Mamapalooza 2011

Juli arrived late yesterday evening.  The house was looking really good after Olivia came to help us clean it up (Thank GOD for Olivia!).

Mom is excited to do some gardening and specifically to make her daughter's garden "look respectable."  She is so excited just to dig in the dirt... and I all I can say is, "Have at it!"  While she's here, our goals are:

• Plant the vegetable garden and all the raised flower beds.  
• Also plant the flower pots, and fix up the walk ways.  
• I am also hoping to get her to assist me in re-finishing some furniture in the house and do a little touch up sanding and staining/painting, and possibly, if there is time, work on the rocking horse which we are putting in the upstairs landing. 

I know its ambitious for 3.5 days, but no one finishes projects like these quite like my mom does!  I wish she lived closer so we could work on these things more often.  This morning we spent driving around to all the area nurseries for her to check out the available plants.  She's in heaven!

Francie arrives on Saturday.  Once she gets here we will be in full Idaho exploration mode.  I know we'll take a few short hikes and I think we will take them to the Botanical Gardens and maybe out to Eagle to see the town.  And of course there is the fabulous Mother's Day Celebration we've planned for them.  Plus, maybe a night at the Flicks and dinner at Epi's in Meridian is in order.

Juli leaves on Tuesday morning early.  David, Francie and I will spend the day adventuring some more.  Wednesday will be a mother son day as I have to work.  Francie leaves Thursday morning.

Luckily for us, it doesn't take much to entertain our moms they do just fine on their own!

Double-take

I was at the grocery store buying ingredients for David's first day at HP celebratory dinner.  I was tired after a long day at work, and I was in one of those end of the day shopping comas.  I loaded the groceries into the car and started to climb into the driver's seat.  Suddenly the car parked in front of me honked the horn.  Startled and annoyed, I looked up to see this:

Sorry the photos aren't more clear... but I got a good laugh out of the horn blowing driver.

Happy weekend!

xox -A

Good-bye Michael Scott

So, I haven't watched the TV show, The Office that regularly over the years, but in honor of Steve Carrell (Michael Scott) leaving the show, David and I watched it tonight together.

I must say that I thought it was one of the more tasteful TV show exits.  I don't want to give anything away for those of you who may have missed it and are planning to catch it later, so I'll skip over details and say that suddenly I was a sobbing mess.  I was crying like a baby... tissues, red faced and blowing my nose, the works!  David didn't realize it I guess because he got up and went to the bathroom and when he came back minutes later he was like, "What did I miss?!"

Now I have to admit... almost no matter what the show- from Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Alf, to Friends, to Lost and The Office, I ALWAYS cry at the finale.  I think I've even cried at random shows that I've never seen before but suddenly catch the last episode.  I wonder if its something they send through the airwaves... "you must cry and feel sad now."  I think the only show I didn't cry at the finale was Seinfeld, and mainly because it was terrible.  It was so awful that it actually ruined the re-runs for me for a few years after.

Anyway, this is not the finale for The Office, I know, but Steve Carrell is one of the more talented actors around and the show will not be the same without him...

In other news... is anyone getting up at 4 a.m. EST to watch the Royal Wedding live?!

Glee Obsession

"Glee: Season One" has recently been added to Netfix Watch Instantly.  After hearing my mom and my sister-in-law Debbie K. talk about how much they love it, I added it to the queue.  After just one episode, I have to admit, I am a converted "Glee" fanatic... I'm a total GLEEk!

I love it.  David loves it too because of all the great music they perform.  I think my favorite episode was the one where the football team dances to Beyonce.  Besides the fact that its a great song, watching the football team dance like that had me in stitches.  David liked Season One's finale best because they did Journey, and he loved the songs.

What's your favorite Glee Episode?

Easter Dinner

Happy Easter!  

I wanted to attend church today... I go about twice a year (Christmas and Easter).  I'm not sure I identify with any specific religion, although I was raised in the Methodist Church.  I like many of the tenants of Buddhism, but... anyway, I was planning to go to the Episcopal church downtown that I've always wanted to go into, but I didn't make it.

Instead I made a grocery run out to Fred Meyer... and due to a bad bout of Ulcerative Colitis, it took me two hours to get through my grocery list.  When I got home, David had already gone over to our friends' house, and I took my time making Martha Stewart's Scalloped Potatoes with Leeks and Grilled Artichokes, before getting ready and heading over there myself.

There were six of us for dinner.  Rodney, Andrea, Andrea's Brother Brian, our friend Brad, David and me.  Andrea does not like lamb so they cooked a very very delicious turkey and asparagus.  I arrived so late I missed the Bloody Mary's, but I'm not sure my tummy could have handled them anyway.  To finish it all off Rodney made a delicious Almond Cheesecake.

David and I are completely stuffed!  I had planned to take photos of everything, but I completely forgot! Oh well... next time!

No matter what your religion or beliefs, its always nice to come together to celebrate (any occasion) with family and friends.  May you all have a wonderful Easter!

xox -A

Spring Cleaning

As I blogged before, David and I are desperately trying to get our house organized, our yard landscaped, and our vegetable garden planted.  However, David's knee is still not totally healed so its hard to get our big projects finished by myself, but I'm working at it as best I can.

Today we did get one big job finished together this weekend: Organizing the Shed.

We got the cob webs and hornets nests down, swept, and then we put up peg board and organized all of our tools.  I have to say, it looks incredible, see:

These pictures really don't do it justice...

Next weekend we have a huge amount of crap to take to the city dump.  Some of it you can see stacked next to the shed.  I can't wait to get it out of here!  It feels amazing to get things cleaned up.

I wish the grass would grow faster though:

That orange fence is to keep the dog off of it.  It looks so red-neck, but Linus isn't going near it.  I've seeded and mulched and waters and aerated... It actually looked good when we moved here, so I know it grows.  Frustrating!  Any ideas?

xox -A

David's Response

Guest Blogger Alert! My husband David responds to yesterday's blog and the Three Cups of Tea/ Central Asia Institute scandal. Thank you for taking the time and energy to do this D!

Without a doubt, Afghanistan and Pakistan are better places as a result of Greg Mortenson’s efforts there. As a proponent of Mortenson’s thesis that terrorism is best eradicated by creating balanced world views through education I see only a positive world benefit if the Central Asia Institue continues along its present course of school construction in communities where terrorist thinking tends to incubate. However, I also believe that the alleged fiscal liberties Mortenson took while head of the Institute, should they prove true, have hurt the greater cause of humanitarianism.  

Mortenson’s efforts benefited the members of the communities where the schools were built but also softened third world nations’ views of Western democracies’ efforts to improve life in those countries.  The most damaging repercussion of Mortenson’s actions is the reinforcement of the belief that we, as Westerers, are not sincere in our efforts to help; that without the possibility of a financial windfall or some other personal (or national) gain we would have never offered it in the first place - exactly the type of thinking the schools' are purporting to address.

For those of us who contribute to humanitarian causes, if Mortenson is not someone we can believe in, then who is? In the wake of the financial scandals resulting from the Great Recession, the Enron debacle, the golden parachutes handed out to CEOs for driving their companies’ into the ground, and every other very public and unethical hot-button financial scandal that has been regurgitated again and again on the Internet and 24 hour news outlets in the last decade, it is becoming more difficult to find people in visible positions that we can firmly stand behind without waiting for the proverbial balloon to pop. 

Additionally, ask yourself if this story will make people more or less inclined to open their wallets to ANY humanitarian cause. If we are unable to trust the individuals responsible for administering the cause then how can we put our faith in the cause itself?