33!

My birthday was last Sunday, and my family conspired to make it a wonderful day for me. It was a busy day, with both church and bible study, but we also had a nice lunch from Macaroni Grill, delivered by my brother and eaten with the addition of Steve's sister. I almost got a nap, but The Boy didn't seem to get the memo about when he was to fall asleep for his nap. I did get some alone time during the day, too, and some football time (watching, not playing). A big kudos to Kristen for bring lasagna to Bible Study for me! We finished it off with a big fat cookie cake from a new (to me) cookie place. Yum!!

Is this a happy birthday or what? The "33" I'm holding are from my birthday gift. I asked for our street address numbers to put on the side of the house. It's something I've wanted, but they aren't cheap, and there's always something we need more. I decided, Hey, this is actually what I want, why not ask for it?? And look at the smile on my girl... precious!
These came from my dear sister-in-law. It was a gorgeous Autumn arrangement with oranges, yellows, reds and lavendars. I still have 2 lilies left standing a week later.

And this little sweetheart is a gift. He is 3 months old today!! So a happy birthday to you, too, little Chunk!

Um, could we talk about ME now?

Ha ha! =) Just kidding. Isn't this blog all about ME anyway? =)

Thought I'd post a couple of fun pictures of yesteryear just for the heck of it. It's been a good life so far, and I'm so thankful.

My graduation from Biola. that was such a good day!

Speaking of good days...
Okay, tell me that's not just too cute? Little girls in tutus are just cute.
First day of school. LOVE my bowl cut. =) And I noticed recently that the cal students are still wearing that exact same Cal shirt my dad has on.
My mom painted this for my birthday, and I had it in my dorm room all through college. It is hanging in his office now, right by where they weigh the babies.

Learning to Like Tomatoes

So I'm 33 years old minus 9 days. Grown up enough not to whine about my own pickiness, right? I remember a few of those moments when food I didn't like was placed in front of me and I had to suck it up and chew, and smile, gosh darnit. There are some things which I think I may never like. Curry. Walnuts in pastries. I've given sushi a good, solid try since childhood (one of my close friends was Japanese). Coconut (with the exception of coconut flavor. I could go for a pina colada right! this! second!).

But then there are the foods that I think have been worth learning to like. Coffee, for example. Calorie-free, easily accessible, and socially useful. Now that I'm nursing, I'm drinking only decaf, but the action of sipping my morning brew is cathartic. Almost like I think a cigarette might be, only without all the deadly stuff. And because I am drinking Swiss-water decaf, it doesn't carry any of the scariness of chemical decaf. And no calories!! Did I mention that?? It took me several years in college of triple choclate mochas, then down to lattes, then Americanos with cream, and now I just like me the plain stuff. I love it HOT, and I love to sip it all morning long.

So now I am working on tomatoes. My dad hated them when I was a kid, and it was kind of a big joke in the family. Plus once when I was a kid I thought it would be fun to work a day in the cafeteria (you got to leave class early), and they served canned stewed tomatoes in the hot lunch line. Ew. No wonder I've been off tomatoes. But as I've grown up, I learned to appreciate the many iterations of tomatoes. Tomato sauce, salsa, dishes made with tomato paste in them. So I'm on a mission to learn to like tomatoes in the next 10 years. Start slow, incorporate bits here and there. Guys, I ate a sandwich with a tomato in it last week. And it was good! So are you proud of me??

Wow, ramble, ramble.

THAT'S More Like It

How Jenny got her groove back!

I'm crafty again! After a year of feeling lousy with pregnancy, then the newborny stuff, there are signs of craftiness in my house.

Look!
(By the way, that iron is the scum sucker that caused the nasty tear-shaped burn on my left arm.)

I finished this little sweater for my niece and sent it off for her birthday. I wish you could see the little purple flowers a little better. They are fun!

I baked a pound cake. It's a BUN....TTT. BUUUNT! This kek has a hole in it! This was for our Neighborly Fondue Night, which was Super Yum! Chocolate and caramel fondue. Oh, mercy.

Oh, and by the way, it's really, really flippin' good. Like Sarah Lee ain't got nothin' on me. An aside: WHAT is with the new skinny graham crackers?? Sad day, guys.
And back to happy things, LOOK at this baby. You know you wanna nibble on his cheeks. Admit it.
By the way, that little hippo toy he has there is a gift that a friend gave me from a cute little company called Little Alouette. Isn't it cute??

A little autumnal pixie dust

I had a lovely visit from my old boss and his wife. They brought these gorgeous flowers to congratulate us on Søren's birth. Did they remember I love Fall??


And yet I live in a semi-arid desert--land of perpetual summer.
But apples are lovely just now. Time for an an apple crisp?
Except how can I take these apples from their rightful home?!

It's beginning to look a lot like Autumn

Oh, wait. No it's not.

How Julius killed my KitchenAid

I thought an Orange Julius sounded like a delightful afternoon treat for Lucy and me (and, well, Soren too, come to think of it.). But apparently this blender is NOT Ultrapowerful, as stated on the unit. One ice cube killed it. ONE. My brother says it serves me right, as orange juliuses (is that how you pluralize that?) are foul. But he has opinions about food, and has ever since his body was powered exclusively by yogurt.

So do I go to the trouble to get this thing fixed? Do I go to the trouble to get another one? Suddenly this sometimes-used appliance seems essential. What if I need to make a cream-of-something soup?? Or emulsify a hollandaise sauce? Or blend a margarita, for the love of all that is good!!

What's left of the pie (tart) that rocked

Book club was here tonight. The lemon meringue tart was awesome, and I will be waking up in the middle of the night to have some, just so you know. Usually I'm an all chocolate/caramel/ice cream girl, and not into the fruit stuff. But if I want it in the middle of the night, it's good.

By the way, the book was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," and it gets one of my best reads of the year. I highly, highly recommend it!

In Which I Think I Am A Genius But Am Sadly Mistaken

Well, there are always lessons to learn, aren't there. Today I got bit by the sewing bug again, mostly because I had a gift to finish (I'll post a picture after the gift arrives in its new home!). I thought, aha! I shall make a bib with stretchy fabric and a hole in the middle wherefore a small head mayest be popped through with ease. Alas, I am not a genius, but rather one who does not always go back and check her work when doing math. The bib turned out seriously wavy and wonky.

However, I DID come up with a cute idea for lazy applique! I cut out stars using a cookie cutter as a template. I pressed down hard on the fabric to create the outline on the fabric, and voilá! A star! I used pinking shears to cut out the shapes, then top-stitched them onto my bib fabric to create the applique. I think it turned out SUPER cute, and intend to make a slew of little bibs this way. It's a great way to use up leftover fabric, which I'm kind of in the mood to do. I've got more than I need just now, that's for sure! However, next project: shopping bags for my sister. These are gonna be cute, people. CUTE!


See, here's the cookie cutter, and me thinking that chalk rubbed on it would help with the outline. Not so much--gonna try a little flour next time. Pressing down to indent the fabric. This worked relatively well.
My stars, this is cute! Are you seein' the vision with me here?
Aaaaand, death of a Genius. Serviceable, but not gift-able. Try again, please.
And just so's ya know I can make cute stuff, here's some proof. The picture turned out fuzzy, but I had to post it anyway.

My little printable downloads orgy

This is bad for me. Oh, so bad. I stumbled onto a cute printable download and, well, one thing led to another and I think I downloaded about 20 printable downloads. Envelopes! Cards! GIFT TAGS! And the piece de resistance, a printable mini-folder!! People, you must have this, too. It's too cute not to pass on. But don't go nuts. It's 12:05 a.m. See what this has done to me?

Hanging out

I'm inspired by Susan's latest post to change my own post... it's been up there too long!

Here's what we've been up to lately:

Just hanging out, getting to know each other.
A visit to the San Joaquin Valley.

Looking at raisins drying. The smell of drying raisins and burning grape trays IS fall to me.
Grafitifying Grammie's driveway.
Finishing Søren's baby blanket. It's big and cozy... I might steal it!
Hard to see my pattern here, but here it is anyway.
Celebrating 10 years since our first date! Ate in the same booth as that date! No more Chinese food there, though--it's steak and seafood now.
Emptying out the toybox..."These are your birthday presents, Mom!"

One month old

My boy is a month old! Actually a month and a day. This has been a very good month. I feel like a real person already because he has been so obliging with sleep and eating. Last night he slept from 11:30 to 7:30! Nice! And this is not at all unusual so far. Sooo thankful! He is a pretty easy baby so far, and we are all just nuts about him.

My sister's family and my parents were here this weekend for a little visit. Here are the grandparents and all the girls loving on The Boy.

The nieces, very proud of their cousin. Note the wet hair... they were pretty thrilled about the swimming in California. =)

Siblings

I think in general, the Earle genes have won out so far in our little attempt at gene mish-mash. Good thing I think the Earles are cuties! You can't see Lucy and Soren's resemblance so much in this picture here, but check out the two below.

Mid-summer's Whine

It's about that time of year. You know, the summer whine. Actually, I'm really just being thankful this time. Summer has been very mild. We didn't even turn on the a/c for 3 days! And we get a lovely, lovely evening breeze. But I can''t help but long for a cool fall morning to sit in the back yard with my coffee, juggling non-sweaty children. And the beautiful amber tint to the light in the fall! And football!! Time to dial in this year and find out who's hot and who's not. Who's with me??

Tangent:
When we dropped Grammie off at the train station, we stopped for a milkshake at Knowlwood there at the station. They had the U.S. vs. Mexico Gold Cup soccer game on. We were shocked at how much we were enjoying it! What happened? Neither of us has ever really liked watching soccer. How did we suddenly get caught up in it? Because the announcing was in Spanish? Who knows.

So once again, I long for the long shadows of Fall and days of no fans (and the QUIET of no fans!), but for now I will just be thankful we have mild weather and the means of getting cool.

P.S. LOVED Susan's post about how Germans think moving air is unhealthy. Leftover Plague paranoia? I also just learned about the Korean superstition of fan death.


Art:
Sky, Sun, the big circle is our house with windows, the blue next to it is the pool, the green to the right is our front yard tree.
People from L-R: Daddy, (bush), Lucy, Mommy, cousin Lila Jo, Baby Brudder, Cousin Baby Brody.

Lucy admiring her braids.
Hey, suckas!

The birth story (don't worry, not gross!)

Okay, so I know some people enjoy "the story," so I thought I'd post it here. I was scheduled to be induced Friday morning the 17th at 8:30 because I was already dilated to almost 4 cm and 80% effaced. They gave me the choice to schedule it, and it ended up being such a God orchestrated thing. Steve's parents had already been here and were ready to take Lucy, and my parents came down Thursday night to be in the delivery room with us.

Sadly I had a horrible night's sleep that night-- almost no sleep. Apparently my body was getting ready to get on with things, and around 5:30a I started in on regular contractions on my own. I was supposed to call at 7:45a before we headed in to make sure I could come in. They would have said I couldn't come in for the scheduled induction because they were just way too busy, but since I was having regular contractions, they said to come in anyway.

We spent 6 1/2 hrs in L&D triage, walking the halls and resting by turn. I had regular contractions the whole time. About 3:00-ish we got our room and it was time to rock-and-roll. I got my epidural and they broke my water. I was on pitocin technically, but they told me I was coming along almost completely on my own.

Around 6:00 I started pushing, and with about 6 contractions of pushing, the nurse practitioner had the head out, and then Steve got to do the official catching at 6:20p.m. I think the first thing I said was, "Where did you come from??" Søren had all this dark hair! I thought I was destined for bald babies!

Lucy came a little later, and just bounced off the walls in excitement. She was sad that we weren't coming home, and cried most of the way home with Mimi and Papa, but the grandparenting ninjas had the situation well in hand.

We stayed overnight, but wanted to come home soon. We finally named him in the morning, and were home around 4:15p.m. Saturday the 18th.

Having a contraction while posing for our "on their way" picture.
Finally in our room!

My little guy!

Home and having his first bath!!

Life as Four

We just took Grammie to the train station and started our adventure as a family of four. It was so, so wonderful to have our family here this week, and I cried when Grammie left, but I think we're ready to give it a go. We kicked it off with trip to Knowlwood at the train station for milkshakes and chicken strips--yum!!

Here are some pics of our little family so far...

Daddy flaked out while Lucy watches Blue's Clues on his computer.
Staying cool.

Trying out the double stroller."This'll make a good nightcap, Daddy!"
Doesn't this look like a 20's bathing suit?
I just wanna smooch those lips!