laundry room before + after

with a little one on the way, i've created the longest to-do list ever.  i don't know if i'm already 'nesting' but whatever it is, i have an overwhelming feeling that i need to get things done around here!  i thought if i let you in on my list, and posted before and afters, that i may make more progress.  here's number one (and a totally unnecessary nonbaby related project):

laundry room:

1. paint (did this one a bit back) & touch up

2. paint doors, cabinets

3. put in new knobs

laundry room before

after!

we kept the kindergarten flooring and laminate sink area, for money and convenience sake.  i'm totally ok with it and used it to get my bright color scheme together.  {'cause laundry sucks, and sunshineyness doesn't.} the floor is blue, gold, and red, so i used these colors to draw the wall paint and accent pieces.  i used to have a total rooster kitchen in red and gold, so i used some of that decor along with pictures from a college pad.  i used a christmas yarn wreath, added felt flowers, and painted doors/cabinets white (they were a yellowy color) to make the trim in the rest of the house.  all-in-all, i only bought paint!  yay!  

ps. i also realized that i never really posted before and afters of inside the house (did i?), so you may see some before, before, after pics, especially for the baby's new room and jack's room.  

another baby greenbean!

we are so excited about the addition of another bundle to our family!  from the previous post, you can tell jack has already taken a liking to being a big brother :).  most of the time, he talks about a baby sister, though if y'all know me, we won't be finding out this time either.  he says girls take naps (?).

here's an (not.so.great) ultrasound pic at around 13 weeks:

at the 13 weeks ultrasound, i spent about half an hour watching our 2nd little one swim around, too cute!  the pictures might not show it to you, but i have the memory so clear in my head, i think the kiddos look the same!  here's jack at 20ish weeks:

obviously, there will be a million-and-a-half more posts about this little one, too, but some details as an fyi (will post more about some of these later):

may 12th: positive test!
june 2nd: told immediate family
june 10th: 1st ultrasound
july 11th: 2nd ultrasound
july 18th: jack sees baby for 1st time via ultrasound - he's creeped out!
august 16th: next ultrasound
august 30th: 20ish week ultrasound

due date: january 20th, 2012!!!

big news!

we're having a baby!!!!!!!!!!!

camping, trip #3

last weekend our camping trip was fantastic!  we set up camp quickly, hiked to find our own private beach, pete took a swim, and we were settled.

boys hiking for a swimming spot

sugar pine cones!
they're gi-normous!

view from 'our' beach

little mr. independent

checking out the view

morning hike
his pjs are woodland animals :)

pete swimming
brrrr... could not pay me enough!

morning light

explaining how to cook eggs
or something like that...

running around like a wild man

kp duty

we did have an interesting saturday night - the campgrounds (and dumpster right by our site) were visited by Hershey, a BEAR!!!  they can be scary, but apparently this one is a regular and really has his eyes on the chocolate (hence his name) (sounds like me!).  pete slept with one eye open, but i slept through the whole thing! gotta love earplugs ;).

dinner

the age old question: what's for dinner?!?!?

i've been having such a hard time getting our weekly dinner list together!  i usually write out everything on one of these pads.  it's handy to keep myself on track -- and pete never has to ask 'what's for dinner?'  then, i go through my food selections and use this pad to make my grocery list.  easy-peasy.  it's organized by aisle, so grocery shopping is so.much.faster.  i've also been ordering my groceries online -- my local store picks and packs, and delivers to your car!!  it's a great way to quickly shop - on sundays, after meal-planning and list-making, i plop down and fill my cart.  everything is ready for you at your selected time slot.  boy has it cut down on those last minute throw-ins.

anyway, as anal as this sounds, it's really only how i handle dinner, not what i should actually cook.  the meal-planning portion of my sunday takes forever, especially in the summer. what do you make for dinner during the summer?  it's too hot for the oven!  this is our menu for the week (i spent serious time on the www to get my act together this week, probably why i'm sharing.  i'm tapped out):

m:  california chicken club sandos
t: pasta salad with fresh tomatoes + parsley, canned olives, splash of olive oil
w: pulled pork sandos - crock pots are ah-maz-ing
r: skirt steak salad with goat cheese, candied walnuts, red onions, + blueberries
f-s:  pete's out of town, you know we'll be eating pb+j or breakfast for dinner :)

unrelated info:  pete and i rented a movie from redbox months ago and i distinctly remember telling him it was the best dollar we ever spent.  i haven't been able to remember the title until a friend posted it on facebook:

hot tub time machine!!!!!!!!

eupropean vacation

for my parents!  my mom has always wanted to, but if you've ever met my dad or know anything about him, traveling is NOT his cup of tea.  unless it involves {driving, not flying to} classic cars, gambling, or giving his kids a good time (hellllo disneyland and cross-country excursions!), he's not so game.  add in a foreign language and food?  no bueno.  

anyhoo, for their 35th anniversary, he agreed to a trip to england, franch, and italy.  my mom was thrilled and doubted the vacation until we dropped them off at the airport {she was definitely expecting a last-minute cancellation}.  dad told me as i hugged him, 'don't be surprised if we come home early' {insert dad smirk}.  mom was not.happy.  

we've received a few emails and texts, some of which say, 'dad's not so happy about being away from home'.   and today, little jack received this postcard from paris disneyland {mind you, this was a whole      days into the 20-day-long trip}: 

see dad's note:
I want to come home!  Grandpa
{pete and i can't get enough laughter out of it!}
{like he was kidnapped or something!!!!}
{hope you can laugh, too}

we are off to another camping trip {hopefully longer than last time!!}, have a fabulous weekend!!!

fruit crisp: cherry

jack and i made the most scrumptious cherry crisp yesterday!  it was so amazing last night for dessert, warm, with a little vanilla bean ice cream.  it's equally great cold for breakfast dessert after another day of working out and all sorts of healthy stuff ;).  we got the recipe from this site: eighteenth century agrarian business (lots of fun, 'different than regular blogland' stuff).

step one: pit a ridiculous amount of cherries (6 cups).
step two: catch your handsome helper in a goofy pose.
step three: refrain from bathing yourself in the cherry-vanilla goodness (it's hard)
step four: add crumbley top and bake
step five: serve warm with vanilla ice cream, and eat cold the next day, and the next.  it makes a TON.

{real recipe here}

yummmmmmm.

{update: pete said this was his most favorite dessert ever.  ever.  the only thing that it 'ties' with is our wedding cake.  i'm totally cool with that.}

green thumb: we might really have one!

check out our garden before, here.  check it out now:

growing like weeds veggies!

pumpkin vine

tomatoes!

i love tomatoes!

good thing, 'cause i'm going to have a ton!

corn

we're having another heat-wave week this week (thankfully!), so we're hoping these tomatoes bust a move and ripen.  and how amazing will fresh corn be in the fall?  i don't have much hope for pumpkins, not sure if we had the proper plants around for fertilization.  also, the strawberries were eaten by rodents :(.  good thing there are fresh stands within a minute from home!  next year we're planning on planting our tomatoes in a grape-vine-like way and building a planter to keep the strawberries off the ground.  'til then, we can't wait to enjoy the fruits of this year's labor!!!

hay is for horses, and cows, and goats, and....

(does anyone remember the state fair theme song to greenacres? oh, the state fair is the place for me!  .....duh, duh, duh, duhduh, the food!)

this past weekend was the most perfect weekend to go to the california state fair!  it was perfect because it was NOT HOT.  sacramento can be scorching, a good 20* hotter than fairfield at times, so the fair can be kind of miserable.  the animals don't like it, you're sticky and sweaty, the food smells gross.  ewwww.  at a cool 80*, the fair was a pleasure this year.  it was also opening weekend, so everything was fresh (worker attitudes, the animal stalls, rides, bathrooms, etc.)

jack reading the map

we saw quite a few animals (our main attraction) this year ranging from reptiles to Australian specialties:

jack liked seeing the slithering snakes

these bees were very interesting

emu
jack reminded us that they can't fly.  like ostriches.
thanks, 3yrold. :)

kanga!

desert tortoise
moving slooooooooow.

macaw.
our neighbor just got one, too, just like blu in rio!

and, my favorite, the farm animals:

a pretty gray horsie

pig judging, this one won 2nd place
pete and i both thought she should've one first
but she was long in her knee to ground.
????

grooming the sheep

helllllo, beautiful bovine

gorgeous

goats are always sneaking something

we also checked out the vegetation:

check out these zucchinis

we are doing our tomatoes in vines next year now!

wishing our garden would grow

internet obsession.

i'm getting a little o.o.c. = out of control.

i like to blog, but i love reading blogs!

pinterest is my most favorite www advancement.  really.  chat? no. email? no. pinning?  yes, yes, yes!

google+.  i don't have that many people in my circle, but it's going to get fun.  i can see it!

what do you love?  www.wdyl.com  google, you never cease to amaze me.  everything is categorized!

facebook. always a fan.  as stalking and annoying as some can be, it's great to hear from people regularly.

{my alphabet game is getting old, but i'm not giving it up.  i was difficult, so this is what we get.  i will persevere and finish, i promise.  then back to relate-able blogs.}

a little jack, if you're into that sort of thing :):

fake-sleeping.

july decor

keeping it together.

we had a not-so-fantastic weekend.  this post includes the 'events' that called for us to keep it together.

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first, we participated in the shortest camping trip ever on friday.  we arrived near our previous site, but kind of on the other side of the resevoir.  we headed down a gravely-dirt road - what i expect when camping, but quite different than our favorite spot the couple weeks before.  we arrived to an okay site.  we took a drive around, noticed a lot of drinking, but also good-ole-fun.  all in all though, the impression was that the people were a little different.  they were what i would previously call 'camping people'.  which isn't nice and not okay.  pete's totally changed my mind about camping, so i really go open-mindedly and really enjoy myself!  we set up {our entire} camp at 5:15 and pete went for a swim.  our neighbors across the street started yelling at each other - i got a tad nervous, but it ended quickly.  then the neighbors next to them started yelling.  they were screaming words 'we don't say in this family'.  pete returned, they got louder, and then they opened their large suvs, blasted some 50cent, and started drinking ALOT of beer.  it was 6:00.  pete and i looked at eachother, then took down camp and drove all the way home.  we camped for a whole, entire 45 mins.  

keeping it together:  not saying anything to the neighbors, keeping calm while discussing the incident with the camp overseers, trying to keep jack together as we left: he was really sad and cried for a while.  then he passed out after making us promise we'd do something fun.  poor little guy.

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when we returned home, we encountered issue two.  we had parked my car in front of the jet ski to prevent stealing and partially blocked our driveway.  at 10:45pm after all the craziness of the night, the car wouldn't start.  we weren't able to pull into the driveway to unload (not sure if we would've had the energy, but who really knows?).  we tried to jump-start it but we were unsuccessful.

keeping it together:  we just spend over a thousand dollars fixing the alternator and getting a new battery, had just let a friend borrow it right after (he didn't have a car and had just started a new job).  we just got the car back a few days before.  we also had just taken it to carmax for a quote (we actually sold our suv, but were holding onto this car for a hopefully better sale privately) - now we couldn't even drive it back there to get rid of it.  saturday morning we were quoted another thousand to replace the fuel pump.  now we're down to one car.

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on sunday, pete and i went to test-drive a few cars at the automall.  we found a fabulous car, with all he and i wanted, and we sat down for the deal making.  we were straightforward adn reasonable, and the salesman and finance manager agreed.  then they realized they were 'confused' - that the car wasn't $**,***, that they made a mistake and it was about $6,000 more.  they tried to convince us we just needed a little financing (we are paying cash, wtf, we obviously don't want ANY financing).  so, we walked.

keeping it together:  we've been so annoyed with all this car stuff.  it's never fun to have unexpected repairs, unexpected breakdowns, whatever.  and we didn't know what car we wanted so we were thrilled to find all the pros and no cons!  the salesmen jacked us - we're sure noone was 'confused' that they just want to be shady and jack people (maybe not the case, but sure seems that way).  again, we're back to one car.

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on friday, before the camping trip, my mom told me that my grandfather, pop pop, wasn't doing so well, that he was going to be taken home from the hospital.  he missed his dialysis and had an intense infection that even the most strong, experimental antibiotics used in obscene doses weren't helping.  my aunt and uncle had a talk with him on thursday letting him know that they understood if he wanted to go home or stop treatments, that they knew it would be hard for him to say 'i quit' to his children, but that they understood.  with his great sense of humor, he asked them if they were trying to knock him off or something (so funny and spirited!).  he wanted to do whatever was available.  on friday morning, the dr told him there wasn't anything left to try, that he was too weak for dialysis and that if he wanted to go home to pass, they would release him.  my aunt and uncle took him home on saturday, they and my cousins were able to spend a little time with him, and he passed this morning.

keeping it together:  obviously everything else means nothing compared to losing a member of your family, talking with your mom about her father's passing, seeing your siblings upset.  

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all in all - a crappy four days.  

long weekend con't

sunday: so andy shacked it up at our house after consuming too many chicago-style hot dogs and frosty beverages, so we made a feast of a breakfast in the morning.  eggs, o'brien potatoes, toast, bacon.  it was great after such a long day!  andy suggested we head to the fillmore street jazz festival in san francisco - being that is was nearing 90* before 10am, we agreed to escape the heat and head into the city.

here, jack try this
'no, that's BEER'
no, honey, it's ROOT... it's SODA

bitter root-beer face.
he was not a fan, me?  heaven.
how could you not love ice cold root-beer in a bottle on a hot day?!?!

maybe a cookie?

SOLD.

 i really enjoy festivals (fairs, carnivals, etc.) - i love the heat, laughter, vendors, snacks, so i was pretty happy even though it was totally PACKED.

this picture doesn't capture it at all.
but it was so crazy, we couldn't move a block in 20 minutes.

which made for a not-so-happy jack

we had a couple hours to spend in the city before we went across the bridge to bbq with the dillon's, so we visited a park in les' old neighborhood that jack really enjoys!   look at us last year.

after the park madness, we partook in tri-tip, guacamole, brownies, train-watching, bocce ball, and chats-galore with sarah, casey, and their pup fillmore (as in the street, that we were at that day!):

they used to live here!  at california + fillmore.
i spent many nights at this apartment!!

we drove home exhausted, but so, so happy.

monday:  due to my love of festivals, we ventured out to suisun city's waterfront for a little more street-fair action and lunch on the Fourth.

jack called this is baby-bendy stuff...

his focus the entire time...
can we go over there?!?!

not wanting to get out

like we didn't get enough hot-dogness this weekend!

sunday night: lastly, we ventured to my parents' house for illegal fireworks and the show in the sky!

after a spark landed on his leg, he sat down with my mom
she asked him to tell the camera all about it
all he did was make this sad face

rooftop to see the panoramic view
you can see all the legal and illegal shows up there!

suisun's show

i like blurred pictures at night.

and so the weekend ends.  we were up well past our bedtime every night, celebrated with so many friends and family.... even though i'm still not caught up on sleep as i type this on thursday, i wouldn't change a thing!  guess there will be lots of napping in the sun for me while we're camping this weekend!!