Probably wishes she hadn't decided to play in the fireplace

Payasa, after the bath. She wandered into our room the other morning, and for a second I thought we'd gotten a second cat, one that was grey instead of calico. But no, it was Payasa. Covered in soot. I only wish I'd gotten a "before" picture.

Snow in La Mirada

A couple of weekends ago we had our nieces, Rachel and Naomi, over to spend the night. Judah was overjoyed, as they're two of his favorite people in the whole world. They came over around dinner time and we all had pizza (mmm, Top Class), and then they wore Judah out for a while, and then we all sat down to watch Monsters Inc. Judah was so tired by 9:00 that he hardly even protested when we told him it was time for bed before the movie was over.

The next morning after breakfast we headed for our church, which was hosting Chili Snow Day, a combination of an old Granada tradition, the Chili Cook Off, and a new institution, Snow Day. They brought in something like 20 tons of snow and set up a couple of sled runs and two roped off areas for kids to have snowball fights or whatever. Rachel and Naomi loved it and had a great time pelting Nathan with snow. Judah, however, wanted nothing to do with the snow and spent the whole time begging to play on the playground nearby. We let him, and he loved it. Toward the end of the day Rachel and Naomi went to get their faces painted, and Micah agreed to have his painted too. Judah, of course, wouldn't do it.

Here are a bunch of pictures from our sleepover and snow play. Sorry they're out of order, Blogger was being stubborn and not letting me do things the way I wanted to. The picture above is Nathan going down a sled run holding Micah, which completely horrified all the older people.

Filler meme

Some random information, along with a random picture that I really like, though I'm not sure why I like it. Maybe it's the memories it brings back. Meme stolen from Wendy.

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night.
Judah

2.What were you doing at 0800?
Making oatmeal and drinking diet coke (duh).

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Reading about the latest fire.

4. What happened to you in 2006?
I completed the third decade of my life
I discovered a love for San Francisco
I camped with a toddler several times (NOT the best idea ever)
I got pregnant

5. What was the last thing you said out loud?
"I don't know." In response to Nathan asking if the pounding upstairs was Judah getting out of bed again.

6. How many beverages did you have today?
Four that I can remember. You know what they were.

7. What color is your hairbrush
Neon green

8. What was the last thing you paid for?
A Christmas present for someone...

9. Where were you last night?
Home

10. What color is your front door?
Standard issue condo tan.

11. Where do you keep your change?
In one of our dresser's small drawers.

12.What’s the weather like today?
Warm and a little bit Santa Ana-y (hence the fire in #3).

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor?
Vanilla bean (I know, so boring! But I love simplicity).

14. What excites you?
Lots of things: good music, vintage table cloths and dish towels, arts and crafts architecture and decorating, theories of time travel, the inscriptions in the front of old books, geneaology, travel, taking pictures, thunder storms...I could go on forever.

15. Do you want to cut your hair?
Constantly. But I also want it to grow out really long, so I'm always fighting with my temptation to cut it all off. I'll probably give in pretty soon.

16. Are you over the age of 25?
Yes.

17. Do you talk a lot?
Sometimes.

19. Do you know anyone named Steven?
Yep, my brother.

20. Do you make up your own words?
Not usually. But I have been known to tell people that Nathan practices chiropracty. And also that he's a chirproctologist.

21. Are you a jealous person?
Not on the whole, but more than I'd like to be.

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’.
Ashlee

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’.
Christi, if she would just give in already and spell her name RIGHT.

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list?
Probably Nathan, but I'm too lazy to get up and find my phone.

25. What does the last text message you received say?
No idea. I erase them as I get them.

26. Do you chew on your straw?
No.

27. Do you have curly hair?
No. But it's not straight, either. Annoying.

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to?
Hopefully to Ruby's for dinner. It's that kind of day.

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life?
Nathan, but only to people who deserve it. Like telemarketers.

30. What was the last thing you ate?
French fries.

31. Will you get married in the future?
Only if I decide to take up polygamy.

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks?
I think I've seen two in the last two weeks, and they were both not that good. One was "Daughter from Danang," and the other was "Elephant." Both pretty disappointing. But we recently saw "The Last King of Scotland" and that was really really good.

33. Is there anyone you like right now?
I like a lot of people. Most people, in fact.

36. Did you cry today?
No.

37. Why did you answer and post this?
Because I wanted to update but didn't feel creative enough to come up with something original.

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey.
I'd love to see it on all your blogs, but I'm not into demanding. :)

From Whom All Blessings Flow

Nathan
Judah
Micah
My parents
Our huge family
Good books
Sunshine
Enough food
Friends
Our church
Safety
Memories
Traditions
Shelter
Autumn leaves
Freedom
Our country
A new day

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Confessions of an American Diet Coke Drinker

Hey Barbara, remember how I said that I wouldn't go to the kitchen to get a diet coke in the morning if it meant that I had to actually walk from one building where I was sleeping to another building where the kitchen was? How I said that involved too much effort?

I take it back. This morning I got up and realized there was no more diet coke in the house, and I freaked. So I got both kids dressed (though Judah had no shoes on), got myself dressed (if you count yoga pants and an old fleece shirt that double as pajamas as "dressed"), strapped both boys into their carseats, loaded up the car, and drove two miles to the nearest Del Taco and ordered a 32 ouncer of my favorite poison (as Jeff calls it). When Judah saw where we were going he said "We need diet coke!" Too right. How addicted am I? Is there a twelve step program for this? I might need it.

Little posers

I have to admit, I'm not into football at all, professional or otherwise. The only time I cared about football was when I was in highschool and my friends were on the team and I was a water girl.

But then Jeff married Heather, who is a bona fide Buckeye. She and her family love everything Ohio State, and they love their football team with a love that is pure and holy. At Jeff and Heather's wedding I adopted Heather's grandparents as my own, and they agreed to adopt me, too. And the boys! So Grandma Ruby and Grandpa Leo sent Buckeye wear for Judah and Micah so that they would be "raised right." So here they are, in all their glory. And I'm just waiting for the day when a true Buckeye fan stops me and comments on their clothes, and I will have to admit that I know less than nothing about how Ohio State's doing this season. And then I will go directly to the mortuary and pick out my tombstone, because the Wrath of the Buckeyes will surely descend on me and end my pathetic, non-football-loving existence.

Bug off!

We've recently had an invasion of paper wasps (I think) in our backyard. We noticed them swarming about a month ago so we had an exterminator come out and take down a couple of nests we'd seen, and it seemed to solve the problem. But then today I was about to go outside and I saw that there were dozens of them flying around again. We don't know of any other nests, and they don't seem to be hanging around in any one place, so I have no idea what they're after. Have any of you had this happen? How do you get rid of them? It's a bummer to not be able to go outside.

Let the corruption begin

Here is Judah enjoying an outdoor jazz concert in Mammoth a few months ago.

He's quite the music lover, which makes me extremely happy. He loves listening to music while we drive. And it all started out innocently enough. We introduced him to Jack Johnson at a very young age (like, a month) and found that no matter how loud he was screaming if we put in the In Between Dreams album he'd stop at the very first note of Better Together and then sit quietly and listen. It didn't work with any other album.

Jack Johnson is still his favorite, but he's happy to hear any music at all and sometimes gets impatient when one song ends and we have to wait more than a nanosecond before the next song begins. One day I turned the music down so I could make a phone call. Judah said, "Listen to music!" I pointed out that he could still hear it, to which he replied, "Listen LOUD!" That's my boy. He loves Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn, and John, and recently he's really into Cake. I love hearing him walking around singing No Phone. I can't wait until he's older and I can start taking him to concerts with me. Nathan has flatly refused to ever go to a Cure concert, so it'll have to be Judah.

I'll leave you with a few lines from another Cake song Judah loves. The words are insane, but they're REALLY fun to sing along with.

In a seedy karaoke bar by the banks of the mighty Bosphorus there's a Japanese man in a business suit singing Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. And the muscular German cyborg dudes dance with sexy French Canadians while the overweight Americans wear their patriotic jumpsuits.

Free (almost) to a good owner....

Isn't she pretty? And yet, STILL no one wants to buy her! She's sitting sadly in the parking lot at Nathan's office with a sign on her windshield, waiting....

A lady called me last night to ask about the Mustang. I talked to her for a long time, and we arranged to meet this afternoon so she could look at it. When we got there she looked at the car a little, then wanted to drive it. That was fine, so we climbed in, and immediately encountered problems. I could have told her she would, but I'm too polite. What it boiled down to was: if you're five feet tall, and you weigh close to 300 pounds, a two door Mustang is probably not going to be the most comfortable car for you. The steering wheel was too low, the seat was too far back, and the seat back was too tilted. All fixable, but she was so heavy that the automatic seat controls wouldn't work while she was sitting in the seat.

It took a while, but she finally got all the things adjusted, and of course it was the car's design that was bad, because "It's fine if you have long arms." Obviously, the Ford people discriminate against the short-armed people. She got the car started and we began to drive, and I discovered that she didn't have the first clue about how to drive a car that's meant to perform. She currently drives a Civic, which is a workhorse and nothing showy, and she drove my car like a Civic. Or something. She said all this stuff about liking stick shift and liking a powerful motor, and then she spent the whole drive making disparaging comments about my car and how it didn't have any pickup. I wanted to smack her. Because OF COURSE it felt like it had no power. It won't, if you insist on shifting into second at 15 mph and third at 20 mph, and never getting it up to a decent speed. I told her she had to be a little rougher with it, because you could demand a lot of it and it would give it to you, and she said "I don't like to be rough with my cars." At that point, I knew she wasn't going to buy it, and I don't think I would have sold it to her anyway. She had no idea what I was talking about. Lady, go buy yourself another Civic.

So I still have this Mustang for sale. I'll sell it pretty cheap, but only to someone who actually knows how to drive it.

Poor stripey ball

Micah had his two months doctor's appointment yesterday. Everything looked great. He now weighs twelve pounds twelve ounces - almost double his birth weight! And he's 23 inches long. He did really well while Dr. May examined him, didn't cry at all. But he had to have four shots, poor little guy. And he SERIOUSLY disliked that. I can sympathize. He screamed and turned tomato red, and after he calmed down he slept for the rest of the day. He was so asleep that when Nathan picked him up out of his swing he just curled up into a little ball and kept on sleeping. Poor baby.

Judah went with us to the appointment and had a fabulous time because Dr. May spoils him ROTTEN! He gave Judah a sucker last time we were there, and he's talked about it ever since. So yesterday morning when I told Judah we were going to see Dr. May he started talking about it again. So I practiced with Judah so that he could ask nicely: "Please may I have a sucker, Dr. May?" And he had it down. But when Dr. May came into the room yesterday Judah hurled himself at him, laughed when Dr. May scooped him up, and shouted, "Gimme my sucker!" Holy cats, Judah, you make your parents look like mannerless slobs! Fortunately, Dr. May thought it was funny (it really was), and gave him not only one sucker, but one for Micah as well, telling Judah he had to eat it since Micah has no teeth yet. No arguments there.

Here's my current favorite picture of our sweet baby.

Some updates

I haven't been too inspired to write lately, but it's time I put SOMETHING here, to keep things going. So here are some random notes on things that have been happening lately.

We haven't heard anything else from the SWAT teams in the area. I assume they're convinced I'm not Jessica. I'm also thinking that Placentia's Finest owes us a rather large gift basket from Harry and David's as an apology of sorts, but I doubt that'll happen. So I threw away the letter I got from them today asking for donations to the PD. Sorry, not inclined to support a department that doesn't do its homework properly before practically battering the wrong door down.

Several weeks ago Dave and Julie got married! The wedding was gorgeous and the weather hardly could have been better for an outdoor wedding, even though it rained the night before and the morning of. It was clear and beautiful by 5:00. Every detail was perfect and everyone I've talked to said it was one of the most enjoyable weddings and receptions they'd ever been to. We all had so much fun, and it was so special that it all took place in Dave and Julie's backyard. So homey, and so elegant all at once.

And then we went to Bakersfield two weeks later for my cousin's wedding, which felt a little bit like going to the prom, since my cousin and his new wife are both 18 and all their friends are still in high school. Judah and Micah went with us, so we spent the wedding in the crying room at the church and the reception listening to Judah beg endlessly for the M & Ms that were in the favors. Oy.

Speaking of Judah....he is currently at an age that is so simultaneously wonderful and frustrating. We can't seem to make him obey us consistently at all, he asks the same questions over and over again (especially when he wants something and we're saying no), and the littlest things tend to become huge tragedies. I had a tantrum on my hands the other day because I took away a catalog (Hammacher Schlemmer, of all things) that Judah had been looking at because it was nap time. But at the same time, there is so much that's great about this age. He's learning so quickly and talking in full, long sentences, and saying ridiculous things, and being really loving toward us most of the time. He loves to read and can quote sections of his favorite books. And just yesterday I told him not to do something and he said, "Why not?" for the first time. So I think we're getting to the part where it's "Why why why?" all the time. Sigh. It's gotten pretty tough. We find ourselves shaking with rage and then laughing hysterically, sometimes within the same minute.

Micah, on the other hand, is so much easier than I'd even dared to hope for. He's pretty laid back, and when he's not, he's easily comforted by his pacifier and by being held. He'll sit in his swing happily for long periods of time and will eventually fall asleep there. This is all so new to me, after Jude, who had to be held almost constantly at this age. I never knew this was possible, this having a baby that we can put down without it screaming. It's amazing. He's starting to be awake kind of a lot during the day and is beginning to smile at us and laugh a little bit. It's so much fun.

Oh, and Judah had his movie debut the other night! Two years ago a couple at our church, Rick and Heidi Garside, asked if Judah would be willing to be one of a set of triplets in a movie they were filming. Judah was about three months old and I accepted for him. So on a sunny afternoon in June we filmed a crowd scene at La Mirada Regional Park with Judah and two other little boys from our church. The movie is finally completed, is called Faith Happens, and was premiered at our church last Sunday night. It was really really good. They're looking to put it in wide release in theaters, hopefully soon. It's a movie with a bunch of different story lines, all true, and all taken from the lives of people at our church. It's really amazing. Check out the trailers here. Judah performed exceptionally well, for a three month old. :)

Micah also gets to be an actor soon. My cousin is organizing the Christmas tree lighting at Biola, and asked me if they could use Micah as Baby Jesus in a nativity scene. I hope he becomes an actor someday, because how impressive would it be on a resume if you could list that your first role ever was playing Jesus Christ?

That's about it for now.....