Sleepy Sunday 55/365

Sunday was a sleepy day, a day for relaxation and recovery.

Baby is an active sleeper.

She's laying across by mine and William's pillows.

She also likes to try to do the dog's hair.
 She's putting her crown on him in this picture.

Oh My O'Charley 54/365

Tonight we went to O'Charley's for dinner and I ordered a Cotton Candy Shirley Temple. It was magical.

I've seen this item on the menu before but never had the courage to try it. But tonight I was up for a food adventure and since it came with free refills I decided to go for it.

It's very simple and you could even make it home. It's cotton candy on top of Sierra Mist soda. When it comes the Cotton Candy is balancing on the top of the glass, then you push it into the soda and it instantly dissolves and fizzes into this lovely drink.

The drink was super fun and  I was totally happy with it.  It gave me such a sugar rush, and I think the waitress was mildly entertained by my eagerness for the drink.

It was so much fun I ordered 3 of them.

Oh dear, I need to go brush my teeth and work out now.

Correction

We are living at my Parent's Farm. My Dad is the one who cut down the trees to make way for cows. And I am increasingly greatful to both my Mom AND Dad for their generosity to us, and practically bribing us, as we make our transition back to the US.

Also, William does also spend a lot of time on his iPhone playing angry birds and other games I have no idea about.

Thank you Mom and Dad for always being there for us, supporting and taking care of us.

"So what does William do all day?" 53/365

William takes the tractor out to dig holes for fences

 People ask me all time about William and how he keeps busy all day.  When we decided we needed to move back to the US from China it was because it was the right thing to do for our family. William's job in China was taking him away from us (he was sent to northern China for 3 months, and even when he was finally allowed to come home we barely saw him) and I had some concerns about Baby Girl's health. So when we decided to move we did it for our family and our marriage, but we didn't have a job. Luckily, my mom has a farm that needed some work done.  She generously offered to let us move into her house and she said she'd hire William to help her out around the place.

So far he's built and put of fences, re-built part of the barn, dug out tree stumps, installed a stove vent, plastered and primered a wall, burnt dead trees and stumps that needed to be gotten ride of, and of course there's the daily maintenance of the goat pens, which usually involves shoveling goat poo.

Most of William's work is outside, but when it was really cold and snowing he worked on my mom's dinning room wall.  It needed to be stripped of old nasty wall paper, plastered, sanded and primered. Before he started with the plaster he built this really cool tent around the wall so that plaster dust wouldn't get all over the rest of the house.

I called it the "man cave". I was pretty impressed with it. It was great that he could do the whole wall, sanding and everything, and we didn't have to worry about the furniture getting nasty or our food tasting like plaster dust.

William wears protective gear while sanding

William working in the man cave

Now that the wall is done William is back outside. Last year Mom had a bunch of trees removed from the property to make room for cow pastures. There are still a lot of tree stumps that need to be removed so William gets to work with this cool machine and dig them out.

After he digs out the stumps he piles them up and burns them. He is trying to get a lot of that done before summer when it's not safe to burn.

Other jobs around the place include putting up new fences so the goats can have more places to wander around and eat this spring. Also, the goats' pens can get pretty filthy so William digs out the old hay and poop and keeps them happy and clean. There are also lots of odd jobs around the house. Pretty much when anything gets broken or burned out William is right there ready and willing to fix it and make it better. It is so wonderful to have such a handy man around.

As good as William is around the house and with the machinery, he's even better with a pen.  William's passion is as a writer, and more specifically as an editor. He loves making words come alive on a page. He loves taking a piece of writing and polishing it to make it shine, to help the author say what they want to say and inspire them as artists. I love watching William when he's editing. Even when he's tired he loves doing it.  I'm always amazed how he can take a confusing sentence and make it crystal clear and poignant while still staying true to the voice of the author. Maybe I should have him edit my blog once in a while.

Right after we moved from China a friend of ours, Shelly, had a book come out that she'd been working on while we were all together in China. It's called Under the Ash, you can buy it here, and William wrote the introduction for it. I think it's some of the best writing he's ever done. I'm also a huge fan of Shelly's and her poetry.

William also has an account on Elance.com and is looking for at home Editorial work.

So as you can see, William is very busy all day long putting his skills as a writer and editor to work as well as his handy man skills.

I'm very grateful to my mom for opening up her home to us and giving William a job so we could come back home to the US. It's so nice to actually see William every day and even have lunch with him. It's nice that we all sit down for dinner every night and laugh together. And it's so wonderful that Baby Girl no longer has her "shanghai cough".

Eventually we are going to have to find a different job and even get our own place, but for now it's nice to have a place to stay and be together. And Bonnie Rose really loves being around the animals and her Nana.

All my kids 52/365

six of our nine babies, plus my baby

Bonnie Rose loves to be outside. She asks to go outside almost as soon as she as she wakes up.  Now that all the goats are born, healthy and running around, she loves to be out with them.

All the kids love to climb on Nana. I'm not sure who is happier in this picture. The goat, the Baby, or my mom.  There's a lot of love in this goat pen.

Here she is telling her Daddy about her day with the goats. Aren't they so cute together!

Welcome Clover 51/365

Today the last of our five pregnant mother's had her baby. William went out to feed the goats and radioed in that our last pregnant goat was in labor. My mom ran out there as fast as she could but the baby was born before she even got outside. William was there for the delivery. In honor of March he named our new baby girl Clover.

You can see a picture of her on my mom's blog.

Today Baby Girl and I spent most of our day out in the goat pen.  She now thinks she's a baby goat.  She loves giving them hugs and kisses, and she really loves butting them with her head.

Bonnie Rose gives Charlie a hug

 She also loves to chase the babies around their yard and climb on anything they climb on. She pushes them off whatever they climb on so she can climb up on it. She's such a good little goat. And she smells like one too.

Bonnie Rose and her new favorite chair.

A Night With the Oscars 50/365

every party needs good food

 Sunday night was Oscars night.  I had been looking forward Oscars night for a very long time. Pretty much as soon as we decided we were going to move back to America I told William "and we can have an Oscars party!"

Obviously we could not watch the Oscars while we were in China, though two years ago I did spend two days downloading as many videos of Hugh Jackman (yummy yummy) hosting them as I could.

As with any time I plan a party we had way too much food, especially since it was just the three of us, plus baby, at the party.

Some of the dishes I picked because they represented nominated movies, and other dishes we just wanted because they were yummy.

Here's what we ate at our party.

Social Network Marinated Tomatoes and Olives.

 It's just three different kinds of olives, tomatoes and garlic with Balsamic Vinegar. It was very yummy.

The Kings Speech Cheese Ball

 Ok, this was something we just wanted to eat. But it's nutty and cheesy and you eat it with crackers so I thought it would do for The King's Speech. I originally wanted to make chocolate chip scones but that didn't end up working out. The cheese ball however was amazing! William did a really good job making it. It has onions, bbq sauce, pimento-stuffed green olives, and cured beef. It was all Gluten Free of course.

The Fighter Oyster Shooters

 This is something that William's family introduced me too and I totally love. We got the oyster sauce with extra horseradish so it had extra kick to it. Thus, The Fighter.

Black Swan Pavlova

This dish is the one I'm most pleased with. It was invented in 1926 in New Zealand. It was made for and named after the Russian Ballet dancer Ánna Pávlova.
It is simply heavenly. I think it's my new favorite dessert of all time.

127 Hours Mocha Cupcakes

Really, what's a party without cupcakes? I really wanted to make Oscar cupcakes with little Oscars on top of them. But there was a printer problem so instead I put flags of the Academy Award categories.  I added a shot of espresso to the chocolate cake batter,  which is why they are 127 Hour cupcakes. You know, if you have to stay awake for 127 hours you might need some espresso.

To drink we had:
The Kids Are Alright Cabernet Sauvignon

 I'm not sure if you drink this because you want to think the kids are alright or because they are actually all right. But it's my favorite wine so that's what we had.

 And finally,
Inception "Champagne" (really it was sparkling apple cider)

 Because Champagne is dreamy.

It wouldn't be an Oscars party without some glamor. So we all dressed up and took pictures in front of our "Banksy" wall.

Even baby had fun watching the show for awhile. She was even allowed to have a bit of cupcake, as you can see from the frosting still on her face.

 But then she went to much more entertaining things for her ... shapes and colors.

 Over all it was a very fun evening. Even William enjoyed the party. Maybe the wine had something to do with it, or maybe it was because we didn't have a large, or any, crowd.

 Baby got to have a sip of Nana's Champagne. (It was actually sparkling apple cider!)

 We had so much fun playing along too. Before the show started we each watched as many trailers as we could and my mom even read about each documentary and short.
We each made our predictions and kept a score sheet. It makes the whole show much more fun when you can follow along this way.

Over all, it was a great party and we all enjoyed the show. There were some great moments and some fun speeches and we all learned about movies we want to see now.

This was my most favorite speech of the night...Click Here.

We are looking forward to next year's show and already planning for next year's party. I think I'll make Chocolate Oscars next year.

It rained today 49/365

Mama's Little Princess 48/365

Christmas of 2002 I worked our local mall. I was 23 years old, Unmarried, had not yet met my husband, and was not thinking about having babies any time soon (though I knew I probably wanted them someday).

I was very much in love with the Disney Store and visited it weekly, if not daily. I've loved Disneyland ever since I can remember and the Disney store was just an extension of that to me. I loved popping in there and seeing the magical things they had to offer.

I also loved, and still do, all things Beauty and the Beast. In those days it was much easier to find merchandise with JUST Beauty and the Beast on it. I'm not a fan of the stuff with ALL the Disney Princesses on it that they have now.

Anyway, that was the year I bought my Belle sweater and wrapped it up for Christmas because no one would buy it for me. I also was very much in love with this baby Belle Dress. I visited it every few days and despaired as the number on the shelf dwindled. I really wanted it but at 40 dollars I just couldn't see why I needed it. Then one day it went on sale. There were three left and it was 50% off!

I bought it.

I carefully packed it away in my hope chest. I took it out a couple times to pine over. Once when I got married, right before we moved to China, and again right after we got pregnant. My mom still teases me about how nervous I was that I might not have a little girl I could dress up in it and then how I was nervous that my little girl wouldn't want to play dress up and wear it.

Well, there was no need for me to be so worried on either count. The other night I opened up my hope chest and showed the dress to my little girl. She was so excited about it that she insisted I take it out of the box right away. She LOVES dressing up and she loves being Mama's Pretty Baby Girl.

She also loves being Daddy's Pretty Princess. William is such an amazing Daddy. It makes my heart melt when I see him adjust Baby Girl's tiara and play dress up with her.

It also makes Baby pretty happy. Look how happy they are together!

After spending a great deal of time in front of the mirror, Baby Girl marched in circles around the house dragging the box the dress came in behind her. She was quite pleased with herself.

I'm so very happy that my Baby Girl likes playing dress up and I'm very much looking forward to years of dressing up together.

Now to plan for Halloween.