Amazing Sight

Yesterday morning I saw a Jordan's Furniture delivery truck in front of a house in Lina and Miguel's neighborhood, and a guy jumped out CARRYING A COUCH, BY HIMSELF. He had it on his shoulder and he carried it into the house. It was really amazing!!
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Disney's Desperate Housewives

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Extreme Makeover Toddler Edition

We made the pilgrimage to Snip-Its for Norah's first haircut this week and came home with the obligatory certificate, tearful Polaroid, and bag of hair...all for only $25 including tip. Unfortunately she somewhat spoiled the effect by adding the cut above her left eye to the bruise on her right cheek. The bruise has now healed and been replaced with a split lip. I think we're going to have to go back to calling her "Lumpy" instead of "No-No". The girl's a maniac!!
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Isabel's Baby Billy

Yesterday we had a visit from Aliya's old friend Isabel, her mom and my friend Kelli, and their Baby Billy. He is so adorable! He's a BIG boy and has the most beautiful shade of red hair. Not to worry...I did NOT find myself wishing for another baby in the house. The mere thought of that unpredictable infant period makes me want to run to BJ's for a jumbo pack of Baby-Maybe's. But I digress...we had a great visit and Isabel is due back for a sleepover as soon as Aliya's new room is ready.

Books I've Loved

Right now I'm reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It's GREAT!!! It's tough for me to find reading time these days so I keep sneaking away long enough to read a few pages before somebody tracks me down for another game of Uno. Even if you don't support the instant starmaker called Oprah's Book Club, this book is worth reading. Don't let the subject (cathedral building) scare you off - this book is not just for architects and clergymen. I've already ordered World Without End from Amazon since I have a feeling I'll be sad to see Pillars end.


Other favorites (in random order):

The Glass Castle: A Memoir, Jeannette Walls
Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
Forever: A Novel, Pete Hamill
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Daughter of Fortune, Isabel Allende
Lucia, Lucia, Adriana Trigiani
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
A Million Little Pieces, James Frey
Midwives, Chris Bohjalian
Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Keeping Faith, Jodi Piccoult
The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
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Top Ten!!! The Goods & Services Edition

In random order...

~ IKEA - It is well worth the half-hour drive down to Stoughton to spend a few hours browsing through IKEA. You can even drop your potty-trained kids off in their playroom for 45 minutes! The stuff is stylish and modern, the quality is decent, and the prices are great. We bought a really nice solid wood dresser for our guest room for $179! The food in the cafe is great too!

~ Jordan's Furniture - If you're looking for furniture to last a while, Jordan's has the best furniture, the best service, and the prices are not bad for the quality you get. Their showroom is a fun way to spend an hour or two, with taxi/fire engine strollers, an hourly "show" for the kids, a small snack bar, and thousands of square feet of decorating ideas. If you buy something you get tokens for the candy machines, and a year of credit with no interest.

~ BJ's - I go to BJ's at least once a week and Ben probably goes once a week too. If I make it out of there for less than $100 I draw stares from the other shoppers as I high-five myself. On the bright side, if there's ever a natural disaster you can all come over to our house since we have enough tuna, cereal, and mac&cheese to feed us all for the foreseeable future. If I have any money left after I leave BJ's, I head over to Target.

~ Trader Joe's - For just about everything food-related (and wine!!) that I can't buy at BJ's, I shop at TJ's. Auntie Em (Monica) is a long-time TJ's employee, and Ellen (Degeneres) claims to shop there so it HAS to be good. I love to check out their demos...you can usually get a good dinner idea. One time they gave me the suggestion of serving their lobster bisque (awesome!), "thinned" with heavy cream, over a few lobster raviolis as an appetizer. They told me to cut a few chives on top and it looked so *FAHN-say*.

~ Joe's American Bar & Grill - Conveniently located in Shoppers World, this has become my new favorite casual dining spot. Everything at Joe's is made fresh. They have a great kids' menu and a booklet for the kids to color and do puzzles in. The atmosphere is warm, casual, and not overly loud, even though there are lots of families with kids. For a night out without the kids I like the Melting Pot (ladies' night) and the Oregon Club (date night).

~ Amazon.com - You can buy just about anything on Amazon.com these days, and their one-click service and free freight on $25 orders make it way too easy to overspend. You can even buy articles by yours truly for the low-low price of $5.95 each, with irresistable titles like "Dissecting the Life Safety Code." I'm still waiting for my first royalty check.

~ eBay - Anything I can't find on Amazon.com eventually shows up on eBay. Again, way too easy to blow the budget on out-of-print books and my discontinued china pattern. I know it's only a matter of time before I buy something and the seller turns out to be Lana.

~ J. Jill - Really, the only place I shop for clothes. Well, when I used to shop for clothes anyway. At the end of each pregnancy I made an emergency run to J. Jill for some baggy clothes to wear postpartum. I'm still wearing them.

~ Alpha Dog K9 Training - Although Alpha-Dog has limited appeal (you have to own a dog), we couldn't live without Christina and the rest of the trainers there. They have been so helpful with Zoe and Annie, and I highly recommend them for obedience training, fun stuff like Agility, Rally-O and Flyball, and specialized classes like NEADS (National Education for Assistance Dog Services) and TDI (Therapy Dogs International). Christina is even testing the use of a digestive enzyme to keep dogs from eating poopsicles. Woohooooooo!!! Annie recently graduated from the Puppy Kindergarten class and will be starting Beginner Obedience soon.

February NMR's

My New Months' Resolutions for January worked out great!! I've been looking forward to February so I can add some new good habits.

~ Get one monkey off my back every day. This can be a form that needs to be filled out, a bill waiting to be paid, or an email that's overdue for a response (or anything else that's bugging me!).

~ Declutter for 15 minutes per day. I can do anything for 15 minutes. It may take me a whole year of 15-minute decluttering sessions but hopefully I'll eventually see some progress.

~ Think about what I'm eating. I just bought a book called "Eat This, Not That!". It's extremely enlightening. By being aware of the fat/calorie/sodium content of what I'm eating and making small changes, I really think I can see some results.
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