Friday, May 28, 2010

saturday afternoon in LA

The boys woke up slightly hungover from the night before so Katy and I were outside enjoying the California sun & eating grapes with Espen when the joined us outside. After a bit of recouping we decided to head downtown to get some delish Mexican food from the Grand Central Market, what better way to cure a hangover.

First we stopped by Georges place to tour his amazing home (which is for sale, wish I could afford it). So to say that his place is 'cool' is an understatement. At one point I had to let him know that his place, to be honest, was almost too cool. I mean, it's a huge open loft with with with views of Pershing Square, guitars and amps, gadgets and books...vintage toys an old mach meter from gutted out old plane. His home is beautiful, I'd move there in a heart beat.

We ran up to the roof to check out the views but didn't stay long since we were all starving. When we made it to Grand Central I was immediately overwhelmed. I had Espen with me and there were people everywhere and all of the food looked AMAZING, although they all looked the same. Tostadas and tacos all sort of look the same after a while. I ended up eating some of the best tacos I've ever had. We finished up just in time to head back to Matt & Katy's neighborhood where Katy & I treated ourselves to mani/pedis and fit in a nap before we headed over to Marc & Busy's for dinner.

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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Friday Night in LA

Part of the reason why we went to LA a couple of weeks ago was so that Jeremy could see Portal in Compton. Instead of making it a whirlwind trip on his own we decided to all go out and make a weekend of it. Matt & Katy were kind enough to let us stay at their place. I love their home, it is precious. Built in the 20's, it shows it's age in the most amazing ways. Layers of paint, doors that stick, original 'this & that's', wood floors and niches in the walls. I love it. They have an amazing front yard with tons of grass and the back yard is filled with flowering plants. I think it's a pretty quintessential LA home.

Our drive out there was easy breezy but we were a bit behind schedule so once we arrived Jeremy and Matt headed for Compton and Katy, Espen and I headed for the back yard. I ate almost an entire wheel of brie, drank a ton of wine and watched Katy and Espen run around the yard drawing pictures and at one point she had Espen surprise me with a bouquet of flowers that he picked from around their garden. We were up so late, Espen started to grow restless. We ended up inside and tried to make Espen a fort out of couch cushions and Katy read him a story that we were sure would put him to sleep but instead he became so amped up that he and I had to call it a night and retreat into our room were he could sit in bed with the lights off and unwind before crashing. Katy is such a gracious host and SO GOOD with Espen which I totally appreciate.

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{matt & katy's weird roommate}

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{why does espen look like he's 18 in this picture}

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{yes, katy made that for him}

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Sunday, May 23, 2010

Taking the day off...kind of.

Thursday was the first day after leaving my job at Great American Title and right away I went to work training with the twins. The girls let me tag along on a listing appointment in Scottsdale in the morning. The appointment itself only last a couple of hours and the only other thing I had planned on doing that day was getting my lock-box key so once that was done I had the afternoon to hang out with Jeremy and Espen. We took a walk to Coffee Bean and over to the civic center to roll down some hills. We had the whole afternoon and evening to play and relax before we headed off to California the following day. I tried to take full advantage of it since starting Monday I will be focusing a ton of time and energy in to real estate.

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{thanks espen for this cute picture}

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{this is what awaits me on monday...thanks christie for my 3 dozen roses}

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Anniversary and the end of an era.

May 12th was a very exciting day for me and my family. For me, Wednesday was my last day of work at Great American Title. It was a strange feeling. I was pretty busy for it being my last day and as I was plugging away, working up HUDs, preparing recording packages and closing out files I had a moment where I felt like I was making a huge mistake by leaving. I know that job so well, I've been doing it for so long that I became efficient and comfortable with everything I did. Leaving this job?? What was I thinking! And just like that, I looked around my cubicle, around the office...out the window and thought of a million reasons why I should leave. So after a productive 8 hours in the office I said my goodbyes and out the door I went. I of course immediately called Jeremy, he answered the phone singing something about freedom while I wailed out loud FREEBIRD, I'm a freebird! It felt amazing.

I headed over to my sister's house, not only to pick up Espen but to meet up with the family to celebrate my parents 37th (yes, 37 years!) anniversary. We headed over to Pappadeaux and settled in their 'wine room' for one of the best meals I've had in a while. Pappadeaux is a huge New Orleans style Seafood restaurant on the west side of town. We love it because they have a private room where we can eat and keep the kiddos 'locked up'. Our server was a little seafood angel. Everything on the menu looked amazing, but I really wanted something specific...not a problem, she had the kitchen make me something that wasn't exactly on the menu but was exactly what I wanted. Between the appetizers, the wine, the main course and dessert everything was DELISH! And what a great day to celebrate, a huge mile stone and the start of something brand new for me.

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{the crab cakes weren't even on the plate long enough for a picture, so good!}

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{I am definitely this man's daughter}

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{...and this is definitely my kid}

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{we practically ordered one of each}

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{key lime pie for me}

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{love birds}

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{the family, except jeremy, who had to teach...bummer!}

Friday, May 21, 2010

Wallpaper

We recently took a trip out to California and a trip to California wouldn't be complete without a visit with our friends Marc, Busy and their beautiful daughter Birdie.

Espen had a blast at their place, Marc's old office has been converted into a playroom which Espen spent pretty much the entire night playing in.

I snapped this cute picture of him hamming it up for the camera.

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Espen certainly looks adorable in this picture but seriously, my favorite thing about this photo is the wallpaper in the background. From a far it looks like a lovely toile, one that might possibly original in the home but take a closer look and the those lovely vignettes turn out to be something quite the contrary but oh so genius!

Wait, are those to guys on a park bench drinking 40's out of paper bags? Why yes they are.

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And yes, that's a guy mugging a woman at gunpoint and a bag lady with her dog...
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Is that not the most amazing tongue in cheek design element you have ever seen in a home, and in such a beautiful home at that. It just kills me every time I see it or think about it. The scenes are actually scenes of London from design studio Timorous Beasties. Simply amazing.

Monday, May 10, 2010

weekend update

Espen and I went to the Boys & Girls Club on Friday night. The staff was presenting their annual Handsie Awards. This is also the night that they show all of the members and their parents the films that the kids have worked on all year, with Jeremy's help. We ate our weight in nachos from the 'nacho bar' and Espen ran around the gym like the big kids. I took 50 pictures of him running around but they are all just a huge blur. This is one of the only pictures I was able to get and I was basically holding him still.

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Espen and I left while Jeremy helped clean up after the event. I ran out of gas while making a left turn in a busy intersection, rad. Jeremy saw us stranded at the corner and made the run up the street to get me enough gas to get safely to a gas station instead of me having to wait for AAA. My hero!

Saturday was a busy day. Jenny H. picked me up at 8:30 and let me tag along while she showed houses to a couple that she's working with. That went till about 2:30 or so which gave us just enough time to go to the mall for an ultra classy lunch and a little bit of time for Espen to run around the kids play area. We were dead tired so we went back home to cat nap for 30 minutes before we had to head to Jeremy's parents for dinner. Our 30 minute cat nap turned into an hour and a half crash out. We were supposed to be at Jeremy's parents by 6 but ended up waking up at 6. By the time we got up there we had to eat and run to make it to the MADCAP in time to see the Room! We run up the stairs at the theater realizing half way up how hot it was in there...apparently their AC broke in the lobby. Jeremy asks for two tickets to the Room to which the guy behind the counter says 'Sold Out, man'. WHAT? I immediately began the parental guilt trip telling him that we paid for a baby sitter in North Phoenix. I also went over to the cute pregnant girl who worked there, playing up the mom factor yet again to see if there was anything she could do to help. The next thing you know, we were given our drinks for free because we had to wait in the hot lobby AND they let us sit in the far back in a couple of barstools they brought in from the lobby. So sweet. The movie was terrible, the actress from the film was there which definitely upped the laugh factor. Our date night totally worked out!

The next day was Mother's day. I got breakfast in bed and some cake balls delivered by Allison and Eb. (which I am going to eat right now as a matter of fact) I didn't do anything all day long. I felt bad actually, like we should have gone out and enjoyed the afternoon, but I couldn't move, I just sat around the house. I guess it's just what I needed. We have a busy weekend ahead of us with our trip to LA so maybe it's a good thing I took it easy on Sunday.

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Sunday, May 9, 2010

moto

The atmosphere is at Moto is so-so but the Curry Soup, oh my gosh, the curry soup was SO good! I'd definitely order the soup again, for take out.
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{thumbs UP!}
If you haven't been to Cafe Carumba, you must go soon! I love this place, every time we go there I leave completely satisfied. We went there for lunch last Sunday and were once again happy as ever. It was SO windy that Sunday, menus were flying all over the place but it didn't stop us from enjoying the sunshine on the patio and pigging out on delicious food.

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{yum yum coffee}

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{seriously, cute pancakes}

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{florentine omelet}

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{treats}

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{lover}

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{asleep on dad's shoulders}

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Yarnell Daze

Even though the boys weren't in the parade this year (and Espen and I missed it all together) we still had tons of fun running around Yarnell, yard saleing, eating pie and hanging out at my parents house. It was a long day. So long that I took a million photos and am too tired to write about them. But I have no problems posting them.

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{this picture doesn't even seem real}
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{papa's powerwagon was quite the hit at Yarnell Daze, people were even taking pictures with it when it was just parked on the street}
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{alone time}
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{takin' a rest}
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{liddy bug and his lady bug}
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{it's like dirt is a magnet for these kids}
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{flower bed}    
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{gate to the community garden, welded stuff}
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{shoo-fly pie and ice cream}
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{hay ride}
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{hay ride}
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{cotton candy is SO good}
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{fly swatter fly}
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{weird little house full of antiques and two mole stuffed toys that espen called his 'babies'}
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{pretending to sleep to get out of eating}
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{josh.levi.papa.espen}
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{me.espen.papa.abe.jenny.levi}
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{raking in underpants}
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{my new desk chair}
{cotton candy beards}
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