living room: before & after

above and below are some shots we took of the living room before we moved in. the paint (white walls and tan trim) was definitely not our style, and while we appreciate the woodwork in older homes, the red stain above the fireplace gave the room a heavy and dark feeling. we didn't have a chance to work on it with a baby coming and more important house projects looming. so we've lived with it for a year (we just celebrated our one year house-aversary!!!) and finally planned to focus on re-painting it during the last 2 days of luke's spring break.

this is kind of a classic with us: because we haven't learned to ask for help, (with painting or mateo-watching), only one of us was able to work at a time and it took 5 solid days of painting to finish the job!

another total classic of ours: we picked what we thought was a warm but fairly neutral shade of yellow (honey bird), but it turned out to be... well, you'll see.

one last before photo, this time with all of our junk and clutter filling the shelves. yuck.

and now...



the



after photos:

sure, the yellow probably wouldn't be classified as a neutral like we were going for. yes, it took us a few hours to get used to. and yeah, probably not the tone one would pick who may be moving away and selling next summer. and yes, we'll just say it: with a bold yellow living room leading to a deep blue dining room leading to a very green kitchen, luke and i may be unwittingly realizing our fear of living in a rainbow house.

but we love it!

i attempted to organize our books by color, but then realized that a) we don't actually own that many since we are library-patrons-for-life, and b) many of the books we do own are too tall for our built-in shelves. so, it only sort of worked.

we were so tempted to paint the fireplace white as well, but decided to leave something original to honor the house.

unica and mateo were kind enough to model the room without even being asked. here is mateo, discovering a shelf of his very own.

we go back and forth on the faux stained glass door. sometimes we like it/sometimes we don't/is it worth the trouble to redo/what would we put there instead/it's not our personal art which feels kind of weird/etc.

so, that's it. the yellow is warm. it brightens up the room. and reflects the sun. and for now, it makes us happy.

ma première quiche

my first quiche. thank you, mark bittman.

i followed his recipe for onion quiche, and added broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, basil and sharp cheddar along with the onion. despite it taking much longer to make than indicated (a combination of me being a super slow cook and our oven being a slow oven i guess?) and the bottom crust being a little soft, it was great!

we all loved it so much, especially reheated on day 2. mateo went crazy for it. i think i will try to make another this week to get more practice.

if you feel it in you

(image)

hello dear friends,

i will be walking/skipping/dancing/running with my neighbors in support of the fight against breast cancer. the race will be here in lansing on april 25th.

if you'd like to join me (please do!) you can register by clicking here.

if you'd like to contribute, you can donate by clicking here.

this is my very first time participating in one of these activities. i am notoriously bad at fund raising, so i will just say this: if you feel it in you that breast cancer research is a cause you care strongly about, then i would be honored if you'd join or donate along with me.

love,
pamela

a date with our street

luke organized a night out with our neighbors. he went knocking door to door and through facebook to invite all of the surrounding neighbors on our street. about 20 people were able to make it. we met up at lamai's thai kitchen for some yummy and local thai buffet and some getting-to-know-each-other-better fun.

we hope to meet more often as the weather warms up. there was a lot of talk of summer cook outs and movie nights and progressive dinners and street clean-ups.

for your holds list

i just watched captain abu raed. has anyone seen it?
i really loved it, and that is coming from a person who rarely loves movies.

long story short: it's about an airport janitor in modern jordan who finds a pilot's hat in the garbage. he wears it home and the children in his neighborhood think he is a captain and beg him to tell them of his travels abroad. it gets more complex as he gets to really know them, but i don't want to give anything away.

for me, it was a really human story with fresh and innocent acting and full of stunning images of jordan. kind of made me want to live in amman. you should put it on your library holds list. or netflix queue. or see if that dvd machine at the grocery store has it.

images from here

at 10 months mateo

:: repeats his first word "ba" for ball, over and over, when he sees one ::
:: answers "moooo" when asked what a cow says, in english and spanish ::
:: goes "vroom, vroom" when playing with cars ::
:: and reaches for his toes when asked where they are ::

:: has decided that sleeping on his belly, knees tucked under, butt way up in the air is the only way to go ::
:: has discovered that he can happily spit food out of his mouth ::
:: gets frustrated when working on mastering the art of the sippy cup ::

:: is super fast at crawling all over and pulling himself up ::
:: waves to all animals and people, the baby on his yogurt cup, and whenever he hears the words "hola", "ciao", or "bye bye" ::
:: turns the pages in his books ::

:: played and laughed and overcame anxiety with his grandparents last week in texas ::
:: loves passing a ball back and forth with his papi ::
:: still cuddles in and coos in his mama's shoulder almost every time she holds him ::


oh, and:
:: is now way too busy to sit still and smile at the camera for the monthly photos his mama wants to take of him ::

food drop 2010

a few weeks ago we participated in something awesome. over 30 different churches in lansing came together despite their differences. money was raised. food was purchased. boxes were prepared. over 1,600 people came out to deliver food boxes to families in need.

luke had to work, so mateo and i went solo. it was amazing! it was incredible to work side by side with people we hadn't known beforehand, and work together for something good. we had to move the (heavy!) boxes above into the waiting trucks below.

then the trucks delivered boxes into the trunks of our cars, and we were given the addresses of people who had signed up to recieve them. i met another woman who was alone so we decided to deliver our boxes together.

each box contained food to feed a family of four for 2 weeks. $109,000 was raised, and $60,000 was spent on the food we dropped off. the rest was donated to local food banks and pantries. all in all, over 10,000 people were fed.

Beautiful Day Food Drop 2010 from TrinityWired Productions on Vimeo.

a video was made to document it all. i was surprised to see mateo in it for a split second. (if you watch it he's on the left side, around the 1:40 mark). :) we felt super blessed to participate.

day 4

dear mr. p,

are you ready to come home tomorrow? i hope so. i hope you've been having fun.
we've been having mucho fun around here.
today i took mateo on a breakfast date thanks to the money you left us. he charmed everyone.
steph told me the zoo is free during the winter. so i got my coffee to go and we strolled through the woods and into the zoo. it was a lot like we imagined: pretty sad. ostriches walking on snow, wolves eating dog food, small cages, a small-town feel.
mateo was most interested in watching the monkeys, and a little aquarium of turtles. the owls reminded me of unica with their sad, wise eyes.
after that we went home and worked on napping and house cleaning.
then it was garden house time. there was another neighborhood mama & baby there, which made 3 (6) of us. at one point a group of neighborhood kids came in and asked if it was "baby day". it was so much fun that 2 hours felt like 5 minutes. there is always so much to talk about. work-wise, we added compost to the beds.
oh, and i got to hold mateo's little girlfriend and mateo at the same time while they oogled each other. seriously: one of the highlights of my week.
after volunteering we met alexis at a tiny mexican market. the owners were really nice. we got chips and salsa and tacos and tostadas. you will want to go there.
we headed to her house and had fun wrangling mateo and brock while we all tried to eat. she is so great. and after that we went to the new cupcake place next door.
just the details in this post since i am going to now sign off and eat that cupcake (peanut butter & chocolate flavored, if you were wondering). don't worry, i'll save you some.

love you and hurry home already,
p

day 3

hi hubby.

mateo had 2 eggs and a slice of toast for breakfast. i had a lemon pastry from whole foods. :)
we went to the late service at church and i parked in the solo parent parking. marvin was teaching and the message was so good. about how important and powerful prayer is.
they showed a video from the food drop and we were in it! (well, for a split second).
this afternoon we met s & s for a little playdate and a walk around the block.
oh, and i picked up a vintage framed world map from freecycle. i think you'll like it.
unica has had an off day. she found that 1/2 of chocolate bar you put in the trash. and she barked once at mateo. i was in shock. still am, kind of.
i just put your son to bed for the 11th time tonight. he wants to keep playing. did you realize that today he is 10 months old already?
now it's time for me to rest. love and goodnight,

p

day 2

dear love,

i hope you are having another wonderful day.
we had a lazy morning, until someone little decided to climb up the night stand and clear it of all its contents, lamp and all.
the coffee doesn't taste as good when i make it.
i took a walk with m & u. we went to the gardenhouse for a workshop: dining from your backyard. now i'm super ready to plan our garden when you get back. did you know peas grow really well along a chain link fence? let's do it.
mateo was super good in my lap, and played across the table with steve the whole time. unica waited in the sun outside. when we bundled up to leave and i was grabbing unica, a guy from the workshop who'd been loving mateo came out and said "of course that's your dog, everyone you have is the cutest!" :)
we took another long walk around the neighborhood since the sun felt so good.
i'd planned on heading to blacksoil but started cooking a good dinner for mateo since he's had a few too many bananas lately and didn't finish until 7! so i missed it. :( maybe next week we can go together?
then tonight i sleepily celebrated my bachelorette-ness with the notebook and a creme brulee.

miss you, xoxo, and praying for your presentation tomorrow morning,
p

wish you were here

dear l., while you are off presenting and networking and enjoying the sun in atlanta:

we missed you today. i was sad after the door shut behind you and the house was so quiet. even though i'm always home without you. funny.
we mostly ran errands: picked up the printed photos in novi, grabbed some frames for them at ikea, searched (and did not find) that ever elusive shower curtain at world market ann arbor and then did a quick little circuit of trader joes & whole foods.
on the way we saw a dozen deer sunning themselves on top of the snow. it was so warm and beautiful out.
we stopped for a snack. in a sunny spot. mateo was having some applesauce. then an older man sat at the table next to us, opposite my seat, facing me. almost like we were at the same table. he launched into how i need to teach him baby sign language (i didn't mention that we're not planning on it), how babies can't eat peanut butter or honey (yup), how i need to cut up grapes before giving them to him, how we need to tell our parents to open life insurance policies for him and how some parents choose not to vaccinate their children and then take them to south america and bring back all of these sicknesses (he had no idea who he was talking to). it would have been ok if he was just another person giving us parental advice, but he was really lecturing me - as if i was sitting there stuffing mateo with whole grapes and peanuts.
it was an odd exchange. er, monologue.
mateo was an angel-baby. pretty much no tears the entire day. he got so much attention and waved and said "dadada" to everyone he met. he only cried in the beginning of our ride home tonight and i sang to him until he fell asleep. then i turned on the radio which wouldn't really come in so i was left with our valentines mix. again. i don't think i can listen to it anymore. let's look on craigslist for one of those ipod-to-car connectors?

hope you are having a triple-a time! love you so.
p.

honestly i can't come up with a title to describe this one