[R] Ellensburg, WA

Oh, how I do love Ellensburg. I know those towns we see on TV in Northern Exposure and Gilmore Girls do not exist in the real world, however, I get snatches of those perfect small-town moments living in Ellensburg.

Last night we walked downtown to the "Moments to Remember" holiday lighting festivities. We stopped at the coffee shop to get hot chocolates for the girls, ran into a couple friends, made our way to the Safeway parking lot for free cookies and cider, and the tree lighting ceremony. The girls were delighted to find two, yes TWO lighted, BIG John Deere tractors in the parking lot. So, we watched the lighting ceremony (note to Safeway -- thanks for the food, but you REALLY need some new lights for the tree), and then marched a couple blocks over to the main downtown lighting ceremony. Downtown was packed and we saw many familiar faces. Then, in one of the storefronts, there was a dance recital -- we couldn't see much, with the crowd -- but what a fun idea! The highlight of the evening was, perhaps, the live nativity scene in one of the alleyways. We were told this was something NOT to miss, despite fidgety kids and a very long wait in line. We were greeted at the ally by two roman soldiers (which we decided make very appropriate bouncers) who introduced the story. As we made our way through the alley, we were told the nativity story, complete with beggars of Bethlehem, real donkeys, goats, cows and really really good singers. It is so nice to see so many people putting so much love into their town. I hear Santa is in town this morning, so we're off to find him!!

R

[W] Giving Thanks

I am grateful for my H.B. He understands me, he loves me, and he rubs my feet and back almost every night. He is also a great dad and a kind and generous person. Plus he's smart. And cute. I love you AS squared H.B. (Yes, he knows about our blog and has it bookmarked.) Hee hee.

[R] Thanksgiving 2008

Wow -- I love that I get to be part of this blog, and yet you guys do all of the work making it pretty! Thank you. And what a nice segue into my Thanksgiving blog post.

As schmaltzy as it sounds, every day (usually after the kids go to bed and the house is peaceful), I ponder how amazingly lucky I am to have this life and how thankful I am for it. I will just list a few things that come to mind that I am thankful for, but realize that I'm thankful for so much more.

Adele, Elsa, Greg, A+ friends and families, hot chocolate, comfy pants, being able to read a book on the elliptical trainer, A NEW PRESIDENT

OK, I had to stop because I was just going to start listing a lot of food items and that is a bit shallow, I think. I will blame it on the fact that it is my brain's nap time.


As an aside -- here is a haiku I composed in honor of flannel sheets (it is 5-7-5, right?):

flannel sheets enrobe
I love snuggling in the bed
cozy warm cozy

R

I just checked and enrobe is not a proper word on spellcheck, but I figure it is poetic license.

[C] Yanksgiving

There are plenty of things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving - still such a Yank, I really need to set my internal holiday clock a month earlier for Canadian Thanksgiving... or maybe I'll just continue to celebrate twice every year. Because there are never enough days to be grateful for the many good fortunes we have enjoyed. E. is our greatest and most hard-won joy, our families continue to offer infinite love and support, and every friend is a blessing - especially my three oldest, dearest, and closest ones. Happy Turkey Day, you crazy turkeys! Love you guys.

- C

[W] Gratitude-O-Rama

I am grateful for my memories. Admittedly, I have kind of a lousy memory, but nevertheless, my mind's eye is easily filled with mini-movies of times past. I am lucky in that most of my memories are fond ones. Most often, a memory will slip into my mind just as I am drifting off to sleep and send me away to the land of nod with a smile on my face. A few memories slipping into my mind as I write this:

1. Walking along the Iowa River with R. in Iowa City -- past Hancher and over to the park, singing DayO (endlessly!), talking, laughing. Also, composing The Honors House Blues in the attic room of the Honors House. -- I got the Honors House blues... and I just don't feel like studyin' --
   
2. Leaving commemorative clothing "sacrifices" on the track at AHS with H. Also, the smell of -- what was it called? zippy gel? -- that stuff the swimmers rubbed all over before races whilst clad in their wee little swim suits. It was a good smell -- and a good show, though I don't think I appreciated it as much as I should have. :) Also, the summer you house-sat in I.C. at the house with that freaky painting of the girl... was she on a bike? I think so. Creepy.
   
3. Drinking too much wine with C. at Angela's wine tasting and getting over a rough-spot in our friendship. Viva la vino! Also, carton upon carton of shelf-stable orange juice. And Keef. Adorable Keef. Oh! And being on the lam from the Ibiza (ahem -- that's pronounced Ibithhhha for those of you who are less worldly that C & I) police.

-W

[W] W's Week O' Gratitude (in honor of American Thanksgiving)

Today I am most grateful for girlfriends. I got to have some much needed girl time tonight (along with some yummy champagne) and I am feeling so much happier with life. Of course, my gratitude for you three, my A+ sisters, is more than I could ever put into words. I love you.

I am also grateful for grocery store Thanksgiving specials. I got a 19 lb. bird for eight bucks today. Alas, said bird is frozen solid and I'm not so sure it will manage to thaw by Thursday. I will be calling the Butterball hot line tomorrow for advice. I plan to speak to Nancy Wolfe who is my friend's aunt and, evidently, a turkey expert extraordinaire. I remain committed to my plan to attempt turkey but resort to Kashi cereal if all else fails. Kashi cereal is good enough to fill in for a turkey any day if you ask me. Especially if you heap a good buncha ripe berries on top. Delicious.

[W] My Favorite Things (a la Oprah)

Oprah puts favorite things in her magazine all the time -- and while they are generally cool, they also tend to cost, like, a zillion dollars for a bottle of diamond flaked nail polish or some such nonsense. In any case, I still like the idea, and so here are some of my favorite things at the moment:

1. Vinegar. It's a miracle liquid. Me and vinegar are like that guy in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and Windex. I truly believe there's nothing vinegar can't do. TIP: pour a "glug" of vinegar in your dishwasher at any point during the cycle. Our dishes have never been so sparkly.
2. The library. I currently have 65 items checked out from the local library. I am not exaggerating. And, even more miraculously, my current fine is only $4!
   
3. The "Juno" soundtrack. It takes me to a happy, folksy place. I especially love the first song. Today I sat at a stop light and sang along even though there was a weird homeless guy with a dog begging for money right outside my window. That's how happy the soundtrack makes me.
4. Kashi Go Lean Crunch + Golden Grahams + raspberries + blackberries + strawberries + blueberries + 1% organic milk. Add in a glass of Naked O.J. watered down a bit and a multivitamin, and you're looking at my favorite breakfast ever. Well -- maybe second favorite breakfast, after some good, thick, meaty bacon. I do love the bacon.
5. Henry's and Costco. Henry's is local. They have, as my hip and uuber trendy nanny would say, hella produce for hella cheap. Costco has hella produce too, but you better be hungry for a lot of whatever you buy. Luckily J. and I can team up and demolish a big flat of berries in no time flat.
6. "Hints from Heloise." For one thing, she introduced me to the miracle exlir that is vinegar. For another, she finally stopped publishing letters in the vein of "how to get books you loan back from your friends." I mean, seriously folks, we all know that once you loan a book, it's gone for good. If you get it back, it's a fluke. And she's a cool biker chick. Not your mama's Heloise!
7. "Dear Abby." If I can start my day with a good bowl of cereal and some quiet time to read Heloise and Abby, I am a happy woman. Abby gives good, succinct advice. Also, at least once a week, she addresses an issue that is deliciously entertaining. Of course, there are the weighty topics too.
8. Oh dear! To think I almost left out "Miss Manners!" She knows how one ought to properly handle any conceivable social situation and she shares her tips with with irreverence and wit. Wonderful.
   
9. It's becoming clear that I should have just included The Newspaper in my list. Specifically, the fluffy parts of the newspaper. I like to skim the hard news, but I love the currents section most of all. Get Fuzzy, Pooch Cafe, the New York Times crossword (early in the week only!), Sudoku, Sunday Target ads, coupons... oh how I love the newspaper!
10. House. The TV show. For one thing, it's got Hugh Laurie. For another thing, it's got Robert Sean Leonard! And those of us who loved Dead Poets Society with a fanaticism that today's teen girls reserve for Twilight swoon.

-W

[C] We Are Women

"We think http://iowaplus.blogspot.com/ is written by a
woman (75%)."

Well, everyone will be happy to learn that a web site gender analyzer is 75% certain that IowA+ is written by women. Not bad, but I gotta wonder which quarter of the blog hints at our masculine selves? All the talk of FREE BEER from a few days back must have skewed the results. So much for artificial intelligence...!

- C

[C] If They Mated

OK, I just spent waaaay too much time fiddling around with this "make a baby" diversion I came across on the web. The results?


Not quite our E, but not bad for some photoshop morphing. I suspect Conan's take might have yielded significantly more shocking results. The real E is like our own personal experiment in Mendelian genetics. It is fascinating to observe which of her parents' traits are emerging in the age-old dance of dominant and recessive. Especially as she begins to develop her own very distinctive personality, aspects of mom and dad (and grandparents, aunts, cousins, assorted other relatives) make themselves felt in her mannerisms, expressions, preferences, and of course appearance. E may have started out looking like a mini-me, but her dad's genes aren't going down without a fight. And I am somewhat dismayed to discover that she has clearly inherited his sense of humor! Can't wait to see how our little pea turns out...

- C

[W] Firsts

J. poured his own cereal snack today for the first time. Cheerios anyone?

-W

[W] On Parents and Penguins

It was with great sadness and woe that I bid adieu to my mom early this morning. I feel really lucky to have always had good relationships with both of my parents. Sure, we all suffered through the predictably rocky adolescent years, but who isn't at least something of a terror as a teen? One of my hopes is that my children and I will have similarly strong, loving relationships throughout our lives. What a joy and a comfort it is to have parents that one feels one can always count on for anything.

During Mom's visit, we hit the tourist hot spots including the local nature center, zoo, and Sea World with its fun and fabulous "Bay of Play" for the under 5 set. And after chasing one's two-year-olds around the Bay of Play for several mind-numbing hours, one can head on over to the hospitality tent for, yes, you guessed it! FREE BEER! I know! Can you think of anything better than free beer? I'm sure most of our husbands can't! You see, Sea World is owned by the Anheuser-Busch folks and so they pass out mini-cups of beer to all comers over 21! It's absolutely delightful.

And so, I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to talk up the FREE BEER to your husbands. What (free beer!) better way (free beer!) to talk the boys (free beer!) into an (free beer!) A+ reunion (free beer!) sooner rather than (free beer!) later?!! Did I mention the completely, totally, delicious and ice cold FREE BEER? It's right here in sunny Southern California waiting to quench the thirstiest of A+ hubbies!

Oh, and they also have really big horses and whales and penguins along with the FREE BEER. You were wondering if I'd forgotten about the penguins, weren't you. Well, I admit that I did forget about them in the midst of my FREE BEER! frenzy. The penguins were way cool (ahem... get it? way cool? I know, I know... good one, W.!) and definitely worth a visit. Especially after a stop at the FREE BEER! pavilion.

-W

[C] Lost in the Night Garden

This clip combines my favorite show with E's favorite show and is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. Or maybe it's not really that funny and my sense of humor has just been warped by months of all-toddler all-the-time television. Sadly, I stopped watching "Lost" toward the end of last season... I stopped watching anything other than Treehouse TV, for that matter. Just ran out of time for leisure (moving will do that), and the time never came back (motherhood will do that). Now if you turn on the tube in our house you'd think that pre-schoolers ruled the world. Of course, if the world were like the Night Garden it might be a pretty nice place to hang out.

- C

[W] Memory Lane: No. 1

May 1991. A+ Productions gleefully prepares to launch themselves into the world beyond high school (we, the sturdiest of little trees -- forgive me, C., but I love that to this day) and just look at how we are all laughing. Is it any wonder that we've remained close? It's funny to think of all the experiences that awaited each of us in the years that have followed this moment. We've done some amazing things, survived some great tragedies, and, for me at least, it's all been sweeter, richer, or my burden has been eased by our bond. I am so grateful for all of you.

-W.

[R] Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day -- Thank you, Veterans!
Yesterday we attended the local Veteran's Day Parade in Ellensburg. It was really nice to see people come out to support the veterans and current military people. I kept going back to the Obama election and thinking how I have never ever ever ever felt so proud of the country as I have this past week. It was a great feeling to look at the miriad of flags and smile and think, "Yeah, America!!"

And, on a side note, I love Ellensburg. I love that I live in a town where you can stop traffic for 45 minutes or so to have a Veteran's Day Parade, and I love that a whole bunch of people show up for it on a Tuesday morning and I love that you can watch the parade on one street and then walk one block and watch it again on another street! However, I get the feeling that Adele was thinking the whole time, "Ok, so I like the free flag, but where's the CANDY?"

R

[C] Sex and the Small Town

The other day my sister-in-law M. likened us four gals to the women of Sex and the City. Which begs the question: is small-town Iowa really all that different from mid-town Manhattan? The answer, of course, is yes. Yes, it is. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but wonder - which of us would be Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha, and Miranda in our real-world version of SATC?

- C

[R] A couple months ago -- what a smart kiddo!

A couple months ago -- what a smart kiddo!

[R] I am so proud of our country!

I am so proud of our country! It is an amazing thing to have elected Obama. What a beautiful family he has. I keep getting teary-eyed thinking about it! I am also thinking of my girls and how, I hope, when they can vote, it won't be such a big deal to have a woman/african america/asian american/hispanic/etc. for president or vice president.
Soooooo happy!!!!!

P.S. Hopefully the rest of the world doesn't think we're such big dorks anymore.

[W] Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

Eight o'clock p.m. California time: Obama wins the 2008 Presidential Election. I am over-the-moon. Talk husband into opening bottle of Prosecco (yum!), eat some GoLean Crunch-Life-fresh strawberries cereal snack, watch Obama's victory speech, feel like I'm in an unbelievably happy dream.

--W

P.S. Sad that I won't be moving closer to C. in Canada, though. Wouldn't it have been fun to go on sleigh rides with the kiddos?!

[C] YES WE DID

I may live north of the border now, but I have never felt as proud to be an American as I do tonight. I was pretty proud of Chicago too. What a thrill to see President-Elect Obama cast his vote at the same elementary school in Hyde Park where we voted in two previous elections. And what an amazing moment in history!

- C

[C] New Seasons

There's something about the start of every new season, that instant when you realize the next one is coming and you get a rush of excitement thinking about everything good it will bring. Like now, for example. I love autumn, but as the last leaves cling to branches, bracing determinedly against colder and colder winds, the approach of winter is undeniable. And suddenly one has visions of building snowmen, warming up with hot chocolate by the fireplace, trimming trees, riding in horse-drawn sleighs, and the joy of reuniting with family. The thing about this anticipation, though, is that it is fleeting. Because once the thrill is over and the novelty is gone, all that remains are the cruddy parts you overlooked earlier - frostbite and frozen eyeballs, trudging through slush to get groceries, shoveling out a car buried in a bank of snow, holiday travel. And who ever really rides in horse-drawn sleighs, anyway? Then the long wait for another new season begins again... For the moment I'll try to hold on to that feeling of looking forward to the coming winter while it lasts.

Note that none of this applies to people living in the constant bliss of Southern California climes ;)

- C

[W] Overindulgence 101

I was doing a bit of searching for toddler beds online this morning since J & B are getting close to that age, and I came upon this fabulously frightening piece of frippery -- The "Little Miss Liberty Hollywood Junior Bed Frame." Good God! I thought to myself, This is the perfect bed for all the daughters of A+!!! And it's only $2500 with FREE shipping!

On the off chance that you remain unconvinced, dear friends, you simply must go to the website and read the description, which is just too good to be true. Here's how it starts: "Your child doesn't have to be famous to sleep like Hollywood royalty!"

And don't you just love how the wee model is looking at herself in a mirror? It's inspired, I tell you. Inspired.

-W

[W] Saturday on the Bay

We took J & B out on the boat for an impromptu picnic lunch today. It was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous on the water. It's days like today that remind me how lucky I am to live in Southern California. Sure, it's expensive and yes, the traffic is horrendous, plus, there are those occasional earthquakes to consider, but on the whole, it's an incredible place to live. We are so lucky to be where we are... even though it's entirely too far away from my A+ sisters.

-W