dolanpalooza

18 Months

2013-05-29T16:16:00.001-07:00

Well, Raiah isn't a baby any more, that's for sure. She's a full blown toddler complete with tantrums, emotional turbulence, lots and lots to say and very very little patience. She basically repeats everything we say but her daily vocabulary has grown exponentially, which is awesome! She seems to know exactly what she's NOT supposed to do. She'll do it while yelling "NONONONO" (I know a lot of kids do this and it's hilarious!). she knows some shapes and colors but only says "circle" and "purple", the rest she'll just point to. she knows most animals by name and the sounds of some (like every time I tell her to eat her chicken, she goes "bagh bagh bagh??" she knows cows say "moo" and sheep say "baa" and dogs say "woof woof"). she has also started feeding herself a lot more lately, to the point that she won't eat unless she's feeding herself.

she somehow always knows exactly where we're heading. she'll call out "granpa!" before i even turn into their street and claps and yells "HOME!!!" when i pull into the Target parking lot :) she can also count 1 to 5 in farsi and knows all of her books by name or subject. I try to read some of her books in farsi but she always wants me to start over in english. I'll get to page 3 and she yanks the book away, goes back to page one and says "doreh? doreh?" (dobareh is farsi for "again") until I start reading in english and then she'll let me finish the book. ha!

her vocabulary at 18 months:

monkey dumpy dumpy ("no more monkeys jumping on the bed")

taab (farsi for swing)

park

show

moobie (movie)

hockey
all done

window

table

chair

tree (means tree or broccoli)

gol (farsi for flower)

hair/nose/toes/eyes/ear/teeth/knees

bubbles

colololo (color)

book

cat

ake (snake)

lion

zeba (zebra)

milk

cup

dance

blanket

baby

shoes

socks

pants

diaper

"thank you" and "mersi"

sheep

fish

dog

duck
bear

target

cracker

apple/bewi (blueberry)/nana (banana)

puzzi (puzzle)

ball/boom=baloon

hot

bath

farm

tractor

plus all of our names.

and I'm sure I'm forgetting about 25 more words. and she talks constantly. it never stops. even in her sleep. sometimes it's a string of all the words listed above or just gibberish but the girl LOVES to hear her own voice.

Life's a beach

2013-03-07T17:20:00.003-08:00

We took Raiah to the beach yesterday. Scott and I had a day off together (which is very rare!) and even though the forecast was rain, we went anyway. We're definitely NOT beach people but we've been trying to take Raiah as often as possible since we live close by. This was the first time she seemed to enjoy herself, however. She had a permanent smile on her face and took a good four hour nap after.

She's nearing 16 months and is basically the best baby in the world. She has started talking a little and I feel like she's not going to stop.... her words at 15.5 months are: mama, dada, nana, papa, bah bah (food), up, down, dog, duck, ee i ee i o, hi, baby, baa (bath), apple, tachee (taji) and oah (noah). Her newest thing is when we ask her to say something, she'll whisper the opposite. Like we'll say "say nana! can you say nana?" and she'll walk away whispering "papa" or we'll say "can you say daddy?" and she'll whisper "mama" and look for our reaction. it's pretty funny.

Resolutions

2013-01-05T17:32:00.003-08:00

The older I get, the more I like that my birthday is so close to new years. Making resolutions makes more sense this way. And there are quite a few things I want to try to keep up with this year. I'm actually pretty good at keeping new years/birthday resolutions. For example, last year my goal was to take more pictures and document our lives better. I took over 2000 pictures with my phone and another 700 with my camera plus about 100 videos. It helps that I had such a great little model to take pictures of :) Anyway, these are my goals for 2013:

1. Look up from my phone a lot more often. Be present. Leave my phone in my purse so I'm not tempted to keep browsing. This will be hard, but not impossible.

2. Plan an activity for every week. We work a lot of hours and barely ever see each other but we have some mornings together, just enough time to have some family time. I want Raiah to experience new things all the time and be well versed in the world. So every week we'll do something fun. Like this week we went to a petting zoo. (yes, even though I hate animals...) I think this will get easier when she's better at walking because, it's hard to keep her in a stroller :). Also when she's a more stable walking toddler, I want to do more service oriented things. I remember my mom doing things for our neighborhood all the time when I was little and I did a lot of service in high school. I don't want to be too busy for that.

3. Take care of my skin. Wash my makeup off every night. Keep up with a skin care regiment because let's face it, all the fun-in-the-sun times are starting to show on my poor face.

4. Say YES before talking myself out of things. Just say YES more often. To everything.

5. Not feel guilty. This is a big one for me. I think a lot of working moms feel this way in the age of excessive social networking and pinterest when everyone else's craftiness, cooking and creative parenting is shoved in everyone else's faces. If I don't have time to repurpose furniture or grow our own food or sew little dresses out of pillow cases, that's ok. The truth is, even with my limited time, I do a lot of creative things that make my heart happy. Planting an edible garden is NOT one of those things and I'm going to be ok with that. When it counts, I do enough "homemade" and I do it whole heartedly.

6. Drink less coffee, more tea, NO soda. Less coffee will be hard but no soda will be super easy because we don't drink soda at home anyway and it'll be easy not to order it at restaurants.

7. Not dwell on things (or people's behavior) that are out of my control. This is my resolution every year... and I fail miserably every year.

8. Speak and read more in Farsi to Raiah. I always forget to talk to her in Farsi. She's going to be bilingual. I'll have to make sure of that :)

9. Use the china, the fancy soap, the expensive towels/sheets, etc. Who the heck am I saving them for exactly?! Why not enjoy them ourselves!?!

10. Speak kindly about others and be less judgmental. (another resolution I fail to keep every year....)

and here's Raiah dancing.

A few videos

2012-11-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

i need to get all the photos and vidoes off of my phone before i get my new phone so here are a few. the most recent is the one of her eating pears and watching her Baby Einstein. that one is from yesterday. the one of her on the swing is from last week but the other two are from a few months ago. i just LOVE her little voice!

Good Intentions

2012-08-14T15:31:00.002-07:00

When I started this blog, I had very good intentions of keeping a journal of our lives and document details that we might forget someday. I was obsessed with everyone else's family blogs and how beautiful and funny their children were and how even everyday happenings seemed prettier in their pictures. I still LOVE reading blogs when I have a split second but keeping one, not so much. I don't know, just the thought of catching up with uploading pictures and keeping this thing up to date is exhausting! so this is my last post for a while (as if i even update this more than once every couple of months anyway).

I'm on a mission to cut unnecessarily time consuming things out of my life and this blog is one of those things. I work full time (10+ hours a day, most days) and spend as much time as I possibly can with Raiah, during which I make sure to not check my phone or do anything other than being mommy. I'm still nursing and it's so tempting to be reading blogs on my phone while she's nursing but I'd really rather watch her and cuddle with her and kiss her little feet while she tries to kick me in the throat :) from the time Raiah goes to sleep around 9:30 till I go to sleep (which ends up being around midnight) i have a couple of hours a day to clean the house, do dishes, prepare food, pay bills, eat dinner, do laundry, shower and get ready for the next day with maybe a few minutes to spend sitting in front of the tv with scott after he gets home from work. sometimes i even have a couple of minutes to check my facebook, hotmail, gmail, yahoo, and browse pinterest before i fall asleep. most days i feel like i'm swimming upstream against time but i like swimming and i'm not complaining. The point is that I'm really grateful for the things I have to do, but the things that i don't HAVE to do, I can do without, like this blog. I was just looking through my phone to pick pictures/videos to upload and there are over 600 of them between my last post and this one!

As of today, Raiah is 8.5 months and can crawl or more like scoot backwards. she's super animated and fun. she finally got her first tooth when she was 7 months and 7 days old. she LOVES food. i mean, we've never seen her turn away from food or act full. ever. even if she doesn't like something (pears or avocado for example) she'll still eat it and make a disgusted face but then opens wide for the next spoonful. i have to get a better video of her eating. she LOVES Baby Einstein videos. she's absolutely mesmerized by them. there are 3 things that really piss her off: no more food (she'll throw a fit when you finish feeding her cuz she ALWAYS wants more!), taking her out of the bath when she's not done playing and walking by her and not acknowledging her on the floor playing. otherwise, she's the happiest baby ever.

I've been meaning to add some photos to this post for over 2 months. when I started to write this, Raiah was 7 months. now she's almost 9 months and crawling. I'm gonna post with no photos cuz I know it'll take me another couple of months to upload them :(

At 5 Months

2012-04-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

Raiah is almost half a year old! I can't believe how fast she's growing. She's already developing a hilarious personality. Some things that she's doing by today are:

- She sleeps through the night and still takes at least 3 naps during the day. it's wonderful!

- Chews INTENSELY on everything and especially loves hands. Sometimes she'll turn away when I'm nursing her just to chew on her hand (or mine). She can be 3 feet away from someone's hand and she still opens her mouth wide to try to attack it from far away. It's pretty funny.

- She's been saying DADADADADADADA for a few weeks now. She says it in times of happy/cooy-ness, boredom, anger, frustration, etc. but when she notices one of us leaving the room, she'll use it like a name, calling out to us. I know, you're thinking she's way too young to do that but SHE DOES! Scott was playing with her and left the room for a minute and she started saying "da da da da da" and when he didn't come back she started screaming "DAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!" like a freakin teenager!!! (ok, maybe she doesn't know what she's saying but we like to think she's way advanced)

- Rolls all over the place. There's no need to even put a blanket on the floor for her because she'll roll off of it right away.

- She's a very happy baby. She wakes up smiling (and almost upside down) every day. mornings are her favorite time of the day. She's cranky at night tho. She warms up to people very fast and as long as we're close by, let's anyone hold her and smiles at them. If you let her chew on your hand, she'll fall in love with you!

- She usually falls asleep with a blanket pulled over her face. If she doesn't have a blanket, she'll pull her bib over her face.

sleeping with her bib over her face

- She's still going bald and we find her fine little hairs all over the place!

- She LOVES when we sing to her. it can calm the biggest freakouts like magic. it's a good thing she doesn't judge my horrible singing voice.

- She used to HATE taking baths but the last 2 times she's been calm. The look on her face is still unsure and questioning like she'll freak out at any moment. She definitely doesn't enjoy it yet, but we're making progress.

- She loves to taste the wind. If we're outside and it's windy or even if you just blow in her face, she'll stick out her tongue.

outside tasting the wind

scott was blowing in her face here :)

- She's very interested in our food and expects the food to go in her mouth instead of ours. We gotta start her on solids next week.

A visit with grandparents

2012-03-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

my baby getting spoiled and loved :)

.....

2012-02-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

I just want to write these down so I can look back and remind myself of what's been on my mind these first few months of motherhood and my 30's.

1. I can't believe how fast Scott and I have gone from "omygod, how are we ever going to handle this??!!" to feeling like she's been a part of our family forever! why was it so hard in the beginning? she's so chill now. major chatterbox, still very serious :)

2. I've never been more impressed and felt more love than I have these past few months. I'm forever thankful! I hope that I can repay the kindness one day. I know you have plenty going on in your own lives too and we think you're rockstars for doing such a great job all the while going out of your way for us. thank you. I promise, we see and appreciate everything you do for us :)

3. Raiah's the most important thing in our lives. It WILL effect my relationship with you if you're blatantly indifferent to her. If you're indifferent to her, I'm indifferent to you. I can't tell you how easy this is for me! :) If we care about each other enough, we should show interest in each other's endeavors even if those endeavors are completely different from what's going on in our own lives.

4. I realize that I spent the majority of my 20's trying to please everyone. Most of the decisions I made were to make sure I was doing things right by some general standard. This is a really hard habit to break! I'm not complaining. I think it worked out fine but my resolution for my 30's is that I will make decisions based on what's best for my family, not what suits everyone else's plans. In this decade, I will give you as much energy and respect as you give my family, no more, no less. If we've gone out of our way to show how important you are in our lives, I expect you to do the same. If you don't, I won't waste my energy either. I'm REALLY looking forward to doing this. I feel like in the past, we've given so much importance to certain people who have not deserved it that we've neglected the ones who are important to us. this has and will change.

5. we've been so pre-occupied the last few months that I have barely even watched the news and don't know what the heck is going on in the world. I'm going to make an effort to plug back in and connect to life outside of my home :)

6. more than once or twice I've heard something like "why are you wasting your time folding little onesies when you should be spending time with your little one" or "now that you have a baby, you'll be doing laundry 3 times a week!!" or "have baby stuff completely taken over your house yet??"..... I still do laundry once a week and my kid is in fresh clothes every day. my sink isn't full of dirty dishes, our bed is almost always made daily, the floors are mopped once or twice a week and our place doesn't look any different than it did before we had a baby (besides the baby swing in the family room). I don't think this makes us bad parents!!! I know I'm lucky to have a husband who definitely does more than his share of things around the house. what can I say, we're more relaxed in a tidy home :)

7. I can't get enough of my girl. in the past 3 months, the number of photos on my phone has gone from 232 to 1140 :)

ok, that's it.

Raiah's Birth Story

2011-12-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

I have to write down her birth story before I forget the details. It was so fast and nothing really crazy happened (besides, ending up with a baby!!) and I was pleasantly surprised at what a weirdly great experience it was.

I had a pretty smooth pregnancy. second and third trimester were especially nice. I kept thinking that I'd miss being pregnant because I felt really healthy, didn't gain too much weight so I was still pretty active and the belly wasn't really getting in the way, and I loved how nice friends and perfect strangers were while I was pregnant! I'd go for walks around the office during breaks and almost everyone would congratulate me or ask if it was a girl or a boy. I felt pretty special :) I kept thinking that if pregnancy is so smooth, labor and delivery will make up for it in pain and complications (i know, not very positive). I just kept hoping that she'd wait till after my mom and dad got back from Iran but I really didn't want to go past my due date either because I wanted delivery to be over and to spend my time off with the baby. My time off started on monday the 14th which was the day my parents came back and I had planned on trying to induce labor that tuesday or wednesday. that wednesday morning, at 3am I woke up with some cramps. I didn't think anything of it because the braxton hicks contractions I had been getting since 34 weeks felt really different. The cramps kept coming and going irregularly all morning. At 11am, I called labor and delivery and described the pain and told them that I really didn't think I was experiencing contractions but I was worried why I was having cramps. they said to wait and see if they went away. Scott had the day off and we had planned on a date day full of outings so we were both bummed that I couldn't really leave the house. We kept thinking damn, the one day we wanted to have a cutesy day out, I had to go and get sick! haha! Anyways, the cramps kept getting more and more intense to the point where I couldn't talk through them any more. They were about 3-4 minutes apart at 9:45pm when we called labor and delivery and they told us to come in. Even then we weren't convinced that I was in labor. we took our bags and I told my mom and sister to meet us at the hospital but kept saying "they'll probably send us home but come anyways". in the car we kept saying how nice it was to be so close to the hospital cuz this could be the first of many times we'd go in and be sent home :)

when we got there, I was already at 4.5 centimeters! It was the real deal! we were both so surprised. They asked me if I wanted an epidural and at first I thought, maybe not, but then decided that the reward after labor is the baby whether or not you get an epidural so I opted to get it and so glad that I did!! I was close to 7 centimeters by the time I got it. my water broke when they were checking me. After I got the epidural, I was able to relax and actually enjoy the experience! It was fantastic! I pushed for about 15 minutes and could feel everything except for pain, and she was out! I can't say it was easy and painless because it wasn't, but it was smooth and uncomplicated. they put her on my chest and it took her a minute to let out a cry but she was perfect! and just like that our lives did a 180. she was born at 5:51 am on 11/17/11 at 7.69 lbs and 18.5 inches tall. we're in love.

kitchen

2011-10-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

wow, 3 posts in one night! I'm on a role :)

kitchen mini remodel:

when we were shopping for a home, we looked at the condo we eventually bought in the very beginning of our months-long search. we didn't like it. it had a grody kitchen with yucky/chipped laminate counters and a gross/chipped porcelain sink.... we had high expectations.... after looking and looking, we came back to it and realized, we didn't hate it after all. i think we actually started seeing the potential it had. it was the most space we could get for our budget at the time, and we were ready to move in and make some MAJOR changes. we moved in, made it livable and then started to look into renovating the kitchen. by this time, home prices had dropped so much that anything we spent on renovation, would really not bring our price back up that much. so we decided to hold off.

we held off for years as our value kept dropping until we got this really cute foam baby bath tub as a present and got so excited about giving our little girl baths in the kitchen sink. only problem was that the foam tub wouldn't fit in our sink :( what's a new parent-to-be to do??!!! put in a new sink of course! and you can't just put in a new sink without changing your counter tops to durable and shiny granite, right? so that's what we did. and i think it looks awesome :) now all we have left is getting stainless steel appliances and possibly resurfacing the cabinets.

BEFORE:

in process with plywood countertops and a big hole where the sink is gonna go:

AFTER:

my favorite room in the house :)

2011-10-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

it's the brightest and happiest room ever :)

this is what it looked like after the baby shower. thanks to our awesome friends and family, we're SO ready! My parents bought us all the baby furniture (you can't even see the dresser in this picture), bedding, car seats, stroller, etc. so thankfully all of that was already assembled before the room got filled with gifts.

we decided to make our old guest room into the nursery instead of the bigger room that scott has turned into his man cave. we ended up turning the man cave into a man cave/guest room/office cuz it's pretty big and it could accommodate a queen size bed for guests as well as all of scott's music and recording stuff. so now scott's man cave has pretty yellow curtains :) no pictures of that yet but it's dark gray and yellow.... we had already painted the old guest room a light shade of green thinking that we'd eventually turn it into a nursery and wanted to keep it gender neutral. it's a pretty bright room.

it went from this:

to this!!!

my sister and I made this mobil. it took us almost a week! i LOVE it!

baby shower

2011-10-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

I'm just gonna put mess of pictures here because I need to catch up on a few posts. I don't want to forget anything...

My awesome family threw me the sweetest baby shower on September 24th. It was perfect! I'm so grateful that our baby is SO loved and so thankful for my family who have never hesitated to go out of their way to make life easier and better for us. Honestly, I don't know what I would do without them!

present from my nephews to Daddy-to-be :)

oh baby! :)

2011-07-22T13:07:00.001-07:00

my last post was WAAAAAAAAAAY back in january! ha! i have a great excuse tho. i've been baking a bun in my oven :) it's been a very exciting, interesting and tiring few months to say the lease. we suspected that we were expecting while visiting scott's family in Gridley. i wasn't really feeling like myself and got sick after eating the BEST homemade pizza i've ever had. we took a pregnancy test when we got back and it was really faint so i thought maybe i'm just a little pregnant (haha, i didn't really think that!). waited another few days and got a digital one and it was POSITIVE!!

the next few weeks (up to week 14) i was a mess. my body felt like it had ran a marathon every day, nothing was appetizing and i just felt yucky and uncomfortable, couldn't sleep and couldn't throw up for the most part. after week 14, it's been much easier! we found out that we're having a baby girl and now we're busy making the perfect baby girl nursery :) my parents got us all the furniture a couple of weeks ago and i can't wait to finish decorating so i can put up some pictures. they're super excited cuz she's the first granddaughter on my side of the family. as much as all my nephews wanted a boy, i'm glad she'll be the first and only girl!!! lots of boys in the family to protect her and scare off the future boyfriends. scott's been hitting the gym really hard lately and i think he's secretly trying to get buff and strong to fight off the boys (or maybe he's feeling outnumbered with all the estrogen in the house, i don't know). she'll be the second granddaughter on scott's side of the family which is wonderful cuz they know EXACTLY what to do with a girl and we're gonna learn so much from them :)

there's been lots of other happenings and travels and cool stuff this year too but i've got baby brain and can't talk about anything else. oh well.

2011 so far...

2011-01-28T12:59:00.000-08:00

ok, so christmas wasn't in 2011 but i'm so far behind that i'm gonna clump it all in one post.

This year we went to Santa Barbara for christmas. we spent christmas eve at my sister-in-law's aunt's house for Posada. We sang worship songs in spanish, ate tamales and rocked baby jesus to sleep. yes we did :)

we spent the rest of the weekend at my brother's house opening presents and doing christmassy things like making hundreds of tamales and watching movies (mainly The Christmas Story a few times). scott's parents stopped by on their way up from Los Angeles too which was really cool!

NYE :)

my birthday came and went without any visible damage. i did get my first gray hair so i guess that's visible but i died it right away :) i'm officially in the last year of my 20's. i'm kinda looking forward to 30 actually. i feel like i can justify doing all the things i've always wanted to do when i turn 30. most of the big things are out of the way now and i can start enjoying everything. i have big plans for the next decade :) you know all the things you say "oh, i'll do that in my 30's" ?? such a good destination age.

this year for my birthday we wanted to take a trip. we decided NYC cuz neither one of us has been to New York. we booked our trip and were all packed to go when i got an email from Priceline that our flights had been canceled due to some stupid blizzard in NY. so with hours left till our vacation time, we took whatever refund they'd give us and booked another trip to Vegas! i think we salvaged the situation pretty nicely after such a frustrating turn of events. i was SO BUMMED!!! i mean, we've been to vegas a million times! scott even lived there for a while so it has no novelty for us but we hadn't been there together yet and we hadn't gone on a vacation with just the two of us in so long that it didn't really matter where we ended up going. we had a great time in Vegas. the weather was in the 70's and we did everything from shows to gambling to clubbing to shopping to etc. we couldn't have done any of these things in NY cuz it was below freezing there that whole week! ha! suckers!

I couldn't help it.

2010-12-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

sometimes, against all my efforts not to, i compare myself/my life/etc. to others. mostly, i think, it's because i like the reassurance that i'm up to par. but sometimes, i get really down on myself when i assume, from the looks of things, that someone else has gotten a better hand dealt to them. "better" meaning easier, more stable, more relaxed, more successful, more healthy, more fun, more meaningful, more productive, more social, more private, more fruitful, just overall luckier than me. the past few months have been especially packed with these comparisons and i've even moved on from only comparing myself to others to comparing others with each other and getting really sad for the one that doesn't seem to have the better situation. that's a lot of feeling sorry..... it's making me eat a lot of chocolate which is just as good as it is bad :)

today i realized something about someone who i'd always assumed had the "better" situation than most and the reality is that she doesn't. far from it actually and i got so angry with myself for 1. not realizing this sooner so that i could maybe help 2. holding this assumption against her for years.

the truth is that what i may consider "better" is subjective and i really shouldn't be so hard on myself! so i'm making a new year's resolution now (along with exercising more, losing weight, yada yada yada) that i will curb the comparisons and make lemonade with the lemons instead of feeling sorry that they're not pomegranates. lemonade has its own benefits and pomegranates have their own season and i'll eat many a pomegranate along the way as they come my way and i've enjoyed plenty already to be thankful for!

i'm not sure if this post will make sense next time i read it but oh well...

Giving Thanks

2010-12-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

i couldn't find the cord to my camera for the longest time and my poor photos were held hostage. i found it today!!!

we went to Gridley for thanksgiving with the Dolans. it was fantastic. we had such a great time! the dinner was delish, and the whole time was a much needed relaxing time with the family. here are some pictures of our time there....

Mom and Dad's Golden Anniversary

2010-11-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

My Mom and Dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last saturday. We went to a persian restaurant that had live music and belly dancers. the boys had a fantastic time :)

50 years!!! they've been the the king and queen of their castle for most of their lives, making their own rules and setting their own standards for how to raise their 4 kids and live their lives. they're each other's favorite person. they have inside jokes and the same sense of humor. they've always put their children's wellbeing before their own and have had each other's backs against anything that the world has thrown at them. not a single one of us kids (and plenty of other friends and family) would be where we are today if it weren't for my parents's sacrifices and support. they've collected 50 years of stories and memories that we get to enjoy, some more often than others. here's to another 50 years full of adventure :)

Marriage Q & A

2010-11-18T13:17:00.001-08:00

i saw this on someone else's blog and thought it'd be cute to write all this down.... it's extremely corny but whatever.

1. when is your "marriage" anniversary? "engagement" anniversary?

we were engaged on 3/11/2006 and got married on 7/15/2007

2. where/how did you meet your spouse for the first time?

we met at Starbux where i was a barista and he came in with his friend to get a frappuccino :) i asked for his name to put on the cup as i did with all customers and when he came in for a second round (an hour later so he could talk to me) i remembered his name and he was flattered :) then he started coming in every day, sometimes not even buying a drink and then i was flattered...... :)

3. how long have you known your spouse:
this is our 7th christmas together.

4. how long did you date/court before you were engaged?
a year and half. way too fast but you gotta do what you gotta do.

5. do you have any children:
nope.

6. do you have any house pets:
we have a fish. that's as far as i'll ever go. pets belong outside, not on our couches. and we both hate the smell of dogs/cats indoors. when we were house hunting, he wouldn't step foot in a place where the previous owners had pets.

7. what are some of your favorite activities together:
going to starbucks count? we do this anytime we can't think of what to do... and watching late late night shows together....

8. do you have a favorite vacation spot:
we've been on some awesome vacays together but the one that we always want to do again is Hawaii. it was just so perfect. we hiked the diamond head, snorkeled in Hanauma Bay. spent a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. went to fancy dinners. we both want a re-do.

9. where was your first date?
First official date was dinner at Firestones in SLO and a movie (dodgeball).

10. when did you first kiss?
at a gazebo over the ocean in Pismo Beach. later that was the place he proposed :)

11. who said i love you first?
HE DID!!! by accident of course. i asked one of those loaded questions like "what would you do if i lost all my teeth" and he said "i'd love you anyway.. i mean, um, you'd still be cute."

12. did you get married in a church?
nope. we had a traditional persian ceremony, in english....

13. do you get flowers often?
i used to get them ALL THE TIME! just randomly. i still get them once in a while. he's a romantic...... sometimes.

14. where did you go on your honeymoon:
HAWAII!!!

15. how long did you know each other before you started dating?
2 weeks. dated 3 years before getting married tho.

16. what do you call each other most of the time?
babe.

17.when did you each meet the other's family?
i met his family when he took me to Gridley to attend a friend's wedding about 3 month after we had started dating. he met my family around the same time. he met my brothers and sister first then my parents a while after.

18. which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
we NEVER have a day off together. EVER! i have wendesday/sat/sun off and he has thurs/fri's off. and we work opposite shifts too so we see each other every night from midnight till 8:30 am.

19. did you go to the same school?
nope.

20. are you from the same home town?
nope.

21. who is smarter?
we're equally genius :)

22. who is more sensitive?
me probably.

23.where do you eat out most as a couple?
either sushi at this place by our house or pizza my heart :)

24. what attracted you about him/her first?
he's REALLY polite and a gentleman. still opens the door for me and walks on the street side of the sidewalk.

25. who is more social?
me. i can make friends anywhere. he's pretty social too but mostly with people he knows well.

26. who is more clean???
i'm more clean, he's more tidy. there's a huge difference.

28. who hogs the bed?
he does.

29. who wakes up earlier?
he does. even on his days off.

30. what are his favorite things and her favorite things?
Scott: music. jimmy fallon. burgers/pizza/fettuccine alfredo/sushi. his guitars/amps/recording stuff. ANDY!!!
Tabi: tabloids. boots. persian food. award shows. old home videos. art history. awesome fonts.

Giants and the elections....

2010-11-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

i'm watching the parade in SF right now and it's so amazing!!! i'm jumping on the fan wagon and am so excited! i learned a little about baseball this year and even got a little teary eyed when Wilson got that last strike. he's so the man :) i kinda wish i was in SF right now..... cuz, man, we beat the WHOLE WORLD, right!!! ??

so the elections.... um, please don't be offended by this, it's just my opinion. no one has to agree.

yesterday was election day. California did good. the rest of the country, not so much. but here's hoping this will restore the balance in Washington and allow the president to get some work done. maybe the Republicans having the House will mean that they'll be more cooperative and not out to just disagree for the sake of disagreeing. and maybe more decisions will be made instead of bickering. maybe if they know that they're part of the solution, everyone will stop and listen to the other side and make decisions per issue, not per party affiliation. i think the politicians are forgetting why and for whom they're in office.

i'm just happy that in the last year and half, we've been able to re-finance our home that's lost so much value. i'm happy that 2 out of 3 good friends that i know in the military are now home with their families. i'm happy that we will qualify for health insurance regardless of our pre-existing conditions. these were some of the promises that got obama into office, right? he's done good for me so far.

i think it's so great that the country has become so politically aware. so many people care now. we don't all agree but we're free to express our concerns directly to the people that represent us. that's what happened yesterday. i just hope that we all find a way to put aside our party affiliation inclinations and look at each issue independent of who's proposing it. Let's not be so suspicious of the other side's "agenda" just because it's coming from the "other side". let's have a little faith in our constitution. it's really well written! let's be positive and find some common ground :)

go GIANTS!!!

pumpkin...

2010-10-31T14:24:00.000-07:00

we carved a pumpkin for the first time ever since we met in 2004. like i said, i'm not too into halloween but this year we thought, we'll carve a pumpkin, what's the big deal?

it turned out nice. we left it outside overnight and the next day it was completely demolished. i didn't know squirrels liked pumpkin so much....

no pictures of the disaster. it was just too sad...

Rainy night at home :)

2010-10-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

finally!!!! it's been raining all day and tonight i've had a completed to-do list, which never ever happens and i'm chilling in my pj's under a blanket watching my favorite disney movies back to back! in true tabi nature, i feel like i'm wasting time and that i should be DOING something but i'm forcing myself to relax and not worry about how i could have spent my free evening more productively. i just finished watching Cinderella and i'm about to start Pocahontas.

my all time favorites (Aladdin and the Little Mermaid) weren't available but i'm still happy. i've been wanting to do this since our disneyland trip :)

also, taji comes back tomorrow!!! i hear she's got 6 dvd's full of her adventures in the motherland :) can't wait!

summer ended?

2010-10-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

oh man, where the heck did it go? i'm not ready for fall yet. everyone's so excited about the fall and halloween and i still wanna hang out by the pool. halloween is definitely not one of my favorite holidays. i don't know, maybe because i don't get or give presents. or maybe because i can't commit to a costume idea in time to actually pull it off. or probably because all i want to do in this weather is to sit at home in my pj's and fluffy slippers.... for some reason, however, i'm so in the mood to start my christmas shopping!!!

summer of '10 was fabulously packed! my parents went back to iran for a few months and then my sister took off for iran for a few weeks. scott and i work opposite shifts (me 9 - 7:30, him 3-11) so we barely see each other, so i've been a little lonely without my family around cuz when my parents and my sister are here, i see them almost every day. but that's ok cuz taji's having a blast in iran and will be back in 10 days. i've talked to her a few times and every time she gets into a juicy story and stops herself and says "omg, there are so many details i don't wanna miss... i'll tell you the whole story when i come back!" she's faithfully documenting every step she takes. she's filmed every stroll down the street, every yummy dinner/dance party and every family gathering that lasts till the sun comes up. i'm missing out on a ton :( i got the first batch of pictures from her today and it's so weird seeing her in them with family and relatives we haven't seen in 15 years!

our summer included lots of family time like our awesome Disneyland vacation with scott's family. we had SUCH a good time. we spent about 14 hours at California Adventure and a good 16 hours at Disneyland the next day! we for sure got our money's worth :) we stayed at the Fairfield Inn Disneyland Resort and even squeezed in some pool time in between our long park days. Sandy had us over for dinner the first night we were there and we surprised scott's mom with a birthday cake. overall it was one fantastic vacation.

also spent lots of time at the pool and with friends. lots of little get togethers and dinner parties. scott's friend, smith and his family came to visit us and we had a blast with them and their baby! she's one social butterfly! she sang to us all the way to SF and back :) so now the possibility of one day having children isn't that scary thanks to the smith family! please come visit again or just send us your baby :)

here are just some random pix of our summer....

pictures!

2010-06-28T23:17:00.001-07:00

ok so we've been SO BUSY!!! here are some pictures....

I went to Santa Barbara for mother's day with my family. scott had to work :(

we went to Salvang.

had lots of heart-to-hearts over yummy pastry.

then we took a lil trip to see Ellyn graduate.

then we checked out the Buddhist temple.

then we celebrated scott's and josh's birthdays along with father's day. scott's parents and my brother's family were all in town.

sprinkle in a bunch more birthdays, weekend trips and work and you've got a super full few weeks. still waiting to have that one day of doing nothing!

we love weddings!

2010-05-05T23:44:00.000-07:00

so last weekend we went to Bishop, CA for the wedding of one of scott's friends. it was a beautiful wedding and Brent and Angie looked amazing and the band was awesome.

how we got there was not so glamorous...

we booked the room and reserved a car and asked for time off months ahead of time. the week of the wedding, the news kept showing this crazy snow storm that was keeping roads closed and was making a mess. i freak out, like i normally do, and start looking up road closures, chain requirement, road assistance resources, emailing the soon-to-be-bride, etc. i figure out that chains are required. i frantically look for friends that might have chains cuz i don't wanna buy them for a rental car and the rental company doesn't rent out chains. one of my co-workers graciously offers me his chains. they're for 14" tires. i try to get the rental company to tell me if they'll fit our car and they won't say! so frustrating. i start looking up all the possible cars they could give us and the only ones that might have 14" tires are the tiny economy cars. Bishop is up by Mammoth. i'm worried that we'll have a hard time climbing up in the mountains in a tiny economy car but at this point it's our only choice. so i figure we should sign up for AAA roadside assistance. $90 later, the AAA doesn't go into effect until the day we're driving back. CRAP. i call scott to complain about this as he's driving to work and he's telling me that he'll take care of everything and that i should relax, then he gets pulled over and is given a ticket.... double crap.... the day is getting worse and worse!

happy ending to the story? we end up getting the tiny car which came out cheaper, we take a southern route through Bakersfield and don't see a flake of snow, we're surprised by a great upgrade in our room, the weather is so great that i had to go buy some flip flops (cuz i'd only packed uggs and snow shoes), and we get to spend a fabulous weekend with some fabulous people!!! we had so much fun! congrats to brent and angie :)

New Happenings

2010-04-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

i've been thinking about posting something new but haven't had the chance. i've been working A LOT lately.... some days up to 17 hours a day! crazy! but i'm very grateful to be able to work this much. i live for it! on april first scott texted me that my laptop wasn't turning on. i thought it was an april fools joke. i was wrong. i cried and mourned my faithful laptop that was my graduation present about 6 years ago. it had a full and happy life. there was no question that i needed a new computer, right? that day we went and bought me a SWEET desktop. this one!!! (my camera's broken, no real pictures in this post :( )

i love it! but we had to spend what we had been saving up to go on a vacation with. i have the best husband cuz he didn't even bring that up and he's been dreaming about this vacation for months! so the vacation isn't canceled. just postponed till we save up enough, again. we're making little trips here and there until that happens. a couple of weeks ago we went to gridley for scott's grandma's 75 surprise birthday party! we had such a good time hanging out with family. some of them we hadn't seen since our wedding 3 years ago! grandma had a blast! thanks to scott's mom for bringing everyone together :) In may we're going to a wedding up in Bishop. In june we'll make a trip to so cal to visit my brother and scott's grandparents and attend scott's cousin's graduation. and then hopefully in july we'll do something for our anniversary.

this year, i totally forgot to get rid of my wheatgrass that i'd been growing for persian new year. they say that on the 13th day of the new year, you have to throw it in running water so it can float away with all the negative energy it's been absorbing for 13 days. if you don't do this, bad things happen (i don't really believe in this stuff, but still)...... so on the 14th day of new year, i'm talking to my mom and complaining about how my computer just died/scott lost his ipod/i broke my favorite pitcher/got a new scratch on my car/my awesome neighbors moved away/etc. and my mom asks "did you throw away your wheatgrass?" so i took it to the creek and let it float away right away. scott found his ipod today. yeay :)