Where are they now?

Change of Address

2010-11-04T08:15:00.002-05:00

Due to the economic downturn and the strong Yen coupled with the weak greenback, the unusually long, hot summer, followed by the sudden change in temperature, the typhoon that cancelled Halloween...um, okay, due to none of these reasons other than we have been negligent in our blogging duties (three kids might have something to do with it; I know, where are our priorities!?), we decided it was time to evict ourselves from our dedicated site, changtheworld.com (thanks Bluehost you've been wonderful) and settle (back) into the cloud. Those of you who tried to go to www.changtheworld.com in the last 24 hours probably noticed that you were redirected to a new address here: platinumbev.wordpress.com. We initially wanted to keep changtheworld.com, but discovered that we would not be able to do a domain redirect to a Wordpress.com blog--at least, not for free. Wordpress doesn't hand out their name servers for free, you know. Ok, you don't know. (*YAWN* Geek.) You can do it free with Blogger, but we'd already moved everything over to Wordpress, and since we've been using Wordpress for the last couple years, we figured we would stick with it for the time being.

So if you've landed here, congratulations. Now update your links, update your feeds, and come back here often for new updates: It's Mr. Plow, Mr. Plow, That name again is Mr. Plow.

New Blogspace

2008-12-14T04:06:00.003-05:00

Ok everybody. We're making a greater leap into our new home at changtheworld. Start updating your links, and see you there!

And the winner is...

2008-12-12T06:41:00.001-05:00

Lovely "Martha Stewart" bluegreen colored paper. Actually, these papers come from a bottle of gum sold in Japan. hehehe The gum makers include a pad of papers in each bottle for when you want to dispose of your gum. Omoshiroi. Interesting. Mark never uses the paper to throw out his gum, so we've got these little tiny pads of paper floating around the house.

Poor Evan looks wasted. He actually wasn't feeling well when I asked him to pick a name from the bowl. He's a trooper.

Congratulations, Kaneyuki's! Its your lucky day! I'm sending a package of Japanese candies and snacks your way.

Thank you to all of you out there for keeping up with my little personal challenge and commenting or just lurking. Its been fun reading every one's comments!

I think the most interesting part of my daily bloggings has been finding out who's reading my ramblings. I guess in my mind I still think that its just some friends and family reading, but it really is bigger than that. I'm in touch with lots of old and new friends and friends I've never met in real life.

Its a nice reminder that the Internet isn't just a virtual space of zeros and ones, but that there's real people on the other side who, like me, appreciate being heard. So thanks for reading. Thanks for making me feel like I matter. :)

One Post a Day for a Month, Check!

2008-12-11T11:15:00.006-05:00

I did it! I really did it. I've always wondered if I could really blog everyday. Questioning my own stick-to-it-tive-ness. And I'm glad I made the commitment and completed it. I don't know if I'll continue this habit. I am so tired by the time I find time to type that I'm worried my posts will get more and more uninteresting and nonsensical. :)

I spent a couple hours getting the latest order of clips finished and ready for delivery. While I work I usually listen to my stations on Pandora. And today I was listening to Christmas music sung in the stylings of artists like Michael Buble, Tony Bennet, Josh Groban, and old big band/jazz/Americana type Christmas songs. I love listening to these types of songs, because it reminds me of Seattle. The Christmas versions remind me of Christmas in Seattle. And Christmas in Seattle has a very special place in my heart.

Mark and I met in a Cantonese class at BYU, and somehow we found out that our families only lived 20 mins away from each other in Seattle. So we decided to book the same flights going home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, because traveling is much nicer when you have someone to talk too. The three years following that, we dated on and off and on and off and on, but every Christmas we were always together. It just worked out that way. So we have lots of wonderful memories of Christmases and New Years, exploring together places in Seattle area we haven't been to in years and showing each other our old haunts. Going home for Christmas, where we were free from homework and in between semesters at BYU, that we felt like we were going away on vacation together. But at the end of the day we'd go back to our parents houses! :)

So Christmas time always reminds me of when Mark and I were dating.

Fast forward to our third Christmas together. We just survived a summer of separation, when Mark went to Japan for study abroad, and we both came away from that experience learning that we didn't want to be with anyone else.

On Christmas morning, my family opened presents except me. All my gifts, that were there the night before, were gone. I knew Mark was up to something, but how did he manage to take all my gifts, and what stunt was he trying to pull? I was getting agitated that he called and acted like nothing was up when I knew he was behind it, and he wouldn't tell me when he would be coming over later. So, decided to go take a shower, and just expected not to see him till later that evening cause he was being so wishy washy about the exact time. I got out of the shower and I could hear him talking in the living room. Just great! He came over without giving me time to really get ready! I wasn't happy about that. I had to put my pajamas back on because I couldn't run to my room from the bathroom without him seeing me in just a towel. But as soon as I opened the door, my sister had a camcorder in my face, and I could see Mark and his sister in the living room dressed like Santa and an elf. Then Santa Mark calls me over to come sit on his lap and proceeds to ask me if I've been a good girl this year. Oh my gosh... Then he pulls out a sack with all my presents, and I open them up one by one. They were all the gifts from my family to me. Then Santa says he's got a gift from Mark to deliver. Its a white box with a red bow, and I open it to find a shiny lump coal. Coal in it's diamond stage that is!

Yep, Santa proposed to me. Sorry Mrs. Clause, move over.

I could tell Mark was nervous, but he pulled the whole thing off so well, I had no way of knowing how he was going to do it. I knew he was going to propose sometime around Christmas, because I had worked with the jeweler to design the ring a month back. I just had no idea the extent of Mark's plans and costuming. :)

And that is why Christmas has a very special place in my heart.

Oh yeah, and I said yes.

IKEA Addict?

2008-12-10T11:42:00.002-05:00

We went to Ikea this evening to replace a lighting fixture that was on the fritz. It would turn off and on at random times on it's own. Mark thought maybe it was overheating. We bought it back in August, but they still took it back and gave us store credit to buy a replacement! Another reason why I love Ikea. Although, we did find out that return policies can vary between store to store.

I'm glad it was a quick and easy fix to the lighting problem in the dinning room, because I was getting tired of eating in dark to the light of a lamp. We looked at other options for our replacement, but in the end I still loved the one we had the most.

Am I an Ikea addict? A couple weeks ago, out of the blue, I just had an itch to go to Ikea. No reason to buy anything, I just NEEDED to go. Odd as this sounds, I like how at home I feel there. Not like, I like to pretend I live in one of the rooms in the showroom. No, I like the Marketplace. I like seeing everyday objects that we use, constructed differently, in vivid colors, or just improved upon. I think that's the industrial design part of me coming out. And I love finding those great deals!

Although, I have to say, there aren't any really great deals here in the Kohoku Ikea. Not like we used to find in the Woodbridge, VA or College Park, MD Ikeas. We found this shelf for $25 USD at a box sale in Woodbridge. Nothing was wrong with it, just the box was damaged, and the shelf wasn't harmed. I'm not sure why it had such a steep discount, but we're happy with our shelf!

Here's some tips to successful shopping at Ikea. And so you don't get sucked in that place for HOURS because you're wandering around.

1) Start from the end: don't go through the showroom if you know what you're looking for. You will just spend hours looking at the wonderful ideas they have on display. We always start from the cashier's and walk against traffic.

2) While you're starting from the end, go to the As Is section first and look for deals on stuff because you never know if the item you're looking for is there at a nice discount. I've found great bed linens there, great box sales on furniture, and cheap lighting.

3) Keep and eye out for yellow signs. They are dispersed all throughout the store and they have the best deals. I found a duvet cover with pillow sham for a single bed for $5 USD once.

4) shop only on weekdays, tues, wed and Thurs are the best time because there's less people there, and because those are the days that we have found good deals. Seems like there is always some promotion going on only on weekdays. wacky Wednesdays etc...

So today I finally got my Ikea fix, and I'm good for awhile.

Pickle, pickle, who's got the pickle?

2008-12-09T12:21:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd share one of our newer Christmas traditions that I found out more about online today. This was introduced to us by our friends Julie and Dave back when we were both young newlywed couples and would spend a lot of time playing, eating, FHEing together. They were like family.
I noticed that they had a pickle ornament in their Christmas tree. I had seen it in Target too, and wondered why on earth would you love pickles enough to put it in your tree. Julie explained that it was an old tradition in Germany, where it was the last ornament hung, hidden in the branches. On Christmas morning, the first child that finds it gets an extra gift and blessings for the new year.
I thought it was a cute idea to add more fun to Christmas morning, so I bought one at a Target after Christmas sale. And maybe this year we can introduce the game to Evan, even though Careese isn't going to be much competition. :)
Today, I did a little google search to find out more about this said German tradition. As it turns out it isn't German at all. Germans don't have any idea what this pickle ornament is about. hmm interesting. Its completely American. And Wikipedia says that it's a popular American tradition. It is?! How did this tradition slip past me all those years?
Well, anyway, what traditions do you have in your family during this holiday season?

Mark and Careese in Taiwan

2008-12-08T07:55:00.003-05:00

Mark and Careese got back from Taipei this evening. He said it was a good flight and bus ride back with Careese. She slept well and ate well and behaved as well as a newly minted 1 yr old can behave. Sounds like Mark had a good time with Careese, visiting his relatives, especially Careese's great-grandmother. And the family friend's wedding looked like a great time... I really should have him blog about it himself . I'm just the messenger. Here's some pictures he took, and the link to the web album. He actually typed the captions for the pictures, so I guess that's as close as we're gonna get to a blog post from Mark. ;)

I love this dress I picked up for Careese at the Silk Market in Beijing. SO CUTE!!! She looks like a doll! I'm glad I didn't let that vendor trick me out of this one for another not so cute dress during the haggling fest. I got matching shoes out of the deal too, but those don't quiet fit Careese yet.

Careese's way of saying "Cheese!"

Careese and Da Da

Careese and great-grandma

Daddy Daughter Weekend in Taipei

What did I do today? While Mark and Careese were flying back and Evan was at school, I was actually at a loss of what to do with myself. I didn't know what to do with SO much freedom. Too many options! If I knew about this sooner, I could have signed up for a massage session at the gym on base! Its ok, I did something just as therapeutic... shopping! Not just any shopping. Fabric shopping. I'm picking up some fabric for a friend that loves cute Japanese prints on fabric. I do too, so it was a treat for me to shop for her. Here's one I picked up for her, that I think I may have to go back and get some for myself!

I also did some online Christmas shopping, wrapped a few more presents, tidy the house, did some laundry and some dishes, took a nice loooong shower (alone!), and baked bread. Yeah, I'm amazed myself at my list of stuff I got done, including shopping (walked to the store too), all before 2pm. woo hoo!

*******************************

In retrospect a day later: I just read over this post again, and looked at my list of things I accomplished before 2pm yesterday... and in retrospect, it's not that great of a list! ahahaha Its what mom's do on a daily basis with little thought on receiving thanks or making complaints. its the non glamorous side of mommyhood. I'm asked my mom, how she managed to cook pretty much everyday for the last 20+ years?! I was just a newlywed a the time and couldn't fathom doing that chore for 20+ years! She said you just do it because you have to, your family needs to eat, and you learn to love it. I'm coming up on 6yrs of marriage, and I really understand it now. It applies to all matters of work in general. No matter what work you do, you learn to love and appreciate it. I want to teach my children that, to like to work. To understand work is an integral part of attaining happiness on earth. Whether its doing the dishes or yard work or homework or your 9-5 job.

Last Chance!

2008-12-07T00:16:00.003-05:00

I'm blogging a little earlier in the day because I'm planning on doing a lot of present wrapping and card making the rest of the day. I'm hearing on the base radio that the last day to mail out stuff in time for Christmas is the 10th. That's this WEDNESDAY!!! I'm in deep do do.

Anyway, since my one month mark for NaBloPoMo is on the 11th, I would be missing the deadline. I thought about just having the drawing sooner, but then I'd be cutting out any last minute readers' comments. So, I'm still going to take names of commentors until the 11th. I figure who wouldn't want Christmas to last just a little longer by receiving a package of Japanese candies and snacks and doodads in the mail after Christmas?

Here's what I'm planning... On the morning of the 12th, my time, I will have Evan draw a name from the Bucket-O-Fun and I will post the winner here. You get one slip with your name on it for every time you comment. I will contact the winner as well, just in case you don't get to read the blog that day. Sound good? Sorry, family, you will not be part of the drawing, as we've got Christmas presents for you anyway. hehehe

A quick report on church today. It didn't feel all that different without Careese around, because Mark usually takes her to his meetings. It wasn't different until we were getting in the car and driving off when I felt like I was forgetting something. Like I placed a cup on the roof of the car and forgot it was there and drove off. But its not a cup, it's Careese.

Weird how these little moments are the ones that remind you of your children.

Mommy Son Movie Day

2008-12-06T10:56:00.002-05:00

I slept in today, and it was great! I rarely do that anymore. Evan can entertain himself and even get things to eat on his own and he will stay in my room too.

We had omelets for brunch. Evan helped me clean the house, do some laundry, and some of the dishes. Daily life is just a little less stressful with only two at home. But I'm surprised at how quickly Evan can make a mess in my living room all on his own.

We did a little Christmas shopping today, and it was so much easier than trying to go shopping with two kids. Evan would still whine to me about wanting to go home or needing "something else I can do!" but its still easier than trying to wrestle with a squirrely Careese at the same time.

I promised Evan that we'd go watch a movie after shopping, and he seemed excited at that. But he's never been to a theater before and he doesn't actually sit through a whole movie anymore. He used to watch Finding Nemo from beginning to end without budging from his seat. But now he can barely sit through watching 20mins of his fav Blues Clues. So I was curious to see how he would fair in the theater.

We went to watch Disney's "Bolt" in the theaters. Evan was still a little small for the chairs and kept getting angry at the seat for folding up on him while he was sitting in it. I had to keep my knee on part of his seat to solve that problem. There were scenes where there was a lot of action, like car chases, or explosions, or near misses, or evil dark looking bad guys, that Evan didn't like. He'd complain saying "I don't like this show". But there were also lots of cute funny scenes of the animals, and he'd laugh a the slapstick. Part way through, as I knew he would do, he complained about wanting something else he could do. He wanted to leave, and I told him that we paid to watch the movie and we couldn't just leave to do something else. He sat back down to watch and I gave him my cell phone to play games on it.

The climax of the movie is a scene involving fire, and I think Evan has a fear of big fires burning houses because this was not the first time he got upset watching a fire on TV. He got really upset when Bolt jumped into the burning building and he tried to get the girl out of the fire with lots of near misses from falling burning debris. He was crying and saying "I don't like this show". I explained that it was just pretend and that they would be OK in the end, and showed him how to cover his ears because it was getting a little loud in there.

After that he enjoyed the rest of the movie, and afterwards as we were walking back to the car, he said he had fun. And when we were walking from the car to the house, he was retelling me the funny parts of the movie and laughing.

So, overall, it was a good first experience at the theater for Evan. I think next time, I'll have to check to see what's really in the movie first so I can prepare him better.

That's my sister!

2008-12-05T13:18:00.005-05:00

Well, I sent Mark and Careese off to Taiwan today. They'll be gone till Monday. It was bad timing that Mark and Careese needed to catch the bus to the airport the same time Evan was coming home from school. So, Mark drove the van to the bus pickup place and I stayed behind to wait for Evan's bus. Lucky for us the bus was leaving a little later than usual, and as soon as Evan was dropped off, I threw him in the car and drove over to see if we could see the bus off. Yes! We still had time to see Mark and Careese before it drove off.
Careese was so cute! She immediately perked up and smiled and waved at us when she saw us through the window. I can't get enough of her smiles. She makes us melt. Evan laughed and made faces at her and she laughed. They are so funny together. I'm just in awe over how they have their own special bond to each other. I hope they grow up to be sweet to each other.
Evan understands that when people get on that bus they go to the airport and they are gone for a while. I think Evan didn't completely realize that Careese was leaving with daddy, even though we told him she was going.
As the bus was pulling away, Evan said, "that's my sister!" over and over. And he was actually a little teary eyed after the bus was out of view. Awww so cute! I talked to him on the way home that they would be home soon, and about the things we could do while they were gone, and he perked up.
I didn't think Evan would really miss Careese. At bedtime, he talked to me about the silly, funny things Careese does and he laughed. I've noticed more emotion from Evan lately. He actually gets his feelings hurt now. Like the other day, Mark and I were upset that he helped himself to chocolate dipped cookies without asking first, and we reminded him that it wasn't nice to take without asking first. Then I noticed that he was quiet, and had tears welling up in his eyes, and then a sniffle, and then quivering lip, and he was genuinely sad that he made a mistake. Usually things like this don't bother him, he'll say sorry and go on eating his cookie like nothing happened. So it's interesting to see this new side of him that's developing.
I talked to Mark, and he said Careese has been good. She's was overtired by the time the delayed flight allowed them to board, and she cried a bit on the plane. But Mark said a lot of the people on board were helpful. Thats good. I think it would have annoyed me after a while of people saying, "maybe she's hungry?" or "is she tired?" Mark's got more patience than me in that respect.
So, it sounds like Careese is doing well under Mark's complete supervision. I feel a little better that the flight went well. Its hard, as a mom, to let go of worrying about your kids. Not that I don't trust Mark, I'd still worry even if it were SuperNanny.

Love Careeses to Pieces

2008-12-04T21:46:00.003-05:00

Another order for clips today, and now I'm making more sales of my clips in the real world vs. online. Which I guess is good because I don't have to pay the listing or paypal fees. So, maybe I should be putting some attention on sales other than online.
Speaking of clips, Careese has decided she will not wear them anymore. She will take them out as soon as I'm not looking. Isn't that ironic?! I made a little business of selling clips because of her, and now she won't wear them. Yep. The other day she was wearing her Christmas clips, and next thing I knew they were gone. I had no idea where they went, but I'm not worried because I know they will show up somewhere in the house. Later that evening, Mark told me he found her clips. Where were they? He was changing her diaper and found them in the diaper!! Ouch! Don't worry it wasn't a poopy diaper, but I still made sure to wash them off.
Speaking of Careese, she's surprisingly been really good around the christmas tree! I put only the plastic ornaments on the bottom of the tree just in case, but Careese has actually stayed away from them. Mark said she took one down when he was watching her, and she shook her head and said "ooooooooo" and tried to put it back. hahaha She's learning so much so fast. She's already able to follow very simple commands like, "come here for a diaper change" and she will lay down the mat. I can ask her to hand me things I point to, and she'll do it. And she's learned more sign language. She came up with her own way to sign "tired/sleepy" by taking her right hand and rubbing her cheek and eye. She can sign the command to make Lucy bark. Lucy doesn't follow the command, but its cute to see Careese try.
I forget how much little 1 yr olds can understand and know how to do. I'm so happy to have little Careese in our home to remind me.
Why am I writing so much about Careese today? Well, because Mark made the last minute decision to go to Taiwan this weekend to attend a family friend's wedding. In a passing comment we said, why don't you take one of the kids with you. The more we thought about it, the more it sounded like a good idea for Careese to go with Mark to Taiwan. Mark's grandma hasn't met Careese yet, it would give me a break for the weekend, and it would give Mark time with Careese and me with Evan.
I'm looking forward to time with Evan, but I'm really going to miss Careese. I'm the one that puts her to bed everynight. I'm going to miss that. I don't think I've ever been without her for more than a few hours. But I think it will be good for Mark to spend time with her. I hope it goes well!

Long day...

2008-12-03T12:43:00.003-05:00

It's been a long day. I'm so tired, I'm gonna have to keep this short or else I will fall asleep on the keyboard. :) Careese was very nice to sleep in today. This never happens with her. She's such a light sleeper until this past week, where she'll sleep 11-12 hours a night now. Nice. With her sleeping in I had time to make and post more clips on my etsy site. Here's two more that I made that you're getting a sneak preview of. I haven't figured out which clips to pair them each up with so its sold in a set instead of individually.

We had a parent teacher conference with Evan's teacher today too. We found out that Evan's sensei had no idea that Evan was picking up any Japanese, because it turns out that he doesn't say much in school. If she speaks English to him, he'll go off speaking English back to her. But she doesn't understand much English, let alone a 3 yr old Evan's version of English. Seems like he gets into disagreements with the other kids, because he doesn't understand what they're saying. They actually try to help him putting on his coat or backpack, but he doesn't understand and gets upset at them. So, I'm going to have to help him understand what's going on in school until he learns more Japanese. But I'm glad to hear that he's got lots of friends in school that like to play with him and help him out!

I got our Christmas tree up finally. I usually get it up the day after Thanksgiving. I think I wasn't as motivated because we could only ship part of all the Christmas stuff we had to Japan. Long story short, we had to cut our shipment limit from half our stuff, to half of that. We had to make last minute decisions on what we absolutely had to bring with us to Japan. And our Christmas stuff took a hit. So we have a tree at least and some decorations for the tree and our stockings and a couple wreaths. And that's pretty much it. Since it was such a rush decision I didn't remember what we did and didn't bring with us and I'm finding out now, and it makes me a little sad that some of our fav and special ornaments got stored. Well, its the spirit behind Christmas that counts, right?
I'm beat. Putting the tree up myself and trying to keep the kids from tearing it down at the same time wore me out.

Teaching English

2008-12-02T10:38:00.002-05:00

I "teach" English to some ladies at church once a week, in exchange for helping me learn Japanese. I'm in no way qualified to teach English. I don't have any curriculum really. We really are just a group of ladies that get together and chat in broken English. But today I did manage to get an activity together that challenged their language abilities. And unusually I had a large group of 5 ladies so it was great that I had an activity planned! I got the idea from this site. I came up with a beginning of a sentence and they have to complete it. And depending on their skill level, they could expound on that sentence. And they had to do it all in their heads, no writing it out first. I found out these ladies read and write well, but have a harder time coming up with what to say on the spot. Perfect challenge. An example is "My car..." and they would complete it "broke down twice last week". Then after that I would help them find better words or grammar structure, etc.
I was so happy it turned out great and it challenged everyone at different skill levels.
The only problem is, I don't really learn much Japanese. I guess I have gotten better at my listening skills, but as far as speaking I'm not even close to how much English they know. I'm taking classes on base once a week and its helped refresh my memory of the 3 yrs of high school Japanese I took. But without daily classes, I've got little chance of learning Japanese any time soon.
Good thing Evan's in Japanese kindergarten and he will be able to translate for me!
BTW, I've tried using Rosetta Stone to learn Japanese, and I highly recommend it for learning any language. It teaches you to recognize the writing/pronunciation/speaking without making you associate it with the English meaning. It basically throws you into the language and lets you to learn from your mistakes. Its pricey though, but if you ever get the chance to use it, its worth it.

December already?!

2008-12-01T10:37:00.002-05:00

If time flys when you're having fun, then I'm having WAY too much fun doing housework!
A few people have asked me how I manage to squeeze in time to blog everyday. I've come up with my own strategy to keeping myself on task when I'm online. Cause trust me if I didn't have anything else to do, I'd be shopping online and reading blogs and watching my slingbox all day long! My laptop, when it is fully charged, only gives me about 2 hours of battery life. Pretty sad. Mark's mini EEE PC, gives him 8 hours, very nice but not useful in my strategy. When I want to be really productive online, I unplug my "lappy" and take it to another room far enough away from my charger that I'd be too lazy to go get it. :) This way I am forced to use the 2 hours to get everything I need to do before the battery runs out of juice!

Being that December is upon us, I've listed some new Holiday hairclips on my etsy site. Can't say Christmas hairclips, because that wouldn't be PC. hehehe jk. The double H just sounds better to me. Anyway, I've got a couple listed as U Pick type listings where you get to pick the styles you want in your set. Perfect for a gift that's customized just for that special little girl. And I will package all my clips ready for gift giving! All you have to do is specify which ones you would like in the notes section as you check out.
I love these clips cause they're simple enough for everyday wear, but they still can dress up an outfit too. I also have a new bow type clip that I made while I was experimenting with how to hide an alligator clip inside the bow so it would keep a low profile and not get too bulky and heavy by using less ribbon. I think I got it! It's made from beautiful satin ribbon from the Martha Stewart craft line. So I love how it looks and feels. Tre chic!

On the home front, Mark got home this evening from a looooong flight from Sydney. Yeay! That means its present time! Mark likes to buy food and candy when he's out of town, and I like that it doesn't add clutter to the house. Evan actually expects Mark to bring stuff home now, so on occasion he's said , "What's my surprise, Daddy?!" Today was different. He knew his daddy was coming home, so while I was organizing his room, he found some of his toys and things that looked like boxes. He then went through his toy chest to find little things that he liked, like his toy money, a plastic mardi gras necklace, his train, and a few other trinkets. Then he carefully packaged them in each of the four "boxes". He told me that they were presents for Daddy. How sweet! When Mark came home, he was so excited to give them to Mark and watch him open them too. After Mark opened them all, Evan and Careese proceeded to play with it and there was stuff all over the floor. After I while I asked Evan if he could clean it up and bring the stuff back to his room. Evan said, "No! Its not mine, its daddy's stuff!" Great, how am I going to get Mark to clean that mess up?!
Mark did come home with Tim Tams and other treats too. But he had another little surprise for me. I don't think I ever told him I wanted something opal, I know I wanted one because its Careese's birthstone, and Mark got me an opal pendent! I forgot Australia is known for opal. Mark said he's just that good at reading my mind. OK.

Evan's Music Concert

2008-11-30T10:49:00.008-05:00

If you told me Evan could tambourine to the beat of a song, before I saw his concert, I would have laughed at you and said, "Evan? The boy that I can't even get to sing a song for me without intentionally messing up the words?" But I guess that's just a front, and really he can do a lot more than I know! The funniest part of this video is when Evan looks like he's spacing it and about to just do his own thing with the tambourine. He's a tambourine machine!

Evan Youchen Music Concert from beverly on Vimeo.

There was also a couple songs that his class sang. I say "his class" because he really just stood there the whole time with a blank stare. Poor kid, I don't think he realized that there'd be SO many people in the audience. It's ok. I don't think he knows all the words to the songs they sang anyway. I wish I had some better pictures and video, but the place was packed, and I bearly squeezed in there to get a video of the last tambourine number while wrestling Careese with my other arm.

Don't you just LOVE their uniforms? jk. It doesn't usually include that big sissy bow. That's just for performance time. But really, I don't mind the uniform on girls cause its cute on them, just not for boys. As they get taller the shorts seem to get shorter and shorter. The coat length seems to do that too. And I don't get why have to wear shorts year round, even in the dead of winter? They explain, that kids body temperature is higher than adults, and that to avoid illness, its best to not dress them too warmly to get their bodies used to the cold. I don't agree. You can get sick in the summer time just as easily as the winter. And getting accustomed to cold is not related to building immunity.

After finding out this is the school's thoughts on kids health, it explains why they sent Evan home for having a fever, when he really didn't have one. He was exactly at 98 degrees, normal. He was just warm from wearing the sweater-vest I put on him. They must expect kids to be at 90 degrees or something.

Anyway, today we went to our friend's home, on base, who invited us for a belated Thanksgiving dinner. They wanted to invite a couple over for dinner that only have Sundays off. That's fine by me, cause that's my third Thanksgiving dinner in a week! ahahaha. I'm a turkey, stuffed. They asked me if I wanted to take some leftovers home, since Mark is out of town. Yeah right! I've cooked two other turkeys this week, and have had turkey left overs in almost every meal since last Sunday! Thanks, but no thanks. The funny thing was two out of the three families there were at my house for Thanksgiving dinners this past week! Not at the same time, so they have no idea that we've all had turkey dinner at least twice this week. hehehe.

The kids had great time playing, but somewhere in the fun, Careese started crying in pain. I found her standing in middle of the room where the kids were playing. Her poor little #4 baby tooth that had just started poking out was bleeding. Not a lot of blood. It stopped quickly, but Careese would cry in pain hours later when I tried to wash her face before going to bed. My friend said that when he found her, she was standing and holding a toy in her hand. I'm guessing she had that toy in her mouth and someone bumped into her and it cut her gum right behind that new tooth. Poor baby. She was frustrated trying to suck on a bottle after that. I hope she's ok, and it doesn't get infected, or something extreme like her tooth falls out and she'll have a missing tooth till she's 6!

Shopping at the Bazaar

2008-11-29T09:50:00.008-05:00

Evan, repeat after me, "Shopping makes mommy happy", "when mommy is happy, Evan is happy."

The base has a Bazaar a few times a year. I missed the last one and I HAD to go to the one today to see for myself what it was all about. I expected that it was gonna be antiques and fragile things everywhere, so I sat Evan down right before and lectured him about staying close to me, not touching ANYTHING without asking me first, and to not be a "crazy boy". And I had him repeat the mantra of the day, above, to me so I knew he understood my expectations when we went to the Bazaar.

They had the antique looking Asian furniture and fragile things like I expected, but there was more. Evan and Careese had a great time at one vendor that was selling fabric quiet books, fabric toys, and cute cute children's quilts. There was one quiet book I was eyeing, until I asked how much it was... $37 USD. Seriously? It says made in China. I know it didn't cost you even half of that to have it made. I had another one of those moments where my inner monologue said, "I can make that!"

However, now that I'm blogging about it, maybe my time and effort and the materials is worth more than $37 and I should just buy it because by the time I actually finish it, my kids will be in college. hmmm.

Anyway, I was very surprised to find at the Bazaar that there was a HUGE section dedicated to just fabrics! And at very good prices too. It was geared more towards quilting, because most of it was sold in 2 yard packages. But 2 yards could make for a skirt for me, or a dress for Careese.

I scoured the tables for cute fabric, and found these!

I would have never thought I'd find these cute prints at a Bazaar on base in Japan! These are prints from designers that I've seen online, and always wanted to get my hands on some. The best part is how much I paid for them. They were all $7 USD for 2 yards! If you haven't bought fabric before, that's a good price. Click here. Moda Funky Monkey. Apples and Pears. Zinnia Path Flowers.

I just wish I had gone earlier in the day, and that Evan and Careese had a little more patience, so I could have looked a little more. Oh well, I'm good for now. I'm thinking of making a summer dress and top for Careese in the fruit, a skirt for me in the flowers, a shirt for Evan in the monkey, and ties for Mark of each left over fabric! ;)

Home Alone

2008-11-28T10:29:00.003-05:00

Mark's off globetrotting again. At least this time its just for a weekend. He's headed for the land down under. Its quite a long way to go just for a weekend conference, but such is his job. He was supposed to make stops in Thailand, Vietnam, and India, but all the unrest going on in those parts of the world these last few days has made him change his plans. Good thing.

I'm so jealous that he's going to enjoy beautiful summer weather in Sydney. He's promised me a case of Tim Tams when he returns. hehehe If he were to go to Thailand as planned, he was going to get me a case of Golden Mountain seasoning sauce. hahaha I can't find it around here. I did find it in Yokohama's Chinatown, but it was $6 USD! I still bought it, even though I used to get it for $2. I should have bought a caseload and shipped in out with our cargo. Anyway, its good stuff and all the other sauces at the commissary doesn't compare to the flavor. My Japanese friend that took me to Yokohama's Chinatown probably thought I was weird for searching high and low through all the stores to find just this exact bottle of sauce. :)

Lucy, our dog, misses Mark when he's out of town. Mark is usually her main source of heat, and if Mark is ever sitting or lying down, she's right there to sit on him. Lucy knows to keep her distance from the kids, because they don't know their strength against a 3 lb dog. But lately, when the kids are asleep on the couch, Lucy has decided to get brave enough and sleep with the kids! Its cute. Lucy will even growl at you if you try to disturb the sleeper she's sitting on!

She doesn't try to sit in my lap or sleep with me like this as much, and I think this is because I'm the "alpha dog" in the house. I've heard that when dogs sit in laps or on you its a sign of dominance. true or not I don't know. But Lucy knows if I walk into my bedroom and she's on my bed, she hops off immediately and goes to her kennel. Good dog.

Sorry this is kind of a random post today. Not much went on today. Just sent Evan to school, take Mark to bus, clean house, get the brakes changed on the Odyssey, shopped the Exchange's version of Black Friday, took a quick nap in the van when the kids fell asleep on the way home (I know I'm not the only mom out there that does this!), reinterpreted Thanksgiving dinner for dinner tonight, and put the kids to bed. There, that's a look into my daily life.

Giant leaf pile

2008-11-27T01:53:00.003-05:00

Imagine a pile about 25 feet by 15 feet by 4 feet.

Mark spent the morning and afternoon, against my advisement, in the cold and rain to finish up moving the leaves from our lawn to the road to get picked up. Its probably close to 100 yards, each trip, of hauling the leaves in a tarp to make this giant pile. Even our neighbors around us were amazed at how much we had. Well, I guess this is the result of us not raking for a couple weeks. Thanks for all your hard work, Mark! The yard looks great! for now.

We had our Thanksgiving dinner party, and it turned out great. But I'm beat from cooking all day. Its not that I cooked a huge meal. No, its because in between I had to take care of a sick and cranky Careese, and pick up Evan from school cause they said he had a fever. But I took his temperature and he was at 98.0! What the heck? Did his fever suddenly break while we were driving home? I think that he was just warm because I dressed him in a sweater because it was cold this morning. Oh well.

On this evenings menu: Smoked turkey, two kinds of mashed potatoes (cause I ran out of fresh potatoes and had to resort to the boxed kind to make the difference), stuffing, fresh baked bread, green beans, tofu quiche (not my making, interesting, but good), salad, sweet potato souffle, and pumpkin pie and ice cream.

Then the adults played a game of Two Truths, and a Lie while 4 out of the 5 the kids all disappeared into Evan's room and actually played nicely together. Wow, this never happens, when the kids are quiet that usually means they're getting into trouble! The game turned out great because even with limited language abilities, in either Japanese or English, you can still tell a lie! All in all, a fun evening.

Leave, Leaves! Leave!

2008-11-26T09:38:00.004-05:00

I've racked leaves in the fall, but not like this. This was an all out barrage of leaves on us. It took almost 2 hours and 2 tanks of gas with the leaf blower to just make piles of leaves all around the house. I bagged 8 super large garbage bags worth and gave up, cause it hardly made a dent in the leaf piles. Its ridiculous! I thought this would be a quick job, but its gonna carry over to tomorrow. The picture here just shows one side of our yard. There's still 3 other sides!!! The worst part is that when you look up, there's still more leaves in the trees just mocking you saying, "go ahead, rack! rack till your hands bleed, cause we got more for ya!"

Its unfortunate that these trees are just oak trees, and they don't have beautiful fall colors. At least Evan was having the time of his life. When will he ever get to play in giant leaf piles up to his knees?

Crafty Mess

2008-11-25T10:01:00.001-05:00

I don't mind a mess in my home, as long as it's a crafty mess.
Well, its Christmas card season again, and honestly I've been thinking about it since I sent out my last card for 2007! I loved how well last years turned out, but now that I had set the bar pretty high, what would I do this year to match it?!
On my last trip to Seattle, I pretty much went on a shopping binge at Michael's. Evan's been playing with fun foam stickers since the wee age of 1 and a half. hehehe So, when I found these cute penguin stickers, these craft wheels could not be stopped from spinning.

Child labor put to work for the sake of Christmas cards. Tip: You gotta start early if you intend on your kid being involved in making at least 50 of these to be mailed out in time for Christmas. Child labor isn't the most efficient.

And here's a sneak peek at our fun foam Christmas cards. This is one of my favs that Evan and I made together. The blank stare in the right penguin makes me smile.

Now, I'm a bit stuck because finding A6 sized (5 3/4 x 4 3/8 inch) envelopes in Japan isn't easy. And the military exchange has little selection when it comes to office supplies. Japan has a whole different standard for paper and envelope sizes. I might have to get creative here.
Here's something I learned about letter writing in Japan. You won't find any envelopes with gum to seal them shut. Nope, its offensive to lick an envelope! I never thought of it that way, but I guess I wouldn't want someones spit all over my birthday card. So, all those peppermint flavored gummed envelopes from Hallmark, are just plane rude.

Beijing Pictures

2008-11-24T10:39:00.003-05:00

Beijing 2008

Here they are, get'em while they're hot!

It was a good trip, despite the below freezing weather. The one thing I learned is that, I don't quite relate with the mainland Chinese, more specifically Beijing Chinese. Or their way of thinking. But I think by the end of our trip, I understood where they were coming from, even if I didn't agree.

My cousin Faye pointed out to me that people are still influenced by their communist history. For instance, there is little importance placed on aesthetics or flourishes in design/architecture because during the Cultural Revolution they pulled up grasses and trees because it was an unnecessary aesthetic. Things like that, that I didn't think about that make the Chinese the way they are.

I don't speak Mandarin. Very very little, that a foreigner with a phase book probably has an advantage over me. hehehe But I can understand it a little better. Oh, but the different Chinese accents was tough to get used to.

So for me to speak a language is so integral in understanding the culture. And not being able to speak Chinese, even though I looked the part, was hard. I just felt like people were wondering what was wrong with me when they spoke to me? I guess it helped that I had two kids and was dressed differently that people could tell I was a foreigner. A lot of people thought I was from Singapore. Which isn't too far off from the truth. My father is from Singapore, and I lived there for a while as a kid.

So, it was a good trip for me because I was there observing real Chinese culture, cause I don't consider myself really Chinese, I got to understand a little more about myself. I hope we'll be able to make it an annual trip to China, now that we're just a stones throw away, and we can stay at the same Westin hotel too!

P.S. Just a reminder that I'm taking on the challenge of blogging once a day for a month, and honestly its not an easy thing for me to do. So to thank my faithful readers keeping up with me on my 'quest' of a blog a day, I'm keeping tabs on who comments and how many times too, so at the end of the month (Dec 11) I will have a drawing to give away a package of Japanese treats and goodies to one lucky reader. All you have to do is comment on any post between Nov 11 - Dec 11. That's it! Good luck!

Happy Japan Labor Thanksgiving Day!

2008-11-23T12:27:00.002-05:00

Some of the holidays in Japan give me a chuckle. Like today's holiday. There isn't any celebration of it, you just have it as a day off. There's a bit of history to it, but all the Japanese I've asked have no idea about where it came from. Oh well, its a day off of school for Evan. And a day off for me to get up early to get him ready for school. :)
In light of the American Thanksgiving coming up, we celebrated a little earlier with some of our Japanese friends from church. They were really just wanting to schedule a home teaching visit, but we turned it into a Thanksgiving feast. hehehe
I forget how different Americans live compared to the Japanese, because when my friend came in to help out in the kitchen, as I was putting in a tray of croissants to be baked, she was astonished at how huge my oven was. Then she noticed how big the stove was in general. She turned around and the fridge, in its American huge-ness, had her at "SUGOII!" Then, as we were cleaning up after dinner, she noticed the dishwasher, and asked if she could look inside. I'm glad Mark did the dishes! She was blown away that there was not just one row of racks but two, and you had to stoop down to see the dishes all the way in the back. She called her husband in to look see and they admired how much cabinets and counter space there was. Honestly, I was amazed myself, when we first moved in, at the amount of cabinet and counter space we had!
While this whole event made me smile, apart of me feels guilty for living so well in Japan. And we pay almost nothing to live here too. While the rest of the country is making due with the small living space they have, we have the gall to complain about all the leaves we have to rake up on the 75 ft of lawn that we're in charge of around our house. I don't blame the Japanese for complaining about the American bases taking up their land. Thats why I feel like I need to play host to our Japanese friends often that they get to share in our abundance. Granted our home is still small compared to American standards, it's by far less cramped than most Japanese homes.
As for dinner, it was worth the hours of prep time. It was delicious. I don't think Thanksgiving is truely Thanksgiving without company to share it with. And to share it with company that rarely eats a traditional thanksgiving meal, made it even better. We got a smoked turkey this year, and it was SO good! Is like eating kaula pig, but turkey. And it only takes 1.5 hours to warm up, so it freed up my oven for other baked goodies like sweet potato souffle and fresh baked croissants. I'm thinking of heading out to the commissary tomorrow to pick up another yummy smoked turkey to just keep in my freezer for another day. hehehe
The pumkin pie I made turned out good. Although, can someone tell me why the pie cracks down the middle? Is it because it cools too quickly?

Home and pumkin pie

2008-11-22T19:16:00.002-05:00

Well, we're home again, and its funny to see how excited the kids are to be home. Evan went straight to his toys. "My toys! I missed my toys!" and Careese was walking all around the house in and out of rooms. Its like she missed walking and getting in to things.
As soon as we got home there was little time to relax, we had invited some friends from our Japanese Ward over for dinner the next day. So we had to go shopping for food before the commissary closed. We decided that since it was Japan's Labor Thanksgiving day tomorrow, and American Thanksgiving this Thrusday, we should have Thanksgiving dinner. Although, I don't know if there are special foods for Japanese Thanksgiving. After the kids went to bed, I made pumkin pie. Those are one of those foods that just remind you of home. The warm aroma of pumkin spices and homemade crust filling our house, reminds me of Thanksgivings and Christmases with extended family where we'd consume 6-8 pies. I can't wait to dig into that pie!
Evan was eatting at the table today, and while he was eating was telling us about being in my cousin Faye's class. He said that there was a boy in his class that looked like this, and Evan pulled the outside corners of his eyes up! I don't know if he's imitating how the other kid looks of if they were making funny faces at each other, but it was funny to see Evan explain how someone looks like that. He also was telling ing me about how he "do lots of things in Faye's class" and "Faye do other things" and "a kid pushed me, Faye help me be happy. Its not nice to push" Then we asked Evan if Faye was his hero, and he said "um, maybe. maybe not"

Beijing Day 6 - Last Day

2008-11-21T12:09:00.004-05:00

It was our last day here in China, and I wore myself out trying to go shopping at the Silk and Pearl Market with Careese, sans stroller. I thought I was gonna die. She is SO wiggly and did not want to be held at all. I was carrying her and a huge backpack, I over packed for this day trip, and bags from shopping. I need a vacation for my back.

On a side note, Beijing is very non-stroller-friendly. The subway is the worst. There are stairs everywher, with elevators that aren't turned on or out of service. We actually found ONE that worked and got us right to where we wanted. Of course it was at Olympic Park! And taxis are kind of dinky so our stroller at times had trouble fitting in the trunk. But it is just a little longer than the average stroller. There are few parks with playgrounds

or even areas to sit comfortably. There are ZERO changing stations in bathrooms. You're lucky if you find one with a big enough counter. And there are very few ramps in public spaces, for example, the Forbidden City or getting in and out of resturants. I don't know what people who are in wheelchairs do; probably never leave their apartments. So, if you're planning a trip with little kids to Beijing, make sure your hotel has amenities for kids, that you have a compact stroller that you can carry easily up and down stairs, plan on taking the cab a lot, get in shape to carry your little ones in slings/backpacks/carriers, and prepare for locals to tell you what they think (good or bad).

I took Evan to my cousin Faye's Montessori class, and he had a good time there while I went shopping. Glad I did cause it was tough enough with Careese. It was a little bit of help with Careese with me barganing, because I could use her as an excuse for walking away to get the vendors to lower their prices. I just put her on the ground and she takes of running and I just chase after her, and the vendors get frazzeled that you're not taking their offer seriously. Funny thing is even after the sale is completed they throw in their two cents about your kid. Twice I was told that I needed to feed Careese, she looked hungry cause she was playing with her fingers in her mouth. If they only knew that I just fed her and that she's teething. Anyway, I actually enjoy haggling a bit. Its kind of fun to watch the vendors squirm. Although, I don't think I'm that great at getting a deal, I can at least get it at a good price. I'd like to see a pro haggler in action, so I can learn. hehehe

After an exhausting morning, I went to Faye's class to hang out and let Careese run around and just rest. We met up with Mark after he was done with his conference and we went to dinner at a "hole in the wall" restaurant. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the inside is very cool. It looked like a updated old tea house you see in Chinese movies. The food was great! The sweet and spicy fried shrimp was to die for. It was one of those Chinese dishes were you eat the shell with the meat, It was good.

funny thing Evan said to me today when I gave him his crakers for a snack, "Oh, thank you, Mommy, you give me crack!"

Beijing Day 5

2008-11-20T11:19:00.004-05:00

I'm so super wasted tonight. I almost fell asleep on the bed trying to get my kids to bed and forgetting I needed to blog. We did a lot of walking today. I'm gonna keep this one short and show you more pictures from what we did today in China.

After moving hotels, we went to Summer Palace Park. It was nice and just a little windy, but much less bitterly cold. Too bad we didn't have too much time there.

Beijing Olympic Park. Hard to imagine that the Summer Olympics were just 3 months ago because it's so cold now! The place in huge. I need a foot rub. The kids were troopers for hanging in there for us to go see it.

I will post more about today later. now, sleepy time.

Beijing Day 4

2008-11-19T14:07:00.002-05:00

I'm blogging from my phone today. It has a keypad but typing with your thumbs isn't very fluid. I find myself trying to keep a grip on my phone from slipping out from my hands. And I'm fighting the urge to type like I'm typing a txtmg.

We took Evan to the Montessori Kindergarten that my cousin Faye teaches at, for just a couple hours. He's been giving us his usual i need something else I can do speech when we're out. So we thought it be good for him to go run around with Faye and some kids his age. He had fun despite the usual pushing incidences between him and the other kids.

While Evan was with Faye, Mark and I took Careese with us to go eat hotpot for lunch. It was perfect to have on a cold day like today! We ordered the double pot, where you can have two different soups in the same pot, cooking at the same time. Glad we did that cause Mark's side, mahla, was way too spicy for my tastes buds. I guess I'm not Chinese enough to take it. hehehe

I was going to go to a market, near the hotel, that sells clothes and bags and stuff like that, and try haggling, but the kiddies were so cranky that I figured it was probably better for my sanity that they got a nap in. Especially, since we were going to church that evening to see Elder Oaks speak to the branch members here. Great timing for our trip!

Elder Oaks is a great speaker, and his talk touched on how we can know for ourselves, with commitment to God in our prayers, if the gospel was true. And it was also nice that he touched on how we should handle the current predicaments that the downturn of the economy has placed the global family in. Even though, it was tough listening to him speak while making sure the kids were happy and not making people around us unhappy, it was refreshing to hear. Makes me want to go back and read conference talks again. I was so excited to shake the hand of an Apostle for the first time!

Afterward, it seemed like everyone converged on Dairy Queen downstairs, including Mark. Then we went out to a late night Korean BBQ place. OOOOoooooooh Its been such a long time since I've had Korean BBQ. I need to find one in Japan! Surprisingly, even though we were at the restaurant till way late, Evan was being SO well behaved! It probably has something to do with my cousin Faye sitting next to him. One thing I've learned about traveling with young kids, be flexible and plan for downtime between things and always carry wipes. hehehe

Its our last night in this hotel. And I'm actually typing to you on my phone from the bathroom, Its huge in here! I seriously love this bathroom. I love the colors, I love the clean lines. I love the lighting, And I love the amazing views! The housekeeping lady must think I'm weird for dragging the chair and ottoman in here. hehehe but it's nice to hide out in here while the kids are napping.

Beijing Day 3

2008-11-18T12:15:00.009-05:00

After yesterday's day out in the cold, we were more than happy to stay indoors today while Mark was at his conference. Evan actually asked to stay in the hotel. The hallway out side our room is in a circle, with the elevators in the middle, and it makes for a great "track" for Evan to go crazy on and for Careese to practice walking/running.

Careese is such a light sleeper, Evan and I had to hide out in the bathroom to keep from waking Careese up. Its nice that we have a nice big bathroom, with a TV in it! While we were waiting for Careese to finish her nap, Evan fell asleep while playing the games on my phone. He actually stayed there for the next 2 hours too.

We went out with my cousin Faye and her roommate for Peking duck today. Its like when we had sushi in Japan. It's so cool! We love how cheap food is here. We could feed four and Evan for just under $50. And we had ordered two ducks along with all other food we ordered. We love China for cheap food and taxi rides. Tomorrow we'll try going to a market to try our hand at haggling. Should be fun.

Part of our hotel package includes the daily Bathology. I've never soaked in a tub like this! And that it's a nightly ritual, is fabulous! Mark has made sure everyday to call and schedule this for me and picks the different aroma themes for me too. Such a wonderful husband! I feel bad for all the flowers that were sacrificed for it. But I can't deny that my skin hasn't felt softer. hehehe Everyone, except Careese, has had some time in the nightly event. I have no idea if Careese could even be in the tub with all those oils and bath salts, but I'm gonna guess its not a good idea. Anyway, we actually have to move hotels for the last two days here, and I'm gonna really miss my evening bath and chocolates.

Beijing Day 2

2008-11-17T23:00:00.000-05:00

I woke up to the most wonderful sound this morning. Careese and Evan laughing and playing peek-a-boo together. I wish I could have video of it. Careese has started doing it herself and Evan was right there to make funny noises at her. Its so much better than waking up to screaming and crying.

We went to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City today. It was just as big and grand as I imagined it would be. I guess I've seen too many movies about the Forbidden City that it didn't really surprise me. Although, the living quarters of the city were a little less grand as I imagined it would be. Most likely because of how movies played it up.
However, it was so amazing to be there and realize that this is where history was made. In Tienanmen Square, I just kept thinking about how as an 8 yr old watching the news about the protests, and seeing it's effects on the people in Hong Kong, where I as living at the time, was so profound to me that I am standing right where it all happened. In the Forbidden City, it was so amazing to think about how China has changed so much in the last few hundred years, and this huge structure has been here for it all.
It is freezing here in Beijing. It gets below freezing at night. So, being in Tienanmen and Forbidden City with two kids, was tough. We just kept going from semi-heated room to semi-heated room to keep the kids warm. We were ok because we were doing all the walking. Poor kids. Glad I over dressed them.
Surprisingly the subway and the Forbidden City is very non-stroller friendly. I thought after the Olympics especially that there would be enough ramps to get around with, but nope. There are lots of stairs in the subway and a lot of levels in the Forbidden City.

We got a lot of attention with our kids and stroller. Some good, some bad. We think it must be an odd sight in a country that has pushed the one child policy to see two kids. People would keep asking us if they were twins. "Ummm yes, Evan was just born 2 years earlier". And also we have a sit and stand type stroller and that's not common to see. And its orange so you don't miss it. SO, to say the least, we felt like a freak show walking around. They'd stare and talk and I'd stare right back and talk about them too.

It was fine, until people started giving their opinions about our kids. That's where it crosses a line with me. I understand that its just the Chinese thing to do. Actually, its the Asian thing to do. But they obviously don't know the situation, and to have them tell me how to raise my kids, is condescending. Its not a matter of respecting my elders, because I do. But its because a lot of them making the judgements to me were probably my age, not even married, or with kids. Things like pointing out that part of Careese's leg was exposed while I was trying to wrestle her to stay wrapped up in her blanket is just annoying. Another lady, kept showing up and telling us that kids shouldn't be out in this weather at all. Why doesn't she go bother the other parents of kids who are there too? It really got to me and by the end of the trip, I took my frustrations out on Mark. I shouldn't have and I'm sorry. I'm grateful I have a forgiving husband that puts up with me in my bad moods.

While I enjoyed our trip to the Forbidden City, I could do without the heckling. Fortunately, we did meet some very helpful people at the Forbidden City that helped us get around with our stroller, and returned Evan's dropped hat to us, and that restored my faith in Chinese people.

I think, though, after all that, We're going to skip on going to the Great Wall. Its going be cold and windy and its out of our way and its not going to be much fun for the kids. We'll probably be back here again, so we'll save that for the next trip. So now I gotta find some indoor type stuff to do. hmmm and all I can come up with is shopping...

Beijing Day1

2008-11-16T06:51:00.001-05:00

I made it. After a long day of travel, I made it with two kids to Beijing. I spent the whole morning tring to get so much done that I almost missed the bus to the airport. I was pullling the luggage to the bus, when it started to pull away. I dropped the bags, and chased after the bus. The bus driver looked peeved that I was holding him up. Until, he saw me run back to the car and pull out two kids and a stroller and carry on bags.

Two hours on the bus feels like an eternity with a 1 yr old. Careese doesn't sit well or sleep well. She finally slept for me for just 30 mins. Better than nothing.

We hung around in the kids play area of Narita for an hour, which really helped with tiring out the kids for the flight. Careese got SO much attention at the gate, She was waddling around the gate with her bottle in her mouth, and walking right up to strangers. She has no fears of strangers, and that worries me that she could get snatched easily.

The flight was almost 4 hours long. Evan was tired, but didn't sleep, so it made dinner time tough. He played more than ate. But overall he did ok and didn't cause too much of a disturbance till 20 mins before landing. There was another 3 yr old girl on the plane that would mimick his outbursts, that would just get Evan to say more and louder.

Careese slept for an hour, that gave me time to finish watching Mama Mia. hehehe.

As soon as I got off the plane a lady cleaning the bathrooms already gave me her optinons about something to do with the kids and my stroller. I couldn't quite understand her cause of her strong Beijing accent, but I understand unsolicited advice when I hear it. I just pretended to not understand and left. I understand that this is just how the Chinese are, and I've grown up with it. But come on! I haven't even left the airport yet! anyway, I knew that it was gonna be in for a culture shock going from Japan and China.

My cousin Faye met me at the airport, and a little later, Mark showed up too.. He just came in from Korea an hour before me and headed to the hotel first to drop off his stuff.

It was a good thing he did too, because with my two bags and stroller, we couldn't all fit in the cab. The cab people told us to take a van, but it was going to cost four times as much as taking a cab. Why not take two cabs then? But we decided to take the train. The airport express. It was a little tough getting around with a sit and stand type stroller and the elevators all over the place being out of order. My opinion, I think the Chinese just did enough to fix up the place for the Olympics, but not to last. While we were waiting for someone to come turn on the elevator for us, Mark decided to lean on the railing when it suddenly fell off the wall. It looked like the only thing holding it was a couple gobs of epoxy. hehehe. They never came to turn on the elevetor for us, and two of the people that work there helped us carry the luggage and stroller up and down in the tunnels of the subway. At lease they helped carry.

We finally made it to the hotel, and the room we got was well worth it. The bathroom is huge! It's what I want my dream bathroom to be like. Part of the hotel package is they will draw a bath for you every night, with bath oils, flower petals, and candles. Niiiice. And they included a foot massage machine in the room too. Niiiiice.

No internet access in the hotel room without paying WAY too much. There is free WIFI in the lobby. So it will be a little tough keeping my goal of posting once a day. But I will do it.

Sorry no pictures yet. I have to find where I packed the USB cord.

An afternoon in Yokohama's Chinatown

2008-11-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

I wouldn't have gone to Yokohama if it wasn't for my friend Megumi from church. I'm so deathly afraid of getting lost by myself, in Japan. The roads are so confusing, and they aren't all named, or two roads share the same route number. Its gonna be a while before I venture outside my 10km radius on my own. hehehe. I used to make fun of people that never left the beltway outside DC. And here I am.
So, here's some pics from the afternoon.

Nov 08 Yokohama Chinatown

I was surprised at how pushy the Chinese will get to get the Japanese to buy stuff. Weird to see that contrast in cultures here. I thought it was funny that my friend Megumi said the Japanese know how different Chinese restaurant service and salesmen are, almost rude in the Japanese eyes. After being in Japan for a few months now, I can totally see it!
I'm heading off to Beijing today, and I'm preparing myself for a total culture 360.

NaBloPoMo

2008-11-14T05:17:00.000-05:00

National Blog Posting Month. One post, every day, for 30 days. Can I do it? I've already done 3 days worth... I'll take that challange on! At the end of the month (Dec 11th) I will celebrate with a drawing, here on this blog, for a package of goodies from Japan! To win, you have to comment at least once between now and Dec 11th to be entered in the drawing.
And if I don't do it... hmmm, you all have to send me a package! ahahah jk. I don't know what I'll do if I don't. Comments anyone?

New Umpaloompa Species

2008-11-14T04:50:00.000-05:00

I was putting together Mark's visa picture for his business trip to Vietnam, and somehow when Photoshop did a save as, it came out like a Warhol!
I think Vietnam would reconsider giving Mark that visa. No purple people eaters allowed!
Is there a new feature in Photoshop I didn't know about?

Another thing to love about IKEA

2008-11-13T09:55:00.005-05:00

I'm already an Ikea fanatic. I'd like to live there if I could. But this makes me LOVE Ikea even more!

Buy a REAL Christmas tree from Ikea and when the holidays are over, take it back and they will BUY it back from you! You receive store credit for the exact amount you paid for it. Wowzer.

Looks like the trees aren't that tall. About 3-4 feet tall. So they would make for a cute table top tree to showcase your nicer ornaments you don't want your "elves" getting into.

*postscript: Sorry, looks like its a promotion only in Japan. :(Probably because the population that actually celebrates Christmas here is small. And only a part of that group can even afford that much space in their tiny living rooms for a tree and even have a car to get it home.

*post postscript: Ikea in Japan is a great place to find deals in the AS-IS section for bedding in King and Queen sizes. This is because most people sleep on single occupancy type futons, not anything like the American image of futons, heavy and bulky. So, that means that there's not a huge need for Q/K sized duvet covers, sheets, and comforters. That's fine with me! I found a large bin filled with Q/K sized duvet and sham sets in this design in brown, originally priced at $75 USD, on sale for $9 USD!! "You can't even buy the fabric for that price!" (My fav excuse for these types of purchases.) I should have bought more just for the fabric... oh well, I guess I'll just have to go back and shop some more. ;)

Baby Crafts Tutorials

2008-11-12T08:17:00.003-05:00

I was doing a google images search for a particular leaf shaped Martha Stewart craft punch, and came across this site instead... This always happens to me when I'm online looking for something, I get distracted by pretty pictures. I still haven't found that picture I was looking for.
Anyway, a couple of people have asked me about how to make the hair clips I sell. And honestly, I didn't know how to explain it, so I didn't really answer them. I'm self taught when it comes to crafts, so to see instructions so beautifully laid out makes me wish I had that skill for presentation.

So Paperseed has rounded up a bunch of baby crafts tutorials, one of which is similar to how I make hair clips, that are super cute!
Makes me wish Careese wouldn't grow up so fast that I would have enough time to make these things for her!

Flaky Eye Comma Glass Etching

2008-11-11T23:00:00.001-05:00

There are two past blog entries that have got our blog quite a bit of traffic. Whether from google searches or from links from other sites, we notice that these two posts get lots of hits on our statcounter.

Which ones, you ask?

This one and this one

I guess there's lots of people out there with similar problems that Mark had. Or need a quick Super Saturday craft idea for their church meetings.

While our blog entries won't give much to help to those suffering similar eye problems, I have made my Nativity pattern available online for my crafty readers.

The pattern and instructions are available on Etsy*! Along with your purchase, you get unlimited email access to me! For your questions about the glass etching process, silly. No question is a dumb question.

FAQs:
-Won't the X-Acto knife scratch up the glass? Nope, it doesn't harm it one bit. If you try to press down hard on the X-Acto knife you'll probably break the knife tip first.
-Won't there be a horrible scratching noise when you cut on the glass/mirror? Nope, in fact you'll find that if you're not using a steady hand you could actually slip the knife and cut where you don't want to cut on the vinyl. Its quite smooth.

If you're interested in making a large purchase for a group of holiday crafters, please email me at careesespieces(at)gmail(dot)com, and I'd be happy to give you a nice group discount.

I used to sell the kits for this project locally in VA, but now that we're in Japan, the materials aren't so easily found or at a good price (hense my sadness over being miles and miles away from the nearest Michael's craft store). So I'm selling just the pattern now.

*If you want to just buy directly from me, instead of through Etsy, send me an email at careesespieces(at)gmail(dot)com, letting me know how many patterns you would be interested in, and I will email you a Paypal invoice, where you can securely make your purchase online with Paypal. Once that has gone through, I will email you the pattern and instructions! Really, its that simple! I love ecommerce.

**IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT NOTICE: With your purchase, you receive the right to use this image for your own personal crafts. You may not sell the sheet or image, use them in mass production, put them on any website without permission, or forward them to anyone else.

***X-Acto and Avery are copyrighted brands, and are wonderful products, but I am not affiliated with these companies. Although, I wouldn't mind free stuff for pushing their products! wink. wink.

...to a new place.

2008-11-09T06:30:00.003-05:00

Ok so we're only moving virtually. And yes, Shelese, we would be moving our site to Utah, you can visit us on Research Way in Orem, home of Bluehost. :P

Just thought it'd be a good change of scenery -- not to mention a good way to brush up on our mad web programming skillz - it has been a while, indeed! And a lot has changed in five years. What's Web 2.0? Isn't AJAX a bleach? I thought JSON was my old roommate?!

It's still a work in progress, so we haven't completely migrated over, but we'll let you know when we do.

For those of you who did not see the obvious link attached to the period on the previous post, please do so now :)

For those who cannot see the obvious period link, please click here.

We're Moving!

2008-11-08T08:43:00.003-05:00

Stay tuned.

Hairclip Making Machine

2008-11-04T20:29:00.003-05:00

I'm finally nearing the end of a huge order from a lady from here on base for hairclips for her 8 granddaughters. She ordered 26 pairs! I'm so excited for her granddaughters! But I've already ran out of some supplies, so it was good timing that I had a trip to Seattle recently to make a run to Michaels to get more. I made sure to stock up this time.
I miss Michaels. There's a couple craft stores nearby, but the prices just don't compare. Plus, crafting here in Japan leans more towards beading, felting, knitting/crocheting, and sewing. I'm finding lots more cute fabrics and felt colors and yarn textures than in the US. So, maybe my crafting habit will have to take a new direction soon.
Here's two if stores I frequent that have websites: (viewed with google translate, so the english maybe butchered)
Yuzawaya
Odakaya
The funny thing about the larger craft stores here is that they sell lingerie there too. Not to make yourself, but to buy. I guess they figure their customers are usually women who need lingerie while they're looking for buttons.

Happy Candy Day!

2008-11-02T11:02:00.000-05:00

halloween 08

Careese turns ONE?!

2008-10-29T08:22:00.002-05:00

We're back! Sorry its been a long while. I just got back from Seattle with Careese. I was asked by my best friend I've known since elementary school to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. She's been waiting, I have too, for a long while for her man to propose, and he finally popped the question last Christmas. I couldn't be happier for her. So being part of her wedding was a big part of why I was in Seattle. And I haven't seen my family in a while, and they haven't seen Careese since she was 2 months old, and I miss them.
Careese turned the big O-N-E over the trip. And I feel bad that Mark and Evan missed it. They stayed behind, because Mark had a conference to prep for in Malaysia, and Evan couldn't miss that much school, and I was scared to make a trip out to Seattle with two kids on my own. Mark's mom was kind enough to come in town just as I was going to be out of town to take care of Evan for me. Big Thank You!
My brother and sister flew up from Provo to see me over the weekend too. So it was a nice little family reunion in the Thong household. I'm glad they could come up. We went shopping, just the three of us, and it was like stepping back in time, because the last time we ever did that was when we'd go Christmas shopping when we were kids!

As (almost) always, my mom and I do some sewing/crafty project when I'm home. This time, we were sewing a Hawaiian dress for me to wear to my friend's wedding. I searched online for modest and cute dresses, but they're hard to find. I found a pattern for one I liked in a Japanese fabric store, and me and my mom figured out how to make it just from the pictures, cause we don't read Japanese.

Oct 2008 Seattle|Careese 1st Birthday|Bridesmaid Bev

Here's the pics. I thought I was invinsible against jetlag, but it's catching up to me now... I'll have to write more about Seattle later. A picture says a thousand words right?

Bend it Like Evan

2008-09-30T10:54:00.004-05:00

Evan seems to be in limbo between needing a daily nap or not. And some days he drives me crazy with his jumping off the furniture and wanting to go outside at the worst times. So I thought we should at least channel some of this energy into something constructive.
I signed Evan up for soccer on base with the 3-5 yr olds. He did quite well for his first day. I think he has a hard time keeping focused the whole hour, because he kept wanting to do his own thing with the soccer ball. But then again, maybe it was wearing him out, just as planned?
I was surprised to see some of the kids with full on shin guards and cleats cause they're just 3-5 yr olds! and this program only runs 4 weeks, once a week! I might just cave and go get him shin guards, at least to keep him from getting hurt by everyone else's cleats.

On a quick side note: The other day when we were driving home from something, Evan was looking out the window, and then pointed out to me that he didn't want to go to our house, he wanted to go to our old house. I didn't think he'd remember anything of our old house, let alone cared. I asked him, what old house? what did it look like? what color? He couldn't nail down the color for me but he told me about how there was a triangle on top of the door! That's amazing! Because there was a "triangle" shaped moulding over the front door! He did remember! I explained to him that he was right, and that was our old house, but now we're in our new house, and we would see our old house again one day. He seem satisfied with my answer. I think I don't give him enough credit for how sharp he is sometimes.

From weeks before Japan

You did what to a Mochi?

2008-09-29T23:05:00.002-05:00

We were shopping around in the Akihabara area, known for electronic stores of all calibers, and went into a kitchen appliance store.
I found what I thought was a waffle iron, but it made white colored waffles? Huh?
So I googled it, and this is what I found.
It is a Moffle Machine! It makes waffles from mochi! And you can eat it with almost anything. Ice cream, curry, salmon roe (eggs), dipped in chocolate, with ham and cheese, really anything! I'm very curious. I don't know if I'm willing to shell out $70 USD to try it. I think there are a few cafe's that have put it on their menus. So I'll let you know when I try it if its good. :)
I guess the article says people have tried using their reg waffle irons with mixed results. I might try it, it can't be too hard to clean up right?

Fun with Evan

2008-09-18T22:02:00.002-05:00

One evening, Evan whined his usual whine, "I need something else I can do!" I just happened to finish vacuuming so I had Evan lay down on my rug and pretend to be different letters. He did a pretty good job! I had to get my camera out and had him spell out his name. Cute huh?

Then I got an idea to turn up the fun. I read a post on designmom.com last year about how she took pictures of her kids to look like a scene from the nativity. And even making her daughter look like she's a flying angle. I wanted to try it out on Evan.

It turned out alright. I think I'd have to try a differnt rug, but it looks like he's flying! Maybe next time I can dress Careese up too and see what shots I can get.

ｴﾊﾞﾝは幼稚園に行きます!

2008-09-18T09:36:00.025-05:00

I feel horrible that its been a while since I last posted something substantial. I've been meaning to post about our much anticipated trip to Singapore that we came back from 3 WEEKS ago! We had a great time and ate and ate and ate all the foods that I missed and visited friends and family I hadn't seen for over 10 yrs. Last time I went I was 17. Now I was bringing a husband and two kids with me. I think I enjoyed having the freedom to chose what I wanted to see and do. This time, I am the adult.
Mark had a conference there and we went a few days earlier to vacation. He'll be going to Singapore quite a bit for his job in the future, so I hope we'll be making trips at Singapore at least annually.
We visited with my dad's side of the family, and Evan had a blast with my younger cousins. So much fun, that he didn't want to come home with us. My aunt was nice to offer letting Evan spend the night. And even babysitting for us one evening so Mark and I could have a date night. I don't think we do that enough. Thanks so much Aunt Geoklee!
This is me with my cousin's daughter, Beverly Thong. Seriously, isn't that so cool! (Thong is my maiden name) She's such a cute girl. I forgot to ask her what her middle name was... :)
Here's the pictures to give you an idea of what we did. There were a few days where I forgot to take my camera out with us. So just imagine more pictures of us eating. hahaha

From Singapore 2008

So the reason why posts have been sparse lately is this...

The day after we got back from Singapore, Evan started Japanese Kindergarten. I thought with Evan gone for 5 hours everyday I'd have more time on my hands to do things I want, but really I end up running errands and doing house work! I decided to walk Evan to school cause its only a 10 min walk and thought it would be good exercise. But, I'm more tired now then before Evan started school! I guess the best part is that I get more one on one time with Careese. I was feeling guilty that she kind of gets shafted on mommy attention.
Evan is cute in his uniform. He actually wants to wear it now. Unfortunately, he's in the class that wears the bright pink hats. At least they only wear those hats a recess. Just wait till they start wearing their winter uniforms. I swear it was designed for the girls and they added suspenders and shorts to make it for the boys. And his winter hat KILLS me! Its got a long flowing bow on it! I wonder if they'd notice if I cut it off. Well, for now Evan doesn't know the difference. Just wait till he's older and looks back on his pictures. heehee
The last two weeks have been hard on Evan. He had a hard time adjusting, and cried quite a bit that they recommended that he only do half days for a while. I felt bad for him because I totally understand how he feels about going to a school where he doesn't understand the language. People that have had their kids go to school there, that didn't speak Japanese, said that it takes a few months before they get adjusted.
Well, this week Evan has done amazingly. He hasn't cried at all! And when I drop him off at the front of the school, he walks to his class on his own!
I tell him what time I'm coming back and he actually keeps track of the time. He told me when I came to pick him up, "Mommy, you come get me at 2? There's five numbers on the clock!" He actually watched the hour hand and counted 5 hours! I didn't realize 3 yr olds could make conclusions like that. I never told him which hand on the clock was which.
Time does fly by, I didn't think we'd already be sending Evan to school. It sneaked up on me, that I didn't even get a picture of him going to school. Thats a pic of him leaving school.

*check me out, I typed in Japanese! Yeah without help from Mark either. :P (translation: Evan goes to kindergarten!)

Why I heart Taiwan...

2008-09-16T09:27:00.007-05:00

Guess who happens to be in town for the 2008 International Beef Noodle Soup Festival in Taipei...they should make me a guest judge. Tomorrow, baby.

Too much fun in Singapore

2008-09-08T07:31:00.001-05:00

Evan had so much fun playing on the playground in the dark that even when he banged his head on a bar he didn't cry and just continued playing. It wasn't until about 1/2 hour after he came back (he went out with Bev's aunt and his first cousin once removed Ray - I like Uncle Ray better, easier to say - while we ate), we were just on our way out, and for some reason I was playing with his hair when all of the sudden I hit a thick patch of hair stuck together. Thought it was kind of odd, but just thought maybe Evan had boogers in his hair...until I looked at my fingers and found that they were red. I did some more digging (visualize monkey picking lice) and found about a 3-4 cm laceration on his head, fairly deep, slightly bleeding. ...? Did Evan not feel it? Asked him if it hurt, he said, mmmh (which is yes, I think)...I think he was more interested in playing, of course. Bev's aunt has four boys who can as a team wear out Evan. The laceration looked like it could be remedied with Neosporin, but we just wanted to be sure it wasn't infected. This would be the second gash on his head; the first one was when he jumped off the bed and hit the corner with the back of his head. Blood was gushing everywhere, Bev said (or at least made it sound like) it was like something out of a horror flick (but I would never know, I don't like those). Headed over to Juliana's alma mater, Gleneagles Hospital, and the doctors there glued his head together. We told Evan the doctors were giving him a haircut so he was quite positive throughout the procedure, flashing gang signs at the camera and flapping his legs around.

I was quite positive until I received the bill. That's an expensive noggin. There'd better be something in there.

just had to share

2008-08-21T11:00:00.005-05:00

I'm getting myself and Evan, of course, ready for Japanese kindergarten in a couple weeks. I think Evan is totally ready for more activities and such, cause almost daily he'll whine to me, "Mommy, I need something else I can do!" I give him activities, but he's done and wants to move on in 10 mins.
Anyway, I'm worried that the school is going to frown upon me as a mom if I send Evan to school with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. As much as he likes them, they are nothing compared to the bento boxes (Japanese lunch boxes) that I've seen in the past. I've been to the store to find a lunch box for Evan and there's a gazillion little gadgets and doodads and thing-a-ma-bobs to make your kid's rice balls look like Hello Kitty or cut a tiny wiener into a crab or making special hole punched seaweed to make Winnie the Pooh's face out of your carrots! Its insane how much time and effort these moms will put into making their kids meals look kawaii. more power to ya.
Although, I'm not about to invest in Doremon cupcake papers, I do want to at least provide Evan with something good to eat for lunch that's somewhat Japanese. Plus, I don't think Evan will care about cute food. Knowing him, he'll probably throw his backpack around enough that he'll find a bento full of garbled funny faces at lunchtime.
So, online I go, and I find this site. JustBento.com. I love how nicely everything is photographed. I haven't tried the recipes yet, but you can be sure I'm going to be trying them out soon!

Happy Bon Odori

2008-08-04T12:14:00.005-05:00

bon odori

This is what I've been looking forward to about living in Japan... attending local festivities! Although this wasn't how I imagined it...

The base opened up its gates to the locals to celebrate Bon Odori on it's grounds. Usually they'd have to be sponsored to get on base. Well, there were booths of food and stuff for sale by locals, but then there's a few stalls that were selling pizza and hot dogs and Doritos and Lays and military paraphernalia and even Outback Steakhouse was there. And it wasn't just Americans selling American food. The Japanese were making fusion food. Like falafel dog. Think, hot dog on a stick wrapped in a falafel. I guess it would be good. And there was a stand from another of base restaurant selling Döner kebab. It was very yummy, but what did it have to do with a Japanese festival?

Well, despite the swellering heat and humidity and strange juxtaposition of hot dogs and kimonos, it was fun. We had way too many shaved ice just to keep cool. After a couple hours I was ready to take the kids home to put them to nap so I could nap! We woke up in time to eat dinner and go see the fireworks. There must have been firework shows all around base cause we were hearing them before the show on base would start. But then again it could have been another freak thunderstorm like the Fourth of July had.

I forgot to grab the camera, so you'll have to imagine it was a really good show. They were firing them off from two different locations, syncronized to music, that again wasn't all Japanese music.

It was nice to have the festival come to us on base, but I think I'm gonna have to do a little more research to find the authentic festivals I'm hoping to experience while we're in Japan.

p.s. click on the pic up above to see the rest of the pics.

Hot Hot Hot

2008-07-27T13:17:00.000-05:00

It is so stinkin hot and humid here! How did people survive without AC? I always thought Japan was more like Seattle in terms of climate. Boy was I wrong! It's like we never left DC. It rains buckets too. Mark's coworker invited us out to go swimming with them Sat morning. I though it would still be too cool to go swimming. Wrong again. At 11am, you want to be in the pool! Everything on base is family friendly. There's 3 pools of different depths, and one is just 4-6 inches deep! perfect for the kiddies. And they have tons of pool toys too. Just no inflatable things are allowed.

Life on base is slow I think. Things close early and on odd days. Don't bother getting anything done around 1100-1300, its lunch time. At the pool, the last 10 mins (and they are to the dot on this) of every hour the life guards take a break and everyone gets out of the pool. And Mon and Tues they're closed for cleaning. The commissary (grocery store) where we live is open 0900 -1900 everyday except Mon. The commissary at the other base where we get our mail is closed Wed. I'm defiantly not used to a grocery store closing at 7pm. Different offices closes at different hours... I can't keep it all straight in my head. And I'm not used to using 24 hour time either. So I say its slow cause things aren't open when I need them to be.

Our camcorder called it quits the other day. Sad, cause it wasn't that old and it fit our needs. Back in DC, Mark accidentally stepped on it, and we thought it was just a cosmetic thing. The LCD screen was just a little kinked and just needed a little extra push to get it closed. Well, turns out that the touch screen doesn't work anymore. We can still record on it, but there's no way to make it do anything else cause all the buttons are accessed from the screen... I guess Sony made that decision for the sake of clean design. argh. I hate when expensive investments die. Why does Mark have to have big feet?

About the kids...Careese, we can't get enough of her. I think God made babies and little kids cute in their parents eyes so they are hardwired to love and protect their young. And I think we were over wired for Careese. Something about having a little girl makes it different from having a boy too. Those of you with little girls know what we're talking about. Careese's new thing is discovery of her voice box. She screams at such high decibels I'm sure there are times when Lucy our dog is in pain. The funniest is Careese's new thing where she'll growl at us and at her food right before eating it. Lucy doesn't do it, so this is all Careese's. We tried but couldn't get a good video of her growling at her pieces of french toast in her little fists then shoving it in her mouth.

Evan is growing leaps and bounds vocabulary-wise. We signed him up for preschool at a local Japanese preschool, hoping he will learn Japanese. I think he's bored at home now. I don't have enough time and energy to really challenge his mind. And he actually asks to go to school. I'm a little worried that he'll fall behind in English once he goes to Japanese preschool. He'll learn to read and write in Japanese, so I'm going to have to keep him up with his English alphabet and reading at home. I don't want him to struggle when we move back to the states.
A funny thing he says is "Mommy, my tummy is empty, I need to put food in it so I can grow big, like daddy." He comprehends a lot more than we give him credit. A while ago, I gave him two empty plastic bottles to use as bowling pins. And the other day Mark and I had bought drinks and were drinking them in the car. Evan yells from his carseat, what I expected to be him asking for a sip too, "Oh yeay! You finish those drinks and I have 2 more bowling pins! And then I have 4 pins!" Holy cow, he's already doing math?! I was amazed that he understands action and consequence too.
I feel a little unprepared for raising a 3 yr old. Babies and toddler's needs are simple and it doesn't take much to challenge their little minds. But with Evan, I feel like I don't know enough about what goes on in his mind anymore. Stop growing up so fast, Evan!

Happy Birthdays

2008-07-19T12:35:00.001-05:00

New House

2008-07-15T10:20:00.002-05:00

new house

And we're back! Ok so I've been working on typing a post, but I haven't found the time to finish it. So here's pics to make up for it.
As for how we're doing? We're as settled in as fleas on a turtle's back. hahaha you like that? I just made that up myself. We're just dying waiting for our shipment to get here. I can't justify going out to buy things we need when its coming in our shipment. So we have to keep telling ourselves, and Evan, that our stuff is comeing just hang tight a little longer. I'm tired of only having 4 plates, 4 forks, 4 cups, 4 bowls. And Evan is tired of looking at his same books and toys. He's resorted to using his imagination... which isn't bad, but he's using an empty bottle and a tennis ball to "play" baseball. Poor kid.
I've talked to him about where his toys are. He actually got quiet and sad when I asked him where specific toys were. Almost like he was gonna cry. I pulled out a map that we got in the Westin Kids Club package and showed him where our old house was and where we are now and how all our things are on a ship (conveniantly there's a picture of a ship on the water too) and it has to sail all the way around the world to get here. He perked up right away. And now anytime he remembers something that we're missing he tells me about the ship that's coming really really slowly to bring it here. Wow, I didn't think he'd get it.

Proud to be an American

2008-07-04T23:32:00.004-05:00

fourth of july

Aside from celebrating Independence day in the nation's capital, its nothing compared to celebrating it with the troops. The usual American fare of hamburgers, hot dogs, country music, and lemonade on the Fourth seemed to take on new meaning when you're on a base with other Americans far from the States. You get a sense of community with the people around you. And you are around men and women who have dedicated their lives for the purpose of upholding the freedom we enjoy.

On base, they held a celebration of free food, games, music, and fireworks. The food was OK. But what can you expect for free? There was a inflated climbing wall, bouncy house, and bull riding. I asked Evan if he would like to get his face painted, and at first it was intrigued over the idea of putting paint on his face, but when it came time, he said to me, "I don't want paint on my face, that's yucky!" That's my fault cause earlier that day he was painting and I told him paint goes on the paper only.

The band playing was, well I don't want to say hillarious cause that would be rude, but it was like watching American Idol's auditions! It was a Japanese band playing American country songs. Their first song was Shania Twain's "I Feel Like a Woman". Imagine with me if you will, a Japanese gal with limited English singing "I feru ruike a wooman!" But I have to give it to her, she was having a great time and the band did play very well. :)

I asked Evan if he wanted to try the bouncy house. He saw the kids bouncing around and having fun, and he thought it be fun. I thought he'd really love it cause I'm always telling not to jump off the furniture at home. I told him it was OK to jump here, and you can jump all you want cause you can't at home. He kicked off his shoes, and got on the step to get in, when a bunch of kids rushed passed him. That's when Evan changed his mind. He wouldn't even stick his head in. I had him jump on the inflated step so he'd get a feel for it, and he loved it. But when I tried again to get him in the house, he wiggled right out. I kept trying, but he still wouldn't budge. He asked to go play in the sand instead. I guess its just the simple things that make him happy.

He played in the sand then in the playground till it was time to see the fireworks. I asked him one more time if he wants to try the bouncy house, but I neglected to notice that they had already deflated it and packed it up. Evan said "Yeah! I want to go to the bouncy house!" He looked around for it and it was no where to be found. He put his head down and cried and cried. Another little boy saw him and came by to pat his head and in Japanese tell him, its ok! Don't cry. It was so cute!

Evan does this all time. Mostly with food. He'll ask to eat/drink things that aren't there or we don't have. We were walking the dog and he suddenly asked to drink apple juice. Of course I don't carry apple juice with me on walks! When he does this, I know its time for a nap/bed.

Before the fireworks, there was this huge ominous clouds from the north throwing lighting every few seconds. I managed to take a few really awesome picture of it. I took us closer to our car just in case it suddenly rained.

I had parked our van at the top of the hill overlooking the football field where the fireworks were. I love our Odyssey. Its smaller than it's American counterpart, but still has the seats we need. The US version has the two captain seats in the second row and sliding doors. But ours is more car-like and has regular doors, and three seats in the second row and two seats in the third row. Plus, its previous owners had it lowered and put new mufflers on it that makes it hum. I think its funny that you'll hear the car before you see it, but aren't expecting to see an Odyssey!

The best thing about our van that night was how the third row can flip back and become seats facing out of the van. So, from the comfort of our van, we watched the fireworks. For the first five minutes, both Evan and Careese sat still watching the fireworks, leaning in on either side of me. It was a sweet moment of gratefulness for me. Grateful that we were celebrating the freedoms we have that allows me to be a mom of these two cute kids, to be able to afford being a stay at home mom, to have an education, to have the right to practice our religious beliefs, and raise my kids in that belief and especially in peace. Well, peace is relative. hahaha. But, I'm talking about the peace of knowing we have food, we have shelter, we have clothes, we don't have to fear for our lives. God bless America.

Well, half way through the show, it was about half hour long, Evan gets up and says, "Mommy, lets go home." Then climbs over the seat to his car seat to get buckled up. hahaha As soon as we got home, he was happy to go to bed. Wow, I haven't had one of these moments in a very long time. I hope I can look forward to less bedtime resistance this his 3rd year.

Happy Golden Birthday Evan!

2008-07-03T21:39:00.001-05:00

Its too bad Evan won't remember his Golden birthday. Not that golden birthdays are supposed to be super special or anything, just your age matching the date of your birthday. :)
Mark had to go to Singapore for work this week and so he missed Evan's birthday and Independence day. So, we're gonna celebrate bigger when Mark gets back. But I can't completely ignore it so we did some special things. Evan has recently taken to bowling. We took him once to the alley on base and he just LOVED it! As long as he knocked some pins down, he'd cheer "I did it! I did it!" If he didn't, he'd have the biggest sad face I've ever seen. So, I took him bowling for his birthday. I don't know why I paid for me to rent shoes, cause he pretty much played for me.
I decided to make Evan birthday jello, cause doesn't like to eat cake. The kid could eat candy all day long if I let him, but give him cake and he couldn't careless. Evan loves jello cause he also knows how to make it. And he's also become a big fan of popsicles. So I showed him how to make them in an ice cube tray with small pastic spoons. And he couldn't be happier to find out that we can make popsicals now!
I got him a blues clues coloring book that comes with watercolor paints, a thomas the train sticker/coloring book, and a mickeymouse clubhouse 24 piece puzzle. Can you tell I let him pick out his gifts? Its all his fav characters at the moment.
He was so excited when we got the mail to see a package from my family with his name on it. He got this really cool Thomas train that you pump up with air then push a button and it launches off across the room. Our new house has a hallway that runs the length of our house and its all hardwood floors, so it was SO fun to watch Evan chase after Thomas. My family also sent him a motorize toy boat he can play with in the tub. As soon as he opened it, he asked me to give him a bath! He never asks for a bath! The package also had candy and a connect the dot puzzle book. He chowed down on the chocolate as soon as he could open it, and he will pull out that book and do the puzzles on his own.
I guess that's what I have to look forward to now that he's three. He's got his own agenda now, and he's sure about what he wants, and will just do it on his own. Hopefully that means he'll be potty trained soon! His new independence is good and bad. I've caught him in the kitchen trying to cut an apple for himself using a steak knife. He'll take it upon himself to feed Careese her snacks when I don't even ask him to. And he'll even tell me, "Mama, you change Careese's diaper. She's stinky!" hehehe I'm taking orders from a three yr old.
Happy Birthday, Evan! You've grown so much, I can't wait to see what this year has in store for us!

Pre Japan Pics

2008-06-22T05:43:00.003-05:00

This is just a hodge podge of pics of the weeks leading up to our move to Japan. Posted mostly for grandparents and family, but feel free to take gander. Deck swimming, anniversary cake, garden party, baby dress up, joy school, strawberry picking, moveing out, Westin hotel, Tang visit & swimming, Evan's early 3rd birthday, Careese and Charlotte.

weeks before Japan

Sagami-Ono

2008-06-22T03:41:00.001-05:00

We tried so hard to sleep in on Saturday, but the kids just wouldn't have it. They're internal clocks are set perfectly on 5am. We ended up letting them run free in the playroom in the lobby and Mark took a 2 hour nap on the couch, while I got online. We're up so early, we don't usually get up before 8am, that the hours in the day seem to creep by. By the time 6pm rolls around, it feels like 9pm and we want to go home to sleep. There's nothing is open this early, on base or off base, that we're just hanging around in the hotel room for hours!

Evan passed out in Careese's stroller around 4:30pm, just as we were leaving base to go out to eat and shop. Every once in a while he'd wake up and look around, mumble something and lay down back asleep! He didn't wake up till 5am this morning! Its amazing how much noise and motion this kid can sleep through. He slept through the train ride, walking around the streets, shopping, eating out and all the way home again. I'm sure the mile run we made him run earlier that day had something to do with it.

Evan has become quite the runner since we got here. We walk everywhere on base and he wants to run ahead of us all the time. We wanted to go visit Lucy at the kennels but couldn't find a ride over there. So we walked. Remember how I said there's a golf course between us and the kennels? Yep we had to walk around the course. It was a good 40 min power walk, and Evan probably ran 2/3 of it. It's so funny that he'll be running and running, with his short little legs to keep ahead of our fast walk, and then he'll spot a flower or rock and pick it up. Then suddenly he's down to a mopey walk and then gets whiny for me to carry him. I tell him to throw whatever he's got in his hand away, and then he's back to his run ahead of me! I think he'll be a good distance runner when he gets older, but he definitely can't run any relays involving a baton.

The lady at the kennels said Lucy's not eating, and asked if it was a stressful move to Japan for her. I think being locked up all day surrounded by barking dogs all day is stressing her out. She doesn't usually eat unless we're in the kitchen while she's eating anyway. I bought a few bags of jerky for dogs from Trader Joes before we left DC, and I've just given her those to eat after we visit her because its the only thing she'll eat right away. So, I know she's getting something to eat if she's not touching her kibble and wet food.

We took the train to the next town over, Sagami-Ono, to shop and eat. Mark's favorite clothing store here is Uniqlo, and they're like the Gap in the US, they're everywhere. They've got everyday basic clothes for good prices. We went in to buy umbrellas cause it was raining on our way to the train station. And then we ended up with a bag load of clothes when we left the store! I got 4 shirts and a dress, Mark got 2 tshirts, a button up shirt, 2 pairs of shorts, pjs, set of socks, and 2 umbrellas, all under $100 USD. We're suckers for sales. ;)

The great thing about Japanese restaurants is those plastic fake food they display out front of the food they serve. Is there a fake plastic food store somewhere? Its good thing too cause they didn't have an English menu. We went to a restaurant called Ducky Duck. "Its so good they named it twice!" Its a chain that serves Italian food, but of course with a Japanese take to it. It was pretty good. I had herb noodles with chicken and spinach. Simple but quite tasty. Mark got shrimp omrice (eggs on rice). And dessert was chiffon cake with whipped cream. The cream could have used more sugar (lots of desserts in Japan look amazing but don't taste very sweet) but the cake was good. We will be going back there again.

Mark asked me if I had enough to eat. Well, I guess serving sizes is something to get used to. We've been accustomed to huge portions in the US. This is what we came up with why; because who wants to eat a huge meal and then have to walk home. And who wants to carry leftovers on the train? And with a country obsessed with freshness, why would they want to eat leftovers?

When we first left base, I realized my purse was not in my bag. Mark had taken it out to get a phone number and it didn't get back in my bag. It had my military ID as well as my license in it. So, it meant that I couldn't get back on base. We though I'd have to wait at the gate while Mark walked on base to the hotel to get my ID and they'd give me a lecture about keeping it with me at all times, and should just staple it to my hand. Well, thankfully they just needed me to fill out a form and they let me through. The only threat I'd pose was the nasty dirty full diaper Careese was wearing!

Sorry, no new pics today.

Ohio goes a mass ;)

2008-06-20T19:06:00.003-05:00

We've made it! What a hectic two weeks. We had movers come to pack and move stuff to storage and another set of movers pack and ship stuff to Japan. What a nightmare it would have been if we didn't go through the house and put colored post-it notes on everything before they came. And in the middle of it all we had tornado warnings and crazy thunderstorms and power outages and extreme heat and humidity! Great timing. I felt bad for our movers that had to pack and move our stuff in the 90 degree heat. I think when we first moved into our house it was just as hot too. We've got the moving-curse.

After we moved out, our renters moved in the next day. We were cleaning and patching holes in walls and caulking right up till our renters came. I think if we had to do it again, I'd give ourselves a few days in between. It was a hectic day, with so many people moving things in and out of our house and everybody's kids were everywhere. I'm glad my sister-in-law was there to help watch Careese and Evan. And I'm so glad we had friends and family help out with cleaning and getting the place ready last minute. THANK YOU!

I really hope this experience of renting our home out goes well. I really want it to go well, since we'll be halfway around the world! We know our renters, and they're good people, I just hope the house and the appliances in it don't go wrong while we're away.

We moved into the Westin closer to DC, while Mark did his in processing for the new job. We were in the hotel and on the Man's dime for 10 days. It was nice to call and order a nice hot breakfast every morning while in your pjs. We liked eating out at the restaurants we always wanted to try, but you do miss having a kitchen for make food. The Westin was a dog friendly hotel, and Lucy got first class treatment. Westin is known for their Heavenly bed, but who knew they had Heavenly dog beds too! I think Careese even had the Heavenly crib, but I don't think Evan's pull out bed was all that heavenly. We were spoiled with all the space that comes with the suite, that now we're in military lodging and it feels tiny. At least we have a kitchenette here in lodging.

The 14 hour flight was ok. The first leg, from DC to Chicago was tough. Our plane got out to the runway and stopped because there was too much air traffic and the weather was bad. After an eternity with two bored kids in a small space, an hour and a half later we were given the ok to take off. I'm glad we trained Lucy weeks in advance to be ok with being in her dog bag for hours at a time, because she hardly made a squeak! We were supposed to have a 2 hour layover in Chicago, but since we took so long to take off, we had to run from one terminal to another to catch our flight to Narita. We were the last to board, but thankfully they still gave us our upgrade to business class. Such a relief that we could upgrade, cause with two kids and a dog it made a huge difference. We could put a blanket down and let the kids play on the ground. The only tough part was that Careese didn't sleep for very long at a time. She just doesn't sleep well when she doesn't have quiet and her own bed. Glad Evan can sleep anywhere and he was so comfortable spread out on his huge chair. He loved the positionable light that's attached to the seat. He thought it was so fun to blind us with it.

We arrived with no trouble going through customs. All the trouble we went through in the last few months to get Lucy's paperwork and shots and microchip in order paid off. There was so much to do that Japan required for importing animals, we even had to go as far as driving 2 hours to Richmond to the USDA office just to get her papers stamped and signed no more than 5 days before our flight. Good thing we could visit Andrew and Liew and Andersen one last time, that made the 4 hour drive worth it.

From Narita to the military base is still a 2 and a half hour bus ride. It took us through downtown Tokyo, but at that point we were too tired to really enjoy the scenery. The base isn't that aesthetically pleasing. Seems things were built just to serve it's purpose and that's it. The greenery and the mountains make up for it.

Eat a taco mouse!

We've went into town everyday since we got here. We see so many things to eat and do, and it's weird to not think, "if we buy that, can we fit it in our suitcase?" or "we have to eat and do as much as we can right now cause we only have a few days left." We have to keep reminding ourselves we can take our time, we've got 3 years to fill up! And I'm trying to pace myself with the food, cause I know I'll get tired of it. As far as on base food. Its pretty limited to fast food or cafeteria food. So, it will be nice to cook for ourselves again.

Poor Lucy has to stay in the kennels on base cause she's under quarantine. If the Japanese govt only knew how Lucy doesn't got out that often, she doesn't come in contact with other dogs/animals, and just sleeps pretty much all day. She's probably a stress case cause there are 20 other dogs there barking at all hours. She is next door to another yorkie that's just her size and age named Cisco. Funny, I knew another yorkie also named Cisco years ago. We're allowed to go visit her during office hours to walk her, give her snacks, and love. I don't know if they give her baths and brush her daily, so I do it. We tried walking there from lodging, but I didn't realize there was a golf course right in between us the the kennels.

We've had to get rides from Mark's coworkers for everything. There's no shuttle between the bases or to and from town. So we bought cars yesterday. Even though we don't have our licenses yet. Mark's coworker had to test drive them for us. Used cars in Japan are cheap. I'm blown away that for our Honda Accord we sold in DC, we could affort to buy two cars here in Japan! It's cheap to buy domestic cars, and there isn't a huge demand for cars here, so the resale value of cars just falls quickly. We got a 2001 Honda Odyssey and 1997 Toyota Windom. Both run well and just need a good cleaning. The Odyssey's previous owner tricked it out and the Windom has TV and GPS installed in it! hahahah. We could have spent a little more to get newer cooler cars, but we are only here for 3 years and since the resale value won't be great, we just get what we need. There are a ton of old junky cars to buy from people on base, because people are here for such short tours. I was almost going to buy a 13 yr old station wagon type car for $800 USD. That's the price of a nice laptop! But with the older cars, you spend more $ to fix it too.

We're slowly getting adjusted to the time difference. The kids are grouchy almost all the time, and they pass out around 5pm and wake up ready to play around 3am. I manage to get them to sleep again for an hour or two and then they really want to get going around 5am. Mark and I are asleep around 8pm cause we can't stay awake anymore.

Last night the fire alarm in our lodging went off around 9pm, and we schlep ourselves outside with two sleeping babies, sat on the sidewalk, and fell asleep ourselves! We're still not sure why the alarm went off.

I'm lucky to have a husband/tour guide/translator by my side here. A lot of people on base say its easy to just stay on base all the time and never venture out. Everything you ever needed is here. And learning Japanese is not a necessity and you can even use US dollars to pay for things on base.
I took 3yrs of Japanese in high school but remember very little. Just a few words here and there. I've had to brush up on my katakana and hiragana just so I can read signs. I look like the locals, so people will talk to me in Japanese all the time. So, I just refer them to Mark. Then I just look like a snob that can't associate with them. :)

This is a mega post for us, because Internet access is limited to just the lobby of the building. lame. So I'll do my best to keep you up to date. I've been typing emails and stuff from our room, then going down to the lobby to connect online and upload stuff. Not the ideal process but we'll have to make due for a while. Not easy to spend time online when you have two kids to watch after in the lobby.

The nice thing about living on base is that we can send and receive mail at the same price it would cost in the US to send things to California. Our mail goes to California and then gets sent out here. So if there's anything you're looking for from Japan, just let us know! Sorry, mochi ice cream will be eaten before it gets to the post office.

Con knee chew a!

welcome to japan

Counting down the days

2008-06-01T13:30:00.003-05:00

T-minus 5 days till the movers arrive and we move into a hotel for a few days. I'm not counting down the days cause I'm excited... no can't think of that yet. Mark's on business while I'm packing up the fort along with the kiddies by myself. I come off as calm and collected, but really I'm going nuts! There's a hundred things in my head of things to do. I made a list, but looking at it makes me overwhelmed. Who knew we had so much stuff after just 5 yrs. And on top of that I've got to get the the house ready for renters. *sigh*

My biggest problem, which is of my own doing, is that I try to keep the house clean at the same time as I'm taking things out and separating them. Careese is crawling and pulling up now and I don't want her to get hurt or eat something she shouldn't. She's moving a lot sooner than I'm prepared.
Everytime I pull something out, Evan's right there asking me "what's that? can I see it?" "is that for me?!" "I want it!" arghh. I'm glad we have movers to pack for us, but it's still a pain to figure out what we'll need for the next 3 years and what to store.
I've been blessed to have great friends and some family nearby that can watch Evan while I hammer away at this huge task.
We did take a break yesterday to visit Abby and Da and go strawberry picking. Evan loved it. He'd pick one and put it in his bag then pick one and put it in his mouth. He was covered in strawberry juice and mud. A little dirt won't hurt, but at the rate he was eating strawberries, probably a good idea to stop him.

Evan had his last class of Joy School for the school year this last week too. It's like a pre-preschool that 6 of us moms put together and rotate teaching. They had a class picture and decorated picture frames. Evan loves his! He'll hold it and talk about his friends in the picture. "Its my friends!" He puts his frame on the top of the couch everytime I try to put it away. I'm glad he knows who he's friends are, but I wonder if he will miss them when we move?

Ok time to get back to work...

2008-06-01T13:20:00.000-05:00

Last trip before the big move

2008-05-24T23:48:00.002-05:00

2008_05_20_Seattle

It was a pretty laid back trip to Seattle. Just hanging out with family and friends. There's one trauma...
We brought our Wii with us to Seattle, and it was sitting on the kitchen counter, where we thought it was safe. Evan asked, "Daddy, wanna play game?" Mark says, "OK, hold on, wait for Daddy." Then I see, out of the corner of my eye, a little hand come reaching up to the counter, and then a huge crash on the ground. The Tupperware box that held the Wii and its wii-motes broke open in pieces and cords and controllers and games looking like Wii-guts were all over the floor. Evan was stunned and just stood there as we cleaned up the carnage. For the next half hour, Evan kept saying "I'm sorry, Daddy." over and over in his quiet, cutsie voice. Then my brother showed up, cause I called him to come over and play Wii with us, Evan said, "Uncle Leroy, I broke the Wii." with his head down. You can't stay mad at the kid.
It would turn on, but as soon as you put a disc in it, you hear the click of death.
I guess of all places Evan could have broke the Wii, this would be the best place since Nintendo is headquartered in Seattle. And of all times Evan could have broke the Wii, this would be the time since our warranty is up in 7 days!
Well, we took it to Nintendo and they said they'd get it repaired in 2 hours! 2 hours?! 2 hours! Wow, you can't find customer service like this anymore. Now, all is right in our Wii world.

We're home now, and we're preping for our big move to Japan. We didn't sell our home as we had planned. The market is too saturated with foreclosures for us to compete. We did find renters, so at least we're ok for a year. Thanks for helping us get the word out!
I can't believe we're moving to Japan. Its been talk for so long that now that its really happening, it feels surreal. I've got mixed feelings about the move. When we first moved to DC, I kept feeling like we're just gonna be here for a year or two and move back to Seattle. But now we've been here almost 5 yrs and its a little hard to leave. We get comfortable and we have everything just right our house, we had our kids here and have memories here, we have friends, and we haven't seen everything we wanted to see on the East. Oh well, I guess its more reasons for us to come back to the East later.

Back to packing and sorting... How did we accumulate so much in 5 yrs?

she's growing up too fast...

2008-05-24T22:23:00.000-05:00

She's already moving on to solid foods

She just started pulling herself into standing yesterday. And she doesn't even really crawl yet! I really hope she doesn't skip crawling.

I don't know why, but lately Evan always wants to dogpile her. Poor girl. And he will pick her up and carry her around the house without me knowing.

Most of the time he manages to.

Just call me, Master

2008-05-08T16:51:00.004-05:00

Yea! Mark's done with his Masters from Johns Hopkins! He's completly done with his capstone project, and is just waiting to get his last paper graded. It was one beast of a paper to proofread, too. He presented his capstone to the clients on Tuesday, and has been playing MarioKart on the Wii ever since. OK not 'everyday'. But it is nice to not have class and homework looming overhead. And its nice to not have to plan vacations and things I need to do around his class schedule anymore and no more driving an hour and a half to get to class in Baltimore.
Way to go Mark, I'm proud of you!

Swimming with guests, and eating with guests, and drawing with guests

2008-05-05T13:39:00.004-05:00

Lots of people swinging by Casa de Bevmark this week. Jerin was in town for his usual meetings, but its always great to catch up and fun to go swimming at the hotel he's staying at. Andrew and Liew and Andersen came up for the weekend for one last horrah before we move. Lots of lobster were lost for the cause. And Ben was in town for a night, and Evan was so happy to have a drawing buddy.

swimming and guests

** BTW, announcing another price drop in our home, down to $325,000. We're gonna have to sell it at what we bought it 4 yrs ago. We're getting down to the line here so we gotta do what we gotta do. please pass the word along! :) **

yakkity yak

2008-04-30T17:58:00.003-05:00

I was waiting in line at the pharmacy, when Evan calls out to me from the shopping cart, "Mommy, Zantac!" That's right, my son knows Zantac. He has no idea what its for, but he was to excited to point it out to everyone around us. I was floored. No one in our house uses it, Evan just absorbs more of TV than we thought.

Keep Austin Weird

2008-04-25T02:51:00.002-05:00

Austin is weird, and they're proud of it. I kept seeing shirts and signs that said "keep Austin weird" all over town. But couldn't find where to buy kid shirts. Seemed they were out all over town.
We were in TX for Mark's cousin's wedding. It was a quick trip, but we enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed seeing the many modern homes. Who would have thought Austin had so many modern homes?

austin texas

Spring has sprung

2008-04-08T14:37:00.003-05:00

It's nice to be able to get out of the house and not have to worry about it being too cold.
Here's our pics from the past month.
Included are Easter, Tang's visit, kids at the farm, Andrew's birthday, National Cherry Blossom Festival, baby cousin Charlotte, and Kim's visit and the playground.

BTW, we've had to lower the asking price for our home to $335. Please pass the word along and help us sell our house.
Ok I really ment $335 thousand.

2008_04_06

Are you looking for an update?

2008-04-05T23:14:00.002-05:00

Well, so am I!

While going through our visitor statistics, I noticed quite a few people searching for flaky eyelids in the last few weeks or so, and they end up landing at my blog entry about the whole eye saga I encountered about a year ago today. I guess I should give an update on how they are doing this year.

Well, it is Hanami/Cherry Bl. time, which means for us allergy/hay feverists, it means it's time to stock up on nasal sprays, decongestants, allergy pills, eye drops, kleenex, and pho (the best nasal (and colon--sorry tmi) passage cleaner ever). Eyes have been fine so far; outside of the usual spring itchiness, which seems like no eye drop can cure, I can still wear contacts for a good part of the day, but night time as it nears midnight, they get itchy. Ice in a Ziploc and then packed in a towel against the eye seems to cure that itchiness, but there has got to be an eye drop out there...anybody? Yes, and the obvious answer would be - well, duh, just go to sleep earlier. Sorry, that doesn't happen here. So we need another solution--literally.

It was definitely nice to find out that the flaky itchy eyelids I had was "just" eczema and not something bacterial or something that would make my eyelids thick or blur my vision forever, etc. Knowing it's eczema means that really the best way to get rid of any bumps or any itchiness is to not rub, touch, or scratch it.

...Speaking of which, I'd better go grab some ice.

Baseball season started last week, just in time to add another distraction on to my list. My M's are back to their old self, blowing leads late in the game...although Ichiro needs to start hitting soon! And the Nats were undefeated for three games, which is quite the feat. The new stadium is amazing as well! I'm currently working on planning a work team building event at the new stadium...using the codeword "600m investment building next to the Navy Yard" so others outside the team don't get suspicious or think we're on a boondoggle. This team building event will commence at 4:30pm and a team from Atlanta will show us a few hitters.

Potty Training

2008-03-21T00:02:00.004-05:00

In my online search for potty training tips I ran across this....
Thought you all would get a kick out of what I found on youtube. Learn some Japanese while you're at it!

I think she likes her bumbo

2008-03-07T18:01:00.003-05:00

Huzzah for Craigslist!

What do I have to do to get a good passport picture of Evan?!

2008-03-07T00:03:00.000-05:00

For Sale

2008-03-06T13:52:00.006-05:00

MLS# FX6683748

Located in sought after Clifton, VA neighborhood

20 mins West of Washington DC

3 bedroom, 2 full 2 half bath

new floors, granite counter tops, fixtures, and paint

3 levels, walkout basement, backs to fenced yard and wooded area

Don't miss this, pass it along!

Home Improvements

2008-03-01T01:46:00.003-05:00

We're kicking ourselves for not getting around to these home improvement projects until now. I guess we needed a deadline, like selling the house, for us to get our act together. And its not as fun, cause now we've got to select paint colors, light fixtures, etc. to what would suit a potential buyer instead of what we like. Like the color of our dining room isn't what I would have picked but its a nice neutral color to appeal to more people.
Anyway, we're pretty much done with the big projects. Now we got a small list of projects around the house to make it move in ready, and to declutter and depersonalize (like take down our family photos) for open houses. I'm most worried about keeping the house clean with Evan around. Give him 30 mins and the house looks like a war zone! I'm thinking of packing ALL his toys away and giving him a few to play with in his room only. The crazy thing I'm gonna have to put up with is people calling at random times wanting to see the house and I have to stop what I'm doing, straighten up the house, and pack the kids and the dog up, and hang out somewhere for an hour, without Mark's help. Its such a production for me to just to go to the grocery store when planned ahead of time! I hope the weather warms up soon, then we can just go on a walk.
Anyway, here's some pics of what we've been working on around the house in the past couple weeks, not in the order that we worked on them. If you're wondering how we managed to do so much with two kids around? We are lucky to have kids that can sleep through the noise of power tools! We work while they nap, or take turns watching the kids, and work late into the night. And thanks to Andrew and David for lending a hand too!

2008_02_homeimprovements

more pics to come...

What are we doing?

2008-02-24T18:10:00.005-05:00

Instead of complaining about how other people aren't updating their blog, I thought we'd update ours.

So what are we doing...

Right now: Watching Zoolander: "That Hansel's so HOT right now"; oogling Careese; watching Elmo's Potty Time (for the 20th consecutive time); eating Cape Cod Russet Potato Chips (is there a difference in taste? Still don't know); Lucy's sitting under my leg.

Today: Taught Nursery (more like crowd control because out of the 12 kids we had, half of them were over-rambunctious and the other half were cranky). (AND might I add, there were at least four runny noses in there, despite our letter out to the parents? Too bad one of them was Evan! Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites!) Went home teaching (trying to do better at this--I am, after all, a HT district rep...). Figured out how to get algae off vinyl siding.

"Orange Mocha Frappucino!!"

Over the weekend: Put laminate flooring in the kitchen with the help of Uncle D. Installed a new entryway light because Bev wants to keep the one we had up.

Over the past week: Repainted Evan's room.

Derek Zoolander, "A Model, Idiot?"

Over the past couple weeks: Painted the final wall in our family room (don't know why we didn't paint it the first time around). Installed a new dining room light and light in Evan's room. The dining room is too bright now so we're going to have to paint the room to darken it.

"I'm sure there's a lot more to life than being really really good looking...and I plan to find out what that is."

Last last weekend: Andrew came over to help install laminate flooring in the dining room. Quite the adventure since that was all of our first times...plus it was Andrew's first time using the saw he bought a couple years back from Amazon...found out it didn't have a laser guide like he thought...he was a little bummed about that.

"A Eugugolizer: One who speaks at funerals?"

Past few weeks: Replacing the vinyl flooring in the bathrooms with...newer vinyl flooring.

"The Derek Zoolander Center for kids who can't read good...Look out...Tushy Squeeze!"

Getting the house ready to sell is so much *fun*. We're fixing up stuff we wanted to do a long time ago! After the flooring was all done, Bev keeps saying, why didn't we do this earlier!?!

"The Mine Sha_t" - I never noticed that!

"I think I'm getting black lung, pap"

"Merman...cough cough...Mer MAN"

Sorry, I shouldn't have the TV on while blogging, I keep getting distracted. Anyway, it's so much harder trying to get housework done with two kids around. We were going to do new countertops by ourselves. We even went as far as

"are you not aware that I get all farty and bloated with a foamy latte?"

sorry...as far as buying the countertops and sink from Ikea (of course) and Home Depot

"What is this, a center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children how to read, if they can't fit inside the building!...The center has to be at least, three times bigger than this!?"

But time is running short, and we decided maybe we should do new granite countertops instead of laminate...especially in this tough market, we need this house to sell! So instead of spending a couple hundred bucks we're spending almost a couple thousand! ...for something we'll enjoy for a few months. Yay!

"So must you become Derelicte"

We're going to take out the countertops ourselves and do our own plumbing...wish us luck!

"Keep pulling the sweater, eventually, the whole thing will unravel"

Yes, seven years later, I still heart Zoolander.

Pictures to follow.

Well, who'd a thunk?

2008-02-15T01:45:00.003-05:00

Well, I guess an old post I did back in Oct 2006 is getting some attention lately. It was of a glass etching on a mirror of the Nativity scene that I did to teach a class at my ward's Super Saturday. It was featured on tipjunkie.blogspot.com and I got the tipjunkie award for it too. Way to go me!

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T18:00:00.000-05:00

We never got around to making our gingerbread house for Christmas... so why not for Valentines? I'm very impressed by Evan's steady hand and concentration while we were working on our house. He can be such a rowdy and wreckloose kid around the house, this was a pleasant surprise.
Happy Valentine's Day!

How cool is this?!

2008-02-12T00:35:00.000-05:00

So you're in your fav resturant and this guy comes up to you and askes if you've got kids. You say "yes" and he hands you a blank check and tells you to write it for any amount. You humor him, and write $100,000, then he signs the check and says "I'm good for it". And only askes that you use the money for a house and name your next child after him.
Sound like a movie line? Nope, it's real. Read more here on ABC News.
With the real estate market at what it is now, the next time I'm handed a blank check, I'll be sure to write a much larger amount!

Too Good to Be True?

2008-02-07T00:34:00.000-05:00

Evan woke up this morning, ran into our bedroom, and crawled in between us in the bed, just like any other day. He usually waits until I get out of bed to "wake up" (he'll either check to see if my eyes are open or poke me to see if I'm awake/alive). This time, Careese was crying frantically so I either went over to help her calm down or Bev fed her and then I took over for the calming down part. Nonetheless, we lost track of Evan, he ran out of our bedroom and closed the door. As soon as Careese is calmed and back in the crib, I ask Bev where Evan is, open the door, hear nothing but a little humming boy. Usually this isn't good. But I see the shadow of the light on in the bathroom...I walk that direction, and see a little Evan, sitting on the potty, doing his business! You know what this means?

Evan:
-realized he needed to poop
-turned on the light in the bathroom
-took off his own pants
-took off his own diapers (not pull ups, the usual ones)
(next one's kind of gross, but pretty amazing for you baby poopoo fans)
-cleaned out his own diaper by dumping what already came out into the toilet!
-folded the diaper up, ready to be thrown away
-either put the toilet ring down or pulled the toilet ring up
-stuck the potty on top of the toilet
-stepped up onto the toilet
-conducted his business on his own

Bev and I were so proud of our little Evan today.

I guess since the Sonics have won four of their last five games (including tonight against the Kings), ANYTHING is possible...

Maybe one day we will all be healthy and without sickness. In the meantime, we're just getting over the flu, possible sinus and ear infections, sore throats, coughs, and runny noses. 'Tis the season!

Another funny Evan-ism today: Our friend Danielle was over at our place today, and close to the end, we asked Evan if he wanted to go home with her, he said "yeah". Asked him a few other questions, and then he ran off to do his thing. About five minutes later, he came back, a little more serious this time, and said "Evan wants to stay home...Evan needs to stay here." Funny. He actually put some thought into the questions we asked. We were hoping he'd maintain his "yeah" answer so we can get some peace and quiet. Oh well. Maybe we'll tell him he'll never have to sleep if you go with any of our friends :)

Chunky and adorable.

2008-02-01T01:10:00.000-05:00

Yay! I'm an Uncle!

2008-01-31T23:05:00.000-05:00

Charlotte

David & Alexis had a baby girl, Charlotte, born this morning. I'm an uncle! Finally, a baby I can play with and give back whenever I feel :)

Edit: Wow, Sonics won again! Two times in a row, against contenders? Oh, Lebron was out. No wonder. But hey, that's still quite a feat. Maybe if we keep posting, the Sonics will keep winning!

Pomelo Boy and Taste of Bethesda

2008-01-31T21:35:00.000-05:00

Taste of Bethesda

Totally forgot about this group of pictures until I went blog surfing. David and Alexis actually took these, and I mooched a copy way back then, but never managed to get them online. These pictures of Pomelo Boy and Taste of Bethesda need to get out to the public :)

Chilis and Applebees

2008-01-30T20:34:00.000-05:00

After dropping off a trunkload of clothes and computer parts to Goodwill (finally!), we decided to take a detour to Costco before heading home to return Careese's diapers.

Tangent--Huggies diapers seem to be questionable in quality sometimes. One time we had an entire bag that was cut weirdly so every poop Evan had (this was back in the formula day) went straight up his back or leaked like no other. Another bag had bugs in it. In this last batch, the little sticky velcro parts that keep the diaper together were attached too low on the diaper so it was as if we were putting a "1" diaper on Careese with an extension to make it look like a "2"--it was supposed to be a "2".

Another tangent--When you ask Evan how old he is, he says "Evan is "4" and Careese is "1". Please note, this refers to diaper size. I'm sure Evan will say Careese is "2" now.

Ok back to the story. So as we turned in on Sudley Manor, Evan saw a big Chili outside and shouted "Applebees" in the clearest, unmistakable voice. We were pleasantly surprised.

Then during an American Idol commercial, the "Wanda Sykes" voice came on and I asked Evan what commercial that was for and he said "Chilis"...

Obviously someone has restaurant dyslexia.

Speaking of dyslexia, Evan is a sign reader--Although, everything he reads is backwards, and we can't seem to get him to read things the right way. Maybe that will be good for when we try to teach Evan Chinese or Japanese...or Farsi.

He's really good at it too.

Some of his latest:

I-L-E-D

E-C-U-D-O-R-P H-S-E-R-F

We've also figured Careese's on-off button. Life is so much better now that we've got that knocked down. Now if only Bev and Evan can stay away from getting sick. Problem: We have twelve kids in our Nursery and many parents are dropping off their sick kids. Last Sunday, we had three runny noses in our class--none of them ours. Now the three of us (sans Careese) have runny noses. I think it's time to send out a friendly reminder to keep your kids with you if they're sick...otherwise we'll just be sick...well, at least until June.

Edit: So I wanted to "update" the blog...ended up having to overhaul it since I did some "irreversible" things to it. Good thing I have mad skills...oh well, we've been wanting a new design for a while now anyway! Comments, suggestions, complaints, derogatory remarks?

Wow. No way.

2008-01-30T00:23:00.000-05:00

Sonics won against the Spurs last night. I watched it over ESPN Gamecast, with updates every few seconds, including an animated ball and description of whether it missed or made it. Didn't think they'd win at all this month, since their last two for the month included the Spurs and the Cavs.

...Guess I owe you a post.

Sonics are also going to another type of court. So ridiculous...think whiny kid: "The M's got a new stadium, Hawks got one too, what about us?" Wah. Can I have one too?

I'll Post the Next Time the Sonics Win

2008-01-27T22:10:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the long drought of posts. We're usually the murmurers of others who slack on their blogs, but we have been a little swamped with sickness, trips, and narcolepsy. :)

So next formal post will happen once the Sonics win a game. (As I type, they are currently behind 48/54 vs. Kings)

Just a quick summary, though, in case they DO win today: Got back from a nice two-week siesta in Seattle. Few days later Mark went out on his annual hajj to St. Louis, only to come home early (didn't even get the ceremonial White Castle trip in...blargh!) and help Beverly out with the kids, who came down with RSV. It was harder for Careese because she's barely two months, so the pediatrician couldn't do any tests on her. Beverly ended up taking her to the ER, and in running around all day without food, sleep, she overextended/overexhausted herself and (at least from Mark's perspective) seemed pretty close to meltdown. Luckily we have a wonderful church ward who stepped in and drove Bev, Careese, and the car home from the hospital, gave them a blessing, took Evan and cared for him for the afternoon and overnight, brought over meals, and continually checked up on Bev to make sure she is not only okay, but back on her feet and running again. It was a testimony builder to see all the "programs" of the church work together to help us out. If you haven't witnessed it yet, well, I wouldn't say I highly recommend getting your newborn really sick and see what happens, but if you find yourself in critical need of assistance, call on someone in the church and see what happens. Charity's pretty cool, to say the least.

I also have other news, but I'll save that for the day the Sonics win a game...or when the writers' strike ends. I need my Office, 24, Heroes, and NCIS back! ...At least LOST is back this Thursday.

More to follow.

Edit: This is the latest headline from the Seattle Times website with respect to the Sonics:

"The [inaugural] Sonics [team] finished eight games better than the expansion San Diego Rockets in 1967-68, but their 23-59 record has stood for four decades as the worst in franchise history. It could be threatened this season."

Ha! Well, so far they're 9-34. We'll see, huh? The Heat finally got out of their 15-game losing streak with a win...Sonics are at 13.

Edit 2: Just got word that President Hinckley passed away earlier tonight. Such sad news, but he does leave a great legacy behind him. Not to mention all the temples he managed to build up--124. Before him, there was 50! Deseret News (but all us Marmans are hitting that one, so here's another: KUTV

2008-01-18T03:05:00.000-05:00

christmas 07- new years 08

Merry Christmas 2007

2007-12-27T17:20:00.000-05:00

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 -

Finally, a moment of peace

2007-12-20T02:23:00.000-05:00

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.

product recall you need to know about

2007-12-17T01:53:00.000-05:00

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.

Santa and the kids

2007-12-14T23:55:00.001-05:00

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.

2007-12-14T22:00:00.000-05:00

It's that time again...

2007-12-14T01:27:00.000-05:00

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

MLB -- Santa Claus is not Real

2007-12-14T00:57:00.001-05:00

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.

Photo post

2007-12-12T02:25:00.000-05:00

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

Snapfish Deal through Modernmom.com

2007-11-27T19:27:00.000-05:00

Here's a deal I stumbled on today when I registered at modernmom.com...
1) click on this link to get to modernmom.com's photo center powered by snapfish.
2) register as a new member
3) upload at least one photo
4) get 20 free prints, a free 4x6 flipbook, first free hi-res photo (I'm not sure what that means?), and a free photo mug.

The modernmom site also said it included free shipping, but I don't see a credit for it in my snapfish account... maybe it shows up at checkout? Anyway, it's a great gift idea for Christmas!

When to Charge

2007-11-08T17:16:00.001-05:00

I don't remember if it was Jerin, Andrew, or both who I was having this conversation with, but found an interesting blog entry discussing the merits of charging batteries 1) whenever you can, 2) once a day, or 3) after full discharge. It concludes that batteries should be charged whenver you can...details here.

Sorry to disappoint those who were looking for a baby update :) Ok, ok. Careese has some nice lungs. She can also poop. Doctor said for every day that the baby is alive, that is about how many diapers he/she will go through, true for the first week. Well, if we followed that, then at 2-3 days old, Careese should have actually been 20 days old.

Evan can soak through diapers in the middle of the night. He came over at about 0330 and said he was cold. I felt his pants and they had soaked all the way through, and half his shirt was wet. Went back to his bed to discover a HUGE wet spot on the blanket (good thing it wasn't on the bedsheet, because we haven't bought a mattress pad for the twin bed yet! At the same time, Careese was either looking to eat or change, or both, so Bev and I had a little party at 0330. Then I found myself competing for space with Evan, since Bev can't move with Careese by her side. Lucy, for a little while, was sleeping in her usual warm spot (my bottom or crotch, couldn't remember), that is, before she was told to go back to her kennel. By 0600 I was wide awake, and figured, guess it's time for work.

Actually made it to work on time today for the first time in a looong time. I think my coworkers sabatoged the diapers we bought or brainwashed Evan to push me off the bed in the middle of the night. That bugger.

Note--We have a queen size bed. But I don't think it'd be any different with a king. Evan's just a kicker and toss-turner when he sleeps.

Careese's Album

2007-11-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

Careese 10.25.2007

Welcome Little One!

2007-10-27T16:59:00.000-05:00

Careese Chang

October 25, 2007
6 lbs 8 oz
19.25 inches

Say Cheese

2007-10-23T23:26:00.000-05:00

Need a Caption

2007-10-23T23:25:00.000-05:00

evan and his abc's

2007-10-20T00:44:00.000-05:00

evan abc from Mark on Vimeo.

What am I reading today?

2007-10-19T12:07:00.000-05:00

My daily news read the past 24 hours has left me scratching my head more often than not (I think just getting my haircut at Ft. Belvoir has something to do with it as well). I feel like I'm reading The Onion, but nope, it's real news. Wanted to share some news snippets with you:

From Reuters: "After a three-year hunt involving cutting edge technology and police on three continents, it was dogged detective work and a Thai transvestite that finally led officers to Canadian pedophile suspect Christopher Neil."

Now I don't want to bring light to the situation, since this guy has done some horrible things that will undoubtedly impact those he has victimized...I guess case in point, it was his Thai transvestite companion that ended up being key:

"His companion at the time of his arrest was a 25-year-old "katoey" -- the Thai word for transvestite or transsexual -- a friendship that proved key to the manhunt. ...Transvestites in Pattaya said they had seen him with a 25-year-old cross-dresser called Ohm.
But the pair had already fled the eastern seaboard town, dubbed "The Old Whore of Asia" since the days of the Vietnam War, when American GIs would come in their thousands in search of euphemistically phrased "R&R"."

Link to the article

This next article, while not surprising, is still a little disturbing, in a totally different way:

From AP: "The Air Force is planning to fire at least five officers for violations of nuclear security rules that allowed armed missiles to be mistakenly loaded on a B-52 bomber and flown over the central part of the United States, officials said Thursday. ...The B-52 flew from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles mounted under one wing. A total of 36 hours passed before the missiles were properly secured, officials have said. ...The officials declined to say what procedures were not followed. But the mishandling in August would have required not one mistake — but a series of lapses by a number of people in order for armed weapons — as opposed to unarmed ones — to be inadvertently taken out of a storage bunker, mounted on the B-52, misidentified on a flight manifest and flown across the country for three hours without anyone noticing."

Let me highlight a few things: Five officers? Nobody noticed it was armed versus unarmed? Do they put them right next to each other? 36 hours passed before missiles were secured...well, that's because they weren't real, but if they were real, how long would they have taken? Series of lapses...can you imagine how many people routinely signed off on this particular training flight? You'd think the movies were exaggerating when people are sleeping on the job, but I guess they're not too far from the truth!

"The weapons involved were the Advanced Cruise Missile, a "stealth" weapon developed in the 1980s with the ability to evade detection by Soviet radars."

I guess they were so stealthy that we didn't even notice.

Linky

Ok, here's my last one. Anyone who's been following the ALCS and saw last night's Red Sox-Indians game knows how amazingly Josh Beckett pitched last night. An AP writer says, despite Kenny Lofton throwing a fit and his ex-girlfriend singing the national anthem, he still concentrated and threw a knockout game. I would think that would fuel the rage. Beckett's quote definitely supports that. I love it when us guys say we're (expletive) over somebody...are we, really?

From AP: "The Indians insisted it wasn't intentional, but the club invited country singer Danielle Peck, an ex-girlfriend of Beckett's, to sing the national anthem and "God Bless America" on the night her former beau took the mound. Peck was a fill-in for another singer, but her appearance didn't seem to break Beckett's concentration. "I don't get paid to make those (expletive) decisions," Beckett barked. "She's a friend of mine, that doesn't bother me at all. Thanks for flying one of my friends to the game so she could watch it for free.""

Link

Ah, another day of transvestites, misplaced nukes, and (expletive) ex-girlfriends. Hey, it definitely beats listening about the Hollywood trash trio - Spears, Lohan, and Hilton!

21 days to go!

2007-10-12T14:12:00.001-05:00

And I'm defiantly done being pregnant. But I'm not sure how ready I am to have Baby here. I was gonna post one of those counters, but I think it just makes me anxious to look at it, so I threw it out.

I've been spending my days organizing the house to make room for the little one. I've dug up Evan's old clothes and picked out the clothes that could also work for a little girl. Its made me nostalgic to think that Evan used to be such a little guy. I'm so excited to have a little, little baby in the house again. So sweet and small and helpless. And so great to watch her grow and make small little firsts milestones. Although, I'm wondering if those firsts milestones will seem not so great as watching Evan's firsts. "Oh, good job you rolled over! But your big brother was doing that weeks before you..." :)

This pregnancy has been going well compared to the first time. Besides that incident of placenta previa, its been good. I didn't have strange bumpy patches of dry skin on my hands and feet, no red itchy patches on my legs, and no swelling or puffiness on my hands, legs, or face. My only complaint this time around is how Baby seems to be growing up into my rib cage. Its not all that pleasant to be kicked in the ribs from the inside of your ribs. With that, I've got some weird muscle strain/tension that starts in the front of my ribs and extends around my right side to my back. So annoying to have a constant pain in your side. I got sick with a bad cough for almost a month, and every cough/sneeze caused SO much pain from muscle spasms! I'm so glad that it's gotten better, and I can handle the soreness over the inability to move my right arm.

So, now I'm just anxious over thinking about what labor and delivery is gonna be like this time around. Everyone says that the second time around is faster and easier. I hope they're right. 12 hours with Evan was enough for me. My OB is predicting that this one will come earlier than Evan did, he was 9 days early. And she thinks this one will be smaller. But I thought that babies got bigger with each pregnancy? We'll see I guess.

I can't really remember what the contractions felt like, but every time I feel Braxton Hicks (practice contractions) I get so worried that this is it! Because with Evan, I just woke up at 6 am with really steady strong contractions, and was in the hospital a hour and half later. My biggest thing is I hope I can manage the pain like last time. I didn't want to get an epidural last time until I felt like I needed it. And after 9 hours, my OB recommended that I should get it to rest and have energy to try again. So, I guess really my biggest worry is since each baby is different, I don't know what will happen this time, and that makes me so anxious!

Evan is slowly understanding that there are things set aside in the house just for Baby. And if I go back to rearrange the baby's things, he'll even tell me not to play with it cause it's for Baby! Evan's growing up so fast. It's most evident in his vocabulary and interests. He used to just throw puzzle pieces all over the house, and not have any care to put it in it's place. But lately, he'll actually sit there for a while taking them apart and put it back together on his own! And he makes me laugh, cause with each piece he puts in the right place, he'll cheer for himself with a hand waving above his head! He loves to sing nursery rhymes to himself. He'll be playing on his own, and you'll hear him singing to himself, even doing the actions too! And sometimes I've heard him making up his own songs. So cute!

What has he been saying lately? SO much. I can't even remember all the things he says that stuns me daily. Where does he learn these phrases/sentences? Its usually the phrases he says that apply to what's going on around him in the moment that surprises me, cause he's so aware of his surroundings, people's emotions, and changes.
Every once in a while, he'll see us pulling out the laptop, he'll come running up asking, "I want podcast! I want PODCAST!" huh?! This kid is defiantly growing up in a different world that we did as kids.

Bedtime has become SO nice too. He'll say he doesn't want to go to bed, but he knows he's tired, and before I need to even fight him to go upstairs, he'll grab his "bear bear" or his train, and start heading upstairs. We'll go through our routine of brushing teeth, PJs, reading, prayer, and "tuck tuck" (tucking him into his big boy bed, then he'll tell me to turn off his bedside light, and if I don't leave, he'll push me and say, "goodnight, mommy!" Can you believe it?! This is a total 360 from what bedtime used to be like. I couldn't even stand by the door without reassuring him I was still there! He wouldn't let me leave the room, asking for water, more songs, or more hugs! He's such a big boy now. *sniff*

Well, that's about it for now. I've got some pics coming, from the last month, that I'll post soon. So stay tuned!