DIYOLO

While my mom was out of town visiting her sister, my dad and bro decided to tackle the laundry-room-in-the-garage project they'd been talking about for awhile. Not sure what the original plan was, but by the time I got there to help out they'd carved out a corner and put up two walls and my dad had a gash in his forehead (in addition to the stitches just taken out of his finger)...

...on my Night Two as we're painting I remind my dad that the top of the ladder is not for standing on... especially not on one foot with your other foot on the hot water heater... especially not when the ladder is precariously wedged into a corner...


Sister: Dad's approach to DIY is like, 'YOLO.'

Brother: HAHAHA... Wait, what's 'YOLO?' Was that Tim Allen's neighbor on 'Home Improvement?'

Sister: It means 'You Only Live Once...'

Brother: Oh, that's clever! Did you just make that up?


I haven't seen the finished product yet but my mom says it's beautiful. Since it's where I still take most of our laundry, I'm looking forward to it.  :)

Sofia Elena

So my brother and sister-in-law (E's older bro and his wife) welcomed little Sofia Elena into the world 4 months ago today.  This was super-exciting news for us. She's the first kid for E's family (his mom's first grandbaby, our first niece) and my family has been really excited for her as well.

Emilio, Cindy and brand-new Sofi

Here's E with Sofi on Day One.

I LOVE the way, in this one, that everyone else is just a blur but it's like time is standing still an E and Sofi are in their own little world. So presh. He's so excited to be an uncle.

 

 

 

And, we were so excited to get a very special little gift from Sofi (and Emilio and Cindy) recently -

Look closely at the ABC blocks...

"Will U B My Godparents"



YES!! A thousand times, yes.  I am so honored that they even asked.  We are so in love with Sofi and I hope that we can live up to the honor of caring for and guiding this precious, beautiful little life. I can't wait to see what kind of fantastic little girl and lovely young lady she grows into... and give her a cousin, but that's another story ;)

mother-trucker

La Mesa has a food truck fest every Friday. E and I had never been, despite it being just about 5 minutes from our place, but one week this summer during my aunt and cousin's visit (they live in London), we ventured down there with them as well as my mom and uncle (the three of them are brother-and-sisters) for something to do and because, well, you gotta' eat.

It's just in a parking lot of... I think a chiropractor's office..?

 

And eat we did.  Well, that's not entirely true. I'd had a big, late lunch (I usually brown-bag my lunch for work but had splurged on a gyros sandwich earlier) so I tried a Vietnamese iced coffee (what makes it Vietnamese?) and bought a cupcake to take home for later (nothing like eating chocolate whilst watching 0%-body-fat Olympic gymnasts, right?). Oh, and a sunflower. There was apparently a new florist next door that had just opened and the owners' cute 5-year-olds were hustling us.

 

 

 

But there were other diners.  My mom went with the Korean BBQ burrito and my cousin and E stayed pretty classic with grilled cheese and quesadillas. If I had gone for an entree it probably would have been the asparagus grilled cheese that my Aunt Gloria got. yum.

 

 

 

 

 

 



 So I'll have to keep my eye on the food truck schedule because apparently they have different trucks every week... though if I could make a suggestion, it would be for someone to provide chairs. Or at least some cocktail tables. Do food trucks do that? Or is it BYOChair? I'm new to this.

Untouched

A couple weeks ago I was driving down the Silver Strand towards my parents' near Imperial Beach when I noticed we were in the midst of an incredible sunset. I hustled to the beach and took what I realize now are about a million pictures. But it was sooooo pretty. And I am telling God's-honest-truth when I tell you that these are unedited (I actually started to use the auto-correct on them and it made them look worse--not at all the vibrant pinks that they actually are!).  I could watch this every night!!

I think this one is my fave!

Still haven't seen the green flash, though.  Maybe one day.

Star-Spangled

Hope you and yours had a happy and safe Fourth of July, full of the foods, friends, family and fireworks that you love.


Over the past week or so my bosses' daughter/granddaughter was learning songs at school and singing them when she came to the office after preschool... something about a 4.5 year old singing Yankee Doodle, Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue and particularly This Land is Your Land made me feel pretty patriotic.


I have not watched National Treasure this week.  I try to make that a Fourth of July tradition (at least since last  year).  There's always this weekend.

Many thanks as well to the boss lady for letting us close up shop early on July 3rd.  Having gotten 2 hours of my life back I decided to risk the $9 on a pedicure at a beauty school I had noticed and had in the back of my head the last couple of weeks. I probably got lucky that a very sweet, attentive young lady was available because it was the  first time I ever felt like I got my money's worth getting my nails done (I should note that I get maybe one pedicure/year because I won't spend the moeny on a really nice spa but I'm always disappointed in the cheaper places... so maybe I'll try Tramy Beauty School again sometime). Yay!

(fat ankles... awkward angle... no more taking pictures of feet, just weird)

We went to a friend's bbq yesterday and though the festivities included Pinterest inspired/worthy "Adult Lemonade," "Alcoholic Popsicles," and delicious grilled chicken skewers (and apparently there was trifle, but we left early), the highlight for us all, it seemed, was watching somebody's 2-yr old kicking beach balls into the pool.  In fact, there were at least 6 or 7 adults  all positioned around the perimeter so that we could immediately fetch the balls and let him kick again.  This must have gone at least half an hour... when did we reach that age where our entertainment is watching toddlers?

Perhaps you heard about San Diego's Big Bay Boom Bust.  Apparently the 4 or 5 synchronized fireworks shows in the San Diego bay, which were supposed to last about 20 minutes, choreographed to music, malfunctioned and all went off in about 20 seconds.  We were out east watching an adequate display (last-minute decision) but thanks to cell phones and the YouTube we were able witness the pyrotechnics.

Thank you to my family and friends--and well, everyone--who has dedicated themselves to service in this country. Military families, teachers, police officers and firefighters, civil servants, (some) elected officials, volunteers... you are the type of citizens our Founding Fathers envisioned making this a great country.

My grandmother told me a few days ago, "I never serve you hot dogs and hamburgers but I thought it was Fourth of July food." Ohmyword. I have yet to upload pictures from the camera, but talk about delish. The baked beans topped with bacon weren't too shabby, either. But the homemade ice cream was to. die. for.

And yes, that's the original owners' manual from the 60's. Presh. 

What I'm Vibing This Weekend

Almost outta' here on a Friday afternoon and
here's what I'm wishing my weekend would consist of:

(andsoweramble.net)

(This adorbs home-on-wheels is "The Pearl," http://shastapearl.blogspot.com/)

(I can see how Polyvore could get addicting)

(aahhh! cute! from jossandmain.com)

(eatbetteramerica.com)

and finally... 

(I wish I knew the original source of this gorgeous Big Sur pic)

Of course, none of those things are happening this weekend... with the possible exception of cutoffs and a backpack, because we're heading to the San Diego County Fair (which like most people I know, I still call the "Del Mar Fair") with my brother and sister-in-law and our precious new niece.  Despite the inevitable crowds and heat and dust, it will be fun.  Until we meet again, pink-BigSur-roadtrip... 

out of hibernation

So looking back on the post I wrote in February and never published, it appears that I started this whole venture on a day I was feeling particularly emo... kind of pathetic to read now but those feelings are still valid, right?  I'm going with 'yes.'

I'm still approaching this thing as a creative outlet, a way to write something perhaps a little more emo  fun and personal than I normally do at work... where the day-to-day subject matter has included solar panels, highly technical achievements, prescription discount programs, and now the depressing statistics surrounding unemployment for young military veterans (all in strict adherence to AP Style).... Not that I don't enjoy my job, I do.  I'm finally back to doing what I thought I'd be doing for a career when I graduated high school (and when I say "finally," I mean that I've been at this position with a PR and event planning agency for two years -- full time for almost one -- after a stint working for a truly evil for-profit college out of desperation because of almost a year unemployed after being laid off from a fun start-up that wasn't totally my thing but I really enjoyed the people after I left my first "real job" out of college working for a national nonprofit doing event planning and fundraising... didja' follow that?)

So letting this thing sit dormant for three-four months doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about writing; just that I haven't pulled the trigger.  I can't say for sure how often I'll update this (and who really cares, anyways?) but I do have some awesome  cool  meh  stuff I thought I'd share, so stay tuned, I guess!

pretender

I've been debating and delaying jumping on board this blogging train for awhile now... Not that I do anything people will want to read about and my life is so mundane I'm not sure why I'd want to record it... but I sometimes need a creative outlet and who knows, maybe one day my life will be worth writing about. 

With that in mind, the video below will explain the blog title "paint-by-number-dreams." The song "The Pretender"just kind of feels like my life these days... lots of dreams and expectations and aspirations... and lots of road blocks hit and what I guess you could call a quarter-life crisis. Lots of reevaluating, prioritizing and basically just trying to get by and still looking five years down the road all the time. Who knows anymore... just praying to live with Grace and be a good person along the way. "...fill in the missing colors in each others paint-by-number dreams..." refers to my absolutely wonderful husband, family and friends who support and inspire me every day.

Jackson Browne has always been a favorite of mine, my parents have been a big influence basically passed down all their music likes and knowledge to me, especially my dad... and music of their "coming of age" is SO MUCH BETTER than most of what's been created by the songbirds of my generation. So basically you can take away from that -
1) I mostly listen to songs that were hits long before I was born (not to say I don't love me some Blink182 or Britney now and again)... and
2) my soul is somewhere in Laurel Canyon in the late 60's, I swear.