"Thank you" to Mr. David Shelley for linking to the "blog" about "unnecessary" quotation marks. I "laughed" so hard at work today that I had to stop reading...out of fear that my office mate would think I was completely "crazy."
So...find a moment when you can laugh in "private" and "enjoy" the site! (I highly recommend reading through the older posts as well. Some of my favorites are not on the first page)
http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com
Monday, February 9, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Blessing in Brookings
Last weekend we carpooled with Alex's mom and my brother-in-law's mother down to Brookings, OR--a little beach town right on the CA/OR border. We went down to see Gavin & Amy (our niece & nephew)'s new baby girl blessed. Emily will be just around 4 months older than our little guy...I imagine they will be the best of friends (=
I had a lot of fun and REALLY enjoyed the peacefulness of the beach. I do admit though--I was a bit whiny. The 6 hour drive down, 2 nights on HARD hotel beds, and the 8 + hour drive back really took their toll on my sore hips and back. Still...I wouldn't have missed seeing that baby girl and I'm glad we went!
Here is sweet baby Emily and her mama Amy with Gavin in the background.
Four generations. See the sun?? It was SO beautiful! It felt like spring with sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60s. We had a campfire on the beach and thoroughly enjoyed the weather.
My niece Greta was wonderful! She painted mine and Amy's toenails. I really needed that! I've been wearing flip flops for the last 5 months and my feet were looking pretty sad!
Alex had a great time wrestling with his nephews. I'm so excited that we are having a boy! Alex is going to be such a fun daddy. I know he is looking forward to having another guy around the house (=
Here we all are! Top row: Jen & Alex, Joyce, Lon, Amy w/ baby Emily, Gavin, Laura, Marva, Glenn & his fiancee Megan. Bottom row: G & A's friends (David, Kathy, Aaron, Ryan), Garrett, and GretaThursday, January 22, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Rockstar in utero
Alex (the spouse) here.
I must say, our little unborn baby appears to be considerably cooler than we could ever be.
For instance, we tried to count up the number of rock concerts that our young fetus has attended -- Our best guess is somewhere around thirty. That's more than most adults! Now, I understand that the young one's ears haven't been fully formed through all of that, but considering he kicks Mom's bass guitar when she plays, I suspect he hears something. Either way, he can brag about being on tour and making his mother morningsick and craving cold cereal in the middle of the night in the worst neighborhood San Francisco.
Another case in point: On the night of January 17, I went alone to see a show with Finn Riggins (Idaho) and Jared Mees and the Grown Children (Portland); two of our favorite new bands, as well as local heroes Mill Race. Jen had church obligations, which I tried to taunt her out of by randomly chanting choruses to Jared Mees or Finn Riggins songs. I must say, she was very tempted, but she's more faithful than I am. Anyway, Jen came after her activity and caught the last Finn Riggins song, but was absent for most of the (exceptional) show.
Before the show, I ended up talking with both bands (we're acquaintances, I guess? It sounds really geeky or something to say that the touring bands recognized me and came up to talk). In the whole "what's new?" category of conversation, I had to mention that Jen was pregnant. I think we weren't telling anyone last time we saw either band.
Anyway, in the normal line of questioning-- "how far along is she?" "boy or girl?" "do you have a name picked out?", I happened to mention that our name for the baby is tentatively Edgar Alexander (unless meeting said baby convinces us otherwise).
So, Jared Mees dedicated one of his songs to "Young Edgar Alexander, wherever he may be"...
And proceeded to play a song entitled The Tallest Building in Hell.
...So that's another thing to brag about to his schoolmates in a few years. I wonder what it's going to be like when this kid starts to rebel against his parents... "Mom and Dad, I hate rock and roll. I only like classical. Plus also, sports."
As long as I'm long-windedly typing, album update: We're nearly done. Finished recording on another song today before some of the vintage analog equipment decided to become temperamental. We only have finishing touches left to do on a few songs. We plan to mix the album sometime around March, just before baby comes.
We have 12 songs; most are pretty long. We haven't decided whether to do a CD, or release an LP (that's a record, people) and offer a free digital download with the LP for those poor souls without record players. If we do the LP, we're probably going to have to cut down to 8 or 9 songs, so we'll just have to see.
The record will be ready to be released by this summer or fall, but we have no idea what our lives will be like once we're parents (no really, we have NO idea), so no plans to tour to promote the record, or really no plans for anything at all past April.
Ah well, we had a good run. Thanks for listening to my rant. I now return you to Jen's regularly scheduled blog.
I must say, our little unborn baby appears to be considerably cooler than we could ever be.
For instance, we tried to count up the number of rock concerts that our young fetus has attended -- Our best guess is somewhere around thirty. That's more than most adults! Now, I understand that the young one's ears haven't been fully formed through all of that, but considering he kicks Mom's bass guitar when she plays, I suspect he hears something. Either way, he can brag about being on tour and making his mother morningsick and craving cold cereal in the middle of the night in the worst neighborhood San Francisco.
Another case in point: On the night of January 17, I went alone to see a show with Finn Riggins (Idaho) and Jared Mees and the Grown Children (Portland); two of our favorite new bands, as well as local heroes Mill Race. Jen had church obligations, which I tried to taunt her out of by randomly chanting choruses to Jared Mees or Finn Riggins songs. I must say, she was very tempted, but she's more faithful than I am. Anyway, Jen came after her activity and caught the last Finn Riggins song, but was absent for most of the (exceptional) show.
Before the show, I ended up talking with both bands (we're acquaintances, I guess? It sounds really geeky or something to say that the touring bands recognized me and came up to talk). In the whole "what's new?" category of conversation, I had to mention that Jen was pregnant. I think we weren't telling anyone last time we saw either band.
Anyway, in the normal line of questioning-- "how far along is she?" "boy or girl?" "do you have a name picked out?", I happened to mention that our name for the baby is tentatively Edgar Alexander (unless meeting said baby convinces us otherwise).
So, Jared Mees dedicated one of his songs to "Young Edgar Alexander, wherever he may be"...
And proceeded to play a song entitled The Tallest Building in Hell.
...So that's another thing to brag about to his schoolmates in a few years. I wonder what it's going to be like when this kid starts to rebel against his parents... "Mom and Dad, I hate rock and roll. I only like classical. Plus also, sports."
As long as I'm long-windedly typing, album update: We're nearly done. Finished recording on another song today before some of the vintage analog equipment decided to become temperamental. We only have finishing touches left to do on a few songs. We plan to mix the album sometime around March, just before baby comes.
We have 12 songs; most are pretty long. We haven't decided whether to do a CD, or release an LP (that's a record, people) and offer a free digital download with the LP for those poor souls without record players. If we do the LP, we're probably going to have to cut down to 8 or 9 songs, so we'll just have to see.
The record will be ready to be released by this summer or fall, but we have no idea what our lives will be like once we're parents (no really, we have NO idea), so no plans to tour to promote the record, or really no plans for anything at all past April.
Ah well, we had a good run. Thanks for listening to my rant. I now return you to Jen's regularly scheduled blog.
Monday, January 12, 2009
6 months
Not sure if I really want a picture of my bare belly on the internets...but if I don't post it, I know Alex will.
This is the result of allowing Alex to attack me with a sharpie (=
Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Life is SO BUSY! I'll update soon. But...not right now.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Lights Out!
Apparently, if we receive two tenths of an inch more in snow before the end of the year, we will have broken the record for the snowiest December in the Portland, OR area!
Last Sunday brought snow atop freezing rain atop snow, canceled church services, and fun nighttime adventures. If you have never experienced freezing rain, you are missing out. It is beautiful and dangerous. This happens when it warms up enough in the clouds to produce rain, but the ground is still so cold that the rain freezes on contact, leading to an ice frosting on everything it touches. Consequentially, church was closed and we stayed home all day.
(we are going nowhere!)
Freezing rain is beautiful, but it makes tree branches very heavy...and we have a lot of those in Oregon. Sunday evening this led, as it often does, to a power outage. Alex already had a nice firing roaring in the fireplace, so we lit some candles, were joined by our friends from upstairs, and enjoyed the rare treat of a cozy night with no electricity. Brian brought home some hot deli food, and we all cuddled up in front of the fire while Alex read Price Caspian aloud. 
Sunday, December 21, 2008
I'm married to a 30 year old man!
Weird.
Yes...I've been a slacker about blogging! I'm sorry! I've got no good excuse.
Well, life is good. Last Monday was supposed to be my last day of work (before the Christmas Break...not my last day before baby comes...) but--Hooray!--we had a week worth of snow days!
NW Oregon doesn't get much snow. So when there is snow, everything stops while we play in the snow and avoid driving on the roads. Last week Alex either worked from home or walked to the bus stop on a more main road and took the bus in to work. I could think of no good reason to leave my happy nesting projects...so I stayed inside and worked furiously to get our house back in order. It's not done yet, but it's getting closer.
So...Alex is 30! Yikes! But, he did get in some important things before he left his 20s:
He skied down the hill that we live on.
The snow was starting to melt a bit, and the road had been gravelled, so he didn't make it very far! 
For his last dinner of his 20s he chose...
Yup. Fruity pebbles with whipped cream and a Mountain Dew. That's my man--father to my unborn son!
He had a fun birthday. We lit a fire in the fireplace and the weather calmed down just enough that some friends were able to come and celebrate. I made some yummy chili and guacamole for dinner and we watched The Christmas Toy (best Christmas movie EVER).
I made a Banana Cake with Penuche Frosting (YUM!) and Alex managed to blow out all 30 candles (with a little help from neighbor-David).
Alex got some fun new toys:
- A Transformer (from Vince and Christi)
- A Spice Girls doll (thanks to Adam and Candice)
- A silly picture of neighbor David so he can look at it and laugh when he is at work
- 5 lift tickets to Hoodoo Ski Resort (from his parents and myself)
- And.......drumroll........our nephew Garrett gave Alex a guitar!
Not just any guitar--THE guitar that Alex has been drooling over for 6+ years. Garrett made this custom pick guard and then let Alex babysit his guitar while Garrett was serving a 2-year mission for our church. Alex was very sad to see it go at the end of those 2 years and hasn't found a guitar with the same sound yet. And now--it's his! It didn't leave his hands the rest of the evening. Believe it or not, but in this picture he is actually still playing the guitar while mostly asleep!
In other news, my tummy is getting bigger and our baby boy is very active in utero (= Although, he always stops moving as soon as Alex puts his hand to my belly! Speaking of this kid...I need to go eat some breakfast!
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