Birthday Man.

Wasn't he the most precious baby on earth???!! 

My husband Philip Mark turned 24 today. I'm crazy about him and I'd like to tell you a little bit about why he's phenomenal. (That's what you do on hus-birthdays right?)

He can jump-rope through his hands.

He never complains about school work. He just powers through it.

He listens when I'm emotional. I am often emotional.

He loves baseball (Giants), basketball (Warriors). He's a loyal fan.

He watches the History Channel with me. I've found my match.

His skin is always three shades darker than mine. I can't catch up, he has Jewish genes.

He is an eagle scout. Scout's honor.

He always tries to be better and to do the right thing.

He is a Mexican food connoisseur.

He is trilingual. He speaks English, Spanish, and French (kissing bahaha) fluently.

He has just unfair eyelashes.

He is a fantastic dancer. He has the rhythm.

He is a champion with kids and a super uncle.

He gives honest and thought out advice. 

He has a rap-recording.

He is witty. He is funny.

He is genuinely considerate of others.

He's my best friend on Earth. Thank goodness he lost all of that baby fat!

Help...

...these people as if they were your own family... because they are.

hopeforhaitinow.org

or search haiti for a billion other good sites.

JAN FEB MARCH the three furies.

 

What my winter looks like... February 2009 in the homeland.

California is in my blood I think.  It seems to me there must be a little melted L-shape piece of DNA somewhere inside that big web of biology-class-polka-dots that makes up me. I call it the "California gene." This gene allows me to drive fast and fearless past the lagging masses on the roadway.  It has also blessed me with an inherent sense of direction in the magical kingdom that is Disneyland. 

The gene has many perks in fact; a prickly sensitivity and disdain for public smoking and littering, a refined appreciation for mexican cuisine, a downright snobby love of quality produce (in our UT grocery store I swear the avocados look like limes and the limes look like green grapes!), a passion for the writings of John Steinbeck, and a loud patriotic home-state bias (forgive me por favor).

There is one downfall to this genetic mutation of sorts... There are three months of the year

that

slay

 

me

My body was never trained for them, never conditioned for their merciless wrath. Spring comes in one single blink after the new year in the Golden State. Winter there means rain, and green hills, and growing mossy things. It means eating in the halls instead of outside but it never means hand cracking and wind burn or colorless days.  I. am. not. built. for. this. (and it hasn't even gotten bad yet!)

Those three devilish months are the grey months. January (the "Oh yea this is what cold is like" month), February (The "are we there yet?" month), and March (You generally get to march looking like a refugee who's been hiding in a box somewhere unfriendly).  I met these three months in Pennsylvania... they have followed me to Utah. They are a mean trio, the three furies of my destruction. I leave them tired, pasty, glazed over, and spring crazy.

Here are a couple tricks that I will be using to battle my unruly companion... winter.

a good book: I have a few stacks to dig into. It's my own tame form of escapism.

cooking bright things: nothing is more sad than a grey day ended with a grey meal. 

the gym: The only place I sweat in snow-exile.

music: I'm thinking some beach boys and denial may be good this time of year.

an unhealthy obsession with, and focus on, valentines day: the last holiday.

I am also considering sun lamp, heat lamp, ocean noise download, indoor beach day, a plant to take care of that I also can't kill, a fake plant, indoor flip flop wear-age because my feet miss them so, and a summer movie marathon. 

I leave you with an early cherry blossom bloom and premature spring thoughts.

It really was THAT good.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAA

AAAAAAA

AAAHHH!!!

!!!!!!!!!

I thought it looked ridiculous. I rolled my eyes after the first preview I saw. I squinted full of skepticism with every good remark I heard about it. It looked down right silly, nerdy, alien-ish, peculiar, vapid with lots of crash and bang and not much else. 

BUT

It was good. 

As good as everyone and their mother's uncle said it was. As good as it should be for all of the money poured into the whole endeavor. The story was connected and well thought out. It drew you right in from the gut, because it's not some detached strange new world story, it's a people-story (love passion integrity identity... the whole nine yards). The animation was on a whole new level of completely mind blowing. So what if it's Pocahontas meets Fern Gully with strong political nuances? It was dang good. And I like the nuances, and at the end of the movie I felt like shouting and clapping and when do you ever feel like that? (I kind of wanted to end that sentence with "nowadays" but I'm not 85 years old.)

So there. I rest my case and fall in line with the other bunches of oats who saw it and loved it. 

AVATAR really was THAT good.

As holly as it was jolly.

This is just a creepy santa that lives on my Grandma's tree...

He's actually really charming at the right angle.

We're here again in our little Utah apartment... here in the throws of work and school. Have you ever been tossed in somebody's ice cold pool without a warning? That's what returning to work feels like after 2 weeks of holiday. So now at the end of one long week of files, and laundry piles (and adjusting to reality)... allow me to soak up all of that jingle belly goodness one. more. time.

A Concise (as I get) Christmas List

1. A baby was born in Bethlehem. We celebrated! A baby was born in our own family. We celebrated! We held him and fell in love.

2. We paddled boats at Stowe Lake in the magical green place that is Golden Gate Park.

3. We slept in. Sleeping in is heaven for the living.

4.We shopped for Christmas. We conquered.

5. We had family parties. We played family games. We saw temple lights. We made gingerbread houses.

6. We fell quickly into the rhythm of hometown and it felt so. good.

7. We went to fenton's and ate our hearts out.

8. We made a killer rope swing (and by we I mean Phil).

9. We rang in the new year popping poppers and sparkling sparklers.

10. We ate too much. And then napped just to let it stick.

Now its back to the office. 

Back to the books. 

Back to the gym and the grocery store and the quiet little nook we lovingly call home. It's good to be back; to cook dinners and play with friends and be young and married in the land of young marrieds. 

But 

Christmas 

really was a gift.