2010 mix

this year's mix:

1. The Strangers / St. Vincent
2. Dog Days Are Over / Florence + The Machine
3. All Summer (w/ Best Coast & Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend) / Kid Cudi
4. San Francisco / Brett Dennen
5. We No Speak Americano / Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup
6. Staring At The Sun / People In The Future Recording Co.
7. Own Stunts / Breathe Owl Breathe
8. To Build a Home / The Cinematic Orchestra
9. This Is the Life / Amy Macdonald
10. Two Weeks / Grizzly Bear
11. This Land Is Your Land / Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
12. 500 miles (Hedy West Cover) / Josh Ritter
13. Helicopter / Deerhunter
14. Please Speak Well Of Me / The Weepies
15. Heartbeats / José González
16. All My Mistakes / The Avett Brothers
17. Big Sur (Album Version) / Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard
18. Michigan's Waltz / Sam Corbin
19. Dearest / Buddy Holly

after a year of seemingly listening to mostly classical music (me, since becoming a mama i have preferred wordless music), and a year of working every moment (luke) we were surprised to have compiled such a long list for this year's mixtape. #4, #9, #16 & #17 were repeatedly played on luke's bike ride to school each day. #5 made the list after we watched this video a thousand times. #1 and many others were introduced to us by the impact, msu's radio which is pretty great and commercial free. #7 & #18 are locals (18 was mateo's first exposure to live music at 1 week old!). #14 is in honor of finally seeing the weepies live, and since they are our virtual if-we-were-famous-we'd-be-them couple. #11 was inspired by the summer visit from the traveling scott and jill. #6 is luke's brother! #12 was inspired by our across the street neighbors. and #19 is for our little mateo.

as always, let us know if you'd like a copy. if we saw you this week, we meant to give you one but forgot.

see our 2009 mix here and 2008 mix here.

5 things, exchanged

we finally made time for our (imaginary) gift exchange. luke printed out and made me a book of my gifts. i couldn't figure out our printer and had to show him his on my computer. it was lovely, just the same.

what i gave luke:

1) a super hip fleece vest for him to safely ride his bike reflectively, like all of our safety conscious neighbors do.
2) a new mattress, queen sized. (a major upgrade from my full mattress from college that we still sleep on with coils digging in our backs and has the air-mattress-quality of everything rolling into the heaviest person on the bed). ooh, and it would come with a bed frame. something we've never had. :)
3) the ridgid! this one was on the top of my list for luke since my dad came with his and made our stairs sparkle. it is a vacuum that has changed our lives! and deserves a post of its own. but this one went off my list when my parents sent us one last week!!!
4) this headlamp, lighter and brighter than his old clunky one. and it comes with a diffuser for family tent storytimes.
5) a week of camping and hiking and golfing in and around greywalls in marquette, mi. this one we would do in the early summer, before we move, finally crossing the upper peninsula off our travel list before we move.
6) and lastly, this print. because he so enjoyed john malkovich saying it in the great buck howard movie, and we've both said it ever since. also, i think it applies to his positive mentality for wherever we'll live.

and here's what he gave me:

1) a pair of really soft, purple, smartwool gloves. because we all know of my love for smartwool.
2) a new queen sized mattress! because of the reasons above, and so our entire family can fit.
3) a ceramics class, and "all the babysitting you'll need". love this one.
4) a cannondale quick road bike, because i've recently become convinced that long term, cross country cycling is in our future.

he did such an amazing job. i love that we both gave each other a mattress. and he gave me a bike when i gave him a bike vest. and we both gave each other an activity. i think we might make a tradition of this virtual gift giving.

Christmas at our house 2010

we had the best Christmas this year. here are some things i hope to remember.

our miracle tree! we decided to wait until the little ones arrived from england a few days before Christmas to get a tree all together. we were planning on getting one from our local buy-a-tree-send-a-kid-to-camp lot a few blocks away. but 3 days before Christmas, we got an email that msu's college of business was looking for a family to donate their tree to over the holidays, so it wouldn't get wasted. we accepted, and luke went to pick it up. on the way, he passed our local lot and they were all sold out! the tree was huge and beautiful, and we put it up and decorated it and the house all together.

the food, as always, was incredible. and i had no need to worry about hosting duties. everyone helped themselves in the kitchen, and pulled together for meals and cooking and cleaning and even breaking down the recycling. 2 of the 12 stayed in a hotel and began cleaning the house and helping out the instant they arrived each day. 3 out of 12 stayed at our neighbor's house right across the street and did the same. we used both kitchens and had plenty of space.

on Christmas eve, we had a tapas/appetizer sort of dinner (various quiche, hummus and veggies, deviled eggs, homemade crackers and cheese, arepas, naan & mushrooms, and stuffed squash). then we continued last year's tradition of letting the little ones open one gift - matching Christmas pajamas! this is the one and only photo we have of them all together.

mateo headed to bed and the rest of us transformed the living room into a movie theatre to watch the muppet's Christmas carol.

Christmas morning was full of stockings and secret santas and slinkys and books and laughs and presents. light snow came down. luke made 2 coffee cakes, one with an espresso-mocha frosting on top.

a few very classic Christmas things happened as well: someone put dish soap into the dishwasher and we had bubbles everywhere. and the Christmas tree fell over at least 2 times that we know of.

in between main events art was created, walks were had, announcements were made, pizza was ordered, board games were played, guitars and singing were heard.

and Christmas dinner was beautiful, with a toast from the chef and all.

and here's just one of mateo and his uncle, looking so alike again.

i felt really proud of our old house. not in a materialistic way, but in a i-can't-believe-it-is-holding-up-so-well way. a few days after everyone left, our furnace stopped working. so thankful it didn't happen while everyone was here.

all in all, it was a really successful Christmas we think. and really nice for us to celebrate here in the house we won't own for much longer. after everyone left we enjoyed the holiday afterglow like we always do, talking about how things went and catching up on all the things that happened through the week that we hadn't had a chance to tell each other. the house felt so quiet.

the only handmade gift

so much for an all-handmade Christmas this year. i managed to make one homemade gift - a memory game for our niece and nephew who live abroad. they don't get to see this side of the family too often, so i printed 2 matching photos of each member (unica, too), pasted them onto a nice paper and had them laminated. i found a nice tin at goodwill to store them in. they actually turned out pretty well, with a nice weight and shine. i made one for mateo as well since my favorite game growing up was memory, and it wasn't much work to make a second batch. he won't be able to play for a few more years, and for sure we will have even more family members by then, but i think it should be easy to add some in.

Christmas Card 2010

this year's Christmas card was inspired by the gorgeous leaves in our backyard, and a page from a peekaboo book that miss linda reads at library storytime.

this page asks "where's dad? he's reading the paper!" and luke and i always laugh since we never have a newspaper at home and luke never has time to read for pleasure - but so wishes that mateo could know him as a dad who is reading the newspaper.

so while we were tossing ideas around for this year's card, that image stuck in our head. somehow it morphed into sticking our couch outside in the leaves where luke would sit reading the wall street journal.

then somehow the plan had me standing behind the couch, pregnant and wearing an apron or something 50s -ish and possibly holding a pie, and unica and mateo playing at luke's feet.

i went shopping for these things around the house and in the stores - a newspaper, a pie, a 50s look, some dark glasses for luke - and all of a sudden the whole thing began to feel like way too much trouble and extremely mad-men-esque.

and then i saw a shelf of matching pajamas. and battery operated Christmas lights for unica. and a simple Merry Christmas banner.

and i called luke. and we talked about a new, much simpler plan.

so this is it. outtakes (my fave) and all.

with luke running back and forth to set off the timer, me 5 months pregnant and helping to carry a couch, unica licking our faces and mateo who'd grown out of his winter hat already.

it works.

and it was easier than last year's madness.

Merry Christmas!

5 things

luke and i have finally decided what we are going to give each other for Christmas this year!

we want to do something meaningful, and something that won't give us more financial stress. and we don't want to give each other meaningless things just for the sake of giving something.

so, we are choosing 5 things. 5 things for each other that we will both put a lot of thought into. 5 things that we would really love to give and think that each other would really love to have. 5 things that we may or may not be able to afford. simple, amazing or practical. and we are going to write them down, draw a picture, or find an image of each thing online. and then we will give each other those images. no actual items will be exchanged. it is the thought, right?

we made a few rules: while these things or activities can be way out of our budget, they have to be somewhat realistic - so i'm not giving him a year's tour of africa and he's not giving me a million dollars. and if we think one single thing is enough, that's enough. we aren't married to the number 5.

so that is it. i'm excited to see what we each come up with.

here's what we gave each other last year.

with a spoon, and an update

we've waited quite awhile to give mateo "spoon privileges". he's seemed so coordinated lately so we went for it and he has been having so much fun. here is a little bit of him with a spoon.

around here things have been beautifully crazy. after hearing me complain so much about our bathroom stress and handyman woes, my mom mentioned the situation to my dad. my dad built us an entire 2nd level onto our house growing up and is extremely talented contruction/car/house/etc-wise, and luke and i are always wishing he lived nearer to us so we could learn from him. after my mom told him of our troubles, he immediately took some time off work, packed his car with tools, and hours later drove overnight from texas to michigan without stopping! through a snowstorm! he has been here a few days now working and is teaching luke how to do things like replace ceilings, toilets, sinks and install floors. we are so blessed by this! luke said "it's a Christmas miracle!".

meanwhile, luke is phone interviewing once and sometimes twice daily and possibly campus interviewing and i am running around with mateo crossing things off of our to-do list. our neighbors just gave us their holiday dates which happen to be perfect for us - so half of the family will stay in their house across the street next week. so much isn't done yet (and probably won't ever be) but somehow i feel at peace.

oh, one last thing: yesterday i accomplished one of my goals that i have had for over a year now! i made bagels.

some onion, some (way-too-much) salt. i wasn't sure if it was going to stick on so i went overboard. they were the best bagels we've ever had. from bittman's book.

these travel prints

these travel prints from the heads of state remind me of the old classic national park posters that we all love. someday i'd like to get the chicago & phoenix prints for our house, in honor of the cities where we each grew up.

at eighteen months mateo

this boy is actually 19 months today, so i snapped a few photos throughout the day as we worked on some spring cleaning, and made this list as we went along.

:: woke up this morning with some majorly cute hair sticking up, for the first time ever, and it has lasted all day ::
:: sneaks over to the dog food, reaches in for a handful, and dumps it in unica's water bowl when we aren't looking ::
:: squeaks when we squeeze him ::
:: and loves to make silly faces ::

:: has traveled to canada and mexico ::
:: toured around niagara falls, toronto, washington dc, chicago, and phoenix ::
:: has flown on 10 flights ::
:: has eaten baby food from a jar just once (an unfortunate hungry time at ikea) ::
:: and has never really watched tv ::
:: but has parents who spend too much time on computers ::

:: makes a mad dash to peek into the oven when he hears the timer go off ::
:: won't eat other things if any sort of bread is in site ::
:: peeks in from room to room while looking for someone or something, saying "nooooo...", "noooo...", and then, when he sees it, shouts "no!" (meaning yes!) ::
:: likes to talk about the big garbage truck he saw in front of our house 2 weeks ago - and mentions it with pointing and grunting several times every day ::

:: has coined a new "silly walk" ::
:: and pops into downward facing dog when we say "do your yoga" ::

:: sneaks up from behind us to give us hugs around our legs or backs ::
:: had his first tantrum throwing his entire body down on the floor! ::
:: loves for us to sing, but only certain songs. lately he only wants to hear "you are my sunshine", "rock a bye baby", and "jingle bells" - but not the dashing through the snow part - just the chorus. ::

:: and is just getting so, so big. ::

i would totally hire him

my handsome husband is away this week on interviews out of state. here he is just before leaving.

i have to say, it was really strange for us to 1) go on a mad shopping spree for interview clothes for my husband who doesn't usually shop or buy clothes for himself (especially in the suit dept.), and 2) to send him off for 5 days without a single columbia fleece, pair of jeans, or pair of tennis shoes in sight.

we did learn that putting on a corduroy sport coat immediately makes you look like a professor. and that i have a secret talent for making funky ties work. and that luke can really pull off the sweater-vest. who knew?

beyond the sky and the earth

beyond the sky and the earth: a journey into bhutan by jamie zeppa was this month's international book club choice. this book club is so good for me, since i get really lost in these books and sort of get a travel high while reading, but it is also really bad for me since we are no where near being able to travel abroad ourselves. i am homesick for traveling. or maybe for living abroad.

the book is about the author's time volunteering and living in a remote corner of bhutan, with no electricity, phones or internet. i really appreciated the honesty of her opinions once arriving and then how she described the experiences that changed them. i won't say too much - in case you want to read it. which you should! i really enjoyed it. did you know that the king of bhutan made gross national happiness the number one goal of the country? happiness, not product.

every time i put the book down i would beg luke to move with me to a lost village somewhere far away with no iphones or video games or tv or texting or computer distractions everywhere we look. i have had this on my heart for years now, and with mateo around it has become more important to me. of course i appreciate how easy and comfortable technology has made our lives, but i *really* feel drawn to live a simpler life. with less time on computers. and fewer screens staring us down all day long. remember life before texting?! there is a new article out in the new york times almost every week about how our children can't focus on reading, or learning, or even standing still because we've trained them to need the constant entertainment of tvs and computers. *i* even feel a lack of focus (and discipline) because of the internet's presence in my life.

at the book club meeting there were a few people visiting from bhutan who came to share their stories with us. when one was asked what he liked most and least about the usa, he said he loved that you could literally get anything and everything you wanted anytime - everything is accessible. but he said life here made him feel especially lonely, because of the lack of personal connections. he described a bus ride in bhutan being a time to tell a stranger your life story and make a friend. and how the first time he got on a bus in lansing he looked around for eye contact but every single person had headphones in their ears or was texting away. some women in the group said that is how life was here in the usa, but in the 50s and 60s.

luke and i have had major conversations about ways to change our habits. i don't think we'll ever have the constantly-connected internet phones. but even if we were to go super extreme and got rid of all of the screens in our house, wouldn't we go out on our porch and be alone lit the blue glow of cable tv through all of our neighbor's windows? i guess that is why half of my heart dreams of a completely less-connected village for us somewhere far away, where people are more social face to face, and kids make their own fun, and we communicate to other places though written letters and the occasional internet cafe.

this post accidentally got super long, but i do want to include two travel-related quotes from the book that really spoke to me:

“Arrival is physical and happens all at once. The train pulls in, the plane touches down, you get out of the taxi with all your luggage. You can arrive in a place and never really enter it; you get there, look around, take a few pictures, make a few notes, send postcards home. When you travel like this, you think you know where you are, but, in fact, you have never left home. Entering takes longer. You cross over slowly, in bits and pieces. You begin to despair: will you ever get over? It is like awakening slowly, over a period of weeks. And then one morning, you open your eyes and you are finally here, really and truly here. You are just beginning to know where you are.”

"A poster in a travel agency announces that Bhutan is the Last Shangri-La. There seem to be more tourists in Thimphu this winter, and we scoff at their heavy camcorders and expensive travel clothes. Thinking about it later, I hear the ugly arrogant tone in our voices. Ugh--foreigners! As if we were not. Bhutan is so difficult to get into, such an unusual and desirable location, that I have become swollen with pride, as if my being in Bhutan were a great personal achievement and not simply a matter of luck. It is one of the dangers of being associated with Bhutan. At first you cannot believe your good fortune, and then you begin to think it has something to do with you. Look at me, look at where I am! Bhutan is special, and I am in Bhutan, therefore I must be special too. Travel should make us more humble, not more proud. We are all tourists, I think. Whether we stay for two weeks or two years, we are still outsiders, passing through."

22 weeks

this little one inside has been kicking for weeks now. i love, love, love that feeling. luke has even felt it already.

i'm still tired a lot, and napping a lot. i'm definitely in the mega-pregnancy heartburn phase like before. it lasted 3 days once after i had some of luke's spicy guacamole. and i'm not sick as frequently as i used to be, but when i am, it is more intense. as in actually vomiting instead of my famous gagging for 3 months at everything. but, bonus: i am so warm all the time. i can't even think about wearing a coat outside on a 30 degree day, and i sleep in our cold house with no blankets on. i guess it is convenient that we are wintering in michigan. :)

i'm not being weighed at the birth center and i've never cared about those numbers, so i don't have much information or comparisons from the last time. i think i'm definitely bigger around at this point than with mateo, since everything has already been moved and stretched once before. i just went to a lab for tons of blood work, and soon will be tested for gestational diabetes. yikes. we have an ultrasound on monday, so maybe i'll get to share a photo soon. :)

it's hard to believe we are already near the end of the 2nd trimester! we both feel like this baby is coming on some far off date in the far, far future. once the new year begins i think it will feel more real. a burst of tears did overcome me in the car all of a sudden earlier this week, just at thought of having a warm, cuddly newborn in my arms again.