Eileen’s Neighborhood

We turned what might have been a lazy Sunday into a very industrious one, getting The Aerie all decked out for Christmastime.   We had the Christmas music playing from the office while we decked the halls and trimmed the trees (our big Christmas tree and our little Monterey pine out back). Speaking of trees, we even added some Christmas cheer to the palm trees outside of our home.

Penny again wasn’t quite so sure about what this was all about, but she enjoyed snuffing the different decorations.  Certainly, all the breakable ones are out of snout and tail range.  We hope.

We finished right as the sun was setting – a perfect cap to a great day of decorating and feeling those first tinges of the Holiday Spirit… :D

This week's warm weather and clear-sky Santa Ana was ushered out today in a big way with rain showers (and even hail!) and a cold wind from the north.

The change in weather was a good demarcation point to change from Thanksgiving into Christmas, which we're getting an early start on this year.  Of course, the first course of action is to get the tree.

Now Penny has never had a tree in the house, and I'm not sure she entirely knows what to think about it.  Wait until we put the lights and decorations on tomorrow!

One more week and I'm out of the first trimester! I'm very excited about that. Things are supposed to calm down once you hit that part and then we just deal with all the growing pains till the last semester when you've grown as big of a house. LOL.

I'm still feeling sick. Last night was horrible. It might have been more than just the baby...some sort of food poisioning perhaps? I'm not sure but I was asleep by 9pm after being sick for hours and hours. This morning was a little better but still feeling weak and dealing with nausea.

Things are moving around inside. I can feel my stomach expanding and things moving around in my abs. My pants that aren't maternity are starting to get tight and my shirts are starting to get too short. I'm glad we went shopping for clothes when we did.

I'm enjoying my 4 days off very much. I really needed some days to destress and work on the house. If I felt better I'd be doing more but It will get there. Mike is redoing the floor in the living room tomorrow with the new wood flooring we bought on Black Friday. GREAT DEAL. New floor for our whole living room for just $200. Awesome. He's going to do that so I'm making sure the livingroom is ready for him. Lots of laundry today too. We have so many clothes. We need to go through them and give some to good will.

Next Dr. appt. is December 8th. I'm excited to hear the heartbeat and learn more about how our little one is growing.

I'm kind of blah about this year's Thanksgiving agenda. In the previous seven or eight years of our relationship, my husband and I have had a chaotic time of making it to the gatherings on every side of our big families. This year, there has been little to no talk about it amongst the family, and my extended family decided to by-pass a big gathering altogether. Chris's mom is working on Thanksgiving. My sister's husband is working that afternoon, as well. Any get-togethers that are happening seem to be out of obligation or habit.

 

My parents decided to do a lunch. It is the whole turkey sha-bang, but it will be just my parents, my sister and her husband, Chris and me, and we have to do it early enough in the day so that my brother-in-law can head off to serve and protect that afternoon. Doesn't quite have that Thanksgiving feel. We eat dinner together all the time.

 

Chris's dad and his wife are doing something with her brother. They never include Chris or the other kids anymore it seems.

 

His grandma is doing a traditional Thanksgiving thing that I think most of the cousins may be at. But when she told us, she said: "I know you're probably going to Erin's parents for Thanksgiving but I'm making dinner too and at least try to stop by and say hi. I know we're not the priority, but..." I was totally offended by the intonation in her voice and what it implied. As if we haven't made them a priority every previous year! They're eating at the same time my family is, but I suppose we'll try to stop by, even though his family isn't a priority. Gosh.

 

On Black Friday, Chris's mom is making some kind of dinner for all of us kids to come to, but it doesn't sound like a big deal.

 

That's it. Maybe it's more than some folks do, but to me, this year will be more boring than ever before. I really only get to see the whole family on Thanksgiving, and we're big and lewd and have a blast. This year everyone seems so put off by the whole thing.

 

It just occured to me that this is a day set aside for being thankful and I'm not sounding very.I am. I really am thankful for all of the things that 2009 brought me: health, a stable job for both me and for my husband, the opportunites to persue areas that I am passionate about, insight and drive, a long awaited for and fast-coming niece, and of course the family and friends that love me. I'm still thankful for the people I'll get to spend time with, and for the tremendous number of calories I will consume tomorrow!

After a couple of days of feeling out of sorts, it seems that Penny’s puppy pharmaceutical treatment has helped out immensely and that there was a very energetic and eager pointer ready for a big mountain hike this morning.

Local mild Santa Anas brought in warm temperatures and clear skies, so it made for a great morning to bring the camera along.

We took a great long hike down and then up to the top of the mountain The Aerie rests on.  There were great views out to the ocean and even down to Point Loma.

Penny sure did seem Thankful to get a chance to run around!  And we were Thankful to see her feeling more like herself.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Things are pretty much the same. I have more energy in the morning but I'm still pretty exhausted by the time my work day is done. I'm really really glad I'm done with school till January 12th. Still feeling sick. I hope that I can shake the morning/noon/night sickness soon. I can feel things progressing and I can already see that I'm showing. So weird. It's amazing how fast things progress in the 2nd pregnancy.

Work has been hell. I'm sure that doesn't help the exhausted part. I constantly feel like I'm chasing people around and babysitting all day long. Very annoying. Too many hours and not enough days off are making me very weary. I'm excited for 4 days off for the holidays. I can really use 4 days to clean the house and spend time just cuddling with Nathan...and taking long naps.

Thanksgiving will be spent with Mike's family for a very small dinner. We're doing turkey, cheesy potatoes, green beans, rolls, and not much else. Just enough for a family of 5. :) I'm looking forward to Christmas with my family. I miss our traditions and just laughter and fun. Mike's family is fun too...it's just going to be weird with the size of group. I know we're going to be watching some football and working on baby hats. Just what the doctor ordered for a day of rest. :)

 

 

Last night I dreamed that an old friend from my college band sorority and I were driving on a narrow, crumbling highway. It was dangerous and falling into pieces, so we veered off the side into the wilderness. After driving through forest and desert we came upon some covered wagons and extremely rustic housing. We had discovered a lost Californian civilization called Valley de Salsa.

 

In Valley de Salsa, the folks were completely unaware of modern times and though they welcomed my friend and I, they were confused by our speech patterns and clothing. They fed us unleavened bread and buffalo meat, and we decided to stay with them. We pushed our beat up car into the forest to hide it from these ancient people. My friend had to continuously remind herself not to curse in front of them.

 

Funny thing, though: this was a lost civilization, but they did have a street sign in the village that annouced "Welcome to Valley de Salsa." Shifty, no?

 

Leave it to Californians...

 have attended eleven weddings in two years as of this month. One includes my own. I was in two others as well.

 

Thirteen- maybe more- weddings if you go back another year or so.

 

This is too many weddings.

 

I truly am happy for these couples. A wedding is a [mostly] joyous occasion and a lot of fun. (Sadly, for  about two of the weddings I attended I wasn't so confident that the couple will make it, but it's not my place to make that kind of judgement. Aloud, anyway.) I've come to think of weddings as a nice date. Usually you get an evening of playing dress-up, with a nice dinner and dancing to boot. Not too shabby.

 

Every wedding we went to I compared to my own because- and try not to take my bias so strongly here- our wedding was pretty rockin'. Really, it was just that cool in every way, and was a great party. Everyone talked about it later on for being intimate and fun. Now, I'm not a wedding snob and I do realize that not every couple wants that whole white-dress-church-cake-DJ-reception thing; In fact, I had wanted a backyard bonfire on the river with BBQ and beer, a whole white trash setup, but Chris and my parents vetoed it for a multitude of reasons. It woulda been more me but I certainly do not regret the wonderful wedding we had. Most weddings I go to fall far short of it's sheer awesomeness. Some come close, but are lacking in the fun department, or the food department, or the venue department, or the music department.  And the amazing department. But they're mostly nice. Others just make you want to stab yourself in the eye with the salad fork (or in one wedding instance last year, with the plastic spork from El Pollo Loco,) so that you can get out faster.

 

But, as I said, I am almost always happy to go to the weddings because they're typically people I love and support and am truly happy that they're making this committment. And, because I am female and mostly irrational, I always cry during the ceremony and at the key moments of the reception. It just always strikes me that two people found someone they love enough to want to be with, procreate with, share every aching moment with. It's a big deal. It still blows my mind sometimes when I think about how I made this decision with someone, too, and I'm still happy about it. Then I start getting all mushy on Chris and he looks at me like I'm nuts and then I'm back in reality.

 

So on Saturday my husband and I went to his buddy's wedding. Rather, I attended as a guest and Chris was a groomsman. This was a BIG Catholic wedding. I've only been to two Catholic weddings, and both times I was equally weirded out by the ceremony (or mass or whatever it's called.) This couple is great, however, and remind me a lot of Chris and me. They had their six-month-old baby girl baptized during the mass as well because so many of their family members were here from all over the world. She's probably the best baby I've ever known, and all day didn't fuss a bit but was happily curious.

 

The reception was probably the best one I've ever been to. It was equal to ours on the fun and food scale, and finally someone had a DJ that lived up to ours, but far superior in extravagance. Every detail- from linens to menus- was covered, and it really took the whole thing up a notch. The hosted bar reached the max the family had paid for in one hour. ONE HOUR! But the father of the groom instructed them to keep it open all night and he'd pick up the tab. Wowee.

 

We had so. much. fun. They really spared no expense on the affair. Dinner was fantastic, and there was not only a mariachi band to start of the night, but a small combo during dinner, then the DJ for the party. The decor was beautiful, and there was even a candy table. Chris is a party animal whether he wants to admit it or not, and we danced like crazy. My legs and butt still hurt from dancing. The couple was so happy, and I just know they'll be a solid life-long couple.

 

It was a good last wedding in a long, steady run of weddings. Unless it is a really important person to me, I hope I can avoid weddings for a year or so!

So, my sister is coming from Maryland to visit for Thanksgiving.  We did a lot of prep work this weekend to prepare, but I'm always looking for omens as to how the week might go.

Well -- both Penny and my car are sick.  Penny had to take a de-wormer (ick) and my car needs new brake-pads (ka-ching).

At least Penny gets to sleep and I get to drive around in a 1-series loaner.  Now how'd they know I was eyeing up one of those....

Hope everyone has a great week!

Black Friday is the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season. When are you planning on beginning your holiday shopping?
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I stay away from the "holiday shopping" mania until AFTER Thanksgiving.  I don't like the fact that the greedy retailers bombard us yearly with early holiday shopping.  I saw Christmas decorations in September and nearly walked out of the store in protest.  Especially in these times when people are scraping by just to get their families fed, it really irks and offends me to see so many frivilous ads around jewelry and cars. 

I will do my Christmas shopping sometime the week after Thanksgiving.  I don't believe in "Black Friday" sales only because all the hype and hassle of the mob are just not worth it to me.  Anyone ever try to find parking ANYWHERE on Black Friday?  Yea, good luck with that.