I've never seen someone so perfect.

Laundry day!

Ara is Using the Flushing Toilet!

Most Innovative Toilets in the World

This toilet celebratory post is in honor of one Miss Ara who has been successfully using the flushing toilet for 3 days in a row now! 

 

*pause for applause*

 

She has been doing really well at home using her Fisher Price potty chair but she couldn’t get over her fears of the loud flushing toilets that most of us are accustomed to.  This was quite an obstacle when we were out in public without our potty chair in tow.  Needless to say, I am happy to be flushing instead of dumping and cheering instead of wiping.

 

Go Ara girl!

To Do List (for my life)

1. See my daughter grow up and live her life to the fullest.

2. Hike the grand canyon.

3.  Learn as much as I can about everything.

4.  Dive with marine mammals.

5.  Shed my inhibitions and sing Karaoke.

6.  Feel compassion for every person I meet.

7.  Touch a panda bear!

8.  Travel.  Everywhere.

9.  Really appreciate and hold those I love close to me. 

10.  Play flute often and well.

11.  See an alligator in the wild.

12.  Teach with sincerity.

13.  Be supportive of myself inside my head.

14.  Take a vacation with Alex and really relax.

15.  Take great pictures.

16.  Make time for friends.

17.  Travel through Europe with Ara.

18.  Petition to make M&M day an official holiday!

 

Ok, now I’m getting silly.  This is my list (so far)!

 

Already done:

1.  See the Swiss Alps, from the top.

2.  Sky dive.

3.  Feed a baby seal.

 

I’ll try to think of more because the length of this part of the list is depressing!

Starbucks Is Not Your Office (but it would be great if it was)!

“Reader jessettrs sends in this ridiculous image taken at a Starbucks on 42nd and 9th. Yeah, it's a guy with a Mac Mini and a 15-inch LCD.

Our tipster also says that there's a T-Mobile G1 hanging off that contraption for some reason, and the guy looks like a homeless dude. Anyone who needs to bring the entire contents of their home office into a coffee shop is as good as, we say.”

To read the full story click here.

 

Maybe, this guy is just a little smarter than the rest of us.. I mean are we not headed into a financial recession?  Cut the internet bills and set up shop in a Starbucks!  I hear they have refreshments there.. (subliminal message: Italian Soda!)

Love from Ara

Ara & her grandpa

My Dad came over today to take Ara and I to lunch. I had Ara all excited about going to her eat Macoronii & Cheese and icecream (which was a little shameless since Jason's Deli is one of my favorite places). I didn't realize until he got here that my Mom has our car seat in her car so we were stuck walking to a local place. We used the new "princess carriage" that Cassandra gave us last night, it's a really cool stroller/bike trailer. The walk was really nice, the weather was sunny but not hot and we ate outside at this little Mexican resturant around the corner. It was a really nice day. Now, I just need nap time to start to make it perfect!

Super tall tower

Tonight we FINALLY made it over to Cassandra's house. Ara fell in love with her 9 year old daughter instantly and she followed her around happily. I love when Ara finds a good kid to idolize! I am writing my blog out of order since I just mentioned the stroller/trailer that Cassandra gave us in my blog for today and now I am writing about last night and the time warp in my brain is making me dizzy! The picture is just the block tower Ara and I built last night, she was also partially in undressed because she was stalling getting her pajamas on and I was an accomplice! Ok I have to stop I am having an upside down feeling that needs to stop!

Posting via Email

So many strings that tie me to the internet. Twitter, blog, facebook.. I am a puppet on a string! (Just testing email posts :D)

Paper Towns

John Green answers questions about Paper Towns.

None of my questions though! If you have not picked up a John Green book you should. I particularly loved Looking for Alaska but I read and enjoyed all of his books. They are easy to read and you are pulled into them from the first page. In fact I wish that I had not read them yet.. so that I could read them again! In the video he talks about writing the screen play for Paper Towns, that's exciting. I love love LOVE watching movies made from books. It's so exciting to compare your imagination to the movie (my imagination is always better). I particularly enjoy the scenery. I mean the first time I saw Hogwarts in the movies I was in love! Ok back to my green tea morning~

@church notice they hide all the toys!

She looks so grown up

Joy?

I couldn't sleep last night, stressed about church.

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25 Random Things About Me

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1.  I refuse to watch scary movies, movies about animals, sad movies, or movies set in Scotland or Ireland.  When I was pregnant I had to stop watching shows like CSI and even the news.  They effect me too much and make me have bad dreams.  I do know I’m a wimp.

2.  I think of playing flute as an emotional faucet.  All of the emotions, frustrations, passions, and even forgotten things come bubbling up to the surface when I play.  Sometimes I have to keep a list near me to write down all the things I realize I’ve forgotten.

3.  From 7th grade up I have always been in a relationship except for a small window in my Senior year in high school when I moved to Arizona.  All of my relationships ended amicable.

4.  I learned that I loved to read books in 3rd grade.  I would put books on my lap under the desk in school to read through the day.  Charlotte's Web was my first love.

5.  My first flute teacher didn’t play flute but she would spend hours a day playing piano for me.  Her passion, love, and devotion have been a guiding light to me throughout my life. 

6.  My dreams influence me and sometimes teach me about myself.  They are also crazy and highly entertaining.

7.  I envy people who say they are bored.  Who has time to be bored?

8.  Since I realized I was pregnant I have been a different person.  It may be cliché but in a very real and profound way I am changed.  I love Ara with a love so fierce it can still shock me. 

9.  I have always been in awe of Alex’s musical talent. 

10.  The greatest musical moment in my life was in Lucerne Switzerland playing Maslanka’s Sax Concert.  My tears flowed through the entire last movement and it seemed so natural.

11.  I am extremely proud that Ara had a drug free birth with midwives in a birth center.  I felt empowered and in control.  Hospitals are for sick people.  I had Ara in a place that celebrates life.

12.  When I decided to go sky diving my Dad objected saying, “no daughter of an airplane mechanic jumps out of a perfectly good airplane”.  When I left the house to do the jump I backed over the garbage cans. 

13.  I am terrible with money and if not for online bill pay and emailed reminders I would never pay anything on time.  In fact I still really don’t.

14.  I am afraid Ara will be like me with money. 

15.  I have been blogging since 2003.  Before I knew it was called blogging. 

16.  fluteloop.com has been paid for all these years by someone I met online who called herself DragonGirl.  I haven’t updated it in over a year because I lost the password.

17.  I hardly ever drink. 

18.  I like to quote Seinfeld but when I do my students look at me blankly.

19.  I miss teaching and playing and at the same time I wish that I could keep Ara home with me forever.

20.  I don’t keep in touch with anyone.  I wish that I wasn’t like that I miss friends who have moved away.

21.  Touring Europe was a dream come true for me.  I hope I can go back with Ara someday.

22.  I want to go back to school.

23.  In college I shared a 3 bedroom house with 4-5 girls.  They were all Mormon and for the most part I loved living with them.  It reminded me of Anne of Green Gables.  I didn’t keep in touch with any of them.

24.  I am uncomfortable with the subject or religion but I am trying to reconcile myself to it so that I can be some sort of guidance for Ara.  I think I’m agnostic.

25.  I would like to be a writer someday.

Found This Saved as a Draft from a While Ago

Once upon a time there was a scientist who was also a princess and her name was Ara. Ara was a very curious girl and she was determined to find out everything about everything. If she saw an animal she didn't know, she would remember everything about it from it's name, to where it lived in the world, and even what sound it made.

One day Ara's Mother gave her a bag full of cereal to snack on. Ara looked closely at the little balls and thought that she should do some experiments. She threw them in the air, and noticed that they always fell to the floor. When she walked on them, they made a crunchy sound. She noticed her share bear nearby and threw the bear into the air over the balls. It fell onto them and made another crunchy sound. She rolled her keyboard over them and it spread the crumbs out. Ara noticed that the cereal balls didn't bounce like her other balls. She tasted one and found that they were more delicious than her other balls as well. She tasted some crumbs from the floor and thought that the cereal was just as good on the floor and crushed. It was harder to pick up though, so she got down on her tummy and tried licking them up. This worked but when her Mom saw her doing this, she seemed upset. Ara's Mom also seemed upset about the cereal all over the floor. What an interesting experiment.

Penguin Dream

I had the most amazing dream this morning!
I was at some sort of camp or retreat, it reminded me a little of church camp from my youth except that it was right on the vast, dark, turbulent ocean. It was also snowing but being a dream I wasn't feeling the cold I just knew that it was cold. It was a stormy night with snow so I decided I would like to take a swim in the ocean (of course right?). I know it sounds kind of nightmare-ish but my ocean dreams are like flying dreams for other people. When I am swimming in an ocean with no boundaries I feel utterly alone and free and somehow brave. So, I am back stroking through the strong waves really enjoying myself when I realize I am close to a sheer black rock cliff. I try to steer away from it but I keep coming back to it. Then suddenly some animal attaches itself to my neck and I feel it's face on my cheek. Again, it sounds like a nightmare and even in my dream I thought, "I should be afraid, but I'm not". I knew that it was a baby penguin somehow and I let it continue to cling to me. I started to dive repeatedly, thinking that it would want to let go and that I could shake it loose. It clung tight so I continued to swim until I was back at the camp. I took the penguin with me to a mess hall where I saw some of the ladies that have been making me feel so unwelcome at church.

These ladies are bothering me more than I would like to admit. They aren't bad people but the looks on their faces (and their words) tell me that I am not one of them. I am not accepted and that hurts me. I'm ashamed to admit it but I start to imagine what they must see when they look at me and my self esteem takes a hit.

Anyway, in the dream these ladies see me with my fuzzy little penguin friend and they start to whisper and hiss to each other. I overhear that my penguin is an endangered species and it's illegal to remove one from the wild.

This is a little nod to the Desert Tortoise adoption program I want to be a part of. And that someone just a few weeks ago offered me a baby (bred in captivity) and I turned it down because I want to go through the correct avenues.

So I decide to take my illegal penguin to my room and then the dream gets a little hazy. There is some confusion with which room is mine and I can't seem to find keys or something or my Mom has them... I briefly see my brother which has no bearing on the plot of the dream just that it is pretty random. I guess I found my room and went to sleep because the dream continues the next day. It's still dark though, like the sun never shines. It's still snowing but there is no snow on the ground. I walk with my penguin to a dark water avenue that winds through narrow channels in the cliffs and camp (anyone read The Host?). So.. now apparently I am in a Venice camp or underground cave system? As I am rowing I see my Dad and his fiancé, Ann and they get into the boat. I am feeling anxious about my penguin, I don't want them to squish him. For some reason, I feel like they can't see him. Suddenly the passage opens on one side and I see a glacier lake and 3 adult penguins. Feelings of relief and sadness roll over me as I decide to take my little penguin to them.

And then I woke up.

Daddy day

Small A

Ara wants to take ballet lessons!

I told her that all the kids in ballet class use the toilet that flushes so now she is determined to make it happen.

We've been working with Ara on her letters and numbers.
She is like a learning sponge..
an enthusiastic absorbent learning sponge..
an adorable enthusiastic adorable absorbent learning sponge that I love!

The only small issue has been convincing her that small "a" looks so different from a big "A". I know it was my mistake calling it small and big instead of upper and lower case.

My camera is still broken. I feel so crippled without it!

Bird house attempt

It's a work in progress! I thought this would be a fun project for Ara and I and then we could paint it and attatch it to a fense post. The problem is that it isn't as easy as it looks! We are waiting for the glue to dry to attempt a roof and some front door. I doubt any bird will decide this house looks structually sound enough to live in though. It's probably for the best because my cat might eat the birds when their house collapsed and that would be sad. Ara added the sample paint color on the side tonight. She was painting pictures next to me while I puzzled over the third wall. I left the room once and she called out to me "mama I spilled but I'm cleaning it". I cringed.. the image of Ara smearing paint all over something with her hand came to me as I hurried into the kitchen. I was wrong though. I found Ara, paper towel in hand expertly wiping the paint off the floor. She did indeed "clean it". I tried to kiss her for being so mature and thoughtful, she complained and went back to her painting! Darn grown up kids who don't want mama kisses!

Coloring in the kitchen during church