"Off We Go..."

"...Into the wild blue yonder,

Climbing high into the sun;

Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,

At 'em boyz, Give 'er the gun! (Give 'er the gun now!)

Down we dive, spouting our flame from under,

Off with one helluva roar!

We live in fame or go down in flame. Hey!

Nothing'll stop the U.S. Air Force!"

I love three day weekends! We started it off by having our friends Amy and Steve over for dinner (Mexican themed), dessert (Will made cookies), drinks and some Wii!! Colin loved having company over and even managed to convince Will and I to let him out of bed and stay up a bit longer...which meant he slept in until 8 am on Sunday, so that was nice!

On Sunday, we relaxed at home...I worked on homework (did pretty well on my quizzes!), we cleaned, and my sweetie took me to the bookstore (sadly not BN but Borders will do) so I could buy a few new books (having new books will make studying harder). Will also had band rehearsal so Colin and I had some mommy/son time, which of course is always a blast!

Today, we took Colin to the Air and Space museum, hence the Air Force song opening this blog. Will educated me on all things Air Force and even sang the song for me! We had a good time and Colin did very well. We attempted the visit without his stroller, so he either walked (he was very good about holding one of our hands) or we took turns carrying him. He loved the planes! Will and I may try to go sometime on our own so we can do the space ship simulator and moon walk...one of our future dates! Plus, it would be nice to read about what we were looking at; Colin likes to keep moving, no time to read!

It was a little weird because they had a lot of Transformer stuff since the second movie had scenes filmed there, but it is nice if it helps bring people in. Below is a picture of the Black Bird which is the really old transformer in the movie. It is a really cool looking plane.

Will got really excited about the space section although that seemed to be the one that Colin behaved the worst, so we had to walk through it quicker than we would have liked...sorry sweetie :(

Such a nice weekend!!!

Haiti Earthquake Relief

Most of you have probably heard about the horrific earthquake that happened on the Caribbean island of Haiti yesterday. I heard on the radio that the number of deaths so far is estimated to be around 500,000...this is such a tragic event. I also heard that Wyclef Jean has a fund to aid his home country, see link for more information:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0113/Wyclef-Jean-Haiti-earthquake-Singer-leads-charge-to-help-through-Yele-Haiti-charity-and-Twitter

After looking through some of the pictures and seeing a father carrying his dead daughter I had to donate...it's only $5...this is so sad...

For the Book Lovers

I have recently read some fabulous books that I highly recommend:
Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

I really enjoyed this book! It was well-written and very interesting. The author decides to spend a year of traveling and just focusing on her sekf after she goes through a divorce. So, she she spends 4 months in Italy (eat) where she focuses on pleasure (which in this case is the pleasure of food), then India (pray) where she stays at an ashram with a native guru and focuses on her spiritual explorations, and in Bali (love), she focuses on putting all that she has learned together; the art of balance...putting together worldly desires and spiritual health. She becomes friends with a elderly medicine man who helps her with this.


In the Time of Butterflies -Julia Alvarez

This story takes place in Dominican Republic from 1938 to 1994 and follows the lives of four sisters, three of which were assassinated during the rule of Rafael Trujillo. Each sister is the narrator of a chapter, which I find an interesting way to tell a story, you get to hear different sides. The story made me cry but was interesting to learn about a country's history that you do not hear too much about in school.

Snowflower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See

The book takes place in 19th-century China, when women were foot-bound and were very secluded. A lady nearing the end of her life is looking back and telling the story about her and her "old sames" (laotongs) and the nu shu writing (a secret women's writing). The foot-binding chapters were a little hard to read (I couldn't imagine the pain) but the story was really good! I loved the characters and the authors style.

Right now I am reading The Blind Assassin (by Margaret Atwood) and Three Cups of Tea (By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin). I am really enjoying both of them. The first one is a piece of fiction and the second is a non-fiction about a man who is building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan (to promote peace through education). I love the books title, which is taken from a proverb: "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family..."

Happy Birthday Liz!!!

I wanted to wish a happy birthday to my "other" mom Liz (or Grandma Liz to Colin)! We hope you have a wonderful day!!!

Liz is the best mother-in-law I could have hoped for! She has been such a blessing to me and just makes being so far away from my own mom a bit easier (mom - of course it is still hard) but Liz is always there if I have questions or need to talk. So...thank you for all you do for Will, Colin and I. We truly appreciate having you so close and for being such a big part of our lives!

Happy Birthday!!!



Really looking forward to seeing Leap Year!!! Girls day!

Virginia Christmas

The past few weeks have been spent celebrating Christmas with Will's side of the family. On Wednesday, we had Grandfather B and Grandma Patty over for dinner.  On the menu was Unstuffed Green Pepper Soup - delicious, if I do say so myself!. We had a fabulous time! Colin loves his new Band in a Box! He was playing the symbols while Grandfather B was playing the tamborine! What a musical duo. So cute! I enjoyed being able to relax and just visit. It felt like forever since we had seen Bill and Patty.

On Sunday, we headed up to Maryland to celebrate with Grandma Liz, Uncle Michael, Uncle Jamie, Aunt Ann and Colin's cousins, Ryan and Brady. Another day of fun! I had a great time taking pictures of Brady (who is two weeks younger than Colin) who kept watching me, probably trying to figure out why his crazy aunt is constantly taking photos of him! He is too adorable!

We were thrilled that one of our gifts for Ryan was such a big hit.  We bought him a robot that ended up by his side the whole night! Success! Ann made a delicious dinner and I tried sushi for the first time! It was a cooked version...and was crab, but it still counts . This will help build me up to raw sushi! I will need to be prepared in case I end up going to Japan!

Thank you everyone for a wonderful holiday season! It was a great start to being home again!

Only one more Christmas to go...

Cliche...Perhaps

High Hopes for 2010!!!!

This year we went to a party at our friends' house (John & Susannah) to celebrate the new year. It was a blast!  We had a great time visiting, drinking a little more than normal, and just having a fun night. Thank you Susannah and John for hosting!! Being parents of a little guy, we needed to leave earlier than we would have liked in order to get C to bed, but we only left an hour before midnight. So, after getting the little guy to bed we watched the Dick Clark's New Year Countdown. I had not watched his show in years..the man has aged! He definitely looks good for his age but I can tell the difference since the last time I watched his show. I really enjoyed ending our evening cuddled up on our couch watching the ball drop together; what a wonderful night!

Not to sound too cliche but Will and I do have some New Year resolutions. I have never really been one to make resolutions each year, but Will and I decided to last year and we were pretty successful. Creating this blog and sticking to it was actually one of my resolutions from last year.  I have been able to keep up with it a lot better than I thought I would. It is "mommy's quiet time", which could be a huge part of my motivation...and it is a great way to share our life with my west coast family and friends. We have also been fairly successful at exercising and eating healthier (with the exception of the past two months - so that is back on the list). Holidays are filled with many temptations!
Here it goes:

1. To keep up this blog

2. PURGE (this will make moving easier when the time comes)

3. Exercise

4. Eat healthier...again

5. Devote time each week to our personal hobbies

6. Be better at date nights

7. Try at least one new cooking recipe every month (this may sound like a long time, but with traveling for work a month may make my failure less likely)

8. Get back into reading more non-fiction (I have been spending a lot more time with fiction lately, which isn't like me...getting lazy!)

Here is to all of our wonderful friends and family...wishing you and yours all a wonderful new year (2010 - can you believe it???) filled with love, happiness and amazing life adventures! Love you all! Best of luck in all of your endeavors throughout 2010!

Christmas at P-Pa & Mi-Ma's

We were at my dad's and Michele's (P-Pa & Mi-Ma) for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, we had such a great time! Again, Colin (and both of us) were spoiled with gifts. Colin is not going to know what to do with so many new toys!! Our stay there was very relaxing...even with Colin waking up almost every night and ending up in our bed (he moves and kicks so much). I had a great time catching up with everyone and watching Will interacting with my side of the family. He was able to bond with my dad over Madden and football, but sadly missed watching the Cowboys and Skins game (it was on Sunday) with him. That would have been interesting since my dad is a Cowboy fan and Will is a Redskins fan.

I had wanted to eat out a lot when at my mom's (since there were restaurants that I grew up on and miss) but my dad recently moved to a different town (that I do not know as well) so it was nice to eat home cooked meals. Michele made us breakfast every morning and a nice dinner each night (thank you)!! With the exception of the day we flew out; my dad cooked me his delicious spaghetti (thank you...I still love it)! That was the meal I always requested on my birthdays.

Colin had so much fun playing with P-pa, Mi-ma, the cats (poor cats) and just entertaining himself. He LOVED their hallway. It was long and tiled, great for running...which he did a lot of while we were there. We even braved the cold to entertain him outside a few days (needed to wear his energy out, so he would go to bed at a decent hour).

Below is Colin on Christmas morning with his frizzy hair (he slept with it wet)...he loved the big bath tub so he had frequent baths. It was also useful for warming him up after playing outside in the cold. He is pointing to a singing/hopping penguin that sang and hopped throughout most of our duration there...he loved the thing so much it was close to running out of batteries by the time we left (good idea Michele)!

We had such a wonderful time Dad and Michele - thank you for everything!! We enjoyed visiting, playing Wii, eating the delicious meals and just being around you two (brothers as well). Thank you again for everything!

While we were there some of our friends from Portland came down. It was so nice to see my old BN friend. Andrea and Matt - thank you for coming down! It was fun to see Colin play with Leland. Mallory is so adorable!!! Hope you guys make it out this way soon!

"Bye-bye Quack Quacks"

While at my mom's we took Colin to one of my favorite places to go when I lived there, the duck pond. We brought some bread and let Colin feed the ducks. I have always found the place to be very calming. I was surprised to see so many ducks this time of year.

Colin loved the ducks! He was yelling "quack quacks" and chasing the poor things, but they got fed so...it worked out for them.

I love the male mallard ducks, so beautiful. I know it is due to "survival of the fittest" but it seems a little unfair that the females are not so pretty. Where's their beautiful colors?

Above is one of the weirder looking birds there. I was hoping that Will would get to see a nutria but none came out for food. So sad...those things freak me out. Those tails...aagh!

Colin saying "bye-bye Quack Quacks" as we were leaving! So cute!

Returning to the Nest

I just wanted to take a few entries to recap our trip to Oregon...

We were able to make a trip out to my home state for Christmas this year. It has been 2 years since I have been back and 3 for Will (Colin's first visit). It was so nice being home for Christmas! I love the holidays in Virginia but every once in a while it is just nice to be...home. The traveling part actually went pretty well. We were still exhausted from a day of flying, but Colin did well. He seemed to enjoy flying and did not appear to have any issues with his ears during take-off and landing (thankfully).

We had a great time with my mom and brothers. We got to visit with my aunt, cousins and even made a trip out to the church that I grew up attending for a Christmas play. It was weird seeing kids that I remember when they were a few weeks old that are almost pre-teens. Crazy! Especially Jade, who I used to babysit when she was 9 months old! The play was very cute and it was really good to see everyone!

My mom made a delicious Christmas dinner (we celebrated a few days early)...she even made a separate dish of stuffing with no celery for me (thank you)! Colin was spoiled (and so were Will and I)! I had a great time showing Will the shopping in my hometown and some of my old haunts. The mall is a bit smaller then he is used to but we had a good time, especially shopping with no sales tax - Got to love it!!

Colin had a great time playing with Uncle Willie and Uncle Greggie! I was so surprised that he was so comfortable so fast. He really did not have a problem going up to any of my family. This was his first time meeting most of them (besides my mom and Greggie).

Will, Grammie and I took Colin to one of my old grade schools. It was fun to go back and see how small everything seems now. I had a good time taking pictures of my son playing at the place I went to for 3rd thru 6th grade. Good memories...Go Hawks!

I also got to go to my favorite restaurants!! I made it to the Greek restaurant twice! I have never had a Greek salad as good as the one from Alexander's. It is the best!!! Will wanted to go to a McMenamins, so we went to the one in town that used to be a railroad station. It was pretty good. I forgot how much I love the Terminator Stout!

Well, we had a great time! Love you all and miss you already!

Baby's First Flight

This past Friday, Colin flew for the first time...across the U.S. We left at 5 pm EST and got to my dad's around 1:30 am PST (so 4:30 am our time). We were so exhausted! Colin actually did really well though. He did not have any problems with his ears during take-off and landing, which is something we were worried about. He enjoyed talking to everyone and driving his choo-choos across the airplane wall. He is really good at entertaining himself.

I thought that Colin would wake us up really early the next day, but it ended up being us parents trying to wake up the little guy. We got bored so we started talking louder to try and wake him up. He has been in a very good mood the last few days. I thought that the traveling would throw him off a bit. Lucky us!

We spent the first day with my dad and Michele. We got to do some Christmas shopping and just hung out and enjoyed each other's company. It has been a long time! It has been 2 years since I have been back and 3 for Will. It is nice to be home!

Now we are at my mom's. Colin is enjoying time with his two uncles and Grammie. We went to a Christmas play last night at the church that I grew up in. It was so nice to see everyone! It has been too long!

P.S. We had a connecting flight in San Fran...I forgot how much I love their sourdough bread! It was soooo good. Sourdough bread with tomato bisque soup - the best!!!