First World Problems

Henry and I go on a walk almost daily, at a park we love in a part of town that we also love. On those walks, Henry is usually napping and I find myself thinking incessantly. And this is the situation I've found myself in...

We are passively looking at new homes in a few parts of town. Possibly moving within the next year. 

Reason? Well we live on a really busy main street, we don't have a yard, we will eventually need more space when we have another little one, and the school district that serves our neighborhood is pretty dreadful. 

The obvious answer once was, to be patient and make sacrifices on how updated the home was in order to be able to afford something in the ideal neighborhood with the best schools. And then, with all of my thinking time, I found myself wondering if Henry would be better served having a more diverse environment. Kids from more backgrounds; culturally and economically. I can't quite articulate exactly what else I mean by "diverse", but I know there is more to it. But doing this wouldn't make sense if we were to somehow find ourselves living in this ideal neighborhood. Because no one would ever pass up on access to the best public schools, to give their kid a diverse experience at a charter. However, a charter is never guaranteed since most selections are based on a lottery. So atleast we would have a good school district as a definite option if we lived there.

And then there is the idea of getting a more updated home in a good area, that doesn't have the best schools and crossing our fingers and toes that we can get Henry into a good charter, since we wouldn't have a good school district to fall back on. But in a good neighborhood instead of the ideal neighborhood we would be able to afford a more updated home or to update one ourselves. 

So I realize I have to get real and figure out what is most important to me and in what order. Things like: The actual house and being able to make it our own and having the space we want, the neighborhood being safe and walkable with parks nearby, convenience to schools, shopping, gym, restaurants, and the quality of the school district. 

And then also getting clear on what's most important to me when making a decision on choosing a school for Henry. Things like extracurriculars, PE, music, art, parental involvement, diversity, expectations, performance, etc. 

What's most important to you when considering a school for your child? 

Oh yeah...I know, I have options, poor poor me. #FirstWorldProblems

Also...my kids almost 6...months old. I'm nuts, right? I have years to worry about it. Well, except I want to move in a year or so which kind of makes this thought process more acceptable and not crazy. Right? I think it has to do with being a mom. My brain is so full of things that are on a constant carousel spinning around inside my head with crazy carnival music playing, leaving me dizzy with indecisiveness and an inability to focus.

Baby brain doesn't go away after the baby is born, it is magnified.

Carmageddon, really? Life goes on. and on. and on.

Carmageddon [kahr-muh-ged-n] noun: the overly dramatic uproar and panic over the temporary shut down of the 405 freeway from the 10 to the 101. 

Alright, so everywhere you turn there is something about..dun dun dun...Carmageddon. It's become almost entertaining. I heard the police on the news saying "treat it like a disaster," oh yeah and those $4 flights from Long Beach to Burbank, crazyness. There are cities in the midwest that have had tornados, storms and full on floods. Cities in the south that have faced hurricanes. Cities all over the world that have endured tsunamis and earthquakes. And here we are in Los Angeles, fussing over a freeway closure for two days. I get it, it's inconvenient, and it's "something" happening and like most cliche LA residents, we must make it more than it is, we must capitalize on it's happening. We saw shops with "I survived Carmageddon" specials and t shirts. It's become a thing. It's a noun known by all Angelenos. So to say the least, we are staying put at home on our side of town, staying update on street and freeway traffic via Facebook status updates.

Still packing. It feels endless. It IS endless. But the end is nearing and for that I see the light. On the bright side, I found a $100 Bloomingdales gift card that my father in law got me for Christmas. I decided to treat myself to a little shopping trip after my painful dentist appointment as it was right next door...why not, right? I am not a huge fan of shopping and I rarely splurge on a big purchase for myself, so as you could imagine, Bloomingdales isnt my usual place of perusal. It's nothing like Target. Love Target. But armed with a gift card, I went in willingly, with an open mind, though judging the $75 tank tops and $90 t shirts. I needed jeans, that gave me some direction. I found that they are in excess of $150- wtf. I looked at the sparse clearance rack of jeans, and found a great pair. The right darkness, soft,a great cut. But they were a size 29. I am used to being a size 7. Double digit sizes are a lot more depressing, but I get it, that's just the fancy pants sizes. Low and behold, I am a size 29! The pants I loved fit perfectly and flattered my..assets. They were originally $170 and I got them for....$85!!! A-mazing. And the most expensive single piece of clothing I have. I will not be enjoying spaghetti sauce, fruit punch, or ketchup while wearing these pants. Stains are not welcome.

So back to packing it is. Been moving boxes and furniture all day. Sweaty and stinky. I stink. Like balls. And even still, I went out in my white slip ons, my husbands michigan shorts, a random t-shirt and hair up to get cupcakes! It's our savior. It's our joy. It is THE only thing that would be worth going out looking all mismatched and smelling like balls. 

I understand your concern of my excessive cupcake eating. Don't worry, I've been running, I'm not 500lbs. 

And for my fellow people of great taste. Harry Potter 7.2 was fantastic. I cried, I laughed and I wished it never ended. I'm a huge nerd for it. Random story. I was at home depot with a cart full of packing paper and cardboard boxes and an older, awkward employee comes up and blurts out "do you want to see harry potter with me tonight?" Was hilarious, after I informed him that I was seeing it with my husband that night, I walked away wondering how he knew I was a fan of harry potter. Do i walk with the stature of a Gryffindor, do I ooze the essence of a Hogwarts student or do i simply stink of nerd? Whatever it may be, I am proud. 

ryan seacrest & cupcakes

Do you ever have those dreams that you wake up from, interrupting them right in the middle, wishing that it would have been able to keep going because it felt like it was all happening for real? I did last night. 

It involved my secret crush, ryan seacrest. 

Dreams don't make a whole lot of sense but this is what I can remember from it for those that analyze dreams:

I was standing in a crowd, Ryan Seacrest walked by, I smiled and said hi. A few minutes later his assistant came back and pointed to me and handed me six slips of paper and said, you get to come with me and pick out six cupcakes. So I followed him, and remember there wasnt much of a selection. I chose six but when I looked back in my pack of six someone had taken four of them. So again I began choosing, there was a small chocolate and a big chocolate and i put those in. Then the next thing I know, I'm standing in this crowd and Ryan is in the distance, kind of on a stage and he smiles at me and I remember making a squinty face for whatever reason. Then the lady in front of him says "Okay, I'll take you, and you." Pointing at myself and some other unimportant person. Then walking toward the stage Ryan puts his arm out and says "I'll take Alex." As we crossover the stage he mentions that he lost a bidding war on ebay for a poodle which costs $300/month. To which I replied "Oh that's nothing for a poodle." WTF? Then we sit down at a table, and we have some sort of script of a play that we're going to have to read from -- to entertain the masses I assume? We end up chatting and we were about to take a picture together on my iphone when suddenly -- I am awake. Bahumbug! 

Anyway, goes to show what I think about --- cupcakes.

Random thought: these came up on image search, i LOVE them.

We hit up about six different places for sale this weekend with our realtors. It was about 120 degrees out. I was sticky and cramping, because oh yeah, I'm a woman who will be a baby carrier in the future because I have a f*cking period every month. Kill me.

this is how i feel right now. Fat, lazy, sore boobs. (i laugh every time I look at this -- I apologize to art snobs who dont think I respect the artistic beauty of this. She just looks like I feel inside)

That's right, houses. A couple of them had the owner, instead of their listing agent, show us around which is awkward as all hell. You have to keep in thoughts like "what is with this hideous tiling in the shower?" or "the smell of filipino food is suffocating me." or "is the floor meant to be sloping downward?" 

We saw the good, the bad and the ugly. Found a couple we liked, looking in different parts of town and started narrowing in on what we really want. It's an adventure, that's for sure. If only packing up and becoming nomads was a seriously easy thing to do. Commitment is difficult for me (except with my superhero husband. That was the easiest choice I've ever had to make!). We just signed a 6 month lease on an apartment so we have somewhere to live until we find a house. That 6 month commitment caused unbelievable anxiety and my patient and fearless husband had to talk some sense into me. That we aren't literally "stuck" there. I hate plans. I hate being stuck. I think I just hate people right now. It's the hormones, don't blame me. 

Spa in a couple days. Breathe. 

a first: craigslist

So this whole selling the house process went into hyperspeed and happened quicker than we imagined. Well we imagined it, but that was the "hah, you know what would be an ideal situation?" Yeah well, that came true. So we're in first gear -- or is it second gear? I drive an automatic so I dont know exactly which one is the gear that helps you climb a hill faster. But we're there, climbing this sell/move/pack hill and it's awesome. The Mr.'s constant, "I'm not worried, we'll get it done and everything will work out how it's meant to" attitude sure does balance out my "okay, we need to get more boxes, packing paper and cushiony stuff for all the kitchen things, we need to find a storage unit, we need to get a temporary apartment until we find our dream home, oh and there's three open houses we should look at tomorrow" attitude. We're perfect together. 

With the move, we are trying to get rid of bulk. Extra furniture that we dont want/need/like. I figured we could yard sale some of this stuff but we likely wouldnt get more than $10 for some of the furniture, so I tried Craigslist-- which I had never done before. I am now hooked. I put up an ad and pictures of this dresser/armoire thing I had moved into my office after we got a new dresser for the bedroom.  So there I sat, putting up my listing.  

And low and behold I got atleast 6 people who were really interested in it. I confirmed with one person, but asked for their number so I could call to give them our address. I'm really hesitant to give away that info to a stranger, especially on craigslist. You never know who it is, and if I were a bad guy, I would probably say I wanted to come look at the dresser also and then come in and be a bad guy. So anyway, I called and it was a very nice lady, and just in case she was like a tag team of robbers or something, I made sure to mention "oh and my husband will be here also...to help us move the dresser." Just so they knew I wouldnt be some lonely woman at home. 

Anyway, they drove from Santa Monica, came to the house and looked at the dresser. It's kind of an awkward situation. Her and her husband, me and mine, all standing in my office silently staring at the dresser. She asked a couple of questions, asked her husband what he thought and like many men, didnt seem to care either way. She said, after rubbing a small scratch on the side of it, "would you take $75?" of course I said yes! I mean, they had driven all the way from the other side of town to pick it up. She then said "I have to run to the ATM at the store on the corner, we'll be back." And so they went.

We waited a few minutes and jokingly said, "what if they arent coming back?" Then over 20 minutes had passed, (the store is literally 2 blocks down the street) and James said "they arent coming back." We laughed about how we got stood up, and how I probably would have used that same excuse instead of telling someone "no thanks." I had hope, insisting "Maybe they went to dinner." It was after 9pm. And then we saw it, a car returning and backing up to the house. They came back! With money! After the adventure of the men carrying it down the front steps and putting it into the back of their hatchback, it was success. My first craigslist sale. 

Guess what I'm doing this afternoon? Taking pictures and posting ads! Cha-ching.

word of the week: deceptively delicious

Me and my best friend

Been busy catching up on my "social life" this week, as we were total recluse's during our packing frenzy last week. It's nice to reconnect with friends and it's also nice to know that you're best friend is the one you have the rest of your life with. We have lots of friends and we love them all. There's also this amazing comfort in knowing that the person you married is your absolute best friend and that you can be anti-social together. Yep, sometimes all we want to do is stay in, watch a movie and eat junk food and fall asleep by ten. 

drool....

So I love my most recent, delicious discovery. Morningstar Farms. I had "Chik'n Nuggets" for lunch the other day...but I'm a vegetarian! How is that possible??? Well..they were fake chicken nuggets that taste like chicken. And that's not all...they have corndogs! They look, smell, taste just like real corn dogs, but they arent real, they are deceptively delicious. Mmm...I've never been big into the "fake" meat stuff, but these two make me feel like a bad ass carnivore. Everytime I eat them I feel the urge to say "look! I'm eating meat...not!" 

This isn't me btw! ha! Not even close..

And after that meatless meat meal I decided to start lifting kettle bells again to work on my abstastic abs. I like them for some reason, because I can actually feeeel my abs working. I stand there in front of the mirror in just a sports bra while I do my kettle bell exercises so that I can stare at my love handles and non-tight abs and shame myself into another set of lifts. The shame. 

my photo of bronson canyon

I went for a hike the other day, it was about noon and over 80 degrees out. The ground was dry and everything was the same dry burnt brown color like hay. I was certain this was "rattlesnake weather." They always talk about that, "oh be careful, it's them there rattlesnake season." I'm guessing it's the heat or something. I was so certain I'd see a rattlesnake...I dont know why but I was...that I brought my camera. With the thought that I would have the mental awareness and serenity to pop off my lense cap, focus and take pictures if a rattlesnake was suddenly on the path in front of me. Thankfully I didnt see any snakes, and I was looking...watching the ground two steps ahead...glancing into holes as I passed by...listening for a slither. I don't know what I was thinking, there was no way in hell that if a rattlesnake had appeared I would maintain the composure necesary to not move and to take pictures. I would be high tailing it down the path at record speeds. Again, nothing to worry about as I didnt actually see a snake, just spent alot of mental alone time living out each of the possibilities. 

I've always wanted to be a magician, I just havent proven that I have the patience or discipline to master it. It's just an awesome thing that I've always loved to see and attempt. 

So back in January, James & I had a birthday party together since our birthdays are just one day apart. It was a lot of fun, we had lots of friends at our house and we hired this guy, Fantastic Fig the psychic magician to come and entertain our guests with cool magic tricks. This guy is pretty...bizarre and also amazingly good at the magic he does, it's mind blowing. Funnily enough, he's also an attorney. Anyway, he was on America's Got Talent this week and got selected to move on the their Vegas round. Here's the video below!

Boxes and packing and prepping, oh my!

Gone are the days of collecting clutter, saving those Iron Man Dr. Pepper cans just because RDJ's face is on them and hoarding every last bridal magazine I scavenged through. It's time to purge, to strategically pack and stage the house so that it looks so quaint, organized and clean that other people would want to live here. 

We love the house, we love the location, it's all so great. It's just too much, we are downsizing, a lot less land, a little less house. We're married now, we want to find a place of our own, to make our own -- so grown up it's ridiculous. 

Not to mention, a place to start our family in. No bump yet, but we are very excited to make some babies. Cute, cuddly, awesome, kick ass babies -- yes, I'm baby crazy. It's not my fault though, friends are having babies, getting pregnant and invading the hormonal part of my psyche. I've been browsing the website Project Nursery and searching baby names on Baby Center.  I've always known I was impatient, so this whole, 9 month gestation period will be full of decorating, shopping and baking. Again, not pregnant yet...just enjoying the things I get to look forward to. The more I see cute bedding and awesome names, the less I think about the weight gain, morning sickness and insane mood swings. 

Anyway..about packing..

The task is eternal it feels. Packing, moving piles to another room only to face it later. Some things arent meant to be put into square cardboard boxes -- how do I pack 2 big monkey cookie jars?

This means nothing, it came up on a
google image search for Garage Sale

A giant adventure (that's the word I use instead of CHORE -- i trick myself into excitement), a giant adventure we are conquering together. And at the end of it all -- a big garage sale! Here ye, here ye, ladies & gents of Los Angeles...a sale of household things from within a garage will be sold in the coming weeks. I don't think I've ever had a real garage sale, but it looks all folksy and fun, so yeah, that'll happen in a few weeks. 

Added the rock border and all the flowers/plants inside

Created the levels, added brick,
 rock, tree, plants, flowers

Oh ps my husband has apparently become a gardener/landscaper. Hot. The mexican in him emerges. The mexican in me emerges as I pick up Sharkys for his gardening lunch break. Yes, we are both part mexican, I apologize for blowing your mind.