that kind of day

where i am frustrated and grumpy and whiny and should not be writing a blog post. i should walk away. and plant something. or bake something. no, no baking, i've been eating way too much cake lately. just frustrated with life and the process of growing up. i should be so thankful that there are so many possibilities.. i'm just frustrated with me and my comfort zone and the need for it to expand and breathe and just get out there.

i saw this picture on my tumblr feed, i'm probably one of the very few who is actually still at tumblr, i've fought off every desire to start my pinterest account, i just know it's something that i will lose many hours of my life in. anyways. i want to go there. i don't know where it is or where it's from, but right now, it looks divine. could i just sit there with all that light pouring in and eat more cake?

February 3, 2012 5

the hub

i was grabbing my hardly used camera and running out the door, so i clicked a random picture to make sure there was a card inside. i almost hit delete when i realized, A the light looks really good in here right now, and B this is my hub. this is where i cook, organize my day, make lists, throw my mail, put most things that need to go away at a later time. it's pretty messy but then again, so is life. i love my hub and i love my life.

January 27, 2012 5

smoothie obsessed

my family has drank more smoothies in the last few weeks than i can count! thank goodness for costco! i have been pretty addicted to boba for awhile now, always craving my favorite avocado smoothie with boba. i finally decided to start making my own instead of forking out $5 a drink! yay! but of course, i had to mix it up a bit.

banana, oatmeal, flaxseed, peanut butter, almond milk. i loved. the family did not. ahhh adding the recipes in now and see she called it milkshake, which seems more sinful than a smoothie! hahah. here's the link.

then i had to try one of the green smoothies i've heard so many raves about. kale, spinach, pear, almond milk. i swear i have more energy in the day when i drink one of these. this is the recipe i first tried here. since then i've tweaked it since i ran out of pears, so without pears and without the honey- i use agave nectar. and i also add a tablespoon of trader joes organic vanilla yogurt, just to cut the leafyness of it all. and because i am obsessed with that yogurt, being a anti dairy person myself, that's a pretty big thing.

next up, one of my top faves: blackberry, vanilla yogurt, almond milk and CINNAMON. heaven! one of elsie's faves too! here's the recipe for this one here.
and last, the whole reason i got on this kick: avocado, milk and sugar. doesn't get any better than this! eta the recipe, i just eyeball it. a cup of milk and half an avocado and a tsp agave nectar and ice.

and a few shots of the whole reason i am drink obsessed now:
this one is next on my list!

January 25, 2012 9

i actually took a picture! more than one actually!

and i didn't use my phone camera! and really the only reason i didn't was because i couldn't find my phone anywhere and for some strange reason my real camera was sitting right next to me. strange since i never use it! anyways. i wanted to capture this sweet moment of the quiet child reading a book in her jammies with the lovely light coming through…..

but then she spied me and i got these others in result:

and when i begged and pleaded for a regular smile or not even a smile, just to look at me, i get teenager stuck in a 5 year old body face:

and more proof of when i do get the camera out, i don't even know when this was, it was just on the card:
sigh.

January 19, 2012 11

happy new year!

it's 2012 and that picture was a few years ago. this is how i feel about time going by so quickly!
HA! we enjoyed our holidays at home in sunny southern california with friends and family. good times. alas, here are my 2 obligatory new year's resolutions: exercise and blog more. you know, same ol same ol 🙂

happy new year!

January 4, 2012 3

lump in my throat

…as I say my goodbye to the dear garden at 2peas. I can't believe that it's been almost 10 years since I stumbled upon the site, not knowing a thing about scrapbooking besides thinking it was a little hokey. It was then, as I sat in the middle of the night in our little apartment in Virginia, where I found the Black & White gallery (who remembers that?!) and my life was forever changed. I am in awe at what 2peas provides for the scrapbooking community and how much the little 'ol paper and glue craft has grown. I look back on the albums and albums I have filled with pages and I am so grateful to have been pushed and driven by the garden. I treasure the friendships I've made through this craft and opportunities I've been blessed with. This was a really difficult decision, and as my sweet husband followed up about it with me this morning, tears filled my eyes, and I couldn't help think, 'oh gosh, what have I done?!'

Love to you, sweet Kristina and the team over at 2peas. thanks for taking a chance on me in 2004.

November 2, 2011 24

and then felicity porter came into my life

–thanks for all the sweet comments on the post below, wow, seriously sweet you all 🙂

soooo this isn't about my kids at all. a total frivilous post for ME, wow. who knew.

13 years ago i heard about this show but didn't watch as i am the kind of person who needs to watch it from the start and not miss a thing. well cameron was born that year, so tv wasn't a high priority in my life. it's not even a priority now, we don't even have cable tv, we just watch online. to think how different tv watching is now, is just crazy. i can watch the 83 episodes back to back without commercials now, on netflix. and that's just what i did. in about a month, i did it. lol. it's kinda embarrassing to admit such a thing but oh well.

one time my friend and i were talking about how pumpkin pie lingers after thanksgiving and how you just want to eat it all the time, and she said, just eat it all and then it'd be all gone and you don't have to worry about it anymore. well i applied that to my felicity watching. it started out on my ipad, while i was working on my main computer, i could get through 3-ish episodes at a worktime. (i actually got a LOT of work done because it made me want to sit and watch and work! ha!) so once i was hooked in the first season, i figured, i just need to get through these 4 seasons and i could back to real life. well i sped through the first 3 and then realized that after 4, it would be done and all these characters that i grew to love would be gone from my life. so i savored 4. taking days to finally watch the series finale.

and now that it's done, i am going to try and get chris to watch it all over again with me. i doubt he will but he appreciates good writing and i believe that this show was written well! besides the switch of the opening title sequence, there isn't much to not like about the show.

i loved felicity. i loved new york. i loved javier and megan. i loved felicity and ben. i loved the letter she wrote to ben near the end of the show. i loved the first 2 seasons black and white photography opening title sequence. i loved all the music they played on the show. i loved the scene where she asks ben to write in her yearbook. i loved all the dean & deluca scenes. i loved her short hair. i loved how they said the word hey at least 10 times a show. i LOVED it all….hands down one of my favorite series.

do yourself a favor and watch the opening sequence 🙂

October 24, 2011 22

milestones

i think one of the biggest milestones in our children's lives (besides getting thru the first year) is kindergarten. they go in so fresh and ready to learn and leave kindergarten reading and writing. to say elsie loves school is an understatement. from the moment she wakes till we are heading out the door at 11:20 (15 minutes before school even starts) she is asking if it's time to go yet.

i haven't taken a personal photo (besides my phone camera) since JULY. i'm pretty sure that's a record for me. i intentionally took the camera out a few days ago. trying to love it again. the process of snapping and going to the computer and posting is just so much for me. i don't want to spend my time doing all that. but then i get a gem like the one above and i say, ohhhh. and i'm happy.

cameron said to me the other day, what's going on with your blog mom? you haven't posted in forever. ahhhh i said, just don't feel like it. but thanks for checking, lol. he said, i always check mom. (awwww) my faithful blog follower. my almost 13 year old son. love you buddy. 🙂 i'm pretty sure he's the only one who checks this these days.

October 21, 2011 27

back at it

I miss these summer mornings of sleeping in. Each morning, I hit the snooze button and groggily get out of bed and make lunches like a robot. But it's good, life is good. Everyone is back into their routine, I'm surprisingly not crawling back into bed as the kid's all leave the house 🙂 I've got this year to really focus on what I'm going to do in the next few years. All growsed up. The kids and me. Haha.

September 14, 2011 2

san clemente via instagram

another mini trip of ours over the summer to visit my mom in san clemente. traffic in southern california, no bueno.

love her view, amazing. that hill is killer on your legs, though. 🙂

favorite part of the beach, swings on the sand. i bet if we lived there, that would be elsie's favorite hangout.
stunned at how big the big kids look, love both of these pics so much!

i think the stairs behind him are equally killer on the legs. he ran all the way up. oh to be young and fit.
i'm way behind. more photos of our summer to share. now that they've all gone back to school, we'll see if i can keep up with this blog again! 🙂

August 30, 2011 2