chain tassle earrings

Sometimes you just need to make something. And sometimes you get lucky and find some odds and ends lying around that work together perfectly. I made these earrings from supplies I had left over from other projects. So I'm happy, and my husband is happy. (He never says anything but he always gets this look in his eyes when I head for the craft store. It's like a "oh boy how much is this going to cost and how long is my wife going to be gone?" kinda look. You know? It makes me happy to keep his blood pressure down.

So after many other projects and trips to the craft store (with many aforementioned looks from hubby)  I already had all this stuff: a couple cute beads, a length of chain, earring hooks, wired loops, and a couple jump rings. If I had bought all the supplies new I doubt Josh would have even noticed, the bill is so small when you use a coupon or two! And I will confide in you that at no point in my life so far have I regretted my small investment in needle-nose pliers and wire cutters. Seriously. I'm surprised at how often they get used. 

Just cut a few pieces of the chain into the same length...

and add those to a jump ring. Tip: don't pull the ring apart, twist it open so it keeps it's circular shape.

Add the chain to the end and layer your beads together. I found these cool turquoise beads but anything you like will work. 

Finish them off by using your needle-nose piers to create a loop on the other end. This takes a little practice to get perfect but nobody will notice in the meantime (I say that with confidence because nobody ever seems to notice my very lopsided loops). Then just add the earring hook and you're done! I was almost disappointed at how little time these took. But I suppose there is something to be said for a little instant (or almost instant) gratification. You could whip these babies up as a quick gift or create a pair to match your new shoes, and then of course send me photos because I would love to see!

Grand Prismatic Spring

After two trips to the airport, I am happy to report that our vacation was fantastic. Here's just a little taste of one of my favorite sights- the Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone National Park.

I asked my dad to take a photo of me and after standing there with the camera in his hands I wasn't sure he actually took anything. So this is what we got. I think it turned out pretty well, considering I was standing there for 3 minutes not moving.

My contemplative husband: 

Not pictured: our trip to the local creek where we jumped off the bridge, Ole Faithful,  my parent's lovely retirement ceremony, family games and sitting around the fire. It was really a wonderful trip and in this case, I don't think words or photos will do it justice!

leaving on a jet plane....twice

My parents are finally retiring! And to celebrate, my family is taking a vacation together to Yellowstone in Montana. We've be planning it for months and months and I purchased our plane tickets weeks ago and vacation day finally arrived!

And then we drove to the airport a day early.

But don't worry, it's not like I got my husband up at 5 in the morning in order to get there on time. Oh wait, I did.

Oh yes, we had packed, worked like maniacs to get ready on time, hired a dog sitter, cleaned the house, changed the sheets, finished the laundry. You name it, we were ready to go. And then, while on the shuttle to the airport, Josh tried checking us in on our phones. And I realized our flight is on SUNDAY not SATURDAY. Seriously. I couldn't believe it. To make matters worse, I called my mom thinking that she would be expecting us on Saturday. Nope. Turns out I'm the only one who didn't realize we weren't arriving until Sunday.

Needless to say we sheepishly rode the shuttle back, picked up our car, endured the puzzled stares of the lot attendants, and went home.

We did eventually make it to the airport on the correct day, although my complete buffoonery hadn't ended. After several attempts to check in on our Delta phone app, Josh looked at my confirmation email that was clearly labeled UNITED AIRLINES. I seriously don't know what I was thinking. Oh wait! I wasn't. And then I almost missed our shuttle because I wandered away, looking for Pokemon..... At that point my loving husband put his hands on my shoulders, looked me in the eyes and said, in all earnestness, "I'm going to need you to be an adult today."

homemade guacamole

Today is our company picnic and I decided to bring my homemade guacamole, because you have to be a crazy person not to love it (my professional diagnosis). And also because I'm hoping nobody eats it and we can bring the leftovers home (mwwahahhaah!) So while I mix it up, I thought I'd share my recipe with you. Until I realized that I don't use a recipe because it's just all "to taste" which is the single most annoying thing to read on an actual recipe. I've never written a recipe before, but I figure this is a safe place to start. If you make it and don't like it we can just blame it on "different palates" or something like that. (Of course that won't happen cause this stuff is delicious). 

And while I'm at it, I thought I'd share some tips, starting with my favorite method for dicing up the avacado. I'm all about minimal clean-up and this has never let me down. After you cut the avacodo in half, use a butter knife to slice it top-to-bottom and then left-to-right. Then use a large spoon to simply scoop the whole thing out. Ta-freakin-da! Instantly sliced avacado!

Next I add the cilantro, lime juice, onion, salt and garlic. Next tips: I prefer to chop the onion small (it's about having flavor, not big chunks) Also, garlic paste because, say it with me: "minimal clean-up". And don't tell my husband I said this, but lime juice from the bottle is fine.

Give everything a big stir and taste test it. Too salty? Add lime juice. Too limey? Add salt. Kinda bland? Add a little more everything, especially cilantro. At this point I add the (optional) tomatoes because, not surprisingly, I have a thing for tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are my favorite: just dice them up and deseed them or you will have runny guac. Yuck. And then stir them in like you add chocolate chips to your cookie batter- until they are just incorporated. (Nobody wants mushy and over-stirred tomatoes!) Next tip: enjoy!

My last tip (from a true expert friend of mine): if you are storing it overnight, add an avacodo pit or two to keep it from turning brown. I hope your family loves it as much as mine!

community gardens

Part of my job now, one of my favorite parts, is just interacting with the community. Going out and providing a place for families to interact with one another. Today I joined some members of a community garden to provide a Family Day for the neighborhood residents. All with their charming garden serving as the backdrop.

So charming right?! It even came complete with a mini lending library (not to mention all the bags of books and games given away to the neighborhood kids).

There was music, games, storytelling, BBQing, a salsa competition and a juicing station. Let me tell you. That juice was blowing my mind. The table was full of fresh fruits and veggies, being squeezed on the spot by Gary (who is not someone I knew before, but juice brought us together today). Amazing. I'm like halfway out the door to go buy a blender and fancy juicer and live on a liquid diet for the rest of my life. The combinations! The flavors! The fiber! Ok the last one sounds really lame, but seriously. My mind is running with this idea. And obviously I'm way behind the curve here. I mean "juicing" has been a thing for forever now, but I just was never in on it. This guy was throwing in whatever all willy-nilly and it was all good. My favorite combo? Fresh carrot and apple juice, with some pineapple, mango and banana thrown in. And a beet. Or as the juice man himself was calling it- a "color bomb". The kids especially were loving that one! I didn't even get photographic evidence. I drank it too fast. And also it's not like it looks so amazing. You would see it and think "yeah, looks like Jamba Juice" but you would be oh-so underestimating the flavor.

Anyway, the rest of the event was really wonderful as well. I even got lucky and brought some garden-grown cucumbers home. It wasn't long before hubs and I had them infusing our water for a much needed refresher on this hot day.

Friday Night = Date Night

More accurately, Friday Night = homemade pizza and crash on the couch night.
It is one of our long-standing traditions with a rich history, beginning in Josh's Grad school days. (Take look at our humble beginnings)  Now that we have normal jobs, wait. No. Now that I have a normal job and Josh still works like a crazy person (and is always on-call) we have gone back to our Friday Night ways. It is such a simple thing (made so much better by the invention of HBO Go) but it's something that I always find myself looking forward to. We love trying new things outside of our house (and there is always something to do in Orange County) but at the end of a long week I love knowing that we can put everything aside for a couple hours and just be together.
Also, I have perfected homemade pizza. Not to brag. But yeah.

This week is Margarita pizza. Yellow heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil from our own plant, homemade dough, and canned pizza sauce. What can I say? I'm not perfect and it's just not worth the time and energy to try and beat Ragu on this one. It's called compromise, people. If you want your pizza "Josh style" (or "ruined style, as I like to call it) go ahead and add some chopped up serrano peppers.

I leave you with this mouth-watering image of my dinner and am off to spend the evening next to my husband, lounging on the couch, with Sven under our feet. Happy Friday to you!

Truth time:
after I took that photo, I decided I wanted a crispier crust and put it back in the oven. So this is actually what my dinner looked like. This is real life, people. And it doesn't always look pretty, but damn it tasted good!

Phase One

(image here)           

Our adoption process is only in it's infancy (sorry, can't help myself!) and we are only in Phase One, which we have defined as "information seeking". Yes, it's as exciting as it sounds. Well, not so much "exciting" as "terrifying". But exciting definitely fits in there too. I don't know, there are a lot of emotions happening!
So far we have meet and talked with a couple adoptive parents, done some very basic online research, and then moved to California, which is completely unrelated but definitely slowed Phase One. We thought. Surprise twist! One of our new coworkers formerly worked for one of the top foster-to-adopt agencies in town. As soon as I heard that I jumped all over it. Josh and I sat down with her for coffee and a long list of questions. Honestly, up until now, it has been one of the most valuable opportunities. We also live right down the road from Saddleback Church, who have a myriad of support and information groups about adoption. (Side note: I know mega churches exist, and I even thought I had been to a few until I went to this campus. I think it's as big as my college was. Seriously, they buy old Disney trams to transport people to and from the parking lot for church.)
Anyway, we attended a meeting there and learned two very important things. 1: we know a lot more about this process than we realized, and 2: international adoption is much more realistic for us than we realized. So we have come to our first major fork in the road. Like I said, exciting and terrifying. I left the meeting completely pumped up and excited and Josh was so overwhelmed with the information he could hardly put a sentence together. Which explains our different answers here:

What will your next steps towards adoption be?

Do I even need to tell you who wrote what? I definitely got a kick out of that one. And then tried to get Josh to change his answer :)