oh, goodness

saw rocky votolato on wednesday with michael.  still thinking about it :)

happy 28th birthday babe :)

love you

a pop tart for my little pop tart

the little boy in this commercial reminds me of a little chibi version of michael. i also just really like these pop tart commercials, i always notice something new in the background every time i watch them. ten points to the first person to spot the dancing strawberry heads!

big bear

well i forgot to bring the nikon, but managed a few photos with my cell phone. the weather was pleasantly cooler than forecasted, and very breezy by the lake. we had lunch, sat by the lake and took a nice walk around the village. michael worked overtime everyday last week trying to get the school's paper out on time, so it was great to have him for the entire day and relax a little.

audrey & daddy

fascinated by ducks

mommy got her pumpkin spice latte :)

delicious pumpkin autumny scarfed goodness

tomorrow michael's taking the day off work and we're driving up to big bear lake for audrey's first visit. i'm so excited because it's the first official day of autumn and i've been craving a pumpkin spice latte since the beginning of september! oh yum! it's been too hot lately for such an autumn brew. tomorrow it's only supposed to reach 65 degrees which means: jackets?! and scarves!? and an adorable bundled up baby!? and crunchy orange and yellow leaves!? and a wonderful hubbs to walk hand in hand with!? and delicious pumpkin autumny scarfed goodness.

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.

we're getting excited!

as spring has started to shine around here, we've been thinking of our remaining weeks as a family of two. our (unofficial) count is at nine weeks to go.

this is my last week at work. (for the next foreseeable years) i'll finally be a stay at home mom and housewife. i'm constantly thinking of all the things i need to do or get for the nursery before audrey arrives, but i guess that's what baby showers are for :) i've picked out a bassinet already and am deciding which kitchen cupboard would be best suited for binkies, bottles and bibs.

i've already planned out this year's vegetable garden and it should be planted in the next few weeks. i'm keeping it small and simple this year with green beans, cucumber and last year's vivacious tomato plants. i've already bought an assortment of sunflower and daisy seeds to plant in the remaining beds to brighten them up and i'm also going to pot some mint in a container for iced tea. maybe within five years everything will finally be completed and i can sit and relax in my maturing dream garden. :)

michael has been so understanding these last few months. he doesn't mind getting water or apples (or less healthy things) for me from the kitchen while i'm all propped up on the couch. he doesn't say anything about the dishes piling up in the sink or that the floors really needed to be swept days ago or about the sweatpants i've been wearing all week. instead he gives me kisses on the forehead and calls me "little mama" and rubs my tummy. how lucky am i? i honestly couldn't imagine anyone i'd rather have in the delivery room with me.

freedumb

as i was driving to work today, i was listening to the diane rehm show on npr. her guest was elizabeth gilbert, author of 'eat, pray, love', and they were discussing independence and divorce.

why is it when most modern women think of independence, their next thought is divorce? do most women really feel held back by their husbands/families? can they really not see their own individuality within a partnership?

i ask to merely understand. i'm incredibly blessed to be married to a man that has always supported my interests and loves the person i am. since we've been married, i've grown more as a person than i ever did when i was single. his encouragement inspires me to accept each situation as another chance to learn something. unfortunately, this isn't always the case in all marriages. sadly, there are some circumstances that call for divorce and the breaking of a family.

however, as far as the shallow discussion on the diane rehm show this morning, i've never thought of marriage as 'an end to my individuality' or having a family as a 'hindrance to my creativity' or any sort of crap or excuses women can think of these days. honestly! this 'me' generation we live in has people blind to the fact that a search for independence outside of marriage often includes hurting people close to us and an unhealthy amount self-centered thoughts. men are often the center of mid-life crisis jokes, but i'm starting believe that it's indeed a problem for both sexes. how wonderful that our society allows the separation for such people without judgement, (even though it's literally a breaking of a lifelong legally recognized contract between two people, but whatever.) personally that doesn't sound like freedom to me, it just sounds selfish.

chicago pictures

to view our chicago pictures, go to www.flickr.com/photos/jennylynnbaker & click on the chicago & mobile upload sets on the left of the screen.. :)

michael's new BBQ

this is the best way we can think of to take advantage of warmer weather!  :)

sour & sweet.

michael is leaving tomorrow for four days to go to a national high school journalism convention in phoenix. he's taking over his school's award winning journalism class (yeah, no pressure) next year, and i'm so proud of him!

however, four days??? ugh, i'm going to die! jeez, that sounds a little pathetic doesn't it? this would be the longest separation for us in nearly three years though. i cannot sleep alone anymore, i get too scared of old house noises. :( but i can do this, right? i mean, i used to live by myself in my own apartment for years. i was independent! (que destiny's child "survivor" song) he'll also be gone on pascha, but will be looking for a midnight service while he's there. oh well, thankfully my in-laws are taking me in for a few nights. they're such sweet people and don't judge their wimpy daughter-in-law too harshly.

in other news, we got our house painted! we added the shutters around the front window and would like to add more bright flowers to the porch, the reds and oranges really pop with the soft green color. we also painted the mailbox black and added fancy black address numbers on the eve above the garage after this photo was taken. that side of the house needed a little black to balance the chairs. i want to raise the front flower beds with faux slate blocks for a more permanent look, but may wait a little while to do that.





...oh yeah, and re-seed the lawn. it has five different types of grass and as many (or more!) types of dandelions.

san francisco!

michael took me to san francisco for valentine's day, he's pretty wonderful. it was cold and rainy and exactly how i had hoped. we hit up the city lights bookstore (www.citylights.com) where michael bought a copy of 'san francisco noir' and a little something for sherry, and spent a few hours in SFMOMA looking at the exhibits. (you can check out the pictures from that on michael's blog.)

we had dinner at johnny foley's pub, which was loud and very americanized, but was wonderful anyway. (they had great curry fries!) michael saw the actual johnny foley walk by with a glass of guinness. we know this because there's a giant painted portrait of him in the entry holding a glass of guinness. hmmm... U2's bono also had a giant portrait in the pub as well. i tried to get a picture of him, but there was a nice family enjoying their conversation at the table in front and i didn't want to creep them out by taking a picture with my cell-o-phone.

on sunday we drove to sherry's house, who i was excited to meet for the first time! those of you who read sherry's blog may have no idea how fantastic her house is. (we share a mutual love of anthropologie!) for dinner we went out for pizza with pete & lucy, brandon & kim and played apples to apples after. sherry was nice enough to let us stay the night and it was hard to leave the next morning. :(

anyway, enough blabbing... here's some pictures.

rainy zoo day.

on saturday michael granted my birthday wishes and took me to the LA zoo. it was a rainy and amazing day. the zoo was so quiet without the usual crowds and it was nice to walk hand in hand together under our umbrellas. the best animal we saw was the steller's sea eagle. i couldn't get a proper picture of it because of the cage, but whoa was it impressive! it's 3 feet tall and almost the size of a condor. the 9-foot long male komodo dragon was also pretty sweet.

oak glen.

my sister had her 30th birthday this past weekend so my brother, his fiance brandi, michael and i took valerie to oak glen on sunday. the trees were turning color, the air smelled sweet and crisp and the company was good. apple pies, caramel apples and pumpkin butter were for sale. fallen leaves were to be crunched, fresh BBQ to be smelled, parking spaces to be fought for, and pigmy-goats to be laughed at. i hope you had a happy birthday vallie!

here's a few pictures i took as well as a few that i snagged from my sister and brother. ;)








24 more days until their big day! awwwwwwwww...

san diego...

(well, coronado island actually.) with santa barbara, big bear and san diego all within a short couple hour's drive away, heat and traffic aside, living in riverside isn't too bad.

you failed me vitamin C!

i caught michael's devastating cold today. :( he usually catches a bad cold this time of year from one of his students, most of the time i'm able to fight it off. not this year. ugh...

mmmmmm sodium...

so this evening as i was sitting on the couch with my pillow and my dog, struggling with morning sickness, michael and i were discussing what to eat for dinner. lately i've been craving a lot of fruit, (smoothies usually sound pretty good) and although i was hungry, nothing sounded good tonight. pasta? (ugh.) pizza? (double ugh.) cheeseburgers? (ugh... don't even mention them!) michael jokingly suggested panda express but i instantly agreed! yes! panda express! the thought of panda express suddenly killed the morning sickness and i realized how starved i was. the sudden craving took both michael and i by surprise but the orange chicken, chow mein and beef & broccoi were SOOOOOOOO good! i love panda food.

i can't really complain too much, my morning sickness hasn't been so bad. i usually get nauseous in the afternoons but it doesn't last very long and i haven't thrown up yet. that could always change within a few days though. also, i feel lightheaded when i move too suddenly and i get annoying headaches. i believe it's all worth it though. :)

the best part is how supportive michael has been to me. he brought me flowers this morning "just because" and "he wanted to make me happy." it's hard NOT to be happy when i'm married to such a great guy.

productive?

we may have another month (at the least) before we may be able to move into our new house. so, what do we do with our time before then? well, i haven't been called for work for the last three weeks, so meanwhile joey and i have been making the most of our sweet bonding time. a few times (including this morning) we have hit the dog park and ran errands together but mostly he just sleeps as i read or do housework. i expect to get more calls for work starting this week, tomorrow marks the start of the district's fiscal year and everyone will gain their new vacation/sick days. i feel bad because joey has gotten used to me be being home and i hope he doesn't take it personally when i start work again. i say that seriously too, joey often takes things personally. he's surprisingly quite an emotional little guy.

i'm naturally a very lazy person so it's very hard for me to not sit in front of the tv all day. (especially when there's such great programming on hgtv. i loves me some hgtv!) during my downtime i've kept up with tidying the house and have read sense and sensibility. i haven't read anything by jane austen before this but have always wanted to. last summer i read a biography on austen but it has taken me this long to actually pick up one of her novels. i'm thinking of starting the jungle by upton sinclair next but i'm open to any suggestions. :)



unfortunately, michael hasn't had as much free time as i have, he's clogged with reading and researching for his masters classes. there's piles of "school junk" on the kitchen table and i'm not completely certain which semester it's all from. it's hard not to feel bad for him, he has five hours of classes every thursday night and hours of homework every week. honestly, we'll both be doing a lot better after he's finished with school in the late fall. he'll finally get his life back and i'll finally have my husband (and kitchen table!) back.

TV, you're so overrated!

tonight's program: an evening at home with the bakers.

tonight's menu: BBQ salmon with squeezed lemon wedges, mushroom risotto and merlot.

tonight's entertainment: several selected songs from vetiver and sufjan stevens and original artwork by michael baker.

i'm (not) suave.

okay, here's something that hasn't happened in a long time: this morning i was working at an elementary school and there was a police officer taking statements because there had been a break-in at one of the classrooms last night. when the principal came out of her office, she and the police officer decided to go check out the classroom. as he left he said thanks, smiled as he walked towards the door, gave me a "knowing look" and left. i'm not sure what this "knowing look" meant but i guessed it was a police officer flirting tactic. (they probably teach that sort of thing in police academy for the times they will meet random women in elementary school offices.) whatever the "knowing look" was supposed to mean i took it as a flirt, and i'll admit, it made me feel pretty flattered. sure i'll get an occasional "look" from sweaty men buying budweiser at the grocery store but cops? not everyday. so anyway feeling pretty smug about myself i walked back and as i sat down i crossed my legs and THUD! i dropped my right foot into the trash can under the desk.

ooooh yeah, i'm a freakin' catch! so, that was a great lesson in humility Lord. thanks for that. a month from sunday will be michael and my two year anniversary. it's great being an "old married couple" and no longer newlyweds. everyday i continue to realize how blessed i am to have a guy like michael. even when i do dumb things (and especially when i realize i'm still a dumb dorky girl who drops her feet into trash cans) he loves me anyway. :)