The parable of the burrito

(please all note, this is written by Greg)

You all know the feeling you get when staring down the barrel of a loaded pork burrito from Cafe Rio (smothered, of course). It is a feeling that is difficult to describe, but one which is undeniable. I think the best way that I can describe the feeling is "the meaning of life." That's right - ". . . and men are, that they might have [smothered burritos]." Regardless of your current life circumstances or anxieties, they all seem petty in juxtaposition with the majesty of a smothered goddess. You cannot wait to meticulously make short work of her, but at the same time you are enraptured by the crescendo of anticipation between the end of the assembly line and your table.

And so the feast begins. Your buffet of pleasure provokes every sense in your body. Every bite is a new and magical adventure. You get the feeling that what you have before you is actually a portal to another, timeless, world. You don't want this to stop, ever. You are addicted, a useless junkie subject to the siren song coming from your plate. Alas, amidst these fragile emotions your corporeal existence refuses to be forgotten. You are getting full. Your body cannot take much more. Whilst your soul is just barely wetting its palate your inadequate stomach betrays you. In a classic scenario of Man vs. Self, a struggle ensues within. Do you selfishly continue, causing physical pain and risk disfiguring the masterpiece of other-worldly elation that you have had until now? Turning joy into ugliness in a physical ravishing that leaves no prisoners? Or do you relent, and take the higher road? Exhibiting the utmost self-mastery by sounding a retreat and stowing your smothered prize to the lonely refrigerator? Left-overs. You want to take so much, but have only so little to give.

So it is that you reluctantly stop and painfully turn your back on the precious. You are resolute in your decision and dig deep to find the strength necessary to do the right thing: just shut it down. You can do this, right? It will be better in the end. But these words of encouragement do not make your decision any easier. With what little force you can muster you execute your plan and open the refrigerator door. As your feeble grip on the shiny aluminum pan relaxes you sigh, deeply, and extinguish the last smoldering ember of desire that is urging you to take just ONE more bite.

With the short passage of time, your thoughts slide from in-the-moment to a wiser, global perspective. You begin to recognize, in this less carnal frame of mind, that what you did was, in fact, the right thing to do. Pride for your accomplishment now fills the empty space left by the intense craving that once furiously ravaged your whole body. Good work soldier. The memories of the duel serve as a reminder to you of just how strong you can be when faced with an insurmountable foe. The next time it might not be a smothered burrito, regardless, you are ready. You can take it on, whatever it is. And you WILL be better in the end.

The Garden Gong Show

Well, I thought we'd give it the old one-two one more time especially since I got such a late start last year planting around the beginning of July. Maybe a part of me was trying to speed up the arrival of Spring but at the first sign of nice weather, I was out there with my manure, potting soil and seeds. I figured that when the seed packet was counseling me to sprout them indoors that none of that really applied to me because my growing season is so short that I needed to just go for it. Of course the weekend AFTER I planted, it snowed and then the temperature lingered below zero for several days so pretty much things were killed. Here we are a month later and 2 seed plantings later and things are finally starting to grow. Sigh.

Round 1 Planting:

• zuchini
• cucumbers
• Cinderella pumpkins (thank you Leah)
• peas
• carrots
• lettuce
• beets
• basil
• thyme
• rosemary
• dill
• mint

then the non edibles:

• monkshood (um Sondi, did I just read that these are poisonous? You really don't like babies do you?)
  
• clematis (pardon me, but did I just read that this was poisonous as well?)
• day lilies
• alaskan fern (I thought given it's name it would like living in our climate here)
  
• cosmos
• black-eyed susans
• sweet peas

This list may make it seem like I have an enormous backyard. But be ye not fooled. It is roughly as big as a giant area rug.

Here's what survived to make it to Round 2:
beets
dill
cosmos
lilies
fern

Yup, that is really it. Everything else died. So I did a replanting. Here's what is still kicking now.
Lettuce
Beets
Carrots
Zuchini
Cucumbers

Then I bought some already grown plants: tomato, rosemary, and basil. Rosemary is supposed to be a come back plant. I'm interested to see what happens during the winter. I love fresh rosemary and it grows all over southern California like a week along the beach. Cool huh? And so fragrant.

I spent a lot of time studying gardening and talking to my smart gardening friends (even if one is trying to poison us). I wouldn't say gardening is difficult persay but dang, there is so much info and stuff to know that it can quickly feel overwhelming. Like did you know that pumpkins, cucumbers and zuchini all like to be planted on a hill? Sure, it makes sense because that way they have like a place to go grow down but come on, that isn't like something you'd come up with on your own. Plus, if you have a bunch of retarded cats in your neighborhood who see a hill and want to dig it, it could put a little damper to the growing process but hey, gardening is all a learning process and as long as some sort of something grows and my kids can see that and participate in it then we'll be good.

Anyway, here are some photos to enjoy of our efforts.

Our Gardener Girls:

Before:

After:

Before:
After:

Before:

After:

And then there is our family gallery. We decided to decorate our backyard. We got one of those wooden pallets and Greg broke it down and we all took turns painting them. It was a fun family project. Enjoy

Oh Dear.

Family Bike Ride

Well now that Greg's bike was stolen I figured if I blogged about how fun our last family bike ride was maybe it would help me feel a desire to spend some money on a new bike. Jerks.

(Tati maintained this pose for like 20 min. "eating" a fruit leather bar without spit dripping down her whole person. If she can manage that, then surely she can eat a little neater at home.)

(This one is for Greg. Woo-woo!)

Anyway, we woke up on a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, packed some snacks and the kids and went exploring down in the river valley. It really is gorgeous here when it is warm. Everything is green and there are so many blossoms on the fruit trees and lots of other just flowering trees in general. We also live close to a big river with several smaller creeks and rivers. Fine, I'll say it, there is definitely some appeal to living here when it isn't snowing, or raining, or freezing.

We found this really cool park/meadow thing surrounded by trees. We were the only ones there practically the entire time we were there. The surrounding trees were cool because they masked the big downtown buildings and it really felt like we took a vacation somewhere. The girls had a great time, picking grass, playing with ladybugs, climbing trees and running around. We also had fun taking some Spring family pictures which resulted in our new header. Why does it always seem like the bulk of our usable family pics end up being when I'm not planning on beautifying before? Frustrating. But I guess when you've got it, you've got it--bed head and sweatshirt or not. :-)

(Here Chloe is feeding "Slappy" her lizard LPS some grass.)

(Chloe pretending she was a bride with her bouquet of blossoms.)

(Tati has this thing with eating dirt. She has been on hunger strike lately so maybe she really is mal-nourished.)

(Chloe tried to make Tati a bride, but she ended up looking more like Godzilla. She threw the flowers and then stomped all over them when she was done. This girl is drama city.)

(Tati holding her first ladybug on her hand. I'm surprised this ladybug lived through this whole experience. I'm sure the next one will be smashed. She did have a lot of supervision afterall.)

(She's saying, "Where'd he go?" after the poor ladybug ran for its life or flew for its life. He was no dummy.)

Chloe even managed to save Tati's life. She came running over to us breathing all hard and proceeded to tell us about how she had just saved Tati's life because Tati was about to eat some dog poop. After surviving an intense interrogation about whether or not the poop ever touched her mouth, etc., we congratulated her and deemed her the best big sister in the entire world. She really is too.

YEAH FOR SPRING! FINALLY!

Many Thanks!

Greg: Thanks Babe, I just noticed noticed the bathroom. It looks fantastic. Thanks so much for cleaning it. And the tub looks so clean!

Julie: (big smile) You're welcome.

Greg: I just wanted you to know that I recognize the work you're doing around here. So thank you so much.

Julie: (big smile and giggle) You're welcome.

Greg: Why are you laughing?

Julie: Because I didn't clean the bathroom today.

Greg: Did you clean it yesterday?

Julie: Nope...But thanks for being grateful.

Bird Lake

We went kayaking last weekend with some friends and it was so fun even if the weather was all over the place. I was adding and subtracting layers the whole time. And I thought I'd never use math...my dad was right.

I don't know what the real name of the lake was but I decided to call it bird lake and bird island. We seriously felt like we were inside of Animal Planet because there were so many geese and loons, and ducks all on this island sitting on nests. We also saw a ton of eggs just chilling in nests. When we'd get close to the edge of the island, the geese would go all crazy honking and hissing. I have to say overall I hate Canadian geese. Ironically I think I saw more Canadian geese when we lived in Colorado than I have since we've lived here. Duh, maybe because they go south for the 7 month winter. I think geese are pretty and I think a gosling might be one of the cutest baby animals ever but man can those fools poop. And they are major punks. They hiss and honk and chase little kids. But back to the poop. You've never seen so much poop in your life! Even you with kids. Poop everywhere I say! Not really the best ingredient for a blanket picnic. It takes me back to springtime in Golden, living so close to Clear Creek and watching the newly hatched babies swimming around with their mommies and daddies. And it also reminds me how I lived next to a park of poop. Let's all flashback together:

Here's me pregnant (with Tats). The only time my big stomach is really acceptable being big. I'm with my niece, Meagan and my nephew, Nicholas.

This picture is a trip because I'm so skinny and also because my hair is so long. I feel like that girl is a different person. We were on this river practically everyday. The one thing I don't miss from Colorado, ok two things: snakes and squirrels.

Anyway, back to Animal Planet. Here is Lucy, Goosey. She likes to honk, warm her baby eggs up and oh yeah, POOP! For her nest, she likes to pull out the fluffiest down feathers. Just seeing her downy nest made my Lovstedt nose start to itch.

Here is the goose family from the future. Why did their kids already hatch when the rest of these poor geese were still sitting on their nests? I watched them for like 1/2 hr. So cute. They watched me too. They thought I was a trip.

This next thing is pretty cute too. And she also likes to poop.

Here's me all hard core. The sun finally came out strong and I tried to lay out in the kayak. Note to all those out there, not so good to row while you're laying out. I was trying to spit out that accidental drink of bird lake for like 5 min. NASTAY!

We took turns going out and staying ashore and watching the girls. It was super fun. Tati had fun walking around and getting into danger as you can see.

And Chloe had a blast playing with one of her friends, Corbin. They were using these butterfly nets trying to catch fish. They mostly caught lake muck. Do you love how Corbin is wearing his church shoes? He's a funny kid.

Chloe LOVED going in the kayak. She looked like this pretty much all day.

It was a great trip and hopefully we'll get to do it again. There is so little time with good weather that you pretty much have to enjoy it while you can.

Listen, Listen.

I was cleaning up my room today when suddenly Chloe appeared and said,
"What Mom?"

Me: "What?"
Chloe: "Did you just call me?"
Me: "No."
Chloe: "But I just heard somebody yelling my name, 'CHLOE!' "
Me: "Well, it wasn't me."
Chloe: "I wonder if it was the Holy Ghost then."
Me: "Why, were you about to do something bad?"
Chloe: (laugh, laugh) "Oh Mom, you're so funny."