it was bound to happen

a couple of weeks ago i took a long weekend to see my sister's new little baby, nico. THE sweetest thing ever.

bille and her husband, mike, live right down town in san francisco so, like most of the trips i take, the routs of all of our outings were dictated by food.
oh, such great food.

we picked up some sandwiches from a deli in a little specialty grocery store (jenni, i kept thinking how much you would love this store) with the friendliest sandwich makers i've ever encountered.
the guy who made mine kept smiling at me funny and then instead of calling my name when my sandwich was done he walked out from behind the counter into the store and handed it to me saying,
"here's your sandwich, elizabeth"
i tried not to laugh.
it was COLD and WINDY so we walked our sandwiches down the street to tartine and ordered desert and hot chocolate and sat to consume our feast.
oh my! oh my!
The most delicious lemon cream tart with a candied kumquat atop.

and the bread pudding. oh, i'm getting flashbacks.

the sandwiches were amazing. we took turns trading back and forth.

then there was the giant bowl of hot bittersweet chocolate. if hot chocolate is too sweet for your taste, then this is the stuff for you. the perfect combination of sweet and bitter. amazing to the very end.
i will say, we did encounter an iffy food item in japan town when we were forced to scramble for a compromise after we discovered the pizza place we'd made a special outing to was closed to prepare for dinner. bille and i were starving, okay i was starving and we saw a crepe place that looked popular (this was after we found plan B - a great sushi place- was also closed. don't people realize that eating happens at all hours of the day?).
anywho, ordered pesto chicken crepes and i was thoroughly enjoying mine until about two third into my crepe when bille observed,
"this kind of tastes like a hot dog."
dang it. i was so hungry it just tasted good. after that it was ruined to me.
don't get me wrong. i like hot dogs just as much as the next guy, maybe even more, but i don't like hot dog flavored pesto chicken. that's just a mean trick.
a couple of days later my mom came up and it was, you guessed it, more food, mingled with shopping and having makeup done at bloomingdale's by a drag queen, a fact which my mom was totally oblivious to. she said she though a couple of times, "this woman isn't very attractive, but she does herself up nice."
we just laughed at her (my mom).


saturday i went with my dad to his office so he could get some plans and check his email on his dinosaur of a computer.
i made fun of it. but his typing skills have improved. he uses more than two fingers now.



did you know my dad designed the temple grounds at the oakland temple? he's talent.

during a lovely visit with my dear friends bill and toni, whom i've known well since high school, i got a call from wade.

max broke his leg skiing. yikes! it was bound to happen.

so this is what i came home to the next day. he now has a real cast all the way up to his butt, but he's getting around really well on his own now and has done zero complaining. pretty amazing considering how bad the break was.


thanks for the trip, nico. can't wait ot see you again.

curling on my head

the other night we watched the canadians kick butt in curling.
very exciting.
in awe and praise of the sport wade asked,
"what other sport can combine bowling, ice hockey, chess, shuttle board and janitorial skills like that!?"
awesome.

it's that time of year

"what time of year? ", you ask.
the time of year when these are in great abundance on (seemingly) every shelf and in every corner and EVERYWHERE i look as i stroll the aisles of the grocery store intent on keeping purchases chocolate free.
but i fail.
and now the bag sits in the pantry.
unopened.
calling to me.
but it's still unopened.
although, the bag of peanut butter m&ms are long gone (my all year temptation).
so there's a method.
place a perfect pastel egg on the center of your tongue.
now roll it around for a while until the formerly thickish shell is paper thin.
then gently crack the shell off with your back teeth leaving only the sweet milky goodness to slowly dissolve away.
and that is pure bliss.
i'm not kidding.
now don't you feel sorry for me this time of year?

edit: stop telling me about the christmas cad minis and the dark chocolate ones. this does not help me at all.
p.s. the bag still has not been opened.

she prefers shots

at the doctor's today they had one nasal mist left for the girls' booster flu vaccine.
dilemma.
which child to subject to the poke?
whitney or devan? whitney or devan?
so i asked.
"whitney, do you want a squirt up the nose or a pokey shot in the leg?"
not even a split-second later,
"i want the shot mom!"
awesome.
"you know it will poke, right?"
"yup, but it won't hurt a lot."
she watched with interest as the needle went in and the vaccine was injected.
all done.
then she smiled at the nurse.
so weird.
i know the shot really doesn't hurt very much at all, but what kid wants one?

21 balloons

i finished reading this book to my kids a little while ago. this was one of my favorite books when i was little and i wanted to read it to my kids but couldn't remember the title. i found it at the goodwill and instantly recognized it as the "long lost" book of my childhood. the kids loved it (i was worried it might be too boring). Max was the most interested since it has to do with some of his favorite subjects : adventures of flight, hidden treasures, and active volcanos. he kept sneaking the book at night and reading ahead of us. i was surprised at how attentive and engaged even whitney was with the story.
the book is filled with amazing illustrations of the fabulous contraptions and inventions of the people of the island of krakatoa.


the plot line is thrilling, suspenseful and educational all at once and i'm sure we'll be reading it again.

we're having a great winter

hello, nico

meet nico. she's my newest little niece.
my younger sister and her husband's first baby.
isn't she the most adorable thing you've ever seen?
i can't wait to meet her and cover her with kisses.
great job mike and bille!

look at this!

look whose little christmas table scape got a tiny little feature post over at simply grove, one of my favorite design blogs (just recently gone dot com). MINE! i'm very flattered.

skimming the fat

today i discovered the perfect technique for skimming the fat off the stock in your pot roast pan.
shove enough cut potatoes and carrots around your roast to bring all the liquid to within a 1/4 inch of the lip of your pot.
cover with the lid.
leave the house in a hurry for dance lessons and scouts and return three hours later.
viola!
when you return there will be no trace of fat in your pot.
no need for skimming to get to the good stuff for making gravy.
now, if you can just keep your kids from slipping in the puddle of grease that's spilled down your cabinets and all over the floor, you'll be set for a feast.
bon appetit !!

huh?

what do you do with an exchange like this between you and your barely-two-year-old?

devan - mom, guess what!

me - what?

devan - poopey butt!!! (followed by loud, bawdy laughter.)

do i tell her she's on the naughty list?

yes, i have a giant elk head in my entry

and yes, it was hung withOUT my permission.
but,
two years of threatening to take it down myself and i've actually grown a bit attached to the thing.
or maybe i don't notice it anymore.
whatever the case,
those lights are pretty sweet.

i freak myself out

just the other day i had a conversation with max about how we sometimes scare ourselves with our imagination. he told me sometimes when he's playing all alone he'll feel like someone is watching him or touching him but no one is in the room. and i tried to explain to him that a good imagination sometimes works against us in these situations.
like when i was little: my parents had a winding hallway to their bedroom. if i was ever leaving their room alone i usually did it running as fast as i could because i knew there was a full sized tiger right on my tail. i know. stupid, but real...to me.

so, i'm on the lookout for THE perfect buffet for a nook in my entry that i want to paint. like this. i know, it's beautiful.
well, i found it at this great antique store in this bazzar old building/barn/warehouse. well it turns out it's 3 inches too long. sob.
so while i was there, with my girls and this kid who runs the store, i started to feel all creepy and paranoid.
i was there, all alone, in this secluded building with this guy.
it did not help matters when he left the room i was in and returned with a LARGE pair of pruning shears, leather gloves, and rope along with the measuring tape i had requested (dang it! why hadn't i brought my own tape?!)
i kept it cool, asking questions about this or that, making sure i had each of my girls by the arm and at least two large pieces of furniture between us and the guy at all times.
when i saw him start to pull those thick gloves on all i could think was that he'd thought this through and was going to make sure there was no incriminating evidence. he gave me a strange look because i'm sure he had detected my internal panic through what i was trying to present as a cool and calm smile.
i ended what could have been a very fruitful scavenging trip with a, "well, i'll just come back sometime soon to see what you've got. okay, bye." and took the most unpredictable rout to the front door for our escape.
got to the door and i couldn't get the latch open, which, of course, meant we'd been locked in. my heart was pounding so hard and i was just starting to look for a window we could climb through (all the while checking to make sure he hadn't followed us wielding those abnormally sharp shears) when the latch went "click", the door swung open and we were free...
but not out of danger yet.
home base was in the car with the doors locked and engine running.
"buckle up, girls!! let's get the H out of here."

so i'm still in full search mode for the perfect buffet, and now i can't ever go back to that store by myself. i'm gonna have to bring a bodyguard-caliber friend with me everytime.

when has your over-active imagination put limits on the way you live your life?

halloween round-up

an alice,
a white rabbit,
a cheshire cat,
and...
a random wizard.





i'll show you wade's costume next time.

birthday shout-out

happy birthday, little monkey.
four is quite the number, and it suits you so well.
we love you so much.

playing hookey

the second week of school we took max, nik and whitney to the bahamas, which apparently was a great time to go cause' no one was there. i guess all the responsible people had their kids in school. lucky for us.


pretty much our routine consisted of beach, water slides and pools, snorkeling, aquariums, more beach.






whitney had this look on her face the ENTIRE time. put this girl in water and she knows no greater happiness. put her in water for seven straight days and...well, you get the picture.

this resort was amazing. it had miles of water slides and rivers, three gorgeous beaches, 12 pools, humongous aquariums, reefs for snorkeling. it was perfect for parking your butt for a week and keeping everyone happy. kind of a lazy way to vacation, i'll admit.



and this is the look wade had on his face the ENTIRE time.




aren't these fish disgusting?!








every tiny speck of shell was of magnificent importance.


wade almost peed his pants every time we saw this yacht. he almost went so far as to knock on the door and beg for a look around. and when he saw people coming off the yacht he made us all wait and watch to see what kind of people they were. he was sure they'd be movie stars or something.



one of our favorite things was the snorkeling. we took the kids on an open ocean snorkeling trip. whitney got her finger devoured by a rabid fish the second she jumped in. but she got over it quickly.


max and nik had to drive the boat, of course.

then we all swam with the sharks. not whitney. she was a bit too morsel sized for that.
more pictures of that later.


we got caught in a terrific rain storm on the way to a pirate museum and then found ourselves almost frozen to the bone once we entered the over air-conditioned building.


a little pirate jig.




then we all got sent to pirate time-out.




would you like some chips with that sand?






every night we'd walk to the little village, eat, shop around and enjoy the live music. wade REALLY got into it.



this is how we survived the LONG LONG trip home: movies, naps and about two million games of uno.
good thing we left devan at home or i don't think we would have ever come back.
the major success of the trip: no one got burnt. after two bottles of 50 and a bottle of 30 i think we were covered.