Happy White Christmas

hittin' the road

[days 1 and 2]

my first attempt at stop motion photography...



needs some work, but you catch my drift. we're on a road trip.

colorado springs or bust!

the road - the finches

idolatry

curse you, DVR.

i depend on you. i overpay for you. i sacrifice for you. i worship you.
and this is how you treat me?

cutting off the very last moments of the american idol season finale*! seriously. i watch faithfully all season long. i watch the entire overly done production [really FOX, it's getting ridiculous]. the theatrics! [i'm down for the count with the boxing] every horrible song choice [bryan adams, really?] every awkward dance move [brooke it's okay. it's okay.], even the commercials [which i was not obligated to do via DVR] and ryan seacrest opens the golden envelope, starts in with his "ladies and gentlemen. . .david and david, the winner by tw-" and WHAM! you slap me in the face.

i know i can [and will] just look it up online and find out who won, but what about the looks on their faces? what. about. the tears? the confetti! the false congratulations.

curse. you. i'm calling cox. maybe it's back to basic cable afterall.

*and no, i will not be downloading the episode from itunes. i don't even vote, i'm not shelling out a dime. although the clip with robert downey jr. *sigh* for charity? possibly. maybe.

UPDATE: congratulations david cook! yea! i'll admit i am a little surprised, but not disappointed.

billie jean - david cook
"the genius song" billie genius, not my lover. . .according to jonah

i am iron man

my dear little sister volunteered to babysit last night, so i took my husband on an impromptu date for some "quality time". [being the babysitter-challenged parents that we are, this doesn't happen often. hence, an entire post about going to a movie.] thanks, sara!

[being the cheapskates that we are] we stopped at costco first to pick up some fro yo and a 7lb. bag of m&m's*. man, that place was bustling. who knew friday nights at costco were so popular? spending too much time in line at the costco food court meant that we didn't spend enough time in line at the theater, so we got to sit right up front. you know the seats where you have to physically move your head from one side to other just to see the actors' entire face. on the bright side, i didn't need my glasses for this one.

it was the opening premier of iron man, and the theatre was packed with high school kids [being the intolerant agoraphobians that we are, we haven't been to a movie on friday night since, ever] and they cheered and catcalled at all the right moments. [being my 3rd decade of life, i haven't been to a pep rally for at least 10 years.]

it was good fun. i really did like the movie for someone who's not a big MARVEL fan. maybe it was the uplifting, heroic nature of the film or maybe it was just robert downey, jr. [being that i love him.]

*i only had one m&m, mom. seriously, one.

iron man - black sabbath

come one, come all

i *heart* "balentime's" day

me and the boys had a fantastic "balentime's day" as jonah pronounces it. the boys woke up to the classic heart-shaped box of chocolates and a super sweet breakfast to follow. with norah jones for ambiance, me and the boys gorged ourselves on our favorite french toast and homemade buttermilk syrup topped with "snow" (powdered sugar) and chocolate-covered strawberries. mmm...mMMm. then we threw our syrup-covered boys in the tub and all my boys obliged me to dress them in their new valentine's t-shirts. soon after that we gave daddy a ride to work and left him with a plethora of kisses. but apparently jonah didn't get enough because he cried as soon as we drove away saying he needed to "kiss daddy's face" until i turned around and let him blow 5 or 6 more kisses to daddy through the window. when joe returned from work, he and i decided we would rather spend an evening at home rather than go out to eat. so we cooked a new dish together that we hadn't had before while the boys took a convenient afternoon nap. cheese stuffed chicken with tortellini, green salad, garlic bread and apple-pomegranate martinelli's to wash it all down. it was a very romantic dinner for two, with candles even, until monsters 1 and 2 joined us. it was then a much noisier and messier meal, but still the enjoyable chaotic meal we've grown accustomed to. after bath #2 for our marinara-covered boys, we all dressed in our pj's and opened valentines from oma and opa. letters from them always make us smile. and like any perfect ending to a very sweet day, we had a finale of italian gelato and ikey's favorite peanut butter kiss "tookie" then fell asleep watching classic romance movies- joe was the first to fall asleep.

sunrise - norah jones

the best of 2007

all the way to the moon

This is Jonah's favorite nighttime sign-off...



Mama: Jonah, who loves you?
Jonah: You do.
Mama: How much?
Jonah: All the way to the moon!

We say this every night. Several times even. Jonah sometimes thinks I've forgotten and reminds me to say it. And he doesn't want me to just say, 'I love you all the way to the moon'. It has to be verbatim.

Joe's been in the Dominican Republic all week for work. He sent me an email today to let me know he's been delayed another day. He knows how much I love that. Luckily he added some sugar to the end of his email. I loved it so much I had to blog it.

FW: E-Ticket Confirmation
From: Joseph Bast (xxxxxx@hotmail.com)

Sent: Fri 12/07/07 9:32 AM
To: Faith Bast (xxxxxxxx@hotmail.com)

baby,

I had to change my flight to tomorrow in order to work things out here. I'm sorry.
give my boys a squeeze and tell them I love them all the way to Orions belt

Delta Orionis, Mintaka (05h32m -00° 18') means "the belt" which is where this star is located in Orion. Mintaka has a magnitude of 2.2 and is a blue giant class B0 star. Its distance is 800 light years away. Mintaka is both a visusl and spectroscopic binary. The spectroscopic companion is a blue star, the visual companion is 52 arcseconds from Mintaka. There is a bluish 6.7 magnitude companion to Mintaka. The stars form a physical pair with a separation of about 0.5 light years.

800 light years times 5,878,625,373,184 miles per light year equals 4,702,900,298,547,200 miles

-Joey

P.S. He's an engineer. He thrives on this mathematical/outer-space stuff.

Favorite Kid Quote of the Day:

"I want Daddy to come to town. I'm so sad, I miss him." -Jonah's laments

All Aboard!

The boys were super snuggled-up in their warmest pj's for the train ride to the "North Pole" via The Polar Express. Jonah in his robe and slippers and Ikey looking like something out of A Christmas Story with two layers of pajamas and the silliest looking hat and gloves to ever make a baby ridiculous. The pictures tell the story much better than words...

Halloween at long last!

We finally made it to Halloween day and got to go Trick-or-Treating. Jonah has been anxiously waiting for this, yet when it finally came he was almost too tired to go. He had a long day at school and carving pumpkins and being a "bamfire" all day. It's a tough job. Isaak did let me get him in his costume for about 5 minutes. I barely got some pictures in it before he had it half-way torn off. We made one trip around the block and the boys were done. Jonah was in charge of the candy bowl and was giving it out by the hand fulls. Isaak was having fun helping, too. Though sometimes he had a hard time actually letting go when he got to the kids' bags.

Favorite Kid Quote of the Day:
"Look friends, I'm a bamfire!" Jonah said when he walked into his preschool class dressed in his Halloween costume.

The "Bash"

The Crosby Sisters' annual Halloween party [see invites here] was at our house this year, so Joe and I spent a lot of time decorating and turning our house into....The Bast Family Haunted Manor...Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Almost everybody came in full costume attire. Joe was suitably a mad scientist, seeing how he is already half-way there. I created my costume from accessories found all over the place and what seemed to come of it was something vampy. Elvira was the most popular guess. Jonah was so excited to dress up this year as Count Jonah the "Bamfire". And Isaak was supposed to be a mummy, but he wasn't having it. He screamed the entire time I was trying to wrap him up and then had it torn off in no time. So he went as the naked baby, or Baby New Year, you might say. So we ate, drank, and were merry-or scary. The kids had fun running around with their cousins and friends. Jonah has been asking if it was Halloween day yet, since about September 27th and is still awaiting the much anticipated Trick-or-Treating. Almost there, baby!

Schnepf Farms