::bound books and water phase::

I'm completely immersed in finishing the children's baby albums now that I've been clued into the groovy way to print them. The perfectionist in me keeps wanting to change every page before printing. If I have them bound like a regular book then I can't change them quite so easily now can I? This is the idea at least.

After a walk on the beach in Corona Del Mar this afternoon we headed here:


I have the constant "forgot my watch" feeling while my camera is in the shop. Nine days to go.

Water. I read (again) about it being one of the best things for you. So I've chugged 100 ounces today and spent way too much time in the little girls room. (Did I just put that on the Internet?) What's your water consumption like? I used to be abysmal at meeting my "water quota". So, this is a phase.

::sleep, and lack therof::

I'm getting "zoom error" everytime I try to turn on my camera. It just beeps and the lens doesn't come out. Oh yes, also...it doesn't take pictures.
Which is key.
So it's off to the camera store first thing tomorrow.

To me, there are few things worse than getting lost on the southern California interstate system. There are few people better at getting lost than me. So, Mapquest + Laminate +Twine = my own personal naviagation system. Now I just need to remember to put them in the car.

Leila was up most of the night.
This is the situation. Both the kids are in the same room right now. Leila wakes up, Rob goes to get her immediately.
Now, the way I look at it, she'll go back to sleep.
Rob doesn't want her to wake Luke.
So instead he gets her and we take turns with her for the rest of the night rather than put her back in bed.
So I've been missing my work-outs in the morning since I'm too tired from staying up all night.
Would you leave her in there to fall back asleep?
What are your thoughts?
The way I see it, there is a lot to be said for Mommy getting her workout time (working off that stress) and not being a contankerous cow.
Leila is 18 months. Not a baby anymore.
Kind of a bone of contention this morning.
Now Rob insists we must buy a bigger house.
Not so easy in So. California.
Have you seen the prices here recently?
I don't want to have a mortgage payment at 75.
Okay.
That's more text than I think has ever been in one post.

On a lighter note, what are you having for dinner? I'm looking for some fresh ideas. Maybe I'll go wonder around here some.

I'm thrilled about this.

::giggly::

For some reason normal room is a very intriguing site to me. Do you find it so?

Cheap Valentine's Cards (you didn't see it here) from Luxe Papeire.

Sorry about the drool... (takes a couple of seconds to start).

Click To Play

::body in the dryer, body art and where some body was stranded::

I had to show you this fancy Target in Irvine. It even has this really spectacular Moroccan iron work over the front door.

Leila and have bagged the Gymboree idea. A little too pricy for what it was as it turned out. A good business venture for sure if any of you savvy types are so inclined. Rent space, jam it full of soft, climbing toys, throw in one smiley sing-songy college student with bubbles and kissing stuffed animal and charge eager moms out the nose. So we might be doing lots of trips to the beach during Luke's preschool hours until we find that dance opp we were dreaming of.

Here is Leila on our Thursday morning adventure out.

Luke found a new hideout.

Yes, that's our dryer.

A little freestyle body art...
This is where Rob was stranded on Wednesday.

::in the tiny old nissan::

Huge revolving frame that goes on your wall and displays your digital photos. No more printing them out. PhotoVu.

So I get this frantic call from the hubs about 20 minutes ago.
"Hi Geenie, how's the day going? Cool. Well, we're on top of a snow covered mountain right now. Yes, it's pretty dangerous. I'm not sure if we'll be home tonight. It's getting really dangerous. I have to go so I can drive. Bye."

Comforting.

Update:
Safe and sound at home.
3 hours in snow between Valencia and Castaic.
At one point he pulled the pictures of us out of his wallet and stuck them on the visor.
He was getting worried.
More than 100 cars passed by.
Not one person stopped to help.
Journalists stopped to take pictures but didn't offer to give a ride or see if they needed anything at all
Battery kaput.
They only needed a jump as it turns out.
They could have died or at least lost fingers and toes.
Counting our blessings tonight (and buying extra jumper cables).

::ha, ha fooled you, i'm a submarine::

Began the weekend with Rob's rendition of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Despite my attempts at reasoning, he failed to see how it mattered that shore didn't rhyme with dream and carried on with his lively performance.

And this is my new favorite (a most refreshing must-read):


Excerpt: "...Christianity is not primarily a moral code but a grace-laden mystery; it is not essentially a philosophy of love but a love affair; it is not keeping rules with clenched fists bt receiving a gift with open hands." (See? Refreshing.)

And I'm reading this and this at the same time. Are you a several-at-one-time reader? I'm not always but sometimes I find there's just too much to read and I have to start them all at once. All three on my nightstand just now.

And I've settled on this for the time being. Leila and I start our first class tomorrow at 9:15.
I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it.

And Leila is into hairclips. The more the better.

And why was I sad when she stopped saying "Guke" for Luke?

::then dance it shall be::

The overwhelming majority of voters chose dance and/or music to start. (See how influential you guys are -- you may have just propelled the next Darcy Bussell or Igor Zelensky.)
Leila already has some pretty groovy moves so I can imagine she'll go for the idea wholeheatedly.
So we're off tomorrow to decide on exactly where and how.

On the photography front, I'm soaking in the beauty of these galleries. Inspiration indeed.

::new horizons and thomas the tank bookbag::

The first day was jammed with running and and swinging and sand play and songs and hugs from sweet-smelling lovely teachers.



Leila enjoyed it as much as he. And adored the attention.
Of course we both followed him around the entire time. He had a blast.
Now I'm looking for classes to take Leila to with me since we can't follow him around every day.

We were thinking like to test a few types of activities out on both L&L really early and see which they take to:

• Some type of dance;
• Martial arts;
• Gymnastics;
• A sport;
  
• Music (piano? violin?);
• Swimming.
  

Not all at once of course - at some point between now and 5 or so. (We are so not the pushy parent type. We're talking exposure not excelling at everything.)
Montessori?

I just want to play with my babies forever and color and sing and teach the ABC's and have tickle time.

::first day of preschool tomorrow::

I'll be taking tissues.

This was a fun find:

::digital and the bunny::

• Fractual beauty.
  
• Love this blog.
• New towel:
• The Oktomat takes 8 photos over the course of 2.5 seconds, and exposes them onto separate sections of a single 35mm frame. The artistic possibilities are quite endless with this cool camera, and you can even turn your multi-photo sequences into an animation using a tool provided on the Lomography website.
• Just the other day I said to Rob, "There will be a day when your iPod will look clunky." That day has arrived.
  

::dibleyness::

• What's in your Netflix queue? Rather than plop our buns down each evening in front of the cable box we'll be transitioning mainly to Netflix as our source for viewing entertainment (still plopping our buns down of course so not quite sure what I was getting at there). In our queue is...

• A little hope for the journey: "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." 2 Cor. 4:17.
  
• Who is betatester and what have you done with my h&b?

::mix it with applesauce::

Want your kids to eat spinach?
Cut up fresh spinach ultra fine (taking special care to ensure there's no ecoli scare about) and stir in one tablespoon of applesauce of your choice.

::aroma di roma::

Happy 2007!
It was fun to spend the morning at our old stomping grounds in Belmont Shore.
So nice to see people we hadn't seen in a while -- since before Leila was born.
We were barely keeping our eyes open but managed to watch the ball drop.
As always, had a blast with Clare, Scott and their boys.
We're getting a lot of beach time in -- yet another sand romp today.
Why do I post so many photos on every blog? I know I'm extremely visual. Perhaps that's part of it. Another big reason is that Rob's mum (who lives in England) just got her first computer (Hi Bet). Naturally, we'll be posting many shots for her benefit. Then again parents, do we need a reason to show off our kiddies? Not likely.

I chose to use the term "commitments" rather than resolutions. Thanks to Felicia for the insightful look at habits and making New Year habits that stick. So here for the world to see, I'm committed to...

1. Buying myself nothing this year (don't gasp, yes it's revolutionary and nutso but there are many thoughtout reasons for doing this). Firstly, I spend entirely too much money. Secondly, I have way to much stuff, far more than I could ever use and frankly, I would like to remind myself what it's like to not just run out and get whatever I need. It's about self-control and not losing focus.
   
2. Developing the habit of eating like a french woman (eating for pleasure, not as an obsession or because I've waited too long to plan dinner and am ravenous).
3. Developing the habit of keeping my calm when the children whine, draw on the walls, spill sticky juice or wreak general havok in our lives.
4. Develop the habit of growing closer to understanding the revolution of my King.
5. Read all books by John Eldridge.
   
6. Develop the habit of working out.
7. Develop the habit of understanding photography.
8. Have all videos uploaded onto bliptv.
9. Have both children's baby albums finished.
   

Miscellaneous shots not related whatsoever to any of the above...