to help him carry the weight of all this
Me, to not despair and to have the good judgement to know how best to help Mom and Gary
The rest of the family, to know how best to help...because I know that is the thing I'm struggling most with...and I'm sure I'm not the only one
For all of us to be comfortable with the fact that aside from maintaining positive attitudes and properly supporting one another through all of this, we are not in the drivers seat on this one. We need to learn to live KNOWING that we do not have control...and to learn to focus on the things that we CAN control...like loving, supporting and appreciating one another.

I'm sure I will think of more things, but for now, I think those are the big ones.

My mom has made a big point, so far, of making sure that my brother, stepdad, and I know that we don't have to be strong all the time -- that it's okay to be weak. I've had a hard time with this idea of "weakness" and I think I've figured out why:

I don't think that being scared and being weak are the same thing. I think it takes a lot of guts to be scared and to admit that you feel lost. I think you have to let yourself feel those things...and that real "weakness" is to ignore them and pretend that everything is fine. Because the reality is that it's not fine. My amazing Mom has flipping cancer for Pete's sake! She looks fine and feels fine, but is still going though this horrible thing they call cancer. What the heck?! Did I miss something? Am I the only one still confused by this?

Okay, so enough of this post - I have been struggling with how to put it out here and now I've done it!

To all of you who have done things big and small for us over the last few weeks, it has not gone unnoticed. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Dove chocolate - or fortune cookies?

2010-04-03T21:27:00.000-07:00

I love those little foil wrapped Dove dark chocolates. Who doesn't? My favorite part (you know, aside from the eating part) is reading the cheesy "messages" inside the foil.

Tonight, I walked up to Matt as he was unwrapping one for himself. I opened my mouth hoping he might humor me and let me have it - and he did!! YAY!

And then he looked down at his little foil message and started laughing. It said:

"Love is not getting but giving"

Well played, Dove chocolates. Well played.

Thanks, Matt, for all the love and chocolate!

Olympics!

2010-02-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

After a couple of months of feeling overwhelmed by the holidays and crazy-madness at work, I have officially stopped feeling like a debbie-downer and started feeling happy/lucky/blessed again. YAY! While things are still crazy busy between work and school and life, I'm finally having a much needed shift in attitude that will hopefully improve my ability to cope (and hopefully avoid driving matt crazy... ).

In celebration of the olympics, we made an "arctic" dinner tonight....umm...for us, that pretty much means we had salmon for dinner. And we had a fair amount of extra, so the dogs got to have salmon for dinner, too (I am learning to enjoy fish...and leftovers still totally gross me out)! I don't think I have ever seen them so excited to eat before - and Matt says I am turning into the crazy dog owner that feeds their dogs better than they feed their guests! HA! Trust me, this will not be a regular thing.

So here we sit, snuggling the boys, watching the Olympics opening ceremonies and me NOT working on a Friday night for the first time in what feels like forever. Finally feeling contented.

Happy weekend to all!

2009 In Review

2010-01-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

No really. I just haven't figured out yet whether it was the best year ever or the worst year ever.

One of the biggest criticisms of blogs is that they are so self-important and self-centered - and this blog (and this post, in particular) will be no exception! But it's MY blog, so in yo FACE, blog critics!

Anywho, most of you know our "story," but I know that a handful probably don't. We were definitely living in a very "easy" situation for our first four years after college. We both had good jobs, could afford to travel, dine out, buy the things we needed...and some of the things we wanted, too :) We were definitely very comfortable and confident about our "places in the world."

During the summer of 2008, Matt put an offer in on a house and by Labor Day weekend, we were moved in! Less than a month later, Matt found out he would be losing his job in early 2009. What terrible timing, no?

The last 15 months have been so challenging in ways I never would have guessed, but it has really been a great year in so many ways. We have both learned a lot about ourselves and one another. And we've learned that even when your worst fears are realized, it's really not the end of the world. And in the immortal words of one of my bosses "It is what it is - you can only do what you can do."

And since this post is already wordy, I'm just going to go with it :) Here are a few lists:

Top 5 successes:

WE GOT DOOOOOGS. I am so thankful for them every day. I can't even begin to tell you how happy we are to have them.
We didn't lose our minds, despite all indications to the contrary.
Our attic is insulated! (thanks to matt, mark and gary!)
We grew vegetables! Lots of them. And they were AWESOME!
We both stuck to studying much more diligently than I would have predicted (Matt for the CFA and me for accounting classes).

Top 5 things I miss:

Dining out
Travel
Erica - she passed away just over a year ago and it's hard to realize that she is really gone.
Money - is that shallow? Maybe, but it's true.
My friends from Kroll - I still get to work with a few of them, but a couple of them went to other companies - and they were all pretty awesome - maybe someday we'll all reunite ;)

Top 5 things I've learned this year:

The grass isn't greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water it. Be productive - and don't dwell on things you can't control. Just water the grass and hope for the best.
In a tough spot, it's hard to know exactly what to do in order to be supportive and comforting to someone (since everyone needs support in different ways). But you always get points for trying.
My "plan" for myself and the greater "Plan" aren't always the same thing - I shouldn't need to be on everyone else's schedule to feel like I am succeeding.
There is a lot of value to learning how to do things for yourself. From baking our own bread, to building our own fences, we're learning how rewarding it can be to do things for ourselves.
It's not the end of the world - and when it feels like it is, remember that everything is easier to "take on" if you give yourself the chance to take a step back and focus on the things you can control. And if it still feels like the end of the world, it's best to let yourself laugh every now and then. It really helps :)

Top 5 things I hope to learn next year:

Patience (with myself and others) - things will happen when they are meant to happen. No amount of poking, prodding, lamenting, or despairing will push along the things that are outside of my control. Sometimes, I need to just take a chill pill. For seriously.
Contentment - there are so many "things" that I want...new sofas, more kitchen and entertaining-type stuff, more trips to good restaurants, more foreign travel...the list goes on. Our "blip" has lasted longer than we thought it would, but eventually we'll get back to where we were...only we'll be better prepared for whatever is in store for us down the road. No matter what I am currently "doing without," my life is really good - I really need to remind myself to be more grateful and contented!
Thoughtfulness - It isn't hard to be thoughtful - particularly in the case of my dad, I'm sure he would love it if I called more often, or sent him cards, but for some reason, I haven't stepped up to the plate. I hope that I will do better next year with my dad and with everyone else.
Promptness- In particular, I am SO BAD at responding to personal emails (ask Ashley or my Aunt Barb). I feel like I have nothing to say, but that's not a very good excuse for ignoring people. How hard is it to respond? Not very, methinks. Promptness in all situations is preferable to the alternative.
Accounting - no really. I want to take the CPA exam and still have a few classes to take. I hope that I can manage my time well enough to learn the accounting properly while still keeping up with work, home and life!

So that was our year - hopefully it didn't take you a year to read about it :) It has been good and bad, happy and miserable, easy and hard. But we have learned a lot and I'm proud of where we are right now. In the end, we're happy and healthy - and we're hopeful that everything else will fall into place.

Farewell 2009 - I can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Cutest Dogs in the World

2010-01-01T21:15:00.001-08:00

I've been meaning to post these for ages. These boys are so great - we really love having them. Here are my favorites from the last couple of months!

Sorry Klawers...I swear it was only for a couple of seconds. I just can't get over the look on Matt's face and Emery's demon eyes...HA!

Buddy being a baaaaad dog...he is not only NOT allowed to sit on the back cushion of the couch, he is also NOT allowed to be on the couch without people there with him. But he was so cute, I had to take a picture...he's pretty much completely irresistible.

Doesn't spoiled Emery James look comfortable?

Yeah, Buddy thought so, too. And he certainly didn't approve of being left out in the cold...

...so he made his way up there, too. And he made sure to get closer to Matt than Emery. Because Buddy is the boss.

It's so nice to be able to do accounting homework with such fine company.

Or work work (like the kind I get paid for). And yes, sometimes I do work work while laying on the dog room floor. I'm a pretty respectable professional. Obviously.

This is a so-so picture of the sad sad costumes that I tried to make for the dogs for Halloween...hahaha! Emery is a cowboy and Buddy is an indian! And looking at this picture, you can barely tell....all the "detail" was on their backs...BUT I didn't have the heart to make them get dressed up again after I realized that the picture wasn't very good. You can tell how much fun they're having.

No comfortable seat is complete without a dog being ever-so-inconveniently tucked in between you and what you're trying to do. But how do you say no to a cute little guy like this? Trick question - you NEVER say no to cute guys like this.

This is a pretty clear demonstration of the boys' efforts to help me on a day I was home with a 101+ degree fever...and still trying to get work done. They're soooo helpful.

I don't know how he does it, but Buddy always manages to squeeze between Emery and whatever it is that Emery enjoys being snuggled up against at any given moment. Comfort be damned!

Really, Emery James? Really?

Buddy loves his Uncle Forrest!

Buddy also likes being behind people. Again, comfort be damned!

This is how they spend most days...sprawled out in the sun in the dog room. It's also a good shot of Emery's froggy legs.

There are no words for this. Except maybe HI-LARIOUS!

They LOVE eating vegetables straight from the garden...here, they're munching on turnip greens. Such funny little guys!

This is probably the thing that makes Buddy happiest in the world - having HIS Matt aaaaall to himself. Aren't they cute?

ZOMBIE DOG!! About a third of all of Emery's sleeping hours involve him looking like a zombie. But he's a cute little zombie, no?

A Year of FOOD!

2010-01-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

Some of our favorites of the year...

Czech Food - Bohemian Sweet and Sour Cabbage, Roasted Pork (Veprova Pecene) and Bread Dumplings (Houskove Knedliky) - we missed Prague...and tried to recreate it on-the-cheap!

What do you think? Does my Cod with Tomatoes and Leeks look much like Martha's?

BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad - again...a re-creation of something I miss...the Yard House version is WAY better, but it was fun to give it a shot!

The first loaf of bread I tried to bake this year - it is whole wheat. It was okay, but salty - all the loaves I've tried from the same recipe book I used for this one came out salty....so I looked elsewhere for good recipes...guess I could have just limited the salt, though, huh?

Mmmm...golden raisin and walnut bread...

Matt actually made this one (without anyone to even be his sous chef or anything). It is homemade ricotta and herb gnocchi and foccacia with gorgonzola and pine nuts. Oooo... so impressive.... But seriously, it was REALLY good. Like Amazing.

Bad picture, but great dessert - a blueberry and nectarine croustade...I learned how to make these at a Sur la Table cooking class with my Aunt Barb in DC one summer...this is the only one I have made without her supervision that came out as well as I hoped it would :)

Honey white bread. I'm sort of a bread snob, so really "look down on" white bread, but Matt and I are completely hooked on this bread - we (I) make a couple of loaves every other weekend...it makes the best toast EVER...just slather it with homemade strawberry jam and it's almost better than dessert (I said almost...).

Pumpkin pancakes....I was too hungry to wait for pumpkin bread to bake, so I cheated and made pancakes...they were easy and AWESOME!

And another re-creation...we had something similar to this at a local farmers market with some friends and I couldn't wait to see if I could make it on my own! Brioche Bread Pudding French Toast with cranberries. I "made up" the recipe, so it could certainly use some refining, but it came out pretty well for a first try!

This was our New Years' Eve dinner - Bubble and Squeak! It has brussel sprouts, turnips, potatoes, onions and rutabagas in it - and we used turnips and rutabagas from our garden that we picked literally moments before cooking...mmm....

And this is the bubble and squeak with the onion gravy and sausages on top! We tried two kinds of sausages - one pork and one venison with blueberries...both awesome!! Such a great way to ring in the New Year.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-22T22:49:00.000-08:00

Matt was very particular about how this picture would be taken, because he wanted it to be "symbolic" of our year. Here is our 2009 in summary (leaving out any real detail, of course):

1. We look the same.

2. We got DOGS! And they are the best, most wonderful dogs in the world!

3. We've made progress on the house, but still have SO FAR to go (as evidenced by our paint streak, no mantle/hearth, and stain swatches in the background).

Sorry I have been so terrible lately at keeping up here. I have a huge backlog of photos, but am working on a crazygangbusters deadline at work. Sometime after January 8, I should hopefully have a plenty of time to get caught up! It has been a weird year, but a good one. Lots of challenges and changes.

Latest doggie nicknames

2009-10-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

My current favorites:

Buddy = Nutter Budder
Emery = Little (he might be chunky, but he's still little)

I wonder if all these nicknames create any sort of doggie identity crises we should be worried about...hmmm...

On an entirely unrelated note, a woman at work convinced me to talk to the dogs like they are five year-old children. I'm totally convinced they understand me. Looks like my hair brained antics won't be disappearing anytime soon :) Poor Matt.

Prayers for Mighty Malachi

2009-10-12T13:29:00.000-07:00

This ridiculously cute little guy is the son of a friend-of-a-friend. In his short little life so far, he has had quite the journey with Leukemia...and it seems that his family may be beginning a new and difficult chapter.

His mom keeps a journal where she updates on his progress and asks for prayers, so I will not attempt to repeat any of the details here. I've never actually met them, but have been touched by their story. Please visit their journal and keep them in your thoughts and prayers. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/malachismith/journal

Have a Nice Day!

2009-10-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

It may not be the Virgin Mary in my toast or Abe Lincoln in my laundry pile, but it still gave me a good laugh! Hope you're all enjoying a good weekend!

Dogs dogs dogs...

2009-10-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

DOGGIE PICTURE OVERLOAD!! Here are some of my personal favorites from the past few weeks!

Since when are these guys into tennis balls? It's a mystery...but this thing is their current "Flavor of the Week." It's fun to watch them slip and slide on the wood floors chasing it...HA!

The aftermath of a living room picnic. They're not allowed on the real beds, so we gave in for this movie watching event...Star Wars and junk food...and dogs on the air mattress...everybody wins!

Ooojie woojie woojie....I just wanna pinch his dang cheeks! How cute is this guy? I would snuggle him ALL DAY if I wasn't afraid of getting covered in itchy bumps...haha...

Ahhh, the infamous food train. It starts on the far left of the frame and ends up somewhere near Palm Springs by the time they're done...they loves them some dog foods...

Awww...Buddy loves all things squishy...

And Emery loves punking Buddy...this started out with Emery punching Buddy in the face and me laughing hard enough to snort. Awesome.

Buddy's revenge. I am pretty sure that if Emery looks too comfortable, Buddy decides to steal his idea...and often his personal space - this picture doesn't do it justice, but Buddy literally walked over and flopped down right on top of Emery. Wouldn't want to let him have the warm spot all to himself...no no...

Three sleeping dudes. This was not a set up. Matt is actually asleep in this one. Until he sees this picture on the bloggeroo here, he will have no idea that it even exists...muhahahaha! Surprise!

Matt was waiting for his GPS watch to connect to the satellites last weekend and at some point realized that Emery was getting fired up about the light spot being created by the sun reflecting on the watch (does that have a real name? like refractionage or watchlightiness or something?). And as he has a tendency to do, Matt took the opportunity to tool on poor Emery a little. We don't get out much.

Cheap Thrills

2009-09-29T22:07:00.001-07:00

Matt and I have WAY too much fun trying to provoke moments like these while watching America's Funniest Home Videos. Emery isn't always such a jumpy guy, so when he is, it's always extra fun for us! Enjoy!

Young and in Love

2009-09-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

Over the Labor Day weekend, Mom and Gary brought up a bunch of boxes of my old stuff for me to go through. A lot of it was good stuff (books, china, "memory clothes") but some of it was just kind of funny! They brought a bag of my stuffed animals - most of them were recognizable as some of my childhood favorites, but one, in particular, stood out. The stuffed rabbit pictured below was never one of my favorites (so sorry if you are the one who bought it for me). It was pretty, but never the most cuddly toy.

Given my lack of attachment to it, I gave it to the dogs (who seemed pretty excited to have it). There was a fair bit of tug of war involved and it was clear that somewhere in ye olde times, Boston Terriers must have enjoyed killing small animals (they really went for the eyes and the tail...brutal). The best part, though, was the fact that Buddy was totally in love with it...he snuggled it for the better part of the weekend!

Crazy for Tomatoes

2009-09-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

Over the long weekend, Mom and Gary came up to stay with us. We had a couple of projects, but the weekend mostly revolved around food and enjoying good company! If you remember, last Labor Day weekend was our first weekend in the house...we scraped ceilings, scrubbed cabinets, spent two nights sleeping on the floor...and then we moved all of our stuff from the apartment (6 blocks away). So this was our big ONE YEAR REUNION...haha!

While we had a handful of things that we worked on (the guys were mostly stuck fixing the garage roof...bleh...), for Mom and me, the biggest project we had was canning tomatoes! We went to a pick-your-own farm (Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark) on Saturday morning and picked 48 pounds of roma tomatoes...for NINE DOLLARS!!! If I have my say, we'll be doing this every Labor Day weekend.

This is what 48 pounds of roma tomatoes looks like...some of them were HUGE...I've never seen romas like this in the grocery store!

This is what 48 pounds of romas looks like with our chunky monkey under the table (he sits in this exact spot A LOT).

This is what 48 pounds of romas looks like after 8 hours of canning. Whoa!

And this is what some of those very same romas look like all crushed up on top of a homemade stuffed pizza (stuffed with spinach and homemade mozzerella...mmm...).

It was such a great weekend! Thanks, Mom and Gary!

More Doggie Pics!

2009-09-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

I know I have been pretty terrible about blogging lately...sorry! Things have been busy and great. We've had Mark with us twice, plus a BBQ or two, some gardening and, well...LIFE! This past weekend, we went to a BBQ at Chris and Aja's house - and Emery and Buddy's former "parents" were there (Dan and Nichole). It was such fun to catch up and swap stories about their little doggie quirks (and I got to meet their little Ethan who is quite possibly the cutest kid on the planet...oh..except for my nieces and nephews, of course!). I promised Dan I would put up some photos so here they are! I need to start taking them more often...the dogs are ridiculously cute and funny, so we've got lots of material around here!

Buddy seems to like hanging out by the new curtains...and most recently, he has taken a liking to being UNDER them!

They are always sleeping in such funny positions...it cracks me up! It usually starts because if Emery lays down closest to Matt (or to me), Buddy tries to work his way in between Emery and whoever it is that he's snuggling against. Eventually, they end up in some wacky doggie knot.

This picture pretty much gets to the heart of how the boys spend most days. Buddy is almost always sitting "at attention" and looking super duper cute (usually waiting for you to let him into your lap) while Emery is perfectly contented to hang out on the dog bed or a blanket! The only new development around here is that Emery has started following us around a little more than he used to - when I'm getting ready in the bathroom in the morning, he'll come sit on the rug next to me. And if I stand still long enough, he'll flop his chubby little self down and put his head on my foot...SO CUTE!

On the same weekend that we dogsat Roscoe (the dog that the boys "mounted" for 3 days straight...), there was a heat wave and our A/C was out, so it was HOT inside the house. I wanted the boys to have a cool treat, so we put peanut butter in their kongs and froze them. Here is me letting the boys lick the peanut butter off of the butter knife! How cute are they?! (ignore Roscoe and my super awesome outfit if you can)

So, Dan, this post was for you! Hopefully I will be better about taking pictures and getting them up here :)

Doggie Nicknames

2009-07-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

Random post, sorry - I was just thinking about how many nicknames the boys have (they already had most of them when we got them, but we've added a couple more). Below are my current favorites for each little guy.

Chunk and "The Little Sausace" (pronounced sow-SAW-chay)

Chunk is a little obvious because Emery is a little chunkier than Buddy (above, he is macking down on a Kong full of peanut butter). The Little Sausace stems from a misprint on a brunch menu somewhere in Los Feliz...they spelled sausage with a "C" and I haven't pronounced it the "mainstream" way ever since. Given Emery's "chunk" status, I think it is clear why we would call him our Little Sausace (and to give credit where credit is due, Mark may have actually come up with this one). I think it was used once or twice and it quickly became a favorite.

Budderworth and Princess

Budderworth is one that Buddy came with and I LOVE IT....use it all the time. Princess has really come about despite Matt's vehement protests (Buddy is, after all, a boy). Buddy's gait can often best be described as a "prance" - he is also very pretty and when he is trying to make you happy, he sits so perfectly, it's like he's having tea with the Queen or something. Also, Buddy can be a little high strung sometimes - he needs things to be JUST SO for him to be comfortable and happy. Any deviation from Buddy's "norm" typically results in pouting, shyness, and the occasional display of dominance over Emery. So he's a little high-maintenance - but he's OUR Princess and we love him!

DRAPES!

2009-07-21T10:13:00.001-07:00

Again, I'm still catching up on my blogging...it's just that SO MUCH has happened over the last month...I can't keep up!

Mom and Gary came up for another working weekend in the middle of July (a couple of weekends ago, now)...Matt and Gary insulated the attic and built us a pretty gate while Mom and I made draperies for the "dog room" and made lots of homemade cheese (okay only mozzarella and ricotta...but it felt like a lot).

I still need to post pics of all of our food and of the gate (I'm sure you'll forgive me if I don't post any pics of the attic insulation...you couldn't pay me enough to go up there...it gives me the jeebies). For now, here are pics of our awesome drapes!

Thanks to our good friend (and awesome interior designer) Alison Melvin who advised us that our curtains should have at least a little structure (we were seriously planning to sew big rectangles and clip them to the rings...thankfully, Alison spared us from making that mistake!). I think the hardest part of these stinking things was getting the pattern lined up across the 6 panels...I'm still pretty impressed that we pulled it off!

Here is everyone just before Mom and Gary headed home. After working their butts off for 3 straight days, they stuck around until 10pm on a Monday night just so that Mom and I could get the last bits of sewing done (we really wanted to get everything hung up before they left so that we could all see it together)! Such troopers.

In any case, I don't know if I'll ever be able to thank them enough for all of their help on our house. This weekend was particularly stressful because it was stinkin' hot and since it was our first time making draperies, it took a lot of hashing through things and planning...we didn't really get much sewing done before the 3rd day. I'm afraid I was kind of a crabby mess for a little bit of it (I think my mom still loves me, but you'd really have to ask her to be sure...haha!).

So to Mom - thanks for all of your patience and hard work and for motivating me to do it right - it might have gotten done without you, but it most certainly would have been a mess (I probably would have just cut the fabric and clipped it up without doing any sewing!).

To Gary - thanks for climbing up into our too-hot attic, for giving us such a pretty gate, for re-caulking our kitchen sink, and for not threatening to drive home before we got finished with the drapes...you are more patient than I would have been. I'm always in awe of how hard you work when you're here.

And to Matt - thanks for putting up with my crabby butt, for insulating, for gate-building, and for doing most of the dinner cooking since Mom and I were so busy with the drapes (I'm still way impressed at your foccacia and gnocchi...). And thanks for going up into the attic nearly every day since Mom & Gary left to continue the insulation project...it makes a difference...and I'm always impressed that you're willing to start your days on such a sucky project (being caked with sweat, dirt, and fiberglass before 9am is ridiculous, but thank you).

Overall, the "above-and-beyond" factor of this working weekend was off the charts. I'm so lucky to have such hard-working folks around me...maybe it will rub off onto my lazy bum someday ;-) One can only hope!

More AZ pics

2009-07-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

Matt just sent me a couple more Arizona pics from his camera, so I thought I would share.

My three favorite boys! I think this was in the middle of one of the Bourne movies...it cracked me up because of the way Emery is sitting with his little hiney on the couch and his legs dangling down...silly dog!

Matt found that if he held either of the dogs above the pool, they would start doggie-paddling in the air...kinda funny. Does that make us cruel? It was so dang hot, we were trying to dip their little feet in to cool them off...oh, who am I kidding? The dogs get REALLY hyper after baths and we found that it was exactly the same even when we only got their feet wet...we needed the entertainment of them chasing one another in circles around the house! Love these guys :)

The Best Day of Emery's Life

2009-07-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

The pictures (and video) below are from another trip we took to Arizona recently. I was able to get a week off of work, so we headed out to Arizona for a few days to spend the 4th of July with the Hennessys and to enjoy some good old fashioned summer fun. I had a really great time despite the fact that I ended up working a fair bit. We watched lots of guy movies, ate a lot of ice cream, and generally relaxed and enjoyed!

And more than anyone else, Emery had the time of his freaking life (which ended up being pretty amusing for the rest of us). Brett has a bearded dragon named Bert (or maybe Burt...not sure which). Bert typically spends his days sitting under his heat lamp being "beardy" - he doesn't usually move around too much which is probably why the boys didn't even notice him during our Father's Day trip. Well, this time, he was losing his outer layer of beardy skin, so he was walking around his house a lot more than usual trying to rub it off. And since Emery fancies himself quite the lizard hunter, he was pretty thrilled about it. Now if he just could have figured out how to get through that dang impenetrable force field (yay glass)...

Until this event, I had not seen Emery drool. Bert's "force field" may forever have a coating of Emery's drool/snot on it.

Even Buddy got fired up after about 3 straight days of Emery's incessant drooling and whining (picture a mini-wookie on repeat for 8 hours at a time...real great.). Notice that Bert is completely ignoring the dogs and looking quite strapping up there on "Pride Rock."

Occasionally we would kick Emery off the couch because he was getting a little annoying, but then he would just stand on the ground and jump repeatedly (and we can barely get him to jump for treats) often banging straight into the cabinet. Awesome.

This video is my first here in the blogosphere, so I sure hope it worked properly. This will give you a wee little look into how Emery spent his five days in Arizona. (note: ignore the shaking of the camera if you can...I couldn't stop laughing...)

Little Dogs in the Big House!

2009-07-18T18:24:00.001-07:00

These pictures are from a trip we took with the boys to visit Matt's family in Arizona. We were there for Father's Day and to celebrate Matt's birthday. Obviously I'm a little behind on my blogging :)

It was the first time that the boys had been to the Hennessy house - it is a lot bigger than our house, so they were beside themselves with excitement...so many fun things to explore, stuff to sniff, and lizards to chase!

Here is Buddy sporting Brett's "Tall" - if you don't know what a "Tall" is (I sure didn't), it's that type of ginormous white t-shirt you would see a gangsta wearing. Now that Buddy and Emery have both had the opportunity to try on the "Tall," they have been given new gangsta names by Mark: E-Money and B-Murder. The Hennessy brothers are some seriously funny dudes!

Here is Emery lounging in the shade by the pool. It is pretty hot out there, so Emery was happy to be outside and Princess Buddy was NOT. It's so funny to see their different personalities!

The Hennessy kitchen affords more opportunities to seek treasures than ours does. I don't think they found anything down there (Emery got his paws of an ice cube at some point), but they still spent a lot of time trying!

Here are the boys in the entryway. The picture is being taken from right about where they have a Native American statue...probably the funniest part of the trip was when Buddy mistook it for a real person (it is life-sized) and barked his head off at it for a few minutes...classic!

Here they are being spoiled by B.G. - they LOVE THAT CHAIR...and they get on it all by themselves when no one is watching...bad boys. Though I have to admit that it's a pretty comfy chair...I'd probably risk getting in trouble by getting onto it if I were a dog, too!

Hennessy Working Weekend!

2009-07-08T21:14:00.000-07:00

It has been over a month since Matt's parents came to visit us for a weekend! We got a lot done and had a great time doing it! It was Barbara and Jim's first time meeting the dogs and for Barbara, it was the first time she had seen the house since Matt bought it (when there was that gaping hole in the living room wall...do you remember? I do.). It was a really nice weekend. Here is the photographic proof:

Here is Jim with (as he likes to call them) Alfonse and Gaston. We were lucky to have Jim around to keep the dogs on their best behavior...he spent a decent amount of time babysitting "The Boys" in between rounds of staining fence planks!

And here is B. G. with the boys...everybody loves them. They're pretty perfect. And if you're wondering why I just referred to Barbara as B. G., check out www.bghennessy.com - it turns out that Matt's mom is the best children's book author EVER. For serious.

For those of you that don't know the back story on this light, here it is: this light hasn't worked in the 9 months we've lived in the house. No one we have asked has been able to figure out how to open the industrial-style fixture. REALLY frustrating!! AHH! So Jim shows up and is convinced he can fix it. Matt and I were decidedly NOT convinced, but he went up the ladder, gave it a couple of good whacks and it came open! We replaced the lightbulb and for the first time in 9 months, this little corner of the kitchen was illuminated (that's my excuse for the dirty wall in the background...without the light, we couldn't tell it was dirty!). Needless to say, we were really impressed...and grateful that our WHOLE kitchen is illuminated now...YAY!

Besides staining a bunch of fence planks (for the new gate), the other big project was the front yard! B. G. and I planted flowers along the walk and in front of the guest room wall. It may not sound like too much work, but there were a fair number of weeds and soil with a LOT of clay. So we had to break it all up, mix in some new topsoil, pick out the weeds...and on and on. It can best be described as BACK-BREAKING work. Thankfully, the artistic ones of the bunch (Matt and his Mom) picked out the flowers, so the combination of colors looks really great! We (and by "we" I mean B. G.) scraped and repainted the downspout next to the entry (and you can't tell by the picture, but it looks pretty awesome now).

Here are us two ladies showing off our handiwork...after changing our clothes, of course!

So does anyone notice the volume of changes around here but us? Our parents seem to appreciate/notice all of the changes...I'm sure the pictures don't do the place justice. I really love it here. And with all the help we have gotten from our families, it just keeps getting better. I wonder what the place will look like this time next year...

More Pics from the WA Trip!

2009-05-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

Photos from other peeps on the trip are starting to roll in, so here are some of my favorites so far:

Meghan is a very good photographer...she's just a little short...I managed to sneak in the picture anyway!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Ryan. Probably of all time. I don't think you can look at this and not remember the "exhilaration" of flying back and forth on one of these puppies!

Even Emmitt couldn't resist the temptation!

Proof that you're never too old to sit on your mom's lap. Even if it IS on a swing.

Brandon really does kill me. He's such a funny dude.

You're also never too old to sit in your Auntie's lap. Clearly. (side note: that poor little girl on the other swing kept following our family members around...I think she wanted to play SO BAD, but was too shy to get too close)

Haha. This is definitely a great action shot. Emmitt's coordination and athletic prowess are evident here.

Such a sweet face. Too bad she's growing up so dang fast!

Poor Grace. I was certain she was going to barf after this one. Way to go, Grandma Jane :)

Little Benham froggies. Very charming.

I wasn't here for this, but I heard that it was quite the sight to behold. This is Uncle Eric trying to prove to Brandon that he is still bigger and stronger.

I heard that Brandon really gave him a run for his money!

I love this face! I guess she wasn't happy about having her picture taken (or having her irritating Aunt Rachel making a goofy face over her shoulder).

I think I was showing her a video of Emery and Buddy on my camera.

WE HAVE VEGGIES!

2009-05-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

We officially have a yellow crookneck squash that is about 2 inches long...woohoo! And (though not really a veggie) we have about 4 or 5 little green tomatoes! Who cares that they are less than a centimeter in diameter? We also have a TON of limes, but they still have a way to go before they're ready to eat/use.

Way to go, little garden :)

Catch up!

2009-05-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been particularly eventful, so I'm going to do my best to post about all of it. The posts below represent lots of fun stuff, new stuff, and big stuff. And remind me of why I am such a happy lady.

I have tried to put things in the order they happened...so aside from this post, they show up in reverse here...like usual. Am I the only one that is confused?

Please pardon misspellings, typ-os, and other badness. This is A LOT of posts for me, but I knew that if I didn't get them up tonight, I wouldn't ever do it. Had to go fast!

The Dogs are Home Again!

2009-05-19T22:31:00.001-07:00

The Klawers were kind enough to take care of the boys while we were away (Matt was in Florida for his brother Mark's graduation from Eckerd). I missed them a lot, so I couldn't wait to come home from work tonight to see them (and Matt, of course). I am very happy to see that they are right back in the swing of things: snuggling on the couch.

Isn't it nice that they have one another? I love having two rather than one!

Garden!

2009-05-19T22:15:00.001-07:00

Now that we have a yard, we decided to plant a garden. Mom made it really easy by starting the seeds for us, but we still managed to kill some zucchini plants and some Bulgarian carrot peppers (can't say I was too "broken up" about the peppers). Still, I think it is coming along pretty well. We are growing 5 kinds of tomatoes, 3 kinds of basil, yellow crookneck squash, cayenne peppers, and brussel sprouts!

In any case, I took some pictures of the garden before Mother's Day (on May 8th) and again when we got home yesterday (May 18th) to show how much it grew. I was shocked!

Bed #1 has 3 kinds of tomatoes and 2 kinds of basil. Bed #2 has everything else.

Bed #1 - Before

Bed #1 - After 10 days

Bed #2 - Before

Bed #2 - After 10 days

CRAZY, NO?

Pike's Place Market

2009-05-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

This trip was my first time in Washington. Since we had a few free hours the day that we flew back home, I convinced my Dad to go to Pike's Place Market with me. The weather was wonderful and I wanted to go somewhere that was quintessentially Seattle, so this is what I picked. I think it was the right choice - we had fun walking around!

Eric's Big Day!

2009-05-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

The purpose of our Washington trip was to see my "little" brother graduate from college. He still has a couple of classes to finish up, but he "walked" on Sunday - needless to say, it was a pretty big event for the whole family.

I am so proud of my brother for giving himself the advantage of finishing up with college. And I am so proud of him for not only making the decision to go to a four year school, but for actually following through and doing it. For any of you who have met a Laybourn, you know we have problems with follow through :)

I got a little misty eyed a couple of times as the line of grads filed into the stadium, but thankfully the ceremony was tedious enough that it knocked any possible sentimentality right out of me...and I was able to keep it together and not show everyone what a sappy nerd I am!

Here is Eric on his way into the stadium.

My Uncle Chris and me - another family member I haven't seen in two years!

Here is the big grad after the ceremony was FINALLY over. We were all impressed to see that he dressed up!

A big hug for the mommy.

Eric's friend Steven made the trip up from San Marcos to celebrate the big day!

Eric and me...I have no explanation for my stupid pose except that I might have been trying to distract from the chubs. HA!

Eric's best "sorority girl pose." I think he got it right.

Trip to Washington

2009-05-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I was in Washington for Eric's graduation from the University of Puget Sound. It was the first time I've been on a non-business trip without Matt and it was the first time I have been away from the dogs since we got them, but it ended up being an AWESOME TRIP!

Dad and I traveled together, so we were pretty much constant companions for about 4 days - yipes! I don't really spend that much time with anyone but Matt, so it took a little adjusting, but it worked out well. Our hotel room had an awesome view of Mt. Rainier, we got to hang out with Eric and his friend Steven a bit, and I got to see my sisters and their wonderful kids (and one BIL). The pictures below don't really cover all of the kids, but I didn't get everything on my camera...I'll post more when folks send them on (included in there are a couple of full family photos and a picture of me on a swing with my 13 year old nephew on my lap!). So an advance sorry to Ryan and Brianna who are largely underrepresented below!

Our view.

Eric and me at the beginning of our mini UPS campus tour! He was such a patient tour guide.

Eric and Dad on the "tour."

He is going to KILL ME for putting this picture up here, but I think it's great! These kids are so lucky to have such a good Pappy. I think Meghan was pretty proud of herself for getting him to wear her sparkly gold hat! All little girls should be so lucky.

This is the first time I have seen the kids in exactly TWO YEARS. Needless to say, they were all a lot more grown up, but I think the biggest change for me was Meghan who is now a real little person with full conversations and laughter...and a little bit of shyness that you can see here!

This is Grandma Jane with Brianna, Meghan and Grace - this spinny thing was a pretty big hit...even with the big kids!

I guess this is what a bored 13 year old does at a park with his family - plays video games. This was just so funny, I couldn't resist taking a picture! He is such a patient older cousin and a trooper in general.

So the temptation of the rocking horse thingie was too much to resist! HA! Like a bear on a tricycle. I love this kid.

She was making us cereal and cherry-apple soup. YUM!

Crazy Dog Lady

2009-05-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

Okay okay okay. So now that we have the boys, I've begun taking a jillion pictures and I go to work every day with new dog stories. I am officially a crazy dog lady. So you will have to forgive me for this post. Below are some more pictures of the boys from our trip to visit Mom and Gary. Because I think they are the cutest dogs in the whole wide world.

Who doesn't like a lap to sit on, right? Spoiled dog.

Hanging out after a walk around the neighborhood...lots of fun new stuff to explore!

Emery being spoiled by my mom. She used to do this for our cats, too.

Pasta!

2009-05-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

While we were visiting Mom and Gary, Mom and I made some homemade pasta! We made pumpkin ravioli for thanksgiving, but this time we made spaghetti which was a little bit more involved. As you can see below, Matt even pitched in - it was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures.

Suckers for the Dogs!

2009-05-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

It's not just us, I swear! Everyone who meets the doggies falls in love with them. Case in point: my parents. Matt and I took the boys to visit my parents over the Mother's Day weekend and Mom, Gary AND my Dad LOVED them. I didn't get any pictures of my dad with them, but below are a couple with Mom and Gary.

The boys sat on my Mom's lap pretty much the whole time. When we got home last night, they got on their doggie bed and didn't even try to get up on our laps the WHOLE EVENING! That has NEVER happened. I think they just got so spoiled by my mom that they weren't interested in us :( It was kind of funny, though.

Gary was a sucker, too. The yard isn't fully fenced, so we ran around it with the dogs on a leash...Gary gave in right away and let them roam around under his supervision.

It was pretty funny how quickly the boys got my parents wrapped around their little fingers (paws, whatever).

It was a great weekend!

New Hobby!

2009-05-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

FOOD STORAGE

Check it out - when I got home from work yesterday, Matt had left this wonderful present for me!

Now that we have more space, I'm totally into storing up food for the impending zombie invasion (or earthquake...whatever). This week, Ralph's had all of its tomatoes and beans on sale, so Matt bought me TONS. Ask him what makes me happiest in the world and his answer will be something along the lines of "anything that lets her fill up the pantry, fridge, or hall cabinets" - and it's true.

I am one happy lady.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

2009-05-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

For those of you who didn't already know this about me, I'm kind of a blog stalker. I click through friends of friends of friends and every now and then I find something worth finding. This post is about one of the better ones I've hit. I have no idea who the person is or what their name is, but she is a blogger and she posted this recipe and we just made it and it was AWESOME!

And I stole her picture, too. I thought of posting a link to her page in order to better give her credit, but I thought she might appreciate my theft of her yummy recipe even less if she knew that I'd sent a bunch of crazies over to her family blog (because if you follow this blog, chances are that you like me...or you know me...and you are possibly "not right" in the head. If you know what I mean).

Here is her recipe:
1 box yellow cake mix
1cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons water
2 eggs
1 cup of milk chocolate chips (or 2 cups, I really just dumped until it looked good!)

Preheat oven to 350
Toss in in your mixer until all is combined
Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet (I always use a small ice cream scoop, I like how uniform they turn out)
Bake about 15 minutes.

Matt and I made a half a batch and it took about 3 minutes to get it all ready. And rather than using a mixer, I set Matt to work with "Korgon: The Destroyer Whisk" (matt's charming nickname for my new and unexpectedly heavy-duty whisk). The batter didn't seem very thick and I was worried that it would turn into little peanut butter puddles, but it came out exactly the way the picture looks. Next time we might add peanut chunks...or crunchy peanut butter. YUM!

So thanks to the random lady (that I don't know) who put this rockin' recipe on her blog - I definitely owe her one!

Braised Short Ribs

2009-05-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

This is a good example of how Matt and I crave a slightly different variation of something we're planning for dinner. In this case, he wanted creamy polenta with his short ribs -- I just wanted plain old white rice. As you can tell, Matt's eye for presentation really IS better than mine - I was going for "unmade" and "organic" which are, apparently, synonymous with "bowl of crap." WHATEVER....it tasted awesome!

Regardless of presentation, this was one heck of a yummy dinner. This was from November of last year and we haven't had the dish again since - but I can still taste the tender, buttery meat...mmm. It's so much fun how a sale on some particular cut of meat can inspire you to try something new!

On that note, we have a new mutual goal that we started on a few weeks ago. Every week, we're trying to incorporate some new meat or vegetable into our cooking...between the two of us, we've eaten a good deal of the various meats, fishes and veggies available out there, but we are trying to incorporate those ingredients into our home cooking. So far it has been great...hopefully the positive pattern continues!

Life with my boys

2009-04-29T13:13:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, Matt and I recently adopted a couple of dogs. I figured it was about time for me to (properly) introduce them to all of you who don't have facebook accounts (this means you, Mom, Aunt Barb, and Aunt Sue).

So the short of it is that we adopted two 3 year-old Boston Terrier boys from a friend of a friend. Their names are Buddy and Emery (and a number of variations on those two names). And what it boils down to is that they are the two best dogs EVER. They are so well trained and they are so friendly and entertaining. I really don't remember what life was like without them.

Here they are, in all their glory.

Buddy is on the left and Emery, the right. Buddy has more the markings of a typical Boston, while Emery is a little more goofy looking. Buddy must, AT ALL TIMES, be in your lap if you are sitting down. If you do not allow him to sit on your lap, he will look at you like you just killed his mom. Emery is pretty happy to be anywhere warm...a sunny spot on the floor, a sunny spot in the dirt outside, a lap, whatever. And if ever Emery gets to your lap before Buddy, Mr. Budworth (<-- one of the aforementioned variations), squeezes between you and Emery and then uses his little legs to push Emery as far away as possible. I'm pretty sure Buddy is the dominant one.

Even on 100+ degree days, Buddy has a way of securing his place in your immediate vicinity. I was ridiculously uncomfortable here, but I think we slept like that for an hour. I'm a sucker.

Most mornings start like this. The boys get up, eat, poop, and then things get quiet. Inevitably, I get concerned that there is some sort of mischief happening, so I head out of my bathroom to investigate. Nine times out of ten, I find that Matt is "getting ready to run" and The Boys are already enjoying their 7am nap.

Most afternoons end up like this at some point. Matt is also, evidently, a sucker. Though you may notice that Buddy had not yet crowded Emery out of lap-time. This is NOT typical.

And here they are with their Unkie Forrest. It took about 30 seconds for them to love him more than they love me. I think they prefer the men-folk (though Buddy probably just likes any obliging lap). Needless to say, Forrest is on their list of new friends.

This is Emery's preferred relaxation spot. He likes laps, but there is one particular dirt patch in the yard that he has taken a liking to.

Further evidence that Matt is a sucker...wherever he is, Buddy follows. Even if it means being uncomfortably perched within the confines of a computer chair.

So there you have it. Those are our two new additions. They are perfect and wonderful and I am SO HAPPY that the opportunity came up to adopt them.

Mmmm....donuts...

2009-04-29T13:06:00.001-07:00

Okay, so they're really donut HOLES, but whatever...they are fried dough, covered in sugar. Mmm.

On weekends, Matt and I try to go all out on breakfast. Usually one day involves one of our staples (pecan waffles, breakfast burritos, oatmeal pancakes, etc.), but the other day I try to make something new or special. Last weekend was donut holes. They came out a little larger than we would have liked, but I didn't know how much they would puff up...and clearly I underestimated :)

Anyhow, here's a picture that demonstrates our eating habits. Homemade, yummy, and not-always-so-healthy. I have lots of pictures of our food, so maybe I'll start putting them up here every now and then...you know, so that it looks like I actually blog sometimes...

A first...and teeny update!

2009-03-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you know this about me, but I HATE RUNNING OUT OF STUFF! I think it must drive Matt crazy, because I've even started applying it to him (he may never run out of his favorite floss again) - I hate having to run to the store when I'm out of toothpaste or bodywash, rice or milk. So, I pretty much ALWAYS have extra on hand...thank goodness for Costco.

In any case, today is the first time in my entire life (!) that I have let my car get low enough on gas that the gas light came on! It kinda freaked me out, actually, because I've never seen it before. My daily commute is about 4 miles each way, so I don't have to fill up my gas tank more than every 3 or 4 weeks. Lately, my commute has quadrupled to 16 miles each way and I guess it just slipped my mind that I'd need gas sooner. Oops. And try getting into and out of a gas station during rush hour in Los Angeles...I can promise you I won't be forgetting gas again anytime soon.

As for the teeny update, things here are still SUPER busy. Matt and I got the garden planted this weekend and he finished running drip irrigation to it. We're both pretty excited about how much nicer the yard looks than when we moved in 7 months ago.

Well, I'd better get back to work...wouldn't want to get fired...

I'm not dead!

2009-03-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

I'm just equal parts busy and lazy.

I swear I'll update this thing someday - I've got new pictures to post and everything!

For now, I'm going to crank through some work, so I can leave the office and begin what will hopefully be a super-relaxing weekend (full of ice cream and sleeping in...can't wait...).

HELP - and spread the word!

2009-02-23T16:48:00.001-08:00

My mom works with a man named Jesse and his friend's 14 year old daughter Amber has been missing for 11 days now. If you haven't already heard this story, Amber is from Escondido and she needs your help! Please keep this family in your thoughts, prayers, whatever it is that you do. And the more this information gets around to people, the more likely that she will be found, so spread the word, post this on your facebook, your myspace, your blog...whatever.

Here is a link to a website with all the info :

http://www.bigcatdesigns.com/amber/amber.htm

Please please please keep your eyes peeled and spread the word.

Again?!?

2009-02-22T17:17:00.000-08:00

So I'm having another really thankful moment and wanted to share. Matt and I had a couple of girls I used to work with over for brunch today - it was really wonderful to see them. We all worked together at Kroll and three of us got laid off there together (the other one had already left). As we sat around the table talking about the economy and life, we realized that while the california unemployment rate is somewhere near 10% (I think) and the LA unemployment rate is somewhere near 12% (again, don't quote me on this), the unemployment rate around our table of 5 was 60%. Yes, that's right...60%. And for those of you who don't already know, one of the people that is unemployed is Matt (though technically he is still employed for 5 more days). One friend has been unemployed since our last day at Kroll in July and the other one had found a job in December, but got laid off again like 5 weeks later.

I guess the reason I had a "thankful moment" is that we were all in such good spirits despite the crummy situation - I think we're all really lucky to have wonderful families and friends (including one another) and faith that if we keep trying, it will all work out in the end. I think in times like these, everything becomes infinitely worse when you lose "hope" or develop a really pessimistic attitude. So I'm thankful that we are all able to step back from the situation, realize that it's not the end of the world (even if it is really difficult sometimes), and be thankful for all of the blessings that we DO have. We are so much more fortunate than many and I'm happy we are able to recognize that.

I'm sure that the coming months will get more difficult in some ways, but I'm also sure they'll get easier in other ways. I think this pickle that many of us are finding ourselves in has given us the opportunity to step back and reevaluate our priorities. I don't know about everyone else, but I am sure finding out (in a very short period of time) what things are truly important to me. And if for no other reason than that, I'm almost grateful for this whole sucky situation (I said almost...). Lots of people are learning some pretty tough lessons these days about expectations, living within your means, and wants v. needs - I'm just really really happy that we have the opportunity to learn these things while we're so young - many people are not so fortunate.

So for all of my friends and family out there that are reading this: you are one of the reasons I felt so thankful today. You make me happy, you make me feel lucky, you remind me that there are plenty of things that can't be taken away from me as easily as a job can, and you remind me about what is really important. Thank you.

(oh yeah, and on a lighter note, I'm also thankful for the scone recipe my mom gave me from her friend Sue...they've been a big hit TWICE now...people just can't get enough - thanks Mom and Sue!)

I LOVE Southwest Airlines

2009-02-17T12:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you that know me well, you know I travel for work - sometimes a lot. Well, at some point, I got to be kind of a travel snob and really looked down my nose at budget airlines and Southwest in particular...the cattle call boarding, the inexperienced clientele, the generally unpleasant staff...when I pay a kabillion dollars for airfare, I expect that things will go reasonably smoothly - is that so wrong?

Unfortunately, at some point, most of my work-travel was between LAX and Sacramento (including all of my recent travel) - and with that itinerary, there's really no way of getting out of flying Southwest. And I have to say that I have been very pleasantly surprised. With their new boarding processes you don't get stuck standing up in line forever before the flight - and that was my biggest complaint before. Other wonderful and glorious features of Southwest are as follows:

Their boarding process takes 20 minutes - not 45 like most other airlines - for a business traveler, that makes a GINORMOUS difference.
Their website is ridiculously helpful. I can book everything online, change everything around a million times, and I never have to talk to ANYONE...ever. So efficient.
Their staff is great - very helpful, very efficient, very friendly - and sometimes they're even a little bit sassy...which I like.
NO EXTRA FEES...should I repeat this one? NO EXTRA FEES!! I can check two bags, sit in an exit row, and change my flight a bajillion times with no worry about extra fees. And I'm pretty sure they're the only airline that still offers peanuts...yum!
Southwest is obviously very smart for developing their brand in a way that REALLY encourages loyalty - if ever I have the option to fly Southwest over another airline, I take it. And you know what? I like giving my money to smart people more than I like giving it to stupid ones (this means you, Delta, United, American and the rest...)

So why do I love Southwest today? Well, I was flying to Sacramento this morning and somewhere around 27,000 feet and descending, I got the bloody nose of my life. Most of you know that I get bloody noses regularly, so I'm typically pretty well prepared to handle them. I'll spare you the details, but this one was about 4 or 5 times as bad as the worst ones I have ever had up to this point in my life (if you want to know how I got to these precise figures, feel free to ask, but it's kinda gross). I usually don't require additional assistance or tissues, but this time I actually had to have my coworker push the flight attendant call button (my hands were occupied). So, over come the two most helpful and friendly flight attendants EVER. It was a bumpy trip, so I couldn't get out of my seat - they brought me water, hand wipes, a ton of tissue and then they kept coming back to see if I was okay. And one of them even helped me get my hands cleaned off...seriously. I was so impressed. If past experience is any indication, the folks at United or American probably would have ignored me altogether (or maybe tacked on a fee for bleeding on the plane...).

My only complaint is that Southwest doesn't have a way to send them a HUGE THANKS over the internet...the only way to contact them is phone or snail mail. So I'm writing this to get it out in the public....I LOVE SOUTHWEST! And the crew on flight 1914 from LAX to SMF totally rocked my world this morning.

Cheaters Never Prosper...

2009-02-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

DANGIT! This post is generally going to cover one of the reasons why I am sometimes the worst person ever! I'm a cheater. It's true - I cheated at Scrabble with Matt (past tense because I've been found out, so now I have to be good), I used to cheat at Monopoly as a kid when playing with my brother, and yes, I check my personal email and take care of personal things while I'm at work.

Here begins my tale: I have to do traffic school for a ticket I got in November. So I decided to do it online because I've heard it's much less painful that way. I picked my online traffic school based on 3 criteria:

1. It was on the LA County Approved List (impressive)
2. The website didn't seem sketchy (I don't want to get ripped off here, do I?)
3. It cost $14.95 (yes, I learned my cheapness skillz from Matt)

So I figure I'm well on my way to spending a couple of hours going through this online biznass and I start reading through the first section of material. It's supposed to take 8 hours, but I figure it shouldn't take very long at all. So why was I actually READING the material? Good question. When I realized what I was doing, I instantly copied the text of the webpage, pasted it into a word document and figured I could ctrl+F search it during the test. CHEATER!

I hit the "Take Test NOW" button and lo, I got "caught speeding" according to the too-legit online traffic school. It politely informs me that I must spend at least 40 minutes on each section before taking the test. And how long had I been in the section? SEVEN MINUTES! (for the record, I just tried it out and now I'm at 26 minutes....AHHH)

Now I sit here frustrated and wishing that I had just gone with one of the shady websites that cost a bit more...I bet they let you just breeze right through it. Jerks.

And of course, now I'm having an upsetting self-realization. I am one of those people that is convinced that right and wrong only count when someone is watching. So today I found a fun new way to remind myself that cheating, cutting corners, and rule breaking in general are wrong all the time. Given what I do for a living, you think I'd know this. I guess a lot of people can convince themselves that their time is SO VALUABLE (mine is technically worth $285/hour, for the record) that they are at liberty to take shortcuts as desired. And apparently I'm one of those people sometimes.

But not today! Today, Goodbyeticket.com has reminded me that I've got to follow the rules, just like everyone else.

Lucky...

2009-01-30T15:02:00.000-08:00

Today I'm having one of those days where I find myself constantly repeating in my head "I'm lucky to be busy, I'm lucky to have a job, I'm happy to be busy, I like what I do..."

Can't let myself forget, right?

That said, I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE WEEKEND! Only a few more hours left...sigh. Hopefully it will be a fun one - we have a concert on Saturday night, the superbowl on Sunday (which will still be fun...my home team may not have made it, but Matt's did!) and then Monday, we are getting a visit from Hennessy Sr.! He will be our first guest in the newly painted guest room...hopefully he likes peach...haha. We kept trying to call it "almond" because that's kind of what we were shooting for, but we kept slipping and accidentally calling it "peach." And then Chris (Aja's hubby) called it "sherbet" last weekend...bummer. For the record, it's called Kansas Grain. Do they grow grainy sherbet peaches in Kansas? Does anyone know? No?....dang...

Happy weekend, everyone!

A survey!

2009-01-19T21:06:00.000-08:00

Okay so this post is the last of today - it gets us all mostly caught up on the progress here. For this one, I actually need opinions.

Early June - one wall of the master bedroom on our first tour of the house - sweet furniture, no? Please notice the walls.

Okay - so this is the bedroom as of today. We picked a pale sage-y green for the walls, so that it would be super neutral, but not white. Well, originally, I painted the walls, but not the trim and with the old dingy white of the trim, you couldn't tell the difference between it and the walls. So this weekend, I painted the trim white to see if we would actually like the color we chose. I'm torn. I still like that it is really neutral, but I'm worried that it's too bland - ignoring the hideous 70's brass sconce, what do you guys think?

Darling Lime Tree

2009-01-19T20:50:00.001-08:00

I think one of the things I'm most proud of around here so far is the lime tree. When Matt bought the place, it was overgrown and unhealthy. Mom pruned it back pretty substantially when she was out here our first weekend and the thing I'm most proud of is that the tree is not dead yet - in fact, it's doing really well!

This is a picture from the appraisal of the house - so it's probably sometime in late July or early August. I guess the tree doesn't look terrible, but it was really over-crowded in there with crossed branches and dead twigs and basically no limes (except some tiny shriveled ones with no juice...yum).
Labor day weekend - this is the photo of the tree after my Mom thinned it out a lot and made a bowl around the base. It already looks better.

Today - I walked past the tree this morning and it is COVERED with little white blossoms. Not only that, but it is super super fragrant. It smells a little bit like star jasmine - super sweet - but with a hint of tartness. It's so amazing. We've been watering it just how my mom told us to and it looks like we've managed to keep it alive. One of the best parts is that it's also covered in bees! Usually I'd be pretty bothered by bees, but the fact that we have a plant healthy enough to attract bees makes me pretty happy.

And look at all of this new growth! It's covered! We bought a mint plant this weekend and if we can keep it alive, it is seriously going to be mojito time around here when these limes start filling in!

Guest room updating

2009-01-19T20:21:00.001-08:00

So we haven't done a ton to the guest room except painting and scraping copious amounts of what can best be described as "nastiness" off of the baseboards. Again, I think Matt and I agree that it looks a million times better - what do you think?

Early Jun - from our first tour of the house before Matt bought it. There are a number of reasons this room looked terrible - and the two most noticable here are obviously the ginormous bed and the appalling light fixture (it may or may not give you any comfort to know that this particular bedroom is also equipped with a dimmer - so if you come stay with us, you'll have the opportunity to enjoy some serious mood-lighting courtesy of the ugliest light fixture on the planet)

Same day - view of the room from the hall.

Labor day weekend - you may recall this photo from one of my first posts about the house. This a very comfortable-looking view of the guest room as it was enjoyed by Mom and Gary (note to Mom and Gary: seriously?!? You were seriously willing to come to help us, work your hineys off, and sleep in these conditions? And then you still agreed to come back in October? Are you crazy?!? I still look at this picture sometimes and feel enormously guilty...and so so lucky. That first weekend would have been a disaster without you.)

Late December - So after spending nearly a day scraping nastiness off of the baseboards in the hallway only to realize that no one noticed, I decided to make sure that I would get credit for doing the same thing in the guest room - yes, I need other people to notice my progress to make me feel good about it - is that so bad?

So I can't even begin to guess what the stuff is. It's kinda furry, so I'm hoping that it is some combination of old carpet bits, glue of some sort, paint, and possibly shellac. It's freaking gross - the tenants that were here before us lived here for 10 years. Even as a renter, I think I'd get disgusted and do something about it.

In process - I wish we had painted before moving furniture in, but such is life.

Look at my nice clean baseboards and freshly painted walls! Do you think it looks better? I totally do, but I'm the one who painted it, so there's a pretty solid chance I'm not being very objective :)

So, here is the finished product! We obviously need some window-coverings, some stuff on the wall and maybe a new light fixture if I can pull myself away from this beaut. I don't know how big the bed was that formerly occupied this space, but this is a Queen and I think the room looks a million times bigger.

Awww...our little living room is growing up!

2009-01-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

So after a lot of work, some procrastination and way more help than we deserve, below is the long-awaited photographic proof of the journey our little living room has taken so far.

Early June - This is from the day we first went to look at the house. I'm sure glad we saw the potential! (and yes, the realtor's face is blurred out - she asked not to be in any photos)

Another view on our first tour of the house - this is from the entry, looking through the living room to the room we now use as the dining room.

Late August - This is the living room in the early stages of the demolition of the fireplace demolition (it was structurally unsound and poorly designed in the first place - the sellers paid to have it torn down and rebuilt). And yes, we had a hole in our living room wall for about a month.

Late October - You can see the newly rebuild fireplace/chimney here. This photo is from the same weekend that Mom & Gary helped us build the fence. Mom, Gary and I demolished the wall while Matt was at work - I'm sure it was a surprise for him to come home to!

Freshly insulated wall - it remains the only insulated wall in the house (we think)!

Matt and Gary putting up drywall. I'm not even going to try to guess how many drill bits were destroyed on those metal studs. Boo.

Handy man covering up the cracks and holes.

January 4, 2009 - Flash forward to my birthday - and my glorious birthday present - A FINISHED LIVING ROOM WALL! WOOHOO! So we mudded, sanded, primed and painted before realizing we'd done a terrible job (that was in November-ish). So, we did it again - and it's not perfect, but we both think it looks a million times better than the day he bought the house! We still have to get some shelves built and deal with the mantle/hearth/surround, but I'm so happy with our progress so far. We even reinforced the wall above the fireplace so it can hold our TV - and you can see the PVC pipe we (read: Matt and Gary) rigged up to feed any TV and component cables down to the left side of the fireplace.

Here it is with furniture.

Here it is looking into the dining room.

So what do you all think? Does it look better than it did when the former tenants were living here? We've still got quite a ways to go, but I think we feel pretty great about it so far. Maybe sometime in the near future, we'll finally hang up some stuff on the walls!

How old am I?

2009-01-14T22:20:00.000-08:00

Am I old enough to be able to call someone an "old friend"? And what if this person isn't someone I grew up with?...I met her in college.

Well, regardless, tonight I got together with my "old friend" Lauretta (and j-bird, et al). She moved away from Los Angeles about a year ago and since then, I have reached out to her via phone, email, text, etc. a grand total of zero times. Go me. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I am the worst friend ever. Thank goodness my friends are so forgiving.

Anywho, seeing Lauretta was so great and refreshing. It wasn't long enough (about two hours), but it was time well spent. I guess I feel that Lauretta qualifies as an "old friend" because she occupied a space of my life when I was the old me and she was there for the transition to the current version of me. We knew one another in college, but spent more time together towards the end. And once we moved out in the real world, we used to get together somewhat often for things like breakfast or shopping...I think I got together with her more than anyone else but my roommate (you know...that one guy...). We spent time together in that really weird transition between thinking you're an adult (college) and being in total denial about the fact that you're becoming one (post-college, but pre-husbands and babies). She holds a lot of that part of my history. She helped me buy my first pair of "cool jeans," she lent me a dress to wear to my boss's wedding, she came over and ate stir fry on the couch with me in our lazy clothes...quite possibly on a Friday night.

So this post is a tribute to Lauretta, who is one of the most fun, intelligent, interesting people I know - and who reminds me of that fun space we occupied together in LA. For the record, I am doing the same exact thing that I was doing when we graduated from college (which I still enjoy, but I'm trying to make a point here). Lauretta, on the other hand, worked at an investment bank doing public bond financing 5 years ago (yipes!) and now lives in Sacramento and is working for the State of California (a Fellowship with a department I won't divulge to protect the innocent...but it's a big one) doing all sorts of interesting and valuable things with her time that will inevitably improve the welfare of folks all over the state. And she totally gives herself no credit for being so interesting...and for walking away from Los Angeles and investment banking to do something that helps people in a pretty tangible way.

So to Lauretta - for taking the time to hang out with my sorry bum, for being so fun and interesting, for reminding me of a really unique time in my life, and for not giving me grief for how horrible that stir fry really was. I'm glad you are my friend and that when we get together, it's like no time has passed at all!

Us on a hike in Malibu a couple of years ago

I'm not dead!

2009-01-13T21:32:00.000-08:00

...yet. Just kidding, of course (about the "yet" part). I haven't been so great at posting these last couple of weeks - it's not that I don't have anything to post, it's just that I have a fair number of photos I need to put on my computer, organize, blah blah blah...I'm just procrastinating. It's part of why you love me...I make you feel better about your ability to get stuff done in a timely fashion.

Brief update on last couple of weeks:
1. Got some stuff done around the casa (this is where the pics come in...)
2. Got back to work
3. Got really REALLY busy at work
4. Had a birthday gathering

And now I'm in Sacramento area for a client. I'm up here with J-Bird, so that's good. For those of you who don't know Justin, he went to Oxy with Matt and me. He's a good guy to work with - as far as getting stuck somewhere rural with somebody, Justin's probably the way to go...mellow, not creepy, you get the picture.

I can't wait to get back home...I haven't been away from Matt for this long in nearly a year. So weird, right? After all that time I spent traveling the first three years of our relationship, it's pretty strange to admit that we haven't been away from one another for more than a night or two in a whole YEAR! And I kinda like it this way. Okay, I really like it...and now I want to go home.

The advantage of my being here is (thankfully) that being busy means being employed, being busy means that I'm probably learning something, and the client we're here for is a really great client (which is WAY uncommon, as I'm learning...) - they're nice, they're competent, they pay their bills. Nice.

I miss my Matt, but I'll be home soon enough.

Someday I'll post before and after pictures of our fabled fireplace/livingroom wall. No, seriously.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-01-01T09:25:00.001-08:00

So why is it that the New Year is always so exciting? I dunno either, but I'll take it. Hopefully all of you had a fun New Years' Eve - we played the "old people" game and stayed in. We had our first living room picnic at the house and we watched most of the original Star Wars trilogy. Our Menu included all of our favorite little bits of Trader Joe's goodness:

Sundried tomato bruscetta
Crackers
Marcona almonds
Cornichons
Cheese
Flat bread
Salted chocolate almonds
Salami
Apple slices

YUM! If you don't have living room picnics, I highly recommend them. We eat dinner at the coffee table and veg out in the living room in front of the TV for hours. At the apartment, we'd blow up the air mattress and tuck it between the sofa and loveseat and fall asleep watching movies, but the living room in the house isn't quite so "cozy" so we opted to head to our real bed after midnight!

I think I drove Matt a little crazy by my compulsive need to do chores between movies. I'm not usually chore-happy, but I have played hooky from work this week to get stuff done around here and I am THIS CLOSE to being done with the wall behind the new fireplace...so between movies, I mudded and sanded the last teeny bits...then vacuumed up all the stinky dust....we're priming and painting today (again)...hopefully it goes better this time than it did last time!

And to top it all off, Matt made his famous brioche french toast this morning...but this time with a twist (of orange, that is)! In the batter, he added a splash of Grand Marnier and to our melted butter/syrup stuff, he added some orange zest. The butter/syrup stuff really made it amazing! If you've never melted your butter and syrup together, you should try it - about 2 parts butter to 3 parts syrup (we do about 3 T. of butter to 4 or 5 T. of real maple syrup...not sure how much zest he put in), melt it in a pan...and then all of your bites get butter and syrup! The picture below does NOT do it justice but I used my own camera instead of Matt's.

Such a great way to start the new year (hopefully the rest of the year is this awesome!). I hope that this post finds you and your families happy, healthy, and looking forward to a great 2009!

Happy Happy!

2008-12-10T21:21:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been four years...and we still like each other lots. What, may you ask, am I doing blogging on such a day instead of spending time with Matt? Well, because he has earned it (and mostly because we celebrated already on Sunday), I gave him a much deserved hall pass to go to the Suns/Lakers game tonight! I haven't checked the score, but if I had to guess, I'd say the Suns are losing...poor Matt. In any case, it's not often you get a free ticket to go to a laker's game with friends and since I'm pretty slammed at work anyway, it made sense for me to get some stuff done while he sees some friends!

So on Sunday, we made a yummy breakfast at home, spent a few hours at the Getty Villa and then spent a few hours getting things together for our fancy dinner. Food, after all, is one of our favorite things to enjoy together.

So we started off with my favorite salad (which we totally ripped off of one I had at Kendall's Brasserie a couple of years ago) - Butter lettuce, lardons (read: bacon, bacon, BACON!), a poached egg, and a citrus shallot vinagrette. Mmmm.

Our main course was roasted duck breast with an apricot orange reduction over red wine risotto and browned brussel sprouts with garlic and walnuts (only we forgot the garlic...oh well). It came out pretty well...I'd change a couple of things about the duck, but I think we did well for our first try.

I think our biggest success was dessert. We had chocolate souffle (with a teeny hint of orange), burnt orange panna cotta, and a home made whipped cream with grand marnier and orange zest. The panna cotta was way easier than either of us thought it would be and it was probably my favorite part of the meal...well, with the whipped cream on top, anyway :)

All in all, it was a day well spent! And as you may have noticed in the picture with the salad, I got flowers and chocolate this year - we trade off on Valentine's day with who buys chocolates...so it was a fun surprise to get them on the anniversary I was responsible for planning (we switch years on those, too - thanks to my Aunt Barb and Uncle Jim for that idea). Oh, and for those of you who are unaware of our long lost flower saga, this is probably the third time he has given me flowers (the first roses) in 4 years. And I say "long lost" because I don't even notice anymore - he's trained me very well. I guess it's easy to forget about stuff like flowers when you get treated so nicely every day! *swoon*

And now we count down to Christmas with the Hennessy's which will be kicked off in a week (!) when we head to Utah for some snow action...good thing it's supposed to start snowing in Park City this weekend! YAY!

You're Number 3!

2008-12-04T16:43:00.000-08:00

I have to post about this because it is funny - after reading my previous post, Matt noted his disappointment in the fact that not only was he #3 in my list of things I'm thankful for, he had to share it with his whole family. Sorry, sucka! I can think of a couple of ways you can bump yourself up in the rankings - I'll laminate the list for you if you'd like!

That's besides the point - to give the guy a little more credit (and to give him a hard time back), I'd like you to check these photos out. They demonstrate one of the many reasons I think he's the best ever: he makes me laugh.

Yeah. And he's mine. Don't hate.

Thankful...in a belated kind of a way...

2008-12-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

I haven't been so great at posting over the last month - perhaps you have noticed. There are a variety of reasons (have been busy, also feeling like a debbie downer, not sure what to share and what to keep to myself, etc.), but I am back, for better or worse. I am having some really strong and simultaneously conflicting emotions right now and I guess it's hard to think past it all enough to post something that anyone else may want to read. Hmmm. I think what it boils down to is that there have been a very small handful of unfortunate things that have happened lately in my world that have made me sad, frustrated, confused...but at the same time, those things have reminded me of how lucky I am.

Every day since I moved out on my own after college, I have made a concerted effort to remember and be grateful for the things that I have. For me, this typically happens around dinner time when I realize how lucky I am to have the money and time to eat a balanced meal with vegetables and protein and other things that lots of people can't afford. It seems cheesy, I suppose, but it has really helped me to be more aware of all of the blessings I have - and I have too many to count. I realize that it's been nearly a week since Thanksgiving, but I figured that the door isn't yet closed on my sharing with you guys a few of the things that I am thankful for every day.

1. My family - of course. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I sometimes feel that they are more than I deserve. From my parents, to my siblings, to my aunts and uncles, and my nieces and nephews, they are all so generous with their time, patience and other "intangible" resources. I'm not sure I do a very good job of showing them how much I appreciate all of them, but they, collectively, are probably the best things about me.

2. My friends - again, obvious. What is not so obvious is that being my friend requires (I think) more patience and ability to forgive than it might require for others. Growing up, I was kind of a jerk - never intentionally, but I'm not sure that makes it much better. I don't think I really grew out of it until a year or two into college - it's a hard lesson to learn that things you say and do may hurt someone's feelings accidentally. That said, I spent some time with a couple of childhood friends over the holiday weekend and I realized how lucky I am that they never gave up on me as a friend. And the same goes for my college friends (particularly my roommate) - I would have written me off long ago if I were any of them. Lucky for me, they are better friends than I am!

3. Matt and his family - so they basically fall into both of the above categories as well, but I decided to give them their own number (since they've got Matt and all). I'm not gonna get too mushy here, but be it known that Matt is pretty much the best thing ever. Really. There are lots of reasons why I feel lucky to have him and I won't list them here, but I will thank his family for making him the way he is. And for making him so happy - if you've ever seen him talk about spending time with his family, you know what I'm talking about. And if you've ever seen him and his brothers "triggering the next a-poke-alypse," you're probably laughing right now like I am.

4. My health - I know I'm young and shouldn't really expect to have major health problems yet, but that doesn't stop me from being really grateful for my health. I know I have posted about my friend Erica before, but here it is again - her situation has gotten more grave and she's not even 30 yet. She's done so much more with her life than most people ever will, but somehow that doesn't really console me. What it does do is remind me that even though I'm young, health is always something to recognize and be thankful for. Always.

5. My job - I am always glad that I have a job and income, but with the economy being what it is, I am particularly grateful right now. It's a great perk that I enjoy the work I do and the people I work with.

6. Food - I've said it before and I wasn't kidding then either - I freaking love food. I like learning about it, preparing it, eating it, talking about it, and on and on. There's something relaxing in cooking it, comforting in eating it and rewarding in watching others enjoy it. And of course I'm grateful that I can afford to stuff myself with healthy goodness (even though I indulge in plenty of the unhealthy goodness, too).

7. Humor - I think everyone knows how valuable it is to be able to laugh through sucky stuff (and not-so-sucky stuff as well). It can remedy awkwardness, embarrassment, stress, tears and it can make fun times even better. How lucky am I that the people I spend my time with every day make me laugh my booty off?

So if you've made it this far, you're obviously a trooper. There are a zillion other reasons why I am convinced I'm the luckiest lady in the world, but since this post is already unacceptably long, I'll leave it here.

I hope that all of you had as wonderful a Thanksgiving weekend as I did.

(oh...and some day, I will post more pics of the house, but we've taken a couple of steps backwards in the living room, so we'll see how long it takes until we have some forward-progress to share)

Make Good Choices!

2008-12-02T15:17:00.001-08:00

So for those of you that know this story (Forrest, my family, the Hennessy family), feel free to skip straight to the photo. For the rest of you, there is a brief story of explanation. The way I understand it (and Forrest will surely correct me if I'm wrong), Forrest and some AZ friends of his were drinking at a friend's house with the expectation that someone's younger sibling was to be their DD and take them to a bar. This younger sibling bailed out on them, so they convinced someone's mom to drop them off at the bar instead...which she did, but not before shouting after them (as they walked up to the line outside the bar) "MAKE GOOD CHOICES!" Priceless.

So, the catchy phrase is thrown about between those of us who have heard the story and typically generates a fair amount of laughter. This weekend, Matt noticed the sign below outside of a middle school down the street from Mom and Gary's house - I didn't have my camera at that moment, so we were hoping we'd remember to capture it later. Well, the sad news is that we completely drove by it on our way out of town without remembering (until we hit a nearby stop light). The obviously good news is that Matt put the Ac into reverse for 50 feet or so to make sure I could get this picture for all of you. Yeah, my hero.

October Renovation Weekend - Part 1: The Fence

2008-11-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

Finally, pictures of some of our renovating activities. Rather than going way overboard with text and no photographic evidence (like usual), I'm going to go way overboard with photos and captions instead. Hopefully, dear readers, you will be impressed with our fence project. We are.

Photo 1: A before shot of the back yard from our driveway (looking toward the neighbor's garage)

Photo 2: Another before shot (our patio on the left, our garage on the right - notice the ugly shrub and dead avocado tree behind the lime tree)

Photo 3: With Gary using the chainsaw and Mom and me pulling the rope, we got the tree down. And then posed for a picture. The pile of sticks on the right is the former shrub.

Photo 4: I had barely gotten inside to email Matt at work with a picture of his demolished tree when Gary came in with a self-inflicted chainsaw wound. Yeah. He always hurts himself when I'm around - I'm pretty sure Chandra thinks I'm going to be the death of him at some point!

Photo 5: Another view of the demolished yard!

Photo 6: I hope this photo clearly demonstrates the need for a privacy fence. Not only are we really close to the house next door, their yard also happens to be ugly and ill kept (okay, so is ours, but at least we're trying). I would typically say that the presence of broken exercise equipment in their yard would indicate that they were white trash...but they're Korean, so I'm not sure what that makes them...except messy.

Photo 7: A pile of unstained wood...looks like a job for Mom and me!

Photo 8: This is probably the 8 millionth pile we got through. We are staining machines!

Photo 9: Gary (and Matt's butt in the background) framing the fence.

Photo 10: Another lovely view of the neighbors' yard.

Photo 11: Chicks with power tools...yeah, that's me. And yes, my pants are covered in paint and stain. I don't even bother washing my hands off anymore when they're covered in gunk...I just wipe 'em on my bum.

Photo 12: Mom and I went to town on the fence while the guys were working on the drywall in the living room (I'll do a post on that once we're finished). Obviously we had only stained 3 sides of these planks...I think it looks nice this way...just kidding...read on.

Photo 13: So this is as far as we got before Mom & Gary left. Not too bad!

Photo 14: Another bit of progress.

Photo 15: The fence is up! We still have to finish the end on the right, but we need Gary's skillsaw and we need to figure out how to anchor it without actually drilling into the neighbor's garage...hmmm...

Photo 16: Another view - can you see our new little lemon tree back there? Now we just need some grass!

So that was it for the fence. It was great to hang out with Mom and Gary again, bum around home depot, and get some more stuff done. Thanks again to them for working so hard to help us with these projects. We really wouldn't know where to start without them!

Black and Blue

2008-10-28T18:57:00.001-07:00

So, as promised, I have a post about a wonderful present recently sent to me (and Matt, of course) by my Aunt Sue! I'm not sure if all of you know this, but I spent the summer of 2003 in DC as an intern at a trade association...really the best part of the summer was getting to spend a lot of time with my mom's sisters (Sue and Barb). I stayed at my Aunt Barb and Uncle Jim's house while I was there, but spent a couple of nights a week with my Aunt Sue and Uncle Wayne, too. It was such a great time. In any case, at that time, both families lived in Alexandria and every weekend there was this awesome Farmer's Market in Old Town Alexandria - I remember my Aunt Barb used to always have this awesome home made jam called "Black and Blue" (blackberries and blueberries) that I must have had on toast just about every day. Fast forward 5 years - this summer, Matt and I took a trip to the east coast to visit friends and family. The day before Matt and I went to Aunt Sue and Uncle Wayne's house, Aunt Sue called to ask if I wanted her to grab anything for me from the Farmer's Market! Of course the jam jumped to mind immediately (though I totally couldn't remember what it was called or who made it). Sadly, they didn't have it the day she went, but (fast forward 3 more months) one Saturday as I was painting trim in the living room, I noticed out the window that there was a package! Who doesn't like getting packages, right? I'm sure you can guess what happened here - I opened the box to find two whole jars of Black and Blue jam! It was a great excuse for Matt and me to have muffins for breakfast the following morning so that we could drown them in butter and jam....mmmm...

Here is a picture of the jam (and our muffins):

So a huge shout out to Aunt Sue for sending such a thoughtful treat - it really made my day (and continues to every time I bust the jam out for my toast...mmm...). I can't believe she was still working on getting some for me three months after our visit! How lucky am I to have family like that? In any case, it was a wonderful treat that showed up at the perfect time, so to my Aunt Sue: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

And for those of you that know we had a big renovating weekend, expect to see an upcoming blog with pictures of some of our work...we still have a couple of things to tie up so that I can post true Before and After photos. It was a long (and demanding) weekend, but we made some pretty killer progress and only had one accident (picture a chainsaw and Gary's shin...more details to follow...and maybe a picture). And we had a great time with Mom and Gary!

Big Weekend Ahead!

2008-10-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

I did so well for a while with posting regularly, but not so much these days. Lately, I've been feeling like kind of a Debbie Downer, so haven't felt much like I've got anything good to share. In reality, I actually have a super-exciting weekend coming up...so here it is...something good to share!

Tonight, Forrest and I are going to see Dar Williams at the El Rey. I think it will be the third or fourth time we've seen her together...and the second time at the El Rey (which is only a few blocks from the casa...so that makes it handy). Forrest is one of those people that it's hard not to have fun with, so I hope you can imagine my excitement about tonight! The only bummer is that I totally haven't listened to her new album enough to have fallen in love with it yet...I always worry that she'll sing too many that I don't know...sigh. February and Spring Street always make it into the lineup, so at least I'll know two!

Also, tonight Mom and Gary are driving up for the weekend. This will mark the second chapter in our large scale push with them to get stuff done at the house. If all goes well, we'll be able to finish the living room (by ripping out the ugly paneling on the fireplace wall, insulating, and re-drywalling), build a fence, fix some windows, tear the yard up a little, and check out the roof to see if there's anything we need to take care of in preparation for the colder months (you know, since it rains so much in LA...haha). And we'll eat a lot...Mom is even making a stuffed pizza one night...best Mom I ever had :) Yeah, I'm a lucky lady...it's true.

Well, that's my news for now. I still owe a post on the jam my aunt sent and promise to do it soon. Next time I "write" I'll probably be totally exhausted and super thrilled about all the progress we will have made! YAY!

I hope that all of you have a good weekend!

Sad News

2008-10-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

I was so excited this morning to post about something light and fun (my Aunt Sue sent me some of my favorite jam from a farmer's market in Virginia - thanks Aunt Sue!), but I began my usual blog surfing this morning and found out some terrible news. A friend/mentor of mine, Erica Murray, has been battling Leukemia since early 2006 and last week she found out that she has relapsed again. Boo. I don't know what to say about Erica except that she is so strong and so fun and so supportive and has put up with so much to get this far. I am so discouraged by the news and I can only imagine how she must feel. I'm just in shock, I guess - and I don't have any impressive thoughts or feelings to express...just shocked. And sad.

So, please, whether you pray, meditate, or whatever, add Erica to your list - I'm sure she could use it. Please Please Please.

And if you'd like to get to know Erica more or follow her story, her blog is http://ericamurray.blogspot.com/

Totally Inappropriate

2008-09-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

So for my mom and my aunts and my step-dad and Matt's mom and all of those of you out here who are reading this but who I would never actually use this word in front of, my sincerest apologies. But...DUDE...this is too funny not to share. So I'm eating lunch at my desk the other day at work and am surfing my personal email, because...you know...I'm a pretty serious professional. And my eyes are immediately drawn to the subject line of an email from Women's Health: "Do you know enough about your Vagina?" Capitalized like that and everything...like the Internet or God or something. And all I kept thinking was "sweet majeezus...what if it turns out that my vagina is a serial killer?!" But, alas, I was on my work computer and figured it may be best not to further explore such topics. And now I'm on Matt's computer and while he will surely read this post (and, to be completely forthright, I already told him all about the email subject line), I'm not sure I want him to see any articles I've chosen to peruse on Women's Health's website in an effort to find out what my vagina got on its SATs. So as luck would have it, I probably still don't know enough about my vagina.

On an entirely related note, I've officially used the anatomically correct term enough times in this post that I don't have to use it again until I try to be mature and teach my kids to use the proper terms instead of hoo hah and wee wee some day in the distant future.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

Scones and Dining Rooms

2008-09-22T08:52:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update on life: Matt has been busy with work, I have been busy with work (commuting daily to Orange County for a project), and we have both been busy with house stuff...go figure. In any case, we had a great weekend - saw some friends, got a bunch of work done...it was nice. My first and less exciting piece of news is that I successfully made some maple oat pecan scones last night. With my new extended commute, I've learned that having something tasty to snack on in the car makes the trip more bearable. YUM!

The second (and obviously more exciting) piece of news is that we enjoyed our first meal in our dining room AT our dining table (and not the coffee table as is our current practice). We've gotten the room cleaned up, painted, and arranged - the only things left to do in there are put up crown moldings, get a new light fixture, and someday (in the somewhat distant future) turn the opening between the living room and dining room into an archway. Otherwise, I think we're both really really happy about how it looks...YAY!

(notice that we didn't quite finish trimming out the top - we
were waiting for the ceiling paint to dry so we could tape it)

Back to work for me...

FRIDAY!

2008-09-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

Friday, Friday, Friday is my favorite day.
Monday is a bummer
Tuesday's only fair
Wednesday's getting better
Thursday's almost there, but
Friday, Friday, Friday is my favorite
Friday is my favorite
Friday is my favorite day!

So in case you were just impressed with my sweet sweet poetic skills, let me clarify: it's a song from a radio station in San Diego. I think my mom heard it when we were kids or something and I am pretty sure we used to sing it every single Friday morning! Yeah, we're cool. At some point, we totally made up different lyrics involving breakfast foods (picture it: "Fried eggs, Fried eggs..."). Anywho, the tune is a common one, though I can't think of what it is off the top of my head, so for now, just picture Mom, Eric, and me singing at the top of our lungs either in the kitchen before breakfast or in the maroon-colored '82 Volvo station wagon ("The Beast") on the way to school. Good times.

(this is not Beastie, but is a good look-alike)

The Wedding!

2008-09-08T17:01:00.000-07:00

So, the wedding was lovely and we all had tons of fun :-) Aja was beautiful and everything went off without a hitch (so far as I know). Below are some fun pictures from the day:

On the way to the ceremony - isn't she pretty?

Me with my handsome escort (Forrest, for those that haven't met him)

Matt and the Brothers Cruz

Matt and Me - looking like grown-ups

Matt and Me - looking like we usually do

Poor, sad Matt getting teased after I caught the bouquet (note: Aja threw it at me)

My handsome escort getting teased after catching the garter

Sarah, Leila, Forrest, Me, and Lauren

Au Revoir, Fair Apartamento

2008-09-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

So last night we finished moving the last bits of stuff from the apartment to the house (and by "we" I mean Matt). Frankly, I'm glad I wasn't there to walk out with him for the last time - I might have had a meltdown. When he got back to the house, he mentioned that it made him "a little sentimental" leaving the place for the last time...and I started crying (and am having a hard time fighting it back as I write this).

I understand that it was just an apartment and you're not supposed to get attached to them, but for a handful of reasons, I am really sad to leave. I know I have mentioned some of them before, but here is a more exhaustive list:

1. It has been my only home for the past 4 years.

2. Fernando can fix anything. Matt and I cannot.

3. It is one block from Ralph's, one block from Trader Joe's, one block from a gas station, and one block from Yogurtland. Additionally, it is two blocks from blockbuster, two blocks from starbucks, two blocks from subway, and two blocks from Luna Park.

4. I "met" the version of Matt that I fell in love with there. And if it weren't for the fact that we lived together, we may never have seen one another (nor stayed together) because of hectic work and travel schedules.

5. I think this is the biggest one for me: it was my longest standing "only" home of my entire life. Growing up, Eric and I went between Mom's house and Dad's house every two weeks which was great, but when you're always shuffling bags back and forth (and too lazy to unpack them) it's easy to feel impermanent about home. While in college, I was always going between school and parents' homes - again, great and normal and all of that, but leaves you feeling a bit like a nomad. I don't regret or resent any of this, but I guess once I had just one home (400 S. Detroit St. Apt. 203), I realized how nice it felt.

6. It was the first home I've had that was mine (and Matt's, of course) - that I was responsible for.

7. It has been the place where I have truly become an adult. I don't really know how to be a grown-up without it. I will learn, but it already feels different.

8. The unknown is always scary.

In any case, I am really excited about the new place and am so excited for all of our new adventures, but there is a part of me that will continue to miss my (our) first place. Sigh.

And this is just the beginning...

2008-09-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Can I just start out by saying...AHHHH! I am SO tired. I've been tired before, but I think that this is the first time I've been tired in so many ways (emotional, physical, mental, blah blah blah). I am sitting at my desk at work not accomplishing much more than this post, but still, I'm yawning away and longing for bed and a comfy pillow (or as Matt would call it, my "natural habitat" - can I help the fact that I love sleeping?).

So the weekend was big - HUGE, in fact. We got lots more fixing and changing of things accomplished than we thought we would (but, on the other hand, we got far less unpacking done) and the place is covered in a thin layer of grime and ick - the bottoms of my feet have been black since Saturday.

And now a paragraph dedicated to Mom and Gary who totally rocked our socks this weekend and kept us from crying and hiding in a cave out of fear of all the things we have to get done. We definitely would NOT have gotten nearly as much done (if any at all - we were pretty overwhelmed) without their constant help and encouragement. Mom totally went to town on the back yard and not only removed a lot of really ugly stuff, but totally revived a very sad looking lime tree (it's so nice now that we noticed doves hanging out in it last night). She also spent an unGodly amount of time helping me clean out the kitchen cupboards with vinegar and baking soda! Gary's time was spent teaching Matt many tricks such as navigating around Home Depot skillfully, finding the right tools for the job, fixing door jambs and hinges, fixing a multitude of broken sprinkler heads, reattaching a/c duct work, and generally understanding that nothing is too hard once you know how it works. And both of them helped us get rid of a bunch of popcorn ceiling material and (even more tedious) the ridiculous amount of cleanup afterwards. I'm sure I've forgotten a bajillion other things that they helped us with, but be it known that without them, we would have been an absolute mess. Thanks guys...a million times over.

Some other day in the (undefined) future, I will post pictures of our apartment during and after the move, and the house before and after the move, but for now, I will leave you with a handful of photos of all the work we got done.

(men fixing sprinklers - notice Matt's doo- rag - RIP cute dishtowel)

(me taking the awful gate off its hinges so I won't run into it when
backing down the driveway)

(the lime tree after Mom's handiwork)

(our first dinner with family on our patio table and chairs + two beach
chairs - fun times!)

(impressive decor in the guest bedroom - don't those camping mats look
tempting after a long day of backbreaking labor? Mom and Gary sure
are troopers!)

(somewhat less impressive master bedroom decor - thank goodness we
had an air mattress to fill up that hard floor space)

(Gary scraping the living room ceiling is Oh-So-In-Sync with Mom
who is cleaning off the already-scraped dining room ceiling)

(this is the last time the garden hose will ever be allowed in the house. ever.)

(teamwork! yeah! And we look so good doing it!)

(No, the room on the left isn't carpeted - we just hadn't cleaned there
yet - crazy, no?)

(Matt was hot and dirty and covered with ceiling muck...so this
sounded like a pretty good idea)

All-in-all, we got lots done, had a good time and spent some quality time with Mom and Gary. I keep thinking "I can't wait for a couple more weeks to pass so we can feel like we're really getting things done" and then I realize that the work will never end. It's not a sad realization, but it is certainly daunting. Thankfully, it is all very rewarding. Still, I can't believe this is just the beginning!

On anxiety and puppies

2008-08-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

Holy cow...we're moving this weekend. My heart races every time I think about it. I wish I could say that it's racing because I'm happy, but I think it has more to do with the fact that I feel pretty unprepared and I'm actually kind of weirded out by the fact that we're leaving our apartment. We've been there for 4 years and 1 month - that's longer than we were at Oxy. And it has just flown right by - I think it scares me a little that it's been so long, but has felt like about 5 minutes.

Last night I was packing up the kitchen and I guess the reality of it hit me: this place isn't home anymore. My new home is a place I know very little about - how scary is that? I don't know the trick to the front door lock like I do at the apartment, I don't know the trick to the bathroom sink, and I don't know where every outlet is. I don't know how to fix a leaky toilet, a broken sprinkler, or a malfunctioning garage door opener - and I can't just call up the nice building manager at Essex Properties and know that Fernando will take care of it within one business day (because he's pretty much the best ever).

I guess one of the things that makes me anxious now is that the house has 360-degree exposure. We've got windows and doors everywhere - and we're at ground level. It's not like the 2nd floor apartment which basically feels like a fortress (even though I'm sure it's not as secure as I'm convinced it is). In my mind, it means that, at the house, some creepy person could be lurking around and peering in any one of the gajillion windows or trying to find a way into any of the doors. Matt has been pretty great about trying to do things to make me feel safer (new/better locks, sliding glass door locks, new windows sometime in the next year or two, etc.), but the other night while we were there, he left me alone for like 30 minutes so he could go pick something up at Aaron Brothers - after about 15 minutes, I kinda started panicking. Hmmm - this brings me to my next point...

I've been desperately wanting a dog for quite some time now, but while we were in the apartment, it was pretty easy for me to see what a bad idea it was. Now that we'll be in a house with a yard and everything, I feel like maybe now it's not a terrible idea anymore. I fully understand that it will be a lot of work and may end up being fairly expensive, but I think that I'm okay with that now. And I'm convinced that with me being nervous about being home alone, having a dog would not only be lots of fun, but would help me relax, too. A constant cuddly companion...where's the downside to that? The only one I can think of would be that it might love Matt more than it loves me...hahaha! But my Aunt Sue told me that dogs love the person who feeds them...so I guess I just have to make sure to be the one who feeds it.

In short, I'm excited for the move, but am getting sad and anxious, too. I'm nervous about being in a house v. apartment and am thinking that my long-time desire of having a dog may be more practical (and nerve-calming) now than it has been in the past. What do you all think? I need arguments on both sides of the dog issue!

A Very Hennessy Weekend

2008-08-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share a brief weekend recap. It's been a great one - full of family, food, and new stuff...what could have been better than that?

Friday:

Meet up with Hennessys at Sonora Cafe for dinner...yum yum! I got the squash blossom quesadilla with the cochinita pibil and a brioche bread pudding...I almost died...it was so good. Aside from food, catching up was great - Brett starts his senior year in High School on Monday which is totally crazy...in my mind, he's still the 10 year-old I met 7 years ago.
Went to the new house because we just couldn't wait to share it with everyone!

Saturday:

Visited the house to measure for laundry machines and pay the chimney guys- ended up meeting our first neighbors. Sean and Joy and their two cutie kids. They seemed really nice and lived a half a block away. They said the neighborhood is about half elderly folks and half "industry" folks (the entertainment industry, anyway...not like an industrial park...haha). Their friends opened up a new cafe 2 blocks away, which was a fun discovery!
Got some chores done (target and best buy for laundry machines and fans, dry cleaning, etc.)
Went to breakfast at BLD which is something Matt and I have been planning to do for ages. I got poachy eggs because I always mess them up at home! Everyone seemed impressed - it is a little more grown up than the places we frequent.
Took the Hennessys back to the house for a daylight visit. We checked out our paint and rug swatches and got a few decisions made. Matt's mom looked at some of the fireplace rubble and discovered an interesting tile relief that had been covered up with travertine...I'm pretty sure it is Batchelder tile, so it was a pretty cool find...Matt said it felt like finding buried treasure...and he was even more excited when I told him how much it would have cost to have bought (I think about $1000 for the 3" x 3' strip).
Went back to the apartment to wash hands since we'd gotten messy in the rubble (with only a small amount of blood drawn in an epic battle between Jim and a rosebush). Jim fell asleep on the sofa, so we left him alone and went to buy a cute tiled breakfast table for the patio (after which we decided it was time to try out the new yogurt place that just opened across the street - Yogurtland - it's self serve, largely nonfat varieties, toppings galore, and you pay by the ounce, so you can really get as much or as little as you want...freakin' awesome!)
Went to dinner at Casa del Mar (on the beach) with a Hennessy family friend - he was a very kind, very laid back dude...after all the stories I've heard of him, it was nice to finally meet him. The restaurant was new to me and good, but I think I'll stick to our neighborhood places in the future.

Sunday:

Breakfast at The Farm - always a good one. Said goodbye to the Hennessys who had to drive all the way back to Scottsdale today...boo.
Field trip to Costco for a few non-perishable pantry items as well as some cleaning products for the new place.
Dropped off our purchases at the new place - so fun to fill up part of the pantry and the linen closet. It's starting to feel real.
Matt headed to work and left me at home to blog, pack, relax, and anxiously await his return.
Looking forward to our recently instituted Fish Sundays...we pick up fresh yummy fish from Santa Monica Seafood and make something new...we've been doing it for about a month and a half...today we're going for sockeye salmon...YUM!

Thoughts on the weekend: so great to see Matt's family. I had originally hoped we could spend this weekend painting, but with all the dust from the chimney demo, I'm glad my plan was foiled. Hennessy visits are always full of new restaurants, lots of laughs and this visit was special because seeing how proud Barb and Jim are of my Matt and his home purchase was really great. I imagine that, as a parent, it's got to feel really good to see your kids achieving milestones like this new house. And as his girlfriend, I'm really proud of him, too - he works so hard and it's nice to see that he's finally being able to reap some of the benefits of all that hard work.

Ugh...and now sets in Sunday afternoon dread...that horrible realization in the midafternoon on Sunday that work is not far ahead...sigh...at least next week, I'll be able to think about all the fun stuff that happened over this weekend :)

NEW HOUSE!

2008-08-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

So escrow closed yesterday and it's all official! The realtor left the keys in one of the kitchen drawers for Matt, so after dinner last night, we went to pick them up. Thankfully Matt had the foresight to bring along a flashlight, because they'd had the electricity turned off earlier in the day (and Matt hadn't scheduled it to be turned on for us until this morning!).

The walkthrough was great the other day except that the place looked pretty dirty (the people that had moved out were renters and didn't seem too worried about what they left behind) and we figured we'd have to pay someone to come scrub it. In any case, I guess the lady that sold the place to Matt paid someone to come in and scrub it to death...and it was immaculate last night (from what I could see with the flashlight). YAY!

My current most pressing concern is that I hope the place stops smelling like other people soon...I want it to smell like us (for better or worse).

And apparently the demolition of the chimney is happening this morning, so within the next 3 weeks or so, we will have a completely rebuilt chimney/fireplace that will properly vent and that won't have flammable materials (read: tar) patching up any cracks...SWEET!

And if all that wasn't great enough, we get to go to dinner at one of my favorite places tonight (Sonora Cafe) with the Hennessy familia (sans Mark). Mark will be missed, but the brie quesadillas, coffee crusted filet mignon and pomegranate margaritas will probably console me just fine (sorry, Mark).

Can you tell how excited I am about life right now?!?

(looking south on our street from the front of the house)

On a roll...

2008-08-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

I figure since I've got a little bit of time, I may as well post again!

So this post is going to be entirely about my nieces and nephews. Okay, so I have these wonderful step-siblings (Chandra, Becky, and Jess) that I don't think I've prefixed with the "step-" part in years. And Chandra and Becky have these wonderful, amazing kids. I guess it's weird to love somebody so much that you're not even related to, but I'm pretty convinced that these 4 kids are the best things EVER. And here's why (from oldest to youngest):

Brandon:

He was the first, so of course has a special place to me. Since he was a baby, I've claimed that he is one of the smartest people I know. And while I know that every kid has their good sides and bad sides, I don't think I've ever seen a kid want to make his mom happier than Brandon wants to make Chandra. The only bad thing I think I can say about him is that he's growing up so darned fast...look:

Ryan:

There are so many wonderful things to say about Ryan. He's such a good brother to his two little sisters. He's so smart and so sweet. He's never out of energy and is always lots of fun to be with. And at least half of the time (at least in the pictures I've managed to capture), he's got this look in his eye that says "I might be up to something," but at least when I've been around, it's never something bad.

Brianna:

This one has a special place with me, too (though, of course, I think they're all perfect and wonderful). After graduating from college, I took a couple of months off, and I think that it was during those couple of months that Becky and Stacy (her hubby) decided to take Ryan to Disneyland with just mom and dad. What that meant for me was getting to be with Brianna for a couple of days. While my mom and Gary were around in the evenings (and I think Gary was even around during one of the days), I was the one sleeping in the same room as her - a first for me at the time. I feel like that gave us a special bond. In any case, Brianna is sweet and charming and smart and is quite possibly the best snuggle bug that ever there was.

Meghan:

Sadly, Meghan is (because she is younger), the one I know the least. From what I do know, she is cute and sweet and energetic. From what I've been told, she will tell you "I a angel" and while she means it, I get the sense that no one else is quite convinced! She's got a lot of competition from smart and cute older siblings, but I think she's tough enough for that!

In any case, there are plenty of people that I can go for days or weeks not thinking about. I hate to admit it, but even for people that are my closest friends and family, it can be a few days (I'm trying to grow out of that...really...). But with these kids, they're never far from my mind. Whenever I get stressed at work or home, I pull up a photo or two, maybe a video, and it helps put things in perspective, I guess. Or at least makes me smile stupidly enough that I forget the things that were bringing me down.

All-in-all, THANKS to Brandon, Ryan, Brianna and Meghan for making my world better and more full of love and smiles. And thanks to Chandra and Becky for making such wonderful kids.

And...exhale...

2008-08-20T15:00:00.000-07:00

So. New job started. And today is the first day I've had off since (and only because I'm feeling under-the-weather). I was put on a crazy project my first day and we reached our dealine yesterday morning...sigh of relief. But I'm SO STINKIN' TIRED! My thoughts about the last month (the bad, followed by the good):

The Bad:
1. I'm tired.
2. It was my first time working with a fair amount of data (that I had to populate as well as manipulate). And since I'm not used to it, I messed it up at some point. I had to rewind and do over an entire day's worth of work. This wouldn't have been so bad if we hadn't been under such a time crunch. It ended up holding everyone else up, so people ended up having to work more/later as a result. Not a good feeling.
3. I haven't seen Matt in nearly a month (for any substantial amount of time).
4. I haven't been taking very good care of myself - lots of caffeine and not eating dinner. Boo.

The Good:
1. It's over.
2. I learned a lot.
3. In the end, the work we did on the project really paid off.
4. Being busy is always better than being bored.
5. I'll be able to do a lot better job on similar projects in the future...YAY!

And generally, I'm totally digging the new job. Working in Century City is so much nicer than being downtown. We're on the 23rd floor and I have a west-facing office which mostly just means that on a clear day, I can totally see the ocean. The office itself is cool, but the people are GREAT! Such fun, smart people...and lots of them young. The guys play basketball together every week and there's a softball team and it's generally a much more entertaining crowd than Kroll (I loved Kroll, so sorry, but seriously...this has been a great move). It's probably best described as lively! Oh, and they have every kind of beverage on the face of the planet! I haven't seen Cactus Cooler since I was in like Junior High. And Country Time Lemonade in a can? Ummm...is this heaven? Am I dead? And I haven't even mentioned the million kinds of tea or the endless supplies of cold bottled water. Sigh...it's the little things that make my day.

In any case, it's been a tough month, but a good one. I'm so happy this deadline has come and gone and that now I can refocus on our big move to the new house! We went on the final walkthrough this morning and Matt gets the keys tomorrow. We have about 3 weeks before we have to be out of our apartment, so it will be nice to be able to move the small stuff gradually and spend some time painting and getting other things in order before the movers take all of the furniture (by the scale of things, you'd never guess that we're only moving 6 blocks away). YAY LIFE!

First Day of School

2008-07-20T14:09:00.001-07:00

Sigh.

I thought the anxiety of the first day of school would have disappeared once I had completed...well...school. Sadly, the first day of a new job apparently feels approximately the same. Tomorrow I start a new job (after having been laid off from my first real job) after several months of nearly no work to do and about 3 days of unemployment. I'm super nervous for a bunch of reasons. Since I like making bulleted lists, here it be (in no particular order):

What should I wear? This position is effectively a promotion, so should I try to dress more professionally? Or should I wear something comfortable and typical for an average work day since I'm sure I'll be sitting through orientation, filling out paperwork, and trying to remember a million new names? Or maybe something fun (but still professional) to prove to my new colleagues that I'm a fun (but still professional) kind of a lady?
Will they like me? I generally have a good track record with likability (at least so far as I can tell). I like being liked - who doesn't? I know it was a struggle for my former boss to get me hired at this new company - I have the distinct impression that there may be a handful of people who might not like me simply because they never wanted to have to hire me in the first place.
Will I be able to hit the ground running? I haven't done any substantial casework since the first week of April. And I haven't been over 100% utilized since early February (for those of you that don't know, utilization is based on the number of hours you spent working that will be billed to a client. 40 hours a week = 100% utilized. The more billable hours you have, the better the bonuses you get.). Since I'm so out of "shape" and so out of practice at this point, will I be able to hop right back into the saddle again? I've been dying for some (professional) action, so I think so, but who knows. I followed Matt into his office all weekend just to help get me back in the groove. I haven't spent more than 5 hours in an office (in a single day) in over a month now. And since June 20th, I have spent a total of two partial days in the office (despite having remained employed through July 15th...one of the perks of getting laid off, I guess).
The last few months have been so nice. The additional free time has given me the chance to set up a solid workout routine (finally) and cook yummy and nutritious meals every night. Sigh. It's so easy to put together something thoughtful and wonderful when you get home at 5:30. Once things get back to the usual 7:00/7:30 routine, what will I do? And with being in the office earlier in the morning than I'm used to, will I ever work out again? Or will I use this as an excuse to only work out on weekends? Knowing me (the Queen of Excuses), I probably will.

Well, again, it looks like I need to request that people wish me luck. Hopefully I won't need it!

So this one time...

2008-07-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you know that I have a story for everything. Everything. I'll admit that it's not one of my more charming qualities, but such is life. In any case, I love stalking other peoples' blogs, but never really thought of starting one of my own simply because I'm convinced that I'm not really very interesting (just me and my arsenal of boring stories...hmmm...a real page turner). I am not married, engaged, divorced and I don't have any cute kids to write about. Just me. Not only is my personal life not very exciting, but I don't ever have anything particularly interesting or witty to say (not for a lack of trying) - it takes most of my energy just to try to be engaging at work (and with Matt, the pour soul that is my boyfriend) - I'm not sure if I will do very well when essentially talking to no one. I'm more entertaining when bouncing comments back and forth with actual people. Hmm.

I digress. In my mind, writing about myself just seems a bit narcissistic, but I figured that for all the blog stalking I do, I really owe it to the world (okay, maybe not the whole world) to open up about myself sometimes, dull though it may become.

Anywho, given my uncanny ability to procrastinate, don't expect too much ;-) This may be the only post here for like a bajillion years. And I'm not sure that's much of an exaggeration...

I'm not telling anyone that I'm starting this bad boy up, so if you're reading this, there's a fair chance that we don't know one another (or I've posted a comment on your blog because I'm stalking you...in which case you may or may not know me...sorry for that). A teeny bit about me:

I'm a young professional living and working in LA
I'm a sucker for anything musical
I have 4 nieces and nephews that are quite possibly the most wonderful people in the whole world
I love love love food. I like to think that I could move from LA to a smaller town where things are a little slower and make a bit more sense, but I'm just not sure I have it in me to leave this place. For all it's dirty, paved, sprawling superficiality, it sure has a heck of a lot of really great restaurants. I guess it goes without saying that I'm not an actress/model type...I have a few more pounds on me than that ;-) And I likes me some foods!
I'm currently experiencing an extremely lucky streak, but my latent pessimism has me wondering how much longer before something bad happens
Outside of work projects and house projects, I totally lack the ability to follow through. Next time I post something on here, I may very well be married and have kids and finally feel like I've got something to talk about (or maybe a lobotomy will have introduced a more interesting, more diligent version of me). HA!

Well, wish me luck!