Bacon Love

Saturday night my friends and I got together at Heather's house for a bacon bonanza!

Heather has a bacon blog and wrote a book about bacon. She has decided to put the blog, Bacon Unwrapped, into semi-retirement while she focuses on other projects AND her bacon book was just released in paperback, so she decided to have a bacon-tastic celebration! 

The food was ridiculously tasty, as you can see from the photos. 

I know, you're probably jealous that you couldn't be there, BUT, I have good news! Heather has agreed to give away a signed copy of Bacon, A Love Story to one of you LOVELY blog friends. :)

Just leave a comment to be entered! Enter by next Thursday, July 8. Winner will be announced Friday, July 9. 

Now, be sure you're wearing a bib before you start scrolling through these pictures. You'll probably start drooling. 

omYUM

BLTs

bacon tots

nina loves bacon

they do exist!

bacon-theft

flying pigs love bacon

thank GAWD we have a Physician's Assitant

in our circle of friends!

CRESTOR for everyone!

bacon shots!

we love booze with our bacon

and champagne, nach

fly little pig!

delicious bacon-y pizza

bacon+pizza=love

homemade sourdough for BLTs

don't worry. 

we put bacon on all

the healthy stuff.

bacon ice cream?

oh, yeah.

funny shirt

bacon ice cream

Even Jesus came to eat bacon with us.

See him on the table? 

Obviously!

I Heart Faces

Have you heard of I Heart Faces?

It's a photo group (the have a facebook page) that presents a different photo 'challenge' every week.

I've decided to start entering. :)

This week's challenge is PETS.

Since I don't have a pet, I decided to borrow Heather's. Heather hosted a bacon party this weekend (more on that tomorrow!) and I snapped a couple of photos of a very curious Miss Hattie while I feasted on delicious bacon wrapped foods.

Here goes nothing!

guess what?

my FIRST doula client gave birth yesterday. 


it was amazing. 


the mom did SO well.


here is a little sneak peak until I get permission to post photos of the little cutie pie's face! 




it felt so amazing to help bring someone into the world. i feel so very fulfilled knowing that I am finally in the 'right' field and on the ;right' path. I cannot wait to start nurse midwife school!

music monday

friday finds

Here are some fun things I've found around the good 'ol web this week. 

The findings are a little baby-heavy, but my doula client's due date is today so I've got babies on the brain. 

These adorable Water Baby photos from Leigh at Marvelous Kiddo.....

This amazing bath tub that my cousin posted on facebook......

(let's all chip in and buy it! we can share)

This awesome birth story (the fourth photo down is quite possibly one of the best photos I've ever seen in my life) and this lovely blog that deals with adoption and having biological children which was very comforting to read after writing this post.

{these were also found on Leigh's Marvelous Kiddo blog. Leigh is my first name. Did you know that? Now you do.}

This DO NOT EAT list found on Meg Fee's lovely blog....

This website has been cracking me up for months now. It is getting better and better.

A random Newsies video. Because Newsies is one of the greatest movies of all time.

And last, but certainly not least, this awesomely painful youtube video found on 2birds1blog. 

Are you reading the 2birds1blog website? I snort and pee with laughter every time I read it. 

For real. 

if loving you is wrong, i don't want to be right

Do you do things that you know you shouldn't?


I try to be as green. I use reusable green grocery bags and do my best to use natural cleaning products.
I even gave up bleach (another smell I love)! Don't tell my mom. She'll disown me.


One thing I haven't been able to give up?


Tide.


I love the smell.


My mom, aunt and grandma all use it and have used it forever. The POWDER kind! The liquid smells different. It smells like home. There are few things nicer than pulling a sundress over my head or wrapping myself in a towel that smells like the houses and people I miss and love.

I should probably plant a tree, or something, to offset the damage I'm causing using a harmful-chemical-heavy detergent.

What are your favorite smells?

Wanderlust Wednesday

Let's plan a trip today. 

Where are you going to go? 

What will you do? 

Who will you take with you? 

What will you eat and drink? 

What will you see? 

For my Wanderlust Wednesday trip I am going to London.

When I arrive I will sing,
'Just touched down in London town.'

I'm going to wear this trench.

I am going to do the touristy things, then I am going to watch world cup games with the locals. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but it seems like a good thing to do today. 

I am going to take my bum, Jessica Ashley, so that she can scope out her future digs. 

I am going to eat bangers and mash and I am going to drink lots of Boddingtons and lots of Pims Cups.

I will also visit with Nicole, because she is my favorite international blog friend. 

You are cordially invited to come with me. 

Yes, you. 


{please excuse the strange spacing. I am not in the mood to deal with unruly photos today. All photos are from weheartit}

music monday

l'orange

do you ever find yourself buying/eating/craving things that are all the same color?

i had a very orange day at Sprouts on Wednesday. 

i spy;

orange kettle chips

oranges

carrots

&

orange kombucha

(i also spy two bottles of Pinot Evil and a Vanity Fair, but those are not orange)

quote of the day

'weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance but disappear when you get up close to them.'
-John Shirley

quote of the day

'I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity anyone, but they've always worked for me.'
-Hunter S. Thompson

today's quote {and illustration!} is from Stephanie. 

Wise words, Steph. :) 

*do you have a quote you would like to share? email me! Ltkalander(at)gmail(dot)com

tay on infertility....

Cjane is talking about it today and I received a formspring question that kind of deals with it, so here we go......

*last summer with one of 'my' babies.

here is a question I received on formspring today;

'Does any of this doula stuff make you want to, or want to more, have children?'

***********************************************

Please forgive the 'rant style' of this post. I didn't spell check or proof read, so there will surely be some errors.  I also had to complete the question within the thirty minutes I get for lunch. It's majorly rant-y.

btw, I heart formspring

*************************************

This is a good and complicated question and is something I think about daily. You are going to get SO much more information than you wanted, but too bad. 

In short, no. Becoming a doula has not changed my desire to have children. I have always wanted to be a mom. How I have children, however, is an entirely different matter. When I was 17 I was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Swyer Syndrome (it's totally freaky! wiki it. I am genetically male and physically female) that affects my reproductive system. I know that I can never have biological children (I had to have the tissue that should have been my ovaries removed as soon as they diagnosed me because of increased cancer risk) and there is a small chance I could carry a child.   

Not only has being a doula made me want to experience pregnancy and childbirth more (A LOT MORE) than before, but starting about a year ago my 'biological clock' starting ticking. Before this happened to me I didn't really believe in the biological clock. I thought they were just a socially constructed myth. It is not. There are times when every ounce of my being screams for a baby to hold. There's just nothing sweeter. I also have some close friends who are pregnant right now which makes me want to experience it. I think it's the coolest thing that WE, we stupid humans who mess up so many things, can reproduce. I don't know why this is so mind blowing for me. 

I know being pregnant would be an amazing experience, but I am morally conflicted about spending so much money on an egg donor and in vitro fertilization when I could be using that money to adopt a child who REALLY needs a loving home. I feel that it would be very selfish of me to do that when there are thousands of children around the world who are sitting in orphanages. I also believe that we have a major overpopulation problem and that it would be better for the environment and out natural resources if people did not give birth to as many children (I'm talking to you, DUGGARS!!!:)) The biggest impact on my desire to have children, and how I have them, was nannying for five years in college. I was employed by the same family all five years and they have children who are adopted and who the mom has given birth to. The mom is in a similar situation to me fertility wise. Weird, that I became employed by a family whose mother has reproductive issues, right?! It further confused me because I thought that the adopted children would feel differently or be treated differently by others and they are not. They are loved in the exact same way, are treated the same way and are as well adjusted as the other children in the family. I thought that maybe seeing a situation in which the adopted kids were treated differently would make me say, 'No way I am giving birth. I am only adopting because I don't want anyone to feel different,' but this family proved my theory wrong. Also, I still have a great desire to experience pregnancy. The obvious resolution to this is to just do one or the other; adopt all of my children or carry all of my children. The problem is that I really WANT to adopt. I have such wonderful adoption examples in my life that I can't NOT adopt. The obvious solution to THIS conundrum is to simply say, 'I'll just adopt some and give birth to some.' But then I run into the moral dilemma of, 'I will spend tens of thousands of dollars getting pregnant when I could have spent that money adopting babies who are already alive and need love.' So then you might say, 'why don't you just carry one baby and adopt the rest? It will be a happy medium!' But then I thin, what if the one child I carry feels left out because they're not adopted. What if the rest of the kids feel resentful of the one I carried because they feel they're 'more' my child than the adopted ones? I know that the family I nannied for disproves that theory, but what if it is different for me? 

I am really good at giving my future children complexes, by the way. 

So, again, to answer your question, my desire to be a mom has not changed. Since nannying for the family in college I have wanted a family. Since becoming a doula, I still want a big family, regardless of how the children come to me. I am still confused about how to have them and probably will be until the time comes to start a family. Also, a lot of this depends on whether I have a husband/partner when I decide to have children and how he feels about the situation. 

Until then, I will argue with myself because that is how I roll. 

If you have any questions about Swyer Syndrome or infertility PLEASE don't hesitate to ask. There is so much stigma associated with these topics and I think talking about them is the only way to fix that.

quote of the day

'First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.'

-Gandhi

Today's quote comes from fellow CenPho resident Peter Faur who is hosting a giveaway on his blog this week!

nights like these...

It is nights like this when I wish I could just walk over to my mom's house for some dinner and television

OR

could hop in the car to my dad's house to watch the lakers (go lakers!) kick some boston ass

OR 

could walk on 2nd street with brother and miss chocolate for a cup of tea and a crepe to share. 

but instead I will go to my hot home. 

i will lie on my bed and stare out my window, toward the west. toward the people and city that I love. I will think to myself, 'someday soon, someday soon.'

wow. I am super emo tonight.

p.s. my mom sent me my favorite summer smell. now, at least, my hot home smells like my home home even though they are 378 miles apart.

quote of the day

I've decided to post a daily quote in addition to my normal posts. We'll see how long it lasts. :) 

If you have a favorite quote, please email it to me! I would love for others to contribute. 

When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying we are not ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back.
-Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho is the author who has had the greatest impact on my life. His writing was introduced to me by someone with whim I had the most tumultuous friendship of my life. Isn't is interesting how things like that work out? 

Music Monday

funny friday

have a LOVELY weekend. 

this week has been long and tiring! 

I am very excited to do some relaxing in the pool. 

I snapped this photo at Chipotle yesterday when I went there for lunch. I am SUPER into their vegetarian  bowls lately. Funny, huh?

My new babies

I attended a breast feeding class last night as part of my doula certification. 

I knew there would be breast feeding dummy babies there, so before I left I asked facebook and twitter what to name my breast feeding babies. 

I present to you;

Quinn Celia Chlymidia Rose Finja ChiChi 

and, Thor Finley Crewe Titmeister Big Head Hector Carlos Baby Doe Jose Jimenez Chachi Gato Barack Obabma

Questions for the void...

Do you think the advertisement banners that fly around the beach are ruined when the plane lands? Does the landing shred them?

Why does money leave your checking account immediately when you make a purchase, but takes days to go back into your account when you make a return? 

The new potato crisps I like from Trader Joe's say, 'Not fried. Not baked. We apply heat and make them pop.' Doesn't 'apply heat'=baking?

bonjour

**photo is from this blog.

are you reading it?

I really like it. Leah is writing a thank you

note every day. 

It made me want to write more thank you notes,

so I did. 

I was conflicted about whether or not to write one to my dad. The last time I was in CA I stayed at his house. I was all out of money and just HAD to take my cousin to brunch at the Balboa Bay Club. So, I raided the change jar {all dads have a coin jar on their closet shelf, right? I think it's a dad rule.} he keeps on his closet shelf {he was out of the country, otherwise this would not have happened. I would have just stolen from his wallet because I'm a good daughter like that} and took all the silver coins to Coinstar. So basically, I stole from him. Is it appropriate to write a thank you note if you stole money from your dad? I've decided that it is. 

In other news, I think that I left my camera cord at home, so I only have iPhone photos to share today. I took some fun pictures this weekend and have a delicious recipe to share with you as soon as I figure out where the cord is. 

Also,



This mascara is not that great. Stick to Great Lash.

Music Monday

happy weekend

Here is a random collection of photos from

last weekend in CA. 

hydrangea 

playing paparazzi

an ALMOST 21st birthday cousin brunch at the 
Balboa Bay Club

perusing some very cool old family slides.....

I photographed two aspiring models

showing off the latest summer fashions. 

a living room picnic....

and a couple of awesome movies..

And THIS weekend I'll be stuck in the

110 degree heat in Phoenix. YUCK. 

Good thing I have snowcones and swimming pools.

p.s. I heart my new camera