falling in love again

This past week Christian and I have spend very little quality time together, or any time together. He has single-parented, done all the house work, and tried to motivate me in this very stressful week as I finish my project proposal. At times like these I feel like there is an unspoken understanding that even though we are stressed, we know that it will pass and we will be o.k. Today I worked all day and at 8:30pm we went out to dance. I thought I would of been done but wasn't and almost gave up on our date. However, the babysitter came and off we went. We hadn't been dancing together for a long time. I forgot how much I enjoy dancing with Christian. I forgot how much Christian enjoys dancing. Its one of the reasons I fell for him. We did meet at a church dance, after all. During our date I got butterflies in my stomach from dancing with him. I felt like we were dating again and that I was falling in love. Then we came home and Christian opened up the computer and edited my entire project proposal. It's 3:10 am, finally done. He just went off to get some sleep before he goes dawn patrol with David Baucher, a commitment he had already made before he knew he would be up so late.

I like the butterflies in the stomach feeling but not even close to as much as I love the peaceful comfort of our marriage. The often taken for granted feeling that I can count on him to bear the brunt of the parenting and house work and still stay up till 3:00am with me to edit my paper and tell me that he thinks I'm smart and amazing even though I've been feeling very incompetent and stupid. This is why I love Christian. Not just because he rocks my world out on the dance floor.

Ninja

We love you Andy and Charlene

Here's a link to the news report I read and saw about Andy and Charlene's house. I'm so sorry. What do they need? What can we do? We love you.

So Tute!

First and foremost, let me just say one thing: being a parent is NOT easy! Oh my goodness! I give MAD PROPS to all of you guys who are parents. You guys do such an amazing job and I do not know how you guys do it! Here are some pictures to show you how tired all of us are minus the kids who are ALWAYS full of energy!

I am looking pretty hashed! Chloe likes being on my shoulders. This way our walk goes faster because she always pick flowers, and we don't have to wait while she plays with all of the twigs on the ground!

Tey-Tey is the MAN, he's my newest addition in the boyfriend department and I could ALWAYS put him to sleep. I'm in love! G & Z, WATCH OUT!

Chloe would say this picture of her is "so tute!" She can't pronounce her c's sometimes, but I think it's a lot tuter!

I have had such an awesome time here. I have been tired and grumpy, but they put up with me because they love me! It has been such a good experience. I have met so many new kids and made new friends, it's great! Chloe is SUPER popular and random moms will come up to Ali and be like, "Hi Chloe!"; sort of strange but nice nonetheless.
We have gone to get pedicures, our eyebrows waxed, we have gone shopping at the mall, taken walks around the complex, gone to the parks, sightsee, and there is still so much left to do!

Ali has gotten the OK to start doing stuff since her 4 LAYERS OF STITCHES ON HER BELLY are healing correctly! Yesterday we went to Mount Vernon and it was gorgeous! We forgot the camera so no pictures! I'm thinking about applying for some internships here, and if I get them that would be awesome!

It's been really humbling to see all the things that parents have to go through with kids: no sleeping, looking like a zombie, not eating, not showering. When I was complaining to Ali asking her how the h she does it, she told me: "You have to be submissive. You are on the kid's schedule. Don't try to fight them, just go along with them."

And I must admit, that attempting to follow her advice has produced pretty good results. I love the kids and A & L even though I don't always show it. We all miss you guys and I can't wait to see you this summer!

Thanks for being such good examples to me. I told Ben that once we have kids I'm going to have an advantage over him because I am always surrounded by them. His response, "Who said we were going to have kids?"

MEN!

Danny/Daddy update

I know these are over exposed, but you haven't seen Danny in a while. The significance of the post title is that Gio calls Danny daddy half the time and Danny the other half. They sound the same. Danny is doing good in school. It's pretty much just like a job at this point. He's not in class this quarter so he goes in to lab at 8 or 9, works (runs gels, reads, freeze dries things, etc) and comes home at 5 or 6. Right now he is researching about the iridescence in squid skin. In learning about the chemistry of how the squid do what they do he aims to mimic their skillz and produce some type of optical device that will save the world. I totally read (and edited) his research proposal, but my recap is evidence of the fact that while everyday he goes to school and gets smarter and smarter, I stay home and listen to my brain atrophy through my ears. (I'm retarded.) Everyday at lunch time I load the boys and leftovers into the bike trailer and ride the 2 miles to his lab while listening to This American Life (thank you Da) or Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (thank you Bekah) on my purple iPod shuffle. The boys inevitably fall asleep and Danny and I have a nice grown up picnic lunch together. We talk (election) politics or watch the non existent waves or I bumblingly recite all of my newly gained knowledge about testosterone (This American Life) and speculate about my own current testosterone levels and their many varying implications. Danny seems happy in school although when I say things like he's getting smarter and I'm getting dumber he says he feels like he's getting dumber. I guess the more you learn about one specific thing the more of your useful broad knowledge you lose. Or something like that.

Sumo

We had fun at sumo, though Mim said that she would have rather gone to school. You can check out my post about the day here. We took a break in the middle of the day and went to the Tokyo Edo Museum. Here's a picture of the girls in a palanquin.

We had lunch at one of their restaurants on the seventh floor. The view was impressive. The food was really good. I love the teishoku because you get a little bit of everything. And it's so pretty. (I can't get it to rotate, so you can tilt your head, sorry)

gone

Our next door neighbors are moving back to Minnesota on Wednesday. We are SO sad. Enzo and Avry are super good buddies, Ben (the dad) and Christian mountain bike together, Shannon and I like to gossip about our neighbors...what will we do without them? One thing I know I won't do without them is get a hair cut, at least not for a long time. Shannon is an Aveda hair dresser who has given me 4 haircuts since I've moved here. Last week I got one more trim and today Enzo got his. There's nothing easier than taking your kid to the neighbor's house, putting him in front of the TV, giving him some snacks, and coming out with a great hair cut. We will miss them. I'm also already missing Enzo's curls but he seems to enjoy it.

Martha Stewart Living

Look, who's in this month's issue. It's our very own.

The other Lorenzo

The only other Lorenzo we know around here is the San Lorenzo river. It's a beautiful river that cuts through Santa Cruz. It's been HOT for the last couple days, like in the 90s and we are lovin' it to no end. Yesterday we enjoyed the river by going to a swimming hole and then to the River Arts Festival.

We went hiking with some friends to the river so we could try out the rope swing. Enzo and I hung out watching the boys do their crazy rope swing moves.


Then I got brave and did it. The scary part was the cold water but hanging outside was just too hot and Enzo totaly pressured me to do it. It was funny. He kept on telling me to go jump. Christian was loving it. He appreciates not having to be the one pressuring me anymore to do these things.


We pressured Christian to do a double back flip. It turned out to not be such a great idea.


Then we went to the River Arts Festival. It was amazing. Lots of god music, installation art, food, and of course awesome things that you just drool over and wish you were a millionaire so you could buy it all.







My favorite vendors were there. Their stuff is beyond drooling. There was seriously a line so you could get to their booth. One woman that was there told me that Musi's jewelry is her addiction.



I am addicted! I bought these earings and ring made by Vanessa. My birthday coupon has been redeemed.

Splash Mountain

On our way to the Winnie the Pooh ride Gio and I remembered how fun it was to watch the logs drop on Splash Mountain. We made Danny go. The first ride of the day. There was NO LINE. It was amazing. Would he have gone if he knew that the ride had been renovated to get you extra wet? He was soaked and turns out there was no line because it was freezing. He never complained though. He did try to convince me to go on in next though.