Grateful Friday

Look at this baby!!! isn't this the CUTEST little baby you've ever seen. PERFECT!!


Look at this little foot, isn't it the SWEETEST little foot you've EVER layed eyes on?


I'm grateful for:
- Seeing our little baby for the first time and having the technician say everything looks perfect.
- Every time I hear the baby's heart beat.
- John and I being strong and not letting the ultrasound lady tell us what the gender is (we caved in a the last moment with Stella and found out).
- Heidi my sis watching Jack and Stella during my appointment.
- New books from the library "Last child in the woods" and finally "The devil wears Prada".
- Getting to hang with my friend Lorissa this weekend and go see "The devil wears Prada".
- Summer skirts.
- Wiki Wiki Tiki Hut juice bar, they are new in town and sell yummy healthy drinks and sandwiches.
- My new little flower garden.
- That sweet yummy soft Hawaiian bread in the orange wrapper.

Something New

A POEM

There was a child went forth every day

And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became,

And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day,

Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.

The early lilacs became part of this child,

And grass and white and red morning glories, and white and red clover;

and the song of the phoebe-bird,

And the Third-month lambs and the sow's pink-faint litter;

and the mare's foal and the cow's calf,...

- Walt Whitman

A NEW BOOK

This is the new book I got yesterday (turns out "Surviving Ophelia" was in at the library but it was a cassette tape, I'll have to wait for that one). The above poem is what opens the book. I've only read the first five pages and I'm already inspired.

A NEW GARDEN

I finally was inspired by this lovely garden and went and got some flowers and planted them in our tiny garden. I love it, these pictures really don't show just how lovely this once ugly space is.

Happy Monday

These little gnomes are sprinkler guards on the lawn down the street. Everytime we walk by I smile at them. The kids stop and yell "look Santa". I love them. We have an exciting week this week. John has an interview in about 40 minutes. He looked so handsome this morning in his suit. I know he'll do great. I have 2 appointments, one with my midwife and one for an ultrasound. We are waiting to find out the sex of the baby so this is just to make sure everything is a-ok in there.

On another note I've decided to finally give up trying to read "100 Years of Solitude". I've been trying on and off for a couple years now to read this book. I love the beginning and then just get lost in all the names and politics. So many people really love this book, and I wanted to love it too, I mean it DID win the Nobel Prize and everything. But I've been reading it for about a month solid now, every day, and I'm not even half way done with it. So today I'm going to jump around and see what happens and then I'm letting it go and moving on. I've grown attached to it, like a sibling I just can't get along with but really love. O-well, I think my next book with be "Reviving Ophelia" mainly because it's on my list of "to read" books and it is available at the library right now.

Grateful Friday

- Finding a new playground with cool play structures.
- Watching the world cup, even though the US is out of it, I'm going to find the least likely team to win and cheer them on now.
- Oprah's Magazine July issue dedicated to summer reading.
- Getting a special card from my friend Lorissa inviting me to "The Cinematic Presentation" of The Devil wears Prada next Saturday.
- Laughing with my kids.
- John has an interview on Monday.
- My kids love meatless corndogs just as much as meaty corndogs.
- My weekly dates with John.
- The excitement of thinking I felt a little kick from the baby yesterday.

Self Portrait Tuesday: "Pop Art" #3

Me and my Ipod again. I'm running low on ideas and creative energy I admit. I do love my Ipod though.

My Life

This picture really has nothing to do with this post, but Stella always acts so silly in from of the camera, I couldn't resist this photo. I've been feeling a little blog performance anxiety lately. What do I post, are people getting bored, why am I blogging, how much time do I really want to give to this? The answer to all of those is I don't know. I do know that I like writing little things now and then, and I love posting photo's that I like. I just think I'm going to slow my pace down a little, I'm not even sure what I mean by that. I know I feel stressed about our job situation and about my parenting lately. I feel pulled in a lot of areas right now. I guess I just want this to still be fun for me, and not feel pressure to have to figure out something to post. I always love looking at all of your blogs, I feel so encouraged and connected with so many of you. Anyway, I'm rambling I know, just venting a little, I just want to feel relaxed and lately I'm not feeling that way. I'm going to try and take the pressure off myself to try to write an interesting post , and just get back to why I was doing this in the first place, to document myself and my family's life right now. Somewhere along the way I think I lost my focus and wanted to start entertaining everyone who comes here, which is fine sometimes, but not all the time for me. I don't know if this is making any sense, but it feels good just to write it anyway. Have a great Fathers day everyone!!

16 weeks

I had my first appointment yesterday with my midwife. It was so wonderful to walk into the birth center again. Jack was born there and it brought back so many memories, seeing all the same people working there. Ruth is my midwife and Alethea will be my doula/Ruth's helper, and Kathy will be the nurse who will attend. Those three do it all. My appointment went great. I got to hear the heartbeat. With all 3 babies I felt nervous until I heard the heartbeat, then a wave of comfort comes over me and I know my little one is really there and alright. We did lots of paperwork, going over my old file making sure info was still the same. The best part for me (besides hearing the heartbeat) was just being back at "The Birth Center". It's such a warm comfortable place. Really it looks just like a house but it was converted into clinic offices and the other half is a huge birthing room. So far this pregnancy has been pretty much just like the others, very smooth and easy. I think I was built to be pregnant of something because it's such a breeze for me. I really enjoy being pregnant (well at least up until the last couple months). This will be our last though. I know my limits and three is it.

Self Portrait Tuesday: "Pop Art" #2

Ok to be honest I'm really guessing as to whether my self portraits so far are pop art. I'm just sort of hoping they sort of look like it. This is me dancing. I love dancing but haven't been shaken it all that much lately. We are trying to have a no tv week over here, so maybe that will inspire me to put on some tunes.

Grateful Friday

Ug, I'm feeling sooo tired and drained right now. The kids are both getting up a couple times a night lately, and I always am slow to get back to sleep, on top of that I woke up with Jack's cold this morning. I'm grateful that the kids are happily watching Max and Ruby right now so I can write this. I have my first appointment at the birth center this week. I'm so grateful to finally have insurance that will cover the expenses there (thanks medi-cal), and I'm grateful to finally get to have a check up. I can't wait to hear the little heart beat. The only thing I'm not looking forward to about seeing my midwife is the monthly weight check. For some reason when I'm pregnant I gain weigh very very easily. I watch what I eat and even probably eat less and so much healthier than usually, I exercise daily, and still pack on pounds. I've already gained 15 pounds and I'm only a little less than 4 months pregnant. And the really sucky part is my midwife is a real advocate for not needing to gain to much weight. So anyway I've been eating a lot of salads lately, which brings we to the next thing I'm grateful for sesame honey baked tofu. I slice it up and put it on my salad and it's so yummy. Lastly I'm grateful for Nina over at the wholeself sending me a beautiful little pin she made, as well as a cute little sewn card and some ribbon and also some little stickers for my kids. Thanks so much Nina, it was such a treat getting the mail that day.

Ok As much as I love talking about myself and my family, I'm going to take a break for a minute and share something that moved me the other day. I was reading Marilyn's blog California Fever the other day and she had this video and information about what is going on in South Central LA with this community garden. I was so moved I really felt like I wanted to share it here. So here is the video.



For more information on how to help these farmers buy the land visit www.southcentralfarmers.org You may ask what the other side of the story is, as some on Maryln's blog did. I did a search on google and read a few things and it seems to me to be all about money, but you can do your own search if your interested. What moved me was looking at these farmers and their children, these people who rely on this land and have relied on it and worked it for food for the past 14 years. Don't we go to other impoverished countries and teach them about community gardens, how to grow food for themselves? So why when we are successful at doing it here, in the middle of a major city, in the ghetto, do we allow money and greed to destroy it. Marilyn's site has more info, and is probably a bit clearer than my ramblings, she has another video and a couple other links.
"This farm can be a shining example of what low-income residents can accomplish in blighted neighborhoods if they're just given use of a piece of land. We should celebrating their efforts, not destroying them. Please, please do whatever you can to help. If you're in Southern California, please consider going to South Central Farm to join the protest. The Farm is located at 41st Street and Alameda in Los Angeles. This should make it easy to find." (quote taken from Marilyn, thanks, hope you don't mind)

Self Portrait Challenge: "Pop Art" #1

Me and my ipod. I never knew I could be so in love with a little piece of metal. It holds all the songs I love. Every evening I go for a walk. I always take my ipod and hit shuffle. Sometimes I think there are supernatural forces picking the songs as I walk, many times they have been just the ones that I need to hear, or that get me walking faster just when I want to quit. You know that Ipod commercial where the people are walking along listening to their music and they look all calm and serene and then you see their shadow and it's going crazy dancing. That's exactly how I feel, so many times as I'm walking I'm really holding myself back and on the inside I'm dancing. Sometimes as soon as I walk in the door I just stand there and dance for a few minutes, I even got John to join me once. See more pop art self portraits here

Tumble Class

Do you see him? He's the little guy in the red shirt looking away from the camera. HE'S HAVING FUN!!, by himself, without us, with TOTAL STRANGERS. Ok I know this is really a terrible picture, but you have to understand, parents were asked to leave so the kids could develop some confidence away from their parents. John had to crash the class and sit with Jack the first 10 minutes or so, he took a few minutes to warm up to the idea of jumping around with a bunch of kids he didn't know (hey, who wouldn't). Then John sort of inched his way out, and came and we took our undercover surveillance positions, out on the grass. I couldn't help but get choked up watching him jump around and shake his little booty, wave his hands in the air, and high five his teacher. My little boy it growing up, I could all of a sudden picture him in school, doing fine without me, and my heart froze a little. At the same time I was so proud of him, happy he did so well, had so much fun.

Grateful Friday

- Had fun at the county fair
- Finished "My Friend Leonard", laughed, cried, loved it more than "A Million Little Pieces"
- Great Memorial day with friends, Jeff and Gretchen and Ron and Lorissa
- Next door neighbors and old friends delivered they beautiful babies
- I qualified for Medi-cal and can have our baby in the birth center I want
- Our giant new TV John won through work
- Hanging out in Starbucks last night and making new friends
- naptime
- my new "Fit Pregnancy" and "Domino" magazines.
- Talking and laughing in bed with John last night
- A smooth pregnancy so far