Book Blog Found!

I found a great new-to-me blog (via Designmom) that is going to get me into a lot of trouble! Check out Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves. She gets a lot of her books at this store, which I will have to check out when I'm in California next month (along with one of my faves: Gray Wolf Books, and various other used bookstores in the Berkeley/Oakland area). I have to say that I haven't found many great used bookstores out here. I think there may be some good ones up in Baltimore, but we haven't explored them yet! Can any DC or Baltimore locals help me out on this one?

Free Crafty Stuff!

This is a little late, but if you like crafty stuff like I do... make sure you comment here... by tonight! Thanks Angela for this heads up! It is a total surprise (and I LOVE surprises!).

The Best $150 Spent

After checking Craigslist for the last year for a decent patio set with an umbrella (and cover), we finally purchased one in May. Our back patio gets nice afternoon/evening shade which is great for the months of April, May, June, September and October (forget July and August... no shade can help the heat and humidity in those months!). We've had many meals out there already (including a couple of breakfasts).

Yumminess

Sweet potato yumminess, that is! I was first introduced to sweet potato fries at this Pacific Northwest eatery (but only in the fall, when the potatoes are in season!). Then I found a place in Southern California (with restaurants nationwide... mostly in shopping centers) that had them. I've made my own (good, but I never could get uniformly sized slices, so they never cooked very well). And finally, while wandering through the frozen food section of Trader Joe's, look what I found! Yippee! I can't make a regular habit of these, but boy were they good!

More Craftiness

I know that I mentioned I went to Pile of Craft on Saturday, but I found this awesome picture of the event. (Thanks, Red Prairie Press!) The festival took place in St. John's Church in Baltimore ("This ain't your Daddy's church!"). The building is kind of Romeo and Juliet (Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio version), or Ross and Emily get married before they tear down the church (Friends... and yes I watch way too much TV). I'm still posting a few more of the vendors that I really liked on my other blog, so make sure you check it out over the next couple of weeks.

Things Fall Apart

I mentioned earlier this week that Randy and I have almost been married for 10 years. I was young when we married, and I don't even remember cooking a full meal before I got married. I'm sure I did, but I lived in a dorm (with a meal plan) or with my parents until we married. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm sure I cooked in Randy's apartment at some point.

Anyway, with the big wedding comes the big gift registry stuff. I knew very little about what kind of cooking I would do and what I would need for my kitchen. I registered for a set of non-stick pots and pans. I didn't treat them right, they've worn out, they've been abused. In fact a couple of pieces have been tossed. Over the last years (especially since the tight-money years... since Danny was born) I have learned to cook more at home. I have learned what pots and pans I really use, and which appliances are just a waste. I have updated many of the appliances (the blender/food processor to make baby-food and the coffee maker since I now drink coffee). I haven't done anything with my pots and pans, though. The non-stick has worn off. And now I know about the dangers of Teflon, so I wouldn't even choose those now. I recognize that I like to make big pots of soup and stewy-type things (rarely with meat). I now cook more fresh veggies instead of plopping the can or contents of a frozen bag in a saucepan!

These are some of the things I am looking at replacing my cookware with in the next year. I'll start with the costliest stuff first.

All Clad Stainless Steel Saute Pan (3 qt)

Le Creuset Oval Dutch Oven (at least 6 qt, in Red... they have one at Costco now)---I think I would use this most for my soups and stewy-things!

A cast iron skillet like this one ... something that is versatile and will brown things nicely

Two simple saucepans like these (1 qt and 3 qt... or maybe 1 1/2 qt and 3 qt)

This paring knife set from Williams-Sonoma. I'm always (always, always) hand-washing my paring knife before it has a chance to go through the dishwasher, and the colors are amazing!

We do want to buy a four-slice toaster. That is just something that comes with having a bigger family!

A frying pan I haven't yet decided on... I feel like I should get non-stick for fish and eggs, but I'm just not sure what is available without Teflon (is there anything?).

My bakeware is fine. I eye the fancy stuff sometimes, but in all truth I don't bake much, so it isn't worth it for me.

I'm curious if any of you have the above-mentioned items or have any opinions on such things. Let me know!

What to Say...

I'm filling out paperwork for Annelise to go to the nursery school next year. This gives me the opportunity to write about things Annelise is good at, things she needs work on, things she likes, things she dislikes, etc. I crack up with these little surveys. I mean what am I supposed to write about a 2 year old girl? She's bossy... I mean intent on getting what she wants (isn't every two-year-old?). She likes to jump, but can't ride a tricycle. She is good at making her mother laugh. We're working with her on "please" and "thank you." She likes fruit, but doesn't like vegetables or meat?

She is the little light of my life, so how do I write all this in two lines? Fortunately all the teachers know her and already care for her (you should have seen her get "included" in things last year... she loved it!). It should be a fun year for her!

Season of Crafts

I love to make things. I rarely take the time, but I still really enjoy creative stuff. There are two craft festivals in our area within a one-week span. These are not your grandma's crafts, either (no tissue box covers or doll clothing). I often go to shows to gain inspiration, or just drool at the work other people do. I usually buy something to show support to someone's business. Last Saturday a friend and I went to Baltimore's Pile of Craft. There were many truly talented people there. If you get a chance look at the vendor list from their website, a lot of them have an online business or etsy shop. This next weekend is the Crafty Bastard Fair in Silver Spring. A little closer, which is nice, but it is outside and the whole family would be going (possibly hot and whiny?). If we go on Saturday we are going early! I'll have some posts up here about the Pile of Craft fair.

More Bike Riding

This is a very long, quiet video to show how Danny's doing with his bike-riding. Just one week before we took off his training wheels! This video was also taken right before a crazy thunder and lightning storm.



Annelise didn't want to be left out when it came to having video taken. Of course she needs a lot of help still!

Kindergarten, Here We Come!

Many of you who we talk to regularly know of the dilemma we have had the last 6 months about kindergarten for Danny.

In Maryland the birthday cut-off is September 1st. They must turn 5 on or before September 1st... well Danny's birthday is September 2nd. Each state has a different cut-off date. In California it is late (November I think), while many states have August or even July cut-offs.

Randy and I laugh because my due date was August 29th, and I was in labor on September 1st... one day seems inconsequential, but they must draw that line somewhere. It just happens to be 18 hours before our son was born!

In Maryland there is an early-entrance test that the child can take if their birthday is September 2nd to October 15th. They must score a 90% or above on three tested areas (Reading, Writing and Math).

In February we asked his preschool teacher if she thought he would be ready by August, and she felt he would. He is naturally drawn to older kids, can follow directions well and is bright. When he started REALLY reading in April we knew we would test him.

It has been interesting talking to people about this decision. People that don't know Danny very well almost always say, "He's a boy... you should hold him back." There is also the trend to hold your child back to give them an edge on their peers (both academically and athletically... it is called "red-shirting" which makes me laugh!). Those that know him affirm our decision, which is comforting. There are some down-sides, of course. He will always be one of the youngest in his class. Right now his maturity level fits right in with the boys who are a year older than him, but in middle school that may not be the case (I think the middle school girls will be more of an issue!). The upside is the challenge and new environment for him. I don't think he could have stayed at his current nursery school for another year. We would have had to do something totally different.

Anyway, Danny took the test last Wednesday and passed without a problem. Now we get to navigate the public schools from a different perspective! He is very excited to be going to kindergarten with a lot of his friends, and we are happy with what we have heard about our local school. It is all big stuff happening with him!

Rituals

We try to do this once a week, but some times the nail-clipping happens when we notice all of the dirt stuck up under there. Danny's nails get much dirtier than Annelise's! Both kids are very patient with this process, and we find they hold still the best in our bathroom.

A Big Year

2008 happens to be a big year in Randy's and my relationship. It was 15 years ago that we met and began dating. We also celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary this year.

We met in February of 1993. I was in the 11th grade, and Randy was a wise old senior! We attended different high schools, but met at church. It was at our high school trip to Mexico in April that we began talking a lot more. During a movie at this tiny church in Ensenada there was a little Mexican girl sitting in my lap and she asked if I was single (she was about 6 or 7). I said that I was, and she promptly picked up Randy's hand and put it on mine. I was horribly embarrassed! I think Randy was embarrassed too, and we laughed about it later. I had never been bold with boys that I liked, although I had some close guy friends. I just never saw myself dating any other high school boys... they were really immature and I just didn't have time for that! For the next couple of months we saw each other at events and talked. We had a few casual group dates, and had our first "alone" date on May 31st in San Francisco. It was a daytime exploring trip. We decided to "go out" on that date (I love those junior high and high school terms for being boyfriend and girlfriend... and I realize I'm so not ready to navigate this with my own kids!).

The next 5 years were a bit up and down. We did break-up for 13 months while in college. It started when we were long-distance, but even continued after Randy started attending Biola. Since we were so young I think it was a really good time for us to be apart. We both explored other relationships/friendships, although we remained good friends. In November of 1995 we started dating again. I knew that this was the real thing. I think Randy knew we were the real thing even when we were broken up. I just had to make sure for myself.

We got married in July of 1998 after I graduated from college. By most people's standards we did get married really young. We have changed a lot these last 10 years, but we still complement each other. We still have fun together. We make each other laugh, and we really understand each other. Now we have kids, careers, and a lot of responsibility. I think we lighten each other's loads, though. There are struggles, of course, but we take care of each other and provide that support that is so necessary. We are almost at the point when we have known each other longer than not... that will happen in the next two years! Crazy!

Sauteed Greens

I've been getting a lot of greens (kale, collards, beet greens, etc.) in my CSA box each week. This is one of my favorite ways to prepare them (although I don't include the pine nuts, or sometimes I add cranberries, or mushrooms, or take away the balsamic vinegar... 'cuz I can change it up like that!). Oh how I wish I had this to saute them in! Does anyone have All Clad stainless steel pans? Are they any good?

Father's Day and Bike Riding

Father's Day was pretty low-key around here. Randy got to go on a kayak adventure at the beach a couple of weeks beforehand. The kids made him bookmarks, and I got him a really cool wallet. You can read my post about that here.

The kids slept in (we were up late the night before), so we didn't wake them for church. We had a nice leisurely morning. The day was wide open, except Randy wanted to make tacos and I had made a special dessert for all of us (I used this recipe to make ice cream sandwiches).

We decided it would be a good day to take Danny's training wheels off. A couple months ago we were at a bike clinic at the local elementary school, and the guy there was watching Danny ride and said that we should probably take the wheels off because he has good balance. It was March, still rainy and we were super busy so we just put it off until Sunday. We walked to the tennis courts, took off the wheels and were amazed to find that if Danny got help starting, he could ride the length of the court! The starting, stopping and turning were all challenging that morning, but we promised him we would work on it later in the day.

That afternoon Danny and Randy did some riding in our parking lot. He did so well and I was able to get some video of the event. Now he is doing great with the stopping and turns, although he still sometimes needs help starting up. He is so excited... that is what has been so fun about this! Now the rest of us need to get bikes!

The videos: (pardon my talking... I had Annelise in my arms, and was trying to keep her captivated while taking the video!)

Funland Pictures

Here are some pictures from Funland on our recent beach trip:

Hexagonal Sides

You have to check out this video of Danny and one of our very patient friends. This was at the monsoon birthday party I talked about a couple of weeks ago. I love that everyone is giving our friend a hard time about Hexagonal sides, but he and Danny are totally engrossed in the Star Wars conversation!

Sucked In

Well, at the prompting of several friends, I have joined the ranks of those that are on Facebook (and Culvers, you weren't the only ones that wondered why we weren't on... just the most influential!). Scary but true. I'm assuming that it will become less time-consuming after the first weeks. We'll see!

The Beach Trip

We finally took our first trip to an East Coast beach out here. Our closest/best beaches happen to be in Delaware, so we visited Lewes and Rehoboth Beach. A friend loaned us her beach house for the weekend (it is actually a trailer, but close to the beach... and free!).

Lewes (pronounced like Lewis) is a quiet little town with a cute main street that has fun little shops and restaurants. It is said to be the first town in the first state! Cape Henlopen State Park was the beach we visited on both Friday and Saturday morning. Friday was a little cool, so we left by noon. On Saturday it was almost 100 (AT the beach) so we stayed a little longer. Cape Henlopen had a nice little visitors center, hiking and bike trails. They even loan out bikes on a first come, first served basis.

Rehoboth is a much busier beach. We actually didn't even go to the beach here, just the boardwalk and Funland on Saturday evening. The boardwalk environment is fun and is very different from the CA beaches (except Santa Cruz). There were tons of people, restaurants and arcades. It was just a very busy place! The kids were a bit overwhelmed.

By Sunday it was REALLY hot and the AC in the trailer was awesome, so we mostly hung around the house that day. Randy partook in part of his Father's Day gift and went for a 3 hour kayak ride in Love Creek that feeds into the Chesapeake. This was reminiscent of our pre-kid days, and Randy and I made a resolution to get back to some of the outdoorsy stuff we used to do. Sunday afternoon I did some tax-free shopping at the outlets. I got some work clothes for Randy (which he really needed) and enjoyed shopping without the kids. It was soooooo hot though!

We returned home on Monday morning.

The best things about this trip to the beach were:
Having a lot of our own space (the trailer had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a nice kitchen)
Cooking some of our own food (I took up enchiladas and lasagna and breakfast stuff)
Eating dinner at Big Fish Grill (cashew crusted tilapia with a coconut-rum sauce... like dessert)
Watching Danny play in the sand and chase waves
Watching Annelise do everything she could to not put her feet on the sand
Watching people crabbing in Love Creek
Seeing the people catch blue crabs
Taking naps
Wandering around in Lewes and Rehoboth
Funland (great for young kids when you are tired of the beach!)

And now for more pictures...

Last Day of School

Last week was my last day of school for the '07-'08 school year. I can't believe the school year is over. Because I started this job in November it did go very quickly! I am looking forward to being at the same school next year with the same number of hours (12 hours per week). The schedule may shift a bit, but I am hoping that I can keep it to Tuesdays and Thursdays again. I am also very excited to be starting the school year and setting the standards for my students from August on, instead of jumping in mid-year.

I love my school and was really touched by some of the end of the year happenings. One thing that this school does is have a Clap Out for the outgoing 5th graders. In the last 10 minutes of the last day of school, the WHOLE school lines the hallways and claps as the 5th graders take their final parade down the halls. They march through all of the hallways, up and down the stairs and out of the school. It is a very encouraging sight!

One other thing that really touched me is the Thank You book. This was my fourth year teaching part-time, and as a part-time or support teacher you can feel left out. The kids have big end of the year parties in their classes, they see their classroom teacher for the majority of the day, and you are doing piles and piles of state-mandated paperwork and testing (ESOL has become just like special ed in Maryland!). When it comes time for teacher appreciation week you may get a little card or two, but you are lucky if the kids remember that you are a teacher too. The last week of school I had to make an effort to go around to my students and say bye to them and talk to them about their plans for the summer and next year (except my 5th grade girls, who were happy to come to my room and visit). I'm not sure who organizes the Thank You book, but each child in the school picks one support teacher or staff to write a little note to. Then someone takes all the notes for you and puts them into a book for you. This way the music, PE, reading, ESOL (etc.) teachers get to read some fun notes from their students and truly feel appreciated.

My school has a lot of great things going for it! We'll see what happens when I am ready to go back to work full-time!

Summer is Here!

I have been absent from the blog for the last couple of weeks because so much is going on. Danny's last day of pre-school was on June 3rd. The next 12 days were filled with playdates and outings. Kind of sad to see him moving on, although Annelise will be attending that pre-school in the fall.

We went to the beach on the weekend of June 6th. It was a blast! I have lots of fun pictures to post from that and more to tell!

My last day of school was June 12th. One week before (June 5th) I had an inclement weather day because of the severe thunder storms and tornadoes (warnings?) in the area on the previous evening. Power was off in many parts of Montgomery county so they decided to close the schools. We only had one snow day all year, and it was a day I didn't have to work so this was a special treat for me. Especially because Thursday was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day (you know... the quiet after the storm). Anyway, it is great that summer is here.

Danny is in camp right now! So much fun... I'll tell you about that and his two-wheeling experiences soon! Plus I have kindergarten updates for fall.

When it Comes I Want to Wail--- MAIL!

(the title of this post comes from that Blue's Clues song... parents of toddlers can appreciate!)

Look what came in the mail yesterday!


I love that they don't have flowers or characters or anything goofy. I really wanted these ones that look like the classic, except with the more cushy sole. They were impossible for me to find online! So this year Annelise gets the simple version, and maybe next year she can get the saltwater style like I used to wear in the 70's! Fun, fun!

Great Find

Last night I was cleaning out a drawer and found a Best Buy gift card with $69 on it. You know what I want to buy so bad? This digital video camera.


(a little more than $69, but...)

Birthday Season

From April 27th to May 31st we had 5 birthday parties to attend. I think the season is over for a little while, and I am somewhat relieved. We had two one-year-old parties, two five-year-old parties and one four-year-old party. Three of them were backyard/house parties, one was at a park and the other (and definitely the most exciting) was at a Pump It Up. It is really fun to see what different families do. Personally, other than a one-year party (which is truly just for the parents), I like to keep the celebrations small and simple. I prefer backyard parties where the kids can play, mostly homemade goodies, and a few age appropriate games or activities. The Pump It Up party was pretty awesome, though. The parents of the birthday girl didn't have to do anything but spend a bunch of cash. It was all organized, set up, and cleaned up. This last party on Saturday was pretty fun because it turned into a monsoon-mud party. Danny and Annelise were the oldest kids, and they just played outside in the mud. We knew the weather would be bad, and our friends have this tiny little co-operative townhouse... so I dressed the kids in their grubbies and let them get as messy as they wanted while we visited with the adults. So fun! The season of parties has reminded me how much I miss our Verano park parties in Irvine. Hi, UCI friends!

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids at Pump It Up. Randy and I had as much fun as Danny and Annelise (down the slides, up the ladders, bounce, bounce, through the obstacle course!). There is a lot of action in these pictures and red eye that I haven't fixed, yet, but you all get the idea!

Swimming Lessons

Another round of lessons ended a couple weeks ago. Danny is getting to be quite the swimmer, and I am amazed at how much he can do! Annelise had fun... learning how to blow bubbles, put her head in and goof around. These pictures were taken in the indoor pool, so they aren't the best, but it gives you an idea of what the kids have been up to!

Starting Position on back

Starting Position on stomach

Starting Position looking at Mom

Swimming

Walking back to the wall

Having a little fun
Daddy and AnneliseReaching in the water for Toys