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September 18, 2003
September 18, 2004
O.k., how pathetic is it that this is being posted more than a month after my last entry, and it’s not even the entry I intended to post first? THAT entry is sitting on my dead computer, which spontaneously decided to quit working. Literally, it made that ever-dreaded BEEOooop! sound and gave up. Just like that. So, while I’m waiting to get it fixed, I thought I’d post an “in-between” entry before too much time passes and I can never catch up.
It’s Still Summertime Around Here …
Yes, school has started and Toby has headed back for the second year in his Ph.D. program. But that doesn’t mean that we’re acting like school summer vacation is over. No siree Bob! We just got back from 10 days in San Diego and are going on another vacation in a couple of days. Let me explain, before you think we’re completely irresponsible.
Toby has a good friend from High School who got married over Labor Day weekend. This guy is the kind of guy who ALWAYS makes a huge effort to keep in touch with his friends, so there was no way we couldn’t go to his wedding. (Plus, we really like him … and actually wanted to be there!) Toby bought the plane tickets before he found out that the school year started a full week before it did last year. Thankfully, he only has class on Monday and Tuesday, and there was no class last Monday, so he only missed one day of school.
We had the BEST time in San Diego! The weather was wonderful, I got to eat REAL Mexican food, and we spent lots of time with our friends and family. My parents even came down for the weekend and watched Aidan for us while we went to the weddings. Yes, weddings. Toby’s friend is Indian, and had an Indian/Hindu ceremony on Saturday, and a traditional church wedding on Sunday. Saturday’s ceremony was at a park that overlooks Mission Bay, and Sunday’s reception was at the Marina near Sea World. Seeing the ocean both days reminded me why we loved living in San Diego so much. New York City has a lot of things, but the ocean isn’t one of them and I had forgotten how much I miss it. The weather was spectacular both days and it was so nice to be outside without sweating to death. (O.k., it was a little on the hot side, but who cares when you have air conditioning??)
One of the highlights of the weddings (other than seeing my husband dance to “Rapper’s Delight”) was getting to talk to some of Toby’s friends from High School. They are a really sweet, fun group of people and I always enjoy hanging out with them. There was one friend in particular, K., and her husband W. that I had a meaningful talk with at Sunday’s reception. This amazing couple is going through the process of adopting a baby after trying for many years to conceive. It was so special to talk with them and tell them that while I haven’t been in their shoes, I cared about what they had been through and would be praying for them as they went through this next step towards becoming a family. You know the best part about all this? We got an e-mail from them yesterday that they have been chosen by a birth mother who is due to have her baby in January!
While my parents were in town, we stayed at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, right around the corner from where we used to live. This beautiful Hotel/Inn has become our favorite place to stay together as a family, and we’ve decided that we’ll try to stay there whenever we’re in San Diego together (as long as we can get our rooms through Priceline!). The rooms and beds are HUGE, the grounds are gorgeous and it owns the beautiful golf course that our old condo looked over. We didn’t spend a TON of time at the Inn b/c we were so busy, but on Monday morning before we checked out, Toby and I had brunch outside at their Veranda restaurant. It was perfect … sitting outside in the warm sun overlooking the golf course … I almost wished we still lived there. I can’t wait until Christmas, when we’ll be back again.
We also spent lots of time with our friends. Aidan and I got together with our friends the W.’s a couple of times while we were in town. “Miss Jamie” and “Miss Jada”, as Aidan calls them, were probably our closest friends while we lived there, and Jada was Aidan’s first real friend. They are 4 months apart, and play together splendidly. The first time we got together, I don’t think they remembered one another, but Aidan didn’t stop talking about Jamie and Jada after we left, and when they came over the following week, they had an absolute BLAST. They were jumping on the beds, squealing and laughing and running around, and didn’t have even one little squabble. The W.’s are coming to visit the week of Thanksgiving, and I cannot WAIT. I think Aidan and Jada will looove spending a whole week together, and I know that Toby and I are SO excited to spend time with Benjie and Jamie again. Oh, and may I say that the newest addition to the W. clan, “Baby Bailey”, is the cutest, sweetest, most congenial baby boy EVER? Oooh, I could just eat him up! =)
My grandparent’s live in the mountains between L.A. and Palm Springs, so we were able to get together with them for the day as well. We drove up to Hemet, which is at the foot of their mountain (and also Carmajo’s new home!), where we met up with them and drove over to the home where my great-grandmother is now living. She was looking as young as a spring chicken in her new jogging suit and new haircut (with blonde highlights!). I’m telling you, if I look that good at the age of 90+ years old, I’ll be one lucky woman. She took Aidan and I around to meet all of her friends, and I could tell she was as proud as could be to show us off. Aidan even shook hands with a couple of people, and despite being distracted by the two dogs they have at the home, behaved really well.
Afterwards, we went out to lunch with my grandparents, which is when Aidan really started to warm up to them. By the end of lunch, he was sitting in-between them, eating his ice cream and jumping up to give my Grammy HUGE hugs and kisses. I have the sweetest picture of Aidan and my Grandpa walking hand-in-hand to get their dessert, which I’m going to have to send to them soon. They recently bought a condo in Hemet for the days that Grandpa has medical appointments, and we all went over to see it and rest a bit before heading back to San Diego. It’s a cute little place that reminds me of the condo we lived in in San Diego. They gave Aidan a gift they had planned on giving him at Christmas … a horse with a cowboy on its back that actually moves! Aidan was beside himself with excitement, and didn’t let go of it until we got back to NYC (literally).
I also gave my Grandpa a belated birthday present, a journal with questions about his life to fill out. One of the most difficult things about losing my Dad’s parents has been that I never asked them these questions, and there are things about their lives that I will never know (especially with my paternal grandfather). While I am very close to my Grandpa, I have realized that there are important things about him that I don’t know, and I refuse to let another year go by without asking him to tell me more about his life. He really enjoyed looking through the journal, and even while we were sitting and looking at it together, I learned some wonderful things about his childhood.
On the way back, we stopped in Temecula and had dinner with Toby’s friend Adam and his family. His wife Gina and I have become good friends since we got married, and we had a great time catching up. They have 3 kids, and their middle child, J. is only 2 months older than Aidan. After eyeing each other through dinner, the boys decided to be friends and even had a rooaaaring contest at the table. You should have seen Aidan … to have someone his size roar right back at him without blinking an eye was a total revelation. I could just see what he was thinking, “Hey! I’ve found someone just like me!” (Btw, the roaring comes from his affections for the movie “The Lion King”.) Adam and Gina are moving to Sparks, NV where Toby’s parents live in a couple of months, so we’re looking forward to spending more time with them in the future.
Tower O’ Sangria, Anyone??? …
One of our favorite things to do when we lived in San Diego was to go Downtown. The restaurants are great, and it’s just a really fun place to walk around and hang out. So, on our last evening in town, we piled into Nate and Stephanie P.’s car (our gracious hosts) along with the W.’s and met our other friend Chris and his girlfriend (and hopefully soon- to-be-fiancé!) Kristi at our favorite restaurant there, Café Sevilla. This Spanish restaurant has the best tapas** I’ve had outside of Spain. And their Sangria? To die for; especially when ordering their new TOWER of Sangria. Apparently a pitcher is no longer big enough, LOL. We dropped Aidan off at the Bailey’s, so it was a footloose-and-fancy-free evening. It was great to get dressed up and eat, drink and be merry with our friends. Toby leaned over at one point and said, “Just think … the next time we have tapas and sangria, we’ll be in SPAIN”, which leads me to our plans for next week …
Livin’ La Vida Loca …
When I was in college, I majored in Spanish and during the summer between my sophomore and junior year, I had the opportunity to live and study in Spain for about 6 weeks. I totally and completely fell in love with the people, the food, the culture and the country of Spain. When I returned to the States, I shared everything I learned with Toby, who became so fascinated by the food I described that he bought a Spanish cookbook, and learned how to cook some of my favorite foods. We even wanted to have a Spanish-themed wedding reception when we got married, but ended up not being able to afford it (flamenco guitarists don’t come cheap, you know!). Fast-forward to December 26, 2001 when Toby and I boarded a plane for Madrid and spent the next week or so traveling throughout the country with my SIL Courtney and her new husband, Jon-Paul. I was 6 ˝ months pg with Aidan, and it was our “last hurrah” trip before settling down. I don’t know that I would have gone if I had known that he would be born only 6 weeks after we got back, but I went with my OB’s blessing, we took it veeery easy and had a wonderful time. Such a good time that we’ve been dying to go back ever since.
That being said, when J-P’s company decided to sell their part of the Ritz Carlton in Barcelona, the Hotel Arts, and we found out we could stay there for practically FREE until the sale was finalized, we decided to jump at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Is it totally responsible of us to go? Not really. Can we REALLY afford it? Nope. But like I said, it’s absolutely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stay in a Hotel like this, and we just couldn’t let it pass us by. So, on Monday Court and J-P and Toby and I are leaving our babies (gulp!) with Gobby and Grandpa Kurth and are flying to Spain for the week. We’re spending three days on the island of Mallorca, which I’ve never been to, and then 4 days in Barcelona.
Court and J-P are coming back next weekend, but Toby and I are going to take the opportunity to spend some time with a friend of Toby’s from seminary who now lives outside of Barcelona with his wife (who was born and raised there) and their two young sons. I’ve only met them once, but I got along with his wife really well, and am looking forward to seeing them again. He has planted a small church there, so we are looking forward to going to church with them, and seeing if there is any way that the family of churches we belong to can serve them. Toby has been saying since they returned to Spain that he would like to spend the summers there teaching alongside his friend, to which I have strongly protested, telling Toby that there’s NO WAY I’ll be spending my summers in Spain. Still, I’ve learned that oftentimes the very things I really, really don’t want to do (like move here to NYC) are not only the very things that God has for my future, but it’s usually something I end up loving. So, it will be interesting to see what comes of this visit.
I’m nervous and a little sad about leaving Aidan for such a long time. The longest I’ve ever been away from him until now is two days, so being apart from him for a full week isn’t going to be easy. I absolutely wouldn’t go if Toby’s parents weren’t going to be watching him. He adores his Gobby and Grandpa, so I know that he’ll be o.k., even when he misses me. It will be great to have a “carefree” week while we’re there, but I know I’ll be dying to get my arms around him when we get home.
TTC Update …
I was quite shocked and annoyed when AF arrived while we were in San Diego. I didn’t really expect to be pg, but I was only on CD18, so that was officially my shortest cycle EVER (the next-shortest was 19 days). I’m using an OPK for the first time this month, which I’m hoping will help us to time things correctly. Unless it happens earlier than I expect, I should ovulate while we’re in Spain, which I think would be perfect, especially if we are lucky enough to get pg this month. I was joking with Toby that if I DO get pg, we’ll have to find a cool Spanish name that we like. We have friends who wanted to use the name Paris b/c that is where they conceived, but I don’t think Barcelona would go over too well. What do you think? =)
Hopefully I’ll have SOME access to the Internet while we’re away, so I’ll try to hop onto my TTM board if it’s possible. Please stop by and say hello. In the meantime, God bless you and yours.
Hasta Luego!
Rebekah and Aidan
** In case you’ve never heard of tapas, this is the short history and description given in Café Sevilla’s menu: Tapas are Spanish appetizers or hors d'oeuvres. A few of these tasty little dishes selected from an infinite variety can make a full meal.
Long before the discovery of America it was obligatory for innkeepers to serve food with wine, so a tasty morsel of cured ham, chorizo, cheese or olives were served on a small plate which covered the jug of wine like a lid, top or "tapa."
Tapas are an extension of the spontaneous Spanish character, chosen and eaten at whim, accompanied by wine, sherry, beer or sangria, to be shared with friends in a convivial setting, with folk songs, dance and lively conversation.
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