The most wonderful time of the year

"The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is part of our past. It reminds us of all that was once good, and what could be again." (From Field of Dreams)

It's baseball time again!! I love it.

I didn't always love it. I grew up with two brothers who were both pitchers, and some of my very earliest memories involve climbing around on the wooden bleachers at the Little League field in La Habra. Steve, I think, was on the Bears, and Dave was on the Braves. I think. So I spent many, many Saturdays at baseball games, from the time I was about five up through highschool. I used to get so bored!

And then, on summer nights, the boys would have the game on TV, sound turned down, and the radio tuned to the game. Vin Scully's voice is as familiar to me as almost anyone's, and whenever I hear it I feel like everything in the world is right.

I can't remember a time when I didn't understand baseball. Sometimes I feel like I was born knowing the rules. I love the order of it, and how there's so much potential for the near-miraculous to happen on every single play. I love watching it, I love hearing a game in the background while I'm doing things around the house. I love going to games. I can't wait to take Judah and Micah to some games this summer, and start making memories for them. Judah already loves to sit with Nathan and watch the game on TV.

So it's opening week. The Dodgers and the Angels are both playing tonight. The Dodgers are just about to win, which puts them in first place in their division. Hey, it's never too early to start thinking about these things! To celebrate the beginning of the season, I read The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by Kinsella (Dave and Steve, have I made you read this yet? It's awesome), and I'm starting in on Shoeless Joe, also by Kinsella, basis of the movie Field of Dreams.

Oh, and also, I have an ENTIRE PACK of Big League Chew (grape) in my mouth as I write this. I found it at Watson's in Orange today. I used to do this when I was about eight, chew the whole pack at once, and I have no idea how I did it. My jaw is killing me! But it's so worth it. Next I'm heading for the kitchen to see if we have enough kinds of soda on hand to make a good suicide.

Right back where they started from

Welcome home, Brian, Ashlee, and Eszter!! And welcome to California, Josiah and Sophia!!

Maybe his hair has nerves

These pictures are a little old, but I ran across them tonight and thought I'd post them, since people keep asking me, "Has Judah had another haircut? Did he do any better?" The answers are yes and yes, sort of. Kassy came over again armed with more suckers, and Judah did pretty well for the first half of the session. But then she broke out the clippers and that was the end of it. It's better than he's ever done, though, and I have hope that some day we'll make it through a haircut without all of us ending up covered in tears and clippings.

Kassy is awesome, by the way. She brought basically a whole salon to our house and set up shop. She bleached, dyed, cut, and styled my hair, then cut Judah's hair and then Nathan's. And in between all of it we ate In-N-Out for dinner. What could be better? Here are the pics of Judah's cut. Notice the progression from smiling to screaming....

A few of my favorite things

I know I haven't posted in a while, and that's because not a lot new is going on around here. Oh, and also, I've been much too busy. See, Jeff and Heather (a curse be on their mustaches) got me totally and hopelessly addicted to Toontown, an online game created for, like, eight year olds. Disney is so genius, I have to say. You can play the game free for as long as you want, but you have to pay if you want to do the higher-level stuff. And they suck you in. I was determined not to pay. But.... I did. Eventually. And now it consumes my time. You all should check it out, it's fun! And if you see Captain Banjo Bananajinks running around, that's me. Or possibly Jeff. But probably me.

Anyway. Like I said, not much is happening. So I thought I'd just post some of my favorite recent pictures. The one above is a shot of the ocean a few weeks ago, looking a lot like some tropical location. The weather was gorgeous, it had been raining for several days and then cleared up, so we went to Ruby's where we could walk on the beach and look back at the snow-covered mountains. Isn't California awesome?
Judah at Ruby's that day, clowning around in Nathan's hat. He loves hats, so we bought him one at Tilly's that's way too big for him, so far. But he looks really cute in it. I'm very very slowly turning the boys' bathroom into a sort of beach/surfer type theme, and I found these lanterns at Tall Mouse for really cheap. Best part: they're battery operated, so no ugly cords. I hung them from the ceiling in the bathroom, and now Judah won't let us turn them on ever. Whatever. They look cool.
This is one of my favorite things ever, when babies suck on their toes. Micah does it every chance he gets, and I love it! And check out those eyelashes. They seem to get longer daily, it's crazy.
Here is my dream car (one of them). I've seen it around at car shows and stuff, and one day it was parked in our complex so I had to have my pic taken with it. It's a Nash Metropolitan. One day I will have one!

Spring Fever

I know. It's still the middle of winter. And what am I doing planting a garden in February? But I couldn't help it. The weather's been so completely beautiful for the last week or so, and we're all walking around in short sleeves, and Jack Johnson is on the playlist again, and it just seemed like flowers were a great idea. Besides, this is southern California. We're not even sure what the word "frost" means. So I went ahead and did it. And my flowers are so gorgeous! I love them. My grandma Kimber had a green thumb like you wouldn't believe: she grew the most amazing orchids in huge tubs on her patio, and loved spending afternoons among her plants, watering and digging and planting. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit the green thumb, just her love of beauty, so these plants will probably be dead in a few weeks. So I thought I'd take pictures and post them so they'll at least live on somewhere.

Here's what I planted, besides the blue hydrangea above:
Pink jasmine on our back patio, which smells SO good. This one's actually going to make it, because I've had it over a year and it's doing great. Jasmine's easy.
Impatien, also on our back patio. This one is a volunteer. It's growing in a hanging basket that originally had fuchsias in it, and I have no idea how it got there.

This is an anemone, something I always thought you only found in tidepools. Turns out it's a flower too, and this is my favorite among the flowers I bought. It's so big and floaty.
Pink ranuncula.......
......and white ranuncula, otherwise known as "the most beautiful flower with the ugliest imaginable name." The name makes them sound like they should weigh 50 pounds each and be very clumsy.
Snapdragon. So much fun. I'm afraid to show Judah what you can do with snapdragons, because he'd probably destroy them in his excitement.
Sweet alyssum. This is one of my favorite flowers. They're so tiny but they have so much fragrance, but it's not overwhelming. And if you let them, they'll spread out and take over large areas, which is what I'm hoping for.

Nasturtiums. These grew wild at my grandparents' place and I can't wait for them to bloom. The flowers are bright orange and red and yellow, and grow kind of under the leaves, and have a bitter, earthy smell.
Cosmos. Like daisies, but better.
Spanish lavender, another one that I'm hoping will get really big and take over a lot of space, and also smell good. I'm going to learn how to dry it and use it in sachets.
Primrose, which looks nothing like what I thought it would. I love how bright it is.
And hibiscus, which I've had since July. This plant did really really well over the summer, but is not looking so hot now. The leaves are yellowing and the flowers are opening up looking a little ragged. I don't know if it's just the wrong season for it or if I'm over-watering or what, but I'm hoping it'll come back in the spring. Any tips from any of you?

Besides all these, I planted thousands of seeds: bachelor buttons, bells of Ireland, Mexican primrose, and morning glory. I am seriously addicted to morning glories, and found a variety this year I'd never seen. They're bright red, so I planted them behind the nasturtiums. My dad's making me an arch for our backyard, and I'm planning to grow a moonflower vine over it, and blue morning glories beside it. Hopefully it will all grow...I'll keep you updated!

SOLD! To the lowest bidder.

Yes, it's true. We are one car less in this household. And while we still have more cars than we have legal drivers, this is a vast improvement. A person who was serious about the Impala finally turned up, drove down from Agoura, and bought the thing for his 15-year-old son. Which means that within a year it will be nothing more than a twisted pile of metal at the edge of some freeway, but whatever. I'm not sure what that guy's thinking giving a new driver this kind of horsepower. But I guess he knows his kid, and it's his call, and we're glad to be rid of the car. He gave us $6,000 for it, and Nathan pointed out to me that he spent more than that just in repairs on the car within the first year he owned it. Yikes. So, farewell, Sasha the Impala! It was fun (most of the time) and also expensive (all the time). The only part I'm sad about is that this is the car we brought Judah home from the hospital in and it was a little hard to see that go.
It turned out the the Impala hadn't been smogged in the last 90 days, so Nathan and the two guys that came to get it went to a local smog check station. Before they went, Nathan called the place to see exactly where it was located, since he'd never been before. Here's how the conversation went:

Nathan: Where are you guys located?
Smog dude: Between Prospect and Bastanchury on Imperial.
Nathan: And are you on the north or south side?
Smog dude: Well, I don't know which way you're coming from.
Nathan: ......... Umm, okay. I'll find you.

Think about that one for a while. Genius.

The Ninth Anniversary.....

....of our breakup. Nine years ago today I cold-heartedly (says Nathan) broke up with Nathan. I contend that it's one of the smartest things I ever did, because the timing just wasn't right. Nathan says, "How could that be smart?" but he knows it was, too.

Anyway, everything turned out just fine in the end (obviously), but Nathan still gives me a hard time about it. Every year.

The Pajama Game

Judah gets up around 7:00 every morning, and this is a little bit early for my taste, especially since Micah is still waking up to eat twice a night, or sometimes three times. So I usually open the gate at the top of the stairs when Judah gets up and he goes downstairs and plays with his toys for a while. He generally stays in the front room, and I can hear him through my sleep fog, playing with his race track, or with his Lightning McQueen car that says "Speed! I am speed!" or with his car that plays Heard It Through the Grapevine. Or with any of his approximately eight thousand Matchbox cars. A few weeks ago he learned (or was taught) that he could put his cars down the neck of his footy pajamas and they'd wind up down around his ankles, trapped by the feet. So now, every couple mornings, he thinks it's the funniest thing in the world and comes clanking into our room at 7:30, asking me to "Get the cars out, Mommy?" The picture above is a sample of what all I pull out of there. A week ago I pulled out a grand total of seventeen cars (a record, I think). Yesterday he came into our room and I found around his ankles all of his "sparkly" cars, the ones with metallic paint. The kid's got style, at least.

A post I will surely regret later

This is what it looks like around my house today. Except it's not just Judah, it's Micah too. Micah, who is almost never grouchy, has been throwing fits all day, and Judah is being a total pill. I woke up this morning with no patience for anything, and now I have even less. I'm not sure if it's them or me or both, but today I keep thinking, What was so wrong with just being a family of two?

I need some Roy's molten chocolate cake. Preferably in Kaua'i.

Post-Christmas cookies

Yes, I know Christmas is over. And I meant to get around to making Christmas cookies before Christmas. But it just didn't happen this year. We got a little busy. Besides all the usual Christmas activities (parties, choir events, etc.), there are seven people in our family with birthdays in December. So the month gets crazy, and the non-essentials (cookies) get thrown out. And I've always been sort of a procrastinator anyway. It just worked out for me. I'm that person you hated in college, who wrote the papers the night (or hour) before they were due, and studied for tests when the person next to me said, "Hey, did you study for the test today?" at which point I realized there was a test that day, and pulled out my notes for the minute and a half it took the teacher to take attendance. And I managed fairly decent grades, and usually did better by cramming than I did if I worked ahead of schedule.

What was I talking about? Oh, cookies. So I decided to make cookies, because Wendy linked to a really good recipe on her blog and because I thought Judah would have fun helping. I baked them in the morning and Judah decorated them in the afternoon, and we had a blast.
Here's Judah holding up one of his masterpieces and wearing that funny smile he gets because he can't really manage to keep his eyes all the way open when the flash goes off. And yes, that is a star of David shape. My cookie cutter set, which has like 100 shapes, only has one five-pointed star, and it's big and the points are rounded, and I don't really like that. So we ended up with a bunch of the Jewish version.
The completed collection. I liked the blue ones best, because I got a little happy with the almond extract when I was making the icing and added (read: spilled) too much in, but they ended up tasting so good!
The last three cookies. Instead of dumping on more decorations, I had Judah just turn them upside down in the extra stuff on his decorating plate, and we both ended up loving them. I call them the uglies, like the leftover doughnuts in some book I read (I think it was The Vision of Emma Blau by Hegi, any help here Barbara? My books are still in boxes, too). These were the only ones Judah ended up liking to eat, probably because he could fit the whole thing in his mouth at once.