I'm officially coming back to you all to fulfill my commitment as a mother and a writer to keep those family members close by and not so close in the loop of our family happenings.
Since my BOTY post, I'll do a written recap of the events sprinkled with a menagerie of pictures.
I suppose not a lot actually happened in the department of super big, life-changing events.
I was invited to a wedding in Newport, CA the week before Memorial Day. It was so much fun to get away with a girlfriend of mine that I see far too little of these days. It’s tough being back in the realm of dating and finicky men after a marriage and a baby. I give her mad props for being so strong and having endured so much. Go Rachel! Katie Bean (her brother’s daughter’s mommy) is now officially Katie Flake. Nate and Katie are so amazing for each other. We were lucky enough to have Gracie all weekend while the newlyweds enjoyed each others’ company in beautiful SoCal. A trip to Disneyland totally awakened the child in each of us. I can’t tell you how much I missed that place. It truly is the happiest effing place in the world! To be perfectly honest though, it was a little guilt-ridden to enjoy Disney without the spawn nugget and husfriend. I’ve made a vow that I’ll not visit another park without those two. I did my best to buy back their affection by showering them with many a souvenir. My absolute favorite part of the trip: lying on the beach. There were a few houses for sale right on the water…hint, hint, wink, wink. 5 hours of CA sun and I was fried like a lobster. To bring the disgusting into the story, I’m molting now and it’s thoroughly disturbing to find my skin flakes EVERYWHERE around the house. Eck!
Our friend Grant came down from SLC, Utah for a former station employee’s daughter’s wedding over Memorial Day weekend. His time in Arizona was spent filling his canteen with debauchery and good friends. Steve and I were invited to partake in his grand visit at Upper Deck for Third Thursday when the Great Rain Tease of ’09 decided to open their gates and, for the sake of a corny pun, shower us with the long anticipated fruits of its labor. Sandi & Steven were able to make the journey from QC to watch their little spawn nugget nephew for the evening.
For the first time in a long time Steve did not venture to the Jersey Shore for Memorial Day weekend. Last year, we spent a fantastic few days with the Flaherty side of the family. Boy did we miss seeing everyone this year. I know it was only the first time for Dylan and I, but the future looks bright for us heading eastbound for the fun holiday weekends to see everyone. We hope all of our family, near and far, enjoyed their selves greatly and safely. We’ll see you all soon enough!!
The weekend following Memorial Day, Steve and I decided we needed a staycation. Where did we decide to take our respite?? Flagstaff, AZ. Boy oh boy was it beautiful up there. The mountain air was a crisp 68˚ and there was rain…lots and lots of rain. Dylan adored being up in hippie-ville with everyone having a doggie and acoustic guitars handy. We stayed at the historic Monte Vista hotel in downtown that was just swell. Our room was a couple doors down from the room Bon Jovi favors when he rolls through town. Damn! So close! Saturday we woke up early (thanks Dylan, 6:30am…really?!) and started our day off proper with a Late for the Train coffee. That stuff is major cocaine for me. The establishment’s cool factor was raised by about a bazillion points when I looked at the chalkboard to notice an ice cream loving tyrannosaurus rex. Next stop was the amphitheater with guitar-toting hippies and friendly homeless folk. Dylan couldn’t get enough of running around that thing. I was a freezing mess, but it didn’t seem to daunt the spawn nugget a single bit. Then we were off to do some shopping. Steve found the most amazing pair of Sanuk shoes in a mountain outfitter store. If you are unfamiliar with Sanuk brand shoes/sandals, you are totally missing out. It’s like a featherbed for your feet. I snagged a pair of flippys when I was in Newport at Jack’s Surf Shop. One word: Heavenly. Finally, after beginning to feel my insides eating away at my, well, insides, we stopped off at a quaint little café for breakfast. They seated us by a window that faced the street, so passers-by would “flirt” with Dylan as they caught wind of his cuteness through the window. He’s a hambone and as his mother, I couldn’t be more proud. On our way home after breakfast, we decided to take the route through Sedona to get back to Phoenix. The scenery was breath-taking through the backwoods of Northern Arizona. When we got back into town, it was as if someone smacked us in the face with a steaming hot bag of loathing and depression. We are itching like we sat ourselves in poison ivy to start a new chapter in our life as a tiny family in a brand new setting. New people, new scenery, new job, new everything. It’s been something we’ve both discussed for a long time now, and we’ve come to the conclusion that there’s never anything so binding in life that should deter us, or anyone, from being “stuck” in one place. Keep a close eye on the blog to follow the daily steps we take to refresh our quality of life. It’ll be an adventure you surely do not want to miss.
So that brings us back to the Valley of the Sun. The blistering hot, sear your skin, sun. According to the weather channel, May 2009 in Arizona has set the record for the most 100+ days in the month of May for the history of the state. Awesome! It’s pathetic when it is too hot outside to even go to the pool. Ew, right?! With that in mind, Dylan and I have spent a majority of our days this summer in the confines of the house watching movies, napping on the living room floor, making videos, blowing bubbles, and “swimming” in the bathtub. If we decide to bear the heat and venture beyond the house, you can usually find us at the mall or running errands with the truck’s A/C blasting freezing cold air on our faces.
Twitter. What to say about Twitter? This stupid/heaven-send has made a major impact on our lives. That sounds so deep and profound, monumental if you will. It’s really not THAT big a deal. However, it has inspired, me at least, to do more “publicly viewed as exciting” things with our time. Much like when I started this blog I told myself, “Self, you should really do more cool sounding things so that people aren’t bored with you just oozing over your new baby and husfriend all the time. You get bored to the point of eye-gauging when you read blogs like that. Make it fun, but most importantly make people kind of jealous that your life is WAY more awesome than theirs…” That energy usage has now been transcended to the social networking of Twitter. I think the appeal lies in the fact that every post is an instantaneously stalked and immediately gratifying moment. Yah, that’s the ticket.
Our next totally cool, envy inducing adventure is a trip to Hollywood from June 12th through the 14th for a friend’s album release. It’s her first album and the husfriend and I are so incredibly stoked to be able to celebrate this accomplishment with her on her special day. Her music is an absolute spirit lifter and everyone should check her stuff out. Her name is Laura Jansen. Sneak a peek at her goodies (the music sickos!) by heading to her MySpace right now. Also, support her by purchasing her album when it comes out on June 12th because she completely deserves it. If you haven’t noticed this about me already, I’m a firm supporter of musicians who are truly in the biz for the music. I can’t pump an artist who I don’t feel is married to their work because of the passion and drive that lies deep within their soul. You’ll never read a personal promotion of someone’s art if I don’t feel like they are completely deserving of every penny of revenue, ounce of respect, or glimmer of envy for staying true to what they love and their unwavering willingness to share that with the world. So yes, check out Laura’s skills, because, damnit, she SO deserves it.
The spawn nugget is his usual ball of genius and energy combined. He’s just over a year and a quarter in age. I’ve got to be better about taking pictures with a normal camera; it’s been strictly Crackberry documentation of his progression lately which amounts to the lack of high quality mothering that’s for sure.
I’m losing creative steam, but want to get something posted as I was thinking. Ere go, the extreme writing quality is mediocre at best this time around, but as I focus and let my hilarity run free, hopefully tomorrow’s will be more enjoyable for all you readers out there in cyberland.
xo,
Jess
P.S. I made a bold face lie by stating there would be pictures this time. There will not be any pictures. Like before mentioned, I need to upload those from my Crackberry to share with you all. Yep.
