surprise trip to baltimore

this is my favorite photograph of my grandfather.  it was taken at my wedding in 2004.  my grandpa turned 80 a couple of weeks ago and decided to throw an outdoor bbq to celebrate with friends and family.  my two brothers and i flew in especially for the party--and especially for a surprise!  my grandparents weren't expecting us to come, and were so surprised when they saw all three of us get out of the car in front of their house.  don't you love surprises like that?!


laughing with my brothers: good.  

the three of us scrunching in the back of a truck: bad.

humidity: bad.

the whole family eating breakfast together: good.

my mom always being the photographer and not being in photos with us: bad.

eating at golden corral: questionable....

seeing cousins after 5 years: good.

spending 2 nights and 3 days without my husband: bad (that's the first time we've spent time apart in our 4 years of marriage, and neither of us enjoyed it at all!)

humidity: bad.

making egg salad for the party: good.

finding a double yoke: even better!  double good luck, right?!  (see how excited i am below)

watching jon erik do tricks on dad dad's scooter: good.

watching jon erik do tricks on dad dad's scooter in a snorkling mask: hilarious.

watching jon erik do tricks on dad dad's scooter in an old 80s short short swimsuit: bad.

party time!!  crab soup, salads, fruit, hamburgers and hot dogs, pies: good.

styling my hair and wearing make up in the humidity: bad.

humidity: bad.

here's the closest we've gotten to a family reunion in a long time!  the whole family above and just the cousins with our grandparents below. 



taking a dip in the cool, refreshing pool: good.

humidity: bad.

getting the cake ready: good.





we got to spend time with my mom and dad, too, which was nice.  jon erik and i flew in on friday and had dinner with our dad.  christian felt left out (he flew in on a redeye the next morning) so we scheduled another time to see our dad: early sunday morning for breakfast.  it was great for all three of us to be together and spend individual time with our parents; it had been a year and a half since we'd all gotten together.   
me and my mom: good.

humidity: bad.  that isn't sunshine in the background, that's humidity.  yuck.


the trip was a smashing success, and we had a blast!  i have to say, it's much easier for me to acclimate to a dry climate than a humid one, although i grew up on the humid east coast!  i don't see myself voluntarily living in a humid climate again.  i also don't see myself voluntarily going on vacation without david--we've been spoiled in being together and love our time together.  next time he's coming with me--even if he has to be squished into my carry on bag.

cupcakes and croquet

i celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks ago with a good group of friends at the park.  we had some good snacks--watermelon, cupcakes, chocolate fondue for strawberries, and chex mix--and a good game of croquet.  i'd never played croquet before, but now i'm hooked.  

the week before my birthday i'd finished my crazy 15 credits in 7 weeks semester with straight a's (i was not expecting an a out of epidemiology, but it came true--what a nice birthday gift!), and the week of my birthday i spent with no commitments.  it was very nice!  i couldn't have asked for a better birthday week than one of no commitments!  

blood brothers

meet christian and jon erik, my brothers.  i didn't grow up with sisters to teach me how to do girly stuff like hair or make up and shave my legs, and there was no sister talk about boys and dates, and no sister's shoulder to cry on about being made fun of or called names because i had a boy name...but did i feel like i missed out on anything? nope! i grew up with two awesome brothers who taught me survival (and my mom taught me the other girl stuff). with one brother older and one younger, i fell comfortably into the middle of brother adventures and being-the-only-girl-so-i-get-a-different-sort-of-attention.  i have to say, after all the debates, bets, and challenges, i am fairly certain i am my mom's favorite child, simply because i am her only daughter (being blonde probably helps, too).  exploring and "getting into scrapes" was much more fun than being girly, let's say dating was a learning experience for me (there were no brothers to beat up the first kiss--i think they didn't want to think about their sister dating anyone, so they stayed out of that picture)--most boy/girl talk was christian asking me what girls meant when they said abc or did xyz, and i got called my fair share of names at home (i eventually learned crying just wasn't worth it). we made it through an unstable childhood of every-other-weekend visits and holidays, an emotional adolescence of growing up too fast, and now we're exploring adulthood within cell-phone reach of each other.





this is halloween, 1983. this is what we look like when mom's in charge of costumes--a clown and a mouse. i won first place for funniest costume from the herndon parks and recreation center where we paraded around. here we are 20 years later, halloween 2003, what we look like when we are in charge of our costumes. christian agreed to display his svelte legs dressed up in my waitressing outfit from when i worked at baby's, a 50s diner, and i was a bunch of grapes.  i don't remember any awards that year.  our favorite halloween activity was playing black jack or poker with our halloween candy. christian and i aren't dressed up in swim gear for halloween, but i love this photo all the same--it says 'just try and take out this brother-sister team'!



one thing i will never understand is how jon erik grew to be bigger, taller, buffer, scarier, and in-the-marines-ier than all of us. he was such a cute little brother!





we were the best of friends growing up. our birthdays are 5 days apart (and 3 years), so we always celebrated them together as though we were twins.  jon erik and i always teamed up against christian for everything (christian was always the conniving bad guy). even so, we rarely defeated christian's tricky wilyness. jon erik was so sweet and innocent. i remember tricking him once into believing i was running out of oxygen, and i couldn't breathe. of course he wanted to help me so i told him to go get me leaves from a plant that i could more deeply inhale the oxygen from. ahhh, the sweet little boy complied. i dare say he wouldn't fall for that now. he's been to iraq and back twice with the marines, works with marine machinery, and holds marine guns. yeah, i don't think i'll be tricking that little guy anymore.





my heroes. jon erik saved me from boredom growing up, and christian was always my fall-back date (halloween parties, weddings, office parties). christian is quite the dancer. he's made up a number of his own moves and makes us all laugh (i'm sure that's what wooed robin--my wonderful *sister*-in-law).

this was jon erik's favorite napping spot--on the bookshelf next to the world book encylopedias. 

don't you love this sign?!  we made a fort in the woods behind our dad's house one weekend and there were a couple of boys who wanted to take it from us.  so we declared an all-out war on them.  the only problem was that they lived there and we were there only every other weekend, so in the end i think they did end up with the fort.

i love the fashion.  one of the best parts of having an older brother is that i got all his hand-me-downs...i'm glad that phase didn't last very long.

this is a great photo, too.  jon erik looks very 007 daniel craig and christian looks like he just got married.  it's few and far between we get to hang out anymore--we grow up and lives take us elsewhere.  i love looking through our photo albums and remembering the good old times.  these are two guys i will fiercely defend until the end.  i know, i know, you guys don't need to tell me--i'm your favorite sister. 

seven-sector call-out

last week i was called a "seven-sector call-out".  i wasn't sure what my reaction should be, as this was coming from an older, married man (the husband of a woman i visit teach).  i sort of laughed and asked him for a definition.  he said, "essentially, it means your beauty stands out across galaxies."  wow!  i can live with that!  i've never thought of myself as particularly pretty, especially galaxy pretty, but this new title was sort of growing on me.  i very politely told him he was sweet, and that i would make david herald my every entrance with said title.  when i got home i told david he was married to a seven-sector call-out, and that he should feel like the luckiest guy on earth--no--across galaxies!  

we decided to google the term, and found some interesting results.  this is apparently a title thrown around by sci-fi-ites, trekkies, and galaxy beings with names like zelgadis, sylphiel, and langelin.  then i did an image search.  check this out for some of the "galatically hot women" of star trek...believe me, i was not visiting teaching in that silver number (fifth one down on the left).  after viewing a few more images of the star trek babes, i decided beauty was in the eye of the beholder...

health and safety day at ups

ups had their health and safety awareness fair yesterday, and as david is on the committee, we thought we should make an appearance.  here was one of the signs hanging up in the plant.  it made me laugh because i've met (and...(cough, cough)...treated) a few boxes that look like very unwelcome guests of honor.

this guy might be able to handle this box on his own if he were lifting with his knees instead of his back.  you know, get stuff in the power zone...
here's where david clocks in every day.  the board to the right of him is filled with pictures of drivers and trucks who weren't safe while on the job.  there were some pretty bad wrecks posted on the board!  there were also stats from the day and week before to motivate all the drivers to reach their best potential of saving the world one box at a time.

here's where david takes his "coffee" break.  i think david is really pushing the hot cocoa button.
here's the flame truck.  this is what they drive around during parades.  wouldn't you feel pretty special delivering boxes in this thing?!  i know i would.  i suggested the committee should use this truck as incentive to get guys to drive safer.  you know, let the safest driver from one month drive it around for deliveries on the first day on the next month, and so on.  david looked at me and started laughing.  he said that would be a punishment; the truck has over 700,000 miles on it, it's unreliable, it's small and wouldn't fit the box load for delivery no matter how light the load that day.  so then i suggested they make it the punishment truck for the least safe driver.  we'll see what happens after the next safety meeting! 

all about the birds

david hates these kind of posts because "it's not like the birds are our kids, michal!"...but a few of you have been asking about our birds, so i thought it'd be fun to do some bird hollywood videos.  i had posted a video with tumnus earlier in the month, but when i listened to it i realized you couldn't hear tumnus at all.  so i got some new film...i hope y'all enjoy our little birds!   

this is lucy's favorite perch in the bathroom.  when we take a shower, or if i'm in there doing my hair and make up, she loves to get in the corner and nap.  it's like pavlav's effect--when the bathroom fan goes on, she goes in the corner to sleep.  she also has a very sweet disposition.  she's still in the baby mode where she'll puff up her feathers and look super cute. when i was sick a few months ago i had gone into the bedroom to sleep and left the birds out in the kitchen area on their cage.  i fell asleep with one hand under my head.  when i woke up i found lucy sitting on the pillow next to my head and one little claw holding one finger, like she was saying, "it's ok, i'm here."  we keep their wings clipped, now, so she had made quite the trek from her cage to our bedroom in order to be with me.  such a sweet bird.  

tumnus, on the other hand, is a brat.  he'll squawk until he gets what he wants.  he likes to squawk during the entire shower.  either that or pass the time blowing his beak.  he has this really weird habit, like he's trying to blow his "nose."  he's always been like that.  when i took him to the vet i asked her if his sinuses were impacted, and she said he was completely clear, and the blowing thing is just his way of interacting with the world.  we've noticed he'll "blow" more when david and i are laughing (like it's his way of joining in on the fun and laughter), or when we are blowing our noses.  he'll give his own little blow if he sees us grab a tissue.  i've tried to capture it on film, but it's really quiet.  i also caught some bath time.

bio sheet

a teacher passed out this bio sheet in class today so she could get to know us. it's from one of the american express ads you see in magazines, where they interview mega famous stars about personal details. so here i go fan club...what would you write to your fan club?

• my name michal coombs.
• childhood ambition i wanted to be a famous writer whose pieces of authored art (poetry and prose) would be required reading in high school english classes and subjected to analytical papers, discussion groups, and highlighted in barnes & noble as a classic.
• fondest memory i loved going to my grandparent's every summer and making lunch meat sandwiches. this doesn't sound very spectacular, i know, but it was a treat to open the fridge and have a choice of 5 different lunch meats, 3 different cheeses, ice berg lettuce, mayonnaise, mustard, and my choice of rye, pumpernickel, or white bread (these were all items absent from my childhood home). i loved the smell of lunch meat, produce, and bread. like i said before, it was a treat, odd as that sounds.
• soundtrack npr.
• retreat ocean.
• wildest dream living internationally as an ex-pat.
• proudest moment seeing my dad look so proud and pleased of me on my wedding day; finishing 3rd place for my age group in my first triathlon; getting an a- in chemistry two years after failing it; having a 3.92 gpa.
• biggest challenge not feeling inferior to everyone when i walk into a room.
• if i won a million dollars 1st- school loans, 2nd-travel, 3rd-invest/save.
• alarm clock 530am.
• first job 14 years old-bagel cafe, food prep (followed by burger king, wendy's, weis markets, nanny in italy, page "polisher" at a yearbook publishing plant, waitress at baby's, telemarketer, waitress at the york inn and restaurant, italian teacher at the community college of baltimore county, temp secretary, medical assistant at generations family prcatice, medical assistant at dr. call's (rheumatologist), medical assistant at utah valley pediatrics).
• the one job i would be willing to do without pay mother.
• indulgence sleeping in.
• last cool purchase art in florence, oregon.
• favorite movie i prefer books.
• inspiration starting over every day.
• perfect day sunny, warm, good book/outdoor activity, my husband.
• most important thing in my life husband.
• my life is well.