Uh-cation photos

Lucy has been calling our car the "uh-cation car." I'm so grateful, she has just done so fabulously on this trip. I think I am still a bit scarred from last year's plane ride of horror. It has been a joy to hang out together with the family, and to move at a nice, slow pace. I wish we could get in some more hiking, but we have been doing more inclusive activities, which are great, too.

Kitchen is moving along well, we are told. I will be glad to have it done for sure. Pictures when we get home.

I was reflecting the other day as I lay on the beach listening to the waves crash, the many mornings of dragging into work so that this trip could be possible. I am so grateful for them, as it is refreshing and wonderful. To spend all this wonderful time with my husband is an incredible treat as well! It's a joy to watch Lucy beginning to interact with her cousins, and to see her learning a little bit from them.

Okay, okay. Pictures.


Hey, what do you know, Steve and I still do get a picture of just the two of us every now and then. Self-portrait double-chin not withstanding, I don't mind this picture too much. =) It's from the road to Haleakala.
From the summit... the big Island is in the distance.
My sweet little hiker! I think she has found her first sport! She looooved hiking. She is a go-go-go girl, and having the trail to show her where to go seemed to be just the ticket for her.


On my favorite day... the drive to Haleakala, overlooking the valley between Kihei and Kahului (West and East Maui, respectively... we're looking north-ish here).
We came at the perfect time! The clouds rolled in about 90 min. after we got there.
The sunrise from our room, coming up over the mountain.

A very, very happy Mimi!
Getting near 10,000 feet...

Overheard today...

"Go weel weel high, up, up in da aaaa-yer."

"See da beeech!"

"Mountains! Wet's count dem."

"Bye bye, Messy House!"

Heritage Park, aka Freakin' Awesome Park

Apologies to those who frequent this park for telling you something you clearly already know! Lucy and I have been getting out of the house every day with all the construction going on, and we decided to head to Heritage Park today. It has your basic picnic tables and a nice playground, all in its own right. But the keynote is the island, surrounded by a duck-and-turtle-laden moat. On the island is a tiny, Paul Revere inspired village created for kids to run around on. The colonial buildings are all connected together, and kids climb stairs through the attics and slide down slides in the buildings. Lucy had a total blast, but it was awesome for ME! I loved the tunnels and bridges and just the cuteness of it all. Oh, and the guy whose office is on the little island in a little colonial building and has his office sign that says, "Mr. S0-and-so, Art Historian." Yep. Awesome.

At home encased in plastic

Well, we're home. Even WITH traffic, we made it in 4 hours, which is pretty impressive. We nearly turned around and went back up north... this definitely a construction zone, and dealing with a poor 2 year old is definitely a challenge. She's really struggling with it. Today after getting in trouble for going in the street, which she NEVER does, I was cuddling with her to comfort her... again, she rarely sits still to cuddle. She says to me in this tiny, sad voice, "No messy house. No messy house." Poor baby! But it will all be worth it, and it's starting to take shape. And believe me, I'm not really complaining... I'm grateful for the opportunity1

Here are some pictures of "the process."

In our piano room/temporary kitchen...
The dining area, new kitchen to the left.

From the living room...
The gorgeousness that is our backyard.

Enamored

While I've been at my parents' house (almost 2 weeks now!) I have been glued to TLC and the Food Network. Hooray for cable television! My 4 shows I've been enjoying are Take Home Chef, Jon and Kate + 8, What Not to Wear, and Ace of Cakes. (Ryan, I'm chuckling after reading your post!) Just so you know, YES, I would be on What Not to Wear, and YES, I would totally have the Curtis teach me to cook.

But Ace of Cakes deserves a hilighted mention. These guys are artistic wizards! I mean, look at these cakes!

Their "normal" cakes are gorgeous on their own... but their crazy cakes are unbelievable! Here are some of my favorites:

Just your basic, gorgeous cake.

"Avenue Q" cake

Guinness cake!!

SERENITY!!

The chalkboard says, "I will not lick the cake. I will not lick the cake."

Loyola... is this not amazing?

HOGWARTS!

(Photos from Charm City Cakes... totally go there and check out their site.)

My "funeral" hymn

I know, I know, it sounds so morbid to say it this way... but it's sort of my litmus test for which hymn I really like. I think I'd like to post a hymn here or there, so maybe I will change my mind before about my favorite! There are so many to love.

For now, my favorite is All Creatures of Our God and King. We sang it in Chorale, and it when I hear it, I hear that gorgeous, teeming life that was in those 60 young voices. I think I can't hear it apart from that context being in my head. There are more verses, but these are the two which the arrangement we sang was based on. The imagery of the text is so beautiful, but to make it a favorite with me, the music has to communicate the text even if we couldn't understand the words.

Tell me your favorite hymns... I have a feeling many of yours will also be favorites of mine as well!

All Creatures of our God and King
Lyrics: Francis of Assisi, Translated by William Draper
Melody: Peter von Brachel
Harmony: Vaughn Williams

All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voice and with us sing,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam,
Oh Praise Him! Oh Praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!

Let all things their Creator bless,
And worship Him in humbleness,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
And praise the Spirit, Three in One!
Oh Praise Him! Oh Praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!

Old memories

Whenever I come "home," especially when I'm by myself here, I tend to go full swing into the nostalgic mode. Lucy's been wanting to play in the loft in my parents' room, where some of the toys are stored, and where, lucky for me, there is a huge stash of these wonderful pictures. I've been scanning some of them, and thought you might enjoy seeing a few.

(By the way, to crafty people, I have some craft pictures coming, maybe next week.)

I love this picture... this is how I remember my mom as a kid. Just incredibly soothing and dependable and loving. I always felt so safe with her. And notice the EXACT REPLICA of my kiddo!

Now do you know why my sister called me "Artichoke head?" Doesn't she look pretty, though? What a cutie! Then little Sailor Man there... Oh man, what a kick that guy was.
This is the same dress Lucy wore in our Christmas pictures... I'm FOUR here, guys. Lucy wasn't even TWO!

Official haircut

Sorry for all the Lucy photos... being at the grandparents' house sort of makes me more focused on her. =) We went and got her hair cut today by the lady that cut my hair when I was Lucy's age. Her bangs were completely covering her eyes, and down onto the bridge of her nose. We've been calling her "Ringo." =) It's hard to see from the picture, but her hair turned out totally cute!

Here's Easter... check out how far down her face those bangs come...
There's Randy in Kingsburg... cutting what seems like the same hair, 29 years later!
Post bath...
A bit 'o Meg Ryan.

This and that

We made it successfully to Selma after a few days of packing the kitchen up. Grammie was an immense help! Lucy is delighted to be in "The Sorensen Resort," and loves to just wander around the house and check everything out. She had a tearful morning at church, but recovered for a nice lunch with old friends. We stopped by Whole Foods on the way home for some good fruit and bread... oh, and um, some chocolate and ice cream. Let the spoiling begin!

This is from Easter... I think the only moment when her hair looked remotely good. =) Isn't that such a cute dress? Grammie helped the Easter Bunny pick it out for her.

Eating Grandpa's carrots from his garden... "MMM! Keerits!
Petting Grandpa's kitty.

International Woman of Mystery

We went in the other day to apply for a passport for Lucy. We are planning to go to Canada this year, so we had to get the passport. This was our first attempt at a passport photo. Note the permanently crazy hair. I've been calling her "Ringo" lately. Haircut scheduled for next week--will the subject cooperate? Tune in next week to find out!

Most efficient accident ever

Phone rings.
I go to pick it up, and fumble the phone.
In the effort of recovery, I accidentally press "9."

Me: "Hello? ...Hello?"
Automated voice: "Your number has been removed."
Me: "Woo-hoo!"

The kitchen is upon us!

It begins! I started packing boxes today to get ready for our kitchen upgrade. Here's a picture of the kitchen before we bought the house. We've done a few things a bit differently (no curtains, moved fridge to outside of pantry so dishwasher could sit in the fridge spot... no chairs), but generally it's the same.



Here's one of the early mock-up drawings of what the kitchen will look like. So wish us luck! I'm presently excited, as I'm in the calm before the storm!

Wedding a la "Survivor"

What a weekend! We had the best drive ever to and from San Jose (minus the gas prices!), and enjoyed a weekend at Mimi and Papa's. They babysat Lucy while we went to Monterey for the wedding of my oldest friend. He and I have been friends since we were 2 years old, and that is saying something! Crap. That means I can actually say I've had a friend for 30 years. Oy, that makes me feel old!

The wedding was on the beach, and as we drove into the Peninsula, the car was being whipped around by the wind and the ocean was churning with whitecaps. I wish more of you knew Ty, because you would laugh and say, "Well, that fits!" Ty sometimes goes by "The Luckiest Man Alive," and his mom's nickname is "Megawoman." I was dubbed "Mini-megawoman," complete with an award, at one point, but that is another story for another day. =)

So into the wind and the flying sand we all trooped, thankful that we wore PANTS and not skirts!! It was freezing, and sand stuck to our lipstick and burrowed into our ears and hair, and yet somehow it was just a blast.

Here I am with one of two my best friends from high school. Oh man, the two of us blabbed like we were still 16, minus the "So who do you like now?" comments. That was pretty obvious. =)
You may not e able to tell from this picture, but Ty is 6'7", and Christy is 6'. We always feel like hobbits around Ty... so glad he found a woman that fits him so well in ALL ways! =)

We had a grand time, and I've never laughed so hard at the toast section of the wedding. Stories of Ty ranged from blowing up anthills with gasolines (again, Luckiest Man Alive), and Ty floating in the surf of Pismo in his Tahoe (my parents just now found out that I was only about 30 yards away in their jeep...).

Other fun events of the weekend had to do with a very full pool, and a trip to urgent care (not related... and nothing serious).

So now I am home getting ready for the Easter Brunch at our church, and for the demolishing of my kitchen that will begin on March 29th. *Gulp* Here we go!

Aaaaand, seven years.

It's the anniversary post! Yes, you guessed it, cutesy pictures of Steve and I over the years. I wanted to get one from each year of our marriage, but I just sort of picked and chose. I say this every year, but really I mean it! This year is totally the best so far!!

Five days before we got engaged... at a wedding, where I caught my one and only bouquet. It landed pretty much right in front of me.
At the Getty for some engagement photos.
The Wii... notice the skill level buttons...
At the Cliff House in San Fransisco for dinner... the most eating I've ever done in one week!
Up somewhere around the San Jacinta peak.

I love you, Steve!!

Tutorial: Cutifying Re-usable Grocery Bags

I'd been wanting to bring my own grocery bags to the store, but knew I wouldn't get around to making the kind I really wanted from scratch. I thought about buying bags from the store, but couldn't bring myself to sport around the lovely grocery store logo. So here is my compromise: Purchase grocery store re-usable bags, and use fabric to cover the logo, between the handle straps. This is a great way to use medium-sized fabric scraps.

I've made bags two ways. The easiest is to use one piece of fabric to cover up the logo area on the bag and top-stitch it all the way around. This tutorial will show how to make a pocket. I used a piece of non-fraying, stiff linen (salvaged from our extra window shade fabric from Ikea!) for the inside piece of the pocket, but you could use any fabric and simply press a seam allowance under.

Okay, here we go:
Cut out the piece of non-fraying fabric to fit the space between the handle straps. I made a template out of cardstock so that I could trace it on future fabric.

Cut out a piece of patterned fabric with a 5/8" seam allowance added. Press 5/8" seams under. Open seams, and clip each corner off, right at the point that's created where the two pressed seams intersect. Fold and press seam allowance under twice so that the raw edge is tucked underneath (so tuck 5/16" under).
*Note you can also cut out a second piece of fabric to the size of your template, put the patterned fabric wrong sides together, so that the seam allowance hides the raw edges of the inside fabric.
Top stitch top edge of patterned fabric.

Stitch top edge of linen fabric to grocery bag toward top edge of bag, fitting fabric into the space created by the straps. I used a zigzag stitch to "finish" the edge a bit.
Fit patterned fabric on top of linen fabric in space created by handle straps. Pin into place. Top stitch down the side. Be careful not to catch the other side of the grocery bag under the seam. Check frequently, and ease out any excess fabric.

At bottom corner, stitch to the edge of patterned fabric, leaving same amount of space as your side seam allowance. Leave needle in fabric, lift your presser foot, and turn 90 degrees. Continue to stitch along the bottom, again checking for excess fabric.

Turn again at corner, and stitch up the side of the bag.
Hooray! It's a pocket!
Repeat steps for opposite side of bag.

Grocery store, here I come! And library... and Grammie's house...
By the way, Albertson's gives you 5 cents off your purchase for every bag you bring with you. My bags were purchased from Stater Brothers, Target, and Albertson's.