Be Careful What You Pray For

Prior to the Democratic National Convention, a certain conservative Focus on the Family man asked his fellow like-minded religious fanatics, to pray to God for rain to drown out Obama's acceptance speech. Talk about unchristian behavior.

Apparently they prayed so hard, that indeed God did send rain. So much rain that they gave it a name: Gustav. So much rain that it's currently rated a level 3 hurricane. Unfortunately it missed the window they wanted and the place they wanted and instead is going to land tomorrow, in Louisiana, smack at the beginning of the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. Now the Republicans are planning on postponing their convention a few days in lieu of what happened with Katrina. Would it be so bad to wonder what God thinks about the Republicans? He's listened to their prayers and decided to piss all over their convention. Hmmm. I think Alanis Morrisette would call this IRONIC.

The Mother of All Diaper Bags

The heavens opened up and the angels sang ahhhhhhhhh. This bag is aptly named the Mothership and it is made by Fleurville. When the ladies who threw my shower wanted to get me a diaper bag, this is the one that I chose. I just liked the pattern. "Oh a new purse", I thought. "It's a fun accessory." But when I saw it for the first time, I thought "Holy Crap, this thing is way too flippin' big, what the H-E-double toothpicks am I going to put in it?"

Well let me tell you. I am packing as we speak so Hadley and I can jump a few planes and head east to Connecticut to visit Nana and Grandpa. We are very excited, but this diaper bag has to hold everything I need on the plane including: diapers, wipes, formula, bottles, and enough food to last an entire day of traveling taking into account layovers and possible delays and cancellations; wallet, cell phone, ipod, and a magazine (I can dream right?); outfit, sweater, rattle, book, and toys to keep Hadley occupied on the plane. This bag is so full it is bursting at the seams.

It has also withstood leaky diapers, spit up, and a dog peeing on it. (Not mine.) The vinyl nature of the outer shell makes for easy cleanup. This thing is the tank of diaper bags. I give it an A+ for appearance and effort.

DJ Jazzy Mix It Up

Pump up the jams yo.

The Democratic National Convention in Denver

You won't often see religion or politics discussed on this blog, because I don't believe those topics and friends mix well together. But with this city on fire with a bunch of liberals running around, Hadley and I took the light rail downtown to meet DG for lunch so as not to miss out on all of the fun. As you can see from the picture, Hadley is giving the thumbs up.

With such a huge event, the crazies are sure to come out, and boy did we run into quite a few of them. Mostly a lot of protestors. In fact, there were so many protestors, protesting so many things, that I wonder if they are really getting their messages out. There were the "I was with Hillary and now I want McCain" protestors. I wanted to trip them. There was one group with t-shirts that said "911 was an inside job". There was one group of 6 protestors with a bull horn causing a hububaloo. I'm not sure what their issue was, but they made me realize that I could have gone down and garnered my own press, protesting...um...protestors. I also could have gotten more than 6 people together. Lame. There was a large group of anti-abortionists with awful pictures and a van with graphic pictures with a loud speaker. It was so aggressively horrendous and upsetting that I just wanted to starting cocking off to everyone I saw. Luckily I realized that perhaps that wasn't the best example to set for Hadley.

On the good side, there were a lot of stickers that said "Make Out Not War". And my favorite, Planned Parenthood passing out condoms in bright pink packaging that said "Protect Yourself from John McCain". For pictures of it all, check out DG's flickr.

Monsieur Moustachio

The only show we've watched this summer is Swingtown, and maybe it's because we've watched too much of it, but DG decided to grow out his stache. It's like a little mouse above his lip. Damn you CBS. Part creepy, part 70's porn, read: not sexy Selleck. But when he couldn't take it anymore and decided to shave it, I found myself lobbying for it's resurrection. My argument was just a bunch of whiny Noooooooooooooo's. But I wasn't ready for it to go yet. It was growing on me like a new chia pet.

Au revoir Monsieur Moustachio.

The Gene Pool

Every day I stare at her and try to see a glimpse of myself, something to show me that this perfect beautiful little girl, is the one who started off as an apple seed and grew inside of me. Something, anything to prove that indeed I am lucky enough to have been chosen to be her mom. Just a twinkle of a glimspe to show that we came from the same gene pool.

Here are 2 very fuzzy pictures of me at the age of 8 months which is exactly the age Hadley is right now.


If you are blind in your right eye, and squint really hard with your left, after having a few drinks, you may be able to come up with the same conclusion that I have. We definitely have the same hairline.

A Beautiful South Korean Wedding

My brother was recently married to his long-time girlfriend Yoon Mi in South Korea. Due to Hadley's hospital stay, lack of a passport or proper shots, my inability to leave her for more than 2 hours at a time, and the loss of income, we were unable to go. It is one of my biggest disappointments in life. Family is so important, and especially my love for my baby brother and his wife, it broke our hearts not being able to be there. That being said, my parents took the 14 hour flight and 23 hour travel time to go to Daegu, South Korea to be a part of the festivities.

On their wedding day, they had two ceremonies. The first was in front of 200+ guests. Some of the highlights included a runway, bubbles, and fog machine. Can I take this time to ask if you've ever seen a more picturesque bride? Yoon Mi is a vision of beauty. She is glowing like an angel.

I would also like to take this time to state that I am not going to use this space to make a joke about how my father looks like Yoon Mi's butler. It is so very hard for me, but I'm going to take the high ground.

Following the large ceremony, the immediate family went to a separate room to have a traditional korean ceremony. I never thought I would say this, but fuschia is a great color for my brother. I also LOVE the backdrop on the wall. I would like to order some wallpaper please for our office.

Here is a great family portrait of Yoon Mi with her parents, younger brother and younger sister. What a handsome family.

And finally, there was a part of the ceremony in which my parents had to toss the newlywed couple some dates and nuts representing how many children (boys and girls) they would have during their marriage. By the looks of it, you can see they caught everything thrown at them. You better get cracking you little rascals.


Should your curiosity get the better of you because I was not descriptive enough, feel free to ask any questions that you have about traditional South Korean Weddings and I will have my brother and Yoon Mi chime in with all of the answers.

Rate Me

I recently checked my gmail account and learned that I have been rated by blogged.com and am listed in their library. How exciting for me. David posted a few months ago about how he was rated as well. But here is the problem I am having, and maybe it has to do with watching the competitions in the olympics, but I'm slightly annoyed that he got a rating of a half point higher than me. What? I know, I know, I'm the funny one. I keep trying to tell him all the time that he's funny, just not as funny as me. Funnier looking maybe. Wah wah. But because I am being competitive, I'm wondering if you can take a minute and go rate my website. If all 5 of you go, maybe I'll catch up to his tech geeky 8.5 greatness.

Baby Hat Day

Every month or so, I pull out all of the clothes that I have either received as a gift or have been generously passed down to me by friends and family. It started off innocently when I tried this Berry Hat on Hadley to see if it fit.


Then I found a bunch more hats. Winter is coming soon right?


My Mom made her this one to match a snuggly. Mmmm, cuddle me it's warm.


Sup Yo! Oops, looks like we missed out on wearing this one.


Maybe she needs to grow a bigger brain for this one.


Ok, now I'm totally out of control. How many hats does one girl need?


And right about here we are...so done with hats. This was the "MMMom, these things are making my head itch" face."

Russian Sage

Is there anything to do with Russian Sage? I love the shrubs which are great for decorating xeriscaped areas. But they have grown HUGE. We planted two of them in our front patch and they are humming during the day full of bees. Bzzz bzzz says the bee. (I'm such a stay-at-home-mom!) I trimmed them up the other night so they didn't look so unruly and put some stems in a vase. Odorific and pretty. But what else can you make? Sage pillows for your eyes? Stinky saches for your panty drawers, anything?

2 Year Anniversary

Aunt Jinnie came over to baby sit so that David and I could get gussied up and go out to dinner in celebration of our TWO marital years together. Last year, we celebrated Paper, this year, Cotton.


David made reservations at an amazing restaurant where we have always wanted to eat, Highland's Garden. It's an old house in the middle of a great neighborhood that creates a lush and inviting setting with it's greenery. There was a special table set for us on the side porch, as seen above.


For the first course, we split the Pear, Sherried Walnuts and Saga Bleu Cheese Salad. This is 1/2 of the salad! So much food. All pictures were taken on David's iPhone, but apparently my hand was a titch shaky. It could have been because after 2 sips of my Colorado Riesling, I was a tres loopy.


For the first course, I had the Blackened Sea Bass on a sauté of shrimp, corn, okra, and tomato sauce. This was my second choice, as earlier in the day, when I had previewed the menu, I had chosen the Soy Glazed Tuna. Alas, they had already sold out of it.


David had the Mini Ribs with zucchini, onion, potatoes and feta.


For a sweet ending, we ordered the strawberry rhubarb crisp, and I had a French Sautern which is a lovely cool dessert wine that I highly recommend.

The box on the table above held my cotton gifts to David from our new favorite store Martin and Osa. Finally a clothing store that markets to me. We had a great time out together, getting to enjoy eachother's company.

Mommy and Me

A typical day in the life of a stay-at-home mom.

6:30am - Get up with H. so DG can go to work.
7:30am - Feed H. 1st bottle.
8:00am - Feed self 1st coffee, empty dishwasher, clean kitchen, make baby food.
8:30am - Feed H. 1st meal.
9:00am - Change diaper, go to office out of habit, check email, wonder what to do today.
9:10am - Plan to finish baby gift, organize office, do laundry, write past due thank you notes.
9:15am - H. is done playing by herself, wants in my lap.
9:30am - H. falls asleep in my lap. Tip toe upstairs to put her in crib.
9:35am - Madly rush back downstairs to do job search.
9:45am - Remember that I haven't eaten breakfast, run upstairs and grab food.
10:00am - Job search for two hours.
11:30am - H. wakes up, we play bouncy and peek-a-boo on bed.
11:45am - Go through all feeding again, bottle, me, solid food.
noon - Rinse, Repeat, and Go.

Notice there was no shower in that schedule, or blog post, or actual applying for a job, or getting anything done. Other than making H. happy which is really what I am all about these days.

Roller Boogie

Since I have known DG, he has regaled me with stories of his "glory days", having huge parties at his house where his band played, getting busted drinking beer under the bridge at age 14, and how he got his first pair of roller skates and proceeded to get some mad skillz and go to the rink all through his teens.

Since I did not peak until my early 20's, I only have memories of one roller skating experience that happened when I lived in Bangor, ME. I was probably in 6th grade and my best friend was being courted by the 'popular' girls. They were all going roller skating one night and I was invited by proxy. It was a dream night, as a popular boy from our class, BJ Raymond offered to buy me a coke. I just about peed myself in excitement. So innocent, yet dramatic enough for me to remember 24 years later.

While we were away this week-end at Snow Mountain Ranch, we all headed to the rec center to make a feeble attempt to recreate our past while donning skates, all the while trying not to take a digger and break any bones.

Here's DG lacing up:


70's Flashback:

Winter Park Week-End

Sunday morning, DG and I packed up the car, the dogs, and the baby and took an impromptu trip up into the Mountains to escape the record setting heat going on in Denver. (20+ days over 90 degrees with the last 3 being over 100) As we headed out on I-70, we watched the temperature begin to drop and a mere 90 minutes later, across Berthoud Pass we were sitting cooly behind the pool (see that picnic bench?) eating our packed lunch. We stayed at the Vintage Resort (a pet friendly lodge) in Winter Park which is the first lodge you see coming into town. This is the view from our window onto the pool and jacuzzi. Yeah, we were roughing it.

Winter Park is a cute little ski town, and incidentally, the place where Cynthia taught me to ski 13 years ago when we moved here. I still remember her screaming at me to snow plow as I was careening off into the trees at the top of the mountain. It took me 2 hours to get down the mountain my first time. But I digress, back to this trip.


After lunch, we took a little walk in the woods, until it started to rain. So *yawn* since we were relaxing and on vacation and all, we took a nap.


In the afternoon, we headed into Winter Park to DG's favorite coffee house, followed by a little nature stroll through some wetlands.

Later on that night, since we are frugally minded these days and our room had a kitchenette, we ate a dinner that I had packed for us of grilled chicken, green beans and roasted potatoes. DG's contribution was dessert. He brought Twizzlers...because we were ON vacation! After dinner, we headed down and took turns getting in the hot tub.


The next morning, we headed 12 miles out of Winter Park to Snow Mountain Ranch (SMR) to meet Cynthia and Jeff who had rented a 4 bedroom house and had invited us up for the night. SMR (elev. 8,750) is run by the YMCA and is 5,100 acres of fun with horseback riding, day camps, hiking, canoeing, archery, a pool, and rec center complete with roller skating! It is open in the winter too, where they have a Nordic Center for cross country skiing, trails for snow shoeing, an ice skating rink and a tubing hill. Who wants to come out for a family vacation?


Here is a view from the porch of our house. Not bad huh?


Unfortunately, what is so sad about this view is that Colorado is currently experiencing a devastating Mountain Pine Beetle problem. These bugs have destroyed 500,000 acres in the last year alone. The red trees are those that are dead. If you scroll back up, you can see the dead red trees in every picture.


First activity of they day: a quick little hike to a waterfall. Cynthia thought the map said it was .3 miles one way, however as it turns out it was 1.3 miles, but well worth the view. And then I got to eat extra Twizzlers because I am sure I shed extra calories carrying a 14 lb. little girl.


There was a certain other little boy who insisted on being carried as well.


We had lots of fun at the house eating good food, playing Uno on the deck, and heading out to go Roller Skating! Check back tomorrow of the video I uploaded to youtube.com of DG busting some moves on skates!