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other photos

2012-02-09T08:30:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I showed you an update of my #febphotoaday challenge, but today I thought I'd share some random pictures that have been sitting on my cell phone that really have nothing to do with anything...

So maybe once in the history of ordering at a Starbucks or a Jamba Juice has anyone ever spelled my name correctly. Usually I get Andrean (which must be some sort of space creature). Last week I got this (see above). Is Adrienne really such a hard name to spell? Sometimes I get Adrian and that's fine because people spell it that way, but Andrean or Adiran? Really?
Car wash. Belle thinks she's going to get wet too I guess.
My "office". Sometimes when things are quiet at home, I escape to the bedroom with my Tivo, cell phone, camera, laptop and iPad. It's all I need to have a little time to myself. I blog, check emails, upload photos and watch bad reality TV. It's heaven.
Matchees! Mine, Belle's and Abby's Converse-covered feet. We've got the full range from Jack Purcells to Chuck Taylors to the One Stars.
Fully stocked fridge. Every Monday the girls and I do all the grocery shopping so this is what our fridge looks like from about Monday-Wednesday. Then it's pretty much empty again.
I love when Belle wants to sit in her room alone and I go in to check on her and find this. She loves to read.

We replaced our old Obama '08 sticker with a '12 one! If you know me at all you know I'm pretty liberal and a big Obama supporter. I'm really not shy about my political views, clearly.

#febphotoaday

2012-02-08T08:30:00.000-08:00

I'm participating in a February Photo a Day Challenge. If you follow me on twitter or Instagram, you've probably seen all of these, but I thought I'd share an update once a week on the blog too!Here's the challenge...

Day 1: my view today
My view most days are of these two little nuggets. I love them more than anything.
Day 2: words
What has more words than books? This is a snippet of one of my bookshelves. I put a green sticker on every book I've read so that I can keep track.
Day 3: hands
After Belle's nap in the afternoon, she likes to snuggle and watch Dora and sometimes we hold hands :)
Day 4: a stranger
There's a stranger living in my body! I can't wait to meet him. PS - sorry for the cell phone mirror shot, I really hate those, but I couldn't photograph this big belly by myself any other way!
Day 5: 10 AM
This was my Monday morning. This is actually how I spend time most mornings after getting showered and dressed, I sit at the table with my iPad and eat breakfast while the girls play. On Mondays I make my meal plan and grocery list, so that's what the notecards are about.
Day 6: dinner

I'm a pasta fanatic and luckily my husband is an excellent cook.

Movies: Cedar Rapids & The Artist

2012-02-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

I know what you're thinking... why would I watch two movies that are so similar? It's like seeing the same thing twice! The ArtistJustin saw this movie a long time ago and when it was nominated for a best picture Oscar, I decided I wanted to see it too. I went by myself which I love doing - no one to fight over popcorn with! I thought the movie was really cute. It wasn't the greatest movie I've ever seen, but it was very entertaining. Justin, being the movie buff he is, explained to me all of the old-Hollywood movie references that I wouldn't have picked up otherwise (although I did catch little homages to Singin' in the Rain and Sunset Boulevard). I think if you're at all familiar with old movies and especially silent films, you'll probably appreciate this movie a lot more than I did (I don't know much about film history). But even if you don't, it's a very cute film.

Cedar RapidsJustin wanted to Netflix this because one of his favorite movie reviewers really liked it last year. I like Ed Helms on The Office and in The Hangover, so I said ok. It was heartwarming and cute. Not the most amazing film ever, but very entertaining. I'd say if you're in the mood for a light comedy and you like Ed Helm's style humor, it's a pretty solid choice.

the last weekend

2012-02-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

To continue our anniversary celebration, Justin and I decided to have a final night alone before Leo is born. We asked Justin's parents if they could watch Belle overnight at their house so that Justin and I could spend an evening alone and both of us could have a chance to sleep in on the same day (imagine that!) I figured with Leo coming in a couple of months, we won't want to leave him overnight for at least a year (Belle was almost two when we left her overnight for the first time and I hated every second of it) so this could be our last chance to have some kid-free time for a while!

We woke up on Saturday morning, bathed, packed up Belle and headed down to my in-laws house. We got there just in time for Belle to eat lunch and go down for her nap and then Justin and I were off! We drove up to Menlo Park to eat at one of our favorite guilty pleasure places (Cook's Seafood) where we indulged in big plates of fried fish and chips like this...

After lunch we wandered around Stanford Mall for a little while where I scoped out some Spring/Summer clothes for Belle (Ummm, bright colored jeans for toddlers? Yes please! So cute!). Then we headed home to rest/get ready for our big anniversary dinner.
For dinner we went to Chez Panisse. If you're familiar with the East Bay (and Berkeley in particular), you'd know about a little area we call The Gourmet Ghetto. It has some of the best food in California (Saul's, Gregoire and Cheeseboard are some of our faves) and Chez Panisse is right in the middle of it. You have to make reservations there a month in advance and there are two options: there's the Chez Panisse Cafe upstairs that's just their regular (although really nice) restaurant and then there's the Chez Panisse Restaurant downstairs that has a fixed four course menu every night. We decided to do the Cafe for two reasons: 1- it's cheaper, 2- being pregnant, there are a lot of things I can't eat that are often included on the set menu so we didn't want to spend the money if there were courses I couldn't have. Plus, most of what's on the set menu you can order upstairs off the regular menu. Anyway, long story short, the food was delicious. It's all very simple food made with the freshest ingredients possible. Justin and I had a spicy broccoli pizzetta as an appetizer, I had a ricotta and spinach ravioli with black truffles and peas, Justin had a shellfish stew and then we shared a sour cherry and pink lady apple galette for dessert. It was really really good and really light so we didn't feel like we stuffed ourselves afterwards. I wish I would have taken pictures of our food, but I didn't want to be one of "those" people in such a nice place, so I refrained. We did however manage to snag a menu to add to the menu wall in our kitchen...

We really wanted to take advantage of being able to stay out late by going to see a movie, but there really weren't any movies we were dying to see so instead we went to the local movie theater and just bought popcorn, took it home and watched Mildred Pierce on bluray in bed. It was really nice and relaxing.
As much as I loved having the time alone with Justin, it was really weird to be at home without Belle. I'm already starting to get sad thinking about being in the hospital for five days when I have Leo and not being able to read Belle stories every night and snuggle with her in the mornings.
Sunday morning Justin and I both slept in until 10:30, got up and had breakfast, showered and got ready and headed back down to the in-laws to pick up Belle. We got there just in time to eat lunch and snuggle with her a little before her nap. We stayed down there to watch the Superbowl and to test out some appetizers my mother-in-law is going to make for the baby shower. After the game we headed home in time to put Belle to bed.
And that was our weekend!

Tell Me...

2012-02-02T20:58:00.000-08:00

My friend and sorority sister, Tracy, is doing a weekly link up over at her blog Then I Got to Thinking so I thought I'd participate. This week's topic... something that unexpectedly changed my life.
This is a pretty easy topic for me. Let me begin at the beginning... Justin and I (as I've mentioned a million times before) started dating when we were 16 and 18. He was a junior in high school and I was a freshman in college. Our relationship lasted through his last year and a half of high school and we somehow made it through all of our years in college (four for him, five for me). By the time we both graduated we had been together for five and a half years. He was to start graduate school at Berkeley and I was working full time so we decided to take the leap and move in together.
Our plan was to live together for two years until he was done with his Master's degree and then sometime between his Master's and his qualifying exams a year later we'd get engaged/married. We were going right along for a year with me working, saving money and doing a little bit of traveling. I found an engagement ring that I loved and was expecting to get engaged within the year (I was pushing for sooner rather than later) when I got a funny feeling. I won't get into any personal details but I began to get worried enough that I ended up taking a pregnancy test. Both Justin and I were so sure there was no way I was pregnant, it really shouldn't have been possible. But sure enough that little pink line appeared. I think to say we were shocked would be an understatement. We had always talked about having kids. We had already agreed on having three or four and had even picked out names but we thought we were at least a few years off from all of that. To add more stress to the mix, I had just started a new job and Justin was still an entire school year away from getting his Master's degree. Not exactly our plan. Despite our being completely freaked out, we knew that it was meant to be this way. We had been living together for a while, our relationship had a rock-solid foundation and although it wasn't the timing we had planned on, we decided to make the most of it and jumped head first into planning for parenthood.
Things didn't exactly go smoothly though during my pregnancy. We had just moved into a much smaller apartment and were now realizing that it wouldn't be big enough for the three of us. I also got laid off from my job when I was five months pregnant. If that shocks you, imagine how I felt! I was the bread winner in our house, Justin was a grad student, there was no way we could raise a kid off of the stipend he made student-teaching. Looking back, I'm actually glad that I lost my job. Had I stayed there I would have gone right back to work putting Belle in daycare (which is fine, I have nothing against daycare at all), but I wasn't able to find a job being almost six months pregnant and once Belle was born Justin and I sat down and I confessed that there was no way I could go to work every day to a job that I didn't love and not be with Belle every day. I was really attached to her and the thought of leaving her even for an hour broke my heart more than I could handle. Whatever job I would find, I would end up paying more than half of my income towards daycare and it didn't seem worth it to me. With my severance and unemployment we were able to get by and we both agreed that I would stay home with her as long as we could make it work financially. When Belle was about five months old I began realizing that I needed to find some sort of income. That's where Abby and Sarah came in. The rest is history. Now I get paid to stay home with Belle and she has a playmate that she gets to hang out with every day. It really worked out to be a win-win for everyone. On top of all that, Justin has managed to stay on track in school (which is a miracle and a testament to his work ethic and extreme dedication to his career) and will be done with his PhD in two more years.
So to say that Belle was the thing that unexpectedly changed our lives would be grossly understating her importance. If it weren't for her, I would still be working full time at a job that I didn't love, Justin would still be in school, but our lives would be so much more incomplete. We always say that Belle wasn't an accident, we always wanted her, she just came a few years before we planned. Instead of getting married and then trying for a baby, we switched it up and it worked out amazingly well. It made our marriage/relationship stronger and it taught us so much about what's important in life. I could be out working at a job that paid me a lot more money, but we wouldn't have the time that we have together now. As it is, Justin being a student, his schedule is pretty flexible so we get to spend a lot of our time together. We may not own a house (yet), have college tuition set aside or have traveled the world, but we have each other every day and we couldn't be happier.

Tahoe

2012-02-02T08:30:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up, my dad's family owned a vacation house in Tahoe that we would visit at least once a year. Going to the snow was a huge part of my childhood and I loved it. I remember learning to ski as a little kid and snowboarding when I was older. I've always been more of a snow person than a sand person. From where I grew up, Tahoe was about a 5-6 hour drive. Now I live a couple hours closer so a trip to Tahoe is only about three hours. Plus, Belle's best friend Abby's parents own a vacation house in Tahoe too that they graciously let us take advantage of whenever we want. Remember we went over summer with Abby and her mom? And we've gone two other times that I didn't blog about. Anyway, because I love the snow so much, it's important for me while we live here to take our kids to the snow at least once a year. This year Belle is a little young to teach to ski (and I can't ski being pregnant and all), so we decided to just go and play in the snow. Belle had so much fun we practically had to drag her back inside when it got too cold.
all bundled up
building a snowman
adding some hair
Belle named him "Frosty"
exploring
making snowballs
Frosty day 2: he didn't hold up so well overnight

loving it
attempting to get a family picture before we had to leave
Belle and mommy

Monthly Resolutions: February

2012-02-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or do these months go by faster and faster? I feel like I just made these resolutions a week ago (which is probably why I slacked a little, I thought I had more time!) Here's how I did in January...

I wore NO colored nail polish all month and let me tell you, it was hard! My nails feel gross and naked with no color and it doesn't help that I have ugly hands to begin with. I'm not really sure the no color polish thing helped, they still cracked and had to be trimmed/filed a couple times a week, but I did keep a clear coat on to protect them. Here's what they look like now (ready for some color!)
I finished Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (review HERE) and Tina Fey's Boyssypants (review HERE). Still have a little bit to go in Kathy Griffin's book, but hopefully it'll be done by the end of the week.
I did not use my credit card once! Yay me!
I have done prenatal yoga approximately zero times this month. I know, I know. I just really don't have the energy. I have two little ones to run around with every day and by the time Belle's in bed and asleep it's usually after 9 PM and Justin and I have about two hours to hang out and watch tv together before I'm ready to call it a night. I also just found out (due to some routine pregnancy blood work) that I have anemia which is also sucking the energy out of me but I've been put on an iron supplement by my doctor so I'm hoping that helps.
The night of our anniversary Justin and I treated ourselves to an extremely unhealthy meal at Off the Grid (see below). On top of what's in the picture, we also got a burger and garlic fries. Gross, I know, and we definitely felt it later, but it was so delicious. We also went to Tahoe last weekend with Belle (more on that later). This weekend we also have a special anniversary date planned (more on that next week). So I think it's safe to say that we definitely celebrated ten years well.

Here are my resolutions for February...

Read The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (and finish Kathy Griffin).
Not to use my credit card again for one month. Although I will have to do some Spring clothes shopping for Belle in the next few months, I think I can put it off at least for February.
Attempt to do prenatal yoga (?) I'm having a really hard time with my energy so I'm hoping I can at least get some exercise in this month, but I'm not ready to be accountable for a certain number of workouts.
Plan an execute Belle's third birthday party! I've already ordered and addressed the invitations, now I just need to start thinking about food/decorations, etc. I cannot believe she will be three.
It's also my brother-in-law's birthday this month and I'm trying to put together a barbecue at our place for him but it may have to wait until March (sorry Bryant).
I'm also planning a small, informal baby shower at our apartment in March so I need to get going on that too.

That's pretty much it. I'm trying not to overfill my plate before the baby comes, but I know things will continually pop up. I'm sure I'll have a lot to accomplish next month with the other baby shower, Justin's birthday and Justin going out of town for a conference (all less than a month before Leo is due).

Book: Bossypants

2012-01-31T15:01:00.000-08:00

If you hadn't noticed, all I'm reading this month are books by female comedians. I started with Mindy Kaling's book, then read Tina Fey's Bossypants. Bossypants is a little less light-hearted than Mindy's book, but it was just as funny. It's always interesting to hear about successful women and their take on things. I especially liked her chapter on how to behave at a glamorous photo shoot called Amazing, Gorgeous, Not Like That. Her candidness on parenthood and the guilt of wanting both a family and a career are very relatable and endearing. She's also not afraid to make fun of herself (a little too much) and put down her appearance. Her funniest chapter is probably Dear Internet where she responds to people who make comments about her online. Overall I'd recommend this book as a light, easy read.

great conversations

2012-01-30T08:30:00.001-08:00

Every single day both Justin and Belle make me laugh. I sometimes make them laugh too. We spend most of our time in our house together so we try to entertain each other as much as we can. Here are a few things that have happened in the past week...

Justin reading his book while I'm watching Teen Mom in the background (this by the way is pretty much the epitome of our marriage, lol).
Justin: Wow, my book just got really sad
Me: Sadder than Teen Mom?
Justin: No, nothing is sadder than Teen Mom... and that Jenelle girl is crazy. Not just a little crazy, she's really really crazy.

While shopping in Target Belle chooses until we are stopped still in an aisle surrounded by the most people we could possibly be surrounded by to bust out...
"I got the moves like Jagger! I got the moves like Jagger! I got the moooooooves like Jagger!!!"
I really don't know where she gets this stuff, I would never listen to such corny music... ummm.

Me: NPR is sooo boring. It's like Ambien, I should just put it on when I can't sleep.
Justin: No way! NPR is really interesting. The other day I was listening to this story about explorers in the early 1900's who were trying to find the South Pole and when they got there there was a Russian flag. You don't think that's interesting?
Me: I think that's the opposite of interesting.
Justin: Sometimes they have boring stories though, like a story they did about healthy meals you can make with canned food.
Me (blank stare)

Me, after seeing a picture of Rihanna smoking pot: What's the big deal about Rihanna smoking pot? Who cares?
Justin: Yeah, isn't she from Barbados? That's just like having your morning coffee.

Belle: Mommy look! My pee pee is yellow just like your hair is yellow! Amarillo!

35 weeks? Nope, just 27

2012-01-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

Don't I look enormous? Haha! How far along: 27 weeks
Size of baby: The size of a head of cauliflower, 14.5 inches long and almost 2 pounds.
Maternity clothes: Maternity pants, still wearing my regular shirts.
Gender: Still a baby boy I hope!
Movement: I can feel him pretty regularly now, but he's not too crazy in there. I hope that's a good sign.
Sleep: Tired all the time still, but I think it's more about the fact that I'm pregnant running around with two little kids than the fact that I'm not getting enough sleep.
Cravings: None really, I just eat like a truck driver now, but that's ok.
Symptoms: I have to say, even my doctor is telling me this is one of the easiest pregnancies she's ever seen. I feel really blessed to have had very little morning sickness and tiredness and smooth sailing otherwise. Every time I have a doctor's appointment she asks if I have any questions or concerns and I never do. My blood pressure, weight gain and the baby's heartbeat and size are right on track every single time and I've passed all of my blood work with flying colors. This pregnancy has been so easy and flawless it makes me want to have four kids.... maybe. Haha.
What I'm looking forward to: We're getting into the final stretch now, I'll be in my third trimester next week! I'm mostly looking forward to meeting him at this point. I'm also having two baby showers (which I know is a little unorthodox for a second child), but my mother-in-law has been gracious enough to offer to throw me one at her house for our friends and family back in the South Bay (an hour and a half away), and I figured my friends here in the East Bay won't want to drive that far so we're doing a small get together at our place as well. So I'm looking forward to both of those.

Non-baby related I'm looking forward to: Belle's birthday party, our trip to Tahoe, our anniversary celebration next weekend including a dinner at Chez Panisse, planning something for Justin's birthday and taking Belle to see Toy Story on ice. Plus a whole lot of other stuff in between.

Movies: Moneyball & A Dangerous Method

2012-01-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

MoneyballJustin and I Netflix'd this a couple of weeks ago. Being a sports movie, I had zero expectations so I actually ended up liking it a lot! I really can't stand Brad Pitt's acting though, is there a role he plays where he's not chewing on something and squinting? Really? Yeah, I didn't think so. Jonah Hill was really good in it though and the story was pretty compelling. It was written by Steven Zaillian (and if you don't know who he is, IMDB him and be impressed). Overall, I'd give it a thumbs up!
A Dangerous MethodThis movie was just ok. Keira Knightley's acting was so over the top that it was really distracting. She wasn't convincing as a mental patient at all, she looked like an actor trying to look like a mental patient. The story was ok, but a little boring for my taste. Viggo Mortensen was excellent as Freud.

happy ten years my love

2012-01-25T08:30:00.000-08:00

I normally don't like to get mushy in front of people and especially not on the internet. I like to save my affection for private moments between me and the people that I love. But I cannot let a milestone like this blow over with just a quick "Happy Anniversary" and a picture. Because this day (and this man) mean so much to me, I thought I'd make an exception and post something from the heart.
Justin, The past ten years have been by far the best of my life. Over the past decade we have: grown up, gone to college, graduated, lived apart and lived together. We've gone to funerals and weddings, traveled to Hawaii, Colorado, Boston, New York, Australia, New Orleans, the Bahamas, Chicago, and all over California. We've gotten married, been through two pregnancies (resulting in one sassy daughter and a son to come), and have moved together three times in the past five years. We've laughed, we've cried, been on adventures and planned for our future. We've made sacrifices and have enjoyed our riches. So much has changed in our lives over the past ten years but the one thing that's been the same is our love, respect and admiration for each other. We've never had a rough patch, a break or a separation. We've been rock solid for over a third of our lives and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. There's absolutely nothing I would change about you, our lives together or the life we plan to have. You are the best husband, father, friend, role model, companion and partner I could possibly wish for. Here's to us then, now and forever. - Me!Here are just a few of my favorite memories from the past ten years... I know I've posted this picture before, but it's one of my favorites. Taken in April 2002 only three months after we started dating. My mom, brother and I went to have family portraits taken for Easter and my mom told Justin to jump in and take a picture with me. It's only one of a hundred pictures we took that day, but it's one of my all time favorites.
Justin's senior prom: April 2003One of my favorite memories and one of the last moments of our childhood.
The college years.
Pregnancy #1 almost complete. This is right before our lives changed for the better forever.
Our Wedding Day: September 19, 2009

Oscar nominations!

2012-01-24T15:10:00.000-08:00

Every year I look forward to the Oscar nomination announcements. Justin and I are big movie people (ok, Justin is a big movie person so by osmosis, I sometimes watch good movies). Plus they always announce the nominees right around our anniversary and the awards are always around Belle's birthday which makes it seem more special, like they know those are important dates for us, haha.

This year, I am really happy with the list of nominees for the following reasons:
- Tree of Life was nominated for best picture after being pretty much shut out at the other movie award shows (Golden Globes, People's Choice, SAGs).
- Rooney Mara being nominated for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I was really hoping she'd get a nomination, she was so good! Although I'm bummed that she's up against Meryl Streep and Michelle Williams who I think are both brilliant actors and totally deserve nominations, but a small part of me thinks that nearly anything they do will earn them a nomination, especially since they played real people.*
- Melissa McCarthy being nominated for Bridesmaids which was one of my favorite movies last year. Plus I've been a Melissa McCarthy fan from her Sookie days on Gilmore Girls.
- Kristin Wiig being nominated for best original screenplay for Bridesmaids because I think female comedians are often underestimated.
- Jonah Hill being nominated for Moneyball. I think he was amazing in that movie and was really hoping he'd get nominated.

Don't completely hate me, but I'm a little disappointed that The Help got so much hype. I thought that movie was a little on the corny side and wasn't a huge fan, but I am glad that Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer got nominated because I appreciate when there are good roles for black actors and those two nailed it in that movie.

Now I really want to see The Artist because it's getting so much buzz and I think it may win best picture!
Overall I think it was a pretty weak year for movies, but for the most part the best ones all got nominations. This year should be a good year because all of these directors have movies coming out - I put in parentheses the movies they are most known for: Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, Cuaron (Children of Men), Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge), the Cohen brothers (No Country for Old Men), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), Wes Anderson (Royal Tenenbaums), Woody Allen, Sam Mendes (American Beauty), Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker). For a complete list of movies you can look forward to in 2012, click HERE.

What movies are you excited about?

* Fun fact: since the year 2000, six best actor winners and seven best actress winners won for their roles based on real people.

Book: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And other concerns)

2012-01-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

I finished this book over a week ago and haven't had time to review it yet. It is hilarious! If you are a girl and you love The Office, you will love this book. It's a lot of the same humor but from a female perspective. It's also short and easy to read. And if you are debating whether or not you'll like this book, read the introduction and if it doesn't convince you, then it's probably not for you. Personally I think Mindy Kaling is one of the smartest, funniest women around. Some of my favorite chapters in the book are: Don't Peak in High School, Types of Women in Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real, When You Are Not Skinny This is What People Want You To Wear, and Strict Instructions for My Funeral.

Busy bees

2012-01-17T12:19:00.000-08:00

Forgive me if my blogging becomes sporadic over the next couple of months. Here's what we have going on in the Gomer house...

AGD (my college sorority) executive council retreat
Justin doing a side job for an entire weekend
A trip to Tahoe
Our big anniversary celebration
Super Bowl Sunday
BBQ at our house for my bro-in-law's birthday
Planning and executing a birthday party for Belle
2 baby showers (one at our place)
A birthday party for Justin
Registering for baby #2 including taking inventory of all the baby stuff we already have
Taking the girls to all of their regular activities
Finding a good pediatrician for Leo and prepping our house for a baby again

... Oh yeah and actually having a baby in three months. We barely have a free moment, but I'm hoping it'll make the next few months go by quickly, I can't wait to meet our baby boy!

Golden Globes gowns - my faves and the not-so-much

2012-01-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

I know everyone is doing blog posts about their favorite and least favorite dresses from last night and for the most part I agree with everyone, but there were a few dresses that I didn't think got enough attention.

Here's my top 5 women who I thought looked absolutely stunning...

Kate BeckinsaleI love her jewelry and the simple design of her dress
Julianna MarguliesA lot of people didn't like this dress, but I thought it was perfection on her! And the blue/green jewelry with the purple dress I thought was brilliant. She's so gorgeous though, she could wear anything and it would look amazing.
Heidi KlumTotal bohemian chic, I love it even if it is a bit casual for the Golden Globes. Her hair is also the perfect California girl hair.
Emma StoneGorgeous, unexpected dress. Much prettier than all the horrendous taffeta I saw on the red carpet.
Julie BowenSimple, elegant, feminine, demure. I love the sleeves.

And here are the 5 dresses that I did not like...

Angelina JolieThis looks like a bad prom dress from the '90s. I am not loving the two-toned look. Yuck.
Natalie PortmanSuch a gorgeous girl in such an ugly looking prom dress. Pink and red are never a good combo.
Paula PattonTwo words - giant banana. A big bright yellow dress is rarely a good idea.
Michelle WilliamsWhy does this pretty girl always want to look so dowdy?
Lea MicheleIt looks like her dress is a robot that is eating her.

Belle & Abby & picture overload

2012-01-13T08:30:00.000-08:00

If you didn't already know, I spend my days with my daughter Belle and her best friend Abby. Abby's mom and I have known each other for years and both had daughters two months apart. When Abby was seven months old and Belle was five months old, Abby's mom Sarah had to go back to work and was looking to put Abby in daycare. I was also looking to go back to work but was having a hard time finding a job, so we came up with a great solution: I would watch Abby during the week so Sarah could go back to work and I could stay home with both girls. Plus, built in playmates = major bonus. That was more than two years ago and Belle and Abby have grown up like sisters ever since. They couldn't be more different personality-wise, but they compliment each other and love each other like sisters. Both are the sweetest girls and I'm so lucky I get to spend my days with them. Funnily enough, Sarah's best friend and neighbor just had a baby boy in October and starting next summer I will be watching him along with my baby boy who's due in April. How lucky is that? As soon as the girls go off to preschool I'll get to do the whole thing over again with boys.

But enough mushy stuff... last year Sarah decided she wanted to hire a photographer to take pictures of the girls as a birthday gift to me. Scheduling it became difficult, but in November we finally did it and the pictures turned out amazing! Most of them are of Belle and Abby but Justin and I managed to squeeze in for a few. Here are some of my favorites. Sorry for the picture overload! I didn't post them before now because we ended up giving them to the grandparents as Christmas gifts and didn't want to spoil the surprise by posting them online first.

Photographs by Dia Rao of Dia Rao Photography

Book: Cinderella Ate My Daughter

2012-01-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

Yay! My first book review since October!So I know this is not exactly a page-turning novel, but occasionally I like to read books about raising kids, because, well, that's what I do. Belle's getting to an age where most girls are super into pink, sparkles and princesses. Living in Berkeley and being the liberal minded people we are, Justin and I have always been pretty wary of Disney and princesses in particular. We worry about the message these movies send to little girls about beauty, love and the importance of looks and doing things that "girls" are supposed to do. Let me be clear, I don't in any way judge parents who make different choices than we do. We don't completely discourage Belle from being exposed to princesses, but we don't encourage it either, we try not to place too much importance on it either way.
From the beginning we've always tried to expose Belle to a wide range of toys/shows/movies as possible and not limit her to just things that girls are supposed to do/like. And we've been pretty lucky so far, she's super into Dora and Diego and has a great imagination. And if she wants something that is pink/sparkly or princess related, I don't tell her no, I just don't encourage those things over anything else. So far her favorite color is blue, her favorite show is Diego and her favorite movie is Toy Story. And in case you are worried that she's missing out, she has seen Beauty and the Beast and knows very well what princesses are, her best friend Abby is the epitome of a girly girl loving all things pink and sparkly, but so far Belle hasn't shown much interest in those things.
This book explores the pink phenomenon and talks a lot about not only why little girls are into "girly" things, but what companies do to specifically market to them and why. The author (who is a critically acclaimed journalists who has been writing about issues like these for years in publications such as Vogue, The New York Times and The New Yorker), examines multiple facets of girly-girl culture and marketing from everything from Disney to Toddlers in Tiaras to American Girl. She does a great job of taking a not-too-judgmental stance on these issues and reports facts and studies that have been done about such marketing. It's a really interesting look at the culture our girls are being raised in and, if anything, made me more aware of what these toys/products/movies are really telling our daughters. I'd recommend it to any mother of a daughter whether they are pro-princess or not.
I also have to mention that the author is also a liberal minded mother who lives in our neighborhood in Berkeley so a lot of her opinions are very similar to my own which made me like this book even more.

movies lately

2012-01-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

With all of my shows being on winter hiatus, Justin and I have been watching a lot of movies, here's what we've seen over the past few weeks...

The DescendantsI really liked this movie. It was dramatic without being melodramatic, the performances were fantastic. It reminded me a lot of Sideways (same director - Alexander Payne), so if you liked that movie, you'll probably like this one too.
EraserheadJustin is really into directors and knowing all of their work and right now he's into David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Elephant Man) so of course we had to watch Eraserhead. This was by far the weirdest thing I have ever seen in my life. It was crazy, made no sense and was really creepy in a scary/sci-fi way. I wouldn't recommend this unless you are really into avant-garde movies that may give you nightmares.
The Hangover III really liked to first one, but everyone said the second one was terrible. We gave it a shot and I actually thought it was pretty funny. Almost every scenario in it is identical to the first movie, but set in Bangkok.
Midnight in ParisJustin saw this in theaters and loved it so I bought it for him on bluray for Christmas and watched it with him again. I thought it was ok. I can't really get past Owen Wilson - he really bugs me - and have never been a huge Woody Allen fan, but it was cute.
The King's SpeechI didn't want to watch this last year when it came out, but when it won best picture at the Oscars last year I thought I'd give it a chance when it came out on DVD. I finally got around to watching it and now I regret it. I fell asleep after the first forty minutes and finished watching it a few days later. I found it really boring and didn't care so much that he had a stutter. I was more interested in the stories going on in the background (his brother abdicating the throne, England entering WWII, etc.) than I was in the fact that he couldn't get through a speech. I also thought the scenery and off-camera angles were too over the top and theatrical and got really annoyed with it after a while.
The Girl With the Dragon TattooJustin and I read these books a couple years ago and watched all the Swedish movies so I was excited when they made an American version. I really liked it a lot, even if it was a little bit all over the place. I think if you haven't read the book, it's probably really confusing, but having read the book, I really enjoyed it and the casting was brilliant! Horrible BossesI'm not sure why I wanted to see this, but I added it to my Netflix queue and made Justin watch it with me. I have a slight crush on Jason Bateman (and also on Jennifer Aniston). It was pretty funny and entertaining in an off the wall sort of way. It sort of reminded me of Date Night but funnier.
The lesson I learned is that the higher the expectations I have for a movie, the less likely I am to like it. If I have no expectations, then I'll probably like it. I am looking forward to seeing more of the Oscar contenders this year (nominations are announced Jan. 24).

24 weeks

2012-01-09T08:30:00.001-08:00

How far along: 24 weeks
Size of baby: The size of an ear of corn - just over a pound and under a foot long.
Maternity clothes: Still just pants but shirts are getting more snug! Luckily I have a lot of loose ones.
Gender: Baby boy - Leo Robert Gomer
Movement: He's getting stronger every day but is pretty mellow for the most part. If I sit with my hands on my stomach for an hour I'll only feel him a handful of times. Hopefully this means he'll be a mellow baby.
Sleep: Christmas break was nice, Justin and I traded turns sleeping in every other day so I was getting plenty of sleep and felt great. Now we're back to our regular schedule and I'm tired all the time again but am still getting 7-8 hours a night.
Cravings: Red meat, chips, ice cream, fast food... all the things I gave up completely before I was pregnant, now it's all I want. And boy does it show! I've gained almost 20 pounds already - although I blame the holidays completely. Everything from my knees to my neck is blowing up like a balloon, haha.
Symptoms: Nothing really, this pregnancy has been pretty easy compared to when I was pregnant with Belle.
What I'm looking forward to: I'll tell you what I'm not looking forward to and that's the glucose test I have to take in a couple weeks. When I was pregnant with Belle and did it I threw up in the hallway of my doctor's office. Fun times.

2012 book schedule

2012-01-06T08:30:00.000-08:00

Just like last year, I want to try and read as many books as I can this year. Last year I fell off the wagon after October and ended up reading only a total of 26 books (not a terrible amount, but still short of my goal of 30). You can read all of my book reviews HERE. I read one other book that wasn't on my list last year but haven't written a review for it yet, look for that next week. Anyway, I decided the schedule thing was a good idea so I'm doing it again this year, but to avoid burnout, I didn't schedule any books during the last two months of the year so I can fill them in with whatever I'm feeling like reading when the time comes. Here's what's on deck...

January
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Official Book Club Selection by Kathy Griffin

February
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

March
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy

April
Pretty Little Liars books 5-8 by Sara Shepard
L.A. Candy, Sugar and Spice, Sweet Little Lies by Lauren Conrad

May
My Life by Bill Clinton

June
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

July
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Swim Back to Me by Ann Packer

August
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

September
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

October
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

November/December: undecided

post-Christmas recap + New Years

2012-01-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

After we got back from our Christmas adventure I was feeling a little overwhelmed with the amount of stuff we brought home and where it would all fit in our apartment. I have a huge fear of having too much clutter and resembling a hoarder. I hate having any closet or cabinet look like a mess so I decided to do some post-Christmas cleaning. On Wednesday I emptied out every closet, drawer and cabinet and got rid of a bunch of junk I knew we didn't need. We ended up throwing out about four garbage bags of trash and donated three garbage bags of clothes and shoes and still had piles of stuff to pack away in storage. What a fun project! Not.

mid-cleaning We have a big storage closet right off of our bedroom that we use as a library for all of Justin's (and my) books. Being a grad student means owning hundreds of books and every semester he brings home more, so I made him clean out his shelves and get rid of stuff he wasn't going to use/read anymore. Don't worry, I cleaned out my side and got rid of a lot too.
Later that night Justin went to see a movie that he's been dying to see and Belle and I stayed home to watch Beauty and the Beast. Justin is very anti-princess so I thought it'd be a good time to watch it with her while he wasn't home. I'm not a big princess advocate either but I thought it'd be fun to show her a movie with a princess that has her name. Belle is hitting the age where most girls become obsessed with princesses and luckily we've been able to avoid too much pink and sparkle, but I don't want to shelter her from princesses either, I want her to experience what other kids her age are doing. So long story short, Belle was only semi-interested in the movie and didn't have a huge desire to watch it again (she was concerned that the Beast was too cranky, lol), so I guess it's safe to say we'll probably avoid the princess obsession... at least for now. She's still more excited by Dora and Diego but I'm glad I gave her the chance to decide if she liked it or not.
cuddled up ready for the movie!
On Thursday I decided to tackle another cleaning project, our storage unit. On our back patio, we have a little storage closet that we throw stuff in throughout the year. With the piles of stuff from inside the house that needed to be stored, we decided to clean it out to make room for newer stuff. We ended up throwing out even more garbage that we had been storing and now the storage unit is tidy and everything is organized. Phew!
Friday was a lazy day. We spent it like this...

Saturday was New Years Eve and boy did we rock it! We did, um, absolutely nothing. We hung out at home all day and Belle and I made cookies (using my new mixer!). Justin also made this really simple, delicious Fettuccine Alfredo recipe for dinner with some chicken added in. It was amazing! Now I want it every night.

We then spent the evening watching House Hunters, reading books, watching the local news and some of the new years countdowns. And because I couldn't have any champagne, I indulged in a couple of cookies and a big slice of cheesecake in my pajamas. Seriously, here's Justin reading...
and me on the iPad...

At 10:30 Belle was still awake in bed when Nicki Minaj performed Superbass on ABC so I let her get up and watch it (it's one of her favorite songs). She was so excited and sang along...
After that, Belle went back to bed and Justin and I watched the ball drop and went to bed with our books. I stayed up until almost 2 AM and Belle got me up at 8 AM. Luckily she wanted to cuddle with us (which she does most mornings) for almost an hour, but it's hard to fall back asleep when she flops around like a fish, so I ended up getting up with her so Justin could sleep a little. He got up not long after us and let me go to back to bed for a little while. And that was our New Years. New Years day was spent relaxing, taking Belle on a bike ride and making a Target run. Fun times.

Christmas day recap

2012-01-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve before bed, Belle wrote her letter to Santa asking for "a special camera click and a rescue pack" - from Diego.Later that night, Santa made his stop...On Christmas morning Belle got to open her gifts from Santa! On top of her wrapped gifts, Santa also brought her a giant tree tent that was a lot bigger than Santa had anticipated! We ended up having to rearrange Belle's entire room to make it fit.
Unfortunately Belle opened her favorite present first (a camera click from Diego) and had zero interest in opening up anything else so we had to bribe her by taking the camera away until she would open something else.
After opening gifts, we ate breakfast, got showered and headed down to my mom's house for some more Christmas fun. Ready to go with the Rescue Pack...At my mom's house Belle got a Diego vest, a telescope and a bucket of animals, all of which she loved! My mom also got me the mixer that I really wanted, I was so surprised! I can't wait to get baking this year. (L to R): me, Belle, Justin, my brother Conor, my mom's boyfriend Ray and my mom
After my mom's place, we headed down to Justin's parents house to open even more presents and have a yummy Christmas dinner.
I got my iPad from Justin's family and to be honest, haven't put it down much since Christmas day, I love it! I really got spoiled on Christmas this year. Here are a couple of pictures I took with my iPad of my two favorite Christmas gifts of all time, I love these two more than anything (FYI, Belle is wearing a bumble bee costume she got from grandma clause)...

- We stayed the night and the next day I got up early and made turnovers for everyone. - Later that afternoon we went to visit my great aunt who was in town from Oregon and my cousins who we rarely get to see. - We came back and Justin made dinner for all of us (chow mein, yum!) and then Justin's parents, sister and I headed out to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. We had all read the books except for Justin's brother who offered to babysit Belle for us. - We stayed a second night and hung out for the day before heading out to a really yummy dinner at Odeum where I had one of the best steaks I've ever had. - After dinner we headed out to visit my dad on the way home. My dad was also on his way out, so our visit was brief. We got home kind of late and unloaded the car and went to bed. And that was our Christmas celebration!

Pre-Christmas recap

2012-01-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

Before Christmas, Justin, Belle and I decided to take advantage of some of our vacation time and do some fun pre-Christmas activities.

The first thing we did was take Belle into the city (San Francisco) to see all of the Christmas decorations in Union Square and take her up and down the escalators in the San Francisco Centre mall (the girl is obsessed with escalators). Man was it a mistake to go on the Thursday before Christmas. We could barely move in the crowds, it was insane! I think Belle had fun though. Her favorite part was riding on BART.

BART

The Union Square Christmas tree! Sort of worth the chaos of the day. While we were in the city, Belle picked out these really cute TOMS for herself. Her feet grow so fast, we have to buy her shoes every 3-4 months!
From Union Square, we walked down the Ferry Building for dinner. It was sort of a long walk so Justin had fun running around with Belle pushing her really fast in her stroller.
The Ferry Building!
We went to one of our favorite (Napa) restaurants for some good comfort style food, Gotts. If you haven't tried it, you need to. Their onion rings are to die for.
After dinner we walked off some of the calories we inhaled by strolling through the Ferry Building. Most of the shops were closed, but it was fun for Belle to wander around.
On Christmas Eve, the Dicksons came to visit and exchange gifts. I love seeing Belle and Marco grow, every year I'm amazed at how big they are getting. It makes me sad and so happy at the same time. P.S. like Justin's beard? He grew it out for a month but shaved it off the day after Christmas. He likes the look of a beard, but he's such a clean freak when it comes to hair that it drives him nuts after a while. I think he looks handsome either way. Marco! Can you believe how big this kid is getting? He doesn't look like a baby anymore.
Belle (or as we call her, Belly). She is definitely not a baby anymore, she almost looks like a teenager!
And just for fun, here are our pictures with the Dicksons from the past two years...20102009

Monthly Resolutions: January '12!

2012-01-02T08:30:00.000-08:00

If you hadn't noticed, I didn't make any resolutions in December. Watching what I eat during the holidays while pregnant? Yeah right. Watching the budget when Christmas is on the horizon? No way. I gave myself the month of December to indulge and boy did I! The budget went crazy, I'm pretty sure I gained a record amount of weight for one month and I read, um, well, one book. So I'm starting January off back on the wagon and am making some resolutions for the month. Like I said last year, yearly resolutions are too hard to keep, I do much better with short term goals, so here's what I have planned for this month...

Ok, this may sound silly but I'm not going to wear any colored nail polish on my nails this month. This winter is making my hands and cuticles super dry and using nail polish remover every week to change my polish is making my hands a disaster. So I'm giving them the month off to recover.
I need to get back into reading (2012 reading schedule coming soon). This month I'm easing myself back in with some light books I've been dying to read for a while now. I've already started reading Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling and am loving it. She is so funny. I also plan on reading Bossypants by Tina Fay and Official Book Club Selection by Kathy Griffin.
Not using my credit card! I pay my credit card off every month, but having a bill at the end of the month is such a bummer so I'm going to try and refrain. In full disclosure, I only use my card to take advantage of sales that I get by using my card, but I'm going to resist temptation and just delete all of those 40% or 60% sale emails I get every day.
Do prenatal yoga at least once a week. I still have only done one prenatal yoga class so far and I even bought a prenatal yoga DVD that is still wrapped. With all the burgers, steak and desserts I've been devouring this last month, I really need to get active so I can be healthy when this baby comes.
Celebrate our TEN YEAR anniversary! On January 25, Justin and I will have been together for 10 years. It's such a big milestone that I want to really enjoy it and celebrate with him. I worry sometimes that with a kid (soon to be kids) and Justin focusing so much on school that making time for each other needs to remain a priority in our relationship. I feel so lucky that our marriage is so easy and we still really like each other! I'm not sure what our plans will be yet, but I'll keep you posted ;)

So that's it! Keeping my mind, body, wallet and relationship healthy are my top goals for the month. I'll check back in February for an update.

apple turnovers

2011-12-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is still enjoying their holiday break. If you are looking for something to make for breakfast during this lazy week (if you are lucky enough to have this week off), try THESE! Thanks Nicole for always having yummy recipes for me to try.

Easy Apple Turnovers

Ingredients:
- 1 c. chopped apples (that’s about 2 medium apples worth)
- 1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
- 1 T. coconut oil or butter
- 1/2 t. cinnamon
- 1/4 t. nutmeg
- 1/4 t. allspice
- 1 t. cornstarch
- 3 T. water
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed (that’s half of a standard package)
- 1 egg + 2 T. milk, beaten together well (optional)

Directions:
-Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
-In a medium skillet, heat the butter or oil over medium-high heat. Add the apples and sautée for a couple minutes.
-Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice to the apples and stir well to coat. Continue to sautée for another minute.
-While the apples are cooking, dissolve the cornstarch into the 3 T. of water in a small bowl. Add this mixture to the apples and stir.
-Continue cooking for another minute, and then lower the heat to medium-low. Continue to stir and cook until the cornstarch has dissolved (until the juice isn’t cloudy and the mixture has thickened up). Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.
-While the apples cool, prepare the puff pastry sheet by placing it on a lightly floured surface and cutting it into 4 equal squares with a sharp knife.
-Spoon some of the apple mixture (a scant quarter cup) into the center of each square. Pick up one corner of each square and fold it over to the opposite corner, sealing the edges by pressing down with your finger. It should be in the shape of a triangle and sealed together on the two open edges.
-If you want a nice shine on the turnovers when they bake, brush the egg-milk mixture over the top of each turnover with a pastry brush.
-Place the turnovers onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes, until they have puffed up high and are golden brown in color.
-Remove to a cooling rack to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Makes 4 turnovers.

Merry Christmas!!!

2011-12-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

our 2011 card
2010

2009(front and inside)
2008(front and back)
2007(front and back)

outfit of the week

2011-12-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

Sweater: Wide stripe sweater - GAP
Pants: Demi-panel straight cropped jeans - GAP maternity
Shoes: motorcycle style boots - Target circa 2007 (similar)
For: AGD Alumni holiday party at the Press Club

food

2011-12-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

Just some photos of food we've been enjoying lately for your viewing pleasure. You're welcome...

steak, green beans, mashed potatoes
fajitas: chicken, cheese, lettuce, salsa, sauteed carrots
roasted chicken, broccoli & carrots, roasted potatoes
world's best chicken tacos from Tacubaya and of course, Clementines... between the three of us, we go through a crate of these per week

holiday cheer

2011-12-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

This pregnancy has made me extremely: crabby, short tempered, emotional, tired, etc. I've never felt so up and down (although it's mostly been down). When I was pregnant with Belle I didn't really have any mood swings at all, so this has been different. So if you've been the target of my moodiness, I apologize, I hope it passes soon. But with the holidays in full swing, I've been trying to cheer myself up with some of my favorite holiday things...
our treehot chocolate and cookies snuggles with my most favorite cuddle bugwrapping presents (for 2.5 hours) - the Dora wrapped ones are Belle's
comfy scarves and sweaters

What do you do to chase away the winter blues?

Holiday Decor

2011-12-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

Living in a small apartment with a toddler, I don't really go all out when it comes to decorating for Christmas, but I do like to make it feel somewhat holiday-like. Here's what I did this year...
Our tree! Please don't pay attention to the crooked topper.Decorations around the tv...

Card wreath... with not many cards yet. Dining table. I needed to keep it simple since I have two toddlers that will play with whatever is on the table during meals. Also, in the back is Belle's advent calendar from her Oma!
And our outside lights.

And that's it!

my fantasy Christmas wish list

2011-12-19T08:30:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that Christmas is less than a week away. I hope everyone is done with their shopping. I am! I think. This year, I guess every year now that I have kid(s), is more about the kids than myself, but sometimes I like to pretend that I can wish for whatever I want with no budget and Santa will bring it to me. But of course I know that Christmas is not about things and I don't really need anything, but these things would make life a little prettier and more convenient! So here's my (far fetched) wish-list...
#1 - An ipad! Luckily I may actually be getting one this year and I can't wait! Although it means that everything else on my list is probably a pipe dream, but that's ok, because it's what I want the most.#2 - Leather iPad caseTo protect my precious cargo in style.
#3 - KitchenAid Stand Mixer in cobalt blue I've been really into baking this year and I know I'd be able to try more recipes if I had one of these. As of now, I mix everything by hand... seriously.
#4 - Set of 8 glass prep bowls When I bake, I usually pull ingredients out as I go which leaves a huge mess of powders, spices and liquids all over my kitchen counter. These would really help me prep in advance - skipping the big cleanup at the end.
#5 - Striped three-quarter sleeve sweater in red stripe Ok, confession. I already bought this for myself with a 30% coupon I had. I thought it'd be cute for Christmas day!
#6 - Onitsuka Tiger by Asics in Khaki/White Right now I wear my Jack Purcells every single day and I think these would be a little more comfortable and would go with everything!
#7 - UGG Sofia in black Heels are impossible to wear right now with the extra 12 pounds I've gained, but these look comfy and casual enough to wear with jeans.
#8 - Bumble and Bumble curl conscious defining creme Because with two kids I don't know how much blow drying/straightening/curling I'm going to have the energy for this year and believe it or not, my hair is naturally really curly. This stuff helps keep my curls from being frizzy. #9 - Yoga classesI love, love, love doing yoga but I've only gone to 1 prenatal class since I've been pregnant. I mostly don't go because of the expense of it. I always feel selfish spending money on something that keeps me away from home for a couple hours and ideally I'd go to a couple classes a week which really add up.#10 - Honda CR-V in twilight blue metallic Let's get real, this is a total fantasy wish list. I would never expect someone to actually buy me a car, but it'd be nice to have more space to lug around our growing family!

21 weeks

2011-12-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

How far along: 21 weeks! More than half way (especially considering I'll only go to 39 weeks).Size of baby: The length of a carrot and almost a full pound.
Maternity clothes: Still just pants, shirts are all my regular shirts. Although the other day I pulled out some old jeans from before I lost a bunch of weight earlier this year and they are all still loose on me, but I prefer the stretchiness of maternity pants.
Gender: A boy! Name: Leo Robert Gomer.
Movement: This baby likes to kick me low, as in areas that make me feel like he's going to kick his way out at any moment. Oh and apparently my bladder makes a good trampoline. Not much movement from the outside yet.
Sleep: Still tired pretty much all the time. I get between 7-9 hours a night and it never feels like enough!
Cravings: Nothing really. I guess I've been craving tacos and chow mein (not together) a lot more than normal.
Symptoms: Mood swings and crankiness like no other! I don't remember being this emotional when I was pregnant with Belle.
What I'm looking forward to: Christmas of course! And having a week off to relax with my family. No activities and Justin not having to go to campus, just a full week of doing nothing.

And just for a laugh, here's a back-to-back of me 20 weeks pregnant with Belle compared to 21 weeks pregnant with Leo (I think I was about 20-25 pounds heavier at this point the first time around)...

outfit of the week

2011-12-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

Necklace: Tiffany's Elsa Peretti Bean necklace
Sweater: Merona Sweater for Target (2010) (similar)
Jacket: H&M (2010) (similar)
Jeans: Nude Full Panel Always Skinny Jeans (GAP Maternity)
Shoes: ECCO "Hobart" (Nordstrom - bought at a preseason sale for 30% off!)
For: another dinner date

The Tree Farm

2011-12-08T08:30:00.000-08:00

I plan on doing a Christmas Traditions post at some point this month, but one of the things we do every year is visit the Peterson Family Tree Farm in Napa with the Dicksons to cut down our own Christmas tree. We used to just buy a pre-cut tree but they'd go brown in about a week. Plus with Belle, this way is a lot more fun! Last Saturday we decided to get our tree and we had so much fun...

Every year you come cut down your tree, they take your picture and the following year they make a collage of everyone that visited the year before. Can you spot us on the wall?
They also print out a 4x6 that you can take home.

On the hunt with Marco!

Follow me!

Hmmm, should we bring home some leaves or a tree? Decisions decisions.

Belle found one she liked.

Oh, hey Marco! Are you upside down or am I?

My adorable family.

We found our tree!

Posing with it before we chop it down.

Writing a letter to Santa while daddy gets the tree netted and ties it to the car.

Letter sent!

The closest thing she'll get to riding a pony.

And that's a wrap!

this baby has a name

2011-12-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

So after going back and forth for the past few months, we have finally decided on this little boy's name. And since I wrote it on our Christmas cards (which should be arriving to their final destinations in the next day or two), I thought I'd put it up here. His name will be:

Leo Robert Gomer

We went back and forth on this for a while. We both really loved the name Leo, but I was torn about his initials being L.R.G. We knew Robert was going to be the middle name no matter what (after Justin's dad), so the only part that could change was the first name. I figured we could either pick a name that neither of us really loved or settle on one we do love but leaving him with not the best initials. But after talking with a few close friends and family members that we know who have strange initials (believe it or not, we know quite a few!) we came to the conclusion that initials don't really matter. Everyone we talked to said that most of their friends don't even know their middle names so their initials have never even come up. So now I have been calling him our little Leo the lion and we are so excited to meet him in just a few short months!

Also, while Justin was out to dinner with some friends the other night, I spent my evening scouring the internet for nursery ideas since I was growing discouraged with all the boy-themed rooms I've seen and I came up with something I really love. Nothing theme-y and nothing brown, navy or red! Here's a small sample of what I'm thinking...

It'll mostly be light blue, gray, white and black. I'm thinking of throwing some orange in there, but I haven't decided yet. It'll be a while before he has his own room anyway (probably not until mid-summer), but I'd like to start collecting ideas for my registry.
I also may or may not have taken advantage of a 40% coupon at Baby Gap last weekend and picked up a few things for him...

Hi, my name is Adrienne and I have a serious Baby Gap addiction and I really need some help.

Thanksgiving (finally!)

2011-12-06T01:13:00.000-08:00

Wow am I late on posting this or what? Anyway, here's a recap of our wonderful Thanksgiving!...We started out at my mom (Oma)'s house for an early dinner then headed down to my in-laws for the rest of the weekend. On Friday we laid low and avoided the Black Friday crowds. On Saturday we all headed up to the city for my sister-in-law Kelly's birthday dinner at Fresca before heading back across the bridge to go home. And that was pretty much it!
Belle all bundled up and ready to go. Isn't she the cutest?
1st stop: Oma's house. Ready to eat!
My plate: before.
My plate: after.

My little brother chowing down.

Belle and her Oma

At Grandma/Grandpa's house! Doesn't she have the best smile? At the dinner table we all started singing "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" to her and her whole face lit up, she thought it was the greatest thing and kept asking us to sing it again and again.

Helping Auntie Kelly blow out her birthday candles!

"Hey uncle Bryant, are you stealing my money?"

Out for Auntie Kelly's birthday. She's so well behaved when we take her places.

We're having a...

2011-12-01T20:10:00.000-08:00

(sorry for the poor picture quality - I took it with my phone, but that's the head on the left and the body on the right)Wow, I've taken a week off of blogging and I have so much to catch up on (Thanksgiving, etc.)! But before I get to all of that, we got some exciting news yesterday... We are having a BOY! I know what you're thinking, I said I wanted another girl. I know, I know. I really wanted a girl for two reasons: #1 - I really want Belle to have a sister because I always wanted one and #2 - Belle has so many cute clothes I want to reuse! No joke, clothes are expensive and she has a lot and I'm not ready to get rid of them yet. I also am a little afraid of boys, but I'll get to that...

When we went for our ultrasound yesterday I knew what they'd say. I've had a feeling this whole time that it would be a boy. Mostly because I really wanted a girl the first time and I got what I wanted and this time I thought, what are the chances it'd happen again? Plus everyone else thought it was a boy. We also can't agree on any boys' names so we've been brainstorming them for months which has put me in a total "it's a boy" frame of mind.

Anyway, back to the ultrasound: first the technician got all the major body parts, head, torso, heart, brain, etc. Then as he was scrolling around trying to find the legs, I noticed something, but he scrolled right past it to try and get shots of the femurs (if you haven't had a baby ultrasound before - the reason they do them is to make sure all the bones, organs, etc. are all there and in the right place, not just to find out the gender, although that is the fun part). After a while I asked, "can you tell what it is yet?" he said no but that he'd look again. This kid was not cooperative in the show-and-tell department, but finally he got a shot between the legs. He turned on the heat sensor vision and we could clearly see red (the umbilical cord) plus another mass in between the legs. The technician said, "I'd bet good money that that's a boy... if it's not you can come back and show me pictures of your beautiful baby girl." HA!

I thought for sure when he told me it was a boy that I'd feel a tiny bit disappointed, but in fact I wasn't... at all! I felt nothing but pure joy, I couldn't help but have a huge smile on my face and yes, I teared up a little... ok, a lot (out of happiness). A boy! All I could think was, that's my son! I am way more excited than I thought I would ever be to hear that news, and even typing it is making me a little choked up. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a little afraid of having a son... I have no clue what to do with a boy: penises, dirt, hyper-activity, sports... I know nothing. But I'm excited nonetheless and am so grateful that I have a husband who is into boy things that can teach him all that stuff that I'm sure he'll be into. I also know that this most likely won't be our last child, so whatever #3 is won't matter because we'll already have one of each, no "trying for..." whatever we don't have.

So we're all thrilled and I can't wait to add a little boy to our family. I'm hoping this kid is a mini-Justin just like Belle is a mini-me. I've already started looking at boy clothes and boy bedroom stuff. The bedroom stuff is really hard because everything is either too theme-y (trains, jungles, sports, etc.) which I really hate or it's navy blue, red or brown (three colors I can't stand). So the bedroom is going to be challenge. If anyone has any recommendations for boys' bedroom stuff that's not so cliche but also not too feminine, please let me know! The clothes part is easy. Everything at Baby Gap is too cute (especially this, this, this and this!) and I'm secretly excited that I can buy new stuff - Justin said if we were having another girl that I couldn't buy any more clothes (boo!).

The name part is still hard. We both agree on a name, it's the only name we can agree on, but it means his initials will be L.R.G. So now I have to decide if that's a deal breaker or if it's something I think he can live with. Otherwise we are back at square one which scares me because I don't want to pick the wrong name at the last minute. If anyone has any name suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I don't want anything traditional (Samuel, Thomas, Jacob, etc.) but I also don't want anything cutesy (Jayden, Colton, Rylan, etc.). Not that there's anything wrong with those names, I just want something different (think: Davis, Bennet, Jackson, etc.).

Ok, so now that I've gotten the big news out of the way, I'll blog about all the other stuff next week. Until then...

Holiday Traditions: Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

I love holidays. Just like I posted our Halloween traditions, I thought I'd share our Thanksgiving traditions...
Our Thanksgiving holiday begins on Wednesday when I spend the day making pies. Last year I made a pumpkin and an apple pie for Justin's side of the family and this year I'm doing it for my side as well.
We usually start Thursday by going to my mom's house for an early tasting of turkey. After a few hours with my mom and brother, et al., we head down to the in-laws for a big turkey dinner and a lot of pie. We stay there through Saturday because my sister-in-law's birthday is usually over Thanksgiving weekend and after eating leftovers for two days we always go out for a celebratory birthday dinner. Sometimes on Black Friday, my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I brave the crowds and do some Christmas shopping.

This year will be a lot more of the same and I can't wait! Eating and relaxing are two of my favorite things.

17+ weeks

2011-11-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

How far along: 17 weeks and a few days
Size of baby: A bell pepper!
Maternity clothes: Just pants, I'm stocking up on maternity jeans - they are so comfy! All my tops are the same.
Movement: If I lay still and press on my lower belly I can feel a little bit, but other than that, I can't feel much yet!
Sleep: So.Freakin.Tired. All the time. I've been getting about 8 hours a night but I think I need at least 10.
What I miss: Nothing really, I'm loving this stage of pregnancy! Although I could use a margarita or a big glass of red wine.
Cravings: Before I got pregnant I gave up chips, ice cream and red meat. Let's just say all of those things are back on the table. Literally.
Symptoms: Just fatigue and a sore back.
What I'm looking forward to: A Thanksgiving feast and finding out the gender in a little over a week! Woo-hoo!

And just to compare, I found this picture of me pregnant with Belle at 17 weeks. I'm about fifteen pounds lighter this time around, but the belly looks about the same.

weekend things

2011-11-21T16:49:00.000-08:00

This weekend was fun and relaxing, here's what went down (warning: it's some serious stuff)...
For years in college I rocked the side bangs - blonde, brown, and in between...note - I found these pics in an old AGD photo folder and be warned, I found some fun/embarrassing/silly pictures of some of you bloggers in there that I may or may not post at a later date ;) Then I grew them out and have been wearing my hair pretty one-length for years - curly, wavy, straight...

Well, brace yourselves boys and girls, the side bangs are back! Bum-bum-bum!!!! Oooh the drama. I know, take a breath, it'll be ok...
I also got my piggies painted {OPI: Ski Teal We Drop} if you really need to know.
Wow, looking at these last two pics, I worry you may think I'm a vampire with that milky white skin. Fear not, it's just the lighting ;)
I had a yummy lunch at La Condesa in Saint Helena with Michelle! Yummy guac, yummy chips, yummy green beans, oh yeah and I won't mention that other thing (bacon) that was in my sandwich.

I also bought some Christmas tree ornaments at Vintage Home. Did you know that everyone I know buys at least a few new ornaments every year? I had no idea! I bought a whole bunch of ornaments five years ago when Justin and I moved in together and haven't bought a single one since. Oh wait, that's not true, I bought one the year Belle was born - 2009 - and put her picture in it, but that's about it. Our tree every year is always blue and silver so I found these adorable bird ornaments that came in a lot of colors, but they weren't super cheap, so I just snapped up the blue ones. Aren't the pretty?

We also had a really tasty dinner at Tra Vigne Pizzeria where we indulged in two orders tasty garlic rolls. The waiter was like, "Are you sure you want two orders? That's a lot of bread." to which I replied, "Sir, I'm pregnant and I will eat an entire order by myself." Needless to say, between the four of us (kids excluded), we ate: a salad, almost an entire large pizza and a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs and not one garlic roll was left behind. And FYI - each order of garlic rolls contains six rolls.

And that was about it! How was your weekend?

Loving... and not loving so much

2011-11-16T08:30:00.000-08:00

Things I am loving right now...

That I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and my health is perfect, but more importantly I got to hear our baby's heartbeat! Only fourteen more days until we find out if this bun is a he-bun or a she-bun.
These four sweaters I got for Fall/Winter. And all for less than $30/each! I am so cold and am obsessed with cozy sweaters right now, especially ones that my big belly can continue to grow into.

My rainboots from Target that don't look so much like rainboots that I can't wear them on non-rainy days.

That an iPad may be in my near future! I've been thinking of all of the things I want to do on it already, I am very excited.
My husband. Because he's perfect. Minus that whole football-loving thing (just kidding - sort of).

That Thanksgiving is just around the corner! I'm excited this year to spend time with our families and eat a lot of good food. And celebrate a special sister-in-law's birthday with more good food.
The day before Thanksgiving = pie making day! I am the official pie maker for both sides of our family this year which means that on Wednesday I will be elbow deep in apple peelings and pumpkin puree. I'm very excited because not only do I love to bake, but I love to eat what I bake and dessert is always the best part.
That tomorrow I'll be getting a semi-new camera! The really nice camera that I got for my birthday broke. Well, not so much broke as I dropped it when the lens was open. Oops! I sent it in for repairs and unfortunately they can't repair it, but they will send me a new or refurbished one for not much less than it would cost to buy a brand-new one. So I sucked it up, paid their stupid fee and my new-ish camera should be here tomorrow.

Things I am not loving so much...

That my daughter is refusing to nap which means that around 4PM we are either throwing screaming tantrums or falling asleep in the car on our way somewhere. Oh and let's not forget the random-time tantrums like in the middle of gymnastics class today. Good stuff. On the bright side, we've all been sleeping until 9AM most days.
The Christmas chaos that is happening in every store right now. I'm as big of a Christmas fan as anyone, but I am so not ready to think about Christmas yet. I'm just looking forward to Thanksgiving and will save all Christmas and Christmas shopping thoughts for cyber-Monday. Not to rain on anyone's premature-Christmas-loving spirit, I say if you love it, celebrate it! But sorry Target, I'm not ready to wander down your Christmas covered aisles just yet.
Our post man, or the lazy-postman as I call him doesn't deliver our mail until 7PM! Ridiculous. If I'm waiting for something important, I have to wait until evening to get it. Not to mention that I'm pretty sure he steals my magazines, I always get them a week late.
This pregnancy is making me more tired than I've been since Belle was born. I keep telling myself this is nothing compared to the newborn stage, but man, I wish Belle would nap so that I could too.

outfit of the week

2011-11-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

I haven't done one of these in so long! Most of my days are spent in jeans and t-shirts, nothing worth documenting but I had a dinner date last week with a friend which finally gave me an excuse to semi-dress up (if you look closely, you can see my 14.5 week baby bump)...

Necklace: Tiffany's Elsa Peretti Bean necklace

Undershirt: B.P. Stretch Camisole in "White" (Nordstrom)

Shirt: Xhilaration junior short sleeve top (Target)

Sweater: Mossimo Cacoon Cardigan circa 2010 (Target) (similar)

Jeans: Demi Panel straight cropped jeans - Maternity (GAP)

Shoes: American Eagle black suede flats for Payless circa 2009 (similar)

For: a dinner date with a friend

Hair from the back... usually my buns don't turn out well, but I was proud of this one...

NPOW

2011-11-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

Nail Polish of the WeekOPI: Manicurist of Seville

sweaters and stuff

2011-11-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

Before I get to the thrilling topic of this post: tan sweaters, I want to first address a couple of things...

1. If you haven't heard, Michelle Duggar is pregnant with baby #20! When it comes to religious views and freedom to do what you want with your body, I try not to be judgmental, but seriously? I'm amazed this woman's uterus is even functional at this point. That thing has got to be so stretched out and damaged beyond repair. At a certain point, shouldn't her doctor tell her that it's no longer safe to do this? Especially after what happened last time.

2. Mylo Xyloto = very disappointing.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. It is getting cold here in Northern California and my summer clothes aren't cutting it anymore. Time to pull out the sweaters! This year, there are so many things I want (bright colored skinny pants, Nordic sweaters - yes please!), but being pregnant means I don't want to buy clothes that I may not get to wear for another year or will only get to wear this year. So as of now, I'm setting my sights on a big, comfy, open-front tan sweater that I can wear over anything now and later. Here are my top three choices...

Contrast-knit shawl collar sweater - GAP
Shawl-collar open cardigan - Banana Republic
Cotton emporium rounded hem cardigan - Nordstrom

What if...

2011-11-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

I stole this from Rebekah who stole it from Ashleigh...

What if I were to get pregnant? I am pregnant and I'm very excited about it! I can't wait to give Belle a little brother or sister. Having kids has always been my dream.

What if I could have any job in the world? I really want to be a teacher. I love kids more than anything and am pretty controlling and organized so I think I'd be good at it. I've also thought about opening up a daycare, there's a serious lack of good childcare options out there for working parents.

What if I had a day to myself? I agree with Rebekah - a spa day please! Anything quiet where I could lay/sit down uninterrupted would be nice.

What if I could get married all over again? I'm so glad we had a big wedding because I loved having every person we love all in one place for a day, but if I were to get married again and do it for myself, I'd do something really small, like immediate family only and it'd definitely be a destination wedding - somewhere really far away, intimate and romantic. Maybe one day we'll renew our vows and bring all of our kids with us and do something like that.

What if I could live anywhere in the U.S.? All of our immediate family is in Northern California, so it'd be nice to stay here, but I also have selfish dreams of living on the East Coast somewhere, maybe have a small apartment in Manhattan and a big colonial style house somewhere in New England where it snows.

What if I were to have more children? I hope to someday! At least one more, maybe two after this one.

What if I could have any talent in the world? I wish I had some sort of athletic ability. My husband and his whole family are athletic and I can barely catch a ball, it's embarrassing.

What if you met me in real life? You probably wouldn't like me at first, but might after you get to know me!

What if I went back to school? I want to get a teaching credential or a Master's in child development.

What if money weren't an object? I'm pretty boring, I'd buy a house, setup college funds and invest. Maybe buy a bigger car. We don't really have any debt, so I'd make sure it stays that way. I'd definitely buy myself an iPad and a nice camera and get Justin new golf clubs.

What if I could meet one celebrity? I want to be friends with Reese Witherspoon, she seems like a nice person and I'd want to borrow all her clothes.

What if I could only shop at one store for the rest of my life? If money wasn't an issue, Nordstrom. But on my budget, Target... it has everything I could need.

What if I could choose an animal/pet? I want a dog, but not until my kids are old enough to take care of it. I would also need one that doesn't shed because I hate dog hair.

What if I could go on a trip right now? I'd run away to Spain for a month. Or Hawaii.

What if I had to choose between a house cleaner and a professional chef? Chef please! I don't trust anyone to clean properly, I'm like Monica on Friends. But I can't cook and I love to eat.

What if I had the option to get plastic surgery? I wouldn't mind a tummy-tuck after I'm done having kids.

Movies I've seen lately

2011-11-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

The Ides of MarchJustin and I finally got to see a movie together in the theaters. I didn't love this movie. It wasn't as action packed and deep as I thought it'd be, but the acting was pretty good and it was entertaining enough.
HannaDidn't love this one either. It was pretty entertaining, but the story was a little corny. The visual effects were pretty cool and Saoirse Ronan was awesome.
Meek's CutoffJustin really wanted to see this. He liked it, but I didn't. It was pretty boring and the ending was abrupt. It would have been more entertaining as a stage play. The cinematography was beautiful though.
Love in the Time of CholeraI only wanted to see this because I finished the book. Worst. Movie. Ever. The acting was bad, the costumes and makeup were bad, the story was a horribly chopped up version of the book. It seemed more like a bad theater production than a movie. Why did Javier Bardem agree to be in this?
I've been pretty unimpressed with all of my movie selections lately, so I'm open to suggestions. Hopefully things will turn around now that Oscar season is around the corner.

NPOW

2011-11-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

I decided to give THIS a try again, this time using darker colors and including the glitter nail.Nail Polish of the Week (lighter purple) OPI: Louvre Me Louvre Me Not
(dark purple) OPI: Who Are You Wearing?
(glitter - over lighter purple) OPI: Mad as a Hatter

Halloween Recap!

2011-11-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

For Halloween this year, I decided to dress Belle as one of our favorite children's book characters: Ladybug Girl! I love Ladybug Girl because she's such a good role model of a little girl with a great imagination. If you're not familiar, here's a picture:
And here's my little Ladybug Girl all dressed up for Halloween. I think Belle looks like a lot like her, especially when I straighten her hair (which is rare), so it was the perfect costume:

There are several Ladybug Girl books and one of them is called Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad where three of her friends come over and dress up as: Bumblebee Boy, Butterfly Girl and Dragonfly Girl. So since Belle was Ladybug Girl, I decided to dress as Butterfly Girl and Justin was Bumblebee Boy. Here's a pic from the book:

And here's a pic of us in our costumes:You can't really see, but I have on a purple dress and boots. I told Justin he could just wear jeans. Do you know it is impossible to find a yellow and black striped men's t-shirt? I ended up buying a basic yellow one and painted black stripes on it with fabric paint.

Anyway, on to the festivities...On Saturday we went to a Halloween parade in Oakland (that we went to last year) with Belle's best friend Abby (who was a cupcake). They had so much fun trick-or-treating at all the stores along the street.

On Sunday night, we carved our pumpkins. It was fun trying to convince Belle to pull out the "pumpkin brains". Justin did a basic Jack-o-lantern face and let Belle push through all the pieces when he was done cutting them.

Me? I take my carving very seriously. Can you tell whose pumpkin is whose?

On Halloween day, I took Belle and Abby to their regular play place to participate in some Halloween festivities, but they had zero interest in doing anything but playing. This was Belle during the "costume parade". Doesn't she look so into it? They wouldn't even put on their costumes...

That afternoon, we took both girls to a local Halloween indoor festival where they had a lights-on haunted house for little kids and carnival games where they won candy and prizes.
Cheating?

They even got to climb on and sit inside a real fire truck!

family shot

That night, two of Belle's friends came over and we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Where we live there are tons of kids and the streets are crowded with trick-or-treaters. Neighbors get really into it, so it's usually a fun time.

And that was it! That was our Halloween.

Monthly Resolutions: November

2011-11-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last Month
Don't judge me, but I did terrible on my resolutions for October. I've been so tired and sick I don't know what to do with myself. Pregnancy is hard! Unfortunately I am not one of those women who basks in the glow of pregnancy although I really wish I was. I kind of want to just sit on the couch and do nothing. Here's what I was supposed to accomplish...

Read two books. Yeah, I read zero. Instead I focused on catching up on magazines and defeating the entire game of Angry Birds. But don't worry, I'm dropping one book from my goal for the year and am aiming to read three in November to get back on track.
Stay on budget. This didn't happen either. I did treat myself to a mani/pedi. Also a hair appointment (staying blonde is a lot of upkeep). And Justin got a new iPhone. And some new art supplies were needed for a couple of two-year-olds I know. None of which were budget friendly. Oops!
Apply to preschools. We are only applying to two but both applications are in. We'll know in February/March if she got in. Preschool apps are intense!
Halloween costumes/Fall decor. I did this one too! Hey 2/4 isn't so bad. Here are some pics of our Fall decor. Halloween pics to come in a future Halloween post, but I'm really happy with how the costumes turned out. Especially Belle's.

This Month

Read three books: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan.
Stay on budget: pull out cash every week and get by solely on that. Yikes!
Organize: get Belle's photo albums together. I printed 800 pictures and most of them are sitting in the box still and need to be put into the empty albums I have.
Order our Christmas cards: I have them picked out and formatted, I just need to muster up the courage to spend the money to order them.
Get Belle to pee on the potty! Just once. Yes, she is two years and eight months old and has zero interest in anything to do with the potty and I'm telling you I have tried everything (taking her every 30 minutes all day, bribing her with candy, demonstrating potty-use, showing her Elmo potty videos, even taking her diaper off completely - not once have we made pee-potty contact). It will happen. It will happen. It will happen. Right?

Baby thoughts part 1

2011-10-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

Since becoming pregnant, I have had a lot on my mind when it comes to baby #2 that I feel I need to vent about over the next six months or so on this blog, so be prepared...
Sibling Situations...So in one month we find out if this baby is a boy or a girl and I can't wait! (Vote on what you think it will be in the poll to the right). When I was pregnant with Belle I said I really hoped she was a girl because I always wanted a daughter... and boys scare me a little bit - read THIS for one of the many reasons why. I hate to admit it, but this time I really want another girl, but I feel like I used up all my luck the first time. I know I should say I just want a healthy baby and I really do! If it is a boy, I will be equally thrilled, but it's my dream to give Belle a sister and considering we probably won't be having #3 for another 3-5 years, I'd like Belle to have a sister that's somewhat close in age. I've been asking almost everyone I know about their sibling situations growing up to get an idea of what things may be like and here's what I've learned:

Sisters that are two years apart or less tend not to get along and are super competitive growing up, but are close later in life.
Three-four years seems the optimum age gap.
Sisters tend to find younger brothers more of a nuisance than a playmate.
Out of three children, whichever one is the odds-out gender tends to feel left out (oh man, the pressure to have four is frightening).
Boys still scare me.

If anyone has a sibling story or wants to confirm or deny any of these things, please email me at Adrienne7983@yahoo.com or leave a comment on this post. I'm very interested in sibling dynamics and I need to know what yours were like.

Names

Either way, this baby needs a name. When I was sixteen I decided I loved the name Isabelle (Belle for short) and when Justin and I were younger and starting to talk about kids, I told him if we ever had a daughter, that's what her name would be. Luckily he loved it too so it worked. If Belle had been a boy, his name would have been Riley (Justin's choice).

I like to have names picked out way ahead of time. I need time to think about it and make sure it's the right choice. When we found out Belle was a girl, I immediately started thinking of girls names again to have one ready for the next potential daughter. Justin came home one day and said one of his professors had a daughter a year older than Belle and told me her name and that it was after a character in a book that I have read and loved and I knew right away that was the name (unfortunately, when I looked it up on the SSA it turns out it's a pretty popular one). But I loved it anyway, so our girls' name is set. Middle names are always family names and those have already been decided either way.

A boy name? Three years later, I'm not loving Riley so much so we're back at square one. I am so panicked that we won't have a boy's name ready in time (or that I'll pick one last minute and it won't be the right one) that I've enlisted every single person I know for input. So far I have five boys names that I like and Justin has said no to every single one of them. And because we aren't going to be using any of them, I'll give them away: Easton, Bennet (because Ben & Belle would be adorable), Davis, Jackson or Dashiell (Dashiell Hammet is Justin's favorite author). So Justin finally came up with a name that I really like, but it means his initials would be LRG. So now I'm asking everyone, do initials matter? What if he's a husky kid, will people make fun of him for having his initials be short for "large"? Again, I have a poll to the right that I'd love your input on.

So either way, this baby's name - or nickname ;) will start with an "L". So from now on, I'll refer to this little fetus as Baby "L". I haven't decided when I'll reveal names, but I will let you all know the gender after we and all of our friends and family know.

And just because I haven't done this in a few weeks, here's an update:
How far along: 14 weeks
Size of baby: a lemon (3.5 inches, 1.5 ounces)
Maternity clothes: pants, yes, but mostly for comfort. shirts are regular.
Gender: who knows?
Movement: can't feel anything yet.
Sleep: back to normal - 8 hrs/night with no naps but tired all the time.
What I miss: my energy, clear skin, craving healthy foods - all I want lately is junk.
Cravings: oreos, chips, mac-n-cheese, peanut butter
Symptoms: fatigue, nausea (still - but mainly at night), crankiness!
What I'm looking forward to: feeling better, looking pregnant and not just fat (I look like I just gained back all the weight I lost), having more energy at some point.

favorite products

2011-10-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

My favorite line of products lately is Burt's Bees. I started using their lip balm years ago. My hands are naturally really dry and I get hangnails all the time and I read that the best product for nails was their cuticle butter, so I picked some up and it worked wonders on my poor dry hands. In summer, wearing sandals every day, my feet get really dry so I figured I'd try their foot cream and let me tell you, I was in love. In less than a week, my feet were super soft again. So I thought, what else do they make? Next I tried their shampoo/conditioners. Cheap shampoos make my scalp itch, but salon shampoos are expensive to keep stocked. Burt's Bees shampoos are right in the middle price-wise and make my hair feel just as soft as the expensive stuff (side note - the moisturizing shampoo is way better than the volumizing one in the picture above). In the winter, my hands get really dry and itchy so I also picked up some of their hand repair cream (it's a little pricey, but you end up using less because you don't have to apply it as often so one tube lasts months). Most lotions I use are water based and you have to apply them multiple times a day, but the hand repair cream I apply once in the morning and once mid-afternoon (after I've washed my hands a few times) and my hands stay soft all day.
Every single BB product I've tried I've loved and now I won't use anything else. I also like that I can find them at Target and don't have to go a beauty supply store to get quality products. What are some of your favorite beauty product brands?
*Note, I am not getting paid or receiving any free items for this post, just sharing my love of Burt's Bees.

NPOW

2011-10-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a nail polish post in so long because I've been re-wearing a lot of colors I've already posted (like these ones), but after seeing THIS, I decided to mix it up and try two non-metallic (but similar) colors. I like the subtle contrast of the two colors and having an extra coat on the end of my nails makes the color last longer (less chipping at the tips!). Sorry for the poor picture quality, I used my phone on this one.Nail Polish of the WeekEssie: Lapiz of Luxury
Essie: Turquoise & Caicos

Book: The Passage

2011-10-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

Gracious, maybe I should change the title of my blog to AOG Weekly, lol. I seriously have zero energy to blog lately even though I have so many things to blog about! First of all, let me warn you, the two books I was supposed to read this month I haven't even cracked open. Nope, I've been too busy reading magazines, playing Angry Birds, dealing with the fact that Belle is refusing to nap and trying to find foods that don't make me sick. I did finish The Passage weeks ago, but haven't gotten around to writing a review of it, mostly because it was an almost 800 page book and to review it I knew would take time, but I finally have a few minutes so here it goes...
The Passage is an epic book that spans from the beginning of a young girl's life to a voyage into South American mountains to the stories of lost men (convicts and a particular savior that becomes integral in weaving all the stories together) to a convent, to a government experiment that eventually goes wrong leading to the end of civilization as we know it. And that's just the first third of the book. The rest deals with the aftermath, the people who survive and the mystery of the young girl who is still alive almost 100 years later and who holds the key to what happened and how to save humanity. The story covers so much but does it in a beautiful, gripping way. Each part of the story is so different that there's really something in it for everyone. If you are willing to dive into a book that will take some time to read (even my husband who reads about five books a week took almost a month to finish this one) and are interested in a post-apocalyptic type tale, then I'd definitely recommend this book. The only drawback? The story is so gripping that you'll want to know what's going to happen next, in which case you'll have to read the two sequels that are coming out in 2012 and 2014, both promising to be equally as long.

Pumpkin Patch!

2011-10-17T15:51:00.000-07:00

We did it! The pumpkin patch was a success and I'm sad we have to wait until next year to go again. I was excited because this year both Belle and Marco were big enough to run around and enjoy all the fun kid stuff. The one thing I didn't anticipate was getting them to sit still for pictures! Well, Belle more so than Marco. She just wanted to run around and see everything and every time we tried to take her picture, she'd just turn and yell "CHEESE!" and run away again. Anyway, Michelle brought her fancy camera with her new lens and got some good shots...

And here are some I got on my camera (my old camera - I broke my new one that I just got for my birthday... I don't wanna talk about it, but I hope I can get it fixed).

This pumpkin cracked me up. Justin said Belle could have whatever pumpkin she could carry - little did he realize there were a lot of Belle sized pumpkins, but this one, she was insistent on. She kept putting it in our wheelbarrow, but it was so ugly that I kept taking it out and hiding it hoping she'd forget about it. Four times I hid this pumpkin and every single time Belle would find it and yell, "This one is good! I want this one!" and put it back in the wheelbarrow. So of course I relented and we brought it home, that lucky little pumpkin.

12 weeks + iPhones

2011-10-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

Can you believe the size of this thing? Just to compare, this is about how big my bump was at 15 weeks with Belle. But I also weighed almost 20 pounds more when I got pregnant the first time, so even with this bump, I'm still much smaller overall than I was with Belle, therefore, none of my old maternity pants fit. Oh well, more shopping for me!
So someone commented on my last post that I seem so stressed out. Do I? Just to clarify, I'm really not stressed out. Before I got pregnant I just had so much energy and took care of everything right away and now I'm just tired and sick all the time so things have to wait. And I'm ok with that. Believe me, I do ask for help. A lot. My husband has been doing a lot of the house work and both my mom and mother-in-law are always helpful. So don't worry anyone, I'm really ok! I'm so lucky that I get to stay at home with Belle and Abby all day so if I ever need to just lay down and take a break I can. I also have the best husband in the world who would do absolutely anything for me and often does. My life is perfection and nothing about it stresses me out.
Anyway, in other news my mother-in-law is coming up this afternoon to go maternity-pants shopping and having dinner with Belle and me while my husband stays home and plays with his new iPhone 4... funny story about that: in our house, I run the finances, I spend what I want and keep the budget and my husband never questions me (all of our accounts are joint accounts), he's fine with whatever I spend on Belle or myself, but he is super cheap when it comes to him. Any time he wants something he waits and thinks about it for months and then ends up asking for it for a birthday or Christmas present. Two years ago he got a free phone for signing a mobile contract and every day since then, he complains about how much he hates the thing to which I keep telling him, yeah! that's why it was free! So finally when his contract was up this summer, he patiently awaited the iPhone announcement hoping that the old models would go on sale. Well, no iPhone 5 was released, but with the iPhone 4S, the regular iPhone 4 went on sale for $99 and the really old 3GS is now free. So what does my husband want to do? He wants to get the 3GS for free. Of course. I have a 3GS that I got over a year ago and I know it will be obsolete before long and definitely won't last him two years. So I told him if he really wanted a 3GS, he could have mine and I would get the brand new 4S for $199. Well that shut him up quick, so he begrudgingly got the 4 for $99 and then worried for a week that it was too expensive until I reassured him it was fine. So today his phone finally came in (they had to order it) and he is giddy with excitement about it and I couldn't be happier. Now I don't have to hear him complain for two years about a cheap phone he got for free.
Anyway, have I mentioned that tomorrow we're going to the pumpkin patch? Oh, I have... about 1,000 times? Sorry. Sunday will be all about football and naps. And that's our weekend plan!

a little of this and a little of that

2011-10-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

I know I have been absolutely terrible about blogging lately, but I swear I have a good excuse. See, as much as I want to share new nail polish colors and book reviews (I swear a review on The Passage is coming!), I have been more focused on things like keeping all my food down, getting the 10-11 hours of sleep my body now requires, and trying to find some pants that don't squeeze my bloated tummy. Fun times I tell you! Anyway, here are some things on my mind right now...

Ugh, I'm officially in maternity pants. I mean, I know the second time around you show sooner, but I'm barely showing and all of my pants feel like they are suffocating me. They all still fit and thanks to my weight loss, I have pants in like four sizes up from what I'm in now, but any kind of zip/button combo is just so uncomfortable even if it's loose. If you've ever been preggo and have worn those stretchy elastic panels, you know how comfy they are, so I gave in and ordered THESE and THESE and because I couldn't wait for them to come in the mail, I stopped by Target and also bought THESE.
I'm trying to convince my husband I need an iPad. "For what?" he asks. Umm, to keep grocery lists, recipes, e-reading, email? You know, all the things I use my laptop for. He's not buying it and he won't let me buy it either (boo!). So I'll pout about it secretly knowing that I wouldn't spend my money on it even if he wanted me to and I'm not going to waste a Christmas present on it because there are other, more affordable things that I need/want.
Ok, so every year I tease people who have rainboots, I mean come on, we live in California, not Seattle, who needs rainboots? Well I think I do. If I have to come in the house with the hem of my pants all muddy and wet one more time I'm going to scream. It has been so rainy here lately that I'm thinking rainboots are exactly what I need. I'd love THESE, but let's be real, am I going to spend $130 on rainboots? Um, no. Especially if I'm trying to make a case for an iPad. So I'm looking for a cheaper alternative. Any suggestions?
Applying to preschools is intense. It's so important to me that Belle goes to the right one, but essay questions, really? Her getting in depends on my writing skills? And I need to apply a year in advance? Craziness. It's also frustrating that if a sibling goes to any of these preschools, their younger siblings get priority but by the time baby #2 is ready for preschool, we most likely won't be living in this area which means going through the whole process again somewhere else. Joy.
Usually (when I'm not pregnant), I am super on top of things but now, with my lack of energy, the projects are piling up. On the to-do list: finish making our Halloween costumes (including painting a shirt for Justin), take the 800 photos I just ordered from Shutterfly and the $80 worth of photo albums I bought at Target and put them together, writing these preschool application essays, decorating for Halloween, pulling out old maternity clothes to see if they still fit... etc. when all I really want to do is just take a nap.

photos that need organizing

I am loving my mom and mother-in-law lately. On Sunday my mom came and made Halloween cookies with Belle, letting her toss sprinkles all over our kitchen which she loved! My mother-in-law has been so helpful offering to come up and help take care of Belle and Abby while I've been sick and is coming up this Friday for a fun girls' outing and then babysitting so Justin and I can have a date night.

Halloween cookies by Belle

My doctor's appointment last week basically went like this: ultrasound: looks perfect!, do you want to do genetic screening? No. are you interested in a vbac (don't Google it unless you really want to know)? No. Ok, that was easy. So if your due date is April 26, we can do your c-section around April 20. Um, 4/20? No thanks, can my baby please be born any day except 4/20?
I'm slightly obsessed with THIS dress I ordered for Belle for Christmas. With a cute pair of black mary-janes and tights. Cute, no? I also want to get her THIS one for Thanksgiving, but we'll see.

Belle's Christmas dress... and Thanksgiving dress?

I'm super excited to go the Pumpkin Patch this weekend with THIS lady and THIS sweet boy. Oh yeah, and Tim too :) It's my favorite way to kick off the Fall season. I'm hoping it won't be as muddy as last year. Hmm, maybe some rainboots would be handy?
Usually I hate the rain and cold weather, but this year I actually kind of find it comforting. I also normally dread the Holidays (too many families to squeeze in on one day while trying to keep Belle on a schedule), but this year I'm really looking forward to them. Seeing everyone and spending time with family is becoming more and more appealing to me the older I get (and the more children I have, lol).
My hair is getting so long. I grew it out for my wedding two years ago and then chopped it all off. Usually I like my hair shorter, but now that I have Belle I feel like a soccer mom when my hair is in a bob so I've been growing it out again, but when it's long it tends to drive me crazy. Now I'm not sure if I should just let it grow or chop it. I have a hair appointment before the holidays so I need to make up my mind what I want to do. I think I may just trim and inch or two off the ends, what do you think?

Ok, that's enough rambling for the day. Hopefully I'll be back again before the week is over!

exciting news!!!

2011-10-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to finally tell everyone that in April 2012, Belle is going to be a big sister! We are so thrilled to be giving her a sibling. I was nervous to post the news online, but we went to the doctor yesterday and saw it on an ultrasound and it made it so real. It's the perfect size, has a perfect little heartbeat and is splashing around like crazy in there. I will spare you the pictures of pee-sticks and blobby ultrasounds (unless you really want to see them in which case, I'm happy to oblige). I'll also try not to make this a pregnancy blog, but I can't promise that I won't have an update once a week or so. Anyway, here are some stats so far...

How far along: almost 11 weeks

Size of baby: between a kumquat and a fig (1.5 inches, almost an ounce).

Maternity clothes: not yet, but the pants are getting a little tight.

Gender: We find out November 30! I'm really hoping for another girl, but a boy would be nice too.

Movement: Tons, I just can't feel it yet. I do feel little jabs to my bladder though, so that's fun.

Sleep: Ranges between insomnia and sleeping 10 hours/night with occasional daytime naps.

What I miss: The smell of coffee and garlic (not together obviously), not making me want to hurl.

Cravings: Varies depending on my nausea.

Symptoms: The usual morning sickness. It feels like the worst car sickness you've ever had, then someone punching you hard in the gut and then coming down with the flu all at the same time. With Belle it was pretty bad for four months, but this time it was only bad for two weeks and now it comes and goes.

What I'm looking forward to: The second trimester, getting a little bump, no more morning sickness. But most of all I'm looking forward to finding out the sex in less than 2 months! Place your bets...

Holiday Traditions: Halloween

2011-10-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

With Fall in full swing, I thought I'd share some of our family holiday traditions starting with Halloween. Before we had Belle, Justin and I would buy some candy to hand out and that was the extent of our Halloween celebration. But now with a family, I'm determined to make every holiday fun and full of memories.
Here's what we did in '09: Belle's first Halloween!Tradition 1: Pumpkin Patch.Since Belle was only 8 months old, she really had zero clue what was going on so we kept our Halloween pretty minimal. We took her to this amazing Pumpkin Patch in Napa* that we went to with the Dicksons. They had pet pigs, a hay pyramid, a corn field and all kinds of fun things for kids. Since Belle was only 8 months old, all she really wanted to do was eat the hay. *If you are in the Napa area and want an awesome pumpkin patch, it's called Stanley Lane Marketplace. As far as I can tell, they don't have an official website, but if you Google it, you can easily find out where it is.
Tradition 2: Trick-or-treating.Halloween night Justin had a pretty bad case of swine flu. Since she was still just a baby, I felt silly taking her trick-or-treating for candy, but we live in family housing so our neighborhood has tons of children and on Halloween, they are all out trick-or-treating. It makes Halloween fun because the streets are packed with kids and our doorbell rings every 2 minutes. While Justin was sick in bed, I took Belle on a walk around the neighborhood so she could see the other kids' costumes and then we headed back inside for the rest of the night.
Tradition 3: Matching costumes.Like I've mentioned before, a family that I was a nanny for in college had 3 kids and every year they all dressed up in a theme. One year they were farm animals, another one they were super heroes and one year they were all Elvis. They had their pictures taken in costume and put them out every year as part of their Fall decorations. I always thought it was adorable so I knew when we had kids I wanted to do something similar. For Belle's first Halloween, I got her this full body monkey costume (note-to-self: never buy a full body fur suit for a baby who has no idea what's going on, she hated it!). For myself, I got some cat ears, a bow-tie and a cat's tail and for Justin I got a bear hat with ears. Not the most original or clever, but for a first Halloween it did the trick
And here's what we did last year: 2010
Tradition 1: Pumpkin Patch.We did the patch again last year with the Dicksons and Belle was way more into it. She climbed on the tractors and helped us pick out our pumpkins. I'm excited to go again this year because Marco will be old enough to run around with Belle. This is definitely something we will be doing for many, many years.
Tradition 2: Trick-or-treating.Finally Belle was big enough to understand the concept! We invited her BFF Abby and her parents over and while the boys were watching the boys win the World Series, the moms took the girls out to collect some candy. They had so much fun and loved seeing their baskets fill up and seeing all the other kids' costumes.
Tradition 3: Matching costumes.Belle was Elmo (this time she loved her costume), Justin wore a Cookie Monster t-shirt and I wore a Big Bird shirt (I try to make Justin's and my part pretty simple- costumes really aren't our thing). It was easy and fun and Belle still talks about how mommy was Big Bird and daddy was Cookie Monster and asks to wear her Elmo costume.
Tradition 4: Carving pumpkins (new in '10)Last year we decided Belle was old enough to help pull the goop out of the pumpkins. She wasn't old enough to carve anything or draw any faces for us, but she had fun getting messy and watching what mommy and daddy were doing.
Tradition 5: El Cerrito Halloween party and Piedmont Halloween Parade (new in '10)Our local community center (one town over) has a big Halloween party every year for all of the neighborhood kids. They have a fire truck come that the kids can tour and firefighters hand out fire hats and stickers. Inside the community center they have a Haunted House (including lights on non-scary tours for the younger kids) and carnival games where kids can win candy and prizes.
The Piedmont Parade was also a fun event to take part in. It starts with story time at the Piedmont library for the younger kids and then everyone goes to the starting line and runs down a blocked off street in their costumes. We went to the parade with Abby and her parents and the girls had so much fun running through the crowds, we could barely keep up with them!
This year (2011), we are planning to do all five Halloween traditions and may possibly add more! It's great to have such fun things planned for Belle to make her holiday special. What are some of your Halloween traditions?

Monthly Resolutions: October

2011-09-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

I know it's a day early, but I don't feel like blogging over the weekend, so here we go for October...

Last Month

Agh, I have 200 pages left in The Passage, but I've been reading about 100 pages a day for the past few days so I hope to have it done this weekend. Terrible, I know, but it's an almost 800 page book!
Belle is in her new fall routine and all of her classes are going great. We do swim class on Mondays and Wednesdays, gymnastics on Tuesdays and Gymboree & music class on Fridays. And I haven't bought her any clothes.
Money wise I have stayed completely on budget and our bank account is looking pretty good! I may even treat myself to a mani/pedi next week.
Ha! Workouts have been a big fat no-go this month, our schedule has been too busy and I haven't been feeling well.
Chicago trip booked and complete!
There are two preschools I am applying Belle to for next fall. One application has already been submitted and the other one I need to tour again which I am doing on Wednesday.

This Month

A lot is going on right now so my resolutions aren't exactly ground breaking, but just enough to keep me on track...

Read 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I have to say, after Love in the Time of Cholera, I'm not too psyched to read another Marquez book) and Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan.

Treat myself to a mani/pedi but otherwise stay on budget.

Apply to the other preschool.

Get Halloween costumes together and decorate for Fall!

It's OK

2011-09-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

I don't really have anything to blog about today, so I decided to do "It's Ok" Thursday today...It's ok that...

Even though I hate to admit it, I've been watching DWTS... but I do it online so there's no trace on my TiVo and I only watch a few of the 'stars'.
Even though the weather has been gorgeous, all I want to do is be inside so I make Justin take Belle to the park. Does that make me a terrible mom?
That I still have almost 300 pages left in my book that I'm trying to finish by, um, tomorrow.
That my husband is out of town for a few days and even though I miss him like crazy, I really need someone to wash the dishes.
That I want to go to Hawaii ssooooo badly that I'm trying to justify in my head all the ways we can afford to get there even though I know we shouldn't.
That I told Justin that I want to take Belle to New York in a few years and when he said he'd love to go to New York, I said that maybe it'd just be a mommy/daughter trip. Lol, of course I would never leave him out, but doesn't a girls trip sound fun?
That I make Belle and Abby put away their toys before playing with something else so that I have less to clean up at the end of the day.
That even though reading over this, it doesn't sound like I appreciate him, but I really do have the best husband in the world and am luckier than I deserve to be.

brown boots and fall shoes

2011-09-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

I don't exactly know where my love of shoes comes from. If you see me on a regular basis, I assure you would not be impressed because I am usually wearing whatever shoes/sandals happen to be sitting by the back door and I forget about the pretty sweet collection of shoes I have in my closet that go largely unworn (which I don't feel too guilty about because my shoes last me forever). I don't have a crazy amount of shoes by any means, but I do have some nice ones. For some reason I tend to collect brown boots. I'm not sure why since I rarely wear boots, but I just seem drawn to them. Here are my four favorites (I'm sure you've seen most of them on here before so you've probably seen more pictures of them than I've actually worn them out).
Ecco Hobart Ankle Buckle in "espresso"These are my current obsession. I bought them at the Nordstrom pre-season sale a few months ago and have only gotten to wear them once (damn this sunny Fall weather). My husband teases me because I have been looking for the perfect equestrian-style boot for six years and I finally found them!
Nine West (no longer available)I got these for Christmas last year and I love them. I can really wear them any season and with almost anything.

Steve Madden Troopa in "cognac le"I also got these last year for Christmas and know four other people who have gotten them since.

Steve Madden Cybul (no longer available)I got these two years ago (again for Christmas - I'm noticing a trend). And they still look like new!
Now I definitely don't need to add to my collection, but if I really had to, I'd get these...
Steve Madden Trouser in "grey leather"I've been debating for over a year whether or not to jump on the Oxford trend and am thinking that now I may need to because I am loving these.
Sperry Top-Sider Trinity in "black/charcoal" Who knew Top-Siders were in? In Chicago, I saw them everywhere. This may be a good Fall alternative to the trend.
Vince Camuto Silas in "brandy leather" These are pretty bad ass.
Ugg Brienne in "black"Ok, now typically I know "Ugg" is just short for "uggly", but these are actually semi-cute, no?

Tuesday randomness

2011-09-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

I probably could have broken this up into ten different posts, but oh well. Here we go with the randomness...

I've been wanting to try THESE for a while but they're $10 and you can only use them once so I resisted. Then I saw them on sale for $8 at Target and decided that was a reasonable price (?) I really wanted the butterfly ones, but they were sold out so I got the flower ones instead. They were really easy to put on and I like the look of them, but to be honest, polishing my nails is way easier (and much more economical).

Last year I read THIS and THIS but not THIS (you can read my reviews HERE). I really liked the first book, the second was ok and I never got around to the third one, although it's been sitting on my shelf for over a year. Practically everyone I know has read them all and agree the third one is the worst anyway, so I really don't feel like I'm missing out. I saw all the Swedish movies so now I'm excited that the American version is coming out. Like I said, the first book was my fave so I'm extra excited for this:

I also laughed hysterically at THIS post on Hello Giggles the other day. Here's an excerpt from "Dear Ryan Gosling", asking Ryan Gosling to stop being so... Ryan Gosling. Although you should really read the whole thing if you want to pee your pants laughing. Even though Ryan's not at all my type, I can appreciate the intent of this letter:
"Did you hear that loud boom in the far off distance? Those were my ovaries exploding. That’s it. They’re done. I will never be able to give birth to children of my own because I have seen what you look like when you hold a little girl in your arms. But why would I want to give birth to children of my own when I know they won’t be yours? Do you know how many days of my life I’ve spent crying into my cardigan sleeves because I have to live with the knowledge that I will never give birth to your children? Nine. Technically, I’ve spent fourteen days crying, but the other five happened in the summertime so I wasn’t wearing a cardigan."
In other news, I've been hard at work planning out our family Halloween costumes for this year. When I was in college I nanny'd for this family that would dress up in a theme every year, one year they were all Elvis and it was hilarious so since Belle's been around, I've been trying to keep a similar tradition. Here are pictures from our last two Halloweens...

Belle's first Halloween '09
We are a bear, a cat and a monkey respectively.
Justin had the flu, we barely got him out of bed to take this picture.

Last Halloween '10Cookie Monster, Elmo and Big Bird.Belle's costume had a hood with big Elmo eyes and a nose on it.
I don't want to completely ruin it, but THIS is what I have in mind for this year...
Well that's it for my Tuesday randomness. Now I'm not sure what to blog about for the rest of the week...

Weekend Recap...

2011-09-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

SaturdayMost of the day on Saturday, Justin had to work so Belle and I were on our own. Lucky for me she decided to sleep in until 8:45. When she got up, we got dressed, had eggs and toast for breakfast and played with trains. Because it was ugly outside and I wasn't feeling well, we decided to cuddle up in Mommy and Daddy's room to watch Toy Story 3 on Blu Ray. After the movie, we had lunch and I put Belle down for her nap. Justin came home in the afternoon and took Belle to Tilden Park and Target so I could rest and make a dent in my book: This is the longest book I've ever read and it's taking forever to get through, but it's really good! After dinner we put Belle to bed and caught up on Project Runway before calling it an early night.
SundaySunday morning Justin was at work again so I decided to make Belle and myself some pancakes. I don't think I've ever made pancakes before (at least not successfully), but they actually came out pretty good.
After breakfast Belle and I decided to play with trains (again). We noticed it was raining outside so we decided to take a walk out in the rain. We ran all over the place before heading back inside to warm up.

After our rainy adventure, Belle decided to do puzzles leaving me time to go through the last year's worth of pictures that I haven't printed out yet. I narrowed it down from 1,433 pictures to an even 800 and ordered the prints. Now I have to buy albums to fill. Since Belle's been born, I've already filled 7 albums (200 pictures each) and now I have to buy 4 more and she's not even 3 yet! I can't help it, she's just too cute not to document.
Anyway, that was our boring weekend. I know you were thrilled to read about it!

NPOW

2011-09-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

Nail Polish of the WeekOPI: You Don't Know Jacques!

Giveaway winner? Me?

2011-09-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last week my friend Adrian posted a giveaway on her blog for Nifey Designs (an adorable Etsy shop). I loved the necklace Adrian bought (seen here) so I checked out the shop and realized I wanted everything in it, so I entered and won! I've seriously never won anything in my life so I was completely stoked. I got to pick whatever piece I wanted so here's what I narrowed it down to:

Aren't they all great? Necklaces are really the only jewelry (other than my wedding ring) that I really wear and I love her simple, unique designs.
Here's the necklace I finally decided on - although I may have to order that leaf one too:
Check out more from Nifey Designs.PS - If you follow the Nifey Designs Blog, you get 25% off! But only for the next two days, so hurry up and order.

M.I.A. and Chicago

2011-09-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

I apologize for being so absent on the blog this past week, but I have a good reason (sort of). Last week Justin and I went to Chicago to visit our friends Kyle and Shelley (who just got married, remember?). They moved there a couple months ago and will probably only be there for a couple years, so we wanted to get out there while we could (and before winter hits, I hear it's brutal out there). We got in late Thursday night and left early Sunday morning so we only had two solid days to see the city.

First thing Friday morning, Justin decided he wanted to see Northwestern out in Evanston, but since we had gotten to bed at around 3 AM and they all wanted to leave at 8 AM, I decided to skip out on the trip and sleep. So no pictures were taken because everyone knows I'm the official picture taker. In other words, Justin forgot the camera.

Early Friday afternoon, we headed out to lunch at Goose Island and then went to our first Cubs game! Luckily Kyle and Shelley live walking distance to Wrigley so we were able to experience all the Cubs excitement. I know where we live we have the Giants and AT&T park is pretty spectacular, but there's still nothing like a good old-fashioned baseball park (Wrigley Field is the second oldest park in the U.S., built in 1914). The park itself is tiny. Balls were flying out into the street on a regular basis. Here are some pics...

Justin, Me and Kyle.

Martin Sheen throwing out the first pitch.
Do you see the buildings with bleachers on their rooftops? Those buildings are actually outside of the park and sell those seats independently from the Field so people can watch the game from outside the park. Weird, no?
I had to tease Justin during the game because he was freezing, complaining that he thought it was below 0. After checking the weather on my phone, I found out it was 58 degrees. He would never survive a true Chicago winter.

That night for dinner we decided to try the famous Gino's East. As you may or may not know, we have some pretty good deep dish pizza here in Berkeley (Zachary's), but Chicago is known for their deep dish so we had to compare. Let me tell you, deep dish may have originated in Chicago, but Zachary's and even Little Star are way superior. Sorry Chicago!

The next day we really wanted to see the city, so first thing in the morning (ok, around 10 AM), we headed out to Grant Park (where Obama gave his victory speech) and Millennium Park.
Buckingham FountainThe city. The Fountain got a little excited. Lots of walking.

Crown Fountain. Supposedly there's a place you can go and have your picture taken and one day it will wind up on this fountain. Also, water shoots out of the mouth getting everyone wet. The Bean (aka - Cloud Gate).Millennium MonumentThe closest I will probably ever get to my hero.
After a lot of walking, we headed up the Signature Room at John Hancock Center on the 96th Floor for some snacks and drinks.After our snacks, we went to Navy Pier. Shelley and I rode the giant Ferris Wheel while the boys got some hot dogs.
After Navy Pier, we walked down the River Walk and then went to Frontera Grill for dinner. Early the next morning we headed home! It was such a fun trip, I hope we can get back out there soon!
We ended up getting home Sunday afternoon and I haven't been able to catch up on everything since then, so I've neglected this blog. But I promise I'll try to be back up on the regular next week.

2 years ago today...

2011-09-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

I married my best friend.

NPOW

2011-09-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

Nail Polish of the WeekOPI: An Affair in Red Square

monkey bread

2011-09-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last week I made THIS (more commonly known as Monkey Bread). It was a big hit in our house. I used Trader Joe's pizza dough and it was perfect. It's like a big cinnamon roll with a lot less sugar and goop.
I'm trying to bake something new every week so if you have any dessert recipes to share, send them my way!

outfit of the week

2011-09-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Necklace: Tiffany's Mini Double Heart Tag PendantUndershirt: B.P. Stretch Camisole in "White" (Nordstrom)Shirt: Xhilaration Circle Tee (Target)Jeans: The Diva Skinny Jeans (Old Navy)Shoes: Steve Madden FantasikFor: the Taylor Swift concert!

Taylor Swift

2011-09-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

Let me just preface this by saying that I don't normally listen to country music. In general, I'm not a big music person, I don't really seek out new music. I tend to listen to music that is just out there which is mostly pop - you know the songs that are played so much that you have to live under a rock to have not heard them? I do think a lot of pop music is silly and I don't want to admit that I'm the kind of person who just listens to top 10 hits, but I'll admit that at any given time, I have 9 out of 10 of the top 10 songs on itunes burned onto a CD somewhere.

I resisted liking Taylor Swift for a long time. I thought her first album was so cheesy and when her second album Fearless came out I thought it was more of the same. Then I saw the video for You Belong With Me and I couldn't get the song out of my head, so I bought the CD and actually liked it. When Speak Now came out last year, I actually bought it the day it came out and now even Belle knows most of the songs by heart. What can I say? Her songs are really catchy. When she announced the tour I knew I wanted to go but I only knew one person who likes country music: my sister-in-law. So for her birthday last November (yes, I bought tickets almost a year in advance) I bought us tickets to see Taylor Swift in concert.

acting out "Speak Now" - see the bride?
The concert was really good (pop stars usually put on really good shows which is why I like going to pop concerts), but she was a huge cornball. She kept looking around all wide-eyed and amazed like she had never performed in front of an audience before. She also acted out every single song and had dancers who acted out songs that she couldn't. All of that was a bit cheesy, but she did put on a good performance otherwise (ten outfit changes included). There were fireworks, a flying balcony that she performed on... she even walked through the crowd and hugged half the audience members on the floor of the stadium! Overall it was a fun night and I'm glad that I went, even if I was the oldest one there who didn't have a teenage daughter with me.

Book: Life Sentences

2011-09-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

I read What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman back in March and really enjoyed it. The wife of David Simon, Laura Lippman writes crime mysteries based in her native Baltimore. Although her writing style is very simple, her stories are compelling and always come together in unexpected ways. This book was no different. The story is of a famous writer who is looking for her next book idea when she comes across the story of a girl that she grew up with who's son mysteriously disappeared years ago. The mother of the missing boy has remained silent even serving seven years in prison for contempt of court. My only complaint about this book is that it doesn't all come together until the last fifty pages, but it's a pretty good payoff.

Movies: The Help and The Switch

2011-09-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

No, I did not read the book The Help. So many people have recommended it to me, but honestly it doesn't seem like my thing at all. I may get around to it at some point though because I am a little curious how the book and movie are different. My husband actually read the book. Not because he loves chick-lit, but because his field of study is all about race and American history specifically in films so he thought this book could be useful to his work and because a lot of what he does is in film, he wanted to see the movie as well. I agreed to see it because I'm a good wife like that and I do enjoy a good cheesy movie every now and then. I am a huge Emma Stone fan but I thought she was very miscast in this movie. I think she does much better with comedy (Easy A, Crazy Stupid Love). And her wig? Seriously? Not a fan. I thought the other actors were pretty good but the story itself was so corny at parts that I laughed more than I teared up. Very cute though for a casual, feel good movie, but way too long.

I've had this movie from Netflix for, um, probably four or five months and I finally watched it! It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I love Jennifer Aniston but she is rarely in good movies so I always know to set the bar pretty low when watching one. I love Jason Bateman too but it was a little unbelievable to me that two people that look like them would be lonely and aging in a big city like New York. The premise was very cute although extremely predictable. Overall it wasn't too awful. I also didn't realize it's based on a short story by Jeffrey Eugenides (the author of Middlesex).

design inspirations

2011-09-02T08:30:00.001-07:00

I know everyone is obsessed with Pinterest, but I really don't understand it yet. So instead I'll just share some home decor that I've been admiring lately. Not that I own a home (yet) that I can decorate, but just to keep in mind for the future...

a dark, cozy living room with a fire place to drink coffee and read in

photo credit
an eclectic office space for everyone to use
photo credit
a bright and functional play/living room
photo credit
I am slightly obsessed with the wall art above this sofa
photo credit

Monthly Resolutions: September

2011-09-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last Month

Money-wise I did do a little extra spending, but for the most part I did ok on our budget. Still waiting to book our Chicago trip though!

I finished Strangers at the Feast by Jennifer Vanderbes (review HERE) and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (review HERE). I am so close to finishing Life Sentences by Laura Lippman (review to come next week).

Belle and I spent a special mommy/daughter day that you can read about HERE and is enrolled in swim lessons starting this month.

I've been consistent with my three workouts per week but have gone on zero walks on the other four days.

This Month

This month will be mostly about settling into our Fall routine so I'm not trying to put too many goals on myself because I know it will be an adjustment month for us.

My goal this month is to read The Passage by Justin Cronin.

My goal with Belle is to get her into a routine for Fall and to not buy her any more Fall clothes because she now has way more than she needs already! This month is Justin's month to have a special day with her.

Money wise I am always trying to stick to the budget. It's always a struggle but I'm going to try and keep our grocery bill under a certain amount per week.

Three workouts a week and walking at least one night per week.

Book our trip to Chicago!

Make dentist appointments.

Apply for preschools (for Fall '12!)

Book: Love in the Time of Cholera

2011-08-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

I would never be so bold as to criticize the writing of someone as brilliant as Marquez, but this book was slightly difficult to get through. The story begins with a doctor who begins his day by finding out that a friend of his is dead. The first fifty pages describes the doctor's day in detail until 4 PM when he suddenly drops dead. While his wife is in mourning, another man appears and the story is sent back in time fifty years to tell the tale of young, poetic love. It goes like this: a man spots a young girl walking through a park and begins to send her love letters. The two engage in a written romance over years until finally he asks her hand in marriage and she agrees. One day he sees her in a market and approaches her from behind and without a glance she dismisses him and cuts all ties. Not long after that, a young doctor woos the girl and later asks for her hand in marriage. After the guilt of turning down her first proposal, she accepts this new one and spends the next fifty years in a pretty typical marriage (resulting in two children that are barely mentioned). All the while, the dismissed young poet spends his next fifty years pining for her and filling his physical needs by sleeping with 622 women.
The bulk of this book relies on the description of their two divergent lives and discusses in broad detail their adult experiences. Only at the beginning during their courtship, and later when they are reunited does the story truly come together. Although the book is drawn out, Marquez' writing style is gorgeous (even though it is not his original language - it was translated to English). A young man trying to stay faithful and maintain his virginity while living in a whorehouse, two lovers reuniting and spending their end of days on an isolated ship called The New Fidelity while drifting up and down a river for eternity are just a couple examples of the beautiful symbolism in this story.
This book is amazing even if it is a little slow. I would definitely not recommend reading it on a deadline though because it's hard to pick up and find a rhythm with it, it's more of a book you need to savor over time.

pasta

2011-08-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

My husband is an amazing cook. Last week he made me THIS and it was so delicious I just had to share...

aren't you hungry now?

pizza

2011-08-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

I'm always looking for new things to make for dinner, we each have a few things that we make over and over that we love, but it's nice to mix it up every once in a while. Last week I decided to try making a home-made pizza. We've never made pizza at home because both Zachary's and Cheeseboard are so close (and so good!) but I decided to give it a shot.
Here's what I used: Trader Joe's pizza dough, feta, minced garlic in olive oil (brushed right onto the dough), roasted corn, basil, tomatoes and fresh mozzarella.
Before:

After:

It was very light (for a pizza) and very delicious.

Soap Hope

2011-08-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago the kind people at Soap Hope reached out to me to see if I'd be interested in reviewing some of their products. After reading their website and learning about their company I gladly said yes! Not only are all of the products sold on Soap Hope all natural and organic, but they follow the Good Returns business model, meaning that every dollar of profit they make is loaned to a charity that gives interest free loans to women in need. Learn more about their mission HERE. Products that are all natural that also do good things for women? I was intrigued.
They sent me a box of samples to try out and review. Within a few days I had a little "ugly box" (they use scraps of cardboard to package their products reducing their carbon footprint and your shipping costs!). After opening it to see all the goodies inside, I put it on our desk in the hallway and for the next couple of days, every time I passed the desk I got a strong whiff of the amazing spa-like scents (think lavender, oatmeal, chamomile..) So I decided to try a few....

The first product I tried was the Oatmeal Lavender hand soap by ZUM Bar. Not only did it smell amazing but it left my hands really soft (a lot of soaps dry out my naturally dry skin).
Next I tried the Chamomile and Carrot Day Cream by Acure Organics. I have very sensitive skin so I am really picky about my moisturizer. Not only was this moisturizer light, it smelled fresh and subtle and quenched my skin all day.
I also tried the mineral blush and foundation by Mahya Cosmetics. I usually don't like mineral makeup because I think it looks too "done", but these offered a very subtle but full coverage.
The last product I tried was the Frankincense and Myrrh hand and body wash by Zum. It smelled sooo good! I felt fresh all day like I just stepped out of a spa.
I still have some other products to try, but so far I love them all! And the prices are very reasonable. I would strongly encourage checking them out, for yourself and for women who need your support.
You can check out some of their promotions and deals HERE too.
They also have deals and promotions specifically for bloggers! Contact them for more info.

iphone photos

2011-08-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

lunch
two little loves

marco!

flowers on the table

reading at Berkeley Marina

Berkeley Rose Garden

pizza making

zin and window flowers

... ok, so it's not my most original post.

NPOW

2011-08-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Nail Polish of the Week Essie: (bottles from L to R) Bahama Mama, Turquoise & Caicos, In Stitches, Lapis of Luxury
Inspired by THIS

Watch the Throne

2011-08-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

Remember earlier this year when I did these album reviews? My favorite was Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (it's still on heavy rotation in my car stereo - when the girls aren't around of course) and now, as I'm sure you've heard, Kanye and Jay-Z recently released Watch the Throne. It's very similar to MBDTF in style, but in my opinion, Jay-Z adds a much cooler element to it. I really really like this album, I'd say it's borderline obsessive but I've heard that a lot of people like Kanye's MBDTF and Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 better. Either way if you are a fan of either's music (and aren't offended by explicit lyrics), I'd check it out.

Fall Previews

2011-08-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's THAT time of year again and here's my game plan...

Is it just me or is there not much to look forward to this year? What will you be watching?

outfit of the week

2011-08-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Necklace: Tiffany's Mini Double Heart Tag PendantUndershirt: B.P. Stretch Camisole in "Cloudy" (Nordstrom)Shirt: Fire Patterned Chiffon Blouse (Nordstrom)Jeans: Mossimo Supply Co. Jeggings in Indigo (Target) - similar style HEREShoes: Steve Madden FantasikFor: My mother-in-law's birthday dinner at P.F. Chang's. (yum!)

Book: Strangers at the Feast

2011-08-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

I decided to pick up this book after reading a review of it last year in O Magazine. The people in this story are ordinary people dealing with modern day issues. The matriarch of the family is an old-fashioned mother who believes in serving her husband and raising children in the most traditional way. The patriarch of the family is a Vietnam vet who struggles to show his emotions. The couple have two children: a son who built a fortune for himself during the dot com boom, then naturally lost everything only to begin investing in commercial real estate... and we all know what has happened to real estate; their daughter, a single professor who has a PhD in family studies and has just adopted a seven year old child from India. There is also the son's trophy wife who is furious about her husband's carelessness with their finances and is beginning to show physical signs of stress. There are also two boys from a nearby housing project who factor into the story when they break into a house and unleash a flurry of inexplicable events. All of these characters come together on a Thanksgiving day that ends in bloodshed where characters are pushed to their breaking points and family bonds are tested.
I really liked this book. The characters were all relatable and the story was very compelling. It takes until almost the very end of the book for all of the pieces to come together, but they do beautifully. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who's interested in the synopsis, although it is not thrilling as it sounds: most of the action doesn't happen until the end and the rest of the book consists mostly of flashbacks.

NPOW

2011-08-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Nail Polish of the Week
OPI: Girls Just Want to Play

Off the Grid take 2

2011-08-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

So I know last time I did an Off the Grid post, I didn't show much of the food, so I thought I'd try again...

Belle is not as into the gourmet truck food as we are so this week I brought her her own dinner. I was also smart enough to bring our big picnic blanket so we brought that out and had an "adventure". Belle kept repeating "We're having a picnic!"

Belle's dinner: fishsticks, grapes, blueberries, apples, ketchup and crackers.

This week we got there nice and early and headed toward one of the more popular food trucks before the line got too long: Brass Knuckle.

I splurged and got the buttermilk fried chicken sandwich.
Justin got the brisket sandwich.

And just in case that wasn't enough calories for us, I also got a "crack bar". Cookie crust bottom, crunchy peanut butter, salted caramel and chocolate on top. To.Die.For.

Chowin' down.

Thought we were done? Oh no. We ended our meal with some garlic oil french fries from fivetenburger.

Ok, I know she's not food, but I had to add this gratuitous shot of my Belley girl because she's so cute I can hardly stand it.

normal life

2011-08-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

This summer has been insanity. Trying to have any sort of routine has been a waste of time and if you know me, you know I like my routines. I like the comfort of knowing what's going to happen every day and the rituals of making it all happen. Anyway, I am so grateful because in a couple of weeks we will be settling into our fall routine and I couldn't be happier. Abby will be here full time Monday - Friday so I will have two toddlers by myself, but I am hoping that having a set schedule will make things a little more tolerable.

Here's what life will look like starting in September:

An average weekday will look like this:
8 AM - Abby arrives, quiet time in the living room.
8:30 AM - Belle wakes up. Get both girls dressed and groomed for the day.
9 AM - I shower and get myself ready.
9:30 AM - feed the girls breakfast.
10 AM - whatever activity we have scheduled that day.
12:30 PM - make and feed the girls lunch, clean them up, read them stories and put them down for naps/quiet time.
1:30 PM - wash dishes, make myself lunch, watch The View.
2:30 PM - girls up, let them have quiet time while they eat their snack.
3:30 PM - go outside or do afternoon activities.
4 PM - Abby gets picked up. Belle and Justin play outside.
5 PM - start dinner or cleanup if Justin is cooking.
6 PM - eat dinner.
7 PM - give Belle a bath, clean up toys.
8 PM - put Belle to bed, finish cleaning up.
9 PM - one hour workout (Tuesday nights I go to a 90 minute yoga class at 7:30)
10 PM - relax, watch TV
11 PM - read
12 PM - bed

And our weekly activities:
Mondays
10 AM - 12 PM grocery shopping (I've found it so much easier to shop on weekday mornings and doing it on Mondays allows me to shop for the whole week. It's been easy this summer with Belle but now I am going to attempt to do it with both girls - pray for me! Grocery shopping includes: Target for basics, Monterey Market for produce and Trader Joe's for everything else).
4 PM - 4:30 PM swim lessons

Tuesdays
10:30 AM - 11:15 AM gymnastics
7:30 PM - 9 PM yoga class for me!

Wednesdays
10 AM - 12 PM Studio Grow story and music time
4 PM - 4:30 PM swim lessons

Thursdays
10 AM - 12 PM cleaning and laundry for me, art projects for the girls / go to the park on sunny days

Fridays
10:30 AM - 11:15 AM Gymboree play & learn class
11:30 AM - 12:15 PM Gymboree music class

And just to not sound like a total downer, here are some iPhone pics of some fun we've been having the past couple of weeks...
These girls go nuts for stickers. They literally sat there for almost an hour peeling away.

Playing "nap time". My favorite game.

I woke up the other morning to see this on the shower wall. My husband is too sweet.

Lunch.

Tasty tacos.

Grocery shopping list! Yes I am this anal about shopping.

Belle helping me pick out some... um... necessities at Target.

chez gomer

2011-08-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many times I have to say that I don't cook and then post a recipe before I realize that I actually do cook... just not often. Justin is the resident chef in our house but this summer he has been teaching, writing lectures, reading and trying to work on his dissertation. I on the other hand usually watch Abby five days a week but this summer she's only been here twice a week, so unless I want to starve my family or go broke eating out every night, it's only fair that I cook once in a while. This and this have definitely been staples this summer as they are the only things that I do well. But after reading Real Simple this month and seeing this on my friend Nicole's blog (I swear Nicole I don't cyberstalk you all the time... ok maybe a little :) I decided to try some new recipes. So on Monday I decided to make a peach pie, popcorn chicken, roasted potatoes and a summer corn salad all from scratch. It took me all afternoon in the kitchen but everything came out really good if I do say so myself.
Dinner

Corn Salad recipe found HERE. I left out the chicken breast pieces since I was making the popcorn chicken and I used my favorite Trader Joe's herb salad mix instead of spinach. I also put the dressing in a small mesh colander and let it sit on top of the salad to let the flavors soak in instead of adding the rosemary garlic mix into the lettuce.
Popcorn chicken recipe found HERE.
And my roasted potatoes found HERE. In hindsight, I could have done without the potatoes, the chicken and salad were more than enough food.

Don't judge the portion sizes, I made enough for four people so we each had a lot.

Justin's plate with the chicken over the salad.

My plate with the chicken on the side to make room for the Parmesan.

DessertPeach Pie I took from Nicole's blog. Recipe found HERE. I added blueberries to the peach mixture because we had a lot of extra blueberries in our fridge.

Yum!

Remember when I said we don't have a dishwasher? Yeah cooking such a big meal and a pie from scratch made for a lot of dirty dishes...

Movie: Crazy.Stupid.Love and Tree of Life

2011-08-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I never see movies. Sorry I'm lame. But in the past couple months I have seen a couple!
Last weekend was my mother-in-law's birthday and all she wanted was to see Belle so of course Justin and I took advantage by going to see a movie while Belle spent some time with her grandma. We both really wanted to see this because we are huge Steve Carell fans and Justin has a crush on Ryan Gosling like I have a crush on Emma Stone. This movie was so cute, heartwarming and funny. I know I see a lot of romantic comedies and I never really like them... I loved this one. There's a big twist at the end of the movie that I think pulls the story together and makes it an ending slightly unlike most rom-coms. Definitely a must-see if you want a fun movie. PS - for all you ANTM fans, you may recognize the adorable Analeigh Tipton in a major role!

This is not a movie for a casual movie-goer who just wants to be entertained. My husband, who is very into movies, is a big fan of Terrence Malick and has seen all of his movies. If you've seen any of his movies, you'd know that they are very artsy and hard to follow. His films are rarely about the plot and ask big questions of the universe. "It's sort of like watching a philosophy book" as Justin would say. Justin saw this movie on his own and begged me to see it so we could talk about it. Michelle and I went to see it together and I won't speak for her, but I'm pretty sure we were both pretty confused. I had to have Justin explain to me what the movie was supposed to be about and even he didn't have all the answers. Despite the confusing premise, the movie was gorgeous to watch and was unlike any movie I've ever seen. If you're up for a head scratcher and something a little deeper than say, another Transformers film, then I'd recommend it. Get a big bucket of popcorn though this movie is almost two and a half hours long!

Off the Grid

2011-08-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

When my friend Nicole blogged about Off the Grid a few weeks ago I was intrigued. After doing some research I found out that it's actually held in our neighborhood on Wednesday nights! Justin and I had to try it. If you don't know about Off the Grid (and if you live in the Bay Area I suggest you educate yourself), it's basically a bunch of gourmet food trucks that stop in one location festival-style for you to enjoy. The one in North Berkeley is on Wednesdays from 5-9 PM. We got there at 6 and waited in line for almost an hour for food, but it was definitely worth it.

the crowds

The Taco GuysSpicy lemonade (that was so tasty I have dreams about it), beef taco and an eaten Maui taco.

fivetenburgerGrilled cheese For Belle that was drool worthy. My mouth is watering looking at this picture. Justin also got a burger and fries and even though I gave up red meat I tried a bite and almost died. It was unlike any burger I've ever had in that it made me want to eat red meat again and by eating red meat I mean just that burger for breakfast-lunch-and-dinner every day.

Belle is well prepared and ready to go!

CupkatesThis truck is all over the East Bay so we've tried it before. Belle enjoyed her double chocolate cupcake to say the least. If you ever try it, I recommend the s'more cupcake just for its graham cracker crust.

Tahoe

2011-08-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

If you know my beautiful daughter Belle, you probably know her BFF Abby. Abby's mom and I go way back and we're lucky enough to have girls that are two months apart. When Abby was seven months old and Belle was five months old, Abby's mom (Sarah) told me she was thinking of putting Abby in daycare when I suggested a better idea, I'll watch Abby and Belle can have a playmate! So for almost two years these girls have spent many weekdays playing, doing gymnastics, art classes, etc. together and they love each other like sisters. We are also very lucky that Abby's mom and dad have a house in Tahoe that they let us use from time to time. This past weekend Sarah was planning a trip with a friend of hers and her two daughters and invited Belle and I to come along. Belle was ecstatic to have her best friend Abby around morning noon and night all weekend long. Here are some pics from our weekend:
Me and Belle!
Abby and Sarah

Our BFFs

In matching cover-ups.

Love.
Rulers of the pool.
Get back here!
Matching bathing suits. Stylish moms think alike :)

outfit of the week

2011-08-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. Another white-shirt-jeans-brown-shoes combo. Sorry! I'll try harder next week.
Necklace: Tiffany's Key CollectionShirt: Rubbish for NordstromJeans: Cropped Legging Jeans for GAPShoes: Nine West (2010)For: Monthly dinner date at Il Fornaio with my lovely friend Elise.

Book: The Glass Castle

2011-08-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

I finished this book just in time last month! Phew. Anyway, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a heartbreaking tale of a little girl and her family as they grow up in poverty on what their parents call "an adventure". Both her mother and father are completely unfit as parents choosing a "carefree" life on the run over the stability and presence that their children need and crave. The family moves from city to city as their parents run away from unpaid bills and the law. Rather than taking government assistance or finding full time jobs, her father drinks away what little income they have while their mother focuses on her "art" letting the bills pile up and neglecting the children. Every time they are about to get evicted (and sometimes voluntarily), their parents pack up the family and move them, usually without a solid plan. Towards the middle of the book they end up settling in Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia where they are known as the "poor" family. Living in squalor the narrator longs for a better life and eventually finds it while coming to terms with the fact that her parents will never change.
Because this is a true story, it is very heartbreaking to read. At every turn there are people molesting the narrator and her siblings, shooting at them or beating them up. All the while they find no solace in their parents and they learn to survive on their own. This book is definitely not for the sensitive reader. It is a quick read though at 288 pages and the story flows easily. Although it is an easy read, it is very well written. I'd recommend this book only if you can handle the gruesome details of the story.

NPOW

2011-08-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

Nail Polish of the WeekOPI: Sweet Heart
I can't believe I've never posted this color, it's my go-to neutral and probably my favorite nail color. It's great for all seasons and you can't really see when it chips.
PS - forgive my horrid cuticles. If you'd like to send money to the "Adrienne Needs a Professional Manicure" fund, I am now accepting donations.