Shelby's Life and Whatnot

It's theater week!

I've had a great week this week. Sunday of course we went to the Taper. Yesterday (Thursday) my sainted MIL came over to babysit so Kevin and I could go see a movie. We had a lovely little dinner at Chili's (my top choice in cheap, generic chain dining) and then got stuck in that dead zone between showings. Like we finished dinner at 6:55 and there was a 7:00 show and a 7:50 show. Hate it when that happens. But we got our choice of seats!

We saw Avatar in 3D. I really liked the 3D experience but Kevin wasn't all that wowed. I thought the movie was very good. There were some plot holes so big you could drive a truck through, and many points where I was like "Wow, I didn't see that coming--oh wait, yes I did." but it's James Cameron so you can't think about it too hard. All in all, I'm glad we saw it on the big screen.

Tonight my parents came over to babysit and we went to a community youth theater production of Grease. Two of the teens from our church, Chelsea and Zoe, were in the production. It was very cute and definitely brought me right back to my high school production of Grease, in which I played the unnamed "Pink Lady." That is, I was in the chorus. I was very proud of our girls--they did really well! It was a lot of fun.

Oh, and the funny part from last night--Cindy (my mother-in-law) said that she knew it was time for Theo to go to bed when he crawled over to the large dog bed (upon which both dogs were already curled up) and laid down with them. Ha! I wish I'd seen it! I hope he does it again.

Palestine, New Mexico

Last night we saw a play, Palestine, New Mexico, at the Mark Taper Forum. I really liked it! It was about this Native American guy who was killed in action in Afghanistan and his Army Captain goes back to his reservation to deliver a letter to the chief and find out what really happened. I thought the acting was fabulous. Overall I thought this season at the Taper was just so-so. I really liked the production of Pippin, which they did with Deaf West theater group with half of the cast being hearing impaired. They did a play called Lydia that was probably pretty good but I couldn't get over the shrieking tone of the main character. We saw the musical Parade, which despite its Rogers and Hammerstein-esque title was actually about the only Jew ever lynched in America (cheery!). We missed one play, Oleana, but heard it wasn't that great overall. I'm looking forward to the next season!

Of blood draws and other things

We went and had our blood drawn yesterday. I was extremely impressed with the phlebotomists there! Believe me, I'm pretty much the expert on blood draws so I was steeling myself for a moderate-case scenario--a needle insert, small amount of digging, and massive bruise afterwards (worst case would be 2 or more insertions with lots and lots of digging). Well not only did they get that giant needle in the very first try with completely minimal pain, my bruise is smaller than the size of a dime today. So kudos to Saddleback Memorial Blood Center! I'll certainly be using their services for all of my blood donation needs.

Plus I got to help my cousin AND get something free from Disneyland. It's a win-win-win-win all the way around.

I joined a "Gen X" mom's group in my area. As the name implies, it's a group for all of us who feel like matriarchs of other groups. We get together to chat about things like, "I love being a stay-at-home-mom, but I'm SO BORED!!!" and those moments when you're rinsing poo and spit-up out of your shirt and shorts when you say to yourself, "I have two college degrees! TWO!!!" Anyway, we've had such fabulous conversations about it, we decided to start a blog. And the best part? I don't have to run the blog because a bunch of us were in IT before having children! Look for it soon...

I'm getting Edward Cullen-ed

Tomorrow we're headed down to Laguna Hills to donate blood. I haven't donated blood in years but my blood type, A-, is on the rare side, so it should be very useful. We missed my cousin Tracy's blood drive yesterday because they were totally booked and had no more appointments. What can I say--Tracy has a lot of friends. A LOT. It's because she's a real sweetie though. Anyway, Kevin was apprehensive because the phlebotomists always dig around searching for his veins, but I did point out that blood center phlebotomists tend to be pretty good because that's, like, all they do all day. Having blood drawn is a nightmare for me. My veins are small and they roll. Plus I bruise easily, so I always end up looking like I got hit in the elbow with a fast-pitch softball. But hey, it's for a good cause, so I'm counting on their vast experience. I've had some blood draws where the person was just fantastic. Let's hope I get one of those.

The prodigal bear builder returns

I finally stopped by Build-A-Bear today, just to say hi. I kind of expected there to be only 1 or 2 people who remembered me (I left about 15 months ago) but there were actually 7 people there I'd worked with. It was fun to see everyone again, and I admit I was a little wistful about the store because I really liked working there. But I love being with Theo more. Ah well, maybe when he's in preschool, if I don't have another position, I'll go back.

Exciting things

So I finally got Kevin (and by Kevin I mean me and Kevin) a Wii for Christmas. It came with Wii Sport, which we haven't played because we've been busy with Toy Story Mania. Toy Story Mania is based on the ride at Disney's California Adventure and involves a bunch of games that are like carnival games--breaking plates with balls, popping balloons with darts, etc. It's pretty fun except part of it is shaking the remote back and forth, which is not fun and also hurts your hand. Tonight Kevin bought Mario Kart, which is a driving game. It's pretty amazing how far things have come since my former favorite Atari game Night Driver. I can see how these games could be very addicting, and the Wii offers a lot more options for extended game play than my previous home game system, which was the Atari in the 80's. But I think it's really above my level. I'm having fun driving around, however.

Stop! Molartime...

Poor Theo is having a bear of a time with his molars. Two bottom ones appear to be coming in at the same time and he's not all that happy about it. The drool could fill a fountain. And don't get me started on how his poor diaper area is suffering :(. Plus the one molar that's about to erupt looks so big, it's like the size of his entire head!

Now that we're back from the cabin I kicked off the new year with a cleaning spree. And by "cleaning spree" I mean I cleaned out the microwave. Hey, that's better than last year! Our living room area rug (plus the hallway runner and doormat) are in sad, sad shape and we're looking to replace them soon. What a joy that will be! I also plan to do a better job with the vacuuming so it doesn't look like there's a husky hiding under the couch.

I'd love to do all new flooring, actually. Well, the living room and hall floor is the original cherry from 1922, so that I'd love to refinish. I would also like to pull up the carpet in both front bedrooms. Since they are part of the original house, I imagine they also have the cherry floor, and how awesome would that be? My fear, however, is that we'd pull it up and found out that the original builder ran out of money and put down whatever the equivalent of cheapass flooring was in 1922 instead of the cherry, or that the wood is so thrashed that's why they carpeted it in the first place.

The kitchen/dining room laminate needs to go, as does the laminate in the bathroom. I would say it looks like it was installed by a bunch of one-armed first graders, but quite frankly I think one-armed first graders would have done a better job. There are gaps, it's warped, it's mis-cut in many places. It's horrible. And finally the master bedroom is carpeted too. I have no idea what's under there, since it's the add-on from 1995, but given the rest of the add-on stuff I'd guess it was the cheapest possible thing available at the time. I'd love to get real wood in there, but honestly I'd settle for just about anything over the dark blue carpet in there now. I don't approve of the previous owner's color choices.

Donate Blood--Go to Disneyland for Free!

Hi Everyone! My cousin Tracy is pregnant with her third child and is experiencing a complication that is keeping her in the hospital until delivery. During her delivery, the doctors are preparing for some blood loss, just in case.

Saddleback Memorial hospital in Laguna Hills has a blood bank and is having a blood drive for Tracy and others in need of blood. Tracy's blood drive is on Wednesday, Jan 6, 9am to 7pm. If you have blood type B+, B-, O+, or O-, you can donate directly to Tracy. Otherwise your blood will go to another patient in critical need.

Saddleback is also participating in Disneyland's Give a Day, Get a Day program this year, so if you register at the Disney site, you get a free Disneyland ticket for donating blood! If you have an annual pass, you have other options instead of a free ticket.

I know blood makes everyone squeamish and not everyone is capable of donating blood, but if you are, this is a good opportunity to help someone like my cousin and to get a great Disney reward in exchange.

Important info:

Tracy Bremmer Blood Donation Day
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m (Appointments recommended, but not required; space from 5-7pm is limited so appt recommended for these hours)

The Blood Donation Center at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center
24451 Health Center Drive
Laguna Hills, CA, 92653
(949) 452-3185

The Disney site to pre-register is here: http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/WhatWillYouCelebrate/index?name=Give-A-Day-Get-A-Disney-Day

If you can't donate blood during Tracy's drive, any time is fine. Disney is also offering many other volunteer opportunities through this program as well!

Gratuitious Theo Picture:

First Word!

So we officially have a first word--DaDa. No, not Daddy, it's Doggie. Quite adorable though!

We also went sledding today!

Happy New Year!

Wow, a post here! who would have thought? What a joyous, and at times challenging year this has been for us. It was amazing celebrating Theo's first birthday on Christmas Eve. He's the happy, healthy little boy we never thought we'd have. And he gets more fun every day! Of course, I'm not really much of a baby person anyway--haha. I do hope to post more here. I have an idea of a year-long program, but I'll keep that secret for now ;). At any rate, I hope everyone had a happy new year and has a wonderful 2010 ahead of them!