Friday, November 30, 2007

Grievances and an attempt to show you I am not ALL negative

Now it is crunch time for Adam. He has informed me that studying for finals is now a huge priority, which is a very diplomatic way of saying "Don't hand Eli to me when you are tired of him or expect me to do anything besides eat dinner." Understood. It's raining here. Hard. So my couch out on the porch is sopping wet because I was gambling the odds that it would never rain here and, thus, did not obtain a tarp to cover it. It gets better. I had to stand outside in the rain for ten minutes at six am and all but force my dog to go to the bathroom because he is a pansy and hates to get wet. And the best news of all? Insurance sucks. We have had a hole in our roof since the day we moved in (July, mind you.) It's now, let me check, one day shy of December and our home owner's association is still "assessing the problem." Meanwhile, I can hear the water seeping into my walls and clearly see and feel the puddles on my bathroom floors. Idiots. And there is a scathing review of Bank of America brewing in my brain. I will give them one more week before I unleash the power of the blog on them. They won't know what hit them. Just kidding, I know I am not quite queen of the universe yet, but I am still pretty mad at them. Oh, and Mitt Romney didn't do too well in the debate folks. Huckabee seems to be the new rising star, which would be ok with me except that his Arkansas constituency hates him. And you all remember what happened last time we elected an Arkansas governor to be president? I guess as long as the nominee is not Rudy, I will be all right. He is such a faker. He did nothing for New York. The money that came in after 9/11 from every which federal way helped New York. He was incidental.

Everything else rocks. Eli is cool, I have awesome friends who like to watch and play with my kid and even sometimes play with me, it's Christmas time, I am reading an excellent book called The Kite Runner, I have a new pseudo writing job which I am cautiously optimistic will work out, and Adam will soon have one quarter of dental school behind him. Good times.

Monday, November 26, 2007

A grown up Thanksgiving and our rising popularity


This looks like a picture of an older person recovering from a far too large Thanksgiving meal huh? No. It's just Eli. This is his new favorite place to snooze. Man he is large. SO I hosted my very first Thanksgiving...kind of. Does it count if your parents still pay for everything? I still felt like I was kind of an adult for a few days. I don't know why, because I didn't really take care of my baby or dog; my dad stayed with Eli all day long so that I could ride all of the roller coasters my little heart desired, and I sure didn't cook. Mostly, we just ate at my house. And it was a lot of fun. We ordered a takeout banquet from Knots Berry Farm and picked it up on our way out of the park, after a long day of ride hopping and people watching. It was delicious. The next day, we went down to my aunt Stephanie's house and drained her diet coke supply while watching entirely too much awesome football on their ultra high definition huge screen TV. It was great. The weather was everything we Southern Californians talk it up to be. We swam and ate and sat and talked and walked and watched a LOT of sports, which I am generally a fan of. Good times. Happy Thanksgiving. If you just read the aforementioned, I obviously have much to be grateful for. And I am.

We have been pretty popular since obtaining Guitar Hero 3. If you have not made an appointment to come play at our house yet, hurry. The slots are quickly filling up. You might still be able to get in before Christmas. Naturally, Adam loves it. He attributes his triumph over the devil to the pressure creating ambiance of a watchful audience. Yes, he beat Lou. I think it was almost as exciting for him as Eli's birth. Well, that makes my husband sound like a real video game junkie...he's not, but he is pretty freaking skilled at this game which is, I won't lie, occasionally alarming. But at least we have friends because of it! And E is making fast friends with all of the kids that follow their parents over to play, so he claims the social benefits too. Really though, its been so much fun. Come over anytime anyone that is remotely interested in playing, hanging, eating, and whatever. How cute are those kids?

Monday, November 19, 2007

Experiment

I don’t know exactly why I am writing about this. Maybe I am just missing the mountains and snow. Actually, that’s a lie. I am trying out a new freelance writing site and this was an article I wrote for it, so here you go.
I am going to bear my testimony about my honeymoon. Eww! Don’t worry. It’s not like that. “You went to Canada on your honeymoon?” you say. Oh yes. Mountains. Snow. Caramel hot chocolate. Bed and Breakfast. Hot tub. Village shopping. Snowboarding. Keep reading to know more about this fabulous freeze out in the winter wonderland we call Whistler, British Columbia.
We hopped on a little grasshopper of an airplane the day after our wedding. We arrived in Vancouver and proceeded to the not so little greyhound bus to wind our way up into the jagged pines. Not quite the Polar Express, but a joyride through a beautiful frozen landscape nonetheless. I will never forget the very first image of the bed and breakfast as we pulled around the half moon drive in the taxi. It was my absolute fantasy house. Surrounded by fluffy fir trees, constructed of beautifully stained mountain wood. It was the most perfectly appropriate mountain abode I had ever encountered. The light was invitingly lit over the porch. We knocked on the door, unsure of how this whole check-in process works. We were immediately greeted by our European hostess. We removed our shoes as we would in anyone’s home this nice. Beautiful open foyer, surrounding windows and a lovely central lobby, which was actually a cozy family room with oversized leather chairs, a giant heat-radiating fireplace, surrounding speakers playing soft classy music and all spotlessly clean. The simple mountain décor inside was the perfect compliment to the endless wonder that astonished us each time we stepped outside.
Alpine Chalet Luxury Inn. We made fun of that redundant name many a time during and since our stay, but not of the meticulous service we found there. Among the many amenities at this heavenly haven were a quaint little eating area which served as a quiet, romantic spot for any of the impeccably delicious meals that were served, a private hot tub and sauna, common fridge in the lobby, ski/snowboard storage room, and absolutely pleasant and completely unintrusive mother and son hosts. Our room was a bedroom, not a hotel room. Our meals were specially prepared, not cooked. Everything felt completely catered to our specific standard. Our hosts were there, ready and willing to provide whatever we needed as wanted and nowhere to be found when we wanted to be alone.
We snowboarded at the vast and inexplicably beautiful Whistler resort, which was a 5 minute ride from our stay. We walked around the frozen lake we overlooked from our room, hiked into the pines above it on the one sunny day and enjoyed the bustling village town in all its eating and shopping glory. Never have I enjoyed the cold so much; never have I relished the sight of my own breath in the air so well. I cannot wait until we can venture back to the exact same place. This is truly a hidden gem, not just your home away from home, but your dream home away from home. And you thought this was going to be a nasty honeymoon story.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Motorcycling and other weekend adventures

We had a good time in Utah. Its fun to go back. I hate leaving Adam alone that long though. It will be better when we go back for Christmas together. I think the most fun thing I did was leave my baby with Heather and go for a wild ride with my dad and Chelsea; I sure appreciated Heather watching him, however my darling little drama queen niece, Lucy, did NOT appreciate his presence. Hopefully she will learn to like him better when she does not have to share her mother with him. Thanks so much Heather.

The best part of the ride was my dad reassuring Chel the whole way up that this would be a real easygoing ride. She was on a bike that weighs at least twice as much as she does, so naturally wasn't too eager to scale the back of Timp.
Anyway, after we had both dumped our bikes several times, narrowly escaped a couple trees and slipped on a sheet of ice, he finally quit saying "I think this is the hardest part; it opens up right up here." I guess whatever doesn't kill you makes you a better motorcycle rider right Chel? I loved it. I love Utah mountains. I love doing exciting things with my family that require us to, sometimes, work together to solve a problem...like pick up a 250 pound bike off the ice and get it started again. I love the crisp fall air-its still a summery eighty degrees here, which don't get me wrong, is great. But I just love outdoor Utah. It was an intense workout. Riding up a single track, windy trail with roots and rocks popping up every couple seconds requires more mental and physical focus than I had remembered. It was so fun. We will definitely be a motorcycle riding family someday.

Eli got to spend a considerable amount of bonding time with his adoring Grandma and Nana and we came back with no short supply of wardrobe supplies as a result. Thank you. You guys rock. After the motoride, E and I headed down to St. George with Natalie and the twins. We met Adam at the air show in Las Vegas the next day-pretty WT, but so cool! After spending the whole day going deaf watching F22s and A10s fly, we ended the night with Cam and Tiara and her family at the Cheesecake Factory. So, needless to say, that was a good day. The trip ended with a pleasant, despite two sleep deprived teething babies, ride home. I can honestly say that it was fun driving to and back from Utah with Michelle and our crying kids. Good times. Good times.

In other news, Adam is his class's president. Does that mean I get to be the first lady of the Loma Linda D1 dental class of 2011? I guess. Here is the direct quote from Ashley Spencer, whose husband is also the pres of his class: "Congrats to Adam on the class president thing, by the way. You have now lost your husband to an endless number of lunch meetings :-)" Excellent. But I guess I knew I'd miss out on a lot of his time when we started this whole process. So wahoo for Adam and all of his lunch meetings. How weird, he only has 3 weeks of school left. One quarter down (almost) and lots more to go...

I am so excited for my family to come for Thanksgiving next week. Thanksgiving is another holiday for which I have very few criticisms. I love the time of year, there is food involved, there is NOT an enormous over-commercialized pressure to buy things that you don't need, and everyone celebrates the joy that is family and friends. I wish there was Thanksgiving music that the radio stations could start playing right now; actually every single radio station where I am sucks so bad, I would go for Christmas music year round over all the Spanish rap crap that is played. I love Christmas music. That's it. Have a good day you.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Cute

I was going to try and couch this blatant display of baby bragging with some profound and useful text, but I got nothing. This is really just a shameless plug for Eli. Enjoy my pirated pictures.





Wednesday, November 7, 2007

You all know what this is

I have been tagged so I won't bother explaining it; you know the drill. I write six things about myself that you may or may not know, which is essentially what I do on accident every single time I post (this IS, after all, my blog and I am self absorbed like that.) So here we go, six things:

1. I have a half brown left eye. I don't know how or why it is there but it is the one part of my body that I absolutely adore.

2. I don't think I want to have any girls. Wait, let me qualify that: I would be perfectly happy if I had all boys. I am no good at doing the girl thing. My mom and sister are my best friends outside of my home, but I would be terrified of trying to raise a girl...she might turn out like me. If we just have boys the greater likelihood, given the facts of physiology and what not, is that they will turn out more like Adam. I can deal with that.

3. I am not very nice. I can be very sincere, and helpful and give service and all that, but I am not inherently a nice person.

4. Contrary to my family's holdings, I am not a liberal. I like hearing, discussing and examining all sides of political, etc. issues. But I am generally more conservative than I am not. Not always, but most of the time. I really like Mitt Romney and I believe his chances of being elected President are good if he can beat fraudulent Rudy out of the primary nomination. I think his greatest qualifier is that he has conservative ideals and has governed in a liberal climate; he's had to learn how to navigate through idealogical disagreements to unify his constituency. That is the most important thing that the country needs right now. So I'm not typically found voting liberal, but I do believe that education should remain under the control of the government and should not be left to compete in the business world. It needs fixing, but should not be subjected to halfway attempts at sabotage. Either privatize it completely, or make some sweeping financial reforms so that our teachers are not subsisting on minimum wage. So sorry if that makes me a bleeding heart liberal Ben and Ryan and Tom and Michael. I think education is one of the very very few areas where if higher taxes are necessary, its a burden that we should all shoulder because everyone ultimately benefits from quality education that is accessible. So fix it. Don't take money from something that is already barely scraping by. That was a very fragmented rant against referendum 1, defense of my right to listen to all sides of the story and STILL lean conservative, and endorsement of Mitt Romney for president. I'm not exactly sure what I intend that to mean about me. You figure it out.

5. I love to argue for fun. Not for real, only when its all fun and games. The second it turns combative and serious, I want out. But its my favorite sport. Fortunately I can count the number of times on one hand that Adam and I have seriously gotten into it. But we do it all the time for fun. I like that. I didn't know that my marriage would be like that. I always imagined that we would fight all the time-yell and scream and say mean things and then apologize and move on. I'm pretty sure this is better than that.

6. Love college football. Love it. Nothing better than a Saturday at home watching random games all day.

Check out Ben's and Heather's blogs for what I have been doing while in Utah this week, if you care. They have done a really nice job of cataloging this week's events. Pay up both of you. Maybe I'll post a picture or something next week when I get home. I gotta go. E is awake...oh wait, I have like twenty people who want to take care of him so maybe I'll just go read or watch Tucker Carlson or something because I don't really have parental responsibilities while in Utah. But I kinda miss my little monster so maybe I'll go try and snag him for a minute.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

HI

I'm in Utah. Come see me!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Sumo baby and hot dog gallery

I don't generally let the pictures speak for themselves because I always think that I can speak better...and who knows, I may not allow that even though I initially intended to do so. Once I get started on the keyboard, there is just sometimes no stopping my wild rants. But this plethora of pictures I am about to reveal is fairly insightful about what's been going on for all Hallow's eve...and all Hallow's eve eve. And Hallow's eve eve eve eve. I swear there is no such thing as a holiday anymore. Its like holiday week. Yep, here I go. Anyway, Halloween is actually one holiday for which Adam and I both have relatively few criticisms. We had so much fun dressing up ourselves, our kid and our hugest hit dog. Everywhere we went, Duane was like the life of the party. People I didn't even know were stopping to snap pictures. Last year, no one really cared. And E was quite the attraction as well. We felt famous.

When you were a youngling, did you imagine yourself dressing up your canine to attend the event of the season: THE ANNUAL LOMA LINDA DOG PARK HALLOWEEN POTLUCK COSTUME PARTY. Yeah, I know. I never did. But lo and behold, there we found ourselves. There were like 45 dogs all decked out. And awesome food...and yes my baby likes Dr. Pepper. Well that's just great. You all know we are always up for a good free meal. We have become the biggest charity case. I love it. We went to our Aunt Lara's house in Ladera Ranch last night...actually, her neighbor's house-whom we didn't previously know-for dinner. Lara tells everyone that we are poor students, and not only do they shovel food into our mouths while we are there, excellent food I might add, they subsequently send us home with all the leftovers. And we are tight, just like that. Its awesome. We also inherited a cool plant that Lara was mercilessly trying to starve of water and sunlight in her garage. So, people find out that Adam is in dental school and we become their new project. Its great. It's the best thing about these week long holidays; we don't have to go to the grocery store for the whole week after. And it was just so much fun to parade my fat baby and dog around.
I also gotta give myself props for the sumo wigs I made for Adam and E. Another fabulous concoction divined from the random effects at the glorious WT .99 cent store. I sewed yarn onto a WT do rag and tied it in a knot on the top, cool huh? Rock on to me and my bad cheap self. That didn't sound very nice, but you know what I mean. Isn't my fat little baby perfect in this outfit? Oh yeah, and I'm a brunette now.

In summary of what was supposed to be a one line introduction to a long picture post, we went to a friend party on Friday, a ward party on Saturday, a dog party on Sunday, and a family trick or treat party yesterday. It was all great and my pantry and fridge are still magically stocked for it. High five for Halloween and nice people who give us free food.