Nice things

I was just thinking about some of the nicest things people have done for me over the years. There are so many, so this is just a random list...

For our wedding, Steve knew I was looking for a set of pearls to borrow, and wasn't having any luck. My mom has some, but they were too big for my dress. I didn't want to get fake pearls, either. For Christmas, he bought me a string of pearls, and I was never more surprised and excited in my life!

Steve gets another one... a few years ago, Steve heard me say how much I love Harry and David's pears, and completely surprised me by getting some for Valentine's Day. I was so touched that he heard and remembered something like that!

Recently when I was going through a rough patch with Lucy, my sister sent me a beautiful and simple note encouraging me and telling me I was a good mother. It was so beautiful and meaningful that I taped it to the inside of my desk to remind myself that I'm doing a good job.

(Okay, this one is PG-13). Before I got married, I was a little nervous about how all the lingerie would, well, fit me. My girlfriends threw me a little hot chocolate night, answered lots of questions for me, then had me try everything on. On the mirror in my "dressing room" were notes that said, "You look hot!" "What a gorgeous girl!" and such. Talk about a self-esteem boost!

When I was in Jr. High, I went through this phase where I ate and ate and ate candy! I started to get really heavy for my age, and my family was worried about me. My mom and sister sat me down and told me they were worried in such gentle words that I knew they were saying it because they loved me. The whole family helped me get through a diet, and I lost 15 pounds in the next 6 months, and started high school with a ton of confidence.

When I was in high school, my dad asked if I could help him shop for my mom for Christmas. I helped him pick out sweaters and fun things that I thought she would like. When we were shopping, he told me to pick out something I liked and he would get it for me, no questions asked. Some of my favorite outfits in high school and into college came from those outings!

My brother read on my blog that I missed Bath and Body Works splurges, even though I was very content with my life. For Christmas he got me a very well-stocked gift card for B&BW, and I had a GRAND time spending it during their half-yearly sale. I have never had more fun buying, because I knew I had almost no limits.

What wonderful, thoughtful people I have in my life!

Check out the pics...

I've posted a bunch of new pictures at our Earle website. Have fun!

Some party pictures

Delightfully chaotic!

Cleaning like mad

The First Birthday is Saturday! Mom came down to help with the cleaning and food and such. We are having a grand time scouring and plotting. Glorious thingss have happened, like a clean fridge and windows, and weeded beds. It is lovely!

Dad made Mom promise she wouldn't have any fun, but I think she was laughing her head off within 30 minutes of arrival. =)

Regrets

Before I say anything sad, let me say the happy thing! Happy Birthday to my dear friend Kristen (yesterday)! It is indeed a happy thing to remember to thank God for a life that is so special to us. She is a dear friend, and it is a joy to celebrate!

Other happy news: Lucy slept from 8:00 to 6:45 without a peep. This is indeed praise!

Other happy news: I've lost 5 pounds so far!

Now for the sad. I just found out that a dear old friend of our family's died early this morning. She was very old, and it was in many ways a mercy as she suffered a great deal, particularly mentally. We called her Grandma Ruth, because she dated my grandpa when my dad was a little boy, and he often hoped that she would be his new mommy. My brother had a special connection with her, as she babysat him a lot when he was little. I remember driving by her house one day, and he was in a new car seat, and cried because he couldn't see her house. When I was little, she invited me over to bake cookies with her one day. My friend from school spent her afternoons next door with her own grandma, so we walked there from school together. My regret is that I spent much of that afternoon playing with my friend instead of with Grandma Ruth. I know she forgives me, though.

So I'll move back on with the happy things... a healthy, happy baby, wonderful friends and family, a comfortable home, among the many things.

We have steps!

On Friday evening, Lucy took her first steps! She's been really close for awhile, but she actually free-stood, stepped out with one foot, then took a step with the other foot. So cool! She's a long way from this being her primary mode of transportation, but it was exciting to be able to watch. I have a video of some of her attempts if anyone wants one. We also got her a new car seat this weekend. It's so sad! But fun, too.

I'm on Day 14. So far, not too bad. I miss the sweets a lot, but I'm doing okay. I lost my Christmas weight, thankfully. My body is helpful that way. If I balloon artifically, then exhibit some discipline, it comes off fairly fast. The problem is the accumulated weight. Blech!

All three of us are sick today, and we've been sick on and off for about 4 weeks now. Poor Lucy loves to give her "Child Protective Services Call" when I suction her nose. I keep telling her I don't like it any more than she does, but she has not made allowances for me. =)

Here's a little shot of breakfast yesterday.

How bad it's getting...

I'm on day 9 of no sweets, and I've reverted back to my childhood habit of pretending graham crackers are candy bars. I probably should've put them on the banned list because I'm chowing through the graham crackers. Here's the really crazy thing. I don't even know how I remember what this tastes like, but I am craving the batter from my old mini-bake oven. Oh, how I loved that thing! I remember my mom was mad because a relative got it for me, and I couldn't figure out why she was mad when I wanted it so much. See? I loved to bake even then! Oh, but doesn't a little 3" diameter cake with chocolate frosting sound pretty good right now?

The Frow

We learned this Christmas that the frow is a family trait. (Frow=frown/furrowed brow.) This is Steve's niece, and Lucy is trying to steal her "bugee."

So far 2007 sucks

I won't go into everything, because really it's lots of little things, but much has to do with illness, sleeping patterns, and email. Oh, and my kitchen flooding. I think it was in the air today, though. My little niece was full of piss and vinegar for my poor sister and my mom had a massive migraine on her birthday. Just one of those days where your heart hurts after awhile. Oh, and day 2 of no sweets means no comfort food. I will count on my meatloaf to do the job.

The New Year

Instead of doing New Year's Resolutions, I only have 2 things that involve goals after the new year. I got this crazy idea that I am going to nix the sweets in January. I have a sweet tooth, so I figure I can handle a month without my beloved goodies. I've been preparing by gorging on the Christmas sweets. You know, gotta be prepared. My exceptions are Lucy's birthday, and if my dear friend chooses a birthdy shin-dig for her 30th.

My second is a list of things I'd like to do before I turn 40. I finally reached a place in my life where the list includes just things I want to do, not things I feel like I should want to do. You know, like read the Brothers Karamazov. (I would kind of like to read that some day, but it sounds like a chore just now. I'll stick with slow speeds like Little House on the Prairie.) Some things included are: take a few oboe lessons, just to see what it's like; go see the Nutcracker; take a cooking class. I have a few items related to my spiritual growth. I'm hoping that this will be a fluid list that will adjust as I grow older.

So there you go. No over-the-top resolutions, like, "Lose 15 pounds" or "Read the whole Bible in 2 months." I'll let you know how it goes.

End of the Season

Well, it's official. I lost at the semi-finals. It stinks that I lost on a technicality, too. One of my guys wasn't playing, and they're supposed to tell you when your guy is out, but it must've been too late to tell me. I got no points from him, and Reggie Bush, who scored something like 20 points last week scored only 2 this week. So there it is. But the cool thing is I beat one of the guys two weeks in a row. He was expecting to sweep me and I totally blew him out of the water. That feels nice. Ah, butt kicking.

I mentioned that I was to sing in the women's choir at church on the 12th, but didn't update due to some family fun in the E.R. (no worries, everyone is fine!). The evening really was amazing, and the program that was put together was really a worship service. It was loosely based on "Lessons and Carols" which is done every year at Cambridge on Christmas morning. The lessons are read, followed (logically) by the carols. There were some amazing moments, and I felt so privileged to be singing with some really fine musicians. My whole Bible Study group was there, which touched me deeply.

Well, end of this week it's off to do the Central Valley Loop. Lots of driving this year, as we do Fresno, San Luis Obispo, San Jose, and possibly Tracy. Ugh. I love seeing the people. We're so fortunate that we both love both families, but we wonder sometimes why we live so far away. Poor Jennifer can't come at all, as she will be working on Christmas Eve and Christmas.

I've finished my home-made hot chocolate topped with my home-made marshmallows, and it's off to bed for me. I can tell by my bland writing that I'm tired. =)

Mean Mommy

I think she'll laugh when she's 20.

I mean really. Who thought of that??

I was baking today with baking chocolate. Long ingrained instinct inspired me to lick up that little glob on the side of the bowl where I'd melted it. It brought the question up yet again... How the heck did someone figure out that we should eat this stuff?? I mean, when you think of all the process chocolate has to go through you can't help but wonder how people originally figured that out. Coffee, too. Okay, let's eat the inside bean, but let's soak it, and dry it out, and then put it over fire, and then grind it up, and then put some water in it, then strain it all out. Huh? For reals, someone just figured that out one day??

I was listening to one of my favorite chefs on NPR, the editor of Cook's Illustrated, Christopher Kimball. He was talking about tricks to get Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners finished without so much stress by preparing things early. I loved what he said... "About 80% of what we do is make bad food." I thought that was a great reminder. That's life. We make so many mistakes so that we can learn from them, and even help others learn from them too. So to celebrate, I made some bloody-good chocolate crinkles for the church Christmas program tomorrow night. More on the Christmas program later. I'm singing in a women's choir for the program, so I'll give the update on that tomorrow.

Pork Noodle Slop

Well, I am 0 for dozens on the Chinese food. I seem to have some sort of anti-Chinese food curse. It keeps looking do-able, and keeps coming out yucky. Ah well. I am undaunted. I am thinking of asking te owner of our Chinese restaurant in Selma (I have yet to find as god a place here) to teach me their Pork Noodle Soup. It is etting to be a challenge with me. But I will make good chinese one day. Oh yes. It will be done. And now to get a lick of leftover frosting from Steve's birthday cake! Happy Borthday!!

Menu for the first week of December

Monday - Morrocan Beef patties w/ cous cous and zucchini. I got a solid 4!
Tuesday - Chicken/Thanksgiving dinner! Apple crisp for dessert!
Wednesday - Chicken Enchilladas w/ yelow Mexican rice. Great with wheat tortillas, believe it or not!
Thursday - My attempt at Chinese Pork Noodles
Friday - Birthday Steak for Steve!

Poor Lucy is up. I think she's teething. I think I might actually give in and feed her, since it's alread 4:15, and we've been up for an hour. She doesn't usually do this anymore, so I"m feeling like maybe I can just feed the poor kid (since we'd be up soon for it anyway). Comfort food, you know.

Someone tried to evangelize to me today. I was early to the park, and was pushing Lucy in the swing, and this lady next to me obviously tried to sing Jesus-y songs. Then as we talked a little about the kids (her grandkids), she said I ought to come on Tuesdays because a bunch of moms come ad sing Bible songs. I said, "I've actualy been wanting to get involved in my own church group on Tuesdays, but Lucy's naps were so unpredictable. She asked where I went to churc, and then mentioned she didn't go to church anymore. Her husband isn't a Christian, her kids are grown, so she didn't see the point. I told her a little about what I liked in our church, and said if she was thinking about coming sometime, she was very welcome to come. So who was doing the evangelizing? I'm not exactly sure.

O Magnum Mysterium

I was listening to "O Magnum Mysterium" by Morton Lauridsen tonight (yes, click and listen to it... it is so beautiful!). Probably the most beautiful Christmas piece ever written in my opinion. Concurrently I was working on some communication with a person who consistently gets under my skin, and I was struggling with my two selves as I replied. My one self wants to be nasty in reply, as the original communication was passive agressive and unfair. My other self knows better and is desparately struggling to deny myself the "pleasure" of being nasty. After all, I was justified, wasn't I? I haven't won the battle yet, but I'm at least witholding a reply until I can get my instincts under control. So I'm listening to this amazing music about how Christ came as a human, this amazing mystery! I'm marveling at the beauty of God becoming man, and it just strikes me that God became man to save me from the reply I really want to send to this person. I grew up in a Christian home, and I was always one of the "good kids." I never even got a detention for heaven's sake (I got called in a few times to get talked to about my snotty attitude, but that's a story for another day.)! So I've often fallen into the trap of being numb to my sin. And even now, I am not really pained by what I know is sin, but rather I'm proud of myself for calling it what it is. But I know that Christ came to save me from the consequenses of that mess, and that any improvement in my character that I want to be proud of is really of the Spirit, whose coming was made possible by God-became-man.

O Magnum Mysterium

O magnum mysterium et admirabile sacramentum
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum
jacentem in praesepio.

Beata virgo cujus viscera
meruent partare Dominum Christum.
Alleluia.

Translation:
O great mystery and admirable [wonderful] sacrament
That animals see the Lord born
Lying in a manger.

Blessed virgin whose womb
Was worthy to bear Lord Christ.
Allelujah.

Jokes?

I mean good jokes. Anyone have any? My brother has to tell one at their Christmas party...sounds like torture to me! I gave him a good story by storyteller Kevin Kling, which I think he is going to paraphrase, but I can't help thinking there's a perfect joke out there for him. Short with a sweet sting of a punchline. You get tears of laughter from me, I bake you cookies.

Menu for Fall

We had rain today, so it actually felt like Fall. Sadly, it was just in the morning, and it's gone now.

Here's the menu for this week:

*Spicy Pulled Pork Crispy Flour Tacos with iceberg lettuce and sauteéd red pepper, julienned zucchini and mushrooms.

*Fish Po-Boys with garlic aoli and iceberg lettuce on crusty rolls.

*Chicken wrapped in Prociuto with mashed potatoes and Bruxels Sprouts (Eric, I only bought enough for Steve and I, so no worries.)

*Baked Potatoes with Beef Stroganoff and sauteéd broccoli

*Giamelli pasta with shrimp and pesto

*Some kind of pork loin dish. Not sure just what yet.

The big finale... either Monday or Tuesday... CHP-timed Thanksgiving Chicken Dinner with stuffing, roasted on a bed of new potatoes, served with green beans. Apple cobbler for dessert. To celebrate Thanksgiving with Jennifer, and to celebrate a year for her in the CHP. I think we'll also celebrate the arrival of the little holiday burrito, AKA, Ava Marie Van Brasch, our new niece. Then we'll also celebrate the purchase of Jamie and Shannon's first home. So just celebrations all around!

Coming soon:
Chinese Pork Noodle Soup (Eric's fav, if I can pull it off)
Lentil Soup again, maybe with pork
Paella?

And KUDOS, by the way to my husband! He has been working on a gift for my birthday since August, and due to odd circumstances, it FINALLY arrived last week! He managed to completely surprise me by getting my birthday GIANT COOKIE snuck into the house at my parent's place, and gave me a (don't worry, completely legal) recording of the Aug. 26th Dave Matthews concert!! Let me tell you, my husband is probably the most thoughtful gift giver I know! I'm in charge of timliness in our family, but when he's on, he's ON!

Well, off to bed with me. Always a 1/2 hour to hour late these days.

The Eve of Orange and Brown

When I was a kid, I absolutely hated orange and brown, as they were the remnants of the 70's. We're talking plaid orange and brown suits, etc. So it is no surprise that it's taken me 20+ years to come back around to loving the orange and the brown. Thanksgiving is the Orange and Brown holiday. It has so much potential for class, but we throw in all the ugly fake pilgrims and such to make it chintzy. Same with Christmas. I mean, what's with the gigantic snow globe?

I had a busy, but enjoyable evening. I was decked out in my apron rolling out a pie crust, listening to Harry Connick, Jr., thinking that I love the new, adult side of the holidays. I like making the pumpkin pie. I can't say I love all the clean-up of the holidays. The dishes seem endless. But the smell of my own, triumphant pie is balmy.

Here's what we did with Steve's half day.

This week's menu

Yesterday - Spicy Country Ribs (thanks to Real Simple) with roasted squash and sweet potatoes
Today - Mac and Cheese, grown-up style
Tomorrow - Meatloaf (Dad, it's actually good, I promise. No brown sugary stuff. Even Bud likes it.)
Wednesday - Thai shrimp and Noodles
Thursday - Um, I don't know, we'll think of something.

Kidding. Mom's making the whole bit. Turkey, stuffing, green beans, Aunt Cindy's bringing rolls and pecan pie, Grandpa's wife, Evelyn, is bringing lemon pie, and I'm bringing Grandma Larson's Secret Recipe Pumpkin Pie. One of the two best compliments I ever got from Steve was that I made pumpkin pie as good as his mom. HIGH PRAISE!!

I know we often take this week to think of what we're thankful for, and I am glad that God has prompted me to do this a lot all through the year. There has been a lot of change in our lives this year, some of which has been a bit shocking to the system (like sleep deprivation), and God has been working on true thankfulness in my heart. I see it in the way that I don't miss the little things as much as I thought I would. I don't really miss my salon shampoo or the Bath and Body Works splurges. I don't mind being more of a homebody, or the fact that it takes me 10 times as long to do anything (like simply getting out of the car). I don't mind that my left shoulder invariably has something sticking to it (Lucy has developed a new habit of wiping her face on my shoulder when I hold her. Nice.) So while it seems so obvious to say this, the thing I'm most thankful for this year is my Lucy. My heart nearly bursts with it. The work is so daily, and often seems so drudging. But her soft, sweet smelling skin, her beautiful blue eyes, her two little bottom teeth, and her little personality that is starting to emerge are just more than I can say. I know you all know what I mean, regardless of whether you have a kid or not. You know what it's like to love someone so much it can't be explained.

I'm thankful, too, that God has given us plenty to live on, and a safety net, too. He's given us this wonderful house. He has built a strong, wonderful relationship in my marriage that just gets better every year. He has given us close relationships with our families. I'm so thankful that we are always glad to spend time with either of our families. I know that is not a given, and I count my blessings every time we spend time with family. He has given us amazing friends that most people wish all their lives to have.

I'm thankful for chocolate. I'm thankful for good knives. I'm thankful for fuzzy carpet. I'm thankful for new quilts. I'm thankful for new shoes to come. I'm thankful for running (no really!). I'm thankful for good tunes, both old and new, for cozy slippers, for Parisian Taupe, for Tivo.

Enough from me. I want to know what you all are thankful for!

Oh, and cheesy as it sounds, I'm actually really thankful for your comments. There are many of you that I miss and don't get to see nearly often enough, and I like knowing that you are reading!