Siamese twins

I was making more jam today, when I found this specimen. So sad. Two strawberries connected by one hull. Each had individual dreams and aspirations, and each was unique in its own way. But there was no way they could reach their full potential unless I somehow found a way to separate them.

I thought over the risks very carefully. If I made a mistake, it would end up worse than if I had just left them alone. Was I willing to bear the responsibility for such a decision. The life of two strawberries rested in my hands.
I chose my instruments and prepared to proceed with the cutting. Both strawberries had informed me that they were prepared to accept the consequences.
After one last moment of deliberation, I made one swift slice. There was no going back now.
A success. I felt so proud. I knew that despite the challenges that each would face in the future, the strawberries would now be able to pursue their lives unfettered.
I am happy to announce that they have both been able to achieve their lives' goals of becoming strawberry jam. While they were waiting to join the other strawberries in the food processor, I could see them reaching out to one another.... (no, not really).

A follow up to the gum story....

Instead of leaving gum all over the house in little chewed up wads, I thought I had improved by sticking the used gum in my pockets...

However, after a few loads of wash, gum is now stuck to all my clothes. Little blue/green reminders of a bad habit.

Maybe I should work on actually throwing the gum away after I use it! But that would make too much sense.

Cell phone pics: The best of!

I am so grateful for my cell phone! There have been so many times when a camera was not handy but I was able to catch a moment that would have passed me by otherwise. As I was going through my pictures the other day, I realized that I wanted to share some of them with you. Not all of them are of Anna (only most of them!).

This is a photo I took two days ago. Another gorgeous day in Seattle. I try to take walks every day with Anna and there are lakes all around us with sparkling views everywhere. It might be expensive to live in Seattle, but these views are free!

Anna is always trying to borrow my clothes! Here I caught her trying on my hat.
Anna is learning how to play with others. "Oh teach me the ways of the 'Fisher Price.'"
I found this picture in Fitness magazine in their March issue. It looks EXACTLY like my sister Carly. It could be her. In fact, I asked her if she had secretly done some modeling work without telling us.
I imagine she is thinking: "Mom, you have something in your teeth!"
Her first feeding...or maybe I should say-- her first dribbling.
When Anna is so delighted she can't stand it, she sticks her hands in her mouth for extra support.
"Do these glasses make me look smarter?"
what a cute munchkin...even if her sweater looks like it is going to swallow her up.

This is Anna's pin up pose. Does she look like a Gibson girl!
I think my daughter was sunshine bear in a former life.
No matter how grumpy she is when she goes to bed...she always wakes up like this-- with sunshine and smiles.
I loved this onsie designed by my good friend Kendra who is infatuated with pigs
Anna was so disappointed that the University of Utah lost to BYU in November. She moped the whole rest of the day.
This is Anna trying to actually remove whatever was in my teeth...
Two cans of chili made an easy substitute for handweights for my home strength training routine....and hey, I had a good protein meal for afterwards!
Anna's favorite bathtime friend is a green turtle. And no, she does not have a mohawk. Such a skinny kid back then. She really did look like a monkey.

This was taken shortly after she learned how to laugh for the first time. Gospel doctrine class has never been so funny! She laughed the whole class. I would have felt flattered that we were that entertaining, but I knew better. When Anna gets really tired-- everything becomes really hysterically funny

This was our first hike together over Thanksgiving. This is her concerned look, as if she is thinking..."are you sure you are qualified to be a parent?"

The headband is back!
Meal time is my favorite! She had just finished some avocado. She has never pushed any food away, and she never seems to be full. I am now convinced that Anna could have a successful career in competitive eating in case law school doesn't work out :)

Anna's first swimming trip. She loved it, and her eyes were bluer than the water.

I had to prove to Richard that I could still be cute! I actually got all the way ready that morning (Anna must have had a really long nap that day)

The only time that Anna will let us cuddle is when she is feeling really poor. Can you blame me for loving to be the one to comfort her!

One last picture of my cutie. She is the happiest baby I know. Richard and I call her toys, her "friends." The blue toy at the side is her elephant friend. He went everwhere Anna went for the first 5 months of her life. He is still a favorite!

Gratuitous Anna

Warning: these pictures have not been edited for content. They have been formatted to fit your screen and contain gratuitous images of babies enjoying a spring day in Seattle. The photographer warns that these images may cause spontaneous eruptions of "oohs" and "ahhhs" from the viewer. By reading this post, the viewer specifically waives any right to hold the writer liable for resulting feelings of happiness, giddiness, and generally the increased desire to have picnics in the park and/or have or have more children!
I have been trying to figure out my nice camera, and Anna and I had a perfect opportunity to work with the ISO button the other day. That is pretty much the only button I know, but already I am seeing a lot of improvement.
I took these pictures while lying down with Anna on my stomach. Thus the arms reaching out to get one of Anna's top 5 favorite toys: the camera

This is her seductive "are you watching me" look
I love this blanket I got at my baby shower. It is plastic on the bottom side so I can spread it on wet grass and not get wet...now, trying to keep a curious 7 month old on one limited blanket...that is another story!

Anna's first time in a swing!
We call her...young blue eyes! She has been sporting the "alfalfa" part in her bangs lately!
This girl is curious about everything!
I imagine that in this picture she is looking over to the other children playing at the park, deciding which conquests she is going to make and who she is going to pick for future kickball games.
"I could have sworn I had two hands...oh wait...there it is!"
What you never want to see your kid chewing on!
"hmmm...tastes like a cold virus!"

Pet peeve of the day: Lazy Songwriters!

I was just on my way to the library, happily listening to some pop rock (the music, not the candy) on the radio, when the song "Meet Virginia" by Train came on. If I remember correctly, this was a big hit for them and probably reached number 1 on the charts for awhile.

So why did I suddenly get disgusted (though not disgusted enough to actually change the channel): lazy songwriting. Whoever wrote that song was too lazy to find words that rhyme, so he/she just used the same word over again. In three different verses, the word "beautiful" is used to rhyme with the word "beautiful." Other instances include rhyming "president" with "president," "unusual" with "unusual," "queen" with "queen," and "life" with "life."

The result: utter chaos! The song doesn't make sense! It is the laziest piece of songwriting I have ever seen. Its lazier than not rhyming at all! Anna can rhyme better than that!

And NO ONE wears high heels when they exercise!

My inspiration!

Well, I did it. I signed up for the Seattle Rock n Roll half marathon! I am excited. It is my first race in more than two years. I definitely have the itch again (and I am not talking about athletes foot!).
However, it was a big concession for me in not signing up for the full marathon. In choosing the half, I recognized the limitations on both my time and ability to train in the next few months. I am usually not good at practicing "not running faster than I have strength" (in fact, my family would submit that I actually only have one speed, and run neither faster or slower...ever!) Someday I will do full marathons again, but until then, I will focus on these babies as my inspiration.

I am an Aasics girl. They have never given me blisters in 5 marathons. My goal is to turn my new pair of shoes in all their squeaky clean, impeccably white, untested glory...
...into a pair of shoes more closely resembling this proud specimen from my last marathon.
I am amazed at how attached I have become to my shoes. I have such a hard time throwing them away, even when they no longer have any shock absorbency and they become and indeterminate color of muddy grey. I look at them and I think about the literally hundreds of miles that I have run in them and how well they took care of me from the start of the race to the finish. Worn out shoes, to me, are the reward from a race well run-- better than any token medal.

The sad part is that I have been wearing my old racing shoes, which once crossed the finish line of the St. George marathon in dignity, to places like the grocery store and the library. They have definitely been put out to pasture! Time for a new pair of shoes to take its place!

Jam!

Last weekend I figured that I would take the last step necessary to becoming a fully domesticated woman by making my own strawberry jam. Richard eats PB&Js by the ton, so it was also just a matter of convenience. We were out of jam...we had strawberries. And I have to admit, I love home made strawberry jam. My mom makes some that has that bright pink/red color, and it smells and tastes just like fresh stawberries.

However, as I was boiling the concoction just as the recipe said to do, the color darkened to a deep red, and the smell of fresh strawberries that I had been wafting up toward my face was no longer there. I pulled it off the stove, convinced that I had burned it, ruined it...whatever. I tasted it, and it definitely did not taste like fresh strawberry jam. I called my mom and moaned to her about how I had ruined the jam---it was dark and it smelled funny. My mom laughed and informed me that I had probably done it exactly right...that cooked strawberry jam DOES change color and smell. The kind that she makes is called strawberry freezer jam and involves no cooking at all (thus the bright color and fresh smell). It made sense...the strawberry jam I see in the stores is always very dark with those sickly grayish looking lumps of old strawberry. It didn't occur to me that cooking did that.

Anyway, after apologizing to Richard about ruining the jam that I was sure he would have loved...he informed me that he actually prefers the strawberry jam that I had made to fresh freezer jam (something about freezer jam being too runny like liquid pink foam or something like that).

So anyway, Richard has continued to enjoy his PB&Js, and I am revelling in the smugness of being able to boil strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice for 15 minutes!

Its amazing how every time I make a mistake in the kitchen and something turns out different than the way I wanted it to, how Richard ends up "preferring" the mistake....

Coincidence...or just a compassionate husband?

Dear Anna

Dear Anna,

I hope you know how much your daddy and I love you.
I hope you know how we miss you when you sleep.
I hope you know that we pray for you morning and night, and that our thoughts are never far from you during the day.
I hope you know how much your happiness is important to our happiness.
I hope you know that we have never experienced greater joy than when you came into our lives.

I hope you know how beautiful you are.
I hope you see how our eyes light up when we look at you.
I hope that when we hold you, you feel only tenderness and caring.

I hope that you see how much you delight you give us.
I hope that you realize that you are the best parts of your father and me.
I hope you know that everything you do makes me so honored to be your mother.
I hope that the world will always be fascinating to you.
I hope that your hair will always be a little unruly.
I hope that you will always have the confidence to "crawl outside the box"
I hope that we can give you everything you need achieve your dreams.
I hope that I can make you laugh the rest of your life.
I hope that I can help make a joyful world for you.
I hope you know that you make my world joyful just because you are in it.

I hope you know that of all the good things I have done in my life...that you are the best!

I love you little girl!

Our Family Date: Happy Hour

We love food....
I cannot stress that enough...the Rose family LOVES to eat.
That is why almost all of our dates involve food. It is practically at the epicenter of our lives. So we have figured our an ingenious way to try new food at great restaurants while still keeping within our budget:

HAPPY HOUR.

Happy hour was no doubt created by a restauranteer who figured out that if you offered cheap drinks at certain times of the day that you could create more of a profit during slump hours (typically between 4 and 6 pm-- a time that involves no defined meal), thus luring employees to stop for a quick drink and bite to eat on their way home from work. Since the alcohol is where many restaurants make a big profit, they can afford to offer sumptuous food for a fraction of its normal price.

So Richard and I have decided to take advantage of the great food prices and patronize happy hours all over the city. This doesn't mean going to seedy, poorly lit bars full of down on their luck cowboys singing to their beer...
most of these places are the nicest restaurants in town.

This was a great little family date. We brought along some food for Anna and she behaved herself remarkably well. The waiter didn't hesitate a beat when we asked him for a good table where we could bring our stroller.
I didn't think to take pictures of the things we ordered, but we got was this:
1. rustic sweet potatoe fries with 3 dipping sauces
2. soudough grilled cheese sandwich with a tomato reduction (for dipping)
3. figs stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon and glazed with a balsamic vinegar reduction
4. a fire grilled pizza with chorizo sausage, onion marmelade and fontina cheese

all for less than $20
Anna's new skill is drinking from a bottle...a real bottle. She doesn't know quite how to work the opening yet without getting water down her front, but it keeps her entertained.