THIS BLOG WAS BORN WHILE WE AWAITED THE ARRIVAL OF OUR BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL. IT HAS GROWN INTO A COLLECTION OF FAMILY MEMOIRS...

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Laundry Folding Party...Tonight...My House...Be There!

I should be folding laundry, but I thought just to take a picture of said laundry and write about it on my blog. An entirely more proficient use of time, I think so.

So, the repercussions of having been out of town for 3 weeks are mountainous quantities of laundry upon arrival home. Now, I realize that I have been home for a solid week, and, really, I should be entirely caught up. But...you see...well...um...

I guess I really have no excuse, especially since it was almost all clean when we packed it up in Mexico...

Now, you may notice from the picture that our laundry facilities share a room with our two small daughters. You'll perhaps recall that this was not listed as one of the top ten things I love about my small house. And, I daresay, if ever I start to feel sorry for myself about this arrangement (which is almost never, as I scarcely have time for feeling sorry for myself over such frivolity as laundry rooms) I simply send up a "thank you" to the Laundry Gods who make it possible for me to "do" laundry in the comfort of my own home as opposed to the nearest river and scrubbing rock.

I had to chuckle when I saw the state of all our clean laundry looking as if it had been rooted through by a herd of little piggies, looking for clean panties in the barnyard. Ahem.


I hope this picture makes you chuckle and makes you thankful for your washer and dryer (and laundry room), should you be so lucky to have such heavenly pieces of machinery. Amen.

I'm off to fold laundry.

Scratch that.

I'm off to have cocktails with my girlfriends. Laundry can wait, I say.

Continue rooting, my little piggies.





*Addendum: My dear friend Angie asked, quite nicely, if I might explain exactly how the laundry facility came to find itself in the girls' room. So here you are:

When we first bought our house (remember - it's a hundred years old) there was a laundry room attached to the kitchen. This "laundry room" was originally a back porch that had been enclosed at some point (probably in the fifties) to accommodate the washer and dryer. This enclosure made the kitchen very dark as one of the exterior windows and the window in the original back door no longer brought in any light (does that make sense?). So we opted to tear down the wall between kitchen and laundry room making a big, beautiful, bright, sunny kitchen (now there are big windows on both ends of the kitchen). But, this left the question of what to do with the laundry machines. Well, at the time we had only one, very small boy named Coleman who was just two years old. And being that we practically had a mansion, what with three entire bedrooms and all, we thought to put the laundry in the "extra" bedroom with the guest bed and the office, like a utility room. This arrangement worked very nicely until we had our third child of the baby girl variety. So the guest bed and our desk got the boot and the "utility" room became the "pink" room. We have no garage (they didn't have cars a hundred years ago, you know) so we really have no where else for our laundry machines to go until we do a major house remodel. And the truth is, it just doesn't bother us...until Mt. Laundrymore gets out of hand, that is!

Don't you hate it when...

....you accidentally link your blog to a fellow blogger's site before reading the rules of the "contest". Upon reading said rules, you realize that you were supposed to write a clever "don't you hate it when" post on your own blog before posting the link on fellow blogger's blog. Sadly, you're on your way out the door and can't think of a single clever thing to write in 2.5 minutes, and suddenly you find yourself all flushed and sweaty. Oops. That's embarassing...

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Home Again, Home Again

Well, I daresay, we miss Sayulita somethin' fierce.

Dave's ready to sell everything and move there full time. I'm ready to rent out our house and spend 6 months there next school year. Either way, we're both feeling the need to shake things up.

It's good to be home, too. Don't get me wrong. What, with all the laundry and the baseball and the dreary, rainy weather. What's not to love? (I really do love it all, even though I feel a bit like I'm drowning in baseball at the moment - whose idea was it to let all three of the older kids play this year?? Honestly.)

The kids went back to school on Friday (I couldn't bear to send them on Thursday even though we got home late Wednesday night - I just wasn't ready).

The good news is that being gone for that length of time makes it clear to me the things that need to be changed in our house. For example, our filing system needs to be completely cleared out and rebooted, if you know what I mean. Do I really need piles of receipts from 10 years ago? I think not... The living room needs a little splash of color, the dvd's need a more permanent home, and I think some flowering branches would be lovely in my Gramma's vase on the buffet in the dining room. Oh, and that magazine rack with all those old magazines that I think someday I'd like to read...the whole thing's gotta go...including the rack. Want it?

On the agenda for tomorrow? Purge, Baby, purge. Wish me luck - it's not easy for me to get rid of STUFF...even if it is all C*R*A*P.

P.S. Check out my refreshed bloglist in the margin. I added some of my new favorite blogs. These women are AMAZING, I tell you. Truly inspiring. As in, "grind-my-own-peanut-butter-and-make-all-my-kids'-toys-Waldorf-style-while-homeschooling-and-running-a-ranch-oh-and-taking-perfect-pictures-of-my-amazingly-beautiful-children-while-grilling-the-perfect-steak-and-keeping-up-my-blog" inspiring. Ya know?? I just wanna get rid of some magazines...

Monday, February 16, 2009

Packing Up

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Ahhh....

We head into Puerto Vallarta tomorrow for a night on the town and then we fly home Wednesday afternoon.

Our time in Sayulita has been simply wonderful. A few of the favorites:

*Breakfast at Rollie's

*Surfing with our kiddos

*Oatmeal

*Sunning at the pool

*Hide and Seek in the Plaza

*Peanut butter crackers "A la Evie"

*The candy man

*Seeing a baby leatherback turtle

*Fresh made doughnuts on the beach - yummy.

*Standing on our property at sunset

*Burritos at the Burrito Revolucion and seeing a picture of Obama painted on the wall above the word "CAMBIO" - CHANGE

*Coronitas con limon y sal

*Letting the kids stay by themselves at the Arcade in the Plaza

*Meeting so many delightful people and running into friends, Claire and Sandy, at Rollie's

*Robert's Bakery (his brownies...oh my.)

*Body Surfing (that was Dave's favorite)

*Pollos Yolanda (you just can't beat a full plate of chicken, rice, and coleslaw for 25 pesos - $1.80)

*The fabulously favorable exchange rate (14.5 pesos / $1.00 U.S.)

*Sketching ideas of the casita that we'd like to build some day on our land

*Visiting the ultra groovy Costa Verde International School (they do yoga every morning, drool...)

*Hearing the kids try out their Spanish on tentative tongues

*Making plans to come back next year...for longer.

Thanks for checking in.
~Heather

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Feliz Dia del Amor y Amistad!

In Mexico (and Guatemala and many other Latin American countries) February 14 is called El Dia del Amor y Amistad. This translates to Day of Love and Friendship. When I was 19, I spent Valentine's day in Puerto Vallarta where I was going to an intensive language school. I was entirely single, and I appreciated that I was still included in the holiday. A friend bought me roses and a group of us went out to dinner and dancing to celebrate. I'm all about inclusivity.

Here are some pics of our Dia del Amor y Amistad:



Valentine goodie bags with I-tunes gift cards.

Happy Day.

Pile o' hand made cards from the kiddos. There's pretty much nothin' sweeter.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Emerson's journal

* A guest post from Emerson who was tired of writing in his own journal...

2/11/09

Yesterday I went to a new beach. I had to cross a cemetery to get to the beach. It was cold at the
beach. We got to open a coconut. My mom got us a donut.



a family's mosileum


overlooking the surf break and Sayulita beyond


* A note from Mom: We took a walk to Playa de Los Muertos (Beach of the Dead). The beach gets its name because you have to walk through the cemetery to get there.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Jesus is Dead in Mexico


We have the darlingest little plaza here in Sayulita and it has the darlingest little church you ever did see. I walk by it every day on the way to my morning cup of happiness. Pathetic, I know, but my morning coffee simply makes me smile. But, back to Jesus...

Often, the girls will accompany me on my jaunt around the block, and when we pass the church they will invariably ask, "Mama, can we pleeease go in and see Jesus?" And, as I am usually on a mission for a "cafe Americano con leche, por favor", I will dissuade them by saying, "Maybe on the way back."

So, on the way back, they will again plea for a peak at Jesus. And, if the coast is clear, we'll go in and sit in the stillness for a few minutes on the first pew. The other day as we sat in the church, gazing at the statuette of Jesus on the Cross, I was reminded of a time when Cole had just turned four...

Dave and I had taken the boys (Emerson was 18 months) on a camping trip down Baja. We had stopped in the charming little town of San Ignacio. There is a very beautiful, old mission there, and we had stopped to check it out. When Cole saw Jesus on the Cross above the pulpit he asked:

"Mom, is Jesus dead?"

"Yes, sweetheart. Jesus died a long, long time ago; almost two thousand years ago."

"Oh no. Mom, can I borrow your cell phone? I have to call Kieran* and tell him Jesus is dead in Mexico!"

Poor kid. He was honestly beside himself, and it took quite a while for him to grasp the concept of 2000 years ago. But Dave and I had a good chuckle, and I smiled to myself on the first pew as the memory played out in my mind's eye.

Kids say the darndest things...

What's the funniest thing your kids have said??


*Kieran is our neighbor friend and was the center of Cole's universe when he was four.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Two Years Ago Today...

We touched down in San Francisco and our new baby girl was a U.S. citizen. The kids and I had spent the previous two months in Antigua while we waited for her adoption to be finalized. We had an awesome time in Guatemala; a time that we will always remember with fondness. But, boy, was it great to be home...

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Surf's Up, Sayulita

Check us out....

We have access to this sweet, old long board and we've been taking it out every day after "school" to see what all the fuss is about...

Cole, instantly a natural.

We were so excited that Emerson caught a wave. He was so cute on that big, ole board. Click on this pic and check out the dog swimming in the surf.

I got to surf with my kids on my birthday. And I caught my first wave. Sweeeeet.

I don't mean to brag, but this man gets hotter every year...

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Happy Birthday to Me

Thanks for borning me, Mom. I love you. ~H
February 1976
(How cute is my mom?? She was 21 when I was born -- at home, by the river, in Carmel Valley, California. Totally groovy.)

Monday, February 02, 2009


Evie boogie boarding with Daddy. Look at the smile on that little face.

Brothers...there's just nothing better. Click to make bigger to fully appreciate the brotherly cuteness.

Dave and Cole returning from a rescue mission - two teenage girls caught in a riptide. He was a life guard in his high school/college years - smokin' hot, if I dare say.

Catchin' a wave - like old times.

Home schooling - at its finest.

Flowers in my hair, curtesy of Evie. One of the many reason I love having daughters.

What can I say?

My beautiful beach comber.

Ahh. I love this picture of Soli. Simply gorgeous.