Dad's Birthday

It was Dad's birthday yesterday and we celebrated with sauerkraut and sausage (slow cooker recipe below), a delicious layered cake (awesome job, Mom!), swimming with the little buddy, and some things to restock Dad's wardrobe since he and Mom had to pack light for the move. He is a great dad, and a great poppo to his grandkids! I pray this year has a lot of wonderful blessings in store for him!

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Super-easy Slow Cooker Sauerkraut & Sausage 

(originally posted by grannycancook at allrecipes.com) 

• 1 (20 ounce) can sauerkraut 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar 
• 1 1/2 pounds sausage 
• 1 onion, sliced 

Directions

In a medium bowl, combine the sauerkraut and brown sugar. then place in slow cooker. Arrange the sausage and onion over the sauerkraut. Cook on high for two hours, check for dryness, adding some water if necessary, then reduce to low setting, and cook on low for two more hours. (I put a layer of sauerkraut over the sausage because I heard it can dry out.)

What's Up

• It's Dad's birthday today! Mom is doing the cake, I am doing the sauerkraut and sausage. Party time!
• My laptop was giving me high blood pressure with its malfunctioning usb ports, burnt out battery, constant crashes, missing keys and turtle fast speeds so I upgraded to an HP Pavilion dv6. First blog post from new computer. Is it shinier?
• I'm reading La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith. How lucky are we that he is such a prolific writer? Love him!
• Doctor Who season finale on Saturday. It's been a great season and Matt Smith just keeps getting better. He reminds me of Bono sometimes. (Now Bono as the Doctor, that would be interesting!)
• So far there is not a lot on the calendar for October. After a very exciting August and September it looks like we are going to get a lovely, restful month.  Knock on wood!

Sunrise From My Corner of the World

The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.

-John Muir

Saturday Morning:

Sunday Morning:

Speaking of Monsters

Yesterday I was doing dishes and looked up and, holy cow, there was a lizard out on the balcony! I grabbed my point and shoot and went to get a picture but when I got to the door I realized that it wasn't a lizard, it was a GIANT bug. If it had been a praying mantis I would have retreated back the kitchen and finished the dishes cause those things are wicked, but it was a locust (a big'n) so I went out and snapped a couple of pictures. Pretty amazing creature. It didn't startle when I came at it with the camera, but it did do these very slow graceful rotations on the balcony railing to try to evade me. I am now an admirer of the locust.

Little Monster

Last year I was an idiot about shopping for a Halloween costume. I ended up waiting until the last minute and getting something itchy, hot and the wrong size for the poor little buddy. This year I am probably still an idiot but I had Mom with me and she encouraged me to get this one and in this size when we were out shopping on Saturday. It's so freaking adorable, and it is soft on the inside, and it is actually long enough for my tall baby! (Babies'R'Us, on sale for $32 to $19.) I had him test drive it yesterday and I seriously did not want to take it off. Bring it on, Halloween!

Playdate

Remy and I had our first-ever "playdate" with a lovely Momma I met online during my pregnancy! She lives nearby and her little one is the same age (a couple of days difference) as Remy. He was the sweetest little boy and was wonderful with Remy, who was at times too fascinated by the unusual setting to notice that we were actually on a playdate. We had a great time and we plan to get together again this week!

Rainy Day

We've had a rainy week here and everyone is excited, including me! Here are a couple of pictures of our view from the balcony, one from yesterday morning and one from yesterday evening. 

The plants are luxuriating in the humidity! This is what plants look like when they are smiling!

Weather!

We've actually been experiencing some weather here in Las Vegas. The last two nights have seen thunderstorms (magnificent rolling thunder!) and this picture was snapped last Thursday when Mom and Dad called me out to the balcony to see a dust storm brewing to the northeast. I love clear and sunny but once in a while a little weather is exciting!

Shark's Cove

Here are some pictures from Shark's Cove, which I mentioned in my previous post. I loved the natural beauty and warm, calm pools and Remy had a great time skidding Ross's flip-flops over the water like little boats.

Oahu

We've been back from our vacation in Oahu for five days now and I haven't posted on it yet because it still looms too large in my mind to sum up in a blog entry.  But I will try because, as life moves on, I know from experience that I am less and less likely to write about it at all and that would be a shame.  So, in busy mom fashion, here is a list:

• Remy did great on the flight to Hawaii! I even got to sleep a little which I wasn't expecting.
• We got to see the sunrise that first morning from the shuttle to the car rental.  It was a beautiful pastel sunrise with light bouncing off giant cumulus clouds.
• The humidity was dismaying the first couple of hours...that's what desert living will do to you! But by 10 in the morning I was actually loving the warm, velvety feel of the air.
• We were the first to arrive at the vacation rentals and the property manager let us in early ("I know how hard it is to travel with a baby!") We relaxed on the back porch while she finished drying towels and arranging everything for our stay. Her hospitality was such a blessing.
• The houses (the family was spread out in two adjacent homes) were amazing - state of the art appliances, beautiful wood floors and cabinets, great art by local artists, distinctive furniture pieces...the beauty of this place is inside as well as out. 
• Flowers and fruit and mystery plants everywhere you look. Makes you want to take up botany!
• Ross surfed! Briefly but, I am sure, majestically. Unfortunately I missed it or I would have a picture to share. 
• Remy's top three favorite things: beach rocks, waves, outdoor showers. 
• One day Grandma Connie offered to babysit Remy and we hiked with the rest of the Bates family a mile up a beautiful paved trail to Waimea falls where several scenes of Lost were filmed.  Ross swam and I snapped pictures. Pretty awesome.  
• Fabulous beaches abound in Hawaii but my favorite was Shark's Cove.  It has a large area of lava encrusted tide pools that are warm and full of fish and crabs with a nice sandy bottom. We found  a shallow spot to let Remy splash around in and he loved it. 
• Everyone talks about how rustic Haleiwa is so I was DELIGHTED to find it had a McDonald's. I kid you not.  A BigMac on Hawaii is a  match made in heaven. 

Okay, tomorrow is the day of the big move for Mommo and Poppo so we have some errands to run but I will add more vacation highlights when I can!