Thursday, December 27, 2007

Merry Christmas 2007

Here's our Christmas/Careese birth announcement/New Years/Make up for last year's/E-Letter. If you'd like a paper copy and do not have a printer, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to us. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited (usually includes Puerto Rico and Greenland). Letters shipped to Hawaii will be quarantined with the pineapples for 48 1/2 hours.

Enjoy!

- Download -

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Finally, a moment of peace

Yes! They are ALL asleep, including the dog. Note that I said a "moment". Unfortunately, Evan slept for only an hour. That gave me time to eat lunch and clean up. Oh well, it's a cute pic.

Monday, December 17, 2007

product recall you need to know about



Here's another children's item that I'm personally declaring a recall on, that's made in, you guessed it, China. Mark bought this Miffy plate and bowl set from Japan, at Don Quixote, a few months ago. It had an official holographic sticker of approval from the Miffy people, so why would I think twice about the quality of the items?
Well, take your plates and bowls back ASAP people! This dishware will explode. That’s right I said explode. Much like the made in China batteries that have been causing people's cells phones to spontaneously catch fire in their pants, these dishes will suddenly turn your happy little boy's snack time into D-Day. Thankfully Evan was not using them at the time. :)
We're not sure why these dishes just one day decided to warp and at its breaking point explode in our cabinets. In fact, another little bowl was sitting in this bowl when it exploded and that other bowl was thrown clear to the other side of the inside of our cabinet causing it much distress, and now it will not go near our other dishes.
They were being used in normal circumstances. Not in high temperatures in the dishwasher. My only thought is that the plastic must have been effected by the dry weather here, because plastics don't like to travel far from home I guess!
The bowl was the first to go. I noticed that it had a small crack at the bottom, and thought someone [Mark] had loaded the bowls in the dishwasher too tightly together. Then later that day, while I was upstairs giving Evan a bath, I heard something that sounded like dishes crashing. That's when I saw the bowl like this. wow. The next day I found the plate with a similar crack and by the end of the day it too exploded.
It was kind of crazy to watch these dishes over the next few days slowly self-destruct more and more. I think they've reached status quo for now. But I'll keep you posted when they spontaneously combust.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Santa and the kids

Santa stopped by to visit the kids at the church building on Wednesday, and I thought Evan should go since he is old enough to actually understand more about the wonders of Christmas. He had a late nap so we kind of had to wake him to go. I told him before he took his nap that we'd go see santa later and that he'd get candy from Santa too. He seemed excited about it. But the poor kid was so grouchy when we took him, he just wanted to watch the other kids. Of course it doesn't help to see other little kids screaming and crying on Santa's lap. But we made our way to the front, and Santa asked Evan to just stand by him. Still no reaction from Evan. He just stood there. Then Santa pulls out a candy cane, and next thing you know Santa is Evan's best bud. He goes right up and stands next to him. But won't look at the camera or smile. That's not unusual though, he does that on a regular basis.
Then one of our girls, Maddie, from nursery showed up to see Santa, and both Evan and her were dressed in similar colors, so we couldn't resist taking pics of them. Maddie's such a cute little genius, we love having her in our nursery class. Of all the kids in our class, she's the most advanced in her speech and you can have a complete conversation with her. Once she was sitting at the table eating her snacks while the other boys were playing under the table with their snacks everywhere, and she laughs at them and says to us, "silly boys!" hahaha
Maddie was so cute when she tried to get Evan to smile, but he still didn't crack.
Anyway, we got a decent picture of Evan and Careese with Santa this year. Glad Careese was in a good mood for the picture.





It's that time again...


Your tax dollars at work. Use our aerospace warning and aerospace control mechanisms to your benefit: Track Santa.


MLB -- Santa Claus is not Real


Ok, we all know that Santa Claus is definitely real. But after reading the 409-page report on the use of steroids in the MLB, or the Mitchell report, named after Senator Mitchell, responsible for the investigation, it's just like discovering that Santa Claus isn't real. Yes, I did read almost all of the report -- in the last year or so, I've gained a new found love for reading legal documents. Especially when dealing with investigations. It's cool to see how they spin the web. Anyone who has used i2 Analysts Notebook knows what I am talking about. Anyway, it was quite disappointing to read through the list of players involved, especially because these aren't just minor league players trying to make the jump into the big leagues because there's more money involved--there are Cy Young award winners, Most Valuable Players (MVPs), key players that brought teams into the playoffs, key players that made key plays that places them, in one's mind, on an elevated level, into an elite group of cool baseball players. Then you see his name in the Mitchell report and how the player became roped into the scheme, and you're left with an empty feeling. Anyway, those of you who are CSI, Law and Order, NCIS types, will enjoy reading this report. Maybe over the holidays I'll create an Analysts Notebook chart to give you a visual representation of the investigation -- to show you what's going on in my mind when I read it!

As far as I can tell, Ichiro's not in the report, nor are the Matsuis (Kaz / Hideki), Dice-K, and Okajima...so maybe Santa Kurasu is still real in Japan.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Photo post

So, life with two kids has been um.... interesting. I can't tell you how many times I've started to write a post only to be interrupted. Here's an example of how interesting it can be...
One day Evan had a bloody nose, from the dry weather and him picking it probably, and Careese was being needy and wanted to be held. So I pinned Evan down with my right leg and pinched his nose with my right hand to stop the bleeding, and with my left I held a pacifier in Careese's mouth and tried to rock the infant carrier with my elbow. I think that qualifies me for the multitasking hall of fame.
Anyway, Careese has been such a sweetie, when she's asleep! hahaha She goes through a few hours, at anytime of day or night, of crying. We feed her, burp her, rock her, pat her, bounce her, walk around with her until she finally sleeps, then she wakes up 5, 10, 30 mins later crying like we didn't just spend so much time getting her to sleep. And we do that over and over and over for hours. And she knows when she's put down and wakes right up. We figure out that if she doesn't move or make a sound for over 30 mins then she's really asleep and we can put her down. yeah, we hope she out grows this soon.
So, that's all for now. Careese is in need of being held again. enjoy the pics!
dec 11 2007