and the winner is...

congratulations to jamie. she is the winner of the 'make a post' contest. i will send the gift card to you asap. happy friday everyone!

catalogs

is your mailbox full of catalogs? the pile of catalogs that we receive seems to be growing by the day. i have never even heard of half of the companies! i just went online to Catalog Choice and started making a list of the catalogs that I do not want. if you get a zillion catalogs, this could be the answer for you as well. let's save a few trees!

whole foods

shopping at whole foods when you are hungry is not a good idea. i came home with the strangest assortment of food - hummus, mushroom soup, cheese, soy milk, tamales, wine and chocolate. whole foods is an amazing store - the presentation and overall atmosphere is so much nicer than a regular grocery store. somehow buying regular items for more money seems acceptable. so, i was browsing in the candy section and found the most beautiful chocolate bars. look at this wrapper...gorgeous! i will be honest...the chocolate was yummy. dark chocolate is good for you, right?

vacation

i am in the mood for a vacation. montana is on my list of places to visit and the mountain sky guest ranch looks stunning. or, what about renting the moosewood meadows house? montana appeals to me for a number of reasons:

• i love the idea of big blue skies, tall mountains and open space
• my grandmother's family used to live in butte, montana before moving west to california
• i have been to europe, the middle east, the caribbean, and more but i have yet to see many parts of the united states. 

jerry and i drove across country about ten years ago. we started in washington d.c., made our way to cincinnatti, stopped over to visit friends in chicago then stopped in madison, wisconsin. we drove through minnesota, south dakota, wyoming, utah. then we drove a bit out of the way to hit las vegas and arizona, then home. we did the drive in two weeks which gave us a chance to see the corn palace, badlands, mt. rushmore/crazy horse and wall drug in south dakota, yellowstone, the grand tetons, devils' tower in wyoming, as well as bryce canyon and zion national parks. we camped out half the time and tried to find small, local restaurants instead of fast food. the trip was fantastic - everyone should drive across once. the drive gives you a sense of the size of our country.

family history

a few more photos from my family history project. over the summer we found baby photos of my mother-in-law and her twin sister. doesn't ryan look a bit like her grandmother? the first photo in the set is a picture of my mother-in-law held by her father. otto is now 104 and living in sacramento. he is such an amazing man - still upbeat and positive after so many years. he was playing bridge at his last birthday party in september!

family history

i am slowly collecting photographs, family trees and stories for a family history project. the old photographs are really fascinating. here are just a few of the many photos that i have gathered so far. my maternal grandmother - helen beatrice kroner

this was taken for the wedding of helen kroner (same as above) and morris fireman. they got married at the fairmont hotel in san francisco in 1937.

the little girl in this photograph is my paternal grandmother, ruth tichauer, with her parents. did you notice that both of my grandmothers had big bows in their hair? one grandmother was living in california while the other was in germany. i guess big bows were in fashion - at least for portraits.

friday

we had a lazy day at home today. sam did not have school and ryan has the bug that is going around the family. sam asked for pancakes at 10 a.m. and how could i turn him down? just look at that face! i highly recommend trader joe's pancake mix. add water and an egg and you are good to go! are you impressed with my stack o' pancakes? ryan has new glasses. this time, we were able to order a different style. maybe i should get in to the baby glasses market because the selection is really pathetic - there was one style of frame and that was it! the frame style is based on the size of the your child's head. that just doesn't make sense. what if they measured our heads and told us which glasses we could buy? i love the new frames and the tongue sticking out just adds a little extra charm! have a great weekend!

happy valentine's day

here is a sweet treat from my favorite bakery on earth. icing on the cake in los gatos. did i mention that i love chocolate? these little goodies are out of this world. yum!

then and now

i found the collage from my photo session with jack right before his first birthday. isn't it amazing to watch kids grow up and see how they evolve into little people? if i had to pick my favorite from the collage...jack with the birthday hat. or, jack and his dog. maybe jack on the swing? i can't decide.

-then-

-now-

new baby

this little guy just arrived a week ago. so tiny and sweet! welcome to the world, ryan. jack, ryan's big brother, is a little ball of energy. he was so cute - when i put a lens down, he would pick it up and hand it to me. i took photos of jack when he was about to turn one. i can dig up the old photos and do a 'then' and 'now' for my next post. congratulations to jack on becoming a big brother! i hope your mom and dad get some sleep soon!

friday

happy friday! the weather is absolutely gorgeous today. isn't it amazing how a little bit of sunshine can impact your outlook on life? i don't think i could live in an area where the sun is hidden for months and months. i am such a wimp when it comes to weather! everything seems better when the world is warm and sunny! here is ryan (a.k.a. pumpkin) and she is now 10 months old. this little one is climbing up on everything, eating everything (including house plants) that gets in her way, and still as sweet as can be. i couldn't resist the rear-end pictures! so cute!

recovery

i am thrilled to report that sam is doing really well after his surgery. within a few days of the surgery, he was running around as if nothing had happened. i am so relieved to have the surgery behind us. we noticed an instant improvement with his breathing and the loud snoring has disappeared - hopefully this will result in better sleep.

super tuesday

i just took the following quiz to help me decide how to cast my vote: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/candidatequiz/ after answering all of the questions, the candidate with the most matches was revealed. i will keep my answers to myself - trying to keep it light around here. off to vote!

warm

i know we are spoiled out here in california so i shouldn't complain .....but, i am cold! i don't like being cold. this is a picture from my honeymoon. my husband planned the whole thing - i told him i wanted to go somewhere warm, somewhere small and private, and a hammock would be nice. he found the most amazing place. petit st. vincent is out of this world. the trip there was a bit nutty with a flight to toronto (really out of the way but we were using miles) then another flight to barbados, one more airplane flight to union island and then a boat ride to the private island of petit st. vincent. so, back to my original thought about being cold...wouldn't it be nice to be sitting on this beach with a nice tropical drink in hand? i am going to try to visualize this when i hop in to bed with flannel sheets and flannel pj's.