What we woke up to:

Um, yeah…those things I said yesterday about spring in Utah being lovely and magical? I totally take them back. Three inches of snow? In mid-April? –Crazy!

I haven’t written about it lately, but I’ve been really stressed out the past few weeks. Work has been exceptionally demanding, we’re refinancing our house, and doing our taxes was kind of complicated since I’m technically self-employed. N’s been supportive but after two weeks of me being grumpy and irritable I could tell he was getting tired of it.

Now that work and taxes are taken care of, I’m planning on taking the day off (except for, you know, feeding E and keeping him alive and stuff). E and I are going to go to the gym and then maybe go shopping for some somewhat needed housewares this afternoon. Or maybe when E takes his nap I’ll just crawl into bed and read and take my own nap. I need to recharge.

B&W Holga Cherry Blossoms

Last week I noticed that the cherry trees in an orchard by my house were blooming. So I took along my Holga camera and on the way home from the gym I took a few photos. I used black and white film and so they came out a bit moody looking.



There was a large cloud of bees buzzing around the trees. Even though the orchard’s on a fairly busy road, the bees’ buzzing was loud enough to drown out the sound of the passing traffic. The sky was sunny and bright and it was a lovely spring day.

SO good


N and I had some Haagen Dazs Pineapple Coconut ice cream last night. It was SO good: creamy (but not too dense) and very fresh tasting. There were just the right amounts of tasty pineapple and coconut chunks in it: not so many that the ice cream was overly chunky, but enough that you got at least one little bonus in every bit.

So if you enjoy pineapple or coconut (or the pure unadulterated taste of summer) it’s worth a try.

Easter Festivities

Miranda and I thought that E and L would get run over by the bigger kids at the community egg hunts so we tossed some empty eggs out in her backyard and let them have at it. L got the hang of picking up the eggs and putting them in his basket right away; E–not so much. He was more interested in clutching an egg and wandering around complaining about the general situation.

E investigating.

E complaining.

E fretting.

L, E’s cousin.

L hoarding his booty.

L’s new little sister, A, still deliciously smooshy at two weeks.

Big brother L being impressively gentle with A.

Jewelry Boxes: Update 7

Wednesday was the last day of woodworking class. I didn’t finish assembling my jewelry boxes because I hit a pretty big snag. (As I am wont to do.) But more on that later. First let me show you want I did get accomplished.

My teacher recommended using dowels for the hinges of the boxes. So I taped the lids in place, using a block inside the box to keep the lid aligned correctly, and drilled through the slides of the box and into the lid.

Little did I know that this was when it all began to go wrong…

(A close-up of disaster in the making.)

Using a bottle cap to mark the half-circle for the front of the box.

Carving out the niche in front with a grinder.

The tray sitting inside; it slides side-to-side.

Everything looks good, doesn’t it? But there’s a little problem.

Because of the way the holes were placed, the back edge of the lid hits the box and can’t open all the way!

It was pretty frustrating to discover this little development an hour before class ended. My teacher didn’t really know how to fix it other than re-drilling the holes. So next semester I’ll either have to plug the holes in the lid with dowels and re-drill or make new lids (probably what I’ll do).
So that’s that. It’s a little frustrating to not finish the project. This is the first time I wasn’t able to use the shop outside of class hours at all (our new instructor’s policy) and I think I was really accustom to getting extra time.

But I did learn a lot of new techniques this semester, which was fun. Oddly enough, making the trays was probably the most satisfying part of this project. All in all and lid-problems aside, I think I improved quite a bit this semester.

Wood Toys

Well, it looks like I’m going to have to take another semester of woodworking in order to finish the jewelry boxes. Last night was the last class and I didn’t finish. (But more on that tomorrow.)

The next semester of woodworking won’t start until September but I’m already thinking of possible little projects I could make (and complete!) after I finish the jewelry boxes. I think it would be fun to make some small toys. I checked out Etsy to see what types of toys other people have made.

There were a ton of great wooden toys for sale. I think that any of these would make great shower or birthday gifts.

Letter: Month Seventeen

Dear E,

Where did March go? You’re growing so quickly. It is so much fun to us to see you pick up new things up almost everyday. Lately you’ve started taking us by the hand and leading us to where you want to go. And when you get the feeling to go outside you’ll bring your jacket and shoes to us. You seem to understand a lot more words now.

You hate the loud noise the hairdryer makes and so as soon as I warn you that “Mama’s going to dry her hair now” you run away shrieking in fear. But then you always sneak back and peer around the corner to check on me and make sure I’m okay and haven’t been devoured by the strange monster pointed at my head. That you can summon such bravery on my behalf is very touching.

I’ve been working a lot this past week and as a result you’ve been watching a bit more Play with me, Sesame that I’d like. You really love the show, though. Ernie is your favorite. The Sesame Street characters are printed on your diapers and you get a kick out of seeing them. A few days ago you said “Ernie” as your dad was pointing him out to you on a diaper. Of course you haven’t said it again though. (By the way, what’s up with that? Sometimes you’ll say a word (last week it was “oatbeal“) but then you promptly clammed up and never said it again.)

The only words you say really consistently are “Mama,” “Dada,” and “Elliott.” It’s funny because you’ll often use “Elliott” to mean “I’m here!” If I’m calling to you from another room you call back “Elliott!” Sometimes if I’m doing something else and not paying attention to you you’ll call out “Elliott!” to make sure that I know you’re there and that I haven’t forgotten about you. But you don’t have to worry: I’ll never forget about you.

Love,

Mama

Weekend Numbers

10 loads of laundry washed.
9 loads of laundry folded and put away.
8 hours of my church’s general conference watched on tv.
7 sacks of old clothes sorted, bagged, and donated.
6 times a crochet project was unraveled and begun again.
5 times E got into the kitchen trash (once smearing garlic butter all over his shirt and the floor).
4 marshmallow peeps eaten.
3 days of enjoying N’s company all day (he took Friday off of work).
2 big molars trying to break the surface in E’s mouth.
1 cranky toddler who frequently shrieked or cried at the drop of a hat.

Whew! The weekend was pretty productive but it was a little hard to deal with E sometimes. He would cry or let loose a super high-pitched shriek when things weren’t going exactly the way he wanted them to (like when we told him to stay out of the trash can or no, you aren’t going to watch your Korean vegetable video again).

I feel bad for him, though. I felt inside his mouth and he has two big angry bumps where two lower molars are trying to poke through. It’s weird because E only has his two front bottom teeth. I though he would get his cuspids and bicuspids before his molars. And his top molars don’t show any signs of coming in right now (for which I guess I should be grateful). But having only a patchwork set of teeth must make chewing pretty difficult.

Today was going to be pretty crazy even if E was in a good mood: we’re refinancing our house to get a better interest rate and the appraiser is coming by this morning, I have several hours worth of work to do, and I have a conference call this afternoon (hopefully E will be taking a nap at that time because if I’m sitting at the computer and not showing him that Pororo video he starts shrieking). Oh yeah, and I need to finish my taxes. Bleh.

Happy Monday, everyone.

E Loves Pororo

Even though he might not look it, E is one-quarter Korean. I try to expose him to Korean culture when the opportunity arises but I’m not hardcore about it, mostly because I’m not fluent in the language myself so there’s only so much I can do. Elements of Korean culture like food and movies are found in our home and I think E will naturally absorb information about this part of his heritage as he grows.

A while ago my friend Carol (second row from the bottom, third from the right in this photo) sent me links to some Korean kids videos online. E fell in love with this video about the importance of eating vegetables (to view it full screen, click on the magnifying glass on the upper right). E loves, loves, LOVES this video. It’s actually led to a bit of trouble because if you sit down to use the computer he expects you to play it for him and if you don’t he unleashes his wrath as only a 17 month-old can.

I think the animation is really cute. I didn’t know who the characters are but I asked around on Kimchi Mamas and people told me the penguin’s name is Pororo and that it’s a very popular kids show in Korea.

When he watches the video E gets excited and babbles and bounces around. It can be pretty cute. I taped him watching the video with our webcam. The quality’s not that good and it might be pretty boring to non-grandparents, but here you go.

(Watch the original video here.)