Saturday, February 28, 2009

Birthday x 2

Friday night my college sister arrived to celebrate her 21st birthday with us.
















We had enchiladas and guacamole.
















and of course..cake:
































We mostly just played with the PKs and sat on my bed and talked for two days.  Then Saturday night we drove her to the airport.  She gets to spend the rest of her birthday week in Florida! 

Then Saturday the usual suspects gathered at The PGs for dinner and cake with PD's sister.













I won't tell you how old she is, but it is more than 29 and less than 31.






















Look at all those candles!


















Grandma cooked a great dinner and then we played Pick Two.  I lost horribly. 

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Gag Order

This blog was supposed to be at least in part, the ramblings of my life as a political widow...I mean wife. 
PD (Political Dad) has worked in politics for over a decade now in many different capacities.  He is finally doing mostly policy work which has always been his real goal.  He works for a former congressman from here in Ohio,  John Kasich.
Anyway I had hoped to post about political events, behind the scenes gossip, inside information.  You get the point.  Well, every time I try to post something juicy, PD totally puts the kabosh on it.

He has actually been putting the kabosh on me a lot lately.  He informed me that it would not be ok to call someone "Baptist Barbie" even if I meant it as a compliment or suggest that someone looking for an adult swim class join the one for mentally challenged adults at my gym, even though I meant that as a joke! 

PD is very good for me.

He is also very good at his job.

Here is an op-ed about his boss that just came out in the Columbus Dispatch today:

Governor's Budget Plan Will Worsen Ohio's Plight

Saturday, February 21, 2009

We are most assuredly dorks: The Oscars

To see more about our status as dorks,

click here: Dorks I

or here: Dorks II

Tonight is the Oscars. I have always loved tuning in to see the glamorous couples and the great dresses. Then when we got married I started making PD watch with me. We both DO love a good movie or at least a good story, so it wasn't that hard a sell.

So even though PD goes into the office EVERY Sunday night to catch up on paperwork, he DOES stay home for the Oscars and the Emmys.

We fill out these ballots and compete. I almost always win, but not exclusively.



We used to get pizza. Then we got sophisticated and got sushi. Then we got fat and now we drink water.

We are always conflicted between what we think will win and what we want to see win.

Anyway tonight we are rooting for this:






















and this:

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Doing Church

I can't tell you how much I have learned about "doing church" in the last couple years.  A huge part of that is my small group.  They are such a real group of people and I have learned from each one of them.  We got together last Saturday just for fun stuff and we had the best time.  Besides being real and godly and generous and smart...as I look over these pictures it occurs to me that they are a pretty good looking bunch as well!

Here are our fearless leaders:


I am not going to put names because I didn't tell anyone I was doing this.  But here are the rest of us.



























.











































































There were a few people missing but this is most of us.  Could my smile be any weirder?

For a few more pictures, you can go to my friend Kelli's blog kitchenwindow-sunflower.blogspot.com

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Rats

I really can't say which of these clips reminds me more of my courtship with PD.


CB Valentine 1 from Political family on Vimeo.


Untitled from Political family on Vimeo.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Bringing up PK1

I have really been struggling with PK1 lately.  You know how sometimes you just throw your hands up in the air and say, "WHAT is going on with this child?" Well, in our case I know exactly what is going on. From the first day of her life I knew that the Lord had given her to me to draw me closer to Him and make me a stronger, more self controlled person. 



Don't get me wrong.  PK1 is a great kid, but she is just SO different from me and lately my patience has been low and my frustration has been high.















But the other day I was acutely reminded what a great kid she really is. When PK2 and I picked her up from the school she goes to once a week, she opened her little backpack and took out a frosted valentine cookie wrapped in a napkin.  One of the moms had sent cookies for the class and she had saved hers to share with her sister when she got home.  When I told PD about this, I started crying, when I was on the treadmill this morning and thought of it, I started crying.  I couldn't believe how selfless and loving that was.  And that she thought of it all on her own.   I could just see her watching all the other kids eat their cookie and choosing to save hers to share.  I am more the type of person to hide the last of a really good dessert and scarf it down when no one is around so I don't have to share.  Maybe different than ME is not such a bad thing!
She is really laid back and forgiving.  She is generous.  She plays so sweetly with her little sister, even including her when there are other big kids around.
What a blessing she is to me.  I hope I can do right by her.  I really want to enjoy her strengths and patiently help her improve in her areas of weakness.  She certainly does this for me.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Let them eat cake

PD and I used to go here occasionally when we lived in a different neighborhood and had two incomes and zero daughters:
















In addition to a regular cafĂ© menu, they have the most beautiful cakes and tortes and petite fours.  I would rarely get one..or just one tiny one because of concerns about calories or money.




















But I have always thought it would be great to be able to eat whatever I wanted from the beautiful display:
So recently I thought..you know who else likes to eat as many beautiful cakes as you want?  Little daughters.
So instead of flowers or gifts for Valentines Day this year, we did this:















The girls talked all week about the cake store, and the flavors of cake, and how we would share the cakes and how many days it was until we went to the cake store.















I told PD ahead of time to bring lots of money because I didn't want to have to skimp.  He said he would just keep buying cake until someone puked.  (ok ok I guess he got the point) We actually didn't end up eating THAT much and we took some home because it was so rich.  The coffee was good too:















PD is such a good dad for girls:















It was at least 50 degrees that day and we didn't want to go home so we went window shopping and out to dinner afterward. 















To see more of the beautiful desserts follow this link Mozart's Café.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Birthday Date and Que Diablo?

Look how happy I am on my birthday date!! (yikes..is my hair feathered?)





We went to a wonderful Turkish Restaurant. It was so quiet and it was so great to talk uninterrupted.

Then we walked around a little and looked in shops after dinner.

But here is how the date started.  I put on every piece of make up I own.  I have used four of these products for 18 years.  The MAC concealer is a very recent addition that the college sister recommended.  It is good for those sun spots that have been popping up in my 30's.














Then we were pulling out of the drive and I had forgotten my lipstick because the PKs spilled a whole water bottle in my purse the other day during my eye exam and I haven't gotten my act together since. (purse wise)  SO PD went back in for a lipstick.















He ordered this wine because of the name: del Diablo means "of the Devil" so he had to check it out.  It held no great surprises though.















And speaking of Que Diablo? (what the devil?) we saw this picture in a Charles Harper art book.  We really love the illustrations of Charles Harper.  PK2 loves his alphabet book.  But for the life of us we could not figure this out.

Please leave a comment if you know what is going on in this picture.  Or if it is vile...please don't.














I tried on this lovely coat, but sadly did not buy it.  Just a luxury and in these economic times, I couldn't stomach it.  It was very cute and well cut though.






















While I tried stuff on, PD did this:















Two more birthday posts to come!  See you tomorrow.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Fresh Squeezed Birthday

I turn 34 today.     

My daughters and husband made me a wonderful breakfast this morning with my favorite...

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice.
We all love breakfast.  If we make something more or different than we usually do the girls call it having "big breakfast" and although PD insisted on serving me first, he could hardly keep them out of mine until he could make theirs. 

My gift is this:



















...a new front door.

But I gave PD a break and told him he didn't have to install it until it gets above freezing around here. 


The PKs and I went out to lunch with friends and I have a hot date with PD tomorrow night!

Monday, February 2, 2009

It doesn't translate well.

I had to pass along what our Chinese friend said tonight almost as soon as he walked in the door.


He said, "Why America celebrates the large mouse today?" 


Try explaining Groundhog Day with a cultural and language barrier! Or even without one for that matter.

and for a related news story click here:  Groundhog bites Bloomberg

Sleep Night Over

This must be a year of firsts.  PK1 had her first "sleep night over" on Friday.  She has called it that since she was very little.  We would say she was going to have a sleepover at her Grandma's and she understood it as "sleep night over." 

I wasn't really ready for this, and if it had been anyone else, I doubt I would have said "yes."  But having her at her best little friend's house, is like having her at my sister's house.  I didn't worry for a second.

Here she is leaving without batting an eye.  She could barely be bothered to hug me goodbye.
First they opened presents:
Then they went to a paint your own pottery place:
Then they went out to dinner:
PK1 colored this on the back of her menu:
They also had cake and played and watched a movie. The report is that they behaved like little ladies the whole time and had a blast.  I had to close PK1's bedroom door the night she was gone because when I walked past it that night I felt kind of sad that she wasn't there. 
I have heard that “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”  I couldn't agree with this more as I have started to let my kids go out of arms reach occasionally. 
But I have to let them go a little bit at a time and I was glad that it was all a good experience.  I hope it will be awhile before it is my turn to host one of these "sleep night overs."