Life, Love, and Veggies

Monday, March 16, 2009

Boxes, boxes and more boxes

I know many of you think we have fallen off the face of the earth. We haven't. We are still here. I promise. Just trying to make sense of how we got so much stuff and where we should put all of it. Life is approaching normalcy. I can just feel it. Our computer has finally made it to the desk! It's previous spot was on the living room floor. Typing is a lot more comfortable at a desk! Our TV has finally made it to the TV stand (we found the hardware for it. yeah!!!) instead of it's previous spot on a storage tub. We still have so many boxes, though. It's incredible. I think they are multiplying. I'm just waiting for a dream where the boxes are chasing me.

We miss our friends and life in California. I so miss the community. I keep waiting for OSC to come and welcome me to Meridian and for my neighbors to bring me cookies. Stephen and I have both been calling housing maintenance but no answer. And Olivia keeps wanting to walk to the park. What do you mean we can't walk to the park? Poor thing.

We definitely had our doubts about this neighborhood and our neighbors. We have yet to meet our immediate neighbors but we have had several sightings. We have heard our next door neighboor is deaf. We saw her checking the mail while smoking a cigarette in her PJs (it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon). Then we heard her screaming at the dog. I can't repeat what she said. I had to cover Olivia's ears. Oh, dear.

Things have improved since that day. We found that 10 steps from our house down a side street is what we have coined "Mansionville"!!!! Wow. The houses are amazing! I just know they have butlers and chauffeurs. The rest of the neighborhoods are nice, working class and hilly! I had no idea Meridian was going to be this hilly. I like it.

We found an awesome area on Saturday called Bonita Lakes. They have nice paved walkways around one of the lakes and have hiking and biking. Right up our alley! Yeah! The best part about it is the park. I'm telling you it is the coolest park I've ever been to. It's brand new! I'm sure we will be at that park all the time!

We also went to our new church and met some really nice people. We had connections with most of the members, so it was fun! I'm looking forward to singing in the choir and getting Olivia into Sunday School, next week. I love that our church is 5 minutes from our house. What a blessing!

What I was most concerned with when we first got here was where to find good produce!!! Thankfully we are 5 min away from a pretty nice grocery store. They had some Amy's food, almond milk, and tofu. I was impressed. The produce is good. Definitely better than the Piggly Wiggly. There is also a farmer's market downtown that I am looking forward to. I'm sure it will get started in a few months.

Stephen gets sworn into the MS Air National Guard, today. We have heard that he will be flying the MC-12. Please, keep us in your prayers, as we still aren't sure how much work he will be getting. We have faith that God will provide. We are so thankful for our nice house, the people we have met, so far, and for being so close to family!!! It's awesome!

Once we get the printer set up, I can share some pictures. So long for now! I'm off to go through more boxes. :-)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Whole Foods to Piggly Wiggly

Well, Olivia and I have made it to the south. I could have told you that just by listening to the people around me. The accents and sayings take a little while to get used to when we come back to MS.

Here are a few funny sayings and interesting things we've run into so far...

I'm drunker than Cooter Brown! (I won't reveal who said this. It's not a family member.)
My stars! (If you put your right hand on your chest and draw out "stars" a little bit, you'll have it.)
Heaven's to Betsy! (I have no idea who Betsy is but she's always a part of this expressive saying.)
"Ya'll" magazine for Southerners (I couldn't help but check this magazine out at Books-a- Million. I had to read the article on Collards. No recipes fit the bill for me. I try to stay away from ham hocks, salt pork, and meaty ham bones.)

It's good to be around family and weird to be in Jackson when there isn't a holiday or special event. I'm ready to get settled and have a routine, again. Stephen is still making his way across the country. Charlie is apparently going stir crazy. He ate Stephen's shoe, last night. If you see a one shoed man driving a Pacifica with a U haul trailer, a cat meowing his head off, and a dog running outside the car....that's Stephen and his gang of wild animals. I'll have the beer waiting for you, honey!

FYI: The closest grocery store to our house in Meridian is a Piggly Wiggly.

Off he goes into the wild blue yonder!

Stephen has always dreamed of flying in a fighter plane. His wish came true during our last week at Beale. He flew in a T-38 trainer that the U-2 pilots use at Beale. It was an awesome experience for him. I'm so happy he got to do it!

From New Album 2/18/09 2:14 PM

Alcatraz

From New Album 2/18/09 2:14 PM

The night before his flight, Stephen let Olivia try on his old flight school helmet. She thought it was really cool!

From New Album 2/18/09 2:14 PM

Our last...

As soon as we found out we were moving, we started saying, "This is our last...time to eat at Zakuro, to go to church, to go to gymnastics, etc." A big last time moment was our last trip to San Francisco. We probably went to San Fran more times than anywhere else in California. We got to know our way around town pretty well. We knew where to park, where to stay, where to eat. Every trip there was always more to explore.

One of our favorite spots was Crissy Field. It is a part of the Presidio and used to be a landing strip. It's right on the water and right next to Golden Gate Bridge. What a beautiful place!!! We really wanted to have Charlie experience our favorite spot, so we took our last trip to San Fran with our good friends Michelle, Joseph, and Michelle's mom. Oh yeah, and of course, Blue was there to enjoy the romp with Charlie.

Besides the warning ticket we got for being in the wrong spot with dogs off leash (oops!), the trip was awesome. We will miss you San Francisco!

From New Album 2/1/09 6:49 PM

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Angela's cake

Here are some pictures of a cake I made for my friend, Angela. Her baby shower was this morning. I wanted the cake to coordinate with Angela's decor in her baby room. I think it turned out well. She paid me the best compliment by saying that she could put the cake right into the baby room and it would go perfectly. She used grey/silver and pink colors and the style is antiquey and modern. The grey/silver accents I was planning didn't turn out but I actually like it better than what I had planned. The cake was vanilla (using yummy real vanilla from my friend, Melissa). The layers were filled with raspberry buttercream and fresh raspberries. Fluffy white buttercream covered the outside. It was yum yum yummy!!!

From New Album 2/19/09 12:15 PM

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Not this time...

We can put a close to this cycle, now. My numbers didn't double like they were supposed to. It's very disappointing. We are still glad we did IVF and we'll be coming back to California for our frozen embryos. Thank you so much for all the prayers, love, and support. We can't tell you how much it means to us to have so many people praying for us. Thank you!

I've decided that this whole fertility experience is like a concert. We bought the tickets, ate a great dinner, took great care in getting ourselves ready, got to the show early, sat in our great seats...it's showtime...the curtains open, the crowd cheers, and there's an empty stage, no one's there, the band didn't show up. The curtains close, lights come up, we hang our heads in disappointment, walk out to our car and say better luck, next time. Next door, is another arena where we see people coming out of their concert with huge smiles on their faces and autographed souvenirs, they got to meet the band. We sit in our cars and wonder what went wrong, then we drive home hopeful that the next time we go to a concert the band will show up.

We don't understand all of this, yet. We trust in God and know that He sees the whole picture. We will be strong, take heart, and wait for the Lord.

On the lighter side...many of you know that I have been following a fertility diet recommended by my doctor. Olivia is very familiar with the "rules" of the diet and frequently let's me know when I am not following them. For the past 2 1/2 weeks I followed the diet very strictly, until last night, I had a small sliver of bread. So, we were walking Charlie, today, and I told Olivia I was sad because I didn't have a baby in my tummy. She said with complete honesty, "Ummm, I think it was because you ate the bread, last night, Mommy." She made me laugh so hard.

Stephen and I have always wanted to adopt a baby. We will start pursuing that option, this year. If any of you know any pregnant mothers that are looking for an adoptive family, we would lovingly welcome that baby into our hearts and our home.

Thank you, again, for all your prayers.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day!

When I asked Olivia a few days ago what she wanted to do on Valentine's Day, she said, "I want to hang out together as a family, enjoy eachother, love eachother, go for a hike...things like that." She cracks me up sometimes. She got her wish. We enjoyed a wonderful day together as a family. We got to eat some yummy food at our favorite sushi place, Zakuro. We hope that everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!