Brewers in the City

New Blog!

2013-01-30T10:39:00.003-08:00

I finally decided to utilize my husband's web developing potential and have him start a better blog for me.

If you're wondering, it's here.

See you over at the new blog!

The Burbank jokes were a hit.

2013-01-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

The women's ministry at church held a "connect" at Barnsdall Park on Saturday. Not only did I get to fellowship with the lovely ladies (and Baby Jude!) of Reality LA, I got to do it next to Hollyhock House. The weather was spectacular. Cold and a bit blustery, the sky was as blue as you could want it to be.

My sister came along for the day. I got to play Hollywood tour guide, which is pretty much the best version of tour guide.

This was my first amazing parking spot of the day at Barnsdall.
One good parking spot is God's mercy. A second one later in the day is God's grace.
That's how it works in LA. ;)

The Gallery Theater had quite the collection of vintage movie posters.
Including this terrifying Shirley Temple number.

AHHHH!!! I WAS FANGIRLING OVER ARCHITECTURE.

I kept telling her that it was great to see "all the sites of New York City".
It doesn't translate well here, but obviously my jokes were hysterical.

After the Women's Connect, we stopped by another wonderful bit
of Hollywood architecture: Cinerama Dome. We saw the most giant version of
Ryan Gosling you could possibly see- the screen is 86 ft wide and the dome itself is 72 ft high.

Here's Lauren in the theater before the movie.
Let me just say that you haven't seen a
movie until you've seen it on this screen.

After Gangster Squad, we stopped by Amoeba records since it's a block away. I managed to find a Soundgarden cassette tape (yes, that's correct) and vinyl.

I knew that I had to take Lauren to Griffith Observatory after seeing the gorgeous shots of it in Gangster Squad. First of all- Griffith Park is a turd to get to. Everyone and their mom wants to be up there at sunset. People will run you over to be up there. You have to wait in a long line in a canyon and maybe get a parking spot. You will be honked at by wealthy people who deem you "unworthy" of being near them. I fought through all of this and scored a parking spot near the observatory. I almost gave up. I did not. I parked. I conquered.

It was freezing cold.

However, the sunset was gorgeous. You could see the outline of Catalina.

It was the perfect end to a Hollywood tour.

Freezing her tush off.

Here's my giant face that is 12 years old.

The Brewers: A Year in Pictures.

2012-12-31T10:29:00.000-08:00

The year started off with a bang.

Cameron made himself a celebratory pair of Lt. Dangle hot pants/nevernude shorts.

He quickly involved our innocent 5 year old.

I found the most awesome of all benches.

We discovered that LACMA was one of our favorite spots in LA.

The kids went to their first show- Ben Kweller at Amoeba Records.

Mae and I even ended up in a music blog with our picture taken by a pro.

We managed to meet up with lots of new (and old) friends at Disneyland.

We had fun at church and small group.

It was sad to say good-bye to some friends.
Especially when you both love Jesus, jelly shoes and My Little Pony.

As husband and wife we got to get away for a few different fun days.

San Diego in February.

We also spent a weekend shopping

& seeing THE Ron Swanson (aka Nick Offerman).

We got to see Five Iron Frenzy at the Glass House.

We had the fanciest date ever. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and

Dark Knight Rises at a 21 and over showing at The Arclight.

We spent our 7th anniversary in Lone Pine.

Earl came along.

We were Redwood Originals for Halloween.

We planted lots of plants- in our community garden and on our porch.

We played with our friends.

We explored LA.

Easter at The Gibson.

Pre-Season Dodgers with Sarah May-May.

The Old Zoo.

We hung out on the stoop and had an apartment style pool.

We added fish to our zoo.

The kids made Daleks to prepare for the premiere of new Doctor Who.

Mae talks to France via iPad.

Our friend Pip drew all over the walls in the kid's room.
Usually this is not socially
acceptable, but in this case we asked him to.

Mae makes a brillant hobbit.

We went out to Yucaipa quite a bit.

An MC protects family members of a fallen soldier from the
Westboro Baptist "church"
at my old church in Yucaipa.

This kid wore a bow tie to a wedding...

Jeremy and Emily's wedding!

Mae had this pic snapped of her by the wedding photographers.

We took part in a few special days...

Record Store Day

Opening day of Avengers.

Free Comic Book Day.

We played...

Vacation was fun...

My Mom became a west coast rapper...

Mae received her first manicure- it was free because the lady's name was Mai.

We went to Cars Land.

Mae was a grim grinning girl at her Haunted Mansion themed party.

Cameron got a new tattoo.

Josiah joined up with the Sons.

Mae tried slack lining.

Mae got the best pair of shoes ever.

Mae got to try on flower girl dresses since my brother is getting married.

Ashley got to try on dresses since she is marrying my brother. ;)

We slept in a cabin in Julian.

There were many "firsts" this year.

Josiah got his first guitar.

First Ballet class.

Our first van.

First Capoeira class.

Josiah caught the first fish.

Of course, Josiah's First Day of School.

I went to my first Soundgarden concert.
Front row.

I have too many teeth in my mouth.

We bid Orange County a final fair-well when Cameron found a job in the valley.

I learned that the valley had many fun music related things to

offer me.

I was thrilled to spend time with wonderful friends.

Opie and Mickey Mouse even hung out.

Weirdest fan crossover ever.

Josiah had an Oswald and Mickey themed birthday.

...and later in the same month managed to be a total ham at his Christmas recital.

We had a fantastic Christmas.

2012 was a year of big change for us.
We are thankful for the people, jobs and opportunities God has given us.
We love it here.

Here's to another year full of Brewer-awesomeness.

Josiah's School Recital.

2012-12-27T09:54:00.000-08:00

Josiah had a Christmas Recital last week and both kids were dressed up, so I snapped a few pictures before we left.

Okay- this is the moment where Josiah tells Mae he wants a picture by himself.

Mae and her Nutcracker. She's watched the ballet about 10 times since
Christmas season started.

Bow ties are cool.

I don't know when my son became a female Japanese tourist.

My dog is an expert photo bomber. I had to crop him out of most of these.
This one stayed.

Now for the stud muffin pics.

Let me throw in a little sass for you...

A few days before the show at school, Josiah's teacher, Mrs. Alvarez asked if Josiah could

memorize an introduction for their class. I said yes and Josiah enthusiastically went about this task.

He got to hold a microphone so he was sold.

He memorized it, but still read it off a cue card.

Pleased with himself.

Good grief.

Ham Bone.

Oh, if I didn't learn from the lessons of Corey Haim, Lindsey Lohan and
other child stars, I would get this kid an agent.

Watching the rest of the classes.

Mae had fun too. :)

"We plunged into the cornucopia quivering with desire and the ecstasy of unbridled avarice. "

2012-12-27T09:34:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve consisted of going to the gym, Subway for lunch, playing trouble and having Mexican Coca Cola.

You know, the old traditional Christmas Eve.

We made cookies, played "Little Big Planet" & lounged in new jammies. Cameron opened his very Don Draper-esque Christmas Eve gift.

The kids went to sleep around 8:30 after checking the Google Santa Tracker.

Cameron and I enjoyed some pink champagne and happily drifted off to Christmas slumber.

The next morning I got up to enjoy a few quiet moments with coffee and a devotional before hearing the kids stirring in their beds.

I told them to get Dad up and then we could commence Christmas festivities.

Mae closes her eyes and waits to see what the man in red brought.

AN EASY BAKE OVEN! I WISHED FOR THAT!

Josiah got an R/C car that instantly runs out of batteries.

Pretty stoked on his Spider-Man grooming kit.

Earl was super tired. He'd been up all night waiting for St. Nick.

If you ask Earl where his stocking is- he will trot over and use his stubbed nose to point at it.
Earl likes Christmas.

Josiah got this from Alfred. ( I don't know if other families do this,
but we usually
put a clever name or theme on our
gift tags instead of our own. For instance,
I received gifts from both SAMCRO & Ryan Gosling this year.)

Brother knows how to shop for sister.

Christmas delirium.

All she can talk about right now is having Violet over to play with this.

Easy Bake delicacies.

Gob would like to remind you that he is a handsome man cat.

Her own razor!

Skylander's Lego things!

My handsome flannel guys.

Ashley got a camera for Christmas.

Aaron got a ton of accessories for her camera- with lots of swell lenses
that also fit on my camera.

Capturing the spirit of Christmas.

Cameron bought me this little beauty.

...and this cute apron to wear while I use the food processor.

Klaus contemplates life.

Right before we left my parent's house last night, my brother brought out sparklers for the kids.

It was around 40 degrees and just felt like the perfect end to a wonderful Christmas.

We had to take some pictures with Lola.

If you know anything about my parent's three legged dog, you know she's a survivor (parvo, cancer, leg amputation). She is about nine years old and not doing so hot.

This was her last Christmas and we made sure it was extra special.

The kids love Lola-Bean and call her Nana Lola (after the dog in Peter Pan).

She has watched over both my babies since they were born.
She was especially worried if they took a bath or crawled off in the wrong direction.

Lola even supervised the courtship between Cameron and I. She would often make her seat right between us and gnaw at my hand if we tried to hold hands.

Lola is a special dog and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't have a few shots of her with the kids.

Merry Christmas Slowla.

About that LA weather.

2012-12-19T15:42:00.001-08:00

This is a post with no purpose other than to share my recent weather experiences.

Please enjoy.

Parts of the country have weather that is firmly planted in the negatives.

I understand.

I like cold weather. I like storms.

It's been around 40 degrees in the morning.

This morning it was 40 but felt like 35 with wind chill.

I typically like this.

I don't like waking up in the wee hours of the morning and getting ready without a heater.

It's been over two weeks and for some reason our landlord hasn't had the heater fixed.

This has led to creative warming methods with strict enforcement of planned routine.

COLDNESS AVOIDANCE PLAN

I get up first, run to the bathroom, turn on the heater lamp & Cameron's shower.

I then head to the kitchen, turn on the coffee maker and the stove.

I go potty.

I come back and make my coffee.

I open the oven and place a blanket nearby.

Josiah has breakfast here.

If he doesn't get dressed in the bathroom, he gets dressed here.

I bundle Josiah and send him on his way to class.

You can put your arms down when you get to school.

Mae finds warmth in the kitchen.

Our car is being worked on near Cameron's work.
I had to take him out there this morning.
I stopped by Orphaned CDs, a record store in Northridge on Reseda.

When we came back out, the wind was whipping hard.

In fact, I had dodged TWO tumbleweeds on the way there.

Like Mae said- those things live in the desert, not the city.

Anyway, I walked out to my car and saw a reflection of my intense hair in the car window.

PHOTO SHOOT TIME.

SELFIES!

I let the wind carry me and my hair away.

I actually get a kick out of these.

Dear 14-year-old Leigh,

First of all, please stop wearing Dickie pants in different colors.

You will regret this.

Second of all, you hate your hair now, but someday you will embrace it's

hugeness. You will stand outside a music store and be enchanted by it.

Sincerely,

28-year-old Leigh

That trust your mighty pow'r to save

2012-12-19T08:12:00.001-08:00

Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel