Movember and Some

Well, for all those mustache retro loving geeks, it's finally Movember.  For all those wondering why all of a sudden, men everywhere are sporting staches, it's to support prostate cancer.

Being that Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, I feel like it's a tad bit too early for snow (in my California opinion), but what do I know?!  My mom brought me about 6 sweaters, so that's probably my winter gear for the rest of the year.  I'm not sure if it'll be enough, I might need some scarves, but Andy doesn't seem to be too phased by the cold.  He's still sporting jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket only.  Maybe I'll adapt too?

We woke up to this last Friday.  Yikes!

Jordan's not amused with the extra layers 

 The library's great in this weather.  Free computers to bang on.... free books, DVDs, CDs, and a place to run around (sort of...)

 We sadly bid my mom farewell this morning but not without eating out last night first! 

 The stache just looks creepy at this point in time. 

 At least Jordan's cute!

Wai-Puo Visits

My mom decided to come see us for a week for the sole purpose of cooking for us.  She came armed with two suitcases (one large, one small) full of Chinese snacks (Hello Pandas, Pocky, dried squid, fish snacks, crackers, Chinese jellies, etc.), noodles, as well as things I am unsure of in English (think dried mushrooms, dried scallops, dried fish, dates, soy beans, dried fruit, etc.)  So far, we've had noodles, red bean soup, brussel sprouts with lamb, mochi, soup, and we are set to have curry for lunch today.  Yummy!

 i really have no idea what any of this is

 pocky and squid

 seaweed

biscuits and jellies

We also went shopping and got Jordan new winter threads from H&M, TJ Maxx, and we all enjoyed a nice dinner at Twigs Bistro courtesy of wai-puo.  And then all our plans were ruined once snow fell.  I am apprehensive to drive in the snow and as I look out the window into the forest of white that is now my balcony view, the bits of snow falling that I only saw a mimic of at the Grove during Christmastime doesn't make it any better.

Thoughts Thoughts Thoughts

Do you ever have thoughts that go unanswered, unattended to, and unheard?  Yeah, me too.  Good thing I have a blog!

I used to plan a weekly menu of dinners, but lately, it's been... it's 3 PM ... SHOOT!, what to make for dinner?!  Ugh.  I wish I could go back to planning a weekly menu but let's face it... I'm pretty lazy lately focusing my free time and energy on my work product.  And, I've come to realize that me planning a menu for a week means a lot of grocery shopping and a lot of exceeding our budget, whereas cooking with what I gots has resulted in cost savings galore and trimming down that canned good cabinet of ours.  Too bad my freezer continues to loose room as I do this at Costco: a massive bag of ORGANIC sweet peas for $5.68 or a small bag from Wal-Mart for $1.99?!  a ginormous bag of frozen pineapple chunks for $5.99 or a small bag from Trader Joe's for $3.99?!  Need I say more?  Our freezer is dying for more space.

I always wonder who orders things from Pottery Barn Kids.  What kid really needs a $200 vintage airplane to ride on or a $200 digital scroreboard?! But then I look at the description for a life size Christmas tree advent calendar with pockets - stitched to look homemade - and I actually think, for $69 (FREE shipping on all orders today except furniture! - go buy something expensive at Pottery Barn Kids) and for something that would take me more than 2 hours (to search for the supplies and to sit down and make it - which I'm not even sure I'm capable of doing), I actually thought - that's a really good deal and completely worth the time I would expend to attempt to make it, and so I proceeded to fold the corner of the catalog that I am consistently shocked at receiving since the prices are beyond belief, and have since ordered my Christmas advent calendar!  And come to think of it, that really expensive $100 buck Pottery Barn chair that was a gift from my cousins upon Jordan's birth, is probably one item Jordan plays with, jumps on, or sits in, EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Depreciate it, it's worth a lot.  I think my goal is to buy a LOT of Christmas stuff this year so that our family will get the most out of it for the next 20 something years.  That means careful consideration of what's out there now, and a lot of December 26th shopping for the leftover stuff. 

I used to think parents who let their kids play with iPads were idiots.  And then I got a free iPad from work (our 2011 Christmas bonus you could say), put it into a thick and ugly gray case, and eventually acquiesced and gave it to my son to play with.  At 18 months, he knows how to unlock the screen and find his game apps and just recently threw his tiny plastic water gun at it, creating our first official scratch on the expensive and coveted iPad.  Parents who let their kids play with their iPads are indeed idiots, just take it from this idiot.  But this just in - there's a "kid mode" you can go to!  Yeah, that mode wouldn't have kept our iPad from the long diagonal water gun slash, but hey, at least he's okay, right?  At least it was safe enough that it didn't shatter and hit us both in the face.  And, there are more important things.  Like my iPhone which he has not thrown anything at quite yet.

And most importantly, it's Election Time!  Regardless of who you vote for, go out and VOTE!  VOTE VOTE VOTE!  The downside to voting in small town Washington where it's all by ballots in the mail?  No "I voted" stickers.  For shame small town Washington, for shame!

Drama in the Form of What to Wear?!

Contrary to popular belief, I am low maintenance when it comes to certain things.  Like being comfortable in PJs all day long.  If I could get away with wearing my baggy gray lululemon pants and my old 1999 Orchesis t-shirt everywhere, you bet I would.  Alas, my nagging mother would reprimand me all the way from California about letting myself go and I would feel bad about all those clothes that never do get worn and feel pretty insecure and regretful once out and about.  But I really do detest getting dressed.  I love making the bed, but I hate getting dressed.  

It's a battle everyday when Jordan and I finally decide to leave the house, what oh what to wear.  I feel like girl clothes are complicated in that they warrant careful decisions about shoes that go with the pants  and the length of my pants get in the way as most of my jeans are specifically designed to be worn with heels (I only wore jeans with heels as I only wore jeans to go out as most of my days were spent in corporate business casual or work out clothes).  It's really a complicated enigma of sorts.  I just want to wear socks yet most girl shoes do not allow for socks.  Take my Sperry Topsiders or my Nine West flats.  Only boots warrant socks but wearing boots means finding the right jeans to go with the boots, especially if they are ankle or knee boots.  Decisions, decisions!  It's time like these that I actually value my skinny jeans that I so reluctantly decided to wear in the first place. But even despite that, sometimes, a girl just wants to wear her straight legged jeans, but everyone knows you cannot wear jeans with sneakers!  Even if the sneakers do keep the extra long jeans from hitting the floor.  ...

I'm coming to learn that those things you think you will never do or become... like never wearing nylons and a work outfit with sneakers on the bus or any form of public transportation for that matter, disappear when you are desperate or walking up 100 flights of Angel's Flight stairs and already married, so really.. what's the harm?!  Likewise, I have worn my jeans with sneakers recently as well.  I have felt embarrassed every second as I did so.. but times change you and motherhood calls for certain sacrifices to be made.  Wet jeans don't make anyone happy so one sacrifice I have made is wearing my too long jeans with sneakers to prevent them from dragging and getting wet.  It was disgusting.  Oh how far I have come.  I never thought I would .. yet here I am.  Yes, I know I can alter my jeans, cut them, or something... but that would call for an availability of time which is at a shortage these days.

Motherhood changes the game.  That's my drama for today.  Now if only I could get dressed so we could make our way to Costco as planned.  ...

Confidence Boost

My old college buddy Malcolm used to venture off to Weho every time he needed a confidence boost because he would, without a doubt, get hit on by gay guys.  Heterosexual himself, Malcolm enjoyed the affirmation that he always got.

Similarly, we got that same confidence boost when we sported our Halloween costumes over to Chipotle for $2 booritos on Halloween near the Gonzaga campus.  The compliments were endless.  "That's the best costume ever!"  "He's so cute!"  "Oh my goodness, that is so creative!"  It was fabulous.  Made all the time, money, and effort we put into our costumes so worth it.  And, people were snapping photos of us from every single angle.  The paparazzi couldn't get over us.

 

Capitalizing on the perks of Halloween, we headed over to Krispy Kreme with the Harrisons for some free donuts!  We were shocked there was absolutely no line and barely anybody there.  Jordan and Parker still had fun running around, jumping on the booths, and knocking down "slippery" signs.

 Halloween is great, especially when you get dinner and dessert for $7.48!

Accidental Tradition: Halloween

Andy and I have decided, we will do family costumes for as long as our kids will let us.  We think that buys us another two years, even with Jordan deciding what he wants to be, we can just secretly adapt our costumes to theme up with his.  HAHA!

Last year, we were a sushi gang inspired by Pinterest, but this year, our idea came completely Pinterest free (although people who saw us would comment about how Pinterest is alive and well... pshh, go see their costume and ours, we win!).  Andy wanted Jordan to be the chubby scout, Russell, from the Disney movie Up, and he would be the old man.  I would be the dog who always said squirrel!  As Halloween got closer, however, we realized that Andy needed an expensive Scout shirt anyway (he works with two other men teaching the 11 year old Scouts every Wednesday), Jordan already had a bow-tie and really grew to like these lenseless black rimmed glasses my brother gave us, so why not make the switch?!

To pull off our costumes, we made a few items.  I made Jordan a grape soda pin (it's all about the details folks!), patches for a sash that was sewn together, and a Wilderness flag just like the one Russell actually sports in the movie for Andy.  The dog idea never came to fruition and I ended up wearing a Huggies box turned house that I drew (markers would have shown up better!) and Andy cut me arms and made sure the house was cut at the top of the box.  Andy also made a little walker out of PVC pipe, duck tape, and tennis balls!

Jordan already had a white shirt and bow-tie, so we got him some sweet slacks from Nordstrom Rack (which will be great for Church too!) and a corduroy blazer (which came with an attached gray hoodie, but we tucked it in for the costume) from Old Navy, and some temporary white hair color spray to pull off his older Carl self.

Items we didn't make included an orange piece of fabric for Andy's Scout scarf, the Scout shirt we ventured to the local Boy Scouts of America Store for, and helium balloons we picked up from a local party store.  And the dog costume never surfaced... though after watching the last episode of The Office, I really wish I could have borrowed Erin's dog costume.  Instead, I became the house from the movie.

Our Inspiration:

Old man Carl

Boy Scout Russell

Both of them together

the house

And here we are!  In all our Up glory:

DIY Starbucks Hot Cider

I'm so thankful my sister-in-law, Tammy, told us this easy and very cheap DIY Starbucks hot cider.  We bought our own cinnamon dolce pump from Starbucks for $7.95 last year (ask them for the pump, actually, demand it!) and now that the cold weather has come, we've made good use of it!

Here are the ingredients:

You heat the apple juice, put in two pumps of the cinnamon dolce and then top it off with whip cream and caramel.  

JUST like Starbucks does it!