Morning, friends! And, a lovely Sabbath to you!
I am home sick with a foul cold, so I thought I’d take 10 minutes to write a quick post. Let’s call it 10 things in 10 minutes.
1. Hazel is going to be 2 years old on Friday. It’s true and I can hardly believe it. Were we really here two whole years ago??
2. This year we decided to have a joint birthday party for Hazel (turning 2 on 3/16) and Rowan (turning 1 on 3/17). I love a good decorating challenge, so planning a party for a boy and a girl on St. Patrick’s Day weekend is proving to be just delightful! Have y’all ever been to this party supplies shop?
3. I’m excited about putting together my Sewing 101 series! I’m going to start with the most basic of basics (like threading your machine and loading your bobbin) and we’ll work on different stitches and seams and things too. It’s the basics that I learned (and taught the following year) in my “Principles of Clothing Construction” class in college (I had a fun major, y’all!). I’m aiming for early April on this.
4. My mom is making meatballs for lunch today. Among other things, yes. But meatballs. Have you ever had them in a crock pot with a 1:1 ratio of grape jelly and chili sauce? If not, don’t judge until you have. I’m just saying.
5. The iCal on my laptop quit working last month. I actually lost track of all days and dates and about 5 weeks into my no-iCal situation I realized that living without a calendar can be fun, but it’s got all the makings of an “surprise!” pregnancy. :) It’s like adopting or moving – my iCal didn’t work and I lost all track of everything. No worries, all good.
6. In an attempt to fix my iCal I updated my computer’s OS to Lion Friday night. This seemed like a great idea except that (as the man at the Genius Bar put it) my hard drive essentially had a stroke in the process. My beautiful, friendly, innocent 18-month-old laptop is a worthless piece of metal at the moment. And biggest crisis of all: the jury is still totally out about whether all of my documents and, ahem, photos will be able to be recovered. Breathing deeply and taking it to a specialist in the morning. Breathe in. Breathe out…
7. I’m thinking about DIY-ing a fence for our backyard. We’ll see how that goes, but I’d love to let my kiddos out the back door this summer with a little more peace of mind. Especially wandery-Jane.
8. Ryan just started a new job with a company in Nashville. He’s loving working for someone for the first time in a long time. He’s getting to do lots of designing and he’s putting together a great team of designers under him. And best part of all? It’s a results-only work environment. Translation: work wherever and whenever, just get it done and get it done well. A perfect fit for our family!
9. Rebecca and I are planning a special trip to take our 5-year-olds to Disneyland this Spring. Any recommendations on where to stay/what to do with a 3-4 day visit? (Confession: I’ve never been to Disney. I know, poor Rae.)
10. My favorite iPhone app right now is Sushi-go-round. Don’t judge. I’m pretty sure it was custom-made for someone with my personality. I love memorization and people-pleasing and tidy completion of tasks. I’m a little bit hooked.
And, that’s my 10 in 10. Except that it totally took more than 10 minutes. Ah well.
I’ll close with this photo of Hazel from yesterday. Because I adore her.
Just a note it seems like you changed ssurprise pregnancies to st Patricks, but surprise pregnancies still shows up on the reader list. Just wanted you to know in case you really wanted to keep that out, you may have to delete the post :/ but Congrats to whoever it is!!
Thanks for the note. I had “surprise pregnancies” in there referring to my iCal issues, but then worries that it would be misleading as a post title so I changed it. No surprises here! :)
I read it and thought you were pregnant! But then I thought …..Raechel wouldn’t announce it so casually….so I wasnt sure. That would require a big fun announcement!
My friend and I DIYed a fence. If we can do it, you totally can! It’s not as hard as it may sound. I’m sure that you can do it and make it look adorable, too. Have fun!
Mindy,
Thanks for the vote of confidence! I think my only fear is the gates, but probably nothing a few YouTube videos can’t teach! :)
My husband and I just went to Disneyland for our honeymoon, it was amazing! We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel. I highly recommend it. Great customer service and it is decorated in very cool classic Disney. It was fun spotting all the hidden Mickeys in our room.
I have been saying for years that I need to learn to sow… At least enough for simple repairs and hems (hard to find pants for my incredibly short legs). I’ll have to stay tuned :)
I’m a Disney Travel Agent with MickeyVacations.com if you want some help in planning your trip! Disney is such a Magical adventure – both Disney World and Disneyland.
No charges to have me help you :) I do it for the magical moments that I make for families! :)
I still can’t believe our babies will be 2 on Friday. They grow up too fast!!! We are doing a Thomas (comes to) Breakfast family party on Saturday too. Enjoy! (can’t believe you’ve never been to Disney too- you’re missing out!)
My friend did a great post on Disneyland after they went last year. Here’s the link!
http://www.reichlyblessed.com/2011/10/disneyland-tips.html
Hope it helps! Have fun. :)
Disneyland or Disneyworld? Both are great but Florida sure is closer than California :)
Advice for Disney…make sure they meet the height requirments for rides if that’s what you’re into. We had some unanticipated issues.
Can’t believe Hazel is turning two! Can’t wait to see what you come up with for their party – I just did a joint party for my littles (four and one – what?!) and I went with a western theme. A ton of fun and totally gender neutral. :)
So for SoCal… Here is my list of great things to do:
1. Breakfast at Beachcomber in Crystal Cove- right on the beach, and amazing beach to play at afterwards! Beautiful place for some great pics too! The tide pools are great if you can go at low-tide. Here are two times that I have pics from our time there: http://joyfullydomestic.blogspot.com/2010/06/little-update-and-random-thoughts.html, http://joyfullydomestic.blogspot.com/2010/12/nothing-says-christmas-like-beach.html,
2. In-n-Out! You must go for a great burger and shake
3. Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf- best ice-blended coffee drinks ever… I’ll treat: ) it would be so fun to meet you in person after 4 years of reading your blog.
4. Other great beaches: Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, in South Laguna the beach at the Montage Resort, we love San Clemente, but that would be about a 30-40 minute drive from Disneyland.
Let me know if you have more questions : )
-Kelly
Love Hazel’s dress!!
Oh my goodness, Raechel; the same thing just happened to my twenty-one month old MacBook Pro. :( I feel your pain!! I didn’t have problems with the iCal (on which I’m very dependent), but the screen started going black while the computer was still on and then it would get really hot. The Genius Bar dudes couldn’t find the problem, but my hubby researched it and found lots of people are having issues with their MacBooks after upgrading to Lion. I switched to Lion a couple months ago, so this makes sense. He installed some app that’s supposed to help it use the right video card or something, but it’s happened again once in the last week. Not a good feeling, for sure. Please keep us updated on what you find out. Holding my breath for your pictures to be safe.
In happier news, happy birthday to Hazel! I’m also looking forward to the very basic sewing tutorials, because that’s exactly what I need. Hopefully we’ll learn to make some cute things sans machine. Thanks for planning this.
Excited for your basics of sewing tutorials! I am new to sewing & my hubby got me a new sewing machine for Christmas.
Hope you feel better soon! :)
Happy Early Birthday Hazel-My little girl will be EIGHT on the 16th as well! Time flies when your having fun!
Hope you feel better, Raechel! I am super excited for your sewing 101 series…I have just started taking up sewing and could use the help! I am about to give your oven mitt tutorial a try! Oh and you guys are going to have so much fun at Disneyland! Praying for you that your hard drive gets fixed and you are able to recover your photos.
Hope you’re feeling better friend- and your computer too!