Savoring the last bits of summer

This summer I've been meaning to try out canning. Such a desire was mostly inspired by my Aunt's tasty raspberry sauce. The final incentive was Berkeley Bowl selling a pint of raspberries for 89 cents. Surprisingly, all went well. Except for the part where I took to literally the tip of not screwing the jar rings on to tightly to help it seal properly while boiling. While placing my jars in the boiler I lifted my precious jar of sauce and off slipped the ring. Which meant down came the jar. In short this lead to raspberry sauce all down the cupboards, over the flour and left splatters on most the kitchen walls. Little Bug loudly shouted "uh ho" followed my an adamant "I help" and came rushing over to the scene. Besides the occasional sticky step on our flour, the clean up went as well as expected with an almost 2 year old's help. Even with such a mess, my 10 cans of raspberry sauce were certainly worth it. And I am looking forward to trying some freezer jam with the extra berries.

Birthday Trip'n

I remember a few years ago looking at Andrew during church and calculating about what age he would be when he finished his doctorate program. When I realized it would be around 30 I just thought that was crazy. Well, Andrew's 30th just came and went. Now I'm wondering when we will actually feel like grown ups. I mean, we don't even pay rent yet!

But onto how we celebrated! I thought and thought about what to do for the event. The only thing I could come up with that I knew Andrew would love would be to go water skiing on his birthday. So, off to Utah we went! I surprised him with the plan a few days beforehand.

Since it was Andrew's 30th birthday I also thought he deserved a fun cake. In reality, Andrew and I have been watching Cake Boss lately and it created quite a desire in me to give fondant a try. Overall, it was pretty fun stuff. Andrew even jumped in on the fun. Inside it was lime cake with lime cream cheese frosting. It was yummy in my opinion.

Here Andrew is still looking good at 30!

I believe I've said this before, but I really am not that big of a water person. However, about 4 years ago Andrew informed me if I was really to join his family I had to learn how to water ski. Period. I have to note here that the first time we went water skiing I was sent into the water with two skies and no instructions. No instructions people. None. It was quite a humbling experience. Thank heavens by the end of the day I managed to pull myself up out of the water for 5 seconds before whipping out. That was 4 years ago. And really I have been happily skiing on two skis since. However, this trip I knew it was time to give the slalom ski a try. With some encouragement and thank heavens a few tips from Andrew's mom (where were you 4 years ago?) I made it up out of the water. Hurray!

Little Bug bundled up with grandma and of course who doesn't love having control of the wheel?

These shots were taken before Little Bug made the executive decision to join mom and dad in the water. That was the first time her head has gone completely under the water. She did as well as expected for ridged lake water.

Here papa is attempting to introduce fruit in peach form into Little Bug's diet. It went exactly how this picture is portraying. Little Bug has a very strict diet she adheres too - meat and potatoes.

In case you're missing it, this is the close up of Bug saying "no" to peaches while attempting to hide. She spent the rest of the trip in fear of the word "peach" even being mentioned.

We of course maximized the use of papa and grandma's pool. Little Bug figured out if she put her arms around these swim weights she didn't need help swimming. Of course she had test out this new swimming freedom by ditching the weights a few times and stepping off the ledge. I'm catching onto a jumping in the water theme and guess it is time to teach this girl how to swim.

And we did a lot of lounging. It felt fantastic. If only we had a driveway to pull out some lawn chairs and people watch more often.

Thanks Mark and Laura for a fun trip!

A few things I've been up to...

I was intending to crochet Little Bug one of these soakers (baby bum covers worn as shorts) about a year ago. Apparently it never made it to the top of my priority list because she never got one. With some babies due in the family I was actually able to motivate myself to crochet a few of them. This first picture is of the back and the second is of the front.

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Little Bug never got a pair of soakers, but I was able to finish her baby book. I had stacks of baby gift cards, ribbons and pictures just sitting under my bed collecting dust. I am sure we all have similar stories. Not to mention Little Bug would sometimes discover a box and fling its contents everywhere. I decided the other week it was time to get rid of such a pile/Little Bug temptation and make her baby book. Little Bug happens to love "her book." So much so, we have to keep it up high and only bring it down on special occasions, which really means she just has to read it with an adult after she has said "please."


Also, I've been up to a lot of cookie making! Andrew needed 5-6 dozen cookies for an open house at his lab, my mom needed 2 dozen cookies for a linger longer, and I needed another 2 dozen for the start of my freshman Sunday School class. That's a lot of cookies folks! It was fun having all that cookie dough around, dangerous actually, but I sure am glad no one seems to be placing any cookie orders this week. I am cookied out.


And finally a baby hat for Andrew's colleagues new baby girl.

Background

Assignment number two in my photography workshop book was experimenting with backgrounds. The author actually suggested coordinating outfits to a fabric background, but I am not too interested in such a posed shot. Napoleon dynamite comes to mind with a pillowly pink background. Instead, I thought it would be fun to use our apartment complex as a background.

Authentic expressions

Since graduating, I'm enjoying my new found freedom and am finally getting onto some long anticipated projects. Project one: learning how to use my camera. I don't expect my photos to be professional, but I hope understanding my camera will improve my shots. So, I've started a photography workshop book. At the end of each chapter there is an assignment. My first assignment was to study a person and catch an authentic expression. I hate to say it, but the old student came out of me when I read the assignment. I thought I would just use an old photo I'd taken and check something off my to do list. Then I realized this is all for fun and I didn't have to use the old recycling papers tactic. Whew, and what a relief that realization was.

So, since I spend 99.9% of my time with Little Bug, I don't even know who I spend the other .1% of my time with, she seemed the perfect candidate. In fact I'm pretty sure she will be my main subject throughout this endeavor. While Little Bug was still in her PJs eating lunch, that's right lunch, I pulled out my camera and got to work. I also ended up having fun using some different colored filters and monochrome affects. Without further ado, I present Little Bug and some of her authentic expressions.

My favorite

Andrew's favorite

And honorable mention. In truth I almost deleted this one right off my camera. In fact, I still don't understand why I like it so much. I'll have to keep looking at it to figure it out.

"Chair"

I should have been suspicious by all the noise I was hearing and certainty when I heard a determined voice stating "chair" over and over again. I just never thought she'd think to clear out our food storage and make herself a nice little perch out of canned tomato sauce. She was pretty pleased with herself as seen by her face here. And honestly, I was impressed by all those hefty cans she managed to toss out of her newly acquired space.

We had a fun weekend where...

We finally got to attend an A's game together. Little Bug once again loved all the clapping, screaming, and music. We just now need to teach her to only cheer when the A's have made a good play.





And where we went to the zoo. Little Bug decided she wanted to watch the elephants for at least half an hour. She actually scrambled up Andrew's arms when she first saw them. I do agree they are pretty intimidating animals. Here she is making sure we see where the elephants are.

Annual trek

If you can call a two hour plane ride a trek, than that's what we did. We recently got back from a much anticipated trip to Utah. We did all the usual fun stuff...stock up on candy, go swimming, water ski, and lounge around. The only thing that made it different was Little Bug being old enough to enjoy more of the festivities. We are also pretty sure she had fun ordering around everybody in the house with her "pleases" and "comes."

Papa saved planting the beans for Little Bug's arrival. This is where Little Bug discovered her love of rakes. There was only one catch, Papa had to have a rake at the same time. I literally mean that every time the pair went outside, they had to have their rakes in hand. That's devotion on both accounts.






We made an afternoon stop at Wheeler Farm. Papa showed us all around his old stomping ground. We also stopped in and saw a live cow milking. Little Bug happily exclaimed "milk!", while I on the other hand was a tad bit disgusted with the reality of where milk came from.

What a treat, swimming with grandma. We were glad to have her company in the water and Bug was grateful for her helping hand up to the slide. You might notice we accidentally put on a pull up diaper instead of a swim diaper. It would be helpful if those two didn't look so similar. And believe me, diapers will keep expanding as long as your in the water. We eventually left as Little Bug began pulling at her ever increasing diaper. Did you know when diapers are overfull they explode when you take them off? Believe us, they do.

Little Bug was excited to be on the boat this year.


She was not as excited to be on the inner tube. However, she was all ready to jump in the water right after daddy.




And finally, a nice trip to the park.




What a life...

Disneyland

My brother and sister-in-law won 4 free tickets to Disneyland off the radio! Seriously, who actually wins stuff like that? Since they offered us two of their free tickets, I guess in a way we did!

Little Bug's favorites were 1. The tiki room, 2. Its a small world and 3. Dumbo. We all had a great time, but Andrew and I discovered that we are now old. Shoot. Since when did two roller coaster rides make your head spin for an entire day? Maybe we could blame it on slight dehydration, but neither of us want to try that again soon. We are now having serious discussions about who has to ride roller coasters with the kids.

It took her some time to warm up, but she definitely became a fan of the carousel.

Third time around on Dumbo.

Just to prove I was on the trip too.

Our mad buzz lightyear skills.

Probably the cutest thing from our trip. Little Bug would only hold Cousin Z's hand.

Thanks for such a fun filled weekend Greg and Katy! How about you use your luck again next year and get us some more tickets?

June 19, 2010

I sat in reflection on an old familiar couch in that small Hong Kong apartment. I was in shock my journey was coming to a quick close. I'd been planning on a serving a mission for so long, how could it be ending? I thought about all the hilarious, sad, happy and sorrowful moments I'd shared with people. It was in such a thought I realized how much I loved listening to people and their stories. At that moment I felt like everything was at my fingertips and all I had to do was reach out and grab what I wanted. In that moment of amazement, I decided to get a maters degree in marriage and family therapy.

Once again I find myself sitting on an all too familiar couch thinking back. It is interesting to see how my goal unraveled and how life continued rolling along while I was attending graduate school. I am grateful for the support of my family. In particular, to a mother who joyfully watched, loved and cared for Little Bug while I was in class. I am also grateful for a husband who always happily rearranged his schedule when needed and who never treated his educational goals above my own. It is unfortunate that I am the only one who ended up with a degree because in reality this accomplishment reflects the support and love of so many.

Now in the words of a very wise sister-in-law, "I am retired."