6.30.17 - June joy statuses

6.3.17 - Sarah and Shannon's visits

Before Jane was born, Sarah mentioned she'd like to come up and help out after. I explained we had family in town through the end of May, so this last week Sarah called to ask if she could come up this weekend to help out.

She got here yesterday evening and she came bearing fresh vegetables. I had texted earlier in the day to let her know we have tofu (from when Don and Merlene were here) that I'd like to use before it goes bad, so she planned to make a gluten-free stir fry. When she got here she improvised a peanut butter soy sauce (after checking to make sure the soy sauce was gluten free) and she cooked brown rice, sauteed the tofu, and sauteed chopped up veggies. While she was doing that I sat in the kitchen with her and we each had drinks that were half Riesling and half orange juice and caught up. Jane slept on her coffee table makeshift crib almost that whole time, so cooperatively.

While Sarah was waiting for things to cook she also unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and just generally looked for other ways to help. She crashed on our (awesome) air mattress for the night and the next day (today) she just stayed around with me while Jack was at work and helped watch Clara while I attended to Jane. I was worried Sarah would think she wasn't doing all that much, but I explained to her that just being around to take things away from Clara (pens, paintbrushes, whatever) and keep an eye on her. Otherwise I'd be getting up and down while holding Jane all day and that gets exhausting. Plus Sarah kept me company and gave me an adult to have interesting conversations with instead of just feeling cooped in the apartment with two tiny girls all day. It really makes a pretty big difference.

It was really nice to get so much one-on-one time with Sarah and catch up with how she's doing at work (trying to get a manuscript published) and with Mark (steady as ever) and everything else.

Later in the day Shannon came over with a bunch of samples of gluten free foods she likes. Each sample included a label of what it was and where she'd bought it. She brought crackers, raisin bread, an English muffin, a hot dog bun, and some cereal. What we did offer to Clara she liked, and I expect she's going to like all of it in the end. Shannon also said she would email me some GF recipes she's liked. It was very sweet for her to make the trip just to help me come up with ideas. And she also was willing and happy to hold Jane or help with Clara.

Shannon's labeled GF samples.

Interestingly, Clara warmed to Shannon almost instantly, which she doesn't normally do with people she hasn't seen in a long time (doesn't remember). We did see Shannon just about two months ago, but I didn't think Clara's memory was that long. It didn't hurt that Shannon tossed Clara in the air a bunch of times, making Clara giggle like crazy. I said something about how Clara is getting heavier and Shannon pointed out that she does the same move with weights much heavier at CrossFit, haha. Clara even gave Shannon a hug before Shannon and Sarah left. It was very sweet.

3.4.17 - Clara's 2nd Birthday and Cupcake Picnic

First of all, I loved Clara's outfit. Merlene got her a really adorable dress, and this seemed like the perfect occasion to wear it.

After Jack got off work (around 11:30a) he went over to Cupcake Craving and used a Groupon to get the gourmet cupcakes for the picnic. I had sent him a list of flavors: the chocolate (Black Forest, Chocolate Fix, German Chocolate Wish, Irish Creme, S'more Galore, Caramel Comfort) and the rest (Funfetti, Koo Koo for Macaroons, Lemon Moost, Monkey Mania, Raspberry Reward, Strawberry Dream, Vanilla Bliss, and Red Velvet).

Terrisa's Instagram of the cupcakes.

I had thought about getting two dozen just plain chocolate and vanilla smaller cupcakes from Walmart (less expensive), but between a Groupon we had for this place and a birthday check Grandma Wiseman sent for Clara, these seemed reasonable enough for the fun of it. Jack also picked up milk at Costco before heading home.

Despite the fact we were only supplying the cupcakes and milk (the rest was a potluck), we had a lot to pack in the car: blankets, umbrella (just in case), plates, forks, cups, paper towels, coats, all Clara's gifts (from Beth and the grandparents), etc. We still managed to leave on time, which means a lot to me.

I had tried to get Clara to take a nap before we left but it didn't work. She had just played in her nursery by herself for about 30-40 minutes and then fussed to come out. Of course she fell asleep in the car almost immediately and slept all the way to Davis, but that's only about a 25 minute nap compared to the 2 hours or so she usually gets. Oh well.

We arrived at the park at the same time as Henry, Kale, and Terrisa. Clara just stayed very cuddly with me for quite a while. It was windy and a bit chilly (though no raining!) and I kept her bundled in her tiger stripe blanket, but eventually we put her jacket on and that made her more mobile. As more people arrived, Clara noticed the cupcakes, and she kept casually opening the lid to get a closer look.

[cupcake lid pic]

We had a candle shaped like the number two that Beth had given us after Hunter's birthday. It was much too windy to light the candle (despite Henry's and Jack's efforts), but we put it in a cupcake anyway. Dyl was kind enough to videotape while everyone sang "Happy Birthday." 

Blurry screencap of guests singing "Happy Birthday."

Here is Clara's reaction:

After that I cut most of the cupcakes into fourths so people could try different flavors. Dyl and Sarah's daughters, Cassidy and Eva, split the Funfetti one, which is part of the reason I picked it (kids usually love sprinkles). 

I think Jack is offering Clara the cupcake again.

Then they started playing in the park field and Clara joined them.

She saw the playground in the distance and tried to make a break for it. I am much too large and tired to run now, but fortunately she tripped so I caught up to her and brought her back. Then Sarah and I took all three girls to the fenced in playground much closer to our picnic tables. Clara loved that. She was super excited about running up and down the ramps and watching the bigger kids on the swings. I'm so glad it didn't rain because I was banking on her getting to be on the playground for a long time.

I watched her for a while as Jack, Henry, Kale, and Dyl tossed a baseball around, Terrisa went to buy her cat a new toy, and Debbie, Erin, Braden, Rachel, and Shannon chatted by the picnic tables. I did want to visit more, though, so I walked over and asked Jack to take over with Clara, and then I went and talked for awhile with everyone. I think the best part was telling funny stories about Dad and how he handles political debates.

It was too windy to try and open presents and too chilly to stay a whole lot longer, so people started packing up and heading out. Happily, Henry, Kale, and Terrisa (who carpooled from the bay area) decided to come over to our place for more visiting and Tichu. I played a game to 500 with Kale as my partner against Jack and Henry while Terrisa and I visited. Clara was pretty content to go back and forth from sitting in the office chair watching her videos to reaching up to the dining room table to pick off more of Kale's chocolate chip banana bread. Henry and Jack stomped us, with Henry going out first in most rounds, but Kale did score style points by calling Tichu on the very last round and having TWO bombs. He bombed once and Henry beat it, which we all shouted about, and then Kale waited a bit longer and BOMBED AGAIN. It was AWESOME. So we lost but it kinda felt like a victory in that sense.

They still had a long drive home so they headed out. I tried to get Clara interested in her many birthday gifts. I was hoping to at least help her draw the connection between tearing wrapping paper open and fun things inside. But I guess she's still too young, because she didn't show much interest in anything other than Kale's banana bread until we opened the finger puppets from Mom. Those she liked a whole lot.

12.10.16 - 3rd Annual Hot Chocolate Potluck

Throughout the morning I alternated between playing with Clara and straightening up the apartment. During the week I had picked up odds and ends for the party, including a holly-themed table cloth, which I set up. I took the veggie tray I'd gotten at Wal Mart the night before and rearranged the veggies like a Christmas tree on a Santa platter I'd picked up at the Dollar Tree.

I changed Clara into her "Daddy's Little Elf" shirt and I changed into the Santa "Believe" shirt I'd also just picked up. I set out the nonfat and Vitamin D milk, Nestle hot chocolate packets, Bacardi, peppermint, and cinnamon. I put on a Christmas playlist. Incidentally it was chilly and raining the whole morning - great weather for hot chocolate.

Luckily Clara had woken up early enough that she was ready for a nap before anyone started arriving. It probably would've been much harder to get her down once guests were there because (I think) she doesn't want to miss anything. I put her down for a nap about 20 minutes before we were supposed to start and then spent a few moments enjoying my unusually clean apartment, anticipating the potluck food, and trying to look up ideas for Christmas magazine collages on Pinterest.

Erin arrived just on time at 1pm. She even joked about how always is the first to arrive because she always shows up at the actual time. But as the hostess, I really like that, because I'm ready to start and have been looking forward to it! She brought her "world famous" Rolo chocolate cookies and we ate several and went ahead and started warming some milk (even though whipped cream and marshmallows hadn't arrived yet).

Not too long after, Rachel showed up, and she was wearing a Christmas sweater that included flashing Christmas lights!! I was pretty impressed. She brought some cinnamon nutmeg muffins that smelled (and tasted) wonderful. She also brought high quality dark chocolate mix. The three of us visited for awhile before anyone else showed up (pretty much everyone was driving up from the bay area in stormy weather). It was pretty nice having a smaller group visit. Eventually Clara woke up and she was super cuddly with me while we kept visiting.

Next to arrive were Henry and Kale, and they came with Triscuits and cheese and oranges and vanilla extract. I was especially happy about the cheese. Clara hid behind my skirt from Henry, but she doesn't take long to warm up and he's very good with her, very attentive and sweet. Kale and I hadn't seen each other in an especially long time, and we caught up on how his degree was going, how mine was done, how Fitzy was doing. That was nice.

It wasn't long before we started talking about politics, a favorite topic of ours, and that conversation absorbed me completely for probably a couple hours actually. Somewhere in the course of it Gennilyn and Shannon arrived (with whipped cream and marshmallows, pizza rolls and potato chips).

Shannon does some of her Crossfit moves with Clara.

They ended up with Rachel and Erin around the coffee table making Christmas cards, but Kale and I talked on and on with Henry listening and occasionally smiling or giving a brief interjection. I so enjoy talking to both of those guys about politics, because they won't pretend to agree but it rarely gets at all heated, and it's easier to readily admit what you don't know when you're talking to others who are doing the same.

Throughout most of this Jack was in his room studying, although he did come out to visit for a little while. He then retired again to nap before a very late night study session.

Also, the entire time we were talking Henry was keeping an eye on Clara and at one point even stopped her from pulling a dining room chair on herself. He also videotaped her a few times, a fact for which I'm grateful since it was the only video taken the whole night. I had even told Erin and Rachel I wanted to do a better job videotaping this year, and then I completely forgot because I was talking politics with Kale. Ha. Oh well.

After a (very long) while, we snapped out of it and mingled more with everyone else. I felt a little bad for having been so myopic with only a couple guests, but Erin told me later she enjoyed quietly listening in on what we were saying, and that made me feel better. We talked a bit about my pregnancy, Gennilyn's Harry Potter themed Howler cards, Shannon's Crossfit competition and upcoming qualifying exam for her PhD program, and Clara's dancing abilities. Erin, Rachel, and Gennilyn all made some pretty nice Christmas cards.

Gennilyn makes Howlers.

During all of this, Clara's approximately 2 hour Christmas youtube playlist was playing on repeat, setting a decent ambiance I guess. It's filled with videos like this:

We also took a few group photos using the timer on my phone, and I'm glad we went through the effort.

Then Rachel, Erin, and Gennilyn headed out. Shannon stayed and chatted with the rest of us about her PhD committee and what the defense would be like. Once she headed out, though, Kale and I (with, again, a listening Henry) had a particularly good conversation about abortion. The bottom line is he can understand what I'm saying and follow my thought process even if he doesn't agree with me, and that is so satisfying and refreshing. It makes me much more interested in discussing it than I normally would be. I so enjoyed the talk. He also told me that his conversations with me over the years have convinced him the topic is more complex than most people make it out to be, and I found that very encouraging and even flattering.

By the time Kale and Henry left they had been at my apartment for nearly 7 hours, and it flew by. After everyone was gone, Clara watched videos while I posted the pics on Facebook and ate allll the pizza rolls Gennilyn had left with us. And after I finally put Clara to bed, I enjoyed one last cup of hot chocolate (this time with whipped cream and marshmallows!) in the darkened living room with only our Christmas lights on. That was pretty nice.

12.4.16 - First weekend of December

This month is off to a great start. On December 1, I practiced my thesis presentation twice, including once for Jack, who had some good follow up questions. I felt pretty good about it. On December 2, I practiced twice more, and then Jack, Clara, and I all got dressed up and drove to Davis for the actual presentation.

Clara's fancy outfit.

We got to see Erin, Braden, Rachel, Shannon, and Julianna. It felt good that they all came to watch. I also got to introduce Clara to interim director Fred and program chair Kent, who thought she was adorable.

Jack, Clara, and me just before my presentation.

I was the first to give my presentation, and it went just fine. I actually really enjoy speaking in front of crowds and wouldn't have minded if there had been a larger crowd there. Either way I was proud of the presentation because I had intentionally tried to make it easy to follow even for people without much DNA background. Nearly every slide was mostly pictures more than data, and afterward a few people told me they enjoyed it, including people without much science background at all. I was pretty pleased about that. I only got two questions in the end and they were both very easy, and then that was it. I was done with the presentation and with my entire master's degree!

Screencap from the video of my presentation.

Jack and Clara made it through a good 75% of the presentation before Clara got too chatty and Jack had to take her in the hallway. Fortunately he'd already seen me practice so he wasn't missing much. I decided to go ahead and stay a bit after so I could have some of the delicious free dinner they always offer, including some fudgy brownies. Then we drove home and Jack and I got a chance to talk about how it all went and how good it is to be done. I can't believe writing the thesis, writing the manuscript, giving the presentation, and my overall master's degree are all finally off my to do list!

The next day (Saturday, December 3), Erin came over in the morning (bringing a hot chocolate for me) and we started making Christmas cards. Janice skyped with us for most of the time we were together--had to be at least 3-4 hours--while on her end she worked on table numbers for Erin's wedding reception next summer. It wasn't exactly the same as having Janice here in person but it was pretty close.

It may have been the most productive card-making session we've ever had. I made 10 cards in the time Erin was here, and I think she made about 7. It helped that I have all the more craft supplies now thanks to Sarah's generosity; she moved earlier this year and while cleaning out her stuff decided to send me a box of high quality craft supplies (card stock, new punches, ribbons, etc.) that she never really gets around to using. So that made it all the more fun.

Just some of the cards Erin and I made.

In the background we alternated between Clara's youtube Christmas playlist and my Spotify Christmas playlist.

One of the videos from Clara's Christmas playlist.

For the most part Clara did a great job keeping herself busy (Jack was shut in his room studying for a test Monday). She did sit with us at the table a few different times and examine the many objects we had on the table--it looked almost like the pages of an I Spy book. Eventually she finally went down for a nap and she was still asleep when Erin left.

A table like an I Spy book.

Now I have the hot chocolate potluck to look forward to next week! Love this season.

8.29.16 - Shannon's joys

6.27.16 - Craft Alcohol Potluck

Last Saturday I had my unofficial belated birthday celebration by having Shannon, Rachel, Erin, Sarah, and Gennilyn over for a potluck/crafting session.

Before they arrived I woke up in peaceful quiet, showered, finished cleaning a few odds and ends, and started making spinach sausage loaf. At first I was watching GoT S6 while I did it, but then Sarah got there earlier than I expected, so we had some time to visit one-on-one, which was nice. She brought cheese and salami and crackers and a liver pate. Always so food fancy. She also brought a bottle of Bacardi for the potluck and a bottle of wine for me for my birthday. J

While it was just us Mom Skyped so I could see Jack and Clara, although Clara didn’t seem terribly interested and I was a little distracted with getting the spinach sausage loaf in the oven. It was still nice to see them briefly.

Not too long after, Rachel, Erin, and Shannon arrived. Rachel brought chips, 7-layer-dip, zero calorie lemon-lime La Croix, and gin. She made us some very fresh cool lemon lime drinks, and even though I’m usually partial to really sweet stuff, this was great too.  Shannon brought sliced fresh fruit and Erin brought everything needed for chocolate fondue, including the fondue pot! She even brought pretzels for it.

So of course, it being a potluck, we had waaaay more food and drink than we were ever going to consume in one day, but it was fun to try everything. Even the liver pate was good. I don’t think I’ve had anything liver-related before.

Gennilyn got there a little bit late but still in plenty of time and she brought more Angry Orchard with her, plus a Starbucks gift card for my birthday (always a hit!). We sat around the kitchen table and talked for probably at least two hours. We talked about our programs and internships and all that stuff, but we also talked about politics for a while, or at least about how our families handle politics (some are a lot more direct than others) and whether we see eye-to-eye with our parents on political topics. At some point I was talking about the latest attempt to block people on no-fly lists from having guns and I mentioned the ACLU was against it. I was surprised to find that 2-3 of the women there didn’t know what the ACLU was. I guess it’s just easy to forget that we have different focuses in life and maybe I’m more focused on politics than most of my friends.

The whole time we were chatting I enjoyed very cheesy spinach sausage loaf, cherries dipped in dark chocolate fondue, and one Angry Orchard apple cider after another. It was a lot of fun. It was also great that I could just hang out and relax without having to keep checking on and course-altering things for a little toddler.

Eventually we moved from the kitchen table to around the coffee table and at least Erin and I started making some cards. I made a science-ish one for Yvette’s upcoming birthday. I also found a picture of some very serious statues and added party hats and streamers to make a birthday card for Jill. Her birthday isn’t for a while yet but it’s one of the next ones on the horizon. Erin made a very cool and meta wish-you-were-here card of us making cards for Janice.

By the time everyone left I thought it was around 6pm (we had started at noon) but turned out it was closer to 8:15p! Time really flew, plus it was still light out since we were only a few days past the longest day of the year.

Sarah stayed because she was spending the night, so she and I visited more one-on-one talking about relationships and family and stuff. I was so physically tired though that I spent most of that visiting time lying on the living room floor or my bed, depending on which room we were in.

6.17.16 - My birthday!

I "slept in" until 6:30am, then I started watching the first episodes of Season 6 of GoT while I pumped. Clara stayed asleep until it was nearly time to go, making it very easy for me to get everything ready. I also had time to ask people for suggestions on what to bake to get rid of the smoke smell in my apartment, and to ask people to tell me 3 things they're grateful for as a mini-FB gift to me on my birthday.

I dropped Clara off with Beth and then I went to Safeway to pick up some vanilla extract, because my favorite scent-related suggestion was baking a few capfuls of vanilla extract in a coffee mug in the oven for an hour. As soon as I walked into Safeway I could smell fried chicken. So, even though it was only 8:15am, I bought myself a fried chicken breast. I then went to Starbucks to get my free birthday frappuccino: a double double fudge frap. I do really love that Starbucks offers gold members a free drink every year on our birthdays. I look forward to it every time.

Chocolate whipped cream!

While I sat and waited for my drink I pulled up FB on my phone and read the responses so far to the 3-things-you're-grateful-for status. They make me so happy! It's soothing and pleasant to see how many things are going well in people's lives. I went home, set up the vanilla extract to bake, and enjoyed my extremely delicious and unhealthy breakfast while I listened to Spotify, cleaned up a bit, rearranged some music on my iPod, and uploaded the latest videos off my camera--all things I want to do but usually don't get around to.

I also opened a gift Dad had mailed me like two months ago that he said was for my birthday. It was the Firefly version of Clue! Looking forward to playing that soon. I've always liked Clue and I've long liked Firefly.

Then I drove to Davis and met up with Erin and Shannon for lunch. We went to Blaze Pizzeria, which is very similar to Pieology except it also includes calorie information, which is awesome. We sat outside in beautiful weather and talked about master's and PhD programs and apartments and travel and whatever else. Erin gave me my very Harry Potter themed birthday gift: a copy of Tales of Beetle the Bard and also a chocolate frog complete with the wizard card for Snape. It was awesome.

After lunch Shannon had to go back to lab, but Erin and I walked a few blocks to the movie theater and saw Captain America: Civil War. I won't pretend the plot made any sense but I still really enjoyed it partly because it was fun whispering comments to Erin and partly because there were several parts that made me laugh out loud (mostly Ant Man) and partly because I still love Iron Man.

This guy should beat Captain America every time.

I got caught in traffic driving back to pick up traffic, so I talked to Neil and that helped pass the time a lot. We pretty much discussed the best and worst parts of Civil War and why Iron Man is better than Captain America. After I picked up Clara, Erin met us at the apartment and she brought gourmet cupcakes!

LtoR: Maple bacon, red velvet,
mint chocolate, caramel chocolate,
brownie chocolate, white cream-filled chocolate.

Not too long after Rachel joined us, and she brought me a card with a very sweet note inside, plus some Ghiradelli chocolates and  a Starbucks gift card. So that was awesome. While we were all hanging out I got calls from (1) Don & Merlene, (2) Jack, (3) Dad and apparently everyone at The Robin Hood, and (4) Aaron and Katie, all singing me "Happy Birthday." 

Me with the maple bacon.

Erin, Rachel, (and Clara), and I hung out for several hours, eating cupcakes and drinking apple cider and talking about relationships and children and what it was like when we were kids. It was relaxing and enjoyable. Clara got very comfortable around them and was really cuddly, which they seemed to like too.

After they let I got Clara ready for bed and she went down peacefully, which was her birthday gift to me, I guess. Then I ran and checked the mail and found I had a lovely card from Julie with a Groupon for painting and wine for two from her and Everett, so that's something to look forward to too.

The card Julie made me.

And throughout all of this, the entire day, I got to keep checking my FB wall and my 3-things status to see everyones' well wishes, which I always enjoy. Overall it was a really fun day, and I still have my actual celebration to look forward to next weekend!