A fleeting chance at fame

This weekend has been our Sonoran Living audition weekend.  Sonoran Living is a local talk show – a Today Show for Phoenix if you will – and a friend-of-a-friend is a frequent contributor on the show. 

But we were still very surprised to receive TWO invitations this weekend.  Laura Mahoney is a party-planner, decorator and held two themed-events this weekend to later be presented on the show.

On Friday night, Aaron and I went to a couples game-night.  (THANKS Aunt Lic for baby-sitting!!)  We’d met several of the couples before but primarily knew our friends Mike and Jacquelyn – so this was a good excuse to make some new friends.  The group was energetic, food was delicious, and the games were extremely fun.  We played a version of the ‘Marriage Ref’ in which each couple argued a trivial topic and then allowed the audience to vote on a winner.  [I lost ours by the way and now need to pick up my own shoes.]  There was also a version of the newlywed game and a husband’s blind taste-test to guess his own wife’s cooking (all of the husbands got this right).

On Saturday morning, Laura hosted an art exhibition at Aaron Brothers for the kids.  The 6 kids are all approximately the same age and they had an opportunity to select their own supplies and make their own art.  It was very cute and Elayna seemed to have a great time.

We’ll see if any photos of us appear on the TV show.  But it was a fun weekend even if we don’t become famous…. 

          

A Fridge Story … Part II

Have I talked about this fridge enough?  Because I’m frankly sick of it – regardless of if the blog-biosphere is yet or not.

The new fridge was delivered on Friday.  It was beautiful.  It was a beautiful, non-functioning fridge.  Saturday morning – after giving it the benefit of the doubt – Aaron called Lowes to complain.  The customer service rep recommended we unplug/replug the fridge and give it another 24-hours.

This morning …. still room temperature.  Another call to Lowes has yielded us a ‘temporary’ fridge that does in fact appear to work properly.  I am tempted to keep it forever except that its dented and not the fridge that we ordered.  Our real, newly replaced new fridge is expected to arrive on Wednesday.

So in the course of a week, we’ll have 4 different fridges in our house (the old fridge, the new-non-working fridge, the temporary fridge, and hopefully a perfectly beautiful working fridge).  All of this is fairly unimportant since we no longer have food to put in it.  Most of our food has gone bad and I refuse to buy anymore until we can guarantee it a safe home.  So…. next stop:  Taco Bell!!

Anniversary in Flagstaff

Happy 12-years to Aaron and I!!  It is surreal how quickly time has flown by and what an incredible 12-years we’ve had together.

For the last few years, Aaron and I have spent our anniversary weekend in Tucson.  This year we decided to head the opposite direction to Flagstaff.  Our little family spent Friday and Saturday night at a beautiful hotel in the pines.

Our hotel had a 2-mile hiking trail, playground, and swimming pool; we explored them all on Saturday.  Elayna was a leisurely hiker, stopping frequently to play in the dirt or demanding rides from Aaron.  But the pool afterwards was heavenly and we all took great naps that afternoon.

Saturday night we explored downtown Flagstaff.  There was fun live music in the square, a yummy dinner, and some fun shopping.

Sunday was delightfully overcast and perfect for exploring the volcano park.  Elayna was a great hiker and very good sport.  We headed home after that to take naps and recoup.  It was a great weekend!!

Death of a Fridge

I can hear the fridge slowly dying in the kitchen.  The motor sounds like a diesel engine – and since it’s no longer efficient at keeping things cool, it runs all the time.  Several nights ago, Aaron hopped out of bed to shift it – secretly hoping the midnight dance would magically fix things.  It didn’t.

Last night we drove to Lowes to investigate replacement options.  I thought Elayna would have a great time exploring the appliances but she was not the least bit interested in what we were actually at the store to shop for.  First, she had to grumpily complain because we didn’t get a shopping cart that looked like a race car.  Then she tried every piece of outdoor furniture.  And THEN she played with two demo toilets, gleefully saying ‘Potty – ehhhhh!!’ every time she looked in one (over and over about a million times).

We ended up buying a fridge just to help the poor salesman who had to explain their features twice – once to me and again to Aaron after we traded parenting duties.

About 5 minutes ago I received the confirmation call from Lowes about our delivery.  Next Friday.  That’s right – 8 more days of the poor complaining fridge.  <Sigh>

  Isn’t it pretty though?

Congratulations to Aaron

We found out yesterday that Aaron was officially offered a great promotional opportunity at Honeywell!!  He’ll be the quality manager specifically supporting AirBus and have 3 employees reporting to him (2 in France, one in German). 

I’m very excited for him as this will be a GREAT boost and he gets an additional week of vacation.   CONGRATULATIONS, HONEY!!

Ten Things Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!! Here are 10 things currently happening in our lives....

1) Elayna has stopped napping. She *maybe* takes a nap at daycare and it's hit or miss at home. This causes no-end of angst for mom -- who loves to sleep and thinks everyone should enjoy it too.

2) The Alpha Gamma Delta housewarming party at ASU was last Sunday. I'm still exhausted but happy with the turnout. It, of course, was the hottest day all summer!

3) In planning the housewarming party, I somehow managed to pick up a virus on our home computer. Apparently 'outdoor umbrellas' is a hot virus keyword. Our computer is being re-imaged at no small expense or lack of heartburn. Henceforth, no pictures right now.

4) Our fridge has also picked up some kind of virus and makes annoying noises at all hours of the night. We're debating hospitalization or euthanasia.

5) On Friday, we had a great evening with our friends Jane, Dave, Kira, and Karis at their community center pool. Kira is one of Elayna's best friends and the girls actually played together (not just stare and steal each other's toys). Aaron and I are now suffering from community-center-envy and day-dreaming about moving. It might be easier to move than buy a new fridge.

6) I have a concert tonight at the Musical Instrumment Museum. I've been volunteering there for several months and usually enjoy it. Lately, however, it's been challenging to schedule shows and I haven't been in a month.

7) Aaron interviewed for a new job at Honeywell. The interview went great and he keeps hearing rumors of good news - so we're crossing our fingers.

8) 19 days until Brad and Charlotte's wedding!!! We have Elayna's dress, still need shoes though.

9) I finally had my camera cleaned -- another expense to add onto our mounting list of expenses. However, they magically removed the sand inside the viewfinder and my pictures actually look in focus. Its a miracle!!

10) 5 days until our anniversary!! For the last 2 years, we've spent the weekend in Tucson. This year we decided to head the opposite direction to Flagstaff. I'm excited for some hiking, exploring, and relaxation.

Membership has its privileges

Phoenix has a wonderful Children’s Museum – we’ve gone on several occasions and Elayna’s always enjoyed it.  The old downtown school as been remodeled and tweaked with a 3-story climbing apparatus, art room, toddler discovery room, fort room, mini-grocery store, and a million little childhood wonders.  Every inch of the space has a creative thing for preschoolers to discover.  We find something new every time we go….

Sooo…..  I broke down and bought a yearly membership.  Its well worth the price and after 2 visits is already 1/2 paid for.  Plus look at how much fun she’s having!!

 

In the climber.  The cute ‘E’ shirt was made by Andrea Stafford – Grandma Carol’s granddaughter.  It was a sweet surprise this week!!  The picture on the right is in the art room.  Elayna loved painting the castle!!

We took a math class!  It was geared to preschoolers and focused on matching, rhythm, and basic math/logic concepts.  Although it was a little advanced for E, she did do about 1/2 the activities and did AMAZING at sitting, listening, and being polite.  I was very proud of her!

I look forward to a fun year exploring the museum with Miss E!

Ten Things Tuesday

For some reason, I’m fascinated with Mom Blogs right now.  The idea is intriguing …. a fleet of stay-at-home moms digitally obsessing over their kids and getting paid along the way.  And there are Mom Blogs about everything:  adoption and photography and eating vegan and clipping coupons.  I’m continually wondering how these women made the turn from hobby-journaling to on-line publishing.  When did they decide that the ideas in their heads were worthy of sharing with the internet-cosmos?  And how to hook up with this getting paid deal….

And just to level-set, I have no serious intentions of joining the Mom Blogs army.  I’m too lazy to take anything beyond hobby-journaling.  But I could get better about updating our blog more often.

One Mom Blog idea that might stick is Ten Things Tuesday.  Here’s my first list of 10 random things – this appeals to both my need to make lists and also my <self-proclaimed> quick wit.  And just to shake things up, I’ll start this on a Monday.

1. 33 Days until Brad and Charlotte’s wedding.  I started shopping for flower-girl dresses months ago but cannot commit.  Low and behold, I discovered many bridal stores require 4-6 weeks to ship.  Great.
2. Because I cannot commit, here are my 2 favorite choices for the dress.  Internet-cosmos:  vote on your favorite a-la American Idol.  Sleeveless or Cap-sleeves
3. Clancy turned 9 last week.  The vet called him geriatric and gave me the ‘scowl’ when I didn’t know about his ear infection.  Worse, I hadn’t noticed the hematoma (huge blood blister)  on his left ear.  I’m not a very good dog-mom.
4. The vet asked for $900 to drain the hematoma with an unnecessary and complicated surgery.  Since I’m already labeled a bad dog-mom, we walked out.  Hopefully it will absorb on its own in a few weeks.
5. My friend Jane is on medical leave from work.  I miss her and our Wednesday lunches.
6. Alicia returned from Europe this weekend.  She met up with Brook Wiggins (on-leave from active duty in Afghanistan).   <sigh>  I miss Europe.
7. I had my hair cut on Friday and its sadly too short.  I’m constantly playing with it, twisting it, shushing it – hoping that I’ll start liking it any minute.
8. I’m planning a sorority housewarming party at ASU on Aug 15th.  It will either be a roaring success or hopeless failure.  In the meantime, I’m doing most of the planning with the voices in my head … and we argue a lot.
9. I’m finding work uninspiring and dull lately.  I need to regain some statistical mo-jo but lack inherent motivation.  Maybe I’d rather spend my time flower-girl dress shopping.
10. I had lunch on Friday with my friend Allison Armstrong.  Allison is honest and loud and open and crazy.  I need to spend more time with girl-friends – it definitely felt good!

While Aaron is away….

Aaron has been in Denver all weekend visiting with college friends Jesse Moore, Chad Ashcraft, and Brandon Luckey.  I think he’s had a great time – they went to a baseball game and played lots of folf.

I always dread being a single-mother but have honestly enjoyed my few days alone with Elayna.  She’s been sweet, has eaten and slept better than usual, and we’ve had a good time together.  We’ve played in the park (its unusually cool), went to the farmer’s market, cooked banana bread, swam, and went to a movie.  But we definitely miss Dada.

I did finally finish one big project over the weekend.  During Elayna’s first year, I made tiles with her footprint for each month.  Since then, we’ve had 12-random tiles stored in her room – unsure what to do next.  Aaron had planned a big wall-display but we were having trouble finding a picture frame to pair with it.  In the meantime, I’ve had space on her wall perfect for something like this.  So this weekend, I hung the tiles above her upper-chair rail to create a border.  I think it looks really nice – and I’m proud to do it all on my own.

Before

  After – with the tiles hung

And who is Princess Aluna?

For weeks, Elayna has been obsessed with “Princess Aluna”.  This is a universal name she’s applied to ALL princesses, fairies, mermaids, supermodels, or cartoon heroines.

Unfortunately, we have no idea who Princess Aluna really is…  Is it some derivation of Fiona or Aurora?  Is she trying to say Princess Elayna?  [unlikely as she does say ‘Elayna’ and it does not sound like Aluna.] 

In any case, her recent fascination with Princesses is amusing and sweet.  She’s definitely our PRINCESS.