Six People in January.

Here's the idea, take one family photo a month for a whole year. Six people twelve times. I know it seems like I already do that but it's not true. I didn't invent the idea either, I borrowed it from Cherie Mask and Tara Whitney. Since when am I not late to a party anyway?

And about the being late part. I decided to make this project mine weeks ago, but waited until the last minute. The very last one. Bedtime on the 31st of January. Late.

I was surprised that my family didn't protest this one, or mutiny complete with throwing me overbed or something. To my surprise, Eva was the least cooperative, this pic was all I could do under the circumstances. I wish I had done bedder.



Look at Tony's smile. He is such a good sport! I'm not so much of a fan of family bed pictures. I promise that this will be my one and only!

Costco Cool.

Cool that is, according to me on a weekday morning. Keep in mind that I am not afraid to acknowledge my dorkiness, heck I've learned to embrace it! Not that you hadn't noticed already ;)


Cool. Deciding to take the extra 20 minutes to wash my hair before leaving the house. Smart move. Note to self: stop being lazy!

Cool. Choosing to wear Emily's jacket and ballet flats instead of my own stuff.

Cool. Being able to share clothes and shoes with my daughter!

Cool. Singing along to Snow Patrol on the way there, feeling confident with my clean hair and all.

Cool. Getting in before 11:00 a.m.

Cool. Hearing my favorite greeter/doorman/people counter/card checker say, "hello
kiddo" to me every time I see him.

Not Cool. They moved the bread to the back of the store! What! What kind of crazy nonsense is it to put the bread all the way back in the bakery section?

Cool. Warm bread. Splurge!

Cool. The cute older lady shopping with her man that said hello to me and smiled a sweet, happy smile.

Not Cool. No Biosilk in the store. C'mon Costco get it together! I know all about your treasure hunt philosophy and I understand that it's working for you, but seriously? When I do wash my hair, I need this stuff!

Weird. The pretty young mother in the tomato/avocado/cheese aisle that said "she's pretending not to know us" when I was right beside her. I really have never seen her or her kids or her husband in my life.

Not Cool. Soft English cucumbers.

Cool. Memories of shopping with my dad when I pass the aisle that has the giant bag called Fruit Medley.

Cooler than Cool. Getting behind a man at the gas pump who's licence plate frame said:

Survivor
USS Bismarck Sea.

It got to me. I had to get home and look it up. The man filling his white sedan with gas was a handsome, distinguished looking older gentleman; trim, grey haired, clean shaven, wearing a nice sweater and slacks. He looked younger than he had to be but obviously the survivor, not the son driving dads car. He was alone. I wonder if he lives around here? Or was he just passing through my town? I honestly didn't know anything about the USS Bismarck Sea, but I do now.

The USS Bismarck Sea was the last U.S Navy ship sunk in WWII! It sunk on February 21, 1945 off the coast of Iwo Jima after being struck by two Japanese kamikazes! Of the 923 total crew, 318 were lost. My distinguished older gentleman was one of the 605 that survived!

I was shocked to find the list of Navy ship losses during WWII after researching the Bismarck Sea. The list goes on for days, unbelievable. The devastation is unimaginable. But I suppose with everything we know about WWII, the astounding loss of life and horrifying atrocities, it somehow has proportion.

Back to present day. Do you remember when I told you that my own grandfather is a WWII veteran? Well he sure is, and he just had a birthday too. Happy Birthday Papa! May you have many more healthy and happy ones.

California Dreaming.

Dreaming of different days.



OK fine! Maybe I am a little bit obsessed this week with the swimming pool. Not a bad fantasy for the cold wet winter months right? I thought it would be fun to put these two similar pics together. My dad got in the pool every day he was here last summer. Ahh warmth, we'll meet again.

1.11.11

It's cold + sunny and we might get a bunny. No seriously! In truth, it was sunny when I started this post! We have seen a fair amount of the sun the last few days which has been wonderful. Today began cold, dry, and sunny and it's ending cold, wet, and cloudy. Yesterday we woke up to a chilly 29°! Here's what the pool looked like today after the sun went away. I love the reflections of the wintry trees in the deep end.



A friend offered us a bunny with a broken tail and we may accept the bunny offer. We decided to become rabbit farmers last summer when we learned that raising one or two of them would contribute nicely to our plan to become organic vegetable farmers. So when we do finally get our garden ready, we will be rich in bunny poo.

We are also getting a new hamster, a second hand one that has been generously offered to us by Tony's cousin Jose. Emily has it's residence prepared complete with a welcome flag at it's doorway.



We took down the tree and put away the last of the Christmas adornments over the weekend. The house seems so empty now! I couldn't resist taking out the little bit of Valentine's day decor that we have. Eva noticed as soon as she walked in the door after school. She was THRILLED! One thing I hadn't taken out was her preschool valentine box. She asked for it and I retrieved it for her. Another one of the many things that I have a hard time throwing away is the valentines. Last year I had apparently put the other kids' valentines in her box when we packed it all up. She scolded me with the question, "could you please not put everybodys valenstimes in my valenstimes box?"

Yes, of course I noticed the date today! Just another ordinary cold wet beautiful [pretty peaceful so far] evening here at my house. I'm not making a fire tonight because I have a suspicion that it's giving me headaches and I'm probably paranoid enough that I am going to buy a carbon monoxide detector this week. Tonight, I am going to try the recipe from the back of the Kirkland chicken stock box. It's tortellini soup! Wyatt just saw the tortellini and got super excited [it's his favorite]. He said "we're having tortellini!" I said "no, tortellini soup!" He said, "what's that?" I said, "I don't know, we're experimenting!"

1.5.11

I am trying not to slide into the post holiday blues. Why does January always feel like such a lonely month? I'm conscious of it creeping in on me and I know that I can control it so that's what I'm trying to do. We still have our tree up and most of our lights and festive things, and that's helping. I still turn my Christmas tree on every morning. I have stopped listening to Christmas songs, actually the last day I did that was on Christmas day even though I am really longing to hear a few of my favorites still. I have put away a few of the knick-knacky things but for the most part I am holding out for the Epiphany and I like having such a good reason to hold out. I may even make a cake tomorrow, but it wont be an official Rosca de Reyes because I'm not going to put a baby into it.

Tony's birthday was on Sunday and would you like to know how he celebrated it? Sick as a dog that's how! I've actually never seen him sicker than he was on Sunday. He had full blown, as bad as it gets, flu. It hurt me too. It's not easy watching your big strong man get taken down so hard. Especially on of all days...his birthday! It was a rainy day and we all stayed home, tried to make him comfortable and tried to let him sleep, which isn't easy in a small house with four children in it. I am happy to report that he's doing much better now. And I am even happier to tell you that, so far, the rest of us have been spared the ugliness. Time will tell, a few more days I think anyway and hopefully our luck will hold. Ironically, or not so much if we end up with it too, Tony is the only one of us that did not get a flu shot this year. The kids and I finally took care of that business only about three weeks ago.

I think this may be the time of year here that the temperature range is the smallest of the year. This morning when I dropped the kids off at school I noticed that is was 34°, and when I picked them up from school it was 42°. Today may even be the average coldest day of the year here. So ask me what I did today, on quite possibly the coldest day of the year? Go on, ask me! I'll tell you then! Let me make a short story very long OK? I was in Costco and I had filled up my cart with all the usual suspects, eggs, milk, bananas, apples...you get the picture. As I walked by the clothing section I spied something that on a day like this [where it was freezing even on the inside of Costco] I had no business peeking at, but something I really really do need. I couldn't help myself because this particular item doesn't usually appeal to me in Costco for reasons that I'm not interested in sharing here because I really think this story is already too long so I'll just say that this thing appealed to me in a strong way and so I looked through the stack of them and found one that was my size and it very strongly continued to appeal to me and I looked around to see if I was drawing any attention to myself as I expressed what must have appeared to be pure delight. Making this an even crazier scenario, I put two of them in my shopping cart alongside the hearty lentils and the pineapple!

As I walked away, a woman commented on my shopping basket, she exclaimed "already!" with almost as much delight as I felt, I giggled under my breath and smiled all the way to pay. Have you already guessed that it was two swimsuits that I bought? Yes, on a day where the temperature did not rise above 45°, I purchased not just one but two black ladies speedo. I had it in the back of my happy mind that of course I would try them on at home and likely return them on my next [weekly] visit to the big C.

I was just tickled as I drove all the way home with a big goofy grin on my face and my music turned up really loud, as it always is when I am in the car alone. I feel like such a rebel when I am alone in the car. I am alone! I am in my car! I am driving and my music is cool! Ha!

The day got at least seven times times better when I got home, unloaded my groceries and went immediately to try on my speedo. Yep, it fit! Not only did it fit but I think it may have actually looked decent on me. I haven't had a thought like that about something like this in at least 13 years! Just plain black they are, both the same, simple, no fancy stuff. Perfect for swimming whenever we can swim again, which will probably be at least three months or more! But I don't care! The suit I had been wearing for the last two years was old and shredded and I threw it in the trash back in October. I'm ready! Hooray! January blues in your face!

1.1.11

Guess I couldn't resist posting today, I'm a numbers girl at heart! Happy New Year! Or, as I have also been proclaiming ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Don't have a 2011 calendar for your fridge yet? Here's the one that I'm using. I just printed out January today. I love Brenda's illustrations, she has so much talent and I adore her!

Today we:

•slept in
•read
•ate fideos for lunch thanks to my husband the fideo king
•went to a birthday party at a karate studio that was lots of fun
•caught up with our best friends
•made a fire and watched a movie

It was a good January 1. Tomorrow we celebrate Tony's birthday. He's not feeling so good today, fighting a bug of some sort and I really hope he feels better tomorrow.

I'm drinking a spiced/spiked hot tea now and I would like to make a toast. To 2011, may we find grace, may we enjoy peace, may we find even more love to fill our hearts, may we continue to seek the goodness in others, may we be aware of each others needs, may we be a comfort and a blessing to one another. Cheers!