POM

This is a shout out to my friend Kevin who gave me the best tip in the whole world...cut into a pomegranate under a bowl of water.  Genius!  Well, he's not a genius, but he was right about this.  I'm sure I could have googled this information, but  it's much more fun talking to old friends on the phone while walking around the grocery store (plus he's always bragging on facebook about living in California, and since pomegranates are grown there...well, you get the idea).  So here's my documentation, mostly for his pleasure on being right.

The beautiful POM exposed under cold water 

You can see no stains on our hands

(by the way, this is such a cool thing to do with a toddler)

cleaned and drained 

drying and being picked at...a lot!  You HAVE to try one.

 Now is the best time to buy, so savior every little popping seed.  

To believe, or not, the end is near...(just for the record, I am not a believer)

I love Joel Stein.  He's cute (in my husband sort of way) and funny.  I particularily loved his take on the end of the world...or maybe it just means a new beginning.

My Psychic Powers at Work
By Joel Stein

I don't think i have actual psychic powers. But I must have some sort of extrasensory perception, because my prediction columns for the past two years have been freakishly on target: For 2010, I accurately predicted both a Sarah Palin reality show and the name of my unborn child--and it wasn't even a common name. For 2011, I predicted the further destabilization of Pakistan and a pimento-cheese craze. Eerie, huh?

This year, though, predictions are easy. That's because they don't have to last very long. The ancient Mayans have a calendar that predicts the end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012. Sure, that's plenty of time for something like pimento cheese to get going, but there's no point in making predictions if there's no following year in which to brag about them.

Still, it would be pretty cool to see people being eaten alive by locusts and drowning in a flood of cow's blood while screaming, "Dude, this is exactly how Joel Stein said it would happen!" So to get the exact details on the apocalypse, I contacted David Stuart, the Mayan scholar who in 1984, at the age of 18, was the youngest recipient ever of a MacArthur "genius" grant. Unfortunately, Stuart was in the Guatemalan jungle. This wasn't unfortunate for me--he got all my e-mails--but I figure it wasn't so great for him. Stuart had a slightly different take on the 2012 apocalypse thing. "The end of the calendar is completely made up by people who don't know anything about the ancient Maya," he wrote. Not only did the Mayans not predict the end of the world in 2012, but more shocking, they are called Maya, not Mayans. That guy totally deserved his genius grant.

If the Maya didn't predict the end of the world, there was a huge opportunity for me to break news by finding out what they do predict. I'd call some actual Maya, ask them who will win the U.S. presidential election and American Idol and what time the Nobel committee will call me. Unfortunately, the Maya are not all about Facebook. So I called Robert Sitler, a professor of modern languages and literature at Stetson University, who has been traveling to the Maya regions of Guatemala and Mexico for more than 35 years. He's asked nearly 200 Maya about what will happen Dec. 21, which indeed is the last day of the 13th Bak'tun, the end of a 5,125-year cycle, though there are bigger deals in the ancient Maya calendar, like dates that come up every octillion years. The Maya, it turns out, are math nerds.

None of the Maya whom Sitler spoke with had heard of their calendar, which hasn't been used for centuries. But in the past two years, they have seen awful American movies and TV shows about it, so some of them now believe in their nonexistent apocalyptic predictions, just as we do. I think this is the stuff the antiglobalization people are afraid of.

Some of the Maya were freaking out so much over the incorrect American take on the Maya prediction that Maya elders in Chiapas invited Sitler to tell them about their own calendar and calm everybody down. Part of Sitler's speech involves a set of hieroglyphics that predict the arrival of the deity Bolon Yokte', who is linked to warfare, famine and social strife. If this is Sitler's calming-down speech, an NFL team should hire him to give locker-room speeches, pronto.

Sitler visited Tulum, Mexico, three times because it's the home of a traditional Maya culture. I visited Tulum in July with my wife and son for exactly the same reason, assuming that traditional Maya culture is all about hanging out at the beach and going to an enormous water park. Though the Maya there didn't know about the ancient calendar, they happened to be really into predictions anyway. "They actually talk about the end of the world," Sitler said. "They were at war for a long time with the Mexican government. They said that some sort of war is on the horizon, that this time they will win." No offense to the very nice Maya who were serving me margaritas, but my money is on the Mexican army.

Wanting more specifics, I e-mailed Alessandro Carozzino, the guy who ran the hotel I stayed in, Posada Margherita. Though technically Italian, he's lived in Tulum for a really long time, so he probably knows something about the future. I remember talking with Carozzino over gelato as he made some bold predictions for 2012, including that he would open a second branch of his Italian restaurant in Los Angeles. "I spoke with all the Mayan guys working here," Carozzino e-mailed me. "All of them told me the same thing: It will be not the end of the world; it is the end of a period. Another time will start, and new things are going to happen." I am not going to argue with actual Maya about 2012, so I'm going with their prediction: This year, new things are going to happen. I feel almost as sure about this as I did about pimento cheese.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2103276,00.html#ixzz1ib3nlk4h

Iowa Nice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73vsqcpkFes&feature=youtu.be

Idiot Opinions should be banned throughout the United States

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45852078#45852078

In case you missed seeing this smug jerk last night.

I have so much to say about this, but motherhood calls. Form your own opinion, BUT LOVE RayGun in Iowa City and buy their t-shirts. They are all funny!  I wear my NO SLEEP TO BROOKLYN (IA) t-shirt all the time!

2011 Wrap up

JANUARY

Potty Training....SUCCESS!

 FEBRUARY

A friend clear from the Netherlands makes Iowa a priority, but Influenza A rounds out the month.



A 70 degree day, to a record blizzard, keeps winter true to form in February.

MARCH

I turned 36 and got a toaster...I heard a big sigh slip out of my mouth,but laugh because I love my husband, then rethink, damn, that means I'm getting old. I used to be out buying shots for my friends...although I DO love this part of my life so much more.

MAY-JUNE

Ava turns 3--It's all about Toy Story 3 this time around

Another fabulous trip to Folly Beach, SC helps Spring start on the right foot.

 JULY-AUGUST

A perfect summer day takes us near Ames, IA to harvest the best blueberries around

Another "man" trip to Wrigley Field

A farewell to our fiesty cat Mila...who despite her angry personality, loved

Ava to brush her in the back yard.

The best trip to Arizona EVER!  A beautiful family wedding, sand storms, pool boys, really HOT sun, friends, family, and lots of relaxation help us prepare for the end of summer, and the upcoming  big step for Ava...SCHOOL

SEPTEMBER

She walked in without batting an eyelash.

http://ourlivesinwords.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html

Club seats in Ames, IA give us a fantastic view of Iowa State spanking
the Hawkeyes during the yearly rivalry.

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER

A happy trick or treat night and a beautiful Fall season to be saviored.

We surprised the heck out of Dejan on his 40th birthday, and thank all of you who made it!

November also included a rare picture with my nephews, and Ava loved brushing teeth with a

fellow cousin toddler, we miss you Addison!

DECEMBER

A Christmas tree and Ava's first school program start things off right.

Only one snow day, and Ava waiting for the mailman, at the front door, to hand over her letter to Santa

just a random picture i love

A ride on the Polar Express to see Santa was a great day.

Sick days end in happy days with Yammi on Christmas Day.

December was a mix of emotions. Ava had walking pneumonia, I had to have an upper endoscopy done, which surprised everyone with its outcome. 10 days of three medications to zap bacteria overwhelming my internal GI track. Ava had her first all night throw up event, then I got the bug, then Dejan got a terrible cold. Christmas came and went in a blur, a last minute New year's party helped a little, and having family here made us so happy, but today, that was the pièce de résistance. We stayed home, no one was sick, we didn't change out of our pajamas, we played a lot with Ava, watched RIO, ate buttered popcorn and lots of cookies. It was the "holiday" we finally deserved.

2011 was a year of ups and downs, lots of laughing, arguing, crying, but most of all, lots of love to bring us all back together. Happy New Year to all my friends and family.

To end my post, this was one of those crying moments...

Dejan and I compared these pictures and almost croaked. How can one year make that much difference...(for future reference-sorry for embarrassing you ava)

January 2011-January 2012