Domestic Diva

It's been a fun and busy week. On Monday Athen and I went to my mom's house. We headed down to Fremont with Athen and Alyssa to meet my dad for lunch. We then spent the rest of the day playing at my mom's house. On Monday night Rick was gone on business so Athen and I went to my friend Amy's house to have some dinner and dessert with all the kids.

On Tuesday my friend Kristina from Palo Alto who now lives in east bay came for a play date with her son Andrew. We went to the Alameda beach. It was so fun to catch up with her and Andrew. My camera battery is died so I don't have any pictures of our fun day. On Tuesday night I got a babysitter and went to RS for a potluck dinner. It was so fun to have a girls night out and to eat all the delicious food.

On Wednesday I did something but I can't remember what. I was suppose to go to City Beach with the youth from 4:30 - 10:00. I wasn't too excited about it because Rick has been out of town so I was going to have to bring Athen. That would have been way too long for a hungry and tired baby. Luckily my girl backed out at the last minute and I didn't have to go. I got to be home when my sweet heart came home at 6:30pm from the east coast.

On Thursday I was a domestic diva. I made homemade jam and I must say it turned out beautiful and delicious. I used all those huckleberries that Rick and I picked over the weekend. I decided to add raspberries and blackberries as well to make triple berry jam. I used mostly huckleberries about 2/3 and then about 1/3 raspberries and a handful of blackberries. The color turned out so vibrant and it had a great texture. I was pretty happy with the results. Of course I had to make homemade rolls to go with my homemade jam so I made a batch of Rick's favorite rolls. For dinner we had sauteed mushrooms and zucchini and chicken with huckleberry sauce. I sauteed some shallots and garlic in butter and then added some chicken and chardonnay with a little of the homemade jam and some fresh huckleberries. It was good. However, the chicken and the shallots turned purple from the huckleberries. I have never eaten purple chicken before, but it was good.


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On Friday we got a babysitter and went out to dinner and dessert with our friends Nathan and Laura who were visiting from the east coast. Nathan and I go way back together as neighbors in the Stanford ward. This was the first time we have met each others spouses. We went to Xyclo in Piedmont. It is a modern Vietnamese restaurant and very delicious. I had claypot chicken and shrimp rice bowl with veggies. This dish is to die for! Rick had a sweet and spice spare ribs, Nathan had coconut prawns in an actual baby coconut. This dish was to die for as well. Laura had eggplant and tofu. We then headed over to Fenton's for some caramel sauce with some ice cream. Of course that was delicous too!




On Saturday morning I got to sleep in a little bit. At 9:00 my sweetheart made me some huckleberry pancakes with the left over huckleberries. He then put some huckleberry jam in the shape of a heart on top of the pancakes. It was so adorable and romantic. I love this guy!


I then headed to San Jose to hang out with my family and celebrate my grandma's 87th birthday while Rick headed to San Francisco to a bachelor party for his friend Derek. They did chainsaw wood carvings which sounds exactly like something Derek would do for his party. Rick then headed to SJ for the birthday bbq.



Here are some pictures of my adorable son!



Athen's got his nuk in his mouth backwards. Athen is not brand loyal when it comes to pacifiers. He isn't picky at all. He will take any pacifier any time, and he will suck on any and all parts of the pacifier. He is such a funny little guy!

Camping

Rick teaching Athen about fire and camping.


This weekend we decided to go camping. We invited a bunch of people and no one could come for whatever reason. We decided to go anyway. We went to Mt. Madonna in the Santa Cruz mountains. We wanted somewhere close and easy for Athen. This is were I grew up going camping every summer so I am very familiar with the area.

We set up camp on Friday night. I knew we would be getting there late so I planned for a quick dinner. We roasted hot dogs over the fire and made chili cheese dogs. We also had some watermelon and chips and hummus. We then made smores. I bought these super large roaster marshmallows at the store. One marshmallow was more then enough for a smore.

Athen did pretty good. He went down to sleep good and only woke up once during the middle of the night. The weather was cloudy and foggy but not too cold. We stayed warm all night long. In the early morning it started raining and you could hear the pitter patter of the rain. However, the rain didn't rain on our campsite. We didn't really want to get out of the tent to go to the bathroom in the morning because we didn't want to get wet. When we finally unzipped the tent we were pleasantly surprised to see our campsite totally dry. Our campsite happen to be surrounded and shaded by trees but if you walked down the road a ways they were not so lucky.


Mt. Madonna is filled with old trees that you can climb up and on top off. A lot of them are hollowed out and you can climb inside. They make for the best forts and hiding places when you are a kid. I knew were every cool tree fort was in the campground.

We started a fire and made breakfast. Our traditional breakfast consists of bacon and eggs with everything. We added cheese, green onions, sauteed mushrooms and avocado. It was delicious. We put Athen down for his nap and played some games. We then took down camp and headed out on a hike. We hiked along the huckleberry trail, a trail I use to hike on every summer. Growing up, we would pick fresh huckleberries and make huckleberry pancakes while camping. It was great. I was hoping there would be huckleberries and sure enough there were tons. Rick and I pick two water bottles full of huckleberries. I am hoping to make huckleberry jam with them - yummy!



On our way home we drove over to Gilroy and went shopping at the outlets. We got home Saturday night. Athen did great. He loved it and was such a good boy. This camp out was much easier than our last one in Utah and much warmer. I am ready to do it again soon.

Global Warming Yeah Right!

Global warming, yeah right! I think it's more like global cooling. I have been observing and tracking the weather here in the bay area over the years and it is much cooler these days then it ever use to be growing up. Growing up we use to swim in our backyard and lay in the hot sun all day long. Or we would go to the beach in Santa Cruz and play in the hot sun and the ocean all day long. If you can believe Santa Cruz use to be hot all day every day.
We use to pull our boat out for the summer in March and put it away for winter at the end of October. Then slowly but surely the boat started coming out later and later each year - May, June and then July. Look at it now it's mid August and it seems like the summer hasn't even come yet. Every morning I look out my big windows next to my bed and I see overcast grey skies. Usually in the afternoon the sun will pop out but it stays pretty cool. I can easily wear long sleeves and a sweater almost any day this summer and be just fine. Then by evening the grey skys come back and it feels like I should be turning on my heater. The only safe months of summer these days are September and October. I don't think the world is getting hotter and hotter, I think it's getting cooler and cooler. Either way - global warming really??? Do you honestly think we have something to do with it? I think it's just the cycle or the earth or better yet a sign of the times. It's all part of the plan.

On another note, if you are still reading this blog entry you get to find out first that I got braces today. Yeah that is right today. I am wearing them right now and they look dang sexy! It has been a long time coming and finally the day is here. I got invisalign braces instead of the traditional braces so you can't really see them much, which I am happy about. I will have them for about a year to year and a half. I thought I would talk a little funny with them on until I got use to them but so far it isn't that bad.

Weekend BlogLog

We had a nice fun weekend. We recently realized that we haven't done much this summer. Most weekends are spent doing church things, work and things around the house with little fun. We decided we needed to get out and do something fun. On Friday night we put Athen in the Bob and walked downtown to Ole's Waffle House for dinner. I had a delicious chicken sandwich and fries and Rick had biscuits and gravy. We then headed to Nob Hill for some treats. I love that we live so close to downtown Alameda and can walk just about anywhere. We got home put Athen down in his play and pack in the bathroom and played some games in our new library area. We played ticket to ride and coloretto while eating our treats from Nob Hill.

Saturday morning we woke up and headed up north to Pt. Reyes. We stopped at Tamales Station and went to the Farmer's Market for some lunch. We bought some delicious and fresh food. We got some artichoke humus from the Humus Guys, hot freshly baked sourdough bread from the bakery, some local Toma Cheese (which was so divine) and some Hot Lips red raspberry and boysenberry sodas. The sodas were brewed in Portland with fresh berries, lemon juice and cane sugar. They were slightly carbonated. They were thick and pulpy from the berries - yum. We had a little picnic lunch on the grass in from of the cowgirl creamery.

We then headed towards the beach and hiked along a trail to the beach. We played for a little on the beach and hiked back to the car along the water. The weather was over cast but still nice. Not too hot and not too cold. It was a fun day.

On Sunday we came home from church and made some teriyaki stir fry for lunch. It had chicken, broccoli, zucchini, mandarin oranges and rice. It was delicious. We then headed over to our friends house A&D for some authentic mexican food - stuffed poblano peppers, mexican rice and beans, salad and rice pudding. It was delicious.





I think this moment is precious. My mom and I went to the movies the other day during the day and my dad and brother Jesse watched Athen for me. When the movie got out I called Jesse to see how Athen was doing and he said he was asleep on dad's chest. When we got home he was awake but they were just laying there together relaxing. How come this doesn't happen to me?

8 Months

My little mister is 8 months tomorrow. I can't believe it. I tried to take some cute pictures of him but he would not have it. This has been a hard week for him. Lots of crying and little sleep. I think the mister is starting to get some more teeth in. This is exactly how he was when he got his first two in. He's pretty cute even when he is crying. We love this guy!









This pacifier makes me crack up just about every time I see it. It gets tossed in with the toy bins and every now and then Athen finds it while playing. Some times I look over at him playing with his toys and sure enough he will have the lips in. It makes me laugh. He looks so innocent there and has no clue how funny he looks. The other day we left his nuk in the car and it was bed time. In case of an emergency grab the lips, so that is exactly what we did. He sleep through the night with his Billy Bob Lips in. I was cracking up when I went in to check on him before going to bed. I had to take a picture.



I had some left over fabric from covering my chairs so I decided to use it up and tie it together a little more in the house. I took the lamp shade of my little lamp and covered it. Before it was cream with the burgundy trim on the top and bottom (I added the trim years ago to match my leather couches). After adding the fabric I decided to add the black and white to tie in and then I added the burgundy trim again. Who thought burgundy and lime green would go but I actually really like it. Rick even liked it when he got home and thought it worked well to tie in the chairs and our leather couches. I couldn't really get a good picture with the lighting in our house. It looks a little better in person.

Baby Proofing

Athen is on the verge of crawling all over the place so we decided we better start baby proofing a little this weekend. We took down our old bookshelf which was made out of wine crates stacked up together and bought a real book case. There is no way this big thing is going to come tumbling down on him.

I love the new book case. It is the start to the library we are going to someday have in our house. Rick also decided he wanted to work on a little lighting project. He bought 7 paper lanterns at Ikea and hung them from the black pipes in our ceiling. It turned out fine. Our loft is the place to do something like that. Pretty much anything goes in our house for now, it is such a mosh posh of things, styles and colors. Once we move into a real home things might be a little different.

Here is our old bookshelf:


Here is our new library. I love this area in our home now. The lamp, the chair, the books etc.... organized and happy. (PS - we haven't done anything with the lantern cords yet. We aren't going to leaving them hanging there like it is in the picture.)






Athen has a new bedroom - our bathroom. I put him down for naps in his play and pack in the bathroom. It's dark and quiet in there and I can turn on the vent for some white noise which means I can be as loud as I want now. Sometimes at night we put him in there as well. Then when we want to go to sleep we put him in his crib. He likes his play and pack now, it's familiar to him. Here he is playing in it.