blanket for baby elijah

our good friends (and audrey's Godparents) matt and teri just welcomed their first baby boy last week.  many years to matt, teri, big sister madeline & new baby boy elijah!

i forgot to snap a photo of the reverse side, it's a white furry fabric i had leftover from another project.  perfect for new baby snuggles :)

uhm your fly's down

in honor of election day tomorrow, this is a political cartoon from one of michael's journalism students. it reminds me of something my friends and i would come up with in my old journalism class :)

how do they put up with me? and a park day

audrey is two months old today :) i decided yesterday that she was old enough to sleep in her own crib instead of the bassinet. she's been sleeping through the night regularly since she was four weeks old so there's no need for her to be in our room any longer, right? as i set her in her crib last night, she settled in and continued to sleep peacefully. as i went about getting ready for bed, i chatted to michael about how this was the best thing for her now and how we should have put her to sleep in the nursery weeks ago and how she should really start using her own room because that's why we bought her all that stuff to set it up and about how good i felt about my decision to leave her in the crib and have i mentioned she's sleeping through the night? i mean that's what you're supposed to do, right?

michael called my bluff pretty quickly thank goodness and i soon grabbed her out of that dangerous crib. i mean what if i didn't hear her when she needed me or she suddenly is able to SIT UP and PULL herself out of the crib or OMG what if she stirs in her sleep and the blankets cover her face?! the blankets?! its better if she sleeps with us because i would KNOW if anythings wrong and gosh she's awfully young isn't she? and i would keep those blankets far, far away and no where near her face. of course. because i would know. of course i would. anyway, audrey will be sleeping in her bassinet in our room for the foreseeable future. audrey may be ready for her crib, but for goodness sakes her mother is not.

here's a few pictures of the lil' pumpkin at the park last week:

lovely maria and audrey.

she loves looking up at trees. :)

napping on the drive back home.

bon appétit!!

had breakfast and a movie with maria this morning. breakfast was mama ham's buttermilk waffles and we watched julie & julia while we crocheted our baby blankets. we both were craving brie and baguettes afterward!

julia child would be proud of all the butter i used

also,

it's a little belated but....

i found some luck while watering my plants this week :)

photos from audrey's baby shower

thanks to dionne, with help from maria and laura, the shower turned out beautiful! thank you girls!

sending a little rainy day optimism your way....

this morning is beautiful and sunny as all mornings are after a good rain. the sun seems to shine a little brighter, the dew a little shinier, and the air much fresher. how appropriate that the last day of the year seems to offer so much hope in such a beautiful and final way. sometimes you can only see the beauty of a storm once it's over, the strength of a hug after a good cry, or the renewal of hope after your soul has been bruised and wrung. though i do not have the talent or wisdom to pull you out of your dark storm, i am here with a little shelter and a little light.

i'm wishing you many beautiful dewy mornings.

romans 5:1-5

we read these verses during liturgy yesterday and i couldn't help but think of a friend of mine who got some very bad news the other day.

"brethren, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. through Him we have obtained access to this grace in which we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us."

love you. :(

teri's baby shower!

maria & lauren, having the time of their lives! (note: big smiles & hand on blushing cheek. also? sleeping baby phillip!)

by far the best baby shower game ever - the onesie design contest! (we lost, but here is our beautiful entry anyway. the apple took me forever to sew on!)

maria's handmade quilt was a big hit.

my target bought receiving blankets? not so much. :)

hannah waits patiently for dessert. i felt bad for eating such pretty tarts. :D

what? no picture???

okay, so i survived michael's absence. my in-loves let me have my bil's bedroom for a few nights, or i should say my bil let me use his room. :) i had a good visit and it was nice to have breakfast again with mil and fil. their house faces the san gorgonio mountains and they're so beautiful on sunny mornings.

on saturday i stayed home and thomas and maria spent the night/few hours of sleep after the midnight pascha service. (i think thomas stumbled in sometime around 6am, the paschal animal.) chris and bradley came by later in the morning and we made a lot of coffee and omelets with bacon and sausage. it was great, i hope we can do that again next year.

i had planned on everyone eating breakfast outside on the patio, but was already too hot. we've had a crazy heat wave the past five days and i wasn't prepared for one so soon. i'm sorry, i'm sure everyone's tired of my complaints about the heat that comes every summer, but that's just it! it's not summer! and i actually have a reason to complain, my poor veggies! most of them have put up brave faces for me, but i can tell it's getting to them. i might have to bury the strawberries here pretty soon... the zucchini's are flourishing though and the cherry tomatoes have already shown me a few green baby tomatoes. i guess the heat is good for some things.

tea for two (hundred)

on saturday i took my mother-in-love to our parish's 11th annual annunciation tea. the flowers were beautiful and the food was amazing. so many of the ladies worked hard to make it such a wonderful time to visit with one another.

my mil and i before the tea.

chamomile and jasmin blossoms.

dear maria and her mom.

yum!!!

lauren's baby shower.

i hosted my first baby shower on saturday and i must say, it was pretty fun! lots of good food and good baby talk. :)





(i must point out christy's cloth diaper "cake" and maria's handmade oneies. too cute!)

dessert.

travis and olivia came over last night for apple blossoms and ice cream. they also brought this wiggly cuteness with them. she entertained us all with her girly wiggles and whines and overall adorableness.

networking and note taking.

this morning i created a facebook account, much to the delight of my sister. so far i've found it very addicting and have been adding friends and updating like crazy all morning. dang. that's exactly why i didn't want a facebook account in the first place. i try to keep my online network addictions to a minimum, (which is why i've ignored my youtube and goodreads.com accounts) so my total now is three: myspace, facebook and blogger... (unless you count flickr, which i don't because i use it only to store my photos and that totally does not count.) i do admit that i've found facebook to be more mature than myspace and i have not yet been asked if i would like to know what my kissing score is or if i would like to buy rihanna's latest ringtone.

i'm happy to say that i am the new church secretary for our parish! i start wednesday and am only working two days a week but it's a paid position, something i didn't know when i volunteered but am happy about none the less. thanks so much erin, you carry one heckuva recommendation! i was also all set to start substitute work again this morning but did not receive any calls. i'll take it as a sign that i should use my time to clean the house instead, (something that really needs doing) that is if i can ever successfully will myself away from the computer.

thank you teri,

...for giving away your beautiful center pieces at your reception. the orchid brightens my day and makes me smile every time i walk by.

new month, new season, new beginnings.

happy labor day! :) michael has the day off and we're going to a friends house for a relaxing barbeque tonight. our busy weekend is over and tomorrow i am scheduled for surgery. initially, it is not what i wanted, but i'm eager for it to be over and begin to feel healthy once again.

i've also been doing some serious thinking about taking a college course in library science and getting my associates degree. i felt it was time that i picked a vocation and i've always daydreamed of being a school librarian. i love books, i love kids and i would love to inspire students to read. i still need to find out who is offering classes since the community college here does not, i'm also considering online classes. i'm thinking of hopefully starting school sometime next year when michael has finished his masters degree and we're settled in a new place.

now for the weekend wedding wrap-up! here's a few pictures of my family at waller park in santa maria. it was great to see them and my extended family at my cousin tara's wedding. it was too short a time to spend with them, but i'm happy to have spent it. :)


james and dad sporting the mirror-shades.


valerie and i have the same smile. my sister and mom are too cute!

matt and teri's wedding was beautiful and i'm glad we were able to be there. my feet are still recovering from all the dancing we did! it was good friends and good food!


hannah found the cookies!


ha! matt looking murderous and teri looking beautiful.


michael and i taking a break from dancing. hehe, i love our prom date pose.

it's wedding season!

michael and i have a busy weekend coming up! we're invited to two weddings, my cousin tara's is on saturday and our friends matt and teri are getting married on sunday. (i love weddings. :) they always make me think of my own wedding and then i get those warm fuzzies and a giddy grin.) strangely enough, we were completely free of weddings all summer until we got hit with two in the same weekend. so yes, quite a busy weekend for us with my parents flying in on friday and everyone driving to santa barbara county for the first wedding, quickly saying our "goodbyes" and driving back south in time for the second wedding. at least i won't have to worry about dinner for a few days, hmm... chicken or steak?

to save time (and energy!) i've decided to break fashion laws and wear the same dress for both weddings. gotta love the little black dress, very versatile. i was happy to have found an amazing clutch at H&M a few weeks ago, and if i may say so, "it's so totally me" in clutch-form. i thought it would be a little more dressy than one of my baggy purses. i never thought i was a clutch person, the lack of a strap made me think it would be too easy to forget somewhere, but now i'm happy to say i'm "clutch-reformed." :) since my parents are going to be in town, i hope to remember to take pictures this time. i always remember to bring my camera, just always forget to actually use it. sheesh.

friends & fireworks.

today our friends paul, jen and their adorable daughter franny are driving back home to arizona. they and chris stayed with us on thursday night and i was surprised how easy it was to sleep that many people in our little apartment. in the morning the boys went for a bike ride and the girls had breakfast and took joey to the dog park.

after they left to visit with paul's brother for the fourth of july, mike chris and i drove up to big bear to see the fireworks at the lake. it was amazing. i love big bear, but especially on independence day. last year we stuck around riverside and it was just not fun. we drove up to a park on the top of a hill but there weren't any good fireworks worth seeing. while we were sitting on the grass and just starting to think of leaving, the sprinklers suddenly turned on and we had to make a mad dash to the cars.

we were able to spend last night with paul and jen again before they left and i was glad we did. we had a great time. hopefully we can return the favor and go visit them in arizona real soon. too bad it's about 114 degrees there!


although he doesn't show it here, joey was extremely happy to be at the park. really.


this is a friendly pug that we quickly made friends with. he was very chubby and couldn't breathe very well without snorting.

friends.

here are a few pictures that i took when we went to visit paul and jenn in arizona this last weekend. enjoy!