Easter

 Happy Easter.

This year we were without Adam for Easter.  He left on Friday for a conference in San Francisco and was going to be there for the entire following week.  So, rather than spend the holiday weekend and the next week's spring break in our boring old house where I'd just feel pressure to do stuff like mow the lawn and hassle the kids to clean the playroom, I decided to ignore all of that and head out to NYC for the week.  Besides, we couldn't be upstaged by Adam's trip and the resulting phone calls sharing the details of events like  going to church in the Berkeley ward, game nights with the Marosticas, et al, each lunch/evening's outing with Berkeley friends, Easter dinner with the Childs, camping with Kami in Point Reyes, and/or eating my favorite Bay Area foods. I have to trust him that he did actually attend the conference at some point.  And, he is apparently bringing me back something like 75lbs of bulk-food treasures from Berkeley Bowl, so I can't complain too much.

So we started the weekend with an egg hunt on Friday sponsored by some friends.  Then we headed out on Saturday for NYC.

 The obligatory Easter-day pics--post Church.

The weather was so fantastic that Max and Saul and I decided to walk home together.  Max wanted to take my picture....along with about 3000 other photos during week, which I'll spare you and let him save for his own blog.

The night before we dyed some eggs with Grandma Sha-sha.

Then after church we had our little in-apartment egg hunt.

The rest of the week just continued to get better (as well as the weather).  Hopefully I can actually get that posted soon, just to show Adam up....um, I mean, show Adam.

And it's only 8:30

And isn't this how you would feel if your sister borrowed your "favorite" shirt without asking and also took your lollipop to give to her teacher and then your mom told you that there was only banana yogurt for breakfast because for whatever reason Trader Joes has stopped carrying the strawberry kind and now she keeps insisting that you use the bathroom because you need to go but you really, really don't it's just that you sometimes forget and then the new bear that your friend gave you is coming unstitched and to add insult to injury your mom insisted on taking your picture during your tantrum even though you're trying to hide between the sofa and the table and you're screaming at her that you absolutely do not want your picture taken.

But your little brother, he's nothing-but-begging for his picture to be taken. The show-off.

A Whole New Me (pun intended!)

It was my birthday two weeks ago.  And Saul's the week before that.  And Adam's just last week.  And Max's still undocumented from February.  So I've got a lot of family birthdays to catch up on, but I say why not start with my own!  Who's writing this thing anyway!

Last year I celebrated my birthday by going to the DMV and getting my license renewed and feeling like in my new picture I magically morphed into looking old.  Then I spent the rest of that week researching orthodontists in the area--and if there's anything that will make you feel like you've now travelled well past the point of being young and hip, it's having a child old enough for orthodontics.  This year my friend Melinda suggested that I do something big and drastic for my 35th: I get my ears pierced.  After all, there's nothing that makes you feel more like a twelve year old than leaving the mall with your Claire's "Just Pierced" bag and wearing plain studs and dabbing antiseptic on your freshly-pierced ears a couple of times a day for six weeks.  I'm in! 

It went well and so far it's awesome, with the only unintended consequence being that I've spent far too long examining my earlobes over the past few weeks and am now slightly worried that they may be different in size/shape and that certainly everyone is noticing this!  And if I've talked with you in person since this big event, I should apologize and tell you that I've also been assessing your earlobes, just for a comparison. So far it looks like I'm the only one with crazy earlobes.  All the better to cover with very large earrings come six weeks from now, I say. 

 I also feared some aftermath of perceived disloyalty from my family since I'm the first to go down this rebellious little path.  But my dad laughed for what must have been a solid three minutes when I told him and then asked if I was sure that I was old enough to have made this decision.  When I made my youngest sisters guess what I'd done related to a family rule growing up, the first guess was that I got to make everyone sit through a re-telling a tv episode or movie that no one else has seen, with the second guess being that I got to hum during dinner.  My mom also took it very well and has only twice since counseled me to be sure and not to get my tongue pierced next.

And as for the rest of my birthday, it also was fab.  I had lunch with friends.  For dinner we ate our standard St. Patty's Day corned beef, cabbage and soda bread.  I requested a German's chocolate cake, which Adam painstakingly made me (and it was extremely delish).  I had flowers (even if they were from leftover from the funeral I helped do the luncheon for two days earlier).  The kids gave me chocolate and cleaned their bathroom.  And then that Saturday Max and I went skiing together and Adam did every last bit of packing up for me to get ready.  If I could have driven with ski boots on, then I'm sure he also would have buckled them for me before we left that morning.   

And if you were not one of the something like 476 people to send me birthday well-wishes on Facebook, then I'm still accepting belated gifts.  Preferably earrings.  Big ones.