Seattle and Japan

Evan and I are enjoying springtime in Seattle while Mark is in Japan on business. He's emailed me about how beautiful the cherry blossoms are in Japan, and I'm so jealous. We did go to the tulip festival here in Seattle. If you're ever in the NW in the beginning of April, I highly recommend the 40 min drive north to see the endless fields of tulips. So far, I've spent my time visiting old HS friends, and hanging out with family. Pretty relaxing. Evan's getting spoiled left and right.

Easter morning, my dad hid plastic easter eggs in the front yard for Evan to find. I took some of the eggs and drew on them with permanant marker. I turned one into a basketball, another into a baseball, and one into a fish. Evan loved those eggs, since those are his favorite things right now. My mom got Evan M&Ms for easter candy. I wasn't too sure about giving Evan chocolate, since I'm so afraid he'll be a chocoholic. I relented and put 3 M&Ms in each egg. Evan LOVED them! He was drooling orange and green all over himself! He never drools when he eats! hahaha. I started to see the candy monster come out in him, and took the rest of the candy away and gave him just the eggs. He had such a good time looking for eggs, he kept asking "more?" when there wasn't any more to find. So after church I hid the eggs again in the living room, since the usual Seattle rain started outside. And that kept him busy walking around the living room for 20mins. nice.

I'm glad to be home for a while. Having mom's home cooking is the best. Whenever I'm home, my mom and I always work on some project together. Like sewing or quilting or painting or cardmaking or putting together a family history book. This time, I'm learning to knit and crochet from my mom. My mom is an amazing bundle of self taught talents. She taught herself how to sew her own clothes when she was a teenager. No patterns, just by measuring herself and getting ideas from fashion mags she had a wardrobe of custom made clothes. She learned to knit and crochet her own sweaters too. I think there are a few that us kids had growing up that she knited for us too. They're so well done you'd think they were from the store. In fact the other day we were in Banana Republic and she saw a sweater vest that looked just like one she made in her twenties. She showed it to me and sure enough, same color, same style knit, just like the one in the store!
So, I have to try to learn as much as I can from her while I'm home. So far, my knowlege of knitting has increased. I learned what I've been doing wrong for so long, and how they do all those different patterns if knit. I'm learning to crochet. I've never done that before. It seems simple enough, but I'm not seeing the patterns in the fabric I've done so far, that its a bit frustrating. In knitting you see patterns really easy, but crochet, it's more complex looking to me. Well, I hope to at least get a piece well along the way to take home and finish by the time I leave.

Not much else to report from Seattle. I'll have to post about Mark's adventures in Japan later.