The ABCs of MEL

A friend of mine had this on her Facebook page, and so I decided to hijack it over here to Blogger. Enjoy!

A - Age: 37
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: I mostly hate putting things away
D - Dog's names: No dogs now, but Daisy was our last dog.

I sure miss my sweet Daisy Doo

E - Essential start your day item: making the bed so the cat doesn't pee on it!

F - Favorite color: Pink. Or yellow. Or BLUE. Blue is good. But I've been digging red lately, too.

G - Gold or Silver: white gold

H - Height: 5'9"

I - Instruments you play(ed): clarinet, poorly.

J - Job title: our taxes read "Domestic Engineer"

K - Kids: one

L - Living arrangements: with husband, Dave, daughter, Mookie, and two cats in LA

M - Mom's name: Sue

N - Nicknames: Mama, Honey, Mel, (and, if you knew me before puberty, you can call me Missy.)

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: ? tonsillectomy when I was 5?

P - Pet Peeve: when people are rude or disrespectful, especially to people I love

Q - Quote from a movie: "Aaaaaassss yooooooouuuuu wwwwwiiiiiiisssssshhhhh."

R - Right or left handed: Right

S - Siblings: Older brother

T - Time you wake up: when Mookie cries, usually between 6 and 7

U- Underwear: Yes. Big fan.

V - Vegetable you dislike: Asparagus. Mookie doesn't care much for it, either.

W - Ways you run late: usually because I've misjudged the time it takes to get me AND the baby ready to go

X - X-rays you've had: teeth

Y - Yummy food you make: Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies. Yummy.

Z - Zoo favorite: Angela. :o)  Just kidding. (Ang works at the Denver Zoo). Gonna go with the polar bears.

Reflections - I Heart Faces, Week 16

This is my first time submitting a photo to the I ♥ Faces photo blog. They've been doing a weekly challenge since the first of the year, and either I haven't gotten my act together in time, or just didn't have a photo to submit. This week, though, I've got one! Most of you have already seen it, but if my suspicions are correct, you won't mind seeing it again. :o)

I don't honestly expect to win anything, really! I just love this picture of Mookie looking in the mirror. :o)  Seriously, though, if you want to see some INCREDIBLE "reflections" photos of kids, then you need to go to the I ♥ Faces webpage for the kids' entries. This photo of Mookie is cute, but some of those photos are works of art.

She Gets an Aunt

My brother, Rob, got married in Phoenix this weekend at a lovely restaurant with aMAZing views.

It was a great weekend, with lots and lots of socializing. My dad and step-mom came over from Mississippi. My aunt and uncle came up from Houston. My grandma came down from Colorado, and my mom and her husband live in Phoenix, so they were already there. It was SOOO much fun for all of us to hang out together! It was busy, though, too. And a few late nights and not enough naps for my sweet, baby girl. She was a trooper, though! A charmer, really. She didn't make a PEEP, no matter how late it got, she just wanted to partay. She's a social butterfly, our little Mookie. (Needless to say, she's completely bored with Just-the-Mama already...and we've only been home a day!)

Rob wanted to incorporate Mookie in the service, and my step-mom came up with THE best way. Have her take the rings up to the front, she said! So Mookie carried the Ring Bear. :o)

Here's a photo of Mookie with her (other) favorite aunt and the bear shortly before her debut as the second most beautiful girl at the wedding:

We tied the rings on a ribbon around the bear's neck, and I walked with her up to Rob, who took the bear, took off the rings, and gave her the bear back. I don't have the best picture of that, and you can't really see the bear, but here's the exchange:

Here's Rob putting the ring on Tracy's finger.

And, it's official. Mr. and Mrs. Mookie's Uncle:

Then after the wedding, we took a few candid family shots while the newlyweds were getting their official photos taken. Here's one of Mookie trying to push me into the fountain. :o)

And here's another of her playing with my pearls.

A photo with her (other) favorite uncle:

And a final photo with Grandma and Grandpa. She was tired. It was nearly 4 hours after her bed time, and she hadn't napped nearly enough for that kind of partying! :o)

It is now 42 minutes after MY bedtime, and I'm gonna go see if I can find some reprieve from this crazy heatwave that has hit southern California!

3 Minutes for Mookie

Yesterday afternoon we had one of those moments. The moment where you are super glad you've got your camera handy. We have lots of potential for those moments around here, but it's all too often that the camera is somewhere else. Shame on me.

But yesterday, I was prepared!

Here's some Mookie video GOLD, as far as I'm concerned. She was playing in our bathroom with a scarf, and just having a grand time. :o) In one (long) video, I was able to capture all kinds of stuff that she's up to these days...and even some new stuff. :o)  It's about 2 1/2 minutes long, so go get a cup of coffee before you hit the play button. She cracks me up. Enjoy!

That's the Biggest Bunny I've Ever Seen

Our first foray into the world of staged photography with big, scary, hairy characters. Which, by the way, is a racket! Thievery, I tell you. Lots of good money for a mediocre photo? Yay.

She did fine for about 24 seconds, and then started to WAIL. There was no soothing her. Poor girl. But at least we got a few good ones.

I guess having your picture taken with the Easter Bunny (and crying through it) is a right of passage for Mookie. And paying way too much money for it (and learning a lesson in the mean time) is a right of passage for Mama.

18 Months And Nothing Has Changed

Hi, yes, we're home. Have been since late Sunday night, but we've had some technical difficulties here, so I haven't been able to blog, really. Technical difficulties like, oh, a baby waking up at 2:45 am thinking it's time to start the day. Taking a couple of naps, and then falling asleep at 1:30 pm and sleeping like she's not gonna wake up till tomorrow. Except her tomorrow will start at about 11:00 at night. Mama can't take that kind of difficulty.

Plus, I think she's having withdrawals. Everyone was SO enamored with her while we were in England, and we were always going to see another family she'd never met before, so she got really used to meeting people and flirting with them! :o) She was the belle of the ball the entire time we were there. (And on the airplane coming home, but that's a story for another day.) So she's forever looking around for new people, and new things.

And our modem/router/Internet connector has gone caput, so we had to get a new one.

And, really, in general, I'm just tired. Sorry to disappoint, but it's true. I think we've turned a corner and are adjusted to Pacific time again, but it takes a lot of energy to keep up with Little Miss all day long! She's curious and active and adorable, of course, and I love to do stuff with her, and I am SO very thankful that I get to stay home with her, but I get tired sometimes. There, I said it.

Now, onto the recap. First, our flight from LA to Chicago was relatively uneventful. We left on time, we arrived on time, blah blah blah. Uneventful, except for the singing that was coming from a few rows up in Business Class. Uneventful, except for the fuzzy-headed looney-bird a few rows up in Business Class. Uneventful, except for Richard Simmons being on our plane! And I've got proof! See?

Proof. Because, who else in their right minds would go out of the house with a head like that?!?! I mean.

We spent Tuesday driving and running errands, and Wednesday we saw friends and had dinner with other friends (which was pretty much our daily routine -- friends at lunch, other friends at dinner). Then Thursday we got all gussied up for the graduation ceremony (horribly boring, yes, but it was a graduation, and that's what matters most, right?!)

Here is a distant photo of our studious Dave, in the queue to shake hands with important people.

And here's a close-up of that same shot so you know it's actually him and not some random person. :o)

We had really great seats right in front of a projection screen, so we got to see everything up close and in fine detail. I, of course, didn't want to waste that opportunity, and I, of course, do not have a powerful-enough camera to get a clear shot of the hand-shakings, so I got a photo of the monitor! :o) I wasn't the only one, thankyouverymuch. I don't know whose hand he was shaking. It wasn't the Vice Chancellor, that's all I know.

After the ceremony, we stood outside and took some more photos. Here's one of us with Dave's advisor. The weather in jolly old England? Sunny, but horribly, bitterly cold and windy. (Or could you tell that by the state of my hair?)

Here's a picture I mooched off of someone else. It was originally a group shot, but because I don't care about most of the other people in the group, I cropped them out. (Sorry, DB!) It's not the clearest shot, but I like it because, well, doesn't Dave look all "I'm a pretty big deal."?? :o)

I very rarely see a genuine smile like that on his face when it's looking at a camera. He was pretty happy...of course!!

This photo reminds me of the old Newhart characters Larry, Darryl, and Darryl. Remember them? "I'm Larry, this is my brother, Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl." Remember? Well, I think of them, because, below? This is Dave, and this is our other friend Dave. They are standing in front of the brick and mortar behind which they both spent so doggone many hours working toward the goal of PhD.

Thursday night we had dinner with friends, more of the same on Friday, and then on Saturday, I got to go shopping, and have lunch with My Girlie Friends, whom I have missed tremendously. It was SO very great to see them again. (I miss you!) They make me laugh, the good belly laugh kind of laugh, and often. They thought Mookie was adorable (who doesn't?!), and gave her a cute little shortie outfit for our summer ahead. It was pink and sparkly. I shall think of them whenever she wears it. Here's a little picture of Mookie and me. Why didn't we get a photo of all of us? Dang. It's still a sweet photo, I think. Plus, I don't get many photos of Mama-n-Baby. Look at her little rosy nosy.

Sadly, Sainsbury's was out of flapjacks, so I came home not having tasted the buttery goodness that has haunted me these 18 months. And I didn't have time to travel hither and yon in search of some. Someone over there eat a flapjack in my honour, pretty please?

Really, though, upon reflection, it felt like we hadn't been gone a day. Nothing really had changed. We didn't have any trouble driving on the other side of the road, we got to see almost all our friends from when we lived there, there wasn't much new construction in the town...it was all the same. Except I had a baby on my arm. But that was it. I don't think I really expected much change, but I guess it was just a bit surreal to go back and feel like, I don't know how to explain it. Like I was in some kind of weird time-warp, and had travelled back to 2007 when we left, and we picked right back up again where we left off.

But then Sunday, we travelled back to 2009. Back to California. Back to a messy house and an active baby. Back to Dave being stinkin' busy at work and Mookie and I entertaining ourselves at home. Back to eating lunch and dinner alone.

I wonder if, when I think of England, it will always be 2007 in my mind.

Checking In From The Other Side

We've been back in England for 3 days now, and have adjusted fairly quickly. The plane ride was brutal -- Mookie didn't sleep (too much to see!), although she finally caved when we had about an hour left to go. woo. Dave got a tiny bit of sleep, and I got to rest my head...but that's life with a curious baby. No worries, though. We landed, we got our car, we drove, Mookie slept. I slept. :o) It's all good.
We've seen almost everyone we wanted to see -- but there are certainly people we both missed, and won't get to see before we head home on Sunday. :-(  I've got to be sure to have my flapjacks from Sainsbury's before I go, though. That's a MUST!! :o)

Dave graduated! Yay! Looked all official and handsome in his fancy PhD gown and saucer-of-a-hat. :o) I'll post a couple of pictures when I have access to my own computer again. We invited our good friend, Tony, to the ceremony, and he and I sat together. They graduated the Masters students first, and then the PhD students. And there were about 91 times more MSc students than there were PhD students. Throughout the ceremony Tony and I were fascinated, riveted, captivated, bored out of our melons. Mookie was, of course, an absolute angel. She was fascinated, riveted, captivated, asleep during the whole thing. (Halleleujah!!) :o)

I'm having lunch with my girlie friends tomorrow, and then dinner with some of our friends from church, and then we fly on Sunday. SHORT TRIP!!!  Sheesh! I am not really looking forward to getting on a plane again so soon. (or ever!) :o)

Hope you are well. Look for graduand photos next week!