February 2015

Ugh, so behind! Here we go, February.

Heard: I love Diana Krall, and the new record is no exception. This song has been in my head a lot. I love to sing it while I drive. We also listened to the entire season 1 of the podcast Serial. It's worth a listen for sure, but I'm tense about there being no answer yet. Glad there's a second season in the works! I've heard reviews of it saying it's "revolutionizing radio" - betchya didn't think you were going to hear that from the millenials, huh? ;) It makes me very happy!



Tasted: Trader Joe's has this amazing new "fireworks" chocolate that has chili and poprocks in it. Everyone we've given it to has loved it so far, we can't stop gobbling it up! The best things I made were these easy baked scallops (I'm so nervous of messing up seafood, especially since it's so expensive, but these turned out great!) and chocolate dipped fresh oranges and kumquats. Oh, and a killer and EASY recipe for brownies from scratch, even for a baking dummy like me! Can't stop thinking about coconut chai lemonade either.

Browsed: 

• I plan to be a cool mom who builds Hogwarts out of legos. 
• Last month I had a link for dirty car art, this month is snow car art!
• Some of you know that capybaras are my favorite animal. Well, did you know that they like to soak in hot tubs?! EEEEeeeee, I can hardly handle the cuteness (and they're so blase about it!). 

Experienced: Let's see here...

• I finally got to meet my highschool bff Manny when he and his wife Katya and brother Nick came to Santa Barbara. We had a wonderful time talking about all kinds of things, laughing at our baby boys, and we ate at Freebird's for the first time (YUM). I seriously forgot the beauty of reuniting with old friends, particularly TCKs. 
• We celebrated Valentine's day at home with my parents, making a fun meal (fondue, my first time) and playing a "how well do you know your spouse" game which was really fun. 
• Jonas turned 25 on the 20th! We didn't do anything too fancy because we spent monies on traveling this month. 
• First, we went down to LA to visit OTIS as a potential school for J to transfer to. We stayed with our siblings in law, played an alcohol enhanced game of Cards Against Humanity (hilarious), went to a brewery, went to our first anti-mall (and you think WE are hipster!), met our new nephew Jude for the first time since he was adopted (we met him once a few years ago) and listened to a lot of NPR, as usual. 
• Our car broke the night before we were going to leave for Oregon, so my parents very kindly lent us their van, which was a dream. We got to visit another brother in law in Oregon and met his girlfriend and daughter for the first time, too! I got some major thrifting scores in with Morgan (BIL's gf), and got to meet up with an old China friend, Lily. We made it to the coast for a few days to visit both of our grandparents (what are the odds that they live 20 minutes apart!?), and were in awe of the beauty continuously. 

Boys: Ishmael wants to do everything by himself and says, "I got it!" when you try and help him do things. Sorry I totally spaced on writing down more details about him this month. He seems to be kind of an emotionally fragile guy. Sometimes very cuddly and sweet, sometimes sort of terrifying melt downs, and sometimes end-of-the-world crying over apparently nothing. Maybe he got the sensitive artist genes? // Ira hit the 6 month mark, cut his first 2 teeth (bottom center), says "da da da", blows spit splutters, and does this great thing that I call "velocity face" where he braces his hands on something in front of him (his chair or your body) and makes this face like he's bracing for something. It's not a scared face, but I googled "worried scared face", and this comes closest. It's quite funny, but one of those things that only lasted a few days and I never got a great photo of. // I guess I keep posting articles about how to relate to your friends without kids because I keep needing help in this area.

Loved: Beautiful Oregon rain and trees and abandoned houses (though they break my heart too) and getting a breather from our normal life.