A new year, a new blog.

Please join me over at my new blog The Relentless Unfolding. I will be sharing a frame a day of my family, life, whatever strikes my fancy, and occasionally a word or two or sometimes more. I have been known to be quite verbose, but am looking forward to speaking with images. Please come along with me!

Much love, Rane

mmm, fiber!

I've never seen anyone be more interested in the peel than the banana. I guess I better bananas to my organic list!

Breakfast at the Lederer's

My friend makes the most delicious and beautiful breads from her Swedish recipes. This one was thyme bread. For breakfast, I enjoyed it with butter and coffee in my new coffee cup. For lunch, it perfectly sopped up my mushroom soup and for my afternoon snack, it was great with blueberry vanilla chevre.




The coffee cup is my special way, along with a french press, to make decaf more appealing to me. It's taken a few days, but I think it might work. I'm so sneaky to myself!

Banana Nutella Muffins

This recipe is a variation of my "go-to" muffin recipe. I combine the dry ingredients along with between 2 - 2.5 cups of wet ingredients (fruit, mayo, applesauce, juice), then bake at 375 for 20 - 25 minutes, the more wet the batter, the longer you'll bake it.

1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt

3 medium ripe bananas, mashed (or ~ 2 cups pureed fruit of choice)
1/2 c mayo (not light or fat free)
Nutella

Preheat oven to 375. Line muffin pan with paper cups or grease pan.

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.

In another bowl, combine bananas and mayo. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

With a spoon, drop about a half inch of batter into the cups. Add 1/2 teaspoon of nutella. Top with more batter until cups are 3/4 full. If you like, top with another 1/2 teaspoon of Nutella.

Bake at 375 for 20 - 25 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack. Attempt to wait to eat them for at least 3 - 4 minutes. Nutella is really hot and a burnt mouth makes it hard to taste the other 11 muffins you wolf down before the kids find out what that smell means.

Makes 12 muffins.

In review: September. Michelle is back from Iraq!

September saw the return of our sister, Michelle, from Iraq. She is currently stationed at Fort Hood and yes, she's ok. Here's most of us girls. Tracy, Karen, me, and Michelle. We look alike, don't we? Linda avoids the flashes because she's too big a star. ;->



Our resident reticent teenager even allowed me to photograph him. A rare smile. I am honored.



Kendrick drank and passed out texting in the backseat. If I were really mean, I would have finished his text for him!

In review: August

I just realized I have photos on my camera since July, which means I haven't sent any photos to Grandma. I'm a bad daughter. I must make amends.

So here goes. In August, we went to Jacksonville for my niece's graduation from her Naval training. Her class is the last to officially receive wings. She asked my dad, an old Navy pilot from back in the day, to pin on her wings. He was choked up with the honor. It was very sweet. He didn't even make her bleed at all!



A bunch of us showed up to support her! Everyone else gets to smile, while I wrangle the toddler.



Here's Tonya in the cockpit of the P3 she works in. This is supposedly all Top Secret and stuff, but everyone was taking photos, so I did, too. Tonya is a lovely goof, isn't she?

At the Museum of Flight

D_ and her son, R_, went to the Museum of Flight in Tacoma. Jack loves planes so I thought he'd love the museum. There were tons of wonderful planes including the F8F9 and the Aerocar.

Grandpa flew this plane - the F8F9. Neat!



This is the super fun 1956 Aerocar Model One. I think this was Jack's favorite by far. It's a car and a plane! My two favorite things! WOW!



There's a whole kids section with real airplanes and even a helicopter that are really small. Check it out!






Jack! In! Space!

Moms and Tots at the Seattle Aquarium

I'm a bit biased but I love that Jack loves marine life. He will happily watch almost 30 minutes of Blue Planet and point and cheer. He still doesn't really call me "mommy" but he knows the difference between an Orca and a Humpback whale. I can't help but feeling proud.

While in Seattle, we went to the beautiful aquarium. Sadly, my camera skills aren't the best so please forgive me. Since I think my son is too cute, I can't resist.

Jack really liked the Octopus. She was particularly active, moving about, flashing her colors getting all BIG and scary.



Ivy pauses a moment to have her picture taken.



An Orca skull. Those teeth are as thick as my forefinger.



A sea otter surfaces for a moment.



The funny thing I'm noticing as I look back through all my shots of the whole trip is that rarely did I take any photos of my friends. It's all kids, animals, and kids. Sorry friends!

Belly at 17 weeks

By popular demand, I am providing a belly shot. But not your normal belly shot. This is my POV. My belly is lopsided.



This is Jack sitting on my belly reading a book. See how crazy lopsided it is?




This is the view above the book. I put these shooting range earmuffs on him when I vacuum. He seems to like them a lot and goes into his room singing to himself and reading while I vacuum. It's a good thing.




Back to the book. Nothing keeps him for long when "The Happy Man and his Dump Truck" is open!

Catching up...

Hi there. It's been a while, how ya been?

Due to some level of guilt and the sweet, gently nagging voice of friends (ahem! you know who you are!) I am finally posting some pictures from our recent trip to Whistler, B.C. and the Seattle area. I called my "Great Tour of All Things I Didn't Do When I Lived Here" and it was incredibly successful!

In Whistler, my friend Greg and I did a ZipTrek Ecotour. 5 zip lines that get steeper and longer with 1 over 20 stories high and something like 2000' long. That was totally kickass and even more fun than it sounds. Greg and I were mostly speechless and grinning the rest of the day, but we did admit our next fantasy job was being a ZipTrek guide.

Please note the rakish angle of my helmet. I meant to do that. Sure.




There was something so ominous and strange about the steps to nowhere.




I even made a video of one of my zips. Super fun! I'm having troubles with uploading to blogger but the Youtube link seems to work. Pardon my colors - I don't know how to color correct video.

More to come later from B.C., the Museum of Flight, the Seattle Aquarium, the Woodland Park Zoo and much much more!

Monumental Playground Day

Today Jack did all sorts of things he's never done before. At the playground, he walked forwards up and down a bunch of stairs and learned to use the handrail. He slid down the slide all by himself, as in without my prompting or being at the bottom to cheer him on. He walked all around the playground, even though it was covered in snow and, since we usually end up doing a second set at the swing, he headed over there holding my hand for a little balance because of the snow. When he was done, he stopped smiling and held his arms up for me to stop the swing and pick him up. When I got him out, he walked over to the stroller and started to climb in.

Time to go!

I'd never seen such absolutely clear communication from him that didn't involve crying or throwing himself to the ground or throwing anything. It was amazing.

too bad I didn't have my camera...

Jack fell down...

Sorry, Grandmama Donna! I'll stitch it together with embroidery floss when I find it. Then he will have... Frankencrown!

and it will still be cute.

New Friends

So, I have a new friend-to-be-I-hope who is totally fabulous, smart and fun. (hi D!) Today we hung out at a big mall in Virginia. They had a fabulous play area for the tots and Mr. Knick Knack was singing his heart out and reading stories. The guy playing conga and tambourine kinda looked sweet and let the kids play with him. The 3 year old was about as good as the big nice guy in the funny sweater.




Jack and his new friend were playing nicely until Jack pushed little Z off a bee. Then he didn't want to be with Jack so much anymore. Poor little guy. Ok, not so little. Isn't he absolutely edible?




Jack is walking a lot - all of a sudden, he just started walking on his own. Of course, I think he's the most brilliant little boy in the whole world. Except when he tosses kids off bees. Then I think, not the best display of an attempt to interact with the world around him, but it's a sure sign he's trying! D was very forgiving. Nice D. I hope Not-so-wee Z gets Jack back!

I want this chair.

A strange thing happened at Z Gallerie. The store at this mall is closing and I want this chair:



But I can't buy it so I bought a jenga type game that stacks bones instead of rectangles with a skull on top. Cool.

Anyway, while I'm checking out I ask the cashier about the chair, delivery, et cetera - you know, living the fantasy of buying the chair. As she tells me the store is closing, I'm overcome with this wave of fear, frustration and pain. My arms flushed and I felt sick to my stomach. The closing date is less than 2 weeks away. I ask her, "Do you know what you are going to do?" And she says there's one thing. Then tells me some very personal information about why she needs medical coverage. No details about her condition, but that her medication is very expensive. Now I know where those feelings came from.

I want to tell her, I'm scared, too. There's no way I can buy that chair. This is a scary time right now for a lot of people.

Instead, I say, good luck! with enthusiasm and, I hope, some understanding and turn to walk away. But I get this other feeling. It's so warm and sweet and I surrender to it fully. I turned around, reached for her hand, looked into her eyes and said, I really feel that you are going to be okay. Better than you expect even.

In general, I'm not one to feel especially cheerful and currently I fight the same frustration, fear and anxiety I felt pouring from this woman. But I'm curious now how she will hold that experience. I like to believe that when I have these feelings that they are accurate. And I really felt that she would be okay and, quite possibly, better than she could imagine.

Then I walked away. And barely made it to the restroom. I hope I did take some of her pain from her. I really hope her load is a little lighter tonight. But even if it's nothing to her, I learned something about the depth of my own emotions and how unchecked they can affect others.

And you know, I still want this chair.

Hello, Old Friend...

Hello there. It's been a while... How are you, friend?

Well I guess someone listened to my request. Dear Husband was offered a great job on the other side of the country and we moved over the holidays. And yes, moving sucks. I hate it! Just organizing for the move is a nightmare. Sing along, you know the words! This is the move that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends.

Living in the land of boxes for months, perhaps years, just gets me down, man. Really down. And the slightest set back can make it much worse. I swore that this would be the move where we could fully unpack. The day after we put the books on the bookshelves, the pipes burst in the unit two doors up, destroying that house and leaking through the unit next door and into our basement. I met my neighbors by begging for their help to bring everything up from the basement. Now I have a living room full of boxes where there was nearly only a couch, table and chair. It was nice... for a minute.

I know, I know. You hate that Eeyore tone. I know. I think it's the weather. And the boxes. Oh and Jack isn't sleeping so well and so neither am I.

Well, tomorrow's another day, right? Take care of yourself.

Yes, I will get some sleep soon. Thanks, love.

Bye

Weird dreams...

I was just starting a new job at Microsoft and the whole day was spent trying to figure out what I actually do. There were so many people - it was crowded down there and felt more like an underground mall than a workplace. There was a clothing store full of men's and women's suits, blouses, nylons and pumps in black, gray, brown and a lot of people shopping, pushing past each other all wearing the clothes I saw for sale. Do they ever leave?

There were movie theatres and concert halls and somewhat of a party vibe going on, like, "isn't it great that we practically live here?!"

It kinda freaked me out. It was such an artificial atmosphere and I couldn't believe everyone was buying it.

********************

In real life, my mother has been ill recently and was hospitalized. Living far away from her has been stressful because I fear her dying suddenly. In this dream, she came to visit me.

"What are you doing here," I asked her.

"I just came to give you a hug." And she embraced me.

Somehow this was really disturbing and I woke wondering if that was her spirit coming to say goodbye. I've had psychic dreams before about things happening to my family. It was 3 am and I had to hold myself back from calling her at that moment to make sure she was okay.

I talked to her later, and she's fine. She said she was probably cold and likes my hugs so maybe she came to hug me to get warm!

Job Search

The dear Husband is working hard - phone calls to supportive friends with information about this or that company, recommendations from others, web research on companies hiring for his particular skill set and getting details on who pays more where, and creating new works to target companies he would like to work for.

It's like killing a moose with salt peter.

"more fantasy, more sci-fi, not enough zombies" - I guess being a diverse artist is more of a problem than one would imagine. I mean, who knew being able to draw a sexy pin-up model with the same skill as a tank or Beast of Another Dimension would be a drawback?

Having him at home is a mixed blessing, too. He's helpful with Jack, taking him for walks in the morning, playing with him during the day, helping change diapers or taking over if I need a break.

But all that takes away from his job search. Jack is often very loud, which makes it hard for Ray to concentrate on new paintings. So I have to devise free things to do for hours on end in between Jack's erratic nap times to get out of the house. It's easier when the weather's decent but when it's cold and rainy out, I just wish we had a working fireplace and a nanny so I could read in bed all day.

So, someone - please hire my husband. He's experienced, talented, works smart and gets along with just about everybody. Yes, I'm a little biased, but just look at his work and when you get your socks back on, call or email him. You'll be glad you did. And so will I.

Halloween Mourning...

I haven't finished my altar. The pictures aren't hung, I can't even find marigolds anywhere or any of my favorite special things for honoring this very special time. I keep meaning to paint the jizos and tweak this or that and just don't.

I miss my crafty self. Will she come back? Can't I just have a eensy bit of Martha?

I no heart hackers.

thank you, hacker butt head. Thank you for hijacking a friend's msn messenger account and sending a link that ruined our hard drive, making inaccessible all of our photos for the past 4 - 5 years of our life, quite a lot of my husband's work and much more. Thanks for just being a real jerk. Too bad I am not as nasty as you, that I can't find you and string you up for a halloween decoration like I feel you deserve.

But I will let the universe deal with you, twit. You'll wonder why all the chicks you try to date never answer your call, or the ones you do will give you STDs. Yeah, buddy. Have fun out there. If you think the world's kicking you in the balls, that's because you've taped a sign on your own back that says "kick me!"

Hackers = Wankers

A pox on all your parent's basement, since you'll be there for a while.

A night away...

I had planned a super secret special surprise for my honey's birthday. You see, all he said he wanted was a good night's sleep. So, I booked a babysitter (Awesomest Fairy Godmommy Tamara!) and found a great deal on an apartment for the night through a friend's corporate housing company.

I planned a dinner and breakfast and pre-prepped what I could while he was at work. I packed a bag with all the essentials including candles, sparkling french wine and strawberries, bought flowers, and hid everything in the garages. I planned my beard (dinner with friends at our house and a last minute craigslist purchase/pick up that he had to come with. Don't worry - the baby's okay with Tamara for a few minutes.

The idea was that I would drive to the place, knock on the door a few times, then pull out the key and open it to rose petals, mood lighting and soft music. "Surprise! Here's your good night's sleep! Of course, you'll have to work for it..." *seductive grin*

But when Honey bunny got laid off Friday, he started to spin wildly saying, I don't want to go out or have fun. I've got too much stuff to think about.

Uh oh.

So I spilled the beans.

And you know what? He was so happy and surprised and excited... He kept telling me how he was looking forward to it all day. It seemed to make him more relaxed about facing a job search. And today, after an evening of fun and a good night's rest, Honey Bunny emerged refreshed and excited with a focused plan and renewed resolve.

Unfortunately, it means we'll probably have to lose the cable TV. Clean House! What will I do without you!