Just letting you know

In high school I had a pretty strict curfew. I had to be home before midnight.

However, neither of my parents are night owls. They both pass out around 10, so whenever I got home from being with my friends the house was dark and quiet. I'd park my old, red' 83 Ford Ranger in the garage and had to tip toe by my parents bedroom door to get to my room.

All that was required of me to let them know I was home safe and sound were three authoritative knocks on their closed door. Three knocks, followed by a sleepy, grumbly welcome home were our nightly routines.

Which was why I wasn't really surprised last night when I heard three quick knocks on my bedroom door this morning at 2:30 am.

My sister, her rad husband and their adorable kids spent all night driving from St. Louis to Colorado to see us. We knew they'd be in late and I just couldn't see myself staying up to welcome them to the house and still function for work today. So I went to bed.

And how does my sister let me know that they made to my home safe and sound?

Three knocks.

A bit scattered

Right now my mind is whirring at about a million miles and hour. I wake up and the very next second the brain engages and I'm off.

Which is probably why I walked all the way from my front door to my car without even realizing what was going on with my feet...

...and keep in mind the difference in heel height for these shoes is 1.5 inches!

Shout out

Yesterday I got my October issue of Bon Appetit in the mail and was really excited when I spotted this little blurb on the cover!

I mean, I was REALLY excited!

Hooray for Boulder...foodiest town of 2010. If you read the article I've been to all but 2 of the places the author features and one of the places catered my wedding lunch! Rad. While it is true we don't technically live in Boulder anymore it'll always have a really warm place in my heart.

It's where I fell in love with food, cooking and my man!

180

This weekend we went camping in Golden Gate Canyon State Park. I wanted to get out of the house, the weather was spectacular and the aspens were shimmering gold in every direction.

It was a perfect Colorado camp out conditions.

We got to our site early Friday afternoon, set up and took our first hike. It was glorious to hit the trail. I could feel my lungs struggle with the thinness of the air and my quads felt that welcome burn of uphill mountain hiking.

Sweaty and happy we returned to our site just in time for sunset and foil dinners. I sat in my new camp chair and felt thrilled to be alive and with my man.

Until the screaming started.

The people in the next campsite over had a just-barely-walking little boy who was attempting his first ever camp-out. I really tried to be full of love and charity for our neighbor, and I promise when they were looking I only ever smiled and gave encouraging looks.

But, I have to admit, I was really annoyed.

Instead of the rushing wind through the pines at night the entire place was lit up with the howling of an upset little-boy-banshee. In the morning the sun streamed through the trees and instead of the chirping of birds we were honored to hear the sobs of an inconsolable tot.

As they broke camp by dawn's early light and packed their family back into the Subaru I breathed a sigh of relief. And thought, well, maybe we aren't actually ready to have a kid of our own.

As we drove down the mountains back into town my phone picked up service and I found out that a dear friend had successfully welcomed her own little boy into the world while we were camping. We went over to the hospital to see her little guy and I just fell head over heels for this little guy.

I mean, how can I not want to have a baby when I see this pretty picture....

Scratch that...

Those eyes are making me reconsider...

inside my head

When people come into our house they almost always compliment the color we've picked for the walls in the front room.

(gray squirrel--martha stewart living at home depot)

I look around and say, well it took us 3 tries to get it right and I'm still not 100% sold.

(don't worry babe, I don't want to repaint it again...yet)

And then I tell them that the only color in the whole house that I really truly love is the gray we picked for our bedroom, which you can see from the front room. They usually turn around look at it and look back at me confused and then say, "well, I really like this front room color."

...


So I wonder if maybe my taste is off or something?


It's like when someone who has truly horrible fashion sense compliments your outfit. Is it a welcome compliment or are you secretly a little worried that THIS person thinks what you're wearing is rad?

(analogy courtesy of the ear doctor)


(I'm loving the parenthesis today...can you tell?)

Role model

On Saturday afternoon we went to a friend's birthday party. Well, to be specific, the party was a combined celebration for a girlfriend of mine and her 2 year old daughter.

As we walked up the front steps to their house I realized that the ear doctor and I, having no kids of our own, completely forgot that this type of party usually requires a present brightly wrapped and topped with a huge pink bow. Oops. I'm pretty sure that we were the only adults who forgot. I was just starting to feel really bad about it when my girl friend spied our arrival and gave me the biggest, warmest smile in the world.

And then I realized that it would be totally fine that we forgot a gift for her daughter.

Because she's awesome.


She's the kind of person that when you enter the room you suddenly feel like she's been waiting like a kid on Christmas eve for your arrival. That you are the coolest person at the party and that she just can't wait to sit down next to you and make you laugh.


For the longest time I, narcissistically, thought that I was the only person who felt this way around her. That I actually WAS her favorite person to see and be around. But at this party I realized that she makes all her guests feel this way...special, unique, interesting, and wonderful.

I wish I could channel that kind of warmth as a friend.

Consider me already there

I just heard about this event and you bet your bottom dollar that I'll be there.





Are you kidding me? A classic Disney movie that I am encouraged...nay...EXPECTED to sing along with in public? That has my name written all over it. Granted, Belle isn't my favorite princess in the Disney arsenal...I just couldn't connect with the brunette as well as her more red-headed, aquatic-lovin friend, but I'll still be over the moon for this kind of experience!



It'll finally be a chance to belt out some awesome Disney tunes without the usual sideways stares from strangers...



And, as a bonus, I'm pretty sure that's the week that my sister and 3.5 year old niece will be in town. It doesn't get any better!

Bounty

One of the things I love most about my neighborhood is all the quirky little events that happen. Every time something is happening around these parts the ear doctor and I slap a little sun screen on and hit the pavement.

And I can't believe that I didn't share this latest one with you. It was awesome.

Our neighborhood has it's own little weekly newspaper. Most of the time it's filled with stories about the plethora of marijuana dispensaries and how they are doing (our zip code as the most in all of Colorado!), but every now and then we get a little blurb about something rad that's going down. In the middle of August I heard about the annual largest zucchini contest and I knew I was going to get in on the action.

So I watered

and watered

and watered

On the day of the big weigh in I watched over my entry like a hawk...letting her plump up until the very last second, hoping I'd have a decent showing at the event. 10 minutes before the official cut-off for contest weigh-in I plucked my girl off the vine and headed over the the scale.

As soon as I spied the weigh-in table I knew I didn't have a chance. I mean, look at these beauties people had brought.

The lady in front of me had her two 8 lb ladies in a posh hand-woven basket and I was sure I was outclassed. While my contestant was longer that most in the competition, in the end she just didn't have the girth to bring home the blue ribbon.

Next year I'll start cultivating my lovely entrant earlier in the summer. That way I'll really be able to represent at next year's show-down. And I'm sure I'll love that big winning piece of produce next year, but, I have to be honest; no contestant will be quite as loved as my first year's 4.5 lb little zuke-that-could.

Feeling just outside the cross hairs

This week has been a bit intense for me.

Well, not really for me but for people I love and because I'm so close I feel like I'm in the splash zone.

First. My grandma was taken to the ER over the weekend with some intestinal blockage and gall stones. It seems horribly painful and I know she was nervous about going under the knife, but she did and everything seems to be alright.

Second. While we were sitting at the Orange County airport on Monday waiting to come home I got a message from a close friend asking if we could watch her dog because she was having contractions and might have her baby that night. She's 4 weeks early. Yikes. I know modern medicine is amazing, but bad things still happen to little ones born that early. Luckily nothing's happened yet and their dog is back home with them.

Third. My mom left a voicemail on my phone last night telling me that my sister and her little 18 month old son were shopping at Nordstrom when he fell on the tile and cracked his head open. They rushed him to the ER and he got a bunch of stitches on his perfect little face.

I was starting to feel a little stressed out by association, but then I saw these two faces and decided that if they could take it with a grin so could I.

...Although if I was as stone as little Greggie is in this pic I'd probably have no problem being calm either...