Our Anniversary Traditions

Ever heard the saying that everyone is born knowing all the lyrics to the Beatles instinctively? Like, as humans those lyrics are just automatically passed down through the fetus along with all the amniotic stuff.

This is one of two facts I know for sure.

The second fact I know for sure is that one of the best things about being a flight attendant (presumably) is that you can fart whenever you want and the purring of the engine will drown out the purring of your ass. However, this is way off point.

Not that I really had a point.

Anyway...

The last few days have been spent in my new back yard listening to Paul McCartney with my little girl (and she somehow knows all the words) as she plays with her My Little Ponies while I pull weeds, sip on tea, and plan out this Summer's garden. We've grilled out every night, thrown the bocce balls around, our doggie has been lounging in the sun and we've started to bust out the sun block.
It has been one of the most relaxing weeks ever.

Jason and I had our 3rd wedding anniversary and it has finally been enough years to be able to appreciate our little yearly customs.
On our 1st anniversary, everything was still so new and although it was exciting to plan out what we wanted to do every year as our official traditions, we really had no idea how fun it would be in the future as we celebrated each additional year of not killing each other.

It's an equation really:
one more year down + zero murders = champagne toast

Choosing our anniversary traditions was a really big deal to us. We wanted to pick things to do every year that would be fun and revitalizing for our marriage and I think we've got a great list. The best, to be exact.

We have our fancy million dollar champagne flutes which we splurged on for the wedding and we get them down once a year from their velvet box and fill them up with cheap champagne.

They have our names and wedding date etched in the glass cups which beautifully sit on alabaster stone and Australian crystal studded stems. They're absolutely gorgeous and I'm really happy we made the choice to include them in our annual celebration. We don't make a big speech or anything, mainly we sit on the porch and shoot the shit and get buzzed off of Andre's Brut $4.99 special. 

We also run by our local bakery and pick up some sort of  pie (or cheesecake or whatever) and we use our matching cutlery to cut the cake. We bought them as a set with the flutes, and trust me that once you're in one or two glasses of bubbly, a piece of cake sounds pretty damn good.  

Our particular flute and utensil set are the Park Avenue line from Things Remebered. Totally worth the money if you're careful with them. I actually shattered one of the glasses last week when I was washing them and forking out the money for an emergency expedited replacement wasn't so fun. 

So, you know, try to not do that. 

Once I'm all liquored up, I spend some time going through my wedding boxes while we watch the DVD of our wedding and our Honeymoon.

Now, lets talk about the clothing. 

Ladies: the dress and veil and shoes and hair and everything else that went along with that magic day was probably one of the most beautiful occasions of your adult life. 

You've heard my wedding dress story, but my veil was something I picked out and fell madly in love with. It's a cream lace embedded with crushed Swarovky crystals and it was pretty much love at first site. I found her at a little boutique in Laguna Beach and knew from the moment we met that she was meant to be mine. 

There was absolutely no way in hell that I was going to wear this veil once and be done with it. 

When Jason and I got engaged in upstate New York, we were visiting his parents and that was the same trip I learned that his mother gets her veil down every year and wears it around on their anniversary.  This was seriously one of the most brilliant things I had ever heard in my entire life. 

So no matter what we're doing that day, for instance if I happen to be chilling out on a tree swing high up in the Rocky Mountains, I wear my veil. If I'm going to the grocery store, I wear my veil. If we're going out to dinner, I wear my veil. You get the idea. 

My bridesmaids and I all had matching black hoodies for the reception. Theirs said "Bridesmaids" and mine obviously said "Bride" and I rock that around town also. 

This year's anniversary, we bummed around our new house. I folded laundry in my jeans and house slippers, and I wore my veil the whole day.  I saved my white "Bride" tank top which I wore when I was getting my makeup and hair done the morning of my wedding. If it's warm enough, I'll throw it on. This is the first year I've been able to wear the tank strictly because April in Southern California is drastically different from April in Northern Colorado.

(You can feel my excitement, yeah?)

Our final tradition and one I'm the most fond of is our annual anniversary photo:

Every year, we take a photo holding the photo from the year prior. 

Eventually the original will be too tiny to see...

This year, our 4-year-old daughter took the picture with my cell phone so it's super blurry and crooked which is possibly why I love it the best!

So whatever you choose to make your traditions, make them outstanding ones. You'll be doing them for a loooong time! Don't be boring, have fun, and cheers to a long and happy marriage!

50 Shades Of Pewter Mug

Well, it's 4AM and with the majority of things starting to settle down in my life, apparently my brain isn't one of them because I'm wide awake writing to all of you.

A new house and a new job are starting to feel more like home and less like I'm painfully out of my element.

Finally.

I'm getting to know and genuinely like my co-workers which is a welcomed change from having so much time off to sit around and worry about whether or not I was going to ever get to that level of comfort again.

The house is coming along.
We're still painting.
In the beginning, I was so excited to roll out that very first stroke on the wall but by the time the first room was finished I can assure you I was over it. Going from a grey to a light tan takes multiple coats even with primer included in the paint and the novelty of it wears off by the end of the first trim taping.

This Pewter Mug color was on every wall in the house.
Like, every wall.
While I can appreciate grey as much as the next guy, this much of it can certainly sour a mood.

It was like looking at Eeyore's ass everywhere I turned.

I've had enough.

My entire life I've gone with blacks, whites and greys. My couches were black leather, my picture frames were noirs and silvers, my side tables were slates. I'm ready to branch out a bit and add some color to my repertoire. Had I gotten a hold of this house 10 years ago, I would have loved the cloudy day fog / morgue look. However today, especially because we're buying this house in the dawn of spring time, I need a little light in my life!

You can see how the dark paint sucked out all of our natural light and made the ceilings feel low. This living room is such a great open space but it just felt so much like a cave. I spent time looking around on multiple websites and I found many homes where they could make this color work, but for us it just wasn't going to. 

We didn't buy a monstrosity of a home. We bought a quaint, 3 bedroom house with the perfect amount of space for our little family, and it seemed like the houses that could pull this color off had giant vaulted ceilings and picture windows as tall as magic beanstalks. Either that or they used it in a more appropriate room such as a bathroom or bedroom, which we ended up doing in the long run as well. 

You remember a couple weeks back when I posted this picture prior to our furniture arriving and our coffee cups being unpacked. We were still in patio furniture and camping cooler mode.

The carpal tunnel loving process has been seemingly endless and has caused the casualties of multiple cases of beer. So many outlets to unscrew, so much trim to tape off, so many trays to trip over, spills to wipe up, ladders to constantly relocate... 

However in the end, I'm beyond satisfied with the outcome. Once the walls were dry, the furniture was delivered, and the Venitian blinds were put back up, it started to look much more like what I had in my head. 

Obviously, the place could use a bit of personality, maybe an area rug, some art, photos, that sort of thing. But you get the idea. For now all we have is an early morning 4-year-old who refuses to look at the camera. 

There is a very distinct line where we stopped at the kitchen wall. That's a project to be tackled later in the Spring or maybe even early Summer when we decide on colors and counter tops.

Project after project is slowly approaching and we're tackling them as financially steady as we can. One down, one million more to go!

Sold!

So we finally did it. 

All the financial struggles, the saving, the searching, the excitement, the disappointment...

It all finally came to a fantastic conclusion. 

We found our house. 

And we spent 10 million years signing paperwork. 

My realtor, Mary, said in all the years she's been doing this as her job, she's never ever had clients bring champagne to a closing. This truly boggles my mind. I mean, who doesn't bring champagne to a closing? It's our first house! This is a big deal! This is cause for celebration and not at all a true sign that we're total alcoholics and any accuse to day drink would be fine with us!

I will give a few words of advice now that we've gone through it and lived to tell the tale:

1: Try to not let the stress get too bad, chill out, and really enjoy this day. Bring champagne, relax, laugh and high five each other when you finish the last signature. 

2: Take a million pictures.

3: Make sure to ask your realtor to bring a "sold" sign when you do your final walkthrough the day of closing. There are 3 days that will go down in my personal history as monumental game changers and they are the day I married Jason, the day my daughter was born, and the day I bought my first house. This is a picture we will always cherish and I'm so thankful we got a snap shot of it. 

And seriously, if I was a neighbor peeping through my mini-blinds to check out what was moving in next door to me, this would be exactly the kind of thing I would want to see. Anyone who moves in a life sized R2D2 on a jogging stroller must be the best new neighbors ever. (In my opinion)

So although our walls are still the creepy grey color of a dead body, we're eating off an Igloo cooler for a dining room table, I can't find the box of coffee cups so I'm drinking out of wine glasses, and the furniture hasn't been delivered so we're sitting on patio chairs... 

We're in!

This is my view for the next few weeks, but at least it's a view of progress and we couldn't be happier about it. 

Thank you for all the well wishes and I'll keep you updated on all the progression!

Homeownership! Whaaaahooooo!

(high five)

The Magnet Mission

The 22 Spanish mission churches of California are very near and dear to my heart. Not because I'm religious or into period architecture or fountain designs or anything like that. Mostly because many years ago, I got drunk and put it on my bucket list to collect a magnet from every one of them. 

Now it's become a personal challenge. 

Plus,

 you know, 

I think they're pretty buildings.

So the previous visit to California we stayed mainly down in Orange County, however this time was predominantly up in LA. It was pretty much a straight shot from my mom's house to the San Fernando Rey De Espana Mission and from there it was only another hour up to the Mission Buenaventura. 

The San Fernando Rey De Espana mission is by far the coolest in pop culture history for a couple of reasons.  For one, it's the burial place of Bob Hope and his family which I had no idea when randomly stumbling on his tomb in the back gardens. (It's also the burial place of Ritchie Valens and Fred from I Love Lucy!)

For two, this mission is where they filmed the scenes from the Alamo in Pee Wee's Big Adventure! Now, we all know how I feel about the Pee Wee movies so this made the two hours in the car the best two hours of the trip. I've officially seen the same Alamo as the same person who rode in a car with Large Marge. My life is pretty much validated at this point. 

Next stop was a quick 45 minute to drive up the 101 to Ventura. Upon pulling into the parking spot, you can see immediately how much smaller and non secluded this second mission was. We put 20 minutes in the parking meter and didn't even use 5 of them. There were homeless people everywhere and the lady working the counter had a unnecessary attitude that made me want to kick her ass. Plus their magnet selection sucked. 

After a pit stop for milk shakes and burgers at my beloved In-N-Out, we headed back down to Long Beach and it was really just a perfect palm tree day hanging out with my mom and my baby girl. 

So I'm on magnet 9 out of 22, not too shabby! Looks like a trip to Northern California is in order to finish up the collection! Anyone want to put me up for a week?

Abalone Cove Tide Pools

Stepping out of the airport and into Los Angeles is like Dorothy opening the door of her tornado tossed house to the colorful world of Oz.
It's a completely different planet.
I hopped into my old pickup, flipped on the radio and the very first thing I hear is a commercial about "treating yourself" to body improvement.

Buy a new boob get the second one for free!
Use the plastic from your Starbucks cup as an implant for your ass!
No lips? No problem! We'll tattoo them on for 20 low monthly payments of $99.99!

It's so different from au natuale hippyville Fort Collins where people are more interested in getting stoned than making themselves look like they're perma-smiled and on Ecstasy.

It had been a minute since my last visit so it took me a bit to readjust to the same things that I never even used to notice.
Like, for example, every single corner has a kid with a surf board in their arms. I forget how prevalent the surfing community is in all the little towns, and although I'm not a surfer, it was refreshing to be reminded for some reason.

Anyway, since I wasn't quite feeling 100% yet, we decided to drive up through San Pedro and go wander around the Abalone Cove tide pools. It's the perfect thing to do if you're on vacation and you feel like shit but you still want to be out in the sunshine and keep your 4 year old busy and entertained.

So,
you know,
if you're ever in that same predicament...

We had an absolute perfect and crisp view of Catalina Island. 

There happened to be a surf contest going on that day, with swells higher than they had been in over 30 years, so there were a ton of people in the water and a ton of people up on the shore cheering them on.

It takes some energy to get up over the rocks, but once you've made it you'll find the hike was completely worth it. Even if you felt like you might lose your lunch and the world is spinning and you have a fever. Still worth the hike.

Our timing probably could have been a bit better had we gotten out of bed early enough to catch low tide, but there were still tons of star fish, crabs, sand dollars and sea anemones for our viewing pleasure. 

We had perfect weather, clear water, and a live sporting event to check out so other than my constant nausea, I really had no complaints. 

All in all, aside from teetering on the edge of fatality from this awful flu, I'd say day two was a success. I had to postpone my trip down to Orange County for fear of passing along my near death experience to my BFF, but we reunited later in the week and all was well in the world. 

The following day we headed over to a couple of missions that I hadn't seen before but more on that later in the week. 

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Saint Patrick's Day!

It's Always Sunny In California

So vacationing isn't as relaxing as I had originally hoped.

Kalynn came home sick from school last week with the flu. I thought my mommy super powers would have kicked in at this point but apparently even the super-est of matriarchs aren't excluded from the super-est of barf attacks.

We were driving to Denver International Airport when it started to really hit me.

I was doing ok even after checking our baggage, but the tram ride (anyone who knows the Denver airport knows what I'm talking about here) from drop off to Terminal C made me terminally sea-sick.
I spent 45 minutes kneeling on the airport bathroom floor tossing my cookies while my precious kiddo sat and played the iPad with the patience of a saint.

"I still love you, Mommy. I'll take care of you."

I was so afraid I was going to miss our boarding call but equally afraid to leave the toilet so my thinking was going to need to be quick, proficient, and sly.

And then it dawned on me that when I was pregnant with Kalynn flying to New York, they let me pre-board because pregnancy is considered a temporary disability. So I whipped up some tears (which wasn't hard to do) and explained that my "morning sickness" was really kicking in and that I needed to be boarded as quickly as possible to insure my closeness to the bathrooms.

Now.
I know that lying about a pregnancy to get myself into or out of a situation isn't the morally correct thing to do here. I'm also aware that by doing something like this I'm exploiting all the generosity that people have for pregnancy all over the globe.

However.

I've never felt so shitty or thrown up so many times in my entire life.
(and I'm even including the hangover of 2011 so you can trust me when I say it was bad)

So they sat me and my daughter in the front row, gave me 4 barf bags, 2 trash bags, ginger ale, and vanilla wafers.

Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

I made it through the flight, but not out of baggage claim before my sickness reared it's ugly little head and reminded me that I needed to get back to my mom's house as quickly as possible.

So far, it's been a day and a half and I'm starting to finally feel a little better. We've hit up In-N-Out Burger and Sunset Beach but that's about it. I've been posted up in bed the remainder of the time and plan on doing exactly that for the rest of today.

We have the next 2 days with Disneyland written all over it so this ass kicker better move along as quickly as it has arrived...

I'll keep you posted.

National Pancake Day

Shrove Tuesday is a day observed by millions of Christians around the world. It's the Tuesday right before Ash Wednesday when people indulge in richer, fattier foods and celebrate in over the top ways to get ready for their 40 days of Lent.  Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Carnival whatever you want to call it, it all boils down to the philosophy of "Live it up before you let it go." In Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand the day is also known as "Pancake Day" and it is as common a custom to eat pancakes just as it is in America to eat Turkey on Thanksgiving. 

It's just what you do. 

So in the spirit of tradition (because I'm not personally a religious person), I whipped up my own original recipe for the very best pancakes on the planet. They turned out so ridiculously delicious, I figured I'd share. After all, I haven't posted a recipe on this blog since the day after Halloween. 

It's about that time. 

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 TBS sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 large egg

1 TBS vegetable oil

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 

1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk

Directions:

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Whisk to combine.  

In large glass measure, add 1 1/2 cups low fat buttermilk, egg, oil, and vanilla.  Whisk to combine.  

Add the wet ingredients into the center of the dry and whisk to combine.  If the batter seems to thick, add more buttermilk until it is pouring consistency.  Set aside.

Heat griddle/skillet which has been lightly oiled with either the canola/butter mixture or sprayed with cooking spray to med-high.  

When griddle/skillet is hot enough, stir the batter and pour by 1/4 cup to form pancakes.  Cook until the edges begin to look dry and small bubbles form on the batter surface.  Flip and cook on the other side for a minute or so, until pancake is done. 

Remove to platter in warm oven, and repeat with remainder of batter.  

And off the subject of pancakes, we've got an under the weather kiddo yet again. She's sick, but still smiling which warms my heart more than pancakes ever could. So send some quick recovering love our way if you think about it and Happy Mardi Gras everyone!