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About me. My name is Sarah A. Schlothan Christensen. I hate papercuts and licorice and people who drive like bats out of hell. My true loves include: my family, Godiva’s key lime truffles, anything that makes me laugh, reading books, and gardening. I also love to hike and rock climb and snap photographs. My husband’s name is Donald P. Christensen, Jr. He is very tall and lumbering. He dislikes olives, people who take themselves too seriously, and my taste in music. He enjoys talk radio, woodworking, and making things work. I sometimes post about my husband very frequently and other times go for a year without mentioning him at all. Regardless, Donald is an active participant in the crafting, editing, and maintenance of this website. He reads here anytime a new post is published and the two of us are forever discussing ideas, advice, and criticism we receive in comments and e-mails. Even if you don’t see much mention of him, you can be sure that he’s lurking around here somewhere. In July 2009, Donald and I welcomed our oldest daughter. We named her Charlotte and we think she is wonderful. Charlotte loves playing Candyland, is obsessed with dragons, and would happily spend her every waking moment chasing our chickens around the yard and climbing trees. She also enjoys baking bread, reading books, painting, and scootering down the road to hang out with her grandparents. In autumn 2012, we enrolled her in a French immersion preschool two mornings a week. She seems to love that too. In November 2012, the three of us welcomed a second baby girl. We named her Evelyn and we think she is wonderful too. We sometimes call her Evelyn and we sometimes call her Evie (ee-vee). Evelyn likes breast-milk, being tickled, and watching her big sister at play. We try not to deny her any of these basic pleasures. My boobs may be a little worse for the wear, but it is absolutely darling to hear Evelyn giggle while Charlotte flits about her like a fairy. Upon Charlotte’s arrival, my husband and I metamorphosed from reasonable adults into THOSE PARENTS. We became babywearing, co-sleeping, cloth-diapering nutjobs who can hold their own in a conversation about the colors of poop but have no idea what is going on in the world at large. You know the sort. Sorry about that. We are also THOSE HIPPIE FREAKS who are all “organic” this and “delayed academics” that. We spend quite a bit of time thinking about the state of our compost pile and we have no qualms about breastfeeding a walking, talking, milk-requesting preschooler. You might as well know this up front because I am SO DOWN with blogging about worm bins and taking breastfeeding pictures. In autumn 2011, Donald and I made a momentous decision to add to our family through domestic foster-adoption. You are more than welcome to read about our adoption journey as it unfolds, but so far there isn’t much to report. Our pregnancy with Evelyn put the process on hold and we are only now beginning to pick up the pieces and start over. We hope to become foster-certified in the spring or early summer of 2013 and we will move forward at that time. My family of four lives together in a suburb of Los Angeles, where Donald and I bought a home four doors down from the house I grew up in. My parents still live in my childhood home. I joke about living so close but the truth is that I love it. I adore that my children are able to forge such tight-knit relationships with their grandparents and I appreciate the wellspring of support and community. My husband and I believe in laughing a lot, learning everything we can, and making an effort to enjoy life. We try to live sustainably, parent with respect, fight for what we believe in, embrace all people as they are, and lend a hand when we can. Most of that is more easily said than done and we usually fall short, but the trying is still (mostly) a lot of fun. This website started in February 2009 as a means of chronicling a pregnancy. Publicly humiliating my husband was just a bonus. Four years later I am still navel-gazing and chronicling little nothings that seem to me to be the most monumental events the world has ever seen (I feel confident we can all agree the goings-on of my family are not and I just have my head up my ass, but I do enjoy deluding myself)...and publicly humiliating my husband is still a bonus. Because this is a personal website, I exercise quite a bit of creative license. PLEASE take this blog with a grain of salt. I blur the lines, twist the truth, and embellish the facts. I omit details, mesh conversations together, simplify people, fudge dates, and streamline conversations. I am also a tad over-dramatic when I write. I do my best to fairly represent my parenthood and to keep the sentiments and experiences with my family intact, but I make no guarantees about the rest. Someone I say is a neighbor might actually have been a relative and a conversation I claim happened yesterday might have taken place four years ago. This blog is intended to be read as a collection of short stories and it is intended to record, entertain, and be part of a community. It is not meant to advise or inform or give you a perfectly honest account of every second of my life. My sister says it is 90% truth, 5% exaggeration, and 5% omission. Yes, my real sister. GOOD CATCH. We also have a flock of chickens, a lazy cat named Harvey, and two dogs. One of our dogs is a white German Shepherd named Hank. He’s crazy. He was a rescue dog and we have a very difficult time with him. He is destructive, does not make eye contact, and rarely listens, but he is also clever and tolerates endless shenanigans from my children. We wouldn’t trade him for the world. The other of our dogs is a black Lab mix named Millie. She’s wily and rambunctious and the sort of dog the term “man’s best friend” was made for. We wouldn’t trade her for the world either. Both dogs love avocados, long walks, and rawhide bones. They also both hate baths.