The View From Here

The Outside View

The Inside View

Note to Self

Note to Self: ALWAYS LOOK IN THE MIRROR BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE HOUSE. That way you will avoid looking in the mirror when you get home and seeing a huge splotch of zit cream on your chin that you forgot to remove. Yeah, all those friendly people at the grocery store, I think they were laughing at me, not with me.

Be Still My Beating Heart

I love Costco. It's not that the goods are super cheap or the employees are super nice, (although they do hand out lots of samples--yum!) the fact is, we shop at Costco because it's fun! It's always fun to see what random things they will have for sale, you know they will be good quality because it's Costco, and there are never too many options to choose from.

When we stayed in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for a month or so (due to Austin's job) we rented a vacation home where I first met the glass bowls pictured above. My love for them grew as I used them over the next few weeks. You can store food in them easily because of the lids. You can see what's in them in the fridge without opening them. You can microwave in them and not worry about getting cancer from Tupperware. There are lots of cute little bowls for all the random little leftovers from meals and BEST OF ALL when you cook with them you feel like you are on a cooking show!

For example, when I would make soup for dinner I would chop up all my veggies earlier in the day, put each veggie pile in its classy glass bowl, and then assemble the meal in a quick 5 minutes with the help of my admiring assistant Sammy, all the while keeping up a steady stream of pleasing and witty small talk. And the fans went wild!

It was pretty fun. Since everything else in the house came from Costco I assumed the bowls did too, so I've been keeping my eyes open for these sweet babies on our various Costco runs. Once they had them with puke green lids instead of vibrant red ones. Pass. Would Rachael Ray cook with those? Anyway, I dodged down the cookware aisle in Costco on Monday to avoid making eye contact with Air Duct Demonstration Man and there they were! Manna from heaven, Luminarc glass bowls. You too could be a star. Buy the bowls.

Packing Up

I love getting rid of stuff. I love sorting through my things and finding something that 1.) I never use/wear and 2.) I never will. Swoosh! Into the give-away box. I love being able to think of something I own and know exactly where it is at any given time. Living in a small apartment for the past 5 months has been annoying because all our stuff doesn't have a place to go, but it's also been good because I've gotten rid of stuff we didn't need.

This past week, I've realized that I could take my sorting a step further. Why don't I just get rid of all my stuff? All the kitchen stuff I need to survive for one week is on one shelf in the pantry. All the clothes and bathroom stuff I need to survive for one week is in one black suitcase. If I can survive for one week with these things, why not two weeks? Why not a year? My house is super easy to clean. My life is ordered. "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." -Leonardo D.

Okay, Mr. DaVinci and Hyper-Nona, calm down. Packing a bunch of boxes for the move may be a huge pain, but it doesn't mean you should donate everything to the local Goodwill. It's not really convenient to cook with only one pan and one pot. What if I want to make eggs and hashbrowns and pancakes all at the same time? It's not really fun to own only one dress. Look, this is the 76th Sunday in a row she's worn that outfit! Maybe I will need an extra pillow for when family comes to visit. Maybe I'm just not the sophisticated type.

Because it's Friday

I usually don't post things like this...but this video was just so "interesting" and "informative." (Thursday comes before Friday)

Note: People think that since I majored in English I'm a stickler for grammar, but I'm really not. Language constantly changes and evolves--what was grammatically and linguistically (look, I'm a cool English major, I can use big words!) correct in Shakespeare's time would be really hard to understand now. But other than emails that start with "I usually don't forward things like this" (An ironic sentance, considering my opener) I do get annoyed when people put quotation marks around things that don't really need them. This all boils down to, watch the video below at your own risk. My quotation marks are there for a reason.

Now do you understand why we shouldn't forward those emails or post these videos?!?

"Red Flags or Red Herrings?" by Susan Engel

I grabbed this book at the library on an impulse. Who doesn't want a magic ball for their child's future? I read it in a couple days--it was well-written with lots of stories, just the way I like it. The premise is: there are some things you can change about your kids and some you can't. Like if your kid is shy or has lots of energy, you can't change that aspect of their personality although it may shift as they grow older.

Unfortunately, after I got done reading this book I was confused as to what things are problematic and what things I should just roll with. It sounds like they are different for each child. Am I missing the little problematic behaviors that will add up to Sammy being a troubled teen? This one story is stuck in my head of a boy who was popular, happy, smart, etc., but grew up to be a loser adult because his mom ignored things like him stealing a quarter off the dresser and denying it.

Also, I don't think the author meant for me to get this from the book, but one message I got loud and clear was: If I am a normal, sane, middle-class American, my kids have a good chance of growing up to be okay. Think normal and sane, Anona, normal and sane. Normal and sane, normal and sane...

Calling 911

A few days ago I looked out my front window and saw a tall, skinny white guy dressed in black with a black knit hat loping across my lawn. For those who have not been to my house, my lawn is in the back of a house and off a private drive surrounded by backyards of other people and a large gravel patch. In short, it's not on the way to anywhere. I stepped outside to get a good look at this guy/yell at him (How dare you walk across my lawn!) at which point he started running, jumped my neighbor's fence, and hid on their porch, peeking out to see if I noticed him. When he realized that I was indeed watching him his head disappeared.

What to do? Calling 911 seemed a bit drastic, but there are a lot of break-ins in my neighborhood and this guy definitely seemed good for it, so I called. When you're a little kid this number is drilled into your head. But do you ever get to call it? No. So I called, gave the operator a description of this guy, the location of my neighbor, etc. I don't know if she even sent someone to check it out, but she got my phone number in case the police wanted to talk to me. (!) It was a rather flat end to what promised to be a thrilling afternoon.

To Pee, or Not to Pee

Yesterday evening we went on a field trip to the library the next city over to pick up some travel books. All was going well until we got to the self check out machines, when I looked down and observed two small puddles forming around Sammy's shoes. I stood there in shock (My child? Have an accident? I didn't know such a thing could happen!) and Austin quickly commandeered the situation. "Quick, run to the bathroom!" I remember wondering why exactly we were supposed to do that, since Sammy had obviously just done her business on the library carpet, but in a crisis, you just follow the first voice of authority you hear. So we ran.

The bathroom was mercifully empty--but unfortunately environmentally friendly. No paper towels! Curse you, eco-friendly library! We walked out to find Austin gone, having checked out our books and fled to the safety of the car. His devious ploy to distance himself from us became suddenly clear. "Those puddles, Miss Librarian? No, I have no idea how they got there." I glanced at the puddles, then at the door. I could do the responsible, adult thing and tell the librarians that there were now two puddles of pee on their carpet, and could they please clean it up for me, since I didn't have any paper towels thanks to their accursedly liberal environmentally-conscious paper towel policy. Or we could run.

The wind felt good in our hair as we fled to freedom. "Faster, Sammy, faster!"

Anona's Skin Care Regimen

Makes you feel smart to say "regimen," doesn't it? Anyway, after a couple bad face days I decided it was time to update my skin care regimen. I did some research so I wasn't just pulling things off the shelf.

Old regimen: splash water on my face at night every once in a while.

New regimen:

1.) Wash with this every night. It doesn't dry my face out and it takes off eye makeup too, so I don't have to use seperate makeup remover.

2.) Lotionize with this every morning. It has sunscreen in it, keeps my face moisturized ALL DAY (drying out is a big problem here in the West) and feels lightweight. Perfect to go under my non-exsistent makeup.

3.) Scrub with this once a week. The internet said one can also use a mixture of brown sugar and olive oil, but what with doing the baking soda shampoo every once in a while, my bathroom and pantry are starting to look alike, so I just bought the scrub. I admit: I haven't actually used this one yet. Felicity has given me like 15 total hours of sleep all week. Exfoliating is not number one on my "To Do in My Spare Time" list. But I like that you can leave it on as a mask as well as scrub with it. Apparently, a deep exfoliate once a week will get rid of gross dead skin cells, which is why I bought it.

My face feels awesome. All of these are in the face care aisle at Target. Next move, save up money and buy make up.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Ay, there's the rub. Felicity's been going through a growth spurt (or teething? Or messing with Mom) and has been up every two or three hours for the past week. Back into survival mode for me! The weird thing is, a lot of times when I don't get enough sleep I start having dreams about...homework. The other night (in my dream) Austin and I both had papers due--I checked his and it wasn't long enough and wasn't very well organized. Mine involved a three-part thesis followed by a sequential explanation, etc. I didn't actually have time to finish my paper, because Felicity woke up. Drat! It would have been an A paper for sure!

I think my sleep deprived brain dreams up homework for me because it thinks I'm back in college when I never got any sleep. That's my theory anyway. Maybe I should write a paper on that...