Cal's Photos

Cal took our nice camera around the house recently and snapped a ton of pictures. He loves cameras, and even knows how to take pictures on my iPhone. Here are a few shots from his most recent adventure around our apartment:

Mommy's running shoes

Cal's clothes baskets

The space heater in his room

Cal's bed

His favorite puppet, Wolf

This next one is one of my favorites:

I love his chunky little foot:

There were a ton of my concert gown...I guess he liked it:

How scary do these stairs look:

It was really fun to go through all the photos, to see the world at his eye-level, and to find out which things were important or memorable to him. I love this little guy so much:
And yes, when we get him a facebook account, we'll have him use this photo as his profile pic.

Concert!

Another successful choir concert! This most recent concert was meaningful for many reasons. First, the location was not our usual one. Instead we were in the First Methodist Church in Palo Alto. Take a look at this awesome architecture:

A far cry from deseret brick, no?

Second, the music was glorious. It was all new to me. Well, I was certainly familiar with Frostiana, but I had never performed it in its entirety. The text comes from various Robert Frost poetry, and it is just superb.

Robert Frost

Such a lovely, singable suite.

My favorite of the suite (and one of my favorite Robert Frost poems ever) is "The Pasture".

"The Pasture"

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;

I'll only stop to rake the leaves away

(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):

I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf

That's standing by the mother. It's so young,

It totters when she licks it with her tongue.

I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

The Frostiana suite is just so melodic and natural, it was a wonderful, generous way to open the concert.

Next came the "Five Mystical Songs" by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. If you are unfamiliar with these song, as I was before this concert, just know that they are completely glorious. The choir has a minor part in the piece, as most of the text is sung by a baritone soloist. We had been rehearsing only our small part, and the baritone only joined us for the dress rehearsal and performance, so I hadn't really looked at large portions of the text. When I finally heard Song #3: "Love Bade Me Welcome" for the first time, it was all I could do not to weep!

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back.


Guilty of dust and sin.


But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack


From my first entrance in,


Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning


If I lacked anything.

A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:


Love said, You shall be he.


I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,


I cannot look on thee.


Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,


Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame


Go where it doth deserve.


And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?


My dear, then I will serve.


You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:


So I did sit and eat.

The experience was nothing less than spiritual, and we were lucky to have a phenomenal soloist on the part.

I had a large solo with Vaughan Williams' "Dona Nobis Pacem". I was reeeeeeeally nervous about it, which is actually not like me. All week, I could not figure out why I had such bad stage fright about it. I think it's because it was the biggest, most technically difficult solo I've ever sung -- and VERY exposed! But it went very well, and afterward, I got a bouquet of flowers from the Symphony, and from my Aunt Heather.

Oh yes, and this is the gown I bought the week before:

I am very happy about this concert, and got to sing some amazing music. I'm very blessed to be a part of the group I joined. And thank you to the [many] friends and family who came to support me! It helped my nerves to have you in the audience!

Valentine Mail

I don't think anyone could be more excited than the little boy in this picture:

I snapped this just after he opened up our mailbox to find a package from Great-Grandma Linebarger waiting for him (it had his name on it and everything)! It turned out to be a book, but we didn't know that for several hours, because he wouldn't let me touch the package, let alone cut it open with scissors. He just held it and looked at it with a huge smile on his face. Next time, I'll be sure to let grandma know that she can just send an empty envelope.

We also had a fun sticker card from Grandma Kristin. He loved it! How fun is Valentine Mail?

Valentine's Day Dinner

It's always a toss up come Valentine's Day: do you brave the crowds and go out on Valentine's Night? Do you throw your hands up in defeat and give it up all together? We've opted for a different answer every year so far. A few days before V-day, I "surprised" Reed with a dinner at Alexander's Steakhouse (I'm placing quotation marks around "surprised" because Reed guessed what we were going to do, ushering in the annual Valentine's day quarrel).

So for Valentine's Day proper, we elected to stay home. Cal helped me set the table and light candles (one of his favorite things to do, unfortunately).

I found a delicious, simple and pretend-fancy dinner, pesto pancetta chicken:

Valentine's Day Dinners are even more sweet with a third place setting:

We made chocolate lava cakes for dessert (thank you for the recipe, Grandma Linebarger!):

One last shot of my little Valentine nugget:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chinese New Year Parade

Now that we've lived in Northern California for a little while, we've developed a kind of bay area bucket list. Not that we're planning on leaving (we're staying for the long haul, actually). One activity that popped up on my radar was the San Francisco Chinese New Year parade. We decided to make a family outing of it.

To avoid traffic (and the horrendous parking situation that is the city by the bay), we rode bart, which was a first for me. Though we did get stuck on a broken down train for a half hour, the whole experience was pretty convenient. Cal LOVED riding on the train; the novelty never seemed to wear off. Up until the very end of the track, he just kept chirping "Choo chooooo! Choo choooooo!!!"
If I'm being honest, the Rose Parade is still my favorite (is that my southern California bias showing through?), but it was still fun to see the floats and dancers (who looked pretty worn out by the time they got to us). Cal was wide-eyed with over-stimulation.
We met our friends Garrett and Jessica at the parade (it's a miracle we found each other), and then went and grabbed a late dinner all together. A fun, festive night to check off the bucket list! And yes, Cal fell asleep on the way home. I love when that happens. It gives me hope when I can outlast him in the energy department. I'm excited to tackle all the adventures the bay area has to offer with my little guy.

What are YOU Making for Dinner? :)

One of my favorite recipes is my mom's Orange Chicken, and I thought it needed to be shared. It is so easy, especially if you think ahead. Set things up like this:

From left to right: boneless/skinless chicken breast, egg (beaten), breadcrumbs, a frying pan of olive oil, a casserole dish sprayed with pam and filled with about half of the sauce.

Sauce:

2 Cups Orange Juice

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup White Vinegar

2 T BBQ Sauce (It's actually just for color)

One by one, dip the chicken breasts in the egg, then the bread crumbs, and then brown for about two minutes on one side...
And then the other:
As you take them off the frying pan, place them gently in the casserole dish. Then, pour the rest of the sauce so that the chicken breasts are almost covered. (But don't let the sauce get too close to the top of the casserole dish. It can spill easily as you put it in and take it out of the oven.):
Cover with foil, and bake at 350° F for about 40 minutes. Thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch, and serve over rice.

The quest to make dinner continues. Hopefully this can help you all add one more easy recipe to your arsenal!

I get an inordinate amount of joy from organizing things. Few things make me happier than designing a system for things and diminishing clutter. The most recent project? Cal's toys. What you are about to see is a miracle. Literally, about a 6-square-foot area of his floor used to be completely impassable, what with toys, outgrown clothes and blankets, baby gear, etc. I was a bit paralyzed about the project, because all the toy-storage systems seemed too small for Cal's things, and I didn't want to have a useless piece of furniture taking up space. This is about de-cluttering, remember? I was getting frustrated, and then...

One $70 trip to Ikea later, and voila:

I took a shot in the mirror to show part of the rest of the room:
I am so excited about this new organizational unit. Cal can reach and access all his toys, and the shelves are deep and wide enough to hold his larger toys. There's even room to add another shelf as he grows taller and has more things, although hopefully we'll never end up with too much stuff. Why does order make me so happy?