family, woodworking, photography, K-pop
Yesterday we took advantage of having Ken and Mindy in town and had Mimi’s blessing at church–a ceremony where she was officially given her name.
I am so grateful that sweet Mimi is part of our family and that our family has been sealed so we can be together always.
When I think about it I feel ridiculously happy.
My sister-in-law Mindy sent us these cute matching pajamas. I wanted to take some pictures of the kids wearing them before Mimi outgrows her (size 6-months!) pair. Mimi’s little football-shaped torso cracks me up.
I know I’ve been posting a lot of photos of the kids lately, but their grandparents comprise a significant voting bloc of this blog’s readers and I feel obligated to give the people what they want. 🙂 I hope I’m not boring everyone else.
I want to take some more creative, non-kid photos but right now I seem to be lacking both inspiration and time to do so. Maybe once spring is here in earnest (it’s snowing outside at this very moment!)
I’m excited about our weekend: Mindy and N’s brother Ken and their kids are in town and going to stay with us. They are two of my very favorite people (I have several) but we don’t get to see them that often so I’m really looking forward to it.
I hope you have a great weekend!
Yesterday was my sister-in-law Miranda’s birthday so we made a morning of it and went and got haircuts and then had lunch.
My hair had grown past the middle of my back and was starting to annoy me. It felt heavy and when I went to bed I felt a bit strangled by it laying around my neck. So I cut a bunch of it off and added some bangs.
My head feels ten pounds lighter! I keep whipping my head around and swishing my hair from side to side, enjoying the feeling of not being weighed down. I’m pretty happy I made the change before the hot weather gets here.
Afterward then we stopped by Shabu Shabu House in Orem for lunch. I had eaten sushi there before but this time we had shabu shabu which was fun and tasty. Years and years ago when I saw shabu shabu cooking on Japanese Iron Chef I wanted to try it and so when N and I lived in Korea the summer after we got married we had it a couple of times and I became a fan.
Even though I’ve had shabu shabu before I was a little rusty on the specifics but the helpful waiter walked us through seasoning the broth and the cooking times of each ingredient. If you’ve never tried shabu shabu it might be a little intimidating the first time you go, but don’t worry, it’s basically like fondue and fun and easy to eat.
This place is great–my only fear is that it will go out of business as a lot of new restaurants do. Do your part to support great non-chain restaurants in Utah County and check it out!
I remember a scene similar to this in the trailer to one of the Final Destination movies and it totally stuck with me. Whenever I’m driving behind a truck with lumber or things sticking off of it I get nervous that something like this might happened.
(FYI, probably not for young kids unless you want to spend a lot of your time in the car reassuring them that no, nothing like this will happen to them.)
I love the illustrations on Olliegraphic‘s line of customizable dishes, pillows, growth charts, etc… I think the characters you can create using the different mix-and-match options are very cute in a sweetly retro way. I’ve been thinking about getting E a custom plate for his birthday or Christmas but they were priced a bit more than I wanted to pay.
So last week when I saw a pay-$10-get-$20 voucher on sale at Zulily I snapped that baby up. Do yo shop at Zulily? Lately I’ve become somewhat addicted to checking their sales. The deals aren’t always that great but occasionally they’re fantastic. If you’d like, sign up using this link and I’ll get a kick-back when you make your first purchase.
I am really trying (and so far have a mixed track record) to keep up on birthdays this year AND I even have vague ambitions of putting together my Christmas gifts a little at a time throughout the year. (Live the dream!)
There are a lot of charities doing good work in Japan to which you can donate cash. But if you’d like to do contribute something tangible, you can put together and send a care package for affected kids.
The Misawa Girl Scouts are organizing a backpack/care package drive for kids displaced by the disaster. You can send a complete package inside a backpack or backpacks/care package materials by themselves.
The Girl Scout troop will be collecting care packages until May 15th after which they’ll distribute them. They say that priority mail from they U.S. takes about two weeks so that still leaves you several weeks to get everything together.
E doesn’t know about the tragedy in Japan (and wouldn’t understand even if I tried to explain) but if you have older kids this could be a great opportunity to get them involved. I bet they’d have fun picking out items to include in the care package.
For a list of recommended items, shipping info, and other details see here.
If you live here in UT county and want to participate let me know and maybe we can bundle our care packages together for shipping.
Yay for spring! The weather is gorgeous and I’m looking forward to hanging out with N and the kids this weekend. Highlights will most like include staying in my pajamas for far too long and watching my church’s semi annual conference on tv, tidying up my closet, and taking E on a fun outing. I’m looking forward to it all!
On a totally unrelated note, here’s a little video that reminds me why I love dogs. (Sadly both E and I are allergic but maybe one day we can get an allergy-friendly breed).
I hope you have a great weekend!
I lost my pregnancy weight from Mimi (37 pounds) much quicker than I did with E. One thing that helped was having a giant baby that was almost a third of the weight and the rest I chalk up to not eating dairy, eggs, peanuts, or nuts since Mimi was born.
E is allergic to all of those things and his allergist said that it might help Mimi avoid having similar food allergies if I eliminate E’s allergens from my diet while I’m nursing her. It might not have any effect but if there’s anything I can do to help Mimi avoid food allergies I’m going to do it.
I’d like to lose another 30-40 lbs which is the weight I gained the first couple of years after I got married. But my weight loss has stalled out a bit these last few weeks, mainly because E and I have been making a batch of these brownies at least once a week. Many thanks to my friend and neighbor Jenn for sharing this recipe with me.
Recipe: Adapted Duncan Hines Brownies
(If you have food allergies please check the brownie mix ingredients carefully and make your own decision about using this recipe. E is fine with this recipe, but I can’t be responsible for any adverse reactions you may have!)
Ingredients
Directions
That’s it–dangerously easy! These brownies are pretty good (i.e. they taste like normal brownies, not like a consolation prize) and they never last very long around our house.
Dear Mimi,
In the first month after you were born I used to say that you didn’t seem like a fragile tiny newborn, mostly because you weren’t so tiny. Well, this last month I had to eat my words when you were admitted to the hospital with RSV. When I watched you struggle to breathe you suddenly seemed frighteningly and terribly fragile.
But thankfully our prayers were answered and after three days in the hospital you were off the oxygen and the congestion had died down enough so that you could breathe okay on your own. And so the two of us went home from the hospital, again.
Even though I hated seeing you sick, once it was clear that you were on the mend I started appreciating certain aspects of our hospital stay. In some ways it felt like a do-over of our stay in the hospital after you were born. But this time I wasn’t in wrenching pain from surgery and I could devote all my energy to caring for you. My mind wasn’t addled by painkillers and so I could watch your sweet sleeping face and see the smiles flit across it.
Not that I just stared at you while you were sleeping for hours and hours like a creeper. I also watched movies on my phone, napped, read, or worked on a blanket I’m knitting for you. In some ways I’m grateful for the experience because being right by your side for three days without any distractions (i.e., your big brother and the demands of normal life) really cemented the bond I feel with you. I loved you before but now I feel like I know you and your needs better, like I’m more in tune to you.
The last few weeks you’ve been paying more attention to people and wanting to interact with us. Your first smiles were for your own reflection in the convex mirror on your swing but now you’ve moved on to second best and you like looking and cooing at us. Your gurgling smiles are the best.
You continue to be a mellow baby and for the most part sleep like champ. It’s something I continue to be very grateful for. Last night your dad and I were talking about you and gloating to ourselves about what a good baby you were and we jinxed it: for the first time ever you cried off and on for over an hour. I would rock you to sleep only to have you wake up crying ten minutes later. You eventually ended up going to sleep for real and your dad and I looked at each other slightly shell-shocked and silently agreed not to press our luck by bragging about you so much.
But even now I can’t help it. When I think of you I silently gloat to myself and my heart feels like it’s going to burst with joy. Really, you are the best.
Love,
Mama
If you were to come over to Casa de Nearest Future for dinner, and if you were to stay afterward to chat and hang out, there might come a moment when–inhibitions lowered by shared laughter and the glow of friendship–I might say, “Come with me, I have something to show you.”
Up two flights of shag-carpeted stairs, though a door and around a corner you would find this:
And depending on how much time you’ve spent in Asia/around Asians your reaction would probably be one of the following:
1) Confusion/mild embarrassment
2) Jealousy
3) Nonchalance (i.e. my sister Jan who already has one)
I myself was THRILLED back at Christmas to to unwrap a Toto Washlet. And yes, I know the fact that N gave me a toilet seat for Christmas and that I was super excited to receive it says some odd things about us, but hear me out.
Back in October when we visited my in-laws in Korea the guestroom we stayed in had a bidet toilet seat. And after two weeks of using it I was sad at the prospect of going home and no longer being able to enjoy always sitting down on a warm toilet seat and being washed clean by gentle jets of warm water while being serenaded by burbling bird song (kidding about the bird song). These electronic bidet seats are all over the place in Korea and parts of Asia: homes, department stores, airports, etc… It’s a nice luxury and it’s funny how quickly I got used to using them.
So I was thrilled to get a bidet seat for our house. It’s made by Toto which is a great brand and (very importantly!) the buttons and instructions were in English unlike the Korean model my sister has at her house. The one time I tried to use the bidet seat at her house I couldn’t figure out the buttons and uh, hijinks ensued.
The control panelOur Washlet connected into the existing water hook-up but we had to have a GFCI-grounded outlet installed next to the toilet (which the next owners of our house will probably be mystified by since I am definitely taking the seat with us when we move).
N’s timing was great; it was nice to have it installed before I had Mimi and embarked on the awesome carnival ride that is postpartum recovery. All in all, it was one of the most thoughtful presents I’ve ever received.
And if you ask nicely, I’ll let you use it the next time you’re over. Like it or hate it, your life will never be quite the same again.