Category Archives: I did something Special

February 20, 2013 · 10:45 am

The Music Class.

I was surprised and tickled to find out that William’s music class, Music Together, was being held this week. His class is held in our city’s civic center, so I fully expected it to be postponed since President’s Day is a holiday observed by the government and its branches. Apparently, though, one lady in the entire building came by to unlock the doors for the class.

The class starts at 4:30pm on Mondays, so I normally get there around 5:00pm and am able to observe the last 15-20 minutes of the class. So the fact that he had class on a holiday meant that I got to take him, and participate with him in the class from the beginning. I was even happier to be able to sit right next to the teacher. William apparently liked that, too, because he didn’t roam at all (like he normally does). Instead, he chose to either sit on my lap, or sit in front of me on the floor. He watched the teacher intently and danced to the music.

There was a new student this week that I’ve not seen before. A little boy with shaggy hair. He was probably closer to 2, given how nimble he was on his feet. He was roughly William’s size, although a little slimmer in the face. He was wearing jeans and a blue plaid shirt. Both his mom and dad were there, they had arrived about 10 minutes late.

The little boy was disruptive, running through the middle of the circle, out to the other side. He was pulling at the plastic containers that held the various instruments and grabbing at people’s bags. When his parents corrected him, he yelled in anger. When the instruments were made available to the kids, he would grab them from the others and scream and throw a tantrum if told to give the item back or if it were taken from him to be put away at the end of each song.

I felt bad for his parents… was he a handful because that’s who he is? Perhaps it’s just his age? Maybe he didn’t get a nap? I don’t know. Everyone mostly tried to ignore him and his antics, including me. I was really trying to enjoy the class.

And then, he decided that he wanted the shaker that William had, not even caring that there were a dozen other shakers just like it on the floor in front of William. I was 3-4 feet behind them, not close enough to intervene quickly and I watched in horror as the kid ran up behind William and grabbed his hair. Twice.

William is too young to defend himself, and so I reached to shield William’s head, at the same time as the kid’s mom yelled her son’s name… but we were both too late. I rubbed William’s head and waited to see William’s reaction. William simply turned and looked at him. The kid grabbed the shaker William was holding and ran away. William furrowed his brow, looked at his empty hand, looked at the kid and then… chose another instrument.

I was relieved but less relaxed. As the class continued, the kid became obsessed with whatever William was doing. Maybe because William was about his size? When it was instrument freestyle time, the teacher was even “dancing” with a hand protectively over William’s head, because that kid was circling William with a lollipop drum. When the song ended, his parents took the instrument he was holding and put it back in the box. The child spotted that William still had his shaker, and so he grabbed it from him. Since all the other instruments had been put away, William started to get upset. I took the shaker back from the child and gave it back to William, just as his mom reprimanded him. At this point, I was pretty stressed and just wanted to tell his parents to, “Please! Hold onto your kid already!”

It finally came time for the ending song. The teacher got her book and the kid ran up to her and grabbed her book. She gently tried to pry it out of his hands, he started screaming. She smiled and “sang” to him, while looking at his parents for help, “I need my book. The song is new. I don’t have it memorized yet…” The parents rocked back and forth next to each other, smiling, from across the room. So the teacher was on her own, with an unruly child who was verging on a tantrum, and a book that was scrunched up in his hands as they battled for possession. I wondered how she was going to handle the situation.

She continued to smile, as she gently enfolded the little boy in a hug. She hugged him tight and close as she sang, and the book emerged in her hand, victorious. The little boy snuggled for a second, and then wiggled free and ran back to his parents.

Of course. Love. Gentleness. A hug. The teacher is a beautiful soul. She just reminded me, through her actions, that kindness and love is sometimes the best recourse against frustration and tantrums.

It’s a good lesson, but I will also say, that kid better not pull my kid’s hair again.

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Filed under I did something Special, I'm Never too Old to Learn, Our Kid is Cute

January 15, 2013 · 4:21 pm

1 Wheel Old Birthday Party.

A party for a first birthday? Really? He won’t even remember it, for goodness sakes, so just keep it simple if you’re going to have one! That has always been my thinking. Plus, I’m not much on social events (hello, extreme introversion!), so a birthday party that I’m in charge of planning sounded like a nightmare to me. Yet, I was so … reclusive while pregnant, so reticent to embrace publicly the quiet joy I experienced every day while I was carrying this child within me, next to my heart. Because of that, I kind of felt like I owed it to everyone, not an obligation, really, but more to share this boy who brings so much joy to everyone he sees. I’ve wondered how weird it would be to add “Joy” as a third middle name, because I don’t think Merriam Webster would be willing to change the definition in the dictionary to read: Joy — (noun) William John.

Then there’s William. A kid who loves wheels. I leave for work in the mornings and instead of looking at me longingly as I leave, his eyes are downcast, his lips are smiling, as he looks at the wheels on my car as they turn, and the faster they turn the bigger his smile gets. We go for walks and he gets upset if we turn around before we get to the main street, because he can hear those wheels driving by on the street, and he wants to see them! If a truck goes by, “Oh, WOW!!” he says. His head turns, eyes tracking them. Trucks have really big wheels, you know?

I wasn’t really looking, well, not looking very hard, I guess I should say… when I came across The Perfect Invitation. “No way!” I said to Tony when I found them. “Check these out! Should I order them?” I asked. Wheel Have Lots of Fun! Cute and cheesy and sooooo William.

So we confirmed the date and time, and I ordered them. Embrace it and own it, I decided. So, I browsed the Internet for food ideas. Hostess Ding Dongs were going to be “spare tires”, but then Hostess went into bankruptcy, and suddenly there was a shortage of Ding Dongs (who would’ve thought??), so Oreo cookies became the spare “spare tires.” Pretzel rings became “bicycle tires.” Pinwheel sandwiches, or wraps, were next… Costco would have been the easy thing to do, except I don’t care for cream cheese with deli meat, I much prefer hummus. Costco wasn’t able to modify their recipe (yes, I asked). I would have made the things myself, except I was already doing the cakes (see the next paragraph), so I called around and found a grocery store who would custom make them for the same price. Various other “wheel” shaped foods made it on the menu…

The cakes should have been the easy part, right? I mean, cake pans are generally round. The problem was, I’m not a huge fan of cake, especially the ones that have sugary frosting. Yet, what’s a birthday party without cake??? So, I decided to take a day off from work and bake all the guests their own individual mini pineapple upside cake (aka “Tractor Wheels”). Crazy much? (Reminds me of a woman who was 7 months pregnant and stayed up all night before her baby shower baking cookies for her guests when she was supposed to be taking it easy, because she’d just been in the L&D unit for having contractions!! Hi!! *waves & grins*)

For William, I decided that a smash cake wasn’t a smash cake unless it had frosting, and since his favorite fruit to date was banana, I made a sugarless banana cake sweetened by apple sauce, and the frosting was Cool Whip with a banana mixed in for flavoring, and colored with blue food coloring.

For kid entertainment, Tony found a great deal on the internet for a bouncy house, and after a couple of foibles on their part they threw in a Cars banner for free.

We asked William’s cousin, Huck, to accompany us on the piano when we sang “Happy Birthday,” and he did an amazing job! He even played it again later so we could hear him better.

Oh, and all the guests were required to take their picture with the race car upon entering the party. Which meant that someone had to stand out there and greet everyone, which actually turned out to be a great idea, because Tony’s parent’s house is kind of hard to find if you’ve never been there before. Turns out, a birthday party greeter is a great ice breaker! Plus, the pictures taken are a great keepsake of all the people who were part of this celebration to show him how thrilled they are that he’s been in the world for an entire year.

I know I’ve said it again and again, but this child is such a blessing. Even though I know he won’t remember it, I realized that we will. And this? This was a great memory.

More pictures can be seen here: Link

Special thanks to my friend, Grace (William’s Godmother), for taking her Saturday morning and spending it setting up for the party. Tony also was an enormous help in coordinating things and helping set things up. Tony’s mom also helped set up and frosted William’s smash cake. Tony’s parents provided the party venue. Thanks to his cousin, Huck, for playing Happy Birthday. I’m also so grateful to all the guests who celebrated with us.

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Filed under Best Husband, I did something Special, I have Friends, Our Kid is Cute

December 23, 2012 · 4:07 pm

Santa Fiasco

With it being William’s first Christmas that I don’t have him under lockdown and house arrest (i.e., meaning that people actually get to see more than just the top of his head while I’m wearing him), we decided it would be a good opportunity to get his picture with Santa. He has no issues with strangers, in fact he reels them in with smiles and laughs. In particular, he loves older people — the grayer the hair the better the experience is. Glasses? Bring them closer. Shaky voices, stooped shoulders and frowning wrinkles that melt into smiles upon beholding William’s radiant smile — perfection! So we figured Santa would be a non-issue.

We went to the mountains earlier this month, and there is a Santa that makes appearances in a little shack up there by their big Christmas tree. Not just Santa, but Mrs. Claus, too. What could be better? So we’re walking up to the shack and William is all smiles and happy. We get to the entrance, and he lost it. Hated it. Didn’t want to be in that shack or near the shack or anywhere around that shack. If he saw the shack, all smiles disappeared. We know this because we tried twice, once with Tony holding him and once with me holding him. Oh, and since this Santa and Mrs. Claus are Hispanic, they are clearly imposters. Anyone in the know knows that Santa and and his wife are as white as snow and, obviously, William is a genius, so he knows.

Later, walking the town, we came across a window painting of Santa and in the interest of familiarizing him with the colors of Santa, we allowed William to get close to it. Getting close then evolved into William laughing while punching the window painting’s nose. While probably not something we should have encouraged (Imaginary conversation: “Hi Santa, Can my son pop you in the nose so he’ll smile while we take a picture of you two?”), we considered this an improvement.

A couple weeks later, we went to a neighborhood that decks its sidewalks and houses in seasonal accoutrements. One of those houses had a realistic robotic Santa, William was in his stroller — a contraption that he’s familiar with and loves, so we thought we’d give the picture another try. Even a non-living Santa was an epic fail. (sigh)

We decided to stop messing around with imposters and robots, and just go visit the real one at the Queen Mary’s Chill event. We’ll consider this a success and one that I’m happy putting in the baby book.

Or maybe this one.

Or maybe both. I do like to agonize over these things, you know.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas! (More Christmas pictures: LINK)

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Filed under I did something Special, Our Kid is Cute, We Love to Decorate, We're all searching for something

December 21, 2012 · 10:17 am

Queen Mary’s Chill

For the holidays, I like to do something special, something out of the ordinary, something that is IN YOUR FACE “Christmasy” every year. One year we saw a handbell choir, gosh, that was so beautiful. Unfortunately, it appears that we saw them the last year they were performing and handbell choirs, apparently, are as rare as a Hawaiian surfing in Alaska! Our standby Christmas thing has always been the local historical city park. They have two events every year — a candlelight tour one weekend and a Victorian Christmas celebration the next — but our calendars just didn’t match up with theirs this year.

I was blessed to be able to participate in my company’s holiday party this year. The first year I worked here, they didn’t have a holiday event. The 2nd year I was here, I was out on maternity leave. This year, they rented a yacht and we floated out and toured the harbor while eating our lunch. They even accommodated me with a special room on the yacht, with its own bathroom (you know how I love bathrooms!) to pump milk for my son so I could participate comfortably!

But I was still looking for something special to do with my family. So when a special deal came across LivingSocial to go to the Queen Mary for the holidays, The Queen Mary Chill event, they called it, well, I was ALL over that! Beyond thrilled, actually, because they had an ice sculpture display and I was extremely disappointed that the state fair didn’t have their Ice Museum this year. But a holiday themed ice sculpture display? Even better. Made up for the state fair’s epic fail 1,000 times over.

It was an amazing day. I left our home early this past Saturday morning to drop my car off for the last free oil change of the year (huzzah for free — remember that coupon I talked about awhile back?). Then, I timed it just right, and walked out to the main street (saving us 5 minutes of driving time) and hitched a ride with Tony in his car as he was zooming to the freeway and off we went to have breakfast with my friend, Grace, and her family. Such a blessing (always) to see her! (Love you, Grace!)

After that we headed up to the Queen Mary! To see her decked out in her holiday finery was a sight to behold.

The Queen Mary also has a village that they “dress” for the appropriate holiday season, and it was fun to mosey around the village and reminisce about the last time we were there… for Halloween last year. William got a visit in with Santa (another post is in the works for that story), and then we headed into the dome to view the ice sculptures. Everything you see in the picture below, the wreath, the sign, it’s all ice. Amazing.

William’s nap was the only hangnail in this whole story, one which I’m still suffering from mommy guilt about. He fell asleep at the appropriate time, but when I attempted to transfer him to the stroller he woke up. Tony resorted to our standby of wearing him and, after much protesting, William went to sleep and ended up sleeping through our foray through the ice. Maybe for the best, since it was really, really cold in there. Tony got a talking to by one of the employees because of his lack of appropriate footwear. Yes, seriously. This man, who wears flip flops in 6′ snow banks, was duly informed that he was causing a liability and that it was a health hazard. So he was asked to leave the exhibit. Kind of silly, given that we were just a few displays away from the exit door, but, you know, whatever.

Of all the displays in the exhibit, the best and most beautiful one, I think, was the nativity scene. I’m a sucker for nativity scenes, anyway, and particularly the glass or crystal ones. And this one was huge and stunning…. and was the last one to see in the display. Despite the coldness, it left me feeling warm and happy inside.

This is an event that I would definitely attend again sometime in the future. If you’re interested, more pictures from our adventure can be seen here: LINK

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Filed under Best Husband, I did something Special, I Left Home for Awhile

June 2, 2012 · 9:17 pm

William’s 1st Memorial Day Weekend.

(Picture heavy post.)

William and Dr. Werlin meet again. They saw each other when William was 5 days old. Now again at 5.5 months old. William’s changed some since then. Dr. Werlin has stayed pretty much the same. Kind of like coming full circle.

William is all about faces these days. Dr. Werlin certainly has an interesting one!

For the first time over Memorial Day weekend, William initiated peek-a-boo with me. He’s played peek-a-boo before, but it’s always been initiated by me. I was surprised to say the least… to see a baby head peering over the crib rail and laughing his head off at me.

William is all about practicing his mad crawling skillz these days. He gets up on all fours and rocks and rocks like a little horsey. Then…

… he laughs hysterically when he face plants! And then, gets up and tries again.

I bought him a new ducky bathtub. He thinks ducks are really funny, and thinks their quacking is laughing and he laughs back at them. It should have been no surprise that this bathtub would be a huge hit for him!

Tony and William tried out some chairs in Big Lots!

Hey, there! Stop leaning! We all know what you’re doing, mister!

We had family over on Monday for some pool time. I’m not sure why everyone was all in one corner of the big pool, but hey… I guess we’re a close family? ha ha

We borrowed our neighbor’s bouncy house and set it up in our garage for the kids to play in. One of the adults got in there and it made the air hose sound funny, so it was decided it really was just for the kids.

Cousins hanging out on William’s play mat, watching Wall TV.

… but be careful, if you give up your spot on the play mat one of the furry intruders will take your spot.

America is truly a place where If you reach for the world with both hands, all of your dreams can come true.

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Filed under I did something Special, I have Family, Our Kid is Cute

November 2, 2011 · 11:15 am

Two Big Things

The first Big Thing around our house this time of year is Halloween (in case you’ve forgotten or couldn’t guess). Our tradition of decorating for Halloween (our home and my work space), carving our pumpkins while watching Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin DVD, and my annual Barbie Doll outfit are things that we always look forward to doing!

Tony changed things up a little bit this year with the decorations on our home. He set up the flashing light and scary sounds CD so that they broadcasted through the vent of our garage, instead of on our front stoop. That made it a much more pleasant experience for us while we carved our pumpkins and watched Charlie Brown. He also moved the scary grim reaper closer to our front door making it appear as if he wanted to welcome our visitors with a warm embrace. The motion sensor "Welcome" was a big hit (to us) because it scared my mom every time she entered the house. Gotta love that! ha

Even though I didn’t win the decorating contest at work this year (like I did last year), personally I think the decoration of my work space was BETTER than last year’s decorations… and I even baked a shit-ton of pumpkin cookies to bribe my co-workers! ha I think we waited too long to decorate this year, since my area doesn’t get the foot traffic that the other departments get. But, Tony and I had fun decorating and my mom had fun watching us. We all had fun taking it down yesterday!

Cookie bribery for co-workers — Pumpkin caramel chocolate chip, Pumpkin oatmeal raisin and Pumpkin date:

Tony getting ready to carve his pumpkin:

Me getting ready to carve my pumpkin:

Carved pumpkins… Tony did the werewolf pumpkin. I did the "Best Friends" pumpkin:

Last, but not least, I decided to wear my favorite Halloween t-shirt to work this year and go with the whole Boney Barney theme, with my work space, me and Barbie. This necessitated the creation of a t-shirt for Barbie that matched mine. As you may recall, I go through this every year and am usually up until the wee hours of the morning hand stitching a tiny outfit for her. I was quite proud of myself for digging out Barbie’s wardrobe and assessing the situation early this year, which enabled me to create a matching outfit with a little less stress in preparation that reaped a TON of compliments and amazement due to the tiniest details that matched.

Barbie’s outfit:

My outfit:

The second Big Thing is my birthday, the day after Halloween… or All Saint’s Day. Because I’m just that saintly!

If there’s such a thing as ordering up a perfect birthday, I somehow must have done so yesterday! With a quiet, relatively stress-free work day, getting bright autumn colored flowers from my bosses, briefly seeing my friend, Grace (always a bright spot, no matter how short the time), discovering that our community pool was still being heated last night, sweet birthday cards from my loved ones, and dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in the whole world with family… on a Tuesday night, meaning everyone felt I was special enough to come out and play on a school night.

Pretty birthday flowers:

Oh — and it’s not over yet, we still have a weekend in the mountains that we’re anticipating!

P.S. I know the pictures won’t display correctly — sorry! I’m posting by e-mail, so I’ll fix them later this evening.

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Filed under I did something Special, I have Family, I have Friends, We Love to Decorate

October 27, 2011 · 10:29 am

Frightful weekend!

As it turned out, last weekend ended up being our weekend to participate in fun and special Halloween things! The local historical park just down the road from us has an annual Fright Night. Our calendars have never meshed in the past to allow us to attend, so we usually ended up attending Knott’s Scary Farm or Universal Studio’s Halloween thing on a different weekend in October. Plus, I didn’t figure the local event would be all that impressive. This year, we happened to be available, so I lowered my expectations for the event and ended up being pleasantly surprised.

True, it wasn’t nearly as scary as the "professional" places, but they did have creepy, scary people roaming around. Their attempts to scare me always make me laugh at them anyway, so I got lots of laughs. They also REALLY did a lot of work with their Halloween lights (which were everywhere) and creepy sound boxes and frightful decorations dangling around.

The old schoolhouse, lit up with Halloween lights:

Weird (headless) bride and groom on the steps of the church:

Lots of Halloween lights everywhere:

On Saturday, the same place had a family event, so we invited the family over for a BBQ and then headed down the hill. The decorations were still up, but the scary-creepy people were gone and the freaky sound boxes were turned off. They had a craft area for the kids, local vendors who were giving away swag, games, a little pumpkin patch, kid friendly mazes, a costume parade, storytelling time, and kid friendly characters, many of whom were handing out candy. Captain Jack Sparrow even showed up to take pictures and hand out candy!

All in all, I think it was really well done and I actually did end up being impressed!

The schoolhouse the next day, not so scary! And Harry Potter was inside talking to the people who were wandering through.
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Captain Jack showed up. I have no idea who that kid is, I just wanted a picture of Captain Jack and his side kick!

I had purchased tickets through Groupon for one of the Queen Mary’s scary nights… and Sunday was the night. So off we headed for that! I was a little intimidated when we got to the area and the line to enter the parking lot was just ridiculous. Then the line to exchange the voucher for a ticket was ridiculous… more ridiculous, even, than getting into Disneyland on a busy summer day. At one point while we were waiting in one of those lines, I told Tony, "This event better not suck once we get in, because THAT would REALLY suck!" I know, I have a gift of phrasing things, don’t I?

Fortunately, the event was really fun and cool. There were a ton of people there and, as a result, the lines for the mazes sucked, but I never felt claustrophobic like I did at Knott’s Scary Farm that one year. However, if we do the event again (which we likely will), I think it would be worth it to spring the extra dough for the front of the line pass. But — they had live DJ’s in a couple different areas, one welcoming you into the entrance maze and one who entertained the line for another maze, along with some really cool pyrotechnics. They had a ton of creepy, scary zombie people who were really talented… better than the ones at Knott’s Scary Farm, I thought. One guy slid about 15 feet, sparks coming up off his knees, and stopped within inches of me! My response to him? "Whoa! That was cool!" He just stared at me. ha

We only had time to do a couple of mazes, and one of those went through the alleged haunted pool area of the Queen Mary. The whole thing was just a cool experience.

Queen Mary:

The “welcoming” DJ:

The haunted pool area:

Fortunately, the Groupon deal I purchased includes a day pass that we can use anytime through December 2012. I’m really looking forward to going back for that! This week it’s just been back to the usual… almost the weekend again!

(I’m trying out the post-by-email feature with this blog post. Hopefully it displays correctly…)

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Filed under Entertainment can be Cheap, I did something Special

August 28, 2011 · 8:31 pm

Something Special.

Yesterday, a Saturday, my alarm went off at 4:45am. It was no mistake, I had set my alarm for that time. On a Saturday. I rolled out of bed and put my swimsuit on, drove up the hill to the “upper pool.” As I slipped into the water, chilly at first as always, I swam my first lap and finished it with a backstroke. The moon was off to my left and a flash shot through the sky directly overhead.

A shooting star.

Instead of wishing upon the star, I used it as a reminder to pray for those who I know are struggling right now. There are so many. Wishes are hopeful, but prayer is action.

Forty minutes later I finished my swim and started my stretching routine, something that has become almost as important to me as the swim in the last couple of years. I carry my tension in my neck and shoulders, so if someone were watching me stretch, I probably look very strange to them at that point in time. I finished my neck and shoulders and moved on to stretch my hamstrings and calves. I looked up to the trees above the restrooms and saw a hummingbird dart into the open arms and waiting cloak of leaves of a tree that is at least 50 feet tall. Seconds later, a swarm of hummingbirds, at least 20, maybe 30, followed the first one in. I blinked, tilted my head. I’ve never seen that many hummingbirds in one grouping and I know they’re territorial, but there is no doubt — indeed, they were what they were. Three or four stragglers darted to join the party a minute later. I smiled.

That was, hands down, one of the best stretching sessions I’ve ever had. What a way to start the day!

Not long after that, we were on the road to Disneyland for the “Walk in Walt’s Footsteps” tour of Disneyland. I didn’t even know such a tour existed until recently, and given our love for Disneyland, decided it might be a nice anniversary gift to ourselves.

But first! We rode in a horse drawn streetcart down Main Street — pulled by a Clydesdale named Danny! I even took a video of it, if you want to watch. You can be thankful that I turned the video off seconds before Danny pooped. The reason you can be thankful for that is because we were in the first bench seat and had an awesome view of the whole occurrence. (Click to see video.)

Now, back to the “Walk in Walt’s Footsteps” tour.

One of the most comprehensive reviews I found about the tour is here (link). On our tour, our guide was really good about finding shade and places for us to sit while she shared her narrative of the various places — it was one of the hottest days so far this summer. So hot, in fact, that around 11:15 am she obtained permission from her supervisor to remove her hat (kind of a big deal in Disneyland)! She was also personable and sweet. I kept thinking she reminded me of someone, with her proper posture and enunciation, and I finally placed it when one of the characters walked by: Mary Poppins! She didn’t LOOK like Mary Poppins, but she had that kind of demeanor. It was kind of cool.

One of the highlights of the tour for us was hanging out in the side path alongside the castle for shade (it’s kind of a short tunnel) heading into Fantasyland and, who knew, but a ton of the characters and Disney Band pass through that tunnel at 11:30 am for a show in front of the Castle — and we were right there!

We left Disneyland around 1:30pm (after they served us lunch and gave us a commemorative pin) and we felt as if we learned several new things about Disneyland, saw a couple behind-the-scenes places we hadn’t seen before AND had fun. If you want something the “normal” guest doesn’t do, and want to learn a lot of stuff about Walt Disney and Disneyland’s history, it’s definitely a tour I would recommend. Great value for the money spent.

The takeaway impression I was left with, through many of the stories that were weaved throughout the tour about Walt Disney was, that no matter how weird or strange or crazy your goal or vision might be, or the amount of time or even the amount of money it may take to get you there, or how complicated or badly things may appear to be going, or how many setbacks or judgments you face, if you focus on that goal and never give up — realizing that you may have to get creative about how you go about it — you will ultimately find a way a way to make your dream come true.
(Click to view larger size…)

Because some goals and dreams are simply *that good* that they shouldn’t ever be given up.

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Filed under Best Husband, I did something Special, I Stimulate the Economy, I'm Never too Old to Learn

July 31, 2011 · 10:40 pm

Pair of Perfect Weekends.

Old Miner’s Day Parade was occurring the weekend we went to the mountains two weeks ago, but we didn’t know about until it was happening. We heard the military jets fly over to kick it off and we saw remnants of it afterwards as we walked through town. But we were enjoying our delicious “regular” breakfasts while it was parading through town. Everybody loves a parade, they say, but I think it’s safe to say that we love our breakfasts more! Priorities!

Tony’s…

Mine…

… and we both had enough leftovers for 3 or 4 breakfasts during the week. Nothing like having a tangible reminder of one of our favorite restaurants (and people) for a week after the original meal.

The tiny carnival was in town, too, and we strolled through the local vendors mixed in with the “carnies.” Tony visited the vendor who was popping and bagging kettle corn, and I visited the vendor who was selling shave ice. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it really was shave ice, and it neared the quality found in Hawaii and wasn’t that snow cone stuff. (What’s the difference? See here: Link)

We also saw llamas, people fishing, baby ducklings following their momma in the lake, people camping, speed boating and hiking with their dogs.

We stopped and visited the donkey, who was really interested in me until she discovered I had no treats for her!

She came trotting up to me…

She waited for me while I went to the car, and then came back…

Look how sad she is because I have no treats…

How bewildered I am…

We BBQ’d hamburgers and toasted marshmallows, had popcorn and watched movies on DVD. Oh, and took naps in the afternoon and had a nice, relaxing bath in the evening when the temperature cooled off.

(Sorry, Photobucket is being weird about these photos… you’ll just have to tilt your head…)

This weekend we headed down to Sea World, the planned highlight being Breakfast with Shamu. We were so excited when they brought back the Dining with Shamu experiences a couple months ago!

We left the rest of the day unplanned and spontaneously had our picture taken with Sea World characters (Shamu, Polar Bear, the Penguins and Sea Turtle).

We also happened to be walking by the Dolphin Show and the Pets Rule show just as they were starting and managed to score really good seats.

Dolphin finale…

Cat on high wire. Must be some good treats at the other end!

Doggy jumping rope in tandem with human…

While in the dolphin show, the sun suddenly burst through the clouds, which heated up the stadium immediately. We both spotted a vendor offering lemonade that was so cold it had beads of sweat falling off the cups, we looked at each other and were all, “LEMONADE!” Which is where we bought our companions for the day — The Psychedelic Dolphins!

They walked around with us the rest of the day, they drove home in our cup holder with us, and when Tony went to a movie that evening, I sent him a picture message of them with text that said, “You left your friends behind! They miss you!”

This morning, we had an unexpected rain storm. It was chore day, so I was up and at ’em early, but when it started raining, I went upstairs and crawled back into bed, into my husband’s arms, pulled the covers up to my chin, and listened to the rain as he snoozed waiting for his alarm.

It’s moments like that, and experiences like these, that make weekends perfect. I hope yours was, too.

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Filed under Best Husband, I did something Special, I Left Home for Awhile

March 3, 2011 · 10:23 pm

Weather Tricksters!

It was last Friday evening and I was gathering my stuff to go to the gym, debating in my mind whether I’d do an easy work out that night and a heavy work out in the morning, or just do a normal work out and wait until Saturday evening to go again.

Tony walked in the door and said, “It’s raining outside. They’re forecasting thunder and heavy rain for tonight.” I turned to him and replied flippantly, “Huh. Maybe we should go to the mountains…”

His eyes lit up and, a few phone calls later, miraculously, everything we were scheduled to do that weekend was able to be rescheduled and completed that Friday night.

You see, we never go to the mountains when it’s already raining (which means snow up there), but always when there’s snow in the forecast and then 99% of the time, it wimps out on us and we just go up and see dirty snow. Or no snow at all. Also known as sunshine at a higher elevation.

So it was that last Friday, it was raining heavily and halfway up our drive on the twisty mountain road, the rain that was loudly splattering on our windshield, turned to snow which gently, quietly settled for a moment before being whisked away by the windshield wipers. We were the ones making the noise at that point, shouting giddily at each other, “We tricked it! We tricked the weather!”

It was around 2am that we settled in the cabin and finally went to bed. We awakened the next morning to a world blanketed in white. I love fresh snow. When it lands in the night, it’s as if it makes nature pause — everything is so still and quiet. Before it’s touched by humans, the pure white, drifting mounds seem to go on and on. It’s so beautiful. This is the first snow we’ve seen this season, so we were reveling in the magical quality of it.

On our way to breakfast, we drove past our neighborhood donkey, she was contentedly under cover munching on her breakfast. The wicker couch on a porch, which not that long ago held a woman basking in the last rays of sunshine while reading a book, is now covered by a blue, plastic tarp. Dogs reveling in the snow were out with their humans who were alternately shoveling and laughing at their pet’s antics. People wearing snowshoes and winter clothing were briskly heading to mountain trails, replacing bicycles that were not long ago being idly pedaled down the road. Instead of people fishing alongside the bridge, birds were standing opportunistically in their place, waiting for the ice to break just enough…

Our favorite restaurant was pleasantly busy. One of the waitresses was just back from maternity leave, and it was so good to see her. We sat at the counter, as we usually do, and partook in the camaraderie that is such a part of the place.

While eating at the counter, the lady next to me took a phone call. In a low, discreet voice, she asked her caller a few questions and then left her seat for a more private spot. I asked her husband if she was a bail bond agent, he gave me an assessing look, and replied in the affirmative.

Knowing I have a magnetism for strangers telling me most anything and everything about themselves, I mentally shrugged and asked him what he did. He replied, “I’m a criminal lawyer, but I also do Federal Marshall work…” and the conversation continued on to discuss his work, his hopes for his future career, the economy, long-time restaurants in Los Angeles, and continued for another 15-20 minutes, when his wife returned to finish her meal, she joined in the conversation.

After we left, Tony said to me, “Did you find out if they’re on LinkedIn? Maybe you should network with them.” I blinked a couple times, laughed, and replied, “Nooooo?” I’m still trying to figure out if Tony thinks we’ll maybe need a bail bond agent and a criminal lawyer in our future?

After making our rounds in town, it was back to the cabin for movies and peaceful afternoon naps. Relaxing and rejuvenating.