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So much news!
I keep telling myself I need to get in the habit of writing every day about the little things instead of waiting for big things to happen and then documenting them as if I’m writing a book report on my life. But days slip by as they are wont to do and my great ideas on blogging are in vain. As usual.
So here are the big things:
Bug has a two-wheeler! She inherited SuperChic’s old bike. My mom had it sitting around at her house and a neighbor offered to fix it (flat tire, stripped screws where the training wheels needed to go…it just needed a major tune-up) so my mom paid her neighbor and now we have a new bike that is old but totally cool because I didn’t shell out a buncha bucks at Walmart or somewhere even more expensive.
Recycling at it’s best! Bug totally loves it and it has not even crossed her mind that I could have bought her a shiny new Hello Kitty bike for only five hundred some bazingas. Rusty princesses for the win! Actually, it’s not that rusty, so don’t worry about Tetanus or anything. I know somebody out there was worried about that. They don’t call me a seasoned blogger for nothing.
She’s still a little bit wobbly and scared to death of how the whole bike shifts from left to right when she moves her weight from one training wheel to the other but I have no fear that before long she’ll be whizzing around faster than I can yell at her to slow down. Right now I’m thankful for her fear. Even though we live on the American Dream cul-de-sac, I have nightmares about her getting run over by some crazy moron driving down our street too fast. So we are proceeding with the bike-riding with utmost caution. If she takes all year to learn I’ll be a happy momma. But considering how long she took to learn how to scooter I think she’ll be out of training wheels by next week. Sheesh.
I just wish she’d slow down with this growing-up business!
Did you notice her dark blue corduroy jumper? If you read my post about Bug loving hand-me-downs over on my review blog, you’ll have to chuckle at this outfit. It’s Rapunzel’s from ten years ago. I never expected Bug to like it and I almost tossed it in the goodwill box when I was going through old clothes, except she pulled it out and begged to wear it. Shows you what I know.
You know why Bug likes it? Because she thought the red ladybugs at the bottom were red spotted mushrooms from Mario Brothers Mushroom Kingdom. How does my kid know about that? We don’t have Nintendo. It’s not the 80’s. I guess in today’s world all red spotted mushrooms mean super fun musical games or something. Go figure. And yes, she was a bit disappointed when I pointed out that the red mushrooms had black heads and antennae. But she still wore it anyway.
Next big thing:
My Grandma turned 85 on Wednesday. EIGHTY-FIVE!!! How is this possible? It’s really true that when you pass thirty time speeds up to warp speed. I hate the fact that I’m being so clichéd* and moaning about it. But it’s true. My Grandma is so full of vim and vigor, I’m not ready for her to be old and frail. She’s taking it gracefully though. If ever there was someone to emulate, it is my Grandma. I want to be just like her when I grow up—which should be in about five minutes by my calculations.
So we went over to her house for dinner because that is all she really wants. Material presents are not important, just spending time with family is what she really enjoys. Good thing too because I am the worst at remembering to buy thoughtful gifts when I am navigating motherhood at warp speed. Actually, I think I was bad at remembering to buy thoughtful gifts even when I was young and bored but that is neither here nor there. The important thing is that we were all together and it was super sweet.
My Aunt Keren thought Grandma would enjoy some kitten-time so my mom brought over all six kittens that she has right now. She’s babysitting my kittens until they find homes since my carpet is freshly clean and she has wood floors and she has three other kittens from a feral cat who abandoned them in her yard. Isn’t my mom nice? Yes. And I’m really trying hard not to take her for granted. By the way, five of those kittens have good loving homes and now there is only one left! Phew!
Anyway back to Grandma and the kittens. It was so sweet! The little black one curled up on her chest and slept there for a half an hour. It was adorable and I think Grandma enjoyed it but then one of her eyes started turning red and itchy so we removed the kittens and decided Grandma might be allergic to the adorable little fluff-balls. It was fun while it lasted though.
We also had root vegetables, which we all love. Best dinner EVER. It was like old times. We missed you, Aunt Kathy.
Last big thing:
I found a trench coat at Target. You guys thought I already had one didn’t you? Nope, I didn’t. I never have. It doesn’t rain here, what do I need a trench coat for? Streaking? Hah! Like that’s gonna happen. It’s all part of my made-up Secret Agent Josephine character in my head. She doesn’t have a double chin either. Bet you never noticed that. Oh you did? Blarg. Well, she’s my made-up character so I felt inclined to improve her. Them’s the perks of being an illustrator. I can draw myself any way I want to be. Be all that you can be!
Stupidly, I got rid of my knee high black boots a while back because I didn’t like the pointy heel so I will probably be investing in some new boots soon. I’m so glad that pointy-heel-pointy-toe trend is over. But knowing me, by the time I get around to shopping for some again will be back in full force. I hate fashion sometimes.
But who cares about that! How funny is Bug? She’s the best model ever. I hate to exploit her cuteness on this blog but as you can see she steals the show without even trying.
So here we are in our official garb looking so very spyish. It’s almost like we didn’t just throw on some trench coats over our sundresses and pull an impromptu photo shoot in our driveway with the neighbor who actually doesn’t know how to use my camera but did a pretty good job anyway! It’s almost good enough to put in the back of my books as my author shot I think! In fact, I think I will just do that.
Keep calm and spy on, Secret Agents!
* That d is for you, Bethany.
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A weekend with friends.
I don’t know the last time I did something clichéd like go camping or have a picnic on a holiday weekend. I think most of these sorts of things just get turned into any other day for people like me. When you’re a freelancer, every day is Monday and every day is Saturday so holidays were just days when the post office is closed and there are more people on the road making all kinds of traffic and beaches are crowded.
But now I have a kid in school and everything is different! I have to set an alarm to make sure we get up in time and then I watch the clock to make sure I don’t forget to pick her up from school. Imagine that, I’m a slave to the work-week schedule just like anyone else. And you know what that means besides making me an annoyed clock-watcher? Holidays and weekends are more special now! Woooo-Hooooo! TGIF means something to me now!
So you know what Bug and I did for our very first special holiday weekend? We went camping. With friends. For the WHOLE weekend. It was awesome.
First we hung out with these monkeys.
This baby is so photogenic.
Then we went to the beach. Good thing I had my new handy-dandy smart phone since I forgot to charge the batteries for my handy-dandy underwater camera.
This is Carrien (pronounced Kareen) who I met through this blog. Funny how that works. (I have a better picture of her further down.)
Then we went to her in-laws and camped in their front yard. As you can see their front yard is nothing to sneeze at. I didn’t do a very good job at taking an establishing shot (perhaps I was too busy having fun) but the inside of their house was amazing and I did manage a few random shots here and there. I hope they don’t mind me posting.
I loved it there. It felt like home. Someday I want to have a home like this. Maybe not as big (they have eight kids) but as welcoming. That was what made it special. It was this big sprawling ranch house with art everywhere and a long country table that invited you to sit down with your coffee AND your laptop. I loved that there were probably at least four or five laptops sitting around at all times. Nobody thought it was rude if you looked down to check your phone.
Carrien’s husband, Aaron, made me Turkish coffee. It was really good with a lot of sugar and no cream. I’d never tried it before but I found I liked it. Like that’s a big surprise. Any kind of coffee made with care is probably going to go over really well with me. I was happy. Coffee, wifi, good company…it was wonderful. I could spend the whole weekend there and I did!
Bug was having her own kind of fun: kids and bouncing. They had a trampoline and a swing-set and a clubhouse and of course lots of hills and trees and rocks to explore. She was in heaven.
There was pomegranate picking…
and chickens
and egg collecting (photo by Aaron)
And a fire pit! We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.
And then we camped under the stars.
Camping bedhead brought to you by Instagram!
Also, it rained! At 4 o’clock in the morning I felt this faint mist on my face. I thought it was a very pleasant dream but then I woke up and quickly went into survival-girl mode. I put the rain guard on in the dark as lightning flashed around me. Within minutes the raindrops fell. It wasn’t a very heavy rain but it was enough to soak one of the other tents that didn’t have a rain guard. I’m glad I’m one of those people who wakes up pretty easily otherwise this post would have been about a whole other kind of adventure.
We did have a visit from the ranch dogs who were terrified of the lightning but thankfully Bug was pretty aggressive at telling them to get out while I was outside putting on the rain guard. Living with my mom’s dog, Spreckles, has definitely taught Bug how to handle dogs with authority. She’s no wimp.
You’d think that would sum up our super-fun weekend but you would be wrong. We also went to church (after camping!) and to La Jolla for a picnic lunch and some tide pool sight-seeing.
At one part there was a ravine full of kelp. We were all curious how deep it went. So of course we had to investigate.
It was about a foot and a half deep. The kids had a blast walking around in it, jumping in it and generally slipping and sliding and not paying attention to the try-not-to-get-wet admonishments. Who are we kidding? We all knew they were going to get soaking wet anyway. It’s the beach and they are kids!
So they sported the side-knot—a new look for fall.
AND THEN!! As if we hadn’t done enough, we went to a birthday party and the kids slid down this thing:
I’d never even seen one of these before. What a riot! I really should have gotten a swimsuit on and tried it myself but it was in the late afternoon and I was too busy sitting with my mom-friends chatting.
It’s safe to say that everyone slept well after this day. Rain or no rain.
We were very sad to go home. I think I’m adding their neighborhood to my list of possible places to move in June.
