happy new year's eve!

when i found out we were really coming to cali, i was excited! i would be spending new year's with a (what i thought would be) a fun 22 year-old youngster!

yes, it's thrilling here.
so exciting, in fact, that i might make a trip down
to the vending machine for lack of better things to do.

happy new year!

Cali, Day 3: Petal Pushers day 2

today was the last day of float decorating, which meant only 1/2 a day of work. when we arrived about half the floats were completely done.

beezer and i first worked on the city of los angeles float, gluing white mums to the top of the building. we used the rubber cement glue and by the end my hands were covered in pedals.

then we continued to finish up the lutheran float. there wasn't a whole lot left to do except for some extra flowers to stick on. beezer and i were 2 out of 4 that were allowed to climb up today to play, er uh, help. while we were doing this, one lady was walking around with a spray bottle, spraying all the flowers. i bet she has some massive forearms from this.
here we are, carrying the arc of the covenant!

all finished!! i'll tell ya what, these petal pusher shirts are money. people pay money to come in the top of the building and "observe" and are not allowed on the floor. with a shirt like this you have access anywhere you want. it's pretty much a vip pass.as the floats are finished, they are announced over the loud speaker and everyone stops to cheer! noon the the final cutoff. at this time everything has to be cleared from the floor, it has to be swept, and people have to go to the sides. riders on the floats get on for, more or less, a dress rehearsal, and this is when the judges come in. the guys on our float, by the time it is all said and done, will have had to stand on the float for 4 hours.

judging is interesting to watch. float by float the judges go around, inspecting. they have a certain time limit. you can take pictures of the process but must be silent (which is especially hard to do! .....maybe it's just me that has a hard time with this?) anyway, during the inspection time the music for that float will play and the people are waving (which does look kind of rediculous). once the time limit is over the timer rings a bell, everyone claps and the judges move on.

what is so AMAZING about the entire process is the detail that goes into every single square inch. here is a close up of the letters we did. all the letters in the entire parade are done like this. pretty mind boggling once you think about it. ideally all the petals need to be facing down. this way, when the petals wilt, they will look nicer.
(white carnation petals on top of clover seed)
going from small to large, here's a good perspective picture. check out beezer and my mom at the bottom left of this picture! this soldier is HUGE!!! (the building is 3 or 4 stories tall)

once we left the warehouse we found ourselves completely surrounded by people. the streets that the 5.5 mi parade goes down turn into a camp ground. at noon it is legal to "mark your space" and it quickly fills up with stoves, sleeping bags, kiddos and dogs. on the news it said that people were beginning to "hover" as early as 3 am. we even saw an toddler cradle with a propane heater right next to it. also, all the shops are boarded up. we're thinking that this is because they don't want people to stand inside during the parade. it's seriously a huge event here.
tomorrow the best channel to watch the parade on is hgtv. they will have nonstop coverage of the event. my mom totally splurged on awesome tickets and we will be seated in the stands where they will be filming. this year there are 41 floats. i would definitely come back for this experience again!

Cali, Day 2: Pedal Pushers

pedal pushers are a group of volunteers for the Lutherans that work on floats for the rose bowl. we volunteer our time and work on any of the floats in order to pay for ours. in the building we were in, 9 floats were being worked on. i'll try to explain how it all works in a (large) nutshell.

there are different design companies that employ their own artists, florists, workers, etc full time. there are other workers for these companies that work part time (as in the final week) when all the final live flowers go on. every square inch on the float has to be covered with some kind of organic material. this includes things like: ground up rice (white), a million different kinds of seeds, flowers, flowers ground up in a blender (no joke), roses, gerber daisies (these cost $6 a piece!), carnations, mums, other extremely gorgeous flowers..... etc. some of the flowers are grown in CA but most of them are out of season and many come from columbia. here is a (blurry) chart of what the different seed color options are:

flowers go on with glue. there are 3 different kinds: white, sticky (like rubber cement) and super sticky (like super glue). i don't understand why certain kinds are used but that's just the way it is. so in the warehouse there is a booth like this, where this guy's job is to give you whatever kind of glue you need and the proper applicator tool.
there is a flower barn where people make assembly lines and have to cut stems the exact length. seriously, if they are not, someone will come by and make you re-do. then the vials are stuck in huge trays, counted and set in their appropriate spot for the float they'll be going on.

flowers stay in the barn until they are needed for the floats, and then you see them all over the floor, like this:
there are a million people in one barn and so many jobs to do. today i had 4 different jobs:
1) plucking the mums off of their stem (with NO stem remaining) for the ronald mcdonald float's hamburger
2) literally being a pedal pusher and having to cover the words "the lutheran hour" with white carnation pedals (which is a lot like doing a mosaic! it was the perfect job for me.
3) putting gerber daisies and roses on the float
4) making the "burning bushes" by covering willow sticks with ground up mum leaves (you cover them with white glue and get mum dust everywhere!) here is our little group in charge of getting them done and looking for a good home for them before going on the float.

surprisingly the building is cold..... we didn't know what "cold" really meant to cali folk, but we had overcast skies and rain today and it was chilly in there. not to mention the air conditioner was going on and off the entire time.

my mom is LOVING all the color and flowers and took a close up picture of what the color looks like on the float. it really is gorgeous. the lady in charge of our float said there were at least 15,000 flowers on it.

if you happen to be a float driver, this is what the driver's seat looks like, complete with a fire extinguisher on the side. on some floats the driver sometimes has to spend the night inside because there is so much work to be done on the door. that is a job i could not handle.
i'm sure i'm forgetting a bunch of things but here is a view from the overlook of the warehouse:how much does one of these cost? someone threw out an estimate that a small one with all volunteer labor would be around $40,000!
the prize? pride
more to come!

Cali, Day 1: Airport + Laguna Beach

today was a long day!

beezer decided to get up at 2:40 to make sure she had perfect hair
i won $3.10 at the slot machines in the las vegas airport
fly into ontario, ca.
here we are, loving the warm sunshine and greenery (not evergreens, such a change from co)
while my mom is signing for the rental car i dig the sandals out of the suitcase! ahhh... free feet
(believe it or not, i have been designated driver for this trip. we are driving a Chrysler 300. this thing is FUN. too bad my jeep doesn't have this much zip!)
instead of checking into the hotel, we decided to drive an hr south to laguna beach
we saw an octopus and a purple starfish.

it's rough here...65 degrees and sunny!
this SO screams, "we're from out of town!!"

Ulysses Christmas

completing the holiday triangle, we drove down to u-town to see the burnums. it was a monumental occasion as it was the first time all 13 of us were there together for the holidays.
9 adults, 4 kiddos, 2 dogs and 1 cat (not william)...

here is a brief picture of what present opening looks like with kiddos. since our kid has 4 legs and had a relatively quiet gift exchange, dallas and i were awestruck at how quickly the family room turned into mass chaos when all 4 tore into their presents at one time. (for those of you with kids this is probably no surprise but, WOW!). here is an example:luckily big kids (like aunt andi) can enjoy presents too.... like ethan's star command (maybe it's not star commander, but some star wars dude like that) helmet that allows you to speak thru a mike and sound cool.
here is dallas and our youngest niece. he was an incredibly cool uncle that let her practice her make-up putting up skills on him. he insisted that he not be blogged during this experience, but i think this photo is priceless. here she is, explaining the different color options to him.
right now, waiting for clothes to get thru the wash, so i can pack....for....

CALIfornia!

my mom, beezer and i are traveling to california tomorrow to work on the Lutheran rose bowl float. computer is going with. i am hoping that internet is free and if so, look for fun stuff to come!

Christmas 09: Year of the Glove

funny enough this year, without everyone knowing it, we all wanted and/or got gloves.

here is the glove club, ready with our own presentation for the happy hands club.

talk about snowin and a blowin...

stayin inside playing.....
BEETLES ROCK BAND holste style
.....day tripper, yea........

i definitely did not make the A team.
maybe it was the fox fur ear muffs

i definitely did not make the "A team" all star band.

Merry Christmas!

hope you all have a fabulous holiday and a
very merry Christmas!

since Christmas is a miraculous time i'll share my miracle with you. 2 years ago i bought a christmas cactus at hobby lobby. it was probably the most pitiful plant in the store but i've somehow managed to keep it alive for this long (plants at our house hang on for dear life). for lack of better places to put it, it got shoved by the kitchen window. i think it secretly likes the cold because this year ....
TA DA! all blooms.
it's a miracle.
my grandma holste would have been so proud!

come home from work last night dallas & i decided over the phone that we needed to beat the storm back to kansas (feeling like a Christmas 06 remake). so i got home and within 45 min we were driving outta denver. so glad we did.

now, back in atwood we get to hang out with the new holste addition, khotti, the kitty cat. occasionally you hear a rustling coming from the tree. no question about it. khotti, more like naughty khotti, loves hanging out in the tree, at least half way up. the amount of ornaments she's knocked off makes ezra's attempts look puny.

other news..... ez had his xrays tues. right now he's signed up for ACL surgery on jan 13. poor ez. after surgery he'll be out of commission for 6 mo. this could be a really long year.

why have i been absent from blogging?

Christmas always wears me out.
i'm a miniature version of my mother. i worry. did i get everyone something that they would like? did i include everyone?....the list goes on. thankfully i think we are about done with preparations here (then i'm taking a nap)!

first off, dallas came home and installed my new dishwasher! it is (ugh, words cannot describe) how fabulous it is.... esp when compared to the other one. here is ez, showing it off. (he's kind of a camera hog, which comes from the cookie nook i think...i pull out the camera and he plops down. look past the pit bull!)

burnum Christmas:

if you were a neighbor you would have received one of these delicious plates.
(including mint meringue sandwiches with chocolate filling, ginger-chocolate brownies, candy striped cookies, almond spice cookies, turtle brownies and magic blondies)
of course i had to pick (on pure accident!) some of the most challenging and most difficult recipes. it has been a really frustrating past 2 days

we are also having company tonight. dallas was so proud of how clean our house was that he took a picture. take a good look. i don't think it's going to be looking this nice for long.
with the addition of one more small gift our shopping is complete! i am PUMPED. call me a procrastinator but i must say, my presents look lovely this year. it helps that i picked out some killer wrapping paper and curly ribbon.

today, which was supposed to be a glorious day of hanging out with dallas (who is now home until sometime in jan---the dude's been gone since sept), doing chores around the house and enjoying no school has turned into a giant disaster. check out the nook for today's giant waste of time and brown sugar. ugh.

good news.... dallas installed my beautiful new dishwasher and now we look like white trash because we really don't know what to do with the other one. if you come over, please don't judge!

back up present

my male friend has recently acquired a girlfriend in the past 3 weeks. he came to me for advice because he doesn't know what the appropriate thing (regarding a present) is to do for Christmas this year. since i havn't had to date anyone for the past 4 years i'm clueless myself.
HELP! (vote on right)

i had mentioned the possibility of having a "back up" gift for that just in case situation. my idea was that a back up gift would be something he'd purchase that could be small (but nice) and could be used for both Christmas and/or Valentines day, if needed. so, if she brought out a present he could pull out his back up gift and be like, Oh look! i got you one too!!! OR if she didn't get one he could save it until the next holiday. votes are greatly appreciated!

for the past 4 months i have been rehab-ing a 5 year old hamstring injury from college. they have been some of the most frustrating, depressing and "want to pull my hair out" months! as of 9:45 this morning i am 95% healed and released.....
merry christmas andi!

part of my rehab included between 120-180 min of yoga weekly. ezra likes to help out when he can by keeping me company. he also has a leg injury and is frustrated, regularly chewing entire tennis balls apart. check out our media room. areas circled are doggie drool land mines that he's chewed at for more than 5 min and are saturated. i love ya ez but, ew!

yes, we have a bit o' cleaning to do before dallas' return this weekend.

will someone else please fess up to having no Christmas shopping done yet? i'd like to know i'm not the only procrastinator this year

tell me this isn't the most pathetic thing in the entire world,
his chops are out in full force.

sadly i'm finished painting the house i've been working off and on for the past few weeks. this family was really fantastic. just as i was leaving today the little kiddo came running up the stairs screaming, "mommy! i found a booger in my nose!"

it was priceless.
i'm really going to miss them.

dear william lovers,
this is disturbing and you may not want to read.

last night i was in my art room working on some things and heard this scream noise from outside. it is amazing how you instinctively know that your child is in trouble. i rushed to the front door and william came sprinting. (yes, i wouldn't have believed it either unless i saw it with my own eyes. must be the sympathetic nervous system kickin in). anyway, today my neighbor was telling me how they've seen a pack of 6 coyotes roaming around the neighborhood.
yes, i saved william from the coyote(s).
it really bothers me that if i hadn't been awake my poor little kitty would have been an early Christmas dinner.

anyway, i cleaned our house the other day (another miracle) and apparently william, like a bird, molts when he gets all flustered. check out all the hairballs he nervously shed while i was gone today

also, i have been enjoying veggie tales Christmas cd compliments of Beezer. thanks beezer! (you're probalby thinking that this is what your kid listens to. you're right. it is. and i like it too!)