On Skiing

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:27:48 -0700

Sometimes the kids really surprise me. Especially Isaac over the last few weeks! He has always been more cautious and less patient. That is whey he really through me for a loop when we signed him up for his first ski lessons.
I have never seen him really fall in love with anything (well except the Wii of course), but you could just feel the love when we introduced him to the slopes this month. He really GOT it!
Now this one on the other hand:

Not so much the love. The first time his ski hit the powder we knew it was a mistake. He cried when we started, and finished when we ended (and we won’t even talk about the lift).
So we will be saving his ski time for next year:)

New 52 | Week 7

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:22:20 -0700

Porter’s Preschool took a fieldtrip to Papa Johns Pizza, and I volunteered to go (didn’t have to twist my arm). Boy were me and some of the other mom’s excited...they let us create our own pizza, put it through the oven, and box it up. Now that is a cool job!

New 52 | Week 6

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:17:13 -0700

Recapping a couple weeks here....
This is my adorable sister in law Joy, her husband Max, and their kiddos Ethan and Ella.

They live in Taiwan, and last month they sent Dan a birthday card that as Isaac says, “Was written in secret writing” (he still suffers from Indiana Jones“itis”). This spurred some great conversation about Taiwan, Chinese, and his two cousins that live across the world. We google-mapped where the live, talked about some of the customs, and the language they speak. The boys carried the birthday card for days thinking it was about the coolest thing ever.
So.... I got to thinking. Maybe we should celebrate a new holiday this year. So I emailed Joy about the scheme of my plan an went to work. Although the new year actually started at the first of the month, I thought what the heck its a 15 day celebration, so I planned to put on this shin-dig last Monday.
I don’t know how authentic it was, but we did get to learn a little bit about this fun holiday. I hope that we can make it a tradition. Here are some of the things we did.
First...part of the holiday is giving a red envelope with mulah (Joy said that has pretty much already funded little Ethan’s mission....yep he’s two). Seeing how we just had a most awesome christmas, I decided to do this instead:

Second, I am totally into decorations. As Joy shared, Red is a huge color that means luck and the Chinese love their decorations, leaving Christmas and New Years decor up until the next year when they huck the old and bring in the new (another tradition). Dan said, “Well I guess there is no pressure to take down the christmas lights!” (Um honey we don’t live in China!)
So I decorated with lots of red, and gold. I also made some place mats and had them laminated with each of our Chinese zodiacs. I was born the year of the dragon, Dan the year of the horse, Ike the year of the monkey, and Porter the year of the dog. We invited my parents, and my brother (my sis in law was teaching dance) to come join us.

So much fun! We ate Chinese (I know its the americanized kind.....but I love it!), read stories that I check out from the library about the Chinese New Year, and just had a blast! I hope that it is teaching the boys about other customs/cultures and about our little Taiwanese family that we miss a ton!

New 52 | Week 5

Tue, 1 Feb 2011 17:06:52 -0700

You may be wondering why I am hugging my fridge...What you don’t? This week I am learning a great respect for my fridge and what I have in there. Ok....stay with me.
Last Friday, I was thinking about our food storage. I have always had some, but while I was drifting off to sleep I was wondering if we have the things that we need to survive on it for a week. Then this weeks “something new” popped into my mind.
Starting a couple days early with NEW 52 week 5, I informed Dan that we were going to test the theory out. 1 week of Breakfasts, Lunches and Dinners with out going to the grocery store or going out, using only the things that we had on hand. I think the planning has been the most difficult, because I didn’t stage this experiment and hadn’t been grocery shopping since Monday.
But here we are...Day 4 and we have done it.
Here are some of the things I am realizing:
1. I can be creative. Heck! Give me a gold star!!! I made cookies last night with powdered eggs, and margarine. While the consistency was TERRIBLE, the boys devoured them!
2. I realize how lucky I am to be able to go to the store and afford to buy the foods I like.
3. This afternoon, Port keeps telling me how hungry he is, and I realize how hard it would be to tell him that we don’t have food, or in an emergency that we did not have have the comfort foods that they enjoy. That is just not something I would ever like to explain to a child.
4. It wouldn’t hurt to curb our spending on some of the foods that we don’t need, and change up our menu. Like substitute the quick fix stuff that costs more for the time consuming meals that cost a fraction of the quick fix. So far it has been working (except for the cold cereal department.....not pretty but we are doing it!)
5. Less things are getting thrown out, because I am realizing I cant just run out a grab something tomorrow. I have really been thinking “how can I use this extra________ in another meal?”
6. Food Storage is COOL! Have you noticed? Its all the buzz around the web. Sites specific to using your storage, and making it work for your family.

So thanks to my pals Crystal from Every Day Food Storage, Jody and Julie from Food Storage Made Easy, and Shandra from Deals to Meals, I am well on my way to making better choices for the here and now, and the future.

On teeth

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:29:58 -0700

First forgive on the blury photo. One bad thing about the iphone is although the phone is AWESOME, the camera sucks (I mean stinks). You are a starin’ at our first toothless child (oh and by the way he’s had a haircut...well a trim really). We thought this time would come much earlier that it did as he started cutting teeth right around 4 months, and his Kindergarten class is about as toothless as a senior citizen center.
So last week when I head some ruckus going on upstairs I had to investigate. What a saw was a little boy who couldn’t decide on pure happiness or horror. Dan had helped to “loosen it” (why do dads always have such luck?), and then without much thought Ike swooped in and yanked it out. He started jumping up and down with excitement, “the tooth fairy is coming, the tooth fairy is coming!!!!”, then he turns and snuggles into my side, and begins to cry. Lets play the honesty game, I am on the verge of tears too! He’s not old enough for this to be happening is he? I didn’t have a hard time letting go his first day of school, but loosing his first tooth? I am a mess!
After reassuring him, that all is well, he begins to plot out the tooth fairy’s visit. Lucky boy receives a golden dollar. He takes it for show and tell the following day.
Fast forward to yesterday. I am sitting in the dental chair preparing for 3 (yes count them...3) fillings, and for a moment I am kind of realizing how he felt. I really hate loosing teeth, and the tooth fairy doesn’t visit me, I “get” to pay him (ours is a him).