Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The all american weekend

We celebrated Memorial day weekend with pizza and a movie on Friday, the beach on Saturday, a ball game on Sunday, and swimming followed by a bbq on Monday. Now if only we had gone on a massive shopping spree we could be labled true americans!

Photos:





Monday, May 25, 2009

cute summer stuff for kids

I love virtual window shopping. These are all the fun summer clothes I would buy my kids if I had the money to spend on uneccessary items:



Sunday, May 24, 2009

Pretty things

Summer makes me want ot shop. These are all the pretty things I wish I owned:






Saturday, May 23, 2009

Today was a good day



When we first moved to San Diego we always wound up in O.B. Everything was so new and exciting back then. We spent countelss hours on dog beach watching Bela run wild on the sand. Aaron and I both agreed that someday we would live in Ocean Beach. It's where I want to end up eventually. I just picture us there.

We spent a large chunk of our afternoon hanging out in O.B today. My kids are happiest when they are near the ocean. They are water people. I am continuely amazed over how completely different their childhood is shaping out to be in comparision to my own.

Oh and yes that is a photo of a sail boat that managed to run into the rocks near dog beach.....hopefully they are rich folk that can afford to repair the damages!





Friday, May 22, 2009

Go me!

In my e-mail inbox this afternoon was a messasge from the editor over at the Reader. They bought my story! THEY BOUGHT MY STORY! I am so happy/excited/drunk on life right now that I can barely contain myself.

3rd grade me

It was in third grade that my obsession with keeping a journal began. My teacher forced it upon her students by having us record our thoughts in a pale yellow notebook. I took to it with the enthusiasm of an angsty opinionated 9 year old girl. My journal from that year is filled with short stories,terrible knock knock jokes, complaints about my classmates--mostly the boys, and lengthy descriptions of my weekend adventures.

This the thrid grade me:



January 27th 1988


Today Mrs. Rausche made us move our desks. Now I have to sit by Damien! Ewww, he is so gross! I am about to puke. I hate when he says "go milk a cow home girl."

I made up a poem about him

What a geek is Damien
How meek is Damien!
His butt can hold more than his brain can

Enjoy the ride

For Aaron's Birthday I accidentally allowed Andrew to buy him a pornographic shirt. I had no idea. Aaron wore it to a mother's day brunch (at a park with little children) oblivious to it's nasty sexual innuendo. He was the creepy dude at the park that day

Why is it that things like this only happen to us? I think the fact that no one in my family knew what a mustache ride was automatically makes us wholesome.

The t-shirt features about twenty mustaches. written underneath the staches it says: Enjoy the Ride. I have always thought mustaches were funny I didn't think the shirt meant something gross. I am sometimes stupid.

Aaron was in an in-depth conversation about religion and politics when my friend Steve asked "do you find it as bizarre as I do that he is having that conversation while wearing a shirt like that?"

"huh?" I didn't get it. The whole mustache thing had to be explained to me, to Aaron, and to a few other clueless brunch goers. Who knew that our mothers day brunch would end in a description of what a mustache ride is?

"So that's why some woman at the store appeared visually disgusted when I told her that my ten year old son bought me this shirt!" announced Aaron.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

thrifted goodness

I spent the afternoon thrifting. I scored a pair of board shorts for Jake, a t-shirt for Andrew, a cool painting for my living room, a nice button down shirt for Aaron, two tank tops for me, and an awesome vintage dress for Amelia

Amelia's new dress (P.S. her pink chucks were thrifted as well)

Friday, May 15, 2009

Today

In about an hour I will be submitting my very first article to the San Diego Reader. I have been working on it all semester. I am super excited! I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Sophomore year

I am still reading through my horrific high school journals. I think they will serve as a terrific reference when my kids get older. They are realy, really unintentionally hilarious!

Anyway, this is one of my very favorite journal entries. I can still vividly remember this day. It was one of my happiest high school moments. Of course the actual date itself was not as picture perfect as I had imagined it would be. The poor guy was almost a god like figure to me so the only direction he could go was down.


5/25/95


Today has been the single greatest day of my life! After spending months infatuated with Mike Matthews, to the point that I have his class schedule memorized so I can “accidentally” bump into him in the hall and stare, oh so longingly, at his doc marten clad feet, he finally and unbelievably asked me out!

I can’t get over it! I feel like at any moment a balding camera guy will step out from behind a tree and say “ha ha, got you, this is all a big joke. You are lame and ugly and Matt has zero intrest in you” But no it’s real, it’s really, and truly happening. Mike Matthews is aware of my existence and wants to spend time with me! Crazy!

The actual encounter was pretty blah. I mean I kind of acted like an idiot, but who cares. He is still coming to pick me up on Friday night to take me downtown. We are going to see his firend's band play at the Belmont Bowl.

I was standing outside oh so innocently, having, most likely, a pointless conversation with Sam and Liz. Out of no where Mike Matthews pulls up in Ray Anderson’s car (who by the way is another very hot senior). He rolls down the window and shouts my name. All I could think of at the moment was: Mike Matthews knows my name and apparently so does Ray Anderson! Crazy! That was exciting enough. That simple acknowledgement of my existence could have made my day. What happened next was pretty unbelievable. The words that came out of Mike’s mouth nearly paralyzed me in a state of shock. Very simply, with out the least bit of hesitation, he casually asked if I had plans on Friday night and if I‘d like to see a show with him.

I wonder what my face looked like? I am certain that is was a mixture of the most ridiculous amount of pure unadulterated happiness and that of complete astonishment. I managed to say yes and then somehow also managed to ask to bring Anastasia. Not cool. A guy asks me out and I ask to bring a friend. What am I in Junior High? I just needed to fill in the silence. He was looking at me waiting for me to say something, anything, and that was all I could come up with.

You could tell he was annoyed by my request and possibly regretting asking out a sophomore but nonetheless he nodded yes. After telling me what time he would swing by to pick me up he was gone, just like that he drove away, into the sunset. Okay so not into the sunset more like into the polluted air of LaGrange Park but he may as well the way it felt like I was stuck in a romantic movie. My hair should’ve been billowing in the wind or some shit!

Liz and Sam managed to hold it together long enough for Ray and Mike to drive away before they were both screaming and hugging me. The first thing Beth said was “Why did you invite stasia, She can’t go.” “You’re supposed to make out with Mike.” “What is Anastasia going to do, watch?”

She has a point. Anastasia is officially uninvited! Before I knew it Stasia and Sarah were outside with us. We were all dancing around like a bunch of idiots. Everyone was hugging me and smiling. It was such a moment! I wish I could’ve bottled it in one of those cheesy snow globes and put it on a shelf in my room so I could see the scene of us all screaming and dancing outside on the yard of school drunk with excitement! I think my friend’s excitement for me was even better then Mike asking me out!

I cannot believe that I have been obsessing over Mike since October and all that obsessing has finally paid off. Now hopefully I will not make an ass out of myself on Friday. I am sure I will though! That’s just my way, somehow or other I always make an ass out of myself!

This is me Sophmore year:
Homecoming night sporting a terrible dress with gold accents that really higlighted my braces!



Me and my BFF Sam. We were an absolute nightmare together! We were always doing stupid things like stealing her parents car at he tender age of 15 to drive around town.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Thrift shopping madness and pics of the kids

I have come to realize that there is absolutely no reason to buy new clothes--ever. People in southern California shop enough that the thrift stores here are bursting with fantastic items. Everything my kids are wearing in the following pictures are thrifted, with the exception of Amelia's shoes (they were under $5 at old navy though!). Jake's school shirt isn't from a thrift store but it is a hand me down, so that counts in my book! Amelia's little shirt is from the 1950's. It's a super cute little vintage piece!






Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Completely gratuitous





I have a celebrity crush on Simon Baker, aka Patrick Jane. It all began after watching The Devil wears Prada. I watch the mentalist for the sole purpose of staring at his face. He's cute huh?

Monday, May 4, 2009

Spring cleaning

I am purging an old myspace blog of mine. Slowly I am adding all of its contents to this one. Here are my favorite new/old posts:
DIY hair cut
Why the Brauns avoid boomers like the plague
Pumpkins and Poo
Ankle Arms
Aaron is into Grandmas