Tuesday, November 26, 2013

half way

Last weekend I spent the entire 1.5 hours of my baby's afternoon nap raking leaves and pulling out old dead marigolds from the front yard.

I worked so hard and so fast with that rake that I got a huge blister on the inside of my left thumb...a true gardener's injury.

Just as all the leaves were all piled up into two huge piles, one in the middle of the sidewalk in front of our house and the other in the gutter, two things happened:

First, I realized that I didn't have any fancy paper yard-waste bags. The idea of putting perfectly compostable yard waste into PLASTIC BAGS to then send to a landfill shook this Pacific Northwest native, birkenstock wearing girl to her very core. I was frozen with indecision over what to do with my yardwaste. No bags, no wheel barrow, no truck....gah!


Second, Sam started screaming from inside the house.


Result? The leaves sit there in their piles...one in the middle of the sidewalk...a week and a half later...



Every time I walk into my house now I have to step over the pile and cringe at my own ineptitude of homeownership.


To make matters worse, the other morning I hid in my house behind my IKEA shears and watched as a mother had to teach her little kindergartener daughter how to jump over the rotting pile. The little girl didn't to step in the pile (full disclosure...there was also a very old, mushy, stinky pumpkin in the mass), so mom had to do a 1-2-3 jump to clear the mess.

Why can't I just FINISH something?


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

CA adventure

Yesterday the ear doctor presented some of his research at a conference in San Deigo. Sammy boy and I tagged along and had a blast. He had his first Disneyland experience...
 (before I had Sam I never realized how cute I think little tongues are...I can't get enough of his!)


Rode the carosel at Balboa park...which is the fastest one I've ever seen. The animals at the outside get up to 13 mph! I have about 100 very blurry pictures of these two whizzing by.


Rode the miniature train just outside the zoo


Took in the view of the bay from point Loma


My son is not a hunchback...I stick his pacifier down the back of his shirt when we are in public so it doesn't drag on everything.

It was a wonderful trip!

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Coincident

My grandma's funeral and my son's first birthday party were scheduled on the same day...at the same time! Last Saturday at 11 am.

So strange to mix such different emotional milestones. 

As a result, Sam had his party cancelled, because as important as a first birthday is, a funeral tops it.


My in-laws were awesome and offered to watch the baby all day so we could be there to honor grandma. The ear doctor and I were the first to arrive at the funeral home so when I rounded the room and saw her laid out in per perfectly pink casket I was a little taken aback. There she was...my grandma. The woman whose face light up when she showed me the animatronic singing 3 foot tall Santa who shook his hips while he sang. The woman who started a family water fight in her back yard. The woman who bought the first dinner for my brand new husband and I after our honeymoon. The woman who said that she felt like a princess when we bought her a banana pudding for dessert. My grandma.

My dad's eulogy was beautiful. As I sat on the front row and listened to my dad talk about his gratitude for having wonderful parents who taught him well and raised him right I held my little sister's hand. The two of us are so lucky to be part of a legacy of good parents who love their children.

And I hope I can continue that legacy to my little stinker. I hope that he realizes that it's more important to be with family and to show them you care than having a spectacular birthday party.