I'm working on my Fall 2015 post right now, which I know you've all been waiting for with baited breath. ;) Everyone knows now that I've made a "thing" out of not caring for fall, but this year, I'm not altogether hating it! We had a really warm summer and the weather continues to be nice, though we're starting to get a few rain showers here and there which is like GOLD in California. I've been amassing more and more incredible clothing since I've been selling clothing as a [very, very part-time] job this year, and party season will give me an excuse to show some of my favorites off, I hope. It's nice to be able to drink at parties now that I'm not pregnant or nursing as well.
I'm back in school, through October, currently studying Comparative Foreign Policy. It's one of the more difficult classes I've taken so far, but I'm gaining a lot of good insight from the other students, which I really appreciate. Jonas is in school as well, which can be challenging because he's away from home more often, but we got sucked in to the Netflix show Peaky Blinders and spent 12 hours (not all at once) watching it together. Highly recommended! Also, cooler [fall] weather makes cuddling nice. {see end of the post for details on this picture}
Fall also gives me the perfect excuse to crank out the comfort food dishes, and the best new recipes I've tried are thai butternut squash soup and chicken pot pie with tater tots (both super easy!). Here's a soundtrack for you to cook to, been loving this jam.
We had a small combined birthday party for Ishmael turning 3 and Ira turning 1, since September falls in the middle of their birthdays. In hindsight, I don't think it would be any harder to do their birthdays separately because it's not like we put on anything extravagant for the party and we end up doing the birthday routine at home with them on their actual separate birthdays anyway. Still, it was fun to get our family together and hang out at the Goleta Train Museum where they could run around with their cousins and ride the mini train there. We recommend it if you're in the area and have kids. Not many people know it's there, but it shares property with the venue where my sister got married this Summer (also worth walking around those grounds!) and it's free!
In other sons-of-mine news, Ishmael does the best impersonation of a fish I've ever seen (we have been unable to catch it on video thus far), loves to sing songs (and gets most of the words right!), and seems more and more a little/big boy than a toddler. He repeats plenty of things that through me for a loop, like "knock it off!", but also says adorable things like "shall we" do this or that. I've been challenging myself to put my finger on specific aspects of how "children are a blessing" (especially when I'm at the end of my rope with him) and one thing I love is to see his unbridled enthusiasm for Jesus and learning about the Bible, even though he doesn't have very much understanding of God that I know of. It seems so organic in him, which is both astonishing to me and treasured. He also recognizes the letter "S" and knows that it's associated with the words "stop!" (which he yells out every time we see a stop sign, scaring me half to death) and "snake".
Ira also loves to sing, and has started saying words! His first word was "bird", but he also says "ball, up, down, thank you". Though short lived, he also said "NO, NO, NO" a few times which we ignored (especially since it was out of context) and that seems to have solved the problem. Ira has had a lot of classic child behaviors that Ishmael didn't. Ira also loves to swing his arms while walking, and he can go up and down stairs on his own, though it still makes me nervous. He is a pretty fearless little guy, but thankfully seems to have good balance and recover quickly when he does take a tumble.
Lots of new pictures of the boys just posted to Facebook in the album called "The Sweetest Kill" (my albums are usually titled after whatever song I'm listening to when I'm uploading them, ha).
September really flew by! Jonas' car just about died, so we made a big leap of faith (as educated as possible) and used a lot of our savings to get a 2005 used van. Which has been a DISASTER. Mega sad face. Going on a month, we're still trying to work everything out with the seller and the continuous maintenance issues, but I'm trying to let it go, let it be a good learning experience, and remember that this will all be in the past eventually.
In happier news, Jonas' best man got engaged and the wedding is in Japan, so Jonas is going to be Chris' best man! I'm super excited for Jonas that he will get to go, but I don't get to go this trip which is bumming me out. I'm sending a big shopping list with him, obvs. Our friends Manny and Katya visited from Arizona and we so very much enjoyed their company. As a TCK, I never really expected any childhood (especially online high school!) friends to end up in my adult life (in fact, I was positive that they wouldn't!), but I couldn't be more thrilled. It still feels like such a surprising and surreal blessing.
I've been slowly but steadily building up my shops on Instagram (@retroriot and @retroriotreads), especially focusing on networking. I really enjoy this work and can see myself doing something in this vein for a long time. I didn't expect that when I started, but I'm stoked to have that [possible] security doing something that is fun and profitable. I also spent a large chunk of the last week (first week of October, I'm late writing this up, as usual) volunteering, consigning, and shopping for kid's stuff at our local semi-annual MooLaLa event. Make sure you catch the next one the first weekend of April 2016 - the inventory is impressive and it's very affordable.
September on the Interwebs:
Two of my favorite people on the internet just got awesomer.
Is it bad, given the message, that I really want this to be an Instagram account?
This camera is kinda awesome, but cynical too. The ultimate hipster accessory.
Growing old with the same person you were young with must be the hardest and loveliest thing of all time. The suggested videos on the side look so sad that I can't even click on them.
Has your Pinterest gotten rotten all of a sudden? Here's why, plus a few ways to combat it.
I'm back in school, through October, currently studying Comparative Foreign Policy. It's one of the more difficult classes I've taken so far, but I'm gaining a lot of good insight from the other students, which I really appreciate. Jonas is in school as well, which can be challenging because he's away from home more often, but we got sucked in to the Netflix show Peaky Blinders and spent 12 hours (not all at once) watching it together. Highly recommended! Also, cooler [fall] weather makes cuddling nice. {see end of the post for details on this picture}
Fall also gives me the perfect excuse to crank out the comfort food dishes, and the best new recipes I've tried are thai butternut squash soup and chicken pot pie with tater tots (both super easy!). Here's a soundtrack for you to cook to, been loving this jam.
We had a small combined birthday party for Ishmael turning 3 and Ira turning 1, since September falls in the middle of their birthdays. In hindsight, I don't think it would be any harder to do their birthdays separately because it's not like we put on anything extravagant for the party and we end up doing the birthday routine at home with them on their actual separate birthdays anyway. Still, it was fun to get our family together and hang out at the Goleta Train Museum where they could run around with their cousins and ride the mini train there. We recommend it if you're in the area and have kids. Not many people know it's there, but it shares property with the venue where my sister got married this Summer (also worth walking around those grounds!) and it's free!
In other sons-of-mine news, Ishmael does the best impersonation of a fish I've ever seen (we have been unable to catch it on video thus far), loves to sing songs (and gets most of the words right!), and seems more and more a little/big boy than a toddler. He repeats plenty of things that through me for a loop, like "knock it off!", but also says adorable things like "shall we" do this or that. I've been challenging myself to put my finger on specific aspects of how "children are a blessing" (especially when I'm at the end of my rope with him) and one thing I love is to see his unbridled enthusiasm for Jesus and learning about the Bible, even though he doesn't have very much understanding of God that I know of. It seems so organic in him, which is both astonishing to me and treasured. He also recognizes the letter "S" and knows that it's associated with the words "stop!" (which he yells out every time we see a stop sign, scaring me half to death) and "snake".
Ira also loves to sing, and has started saying words! His first word was "bird", but he also says "ball, up, down, thank you". Though short lived, he also said "NO, NO, NO" a few times which we ignored (especially since it was out of context) and that seems to have solved the problem. Ira has had a lot of classic child behaviors that Ishmael didn't. Ira also loves to swing his arms while walking, and he can go up and down stairs on his own, though it still makes me nervous. He is a pretty fearless little guy, but thankfully seems to have good balance and recover quickly when he does take a tumble.
Lots of new pictures of the boys just posted to Facebook in the album called "The Sweetest Kill" (my albums are usually titled after whatever song I'm listening to when I'm uploading them, ha).
{September is the biggest month of the year for fashion!}
September really flew by! Jonas' car just about died, so we made a big leap of faith (as educated as possible) and used a lot of our savings to get a 2005 used van. Which has been a DISASTER. Mega sad face. Going on a month, we're still trying to work everything out with the seller and the continuous maintenance issues, but I'm trying to let it go, let it be a good learning experience, and remember that this will all be in the past eventually.
In happier news, Jonas' best man got engaged and the wedding is in Japan, so Jonas is going to be Chris' best man! I'm super excited for Jonas that he will get to go, but I don't get to go this trip which is bumming me out. I'm sending a big shopping list with him, obvs. Our friends Manny and Katya visited from Arizona and we so very much enjoyed their company. As a TCK, I never really expected any childhood (especially online high school!) friends to end up in my adult life (in fact, I was positive that they wouldn't!), but I couldn't be more thrilled. It still feels like such a surprising and surreal blessing.
I've been slowly but steadily building up my shops on Instagram (@retroriot and @retroriotreads), especially focusing on networking. I really enjoy this work and can see myself doing something in this vein for a long time. I didn't expect that when I started, but I'm stoked to have that [possible] security doing something that is fun and profitable. I also spent a large chunk of the last week (first week of October, I'm late writing this up, as usual) volunteering, consigning, and shopping for kid's stuff at our local semi-annual MooLaLa event. Make sure you catch the next one the first weekend of April 2016 - the inventory is impressive and it's very affordable.
September on the Interwebs:
Two of my favorite people on the internet just got awesomer.
Is it bad, given the message, that I really want this to be an Instagram account?
This camera is kinda awesome, but cynical too. The ultimate hipster accessory.
Growing old with the same person you were young with must be the hardest and loveliest thing of all time. The suggested videos on the side look so sad that I can't even click on them.
Has your Pinterest gotten rotten all of a sudden? Here's why, plus a few ways to combat it.
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