another day, another milestone

this weekend was one of those perfect weekends in a way that only a cold, frigid january weekend could be. it was filled with doing a whole lot of nothing except being with good friends, snuggled under blankets, watching the nfl playoffs.

we managed to squeeze in a hair cut for my scrunch who was starting to look like a hippy, and now he is quite dapper. but oh, it hurt a little to watch my baby get his first haircut. 

*before and after*

*sad mommy whose baby is becoming a little less baby*

we also squeezed in some family outdoors time. the husband threw a big snowball at the back of his pregnant wife. he was then shamed into doing penance by putting his face in the snow. it almost made the snowball worth it 

*3-2-1*

*let that  be a lesson to you: never harm, in the slightest, thine pregnant wife!*

summer's last hurrah

now that we've gotten past the rottenness of mondays and we've entered the acceptance phase of the grieving cycle, let's relive the weekend. weeks ago, a good friend and i planned to officially kick off the unofficial start of fall by taking our families out to cox farms. between work schedules and travel schedules, our families could only have gone on this joint outing one weekend in october, but we felt confident about it. after all, it was listed as a prime weekend on the cox farm event calendar. being a prime weekend means only two things: firstly, you pay extra for your ticket (yippeee! said no one ever) and secondly that we would have prime fall weather. you know, not too hot, not too cold, but just right, in that baby bear goldilocks way. warm with just a bite of crisp air.

i was so looking forward to this, because as you may know, it is a rare opportunity for me to get the husband and the best friend to do any kind of physical activity. but muahahahhaha, i could trick them into the corn maze walk-athon. (backstory, shortened version: two years ago when we all went to a farm out in maryland to do a corn maze, we followed the leader, a.k.a. husband, and circled the corn maze for an hour and a half before we made it out. it was glorious, but only for me. i'm pretty sure everyone else was ready to shoot a rescue flare up.)  but oh mother nature, she just likes to throw wrenches into my best laid plans. all week long, i faced steadily climbing temperatures, which is not always a bad thing, if we had started the week out at 55 degrees. but we started the week out at 75 degrees and peaked at 92 degrees on saturday - just in time for our fall festival day of fun. in case you're wondering, 92 degrees is not conducive to trekking through an unshaded corn maze (and most likely getting lost), nor is it optimal for drinking hot apple cider. i couldn't even wear the cute fall outfit i had mentally chosen all those weeks ago when we first made plans to head out to the farm. pretty much, the best thing you can do in 92 degrees at a fall festival is sit in the picnic area under a roof, a.k.a in the shade. $17 per ticket! money well spent!!

and now, our fall festival story in pictures:

*one of us is determined to have fun, one of us is highly skeptical, and one of us is thinking, "i cannot believe they made me skip nap time for this."*

*first stop: hay ride time

*alexander looking his scrunchy-licious skeptical best, theo: "oooh prickly grass. i should grab it!"*

*waddup ladies. check out my ride...yeah i am not impressed either. *

*a picture for our fall family postcards. oh wait, we're all sweating, dressed for the beach...thank goodness for the gourds!*

*so excited about forced friendships and forced pictures with an abundance of squash*

*"lucas, what was the best part of the day?"

"it's a toss up between ice cream..."*

*"...and tractors."*

*highlight of alexander's day: tummy time on a blanket on top of wood chips, under the shade!*

*the birth of a rock band drummer. every asian parent's dream come true!*

*wait, what did you say? we're going after this? in the air-conditioned car?...*

 *S-M-I-L-E*

have i mentioned?

that the carlsons looooooooove fridays? the weekend is on the horizon, so close i can smell it - almost touch it! i've already got  a mighty to-do list for tomorrow; as usual, i am sure i have planned far more than we can get done, but at least i am good at something. it's called overreaching and overestimating my capacity. it's a real good self esteem builder when i fail time and time again.

but before i start shouting commands at husband and strategically mapping out my saturday, i am going to sit here, drink my black tea, and savor the thought of the weekend - oh so close! (as my blackberry rings off the hook)

what better way to kick off weekend than this?

is there any other more appropriate response to the onset of the weekend? 

spring is but a tease

this morning, we woke up to this:

which was so disappointing because we had a lovely spring teaser of a weekend. it is almost april after all. here are a few scenes from our weekend:

i found sunday to be quite productive. not only did i help successfully install our car seat, but i also shaved my legs, which at nine months pregnant, is no small feat. oh yes i did because yesterday the one thing i kept worrying about was having stubbly, prickly legs when the entire hospital staff is up in my woo hoo. you know, i've always been good at this priorities thing. 

oh the labor over labor day weekend

thanks to my nascar-like driving skills, the husband and i spent all weekend going from car dealership to car dealership. as it turns out, car shopping is not nearly as fun as clothes shopping. or shoe shopping for that matter.

armed with our limited budget in hand we traipsed up to maryland and back into virginia. and these car dealers just would not budge. generally, i think that car dealers need us more than we need them, except in this case, i happened to have wrecked our only car, so we had a little less bargaining power. but i guess the good thing about not having money is if they were not going to come down on their price, well we did not have much choice, but to walk away.

but we were undeterred. on sunday night, we found the perfect used car - at some point we decided we simply must have the subaru forester because we plan on going off-roading this winter in the snow and ice.  we searched high and low for certified pre-owned subaru foresters in our area. there are only four in the washington, dc metro area. so on sunday night, after a day of venturing out to maryland and coming home without a car, we were thrilled to find a subaru, pre-owned certified (the only way to go when buying used!) 2012 forester with only 756 miles on it for just a smidge over budget. we were pumped for monday to roll around so we could check this baby out. but honestly, we were pretty much ready to buy it, what with the warranty on a certified pre-owned, plus the low mileage and the fact it was practically new for much lower than what a new car would cost. who cared about amenities? if it was a stick shift, i would have learned to drive a stick shift for that price!! come monday morning, we were  excited, high-fiving each other down the 1, all the way in the boonies of alexandria, when we pulled up into the dealership to find out that it was closed on labor day!! can you believe it?!?! closed!!!! what car dealership in its right mind closes on labor day?? well too bad for them, because we needed a car, so we google mapped the next closest dealer and off we went. five and a half hours later, we drove off into the sunset with a brand new 2012 subaru forester. our first real grown up purchase - at least our first real one after which we had no regrets! and the cherry on top of it all, we got it in a manly black, because let's be honest, a subaru forester is barely a step above a station wagon, so we had to do what we could to man-ify it. and my new favorite thing about this forester? whenever a dinky car cuts me off, i like to scream, "i can monster truck you in this thing if you don't get out of my way!"

and because husband is a fabulous researcher, after we got home with our new car, he hopped on the computer to make sure we got a good deal. folks, we got the best deal in the entire area, lower by a significant amount than the next lowest price on a new premium subaru 2012 forester. oh yeah, we high-fived ourselves all the way into sweet dreams-ville that night.

hi. my name is grace. and i'm an asian woman driver

i never really believed (or wanted to believe as husband would say) that i'm that asian woman driver. but as it turns out, it would seem, i am exactly that asian woman driver.

as i was kicking-off my friday evening, driving down lee highway, i saw a red light and began to break, when suddenly the light ahead turned green. so naturally, i eased my foot off the break, because cars are supposed to move when the light turns green.

only the cars must not have moved. clearly they didn't move fast enough. and i just did not process the car that was literally right in front of me and boom, i rear-ended a red acura right in the middle of rush hour. but honestly, it wasn't like i was doing my make up or talking on the phone. my mind just went blank. it was as if what my eyes were seeing was not being accurately translated in my brain. and then impact! you think the car that got hit was shocked?! i was shocked. how could this have happened? i just don't understand it.

and as i was retelling husband the story, giving him the play-by-play, i said, "babe, i just don't know how this happened." to which, my ever truly supportive husband replied, "babe. you don't know how this happened? [eyes rolling] you're an asian woman driver! do you want me to recount all the driving stories??"

NO! that's not necessary although husband is suddenly itching to do a few guest posts.

here's my handy work

and because there just is not a more appropriate way to end this post, in the wise words of dwight shrute:

p.s. momma chiang, if you're reading this post, we may be in the market for a car loan soon.
p.p.s. momma chiang, we're thinking of defaulting on the car loan we used to purchase the above wrecked car. feel free to repossess.

carlsons' candids

this past weekend, the hodges came to visit. as usual the theme of our get togethers was food, food, and more food. 

i learned this weekend that i'd like to trade lives with mr. lucas kwong. what do you say little guy? interested in a switcheroo??

we saw round one drafts for the remodel of our future home last night. it's starting to feel real. and then i started to get a little overwhelmed thinking about furnishing this soon to be five bedroom house. goodness, we are going from a one bedroom condo to five bedrooms. better stock up on aerobeds galore while they are still on sale at costco!

carlsons' candids

this weekend, momma chiang came into town for a whirlwind visit and and to help us with a big project (reveal to come in a few days!) as you can see, there was lots of food involved and good company too.

we ended the weekend around a lazy susan at x.o. taste - authentic, not too greasy chinese food. when the bill came, momma chiang reached for it as mark eyed the bill. but her fast, trained chinese hands were too skilled in the food check game for mark, so all mark could say was:, "ummmm we'd like to help with the bill." here's the kicker folks, and by kicker, i mean SHOCKER! momma chiang replied, "no, that is not the chinese way. i pay for it." husband and i looked at each other and busted out laughing, because this is the first either of us have heard of this new-fangled chinese way. after we stopped laughing, husband managed to say, "i feel like i've been lied to the past couple years of my life." but we'll ride on the adkins' coattails for a free chinese meal any day! thanks momma and thanks adkins! you helped us learn a very, very valuable, and might i add, new, cultural lesson.

big bro, what do you think of momma's new assertion?

on another note, who watched the olympics opening ceremony? can we give a collective shout: "i want those three hours of my life back!!!!" i'm not sure what's worse: the opening ceremony itself, or the fact that we watched the entire thing, thinking, there was a big wow factor just coming up and if we kept watching then we would not miss it. somehow, we managed to watch the whole thing, and miss the big wow of the opening ceremony. but onto the games. U-S-A!

happy monday and let the countdown to the weekend begin!