Blogmas Vol. 16

What I Liked About Today - The Sick Day Edition

So I made the hard decision to skip bootcamp today. I really really wanted to not miss any of them but I sound like a dying seal and a crackling fireplace when I breathe so I figured I better give it a rest.

Instead I stayed home all day and tried to rest - but it turns out I'm a work-aholic...when did that happen again?!

So without any further ado, What I liked about my sick day:

• Binge watching NCIS while answering email. I can't lie, I love NCIS and there are about eleventy billion episodes on netflix
• Sweat Pants. Nuff said.
• Addressing these bad boys (they might actually get out before Christmas)

• Getting excited for Christmas - ITS COMING
• Big bowl of pasta for lunch
• Snuggling with Kori!

• The ability to work at home
• Nap-lets (I really wish I had that amazing napping ability that some people have)
• Enjoying Harriet in all her glory
• Fudge leftovers
• Not cooking anything all week
• A reliable day care situation with someone I really love
• The internet (yay last minute christmas shopping!)  

So that's what's going on around these parts - not too much my friends. This weekend is going to be full of cookie baking, present wrapping, and your other general elf like duties. And of course prepping to head down south with all of our stuff and a dog and a baby (why did we do this?!) We're also getting a new couch delivered because why not? Well actually because our big giant couch is just too ginormous for our little cozy house. And really it's time. And we're really trying to make it look like we're not college kids anymore - since apparently we're adults now (The big 3-0 is coming real real soon my friends!)

Sending well wishes and holiday spirit!

Merry Blogmas my friends! 

Blogmas Vol. 8

Kori the Cray!

This one's for my fur-st baby. If you've had he "joy" of meeting our puppy then you know - she's certafiable! Kori was mine and SP's first adventure together. Shortly after we moved in together we decided to start looking for dogs. One day we went to "just" look and came hope with a sweet scared quiet little fur ball. She was afraid of the seats in the car. She was afraid of shadows and leaves and plastic bags. She was afraid of EVERYTHING! We affectionately referred to her as our shelter surprise. With time and love and care she was no longer afraid of everything - just most things! Instead of fear she was - WIRED! She finally was warm loved and well fed and her true personality came out and boy were we surprised. Instead of fear and shaking and quiet and meek - we had crazy bouncy snuggly excitable little fur bean.

She's definitely been a challenge. But she has taught me so much. And the dedication we put into her before we had baby girl trained SP and I on how to work together, on patience, on unconditional love, on poop, and sleepless nights.

And while she still drives me 100% bonkers sometimes - I most definitely wouldn't be my best me without her! She has listened to me when I was scared, she's snuggled away my tears thousands of times, and made me laugh until I cried happy tears!

And even though she hates almost all people on earth she has been nothing but fabulous with baby girl. She cries when baby girl is "stuck" in the crib, she hangs out with her on the floor, she licks her snot away, and cleans up all baby girl's leftovers! 

We love you crazy baby dog! Even if you're a punk face sometimes! Muah!

Do you like how the tree is coming out of her head?!
That's how you know she's really part of the fam :) Signature move!

Merry Blogmas Friends!

It's the End of the World as We Know It

Well it is the eve of the end of the world (again) and while I'm about 99.9% sure I'll be sitting in exactly the same place again tomorrow night just in case the crazy person (mis) interpreting the mayan calendar was actually correct I thought I'd say my goodbyes ;)

Just kidding.  Sort of.

You know I'm a sucker for a good reflection moment.  Because this life is good and we lose that in the tragedy and details and hardship of the everyday.  But really.  It's pretty dang good.

On Monday night after working (probably not enough, but eh) we frantically prepared to head down south.  It was so anti-sarah super prep it was a little crazy.  Normally I'm packing and cleaning a week ahead of departure day but this year it just snuck up on me and all of it had to happen the night before.  And SP reminded me that it didn't matter.  That sometimes you pack at night and it's ok.  And you're not going to Nepal so anything you forget can be bought...at rite aid...right down the street.

We took off on Tuesday morning bright(ish) and early(ish) and spent a good 8 hrs on the 5 heading south.  It was a boring drive but I can't imagine a better person to spend it with.  SP makes me laugh, she feeds me on regular intervals and Kori provides the entertainment value.  Long drive but it was good.  

And we made it.

San Diego, my home(ish) town, is beautiful as ever.  The sunshine is so glorious I can't even describe how it changes my heart and my lightness.  This city is full of beauty.  A canyon or a beach around every corner. You really can't beat it. And the fact that my fantastic parents are here makes it full of love and happiness. It's the perfect place for the world to end really.

We've spent the last 2 days cooking and eating and spending time together.  We watched a couple of movies (Home Alone is still the best christmas movie ever I don't care what anybody says), we went out and saw the sunshine and the water, and a hilarious art installation at UCSD...It's been so fabulous.  And I can't believe that I have a few more days of this leisurely sunny family time ahead of me (assuming of course that the world does in fact continue on after tomorrow...)

So whether or not the world ends tomorrow enjoy the sunshine and hug your family tight.  We should pretend every tomorrow is the last one...maybe our days (ironically) would be a little bit lighter.

And now a few pictures from the (maybe) end of my days...

Oh the 5 in all your boring glory!

Oh the sunshine, the never ending sunshine

Some amazing parental units :) And they are re-doing their back yard for all the future grandbabies ;)

Fallen Star art installation @ UCSD

My loves.  Now & Forever...end of the world or not!

Just for Funsies Friday!

Alternate titles for this post:

Study in Kori's Face

or

Learning how to use my new camera

 Ooops somebody else's face slipped in there (I'm going to be in trouble for that one!)

Ain't she just the cutest little subject.  I'm obsessed.  Just wait till I have a baby - 9billion pictures here I come!  I'm loving this new camera (Nikon One) even though I definitely have no clue how to use all the settings (way way past my abilities) thank god it has an automatic setting for the time being...

Hope everybody has fabulous weekend plans.  Ours include, wedding stuff, wedding stuff, wedding stuff...oh and some wedding stuff.

BESOS!

Chinese Food Easter

  Kori "Celebrating" Easter

I'm a big holiday buff.  Mostly I love them (eh on v-day but we won't go THERE again) Give me some adorable deco and a reason to try new foods and I'm down for learning about traditions and cultures, religions and events.  Diwali?  Yes.  Kwanaza sure. Christmas (obvs) Passover? you betcha.  

Weirdly Easter has never been that big of a deal to me in terms of the celebratory portion.  I understand fully (and appreciate) the deep religious significance behind the holiday for Christians (having grown up "An Easter Peoples" - a Catholic for those of you who didn't spend 20 years of your life on a VERY hard pew)  I guess I'm not into pastels?  And ham is great and all but I don't need a holiday for an excuse to have some highly salted meats.  Easter brings back happy childhood memories of course...but it's not the same as other holidays for me.  Easter doesn't have the same build up.  (Or maybe it doesn't have the same highly commercialized status as Christmas and I really am just a shmuck...mmmmm...)  I never decorate.  We never do anything huge on the day.  In fact it was often a sunday we stayed away from church (my mom wasn't into crowds, and I've gained that fun genetic trait and multiplied it by 1million...clausterphobia...lets all say it together now)

But now I've inherited another family's holiday traditions on top of my family's somewhat non traditional views on easter (except for all those holiday celebrating shut ins of course)  So we spent Saturday with SP's family.  And the nature of having 2 infants, 6 kids, 2 dogs, and 10 adults means there's a little more hubbub surrounding all holidays, even ones that I haven't always put a lot of stock in.

As a heads up I took ZERO pictures, my hands were full of chubby baby cheeks, so you will have to use your imagination.  Let me tell you what.  I'm going to have to have a steady stream of toddlers in my life because they make every event about a millionty times better.  There was a delicious dinner full of sunshine and rag ball and duck duck goose.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Sun shinning full of laughter and hilarious things coming out of the mouths of babes.  Like one little girl cousin saying to the other little girl cousin "we're just ADORABLE aren't we?!" or the exclamation upon opening a "special" egg with $1.00 in it "HOLY POPCORN!"  It was very relaxing (minus Kori still trying to nip and herd small children, um yeah, we'll be calling the dog whisperer again soon).  All in all a nice day with (a lot) of happy people.

So to continue the Easter festivities on Sunday we...wait for it... did nothing.  Almost literally. Although I did wake SP up at DAWN to go to church with me.  It was still dark. And maybe the internet said mass was at 7:00am when in fact it was at 7:30 (oopsie shmoopsie)  But we made it.  We looked nice. And neither of us was smited.  Smote? Smitten...I don't know.  But there was no lightening in our general area.  Then we went out to brunch and stuffed ourselves full of eggs and tea and french toast and it was everything I dreamed Easter brunch should be - tons of food and almost nobody awake yet!  Easter afternoon was filled with one good bestie who joined us for a truck load of Chinese food and a disturbing number of chocolate eggs.  We literally laid on the couch, watching episodes of Shahs of Sunset, Chopped, and many other terribly trashy television shows.  If Gluttony and Sloth don't scream Easter then, really, I don't know what does!

All in all it was beautiful and slow and covered in sunshine. Practically perfect in every way.  (And I'm holding onto that sunshine inside of me as long as I can because the forecast says rain for the next 5 days...blegh)  But you know what? This Easter, it was one for the books.  Not because it was something extraordinarily out of the ordinary but because it left me feeling brighter then before.  Life really surprises you sometimes.  I'll just leave you with that tidbit to roll around in your mouth for awhile.

And now for your viewing pleasure...what my dog really thinks of me:

Just another piece of furniture in her life...

Hope your holidays (and your everydays!) are treating you well!

Sunshine Besos!

Vegan Superbowl and cooking lessons from the Jetsons

Ok so crockpots are really cool.  You throw a bunch of ingredients in it in the morning (or the night before d-day) you put it on low, you leave for work, you come home and there is really rad food waiting for you?!  WHAT?!  Its like magic.  Or the Jetsons.  Or something equally as cool.  Why was I not introduced to the joys of le crockpot earlier?  Probably because my mom made actual real homecooked meals (that were generally good - except those corn fritters mom, I still hate those) and therefore didn't cop out to the crock pot.  But guess what?  I'm lazy, and I work a lot, and when I get home my woman (esmerelda, the crockpot) better have a nice meal ready for me - and oh does she ever.  Pork stew, chili, soup...the goodness abounds.

I guess there are a few downsides to esmerelda - for one thing she seems to only make hot foods.  Which is not nearly as enjoyable when its 102 degrees outside, and I suppose there is the small possibility of fire, or that she creates something super NOT tasty (like that one time I accidentally made a meteorite for dinner…), but so far she has become my newest most favoritest companion (sorry SP...)

Here is what my sisterwife is makin today…(Korean chicken!)

This weekend however was the weekend of produce.  By the bushel.  I don't even know how much a bushel even is... but I'm guessing its a LOT.  (Please note: 1 US bushel = 35.239072 liters thank you google calculator)

Bestie-westy came to town today.  And since she (and her kooky sister) have gone vegan on me it was like produce palooza up in this joint.  Besides the fact that SP and I already consume a disturbing amount of produce, with a vegan in the house our refrigerator was exploding at the seems with kooky fruits, veggies, vegan sauces and dressings.  And let me tell you something.  It was THE BOMB. 

And since it was the superbowl (which apparently real Uh-merican’s must watch) we had vegan superbowl funs (aka my coffee table has exploded with produce).  It was fantastic and we dvr’d it and got our American-ness revoked because we fast forwarded most of the commercials and portions of the game (so sue me).

Not even the half of it...

Dorks studying during the supah bowl....

 Kori loves bestie!

But this is what she REALLY thinks of the superbowl

So in review.  Football is dumb.  Crockpots and produce are awesome.  However I ain’t going vegan any time soon  (I still love you cheese!)  and we all now know how much a bushel is.

Peace out homies!

Puppy lovin and it feels so good

My O.F. (other family) got a puppy last weekend.  It was a semi-spontaneous decision and they are now enjoying (suffering?) the joys of a 7-8wk old puppy.  They have been thrust back into life with a newborn and its treating them a little harshly so please send them your good thoughts and loves and prayers.  Hopefully they can give little Chief a very good and happy life.  

The Chief was rescued by a fire department, and they are his namesake.  He was found duct taped inside a box.  That story alone broke my heart.  How can people be so cruel to these beautiful fur babies?

I can't imagine having a puppy right now.  Peeing and pooping everywhere and waking up every 4 hours...

 But oh, THAT FACE!

I love you O.F.  I'm here to puppysit whenever you can't take it anymore!

MuAH!