Mom and Dad's Wedding Announcement

In going through Nana's momentos, I found this. I am always amazing by what she still kept. She and I sat together while she ruthlessly parsed out old photos, giving them to children and nieces or nephews, or just straight to the bin. Before she moved to Bothell, she was feeling particularly unsentimental about objects, but this gem she kept. Or at least, she allowed me to "hold on to it for her" at my house.

Preecs-Warner Wed

Buried in other albums are choice photos from the wedding itself, including the remarkable pink tuxedo. I just think it's lovely that this treasured clipping still exists. Especially given Nana's fondness for newspaper clippings.

I had my kidney out- Hospital Edition

It's been three weeks since our big transplant surgery. In the lead up to that, Matt, Kelsey, GW, Nana, Shaoshu and I had one of the best Christmases on record. Everyone was very mellow, we ate a lot of egg dishes and candy, got to sit around the fire, sleep, laugh and enjoy eachother's company. I think everyone was trying not to be nervous about their respective roles, and it was just really nice to reconnect a little before the surgery. I had plenty of time to get in my final work outs (no missed days in December!). A couple days before surgery, Kelsey and GW and GW's parents moved into an apartment closer to the hospital. This was obviously a good choice long term, but my house felt really empty without them.

The day before surgery, I was on a liquid diet, so Matt and I had a quiet day at home. During the day, I felt quite brave, and was getting intermittent check ins from all corners. Thanks to everyone who called and texted. But as the day started to fade, and I tried to pack a bag, and think about sleeping before my 4am wake up call... well, sleep didn't come easily. Packing a bag was hard. Will I be able to wear clothes? (Answer, nah, a hospital gown is fine, but my baggiest PJs helped me get home). What will I need to sleep? (eye mask and ear plugs) Books? TV? What will I feel like watching and doing? What will Matt need to keep him busy while I am healing? Will he spend the night? In the end, we each packed basically an overnight bag, which seemed disconcertingly light. Weeks before I had assured Matt that if everything went as planned, he could go home to sleep at night, but the day before hand, I just wasn't so confident that I would feel brave in an empty hospital room at night. He readily agreed to come prepared to stay for a while.

As the evening wore on, Matt went to fix something in the garage (read: he was anxious), and GW sent me a great short video of Niel DeGrasse Tyson, which reminded me I should watch Cosmos. I've been reading Death by Blackhole, which has the right amount of funny and technical for reading until I am quite sleepy, and Cosmos has a similar tone of optimistic wonderment that helped take my mind off of what was coming.

I should probably mention here that I assumed I would be pretty much obliterated by this surgery. I was hoping I would be too drugged to remember how much pain I was in, and I was very afraid that I would be making a slow crawl back to self sufficiency. I was told recovery takes 2-6 weeks, which I was taking to mean I might be able to walk, feed myself, and possibly sit at a computer for a few hours after a month. All this kinda made me think that the start point was going to be pretty bad. I was resigned to all of this, I figured it was a trade for a fraction of the suffering GW had to deal with, I would just get it in one big dose. I had just made up my mind to go through with it, even when I wasn't feeling especially brave, like at midnight the night before surgery.

Somehow we slept, albeit briefly, because check-in was at 5:30am. No traffic at that time. I decided to look forward to seeing Kelsey and GW and his parents, and try not to think about... you know... We got settled into a room on the transplant floor, that was a couple doors down from GW. I got hugs from everyone, which was so good. You know how frail you feel after eating nothing but juice for 24 hours? Yeah, not like a brave person, so the hugs really helped. And the hospital room was just too bright, too foreign, not to get a little antsy. When they came to put my IV, the nurse asked if I wanted lidocaine to numb the spot. I started to say no, and then thought 'I'm having a hard enough time holding it together, why not just let this lady be nice to me?' I decided right then I would take anything I was offered that seemed like it would help, even if it might make me seem super wimpy. I didn't want to be tearing up over an IV, or anything else. It's courageous enough just to be the donor, without trying to be a tough guy the whole time too.

I poked my head in to GW's room, where he was cacooned under heated blankets, also trying not to be nervous. The were supposed to take me down an hour before him, so we said our goodbyes, and I waited in my bed for someone to wheel me away. Both Matt and I were feeling at little giddy with anxiety by this point. Being there, I really knew I was here to Do Some Good, everyone was being terrifically kind, but... OMG, they were about to cut my guts out! I was wheeled into the pre-op room, which was full of nervous middle age people in gowns, some of them shuffling into the restroom, most of them lying in their own hospital beds with a loved one looking on. Matt and I were trying to feel youthful and brave, when another bed rolled in- for whatever crazy reason, they brought GW down an hour early. I know that must have been torture for him, but I was SO happy to see him. He got parked next to me, so I got extra hugs from Kelsey, and we could keep joking and chatting up to the last minute. He made my nurse bring me a Bair Hug- the inflating, warm air circulating, blanket. The nurse told him that he could wear his beanie, which made us realize we should have got Renal Riot hats for the big day. My anesthesiologist stopped by to chat, and was just amazed to see us carrying on like this right before surgery. All the nursing staff and surgeons were loving it. This is where we took the high five picture that got a couple hundred FB likes (not to mention instagram). The nurse offered to set our families up in a family waiting room, where they could get updates from surgery. It felt like we were getting VIP treatment.

And then they wheeled me in. I got one last hug and kiss from Matt and Kels, and a high five from GW. With no one holding my hand or encouraging me, I suddenly felt very alone, very tiny, and not especially brave. I think the hallways to the OR might be one of the longest hallways in all of Seattle. I was told that when we got in the room, the anesthesiologist would give me something to "calm down" prior to starting surgery, so I figured I just had to get in there, and things would take their course. The OR nurse introduced herself on the way (really, we had that much time rolling down this hallway), and she told me to expect some of the other people in the room (I have no idea who now, but I was glad she mentioned that). The asked me to move myself onto the operating table. By now I almost forgot that I was still able bodied for a few minutes, and happily did the sideways scoot. They hooked up my IV, told me they were going to do some... other stuff, who knows... and I had a last minute sense of calm...

...The next thing I remember, was the recover room. A nurse had come to chat with me, and I was amazed that my mouth seemed to be able to make words. This is probably because my nearest experience with surgery was having my wisdom teeth out, when my mouth was packed with cotton. I remember thinking I felt more lucid than I expected, and wasn't in pain yet, although I don't remember having my eyes open. Someone a few beds down was crying for their mother, and the nurse told me not to worry, that person was confused. to which I said, "I understand that. I'm feeling pretty confused myself..." But I knew, I knew, my mom was nearby and was going to give me a hug really soon.

In my memory, I was magically transported to my hospital room, where people (I assume Matt, and Kelsey and my parents where there) told me I was looking pretty good. I remember thinking I felt pretty good considering. I was allowed to eat ice chips which seemed nice, I felt thirsty and my throat was a bit sore. The nurse wanted to look at my incisions. I was a little afraid to see, but there was a big pressure bandage over my hips, so the big cut was a mystery for now. The little cuts had bloody gauze under clear plastic sticker things. I would later learn that under that were steristrips, basically the sticker versions of stitches. Overall, it looked worse than I hoped, but much better than expected. I got a button to administer my own pain meds, and like I said, I had determined I didn't really need to tough out feeling discomfort. Everyone else already had heard the good news, but at some point I was told (and remembered) that GW's new kidney was working. And working really well. Hooray!

A weird thing that the night shift nurse explained to me was that some of these drugs don't necessarily make a person sleepy. By the evening, I had been up and chatting with visitors most of the day. Matt has asked for a cot to be brought in to sleep next to me. I had barely slept the night before, and I just... didn't feel sleepy. My throat was hurting more now, from the intubation, and my (wonderful) nurse brought me nasal spray for my itchy nose, and lidocaine lozenges for my throat. I sat up and watched Star Trek: Next Generation and Kung Fu Panda cartoons with a few cat naps for most of the night. When the nurse would come in and wake Matt up (I was usually awake), he would hold my hand across the gap in the beds. I tell you, there is something really comforting and encouraging about having someone hold your hand while we are in a hospital bed.

Later that night, GW called me from down the hall. He wanted to know I was doing ok. His first question on waking up was about me, but he wanted to check on me himself. And then he told me he was doing really well. The kidney was working so well, he was dropping 30mL of fluid a minute for most of the day. And he said he felt pretty good. And I gotta tell you- that was the moment that I felt like it was worth it.

The next couple days were punctuated by a number of firsts. The drugs I was on made it terribly hard for me to focus on anything, so time seemed to move shockingly slowly. By the night of surgery I stood beside my bed for the first time. The next day I was allowed to eat Jello, my first food since Saturday. I took a few steps out of bed. The surgeons came to check on me, and told me I could eat my first solid food that afternoon. I took my first pain pills by mouth. Shaoshu came to visit, Kelsey went home to sleep. I walked down the hall to see GW. He came down the hall to see me. I went to the bathroom myself. I got to use body wipes to "bathe." A resident came by to take off the big bandages, revealing a few bloody steristrips hiding tiny cuts. I learned how to cough with a pillow pressed on my stomach. I put on underwear. I started walking laps of the hallway, gingerly holding my stomach in place.

The day after surgery, the surgeons, giddy from seeing GW's success, popped into to brag about my kidney and told me I could probably go home the next day. This sounded crazy to me, but the next day, we had found a painkiller that I could tolerate, I was walking short distances confidently and could eat food. Although it seemed comfortable to have a nurse prepared to answer at the push of a button, I knew both Matt and I would sleep better at home, so we left the hospital around 2:30 that afternoon. A pre-med volunteer wheeled me down to the car. I was wearing my biggest PJs, had a pillow between my stomach at the seat belt, and we timed our exit to shortly after my dose of painkiller.

I'll give more updates on the rest of recovery later soon, but for now, I'm back to job hunting and working, and about to head over to Nana's for tea.

Remembering Uncle Bob

Today we went to the memorial service for Uncle Bob. I can't say that Bob and I were close, but my personal feeling is that grief is easier when shared, so I wanted to be there to support the members of his (and my) family who were grieving. And you know what? You always learn about the deceased at a funeral, and chances are you see people you ought to see more often. If it weren't so dang sad, funerals would be really cool.

Here are some things I learned about Uncle Bob today:

• Uncle Bob was a union carpenter. 
• He worked on the Kingdome and Seattle Center.
• He built rigging to support shipments sent for the drilling efforts on the North slope.
• He loved Lifetime movies.
• He was a swimmer.
• He ate a lot of icecream. Like, a whole lot. Every day, by the sounds of it.

Because I had the privileged of going to the service with Nana (and Mom and Dad), we also go to swing by the address where she grew up- 510 9th Ave SE. (She says it surprising which things stick in your memory.) The house is gone, but the address is just a few blocks from Meridian, the main drag of Puyallup, and parking for the State Fairgrounds. She told us there used to be a Japanese internment camp on the corner there. That's a bit of local history that I've never really recognized so directly.

We got to see (and hug, and share memories with) some of the farther flung cousins, which was great. It made me really glad I was able to go. Maybe we shouldn't wait until the next funeral to do that again.

EATING

So there's this thing called 'cluster feeding', which sounds like a pretty good description of a zombie apocalypse, but is actually a thing that babies do where they eat.  And then eat again.  And again, essentially constantly.  They eat until they run out of energy, then they sleep, and once they have the energy, it's back to the bar.  Casey is doing that now.

They gave us a piece of paper on which we are supposed to write down all her feedings, and it has a column for each hour.  I've had to start blending multiple columns together.  "She was eating for all of in here."  It's very encouraging.  We saw the lactation consultant and she essentially told us that we're doing everything right, and we're just going to have to see how Jessie's milk comes in, which will probably not be for several days.  Good to have the validation, though.

Tyler has also been a very good big brother.  He's much more interested in a) the hospital and b) the 'big cut' on mommy's tummy then he is in baby Casey.  But they've been close a few times, and Tyler has looked, but not wanted to hold yet.  We're not rushing him.  At one point he saw me pacifying Casey with a pinky and he wanted to try.  He stuck his thumb in Caseys mouth and Casey started to suck on it.  He got a really big grin on his face for that.  We have some pictures on someone's phone.  There's a lot of cameras in here.

I went out to Lunch with Dad while Mom stayed with Jess and Casey.  We got hamburgers, then brought back a sandwich for Mom, and a Chocolate shake for Jess.  It's technically a liquid!  She's good to go!

Right this very moment, Casey is snug in Mom's arms and Jess is taking a nap.  It's nice, it's quiet.  I'll bet a nurse is about to come in here and try to take someone's blood pressure.

-N

Snow and Stew

I wish my coworkers all ate together in a lunch room regularly.  Yesterday would have been the perfect day to get the "What do you have for lunch question?"  "Oh, you know, African yam and peanut stew that my mom made for me because she loves me."  But that might have amde everyone else feel bad who DIDN'T have thier Mom pop in to do something nice for them. 

Yeah, my mom pops in now.  No big.

The folks are in town for 3 weeks.  There are rumors of furniture and so I am hoping to drop in soon.  But man, it has been a busy week.  More requests from the underwriters.  New editing contract.  Meeting with my peer mentoring (career) group.  Having a job. 

And it snowed last night.  Or coated everything in a heavy coat of sleet.  It's disgusting out, so I'm at my home office in my PJs, thank you very much.  Kinda wish I had some more African stew to eat while I am keeping cozy over here, but I'll get by.

Much to be Thankful for

This week we host the much anticipated visit of the Texas family, AND a return of the parents to our new abode.  Those of us who regularly hang around in WA were pretty pumped about these events, if you can image.  Nana and I would just site round ringing our hands in anticipation of those cute baby cheeks to pinch and the mountains of food that we would be eating.  And this visit did not disappoint.

Noel's family got in on Saturday night.  So I got to host a newly arrived Mom and Nana for dinner before the airport run that delivered the Texans to my house.  Tyler valiantly tolerated us hauling him all around Pike Place Market, and Seattle was in full spectrum grey on Sunday.  At least it was an honest representation of the city.  We also somehow talked Mom into hosting all the cousins for a potluck dinner in Sunday, which was a great excuse to get a ton of adults together to just watch a baby.  It's pretty funny how one little kid can completely steal the show at a dinner party. 

Even though I had to WORK at my awesome JOB, I think Noel and Jessie managed to enjoy themselves while they were here.  I know Tyler got to spend some super bonus Nana time with his Nana and Great-Nana, which would be the Nana Highlight of the whole holiday season if they weren't going to see him in Texas in a couple weeks.  And this was just the build up to the main event- TURKEY DAY. 

Even my mother-in-law came down to dive into the family food frenzy of Thanksgiving.  When you've got that many balls in the air, it seems safe to assume at list one thing is going to come out charred and inedible, but we managed to time every single thing perfectly- steaming hot dishes stuffing, green beans, Brussels sprouts (lovingly friend with bacon), stood next to a tower of mashed potatoes, creamy pools of gravy and the glow of a sweet potatoe pie (a pre-dessert tradition from Jessie's family).  I suppose if you were going to be nit-picky (and I'm not), the one casualty of the kitchen was the bird.  Don't get me wrong, after a day in the roaster, this bird was as tender and juicy as any bird you could dream of.  But to get that 18 pound monster of fall-off the bone good-ness onto the platter, well, it lost just a little in the presentation.  As they inevitably moved/dropped/exploded the bird onto the target platter, Jessie and Noel stood giggling over the "Norman Rockewell Perfect Turkey" in a way that reminded me of the Disaster of The Wedding Cake.  They are so cute.

My mother-in-law lead the charge to bake 3 universally awesome pies on Wednesday night.  I always assume that part of the motivation for cooking so many is that at least one should be ok.  Well, we felt like we won the pie lottery, because all of them were fantastic: sweet-meat squash/pumpkin, brown bag apple and West Virginia Pecan alike.  As Noel said, "I believe this pie is a triumph of human ingenuity and civilization." Wash it all down with a couple gallons of Martinelli's and it was a Thanksgiving for the record books.

Betty revived the old family tradition of going around the table to share something we can be thankful for- and man, I felt like we could go around the table a few times.  Great family, near and far, good health (especially those who just got out of their back braces), meaningful work that PAID us to spend the day cooking and eating, the means to live a comfortable life and share it with those precious people around the table... and this was before we tried the pie. 

Everyone is back on the road again, which leaves Matt and I to conquer the lion's share of the leftovers.  It's just one more thing to be grateful for.

Good Party, Good Race

I didn't really give Mom and Dad a choice about this party. I was of the impression that they should make some time to see some of the far flung family and friends who have been peppering me with questions about their move, and I thought it would be a high note of the trip.  So, I scheduled the party, invited all the local friends and family.  And then they changed their tickets so they could attend as well.  Heh.

After a scant two weeks to unpack- which is just enough time to realize you don't have enough forks, but not quite enough time to invest in stocking the kitchen fully- the house is in good (enough) shape and Mom and Dad graciously entertained a heap of friends and family at the new place.  It was a good turnout, including Great-Uncle Bob, my mother-in-law, their real estate agent and lots of our friends.  Mom gave house tours, and everyone happily mingled (not just in the kitchen!), taking in the views from the dining room, the library and even the yard.  We made everyone take home leftovers and the remaining cookies were frozen.  It made us excited for Thanksgiving get-togethers and to see Mom's new furniture.

Matt had his first cyclocross race this morning.  For reasons that don't resonate with him, people don't do mountain bike events in the fall, but there is this odd tradition of riding road bikes on grass and mud in the fall.  He was skeptical for many reasons.  The traditions of road riding don't seem like they would translate well to a trail: a peloton, drafting, the sprint.  Spandex seems like idiodic gear for mud, and frankly a mountain bike is already set up for these conditions.  So we went to Magnusun Park in Seattle to join a giant sea of cyclocross riders.  I've never been to such a big race event.  In typical fashion, Matt took a bike better suited to his view of the condition (ie- had suspension and nobby tires) and gear (baggy shorts, hair on legs).  He did very well- he'll find out his place tomorrow.  He hadn't seen the entire course until after the start gun, so it was a bit of an adventure.  He might do a few more races as the season continues, since it's nice to have events to participate in, especially through the winter.

Farmers Market Problems

Mom and Dad are here!  And they have a new house!  Since I am their closest child, it is clearly my responsibility to be sure that they have as much fun as possible so that they remember to move down here quickly.  I started their social calender with dinner at cousin Lisa's wine and cheese bar/restaurant super yumminess.  It's right down the street from Nana, which is handy.  It is crazy delicious, fresh source locavore food, which is stellar.  The social highlight of dinner was Lisa running out of the restaurant when her daughter's contractions progressed to "Having A Baby Time." (The food highlight was the fresh corn chowder, obviously.)  How exciting!

Since Mom and Dad are actually waiting for their stuff to arrive Monday, they've been not too busy running errands and getting to know their way around.  So I insisted they join us at the Redmond Farmer's Market for lunch and grocery shopping.  Lunch was a brilliant idea- how can you pick between tamales and crepes? And by then we were all sensitized to the fresh looking foods of the market.  Mom really wanted some heritage apples (Macintosh, Gravenstein etc.), so we had to peruse all the apple options.  And obviously, at farmer's market in Washington  EVERYONE has apples.  I ended up picking up some Italian plums and honeycrips and carrots and beans before Mom picked her apples.  The tipping point for our trip probably came when I was eyeing a basket of tiny-cute, sweet, homeless strawberries, and the guy (hoping to go home early), gave me a deal on a flat of the poor little orphan berries.  The little dears were within hours of peak juiciness, and would need to be used quick. We were supposed to join Nana for dinner, and in the back of my mind I thought 'I'll just bring dessert, no big.'  But then we bought a lump of fresh mozzerella (soft and sweet!), which we clearly had to pair with some of those beautiful Heirloom tomatoes we'd seen.  And of course, we found a pair of giant sunset hued tomatoes that were in the magical hour of peak perfection.  These magical fruits were not going to survive to be eaten another day... could I bring a salad to Nana's too?

Now that we had stocked up on WAY too much food that wouldn't survive the weekend, I insisted we have everyone over for dinner to help me eat my way through this produce.  Nana came to join us, and we talked about Jamie Oliver was plowing our way through roasted farm fresh veggies and didn't stop until we polished off half the flat of berries.

Things change

By now you've all heard that Nana had a little spill and will be wearing a brace until her back heals.  For a couple hours on Tuesday, this was really scary, and I am glad I got to be with her while we figured out what was going on.  Now though, now it seems like an inconvenience.  But that's Nana for you- no wallowing, just determined to do what she needs to get better.  If that is wearing a kind of inconvenient brace right now, so be it. I think she's gotten most of you on the phone, so you can hear that she isn't suffering unduly.

The rest of us are striving to take good care of her in anyway she will let us.  I say "the rest of us" because my Mom did that cool, retired person thing of just showing up where the action is.  She came in Tuesday night and is going to be staying with Nana for a bit.  (Someone has to remind her to use her walker, ahem.)  This is good, because someone is going to have to help manage the steady stream of visitors while Matt and I are working.  It sounds as if there is going to be quite a parade of visitors today and possibly through the weekend.  I mention this in case you try to call and she puts you off- Nothing personal, but Queen Martha (as we've taken to calling her with this princess perfect posture the brace forces) has many duties to attend to.

There are lots of reasons that this doesn't really seem like a major life changing event in the same way you might expect.  Partly, being close at hand makes it easy. Being at the Chateau has been awesome.  For one, they just trip over themselves to be accommodating (I imagine they are like this for everyone, but they all really like Nana). It's a huge relief to me, and everyone else I am sure.

In related news, I've been seeing my Mom everyday, which is cool.  It's been good to have a little help with some of my database questions.  And we've been starting to gel around some ideas for the holidays (spoiler: they will be awesome). One of these days, she is going to get me to help her with her Portuguese lessons.  Matt and I might be able to rope the two of them into judging our Waffle-Off, a completely objective comparison between our two waffle makers. 

Mom and Dad visit!

Like a good retired person, Mom had gotten right to the business of visiting her family.  Mom and Dad came down this weekend for a "retirement kickoff/house hunting vacation."  I'll let them comment more on the second part of the trip (spoiler alert: they haven't bought a house yet), but we had a nice time having them around.  They had Nana with them almost every minute, so it was great to see her even more (we were hardly around in July, so I was missing her!). 

We ate out a lot- which was as much an indulgence as in deference to my new "diet" prescribed to deal with major tummy pain.  Basically, I can only eat sweets and salty food (not fatty, spicy or tart food)(or coffee or chocolate or Italian food or mojitos, so I am basically losing my mind), and given Mom's limitations on salt, it was a LOT easier to just let someone else handle the cooking.  Or I guess we could have all eaten bananas and rock candy all weekend.  Anyway, this served as a nice excuse to see cousin Lisa at her restaurant.  (See what happens when you live in WA? you just run into family, all the time!)  And I never had to do dishes.  Come back and visit anytime, Mom and Dad!

AND Matt and I celebrated our wedding anniversary (6 years!) on Sunday by going to play frisbee golf in the beautifully hot weather and wading in some river.  I was thinking that thanks to a Juneau wedding, we ALWAYS have better weather on our anniversary than we did for our wedding day.  It was nice to have some time together just playing in the woods, since we've been oppositely busy a lot lately.  Once those ironpants house shoppers were done with their marathon visitations, we all got to enjoy a sunset dinner on the bay. Even though I am supposed to be very strict with this stupid diet, Matt heroically ordered a cheesecake that I shared a forbidden (few) bites to remember our wedding day. How romantic!

And then I'm back to work.  I supposed if I had planned my time better, I would have been contracting while the parent were house hunting (over the weekend), and not working when they were free to dink around.  After this last trip, I'm having a hard time keeping my focus up, and the prospect of alternate scheduling seemed like a bad idea all around.  This is the weird thing I've found about contracting.  Sure, I can work anytime or anywhere I feel like, but I mostly want to work about 8 hours straight from my own office during the middle of the week.  Yes, I could take an afternoon off and finish my work after dinner- but who wants to be working before going to bed?  And isn't it a joy to string two (mostly) non-work days together?  For all that flexibility, the main way I take advantage is by working the first half the day in my PJs and showering at lunch time. 

If you are jealous, there is a solution...

I had breakfast with Mom and Nana in Nana's apartment this morning.

Clearly, this is an above average Tuesday.

Also, Nana lives here now!  Like, 100% official, all the time.  Woohoo!  I need to send around invites to the welcome home party, but if you can't come, you should probably plan to come to visit Nana.  Her place is pretty sweet, and my place is pretty sweet, and between the two of us there are good times to be had.

Woo! Nana's moving!

Awesome news- Nana is moving to Bothell!! In April!  I am thrilled!

Let's all take a moment to brag on Mom for helping Nana manage her finances and negotiating a great entry price for her to move to Bothell.  Nana's big move is tied to a lot of big and small decisions, so it was really helpful that she and mom had been keeping a nice worksheet of all her expenditures for the last year, so it was pretty apparent what would work for Nana.  But the awesome part came as we were getting ready to finalize these things.  All three of us were sitting down the the gal at the Chateau, and Mom says very evenly, "I'm responsible for keeping Nana in good financial shape, and I just need to know that she is getting this apartment at the best price she can."  And the gal said, sure, I understand, would you rather pay $100 less for the apartment?  "...Yes. That will work for us."

I'm not sure how, but I've got to try this tactic soon.

The apartment Nana picked is a spacious studio that looks towards the slough with a view dominated by greenspace.  The Chateau Bothell Landing is a great community full of mostly active and interesting folks, which has a fun calender of activities and yummy menu.  They are also quickly accessible to her church AND reading room, to the senior center, to the Library (where Nana already has a library card and hopes to work with the Friends of the Library).  Although the Chateau would drive her to any of these places, she has walked back and forth between most of them plenty of times already.  The community isn't far off the highway, which makes it feel not distant for many of the regional cousins and friends who are looking forward to seeing her more often.  I'm pleased with her decision, since I think will open up a lot of great opportunities for Nana in her retirement (not the least of which is me getting to hang out with her).

Nana has a very busy month ahead of her, packing up her things in Spokane, and getting ready to head West.  We've got teams of cousins on both sides of the mountains poised to help pack, load the truck, unload the truck, toast the arriving matriach and generally enjoy having Nana living in the West.  In the meantime, Nana has plenty more small choices to make (what to pack, what to leave, what awesome activities to do first when she arrives....), and I am sure she would appreciate some encouraging phone calls over the next month as she tries to work through downsizing and getting ready to sell her house.

For those who might be around, we are planning a "Welcome Home" party in late April, which will include lots of family and smiles (although I'll be lobbying for cookies as well).  Let me know if you'd be interested to attend, so I can loop you into the emails.

My stupid cat, Raoul

On Saturday night, we came home to the sobering news that our cat Raoul had run away.  The door was open for hours, it's hard to imagine him not giving in to the temptation of investigating new territory.  It was also very hard to imagine him navigating his way around well, or getting on with the thugy neighborhood cats.  We were worried.  I was too upset to look for pictures of him to make a Missing Cat poster, but I had put most of the text together in my head. 

Missing Cat
Probably won't respond to his name, Raoul.  Will come running for a can of beans- might kill you for smoked salmon.
Has pretty stripes that he likes to show off by rolling on his back and flicking his long tail as if he wanted to be pet, but this is just a cat trap- which he will spring in all pointiness on the first hand to enter the trap.
Not always nice to people, but too much of a sissy to be an outdoor cat.
Unlike other neighborhood thug cats, he has a long tail, still pointy ears, a neck, and is probably getting beat up by those tough, tail-less cats.  His favorite hiding places include the shower, under the covers and the middle of the floor.

My version was too wordy, fortunately Matt put out a nice version, which we posted on mailboxes.  He found a way to prop open our back door to 1 cat size (probably smaller than one fat racoon- probably).  We left food outside, and put out cat toys, which kept disappearing.  Our house was freezing from having the door open all the time, but Mom and Nana chugged tea and put up with our heartbreak.

I called a cat rescue shelter, that suggested I get a cat trap.  Since we had daily gasping disappointments seeing those local thug cats, I just knew a cat trap was going to result in mayhem.  I was mentally wondering how many feral cats I would be willing to spay before I gave up on the trap as I went to bed.

And then something crazy happened.

Well after midnight, we both woke up in confusion to tiny meows walking in to our bedroom.  My reaction times aren't great when I am "alert" so try to imagine me assessing this situation from a deep slumber.  "Cat?  Feral?  Mine?  Here?  Am I awake? My cat is here? "  He just sauntered in like we'd been gone on a long vacation and he couldn't find us in the house.

Matt grabbed him in his arms while I flew downstairs to close the door behind him and spring the cat trap (because we SO don't need any feral cats now).  He was filthy, a little skinny and hungry.  And thirsty.  But fine. He has a wicked case of the sneezes, and seems sleepier then the average cat, but he is much more willing to put up with me moving my legs underneath his nap.

Home for the Holidays!

In the time interceding my visit to Austin, very little has changed, but I feel like a lot has happened.  Still job hunting, still searching for something to do that makes me feel like the days don't slip away into an eternity of unemployment.  But it's been great to have friends around.  We had a glamorous evening of ballet at the Nutcracker with Italian food with Shaoshu to celebrate "Kirkland Christmas." We got to see of Matt's bestie and his family before they head to more southerly climes for a holiday adventure, which involved us stopping my a taco truck, and everyone being really glad to see us.  It's great.

And now we are home.  I think I haven't been home in more than 2 years, so it's exciting to see the work that has happened at the house (I grew up here?) and run in to people I know but have seen since forever.  The main objectives today are to MAKE LOTS OF FOOD, and then get hungry enough to eat it.  In the background, presents are being wrapped, and decorations are being assembled.  We are all cheering Noel's efforts to convert the next week of breakfasts to yeast based delights (cinnamon rolls, monkey bread, munlies and who knows what else).  I'm waiting my turn for the oven to convert some sugar cookie dough into lemon cookies, possibly thumbprints, maybe some other stuff.  And there is the potential for meringues.  And who knows what else.  Ha, Mom was worried we wouldn't have enough food.  Turns out we just won't have enough butter- and that is the mark of a good holiday.

And there is a baby!  He warmed up to all the extended family quite quick, especially if Mom or Dad is not far off.  We can all take turns plying him with such fancy toys as empty wrapping paper tubes (which are great as drum sticks, wands or megaphones), wooden spoons (which carry the tasty memories of recipes past), and the menagerie of percussion instruments that have always been a staple of the house.  Tyler took great joy from the washboard sounds of Mom's wicker chest/coffee table, driving remote controls along the top to bring out the music. 

Oh, and he LOVES Grandpa's mustache.  He seems deeply tempted to try and taste it off of Dad's face.  His Nana gave him his first ever haircut, so he is looking quite well put together.  Nana also found him a new type of solid food, called Mum-mums, which are like quick melting zwiebacks.  With his serious Winston face, he latches on to the big cracker with both hands and then "crunch-crunch-crunch" with those two little teeth.  And speaking of baby advances, he is also very happy to climb the stairs to the apartment.  I think we've got a climber in the making.

Merry Christmas to those of you not lucky enough to be here at the house with us.  Maybe next year we'll amass all the readership in Austin TX for a Christmas Blowout Redeaux.

Our first guests!

I had Nana AND Mom come and visit the new house in Kirkland.  Let me interrupt with a quick PSA: any and all of you are welcome to come and visit for as long as you like.  We are slowly improving the accommodations here, but I estimate we can easily sleep 5 spare adults, and quickly make room for more at our friends homes, so come visit. 

But the family was here!  It was great!  We were mostly looking at various retirement communities for Nana to consider.  We went to FIVE.  If you are unfamiliar with this process, this is a HUGE number.  Nana was a trooper, critical enough to insist on getting ALL the information she wanted, open minded enough to give everyone a fair shake.  We'll see how the final results of this shake out- there are certainly more communities in this area that we didn't see, but I would go so far as to say we did see some places that Nana would be really happy at. (and at least one we all ruled out on actually visiting) That's a big relief to me, really.  I mean, I don't want Nana living in a crappy home where no one cares about her and there is nothing fun to do.  I like the idea of her moving over here 1) so she'll be close to me (selfish?  yes) and 2) so she can spend more time focusing on what she wants to do with her time these days, which is less cooking and house cleaning, and more volunteering, reading, studying, praying and spending time with me.  Or at least, that's what I believe she is looking forward to.  Clearly, this is only worth it if she feels comfortable at a place, and while I am optimistic that even some of the places can provide that, this is a big decision for Nana to make and would certainly merit some cogitation and sharing of ideas with family members.  So everyone call Nana and tell her you love her. 

Between the constant going to homes, we also made time to go to the Christian Science Church in Bothell where everyone was SO nice to Nana, and I would feel really happy if she wanted to be friends with those people who were very supportive, and helpful and just so darn nice.  We also grabbed a couple of nice dinners out, but mostly we spent about 2.5 hours with every location, working on a very in depth spread sheet and generally acting like sponges.  It's exhausting stuff.  With luck, though, this means there will be more visits to our house from Nana, and possible other people, which we are really happy about.

Happy Birthday to me

Whenever I write one of these I like to go back to the previous one and read about where we were last time I wrote. Two weeks can be a heck of a long time in baby-years. The biggest change since last time, in fact, has been a big one. Tyler is a day-care baby now. That's right. We got him through a good 5 months of being a home baby thanks to everyone's help with babysitting, but now it's time for him to start learning some other lessons, like how to interact with other babies and how to get sick rather a lot.

The place Tyler is going for school (It's just easier to start thinking of it like that now) is called Bright Horizons, and it's part of a nationwide chain of daycare centers. A few people we work with go there too. It seems really nice, so far. Tyler has gotten along with the new environment surprisingly well...well, not that surprising when you consider that it's Tyler, I guess. But his first day Jess was very much nervous and so we 'happened' to go out to get lunch and it 'happened' to be at a place really close to the day care. We stopped by to see him and he was having a pretty great time, just hanging out on the floor and playing with toys...stuffing them in his mouth, that sort of thing. He was really only mildly interested in us, really, and after we got ourselves some Tyler-cuddling time, we just put him right back down and he went back to playing. We're told he has had a couple of rough mornings so far, but I'm sure with experience, both from Tyler and from the day care staff, they'll learn his cues better and that will smooth out. But considering the abruptness of the change, Tyler seems like he's fitting in quite well.

There's seven other babies in Tyler's class and two teachers. The babies go up to a little over a year old, but after that they become toddlers and graduate up to the next class. There's a lot of cuties in there, but Tyler is, of course, the cutest. Donna is one of the oldest. She has a full head of hair but no teeth, and she likes people a lot. She came up and flirted with me on the first day. One of the days Tyler even took a nap over two hours long. He missed his morning nap, though, so that's to be expected, and he didn't seem to happy about that.

But yeah, so far things have been going great at the day care. Friday we didn't even have to go see him at lunch, and he's always happy and smiley when it's time to pick him up in the afternoon. Also, no sickness, yet, though I'm sure it's just a matter of time with so many babies around.

Solid food has also been going well. He's still mostly just on rice, which he really likes but it is occasionally to slow for a very hungry baby. Today, though, we got him some oats to try. They didn't taste much different than the rice (both like cardboard) but he had some to eat and didn't complain or anything. What a great baby.

Mom Preecs was here to take care of Tyler for his last two weeks at home, and the two of them got along just great. So great, in fact, that mom had plenty of time to cook us a lot of dinners for us and do a couple of sewing projects for Tyler. She made up one of those seven-can stools for him with some really neat fabric we got, and she even made Tyler a 'Gussy' to cuddle with. It's got a cute face and pockets and everything. Also, really nice fabric. I helped find that one, so that's my contribution.

Mom was also here to help my celebrate my birthday weekend! With Fish! We went out to a very fancy fish restaurant (Thanks, Jess!) called Trulucks (pronounced True-lucks, we finally figured out) and had all sorts of fancy ocean delicacies. Including rather a lot of dessert. Mom and I both tried the Tuna, which I hadn't tried in quite a while, and the crab cake which was fantastic. And dad managed to mail me some Dremmel tool stuff for use around the house, no doubt. I already know what my first project is with that. Thanks dad!

Jessie's birday present to me was that I got to go to whole foods and buy WHATEVER I WANTED. Which, let me tell you, is a heck of a lot of fun, though not cheap. So I put together a list of a few random things I wanted to cook, most of them from Alton Brown episodes, and picked up all the ingredients. I've made about half of my menu already:

1) Cheesy Italian Meatball Casserole – Frozen for future eating
2) Pastitsio Casserole – Lots of parts, but really fun to make. Also frozen already
3) Avocado Ice Cream – I'll let you know how it turns out.

The rest get made later today or tomorrow:

4) Fudge – Yum!
5) Grill Pizza – Double-yum. I'll make several types.
6) Stuffed Tilapia with cheese sauce. (Jess is letting me make fish for dinner!)

So that's what I do for fun on Birthdays. Way better than pub crawling. At least, for me.

Later today we're going down the street to the neighbors to hang out with Grant and get him used to strangers a little bit more. I also want to use the opportunity to see if Tyler likes playing in their jumper. His legs are getting stronger and stronger, though he still needs more practice sitting up on his own.

-N

Hungry!

Yesterday was Tyler's first shot at solid foods. Yes, we recorded it. As is traditional, we started him with 'rice cereal.' I used to think that this meant Rice Crispies, or something, and the way that all the books talked about how it was supposed to 'thicken the milk' was seriously confusing until I found the stuff that they're really talking about. It's just a rice powder, reminds me of cream of wheat, actually. Yes, I tried some first. Tastes like cardboard.

The first bite was great. Jess put it in his mouth and he just got this really confused look on his face. It took him a few tries to figure out how 'swallowing' worked, but after several more spoonfulls he seemed to get the hang of it. He got so excited he would get a mouthful of cereal and then raspberry it all over the table. Super cute, though, so we let him pass. I got to feed him some, and so did Mom/Grandma/Nana Preecs. He was very excited about the whole prospect, and occasionally chomped on the spoon with a little bit too much enthusiasm, getting it a leeeeetle bit too far back in his mouth. He also wanted to be in control of the spoon which, let's face it, is even more complicated than a bottle, and he's still only mediocre at holding that in place.

I also finally got a look at his first tooth. I've been feeling it for a while, but it's hard to really get a good look in his mouth when there's so much tongue and lip action going on. But it's definitely there. A little white spot on his bottom gums, on his right side, I think. Considering how grumpy babies can get when they're teething, he's been abnormally great. He still sleeps through the night, barring the occasional unintentional belly flip or other wake-up event. He usually goes to sleep right afterwords, though.

Our neighbors with the slightly older baby came over yesterday. He hasn't had much contact with people outside of the family, and we're trying to get him acclimatized to us so he can hang out and we can babysit him. He did a little better last time than the first time we tried, he did a lot more crawling around and exploring. Also, it's cute to see what Tyler might look like at that age. Much more control, and many more teeth.

-N

Boohoo! We're all alone!

Sadly, the fam just left Pittsburgh. Speaking only for myself, I had a fantastic week. I never cooked, except for apple butter and apple sauce. We indulged in great food from ALL my favorite ethnicity (Mediterranean, Thai, Indian, Italian, Ethiopian...) and I got to show off some of my favorite places in Pittsburgh. But mostly I just got to enjoy being with my family. Nana hemmed some pants for me, we drank some hot tea and laughed at the cat. It just felt like normal time with my family.

Nana's photos got posted to Snapfish, and at some point I'll create an album of the pictures I took too. Then maybe we can talk about all the fantastically fun stuff we did all week. In the meantime, I need to mope around a bit more since I have to go back to cooking AND working next week and no one is hanging out at my house anymore.

Sigh. I leave you with this one happy memory, of dinner at the Church Brewworks.

You are jealous

Right this very minute, I am waiting for the arrival of Mom and Nana. Yes, here, to my very own apartment. It feels pretty adult to be receiving guests in your home who aren't college buddies that would have happily crashed on the couch. We are Hosting. They are going to visit me for a WEEK (with Dad showing up at some point too), which means good times are sure to follow.

Our things to do, outside of eating gobs of ethnic foods and showing off the city in fall colors, include: Making some stuff with the half bushel of apples I picked last weekend, hemming some pants, seeing Nana's pictures from China, Skyping with the siblings (or anyone else who wants to get on Skype), cheering Matt at a Mtn Bike race, meeting our friends, showing off my lab and the ceramics studio. We've cleaned up our house and we are totally ready for fun times. I'll try and update with pictures as we go, but it might be ahrd to take a break from all the fun and stuff. You might just have to wait until everyone goes home to hear about how fantastic it was. Or Skype us. Your call.

Mother's day photo

Mom and I had brunch on Mother's Day at Clinkerdaggers in Spokane. Fine meal, wonderful view, impeccable service. But the highlight may have been the free photo sitting they offered next door. I think this is a great picture of Mom and my frozen smile isn't nearly as awkward as it could be. Do you agree?