::nifties::

So I don't know if everybody feels this way but to me, growing up, my grandparents houses were pretty magical places. Like my grandparents in LA had a pool, which was awesome. And that gumball machine I mentioned earlier. And a cookie jar that was always full. And special cereal just for us to eat in the morning. And an orange grove in the yard! It was all pretty special and exciting.

I didn't get a chance to spend too much time at my mom's parents house, but I remember cool things there too, like my grandad's woodshop, and their cool decorations. Their fuzzy wallpaper in the entry hall was so interesting, and I remember them having a closet full of kid's books, although my mom claims that never existed. I also read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory there for the first time. Good associations.

Grandparent's houses are cool places no matter what. They're just fun. But my mom has gone to a lot of trouble to find a bunch of cool exciting things to make her house a super magical grandmother house. Such as this awesome chinese checkers set with big gorgeous marbles.

My mom and max played with this a whole bunch. Max loved it.
And I have to show you a color picture of this set, it's too cool!

Another thing, one that Max is completely in love with now, is this cup.

There's a puppy in it. He's hidden if you're drinking milk, and slowly shows his face as the milk is slurped up. Or he just sticks his head out of the water the whole time you're drinking it. "Dog water!" Max says in delight.

He's been drinking and drinking out of it which is so cute.

The last thing I'll show you now (though there are lots more fun toys and such) is this cool marble tower thing. You put marbles up at the top and give the first one a push.

Then as the first marble goes down the little track it gets dumped into buckets which dump it down to the next level. Kind of hard to explain. But the 2nd marble waits somehow until the 1st is far enough down. It's really cool. The little marbles are very civilized and take turns!

Max calls it a marble party. It's really a neat thing.

I think Max is going to have very special memories of his grandparents' houses out here in Utah. He already has particular things he loves and remembers about each house. It's really fun for me to see.  He's a lucky boy.

::randle family dinner part 1::

My dad's side of the family has been getting together for sunday dinner once a month for a while now. Since I knew I'd be in town over a sunday I asked if they could move the Feb dinner to this last weekend so I could come. And they did!

It was at my Aunt Gigi's house. Her family has lived in UT for quite a while, and I hadn't yet had the chance to see their new house. Visits are always so busy. So it was fun to get to go and see the house, and my aunt uncle and cousins.

Gigi.

Cute cousins Alexis and Sydney.

Maggie the dog.

Gigi & Jim's house is fun because there's all sorts of stuff in there that reminds me of my dad's parents. Like their gumball machine. There was a gumball machine at Grandma's house in LA for as long as I can remember. They had a swimming pool, and my dad would bribe us with gumballs if we could do jumps and swimming. The ultimate prize was an ice cream cone covered in gumballs. That was only if we dove off the diving board. I don't think I ever got one.

Gigi's gumball machine is brass, grandmas was red. Different, but as max would say, still very "similar." And very nostalgic to me. So much so that I had to chew a few gumballs. They made my mouth fuzzy.

Dinner was yummy. But the company was the best part.

(my mom and dad--mom doesn't like this photo because she's eating. But I like it!)

(my brother, his wife and baby)

(my cute sister)

(aunt les and cousin clay)
Aunt Leslie made delicious and killer rich cake balls. Not only were they delicious, but they were very aesthetically pleasing too.

It was fun for me just to go around and take pictures of everybody. I can't help it, it's just what I do. And here's my favorite of the evening. It's just so Clay.

A little more of this fun stuff later.

::where we are::

So Max and I are "out of town." As some of you might guess we're in Utah visiting family!
Being here is so nice. Two regrets though. Number one and biggest is that Kris is still at home working. Boo. We miss him! But he's coming to meet us soon, so we're just trying to hold out until he gets here.
Number two is that I know I won't be able to see everybody I want to out here. So sorry in advance friends if I don't make it to you. There's just never enough time. It stinks!

So we've been doing some of this:

(this is Max's best friend Robbie the robot. He lives at the Hendricks and vacuums the floors when Max isn't around)

we've been enjoying similar tastes:

(Max's guitar shirt, Grandpa Ken's guitar shirt. They think they're pretty cool.)

Hanging out with some of these:





(Charlotte always seems to put herself and her chin/nose/face in compromising positions with little boys in her lap. Here she is getting bonked in the chin by mr. Scooter. I have some pictures of her getting accidentally punched in the nose by Max last summer when he was in her lap. I wonder if she'll ever learn?)

We've spent some time with some fuzzy things such as this:

and this:


We're eating yummy food and having a super time. More details to come hopefully so we can keep Kris posted until he can make it out here to join us.
After he comes he and I will be taking a road trip to Northern CA and down the coast to scout out possible moving places for when we get done in RI. We've gotta be educated on all our options. Max is staying here with all the grandparents. It should be fun.

(can you see Skye singing in the background of this photo?)

Max On Call

(This is a favor for Ginna since she's out of town and can't post tonight)
I'm on call right now. It usually isn't too bad, but it can be sucky. Of course, Max is on call too. He often takes my pager and I'll find it clipped on his pants, in his bed or somewhere else in his room. Since I actually have to hear the pager and answer when it rings I can't let him play with it when I'm on call, which really bums Max out. Fortunately, he found an old travel alarm clock that belongs to Ginna and started pretending that it was his pager. It fits in his coat pocket and has a big display with the time on it similar to the display on my real pager. It even lights up in the dark, which he loves.

Saturday was Ginna's birthday and I wanted to take her shopping at the mall. The pager had been ringing like crazy all morning. I figured that meant it was less likely to ring and we'd be alright shopping.
Great foreshadow right? As soon as we got to the mall my pager rang. I wasn't very happy about it. Especially because I had to go to the hospital right away for a (pointless in my opinion) consultation. I told Ginna to hurry and try a few things on then we'd leave for the hospital. While Ginna was in the dressing room, Max and I sat along the wall and played games on the cell phone.
Suddenly, something started beeping. It sounded like a pager, but it wasn't mine. Max heard it, turned to me and said "not again!" I couldn't tell what was happening. Something that sounded like a pager was ringing right near us, but it wasn't my pager. It had to be Max. I started digging in his pockets and found his "pager" ringing. His eyes lit up so big. "It's MY PAGER!"
Max then proceeded to take the cell phone and pretend call the hospital. He is crazy. I guess the alarm was set for that time in the afternoon, but we had no idea. What's better than pretending something and then having it come to life?

Anyway, Max is often on call. He has a plastic gorilla mouth that uses playdoh teeth. He frequently gets call to fix gorilla teeth. He even has a plastic instrument kit to use. I'm sure Ginna posted some pictures of it previously. Maybe she'll find them and link them.
And thanks to my mom, who made Max some scrubs to wear when he is on call, because he looked really goofy in my scrub shirts.

::on a wintry day::

On a cold wintry snowy blustery day like today we need something filling, yummy and comforting for dinner.
Like this:

Grilled cheese sandwiches (made as healthy as possible by using wheat bread--my dad's recipe--shredded light cheese and just a touch of butter spread)
and this:

Tomato and roasted red pepper soup (trader joe's). Mmmmm, this stuff is seriously scrumptious. And good for you. It's my alltime favorite soup (behind my mom's broccoli soup).
We like to dip our sandwiches in the soup and feel our bellies with warm deliciousness. I think right now this is one of my favorite meals. Uncomplicated and delicous.
I'm glad we live in this day and age when we're not limited to only eating foods that are in season right where we live. I know it's best to eat what's in season, but I'm sure glad that somebody in California can grow some delicious (pink) oranges and send them out east here for me to eat because I love them!

Max kept me company in the kitchen while I got stuff ready. The way he deals with the fact that I don't let him play video games all day is by reading the little books that come along in the cases. Then he asks me all sorts of strange questions about what they say and why. Anyway that's what he's doing here.

Anybody out there in blogland have a favorite winter dinner?

::he's crazy::

I have proof:

::my b-day::

OLD NEWS!: This is one of the old posts I'm putting up, and cheating and sticking it back where it goes chronologically.

My birthday was great!
Max and Kris worked hard on a yummy cake.




These days in RI it gets dark SO early. Like at four o clock. It's kind of crazy.
Anyway, it was a nice night. Max helped me with my presents of course.

He helped dad wrap them up, and he helped me unwrap them.

Kris got me some books I really wanted, including this one:

It's great.
And Max picked out a special shirt just for me from Target--green, with an attached stripey scarf. He was really excited when I wore it. Kris said he was very specific about what he wanted when they were shopping. I think that's so cute.

I'm a dork I know.


And of course, we ended it all with the delicious cake and ice cream. Complete with candle wax. Yum.

::birthday request::

So today is my birthday, and so far I'm having a great time. Kris and Max are taking very good care of me, and we're about to head out to lunch and some shopping. What could be better?

But there's something else I want for my birthday, and here's what it is.
If you visit our blog, will you leave a comment and say hi? Especially if you come and read it often? I'd love to know who you are and how you found us.

And all my friends and family that I already know read this can say hi too, that wouldn't hurt my feelings!

And in return I'll take some photos of the festivities, including Max frosting the cake and I'll post them later.
Sound like a good deal?

Oh, and thanks mom for giving birth to me! Now that I have a kid I think birthdays should almost be more for the MOM than the kid!!

And happy end of January, yay!

::25 things::

There's this silly facebook thing that's been rolling around. You're supposed to come up with 25 things about yourself, and then tag other people to do the same. I tried to resist. For quite a while. But finally I gave in. And I thought that since I took the time to think up all this stuff I might as well put it right here!

Enjoy or ignore, it's up to you. And consider yourself tagged if you want to do it too!


1. I get a lot of headaches these days. This is not a good thing about me, it's just a thing about me.

2. I hate American Idol, but I watch it because it's entertaining and it's a cultural phenomenon (or something) but I have a hard time watching it, and almost always disagree with the judges.

3. I'm finding as I get older that I like to cook but I hate to clean.

4. My new favorite food is Cara Cara Oranges. They're pink, not orange. They're delicious.

5. I met my husband in high school at band camp.

6. I hate being too hot and I hate being too cold. I don't know which I like less.

7. When Kris and I were doing study abroad in Austria I learned a ton of German. I could understand almost anything people said, but was still pretty uncomfortable speaking to people in German. People would ask me a question in german and I'd answer in english. It flustered people. It flustered me too.

8. My good friend and I drove over 6 hours to go to IKEA last year. And then when we got there we shopped for eight hours.

9. I've been in three car accidents in the last three years. None of them were my fault and all of them involved our Land Rovers. Sad!

10. I really dislike white cars, and two of the four cars we've bought since we were married ended up being white.

11. I don't like to drive. Could that have something to do with my accidents? Hmmm.

12. I haven't played my saxophone in way too long.

13. We've moved twice in the last two years. It's looking like we'll probably move two more times in the next two years. Yuck.

14. I have really enjoyed blogging in the last couple of years. It's a place for my photos and I feel so much more connected to my friends and family that are far away. I love it and I miss it when I don't do it.

15. I'm glad I have my MBA but I probably wouldn't choose to do it again if we were back at the start. It was just way too stressful.

16. I love Max. I really miss him when he was a little baby, but what can you do? They can't stay teeny forever.

17. I love the beach so much. If I could live by the beach for the rest of my life it would make me happy!

18. It's been proven through experience that I'm allergic to some dogs, all cats, horses, birds, rabbits and cows. I'm guessing I'm allergic to pretty much anything and everything else that moves and is fuzzy or feathery.

19. I loved the VW vans we had growing up. I wish there was a safer newer version out now. It would be the perfect family car.

20. I wish I knew how to surf.

21. I've been serving in one or another position in primary for the last 5 years. I'm guessing I'll be there for a while longer.

22. I love to take pictures. Sometimes I'm too busy taking pictures to enjoy whatever it is we're doing.

23. I've found in the last few years that I love going to kickboxing class at the gym. Well, I love doing it, not so much the going to it part. And I really love the part after I'm done.

24. I love to bake. I could make cookies, cupcakes and cakes all day long, and I could eat them all day long too. So even though I think I'm pretty good at it, I try not to do it very often.

25. I love going on road trips. Even when they're going to be long and crummy I can't help but feel excited about them.

and the extra: My youngest brother is 10 years younger than me. I dragged him around everywhere and took care of him a lot. I loved it. Max reminds me of him a bit, and when they're together I always always mix them up and call them the wrong name.

Well there we go. Phew, I did it!