My walk

I've been walking a lot. I was dreading it at first because I live in a 1950's track housing neighborhood. However, when I committed to some slightly longer walks, I realized I live in a gold mine of walks for Affordable(ish) Suburban Southern California. Come, take a walk with me!

It's May, so the amazing Jacaranda trees are blooming. There's just something amazing about a big purple tree.

Hey, look! What's behind all that shrubbery? Oh, it's my house! (Sorry for the overexposure there.)

Hello, there, little ducks! Seriously, like two weeks ago you guys were still little tiny ducklings!

This is a part of the creek/rain run-off canal that runs behind my house. I love it when we get a good So Cal Dump in February and it fills up like a raging river.
This is the new Olive Grove park on the East side of Biola's campus. It's a favorite for Lucy, as it's basically just a looped path that she can run around and around.
Look familiar anyone?
Missed this shot by a few seconds, but we see a surprising amount of animals on our walk. Here's Mr. Rooster. Mmmmm.... tastes like chicken...
The Hill of Doom. Pushing 70+ pounds up this hill causes me to almost go completely vertical. It looks tame, but I have big kids.
We often see horses come down this trail. And lots of skinny Biola Cross-Country Runners with shorts that are too short. Ew.
I love the curves of this park. I also love how quiet it is.
Bridges are a fascination for my girl. We like to play Pooh Sticks here.
This guy was flippin' awesome. We saw him this morning.
And some lovely trees waiting for us at home.

Exercise

That's right, THIS is why I haven't been doing the Wii Fit lately...

They don't give you a "my child won't leave the Wii Fit Board alone" handicap.


Nor do they give you extra credit for doing this. Lift aaaaaaand kick!

A-what I'm up to

Okay, I've been meaning to post since that last one because I couldn't stand all that ME ME ME stuff! So, here's some just me me and some other people stuff. =)

I learned how to make crepes on Monday night, as we made 65 for our women's group end-of-year brunch at church. Seriously, if you're going to learn to make something, start by making 65. I loved them so much that we had them for dinner that night. i think this will be a staple in my house now.

Look how pretty!
Here's Lucy (with help from Søren) frosting her cake. She got a cake for FINALLY pooping in the big potty. I took the little potty outside the house, so I am officially DONE with potty training. After 1 year and 10 months. Yeah.
Making playdough! Ours was sadly disgusting, so we made more. LOVE the new recipe I tried. Super easy to make. I was totally surprised that the Bear wanted yellow and orange, seeing as how her "fravrint" colors are pink and purple (of course).
So there you go. That's what I'm up to.

The color formerly known as blonde

Did any of you ever see that slideshow of Hillary's Hair? (As in the Secretary of State Hillary.) Anyway, I was looking through some old PhotoBooth pictures and had to chuckle at my hair. Up, down. Shaaaaagy, chop! Thought you'd enjoy a laugh. And no, I'm not quite as brave as Susan and did not choose to share all of my, um, outtakes. =) (By the way, Susan, your short do with no bangs looks AWESOME.)

Okay, are you ready?

No for reals, are you ready?

Ooo, trying to look sultry there, eh?

Up and away, the modern Jane Austen. Except not.

Is it curly? Yes? No?


Getting longer and shaggier... (Enter the Bear, my hair model partner.)

Longer still...
And chopped again! (making fishy faces.)

Just after I stuck my fingers in a light socket, which helped also to expose the lovely shade of my roots.

Didn't quite make it to long hair this time....
Chopped again!! Zoikes!

Growing it out...

Medium length...

Add the hat...

And this is today. Trying for long again.

Votes anyone? Short? Long? Medium?

(By the way, usually these photos were to show my sister my latest haircut or hat, or to get Lucy to smile with me for a picture for her.)

What I wanted for Mother's Day

I know, I know, people don't ask for toilets for Mother's Day. But that's what I wanted. I just couldn't take it anymore. My toilet is not exactly pink, not peach, not beige. I've decided it is "drab," which is the color assigned for the graduate hoods for business. When the old potty seat pealed and we had to get a new white seat, I'd had it with the now neopolitan ice cream potty.

Out with you!

For a moment, we just considered a squatty potty.
Then we came to our senses.

First try: Not so good. Takes 3-4 flushes to deal with, um, solids. So tall that I can barely reach the floor with my tip-toes. I feel a little geriatric.

Take 2: Perfect. Nice round bowl, just the right height, can flush a bucket of golf balls as advertised, and best of all it is white! Now about the sink and the tub...


Next job: Get the Earle pictured on the left here to poop on the new potty instead of in the kiddie potty that is too small for her. No kidding, her knees are practically in her ears, she's so tall (and it's so little).

Update: Lucy is ready to put the small potty away until Søren needs it... the new pot did its job!

A crafty update

I love this whole no-blogging for 6 months. I have lots of material!

So here were my crafty outlets over the last several months. They were fewer and farther between, but still fun.

I'll never go back to thinking I'm going to be a cake decorator. I'm not a perfectionist and I have no patience, so cake decorating is clearly not for me! But my niece wanted me to make her cake, and gosh darnit she's my sweetheart, so there it is. Yes, she wanted teal and pink. My flowers are sliding around, but there it is!

Now THIS is my crown jewel. This sweet little number was for a sweet little girl named Violet. Her mom likes the kind of bohemian-style clothes, so I went with this fun rust red. You can't see it, but I bought a peasant blouse and faded train-conductor-twill pants in a really cute cut to go with the sweater. I adore this sweater pattern I've been developing. The sleeves are a little balloon-y, and the bottom flares out a bit. I'm working on finding a round yoke pattern instead of this square-ish yoke.
The bees! This was for Lucy's Winnie-the-Pooh birthday party. I hid them like an Easter Egg hunt and the kids had honey pots and collected them. They were finished in about 2.5 minutes. It took me 3 hours to make these. =) I WILL be passing them on to another mother of a Lover of Pooh sometime...
The "hunny" pots with the kids' home-made Pooh snack bags and a few other little goodies, plus my other attempt at cake making. I just noticed that the black frosting was starting to bleed here because it had been in the freezer and the condensation was now melting the edges.

Okay, powering down now.

Breakfast Picnic

Okay, awesome. I know that Susan is reading so I have my audience now. Hi, Susan! It's almost dinner time there, so I will write about breakfast. =)

So the weather is incredible right now, perfect time to bring our breakfast outside and use the newly washed table and the brand new outdoor chair cushions! We had to get new cushions because a couple of sweet boys that came to play managed to rip the stuffing out of two of them. It was no loss as they were past their time anyway, and we wrangled a SWEET deal for the new ones. Anyway.

The air has that indescribable May quality to it. It's sort of tangible and sweet (the sweet must come from the star jasmine fence blooming 12 feet from me). But it's also just slightly wet still, and almost cool enough for a sweater, but not quite. Little Buddy is pretty content to sit out here with so much more to look at.

They were smiling 2 seconds before... but you get the idea. =)

For Me

If I don't blog for 6 (7??) months, I don't expect anyone to actually read my blog anymore. But for some reason I've been feeling like blogging again. I find it funny to see October 17th as the last blog post because it just confirms that was when I felt like someone put their foot on the gas and I just started trying to steer. I've felt behind for about 6 (7??) months, and while I don't feel exactly caught up now, I just miss blogging. I think I miss it because it's reflective and it makes me slow down for a few minutes and add some structure to it all.

No coherant thoughts, just a few random things. My baby is weaning from being swaddled just in time for the warm summer. I've loved that little burrito baby. It's precious, though, to see him asleep with his arms wide open like he was just thinking about giving me a hug before he fell asleep. There's something so... so... un-baby about removing that swaddling blanket. I think I'll hang onto the night-time for juuust a little longer. This guy is such a sweetheart. He waves and smiles at everyone like they are old friends, and like he's been saving that smile just for you. He giggles when I kiss him under his chin in just the right spot, and he has about 8 bruises on his forehead from learning to crawl. What a darling.

Lucy came home today with a be-feathered, be-glittered card for me for mother's day. I never knew I could get teary-eyed over feathers. Sometimes I still forget that Mother's Day is also for me. I still make sure that my mother and mother-in-law are honored, but it is lovely, lovely, lovely to have it for me as well. Guess what I asked for. A new toilet. I'm not kidding. I want one. I HATE our old pinky-salmony one, and it sticks out even more with its new white lid. Enough, I said. I want a grown-up, white potty. It's what separates us from third world countries. As a bonus, I think The Girl may actually have agreed to poop on the new big potty instead of always going on her little potty (with her knees sticking up to her ears, she's so tall!). And THAT, my friends, would be a Mother's Day gift indeed!

That's plenty for now.

Here, look at this: