13 Years of Wedded Ignorant Bliss

After the girls were in bed I was indulging in a little me time and was watching Becoming Jane. Tim woke up for work when I was in the middle of it and I didn't want to turn it off. After a few minutes he asked me "What is this?" to which I replied with the name of the movie and briefly described it as a portrayal of the life of Jane Austen. He then asked me in all seriousness "Who are Jane and Austen?". I could not help but burst into fits of raucous laughter. Not at his ignorance of English Literature but at the fact that he has been married to ME for 13 years and during several of those years the Complete Works of Jane Austen sat on my bedside table (seems to have been buried in the many years of moving boxes but certainly still a favorite). I wrote my first novel at the age of ten (okay, okay, it was only one chapter, but still), I constantly had my nose in a book until the age of 14 when boys became somewhat more important, and I got my (however meager) degree in Arts and Humanities after we were married. Does this man know me AT ALL? Did he really just ask me who Jane and Austen are? Followed by (because I was still laughing and he was left to his own attempts at guessing) "are they royalty or something?". Even after I divulged that Jane Austen was one person, he still looked perplexed. I explained that as a writer her influence was surpassed only by Shakespeare himself, to which he replied, Oh. I was seriously starting to question the validity of our marriage, but the conversation turned to work and he was explaining why he needed to borrow my tripod, and I had to ask "what's a MILK cam?" to which he burst into laughter. Now, whatever this milcam thing is cannot possibly compare in relevance to Jane Austen, but it did help me remember that whenever he tries to make me watch Family Guy or some sci-fi horror flick I get out of it by threatening him with Anne of Green Gables. And that some of the very few movies we watched in the theatre this year were The Other Boleyn Girl (amazing!), Juno (LOVED IT!), The Shooter (eh, Tim loved it), and American Gangster (um, loved Denzel....). So I guess there just has to be that give and take philosophy to marriage, and every once in a while you find something that you have in common or can tolerate surprisingly well. I can't believe I actually know lines to Super Troopers and Tim can recite half of French Kiss! And we will both stop what we're doing to watch Oh Brother Where art Thou. Despite our opposing interests I'm sure that our kids will think we are both weird...

Happy Birthday Two Binkies

Cousin Elizabeth (or Wibiff as Tessa pronounces it) spent the night with Tessa at Grandma Pat's house. She is still talking about the kitty, "pull tail, meow, bite".

My girls are back! They've been home for one week now and it's almost like they never left. Except that Phoebe is actually letting me leave her sight for a few moments at a time and Tessa seems to be completely potty trained! Days and nights! WOOHOO! Now, we've been working on it for a year but at 2 1/2 I can't complain. Anyway, life is back to normal, even though it's not. The girls seem to be comfortable already in our new house and Tessa seems very happy with her big girl bed. I have to admit it wasn't feeling like home, even after three weeks here, but the girls have rushed that along this week. The house is alive with voices and movement.

Tessa sang Happy Birthday to her binkies as she went to bed last night, holding a binky in each hand.

Fun on the Fourth

Tessa dressed in her R,W and B. With cute little piggies. We'll see how long they last!

At the Santa Ana Zoo. Phoebe looks nervous doesn't she? I would be too!

I guess Tessa was so excited to go eat lunch she just wanted to hurry up and get everyone in!

Phoebe just followed this dog around the beach and laughed.

Tessa feeling patriotic...

The gang watching fireworks on the beach. Phoebe liked them as long as she had warning that they were coming. Tessa enjoyed them this year but kept her ears covered the whole time. After they got home they helped her call me so she could tell me all about it. I had no idea who was calling me but when I answered here's what I heard: "MAMA! popcorn! purple! red! fireworks! blue! popcorn! beach! fireworks! stars! purple! popcorn!" At least those were the words I could understand. I wish I could have recorded the conversation because she was SO annimated. We had some monsoon lightning storms, but that was the extent of the fireworks we got to see in Arizona. Tim was at work of course, so her call was the highlight of my night. Very entertaining!

A good end to a good day. Dessert!

Vacation Time

While Tim and I labor away in the Arizona summer heat trying to get the new house settled, the girls escaped with Auntie Shawna and her family to California. My mom sent a bunch of photos to fill me in on my girl's summer vacation without me. I attached her captions whereever they made sense as she tells the stories of their adventurous days.

June 17 Tessa at the beach. The first time all she wanted to do was shovel sand into her cup “bucket”.

Phoebe was content to sit on the wall and watch Tessa.

June 29 Grandma Jo with James, 9, Tessa, 2 1/2, Elizabeth, 10 3/4, and Phoebe, 6 3/4.

June 29 Tessa just woke up from a nap and I gave her a fishing pole. As she was walking by to go outside to fish (she had not seen the fish yet) as she was walking towards the door the magnet fish line stuck to the fridge. You should have seen her expression as she turned around to see who grabbed her fishing line. At this point she had no idea why it was sticking. Here is Tessa’s first fish. Also had to take her pants off as she put one leg into the water to get a better angle at the fish.

Phoebe and Tessa at the fully accessible playground at Tewinkle park in Costa Mesa. My family met the parents of Angel, whom the park is named after. They named her Angel because the doctor said she wouldn’t live more than a couple of hours but she proved them all wrong. There were some photographers there that day and several of them took photos of Phoebe on the swings. This was a couple of days after the grand opening.
(news stories about the park: http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2007/11/24/politics/dpt-tewinkle24.txt and http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2008/06/27/politics/dpt-angels06282008.txt)


On Saturday we found Elizabeth’s old boat. Tessa thought she should have both ends of the rope like a horsy ride. She decided to try the bigger boat and insisted that SHE take charge and maneuver the paddle (kind of went around in circles for a while).

June 25 Tessa in the Discovery museum climbing the wall with Auntie Shawna's help.

I'm an Auntie x6!

Congratulations to Tim's sister Julie on the safe delivery of her first child, Jaleina Marie, born July 3rd. This little girl gave everyone a good scare and put her mother through the ringer but all are well now. Congratulations Lance and Julie!