Late Christmas

Last night we finally got around to doing our Christmas with the Wardles. We headed over to One Man Band for some yummy dinner. It was kind of nice going out on a snowy Wednesday night. There was NO ONE out. We got our food really fast, and it was nice and quiet in there. After dinner we headed back to our house for presents, treats (we were all too full), games and a movie. I got a cake decorating book and tip set, which I'm very excited to start playing with, and Z got noise canceling headphone things to use while he's shooting.

P.S. When your kid had just barely recovered from diarrhea, don't give him onion rings at dinner.

Cravings

In the 13ish months total of my life that I've been pregnant, this is the first time I've wanted to make a special trip to the store for what I'm craving.

Frito's dipped in pizza sauce and topped with shredded cheese. Go ahead, think I'm crazy. But it's GOOD!

Naked Time

Noah and his cousin Eva had naked time on Christmas Eve before they got into their new pajamas that Santa's Elves brought them.

Mouse Update

It was kind of cute. But he was playing in my bathtub. It had to go, and now I have to Clorox.

Game On

Yesterday our friend Aaron and his 4 year old Asher came over to play games with us. Asher enthusiastically played the wii for 5 hours while us adult types played our games. Z & Aaron played a couple without me while I was getting Noah and Isabella to bed. We started out with Dice Town, then got in a full game of Pirate's Cove before they had to head home. Both were really cool games that I would be more than happy to own.

Squeek Squeek

Zander has thought for a couple of weeks now that we might have a mouse. I didn't, cuz I never saw any evidence of it. Until this morning when I heard the tell tale squeeking sound under my stove while Noah was eating his breakfast. Time to go get a mouse trap. I guess that's what we get for living with a horse field across the street? I'll keep you updated.

Shopping and Dinner

One of these days we'll finish our Christmas shopping. We went to the mall tonight, grabbed a couple of things, FINALLY got an idea for a certain person who is notoriously impossible to shop for (ahem, Craig), ran out of energy, and decided to go to Pantrucas for dinner. We got up there and they were closed for the night. So we changed to Tucanos. Called over there and they had a 45 minute wait. So we went to Macaroni Grill. I like that place.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes everything better.

Vacuuming

Sometimes it cheers me up

Flip Flops in Winter

I don't care if there's a foot of snow outside my front door. I WILL NOT put my flip flops away. They will remain by the front door so the next time it's moderately warm (say 40's) I can wear them again.

Saturday

Saturday we were still really tired from all the stuff we had done the day before, so we finished up some of the moving, but mostly were lazy all morning. Around 3 I needed to get out of the house so we ran over to wal-mart to get a few random things we needed. When we got home we found out that my nephew Marshall had a fever so we weren't going to be able to take Noah over to Dan and Krystal's so we could go on a date night. Dan, being stubborn as he is about our babysitting trades, essentially told us that he'd come over and watch Noah at our place. Which meant that we had about an hour to finish up moving and decorating, and get everything clean. Overall it was a good thing, cuz I don't think that I would have had the motivation to get it done otherwise. So Dan got here and Z and I took off on our date.

First of all, I was just excited to not have to drive or be in my car to go somewhere! Although I'm so used to driving that anyone else's driving (ahem, Zander) kind of scares me, but it was still nice to not have to drive. The original plan was to go to a movie and then hit up a quick dinner afterwards, but we had grabbed a late lunch around 3, and had popcorn in the movie, so we weren't hungry when we were done. The movie itself was surprisingly good. We went to New Moon. After how AWFUL the first movie was, I really wasn't expecting much out of this one, just hoping that it would be better since it had a different director. I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. It stuck to the central storyline very well, the acting was better (due to the abscense of Robert Pattison), and there was some really cool animation with the wolves and vamps fighting in various scenes. Overall, a good movie, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. It gets a 4 on my scale.


As we were getting out of the theater (ok, while we were in the movie) Luca and Liv called to see if we wanted to play games. They met up with us at our place around 9:30 with the stipulation that any games needed to be mindless. So we found some mindless games, had some good mindless fun, then all went to our various beds and crashed. Overall, a great day.

Black Friday

Zander proposed to be on Black Friday of 2005, and he did it via decorating a Christmas tree. So it is now our tradition to put up the Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. We have to rearrange the furniture slightly to get the tree in, but we went a little overboard this year and literally rearranged our ENTIRE main floor. The front room is now the back room, and once the tree is down it'll switch around a little bit again. That and we might be buying some new couches in the next few weeks, which will force us to change things a bit again. But so far we're really liking it. I keep trying to go to the wrong room to get on my computer, and Z keeps getting confused as to why the tv isn't where it belongs. But things feel a lot roomier with it this way. By the time we got the tree up and the actual furniture moved around where we wanted it, we were pretty wasted. So the project got to like 80% completion that day.

The only shopping we did on Friday was a trip to Lowe's with our neighbors to get some more ply-wood to finish up the attic, and of course we ended up getting a few other little things. Lowe's is one of the most dangerous stores for us to go to.

Thanksgiving

I'm sure you don't want to hear about how much we ate etc. because you probably did the same thing we did as far as food. I did however make a really pretty apple pie!

Anyway, here are some of the less traditional exciting events of our Thanksgiving this year.

1 - Noah decided to figure out how to climb on a chair all by himself. He was immensely proud of this accomplishment.

2 - Mindo played a game!!! I've known Min for like 6 years now, and any time people around her are playing a game she gives it a flat out no. She will sit and talk while the game is in play, but never actually play. She played Phase 10 with us though. Miserable game. We all got so tired of the stupid thing that we didn't actually finish it, but hey! Mindo played a game!!!

Olives

Conversation with Z last night that I found highly amusing

E - You weren't supposed to eat all of the olives
Z - I didn't. I put them in a container in the fridge.... I think I put them in the fridge....I put them in a container.

Music

Today I created my holiday station on Pandora. It includes Trans-Siberian Orchestra, David Lanz, King Singers, and Mannheim Steamroller. Something about Christmas music makes even Thanksgiving seem better.

Queso

Painfully addicting

Cupcakes

Thursday, after a painfully rough morning, I decided the kids and I needed to do something fun to take up the afternoon. After debating between making cupcakes or cookies, I settled on cupcakes. I got the batter ready while the kids were still sleeping, and Noah woke up just as I was putting them in the oven. I turned on the oven light so he could see what was going on in there, and he sat there with his face glued to the oven for the next 20 minutes literally watching them bake.


Isabella woke up with perfect timing right as the cupcakes were coming out of the oven. We played for a few minutes while the cupcakes cooled, then the fun began. I put a sheet down to help with cleaning up cuz I knew this was going to be a mess, then showed the kidlets how to put sprinkles on their frosted cupcakes. Isabella caught on really fast, Noah didn't care too much and mostly just wanted to watch. Isabella also caught on that it was a treat, and quickly began to eat the frosting off of her cupcake. I underestimated the amount of mess she could make, and the speed she could do it in, so I ended up stripping her for the sake of her sweater, and pants.



All in all in really turned out well. It entertained the kids for a good 15-20 minutes, and hey, caupcakes is never a bad thing.

Update

I know that I have posted anything in a long time, but that's for a good reason. There's been very little worth posting about. Z is in his final weeks of this semester, which means he's busy doing projects and having to stay late at work to keep his hours up. It also means that instead of having fun filled and exciting evenings we usually sit and watch a movie while he does homework on the laptop. So here are a few pictures highlighting a few "fun" events, all of which, of course, are centered around Noah.

If the amount of mess is equal to the amount a food is enjoyed, then I'd say Noah liked this meal.

We've discovered that boxes are pretty darn cool!

Especially when they can fit two at the same time!!!

Especially when two can fit in at the same time!!!

If you're wondering who the little curly haired girl is, that's Isabella. She lives next to us and I watch her 3 days a week for a couple of hours. She's 3 months older than Noah, so they make great little play buddies.

Zander just informed me that lots has been happening. Here's his list, which is evidently better than mine.

- We went to Tucano's for a surprise birthday party for our good friend Luca
- We went to Olive Garden with our good friends Craig and Steph (like 3 weeks ago)
- We went to a Halloween party at Bob and Rochelle's (see how friendly we've been?)
- We got a new street light outside our house! (which really is VERY exciting)
- I went to lunch with Rochelle yesterday
- Zander mounted a ladder to pull down a wasps nest (about a month ago)
- We watched Seven Samurai. 1950's black and white subtitled 3 1/2 hour long Samurai movie.
- Amistad - really good emotional and moving movie. Freaking awesome! (we watch lots of movies)
- Noah split his lip open at Wal-Mart. It had nothing to do with the fact that we were at Wal-Mart, that's just where it happened. Z still has nightmares about it evidently.
- Noah hugged the fridge when he wanted some milk the other morning. (this list is getting pretty thin)
- One of Zander's classes is essentially done for the semester due to Thanksgiving break. (WOOHOO)
- We talked to Amanda at Wal-Mart, three times or so. Pretty much any time we're there and she's there, which is pretty often.

He-Man

P.S. I Love You

This movie broke my heart again and again. I haven't cried that much in a movie since...I don't even remember when, and if I had been watching it alone I probably would have been full on sobbing. It just felt so much more REAL than most movies are about losing a loved one. It shows the pain and awkwardness of every day life, and not wanting to move forward but just wanting life to stop for just a minute so that you can try and piece your life back together. This was also one of the very rare chick-flick type movies (that doesn't involve lots of slapstick humor) that Zander told me he wanted to buy. Those of you who know him know that it's a big deal for him to want to buy a movie that doesn't have any explosions or gun shots.

P.S. Zander, I love you.

Family Photos

My good friend Triana took some family photos of us over the weekend. Here are a few of the highlights.

Knowing

Interesting movie. Not really what I was expecting, but still pretty good.

FOOD BLOG

In case you didn't know, I have a food blog. I post my favorite recipes etc on there. You should check it out, and comment. There's nothing more fun than having comments on a blog.

Chef Em

Happy List

Little things that make me happy

- Having a made bed
- Noah coming up and giving me a hug
- Ikea having EXACTLY what I've been wanting, and couldn't find elsewhere
- Redwood road being done
- Snow on the mountains
- Fall decorations
- Feeling confident in my abilities
- Watching a movie wrapped up in a blanket

Granite Flats

I've been wanting to go camping for a LONG time now. We're talking like since I was pregnant with Noah. And granted we went in August for the Statham reunion, but we all got sick and Noah didn't sleep well and it just wasn't what I needed to get rid of this camping craving. So I told the Wardle's that they were going camping with us, assigned Craig to find us a campsite, and away we went!

We ended up going to the Granite Flats campground up American Fork Canyon. For those of you familiar with the canyon, it's up right by Tibble Fork. Fantastic little (ok, huge and sprawling) campground. Wardle's went up early on Saturday morning to get us a spot because it was a free, no reservations weekend. Us Indo people got up there around 2 because we had to drop Noah off in Orem. We decided it would be a more fun trip for everyone if he got to sleep in a house instead of a tent. After setting up camp and wasting a bit of time playing Craig's new Operation game, we went exploring down the "trails" leading away from our tents.









The trails lead down to a little ravine with 2 streams coming together in it. It was so pretty down there, the leaves had changed colors and were just starting to fall off the trees, the sound of gurgling water was all around, and it was just awesome. On our way back it was decided instead of following the trails we should make our own trail and just follow the streams back up, and then climb out of the gorge. It was actually a lot of fun. Zander was nice enough to create a log bridge for me and Steph (who were wearing flip flops) to cross the stream, and he also did some crazy Superman dive across the steep mountain face to save me cuz the tree I was holding onto decided to break. twice. Kind of a crazy adventure, but really a lot of fun.

We got back, cleaned up a bit, made dinner and dessert, talked to the neighbors, played Killer Bunnies (I won cuz I had ALL of the carrots), sat around the campfire trying to stay warm, then decided around 11:30 to head to bed. Wardle's heard an owl at some point in the night, but Zander and I didn't hear anything except the occasional clicking of Steph's propane tent heater.

In the morning we got up (Steph dragged herself out of her scalding hot tent around 10:30), played games, read books, layed around, ate breakfast, layed around some more, got packed up, and headed out. Wardle's headed further up the canyon up to Silver Lake to try and find a moose, and then came home the long way via the Alpine Loop. Us Indo's headed down to Orem, got Noah, dropped off the camping stuff, and headed home. All in all, a perfect way to end the summer.

Galoon 2009!!!

Every year in the fall the Indo family gets together and we all go to Lagoon. This started the fall that Zander and I were dating, and has continued each year since. Ok...we missed last year. Whatever. So we all went to Lagoon about a week ago and had a blast. Since we had kids with us people kind of got separated into different groups and doing their own thing, but it was still lots of fun. And of course we still got to eat out picnic lunch together, which in Indo tradition, included corn on the cob.


We took Noah with us this year, and I have mixed feelings about doing it. He was too small and young to ride a lot of the kid rides, but the few that he could ride he seemed to like quite a bit. With how much fun Eva was having, I bet Noah has a blast at Galoon day next year. If nothing else it was good to go and see what he can and can't handle as far as amusement parks go. And it was really nice for all 3 of us to be out and doing something different, and in the fresh air.

Science Experiment

The poor mother who owned the microwave where the experiments were performed....

Game Night - Small World

Likely my favorite Days of Wonder Game

Spin Cycle

This is how we spent our evening

Two things

1 - This movie was fantastic, uplifting, and real.

2 - I love this stuff now that I've finally tried it.

Wardle-Day

For those of you who don't know...the Wardles are Craig and Stephanie that we used to live below at our last apartment in Provo. We like them lots. Good friends. When we were still living below them, we seriously were hanging out 3-5 times a week. Since we've moved it's still been at least once a week. So Saturday was a Wardle-day. We all went to Tucanos for lunch because both Craig and I had birthday free-meal coupons that we needed to use. Then we went back to their house so Noah could have a nap. The boys had some errands to run, so Steph and I hung out at the house and she showed me how cool it is to make your own jewelry, and I'll be getting some stuff to start it up for myself in the next week or so. When the boys got back we played games, went to the Best In Music drawing thing, got See's candies, Jamba Juice's for dinner (no one wanted REAL dinner after a Tucanos lunch), then went back to their place to put Noah to bed and play games. It was a fabulous 11ish hour Wardle-Day.

Noah Time

In an effort to make it look like I have a life outside of taking care of Noah, I've been trying to post about things other than him. By doing so I've completely neglected posting about him. So here's some of his fun antics as of late.

Today when we got home from the grocery store he starting looking through all of the bags. (I assumed he was looking for his grapes) He then pulled out all of the cans and started stacking them in a tower. Unfortunately this adventure ended with the tower collapsing and a can landing on his foot.

He tries to walk backwards. They end up being little tiny steps, and it's really cute.

His new dance is stepping in place really excited. For those of you who have seen Marshall dance, it's kind of like that, but not nearly as energetic as M does it.

We borrowed some Baby Einstein movies from our neighbors, and much to my surprise and delight, Noah LOVES them. Up until now I've been hard pressed to get him to watch more than 5 minutes of a show so I can do the dishes or something real fast. With Baby Einstein he'll sit in the front room for upwards of 30 minutes happily watching the show and talking back to it fairly often.

He now sign's "Please" while saying "eeees". The more he wants it the more energetically he signs it.

About a month ago he discovered that there are rocks all over in this world. On the sidewalk, the road etc. He picks them up and carries them with him. Thankfully he doesn't usually try to eat them.

He says "kitty kitty kitty" whenever he sees a cat....or a dog....or just about any other animal. Oh, and he just said it about his little soccer ball as well.

He barks like a dog when he sees one (after he calls it a kitty) or hears one barking in the neighborhood. The trouble is he barks like my moms dog, which happens to be a beagle. So his bark sounds more like a howl than the standard "woof woof" bark.

Today's List

Some posts are just easier to do as lists.

- 2 loads of laundry clean, dry, and put away
- the whole house clean
- 4 digital scrapping pages done
- 3 Spanish exercises
- Windows open all day cuz there's that early fall crispness out there
- healthy breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner
- Noah playing with his "smart" toys
- Zander waking up on time without the alarm, and without me hearing him

Labor Day Weekend

Background Information:
2 years ago we were given a gift certificate for a night's stay at the Anniversary Inn. About this same time we attended a silent auction (bad idea) where we purchased, among other things, dinner for two at Zoom in Park City.

Saturday afternoon we went down to Orem, got some Cafe Rio for lunch, dropped Noah off, and headed out for our weekend get away, starting with Park City. We got up there a little early so that we had some time to wander around and look through galleries etc. I was glad to find that for the most part we have the same taste in art. Park City was really cool to go to though. It feels very "out of state", like somewhere in the northwest, and with an almost aristocratic air to it. Maybe that's encouraged by the number of Mercedes, Jaguar, etc. cars parked along the streets, and people looking slightly uptight as they walked around in their well-fit zip up fleece jackets. (it was a little cold and rainy) We walked up and down main street (I was excited to see the infamous Harry O's), and then headed over to our free dinner at Zoom. The certificate just said "Dinner for Two" on it, so we weren't really sure what to expect from it. I was thinking two entree's. Turned out that it was an appetizer, two entree's, and two desserts. We were so stinking full from appetizers and dinner that we had them package our desserts to go. (we have yet to eat them, and I bet that they're bad by now) The food was pretty darn good, but I wouldn't go back honestly. I think it's insane for someone to charge $36 for a meal, and I could have gotten just as good a steak at a regular steak house without having to deal with the "poshness" of park city. But it was still cool to go up there and have dinner prepaid style.

After dinner we headed down to park city to use up our stay at anniversary inn. We had previously reserved the Romeo and Juliet Suite for ourselves, just cuz it looked really pretty and elegant. Here are some really cool things about Anniversary Inn. They have cookies at the front desk for you to munch on while you're checking in. There is cheesecake and chilled apple cider in the room waiting for you. At a time that you specify, they bring you a snack later in the evening, things such as chips and dips, crackers, cheese and salami, spinach artichoke dip, etc. In the morning they deliver breakfast to your door at a time that you specify. There is a giant sized jetted bathtub. They also have movies that you can borrow for free, and they bring them to your room. All in all it's a very pampered experience, and it was a great weekend getaway.

Then we came back to real life feeling nice and refreshed. We went to the new Texas Roadhouse in Lehi/AF with our awesome neighbors the Hulett's. We'd never been there before, but they love it, and we'll gladly take their recommendations. Let's just say that this particular chain has great potential, but where they just opened, they need a few months to work out the kinks. My chicken and Elizabeth's ribs were great. The guys got steaks that were both RARE. My husband likes rare meat, but honestly, this was barely cooked. So we got the steaks sent back. Z's came back fine, Dustin's came back overdone. So they gave him another steak, double the size of what it was originally, and gave both guys their meals for free. It worked out fairly well in the end, but at the time it was pretty annoying to have to deal with so much just to get a steak for the boys.

Monday Zander had LOTS of homework to catch up on, so we really just had a lazy day. We spent the day in the house eating the abundance of leftovers from the rest of the weekend, went to the park for a little while with Noah, and just had a nice long relaxing end to a fantastic weekend.

Simple Things...

...that have made me happy in the last few days

- accomplishing creative outlet projects
- people telling me that various aspects of my outfit are cute
- going to Turbo Kick (even if I was expecting Zumba)
- people truly appreciating my cooking
- good friends. Thanks Wardle's and Hulett's.
- family breakfast of sausage and blueberry pancakes before Z had to go to work

Me

I don't like my name, and haven't for a really long time. Part of it is that it's such an incredibly common name, but mostly, I've never felt like it was mine. But I also don't know what I should be called instead, so I'll have to stick with what I have. Cooking failures frustrate me more than just about anything else in the world. In regards to cooking, I love trying new recipes and new ethnic foods. i love Thai food, and could eat it on a weekly basis and not get tired of it. I type really really fast, and pretty darn accurately as well. I play several musical instruments, well, played at one point anyway. I'm horribly out of practice on all of them, though I would really love to start playing piano and singing again. I miss dancing, and the social aspect that it brought into my life, and feeling like I'm flying/floating across the floor. I don't look like I think I do. When I look in the mirror it's like I'm looking at someone else a lot of the time. I love reading. it's an easy way to explore new places, countries, cities, lands, and worlds. It's interesting to read about other people's lives, whether fictional or not, and see how they react to certain circumstances, and wonder what I might do in the same situation. I didn't like reading until college when I took a Shakespeare class. After that class I quickly changed my major to English Literature. I've never known what I want to do when I "grow up." The last few years I've learned that I'm fairly stubborn, and like things to be done in a certain way. Having a one year old is making me more aware of this, and that it's alright if he doesn't do things exactly the same way that I would do it. I don't have a favorite color. I don't consider myself a strong person. I love driving in familiar areas, especially in cooler weather with the windows down. I still miss my 1987 jeep. It was my first car, it was trashed, and i loved it. I don't feel like I have to wear makeup every day. I want to be more creative. I'm good at copying other people's ideas, just not so good at coming up with them on my own. I have been in love more than once. I have had my heart broken more than once, by the same person. I have broken more than one heart. I like going on adventures, even if it's something stupid and simple. So long as it's an "adventure" I don't care what it is. I want to break this entry up into paragraphs, but since there are no cohesive thoughts longer than a few sentences it seems pointless, or over-done. I like organizing things, just not my own house. I'm a procrastinator. I love a good thunder, lightning and rain storm. Extreme wind scares me. I can watch the rain or snow fall for hours. I love the sound of snow crunching under my foot.

Vantage Point

Literally kept me on the edge of my seat. I need to see it again.

T-Bone

Sadly this post is not about steak. It's about my first ever car wreck.

The Short Story:

I was driving in Smith's parking lot in Saratoga Springs and a girl t-boned me. Her car had essentially no damage, my car looks like crap. All people involved are fine and no one was hurt, other than Noah getting a scratch from his car seat strap.



The Full Story:

I was heading north in the parking lot going towards the gas station in the Smith's parking lot, i had a low tire and was going to see if they had a pump so I could fill it up. The other driver, (we'll call her Sarah) was heading west towards the aisle that i was on. She saw me, tried to break, and his the wrong pedal. She's not used to driving a clutch, to the misfortune of all of us. So she slammed into my passenger side back door, which is of course right where Noah sits. He started screaming, I freaked out just a little bit, pulled him out of his chair, calmed him down, then went to see what in the world happened. The car is pretty well scrunched in on that whole side, but we'll be getting it repaired here in the next week or so. Both doors will have to be replaced, the back door doesn't even really close all the way, and the panels underneath the door are warped as well. Sarah's insurance has accepted fault on the whole thing, so they'll be paying for all of the repairs, and providing me with a rental car so I can still get around while mine is in the shop. We did take Noah to the dr.'s office that same afternoon just to make sure that he was alright, and they said that he looked fine, and told us a few things to watch out for just in case.

Wow

A TON has happened in the last few days. Some of it I still need to take pictures of. The rest of it the batteries in my camera were dead for, so we've got to blue-tooth it to the other computer from Zander's phone, and hopefully a few people will email pictures to me as well. I'll get working on what I can though.

Free Plug

This is one of my oldest friend's photo blog. She's amazing behind a camera!

Triana Ord Photography

Scribbles

Noah's first drawing

What a week!

Forgive the lack of posting. This is why:

August 2 - the Indo side of the family decided that it was an offensive thing that I had never seen Mama Mia, so we watched it with them and they threw me an impromptu birthday party

August 3 - After putting Noah to bed we set up the baby monitor and went over to our neighbors for a little while.

August 4 - Ice Age 3 in 3D and dinner at Sizzler with the Wardles

August 5 - See previous post, cuz I'm not retyping all of that

August 6 - Home made pizza and game night with Wardles

August 7 - Joseph and Deneil flew in from Portland so we had a family dinner and game night.

August 8 - Joseph & Deneil's open house in the parents backyard

August 9 - Joseph, Deneil, Krystal, Dan, and the kids came over for games, and then we all migrated to Orem for dinner.

August 10- Was going to be a normal do-nothing day, until Wardle's told us to come down to Provo and hang out with them.

And honestly the list goes further back than that. We've had like 3 weeks of craziness. I won't know what to do when life goes back to normal. Thankfully that won't be for another week at least.

Best Birthday EVER

I'm not a birthday person. For the most part I'd be content if the world forgot that it was my birthday, minus the presents, and maybe a small piece of cake. But seriously this year was the best birthday I remember having in a really long time, probably since I was a kid and had birthday parties with clowns etc. *shudder*

Noah and I got up at the normal time yesterday, ate breakfast and whatnot, then attempted to wake up Zander, who had stayed up really late the night before. After finally getting him out of bed and into the shower, he was just moving around really slow and it was looking like he was going to be really late for work. While he was getting ready in the bathroom Noah was in there playing with him, and I ended up falling asleep on the bedroom floor for about 15 minutes. When I woke up I realized that Z was really really late for work so I tried hustling him out the door, at which point he told me he had taken the day off to spend my birthday with me! YAY!

We hung out at the house for the morning, reading books and being wonderfully lazy. After Noah woke up from his morning nap we went to a yummy lunch at Happy Sumo with my mom, then I helped her do a bit of shopping while Z took Noah on a little walk through Riverwoods. We came home so Noah could nap and we could relax for a little while. Z told me that we had plans later that night and had to leave at 6 to drop Noah off. By around 7 we had dropped Noah off and started heading to our final destination, which turned out to be an adults only family dinner at Macaroni Grill. For those of you who don't know, my immediate family has been pretty well spread out for oh roughly 10 years now. At one point we were stretched between Portland, Washington state, Utah, and Georgia. We're now in Portland, Utah, and Germany. So family functions are rare and far between. This is the first time in 2 years that we've had a function like this. Ben, Joseph, and Deneil were still absent, but this was as close as we could get, and it was great.

Thanks everyone for a FANTASTIC birthday!!!

A Bit of Heaven

Post-workout high
Driving home in the dark...
with the windows down

To Portland and Back

Friday morning we woke up bright and early (5 am) so that we could head to my brother Joseph's wedding in Portland. The flight left at 8:30, we got there, got the car, drove past downtown Portland (which I NEED to spend some more time in), went to Joseph's house, and then went to the venue to get things going. They were doing the whole wedding at the rec center type place for their apartment complex, and it was really cool. Big huge room with at least 30 ft ceilings, a giant sized fireplace, and big huge wooden beams all over holding the structure up. Really cool room for a wedding. After a few hours of ironing, setting tables etc we went to the hotel, relaxed for a bit, got dressed, then headed back for the wedding itself. The wedding itself was great. Deneil (as always) looked fantastic, and I'm incredibly excited for these two to be married. It's always a good sign when the brand new husband and wife are dancing down the aisle together because they're just so stinking excited to be with each other any moment that they get. Congratulations you guys!




Saturday morning we got to sleep in, aided by the room darkening curtains at the hotel, we ate a free breakfast, then worked our way back to the airport. We got home around 4, went to Eva's birthday party where we picked up Noah, hung out for a while, came home, and CRASHED.

Dinner & A Movie

Last night we went on a triple date. Zander, me, Ben, Emma, Rachel and Tim went out for a night without the kids. Everyone but Rachel and Tim got there a little early, so we wandered through Bed Bath & Beyond, and then over to Nordstrom Rack. I found a $385 pair of shoes that I wandered around in a for a little while, just to get some small idea of what it might be like to be Carrie Bradshaw. Once Rachel and Tim met up with us, we headed over to Pei Wei for dinner. Emma and I both ordered dishes that we didn't really like, so she traded with Ben, and I poured a bunch of soy sauce on mine to make it somewhat tolerable. But the conversation was great, and there were no kids, so I'll take a "bad" meal.

The main event of the evening was going over to Jordan Commons to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It's my favorite book out of the series, and I just finished reading it about 2 days ago, so I was excited to see how they did things. Overall I think that it was a fantastic movie. I worry that if I hadn't read the books I would feel like a lot was missing, and having read th ebook I wonder why they created certain scenes that didnt' exist in the original text. Such as what happened at the Weasley's home during Christmas break. (That's all I'm going to say about it for those who haven't seen it yet) Overall though, it was a fantastic movie. I'd willingly go see it again paying full price for it, and I would like to own it. That right there qualifies it as 5 stars in my rating system.

My movie rating system, in case you are curious.

5 Stars - I'll glady see it again for full price and I'll own it
4 Stars - I'll likely own it
3 Stars - Worth seeing once
2 Stars - I walk out saying "that was a waste of my time."
1 Star - I either walk or or wish that I had

A Random Ever-changing Saturday

Our original plans for Saturday were to do nothing. Then we decided to go bowling and go to lunch with the Indo grandparents. And we decided it would be fun to have the Patterson's go with us as well. But my dad was on 1st call (meaning he'd be working ALL day) and my mom had my two nephews with her for the weekend, so they were out. As we started planning things out with the Indo's we found out that they wouldn't be available until at least 3, which didn't work for us because Noah needs to take an afternoon nap which starts between 2:30 and 3 usually. So we just went to lunch with only us, and it was great, and tasty, and Noah was totally wired from all the apple juice. We were talking/texting Jenn while we were out and about, and invited her to come over for the evening, and she said she would. She came over around 2:30 and spent the rest of the day with us. I was going to make smothered pork burritos for dinner, we ended up making bbq chicken and bratwursts instead. When dinner was about 1/4 of the day done, our neighbors asked us what we were doing that evening for dinner, we told them we were doing bbq and they should come hang out with us and Jenn and Eva. They did, and they brought some ribs to throw on the grill as well. Then we ended up making brownies and had them with icecream, and watched a movie with all of us.

Totally not the Saturday that we were expecting, but it was good, so I'll take it.

An Escape

Yesterday I dropped Noah off at his grandparent's house and went to Barnes & Noble. Granted I can spend hours in that store looking for new and interesting books to read, but that's not what i was after. I went and found the book that I'm currently reading, claimed one of the arm chairs, and sat down to read for an hour or so. As I was sitting there reading I couldn't help but notice the number of people around me also just sitting there reading, and I wondered what they were there to "escape" from. What was the difference for them reading at home vs. reading in the store? Honestly though, it's one of the best things that I've done for myself since having Noah. I LOVE bookstores, and I love them even more when they have a cafe in them. There's something about the smell of books and coffee together that is just incredibly relaxing.