We just got some new photos from our family in Spain… Our nephew J.D. is now 1 year, 3 months, and 19 days old.. He is growing up far too quickly! Where did he get all that blond hair?
Just a few things I am loving right now, elsewhere on the internet…
1. I remember riding my sister’s bicycle when I was a kid, it was pink and white and had a banana seat. It also had sparkly streamers that hung off the handlebars (which, if you ask my sister, she will say that I ruined them/tore them off/ripped them apart, something to that affect). I am not a bicycle rider, per say, unless it is stationary, as in doesn’t move, as in located in my living room or a gym. I’m just not very good at balancing on two wheels (I am my mother’s daughter after all). BUT, if I did ride a bicycle then I would definitely have to have a stylish helmet (I mean, seriously), and this is where I would buy it from!
2. Every fall season I start daydreaming (and drooling, usually) about all the sweaters I would like to add to my wardrobe. This is one that I have definitely been drooling over, this was of course after I picked myself up off the floor after seeing the price tag! Hello cuteness!
3. If you are looking for something clever or quirky to get for a gift for like say, someone who has everything? Just head on over to the Curiosity Shoppe. They seriously have anything and everything you would want to bestow upon your besties, your Mom and even your dog! I am in love with the apple sweater! That’s right, it’s a sweater…for your apple. Brilliant.
4. Last, but certainly not least – GIVEAWAYS! Who doesn’t love something free?? I have recently learned of this site Give Away Today and now it’s on my daily check list to see what it is I can possibly win! Every day they give something away from another online site and you can post a comment as your way of entering the drawing. It’s so easy! Just go to the site every day, read the instructions and then enter! Just be sure to check back the following day to see if you’ve won because you only have 24 hours to contact them after they post your name as the winner. They don’t contact you, it’s up to you to pay attention. (I know I should be selfish and not share this, so my chances of winning are greater, but that’s just rude)…. so what are you waiting for – check it out!
I hope you are all having a great week!
xoxo
*image courtesy of www.nataliedee.com, altered by me to be less offensive.
As Mark was wrapping the leftover pizza up in wax paper, because we are currently out of tin foil, it made him ask the question “I wonder if wax people would be better for the environment and we should quit using aluminum foil. Is aluminum foil degradable?” So I googled it. Turns out that it is “100 percent recyclable and can be reworked indefinitely, without degrading its quality” (planetgreen.discovery.com)
And here’s another interesting tidbit of information for your amusement: Obtained from the same source above, “Fun fact: Americans toss out enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet, according to the Aluminum Association.”
Wow. That’s a lot of tin foil.
Maybe I will let myself have coffee just on Saturdays...
Oh I’m so glad it’s almost the weekend! But I would like to share the week’s recap:
This week I started a no caffeine regimen. Yes it is true, I have not had a drop of caffeine this week. I have stayed away from caffeinated sodas (Yay for Sprite!) and I have had zero o’coffee (Yay for herbal tea!) . I finally realized that the reality is, well, I admit… I, am a caffeine addict. I can drink coffee all day long, right up to bedtime and still sleep just fine at night. This has convinced me that I have built up such a tolerance to caffeine that it doesn’t even affect me anymore. So I am curious to see how my body handles it without it. So far the headaches have been the biggest annoyance, but I’m sure those will work themselves out soon enough. Otherwise, I feel great!
Our week started out a little shaky with Claire getting on the school bus only to find out that there was no school that day! Wha? Yes, so after she tried calling me and didn’t get an answer (because I am not used to receiving phone calls as soon as I drop her off at the bus stop so my phone was silently shaking inside my purse) she had to wait at the school. Fortunately it was a “teacher work day” so there were people there to let her in the lobby. She hung out with a few other classmates who’s parents also apparently, didn’t pay attention to the calendar (why does this word always look misspelled to me?) until I could get there. And then she spent the rest of the day at work with me!
On Tuesday our friends Mike and Sophia dropped by for a quick moment and Claire and I got to meet their uber cute little boy named Jake, He’s a doll, let me tell you! Talk about the sweetest brown eyes! They are currently residing at the beach so we hope to get out and see them very soon. It made me realize that as a family, we did not get to the beach AT ALL in 2009. That’s terrible! Especially since we live just an hour away. It had everything to do with the all-consuming wedding planning that was happening between February and August. I have high hopes to better our record this year!
Wednesday brought us a gigantic box full of great things from our sister-in-law and nephew in Spain! Hola! I wish I knew more spanish than that, but sadly I do not. Yolanda sent us some wonderful things such as bathrobes for all of us except Veda (which was perfect because we had already gifted Veda with one for Christmas), a blanket, slippers, an awesome knit hat, gloves for the girls and delicious looking Spanish candies! Veda snuggled up in her blanket, the rest of us put on our bathrobes and Claire and I were determined to learn Spanish, one candy at a time. (Did you know Manteca de cerdo means lard?).
Thanks Yolanda and J.D. !! (Sorry the photos are so grainy, this is what an Iphone 3G gets you!)
On Thursday I fulfilled my civic duty by sitting in a room with strangers as we waited to see if we’d get chosen for a jury. And as you read above, I was there, with no yummy warm drink to comfort me! I know, right! Sad. I checked in at 7:50am that morning and took my seat. Isn’t it interesting how people really like their personal space? There were about a hundred people there, and not a single person was sitting directly next to someone else. There were empty chairs separating us, as if we were afraid of closeness. And heck, maybe some of them were. I myself chose to sit where there was no one else, only later to move to the couches side by side with a woman because the other chairs were killing my buns (forgive me for being so crass)! At about 11:30am the County woman got on the microphone and started announcing names, and mine was one of them. Now, please understand, I have bought a few lottery tickets, and many many raffle tickets over the years and I cannot recall a single time where I actually won. So to hear my name called was really awesome! I was very excited about this! They dismissed about 2/3 of us and then at noon gave the remainder of us an hour and a half lunch break. My sister works downtown so I called her up and we met for some lunch. It was pretty sweet, I wish I could do that on a weekly basis, but I work in Hillsboro and that just doesn’t make good sense. After lunch I remained sitting in that room, on the couch, watching my phone battery dwindle away, until 4pm when they again announced that the rest of us would not be needed today and we could go home. And that was my first jury duty experience. I’m good for two years.
And here we are, it’s finally Friday! The Blazers are on the TV right now, hopefully about to win against the Lakers for the 9th consecutive time at home. Mark is playing his guitar and singing while I sit here and type this post. He is a beautiful musician and tragically modest so I’m afraid I won’t be announcing any shows anytime soon. I still haven’t seen him do karaoke by himself, one of these days though. It’s not as if he’s seen me do karaoke, since I have yet to take that plunge. This weekend the girls are with their other parental units, so I drove Claire to Hood River to meet her Dad and the roads were a bit hairy. It was really windy from Troutdale to Cascade Locks, and then a police car entered onto the freeway so I knew we were about to drive up on an accident. Which we did, and there were an ambulance and fire trucks and police. I could only see two vehicles, and hopefully nobody was seriously injured. There was a lot of rain happening, and standing water on the road. I was very thankful to get to Hood River. The drive home was not so bad, and Claire called when she arrived at her Dad’s. So all is well!
I am excited for the weekend! Tomorrow I’m going to meet my Mom to see the movie It’s Complicated, and then we Ritchie’s have a lot of tasks around the house to get done. I feel like it will be a very productive one and I will definitely share some pictures. I also plan to create a format for the blog. I’m thinking I’d like to have regularly scheduled posts, like themes for each day. For example, Arts and Crafts (which will show what crafty things we made this week), Kids Say the Funniest Stuff! (which will list some hilarity spewed by our children throughout the week, because quite frankly, they are hilarious)… and so on. I don’t know, still playing around with the idea.
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment – and we’ll talk to you soon!
xoxo
Forgive me friends, for it has been … 14 days … since my last post! Woah! Shame on me! It has been perhaps because of the busy holidays, okay yep that’s what it was. I just thought I would check in quickly, so this won’t be a long one, to let you know that we are doing well in the new year and are ready to tackle whatever 2010 has to bring us!
We are readying our house for some dining with the folks this evening. Mark hauled out the Christmas tree and I took down all the decorations. Then we proceeded to vacuum all the thousands of pine needles, and mop up the water from the tree stand (whoops!). My Dad and stepmom are flying out tomorrow with my Aunt and Uncle to go spend a week in sunny Kauai (that is a lot of vowels right there). So we are having them over for a send off dinner.
We had a great New Year’s eve party, this was our third annual gathering and we love the fun of hosting! Our friends are super amazing so the party never requires picking up any broken furniture or repairing broken windows (with the exception of the bathroom towel bar last year, but it went back together nicely).
Here is a picture for my friend Kira, who was not able to attend but inquired about my planetary tights that I had purchased for the occasion. (Our theme was “2010: the Year we Made Contact” this year):
there I am, in my planet tights, and yes those are slippers on my feet - I figured the hostess should at least get to wear comfy shoes right? Even though they were not space related. Except they are a little moon-bootish.. but that's reaching a bit..
Here are some more photos from the evening or if you are on facebook you can check out the album there!
My beautiful friend Leah and I cheers to the New Year! (that's the sun right above our heads, luckily nobody got a sunburn in the making of this photo)
Our schnazzy solar system on the ceiling!
We called them "Dweebo" - Mike, Mark, George, Scott & Eddie
Myself, Constance and Sophia
Julie and I
Mark and Eddie
Dear friends, Happy New Year! Love, Mr. & Mrs. Ritchie
Have a wonderful start to your New Year, I’ll be in touch soon!
xoxo
