Christmas 2010

I could go into great detail about Rory's first Christmas, and how wonderful the celebrations were this year, and how much I love my new Keurig coffee maker and dehydrator and pressure canner (recipes and ideas, please!), and how great it was to spend time with family, but instead I'll just keep it at some pictures:

Delightful

Devastated!

Lowercase bowens

Classic.

The loves of my life during our little family Christmas

Christmas caterpillar

Rory's ninja ornament, appropriate for her first Christmas

My delicious overnight cinnamon rolls!

Christmas morning

Christmas evening with extended family

A gift from Uncle Joe

Andrea and Joe, wedding coming soon!

We detoured through Zion coming home from Cedar City.

Family and nature make for a wonderful end to Christmas 2010.

Best of Flagstaff, according to Brittany

Every year the Daily Joke readers vote on the "Best of Flagstaff." The winning businesses receive a wall plaque and bragging rights for the year. Since voters got some of them wrong, I thought I'd throw in my two cents on some categories (most of them food related). See the actual results here:
http://azdailysun.com/special-section/best_of_flagstaff/article_58bb9176-fef9-11df-8158-001cc4c002e0.html

What are your opinions?

Best Annual Event or Festival: Voters said "Flagstaff Hullabaloo." Am I the only one who has never heard of this? Obviously a better choice would have been the illustrious Pine Cone Drop.

Best Bakery: Voters said "Village Baker" and they got it right!

Best BBQ: Voters said "Bigfoot BBQ," so they must have never been to Satchmo's on 4th street, whose meat truly needs no sauce (but the sauce is so good you have to use it anyway).

Best Book Store: Voters said "Bookmans Entertainment Exchange" which is funny since Bookmans was closed for all but a few days of the year. I love Bookmans as much as the next person, but how can it win when it wasn't open?! I give my vote to the kid shop "The Book Nest" this time.


Best Breakfast: Voters said "MartAnne’s Burrito Palace." I've never heard of this place, but will definitely need to check it out, seeing as it won a couple categories. I'd have to say "Brandy's" for their amazing pancakes.

Best Burger: Voters said "Diablo Burger," which is pretty fabulous. Blake and I also go to the "Beaver Street Brewery" for a burger fix, and "It's About Coffee" has surprisingly good burgers as well.


Best Chinese Food: Voters said "Golden Dragon." I don't know that there's anywhere better, but this place is not one of my favorites.

Best Clothing Boutique Store: Voters said "The Basement Marketplace," and they're probably right. I wish I were cool enough to wear their cute things!

Best Coffee House: Voters said "Macy’s." I say "White Dove" or "It's About Coffee."

Best Coffee Roaster: Voters said "Late for the Train." I say Manuel, the guy at the farmers' market (his coffee is also available at the Village Baker). He spends half the year growing his own beans on his farm in El Salvador, then roasts and sells them himself. The Italian roast is some of the best coffee I've ever had!

Best Day Spa: Voters said "Flagstaff Face & Body." I wish I knew!

Best Deals on Kids Clothing: Voters said "Maddie & Moe’s." Sounds like another place I'll have to check out.

Best Deli Sandwich: Voters said "Crystal Creek Sandwich Co.," which I've never tried but would like to. This is lame, but I think Safeway's deli has pretty terrific sub sandwiches.

Best Department Store: Voters said "Kohl’s" and I agree!

Best Dessert Menu: Voters said "The Cottage Place," and though I've only been there once, I'll probably never forget that chocolate cake.

Best Elected Official: Voters said "Sara Presler." I say HAHAHAHAHA!

Best Ethnic Food: Voters say "Himalayan Grill," and they are so right. Lamb korma=most amazing food on earth.

Best Event Planning: Voters said "Peak Events," which means they've never attended a wedding coordinated by Laura Lanting and catered by the Millers!

Best Fabric and/or Sewing/Knitting Store: Voters said "Odegaard’s," and without JoAnn's, there's no other option. I did find the fabric for Rory's adorable crib bedding there too.

Best Family Dining: Voters said "Himalayan Grill." I say that unless you've got serious money, this isn't the place to take the whole family out to dinner (not that kids wouldn't like it, it's just not cheap). We save it for date night (unless someone else is treating!) and consider "Miz Zips" the best family restaurant for the kid friendly menu, cheapness, and homemadeness.

Best Fast Food: Voters said "Dog Haus." I have never been there but hear it's good. I think Freddy's may give them some competition.



Best Fine Dining: Voters said "The Cottage Place" and they probably got it right.

Best Flagstaff Attraction: Voters said "Arizona Snowbowl." That, and the Peaks in general.

Best Fries: Voters said "Diablo Burger," which are awesome, and I think also either "It's About Coffee" or "Satchmo's" for their sweet potato fries.

Best Hole-in-the-Wall Restaurant: Voters said "MartAnne’s." I really need to find this place.



Best Home Furnishings: Voters said "LaZBoy & Lite Co." (TIE) Can I say "crarigslist?"

Best Home Improvement Store: Voters said "Ace Homco." I think Blake likes it over the other places in town too.



Best Hotel: Voters say "Little America," which is probably true.

Best Ice Cream: Voters say "Cold Stone Creamery," but I think Mountain Delights in the mall is better.

Best Indian Food: Voters say "Himalayan Grill," and I say "amen."



Best Italian Food: Voters say "Mamma Luisa," which I still have to try. I like "Oreganos" but I'm not sure it qualifies as Italian food.


Best Landscape Company: Voters say "Warner’s Nursery." I'm a fan.

Best Late Night Snack: Voters say "Pita Pit." Would it be terrible of me to say "Diablo Burger" for a late night snack?

Best Live Music Venue: Voters say "Orpheum," which is good, but I like the amphitheater.

Best Lunch: Voters say "Himalayan Grill" again. I like Cafe Ole.



Best Meat Department: Voters say "New Frontiers Natural Marketplace." I can't really afford to find out.

Best Mexican Food: Voters say "La Fonda." I say "Noooooooooo!" I vote for "Cafe Ole" or "Burritos Fiesta." "Tacos los Altos" is good too.



Best New Restaurant: Voters said "Criollo Latin Kitchen," another place I want to try.



Best Nursery/Plant: Voters said "Warner’s." They're probably right, but I'd like to try "Viola's too."

Best Office Supply: Voters said "Staples." Office Max is on my side of town, so I go there. I like browsing their clearance stuff.



Best Outdoor Dining: Voters said "Brix." I like the patio at "Cafe Ole" or" Charly's."

Best Outdoors Shop: Voters said "Peace Surplus," which is pricey but local, so I'll go with it too.

Best Overall Nonprofit: Voters said "Second Chance Center for Animals." I love animals too, but does it say something about us that the animals win out over people? I'm going with the "Sunshine Rescue Mission" and "Hope Cottage."

Best Overall Restaurant: Voters said "Busters," which I'm a fan of. I'd probably give it to the "Himalayan Grill" though.



Best Photographer: Voters said "Cameron + Kelly Studios." I'm not familiar with too many others, but they shot Blake's cousin's wedding and did a fabulous job, and I worked with Cameron's husband at FJA and he was a nice guy, so why not? Of course, Christian Young is awesome too!



Best Pizza: Voters said "Fratelli." I still haven't discovered the best pizza yet; it eludes me.

Best Place for Party Supplies: Voters said "Confetti’s," and I like that place.

Best Place to Adopt a Pet: Voters said "Second Chance Center for Animals." You can't go wrong with that, but I'll put in my plug for the Arizona Boston Terrier Rescue too.

Best Place to Buy Music: Voters said "Hastings." I say "online." Really, I have a hard time finding the music I want here in Flag.


Best Place to find Cheap Gas: Voters said "Fry’s." I say "Safeway" when I have the 20 cents off per gallon, or "Sam's Club," as well as Fry's.



Best Place to go on First Date: Voters said "Lowell Observatory (Mars Hill Overlook)" and that sounds good to me.



Best Produce Department: Voters said "New Frontiers Natural Marketplace." I like it when I can afford it, but I'm all about the co-ops now.


Best Salsa: Voters say "Salsa Brava." I prefer "Cafe Ole," though I like Salsa Brava's pico de gallo.

Best Seafood: Voters said "Busters," and while Flag has no outstanding seafood in my opinion (shocking, due to our location, haha), I like Busters' halibut.

Best Soup: Voters said "Wildflower Bread Co." which is great, and I say "Charly's" too.



Best Steak House: Voters said "Horsemen’s Lodge." I like "Busters'" for steak.



Best Thrift Store: Voters said "Savers." I've seen jeans with a price of $14 at Savers. I think that's crazy. Why go to a "for profit" second hand store with high prices when we have a few good charitable thrift shops in town, like "St. Vincent de Paul's" and "Goodwill?"

Tradition

I am a lover of Christmas. Come around August every year, I inform Blake gleefully that it’s almost Christmas (my husband is certainly not a Grinch, but the Yuletide season fails to evoke such strong passion in him). I’m not ridiculous about Christmas either- I don’t listen to carols all year long, or even all December long, we don’t have garish inflatable snowmen in our yard, and I don’t swoon over all things Santa.  I love Christmas because it is the start of the most unique period in the history of the world, the 33 years or so that Jesus Christ took on flesh, breathed our air, walked our earth. If we didn’t have Christmas, we wouldn’t have Easter, and we certainly wouldn’t have any reason to celebrate. And boy, do we celebrate! Cookies, lights, songs, all of these are traditions. Tradition. That’s what I love about Christmas. I have so many memories of the little things we’d do every Christmas growing up, silly things, but we were so possessive of our traditions. We’d go to the same tree farm up in the mountains every year, scour the acres for the perfect tree, and all help cut it down before stopping for hot cider and a candy cane in the little shop. Then, every year, we kids would be sent to our rooms while Mom and Dad had a big fight trying to set the blasted tree up. Hanging ornaments was like seeing old friends. Stockings (funny how the tiniest of gifts is something amazing simply because it is pulled from a sock). Candles. Eggnog. The glee of watching the UPS truck stop in front of our house. And, of course, the nativities. There was the cloth (entirely kid proof) set, the really fun one made out of wood blocks, and my absolute favorite, the one etched into the crystal slabs that we were never allowed to touch; all of them are special and completely unrealistic (having had a baby six months ago, I am sure that Mary and Joseph didn’t look so clean and serene). I wonder if I had requested that little figurines of me, Blake, our baby, and all of visitors in the hospital be crafted, then arranged them on a table on each of Rory’s birthdays; we would relive how exhausted we were, how I desperately needed to put on some makeup, and how awkward nursing was. I could pull them out when she is a cranky teenager and one look at the little face would remind her of all we suffered for her! But nonetheless, I love nativities, and I love Christmas, and am looking forward to continuing Blake’s and my fledgling traditions (creamed eggs and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, decorating our bust of Apollo) with our little cutie pie on her first Christmas.

A Bowen family tradition

Apollo, Christmas 2008

Six Months

I'm sitting here at the computer, marveling at the goofy little creature sprawled out on my lap. She's fiddling with the camera cord and trying to eat my grocery list, and every minute or so she glances up at me and grins, making sure that I'm paying attention. Aurora is six months old today, and I can hardly believe it! Even though I do feel the occasional twinge when I think about how big she is getting, really I'm just enjoying so much the person she is becoming. Rory is truly a delight, generous with her smiles and always ready to laugh. How blessed we are!

My mom brought me a really special little token of our Rory when she was visiting last week:

As a thank you gift to our parents at our wedding, Blake and I gave them lavender rose bushes. Lavender roses are my favorite, and they were our wedding flower. My mom dutifully planted theirs shortly after we were married, and in the mild Pacific Northwest climate, it slowly began to grow.

Fast forward about a year and a half.

At church on Sunday, a lady came up to me and asked when the due date was. I assured her that I was not remotely pregnant, and had no intention to be for a long time, then helpfully pointed her to my friend who really was expecting, the woman she was actually looking for. I told Blake about it and we laughed. The truth was, we had begun talking about starting a family soon, maybe in a year we'd start trying, but certainly not before then; I wasn't ready, I needed more time.

Then I was a day late. I knew that there was a tiny, minuscule chance that Blake and I could be expecting, but it was so unlikely I hadn't really considered it. I had jokingly mentioned it to Blake, who smiled and shook his head at my jesting, but that was it. I was never a day late. I began to worry. At the grocery store that morning, on an impulse I tossed a test into the cart. My least favorite cashier rang up my purchases and looked at me knowingly. I took the test as soon as I got home, just so I could stop worrying about it.

It took all of a second for that horrid little plus sign to appear, and I almost threw up, and not from morning sickness. I know that it's terrible, but the only sentiments I had at that moment were horror and dread. There was no good reason for it, I mean, we were married, employed, stable, all of that; nothing that would indicate a baby would be an unwelcome thing. But I was selfish, and I did not want a baby. I wanted my husband to myself, I wanted to go back to school full time, I wanted to travel and save money, all before growing our family. I felt like I had thrown away all of my dreams along with the used pregnancy test. In my shock, I knew I had to tell Blake, and it had to be soon (I was meeting a friend for breakfast and knew I'd end up telling her- Blake needed to know first). So, (this is actually kind of funny), I called him at work. I know this is something you're never supposed to do, and ironically, I had spent time scheming before cute ways to tell Blake that we were going to have a baby. None of those even crossed my mind at this point, and when he answered his phone I blurted the awful news out: "I took a pregnancy test!" Silence. He replied, "And..." "It was POSITVE! (Sobbing)" This is one moment when the amazing character of my husband showed itself. "Okay, wow,....that's- great, we can do this (shock, hesitancy, but blessed encouragement). Looking back, he remarked to me that it might have been nice to learn that he was a dad under other circumstances, but at the time, he was my rock, and he was through the entire pregnancy, and continues to be now.

I met my dear friend Leah for breakfast. In the parking lot, I hurriedly called my sister and told her, since I figured she should know before Leah. Lindsay was delighted, and I began to feel a teensy bit better. One of the reasons I was so appalled by the whole thing was that I was sure people would snicker at us and smirk, seeing as we had only been married a year and a few months. They'd shake their heads and comment that they thought we wanted to wait longer, had we heard of birth control? Lindsay's enthusiastic response showed me that it was something that people were going to be happy about. Leah, too, was thrilled for me. She asked if she could throw me a shower, which got me excited for a moment because I love gifts. Then I remembered that the gifts weren't really for me, and I scowled internally at the little creature inside me, whom I would have to share the rest of my life with, whom I was not ready for.

Blake and I decided to tell our parents that day, though we would keep the news quiet from the general population for a couple more months. His parents were shocked: "We thought you were going to wait a couple more years!" My mom, too, sounded stunned by the news: "Hey mom, guess what? You're going to be a grandma!" "Oh...how nice, that's lovely." "Well, tell Dad, wontcha?" "Of course, he'll be thrilled! (Fake sounding cheerful voice). I was a bit put off by the less than elated responses, but granted, we had caught them off guard. When the news sunk in a little more, all four grandparents-to-be were entirely thrilled, and it didn't take long for them to develop full on grandparent fever. But I interpreted their shock as criticism, and was more than a little disappointed. What I did not learn until later, however, is that in her joy, my mom walked outside to the garden, and seeing our wedding rosebush, she went over to it. On the bush was a single bud; it was the first day it had bloomed. Mom knew right then that it would be a girl. When the bud blossomed into a gorgeous rose, she picked and carefully dried it. Now it is a reminder to me that God can make beauty out of the turmoil of our hearts, and that his greatest blessings are not given based on our worth. My sinful heart longed to reject what He had in store for us, but instead of punishing me for my sin, He waited patiently for me to see that He is good, and that what I hated was something precious, an amazing privilege, to be the mother of this incredible baby girl.

Looking back on my pregnancy, the most tumultuous time of my life, I see that we were so remarkably blessed by supportive friends and family, by good health for me and Rory, and most of all by the faithfulness of God who never left my side even though I doubted His plan. I learned some ugly things about myself during that time, and motherhood is refining me even more. Sometimes I wonder if God could have done better for Rory than sticking her with me, but we're in this together for a reason, so I will trust and be faithful and rejoice and pray. For, as we wrote on her birth announcements, "This is the Lord's doing, and, it is marvelous in our sight!" Psalm 118:23 Our little bud is blooming; what a joy to be her mama!

Headstart

I've been musing about some new year resolutions lately. Actually, they're not just for the new year (they're for whenever I get around to them), and they're more just basic goals than resolutions. But, I do have them written down in a list, and since I keep losing my list, I figured I'd write them here where they can't get lost!

Item #1: learn how to can and dehydrate food. Okay, so we currently don't really grow anything (gardening is tough in Flagstaff!), but I can order bulk produce through my co-op at a fabulous price. My parents are helping me with this one, as they're getting us a pressure canner for Christmas and they left us two cases of mason jars under the tree!
Item #2: Make lasagna from scratch. Except for the noodles.
Item #3: Be a consistent menu planner (especially with lunch, the meal I most struggle with) and intentional bargain but healthy grocery shopper.
Item #4: Sew the shirt that I've had the pattern and material for for years. Oh yeah, and learn to sew.
Item #5: Order pictures for all of our empty frames and update Aurora's baby book.

I think that's a decent start! We had a nice Thanksgiving with family in Palm Springs. A highlight was a trip to the zoo, including Rory's first carousel ride, and Blake and I amused ourselves by puttzing around on the golf cart since the weather was beautiful.

At the zoo

In other news, my mom (who spent a few days after the holiday with us) and I were inspired to browse a couple local thrift stores on a whim, and two great finds included: a fabulous artificial 7.5' tree with lights for $13, and a vintage lined wool jacket for Blake (he's wanted one for months). Now the house is all decorated and I'm officially counting down the days until Christmas is here!

So many wonders in the world!

 

Rory loves WORLD magazine. Eating it, that is.

A Christmas Story!

Car seat cover made by Nana

 

Purple poof and PJs