The Girl

Christmas 2010 – The Movie (trailer)

We drove out to visit Meghan’s family this past Christmas. I had the full intention of making a video as I had previously done.  Unfortunately, I came down with strep throat and even ended up in Urgent Care on Christmas Eve.  I didn’t have enough footage, so I made a trailer about how the movie could have been.

Meghan finds pirate booty

My Little Artists

Reese adores painting.

It’s hard for me.

I like things to stay clean which doesn’t often happen when you let a 3-year-old paint. She asks if she can paint almost daily. I usually refuse. I make up excuses like the fact that she won’t really be able to paint with Zoe around because Zoe will mess it up, or if it’s raining or cold she can’t paint outside which is the only place I allow painting to occur. Still, she is persistent and sometimes I just can’t bear to say “no”.

Especially when this happens:

Yes, that’s Reese…painting out on the back patio…in her underwear…which are on on backwards. That’s real life people!

I left her outside to paint and when I came back she had stripped down to her undies claiming that she didn’t want to get her clothes messy. A girl after my own heart! Why those undies were on backward is beyond me. She can often be found to have at least one article of clothing on backward or inside out these days as she is more and more often in charge of dressing herself. Of course today WOULD be the day that she happens to be wearing her ugly granny panties as opposed to the cute flowered ones.

The next week she really wanted to paint when Zoe was awake and around. I decided to let loose and let them have some fun even though I knew it would result in a mess. I poured paint on a plate and let them have at it with their fingers. I left them to their own devices and when I came back 20 minutes later this is what I found:

Oh to be young again when the funnest thing ever is painting everything from the paper to your face. They had a ball and I let go of my cleanliness complex just a bit.

Slice of Life: We Love Daddy!

Mark is the most amazing Daddy.

Our kids run to the door squealing to greet him with hugs when he gets home.

He is always coming up with fun adventures and activities for the kids.

He makes everything exciting, even something as simple as a new set of pajamas.

He comes up with the best ideas like camping out on the trampoline with Reese in the summer and flying kites, and making pillow mountains.

Zoe especially adores Mark. “Daddy” was her first word and she still says Daddy more often and more clearly than any other word.

He jokes with Reese. They have all kinds of inside jokes about things like dinosaurs. Don’t ask me, I don’t know what that’s about!

Mark is not above changing diapers, making the kids dinner, and taking them to the park all by himself.

These things pay off because our kids simply love him. When I leave them with Dad they know they are in for some fun and they don’t mind me leaving at all.

Mark, I love that our kids love you so.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

It’s quite long, but it gets really good in the last third.  Really good.  Poor Zoe!

Income Inequality

Saddam Hussein’s wealth was suspected of being between 2 and 40 billion dollars while the rest of his nation suffered in poverty. Carlos Slim, currently the wealthiest person in the world at 74 billion, built his throne of money on monopolies in Mexico. That’s the same country that is being absolutely ravaged by a vicious drug war and poverty. Former Egyptian President Mubarak had a fortune of almost 70 billion before he was overthrown from his impoverished nation.

We sit here and gape at that kind of monstrous inequality. It’s simply astounding to us. Yet we’re headed towards the very same thing. The top 1% of earners in America are taking in almost a quarter of the total income. Even more staggering, that top one percent controls 40 percent of the total wealth. The IRS recently published data on the top 400 income earners in the US. This is the story it tells:

Almost a decade ago, Americans were sold on the idea of tax cuts across the board. The lower and middle class would get tax cuts if the rich could get some too. People questioning why the rich needed tax cuts were given excuses such as:

• “They earn more because they contribute more.”
• “If taxes are too high on the rich, they will leave to other countries and we will miss out on their contributions.”
• “The rich lead businesses.  Tax cuts on them will provide job growth.”

A decade later, can we finally dismiss those lines of reasoning as patently ridiculous?   The Heritage Foundation, a conservative “think” tank that helped convince the public of the necessity of the Bush Tax Cuts predicted that the national debt would be paid off by 2010 as a result of those exact tax cuts.  I have news for them:  It didn’t work.

I have heard a few times from people I know who wonder why we have a progressive tax system.  They ask, “Why are the rich taxed at a higher rate than the middle and lower class?  They shoulder a higher burden of taxes that way.”  Of course, that’s not exactly true.  But rather than explain it myself, I’ll leave it to an anonymous internet user:

The Belly Pics

I don’t like having my picture taken when I am pregnant. You will never find photos of me proudly displaying my bump as it grows each week. I hide in the back of group photos when I am pregnant. I don’t enjoy growing larger and do not feel the need to document it any more than a couple of photos here and there just to prove to myself later that I was indeed that large.

Still, I have displayed beautiful maternity photos of myself during each of my pregnancies right here in this blog.

Here is me pregnant with Reese.

Here is me pregnant with Zoe.

I blame Jackie.

Jackie is my friend of 7 years who is starting out in her career as a professional photographer. She was my visiting teacher in my first married ward after Mark and I got hitched. She and I found that we had a mutual love for, but no knowledge about, photography. We used to talk about it every time she and her companion would visit me. It was a complete coincidence that we remained in touch and found ourselves both living in the bay area a few years later.

We have managed to stay friends during lots of crazy times over the last 7 years, and through it all we have both grown as photographers. This year is the year that she is finally launching her own photography business. She has a lot of talent and passion and I can’t wait to see where it takes her.

Thanks to her I have beautiful photos of myself from all three of my pregnancies. She always convinces me to let her take pictures of me and I am always grateful in the end. So maybe it’s a bit vain of me to post photos of myself, but she always makes me look gorgeous even when I feel like a cow.

Here I am, pregnant with baby girl #3 at 34 weeks…

Thanks Jackie, for once again capturing such a special time in my life. Hugs!

Here is her website- go check her out!

Nesting Part 2

The craziness continues around here, though admittedly I am running out of steam. I have started many projects that may or may not get finished before baby makes her appearance in 6 weeks. Mark would tell you differently, citing certain recent events:). I, however, feel my need to change things up slowing down and I am finding myself more and more content with where our house has ended up after all this nesting frenzy.

Last week, though, I decided I could stand one thing no longer. Ever since I painted my $40 craigslist find computer armoire a rustic red last year I have felt like I played it too safe. Red seems to be my fall-back color in decorating. I rest on it because I feel like it’s safe and I know what to do with it. I enjoyed the rich red computer armoire for awhile but felt a bit disappointed with myself that I didn’t take a chance and paint it some version of my favorite teal blue. Lately I have been seeing teal and turquoise turning up in all kinds of decorating that I love. I started thinking about how I could paint the armoire without breaking the bank redecorating the entire room to match, and without breaking my husband’s back having him move it into our garage and back so I could paint it. It all seemed a bit impossible.

Our living room then:

Then one night as I was falling asleep I had a brilliant idea- I didn’t need to move the armoire out of the house at all! I could paint it right in the living room- I just needed to move it out from the wall and put a drop cloth underneath it. I also didn’t need to redecorate the entire room since there was already some blue accents and I could go shopping in our own decorating stash for more. I could even spray paint some existing things I had to fit into the color scheme if needed.I also didn’t need to move everything out of the armoire since I only painted the insides of the doors last time and not the actual inside of the cabinet- it still remains the original white color.

I mulled over this for a few week, even bringing home color swatches to tape to the armoire to get a feel for what it would look like and what color I would pick. I never thought I would actually do it though. I figured it would get added to the list of projects I didn’t finish before baby arrived. Then last Friday arrived and I got a sudden urge to just do it. I went to Home Depot, kids in tow, and purchased what I thought would be the perfect shade of teal. I came home, put the kids down for their naps, and started to get things ready to paint. I immediately ran into some issues.

First- I decided mid-taping that I would do a distressed finish which meant that whatever color I painted the blue over would show through in places, and I did not want that color to be red.

Second, while I could manage in my 7 1/2 month pregnant state to slide the armoire out far enough from the wall, there was no way I was strong enough to lift the legs to arrange a drop cloth underneath. I didn’t want to wait for Mark to get home to help because I was in the zone and by the time he got home I knew I would be out of steam.

The first issue was solved by my hunting up some black paint in our garage that was leftover from another project I will later share with you. I put on a coat of that before the teal and then used a tea light candle to rub some wax on some of the corners and edges that I knew I would later sand to show the black underneath.

The second issue was solved by me getting the tire jack out of the trunk of my car and hoisting up the cabinet to arrange the drop cloth underneath.

Yes, I’m just that crazy.

Painting commenced and after one coat of black and only one coat of teal(I had bought Behr Ultra paint which is a primer and paint in one so it usually only requires one or two coats. It’s a bit pricier but saves a lot of time and extra coats which is what I wanted.) The cabinet was supposedly done.

I studied it for a day as it dried and found I was a bit disappointed. The blue was not exactly how I had envisioned. It turned out a bit more intense blue without as much green undertones as I normally like in my teals. I was sad. I didn’t want to repaint the whole thing again but I wasn’t sure I could live with it the way it was.

After 24 hours I decided to try one more last ditch effort to save myself from another round of painting. I had read somewhere that you can try adding stain over paint for a more distressed look. I decided to give it a try. It helped a bit and after it dried I decided to leave it as it is. I also discovered that part of the problem was not the color but just that I was not used to seeing the armoire that color and it just took some getting used to. Now I am really liking it and enjoying how much it has changed the room all on it’s own.

So here she is, my weekend project:

What do you think? Would you ever paint such a big piece teal blue? Was I crazy to make such a drastic change right now?

A Thousand Apologies

I didn’t choose the music.  An old, frail grandfather attempting to make me cut my ears off with a table saw chose it.  Thanks Baldy.

I suggest muting.