oatmeal

sweet husband got home from work this evening and told me in a very nonchalant manner that he was on the radio this morning. oh. no big deal...why were you on the radio? he said he called in response to their questioning what food has a texture that makes it hard to eat. okay.....and what did you say? oatmeal. fair enough, oatmeal makes me want to gag...good, what else? well then they asked why. gregory john told me that he explained to the kind radio people that if oatmeal isn't microwaved properly with the correct amount of water it can get super mushy and gr.....gr....he couldn't remember the next word he used. oh no, what could he possibly have said. on the radio. think gregory, think. he pondered it for a moment, puzzled...and then the light bulb turned on in his brain. "Gristly!" gristly??????? greg, please tell me you're kidding. gristly??? as in like a gristly piece of meat????? did they laugh at you??? the puzzled look returns and he thinks about it some more..."well it was a "g" word for sure. guh....guh....i don't remember??? the guy that eats weird things on the food network uses it a lot, it sounded perfect at the time". he immediately got on the computer and you tubed the food guy. sure enough food guy didn't disappoint. greg turns to me thrilled with his find and plays the clip for me. the word? Gelatinous. i laughed. not because it sounded like a hideous use of the word, but more because THAT word, of all words even came to his brain while on the radio. and he had the guts to use it without any knowledge of it's meaning, which is quite the risk with his rocky track record and all. we searched the meaning, and i'm proud to tell you, it makes sense. SUCCESS! and thank HEAVENS gristly wasn't the word he chose to describe oatmeal.

spaz.

cooking and baking have become a part of my life lately and i'm learning to like it. we're not quite to the love stage yet, but there's potential. sweet husband is definitely a fan. i will try to keep at it, so long as i don't cheese-grate all of my knuckles off. just can't seem to get the hang of that tool.

emmerson and i went to the park this afternoon and she made a new friend named Lulu. i just loved that her name was Lulu. so great!

yet another downfall to being freakishly tall...my ticker can't seem to pump strong enough for the blood in my veins to reach my hands and feet. they are always like popsicles and i'm starting to enjoy the thought of summer.

we miss our neighbors dearly. ash, jeremy and beckett moved to a town in a far away land (15 mins max) and we don't see them nearly as much as we would like to anymore. SO we might just have to move too. i can see that happening in the near future if all goes as planned!

my dear old grandad has seen better days. he will be 94 this week, and a broken hip landed him in the hospital in early december. he's been hangin in there ever since. once they got him all situated in the hospital, his doctor came in to see if there was anything he was missing or needed. my grandfather replied without hesitation "yes, my beer. i have one everyday at 4:00, always have." low and behold, good ol doc wrote him a prescription. for beer. in the hospital. oh canada! :) oh and speaking of my homeland, baaaaack to canada for us (emmerson and i) in march! I am a bridesmaid, and emmy is a flower girl! Taryn gets hitched and it should be a good time had by all!

my apologies for jumping topics like a spaz. apparently i can't control myself.

well, it's a marvelous night for a moondance

saturday night the little one had a sleepover with the grandparents so that sweet husband and i could go out to dinner. we went to cheesecake factory and it was everything i had hoped for and more. the food is delicious and the cheesecake is enough to bring a tear to any dessert lovers eye. we enjoyed our time just the two of us and it reminded me how much i truly do like that handsome fellow of mine! sometimes a small energetic human takes away from the "us" that we used to be. it's nice to take a break from the crazy and fully appreciate one another once again! during our last bite of that heavenly cheesecake we so thoroughly enjoyed, you'll never guess what song started blaring over the speakers. why, it was Moondance by Van Morrison of course. Gregory smiled a big smile, wiggled his eyebrows in a suggestive way, put his arms behind his head and leaned back in his chair. i decided to spare those seated within view of us and refrain from reliving our first date, but it was a perfect ending to our perfect night out. to really top it off, on the way home we were talking about how easily we get along (almost) all of the time and gregory john came to the conclusion that it's because we have so much love for each other, we always laugh and have fun together, and we don't have any ghosts in our closet. and by ghosts he of course meant skeletons. and it was just funny that he added that to the list in the first place! i'm so glad he's mine.

special order... received.

Nearly two years ago, i found out that i was pregnant. shortly afterwards, i found out that i was having a baby girl. the year was 2009, the month was may, and the day was sunny. i was flipping through a magazine when i came across a face so sweet. i ripped the page out of the magazine and showed greg and his family my find. I told them that if you put greg and i together i was fairly certain the result would be pretty close to the sweet face of the precious girl in the picture. they thought i had lost my marbles for trying to predict such a thing, but i told them that i was going to put in a special order for a look-a-like because i thought she was oh so cute. a little shallow? perhaps. well, the sweet face of the stranger child was forgotten completely when i laid eyes on my own darling baby's face. i was so in love, and she was practically perfect in every way. it didn't even cross my mind until last week when i came across that picture on the page that i once tore out of a magazine and let me tell you, the striking resemblance is undeniable.

almost creepy.

caveman.

remember the concerns i once shared about sweet husband and his leftover problem? all concerns vanished when he appeared to take my public plea to heart. from that day on, i have been given no reason to worry. what a relief...until yesterday. he worked all day, when he returned home, he chugged an unusually large amount of water explaining how thirsty he was because the only thing he was able to drink all day long was Half of a bottle of water from someone's car. someone's car?!?!?!?! greg, who's car???? he didn't know. just some car he was working on. Oh. My. Golly. what a caveman of a husband i have! who knows what "treasures" he finds in random strangers' cars? i didn't even consider this option for leftovers that he is faced with nearly every single day. who knows the frequency of these actions? i'm scared to ask. ohhh the germs. he's like a wild beast bringing disease into our home and it. must. stop. i'll have to pack him a lunch and plently of liquids in hopes of taming the beast. i'll do whatever it takes. his defense? "oh, it's fine, i didn't touch my mouth to it!"

ew.

brother for sale, twenty five cents.

being an only child, i find it fascinating to now find myself in a mix of siblings. i love that in most cases they grow up to be best friends and although i am well aware of the perks of being an only child, i really do want little emmerson to have a brother or sister (or two) someday. I love how greg can be completely disgusting and annoying to his sisters, but they still love him. steph and shell can be all kinds of sassy, but their brothers will always stick up for them (we haven't eaten at Oggie's to this day...but that's another story) it's a wonderful and unique kind of love that i will be thrilled to have in my home one day!

speaking of siblings, i laugh at how grossed out and worked up greg gets over some things regarding his sisters. yesterday shell was about to feed baby landon...in the nursing sense...so we told my sweet husband to keep his eyes on his game. instead of handling himself like a mature human, he got extremely dramatic and disgusted complete with gagging motions and a response of "oh trust me, i WILL. the LAST thing i want is to see the areola of my SISTER!! UUUGH!!" oh my goodness gracious the choice of words that boy comes up with blows my mind...and the fear of him someday using that word in the wrong sense lingers in my brain. another example of his unique choice of words came yesterday when he was describing a hippie. in his words (stated in a very matter of fact manner): "a tree hugging, honey from the bee, organic." the honey from the bee part is what really got me. i nearly busted a gut. i don't know where he comes up with these things?

snap back to reality.

back to real life. all settled back in our place, the holiday joy is gone and sweet husband is back to work. oh reality, i'm not sure that i missed you all that much after all. I think i must be bored because i find myself cleaning things, tidying up after emmy, grocery shopping, planning dinner AND dessert, putting clothes away, thinking of projects i can start, and all things domestic that are highly out of character for me. i'm normally more of a "pack up the little girl and go spend money at the mall rather than the grocery store in hopes that we can get takeout for supper" kind of wife. poor gregory. remember how last year i wanted to try meal plans? yeah, that never worked out for me so well. perhaps now would be a good time to start. yup, consider it done.

on to more exciting business...want to hear the best news of my whole year so far? I got an invite to attend a sneak peek for the new sprinkles cupcakes opening in La Jolla and i'm fairly pleased about it!!! oh man, i get goosebumps just thinking of the delightful morsels that will soon be just minutes away from my home whenever i desire. a special thank you to sprinkles for coming to san diego.

best.

decision.

ever.

two thousand eleven

why is it that when i take a nap in the afternoon, i drool a little bit and when i sleep in the night, i don't? so odd. just one of those things in life you can't explain. and i probably just discouraged other humans to ever want to share a pillow with me again.

on another sleep note, i had a great 8.5 hour slumber last night with no interruptions and i woke up tired. why does that happen? greg seems like he's using up so much energy and having the time of his life when he sleeps with all the talking and bouncing around he does and yet he wakes up bright eyed and bushy tailed before the sun is even out, while i lay there ever so still all the night long and wake up feeling like i just ran a marathon. not right.

now on to the point of my typing, which has nothing to do with sleep and that's new years resolutions. i made one. this years new years resolution is to stop swearing. i decided on this because, one - it's not very nice and two - i have a sponge of a child who is starting to repeat things i say and honestly, who wants shit to be one of their sweet little girls' first words? i only swore twice yesterday and not at all yet today. good progress. i'm not saying i am a complete potty mouth by any means...i would just drop a choice word here and there throughout the day, but that has come to an end. i guess i should agree to not even type these words...starting now. there you have it.

i've been chewing plenty of orbit gum to assist me with this challange. those commercials are legit. totally helping.

best of luck in keeping your resolutions for 2011!

a canadian christmas

being home for the holidays was just what i needed! i got to see family and friends i haven't seen in far too long and it was just oh so very nice to be back.

highlights:

-only one meltdown on the airplane (both ways) ...success!

-hanging out at home with grammy and grampy

-eating loads of chocolate not available in the US.

-playing pool

-visits from family and friends

-watching our friendly little girl bring joy to everyone she met

-spending time with my grandad

-beating my parents at every game we played! (okay not quite, but we held our own.)

-making gingerbread houses with the Mingos

-singing songs

-santa came!

-roast beef and yorkshire pudding supper

-snow!

-teaching emmy to make a snow angel

-emmy and violet playing

-daily hugs from my dad

-learning to knit

-seeing auntie kimmie and jay at the airport

-candy cane topped chocolate covered cheesecake bites

-making cookies with emmy for santa

-greg drove through a blizzard to surf and made it home in one piece

-watching the grinch

-crispers

-white hot chocolate

-eggs benedict for brunch

-love

-smiles

-laughter

-joy

...just to name a few. it was most definitely a magical christmas :)

happy new year!

six

an animal i would love to have as a pet...

well i am not really an animal lover, therefore my answer is easy. i don't want a pet.