Antz Birthday Weekend Wrap Up

We have been on a sabbatical for the past four days. My lovely husband turned 38 and we celebrated and hiked the desert hills.

Don't worry folks, he doesn't have a mohawk, this photo was taken years ago

His old fridge in his office at work needed replacing so we bought him a bigger version for keeping his favorite drinks *Diet peach Snapple* cold.

I love his butt birthday card *I'm butt #3*

We had a delish home cooked birthday feast.

Thank God for air conditioning since it was super hot. My Mom, Liv and I got in the hot tub which even though it was 80 degrees, felt great. Liv is learning how to blow bubbles in the water now. So that's as close to a pool as I got.

All my outdoor fun plans *beach, picnic at the Silverlake meadow* went out the window when it was close to 100 degrees. Antz was stationed under the air conditioning vents. We managed to take Liv to the movies. I had to snap this photo of the adorable little Mike Wazowski *don't worry, I was sitting in the last row and turned my brightness all the way down, nothing irritates me more than when someone is on their bright phone during a movie*

I noticed by the thousands of photos of this exact same image on Instagram, I'm not the only one who had this idea. Monsters University was really good, I highly recommend it. I also bought The Great & Powerful Oz on DVD for Liv. We took her to see it at the movies and even though I was concerned it would be too scary for her, she LOVED it. Antz even made her a paper version of Glinda's crown and wand *after she begged us to buy her one everyday*

*I'm not even joking, she wears her Cinderella dress and glass slippers all day, every day!*

Antz and I saw World War Z last week and it was entertaining. There are parts, particularly the ending that will disappoint, but anything with Brad Pitt keeps my attention *I like his greybeard stoner face*

I was hoping to have a BBQ for the 4th of July but now we don't think it's gonna happen. We took our cat Lola to the vet and she had an unexplainable accident that ended up with her getting stitches on her leg. Now she is on two medications that we have to give her 4 times a day. If you have ever given meds to a cat orally, you'll know how miserable we all are. Seeing her limp around the house is sadders but we have to keep her inside until she heals so she cries to go out all the time. It sucks, my poor Lola in her cone of shame.

I haven't been so happy happy either, I have been working on Liv's 3rd scrapbook on Shutterfly. Her first 2 books were a breeze to make but for some weird reason when I used the editing tools on Firefox *which is my preferred browser* it kept crashing. So I open it in Safari, it works but I can't upload photos from my Instagram account, d'oh! So let's just say, I am having a hard time finishing it. Then I have 550 photos to edit and of course I want to use every single one of them but the book has only 45 pages and I'm trying to condense. You guys know how I'm all about quantity and not so consistent with quality!

Well, since I'm on nurse duty this week, I may not be able to blog often. Just know I'm here, thinking of completing my Summer Bucket List.

1. As always, Beach days!!
2. Last year we didn't make it to a concert at the Hollywood bowl, so I'm super stoked to see Björk at the Bowl June 11th!! *Björk was AMAZING!!*
   
3. Attend Liv's school Summer Masquerade Serenade *We had a wonderful time*
   
   
   
4. Grill this!!     

Rosemary and beef kebabs

    5.  Have a family BBQ *Possibly Maybe soon?*
    6.  Braid my hair *Done.

Before


After, Very Fancy!

        7. Go to Disneyland *for Liv's 3rd Birthday*

         8.  Have dinner at Knotts Berry Farm.  *I love their biscuits with Knott's jam*
         9.  Attend Tom & Jess's beach wedding in July.

        10. Attend the Renegade Craft Fair *one of my favorite summer events*
        11. Have a friends BBQ *and make a signature cocktail*
        12. Cook at least 5 recipes from my Pinterest board *and use my new crock pot*
        13. Take Olivia to see Monster's University
        14. Stage an intervention for Amanduh Bynes *we're all concerned*
        15. Buy this adorable sun hat for me, a Mexican dress for Olivia and Antz could use
              new sunglasses too!

Kate Spade Hello Sunshine raffia sun hat *it's sold out at Nordstrom :(

      16.  Go bike riding on the Strand

      Bonus: Swim/tan as often as possible!!

A love letter

Dear Antzy,

Thank you, loving husband for all that you do. You are taking the next 3 days off of work...to work in our kitchen. You send me and the bebe to my Mom's house to have fun while you do all the dirty work that would cause us to sneeze and have itchy, red eyes. You listen to me go on endlessly about all my desires and you sweetly reassure me. You are the string attached to my balloon of ideas that keeps me grounded when I become overwhelmed with color selections, budget and light fixtures. You make possible what I think is impossible.

You are patient, kind and good.

You are one in a million and we love you so much.

We miss you!

Love,
Your Girls

E & O


P.S. I really like these knobs and pulls for the kitchen cabinets.

Solitude in Pomme du Desert

We are in Apple Valley visiting my Mom for a few days. I wasn't going to blog tonight simply because I haven't done anything interesting besides eat pizza and sit in front of my Mom's fireplace wishing how much I would like a "functioning" wood burning fireplace of my own *that won't burn my house down*. Dream the impossible dream, right?

The fire smells fantastic, I can sit here all day

Seriously, something about being here turns me into a ball of lazy mush *so what's different from when you're a ball of lazy mush at home?*. It's so peaceful here. Eerily quiet. Oddly, as tired as I am, I can never fall asleep at night here. At home we have a lullebye of my asshole neighbors drunkenly fighting one another, random Rancho music played at illegal decibels late into the night and police sirens and helicopters that sound like we live in downtown Syria. LA is crazy noisy, so when I'm up here in mountain country, the only sounds I hear is a fucking owl in a bush hooting. I'm really mad that I've never seen the owl because it's pitch dark out here and I'm positive it would be the cutest owl ever. There's shit out here that you would never see in the city, like alpacas, they are everywhere and stars! Did you know there is more than 5 stars in the sky?! If I went outside right now I could see our entire galaxy with my bare eyes! When you drive *on the dirt roads* folks actually smile and wave at you passing by. The first time this happened to me I was too afraid to wave back and I quickly rolled up my window because I was sure it was one of those gang initiation things. Another phenomenon that only happens in the valley of apples is the food service workers are not only friendly and  competent, but they actually act like they give a shit about the food they serve you. At first I thought it was a fluke since we were at In & out and we all know they only hire happy, smiley, Christian-virgins there, but every time we've gone to a drive thru the experience has been pleasant and I don't have to return because they've messed up my order. They also ride horses in the drive thru. No, for real! Anyway, all these things combined plus Happy Hour - half price on all drinks and they have the most wonderful blue coconut slushies, at a legendary place called Sonic *which weirdly we see commercials for all the time in Los Angeles but there are none within city limits* makes for a splendid time in the desert. It's cold and windy but the air is clean and crisp in a good kind of way. There is never an agenda or a need to rush out here. I don't wear make up, spend all day in my pajamas and we spend our evenings playing Yahtzee!

My Mom pretty much lives on Tatooine

Tonight we spent the evening watching slideshows of all 19 thousand of my photos on my computer and after everyone went to bed at 7:30, I watched Liv's birth videos. Oye! Can I be the first to say that seeing a human slide out of your body reminds me of Aliens *don't click this*. It's creepy for everyone involved but since its the magical moment your child is born, you brush it off like when you sneeze and fart at the same time. Disclaimer; Olivia is the most gorgeous child on the face of this planet *sorry all other kids* but during her first seconds she was terribly slimy and gray. It took about 4 minutes for her to become cute. I had 2% baby experience prior to Liv's birth and that was seeing my nephew's birth *in which I cried tears of joy like someone punched me in the boob but I was also mortified by the grossness of birth* I have a video of my placenta coming out, did I just ruin food for you? Although I am so happy I have a document of our daughter's birth. One, I can show it to her anytime she sasses me as a teenager and two, I fucking did that shit! Me!! I pushed that 8.59 pound child out of my body like a BOSS! The night before my water broke, I was terrified of her birth. I couldn't stop thinking of the sheer physics of it. I was sure I would break in half or pass out from my wimpyness of pain. On paper, I planned a "natural" drug-free birth and I practiced my breathing while bouncing on my birthball every day but the second that Pitocin kicked in, I was like "Oh, Mr. Anesthesiologist!" I salute the women who can not only do it drug-free but more than once! I only had about an hour and a half of active pushing with 3 doses of my epidural so when I gave birth, I was ready for the President to come in the room and hand me my Medal of Honor. The photos I have are just hilarious. If my laptop were ever stolen the thieves would bust a gut at the faces I am making while I'm barfing into a hospital vomit bag.

This was taken Pre-meds!

Oh man, I'm cracking myself up at midnight in a big, quiet house and I'm the only one up waiting for my owl buddy to start hooting. #Insomniasucks

Pre-Thanksgiving in Apple Valley

We have an annual tradition of spending the weekend before Thanksgiving at my Mom's house in the desert. We cook up a non-traditional feast of crab legs, shrimp, lobster tails, filet mignon and spinach & feta cheese stuffed salmon. Sadly, I didn't get any shots of the fantastic food but let me assure you, it was yummers. It was such a laid back weekend. We just hung out by the fire, took a nature walk with Liv and the dogs and played around in my Mom's music room *Antz on the bass, my Mom on drums and me and Liv on the piano*. I spent hours trying to set up my Mom's new streaming player so she can watch instant Netflix and turns out all I had to do was enter her wi-fi password in caps. DUH!! Now she can access Youtube and Netflix on her TV but I had to make her a cheat sheet so she remembers how to do it.

It was stormy and cold in LA but we had pretty nice weather

This is just a fraction of my Mom's gold & platinum albums

Sunsets are the best

I have a busy week ahead doing two of my favorite things, eating & shopping! We're going to family and friend's houses. I've got my Black Friday shopping list started but I'm disappointed that Anthropologie hasn't launched the kid's clothes yet, Boo!

My Game Plan
Target - Vacuum cleaner, sheets, a dress, socks and a Wii game for Liv
Bed, Bath & Beyond - Heated mattress pad, new pillows, a crock pot, and a comforter

I want all the Confetti system holiday ornaments so bad!!

West Elm - Duvet and sheet set, a Smeg Refrigerator *sike, don't I wish*
Home Depot - Propane Grill *our 7 year old grill died* we'll take a look at patio furniture too
Anthropologie - Clothes for Liv, maybe this tablecloth
Gap/BabyGap - Pajamas, clothes for this year's Holiday card
Etsy - Christmas gifts and maybe this fabulous scarf for Mommy *hint, hint Santa Antz*

I'm doing all my shopping online in my jammies. Anyone brave enough to tackle the stores? I hear people are already in line at Best Buy *insane!*

Career Day

Remember those? I loved bringing my Mom to my school to show off her percussion skills to my class. Yesterday she went to her friend's school for career day and blew some high school kid's minds. The school is a performing arts charter *like FAME* so having my Mom playing for them was a pretty big deal. I couldn't help but feel proud of my kick ass Mommy, she rocks!! Liv and I drove to Apple Valley for a few hours and headed back home just missing rush hour traffic.

Playing with the Jazz ensemble

Talking to the class about how she started with Motown and kept ahead of her game as a woman drummer.

This kid flipped out and asked for her autograph while I played paparazzi

New drummer in training

Playing "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5, these guitar students were incredible

GOOD NEWS!!! I found a short clip of the performance on the Flip *which has been wonky but I hope is fixed now*

Love you Mom, you are an inspiration!!

Hither & Thither

I love visiting my Mommy in the dessert *I know that's a typo but we just had blueberry crumb cake for dessert, so I'm leaving it*. The weather is perfect, we are blissfully full from the amazing meal I cooked and Liv and her Grammy are having a late night jam session. We ended the evening with a sunset stroll and caught a meteor shower, which was amazing since we can't see anything in the sky at our house. Oh yeah, my camera had a seizure.

Hanging in the jacuzzi

Food, glorious food!

For some reason my culinary skills intensify when I'm at my Mom's

My Mom rocking her Mrs. Roper muu-muu. I think I need to get one!

Pretty stellar landscape, her land just goes for miles

Hi Blue!

Liv kept calling for my Mom's doggies, "Come 'ere Kody, and bwue!"

Epic sunset on the desert

Liv's first didgeridoo lesson

My Mom can play for like 45 minutes straight, she uses a technique called circular breathing.

Olivia is in music heaven here, she has played didgeridoo, piano, congas, xylophone and guitar

The solar lights in my Mom's backyard look pretty sci-fi, don't they?

I stood perfectly still and held my breath when I took this shot. I was using the night setting and I turned the ISO way down, sigh. My camera has done a lot of hard drugs since the infamous fall. Our Nikon is the new Lindsay Lohan *please don't sue me*

City Lights dancing