This weekend I made 100 sugar cookies. I am broken and tired but they are finished. Every year I make the same cookies and every year I swear I won’t do it again because they are so much work. However, sometime around the 20th of December I find myself knee deep in flour and sugar and home made icing.

The recipe I use is from Mrs. Fields cookie cook book, and it is very simple. I just quadruple the ingredients and then add some powdered sugar frosting. This year I used powdered sugar to roll the dough out, which was a GREAT new trick because the dough doesn’t get hard with added flour and the cookies are a little sweeter! Below is what they look like before frosting:

And here is the final product:

I bought Christmas themed Chinese food boxes and put about 6-8 cookies in each box and attached a bow. I then delivered my little goodies to my fellow employees. Yeah me!

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the boys Christmas pageant, whereby about 35 toddlers re-enact the nativity scene, complete with a fake baby Jesus. It was more hilarious than words can describe but the pictures will give you some idea of the fun had by all.

On the way to school the morning of the pageant, as Isaac was preparing for his role as one of the 3 Kings, he was more pensive than usual. I could tell he was really thinking about something so I asked him what was going on in his little noggin that had him so serious. He said he was thinking about babies. It took me a while but I realized that the whole nativity scene thing had him rather focused on baby Jesus, thus he was “thinking about babies.”

The following conversation ensued:

Me: What babies are you thinking about?
Isaac: I was thinking about where babies come from.
Me:Hmmm. (in my head, HOLY CRAP COME UP WITH SOMETHING CLEVER NOW!!!)
Isaac: Where do Mommies come from?
Me: Girls become mommies when they have babies.
Isaac: But how do they get the babies?
Me: They are in their bellies and then they come out.
Isaac: Oh I know what happens!
Me: (oh crap, here we go)
Isaac: The babies are in space and God catches them up and then throws them to earth and into the mommies bellies. Yeah! That’s it, that is how it happens.
Me: Wow Isaac, you are so smart because that is EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS!

Clearly this kid is going to outwit me very soon…actually who am I kidding? I think he is smarter than me now. I’ve decided he should have been delivered with an instruction manual and education requirements. His brother however, just needed a helmet and some boxing gloves.

Well, as my last post indicated, we got our tree last night. It wasn’t without a bit of stress and the usual family calamity that I’ve grown so accustomed to. You see, when we moved last June, a good portion of our stuff went in to storage. Well the Christmas stuff, the stuff I spent years collecting and hundreds of dollars amassing, is at the very back of the storage unit. Basically it is unreachable.

So, I had to head to Target to pick up a few decorations and some lights so that we may have some semblance of Christmas this year. By the time I got to Target and saw all of the people, I was much more “Bah Humbug” than I was “Jingle Bells!” In fact, I really just wanted to cancel Christmas this year.

Luckily, by the time we got to the tree lot, my mood had changed and we managed to have some fun. Isaac was so excited to pick a tree and Joshua was just excited to be on an adventure so their collective merriment made up for my utter lack of holiday cheer. We managed to snap a few cute pictures of the event for your viewing.

In the end, the tree was decorated, the lights were hung and Mariah Carey’s Christmas album was ringing throughout the halls. Happy Holidays!

Sweet

I was wearing a really great dress. My hair turned out perfect and I had on my best shoes, the ones so dainty and sparkly that my feet look like little presents. We walked in and I scanned the crowd, no one familiar. I had my incredibly handsome husband by my side, his new tuxedo fitted to perfection. I had already decided we were the best dressed couple there. However, with all the money in this room, it was unlikely that we were really the best dressed, just the most current. In this county, money seems hopelessly lost on the old and tasteless. Deep inside, even though I felt like I looked good, I was insecure that I didn’t know anyone and thinking maybe someone could see in my eyes that I felt out of place in this opulent ballroom, tucked in one of the most beautiful resorts in the country. I honestly felt more aligned with the wait staff than our dinner guests, mostly because in the fiscal pyramid, I am.

Small talk with a stranger visiting our table led to a realization that a person sitting as his table was someone I had gone to school with years before. Someone who had been the most popular boy - wealthy, good looking and mostly cruel. Growing up in this area, I was different. We didn’t have the money or the privilege of our fellow residents, just good fortune. It didn’t help that I had a HORRIBLE maiden name - one that would always cause a snicker or a jeer. This last name was the bane of my junior high existence. 

This boy, the one I have just been told is only a few tables away, was the king of taunting. He alone could reduce me to tears and make me feel like I was a total nerd and outcast. As I took this strangers hand, by his insistence this lovely reunion occur, I was mortified. I couldn’t believe that after 15 years I would see him again, would I be reduced the 12 year old with a ugly perm and no sense of self?

As he turned around, time stopped. It was a moment I will never forget. It wasn’t that he looked bad, he doesn’t. It is just that time has been friendlier to the girl with the bad hair and silly last name, than the privileged boy with the sharp tongue. In a flash, his eyes registered who I was and time, all those years, condensed into minutes as I stood in front of him. He was pleasant, he had a lovely pregnant wife and she quickly made the moment less awkward. I told him my new last name and we both laughed a little about my old one.

A few moments later as I walked away with my head held high, thinking if the whole night was for that tiny moment, it was worth it. There is nothing quite as satisfying as shocking someone by being more than they expected.

 *UPDATE* Follow this link, and at about 1min in, you will see a dark haired girl and a tall boy walk past the cameras….guess who?

Sucked In

I am a reader. In high school, I could put away about 50 books a year. I read everything from John Grisham to Danielle Steele. I would read to escape, not from a horrible life but from the reality of being a teenager in a small town.  I plowed through books, sometimes never really reading the fine print, just absorbing the basic story and then moving on to the next title. However, there was one author I savored, Ann Rice. I love me some vampire drama. Which makes no sense because I am a total chicken who can’t stand scary movies and avoid dark places like I avoid decaf coffee (seriously what is the point?). I just loved the intricacy and totality of Ann’s storytelling. She pulled me into a world I couldn’t comprehend and for the duration of the novel, I called it home.

As I got to college, I had less time for pleasure reading, plus I realized most of my reading had turned to that of the romance nature. It wasn’t that I thought romance novels were bad for me but I realized they were skewing my expectations on dating. I probably was not going to have my clothes torn off in a fit of passion, whilst riding a gondola in turn of the century Venice. Nor was I likely to find myself sold into marriage in the 1800’s to a man that seemed gruff but turned out to be the most sensitive lover for which a woman could ask. So, I mainly put aside fiction reading and turned to humor and biographies.

In conversation a few months back with a friend (Hi Zoe!) I was told about the Twighlight series.  I put off the purchase until today. I knew that I would love the books and my social life would suffer because of it, as I called off girls’ night for night with the “undead”. So, as I begin this new series, I apologize ahead of time if my writing slacks off but just blame it on me being sucked in.

For those that come here just for the pictures, this post is for you. Below are pic’s from Halloween and the “pet parade” we went to last week in honor of Halloween. People really like their dogs around here. Enjoy!

My house sits on a hill. It gives me a perfect view into the house across the street, especially at night. I guess this could sound weird but really it isn’t.

The couple across the street have been married for more than 50 years. They are both in their late seventies and have a bevy of great grandchildren. I don’t know much more about them than these few facts. However, the view I have of their lives, makes me feel like I know them well.

Our neighborhood is dark at night - Carmel has no streetlights. So, when I am in the kitchen cleaning up after the kids are in bed, I can see the woman across the street cleaning her own kitchen. Sometimes she wears an apron, sometimes she has an old housecoat on. She spends a good portion of her time in the kitchen and I wonder what she cooks. I wonder if she has the recipes memorized, or if they were handed down from her mother. I see something through my kitchen window that transports me to another time. A time when a woman was first a girl, then a wife, then a mother and always a caretaker. Today’s roles are more complicated, or at least we’ve made them so.

Their days are scheduled. They stick to a pattern of activity, no doubt out of tradition. The husband still goes to work every morning and returns promptly at 5 p.m. every day. They eat dinner and then drive to the high school where they slowly walk the track, hand in hand. I know because I have passed them many times on my runs. When I see them, I want to barrel past the awkwardness and ask them how they manage to look so content, so in love after all of these years. There must be a secret, a path.

Often when I see the couple, I am filled with wonder. In today’s age, it seems as though marriages don’t last and people move around many times before settling down. Yet here is this couple, married for an eternity and living the quintessential American dream. I wish I could ask her what it is like to move through all of life’s stages. What it was like to cook a meal for a new husband, a new baby, a new grandchild, a great grandchild. What perspective she must have.

As the daylight hours have waned lately, I am up sometimes before sunrise with the kids. This of course once again, offers me a view into the life across the street. As I stumble to the refrigerator to get milk for Joshua, I see her. She is always drinking her coffee and reading the paper. He is by her side and it looks as though they move in sync without knowledge of it. Even in my sleepy haze, whereby I wonder if this stage of having young children will ever pass, I am pulled into reality that life goes by quickly. One day, I will be sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper (albeit the online version), passing Kevin the coffee before he even asks for it. Wondering, where all the years went.

Today is the husband’s 31st birthday. On this lovely day, I would love to tell the Internet stories of how when I first met my husband he told me he was older than he was in order to impress me. I would also love to share how it was his OWN MOTHER who ratted him out. But that would be embarrassing so I won’t tell that story. I promise.

So instead, I just wanted to give a little shout out to my best friend, my partner in crime and my baby daddy! Happy Birthday Lobster!

Okay so a while back I asked y’all about your thoughts on the full Adobe Photoshop suite vs. Photoshop Elements. Due to OVERWHELMING feedback, or NONE AT ALL!!!!! I went with Elements. Here is a pic of my hubby’s tatoo that I played with…

Cool, eh? There is so much to learn and I am just getting started but it sure is fun! Here are a few silly shots of the hooligans tonight at bathtime also…

I really love taking pictures, I just wish my subjects would sit still long enough to get a decent shot!

Yesterday the Hubb’s and I went to Monterey with a long list of things to accomplish. The most important of which was to find him some transitional housing. He starts work on the 19th of this month and I don’t anticipate the family being able to move until July/August. So, he needed a 2 month sublet.

I’ll admit I was a little leery of this process. As many of you know, Monterey is somewhat of a college town and there are a lot of co-eds looking for roommates. Somehow I just couldn’t stomach the idea of my husband living with a 20 year old hottie whilst I was at home working full time and taking care of our children. Can’t you just hear the phone calls:

Him: Hey honey, Trixie and I are going out for pizza and beer! What are you doing?

Me (exasperated): Um, cleaning up smashed peas off of the floor from dinner.

Him: Bummer, well after dinner we are going to the beach so I will probably be home too late to call.

This wasn’t working for me.

So, obviously I was hesitant as we approached this process. I will spoil the ending by saying that he found a PERFECT place to live yesterday and it is with a girl. I know, I know. Not to fear, she is wonderful and fully trustworthy so all is well.

However, the best part of this whole story is the middle. The middle is where we meet Geri the Gypsy…

Kevin and I pull up to this huge house in a beautiful new neighborhood in Seaside and we are pretty sure that he should live here. It is super close to his work, the neighborhood is really nice and it is affordable. We walk up to the door and knock. As she opens the door the “jingling” meets me first. She has earrings on that are like wind chimes and with every tiny movement the wind section of an orchestra plays wildly. Next up is the accent, completely indeterminable. Is that German? Polish? Hell, is it Norwegian? Do I even know what a Norwegian accent sounds like? Nonetheless the accent is priceless as every word she says is backed up by the musical occurring on her neck.

Alright, earrings and accent aside, Geri is very friendly and invites us in. Kevin is already wanting to run for the hills but I sense a really good blog post so I scramble through the front door hoping for some good material and….oh did I get it. As Geri gestures for us to take off our shoes before entering, I am struck by the scarcity of the house, very little furniture but a lot of Asian inspired nick nacks (think Buddha statues). As I look a little closer at Geri I realize she is wearing a really bad wig. All of her “hair” is piled on top her head and it is multi-colored. Nothing is natural about the way this wig hovers about her head like a plane approaching the strip. Next I  notice that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake of purple eyeshadow has struck her deep set brown eyes. The make-up is remniscient of a MAC counter application gone awry. Terribly awry. 

Geri invites us up to the room that Kevin would be inhabiting. As I follow the jingling upstairs I am trying so hard to remember every detail because it so unbelievable.

She has fashioned a divider wall around the bathroom and bedroom so it gives the appearance of privacy from the rest of the house. As we enter the bedroom it is obvious that someone else is currently living there. She says that “Mohinder is away right now.” I inquire as to why Mohinder is vacating the premise and how long he had lived there. She stares at her feet for a moment and then says that he gave his two week notice two weeks after moving in. Curious. Geri explains that Mohinder’s religion does not permit animals inside the home and her cats are indoors at night, making this arrangement a deal breaker. Hmmm….I wonder if Mohinder would tell the same story?

Geri then shows Kevin the refrigerator in the closet and offers to buy him a microwave to accompany it. She says she can put it in the bathroom on the counter if he prefers. I try very hard to hold myself together at this moment. Knowing Kevin’s germ phobia, the thought of him heating up his “hot pocket” in the bathroom after a shower is very comical to me.  I can see the disgust curl at the corners of Kevin’s mouth and inwardly I am dying to laugh out loud at this thought. Geri explains that this room does not come with “kitchen privileges”, hence the microwave in the bathroom. Do I even want to know what is in her kitchen that it cannot be shared?

Geri asks how many nights Kevin will be staying for durring the week. He says only three because he wants to spend as much time with his family as possible. Then she looks at me and says “well, if I had someone to come home to that looked like you I would be in a hurry as well.”

WOW. Nervous laughter, “well thank you” I say and look down. She says, “No really, you are just gorgeous.” Silence falls between the three of us like a blanket. I can hear crickets. Now the tables have turned and Kevin is looking at me with glee in his eyes, knowing that this has just become as weird for me as it is for him.

So Geri then proceeds to tell Kevin that he must check out the bed. It has a two inch temperpediac topper! And she can buy new sheets! Mind you, Mohinder’s sheets and clothes are piled on top of the bed. Kevin can’t think of a reason quick enough as to why he can not in fact sit on the bed, so he does. Once again we are both trying not to loose it at this point. Then Geri wants me to sit on the bed. I start looking for camera’s and wondering if craiglist had mixed up the ad sections. Should this have been listed under “looking for weird sexual encounter involving 60 year old gypsy?”

After the bed sitting incident we move quickly out of the room as I make small talk with Geri. What does she do? Is she married? Why the Asian themed decor? The answers are priceless. She is into feng shui and  she was reincarnated from a previous life in Asia (well, she exclaims in the unknown accent, “we all were but that is a different story, right?” Right.) She is married to Steve, whose name she later recalls as “Al”. Later she isn’t even married to Al (aka Steve) but he is her partner. Also she is a media buyer and she does different kinds of “therapies.” I couldn’t bring myself to ask a follow up question on that one.

As she talks and I take all of this in, I am struck for the first time by what she is wearing. I never realized how revealing her top is because I never made it past the wind section and eyeshadow earthquake. She is easily and 42 FF and all of 5 feet tall. She has on a flowery hippie type skirt and has a purple low cut shirt tucked into the skirt. She has an ankle bracelet that is competing wildly for attention against the earrings. She is priceless.

Kevin is, at this point, in a hurry to get out of this episode of “strange roomate encounters.” We say that we will be in touch and we exit gracefully. As we get in the car we are both struck by the oddity of the situation we were just in.

The best part about the whole thing was that we witnessed it together. Neither of us would have ever been able to explain it quite like it was to the other. Believe me, 20 years from now all I will have to say to Kevin is, “hey remember Geri?” and he will know exactly what I am talking about.

I got this pic on the beach in Carmel. I know you can’t really see his face, but I know him well enough to know what he was thinking as his feet pushed into the sand.

Kevin: Dude you only have like 4 minutes left of HD on your DVR!

Josh: I know, this is stressing me out.

Kevin: Man, when mine gets down to like 9 hours, I just start deleting. Like, that, right there, that Mickey Mouse Clubhouse has got to go.

Josh: Yeah, it is sooooo gone. Look at me, right now, I am just deleting like crazy. Bye Bye Mickey.

Kevin: Don’t delete that Dirty Jobs man, that one is classic.

Josh: Never.