three days

From one end to the other, Memorial Day Weekend was a pretty righteous one. We did family things, we did friend things, we did some normal things, we did some unusual things.

the normal things

// We started the weekend with an earlyish lunch at our fave Mexican spot, where Sean, Jordan, Weston and I scored some steak burrito/plethora of chips and little else/tureen of refrieds/chicken soft taco, respectively.

// Sean consumed many beers while building from scratch and installing a computer at my parents' place, to replace the one he previously made that lasted seven years (quite the life span). And the new computer works fabulously! How he can booze and build like that is pretty beyond my capacity to comprehend. I have a margarita and I start veering off pathways and into bushes.

// We went to the beach Sunday AND Monday. (Well, Monday's not the norm, but beach as much as possible is the norm.) Jordan played alternately with cousins and all by her lonesome. Sometimes we just look down to the shoreline and she's doing weird karate-esque moves on the waves and clearly sing/shouting some fabricated tune or another. Plays well with others (mostly), but decidedly an introvert, that one. Weston, he just ate sand and squinted into the sun a lot and was mainly content to study Mum Mum crackers before ingesting them whole.

the unusual things

// Saturday night, Sean and I went on this epic date.

It was crazy, really. We left the kids with my parents around 4:30 and met a couple friends for drinks at this pub type place in the "old" part of town. Great vibes, friendly service (the bartender bought us a round!!) Our friends could only stay for a bit and took off to go pick up their babe. Sean and I headed in from the patio area and decided to play a game of pool.

the Paul Newman to my Minnesota Fats

I haven't played in, oh, ten years. Since I first met Sean, actually. Totes held my own though. The second game, there were only three of my balls left on the table, so basically I won.

Around 8, the bar started Karaoke Night. We are so not those people. But we got a round and grabbed a chair to watch people who were those people. A guy named Lester sang Jethro Tull and Margaritaville while his wife cheered him on, and eventually Sean got curious enough (...liquored enough...) to check out the song list. He rattled off an Eric Church song while I played supporting vocals from the sidelines, and we sat down to enjoy our drinks and applaud the string of valiant vocalists.

I couldn't help it though. On my way back from the bathroom, I detoured over to the DJ and asked if he had Idina Menzel's Let It Go. He did and I was feeling diabolical I guess because I signed him up.

Sean dedicated the song "For my daughter Jordan," and off he went. IT WAS TERRIBLE. I thought Sean knew the song's cadence from hearing it so many times but he was like a stanza behind and there I was dying laughing. The crowd was completely cheering him on, much like Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend's Wedding. Eventually I did step in to get him on track, but I refused to sing into the mic. I think the moral of the story is I'm the meanest wife. But the other moral is we had an awesome time.

PS Sean signed me up for Boston's More Than a Feeling and I made him duck out with me before they called me. See: meanest wife. (But also - that is the HARDEST song to sing in all of history. My singing voice? Like the goat in that Taylor Swift vid.)

// The beach was strikingly glorious TWO days in a row. And there was zero - talking, zilch - traffic on either days, when Sean and I suspected Memorial Hell. Instead we enjoyed this

 stop

it

 now

cuteness

with no money spent (except gas because it's pretty much ouch these days) and no aggravation felt. Essentially the most celestial sequence of days one could ever ask for. And we all pretty much felt like

and

on Monday evening.

The End.

Oh you know what, Sean made an excellent point over the weekend. I had never fully appreciated the gravity of Memorial Day, really, until this year. I said something off-the-cuff about the Day as juxtaposed to the 4th of July. How it's always more celebrated, or something. And Sean said, "Yeah, but it shouldn't be. Memorial Day is a day to honor all veterans in all wars in American history." That's a lot of wars and a lot of lives. So, I'm three days late in saying this here, and it's supremely inadequate besides, but Thank You, American Soldiers. To those who have fought and to those still fighting for this country.

at the lake

This whole week I've been meaning to write of our splendid weekend. Here's what happens though, perhaps you can relate:

I head toward the couch where the laptop casually resides, with the best intentions to pen a post. I spot a water glass on the side table, so I bring it to the kitchen. Wouldn't you know it. There are dishes that need to be washed, might as well do that while I'm in here? The dishwasher is...clean. Of course it is, which means I need to empty it before I stack these dirties. Phew, I finished the kitchen and wiped the counters and this rag needs to go to the hamper in the bedroom. The bed's unmade! And my pj's are on the floor! Well, I'm in here, might as well take care of that. How did Jordan's shoes get under the bed? I'll put those away now... Oh yeah, I forgot about that pile of Weston's clothes I was going to put away but it's actually just sitting here in Jordan's room. So I'll do that and then finally head back to what I was originally going to do. Which was... ??? I don't know, but now it's time to feed Weston.

But a glimpse at my ADD. And the reason that even if I HAVE something I want to put down, I haven't been getting around to it.

First off, our weekend bears someone background explanation. Sean got a new job!
!!!!!!!!!!
He got it a couple weeks ago, but then had to put two weeks in at his old job, so it didn't feel very celebratory to say anything until he actually started. Which was yesterday. I'm super stoked. It pays better, and just from the looks of his first day, it sounds like he'll be learning a lot at this new place. All this to say, when Sean put in his two weeks at the old place, he made it so his last day was last Thursday, and his first day at the new place was yesterday. A mini vacation! Woop woop.

Therefore, we trekked to my parents' cabin in Lake Arrowhead. It's truly lovely and rustic and woodsy and wonderful. It's much more fall in the mountains than it is back at our place; it's actually crisp, in the temperature-y sense of the word, and in the leaves-y sense of the word. We took walks with hot cider, traversed about the lake, and dipped our toes in at the Village's Oktoberfest. I drank beer with hints of orange, I did.

This was just before Jordan and I took stage left and danced our buns off to the authentic German music. It's on video and everything.

We met up with my mom, sister and brother later in the weekend and did our due diligence at this "puckin" patch that had a huge blow-up bouncy "puckin" which was, y'know, super fun. We also window shopped a few of the high end stores in the Village.

Here we are at Coach. Sean, oh so adorably and ridiculously naively scoping out a "purse as a surprise for Jess" (I assume for our anniversary) and beelining away as if the purse was a hand grenade. That dinky one he's holding was $450 ("I thought it was gonna be like $50...") *smirks in a saccharine manner and rolls eyes condescendingly* Oh but they were having a 50% off event, so I picked up a beautiful, yet unassuming, emerald green wallet out of the $50 box. $25 for a Coach wallet? Yeah sure! As I was standing in line to pay, this very young couple in front of me was being rung up and their total was over $4000. You read that right. I just, can't. And turns out my gorgeous wallet was misfiled and was originally $150 and ain't no way I was paying $75 for that thing. We're talking I'm a committed Target enthusiast here.

Anyway one of the definite highlights of the weekend was this moment:

Oh I'm sorry, you can't tell that I'm standing one foot away from Gwen Stefani? Well, I did. Embarrassingly enough, I wouldn't have even noticed her appropriately incognito person had I not recognized her son Kingston, who she's watching race my daughter on the go-karts. I know. I'm that person that recognizes the offspring of celebrities... Anyway Sean Googled to confirm that yes, Gwen was weekending in Lake Arrowhead. I literally could have put my arm around her like we were best buds, but I'm sure she had security lurking about somewhere. Kudos for me for being the absolute worst paparazzi of all time? Yes. She turned toward me several times and I have way to much pride to just snap a shot right in her face. But here's Sean doing his best impression of a celebrity dad as he and Jordan exit the attraction:

the stud in the $8 shades

The point of all this murky recapping: it was a thoroughly successful vacation for Sean and I, rife with Kodak moments and margaritas at the local Mexican place and the discovery that Jordan's delicate constitution is completely intolerant of swervy car rides (the puke smell lingering about the family vehicle that infiltrates the nostrils nearly a week later testifies to that fact) and cuddles on the couch with our little minions sandwiched between us. It got us to thinking that weekends should always be four days, and the work week but three. 

In a perfect world. But we'll take the perfect pieces where we can.

how i wish

how I wish you were here.
you're just one small soul swimmin' in a fish bowl
month after month

Ok, not one of the better interpretative lyrical riffs on the best Floyd song that there is, but this tune has been in my head everyday for the last few simply because...I kinda wish this baby were here already. And my belly does a dead-on impression of a large fish bowl so - you can see how my mind arrived at this juncture. No? Go with it. It's a good song.

Tell me if this is a common SAHM problem: I feel like I'm kinda slammed all day long. I feel like there's always something that needs to be done. I'm going and going, and find myself hitting the mattress at the end of it all in a state of mental and physical collapse. But also, I feel a little bit like I have nothing to do? I'm thinking it's because I associate having "something to do" with having interaction with articulate humans, whereas most of the last couple of weeks have seen me milling around the apartment or attending the odd soiree at Target for the sole purpose of a change in venue and a toilet paper run. And while Jordan's vernac is increasing by leaps and bounds, to qualify her as "articulate" may be an overstepping.

All that said, Jordan and I have been casting around the county, coming up with sundry errands that are mostly inventive excuses to hit up a more hipster coffee shop than Starbucks and to frolic seaside in only a diaper:

^ the original purpose of this errand was to donate some duplicates I've accrued of baby clothes and blankies and things to our local Life Center, buuuut we might have detoured ten miles or so for a spicy mocha latte and a pier jaunt. ^

^ and here we have "seek out a competitively priced pair of Grecians which are hopefully swank enough for a black tie wedding, because a Haagen Dazs ice cream bar has better survival odds in Jessie's hands than those of her donning heels for 2+ minutes" with a slight deviation down the LMFAO aisle ^

Yes, yes. We've been wearing many hats these last couple weeks.

Not figuratively.

The news of my life is that I instagrammed that bottom photo and shouted out to Natalie... and she answered me. Would you like a sound effect from that moment? "Eeeeep!!"

actual caption recap - 

jessiemariepope: J-Liz with an adventurous hat a la @natthefatrat

natthefatrat: she's working it!

So that happened.

Other than that, our lives have been uneventful with a side of sister thrifting

(try and tell me you don't want that two dolla turkey on your bounteous table of thanks this year)

and a hint of fountain park shenans

for the life of her she couldn't pick up on the fact that the water was shooting out of those metal discs, 

and therefore she kept stepping directly on to the geysers and getting waterboarded

I'm pretty positive you weren't looking for a photo dump but regrettably, that's all I have. It's either that or a crap ton of Pinterest recipes. I am making an effort to gather as many as f-i-v-e favorites for Hallie's tomorrow because it's been awhile, and so far I've come up with...none favorites. Stay tuned for that riveter. 

how life is like a zoo

Here's the thing. I'm on maternity leave now. I thought that this meant I'd have more time to sit down for a second and write a flippin blog post. I thought this meant that maybe there would be a micrometer or more relaxation involved. Cue crazy Matt Damon laugh. Starting with Saturday, there has been a new project, a different undertaking, a fresh piece of crazy bubbling to the surface of my nesting soul. Actually, you should see what we've done to this place - and you will - but we got rid of the couch (praise be and hallelujah) before the new one arrived from eBay and I'm currently sitting on the papasan chair, which holds the distinguished position of the only piece of sitting furniture in the room.

The point is, I'm busier now than one week ago, when I was gainfully employed. I've been spray painting wicker baskets (don't ask), potting succulents on the patio (I'm still going to show you the patio before/after photos, cross my heart), displacing every piece of furniture in Jordan's room trying to make room for another child (proving to be slightly impossible), Goodwilling the crap out of this apartment, making real food from real scratch, and trying to slip in some quality play time with Jordan. I'm finding out that stay-at-home moms work their bums off - not that I didn't think so before! but now I know firsthand.

As you may know, my first day of actual maternity leave was Jordan's2nd  birthday. Therefore my first stay-at-home mothering enterprise was a birthday trip to the zoo. I brought my mom, two sisters and a cousin as backup because you just never know how dangerous an outing can be with a 2 year old right? Well Jordan pulled a Disneyland and was totally unimpressed with the all of the wonderment of exotic animals.

Ok well first we had birthday doughnuts at my sister's apartment. We cared about that part

"I only require the chocolate frosting of the doughnut thanks. The rest is stuff and nonsense."

So now that the important task has been accomplished, it was time to don her could-care-less face.

 oh, not only giraffes but baby giraffes too?

yeah, ok mom.

is that gorilla sunbathing?

I don't care

 an Asian elephant you say?

yeah mom, but I see you everyday

Jordan showed most enthusiasm by far in this animal that basically just looked like a cat with fox ears. It probably weighed 8 pounds and you could probably find it on a local hiking trail around here. (Alright it's probably actually some rare species and I'm projecting my bitterness onto its unimpressive stature.)

We also may have forced Jordan to pose with her kind:

it's funny because she looks like a monkey

On the upside, she discovered a new activity that sucked all of her time, devotion and enthusiasm:

pushing her own stroller

These were my favorites, but my sister had to ruin it for me:

Peruvian penguins

Jessie: "it's cute when they swim, but I kind of like to watch them walk around."

Audrey: "oh, because you can relate?"

(that's a shot at my waddling. in case that wasn't clear.)

We followed up our zoo foray with The Spot Burger in Carpinteria, which is only the.best. burger in the land. And the.best. shakes in the land.

and the.best. ketchup in the land.

And then all of that boredom caused this on the way home:

So. Happy 2nd birthday to thee, Jordan. I'm so glad I could oblige with something truly special and memorable.