Monthly Archives: September 2011

It’s so strange…

29 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by in Photography, The Adventures of Little T

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Little T wasn’t himself this morning.

All he wanted to do was make mischief.

When I asked him to say “momma”, he gave me a great big roar instead.

When I asked him what he wanted to eat, he said “blocks and snails and puppy dog tails”. 0_o

He chased the cats all over the house.

And stomped on top of the city that Big T built.

I finally pulled him aside and said, “Hey Little T, what’s with the attitude?”

“Isn’t this the way you’re supposed to act on Halloween?” He asked. I had to explain that we had a while before Halloween.

“OOOOohhhhhhhhhh,” he replied.

He felt really silly.

“Don’t feel bad,” I said. “Something tells me that Miss Piggy didn’t get the memo, either.”

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The Happiest Place on Earth

27 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in The Travels

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There was a time when Disneyland was my second home, or maybe my first home-if you count the hours I spent there. I worked over in Fantasyland and met my dearest friends while I was working for “The Mouse”. On my last day of work, I sobbed as I walked to my locker for the last time. Merlin from “The Sword in the Stone” saw me crying and asked why I was so sad. I told him it was my last day, pointed to a trashcan, and said I was going to miss everything-including that trashcan. He gave me a Medallion (usually reserved for children who pull the sword from the stone), and said he hoped that I had many adventures ahead of me. Now I have the medallion hanging on my dresser and use it to entertain Little T while I change his diaper. Diaper changing is an adventure in my book. I loved working there and was sad when I had to leave. My housemate/Little T’s Godmomma/best-friend, still works at the park for Disney Fairytale Weddings. I like to live through her and pretend it’s also my job to go wine tasting and sample cupcakes.

My friends like to take a trip to Disneyland during the holidays to see the decorations. It’s the best time to visit because it’s beautiful, the weather is cool, and the crowds are low.

Here’s a few pictures from our trip…

The parade:

The teacups:

The Challenge Trail

M, who has been my best friend since the day we bonded in the employee parking lot over bad boyfriend breakups:

J, my other best friend who I met when we asked her to play Tinkerbell for a spoof the Cast Members were performing. Eat your heart out, Tinkerbell.

MIA: my friend S, who I met while eating the most amazing Indian food I’ve ever had. She couldn’t come and we missed her.

And California Adventure at Night:

My favorite time in the park was at night, after all of the guests had left. I liked to listen to the music and walk through the empty streets of Disneyland. They’re stricter about these things now, but back in the day we’d play teacup basketball, do matterhorn races, take tours of the rides, and tell ghost stories in the Haunted Mansion. When I think about working at the park, those are some of the things I miss the most. Those special days where you’d get a phone call from someone after hours who’d say something completely unexpected like, “Hey, you want to play synchronized Dumbos?”

This Week’s Meal Plan

26 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by in Meal Plans, vegan

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Wow, last week zoomed by. Not the way we had planned, but it all worked out in the end. Here’s what’s cooking this week:

Breakfast:

Snacks: 
Lunch:
  • Mexican Pumpkin Soup from FatFreeVegan (pumpkin time, yay!)
  • Cashew Carrot Salad from FatFreeVegan
  • Chickpeas Italiano from The Veggie Queen
  • Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, from my friend Janet who showed me how to make these in Vermont.
Dinner:
I had fun packing Little T’s food for Disneyland. I made him baked apples with cinnamon and cranberries and meatless meatballs. I also threw in some vegetables with lemon juice, a couple of vegan breakfast bars in case he was still hungry, pear sauce, and an apple juice from Trader Joe’s. He wound up eating all of the apples and veggies, and then shared my dinner with me. I need to find some reusable sandwich bags.

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge~Viewer’s Choice

26 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by in Photography

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I’m so glad they’re doing this theme, because I have the chance to enter a photo that I came sooooooo close to entering during the white challenge theme. In the end, I went with another photo, but it was so hard to decide. I love Little T’s sweet face. He looks cute even when he’s being a stinker and eating paper after Momma J’s told him not to for the 50th time. 😉

If you want to see other great photos for this weeks challenge, give the link below a click.

Life Happens When You’re Busy Making Other Plans

25 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in Photography, The Family

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Life happens when you’re busy making other plans ~John Lennon

Little T is doing much better. The burn center said he had a third degree burn (ugh). They treated his wound and gave him pain medication and showed us how to change his bandage ourselves over the weekend. They said they see vacuum cleaner burns and treadmill burns all the time, who knew?

We’ve had a lot of things going on this week, so we called in for reinforcements-aka, the Grandma’s. My Mom came and stayed for the whole weekend. I love her. Nuff said.

What have we been doing besides taking care of poor Little T?

I’ve had to cook and take a whole lotta food photos for a project I’m working on. I’ll let you all know more when I can. 🙂

I also did another photo shoot:

And I had to make up songs about Little T’s new nickname, “Lobster Claw”:

And today, we have to take a trip to Disneyland. Okay, so we don’t have to, but we definitely want to. I’m foreseeing a day of riding The Little Mermaid ride so that Little T can rock out. Over and over and over again. I warned my friends this is what we’d most likely be doing if they invited us along. I hope they knew I was serious. 😉

So, all in all, things are looking up. Little T goes back to the burn center on Monday. Hopefully we have good news for our little baby boy.

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Hospitals and Doctors and Doctors and Hospitals…

22 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by in The Family

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Our day started like this:

And ended like this (notice the bandaged fingers and teary eyes for both of us). Yep, we have definitely looked better.

  • 5:00 P.M. the night before: Review hospital instructions for the test Little T needs for his hypertonia.
  • 9:30 P.M. the night before: give Little T oatmeal because he can’t eat after 10:00 P.M.
  • 2:30 A.M: wake up and give Little T one last bottle of water, because he can’t drink anything after 3:00 A.M.
  • 4:30 A.M: Alarm goes off.
  • 4:45 A.M: Alarm goes off again.
  • 5:00 A.M: Alarm goes off again
  • 5:15 A.M: Big T and I wake up in a panic because we were late, and carried our tuckered out Little T to the car and head to the hospital. In our pajamas.
  • 7:00: Little T gets his anesthesia. Momma J gets a little teary as she holds his hand and watches him fall asleep.
  • 8:30: Little T is fine. We wait by him with relief as he wakes up from the anesthesia.
  • 9:15: We head home to take care of Little T. The worst is over…or so we thought. dun dun dun
  • 12:00: (fast forward to a groggy Little T waking up at home) Momma J decides to clean the house and grabs the vacuum.
  • 12:05: Momma J is cleaning under the couch with the vacuum hose and her back turned to Little T, and feels the vacuum fall over behind her.
  • 12:05 1/2: Momma J turns around to see Little T screaming, and realizes the reason the vacuum fell was because a curious Little T had pushed it over and ripped the skin off the entire side of two fingers from (we’re guessing), the rotating brushes under the vacuum.
  • 12:06: Momma J and Big T rush back to the doctor.
  • 1:00: The doctor says that too much of his skin has come off, and that we need to have it treated at the burn clinic. We learn that we need to visit the burn clinic every day until it heals.
  • 1:15: The only burn clinic we can get to is an hour from our house. Little T hates long car rides, poor baby.
  • 1:16: Momma J cries in front of the doctor and feels guilty. Big T convinces her that she does not have to go and buy Little T a big tub of soy ice cream or a puppy dog or something.
  • 1:45: We go and get a frozen tofurky vegan pizza for dinner from Mother’s Market, because it’s one of those days.
  • 2:30: We realize that Little T has taken off his bandage and we head back to the doctor.
  • 8:00-3:00 A.M: Little T cries and can only be comforted when he is being rocked by mommy. What a night, poor little guy. We’re all exhausted.
  • 3:00 A.Mish: Momma J calls the nurse hotline and they tell her there’s nothing else we can do to make him comfortable. Ugh.
  • 4:00 AM: Litte T finally goes to sleep.

I feel awful. Even though the nurses, the doctors, my grandma, and the guy who handed me my beet juice at Mother’s Market, said stuff like this happens all the time and that it’s all a part of parenthood. 😦

I also felt bad because I pride myself in being calm during emergency situations. Things came up when I worked at Disneyland all the time, and I was great at calmly giving instructions and helping the emergency crew. This is not the way things went down when Little T hurt himself. Imagine me turning to comfort him, thinking he was scared because of the vacuum, then screaming when I see his finger and rushing around the house, hyperventilating while I search for emergency supplies, calling the doctor, while repeating, “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god”. Totally different when it’s your own child.

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This Week’s Meal Plan

20 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Meal Plans, vegan

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You’ll have to excuse me for not posting this last week. Little T had a little fever from his chicken pox vaccine and was getting two molars in, and all he wanted to eat was oatmeal and watered down apple juice. Usually Little T will eat anything he can see, so this was a big change. It was a challenge trying to get him to eat anything, poor baby. By the end of the week he was feeling better and back to his normal, quinoa eating self.

Breakfast:

  • Oatmeal with Fruit (Little T’s Favorite-I add a little agave and cinnamon to the oatmeal)
  • Dr. Oz’s Green Drink
  • English Muffin with Trader Joe’s Organic Blueberry Fruit Spread

Snacks: 

  • Trader Joe’s Soy Yogurt
  • Sliced White Nectarines and baked apples with cinnamon (Little T)
  • Corn Thin’s with Hummus and English Cucumber
  • Wheat Bread with Almond Butter (Little T)
Lunch: 
  • Pasta and veggies (Little T)
  • Salad with Tahini Dressing (Momma J)
  • Chili Mac from FatFreeVegan (Little T)
  • Black beans, avocado, and vegetables (Little T)
Dinner: 

Awwwww, mush. Andra and Kyle!

19 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by in Photography

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Isn’t it sweet? I had the chance to photograph one of the cutest couples ever. I’ve known Andra and Kyle for a while, and I’ve also known it was only a matter of time before they were engaged. They have a clear passion for life and love for each other, and it shows in these photos. It made my day to be able to capture a few moments of their world.