A recent cold day in LA

Turkey Day in O-Town

Some pictures and musings on our trip to Omaha for Thanksgiving....

Annabelle poses with "The Chief," her great grandfather.

Dressed for the cold.

Watching the Huskers come in from practice at the bi-annual Ralston family trip to Memorial Stadium for the Nebraska v. Colorado showdown.

Annabelle in her Thanksgiving dress. She was fascinated with the Chief's magnifying glass.

Our turkey day takeaways:
1) Traveling with a baby is really hard. Preparation takes 3x as much time. No more zoning out to your iPod and reading the details of TomKat's wedding. No more napping. It's about chaos control and creatively finding ways to entertain your 8-month old. Even if it means chewing on dad's glasses or mom's cell phone.

2) My brother is a true, strong-willed, "I'm-going-to-eat/drink-x-even-though-I-shouldn't" Ralston. After ingesting a rather rare steak before his trip to Omaha, Ben suffered through a dash of E.coli or some sort of amoebic dysentary. For his first real meal after 24 hrs. of sickness, he decided to celebrate by having a nice piece of prime rib, medium rare this time. After all we were in Nebraska. I'm sure you can guess how that went over. And the beauty of staying in close quarters with 9 family members is that everyone gets to share a little bit of one's intestinal distress.

3) I forgot Annabelle's game day onesie, and the Trojans still won. (See the last blog post if you don't know what I am talking about). Bill realized his feeble attempts to control the outcome of the game by inflicting sports-related voodoo (thanks, Jess, for the term) on to a child were not only foiled but completely ridiculous.

4) Annabelle doesn't like green beans.

5) We are thankful to our great Father in heaven for so very much. Can't even begin to count the ways. This trip was about - Enjoying my family's company. Watching Annabelle pull up and discover the world around her. Sitting at a Husker game with my arm around the Chief. Hearing my grandmother tell the same funny stories about me. Watching Bill love his daughter. Excitement about my brother's upcoming wedding. Seeing Annabelle's fascination with my dad. My mom and grandmother's joy in taking care of the baby.

I'm focusing on being focused.

Wow, that’s a mouthful, isn’t it?

I’ve been pining away to get organized for the move. The way I typically start a massive organization project, go to Staples, of course. It’s how I motivate. Kind of like that feeling that one gets when he/she acquires brand new school supplies and textbooks. It makes you eager to get learning and sharpening the new #2 pencils in preparation for math homework.

Sadly, Bill put the kibosh on my trip to get stuff to help me organize. I thought it was a great idea. He thought it was a terrible one. I just received his plea via IM, “Please. Please. Please. Focus. Focus on packing (for our trip to Omaha) and tidying up the house. I would love to have the car loaded and packed by 8PM tonight.”
( I would also like to add that one of his specific requests is for me to wash Annabelle's "game-day onesie." According to Bill, if she doesn't wear it, the Trojans will lose to Notre Dame on Sat. And that my friends, is a burden to large for me to bear. So, into the wash the onesie goes!)

He knows me too well – a procrastinator with good intentions; good direction, poor execution; who likes to shift focus on shiny objects (i.e. I’ve been known to be packing a box of books and stop to read one of the books that I didn’t realize was in my library. Soon, an hour has gone by and the box is half full). So, I’ll stop focusing on other things and focus where focus needs to be.

I, Elizabeth Rietz, promise to focus on being focused today. I will resist all urges to go to Staples or another office product retailer, so that I can purchase products that will help me focus on getting organized for our move.

Personally, I’d rather sharpen #2 pencils.

Storybook of Annabelle

Recently, Marianne Lozano & Minouche Jauffret from mPetit Photography came over to take some candids of Annabelle. Here is a quick little slideshow of the greatest hits:
http://www.mpetit.com/annabelle/

Destructive Behavior

I seem to have a problem. Actually, I have several but I am going to focus on one in particular. I seem to have a problem with destroying things, which has escalated lately. Breaking things. Spilling something onto things. They all seem to be things of a small value, but the tab does add up after awhile. If you've known me for awhile, you know this is not a new revelation. I've been a victim of destructivitis my entire life (I do not know if this term exists, but it works for now). For instance, our little family ventured to the hoity toity California grocery store called Bristol Farms last Thursday morning (not where we do our weekly shopping, but a convenient 'oh,we need some eggs' kind of store). Bill charged to the aisle to find the eggs while I decided to browse the magazine selection with Annabelle. I noticed a magazine called Wallpaper, which looks aesthetically pleasing to the eye with intriquing contents. Started to flip through the pages when I spilled my coffee onto the magazine. I put it back on the shelf, but then felt that the right thing to do was to purchase it. So, I nabbed it and proceeded to juggle it along with my coffee and push the stroller (since I had already shown such prowess in this area). Next stop, the baby food isle. I picked up two jars of baby food for Annabelle's breakfast. Guess I got overloaded managing the coffee, magazine, 2 jars of food and the stroller, so I smashed the jar of prunes on the linoleum floor. I froze - do I leave it and run (same thought with the magazine) or do swallow my pride and inform the staff of my mess. Followed my conscience again and told someone who was so very kind about it.
Then, I met up with Bill by the cash register to have him pay for the magazine and the jar of baby food that I dropped. He shook his head and told me to immediately leave the grocery store before I did more damage. When he emerged outside, he looked puzzled. "Since when do eggs, English muffins, 2 jars of baby food (they didn't make me pay for the one I broke, BTW) and a magazine cost $18.00," he asked me. When a magazine costs $8.95. Yes, that's right. I spilled my coffee on some sort of imported British magazine that I have yet to look at since the incident. Much to my shagrin, my friend Kevin looked at the magazine and pointed out that he didn't even see where I spilled the coffee. We analyzed it together, and I must admit that I only found a tiny speck of discoloration on the top.

Since this happened, I also broke one of my mom's Christopher Radko ornaments (sorry mom) while trying to remove a tag from it. And this morning, I broke one of our favorite coffee mugs while resting it haphazardly on the bathroom sink when I was getting into the shower.

After the mug, Bill got angry, "Can you please stop breaking stuff! It is going to get really expensive if you keep this up."

Here's the tab for the past week....
Magazine $8.95
Jar of prunes $. 99
Ornament $39.00
Mug $16.00
Total: $65.94

Isn't it your child who is supposed to break things like this? May the good Lord help me when I come to the store with a 4 yr. old and a 2 yr. old in tow.

When they spoke of the bull in the china shop, I think they were talking about me. At least I don't go into china shops. Ole!

Becoming an Angeleno

You know Bill has turned into an Angeleno when he based part of his decision not to go to the SC game on Sat. because it was "gross out." Well, "gross" by LA standards, meaning it was overcast and 65 degrees. This is the same guy that was Mr. I'm-wearing-shorts-out-because-it-is-a-balmy-45-degrees while we lived in Boston. He used to wear his 9+ years of winter in the Northeast like a badge of honor. Oh, has the blood gone thin!!!

Speaking of becoming an Angeleno, we are buying a house here. It's both crazy and scary at the same time. We're still trying to process it. We actually decided to buy a house in less than 24 hours, and we weren't really even looking at the time. How is that possible, you ask? Apparently, it is.
5:00 pm - went to showing of house (my mom came with me to get her opinion); realized there were 2 other offers on the table
6:00 pm - talked to agent and seriously discussed writing up an offer
6:15 pm - had panic attack
6:30 pm - called Bill @ work to tell him we were maybe going to buy a house
8:00 - 9:30 pm - talked to mortgage broker to figure out how to pay for the house
9:30 pm - 1:00 am - snoozed on the couch while Bill crunched numbers in Excel
8:00 am - got pre-approved for loan
11:00 am - wrote letter to sellers to tell them about us and why we want the house (kind of like a cover letter)
2:00 pm - completed offer and signed our lives away
2:15 pm - another panic attack
3:00 pm - agent delivered offer

That's how it happened for those who are interested. Wish I had a picture to post. I'll make sure to get one soon.

Madame Butterfly

More 7-month fun

Annabelle @ seven months

Are you sure there is no more winter squash????

Annabelle wants to know the difference between winter and summer squash. She also wants to know when her parents will buy her a high chair. This eating on the floor business is so passè.

My six month appointment

A Family Divded: NU vs. USC

Family traditions. Where would we be without them? In many ways, they help to define us. Maybe your fall consisted of traditions such as apple picking, going to fairs/carnivals, riding horses, playing hide and seek in the pumpkin patch, etc. Our family did none of these things in the fall. Why, you ask? Because there was football on every Saturday. No just any football, though....Nebraska football.
You see, my dad is from Omaha. When you are a born and bred Nebraskan, you are a football fan. That's just the way it is. Something runs in their blood and it is passed on from generation to generation. Kind of like religion. And life in Nebraska exists around when the Cornhuskers are playing football.
My family was featured in the LA Times, which might help explain the Cornhusker mania. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-parsons16sep16,1,3071074.column
Then, I happened to marry an equally fanatic USC fan. I guess you could say I was groomed to be his wife. My fall Saturdays will forever be about football. I don't know any different, so fine by me. I have more patience for putting up with his screaming, cursing at the TV (although, I have informed him that since we have a child, he needs to behave himself). However, I can only tolerate so many re-caps of the day's scores. By the time Game Day Final is on, I'm peeling the remote from his fingers to search for the sappiest chick flick there is.

The state of Nebraska will soon invade Los Angeles for the NU vs. USC game. We've anticipated this for four years. There's been extensive planning of tailgating strategy. Lots of fun family banter with some trash talkin' mixed in for good measure. And now there is money on the line. But all of the $$ is on SC.

Annabelle, born of hearty Nebraska stock, dons her big red outfit before the game. Yes, we are taking our baby to the game, the tailgate, the whole nine yards. In the spirit of family tradition, we're starting early. She'll wear her Trojan gear for the game since she's playing both sides.

Rub-a-dub-grub

Yes, this is what it looks like. I fed the Nugs* in the tub. Gross, I know, but desperate times call for desperate measures. You see, we have a child that will not sit still except for when she is in the tub. (Lord help us when she gets older and is mobile!!) And she loves her cereal, veggies and fruit, but yet, there are times when she refuses to sit still to eat. Tonight was one of those times, so we took her meal to go and went to the tub (if you're wondering about saftey, I didn't fill the tub with water). She loved her dinner and it was the easiest clean up ever.

I realize that we can't make a habit out of this. She probably could develop some sort of unhealthy association with the shower and food. Have you seen the Seinfeld when Kramer decides to live in the shower and eat all of his meals there?? Plus, it skeeves me out to think of eating in the shower. Yuck!


*I don't think we've mentioned before that "Nugs" is Annabelle's nickname. It is short for Nugget, which we stole from Elise Faulk (now Rogers). Variations of the name include "Bugs," "Bugaroo," "Nugatine," "Nuggernot," "Nuggerator," "Nugacious" and "Bugnacious." The baby monitor is now lovingly referred to as the "Nugometer."

Madame Annabelle shows off the latest fashion

And she even busted out the pouty lip for the photo shoot!

Working with Mommy

This is from a few weeks ago...
Annabelle has a few minutes of patience when her mom checks email.

Should Annabelle learn Mandarin Chinese??

If you know Bill well, you'll know that there are few subjects where he has no opinion. And there are some subjects that, well, you really get an earful from him. (Poor Nilma was one of his recent victims). His latest beef is that Annabelle should learn Mandarin Chinese, if she learns a second language some day. I can't help but feel that Spanish would be more practical especially since we live in "Mexifornia." And besides, exactly how would we go about teaching her such a language??? I can help with Spanish homework, but the thought of quizzing her on Chinese characters makes my brain hurt. Before I go wandering the streets of Chinatown to try to find an answer, I'd love to know what the consensus amongst the blogging public.

From Bamboolearning.com..."Mandarin is the language for today's children to learn. Influential independent organizations and businesses are predicting a shortfall of English children able to do business with China. Universities are already viewing favourably any English speaking applications with Chinese Mandarin as a second language."

As China grows into the next world super power, I'm sure this intriguing debate will continue. (Matt Lovell,Paul Sonderegger & Stephen Power, if you are out there and reading this blog, I can imagine that you would have a lot to say about this). Stephen Woods was in town to visit this weekend, and he's actually trying to learn Mandarin. I did not enjoy watching the smirk on Bill's face when Stephen told us this. Argh!

Should Annabelle learn Mandarin or stick with Spanish??? Is Bill actually right here? Or has he gone mad? Help us settle our feud by commenting below....

In the war over java, will head or tummy prevail??

As the aroma of coffee deliciously percolates through our house this morning, my stomach begins a gargling frenzy. After indulging in a half of a cup (yes, not even a full cup) of Peet's New Guinea blend yesterday, my tummy suffered for hours. Argh! You see, I love coffee. Dark roasted coffee from Peet's with a creamy swirl of Coffee Mate. I love the smell. I love the the ritual of waking up to a warm, cozy beverage. One little bit of consistency in a chaotic world. And most of all, I love the mental edge that coffee gives me that no other beverage can. My morning mental fog increased a few inches after having Annabelle, and coffee has given me the lift that I need each day, gives me my game face. Sadly, my stomach detests the stuff. So, my body has declared war over java: tummy 1, head 0.

OK, so those of you who know me well, you'll quickly point out that this is not a new battle. I've had a love/hate relationship with coffee for as long as I have been a drinker. Co-workers have heard me complain over stomach woes at work or my inability to function on the days that I swear it off. People always tell me to switch to tea, and I have tried it on numerous occasions. But c'mon, this thin, herbal liquid is a sorry substitute for coffee. The only exception would be The Coffee Bean tea latte (like the double vanilla tea latte I am drinking right now). The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf www.coffeebean.com, a CA-only coffee / tea chain, has this wonderful vanilla powder they mix in their beverages so that tea actually becomes heavenly. This is no solution to my woes because the tea lattes cost $3.50 a pop.

There is talk of stomach-friendly coffee today. Some coffee companies have heard enough complaints, so they are coming out with kinder, gentler versions of their coffee. http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=health&id=4418574
Will this solve my coffee dillema?? We'll see. Until then, if you see me walking around in a decaffeinated haze, you'll know what's going on.

All Smiles!!!

Peas & Carrots!!!

Mom recently introduced peas and carrots into my daily diet. It is a nice change from that bland organic rice cereal.

Thank You Sean - Montage

This is a photo montage in honor of my cousin (I think that's our relationship), Sean Barney, who was recently wounded by a sniper while serving in Iraq. Get well soon!! It is also to thank all of the men and women serving valiantly at home and overseas in the U.S. Armed Forces. And Dad also loves to post photo montages, so while mom's asleep, Dad will blog.