Month: July 2005

School picture day used to be a day I both dreaded and looked forward to. I was always a little nervous about how my picture would look, if I had picked out the right outfit, and if I was having a good hair day. A few times I even went as far to practice my smile in the mirror to make sure I knew how I was going to smile. Most of the time my pictures came out okay (although to look back now and see what my idea of a good hair day was is a little scary.)

Today felt like school picture day. I’ve been meaning to take the boys into Sear’s for pictures-Connor hasn’t been in a year and Logan has never been. My sister and I decided that we would also get our pictures taken together for my mom’s birthday. I got up this morning and carefully fixed my hair and put on my make-up. Kristin and I had already picked out our coordinating outfits. I got the boys dressed up and we headed to Sear’s.

Before leaving, Connor was very excited about the pictures. But when it came time to actually sit on the little “x” and hold Logan he changed his mind. With a lot of coaxing, watching Logan go first, getting to hold his firetruck, and the promise of a cookie, Connor finally cooperated and we were able to get some cute pictures. Another picture day success story for the books.

-Having their toenails bent backwards.
-Burning their tongue on a hot drink.
-A punch in the nose.
-Having bamboo shoots shoved up their fingernails.
-Being poked in the eye.
-Eating old and moldy bread.
-The smell of dog poop.
-When the hot water runs out in the middle of their shower.
-Being constantly interrupted.
-A face full of sand.

We made it back from San Diego. It was a good trip-maybe just a little disappointing because it was really cloudy. But it was fun just to spend time with my sis. Just a few pictures to highlight the fun:

And the moment I’m sure all of you have been waiting for…K and I did it. We went to Spa 180 today and got haircuts. Acutally, Kristin’s was a hair design. We are both very happy with the results. Mine is about 5 inches shorter and Kristin’s is just a little different-more movement, more layers.

Here’s the before:

And here’s the after:

We’re just a couple of California babes now!

My sister arrived yesterday for her annual California vacation. We are headed down to San Diego tomorrow for some serious beach time, while Derek is staying behind with Connor. I’m so pumped! We have our time there all planned out. Tomorrow we’ll stop at Laguna on the way down to SD. Then we’ll spend one day at Ocean Beach, one day at Pacific Beach, and the third day at whichever one had the best waves and the least amount of seaweed. We will boogy board our little hearts out in the frigid Pacific ocean and enjoy every second of it. We will hopefully reach our melanin maximum. We’ll eat the world’s largest slices of pizza at Luigi’s at Mission Beach, burritos as big as our arms at Adalbertos, scrumptios italian food at La Scala, and we’ll chow down on Mexican food in Old Town. Derek was making fun of us tonight because our whole trip is planned around the places we NEED to eat this year.

Pray for Derek’s sanity while I’m gone. I think he and C will have a lot of fun, but this is the longest he’s ever been on his own with him. On top of that, Kristin and I are taking our only car. They’ll be a little bit stranded-although there are several parks in walking distance and they have big plans to ride the train down to Best Buy to look at the big TV’s. Boy stuff.

Onto a totally different topic…

I have good news! Connor has used the word mook correctly in a sentence! I couldn’t be prouder. He has some Vincent in him! He learned it on Saturday morning while I was picking up Kristin at the airport. We got stuck at some really long lights and I said “What a mook!” He, of course, repeated it since that is what he does. Later that day he took a spill outside and scraped his arm up against a rough wall, scratching it pretty badly. Later when he came in to show Derek his wound he said, and I qoute, “What a mook!” My heart swelled with pride.

To the 2 or so people who read this who don’t know what a mook is..
It’s a word my brother James coined. It’s basically when something doesn’t go your way. It can be a noun or a verb. You can mook someone or something can mook you. I tried to get Derek to help me come up with a good definition, but he’s a little busy playing x-box. Sorry that the definition isn’t more flowery! It’s a mook that D can’t help me right now with this!

Look for some great beach pictures on Friday!

It’s almost time for the great hair chopping of 2005. I’m not for sure yet, but I think a new haircut is in my near future. I’ve been growing my hair long for the past year and a half. I’ve only had my hair this long two other times in my life.

My sister is coming to visit tomorrow. She mentioned that she wanted to get a new haircut while she was out here. I’m thinking I might just join her in that adventure. I never fix my hair anymore because it takes too long. Plus, my hair has been falling out at an alarming rate (something about the hormones of not being pregnant anymore) and I’m not sure I can stomach cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms again with my super long hairs creating a carpet over the linoleum. In my opinion there is nothing grosser than a clump wet, dirty hair stuck to my hands and the sponge. Blech.

So, what do you think? I don’t want anything like 2 inches long. Anywhere from my chin to my shoulders is okay. Or should I just keep it long? My hair is really thick and sort of wavy (especailly the underneath part). Anyone seen any really cute haircuts lately? Please vote in my poll below! (I have no idea why it’s showing up so far below the pictures.)

So these were the best pics I could come up with. Please excuse the cheesy grin in the long hair one. That’s from December so my hair is just a little longer now. And I sure hope my face is a little less fat since I’m not preggo anymore.

My Ballot Box Should I cut my hair off? Yes No View Results

PS-Ry, I need to see your hair again. I think it’s really cute!

Does anyone else think that it’s odd that you’re supposed to choose what you want to be when you grow up when you’re 18? I, for one, didn’t even know who I was at 18, much less what I wanted to do for the next 50 years of my life.

And I know that people will say that you don’t have to choose. You can always change later. In fact, I think most people change careers at least once in their lives. But I would say that going college right out of high school is the most convenient time to make plans for the future.

When I started college 7 years ago, I went in as a Speech Pathology major. I remember sometime during my first year thinking about changing my mind. I suddenly thought it would be nice to be a first grade teacher. But I stuck with speech path. After 3 semesters I got married, moved, and transferred. I stuck with Speech Path for only a few more weeks. Suddenly the thought of graduate school wasn’t so appealing. And honestly, everything else in my life was so hard at that point (leaving all my family and friends) that it almost felt like the only thing I could control was my major. While thumbing through the course catalog of a school I absolutely did not want to be attending, I decided I wanted to be a P.E. major. All those sports classes were so appealing to me. So I changed majors. One more semester at that school and I transferred again, only to realize that if I wanted to keep my PE major I would be in school for at least an extra year. So I changed majors again-Liberal Studies with a PE minor. I would be a teacher-hopefully either grade 3 or under or elementary or middle school PE. My only motivation for changing was to finish sooner. I never gave any real thought to an actual teaching career. Just before graduation, this silly thought entered my mind: I should have done nursing. I ignored it, graduated with honors, began looking for a teaching job and considered going to graduate school (after innitally switching majors to avoid it…ironic, huh.)

Two weeks later, a second pink line appeared on a little stick and just like that the path of my life changed. My teaching career was over before it even started.

So, here I am, three years later with two beautiful little boys and loving being a stay at home mom (most days, anyway). But that little thought that entered my mind three years ago keeps coming back. I should have done nursing. It’s getting louder and louder. I firmly believe that one of these days I will go back to school and become a nurse-more specifically, a labor and delivery nurse.

Had I only known this 7 years ago, it would have been so easy. To go to nursing school now will be a huge undertaking. Even though I think I finally know what I want to be when I grow up, it will be a long time before it actually happens. I’m lucky that being a mom is my only job right now.

I’ve had two comments asking about tri-tip, so I’m going to educate all you Eastern people about a wonderful cut of meat. This must be a California meat.

I copied this from Ask the Meatman.

“A beef tri-tip roast is a boneless cut of meat from the bottom sirloin. It also is called “triangular” roast because of its shape.

Tri-tip was seldom marketed when carcass beef or beef quarters were delivered to retail markets because there are only two tri-tips per carcass. This meant that there was not enough for a case display. Consequently, the butcher would grind or cube it. Today, most stores receive boneless boxed beef. If you don’t see tri-tip in the meat case, ask for it.

Tri-tip roasts will vary from 1 1/2 to 2 pounds and are about two inches thick. If a roast is cooked to rare in the center, the thinner outside edges are medium to well, offering perfectly cooked beef for every taste. The tri-tip can be cooked whole or cut into one-inch thick steaks or strips. When the meat is cut into one-eighth inch strips, it can be used for stir-fry recipes and fajitas. If it is cut into one-fourth inch thick strips, weave the meat onto skewers and quickly broil or grill.

The beef tri-tip roast may be marinated if you wish. Marinades adds flavor but is not necessary to tenderize the cut. Looking for ways to reduce calories and fat? Tri-tip is the answer. A 3-ounce cooked portion of tri-tip is just 177 calories.”

So there it is. Everything you ever needed to know about tri-tip. It’s kind of an expensive cut of meat but it goes on sale all the time out here. Here is the recipe I used on the 4th:

Marinated Tri-Tip
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 cloves chopped garlic
a few chopped green onions
2 t lemon pepper

Cut most of the fat off of the meat. Poke holes or make cuts in the meat so the marinade soaks in. Marinade over night and grill.

Remember that stupid joke that’s funny when your like 10? “Are you PT?” If you answer yes, then you’re a pregnant teenager. If you answer no then your not potty trained. 10 year old humor…does it get any better?

I wasn’t going to blog about potty training, but I just can’t help myself. We began this big boy adventure a week ago. He has done prefectly with peeing. He even likes to do it standing up so he can be just like daddy. #2 is another story. I’m not sure if he’s scared or what his hang up is. All I know is that I am sick and tired of cleaning out poopy underwear. I’ve tried bribing with candy and videos, singing silly songs, giving him a sticker, etc. Nothing worked. I pulled out the big guns today. “Connor, if you go poop in the potty, then we will go to Target and you can pick out a new truck.” I must have gotten through to him. He did, as he says, “a big one” in the toilet. It’s possibly one of my proudest mom moments. It may have taken him 30 minutes, but he got the job done. Even though it was way past naptime, we loaded up the car so Connor could pick out his prize. I can’t believe how big he is getting.

Of course, I took pictures of the big event…

The 4th of July…I’m pretty sure that I once said that the 4th might be my favorite holiday besides Christmas. I love fireworks and the patriotic music; eating good summer foods, just everything about it. For the past two years we’ve skipped out on the fireworks show and the 4th just isn’t the same. Don’t get me wrong, we still had a great day yesterday, but I really wish it had finished with a great fireworks show. But with the kids and the traffic of going anywhere and the cost, it just didn’t happen.

What did happen was a great barbeque with some friends. We had a bunch of people over from Cal Tech. There were four other familes besides ours. This isn’t a crowd we normally hang out with, but it was really a great time. The kids swam and played and we had great summer food like barbeque chicken, tri-tip, hot dogs, corn on the cob, potato salad, etc. When the evening was over I wondered why we don’t hang out with those people more often. It was a great night.

I don’t want to disappoint you so here are just a few snapshots.

Logan was all partied out.

I have no idea what C is doing in that first picture. But what I do know is shortly after that he decided to jump up and down on the bench and bit it big time. You can see the big red scratch on his stomach in the second picture. I guess it’s all part of being a boy, right?

About a month ago I got a new digital camera, the Canon Powershot A95. I would highly recommend it for anyone in the market for a nice digital camera with creative control. I’ve taken some really cute pictures in the past month and I’ve been waiting for the perfect blog to post them. Forget waiting for the perfect topic for these pictures! I’m just going to post them. So if you don’t want to look at my kids, don’t scroll down.

This is my brother Patrick.

Could C’s face BE any dirtier?!

I’m sure that Derek is wondering why I didn’t just make a picture album. By the time I realized that that would have been a much faster way to do this, I was almost done. So there you have it. The best of the best so far. I love my camera.

This is an actual account of our dinner conversation tonight:

(Everyone quietly enjoying dinner)

(Mom passes rather loud gas)

Connor-“Daddy have poo-ie boo-ie”

Dad-“No, MOM has a pooty booty”

(mom laughs uncontrolably)

Dad-“How come it’s only funny when you fart and not when I do? I refuse to give you the satisfaction of laughing. Do you need to wipe?”

(Dad laughs)

Connor- (singing) abcdefg….

Mom-“How do you spell Connor?”

Connor-“C-O-N-O-R”

Mom-“How do you spell Logan?”

Connor-“Logan starts with L”

Mom-“Very good. What’s mommy’s name?”

Connor-“Mommy is Megan”

Mom-“What’s daddy’s name?”

Connor-“Daddy Derek.”

Mom-“Good! What’s the kitty’s name?”

(Connor thinks for several moments)

Connor-“Cow says moooooo.”

(Mom and dad laugh)

I just love having converstaions with Connor.