per your request...

Dear Nathan,

Since you requested an update and it's your birthday, I shall comply. Commence update:

• It's your BIRTHDAY! Oh, I already covered that. Happy birthday!
• I am so excited about Christmas. I can't wait to see my sister and brother-in-law, I can't wait to give presents, I can't wait to open presents. Also, Jesus' birth! Also, turkey! 
• Your house got burgled recently. Setting aside the fact that burgled is a hilarious word, that really upset me. For a few days there, I was telling everyone I saw about it. Lots of people were thinking about/praying for you guys.
• I have recently become one of those moms who, on the occasion, is convinced that her child is the most adorable ever to walk the earth. I realize this might not be true, but sometimes she looks up at me with her cartoonishly large brown eyes and does something unmitigatedly cute - a "kiss" (an open-mouthed grin coming at my face), covering her mouth and gasping in shock, dancing with the most subtle moves, surprising us with things she somehow knows (like our friends' dog's name, Luna, which she pronounces "NooNa"), pacing the room while she babbles on the phone with her Great-Granny Smith or Nana - and it makes it hard to consider anything cuter.
• My parents, Jeff, Eiley, and I got to go to Disneyland on Monday. I think I walked about ten miles. I also think it was a wonderful day. We saw Billy Hill and the Hillbillies in their new outdoor venue (I prefer the Golden Horseshoe, thankyouverymuch), went on many rides, took in most of the Christmas parade, and saw World of Color. Man, I love that place. Eiley still had the same reaction she had when we went with you and Annie though - silent, open-mouthed wonderment. 

• I am making pumpkin chocolate chip muffins tonight to take to a cookie exchange tomorrow. Muffins are not cookies. I'm a rebel.
• My sister is having a boy! I get a new nephew! And my brother-in-law has agreed to a robot-themed nursery! I have painting to do.

Okay, that's all I've got. I wish I updated this thing more often, but I've been so tired. Probably something to do with working + a toddler. Or maybe we're just getting old. I know you are. (OH, SNAP.) HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAL!

Lahve!

emily grace

random update

• I like our new townhome because: 
• It's spacious.
• It's two stories so I'm forced to exercise a wee bit each day on the stairs.
• It's located less than two miles from
• In-n-Out
• Westminster Mall
• Target
• Free babysitting My aunt's house
• An awesome park that will be extra awesome next summer because it also has a splash park
• There's a gated grassy area right outside our door so Buster can frolic at will.
• We have a washer and dryer so I can just do laundry all the time. WOOOO!
• While showering this morning, I used a new pomegranate body wash. It looked and smelled like a delicious daiquiri. I resisted taking a sip.
• My dad discovered a children's poem called Colonel Fazackerley Butterworth-Toast. I love it.
• Our Halloween was kind of a bust. A local church advertised this huge totally free event with In-n-Out, Chick-Fila, free games, free candy, free children's rides, and more. We headed on out there and discovered that Eiley is still just a little too small for all that (it would have been an awesome event for us otherwise!). So after 20 minutes of driving and 20 minutes of parking, we stayed for about 20 minutes (just in time to get some hot dogs because the other food lines looked hours long). It was, however, a great excuse to dress Eiley up as an old lady, and we stopped by my aunt's house on the way home, which was also fun. 

• Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are amazing.
• My grandmother gave me a plant last week. It is already withering. I truly have a black thumb.

That's all for now! 

excuses, excuses.

Here's my version of "the dog ate my homework":


I have been M.I.A. on here for over a week now for a variety of reasons. I'm sorry to report that cable television at my parents' house is a main distractor. There is a reason Jeff and I choose to live without cable. We simply can't resist the temptation to watch it all. the. time. I occasionally watch Home Improvement, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Boy Meets World. There's often some Backyardigans, as I write we're watching a new show starring Eric McCormack, and my dad tends to watch tennis a lot, which somehow pulls me in as well. I mean, did anyone watch Murray's emotional speech after LOSING winning second place in Wimbledon this week? Eat your heart out, reality TV - that stuff was real drama. 

Gawww. Picture of Murray CRYING borrowed from The Sun

Anyway, my other distractor was Eiley's birthday party and dedication. Eiley turns one on Thursday, and Jeff's mom was able to come visit from Idaho, which was awesome, but meant squeezing in lots of quality time. Also, Jeff and I generally do not stress out when hosting parties, but I somehow let a very simple gathering at a park cause my blood pressure to rise and my head to ache. I think I was too focused on making everything look ideal. Plus connecting people is not my strength, and there were people from six different areas of my life, and I felt pressure. I was able to have some fun though, thanks to the almost 40 people who came to help us celebrate Eiley and the one person who brought me a bottle of water and a painkiller halfway through the shindig (thanks, Ani!). Plus seeing Eiley smash her way through a cupcake was delightful.

Photo stolen from my lovely cousin, Brandi. If Eiley ever has another birthday party, Brandi will be deemed official party photographer.

My third distractor was Eiley's dedication. Okay, this didn't actually require much planning, but I was pretty stressed out just about standing in front of the church. A mild case of stage fright. Who knew?

Photo stolen from Drake, who was totally peeking during prayer

My fourth distractor was work. It's taking a lot of effort to keep up with that. More than it used to. I don't know why though. Maybe it's just the combination of everything else with it.


My fifth distractor was so much more than a distractor. It was learning of a tragedy. The 32 year old wife of my Virginia Beach pastor passed away on Sunday. She was beautiful, loving, welcoming, gracious - seriously, choose a positive adjective and it would apply to her. At my sister's wedding, she toted my sleeping Eiley around for a good half hour, lamenting that her babies were growing up so fast. She has three children, all very young, and she was an adoring mother. While I didn't know her super well, my heart is hurting for my East Coast church friends and pastor.


And that's where my mind has been. I'd like to say that I'll write more often, but I can give no guarantees. 

everything is different. nothing is new.

I have been absolutely frozen trying to think of what to write recently. Too much has changed to tell it all, yet I don't really have much new going on. I moved from Virginia to California, but I'm working the same job and living in the house where I grew up for now, so I don't have a whole lot to write about here. It's oddly disorienting. I'm going to have to go with random thoughts, otherwise I may end up with literary paralysis:

• I feel like I'm on a weird vacation, except I'm working full time so it's not a vacation at all. This is unsettling, but not in a bad or good way. It's neutrally unsettling. I have no idea when this feeling will end, but I suspect it will align with moving out of my parents' house. 
• Since arriving in California, we have gone to In-n-Out four times, Rubio's three times, the beach once, Disneyland once, Downtown Disney once, Balboa Island once, and zip-lining in Big Bear once. I've seen two grandmas, one Grandbob, two aunts, one uncle, two cousins, one second cousin, and (obviously) my parents. I'm just saying that all the California dreaming I did in Virginia is coming true. And the weather here is just as amazing as I remembered too.

Proof of beach and nice weather!

• So You Think You Can Dance is the best reality show on television. Please try to disagree with me. I will cut you.
• I miss my sister something fierce. Like, I can tear up a little bit if I think too hard about it.
• Last night, Jeff and I were following a truck with a neon pink stuffed monkey hanging off the back. It was hanging on for dear life, its long skinny legs were bouncing against the tailgate, and it was smiling. It really made me happy and I don't know why. 
• To clarify, when I said "I will cut you" earlier, I just meant with my words. 
• I'm currently reading two books: Rules of Civility and Hatchet. The former was a gift from Jeff's aunt, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly, though it doesn't seem to have a plot. It's basically just the story of a woman's life in New York in the 30s. The latter is a book my dad reads with his fifth grade class every year, and every year he asks if I've read it and I say no. Well, next year I'm going to say yes, darn it!
• I recently read a couple of status updates from friends who have babies that are close to Eiley's age. One talked about her child walking for the past month. The other talked about her child identifying pictures in a book. I found myself immediately comparing Eiley to these milestones, fretting that she hasn't walked yet or that she doesn't seem near identifying objects. But let me tell you what I've already told myself - babies develop at different times. Eiley is probably doing other things faster than those two (though I am still so super impressed with Baby B and Baby C if you're reading this, ladies!!!), and she's certainly not dim or inactive or anything. Comparisons are dangerous, that's all I'm saying. And, as my husband said last night, we're going to love her no matter what anyway, so comparisons are also pointless. 

For example, how many babies can pull off this look?

• A couple of years ago, I wrote myself a syllabus for a semester of life (which basically got thrown out the window because I got pregnant and my energy went from a 7 to a 0.5). I'm working on a new one pretty soon here - does anyone have any random suggestions?

That is all.

Dear Zoe,

Some random facts about my life recently that haven't naturally popped up in our email conversations:

• For the past five nights, Eiley and I have been reading Charlotte's Web together. We lay on a blanket on the floor in her nursery. I hold the book over our heads and read while she scratches at the pages with her chubby little hands. She usually loses focus after a chapter, and then we'll sing or play with her stuffed elephant. It's fun.
• Jeff and I are incapable of keeping plants alive, so we purchased pink flamingos to plant in our flower pots in the backyard. We thought they'd look cute and kitschy, but instead they look ridiculous. Also, their beak paint is coming off, so we've resigned ourselves to the fact that we can't even keep plastic lawn ornaments alive. 
• We are getting a new fence in the backyard. This excites me for some reason. It's white, but not picket.
• I have been reading a lot, but I purchase my books exclusively from Goodwill and I always judge them by their covers. This recently backfired. I bought a bright blue book with its cute title, jennifer johnson is sick of being single, in all lower case letters and adorned with a photo of a delightfully vintage doll. I read about half of it, then finally quit because it was too crass and had a woefully cliche gay best friend character. Seriously, I started wondering if the author was writing a satire on romantic comedies because the gay best friend was so typical. Blah. Give me originality, people. But I will continue to judge books by covers because it works 93% of the time for me.

Wouldn't you want to read it?

• I am ashamed to tell you that I watch the Lifetime original series Drop Dead Diva. Seriously, its cheesiness makes me cringe at least once per episode. Super guilty pleasure. I am, however, proud to tell you that I watched an episode today with a clown in it, and I didn't freak out. This is mostly because I quickly figured out that the clown was Barry Watson from Seventh Heaven and Samantha Who?, but still. Go me.
• My sister is an amazing aunt. Like...amazing. It makes me feel all warm and gooey inside when I see how much she loves my little girl. And I'm so freaking grateful that she actually enjoys babysitting (or is a darn good actress and pretends to enjoy it well enough that we're comfortable asking her to do it). We have had a play that we've wanted to see for the past three weekends, and she's been a rock of dependability. 
• Have you ever played Bananagrams? I think I've already mentioned this recently, but I'll say it again - it's my new favorite game. 
• We lost our diaper bag. It just disappeared, no explanation. Jeff thinks he might have left it on the back of the car by accident last week, but he's not sure. I personally think that diaper bag elves came and ate it. Either way, it wasn't a huge loss, though I really really liked the bag itself and it did have a couple of items that we'll miss in it.
• So on Halloween, we went to a Christian swingers party. I'll let that sink in for a bit before I explain...Okay, so the "swinging" was just that we dressed up as couples with other people's spouses. It all started when Arabella wanted to be Mary Todd Lincoln for Halloween, but her husband doesn't look nearly as much as Abe as Jeff does. Six couples participated. It was pretty hilarious. I was Olive Oyl, and Arabella's husband was Popeye. A good (clean) time was had by all. 

Also, I made his hat. Also, Arab has a lock of her husband's hair in that brooch. Seriously. She committed to her historical character, who happened to be bat [bleep] crazy.

That's all for now. Update complete. End scene. Lahve!