Practice makes perfect?

I decided that Lillian was going to be the Morton's salt girl for Halloween. All she needed was a bright yellow dress, white tights, yellow shoes, and an umbrella. I'm a pioneer woman, I can sew a dress, right? I've sewed before.


This dress turned out alright, except it's gigantic. The last things I sewed for Lillian, I made when she was a baby, which makes for easy sewing and fitting. She can't go anywhere and doesn't mind staring into space while I work the machine.


This one I had to work on only while she was napping. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out except for a few minor flaws (the pleats don't really line up on the front and I screwed up on one of the sleeves in the back), except I couldn't size it to her. While sewing, I compared it to one of her existing dresses so the sleeves and the hem are the appropriate length. Otherwise, it's a potato sack.


Good thing she's the cutest sack of potatoes I've ever seen.

Pima Air and Space Museum

We ventured out to the Pima Air and Space Museum a few weekends ago. We took this biplane to get there. Lillian flew.


This is a hobby plane that you can order in a kit. After sitting in it and manipulating all the controls, it reminds me of the inside of mom's piano: held together with shoelaces. And, I'm not entirely sure I want to be up at any distance off the ground with nothing between me and certain death besides shoelaces. So, we won't be buying one of these.


Tyler's an aerospace engineer, so I've heard a few things about airplanes. Above is an engine from an SR-71, what Tyler always described as a "super-secret, super-fast spy plane." (Pictured below) I guess there are only a few in existence... six maybe? He was really excited, talking all about how fast they are, telling me they go mach whatever, explaining to me about how the engine works and how it's essentially a big supercharger. It's pretty interesting, but I'm not an aerospace engineer, so I wasn't really impressed...


... until I saw this plaque. I can't really comprehend how fast mach whatever is but 67 minutes, 54 seconds to cross the whole United States is really, really fast. I couldn't believe it. I called Tyler over so he could look at this and be impressed. He got that look on his face that I assume all husbands get when talking to their wives about things like this (and wives get when talking to their husbands when talking about other things, like when I had to explain to Tyler that if the baby looks like she's going to poop in the tub, take her out and sit her on the toilet) and he says, "What do you think I've been talking about? How fast did you think mach whatever is?" (Wikipedia says they go mach 3, so that's probably what Tyler said.) At any rate... wow, mach 3 is fast.

Kartchner Caverns and Tombstone

Over Labor Day Weekend we decided to drive down to Kartcher Caverns and Tombstone. This is a picture of the largest insect I've ever seen. It's called a Horse Lubber Grasshopper and it was easily the size of a small child.


Perhaps to accommodate the size of the grasshoppers, the people at Kartchner Caverns offer extra-wide parking spaces. I was so impressed, I took a picture.

I don't know what it is about the pregnant body, but I always look like I'm slouching. I even made a mental note to stand up straight right before Tyler took this picture. Perhaps he took it during the time after my brain decided to look poised and before my shoulders responded.

Tyler wanted to take this picture to show that not all of Arizona looks like a dustbowl. It was actually quite pretty here. The caverns were just down a hole, and you're not allowed to take any pictures inside, hence why we don't have any. The pictures probably wouldn't have turned out anyway because they keep the lighting really low so as not to dry up the moisture in the caves. They weren't as big as I remember the Mt. Timponogas caves are (but I haven't been in those for probably 12 years, and you know how big things look when you're young.) Not as big, but still impressive.

Tombstone was less impressive than I had hoped. I think I would have liked it a lot more if I didn't have a cranky two year old who was hankering for a nap in her own bed. We also forgot our Frommers, so I couldn't remember what I had planned for us to do. Below is a picture of me in a saloon pretending to be one of the Earp brothers (the one with the big mustache).

By the time we found the O.K. Corral (you'd think there would be more signs pointing to it), Lillian had pretty much had it. The wall right there closes up the alley where the famous shoot out actually happened and you have to pay money to go see a live reinactmet. I was all for it, but Lillian had other ideas about what she wanted to do with her time.

Hey baby

World, meet Laura Allison. Laura, meet the world.

Nephi's Boat

Tyler was reading "My First Book of Mormon Stories" to Lillian and they got to the page about Nephi building a boat. This is how he sang it:

The Lord commanded Nephi to go and build a boat
Nephi's lousy brothers told him it would not float
Laman and Lemuel just wou-ld not help out
Nephi was industrious, and this is what he shout(ed):

Chorus as usual.

Tyler's memory for words to songs is not so hot, but it's always funny.

Angel Hair Pasta with Tomatoes, Pine Nuts, & Basil

I like making a meat-less dinner once a week or so (not counting when I don't feel like cooking and we eat grilled cheese sandwiches). I'd been eyeing this recipe for a long time, but I was always turned off by how much pine nuts cost. But I did it and it was so super yummy and it made a lot: enough for us to eat it two nights in a row (and me to eat it for lunch on the second day).

Ingredients:
1/4 c EVOO
1/2 c pine nuts
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 6-oz jars marinated artichoke
1/4 c red wine vinegar
1/2 c chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
one package angel hair pasta, cooked
Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Add pine nuts and saute until light brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. (They're not joking on the 2 minutes, don't walk away from the stove. I walked away to help Lillian turn on the Wiggles, and by the time I came back, mine had slightly burned.) Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes, artichoke hearts, vinegar, basil, and oregano. Heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Add cooked pasta to tomato mixture in skillet and toss thoroughly. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

Serves: 5 adults and one child who eats like a bird.

Mmmm, mmmm. So yummy.

Monsoon

Wednesday evening began like so many others here in Tucson. On this night, we ate dinner, and then went to the bookstore. Around eight o'clock, we made our way back home and noticed thunder and lightening way off over the mountains. This is not that uncommon and happens probably four nights out of the week. The evening news says there's a flash flood warning, but there's always a flash flood warning, and it's not even raining. As we're going about putting Lillian to bed, I hear something like knocking on the window. I look out and it's rain mixed with hail. Soon, the wind picks up and is blowing so hard, it's making all the windows shudder and rattling the blinds.


The thunder is really loud and Lillian's starting to cry. Tyler tells her everything is alright and puts her in the bath. Five minutes later, the lights go out. And stay out. Lillian is freaking out, I'm thinking, "Great, another bad bath memory," and Tyler is stumbling around trying to find a flashlight.


As Mom says "Big rain: little rain, Little rain: big rain," (meaning that if the rain comes hard and fast, it won't last very long, but if it is drizzly and light, it will hang around awhile) so the rain stopped after maybe two hours. But it for sure left it's mark. In the picture below on the left, there used to be two trees standing close together. You can see one is still standing, right next to it, what looks like a bush, is actually the bottom of the tree, uprooted, with some branches covering the roots.


We didn't get power back until after dinner on Thursday night. I was dreading not having air conditioning, but it didn't get that hot in our house. Lillian was devastated that there was no "Little Eimsteims" to be had all day long. We saved most of our food as the power company set up a booth to hand out free ice. I'm not sure about the eggs though: with the ice in the fridge, the moisture content of the air went up, and then when the power came back on, everything froze. Including the eggs. I haven't cracked one open yet, but I'm scared. Mom and Allison thought they'd probably be OK, but I'm not convinced.


We had to climb our way out to take Tyler to work. They've mostly got it all cleaned up. There were a lot of birds in the trees that got booted out and/or injured in the storm. The neighbor's dogs got out and made short work of them, much to my neighbor's VERY vocal protestations.

Reid Park Zoo

This zoo is pretty small, but it's pretty cool. We got there just in time to be able to feed the giraffes. Tyler tried to make Lillian do it, but she freaked out and threw her giraffe treat on the ground. You can tell she loved every minute of the experience.

There's a polar bear in the background. This was easily Lillian's favorite exhibits. It had everything you could want: water, a waterfall, a polar bear, and at least 30 feet and double-plated Plexiglas between her and the animals.

That's Tyler's head in the corner. The tiger paced back and forth in front of this window maybe 10 times. And then it peed on us. Well, it peed on the window, but the intent was there. Below is a video of Pip, the vulture. As the handler explained to us, they were working with Pip to try to teach him to fly from person to person, but as Tucson is very hot, they didn't want to dehydrate the poor thing. So, as vultures do quite a bit of hopping around on the ground in the wild, they thought they'd try teaching him to hop over a stick. It worked out so well... they couldn't stop themselves.

Drowning in boredom

I don't know why my friend-making efforts have all crashed and burned. I mean, who wouldn't want to be friends with me? I've tried talking to people at church, in the complex, and I even failed at trying to join the local mom's club. I was complaining to my friend Candie (on the phone) how I feel like I'm running a failing restaurant and I can't seem to make people come eat no matter how much I advertise how fabulous the parmesan chicken is. She suggested I should have a slogan like "Amanda... she's funny." That was just her first try, I'm sure we could come up with something punchier. (Myriah, I'm looking in your direction)


I was ready to lose my mind what with being Lillian's sole entertainment and all, so I called mom who's always got good ideas on how to keep two-year-old hands busy.


Tyler told me this morning that he was out of shaving cream. I pretended I didn't know anything about it.

By the way, my legs are still so itchy I don't even want to talk about it. Plus, yesterday, I got five new bites on my ankles and some on my arms. Where are these bugs coming from?

So much worse

Regardless of the fact that my legs still didn't photograph well, I wanted to get across how much worse my bites look (and feel). They itch so bad!!! Last night, I took a colloid oatmeal bath and have been alternating calamine lotion and betamethasone (which is like prescription cortisone-10).

Does anyone have any other ideas as to how to get the itch out?

Something bit me

We went to the park last night, and only at one point did I feel something bite my leg. Turns out it happened 21 times on my left leg and 38 times on my right leg. They don't show up very well in the pictures. (Perhaps my legs on the whole did not photograph well...) Neither Tyler nor Lillian have any bites, those jerks.

This is a lovely room of death

Last weekend, we tried to go to the zoo, but accidentally stopped too early at the museum of natural history. Lillian was freaking out because she didn't want to be in the car anymore, so we decided to go there instead. It was mostly all taxidermied animals. They were all posed very realistically and it scared Lillian. Mostly, I wouldn't recommend this stop. It reminded me of that scene in Ace Ventura 2 where he walks in to the bad guys trophy room and there's all these stuffed game animals and he comments, "My, this is a lovely room of death."

Things I did and didn't expect

Things I expected about Tucson, which are true:

• It's hot. This past week, the high has been over 100 or about there every day. While it's true that doesn't quite feel 102 degrees because it's "a dry heat," it just means it feels like 95 degrees.
• It's very spread out. "Sprawling" is the word they use around here. This is very different than San Luis where I walked everywhere I wanted to go. Here, everything is 10 miles away and I've driven more in the past two weeks than I have in the past two months.
• Gas is cheap. Without all the California taxes, gas is about a dollar or so less per gallon than I'm used to paying.

Things I didn't expect:

• The surprising number of people who could be nominated for TLC's "What Not to Wear." Now, I've never really considered myself all that fashion forward, and I've never really been one to care all that much about what people wear, but, I have seen more people in sweatpants and oversized shirts at the grocery store than I care to count. We took Lillian to the library this morning where a lady from the zoo brought some animals and a woman was there in boxer shorts. Really? Boxer shorts? (I didn't stare too much because the boxer shorts outfit may or may not have been the only outfit she owned. However, I wouldn't have been surprised it she owned many like outfits and wore them all the time.)
• Various unexpected sequelae resulting from living in "a red state." People who lived here told us the state was very conservative. I assumed that meant that people here didn't want the government to fluoridate their water. What they actually meant, I assume, was that it is almost requisite that one gets a prominent tattoo, smoke, and not recycle. In my apartment complex, I can't even choose not to recycle... they just don't have the service.
  
• Not to be too harsh on the Tucsonians, I'll mention the spectacular sunsets they have here. I mean, I knew that desert sunsets were famously beautiful, but night after night, they are simply breathtaking.
  

Bathtime

As you may remember, Lillian hates the bath. So, we (meaning Tyler as he's in charge of baths around here) are always trying to come up with new ways to make Lillian like getting her head wet.


I think she was more shocked than amused.

Cayucos Beach

Since Tonya couldn't come to our graduation party, she came out with her kids the weekend before. We went out to Cayucos beach and later went to the Sea Shanty for some ice cream.


It was freezing cold (as is the tradition in Cayucos) and those Fresno kids had a hard time adjusting.


Lillian and Aiden had a good time collecting rocks though.

Flying Saucer

We've finally got our desktop computer all set up and I've found the cord that connects the camera to the computer. I've about a month's worth of pictures and things to post, so I'll try to post them in chronological order.

This video is from June, probably, and it takes place in our apartment in SLO. She got this chair when she was very small (like 3 months old) to help her sit upright. I put it away in the closet when she could sit up on her own. Then, when she could walk, she kept dragging it out of the closet, so it just stayed out. Right before this video was taken, Tyler had put her in the chair and was lifting it up and making her fly around. After he tired out, Lillian wanted the game to continue, so she put that shoe in there and was making it fly around. Please note the flying sound effects.

The "bug, spider" comment at the end comes from a few days previous when we were at the bank. The teller reached down and pulled a tiny bug from Lillian's hair. Lillian freaked out. For the next week, she was convinced she was covered in bugs and that every freckle on my arms was a spider. Tyler has a small mole on one of his temples and Lillian found it and called him Bugface for a few days, a name which Tyler did not appreciate.

Peppered Pork Medallions in Tangy Mushroom Sauce

I'm always looking for easy/fast/healthy recipes and I got this one from "The Best Life Diet" cookbook. Super good and super fast.

Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin (1-1 1/4 lb), cut into 1/2-inch slices (I used pork chops because the only pork tenderloin I could find at the grocery store was teriyaki flavored)
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
8 oz fresh quartered mushrooms (I tried to quarter my mushrooms while the meat was cooking, and I was a little frazzled because the meat cooks so fast... so do this ahead of time)

(If serving over brown rice, get that going first. I always forget to start the rice and then we end up eating white rice because it cooks faster.)
1. Sprinkle both sides of pork slices with pepper and salt. In 10-in skillet, heat 2 tsp oil over med heat. Add pork; cook 3-5 minutes, turning once, until browned.
2. In a small bowl, mix broth and flour until smooth. Add vinegar. Add broth mixture to skillet with mushrooms and thyme. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and cook 8-10 minutes or until pork is no longer pink in center and mushrooms are tender, stirring occasionally. Serve over brown rice.

This fed me (and I am definitely eating for two) , Tyler, and Lillian who, surprisingly, ate a whole pork chop (she doesn't like meat) with enough for me to eat for lunch today. The cookbook says that one serving is only 200 calories with 60 calories from fat (that's for Allison). That 200 calories probably doesn't include the rice. So yummy.

Going Away Party

I know our graduation/going away party was almost a full month ago... but I've been busy, OK? These are some pictures that my talented and lovely ex-roommate Vivian took. I asked her if Jack had something in his eye or if he was pretending to be a pirate. She wasn't sure.



Bocce ball. I only got to play a few rounds then I had to tend to... whatever.

I've been trying to convince Tyler to buy a bocce ball set for three years now. He was always skeptical of the game; he couldn't see how it could be fun. We played with Myriah's set, and BAM! he was converted.

Arizona

We're here in Arizona! I'll upload pictures as I find the cord that connects the camera to the computer. Our townhouse is really nice and almost twice the size of our apartment in San Luis Obispo. We got in yesterday and since then have been putting away and organizing. After working all day today, it's just now starting to resemble something livable.

It's monsoon season here, so it hasn't been too hot. Today, it topped out at 95 with 50% humidity. The storm is supposed to pass and it will be back up in the 100s by mid-week. Our apartment has air conditioning and there are three pools in the complex, so we'll do our best to keep cool.

The move has been hard on Lillian. First, the transition to staying at Grandma Marti's house without Tyler (who stayed in San Luis Obispo to finish up his thesis work). After being there almost two weeks, she was really beginning to get used to the place, especially with so many cousins to play with. Then we come here, and she freaked out all over again. "Freaked out" is not really an overstatement: there were many tears, much screaming, and many "hold you" requests.

As the dust is settling, we found our new ward and Tyler mapped out his route to work on Monday. So far it has been an adventure.

4th of July

Chin-ken

I'm in the kitchen cutting up chicken for dinner. Lillian comes in and very excitedly starts saying "chinnnn, chinnnnn" and tries to grab my hand. "Chicken?" I guess. "Chinnnn, chinnn" "Yes, I'm cutting up chicken," I say. "I can't hold your hand, my hands are all chicken-y." Frustrated, she exits the kitchen and tries Tyler. "Chinnnnn Chinnnn." He replies, "yes, mom's making chicken." This is not working. She starts sounding desperate, "CHinnnn!" "Uh-huh, chicken."

She changes her tactic. "Wipe," she tells Tyler. ('Wipe' meaning Kleenex.) He reaches over and gets her a Kleenex. She hands it right back to him. "Wipe." "I just gave you a wipe," Tyler says, and tries to give it back. She stamps her foot. "CHINNNNN." At this point, Lillian begins jabbing her finger at Tyler's chin. "You want me to wipe my chin?" Yes. Tyler gives his chin a cursory wipe and hands the Kleenex to Lillian. This is not enough. "Chinnnn," she says and gives the wipe back to him.

Tyler begins to wonder what is going on, and peeks at himself in the mirror. Sure enough, there on his chin is a smear of chocolate left from a chocolate chip cookie he ate 10 minutes ago.

Aw yeah

I've done it again

A long time ago, I all of a sudden couldn't hear out of one of my ears. Turns out, I had something called eustachian tube dysfunction. Who knew there was such a thing? (Besides Caitlin, who, if I remember correctly, had it in both ears around the same time I had it.)

Then again, my ears clogged up and I couldn't hear, but that time, it turned out to be just wax.

Then, you may remember, this last February, I pulled an intercostal which made it really painful to breathe.

And now, to add to my list of strange maladies, last night, I'm pretty sure I pulled my sternohyoid muscle. It was really quite awful and very scary. (Skip the rest of this paragraph if you are squeamish.) Right after I put Lillian to bed, I started feeling queasy. No big deal, I just went and assumed my position in the bathroom. What followed was the most frightening vomiting session that I've ever had. I was heaving so badly that I couldn't breathe, and I was starting to panic so I was trying to call Tyler to save me somehow, but I was choking and couldn't call out and couldn't breathe. It was awful.

When it was safely all over, Tyler rushed in to see if I was OK. (I figured out early on that he wasn't ever going to stand and hold my hair back. Ever.) I was shaken but I was OK except for the fact that it felt like I had something stuck in my throat, like a walnut. This was odd as I had had lentil soup for dinner. I drank some water, but it was still there. I ate a popsicle, but it was still there. Then it started hurting. It hurt to swallow. I started think all sorts of things, like my vitamin from the afternoon and somehow lodged itself in my throat. Or that I had accidentally swallowed a walnut and it was coming back to haunt me. As I was attempting to fall asleep, my ideas got crazier and crazier, like I had torn something and I now had a tracheoesophageal fistula and my stomach contents were spilling into my lungs and I was going to get pneumonia or suffocate by morning. Or I'd imagine I could feel my lodged vitamin slip quietly down my throat and into my stomach. I'd test it by swallowing again. Nope, still there. I had dreams of going to the emergency room and the doctor taking forceps and reaching down my throat to pull out all sorts of things: crayons, a mouse, the cursed vitamin. I talked myself out of anything really serious as I could breathe just fine. I also talked myself out of the vitamin/walnut(/mouse/crayon) theory as I could swallow OK, excepting the pain.

As I was eating my cereal this morning, I decided on the pulled muscle. Having consulted my anatomy book, I've decided on the the sternohyoid. It seems to be at the exact place that it hurts.

Assignments

Our graduation/going away party is still on for the 21st. As everyone sounded willing to help out with the party, I went ahead and made assignments. If you cannot, or don't want to, bring something, please let me know so I can figure something else out. We're expecting around 35 adults and eating children (not children for eating... but children who are going to eat) so this is what Tyler and I came up with:

Marti: s'mores paraphernalia
Dick & Jeri: 2-3 12 packs of soda and 1 thing of juice boxes
Sanchez family: around 25 hot dogs
Plummer family: around 25 hot dogs
Anne & Aaron: around 25 buns
Andrew: around 25 buns
Mark & Darlene: 2-3 12 packs of soda and 1 thing of juice boxes
Claire and assorted Gregorys (Gregories?): Plates and forks
Thomas family: napkins
Liz and guest (Tyler and I think Jacqueline (which is how spell check thinks you should spell her name, but I have no idea) should come): ice
Eastburn family: salad
Mike: salad
Isabelle: salad
Myriah and Tara: staking out the spot

We tried to assign people who were coming out of town stuff that they could get at the store real quick. Also, I guess worrying about not having enough chairs wasn't enough as Tyler is now worried we won't have enough salads, so if you're feeling generous, you could bring a salad too.

Remember: bring your own chairs.

Central Coast

Everyone keeps asking if I'm excited to move to Arizona. I'm excited to be done with school. I'm excited that Tyler will have a grown-up job and we can afford things we have heretofore gone without (like, real health insurance). I'm excited to have a washer and dryer in my house and not down two flights of steps in the car port. I feel OK about Arizona, I'm just really, really sad to leave San Luis Obispo. I was thinking the other day that this is one of the places that people save their whole lives to be able to retire here. The weather is great, it's green for a lot of the year without having too much rain, it's close to the beach, it's close to the mountains. There's outdoorsy things, there's artsy things, the people are really nice, it's got a small-town feeling without really being that small of a town.

Anyway, so I started thinking of Central Coast-type things that I want to do before I left here. The list is pretty short so far:

1. Eat at Sylvester's is Los Osos. Sylvester's is a hole-in-the-wall hamburger place (seriously: it only has four tables, two of which are two seaters) that makes the best hamburgers on the central coast. Aside from the fact they only give you two napkins a piece (the burgers they serve require maybe 20 napkins) so you have to ask for more and the waitress always gives you a dirty look, it's really fabulous. (We ate there for dinner tonight, so I guess I could check this one off.)
2. Visit Big Sur. I've driven through Big Sur, which is about an hour north of here, and looked at the trees and thought, "wow, this is pretty," but have never stopped. Probably, I should go there at least once before I move away.
3. Have/attend a corn feed. This mission will be accomplished in a few weeks.
4. Eat a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie from Cowboy Cookie. You get a sizeable cookie and a glass of milk for $2. And they're the best cookies ever.

I would say "visit Hearst Castle" but I've been there and (sorry Myriah) I thought it was lame. I would also want to go hike Bishop's Peak once more, but Lillian hates the backpack and I can't carry her anyway, and I can't barely even climb the two flights of steps to my apartment, so how am I going to hike a mountain?

Any other ideas?