The Mystery of the Earring

I have this sexy pair of dangly earrings that I got a few months ago that I absolutely love. I'm not really a big jewelery person, but for some reason these earrings always made me feel just a little bit beautiful (and when you're working at a coffee house covered in spilled espresso or walking around the house with baby spit up all over you, that's a pretty amazing feat!) I usually keep the earrings hanging on a votive candle by the bathroom sink so that I won't lose them, but about week ago, I happened to looked down and notice that one of the earrings was missing. I tore the bathroom apart looking for it - in the sink, on the carpet, in the drawers - with no luck. I even got Hoby to help me look, but he couldn't find it either. It was gone.

I waited for awhile hoping the missing earring would turn up, but I finally gave in this past weekend and decided to buy a new pair of earrings. I found a cute little silver pair at Kohls that were just as dangly and sexy - and they were even on sale! That night, when I was getting ready for bed in my bathroom, I looked down at the candle and saw the one earring sitting there, looking lonely, and I thought to myself, I'll have to bring up my new pair and they can all hang out on the candle together. And then I went to bed.

Well, the next morning, Hoby got up before me and took Rory for a walk so I could get a little extra sleep. When I got up about an hour later, I took a leisurely shower, and then began to get ready. I happened to glance down at the candle, and lo and behold, there were TWO EARRINGS sitting there. Wow, I thought to myself, Hoby must have found the missing earring this morning and put it back to surprise me. And lucky me, now I'll have 2 pairs of sexy little earrings!

I saw Hoby a bit later and thanked him for finding my missing earring, but he just got this confused look on his face and said, "Um, I didn't find your earring." Huh? I was pretty sure he was pulling my leg (and if you know Hoby, he has a habit of doing that on a fairly regular basis), so it took a few hours before I finally started to believe him. And so the question has to be asked - if he didn't put the missing earring back, HOW DID IT GET THERE? We've both been over it about a thousand times and neither one of us can figure it out. I mean, the earring didn't just get up and walk itself back to the candle by the sink. It had to have been PUT there. And since neither one of us did it, well, HOW DID IT GET THERE?

And now we're both just a little freaked out...

Over the Hills and Through the Woods...

We recently went up to Mariposa to visit with Hoby's parents and grandparents. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mariposa, it's a little tiny rural town up in the mountains near Yosemite where my husband grew up. It's beautiful in a breathtaking sort of way, but people definitely live life differently there. Men drive enormous trucks with gun racks, the local grocery store has pictures of prize pigs and their owners up in the meat department, and everybody knows everything about everyone. And while most Grandmas give their grandkids toys or candy, Rory's Mariposa Grandma gave him a BB gun. No, I'm not kidding, and I have photographic evidence to prove it:



Does my kid look like a redneck in training or what? Sheesh...





The BB gun wasn't loaded of course, but being the liberal flower child that I am, I can't help but feel that there is something so inherently wrong with this... sighhhhhh.

Aside from the gun, we had a wonderful time up in the mountains with Hoby's family. We had a chance to say goodbye to Hoby's Grandpa, Papa Dudley, who sadly passed away the day after we came home. I know he would have been very proud of how well his great grandson handled his gun :)

8 Month Newsletter

Dear Rory -
Today you turn a whopping eight months old, and once again I am totally amazed at the changes that have taken place over the last month. To begin with, you've definitely become more mobile, and even though you aren't crawling yet, that certainly doesn't stop you from getting around. You love to roll EVERYWHERE, and the look on your face when you pop your head up after rolling onto your tummy is one of pure joy. It's like you're saying, "See, I don't need you people. I'm perfectly capable of getting around by myself." You've just begun to get up on your hands and knees and rock, so I expect that you'll be experimenting with crawling any time now, but trust me, kid, I'm in NO HURRY. You're enough of a handful as it is, I can only imagine what adding crawling to the mix will do. Oye Vey.

Another major change this month has been the appearance of your very first tooth. FINALLY! Right now it's just a little white cap peeking out from your very swollen bottom gums, but I'm sure it will be a full fledged tooth before long, with several more to follow. It's hard for me to picture what you'll look like with a mouth full of pearly whites - and while I'm sure you'll be adorable, I'm really going to miss that toothless grin of yours.

A cool thing that has started this past month is your ability to somewhat understand what we're saying. One of your father's favorite pass times these days is to yell "VENT!" when he's carrying you around in the kitchen, and you instantly look up at the ceiling towards the heating vent that's there. (Random, I know, but it's how we get our kicks around here.) You also get very excited when you hear us discussing a bottle, so much so that I've started spelling it out so you won't know what we're talking about, even though I always hated it when my parents did that to me. (Sorry, little buddy.) And you definitely know what I mean when I say "ALL DONE!" when you're finished eating because you instantly get upset that your food supply is about to get cut off. (Does it look like you're not getting enough to eat? Come on now!)

But all of these pale in the face of your biggest accomplishment the month - SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. Just a few weeks ago, you started going to bed around 7pm and not waking up until 6:30am. THAT'S ALMOST 12 HOURS. The first few times you did it, I thought for sure that you had died during the night, and I'd run into your room in a panic only to find you sound asleep on your tummy with your butt up in the air, snoring away peacefully. I've finally gotten comfortable enough to stop checking on you throughout the night, and now I usually get at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night. It's a wonderful thing. So how did we finally do it? Well, I'd love to be able to say that we followed a specific method, but honestly, after trying several approaches with minimal success (including the dreaded "cry it out" method), you really just starting sleeping through the night when YOU were ready to, and not a minute sooner. And that was that.



Right now, Rory, you're a lot of fun to be around, especially since you love to smile and laugh. Everywhere we go, strangers see your beautiful face (usually covered in drool) and they can't help but smile at you and come to say hello. I've seen you turn grumpy sales people into cooing masses of jello with just a few cute little giggles - and it makes me puff up with pride. I'm so proud to be your Mama, little man, and I hope you know that will NEVER change.

Happy 8th month, Bubba!

Love,
Mama

Surprise, Surprise

Did I mention that my friend Sara and my Mom threw me a killer suprise party for my 30th birthday? They really pulled one over on me. (Way to go, ladies!) I was pretty bummed out about turning the big 3-0, but the party lifted my spirits in a big way. It made me realize that I had nothing to be bummed about - I have a wonderful husband, an adorable baby boy, and great friends and family who care enough to want to celebrate this major milestone with me. It doesn't get much better than that...

Here's me with my sneaky brother and parents who managed to keep the party a secret the whole time I was out to dinner with them right before the big shin-dig went down:



Oh, and did I mention that I'm a blonde now? It's kind of a long story, but all you really need to know is don't try and dye your hair at home. EVER. Enough said.

The Top 5 Things That Annoy Your Coffee Barista

1. Ordering a Mocha Frappucino, the LARGE SIZE, with EXTRA mocha syrup, and EXTRA Whipped Cream, and then saying that you want the LIGHT kind because you're watching your weight. That's like ordering a Big Mac with super sized french fries and a DIET COKE. What the hell is the point?

2. Saying things like "Wish I could have a no-brainer job like yours" or "If only my job were this easy." Try walking a day in my shoes before you make comments like that, asshole. I don't see you getting up at 4am and having to work on your feet all day schlepping coffee for schmucks like you, all while providing service with a smile. It's a lot tougher than it looks, trust me.

3. Not saying PLEASE or THANK YOU and just barking out your order in a no-nonsense sort of way without a hint of human kindness. I understand that you're in a hurry, but just remember, I'm a person, too.

4. Waving your money at me when while I'm writing up your order and ringing it into the register, as if to say "Hurry up." We can only go so fast, especially you order things like a venti latte with 2 pumps of sugar free vanilla, 1 pump of sugar free hazel nut, and half a pump of peppermint with half nonfat milk and half soy steamed together to 180 degrees with extra foam made from whole milk, and two extra shots of espresso, double cupped and stirred.

And last but not least, the MOST annoying thing is...

5. Talking on your cell phone while ordering a beverage... and the annoyance factor triples when there are people waiting in line behind you. The other day, when the store was extremely busy, this one lady finally gets to the register and then just stands there, continuing to talk on her cell phone and ignore me. Since it was obvious that the other people in line were in a hurry, I tried to signal to her that she needed to give me her order, but she just glared at me and continued to talk. Then when she finally hung up after several minutes, she actually said to me, "My phone calls are VERY important." Oops, sorry Lady, I didn't realize that the whole world revolved around YOU. Please, people, when you get to the register, be considerate of others and HANG UP YOUR DAMN PHONE.

Can you tell I had a great day at work?