The Quiet Life of Violet

Cattlemens

(below: 2007)
Ever since I was a little girl, my sweet Grandfather has treated our large family to special dinners at a restaurant called Cattlemen's. It's a western themed steakhouse that claims to be the best in the West and has dishes like "The Sheriff" and "Cowpie Brownie Sundae" and "Desert 'O'asis". On your birthday they bring out silly hay cowboy hats and sing an obnoxiously loud song and the whole restaurant stops and stares.

I remember being about 12 years old and my Mother panicking because she hadn't though about what us kid would wear until that morning. I never understood why she didn't just figure it out before then, but now as a mother, I totally understand. (Have I mentioned that today marked the fourth time in the past three weeks that I've accidentally gone out in public in my slipper?)

Grandpa used to take us out every year to celebrate the "fall" birthdays, then twice a year (birthdays and Christmas) and then we stopped for a bit since all of our individual families had grown rather large.


    (above: 2009, after my Whipple surgery)                                                                    (below: 2010)

Well, a few weeks ago, Grandpa took us all out again. This was the first time that Roman had ever been, and it was so special to have the privilege of taking my boy to the place that I had been taken for so many years. Of course, he refused to nap that morning, was extremely over-stimulated in the loud, flashy restaurant and he wore THE biggest pair of cranky pants I'd ever seen, but it was still special none the less. :)

Life is good.

Family, Going Topless and Pickle Slices.

Hello loves!

We had a delightful weekend (which included shooting a new banner.. you like?) that was topped off by Dustin's decision to stay home from work today! The joys of spontaneous vacation days and having the "hours" in the vacation bank to make them happen! So much joy!

 
(Uncle Beef and Great Grandpa Gene visit with little Squid)

A few posts back, I shared my resolutions for 2012, and with January in full swing, I've been trying to keep up! My resolution for this month was/is to catch up on all of my blog "to-dos", so I'm taking today to post the picture that I said I would for Lacy's Campaign for Confidence! LEt me be honest with you, folks... I postponed taking and posting the picture because I knew (opps!) that I was getting a nice camera for Christmas and I figured that if I were going to only vegetation, I'd wait to have it captured by a nice camera. Keepin' it real.

With that said, last week, after the baby went down for his big nap of the day, I set out to make good on my word. I closed my blinds, took off my shirt and let my jumblies hang out all for the sake of Confidence. It was fun! My camera got to show off it's 10-second timer skills and got friendly with some kale!  I actually took pictures with oranges and pears, too, but the kale pictures were the best. 

I had to take my photo in to Photoshop and fix the lighting a bit, cropped it to size and patched up a little bit of a nip-slip, but other than that, it was pretty easy. Plus, it's nice to trollop around topless once in a while! I'm more of an "open-front-window" type of gal though, so the girls usually stay in. And no, "open-front-window" isn't code name for anything naughty... I really like to open the blinds and front door and let the sun light in. ;)

My final picture. What do you think?

Q: What do you love about your body or want to love about your body?

A: I love how resilient my body has always been. It's bounced back time and time again from the harshest of treatments and surgeries. I've re-grown hair and have earned the blush on my cheeks. The single most wonderful, amazing thing about my body, though,  is my son, Roman. After everything that my body had been through, I was able to create something so perfect and whole. I might not have both of my legs and lungs, but I was able to create another person who does. It's pure magic.

 

Have you taken a picture for the Campaign for Confidence? Share! Share!

Also, will Rebecca M., Lauren S. and  miss Diane (who all commented on my first Campaign for Confidence post) please email me at thequietlifeofviolet [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com -- you're all getting a copy of  Lacy's 12 Tip & 12 Recipes to Thrive Through the Holidays... and since the Holidays have already passed, let's hope it'll help you through Valentine's Day (candy! cake! cookies!), St. Patrick's Day (corned beef!) and Easter (ham, ham ham!). Forgive me for slacking, but hey, better late than never, right?

And, what kind of Mother would I be if I didn't share an amazingly cute picture of my son? Does this boy talk with his eyebrows or WHAT? Someone wasn't happy that he couldn't have his own burger at Fuddruckers. We did let him suck on a pickle slice though, much to my Husband's disgust. Pickle lovers UNITE!

 

We Enjoyed

        Our First Christmas

 

family cuddles -

(Roman in his cute Christmas clothes and Dustin at home with his boy and his lady in his arms. If the only thing I ever accomplish in my lifetime is this, I will go down in history as the luckiest woman who ever lived.)

decorations -

(beautiful vintage Christmas bulbs from Auntie Pam made the decorations so meaningful.  I always tell myself that I'm going to decorate earlier next year so I can enjoy the sparkle a bit longer.)

friends  and christmas eve -

( + wine, whiskey, giggles, laughs, apple-cranberry bake, holiday ice cream and Nacho Libre. We are so lucky to ahev such great people as friends.)

christmas morning -

(Lots of usable baby gift from Santa, clothes and THE BEST CAMERA EVER for me & clothes and a bike that I HUNG IN MY CLOSET BY A BELT for Dustin. I managed getting that thing home, in the house and suspended in mid-air with only one leg. LEGIT.)

visiting family -

(My parents made tamales that were amazing. Got to hang out with my siblings for a bit and watched some of Forgetting Sarah Marshall... um.. sex scenes on Christmas Morning, anyone? Awkward. Then off to Dustin's parent's house. A delicious dinner that filled me to the brim. We stayed 'till the sun set and I literally passed out on their couch and slept all cuddled up with the pups. I was SO tired. The definition of bliss is a sleeping baby, loving family and cozy dogs under the blanket. Oh, add to that the homemade cheesecake that I ate on the way home. Yes.)

 

back where we belong -

        good night.
(or good morning...)

Our Tannenbaum

A few weeks ago we took Roman to our favorite local family-run tree lot to pick out our annual Clark Family Tannenbaum. It was chilly night, so we all bundled up and I packed us hot mugs of tea for the ride.  After arriving at the lot, we bundled him up in our Ergo and roamed the isles of freshly cut trees for the first time as a family of three. We found our perfect tree, Mr. Norrington, and headed home. It was sweet and simple ... I lived a blessed life. 

Saturday... Hatterday?

Nothing cool or funny rhymes with Saturday, at least off the top of my head. Hehe! It's been quiet around these parts, I know, but we've been in full Holiday-swing with Christmas in less than a week away. I swear, with running a home and taking care of my perfect, sweet, amazing little guy, there aren't many times in a day where I can sneak away and blog. The Typepad app (for my iPhone) suuuucks (you hear that Typepad?!), so it's hard for me to find a few hours to park myself in from=nt of my bohemeth of a laptop and indulge in post-writing, but that's okay. I actually love the fact that I'm choosing to put my Husband, baby and home first - it's all part of the quiet life that I've dreamed of for so long!

On Saturday afternoon, my In-Laws came out and the five of us packed into the Vanager and made our way to one of our favorite healthy burger places in Berkeley. There was some sort of Holiday Faire going on, so the parking situation was even worse than normal. I got all feed-me cranky, but once my MASSIVE salad was ready and my blood sugar was a little more stable, I was a happy camper.

This salad could seriously feed 3 people
I think someone is ready to start eating real food...

After we had our super-delicious meal, we all piled back in and headed home. Grandpa got to spend a little more time with Mr. Squidsters before he left and Grandma stayed to babysit for us because we had a triple-date with Matt and Natty and our friends Mike and Marquita (Mar-keet-uh).

I had the luxury of taking my sweet-ass time to get ready for the evening and then Bubby and I headed out to pick up M&N. Traffic SUCKED, but that's to be expected the weekend before Christmas in the San Francisco area, right?

We met up at Dave and Busters (Bub and I had never been) for an evening of food, drinks and adult Chuck E.Cheese-like games. Oh dear. Verdict: Dave and Busters can keep it. It was a bust. The food was decent -- think bad Applebee's -- but they forgot to add Dustin's meal, so he got his salad as the rest of us were finishing up. Poor guy. Our waiter suuuucked and didn't understand the concept of checking in on us periodically or splitting the bill, so we gave him our cards and he charged us for each other's meals. It was the icing on our dinner's turd.

After stashing our left-overs in the icy car, Dustin and Matt raced back in with two minutes to spare without having to pay some nonsense cover charge, as it was almost 10pm. We bought credits for the games and then made our way into the Mid-way/game room with high hopes. Those machines are rigged! The claw machines were a joke -- I would have had more luck removing a stuffed animal by farting than using the claw. Seriously sad. Most of the games (skee-ball, basketball, coin toss machines, etc..) gave out tickets and it was fun "winning" , but it was kind of over priced and was populated by  -dressed chicks and douchy-bros with waaaaaay too much cologne.  OH! Not only were there hos-and bros, but the kids! Who the hell has their kids out at 11:00 pm at night like that? It blew my mind. Maybe I'm missing something and being too judge-y, but I feel that a kid needs to be at home in their bed sleeping, not dragged around in a stroller, bleary eyed and hunched over while Mom nurses a cocktail. I found myself wishing we were all at some quiet lounge with drinks in hand and good conversation on our lips, but instead it was a lot of  "ding-ding-ding-ding!" and noisy game loops.

Come 10:30, Dustin and I were tired. Seriously? Long gone are the 4am bedtimes of yesterday. We're old people now! I kind of love it, though, this life of ours. I love my stay-at-home-mom title, broken sleep schedule and wedding band on my finger. I love the middle of the night bottles and quick cuddles and stinky dirty diapers at 9 am. I love the morning breath and Dustin's dirty socks and the mail man that walks by out  window each day. I appreciate so much that I don't have to go on dates and hit up bars in search of the man and life that I dream of - I've got mine and I couldn't be any happier.

Best part of the night? Cashing in our tickets for cheap kazoos and the concert M&N and Bub and I put on on the ride home.

 

Don't judge - we were old and tired.

A Rather Large Family Photo

I'm slowly (but surely!) going through my desktop and photo files (cue horror movie noise here) and I found this pretty little picture from this past August when we went to Lake Tahoe to celebrate my Grandpa's 80th birthday (here and here).

 
We rented the "meeting room" at my Grandpa's favorite beach-front hotel and had a beautiful party. My brother, Dustin, Colin (my sister, Effie's man) and I made h'orderves for the party and the rest of the meal was catered. My uncle Brian had made a slide show of a billion pictures from Grandpa's past and we sat down as a family and watched the years go buy. Dustin and I were seriously salivating over Grandpa's and my late Grandma Carol's clothes. Mad Men, true life. It was amazing.

We set the timer on the camera and took a family photo to finalize the event. Grandpa is the cute old man in the middle, bottom row with the striped shirt, pocket protector, suspenders and top hat on. People, he doesn't even realize how hip he's dressed.. the suspenders are to keep his pants up and the pocket protector houses one of his favorite mechanical pencils and some note cards. The top hat is pure silliness and he's got the goofiest grin spread across his face. He is surrounded by his whole family, living and passed. My Grandma and Aunt (my Mom's twin sister) are buried (well, part of their ashes are at least) at the beach down the road from the hotel. I had no idea, but Tahoe holds a special place in my Mother's family's hearts, as they used to visit yearly while my mother was growing up.  I can't imagine how hard  it is (and peaceful at the same time ) to visit the town and exact beach where part of my sister and mother lay to rest. That's a part of life that I'm not fully ready to fathom - losing my family, that is.

I am so thankful and blessed that I was able to be present at such an event in my Grandfather's life. I'm also thankful that Grandpa was able to meet my sweet little Roman (who was so tiny at the time! Gah!). What a gift.

Family rocks.

Grandpa's annual Christmas party is this weekend and I couldn't be more excited to get pictures of my boy with his great Grandpa!

xo,
Violet