Surprising Thing

My Aunt Ruthie is kind of the best person you'll ever meet. Ever. Like seriously, call the Vatican and recommend this woman for sainthood.

She likes German Shepards

She made MyCoz, and her beautiful sister, Lexi

I really shouldn't call her #2, since as far as love and support she's my #1 fan. If anyone has mastered the line between mom and best friend as an aunt, it's Ruthie. She was my confidant, a shoulder to cry on, and often the one keeping me in line. She just gets me.
When I was growing up my mom was one of Ruth's best friends, so naturally MyCoz and I became besties, and reaped the benefits of having two moms to play off of.

I have many, many, many epic stories with Aunt Ruth, which I will surely get to in the future. Today's story is about her birthday! A group of us got together and hid in her house until she got home from finals for her CNA (yeah, she's badass) and surprised her with cake, balloons, and all the love she deserves.

Afterward, since I was already so close, I scooted on over to MyCoz and her man's apartment.
Since making her blanket, she hasn't seen much of it between Moses and Khaleesi always stealing it. So, I made them each their own as well.

Blue, his favorite color

Sam always beta-tests my work

She looks serious, but she likes it

Crunch

Most people think 4/20 is either awesome or terrible. The distinction is whether you're a stoner or not.

For me, 4/20 is neither a day of sorrow (due to a birthday) nor a day to celebrate marijuana. Now, this day marks the death of the Sentra.

The poor car was mangled, but it did it's job well. Between the seatbelt, engine compartment, and airbag, my face stayed intact and I didn't die like I could have. My sister was practically unscathed, with some bruising in her ankle and a healthy dose of mortality.
Unfortunately, I was left bloody and bruised, with some concerns about a concussion. I had done the "mom-arm" on my sister in the passenger seat, which put me at an angle that made my head bounce. I almost hurt myself more after the accident by trying to take care of my sister and behave normally. I basically hulked out on adrenaline and felt no pain until I almost passed out getting in the ambulance.
 We were transported to hospital, where we each had x-rays for breaks, and I got checked for signs of concussion and treatment for shock.

The next day was awful. No one ever talks about trauma recovery, which usually hurts worse than the injury itself because your body is working to heal.

Poor lefty

The driver airbag deployed from the steering wheel with a barn door opening, which tried to open my arm too.My right arm is also bruised from the brunt of my sister's airbag from doing "mom-arm," which actually saved her from a broken nose. (Yay?)

And of course, because I sit sort of splayed, I slammed my good knee into the shifter and split it. Luckily it's sturdier than my nearly-glass-fragile left knee, and only needed some ice.

Check out this pupil dilation. They gave me vicodin and baclofen, which actually made things tolerable. Shout out to my grandma for the hot pack, it was a key player in my recovery.

Through this whole ordeal, I was worried. This is exactly the scenario I knew Husband didn't excel at, and I was more or less useless from shock. Luckily, since he was only a block away, he arrived on scene quickly and spoke with police on my behalf. Mom came at my sister's request, which was great since our only car was dead on the side of the road. She helped Husband get the car towed, and drove to the hospital to meet up with us.

Surprisingly, Husband kicked ass and thought of  everything. He grabbed a clean sweater, and dumped every pill bottle I had ever touched into a bag to show the doctors. It was awesome and validating to see him step up in a place where he is completely out of his element, and I usually would take charge; an  unprecedented situation in which he had to take care of me, which I hate. I take care of everyone else, not the other way around!

The whole experience brought us closer together, which is really the only positive thing I can take from it.

SoCal Science Center

April 14th photos

Goofing around with science, and then Mongolian BBQ

I put the above as my reference notes for this post, but it actually sums our day up quite nicely.

The colors!

Infrared

And then.... food!

It was an awesome way to spend our fifth year and third wedding anniversary together - because at heart we are nerds with giant appetites.

Come for the Food, Stay for the Pets

Happy Easter

This visit with extended family was another Christmas catchup, as I kept forgetting my cousins' presents every time I left to see them!

Again, bookworms, which almost makes it too easy to shop for them.
We had a pleasant day of it, eating good food and seeing how much candy we could wolf down before getting sick.

Husband made a friend.

 Murphy, my Aunt's cat, is also a professional feelings hurter like Mia, my sister-in-law's cat. At least that's what we were told. He hurt none of our feelings, and practically climbed into Husband's shirt pocket. We almost came home with a new cat.

My sister came to sleep over that night and explained to Sam how he almost got a new roommate.

WhaaaaaaaaaatCome fo

Griff-mas

Since this was the first I'd seen of my nephew since he made his debut in the world, we had to have a sort of late-late Christmas in which I spoiled him with things and paper.

We had to take a break after showing mom box holding 25% clothes and packed the rest of the way with candy.

He takes after his parents, which means he's a bookworm. He had to pull all of the books out and share them with the rest of us.

As you nice people know, Husband and I have no plans for children of our own. For me, it's career over mommying, and for Husband it's that as well as a general confusion when it comes to babies.

We all kind watched with bated breath when Griff tried climbing on him. He managed to avoid the bad part of his leg, and once Griff was standing upright that seemed to be it. He just looked at Husband and sort of nodded that he was pleased for having accomplished "climbing" his leg. It was a moment.

Once Griff realized Uncle Dino knew how toys worked, they had a good time. Anything Husband did was just the most fascinating thing to Griff, and if he thought he had discovered something, he had to share it with Husband.

All in all it was a nice day, with new adventures and a softer side of Husband I hadn't seen before.