Day with friends

Today we ventured down to Irvine to meet up with a couple and their new baby, Ella. They moved to Ft. Worth a few years ago, and we typically only see them around this time of year. We met at another couple's house who we also typically see once a year. They have a 19-month-old daughter, Skylar. Last year when we got together, Avery was only about 10 weeks old, Skylar was 7 months, and Ella was still in utero. This year, the difference between Skylar and Avery wasn't so great. They both were all over the place, having fun, playing with Skylar's toys. Ella is now 6 months old.

Anyway, our original plan was to go out to dinner, but Avery decided to completely forgo her nap today (we scheduled our departure time to overlap with Avery's nap time on purpose and it backfired bigtime... she didn't sleep a wink on the car ride down). She also started running a fever of 101.5, and the Motrin started kicking in pretty quickly. By about 5pm, all hell had broken loose, and we called off dinner so Avery could take a nap on the way back, which she did. THANK GOD.

While we were there, however, the girls did get some playing in. Skylar even took Avery's temperature with an ear thermometer. Ella was all smiles. Avery sucked on her pacifier for three hours. A big no-no for me. But then, what's once a year while you're visiting friends? The pacifier will be going bye bye very soon.

Here are some pictures to share.
The three girls: Skylar, Ella, and Avery, respectively:



Avery had a great old time pushing around Skylar's doll's stroller and trying to sit in it herself, stuffing all kinds of odd things into a Trick-or-Treat plastic pumkin, and watching a little bit of an Elmo DVD that Skylar had gotten for Christmas. Except the tantrum where Avery screamed bloody murder for the last 10 minutes or our ride home and the part where Avery randomly had a fever with boogers all over her face, our day was perfect.

The playroom...

It's finally coming along. In August 2003, when we moved into this house, the room had pink carpet, dirty white walls, dirty white mini blinds, ick. Once we moved in, we made some improvements immediately -- new carpet, new paint on walls and baseboards, new shutters on all of the windows. For 2 years the room sat more or less unused. The furniture is old and needs work, but the bed is comfortable.



When Avery started to really play with toys and make a disaster, we decided we needed a room where she could do just that, without us running the risk of stepping on something that would forever injure us and/or tripping and killing ourselves. The older you get, the higher the risk of doing that.

We moved the furniture out of that room and into the office to make that the spare bedroom and office (yes, it's crowded). Now of the 4 bedrooms we have available to us, two are dedicated to Avery, as well as most of our family room. She had, indeed, taken over.

Anyway, here are playroom pics. It took us a while to get everything in order, but we're pretty close now. There are a few more pieces we've purchased to go in that room, like a children's table and chairs and a children's rocking chair, but Avery is too small to use them and ends up just tipping them over. I figured since I cleaned and vacuumed the room the other night that I might as well take pictures and share them.

Thanks to GramZ and PapaZ for the leaf canopy, the toybox, and various toys and stuffed animals. Thanks to Grammy for the Fisher Price House, the shelving units, and other various toys and stuffed animals. Avery is truly the only grandchild on both sides of the family :)

Avery's sandbox

-- minus sand, add pillows/blankets/toys.

She cannot get enough of climbing in and out of this thing. We figured since it's pretty chilly outside (yes, even in Southern California) that we might as well let her play with it inside for a while. When it loses its charm (which it's bound to soon enough) then we'll look into making a place for it in the backyard where the dogs can't chew it and where it'll stay relatively safe from the elements. It does have a cover, but we want the sand to be in pristine shape for Little Princess Poopy Pants.

Anyway, as if my livingroom (read: entire house) isn't babied-up enough, this is now sitting in the middle of my living room. I suspect it'll stay for at least a few days.

Christmas Day Pictures

Here are some pictures from Christmas Day. I'm waiting for my MIL to email me more from her camera. She got one in particular that I want to show Alex -- of Avery's 'fake smile.' It's pretty funny.

These were taken before we started to open presents. Avery loves to climb the stairs and her GramZ chased her around for while.



Avery got the hang of the presents pretty quickly.




Lastly, Avery opened her sandbox, the biggest gift she received this year. She played inside of it (sans sand!) for the rest of the evening. It's now in the middle of our living room (still sans sand!) and she's having a blast climbing in and out and putting toys in and out. I have more pics of all of this to share later ;)

Christmas Eve pictures to share

Christmas Eve was spent at Grammy's house... Avery was the center of attention, as always, and had a great time playing with new toys and with my cell phone for a good part of the night.



Meredith and I got a good picture in...



but then the silliness just ensued from there...


Here are some comparisons from this last Christmas to this Christmas. I am smaller (whew!) and Avery is bigger :)



Here are some with Meredith as well:

Seven things

Seven Things To Do Before I Die:
1. Shake Dave Letterman's Hand
2. Own a weimaraner
3. Visit every continent once (perhaps with the exception of Antarctica)
4. Drink Bloody Marys in Zihuatenejo with my husband
5. Get my Master's Degree, probably in Education
6. Fulfill my dream job as a graphic designer/Web designer
7. Live on a ranch in the middle of nowhere

Seven Things I Cannot Do:
1. I cannot stand stupid people
2. Think clearly when something is weighing heavily on my mind
3. Let my TMJ get worse -- must do something about it soon
4. Let one day go by w/o telling my husband and daughter that I love them
5. Fit into my size 7/8 Express jeans... but I will!
6. Do a backflip off of a diving board... getting old really sucks
7. I cannot stand loud noises -- I think it's engrained into my mind now that I have a child who is a light sleeper.

Seven Things That Attract Me to My Spouse:
1. His lips
2. His sense of humor
3. His intelligence
4. His determination
5. His love for Avery and our dogs
6. His obsession with golf -- there, I said it!
7. His respect for his parents

Seven Things I Say (or write) Most Often:
1. Motard
2. Stupid Ass
3. Raise your hand instead of yelling at me, please
4. Hi, bay-beh
5. Jedly, can I have ___________________.
6. Avery Jane Girl!
7. Little Pretty Girl

Seven Books I Love:
1. She Come Undone, Wally Lamb
2. Memoirs of a Geisha, Bruce Golden
3. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
4. Zoom, Diane Adams (children's book)
5. I Know This Much is True, Wally Lamb
6. Holes, Louis Sachar (adolescent book)
7. A Million Little Pieces, James Frey (reading it now)

Seven Movies I Could Watch Over and Over Again:
(sorry to copy Leslie, but she and I have some favorites in common)
1. Legends of the Fall
2. Minority Report (I have no idea why...)
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Braveheart
5. Field of Dreams
6. Beaches
7. Clueless

Seven People I Want to Join in and Be Tagged:
1. Erin
2. Anna
3. Alex
4. Jessica
5. Windy
6. Jen
7. Andrea

Wow, I guess I'm homely or hideous...

or something!

I followed a link to a site that compares your face to a celebrity's using some sort of high-tech mathematical imagery (or whatever), as I was curious what celebrity it would say I look like. I prayed that it didn't say Linda Hamilton. See Exhibit A. Also, it might be helpful to know that I'm scarred for life because of the comparisons to Linda Hamilton when I was in junior high, and what started as innocent teasing that I looked like the lady on the "Terminator" quickly turned into kids on the bus calling me "The Sperminator." Again, refer to Exhibit A. I documented my emotional scars with a side-by-side photo and acknowledge that yes, I do look like her in a way.

Anyway, I followed this link and uploaded a photo to see who it would tell me I looked like. I had no luck. The picture I uploaded apparently didn't look like any celebrity. Not even an ugly one. I tried again. Nothing. I tried once more and was given no matches. Then, to my great dismay, photo #4 turned up a match. All I can say is that I do appear to have a hook nose in photo #4, and PLEASE GOD tell me that is why the celebrity photo compare mathematical imagery analysis of my face came with Antonin Artaud, whoever the FUCK that is. Seriously, even Courtney Love would have been better than him.

He is risen...

or, more specifically, someone 'lifted' him.

Yes, I'm talking about Jesus. The baby Jesus from my nativity set that my in-laws so graciously bought me last year. Someone stole baby Jesus. I know who it was. I want him back. Where did you put him? Fess up, Anna.

Our annual holiday party

was last night. Here are a few pictures to share. I think I'd be strangled for posting some of the videos I took at 2am.

Avery got to see her best friend Marylin, who was looking as fashionable as ever.



My brother and sister and I tried taking a few pictures of ourselves -- none came out very well because my 4 year old digital camera is really starting to show its age. I hinted to Jed, but maybe it was too subtle. Perhaps a new one for Christmas is asking a bit too much. Valentine's Day isn't far off though.



Later in the evening, when both bottles of Captain Morgan's were gone, things got a little silly. Scott danced all over the pool room like a moron and we were all laughing so hard we could barely catch our breath. I, for once, did not fall asleep on the couch gripping an empty glass of wine. It was fun to watch everyone else act silly and make fools of themselves for a change!

Today's brush with fame...

As if seeing a former high school classmate on Dr. Phil last week and admitting to having the twins who played Owen on "Party of Five" in my class last year, today I got to literally rub elbows with none other than Sean Bush, the doctor featured on Animal Planet's Venom ER.

The only reason why I watched this show to begin with is because it takes place in my area, and all of the stories are of people who've been bitten by a snake and live near me. I HATE snakes, but for some reason, seeing people swell up and die from venomous snake bites doesn't bother me. Go figure.

Anyway, today while standing in line with some co-workers at Chipotle, I turned around to look at a little boy behind me in line, and remarked how cute he was. Then I realized that his father was Dr. Bush, and I felt a little star struck for a moment. It occured to me, however, that NO ONE in the entire restaurant recognized him but me (and presumably his wife and son) so I didn't say anything so as to keep my private obsessions with medical-related shows a secret.

His little ponytail looks pretty silly too.

Random: An excerpt from my shopping list and other reflections upon my grocery store experiences.

My shopping list is a serious matter; I list everything I need from each different store I visit, and I typically number the items in order of importance.

Today when I got to the store, I thought it was funny that number one on my list read like this:

1. Pad of shopping list paper.

I told you it was random.

I also think it's a bit ridiculous that my grocery store now has flat screen television monitors at every checkstand. As if, while moving through the line like part of a herd of cattle, I really want to stop behind the person in front of me who's glued to the latest edition of the gossip column-equivalent of the news, and give them the old 'cough cough,' it's time to move up noise.

Ugh.

You've gotta know when to hold 'em...

We went to a Christmas party tonight at a friend's house, and Avery was INSTANTLY drawn to the slot machine they had in their living room. She actually hit the jackpot twice. She was so into it by the end, she was even willing to use her shoes as tokens.

I think I know what I'm getting Avery for Christmas. No, not a slot machine, or even a craps table. A fake ID.

Look at the gut on this girl!

Enough said!



Here's one more of my little nakey buns, being such a geek :) Be sure to notice the sticky peach juice in her hair and the tomato sauce on her face. It was just about bath time!

Monkey see, monkey do

Avery has learned to blow on her food to cool it down. It was pretty funny to watch her blow on some Cheerios this morning ;)

Avery blowing on her food

Something about motherhood that no one bothered to tell me.

When your child reaches toddlerhood and you start to become more adventurous with what you're feeding him or her, be prepared to eat a LOT of sandwich crust.

That is all.

My wreath, again...

Well, I've decorated it now. I added the wreath lights that I bought from Ikea, some different ornaments, and voila, my work is done.

I am also in love with this little red and clear votive candle holders that I've got on the mantle below the wreath. Very festive ;)

Which rejected crayon are you?

Okay, I am being a total copy-cat today. This one I stole from Erin.



I guess because I answered that I was wearing green underwear, they assume they must be my junky underwear that I wear when it is, indeed, that time of the month. I have to admit, though... that's damn funny.

By the way, which rejected crayon are you?

States I've visited...

Yep, I'm copying Alex, who copied Christi.




These are the states I've visited in my life. Most of them were with my husband. Oregon and Iowa were actually both alternate residences for me for less than 6 months each, both when I was much younger. The only other states I visited without my husband are the Dakotas, and I was about 2 years old then, so I don't really know if I can claim those. The only proof of my trip to South Dakota is a picture of me with Mt. Rushmore in the distance. I've been to three of the Hawaiian islands (Maui, Oahu, and Kauai). I am pretty sure I've driven through some other states over the years, but since I can't remember, I can hardly claim that I've been there. So now, the question is, when do I get to cross the rest off of my map?

Create your own visited states map here.

Are you an abandoner or a returner?

When it comes to shopping carts, that is?

I used to be a serial returner. I thought it was rude when people abandoned shopping carts all over the parking lot. Now I sometimes abandon them, but only because I have a baby in the car, and I am not about to leave the car for very long with her strapped inside to push a shopping cart half way across California to find a shopping cart return area.

I do feel a little guilty when I abandon one, but then, I'd feel more guilty if I abandoned my child just to return a cart.