[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