Lake Tahoe

Greetings my friends, from here:





Lake Tahoe! Our annual trip is finally here, and it is heaven. Pine-scented heaven. I'll show you what we've been up to later. Now I must get outside because it is irresistible out there.

Blooming

Don't say I didn't warn you. The peonies are in bloom! And as I am hypnotized by the bunch that is currently perched atop my table and find myself just sitting and staring at them in wonder, of course I am going to take a gazillion pictures of them and post a small fraction of them here, just to share the love. I found this bunch at Costco last week and had to contain myself from skipping out the door. Well, I might have skipped a just little. Here's what they looked like a couple days after I bought them just as the buds were starting to blossom.


They were a lovely deep pink, almost fuchsia color. Glorious.



This is Max. My parents' good for nothin' cat. He doesn't want anything to do with me or my peonies (which is maybe how you're feeling right about now?). Can't you just see the disdain and annoyance in his face inflicted by my very presence? Sorry. I thought I'd just throw that in there to keep you on your toes. Back to the peonies. . . .

Here's what they look like now, fully bloomed. Brad, that guy I live with, was out of town for a couple days and when he came home he called me at work to ask me, "Natalie, have you seen these things? This is crazy!" See how they've lightened up and are now a pretty pastel color?



Yes, crazy indeed. Again, don't say I didn't warn you about my love for these things. I might try to hold back any further posts on the subject.

Maybe.

Memorial.

I have a thing for cemeteries. I think they are peaceful, profound, loving and I never could understand how anyone could be scared in a cemetery. Okay, so I understand why, I've seen enough scary movies to get that part, but I personally always just feel so at home there. So naturally, I love Memorial Day. I could spend a great deal of time driving around the surrounding areas, checking out their own beloved cemeteries. Really, I could. And when I see the place flocked with people armed with flowers, signs, and pinwheels, it just makes my heart swell. It reminds me of family and remembering what has come before us. It reminds me of what still lies ahead and in whose company we will be someday. I think I feel so drawn to these places because when I was little and we still lived in San Diego, we often went to see her,


my baby sister who died just after birth. And it was never a scary experience. It was always filled with wonder, something to look forward to, and my little girl self loved the duck pond and was amazed by the mausoleum. Part of me is sad that I can't be here at Greenwood Mortuary on Memorial Day to visit my sister, and also several other relatives including great grandparents, great aunts, and great uncles. It's a big city cemetery and very unlike the charming and sometimes quaint ones around here, but still beautiful and reverent, just on a larger scale. Here is the mausoleum, where several of my relatives are. This place is beautiful! It's all marble with statues and stained glass windows everywhere.


Last time we were in San Diego, Brad and I came here. I hadn't been since I was a teenager. And as I stood over her little grave I was so moved. I couldn't believe that my mother had to go through that and bury a tiny baby in the ground. And I was so happy that my husband and I are living our lives in the gospel, and that we learn about this little thing called eternal perspective. I suppose these places make me pause and remember certain things that I normally don't think of, just doing the day to day things, and I like that.

Trend

A while back, I bought these shoes:



They spoke to me, I grinned at them, and we decided they should be on my feet. And they have been, quite repeatedly.

Then some time after that, I came upon this wallet:



What can I say? I liked it, and had actually been in the market for a new wallet for quite some time. I think I'd had my old one for something like five years, and it was time for it to be retired.

One day a couple week ago, my friend Amy invited me to a 'purse party' at her house. So I said, "Sure! A purse party. I'll be there." But not really expecting to find anything I liked. I'm kinda picky like that. But then I saw this:



And now. . . well, you get the picture. And just as I'm sitting here typing this, I notice what is sitting in the middle of my table:




Hmm. Are you noticing a trend here? Someone might need to intervene and stop me and my liking of all things mustard color lately.

Spring Has Sprung

I am enjoying this spring more than I think I ever have before. I don't know if the winter was extra long and dreary for me or what, but each morning on my way to work I just can't get over how beautiful it is here. The new fresh green on the trees and spring flowers are beautiful. And every year I get this great urge to browse the nurseries, pick out some plants, and come home to put them in the earth and watch them grow. Only problem is I have no idea what I'm doing, and so I just don't do it.




One thing I love about where I live is that I have loads of windows. Just on our first floor, we have seven windows, and this is a very small first floor mind you. Just outside these windows are several trees, bushes, flowers, birds, and I LOVE keeping the blinds open and enjoying them. And now we have leaves on the trees!

Also another something special about spring, these beauties are outside:



And inside.



Sorry. Have I posted too many pictures of tulips??? Just you wait, peony season is almost upon us. . .

Oh So Good

For this past Mother's Day, I decided to cook up something special for my family to enjoy on the big day and guess what, it actually turned out good so I thought I'd share. We always pitch in so Mom doesn't have to cook anything and she can relish in a Sunday afternoon where she can just show up to the table when it's time and not lift a finger, and usually it's with Dad on the grill and me and my sisters doing whatever else. But this year I wanted to actually cook. Not just prepare a salad or stir the punch, but actually get something tasty and try to expand my recipe index. You see, I have long had a love affair with baking. I have been intrigued with cake baking since I was little, and have fond memories of my first baking recipe book and my very own measuring spoons. But cooking. . . not so much. I have a few things I like to make and I think taste half decent, but I really need to learn how to cook for my family (eating out? got that one down.) because I just love so many things about it. So I hunted around for some recipes to try and decided to lean towards something Italian: Lasagna Rolls and Garlic Cheese Bread (click on them for the recipes.). And guess what? They were spankin' good.


Fresh out of the oven. Aromas wafting around. Why don't I do this more???


See how it's like lasagna, only rolled up? The lasagna noodle is cooked, laid flat, yummy ingredients piled on, and then rolled up to bake. Not to mention smothered in cheese and a yummy white sauce. This is not a healthy meal. But I did make a few with whole wheat noodles, because I'm freaky like that.


And that bread. . .mmm was it delish. You have got to try it if you like hot bread with cheese. And if you don't you are obviously not human. I changed up the recipes after I tried it once, and I do like the changes better. I added some mozzarella & some of the bechamel sauce inside the lasagna rolls, and I omitted the green onions and roasted garlic from the bread (i just brushed on butter and used garlic powder instead.). I just didn't have any on hand, but it was still to die for. One more recipe under my belt, hooray! Progress my friends, progress.

Tired

I am not the best sleeper ever known to man. As most kids, I slumbered like the best of them, not easily disturbed, and as a teenager I didn't have problems either. Not until adulthood did my sleeping become an issue one spring a few years back. It wasn't that I slept light or woke up a lot, it was that I couldn't fall asleep. I struggled that whole spring and some of the summer. It was not a fun time. But I conquered it, I like to think at least, and 90% of the time fall directly to sleep and sleep well. But then there's that other 10%, the lingering effects of that sleepless spring that seem to crop up sometimes. Usually it's just for a couple nights and then I get back to my routine, and it's usually because something has disturbed my sleep routine for some reason, oh like say. . . . returning from a vacation with a time difference of four hours and not sleeping an entire night on a red eye home. Yeah. That one has thrown me for a loop. I'll sleep good, and then not so good. It's been awhile since I haven't dealt with that sleepy feeling most of the day, and let me tell you that sitting in a cubicle staring at a computer does not help the drowsiness! Anyway, today I did something that is a first. I was at sitting at work, stretching, arms extended, mid yawn, when in my fuzzy peripheral vision I spotted a small black bug on the inside of my arm. So what did I do? My reflexes went smack! Get that thing off! And then I realized, I had just smacked a mole that has been residing on the inside of my arm for as long as I can remember. Oh dear.

An Evening Out

Guess where we went last weekend?



Yep, we did get tickets after all. Brad ended up getting some from work and it was everything you would imagine it was. I was actually trying my hardest not to imagine anything at all prior to going. No expectations really. Wanna see where we sat?



That's right people, sixth row is how we roll. Well, it's how we roll when that's the tickets given to us, free! You could see the conductor's little wand thingies (wand thingies? whatever.) waving in the air from where we were. Did I already mention that it was amazing? And I really didn't know it was so funny! At one point I had to try my hardest not to launch into the scary laugh were I start crying and snorting and overall not breathing correctly, and the guy behind me was worse.



I would pay to see it again, and again, and again. Definitely. I am not a regular theater go-er and I don't even especially enjoy show tunes, but my friends, this was so fun. I laughed and cried and when it was all over I couldn't believe how smart it was. And Brad? Well he liked it so much he wants to buy season tickets! Lion King is coming next year so it is actually quite tempting.




Wanna come over and look at the book?

Whale Watch

One day we were there as we were lazily laying in our little beach cabana, soaking up every second of sun and ocean, one of the hotel workers spotted a whale just off shore. Not only did we just see it, we watched that thing put on a show for a good ten minutes. Huge tail slap after tail slap against the water, around 50 times in a row. No joke. Pretty much the whole beach was standing, mouths wide open, watching this giant just yards from us. We decided then and there we better try to get on the whale watch for that night. As is was the very end of whale watching season, they were selling the trip as a Sunset Sail and Dinner Cruise so people would not expect much. So we went down to the beach just before sunset, climbed aboard our catamaran, and set sail. The watching began.
Waiting. . . .

Watching. . .

Maybe we won't be so lucky after all.

Wait, what's that?




Could it be? A momma & her baby?



Awww! There they go! See the baby copying the momma? We are told this kind of activity usually happens right after a feeding. The mother encourages the baby to play and move in order for the baby's muscles to grow and develop. These Humpbacks come down to Hawaii to mate and give birth. Little baby there has a long trip up to Alaska soon.


Oh my goodness, they came so close. The law in Hawaii is that you cannot approach a whale within 100 yards. They, of course, can approach you though and they sometimes do. We were lucky as big mama gave us quite a few big tale slaps right about now (I am not sure what the appropriate term for 'tale slap' is, but I'm fairly certain it's not 'tale slap.' Oh well, you know what I mean.)


And a final goodbye. Isn't that amazing? Big fin, little fin. I am suddenly feeling very baby
hungry.

Oh, and the sunset wasn't too bad either.


I realize we look a little goody in this picture. "We are happy, happy tourists! Catamarans and whales and sunsets, oh my!"