Illinois Photo Shoot

I was sadly disappointed in the portraits we had taken at the department store for Liam's two-year portraits this year, so when we visited Illinois in early December my sister and I held another impromptu photo shoot with Liam at my parents' house. As you can see from the results below, we got a handful of cute shots. Even though these photos were taken about a month after his birthday, these are the pictures I'll file as his two-year portraits. To see more snapshots from our session, click here.

A March Trip

Liam has a thing for rakes, brooms, and mops--
they offer hours of endless entertainment for him right now.

Last week Liam and I returned home from a trip to Illinois to visit my family. For only having a few days, I think we made great use of our time. We were able to meet up with many family and friends and enjoyed our visit very much. I was most concerned about how I would manage flying alone with a 16-month-old, but I was well-prepared with snacks and entertainment for the plane and Liam handled his second plane trip like a pro. He's such a good-natured little guy and he takes most things--including traveling around with his mom for a few days--in stride! Aside from visiting friends and family, we managed to spend some time at the St. Louis Zoo and swing by SIUE to visit an old friend and professor of mine. Unbelievably, come May it will have been ten years since I graduated SIUE and moved to California, so it was nice to roam campus and remember what it was like to be an undergrad. A lot has changed for me in the last ten years!

With Liam being so young and my new position at work being more demanding, my trips home are few and far-between these days, but I'm thankful for the times I do make it back for a visit. I've posted a few of my favorite pictures from our trip below. Enjoy!

Liam with Grandma and Grandpa Myers at the St. Louis Zoo.

Liam and Mommy.

Look at that hair!

I call this one, "Big Monkey, Little Monkey."

With Aunt Erin and Uncle Ethan.

Liam absolutely loved riding the carousel at the zoo.

Check out my new hat!

With Great-Grandma Orsborn.

It's tough being little.

With Great-Grandma and Grandpa Myers.

All of the Orsborn grandkids and great-grandkids
in the same place at the same time!

Liam and Mommy at SIUE.

Aunt Erin and Liam at SIUE.

A Trip Home

This post is long overdue, but better late than never, right?At the beginning of April Eric, Liam, and I made a trip to Illinois. We had a dual purpose--to attend the American Research Center in Egypt conference in Chicago and to introduce Liam to my family.  Eric spent most of his time in Chicago at the conference, while I took Liam down to my hometown of Neoga to spend some time with my family. I look forward to ARCE every year, but this year was special because it was Liam's first trip to my hometown. Although he won't remember this trip, I will, and I'm thankful I had the opportunity to get away from work and spend some time in Illinois for the first time since Liam was born. I'm proud of my country roots, and I hope that as he grows up, Liam will learn to love an appreciate the country, even if only because it's where his mom comes from. I have to say, Liam proved to be a great little traveler. Sure, he had his moments, but overall he did wonderfully. I have no idea when we will be flying again, but I can only hope he does as well in the future as he did on this trip!

Eric, Liam, and I at the ARCE conference in Chicago.

Just chillin'.

Four generations: Grandma Mary, my mom, myself, and Liam.

During our trip Liam got the hang of sitting on his own.

Four generations: My Grandma and Grandpa Myers, my dad, myself, and Liam.

Oh, and Liam got to meet his "cousin," Rue.
This was his first time meeting a puppy, so the encounter was brief!

A Week of Anniversaries

This has been a week of anniversaries for me.   Thursday marked my third year at the Villa, and today is my L.A. anniversary--eight years ago today I signed my first lease and moved into my apartment in West L.A.  It's difficult for me to believe I've lived in L.A. for eight years.  Maybe that's because in many ways it took a few years for me to adjust and feel comfortable in the city.  Even though I've been out here awhile it's only been in the past three years or so that I've felt I've really mastered L.A. and gotten used to it.  Usually on this day I reflect on how ending up in L.A. was probably the most unexpected event of my life thus far, but this year is different.  Because I'm about to become a parent, the thought on my mind this year is of how very different my son's early childhood is going to be from mine because he will be born, not in a small Midwestern town, but in one of the largest metropolises in the U.S.  Of course, in all of the important ways it will be the same--he'll grow up being loved and supported by his parents and family--but there is no doubt that a babyhood in Los Angeles, California is going to be a far different experience than one in Neoga, Illinois.  Now, I could choose to judge this city versus country issue as a good or a bad thing, but I prefer to simply see it for what it is:  Just one of many experiences that will make him into the unique individual that he will become.

Erin & Ethan's Wedding

Last week I did my last bit of traveling before the baby is due and went home to Illinois for my little sister's wedding.  It was a hectic few days from start to finish, but everything came off wonderfully, which is a credit to Erin since she did most of the planning herself.  Over the wedding weekend everyone pitched in to help out with arrangements, decorating, and anything else that needed done.  One of those who stepped up admirably was my husband--sweetheart that he is, he was there to help wherever and whenever he was needed and proved to be our invaluable go-to guy all weekend.  All of the hustle and bustle aside, the important thing was that by Sunday morning Erin and Ethan had become Mr. and Mrs. Steinacher and had both enjoyed a wonderful wedding day.  In many ways it's difficult to believe that my little sister is married...but then it's also hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I'm going to be a parent in a little over two months!

Me, Erin, Dad, and Mom before the ceremony.

Eric, me, and the baby belly.

Erin and I after the ceremony in the gardens at SIUE.

The seven month belly picture.

The newlyweds: Erin and Ethan.

Entering the Home Stretch

Well, we've finally entered the home stretch.  Today marks the beginning of the third trimester--approximately 84 days to go!  Without question, this pregnancy has gone extremely well up to this point...which is why the start of the final trimester has me feeling a bit trepidacious.  Since things have gone so well so far, I figure that must mean I'm in for it in the last twelve weeks.  Thanks to my increasingly heavy belly and regular backaches, my nights have been more restless in the past week than they have for most of the second trimester.  On top of that, I've been noticing subtle signs that the fatigue I experienced in the first trimester is gradually making a comeback.  Considering how energetic I've felt in the past few months, I'm in a bit of denial about it, but in this case I don't think mind is ultimately going to win out over matter.

As for the baby, all indications are that he's doing very well.  On my last visit the doctor seemed pleased to hear that the little guy is very active.  The baby has his quiet times throughout the day and night, but he spends a lot of time rockin' and rollin' around in there.  It's amazing how quickly I got used to seeing my belly quivering and twitching.  He's even getting big enough now that--depending which side he occupies at the time--you can see a subtle lopsidedness in my belly.  So far he seems to prefer the right side, which probably explains why that's the side of my lower back which aches the most...

This week Eric and I are off to my home state of Illinois for my sister's wedding.  Erin and Ethan's big event is planned for Saturday, so last-minute preparations are in full swing.  I'm sure with everybody pitching in here and there everything will come off well.  The main point of suspense from my perspective is this:  Will my bridesmaid dress still fit by Saturday?  I waited as long as I could to get the alterations done so that the dress could be fitted as well as possible.  Really, it seems I did a good job all those months ago predicting my size at around seven months pregnant, and although the dress isn't a maternity dress, the style and length of it are about as flattering to a pregnant body as you could hope for.  The only part that has me worried is the bust.  My bust line, jacked up on hormones, has expanded with eye-popping speed the past few months.  Every time I think it has stabilized for the time being, I'm proven wrong.  So, here's hoping that I can get through the next few days without bursting the bust of my bridesmaid dress!

Concerns about bridesmaid dresses and bust lines aside, I am looking forward to spending some time back home in Illinois.  Since so many people will be coming together for the wedding, it will be a chance for me to see a lot more family than I usually get a chance to see on an ordinary visit.  With only three months left before the baby is born, this will be my last trip home for awhile, so I plan to have a good visit and enjoy my time away from work and the city.

December Update

I was back at work this week after a short but sweet visit home to Illinois, where Eric and I spent a few days visiting my family. It was good to spend some time at home, but now it's back to the daily grind. My work schedule doesn't really change over the holidays. While most museum staff get the holidays off, the Education department must provide staff to run the public programming during what often turns out to be our busiest two weeks of the year. These holidays in the trenches, so to speak, are probably the hardest part of the job to accept and get used to. Just like everyone else I want to have some time off to enjoy the end-of-the-year festivities, but duty calls. Still, on the positive side, it does feel good to be a part of other people's time with their families and friends and maybe help make their visit to the museum memorable. These days, for people working in the humanities, it also feels good just to have a job. There are a lot of people who aren't so lucky, and I do my best to remind myself of that fact when I'm at work wishing I was someplace else.

Hopefully these last few days of the year will be relatively uneventful and quiet. Well, maybe not so much quiet. A couple of Eric's buddies surprised him with a home theater system for Christmas. Now my living room is home to two speaker tower monstrosities and something called a subwoofer. I enjoy surround sound as much as anyone, but I'm not a fan of having to accommodate the requisite equipment in my home. Also, now when Eric plays "Modern Warfare 2" on his Xbox, it sounds as if a tactical assault is going down in our apartment. Sigh. Ever the long-suffering wife, I endure, knowing there will come a day when Eric's boyish enjoyment of this fancy noise-maker on steroids will be seriously checked.

I've been following the news reports of the hefty snowstorm hitting the eastern U.S. this weekend. It always seems a bit odd during the winter months to hear people talking about snow and ice while L.A. enjoys 70 degree temperatures, warm breezes, and sunshine. I've always said one of the few perks of L.A. is the weather this time of year. For all of you who will be freezing your patootie's off this winter in less temperate regions, I'll be thinking of you as I'm cruising up the street with the window down under the sunshine and palm trees!

My family: Eric (my husband), me, Dad, Mom, Erin, and Ethan (Erin's boyfriend)

Sisters

Cousins: Erin, me, Lacy, and Heather

Seven

Since 2001, this day has always inspired reflection. Reflection on the events of a day I know I will never be able to forget and how it changed our world, but for me it has also become a time of personal reflection. Quite unintentionally, September has become a month marking the anniversaries of some of the most defining days of my adult life. On September 11, 2002, I signed the lease on my first apartment in Los Angeles, and so it's a day I remember as the beginning of my time in L.A. On September 24, 2006, I married Eric. September 9, 2007 was my first day at the Getty, which in my mind marks a significant advance in my professional career. So, as you can see, for me this is a month of anniversaries.

A lot can happen in seven years. People always ask if I feel like a city girl now that I've been here for a few years. "Not really," is my usual response. I have gotten used to this city, but I don't think I'll ever reach a point where I feel attached or sentimental about it. Rather, in the last seven years I've become something else: Someone who is just as comfortable cruising up Sunset Boulevard as the four mile road back home. Someone who has taken many a VIP group of big city executives or celebrities through major museum exhibitions but knows just as well what it's like working on the line at Donnelley's. I'm glad I've acquired that versatility, but moving away from one's roots can make them harder to hang on to, and that can be a depressing reality. Over the last seven years I have given that idea a lot of thought, and ultimately have taken a lesson from one of my favorite novelists, Sharyn McCrumb, who is a self-described Cosmic Possum. What in the bloody blazes is that, you ask? As McCrumb puts it,

"The term, coined by Tennessee poet Jane Hicks, (Blood and Bone Remember: Poems from Appalachia, Jesse Stuart Foundation Press, 2005) refers to people of Southern mountain heritage who have acquired modern sophistication without losing touch with their regional origins." She continues, "For Cosmic Possums culture is not an either-or proposition. The trick is to move into the future without letting go of the past, because if you lose your cultural identity, you have nothing to sustain you in the modern rootless world which lurches from one ephemeral trend to another."

Now, I come from the plains of Illinois, not mountains of southern Appalachia, but the point is well-taken. Living in L.A. can be a very homogenizing experience if you let it. People in the city tend to look with disdain or condescension at any region of rural America, and it can be very tempting to simply make yourself into the image of whatever "ephemeral trend" is currently raging. But you can choose to take a different perspective. One good thing about being in a city full of people who are from somewhere else is that you learn to value, take pride in, and appreciate the gift of the past and your own story of "Back where I come from..." That is the outlook I've chosen to take, and based on the frequency with which I'm asked "You're not from around here, are you?" I must be getting it right.

So if--regionally speaking--I'm not exactly a Cosmic Possum, what am I? In 1980 (the year I was born) the schoolchildren of Illinois voted to make the whitetailed deer the state animal. The whitetailed deer does seem appropriate--it's certainly the animal you're most likely to see tripping over the roads and through the cornfields of my native Cumberland County.

...Yeah, that'll do--I'm a Cosmic Whitetail.

Quick Trip

Recently I was able to make a quick trip home to see friends and family. As always, it was good to be home. Naturally I arrived home just in time for the first serious wave of heat and humidity all summer. Figures! Although it was only a short visit, I was pleased that I had the chance to see quite a bit of family. Time always seems so short, and I guess it is, so I'm happy that in this case I was able to make the most of it.

Cousins: me, Lacy, Heather, and Erin

I will be home again at some point around the holidays, but exactly when is yet to be determined. For now it's back to work and the usual routine. Eric and I have birthdays within days of each other, so this coming week we'll be celebrating. I think we'll be going out to dinner for Eric's birthday, and mine will be celebrated a couple of days early with the premiere of Kara's "Out of Egypt" series on Monday. I'm planning an evening of friends, beer, pizza, MarioKart Wii, and "Out of Egypt." Sounds like a good time to me!

Erin and I

With Mom and Dad

Holiday Break

I hope you all had a great holiday. As planned, Eric and I spent Christmas in Illinois with my family. The weather didn't cause us any travel difficulties, but it did bounce around from bad to worse to okay every ten minutes or so. It was so nice to have a chance to see family and friends that I don't get to see very often. Per tradition I overindulged in calorie-packed foods and sweets...and just as soon as New Year's Eve has come and gone I'll stop eating like an unsupervised six year old.

We'll be spending the last day of the year with his parents--thank goodness that involves no air travel! We didn't encounter any weather-related travel delays, but on the way back we were delayed waiting on connecting passengers who were trying to make the last flight of the day to L.A. Once we finally landed, LAX was packed and the taxi line was monumental. Even though we live only fifteen minutes from the airport, with the taxi line wait we didn't get home until over an hour and a half after we landed. I know it wasn't the same degree of trouble experienced by some holiday travelers, but it was frustrating nonetheless.

I wasn't surprised today to discover we didn't have a scrap of food in the place. After an extensive grocery trip, we're back in business. Now that we have food and are unpacked, I think we're pretty well settled in again. Even though I'd mentioned it to him at least two or three times before, Eric was "bummed" to learn I still have another week off. It's not my company he objects to so much as my presence--when I'm home he knows he's not going to get to sit around and play Xbox all day. We've gotten pretty good at compromising about it, though. I have some new books I want to read, so I can get into those while he works on his hand-eye coordination.

My only real plan for the week is to enjoy the rest of my time off, allowing myself to be lazy and do as little as possible. That being the case, I'm going to wrap this up and get to it!

Almost Home

It is a cold and rainy day here in L.A., one of the coldest and wettest I've experienced here in Malibu. Rumor has it someone spotted a few snowflakes fluttering in the wind. (It made the news, so it must be true. Click here for the story.) There were very few of them, of course, and they melted instantly on contact, but it gives you an idea of what today has been like. I actually don't mind the weather--we get so little of it here--what I mind is having to drive in it. Drivers here are insane under normal circumstances, and when you add something like rain it really gets dicey. Only a few more days until I get to board a plane home for the holiday. I have no idea exactly how I'm going to be able to get everything done I need to between now and Sunday morning. Usually it all somehow gets done, so I guess I'm just going to have to count on it happening again this time around.

Aside from the usual holiday bustle, the rain this week revealed a leak at our bedroom window. This Monday when I woke up and went to peek out of the blinds, my barefoot stepped on cold, wet carpet. Wonderful. That discovery began a process of working with maintenance to dry the carpet, ultimately resulting in the delivery of a dehumidifier. This machine is so ancient it should be on display at the Villa. It seemed relatively harmless until I turned it on. The filter has probably never been changed, and as it sucked up the moisture, the filter was dampened and began emitting a stomach-turning mildew/mold stench. We ran it for as long as we could stand it and when we couldn't take it anymore I turned it off. Even when it was off the stench was still there. Maintenance finally returned to collect it this afternoon, so I'm currently trying to clear the air around here with every Glade candle I could find in the place.

Assuming the scented candles do their job, the apartment should be back to it's normal warm and cozy holiday self soon. We've already received several Christmas cards from friends and family that are helping to make the living room festive. Sinful goodies are also rolling in from work, along with a few other gifts. I have a pragmatic reputation, so I got some very nice lotions--including some peppermint oil tingling foot cream (gonna have to keep that out of Eric's reach). The general consensus around the office seems to be that we teachers deserve to pamper ourselves. That's exactly what I intend to do.

...in just a couple of more days.