The Sunny Southwest

I'm in balmy AZ this week. We're soaking up the desert sun. See you soon!

Eva

At the top of my blog roll is 65 Red Roses. It is the blog of Eva Markvoort, a beautiful young woman who spent her life struggling with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Eva passed away this morning. I was so surprised to see the news. Everyone who had been following along with Eva was prepared for this sad news at some point, but it was still shocking to read it. If you would like to visit her blog and learn more about this extraordinary woman, visit HERE. And to watch an enlightening trailer of the Canadian, award-winning documentary about Eva, visit HERE.
Eva, you will be missed. You fought a good fight, and truly impacted the world, beautiful girl.

Tasty front yard goodness!

I was playing outside with the kids yesterday evening after dinner. It was cool and clear. And I saw little blossoms poking out on our Ornamental Plum Tree. So I was trying to see how macro my iPhone would go, when I noticed a little orange blur racing past in the background...

That could only mean one thing. Sure enough, Finn yells, "MAYA'S IN THE MUD!!!!"

She loves to eat the rocks and dirt in this one spot of our front yard. I can't tell you how many times Oxyclean and Spray N' Wash have come to the rescue of the knees of her pants. So I told We that I think she has some kind of iron deficiency or something, since she loves to eat dirt. And Wes pointed out that she must also have a styrofoam deficiency, and a Lego deficiency, and a small chokable object deficiency. Point taken.

Excuse me. Maya is emptying the entire contents of my wallet onto the floor...probably looking for dimes.

Goodnight, Moon

Moonlight is sculpture. —Nathaniel Hawthorne

Some nights when I (finally) climb into bed, I am kept awake by a light that is coming straight through a small space between the window and curtain. It's the moon. I was so surprised the first night it happened, that I stared at it for a good 15 minutes. What were the chances that the moon would be visible through that small space, only from the vantage point of my pillow? It felt like a gift. Last night it happened again, so I took a photo with my iPhone. It only registers as this small pinpoint of light. It reminds me of a pinhole camera. I love the idea of the moon, looking in on me, sending me a "goodnight."

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Gallactica.

For those of you who don't know, that is a quote from the TV show, The Office, delivered by Jim impersonating Dwight. And it's also the name of Steph Catudel's witty blog. You can find it HERE. Steph is conducting a study for her Graduate Thesis, which is on the social impact of blogs. And she has a goal. She needs 100 followers. And I thought I would help spread the word, because I understand what it is like to do a Thesis. I tromped all over Toronto in the freezing winter, riding the subway (Wes in tow—thank goodness he really liked me...that could have been a deal breaker). Based on what I encountered, I redesigned the subway signage system. And then a lady who worked for the Toronto Subway Commission (who was supposed to offer a professional opinion) yelled at me because the VERY rough draft of my 200 pg. thesis that I express mailed to her, had a typo in it. And she said, "Shame on you!" And I wanted to tell her to go to, well...I digress. So let's help make Steph's Thesis experience a little better! :) Here is her post detailing her objective:

To all of my loyal, not-so-loyal, and somewhat disinterested followers:

I need your help. I am hoping to write my Masters Thesis on the social impact of blogs, mine in particular. I am looking to find whether political interest blogs can have an effect on personal opinion and if so, to what extent. I will continue blogging about my personal life, but will implement various political opinion pieces along the way, as I have been doing on occasion. The point is not to subliminally sneak my political ideology into your lives, but to use my blog as a forum to express my daily thoughts, because I'll be honest: I think about politics daily. Basically, my blog will continue to consist of my family events, thoughts and views with an editorial-style twist.

So, I'll get to the point: I am asking whether you would like to take part in my Thesis study. All you would have to do is fill out an anonymous survey, follow my blog somewhat regularly (once a week-ish), and then fill out another survey in a few months. The survey will consist of demographic/personal/political questions, but I assure you that it will be completely anonymous, if you so choose. In order for my research to be statistically significant, I need 100 participants. This may be a lofty goal, but if you want to help me, just spread the word! I promise I'll try to keep the political pieces interesting and humorous.

So, if you are interested in helping to further research on New Media, leave a comment on my blog or email me at stephcatudal@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading!


Click the button below to visit her blog and follow along. I know it will mean a lot to her!

**Note: This is not the same blogger who Courtney over at CJane posted about. It's just a funny coincidence (especially considering Courtney ALSO tromped all over parts of Canada in the cold)...

Late Nights with Maya

I've been trying to wean Maya from nursing. Slowly. And we've reached the only-once-in-a-while night feeding stage. This is hard for Maya! She gets hungry, and also wants that snuggly time with me in the middle of the night. Last night was particularly rough. She woke up at least 3 times. Finally Wes was able to get her back to sleep by rocking her (thank goodness for dads). But at one point I took her into the kitchen to feed her a cereal bar. She was SO groggy and tired. So was I. So I found this all really funny—especially her Flock of Seagulls hairdo and her puffy sleep suit (that she still wears). Check her out:


Post Edit:
I wasn't waking in the night to nurse Maya since about 9 months. I was just nursing her before bed, and she would make it through the night. But once I quit doing that, she started waking up hungry. She won't drink milk of any kind, and rice cereal before bed just hasn't been cutting it. I'm sure we'll find our groove... :)

Giveaway

First 100 fans of Beautify My Blog's new Facebook Page will be entered to win a $50 gift certificate!

Click HERE to become a fan.

Lickable Spoon: Out of hibernation, at last!

It's been a while. As in 3 months. But we're back! I say WE, because my talented sis-in-law, Tiffany, is joining me as a co-author on Lickable Spoon (my recipe sharing blog that has been down in the dumps the past 3 months, moping around not knowing what to do with herself). So this is the famed Tiffany:
I am SO excited! Unrivaled cakes, this one. She adds some serious legitimacy to the blog. So tune back in if you are a follower, or follow along. Because Tiffany will not fail to please! Click on the button below to visit the site:

Just a lil' love note

Dear AC Guys,
It has been so nice sitting and waiting around for you to show up all day. And Saturday. And Friday. My kids love not going to the Zoo, the museum, on long walks. They much prefer to sit inside and plot ways to kill each other. True, today was overcast and breezy, no AC needed. But this weekend was rough. My living room gets up to 85 degrees, despite my best efforts. I have the pink cheeks and sweaty kids to prove it. It was also a lovely treat to have my elderly neighbor show up to a sweltering living room, and sit in agony, not wanting to be rude, while I blasted the fans on high, to no avail. She probably won't be back for a visit.

Since you promised you would be here today (indeed, after you called me twice to tell me you would be late), I am totally expecting to have to stay home all day tomorrow, as well. If you find me tied to the kitchen table being ruled by tiny tyrants, just let yourselves in and do what you need to do. You know where my attic is. So go for it. And on your way out, please tell the conveniently busy landlords that next time THEY can sit around for days on end waiting patiently for you to not show up when you say you will. And maybe I'll leave Finn and Maya with them while they do...

I hate your guts Keep up the good work!
Sincerely yours,



To view a similar love letter, visit HERE.

A Little Anxiety

A year ago I looked like this the day before Maya was born (there's a lot of baby #2 in there):


And a whole year later, I am happy to report I am mostly back to normal. And I was feeling pretty good about my jean fit and waistline until I remembered the fast-approaching date of this:
Now, this wedding is taking place in gorgeous GREECE,
where I will be wearing this (rising panic, despite the suit being cute):


But since I am a bridesmaid, I am also going to be donning this
(slightly more panic, despite the dress being beautiful):
Which is why I am now doing lots of this:

Thanks to this:
Now is there a post-nursing bust workout anyone knows of? ;)
Wish me luck.

Sunday Faces: Finn Fones

Please Welcome Penny

"Penny" is new to Beautify My Blog! She'd make a lovely spring addition to your blog, to be sure!
You can find her HERE.

Ruffled

What do you do when your 12 month old daughter has a 9 month waist, and an 18 month leg length?
Lengthen some hand-me-down jeans to suit her!
I am the kind of "seamstress" (chuckle) who taught myself how to use my mom's sewing machine in high school, and wasn't too concerned with overly straight stitching at the bottom of these jeans—obviously (although my Grandma might have been "tsk"ing down at me from heaven over this...).

Dinner Dance

This is what happens when I make Sweet and Sour Chicken for Finn:

But he didn't touch the edamame...

The unexpected day: Part Two (a.k.a. "the good, the bad, and the ugly")

So how did the day turn out? Well I'll start with the UGLY:

• My big fat lip (that has a sore on it, to boot), as a result of a collision with Finn 2 nights ago. I can't hide it. People stared at it all day. Sorry to gross you out. (More grossness coming under "BAD" so be warned.)

• The state of my house most of the day. I am surprised how long it took me to get things all put away again (including the detritus left all over after the packing was done...you know all the extra bits and pieces you decide you don't need to take, but don't want to worry about cleaning up again because your husband who is staying behind for school says, "Don't even worry about it because I'll be here and I'll just clean it up for you." swoon). Going through the whole "pack it up and put it all away again in a 24 hour period" has left me lack-luster about cleaning.

I'll bullet point quickly over the BAD:

• Library fines

• Blasted busted ACs

• Finn's attitude when he doesn't nap

• Maya's attitude towards being sick

• Spending most of the monthly grocery budget on things like medicine and misc. travel needs, and not on actual food (since we didn't think we'd be here to eat for a few weeks). This resulted in eggs, edamame, and jell-o for dinner. Sounds gross when I type it, but Maya looked at me with those "I sure love you for making this yummy finger-food dinner, Mom!" eyes. Which is actually a segue into the list of GOOD things that happened today:

• Free or $1 DVD rentals at the Library, and the great Mo Willems books we checked out on our spontaneous outing.

• Shady tree-lined streets

• Rearranged furniture (Anyone who knows what my house is like is probably chuckling at this because I have itty bitty living space. So rearranging furniture is limited to small things, in small ways, but it still makes it feel like a change.)

• Finn telling me he is glad I'm his Mom.

• Teaching Finn to say "LibRary," instead of the usual "LibAry."

• My elderly neighbor just showed up on my door step with presents for Finn and Maya!! She brought over collectors edition banks in the form of a metal truck and sweet little white milk truck. How generous and thoughtful is THAT? AND I just remembered her name. Dolly. I was wracking my brain all evening about what her name is, so now I can deliver her Thank You note.

• Wes will most likely be home early (anything before 10:30 is early for him). Finn didn't nap today. So I am putting him to bed early (anything before 10:30 is early for him). So Wes and I can watch a movie, etc. Stupid lip injury... ;)

Thanks for reading my probably boring daily details. This is my journal, afterall.

The unexpected day: Part One

It's been getting pretty warm here during the day. Low 80s. Goodbye cool weather! I am sad to see you go (because I know what summer brings around here...). And my air conditioner is not currently working. I have a landlord who is rather blasé about the whole thing. "Oh, we'll fix it when it gets warm." Ahem. It's warm. Please come fix it. "Are you sure it's not frozen over?" Frozen over? I haven't used it all winter!! I imagine it's nice and warmed up for cooling off my 85 degree living room. Nope. Still not working.

So this morning I woke up to a gorgeous chilly morning. (A morning I would have been getting ready to go to the airport to visit even chillier weather).) I opened all of the windows and turned on the fans to encourage as much cool air to come in and mingle with us as possible. My plan was to shut all the windows and blinds at 10 to trap it in. Mwahahahaha. That's my evil plan, chilly air! But. (Dun dun dun) I heard the pull of a lawn mower starting up, and before I knew it, it was 9:15 and the entire front half of my small home was filled with fumes burning the back of my throat. Gross. So I raced trough the house shutting windows, lighting a candle to replace the fumes with coconut cream pie goodness (find it HERE). We'll see how long I can trap in the coolness.

No matter how much we plan things to happen, they will decidedly throw us a curve ball now and then. And I am getting better at looking back and admiring the handiwork that is not of my own design, that recreates an even better situation than I could have done myself.

So come back tonight, and I will be posting the second half of this unexpected, undetermined day. I hope it does not include the lines "and we suffered through a stuffy afternoon in our 85 degree living room." Now I am off to pick up the whirlwind of packing/unpacking mess, and save Maya from a morning of eating goldfish off of the floor beneath her highchair.

Updates

This is kind of a business-ish post, but it was easier than calling or e-mailing a bunch of people. So I was all set to leave town tomorrow afternoon on a flight to Texas for a few weeks. Because of a last minute change of plans, I won't be leaving until the 27th or 28th. Here are the details:

• We've been sick. I am over it. But Finn and Maya are still wrapping things up. Their runny noses are hanging in there, but they seem to feel fine otherwise. Burbank crowd, I am here for another week and a half. Let's play (as soon as we're back to 100% in a few days).

• Mesa crowd, I will be in Mesa from the 28th-2nd. I would love to have a park play date while I am there so that I can see you!! We'll be in touch.

• I'll be in Texas until April 21st. Granbury crowd, well, you generously arranged all of this, and therefore know all the details.

• I have my computer back. That's right! It's back. I am still not doing any custom design work. Please don't e-mail me asking me to redesign your blog as a totally custom creation, or to look just like Stephanie Nielson's blog, or Angela Henrie's blog, or something new of your own imaginings. I know. I am such a meanie (did I just lose a follower?). As much as I LOVE comments and e-mails, and as much as I LOVE designing, I just can't take on ANY design work right now. I have an unbelievably busy husband who is literally in school 14+ hours every single day of every single week (he is even giving up his well-earned Spring Break to take on a photo job to help pay for this crazy-busy-but-totally-worth-it school of his). So you see, I just have no spare hours in the day to do any custom design work (among other things). BUT! You can visit Beautify My Blog to freshen up your blog with ready made designs. I added new seasonal designs, too. AND! We have a new shop called Beautify My Life with designs and products inspired by our blog designs. So check it out! See some of the items we offer, below. Click on the logo to visit the shop:




OK. I'm off to unpack. HA! (Well, my cool weather clothes, at least...)