Where are those Mojitos when you REALLY need them?

A Mojito made with Coconut milk...way too delicious for it's own good.

A smore sundae, graham cracker ice cream, hot fudge and a flame torched, homemade marshmallow. I'm just lucky it wasn't my dessert, because I wouldn't have been so generous with the whole "would you like a bite?" thing.

I also had scallops with this incredible carrot mousse, (sounds a little weird, but it's not). Out of this world! I didn't even think of taking a picture until I finished. (It's on their website though if you care to see it)

I was doing pretty good there for awhile...right? I was posting every couple days, putting up photos and everything. But then life happened. Last weekend, I was eager to post about a wonderful dinner with friends in downtown Seattle at Boka, how fun it was to get out, and how expensive, when you add in the babysitter's cut.

and now onto life...

The week started with a well child doctor visit for Bear. Gone are the days when he cheerfully and curiously poked his way around the exam room, now he's wised up and wants "out!". He continously walks to the door, "out, out", and cries when he can't go. (and cries, and cries and then cries a little more) Books, games, toys, Teletubbies on the iphone, they're just distractions from what we all know is really around the corner...a big 'ol shot.

For the next couple days he's had a little fever, a cough and was definitely out of sorts. Moaning & crying throughout the night and even throwing up all over M. (who happened to be the lucky one holding him). I thought it was side effects from the vaccination until I started getting a cough too. And then Boo started coughing. And when there's alot of coughing, with our kids, things get exciting because they start gagging: two mornings in a row , we've had throwing up in stereo, and when it's curdled milk, it's not pretty. Sorry, I know that's probably too much information, but too bad, I've had to live it!

So that's where we are. Boo is asleep yet after another cough-upchuck spell and Bear is lying in my lap moaning and getting tired of my typing. Time to go.

Chambourde

Hi kitchen: it's a been a good run, but things are about to change.

Hi big, boring dining room window that I'm totally sick of. Yep, more change.

I'm going bold, I'm going red. Yikes! I kind of get scared whenever I say that, but I feel like it will work. I'm actually going "Deep Rose" but there's nothing rose about it. It's Tuscany, it's a brick oven, it's cinnamon...it's change.

For our living room hearth: think eggplant, genie bottle, Arabian nights, think...Chambourde. (It must be said in a drawn out whisper..."Chambooouuurrrde")

Don't know what Chambourde means? Neither do I, neither does Webster's, but apparently Benjamin Moore does. It's means a $50 a gallon room makeover. I've tried finding a similar color in Behr paint, Martha Stewart, and even Ralph Lauren, but nothing matches the tone and hue of Chambourde.

Here's a preview. Chambourde on the left, the competitor on the right--a no go.

(Pay no attention to the diapered stuffed monkey in the lower right hand corner, any self respecting home decor magazine would have edited that out, but at this blog, things are blessedly real.)

Weeknight Excursion

The Drive: 50 minutes of highway, satellite radio and my own thoughts....lots of them.

Destination: Mall town, USA!

Dinner: Mongolian Grill

Ambience: Food Court

Entertainment: Fellow Food Courtians

The Spoils: with 30 - 70% off, there's lots to be plundered.


Dessert: Gummy Bears (I kinda have a thing for them)



Goodnight.

The Haircut

The hair was getting way too long. After naps it was a bird's nest, combing it out was a nightmare for everyone. We all knew something had to be done. But when?

On the spur of the moment, we decided to 'get 'er done". Mom arrived armed with pretzels, fruit chews, Teletubbies on the Ipod...


but still he squirmed and swatted at the scissors, until I sat him on my lap and pulled out the the big guns ....milk in a sippy cup. Nectar of the gods, it works every time. (A nimble fingered, lightning quick hairdresser helps too.)


Now our little boy actually looks like a boy!

It's a little sad, I kinda miss that long hair.

My House on Milo

A last look, taken just a couple days ago.

Today the new owners moved into my old house. After spending the past week cleaning up after the last tenants and haggling over how much deposit money they'll get back, I feel a sense of relief. I spent ten years of my life at that house--purchasing it in '94 with my ex husband P. By the time I moved out I was divorced, had gotten a dog, changed careers and was engaged...again. The past five years it's been a rental and sadly, I've watched it get more run down every year.

I lived alot of life in that little house, all the time wishing for a bigger kitchen, or a bathtub or more closet space, but as I spent the last day over there cleaning, I missed it. I missed the way the wood floors creak, the way the light streams in through the back windows, I missed it's smell. I remembered nights by the woodstove writing in my journal, sitting in the sun smoking cigarettes on the back deck, planting scads of flower pots on the front deck. Even though it's been five years since I've lived there, it could have been yesterday,the house is so familiar to me.

I'm so excited to pass it on to the new owners...an industrious couple in their 30s: he is a carpenter and she is a Montessori school teacher who watches our children. The sweet irony of it is that I'm still not really leaving that house, our children will be there three days a week, but now I get to just stand back watch it's transformation.