Smith Memorial Playhouse

This is where we went yesterday with Jen and Olivia. Siena had so much fun, if not just because she got some social interaction.





What else?

Siena's mood of choice:
And...

We've got words!

• "Ah-wa-wa" = 'agua' (water)
• "Ba-Ba"= 'papi'
• "Ma-Ma"
• "Uh-Oh"= 'Mom, I know I did something wrong'
• "Wow!"
• "No, no, no!"= 'Mom and Dad, you say that too much to me.'
• "Yeh"= 'Yes' (though not spoken as often as the previous word.)
• Sign language- "por favor" = 'please'
  

On-deck for the blog:

1. Siena's animal sound impressions
2. Video of Siena
3. This Saturday's adventures

Anniversary

Yesterday Juan decided to stay home from school because he wanted to spend time with me... Awww. It was a simple day, but relaxing and sweet none the less. I guess looking back, this year our anniversary was all about memorable food. (Yeah, that doesn't sound weird.) We reminisced about our honeymoon to Mexico with molletes for breakfast and shrimp cóctel for dinner (which we ate almost every day of our honeymoon.) The night before, we made Thai/Chinese fusion pad thai, chicken satay, broccoli with black bean sauce, and fried rice; this was to tribute the night of our first date after his mission when we went to Thai Siam.

I made this in honor of our anniversary, but we (and when I say "we", I mean "I",) got too anxious and cut into it the night before for an "Anniversary Kickoff"... at least that's how we justified it.

And here are the rest of the pics:

molletes

cóctel

chocolate-cinnamon layered cheesecake

Anyway, ummmm.... I don't do "mushy" for the blog too much anymore, so: "Yay Us! Three Years Baby!"

"A House of Order"

Since life here has been pretty boring, I have been jumping at every opportunity to find something to blog about; I have felt devoid of anything scintillating enough to relate in type. So I guess we're scraping the bottom of the barrel right now:

For FHE last night, Juan and I decided to organize the basement office. I will spare you the "Before", but here is the "After":

I had to do something with my wall, so I bought cheap frames at IKEA and a yard sale, and cut fabric to fit each one. The biggest "fix-er-up-er" was the organizing grid. This has been ransacked nearly every day since we've moved here because Siena is fascinated with what is inside and can't help herself from pulling everything out. It holds my ribbon, paper, felt, Sunday manuals, batting, quilt tops, envelopes, paper cutter, scissors, sewing supplies,... EVERYTHING! I'm sick of cleaning it all up every day, so last night I decided to use some fabric (that was going to be used for certain Christmas presents) and made a cover. "Desperate times...."

The Sad Tale of a Seamstress' Daughter

I happen to have a close connection with a clothing designer who has been "in the thread" of sewing for her entire life. She is my mother. When I was younger, she would take pains in teaching me how to sew. I would complete a small quilt occasionally, and maybe a piece of clothing, but nothing ever gave me the same satisfaction as making a simple satchel. I have a theory for this: I hated following patterns and bags were simply easier to produce. In short, I was lazy. But my mother would not let the tradition that was passed down from her own mother stop at me. She tried very patiently to spark an interest in sewing in me, but alas, I threw aside the needle and thread and went for the rake and trowel to pursue a different kind of "sowing".

Now that I am the keeper of my own house, I realize that a knowledge of sewing is actually quite beneficial. Not only does it fulfill its primary purpose of being useful and self-reliant, it also keeps me from boredom on the cold days when one does not want to go out of doors. The tragic part of the story is that I have forgotten many of the methods and techniques that my mother worked so diligently to teach me. Any time I sit down to the sewing machine, I make sure I have my #1 tool by my side: the seam ripper.

Habits are not usually dropped once one reaches adulthood. Sloppy sewing is a habit I thought I would lose once I was a mother, trying to teach my own children how to sew. However, I now realize that I need to practice more in the "slow and neat" style rather than the "Let's get it done" style. Hmph! Too bad the magical mommy fairy does not exist because I could really use a dose of "Instant June Cleaver" right about now.

Some Things New, Some Things Old

• Siena drew on the wall today for the first time (I'm thinking about framing it)
  
• I made my first child's apron
  
• Juan took another test
• Siena is still teething (she's up to four teeth now)
• I tried to clean up after Siena, but it never stayed clean (yep, we're there)
  
• Juan is upstairs wondering when I am going to stop blogging
• Siena is constantly saying "Uh Oh" with this expression on her face:
• The Pennsylvania leaves are rapidly disappearing

Booties and Raccoons

Something new to keep me busy. These are way too small for Siena and she's outgrown the booty stage anyway, so one of my pregnant friends will get these. I'm so excited to make more.

And do you want to know what stared me in the face when I went to take out the trash last night?

To My Fellow Philly-People

I am looking for a part-time job. I thought I would try using the "Who You Know..." method along with Craigslist first. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

(Oh, and for the record, I decided against opening up my own floral shop here for the time being for many reasons.)

Have You Voted Yet?

Funny story:

When I was in line to vote today, the man in front of Siena and me started playfully teasing Siena with a "Vote For So-and-So" pamphlet. She loved it so he kept it up for a couple more minutes. Afterward, we went back to awkward silence and I started talking quietly to Siena to keep her from getting fidgety.

About a minute later, the man looked at me and said, and I quote, "Did she just get here?"

I knew exactly what was thinking. He thought I had just adopted her. I wasn't offended, more like humored at the thought. So I replied with, "She's about 15 months old, so she's been here a while."

He didn't catch the quip. He said, "No, I mean, I heard you say "Gracias" so I ...."

I didn't let him finish his sentence to avoid more uneasiness and just cut in with, "Oh, my husband is Hispanic, so we're teaching her Spanish. She actually understands more Spanish than English; she'll learn English soon enough."

He didn't do anything but nod his head once and turn away.

I'm still laughing about it.

Boo!

This year, we went to a Halloween party hosted by Amber and Kurt. They put in so much effort to pull it off. Take a looksie to see the party details.

Bobbing for Apples

Doughnuts on a String

Cake Pops... my new favorite party snack to make.

Chelsea Wood put together an awesome Halloween party with her friends, and it was so cute that almost all of her ideas were implemented at this one.

So do you want to see the costumes? I will tell you what they are, so you don't incorrectly guess on some of them like I did.

Dani/Kurt: Witch/Unibomber

Siena: The Toothfairy... we practiced keeping her tutu on with the pink one I made earlier. She now loves, LOVES, loves to spin to the point she can't walk straight for a long time afterwards.

Juan: A Car Air Freshener (spelled Freshner, for authenticity)--His own genius, by the way. He made that an hour before the party. Sadly, we don't have a picture of the full costume; it says "Vanilla" at the bottom.

Me: I don't really know. I thought and thought about what my costume would be, and 15 minutes after the party started, I still didn't have anything. What do you do in a situation like that? Raid your husband's closet for things he would never wear, apply an eye-liner goatee, and call yourself a thug. PATHETIC and horribly un-creative/ugly! Next year, I will redeem myself.

Miss Toothfairy (without her tooth scepter)

Kurt/Amber: Bug Catcher/Butterfly

Joy/Kortney: Skeleton Couple

Paul/Hayden/Angela: Chicken/Monkey/Cat Woman

Favors- my job for the party. They are witches brooms with candy inside, (also a stolen idea from another blog... but nobody knew that.)

Death By Chocolate-- the prizes for the games (Brownie mixes inside.)

Amber asked me to do the invitations. They were so fun to make!

Baseball

The Phillies won The World Series last night! ...and we listened to some neighborhood "ruffians" shouting about it for the following two hours. That was the least to be expected. We received a letter from Temple University addressed to "the family of Juan Chavez"; this was to inform (presumably) his parents that when a World Series is won, there is a lot of violence following and that they should somehow keep tabs on what their frat-member son will be up to. They warned that if any student did anything illegal, stupid, obnoxious, etc. in the chance that the Phillies won the game, there would be serious scholastic consequences. At the least.

...and believe me, there are some rare people out there. For example, when Juan and Kurt were standing in the ticket line a few days ago for the 5th game (yes, they waited in line all day for nothing,) some hot shots behind them were talking about flipping over Florida-licensed cars and lighting them on fire after the game. Sounds like fun, can I bring my friends?

I guess it's all in the "spirit of the game".

Up to: (sin pictures...sorry.)

Friday:

• Hmmmm... that' s where the blurrrrrrr begins. I have no clue what we did.
• On second thought, I think Juan and I stole an old trunk from somebody's curb at 6:50 in the morning. It was trash day (which means I was wrong--it was actually Thursday) and we have a thing for turning other peoples' old junk into "treasures". (*sigh* When will we ever stop getting ourselves into furniture-refinishing nightmares!?!)

Saturday:

• Juan won the chance to buy a Phillies ticket for $50 (yes, you heard me, a WORLD SERIES GAME TICKET for $50. Standing Room Only, of course.) Did he buy it? Duh! However, he ended up giving the ticket to a friend whose dream it was to go to a World Series game since childhood. (My noble husband:^) It worked out better anyway because he didn't have any friends who had tickets to the game and he knew he wouldn't enjoy it alone (and cold and wet,) so everyone ended up happy. Meanwhile, I went to the Philly 4th ward's Halloween party with Siena and Amber. It was fun because we dressed Siena up like a Mexicana (ha! that still isn't her official costume though.) Pictures of that to come. We drove back home and switched on the tele so we could have it recorded for Juan when he got back from the tailgate party they were going to crash at the stadium. We watched the entire game (because we're really trying hard to be true Phillies fans,) which meant we were awake until the end. Let me remind you, it was 2 in the morning when they WON!!!

Sunday:

• I taught my teenage Sunday School class The Plan of Salvation which ended better than I could have expected. They are pretty stand-offish when it comes to religion. They come to church at their parents' urge, but once they are there they just sit comatose in their classroom chairs. I think at the point they are in their lives (14-15 years old), the last thing they want to display is interest in religion because it might seem uncool. So they all sit there and most refuse to participate. Well, today was a little different because for some reason I started talking about where we go after this life and why we are even here, and that sparked interest in just about everyone. They all have silent questions and I know that they want to know the answers, but it's hard to get them past the embarrassment of talking about it. Randomly, one boy asked a deep question which got us speaking more freely. Everyone was asking questions left and right (some even interrupting others) and went into "over-time" because it was so interesting to them. I love it when kids realize the value or purpose of trying to be righteous.
  
• After we got back from church, we took a nap before Shanelle and James came over for dinner.
  
• Juan was so sweet and he prepared Thai curry & his own Mongolian invention with shredded chicken, vegetables, plum sauce, soy, etc. served over rice for dinner. He even made Ginger Lemonade. My lame addition to the meal was breaded and fried okra from a bag- (gasp in horror!) It was nasty, but everything else was Mmmmmmmmm.
  

ONLINE fabric!

People who like fabric (or cool prints,) GO HERE NOW!!!!!

Guessed

Nidia guessed Siena's costume correctly (which comment I removed to keep the rest of you in suspense) so she will be rewarded with these cute Autumn MAGNETS and GIFT TAGS...

Congrats Nidia!