auld lang syne

Customize a digital collage

Happy New Years, peeps!

(p.s. photos by Kimiyo Cordero, thanks!)

psst...I bee blogged

I just made a big post on the bee-blog.

Check it out.

outdated churches, hide your ficus trees!

I just finished this re-face proposal for a church in the area.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT MY WORK

15 mock-ups, a new record for me.

This is my 4th church re-face proposal I've made, so I guess I need to add a tab to my website so I can show the before's and after's.

Speaking of after's, they're not in the Flickr set, but I'll post just one and you'll get the idea of what it looks like right now.

Yep, there it is. So now go back to the Flickr set and go "ahhhh" :)

Just like the other 3 churches, I don't know if they'll actually do what's in the proposal. Here's hopin.'

(it's 2:30am, do you see that on my timestamp? arg.)

I pretended I was Stacy London

Last night, for 4 hours, Fran, and to some extent Matt E tore down Andrew and rebuilt him.

Andrew is 23. It was time.

It was a pinnacle moment in all of our lives. We even cut his hair in the office copy room. And when it was all done I almost fell over from shock.

Sigh. Fantastic.

Thank you Nordstroms Rack and Burlington Coat Factory. ;)

Christmas Chavez Park

Kid C had her dance recital last night. She really did great. I mean, I know I'm her mom and I love her. But she was so cute (and her little friend too) it was one of those moments I wanted to bottle up. The closest I got was taking a blurry video with my iPhone while Kid R grabbed at my arm. Here it is:





We walked around the park afterwards.


Who doesn't love a snow machine?


(okay this one is out of order, but this was the finale pile-everyone-onstage thing at the end of the show)

sickness momentous

This morning I woke up with Pink Eye.

I am fully grossed out by myself.

I've never in my life had it.

And just like all the other bodily maladies that I thought would never affect personally until one day they did, I am, like I said, revolted.

This particular problem is compounded with my flu.

It's taken me getting it to realize I haven't had the real flu for a really really long time. I can't even remember when, but I was probably a kid.

It's day 6 of the flu. With enough caffeine and ibuprofen in the afternoons I can kinda function normally. But night and mornings, I wish there was a socially acceptable way to just knock oneself out. Each day the virus finds new areas to invade. This morning I woke up and (in addtion to my disgusting eye) my ear was throbbing. Novel.

But I wake up each morning and say "you're not throwing up, thank God. Thank God you're not barfing." Also followed by "you don't live in sub saharan Africa, you have a bed, a drug store, and you don't have to walk 15 miles to get water everyday." So I'm thankful for that too.

this morning I made

I made a couple of CD covers for a friend who played at Echo.

(and who knows if he'll like either one?)

does two camera phone pics a blog post make?

This morning was crap. I won't get into the minutia, but it involved me being so sick I thought an alien was going to bust out of my gut, which led to oversleeping and not taking people to the airport like they were depending on me to, and not 1, not 2, but 3! areas of dog poop/pee for me to clean up.

And since it was Veterans Day, I had to tell myself "you didn't have to go get blown up in the desert/jungle, so shut up."

Maybe all that led to me overeating Sushi Totoro for lunch? (oh dynamite roll, why did I give in to your advances!)

By the time I picked up the second kid from his school, I was ready to take a drive.

We drove down to the beach and I have never seen a more beautiful afternoon at that beach.

It's usually Oregon-level-windy and cold but today, perfect. The kids were cheerful too- bonus.

I've also stopped caring about whether we return to the car with the same amount of sand toys as we began.

So that helps keep the zen.

(Let them drift away to Crapola Island, what does it matter anymore?)

And I haven't done proper blog honor to our newest family member, Mr. Gerald Pickles, the dog.

He's settling in pretty well. He's still kinda young so he does the annoying chew-anything-chewable routine. My hairbrush is half what it used to be and he almost [wo]manslaughtered me by chewing through a cord and then when I plugged it in, it sparked and could have flambéd me. *grumble*

But-I love him despite the chewing and pooping and barking and jumping. (just like I love my son with all those same qualities)

Mojito is a grumpy old man, comparatively, and he tells Gerald where-to-stick-it on a daily basis.

So with that said, I had to take a pic of this moment. Co-snuggling.

Look at that lummox. Just look at his absurd proportions.

And of course, my little mexi-loaf next to him, like a throw pillow. So cute.

But I will not collect a "Holiday Village!"

I'm like a real grown-up mom now, I just bought a white tinsel tree and an inflatable decoration for the front yard.

Yes, an inflatable.

Both have perfectly reasonable explanations:

1) The white tinsel tree, I've wanted one for years. And now that the kids come home with apx 95 crafts a week, I predicted that my little 2 ft tree that holds all the popsicle stick sleds and clothespin reindeers isn't going to be able to carry the load that this season will bring. Preschool, Sunday School, Elementary School and Kids Park-- crafttastic explosion(!!)

2) My kids trip out at inflatables. They love them in our neighbors' yards and will stand in the cold for way-too-long to stare at them. So I found one that was somewhat charming and didn't have Santa in it. (I don't think I could stomach a nativity inflatable even if I had found one, though I am pro-nativity in general. So I just went with a cute antarctic animal wearing clothes)

Disneyland is booked

I just dropped a couple of big fat charges on the credit card:

1) 4 plane tickets to LAX
2) 4 night stay at the Disneyland Hotel (childhood dream) and 4 park hopper passes.

The kids have never been. I haven't been in 10 years. Kevin hasn't been in 15 years.

Now the only problem that remains, Kid R and his recently crazified personality.

Do you think he'll snap out of it by January? If I feed him only sugar free foods for a week and enforce two naps a day, do you think I can avoid a tantrum in the middle of Frontierland?
It kinda gives me an ulcer just thinking about it.

The upside is, Kevin loves downtime to read books, and Kid R will definitely need a nap. That means Kid C and I will live it up in the meantime (!)



Kid C has watched a Netflix documentary about Disneyland and has it all planned out in her mind. I can't tell you how many times she has told me that I must bring the camera to take a pic of her and Tinkerbell.

Now all I have left to do is book dinner at the Blue Bayou for my 30th b-day dinner...

Halloween

Most adorable father/son pic to date. I mean, look at Kid R's little smile and toes. I can't take the cuteness.




Kid R couldn't let himself be excluded from the girls' photo. And hey, throw in a chi-weenie wearing bells while we're at it, right?


I felt like a complete dork, but I did it for the kids (like the minivan feeling, just for a couple of hours while we trick-o-treated).
We survived.

1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = fine! I'm awake!!

Preface: I realize that nothing I'm about to complain about is as terrible as having to get up out of bed to tend a baby. I am grateful for that.

4:45am: my genitourinary system decides to process the glass of milk I had at 10pm. My body software is out of date and is still on pre-industrial era scheduling. It thinks I would naturally get up before dawn to thresh the wheat or milk the cows or something.

5:00am: three Cental Standard Time tweets DING on my phone. Apparently Twitter changed it's site and erased my do-not-disturb setting. I think it was a sinister ploy to make me visit their new site.

5:05am: the cat walks on me to go outside. She knew I was up. I have to be nice to her and let her out because a) she has no indoor litter box any more and b) the new dog Gerald tries to eat her.

5:20am: I realize I'm not wearing my retainer (already!) and I have no clue (!) where it could be. This anxiety pretty much sealed my wakeful fate for the morning.

5:30am: the genitourinary and endocrine systems connive together to tell my brain that I am now truly awake so the allergy sequence may begin. Roll tape!-- itchy watery eyes, sneezing and general head misery are in full moldy autumn bloom.


When this kind of thing happens to me, I'm pretty sure it's God waking me up. He's telling me to have what the western Christian world calls a "quiet time" (although that term is such a turn off I'd rather call it morning-Gospel-meditation or something. ) But look what a stubborn donkey I am, I'm blogging instead.

I did pray. But my head was still on the pillow and I'm pretty sure he deducts points for that because I think many would agree that you can only really pay attention to the Holy Spirit when you're not a blink away from REM or thinking about unloading the dishwasher.
(And those super-early-tweets? Those were about God, so I'm gonna count those as 'Word, too.)

Next Saturday, God's probably gonna shift into higher gear. Grumble...

Norway and the Black Hole

On the 7 minute drive home from work today, Kid C insisted that I explain in great detail both The Scream by Edvard Munch and the Oakland Raiders.

Neither was very easy to explain to a 5 yr old.
It all started when she saw a rendition of the famous painting in colored chalk (the figure sporting a TJ Hawaiian shirt) in an advertisement outside the store by the melons and charcoal briquettes.
I had to wikipedia the meaning of The Scream on my phone to be able to give her his motivation for the painting. (his motivation was "why" number four in the endless chain of "why"s.) Even after I explained all that I could, she still was unsatisfied.

The mystery of the Oakland Raiders started with a decal on a camper shell on a mid 90's domestic truck stopped in front of us at the 280 underpass. "Look a pirate!" and then C noticed that it was wearing a football helmet, and it was downhill from there. What "raids" are and why a football team would want to be associated with stealing and scaring people. Complex topics in the backseat.

working from starbucks

observations made while working from Starbucks on the posher side of Sockswithsandalsland:

-sitting next to someone who is also working on a laptop, feels alot like sitting next to someone on an airplane. Both persons internally agree to ignore each other in the politest way possible.

-when you sit by the door in an upholstered chair, you immediately get the butt-view of every person that walks in. unsettling.

-there is a limit to how much reggae my brain can process. This might be the most consecutive reggae songs I have ever experienced.

-I can easily see why people make irritated faces at me when I bring my preschoolers in here. I mean, the "mommy tone" one has to use with kids is totally annoying. Oh well.

-the barista did not find me charming when I was on my iphone and didn't realize I was next in line, even though I throughly self-deprecated. She was flatly unamused and I reckon, probably wishing I was a handsome single business man.

-I'm not sure who the appropriate person is to sing along to the song "No Diggity" but I do know that if you're wearing brown office slacks, it's not you.

Let's try this mobile photo blogging

photo.JPG
Originally uploaded by charlsablaylock

My laptop is often being used for cartoon watching these days. This leaves me with only phone to blog with. Photos are tricky to blog with blogger, but look I found a way! I can't embed them in my real blogpost below, but sectional are better than none at all I s'pose.

This is a pic of Kid C coming off one of the big inflatable water slides at her fantastic preschool.

Wile E. Apirist

photo.JPG
Originally uploaded by charlsablaylock

This dude drove our bees in his Prius all the way down from Berkeley for us. (see bee explanation way below) And to my delight, he even donned this classic beesuit to transfer them to our sideyard. Bonus! And yeah, his name was Wiley. :)

Pic from the park

photo.JPG
Originally uploaded by charlsablaylock

Yes, there was clapping and wooing and your token crazy homeless man walking around yelling crazy things. He only stuck around for 1/2 of it (hooray)

Brad in the backseat

photo.JPG
Originally uploaded by charlsablaylock

I cleaned out all the juice box cartons a pixi dust out of the backseat so we could an accommodate an adult like Brad. He rode along for the evening's festivities.

6 years and the dawn of a new era

Yesterday Kevin and I celebrated 6 years of marriage. Hurrah!

We ate dinner at a Chinese food place in Japantown in SF (I know I know, long story) and then we drove over to North Beach to watch Dirty Harry in Washington Park. It was part of the Rolling Roadshow which goes around the US showing movies out on locations where they were filmed. And since the "Scorpio killer" tried twice in the movie to shoot people in Washinton Park, that's where they showed it. I'm glad put anniversary fell on the day it was going on, or else I wouldn't have been able to convince Kevin to go.

We stayed overnight at the Post Hotel/Hostel near Union Square. I thought by clicking "king room" that meant a private bath, but that turns out not to be the case(!) It was a Saturday night in Summer -- I was lucky to find a room at all (not in an hourly Tenderloin motel), so hey. Oh, and it was crazy-old too. Thank heaven for no quakes, that place would have crumbled I'm sure.

This morning we checked out and had crepes place next door (called Honey Honey) surrounded by tourists from all over the world. I thought the cashier would be pleased to find out I spoke perfect English, but turns out she was unimpressed.

Today I realized that Kid C starting kindergarten in a week means that I'm back to the morning structure. I can't make decisions like "will I workout or make waffles or run to a dr appt this morning before work/preschool?" I must be normal again 5 days a week at least until 3pm when I pick them up. And it also means my workouts will be my lunch break instead of in the wee hours and I'm actually joining a gym (a little podunk one.)

Also new to our lives are the bees in our new hive and the fish in our new pond. Going outside is more interesting now. And chickens are coming at some point, probably early next year. We may have found the pond-form in somones trash pile and offloaded the bees off a young granola from Berkley liquidating his stuff for travel money, but chicken hutches are a different matter entirely.

Tonight I made

Aren't I supposed to be saying no to projects?

Of course I am.

And I almost didn't do this one.

But then, I can't say "no, little burgeoning Christian school, I won't help you make cool t shirts."

I just can't.

So here they are, the boy and the girl version (following the general color parameters I was given)

Two iPhone videos of the kids being funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zYMqJV9_iQ&feature=youtube_gdata
The kids were trying to figure out who is the stronger of the two. I told them that there was sure way to determine it: arm wrestling! What you don't see demonstrated is Kevin's and my (mine's) test of strength. No contest. No shocker there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK-9exEBzx8&feature=youtube_gdata
Kids hitting their great grandfather with balloons. He asked for it. ;) I took this tonight at the combo Daddy/Grandpa birthday dinner.
I'm again blogging from my phone so I hope these links work.

Remote blogging

I am sitting under a maple tree at an elementary playground in Mission Viejo, CA. We left a day early from the Flagstaff KOA because I got my dates mixed up and so we had an extra day that we decided to spend with our friend Ryan in the OC.

Because this is already a kind of boring story I'll do bullet points of pros and cons:

-pros-
--Ryan has a guest bedroom with it's own bathroom. And even though he was at a wedding last night he made it so that we could get in. I am SO thankful.
--The kids were so tired last night that they fell asleep concurrently in their sleeping bags on the floor. (never happened ever ever before!)
--We went to the mall today and did build a bear for the first time while Kevin and Ryan watched ESPN in peace.
--We are now at a playground that just happen to have a kindergarten fundraiser with a cover band called "the grateful dads" and an ice cream truck called Screamin Ice Cream and pizza and a classic car show. Lucky us! I love CA.
--it also came stocked with pine cones and dirt that Kid R has been tossing around for about 10 min straight.

-cons
--kids didn't sleep til 10:30 pm. And Kid R woke up at 5:30am. (why?!)
--Kid R has been Grumptastic Tantrum Boy. I've lost count of how many freak-outs he's had today. No one has been spared, babies, toddlers, me, strangers- all felt the wrath of R.
--wow, build a bear is expensive
--Both kids are wearing their sticky ice cream, it resisted even the diaper wipes and who knows when we'll get home tonight.

But it's been a good day overall. Really. Even with the cons. Good ending to our first real "family vacation."...oh there it is getting boring again-- I should end it here!

instead of a college fund, I'm going to make a "bail bond" fund

Baby R has a serious hitting problem. It drives me crazy. More crazy than the fact that he still poops in his diaper and lies about it.

He can't even hug without hitting.
He's like a puppy that is so cute and wants to play but still bites the hell out of your fingers and ankles.

I've tried spanking back, but that doesn't work. He just wants to hit me back harder.
I've even tried spraying him with water from a spray bottle, like how you train a dog. But that just makes him want to hit harder too.
If only handcuffs weren't frowned upon, they really would be a good solution.

"will it blend?!"

Tonight I created a little floorplan for that I'd like to add on to our house.
How much this costs, I have no idea. Probably more than we can afford.
But I'm a future-thinker, so I made it anyway.

All I know is that I really love our house, but it has three problems:

1. no guest room
2. no place to work from home
3. tiny living room which is hard for parties

So I propose that we add onto the front and take or entire house out to the garage door line, since we have a big front yard, and the backyard is Kevin's orchard and pretty small to begin with.

I think I did a pretty good job of solving all 3 problems with a 25' x 25' space. Let's see what Kevin thinks...

will it blend?!

Kids in May

Yes, it's become clear that blogging, well quality blogging, just doesn't happen like it used to.

Mostly because the kids eat more food these days.
Explanation: they eat more food, which requires 1) more food prep 2) more kitchen cleaning 3)more visits to the store 4)more food spilled on their clothes = more laundry 5) more food spilled on other things that has to be scrubbed out.
And they don't nap on my time, naps are at preschool

My role to them at this point is punching bag and scullery maid. It was easier to be a biographer to them before consumption skyrocketed.

Kid C is registered for kindergarten in the fall which is exciting, mostly because it's free. I know that's against mommy politics to say that, but boy howdy, am I glad to only have to pay for one preschool tuition and then we can all have afternoons off to go to the zoo or beach again.
4 months away!

I even got the opportunity to design a t shirt for this year's elementary graduation, and in return they're printing some extras in Kid C's and Kid R's size. So when they come to "orientation" they'll be wearin' the cool kid shirts.

However, lately- I have a hard time keeping any clothes on these kids. I'm sure it comes from my side of the family, but is it so much to ask that the children at least have pants on?
Just pants, c'mon.


He snuck out into the backyard earlier today in just his pull-up playing with his trucks in the dirt.


He was using his pinchy-tools to pick up [and probably crush] bugs.


Here, Kid R wins out, at least he has a shirt on. They're both eating their cereal pants-less, just how they prefer it.


Kid R's mullet was gettin' a little long, so we decided he needed a hair cut!
(still no clothes!)


okay, so that wasn't his real mullet, but it was shaggy, so he got a haircut from a kids-salon.
He chose the hot-rod hair-chair. Nice choice.


And this is the video of the hot rod hair cut.


Kid C got her own grooming on Mothers Day with me at the nail salon. She's been looking forward to it for the last 365 days since last Mothers Day when we did the same thing.
All during the year when we would drive by the nail place, she would say "Mom, how long until Mothers Day?"
I have to admit, her nails looked pretty darn good. Flower/rhinestone detail on both fingers and toes. Hopefully that'll last her another year.


We visited the newly renovated Happy Hollow Park a few weeks ago. And think I said before how I wasn't that thrilled with it. I seem to be the only one in that mindset. SF Zoo passes instead, way better IMO. But I did take this pic of Kid R (making a weird face) next to the life-size golden capybara statue-- wearing a pillbox hat and pearls(!!)


I wanted to get that other girl out of the way so I could get a pic of the kids ontop of it. But what I think the artist didn't anticipate about a large metal rodent in the hot sun surrounded by concrete, is that the art doubles as a blazing skillet.



Ah, the McD's playland. Like an old friend that you don't really like, but s/he is so helpful, you keep going back.


Before Kevin and I left for our fabulous Mormon-country adventure, we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. It was so nice to have Kevin there to "man" Kid R so I could peacefully tail Kid C.


I don't know why I like this pic exactly, but I do.


I didn't manage a pic of the little mister in the monster truck but I did get this unlikely driver as she was struggling out.

let's try this

The kids' preschool has two new classrooms and asked me if in lieu of my parent/classroom hours, I could do the murals instead.

So this is the mural for the kids music and dance room. The director of the school wanted alot in it, probably more than I even put in it. And since it's multi-cultural in nature, I'm probably offending a group unwittingly. (like, is it unlucky to have a Chinese dragon in the bottom left corner? probably?! )

Taj Majal, giant harp, tamborine, it's got it all. I'm crossing my fingers that there won't be be 100 changes to it. It's just a pencil sketch...

Baby Tuesday on Saturday

I was away from the kids for 4 days last week, but I still have plenty of pics and videos!


I've been trying to deter the kids from taking baths together lately, but 1/2 the time it still happens. It gets splashier and fightier when they're together.
Kid C said "Mom! look at me!" and lo, it was funny. She climbed into the bath toy basket.



Their friend Kid D had his 5th birthday and here are Kid R and Kid D's little brother, Kid J playing quietly inside while the party happened outside. It was super hero themed, and the best I could do was put Kid R in a Star Wars shirt. Kid J, however, was really prepared-- Buzz Lightyear deluxe costume!


The birthday boy's grandpa and uncle are both police officers, so there was no shortage of toy guns around. I subconsciously don't buy them for Kid R, so he was excited to be at the "gun show."


My friend Mike, Kid D's dad shows Kid R how it's done. And how to tag the kid in the lawn saying "hit me! hit me!"





Mr. Post-Shots Fatigue. He was so lovable, although I was sad he didn't feel good. It only lasted a couple of hours.

Today is splendidly free of places to be and things to do and it's the perfect California weather day, so after Kevin mowed the lawn, I decided to reclaim the Little Tykes playhouses that have been dormant all winter. I evicted all the spiders with my webber and put a carpet down and some other accoutrements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9osp13IwF4



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQJ22CvAMRE




And while I was gone, Kevin took this video of the kids squeeling with the dogs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U0vIHh68PY






And this pic

this year's Easter artwork

I did this.

My friend Matt was the camera/lighting/editing person. And his edition of the video was the real one that showed during Easter services, but he didn't upload his to YouTube, and I did, so I'm showing the one I edited (I only used one camera's footage, there were 3 cameras total).

Once you have watched the video, click here for the finished artwork.

Baby Tuesday

Again, a big thanks to Jenn for taking these pics for me. She even had her own 3 kids to keep track of while we did this AND it was COLD out!

I mean seriously, that face.

If he only knew that if he made that face, he would totally get out of trouble.

Kevin makes that face at me alot. It's the you-didn't-think-this-through-face.

Kid C's hair kinda fell apart in the wind. I was trying to go for a sleek look.

yeah, no.

It's her crazy-laugh, but I like it.

I feel like this is a snapshot of him when he's older.

Bellisima, bambina.

So, you've seen this one, but hey.

The boy loves pipes.

After the park became problematic, we moved the photo shoot into the newly redesigned (ahem) lobby at WestGate. I mean, what good is working at a church if you can't just come in any time with your kids and take pics in the good lighting?

Auntie Dianne bought him that hat. I bought the jeans, shirt and tie at H&M and the shoes...well those are WalMart.

Her dress is H&M too. I love that store. Euro couture at Target prices.

Way behind them (not the motel looking building) is the in-progress new children's building, fyi.

Artful dodger.

A big thanks to Jon Talbert who made my kids do all the funny poses. I'm glad he was there, us moms weren't very motivational.

This photo represents how easily entertained she is. I love her.

sticky melty cuteness.

I don't know if Jenn took this on accident or on purpose, but I liked it.

You can still see his R2D2 tattoo that he wouldn't let me wash off(!)

Does anyone recognize that look in Kid R's eyes?

It's the "I WANT TO BITE YOU" look.

And he did. He definitely did.