A nice, quiet day

Yesterday, the kids and I just stayed home all day. It was nice to not have the stress of travel and appointment deadlines.

Here's the munchkins, playing in the dollhouse. I arranged all the furniture for them, and they were happy for at least ten minutes.

In the meantime, I did laundry. The washers are located in the loft between the bedrooms, so getting the laundry in there is a breeze. Alex sat and watched the washer and dryer spin. He was fascinated.

Right before we left, I dug out this little book of Robert Lewis Stevenson's childrens' rhymes. Alex just loved the picture that went with the one that starts,

"What are you able to build with your blocks?
Castles and palaces, temples and docks.
Rain may keep raining and others go roam,
But I can be happy when building at home."

It has some great pictures of these block castles and things. Alex aspires to build a castle, and keeps trying and trying.

It's cold in Virginia

Especially when you're originally from California. This snow dusting persisted in the shade all day. I think there's still some on the porch, dry as sand and just as grainy.

It was nice and warm in the mall. I did not shop in this store, although I was sorely tempted by memories of their catalogs.

My son in a wig. He looks thrilled, don't you think?

Small things

This morning, I went downstairs to find Alex, all by himself, looking out the back window at his grandma's bird feeder. It was loaded with goldfinches, who at this time of year, aren't very gold.

Later on, ever breakfast, I let him play with my camera. He snapped all kinds of odd, blurry photos, but this one actually came out with a kind of candid charm. And you can see me, for once.

Maybe I'll let Alex be our photographer.

Of plane rides

Well! Here we are in Virginia, visiting my husband's parents.

The plane trips yesterday were fuuuun. And by fuuuuun I mean "not fun".

We got to the airport in Bako an hour early. Got through security all right, then waited and waited.

Small children do not like waiting, so I took the munchkins around the terminal, and we sat in empty chairs and looked out windows.


Finally our puddlejumper arrived.

They were really excited. We went out, put in the carseat, stowed our luggage, and were all ready to go, when they told us that there were "electronics issues" and we all had to get off the plane while they turned it off and turned it back on.

For a while it looked like the plane wouldn't get fixed at all, and we were going to miss our connecting flight in LA. But finally, about 10, they got the puddlejumper working, and we puddlejumped down to LA.

We were supposed to have had an hour between flights in LA, and we had planned to get lunch. Because of the delay, we got there with 15 minutes to spare. We ran to our gate and boarded (a vast behemoth of a 777) and never even got to have lunch.

Note to self: pack sandwiches next time. Ten bucks for a ham sandwich? I could have made some out of gourmet meat and cheese for what all that cost us. Long story short: we didn't eat very well on the airplane.

So we arrived in Dulles, which is massive. We took three elevators and a shuttle (which was this entertaining high-speed train) just to get to the baggage claim. I can't even imagine how big Regan must be.

Ryan's folks were waiting for us, and took us home where fortunately a large dinner awaited us. It was such a relief to finally get something to eat.

We plan to do some running around today, so I'll get some pics that aren't, you, darkness. It was dark when we landed (not to mention cold and misty), so I have no clue what Virginia looks like. Other than lots of trees.

Ultrasounds and bucket lists

I had an ultrasound yesterday. We're about 99.9% sure that it's a girl. I'm so excited! Now I have to think of some decent girl names.

I wish I could have medical students do all of my medical work. They actually talk to you and tell you stuff. None of that stuffy professionalism! I think I'd want an actual doctor around sometimes, but seeing as even nurses seem to do more work than the doctors at my births, I think I'd be fine with nurses, even.

Besides, if med students screw up, they tell you. Doctors will never admit it if they screw up. :-)

I've been thinking about making a bucket list. You know, the list of crazy yet achievable things you want to do someday. My trouble is, I've already achieved my first bucket list, which was to find a nice guy, get married, and have kids. I've had a hard time coming up with anything besides that.

But I did manage to come up with a few things I'd like to do, and here they are:

Write books and get published.

Go traveling on a train, perhaps through northern California. I've never been anywhere north of my home, only south and east.

Get a house.

Make things that I can sell, like art, or sculpture, or baskets.

Read more classics. GOOD classics, not ones that leave you feeling like you need brain bleach (Hemingway, I'm looking at you).

Learn to do 3D modeling.

Take life drawing.

For the life of me, I can't think of anything else. I think bucket lists are similar to New Year's Resolutions, except a lot of these definitely won't happen next year, with a new baby on the way. Ah well, at least I have goals now. :-)

Snow and taco soup

I was looking for good snow references on google, and happened to google "fresh snow".

Found me a new desktop wallpaper!

From this site here which is filled with annoying invasive ads, you have been warned.

Haven't updated over here in a bit. Haven't had much new to post. "December 5th. We ran out of bananas." You know, that sort of thing. We're getting ready to go on a trip to visit family, and I've been in panic mode about that, doing packing lists and schedules and all the little details you have to thrash out when you're traveling with small children.

Yesterday I went to the store. I was craving taco soup in the absolute worst way, so I was getting the ingredients for that. I swung by the meat cooler to get some ground beef. I usually get the kind that is the cheapest and has the highest fat content (I just pour it off when I cook it). To my consternation, the high fat section was completely empty. All they had was a little bit of extra lean, which is between five and eight bucks. I had been hoping to get away with three or four bucks.

Feeling depressed, I moved on down to the chicken section and did my usual price check of all the boneless meat, white and dark. White was cheaper today, so as I picked some up, I muttered to God, "But I really wanted to get some hamburger ..." I happened to look over at the turkey section, and there was a package of the high-fat ground beef for three and a half bucks, sitting where somebody had left it.

I swear it hadn't been there before I prayed. I swooped down upon it and the taco soup it made was so very nice.

If you've never had it, here's the recipe from the 30 Minute Cookbook:

(Image taken from this site here, which has a different, more entertaining recipe)

Taco Soup
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion
1 can kidney beans, undrained
1 can string beans (I never add these)
1 can crushed tomatoes, undrained
1 can corn, undrained
1 can tomato sauce
1 package taco seasoning

Brown ground beef with onion, drain. Add all other ingredients and let simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over chips and top with cheese.

A Christmas diversion

Here is my cockatiel, sneaking a bite out of our tree while I was cleaning his cage.

To his disappointment, it's a fake tree. Too bad, or his breath would have been pine fresh.