All hail the new Nelson Family UNO champion!

So I told James last Sunday that we should play UNO as a family, because I had heard a lady in church talk about how their family played - even their 4 year old, and he sometimes won. Tonight was the inaugural Nelson family UNO game. In the first round, right out of the gate, Zoe won! And not only won, but she got over 200 points from James and I. Next round, James won, and only got 37 points. The next 2 rounds, Zoe won, and ended up with a grand total of 333 points! I will say that she does play with all her cards out on the table in front of her, but even with that she still won fair and square. I don't know what that says about our UNO abilities, although James was saying that he didn't call her on her failure to quickly call UNO a few times so she didn't have to draw cards, but still. I'm guessing that we will probably end up playing this a bunch at our house, but that's okay, UNO's a fun game!

And by the way, Happy Thanksgiving! Now the Christmas Countdown can begin - who's ready?

You can give a girl a recyclable, reusable grocery bag but you can't make her use it!

So I was driving today to the store cause we were out of milk (for several days) amongst other things, and I was thinking about how when I was growing up in LA, every house was given a cool recycling bin to use. First it was a small yellow bin like this,
that we dragged out and put next to our trash cans. Then they upgraded to a big blue bin that looked more like this.This, along with a green bin for yard trimmings was hauled out to the curb with our trash every week, and 2 trash trucks would come by. One was for trash and one was for all the recyling. Anyway, I was thinking about my recyclable bags in the back of my car on the way to the store. I am all into using them exclusively and getting away from the plastic bags, but what happens? All too often I forget them in the car and I don't remember them until I've already got the girls in the cart and I'm trooping my way through the store. So what do I still have under my sink, despite my best intentions? Oh that would be a pile of bags. So what do those LA bins have in common with my current situation? I think it would be that having the tools at your disposal to be more environmentally conscious doesn't do you any good unless it's also pretty much foolproof and made so that there's very little chance of forgetting about it! I keep my bags in the car, but for me I guess that's not enough, since I am the Goldfish Girl. (Goldfish have a memory span of 3 seconds, and apparently I do too.)

Jumping in - or at least getting a toe wet

So I shall see how this goes. I've been intrigued by blogging for a while now, especially by all my friends who have blogs. I follow them religiously, but lets face it, a blog is just a journal in my opinion, and that was NEVER my strong suit as a kid. Or as a teen. Or as an adult. I'd try it, and do it for a couple days, and then forget about it for years and years. So we shall see what this brings. Those who read this blog probably know all about me and my family, but maybe I'll get some people who are not so familiar. My husband, James and I have been married for almost 7 years. We have 2 daughters - Zoe is 4, and Astrid is 9 months old. We have 2 cats - Kitty-brie and Artemis. They are sisters, and also girls. My poor husband is surrounded by girls - hence the name of the blog. We live in Anchorage, Alaska. James grew up in Valdez from 5th grade through the end of high school. I grew up in Los Angeles, but always hated the heat, which was why I was interested in moving up here - especially when he told me that it usually never gets above 75 degrees in the summer! I said "that's it! I'll move to Alaska!". However, he never told me we also have summers like this summer, which has gone on record as being one of the coolest, wettest, and non-sunny summers on record. Times like that make me wish I were somewhere warmer - until I read about record breaking heat, and then you couldn't pay me enough to move there.

Zoe is a happy little girl who loves preschool, DINOSAURS, Diego, Max and Ruby, Wow Wow Wubbzy, Little Einsteins, and the villains in movies and stories. She's a funny girl who likes to laugh, and likes to make us laugh. She is a special girl who has been through more than she should in her short life. For those who don't know, Zoe was born with heart defects. In medical speak she has Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndroms (HRHS), Pulmonary Atresia, and Ebstein's Anomaly. In layman's terms, the right side of her heart is too small, and the valves that pump blood to the arteries to the lungs are pretty much nonexistent. She basically has half a heart. She has had 3 surgeries - 1 at 2 weeks of age, 1 at 6 months, and the 3rd was this past March when she was 3 and a half. She has had multiple trips to the cardiac cath lab, which always involve anesthesia, and she is a miracle child. If she had been born even as early as 25 or 30 years ago, she would not be alive because they did not do these surgeries before that. Well, they did the 1st and 2nd stages, but not the 3rd. Heart hugs to anyone else who has been through that, and there are quite a few of you. Heart defects are the most common birth defect there is; approximately 1 out of every 100 babies is born with a defect of some kind.

Astrid is our baby, she is 9 months old. She likes crawling, urping, eating, putting things in her mouth, babbling, and generally being cute. She is a gigantic girl - she is about 22 pounds (which puts her above the 90th percentile) and is 28 and 3/4 inches (a tad smaller, just below the 90th percentile), but that makes for great roly poly legs and arms. Quite the pudge pot! Photo courtesy of my friend Rachael - click here to see her great site.


James is a geek - a nerd, however you want to put it. He runs a computer repair business from home - see here to find out about it - if you're local give him a call! He's fabulous! He also is a WAHD - Work at Home Dad, hence a Stay at Home Dad. He has a great relationship with the girls now since he's been home to watch them.

I'm a working mom, and the head of this crew. I work for the Anchorage office of KPMG - a Big 4 Accounting firm. I like working for that company a lot, though there are things in the office I don't like so much, but isn't that how it is for everyone? Anyway, stay tuned to see if I can keep this up!