OK

 So we've been back for a week now.  I had such an amazing time there that I decided it's where I should be. I'm moving back! I hope to be there by spring. And I'm only saying I because I really don't have a clue how Maya's dad and I are going to do this.  I'm sure she'll be with me but I'm at a lost on how we will make it work.  {{{{{ deep breath }}}}} Hoping it all will fall into place. 

 So, the trip. I guess I should start from the beginning. My Mom picked us up from the airport and what do you know? It's raining. My pants are already soaked up to the knees.  But I say f* it and ran to the hotdog stand next to the ferry.  Got myself a pretty amazing vegi dog with neon green relish. Mmmm it was tasty. Ok, next we went to the fair. FUN! Except those few moments of lost children. But everybody was found shortly there after and back home we went.  I am leaving out incredible details.  Ummmm,  got to spend some quality time with people so dear to me.  And went to a beautiful wedding. I even caught the bouquet. WHAT?!? 

  Lots of love and out of this world connections.  

 I really wish I could go into every detail of each special moment but that would take me forever. 

 I was very inspired and have endless amounts of support up there. I can't wait to move. 

Here in WA

It is so lovely. And I am so happy to be here.
Maya's having a great time. More later!

Change

Pirate Aye!

Bubble Bath

 Maya gave her baby a name finally, Ruby. And christened her with a bubble bath.

Back on the Wagon

 oooOH so gourmet! Rose water pistachio cupcakes. 

In my opinion the best turn out yet. I actually sifted the flour like they say to do and what do you know? 

I had to..

.. delete the caterpillar post. It was grossing me out.  I did get rid of all of them though. Or should I say, I gave them a new home.. far away from my plants. 

Sunflower Mandalas

 Aren't they beautiful? We have three and are still waiting for the third to open. 

Today's pickings

 The strawberries don't grow any bigger then this and they are super soft and white inside. So I wonder if they need their own pot (they are in with the ficus) or if it's because it's their first year. 

They are however very sweet and smell so good.

 The beans are growing well. I haven't tasted them yet. I'm gonna let the next ones get a little bigger before I pick them. 

Tomatoes are great. We pick one every other day from the bigger plant. As for the heirloom there is another growing, I picked this golden one a couple days ago. Soo good.  But so few. What's up?

Googly Eyes

 Last weeks playgroup had a craft day where Maya and I made each other butterflies with googly eyes and sparkles. She picked off the eyes and made them her own. 

Still got it

 When I was younger I used to make rice crispy treats all. the. time.   I didn't measure anything and they came out delicious every time.  Well, I just got my hands on some of Sweet and Sara vegan marshmallows from a newish vegan raw spot on Garnet. It's called Synergy. I don't think he has a website.  Its a small store that sells organic clothing, natural products, and he has a fridge full of raw vegan peace pies and wraps. There's seating outside the store that's covered and has a lovely little waterfall. 

 Anyways, the marshmallows took a little longer to melt in the pot but holy cow! did those treats come out tastier then ever! 

Ridiculously Good Looking

 Yes, I caught her admiring herself in her soup spoon.

RatDog

 It's been four or five years since I've seen these guys. I always had such a blast at their shows. They played a two day show at Humphrey's. Which was super intimate but full of jerks. I however managed to void all that the first night by standing in the first row. I danced my ass off the whole night. They were, in my opinion, flawless.  I bought one ticket for the 1st and two for the 2nd. I brought another Mama with me the 2nd night. Danced all night in the first row again, but we had to put up with jerks and freaks. Which wasn't anything we couldn't handle it was just weird that we had to. We stayed out until about 2. We ended the night at Hoboken for pizza. That was yum. There were certainly a lot of events that night that I would rather not discuss with the public but we had fun! 

Balcony Garden II Part II

Balcony Garden II

 Wow. I gotta say I'm pretty impressed with how our garden is flourishing. We've got 3 or 4 squash growing so far on the plant, strawberries that I didn't think had a chance, beautiful growing sunflowers, a bean stalk with something other then a leaf growing on it, and of course the booming tomatoes. Maya and daddy brought in a lady bug a couple weeks ago and it flew right to the strawberries where it has been feasting on aphids since. Thank you lady. Seriously, there's only one!

 This is my first time growing anything! So I'm out there everyday watching everything transform. I had to get rid of a couple things like the chard and cilantro. And replanted the butter lettuce and a couple tomato plants outside. We will see how they do. My neighbor in the same complex is growing tons of tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplants. Not too sure if they are all organic like mine though! :)

 Maya also loves to go out there to dance.  It's her tomato and flower dance. It's probably what's keeping all of it alive.  Thanks baby!

 

Sea World

 Yes, we did just about everything a tourist would. But that's what the kid wanted. I'm happy to know that the majority of the animals at Seaworld  were born there. I think that's better. Isn't it?Not so cruel, right? Anyways it was amazing to see a dolphin do a twisty, flipping move. I mean how on earth do you train a dolphin to flip and twist so many times in the air? And what was even more amazing was how gentle the trainers were with the killer whales.  I tell you that show almost put me in tears.  If I remember right it was Mama "Shamu", big brother, and baby sister (3 years old). Maya got a kick out of that. The whale being as old as she is.  And they were all born right there.  

 We did just about everything there. One of my favorites besides the shows was walking into the fresh water aquarium and seeing the purana's just like that. Not moving an inch. Waiting for something to .... well ... attack? Are they really waiting to eat? Crazy. 

Oh, so busy.

 My Mom and Nephew ( he's 9) flew down from WA on Thursday for 5 days.  We went to OB and Belmont park on Friday, the zoo on Saturday, and today we went to a friends birthday party. 

 I went on the roller coaster with my nephew on Friday at Belmont. I was hesitant at first because the last time I went on it it hurt! This time it was pretty fun. There was a little boy behind us that told us we were going to fall out and die and that angels will come down for us. Thanks. I was taking pictures (with Nephews camera) of us and caught a couple of that little boy crapping his pants. Maya went on the Merry-go-round and the boat ride. She had a good time.

 The zoo was freakin HOTTTT. I thought we would be safe just riding the tour bus but none of the animals were out at that time. So we had to hike around in the blazing sun. Fun. My favorite animals were the gorillas this time. Baby gorillas are the cutest animals ever! 

 Today we went out to El Cajon for the party. It was pretty cool. The "balloon guy" was  really good.   

 So tomorrow we are going to Sea World in the late afternoon to beat some of the heat. I'm sure the kids will have fun. And I really can't wait to go on that new coaster ride.

 

Some funny things I heard my nephew say:

 I like when parties go on all night. 

 I want to blow up Barbie on the 4th of July.

And a conversation between him and Maya after she turned on a light: 

Her: Light on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off..... 

Him: Ok Maya we get it.

Her : What? We get toys?

Him: No, we get it.

Her: We get bit?

Him: No! We get the point!

Her: Ok, where is it?

Him: No! 

Her: Oh, I got it! 

Him: What?!?

Her: Here you go. Here's the point. Got it?

                                                            

It's windy down here!

Balcony Garden

 It's kinda getting crowded but I think the more green the better. On one side I have the tomatoes, squash, peas, sunflowers, rosemary, cilantro, and some others I totally forgot. I love surprises. Behind the tomatoes I have a killer aloe and the not so great rose bush (stems).

 And on the other side more rosemary and tomatoes, strawberries, salvia, ficus, jasmine, plumeria,  and a very used aloe. Of course there's the xmas tree (which I trimmed recently), and two types of flowers. Hibiscus and another I can never remember the name of but have them tattooed on the back of my legs. Those ones. 

 

And I was thinking today that maybe a planter box around the perimeter wouldn't be a bad idea. There's not that much space and getting all that plastic out of there would be nice. 

Roller Skating

 I LOVE IT. I got these skates back in 2000! They look brand new! 

 Daddy took Maya in the stroller to the park while I skated there. I skated around the bay a little, while they played. The skates are freakin heavy. But I guess it's a better work out. It's been like 4 years since I last went skating. My best friend and I used to skate around together. She's gone to London and left her skates with me.   Ahhhh the good ol' days.

Bees... maybe they are wasps

 Earlier a friend and I were talking about how we haven't seen too many bees this year. Then Maya and I went to the PB library to play in the sanbox and swings. I noticed a large amount of bees flying around the sand so I decided to study them a bit.  They were digging tunnels in the sand and going in and out of them. WTF? Why? I only had my camera phone and it was pretty sunny so I couldn't even see what the heck I was taking pics of.

Flowers from my babe and....

 ..I've never seen these on my Ficus (spl chk) What are they?

Where's the love?

 Apparently it's in the cake I made.

Maya and I went to the park and a child had left their slice of cake lying by the swings. Boy was she eyeballing that thing! I told her we would make our own cake at home. It's a gluten free chocolate cake from the VCTOTW cupcake recipe. It turned out pretty good. More brownie like which pleased me even more. I put hazelnut extract in it instead of almond to give it a bit more of a nutty kick. I have never decorated a cake so I thought I would play around a bit. I also happened to have blue food coloring which was the color of the frosting on the slice at the park.

Maya's quite pleased.  The heart in the center was her idea.

Rosemary

 MMMM I can't even begin to tell you how in love with rosemary I am. I think it all started in '97.  I had dreads then and wore the essential oil in them.  Everything I put my head on smelt like it. MMMM And then I started cooking with it. Eating it on potatoes. Thanks to the Mission. MMMM Then I found this rosemary bread they sell at peoples. MMMM And then I started growing some. And then Jen brought a big ol' bundle from her garden to playgroup. I have it in my car, bathroom, closet, and bedroom. MMMMMMMMM And now I have it infused in olive oil. And CAN'T wait to try it. MMMM

Thanks so much!

 It's certainly nice to know that I have such a great community of supporting Mothers out there. 

It's been hard and still is but there's nothing one can do about the past except learn and SLOWLY move on. Though pretty painful I'm pulling through and looking towards a bright NEW future. So thanks again for all your comments and I do miss bragging... er umm... blogging about Maya. So I'm sure there will be more post to follow soon enough!

You May Have Noticed

 I took the pics on the side of Iz and Maya off. 

It's very sad but for the best. We are splitting up. Actually it's a done deal. We are split up.

I love that he is Maya's father but it hurts too much too even look at pictures of him.

So you might not read too much here for a little while. 

I am feeling all kinds of emotions and will need tons of support.

So just a little hi or you can do it would be great! Thanks.

Foot Bath

 Maya's really into the Max and Ruby books she got for her birthday and in one, Ruby gives Max a foot soak. Well, she's  been hounding me to give her a foot bath and she's been taking the bowl from her kitchen sink and pretending to give us all foot baths.  I ordered some pedicure stuff for me and told her it would be here Monday but she kept asking all day if we were going to do it. So I gave in and gave her a mini foot bath. I just used bubbles and massaged her feet a little. And then put some salve on them after. She really enjoyed it. And yes, that is a salad bowl. I guess I should get a little tub.

Ice Skating Part 2

 So today I decided I would let Maya bring up ice skating to see if she really wanted to go or if it was already forgotten.  Around 1 she asked if we were going ice skating tomorrow. I told her we would have to go today if she wanted to go. She was totally stoked.  I told her that there would be a teacher there to show her how to skate and to hold her hand. She's not too comfortable around people she doesn't know so that was the only thing I was really concerned about. Once we got there we put her skates on (rentals are included with the session) and went right to the ice. There wasn't really an "Ok Maya this is it..." The coach just said hi and off they went.

 She did so good! I was so proud of her. It was one on one with the coach because it was her first time and the coach taught her how to stand and walk on the ice. I couldn't hear anything but Maya was smiling the whole time and shaking her head yes and no. I could see a little fear in her eyes but the coach was so good with her.  So for now we are just going to play it by ear. When she says she wants to go we will drop in on a session instead of signing up for the whole 48! It is a fantastic deal but we'll see.

Ice Skating

  

 Today we went to the UTC mall to go ice skating. Well, Maya's really into ice skating and ballet and Daddy came up with the idea to go to the rink to show her what it was all about. I thought it was a great idea. But Daddy wasn't ice skating. Oh no.  He wanted me to, which I have only been a few times in my life! So I got out there and I managed to make it around the rink a few times. Maya decided she was ready to try so we got her skates on. She was hesitant at first but got out there. Holding on to the side wall of course. She didn't want to leave. We explained to her that we would talk to a coach to see if they could teach her a little. And sure enough. We might drop in on a session tomorrow. I didn't want to take her out on the ice because I didn't want to fall on her! 

Anyways, she was pretty upset that we were leaving and on the way to the car she spotted a choo choo train that made it all better.

I gotta say, I'm pretty excited to go back. I really like the idea of ice skating and if she likes it, it will give ma a chance to practice!