California Gurls

You're thinking of Katy Perry now, right? If you're not, something's wrong with you. Just kidding...Or not.

If you don't know (but I am guessing you do), I am oringinally from California. Not even the cool NorCal part of California, but L.A. Even as I type this, some of you (including my husband who is reading over my shoulder which I don't mind at allllll...ahem....) maybe thinking that the L.A. part is way cooler. Well trust me, I grew up there. I'd trade my collection of wicker baskets to live in the northern part than the southern part any day (that is if I still lived there). It is probably cool to live in L.A. if you are a movie star with lots of money and can shop at cool stores where they only make size 0 and you happen to be size 0, but unfortunately, I am not nor will ever be any of those things. Or it can be cool if you like the beach. I don't.

I won't completely bag on it, however, because I grew up with good friends, went to good private schools (Eww. Doesn't that make me sound awful? I apologize), and met my husband at college there. I have lots of fun, awesome memories growing up in those suburbs. And Pasadena is really cool....so there are good things. But for me, I didn't want to end up there my whole life. Or raise a family in all that concrete. I do like to visit.

This whole big, long California Rant was to say that my dear dear friends from California are out in Michigan, and I was able to see them today. It was so great and wonderful and fun and excellent to spend time with these three ladies. The one down side to moving 2,000 miles away from your family and friends after you graduate college is not getting to see my dear friends and family regularly. I really miss those people in my life who were so pivotal during my early years. I'm always trying to get people come out and visit me, so whenever it does happen, it's exciting. I'm also so glad they get to see and hang out with my kids.

Though Rebecca, Sara, and Julie were out here for some sad reasons, it was nonetheless good to see them and catch up on life. We met at the Cracker Barrel, which I guess you have to do if you are visiting the midwest. Just like if you go to L.A., you must, MUST go to In-n-Out. It just has to happen.

James and Rebecca

Cracker Barrel Rocking Chair and Checkers. And Sara.

My Sweet Delby

All the hot ladies. And James.

Thanks you ladies for making the trip to see us, we so appreciate it!



An adult's lullaby

  A while back, Dave asked if I had ever watched the show "Dr. Katz." I said no, I hadn't. He showed me the show, and at first, I am going to admit, I wasn't impressed. It's a cartoon that was on Comedy Central during the early thousands. (Is that how you say it? If it was on air during the years 1999-2000ish? Thousands? Or turn of the century? I don't know, either one makes me feel old, because 2001 doesn't seem that long ago. However, it is ten years, which is a long time. But I disgress....) After that one epidsode, I tried another and got hooked. The show is about Dr. Katz, a professional therapist, and his son Ben. There are also segments of him interviewing his clients, which happen to be famous comics like Dave Chapelle, Sarah Silvermen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ray Ramano, etc. Now at night, once the kids are in bed and the house is picked up (because let's be honest, I'm like Monica and God forbid a shoe be out of place before I go to sleep...) we bring our little laptop in our room, YouTube Dr. Katz, and fall alseep to those sweet comedic stylings.
   I don't think we ever really make it through one episode on any given night. It's the kind of show that doesn't really have a long plotline that you have to follow through to the end of the episode, just a series of jokes weaved into different scenes. It's become something that I look forward to in my day. When the house is quite and the world is still, there's nothing better than cuddlin' with your honey and falling asleep to the calming voices of Dr. Katz and Ben.
   So check it out! I do think it helps you fall asleep faster, because my husband who notoriously can't fall alseep at night, is out within minutes once these guys come on. I might need to market this method of medication for insomniacs....


Dr. Katz - 307 - Day Planner by limblessjudo


What do you think?

Through her eyes

It's not really a mystery that James gets most of the attention in our house. I mean, for starters, he's the first born. He's got a couple of years on her, which obviously means he's got a little more life under his belt and a lot more things to say. If you've spent any time with him, you know he likes to talk. Alot. Also, about 87% of the toys in our house are "James' toys," or things that aren't really good for an 18 month old to play with. That being said, a lot of time what Clara wants to do, or what Clara wants to watch, or what Clara thinks comes after what James wants to do, see, or think. (We are currently watching "Batman" right now, which surprising, Clara is laughing at. I don't gets what is funny, but she sure does). Realizing this, we've been trying to get Clara more toys that she likes to play with, or let Clara "pick" what we do, or take her on dates with just Dada or Momma. It's done a lot of good, I think. We've recently found that she loves babies, so we got her a baby and stroller. She's gotten into Elmo, which is really sweet and dear. (Though "Elmo" and "Momma" sound a lot alike in Clara-ese). She also loves any sort of animal, particularly ducks, fishes, horses, and dogs. So in honor of Clara, I am doing a day-in-the-life post about my sweet little Delby.

I realize James is in this picture, but it was sort of sweet seeing them play together with one of Clara's things. Here they are using Q-tips to clean up the baby. James might have "painted" her nails pink.

She really loves this baby. It's so darlin' to see.

"See Momma? Baby."

She takes good care of her baby too. She wipes her nose, cleans out her ears, changes her diaper,

then leaves her face down on the floor admist a sea of diapers.

She likes James' books. More accurately, she likes throwing James' books on the floor.

The Delbster likes to blow her nose. Alot. I buy tissue boxes all the time, since we got through them like water.

She's also very devious. It was very quite in my house, for a long time. As a mom, you know too much quite normally isn't a good thing.  I think she liked the candy, though.

It's hard to be mad at this face.

Poor candy bar didn't see what was coming. Also, for not having a complete set of teeth, my daughter can do alot of damage.

That's it. I love you little Clara Dell!

P.S. Since I named this post "Through her eyes," that song "In your eyes," was going through my head on repeat. I was lame and actually had to look up who sang this song, because apparently I am not hip on cool 80's trivia. It was Peter Gabriel, if your wondering. Which, I bet your not, since you are cool and hip and know things like this.

Another year

Happy Birthday honey!

Since he might be a little modest about his age, I won't go advertising it on here. Let's just say he's 100-80+30/2+2. Got that?

I am so happy and grateful that he's my husband. Not only does he do wonderful cool things like provide for our family, coach football and track, work on getting his Master's degree, and be involved at the middle school, but he always makes me smile, makes me feel valued and appreciated, and works hard as the leader of this family. I don't know how he does it all, but I am so so thankful for him doing it. (He also spell checks and grammar checks all my blog posts, so that's pretty great too).

Michigan State Games 2011

Fourth of July 2011

Tackling Dada

Blueberry picking



Happy Birthday Dave! We love you so!

Blueberries for Sal

A couple of weeks ago, we went blueberry picking. Berry picking is one of my all time favorite summer activites by far. When James was just a wee boy, we took him raspberry picking.  That day ranks as one of my most memorable days in my life, full of sweet memories being outside, time together as a family, and good fruit to eat. We didn't do any berry picking last year, mostly because having a teeny tiny Clara, it was hard to do anything that involved an extended period of time out in the hot sun. This year our family is significantly more mobile, so we continued the tradition again. Instead of picking raspberries though, we headed for a blueberry patch. If I was a good mom, I would have read Blueberries for Sal before going out.

I did at least think about the book when we were out, so that counts for something, right?

Moving on...here's some pictures from the day. We went to Kendalls Blueberry Farm in Hastings, MI. The farm was simple, just a stand with buckets for you to put your blueberries in and a basket to put your money in once you were done.

Ready to go!

Can I just say that I love my little man so?

We might have done more eating than picking of blueberries.

See what I mean?

It's serious work, you know. It was slow, but near the end of our time Clara sorta grasped the concept that we wanted blue blueberries, not green ones.

We ended up filling up one whole bucket, and for only six bucks!

The boys

My sweet girl

Mouthful of berry

So there you have it. We had blueberries for a long, long time. Dave made som excellent blueberry crepes wtih it. If only I had his mad cooking skillz.  If you haven't gone berry picking yet, I suggest you do!