26

That is how old I am today. I hope nobody ever asks my age again. Almost 30?! That's not possible. I'm having a hard time because, as I recently realized, being young has always been part of my identity. I was the youngest child, well...until I was 12. I was Suzie's youngest daughter, or Simone and Cirila's little sister. Now that little sister is finding white hairs. Very disturbing. I'm just grateful for those 4 months that make Brian older than me and that he too has 3 white hairs.

It's not all so bad, though. The sweet thing found some of his martial arts students to watch Eli while he took me to a fancy Swiss restaurant in Park City. The drive was picturesque through the canyon with trees delicately frosted and the snow a shade of pink from the sun setting behind us. At Adolf's we splurged on veal and a rack of lamb. Over dessert we realized that memories like that were the best present, since neither of us could remember what we had gotten the year before.

He even made me an almost flourless chocolate cake (actually I insist on that, a from scratch cake shows way more love than something from a box or store [unless its a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, of course]).

I've also decided to copy the tradition of taking a birthday portrait. No frills or cheezy smiles. It will be fun to see how we all change from year to year.

Thank you for the birthday wishes everyone.

Potty Training: Supervision Recommended

I've realized that the boy will usually do his business on his kid potty if he has no diaper on. The last few mornings I leave him diaperless until he poops, as much as I love scrubbing them out of his diapers. This morning he was being surprisingly unclingy, so I decided to get some sewing done. A little while later he ran in and tapped me on the arm with the fish net, a very smelly one, and pointed to the direction of his potty. He had been doing a little fishing.

Upon previewing, I decided to remove the picture.

Only I Would Dream Of Diapers

Last week I had a dream. We were adopting a blonde one year old boy and I suddenly had to make more cloth diapers. While asleep I must have remembered that I still have a little over two yards of the more expensive inner lining fabric.
Yesterday, in real life, I ordered almost 4 yards of the outer, water-proof fabric online so I could get going ASAP. Right now I just finished tracing patterns onto the liner, thinking I would get around 14 diapers out of it. As my frugal self celebrates, my lazy self cringes at the fact that I actually got 20!
Brian won't like this either. When I have a project on my mind, I work like a maniac until its done and he gets no attention. I'm hoping he's just glad I'm not one of those people that has a bunch of unfinished projects laying around. I can't just let pricey fabric lay around when it could be in diaper form, keeping me from doing laundry as often. I'm doing it on my own this time. Somehow, sewing two blankets has given me confidence, which I'm sure will be smashed.

5 Years Ago Today

Brian and I met in an astronomy class. It was my first semester back after taking a break to work a couple of jobs to save money and his first semester back after the mish. I was a bit late after coming straight from my first day working at the BYU Bookstore and getting lost in the ESC. I quickly chose my seat between two boys, feeling slightly flirtatious. Brian would have you note that I was more interested in the other guy, but that doesn't matter in the scheme of things. It could have been fate or coincidence that I decided to take Geology and Astronomy rather than the dreaded Physical Science to fulfill requirements and that Brian had just barely decided to add the class. Either way, there we sat.

His first words to me were, "This guy's great already" speaking of our goofy professor that was introducing us to his daily jokes he called Feghoots. All semester Brian was the one laughing loudest at the cheezy end-of-class-puns, followed by self-consciously asking why I wasn't laughing. We walked out of class together on the first day and he said good-bye with a firm, missionary handshake. After that we took turns sitting next to each other.

It took him almost two weeks to finally ask me out, during which he was busy taking out lots of other girls, as I later found out. As we walked out of class that second Friday he kept talking to me as I tried to hurry to my next class. The brave boy asked me out and we arranged a date for Saturday, the next day. I was so excited I stopped at a computer kiosk to email my roommate Anna before my class.

He got to my apartment early, cute. At his apartment his roommate helped him decide to take me rock climbing and after Brian found a Japanese place for dinner. Apparently chop-sticks were a test, which I passed. Thanks for teaching me mom.
And I finally got to know why an Asian boy had the last name Corrales, which I noticed him put down on the roll every day.

Wow, what a memory I have. I should email Prof. Clark, I think he said he gets a bonus for every married couple that meets in his class.

Here we are a couple months later.

Grandma's House

40 years ago it was quite a jump in price for my grandparents to move from Bakersfield to Grandpa's home town of Santa Barbara, but they made the sacrifice and many generations have benefited. It makes it pretty easy to make the long journey when you're going to where the temperature never goes below 40 or above 75 and the beach is a couple of minutes away. People care about their community and it must have the highest concentration of Prius' anywhere. I could go on, but, to convince you quickly,I figure if its Oprah's favorite place, it has to be good.

Aside from the town itself, I love my grandma's house. It scared Brian on our house-hunt last year to learn that I prefer old houses that tend to come with character and maintenance. Grandma's still has the original windows with little door knobs that swing the window out. Her hardwood floors even have the little wooden pegs for nails in each slat. My favorite indoor feature is for sure the stove. I can only dream of having a Western Holly like hers. Classic. It has a griddle in the middle, perfect for toast and quesadillas. And Brian says my only reason for wanting a gas range is to warm up tortillas right on the burner. Good enough reason, I say.

Outside, my grandma's garden is obviously the best. With mild temperatures, lots of trees don't even lose their leaves in the winter. Flowers keep blooming. The summer I lived with her I soaked up all I could about plants and went with to her gardening club, touring impressive gardens in the area. No matter the season when my mom would take us on the 6 hour journey down to grandma's there was some fruit ready to eat from her trees. Grapefruit, pomegranate, guava, orange, apple, avocado, which I was sad to learn has been replaced by persimmon. Here are some highlights, in the middle of winter, mind you:

Succulents are my favorite and she has many of those. Someday, I will have a garden filled with the ones that can survive around here. If I can find a time when the weather is just right, maybe she'll come out and visit. That perfect climate makes Santa Barbara residents quite wimpy, I've learned.

I had to connive to get this picture of grandma smiling, she had to think I was just taking a picture of the boys who are now photoshopped out. Hope she doesn't kill me.

When In Santa Barbara

There are some things a person must do. After seeing family, my next priority is Pollo Norteno. It must be authentic if I'm the only (half) Gringo there. Grilled chicken, beans, fresh salsa, corn tortillas, what else can a person want? For Brian, when by the coast, he only wants fish, which he had his fair share of in the form of fish-n-chips, Thai squid, and sushi. But, in case your world doesn't revolve around food, there are always the classics: the beach and the mission.

The Mission

I actually did a report on it in my American Art History Class my last year of college, don't be surprised that no information is coming to mind except that the local Native Americans, the Chumash, built it after being converted. For the first time I did more than admire the facade and Christmas nativity outside. We ventured inside the courtyard and chapel.


Despite all the other camera-toting tourists posing for pictures, I felt strange taking any in the chapel with people worshiping behind us in the pews.

The Beach

We went to Shoreline beach and Eli surprised us by jumping out of my arms to run around, different from Oregon, where he demanded to be held. It helped that the sand was firm and the sea was calm and quiet. Plus it was low tide and there were lots rocks to climb and critters to find.

On another day we went to the warf to see about tours and ended up walking along the jetty to see the pelicans.
Other than that I was content staying at grandma's. Brian's more for having a schedule full of fun events planned. Poor guy married a home body. I'm so boring I was pleased to sleep through New Year's, grateful no loud celebrations woke me up.

Livin' It Up In Las Vegas...With A 2 Year Old

In anticipation, Brian cheerfully started packing us the night before we were to leave my grandma's. Excited for a vacation from our vacation, I guess. Our goal was Eli-friendly, inexpensive fun while we were there. Although no Las Vegas hotel advertised kid-friendliness on their website, I did find a site that named a few. We stayed at Excalibur, which has a huge arcade on the bottom floor, was half the price the day after New Year's, and is next to (and connected by a monorail to) Mandalay Bay and it's aquarium. Brian was happy he paid the extra $5 for some coupons at check in. They ended up providing half the fun.

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Eli finally decided to take a nap in line and missed most of the fish that we went to see for him. Our favorite were the sea turtles and the tank with a tunnel you can walk through.

Tournament of Kings

With our 2 for 1 coupon we went to go see the nights of the round table compete and battle the enemy while we ate Cornish hens and broccoli with our hands. The horsemanship and acrobatics were amazing, although I am still worried I lost some hearing while covering Eli's ears.

Not At The Bar

Wanting to take advantage of a drink coupon, Brian got a virgin dacari. The bar tender thought we were crazy, first for our drink choice, then when he had to tell us that Eli couldn't sit up at the bar. Then the boy squawked because he wanted some of dad's drink. We didn't know if we take the cup to our room since it was glass and thought people would call the police if they saw us giving him a drink in plain view. They didn't.

The View

Eli and I got to know our room and its view since we were up too early for any kid attractions to be open and Brian had left us for some pampering. He found it appropriate since his muscles were sore from an intense training with Master Jang in Santa Barbara. It was good to have some down time, even if I wasn't with Brian for his Swedish massage, sauna, and hot tub excursion. I wasn't surprised when he said he wanted to make this a yearly trip.