Thank-you'd out

This expression is probably not exactly grammatically correct or something we feel often.

But my husband did.
by our sweet little boy K.

This photo taken this summer is nothing to do with this post, but it captures him throwing....

He loves trains, cars, motorcycles, trucks, tractors, anything with wheels.

He also loves to throw stuff, like things listed above. 

So, when his Daddy moves the couch, well, we hit some jack-pot. 

K: "Wow! Dah! (That's how he calls Dad. Daddy is too cool to be called with 2 syllables, according to the old man) Thank you!"

Dah: "You are welcome, K."

K: "No! Dah! Thank you! Thank you, Dah! Choo-choo! Thank you!"

Dah: "Yup."

K:"Wow! Thomas! Thank you, Dah! Wow! Cars! Dah! Thank you! Thank you, Dah!"

Dah: "Yeah, yeah. It's okay, K."

K: "Thank you, Dah! Choo-choo! Wow, cars! Dah! Thank you!"

Dah: "Okay, that's enough, K."

K: "Thank you! Thank you, Dah!"

Dah: "....."

K thanked his Dad 5800 times (not that he counted), for about good 20 minutes. 

He is a very thankful child, to say the least, maybe. 

Baking and Making

October is a busy month for me with 2 birthdays. There are birthday cakes and birthday treats for classes to make. Then, you add Halloween on top of it. It's a crazy baking and making month for me! My husband just said to me, as if to just remind me again, "You are a crazy woman, and I've known that for years." (he said that yesterday during his lunch time looking at me just starting to make J's Halloween costume, yes, on the day before Halloween.) But I LOVE watching kids' smile and "Wow!" reactions. I thrive for it. That's why I bake and make things, just to see those happy faces!

Birthday cupcakes for M's class - chocolate cupcake and chocolate frosting with black food coloring. I don't know if the teachers liked the idea of messy black food colored frosting, but M loved it.

 

 

 

J's birthday cake. It's, of course, a tank. I tried fondant for the first time. I was not so happy, but he love it. And my husband actually finished it up for me because I was so frustrated.

 

M's birthday cake. It is supposed to be a fire truck. Why a 6-year-old girl want a fire truck cake for her birthday? "6-year-olds suppose to have fire truck cakes. That's what J had when he turned 6!" is M's response. Actually, looking back, I think J had something else on his 6th birthday...but we won't tell her that. She enjoyed decorating her truck with all the candies. Very festive.

Gingerbread mummies

They were birthday treats for J's class and it was a hit!

CTR sugar cookies for J's baptism

More sugar cookies for J's baptism

Mummy pigs-in-blanket. I made them for a party with "a pool of blood (a.k.a. ketchup)"

My favorite breakfast these days - home made granola (recipe adjusted from this) and frozen blueberries we picked this summer on top of vanilla yogurt.

A birthday gift for my mother-in-law - I just couldn't find what I hoped to find, so I decided to make it. Mothers' family tree broach/pendant top. She has 7 children. I was very pleased with the final product. Unfortunately, I was home sick when they celebrated her birthday, but I hope she liked it.

This was something for me. I wanted Halloween earrings, then one day the flat circle bead inspired me to make one. My husband thinks I should add some red dots to make them look like Black Widow....hmmm.

Last, but not least, here is the costume I started around lunch time yesterday (jacket, vest, and banner thingy). J was so excited and had a huge smile on his face!

 

 

Line up!

 

 My little boy K has been into lining his toys...

 

 in the middle of living room,

 on top of the staircase,

 or on the dining table.

But they all have to face the same direction

whether going vertically or horizontally,

 so that they will all LINE UP!

Definition of "Rainbowry"

rain-bow-ry [reyn-boh-ree]

adjective, rain-bowr-ier, rain-bowr-iest.
1. brightness of colors in rainbow
2. in clear view of an arc shaped prismatic colors, it can be used to describe the brightness in particular section.

Origin:
Developed by M on 9/18/2012. It was originally created to describe part of a rainbow (witnessed on the same day) having brighter color compared to the rest.

Example sentence:
"Hey, look! That part is really rainbowry!"


Other information:
The photograph of the rainbow which author had witness and has described above is not available due to absence of mechanical devise at that time.

For further questions, please contact author.

A bit of homesick?

Thank you, good ol' Facebook. Recently, I've reconnected with my friends from high school days. Some live out of the country (China and France!), some live in the town they grew up, and others live far from home - but not as far as I have come. It is fun but somewhat weird to see your old friends being moms...I guess it's been almost 20 years since those high school days. (wow, I'm getting old...)

Then, my brother started a blog. He is the captain of the fishing/crab catching boat my family own and he posts updates from the boat, smack in the middle of Sea of Japan! And he posts pictures like this

picture of the boat (source: http://matsueimaru.com/blog)

 and this. 

a view from the boat (source: http://matsueimaru.com/blog)

Isn't it a beautiful place?  I grew up looking at this. And I took it granted. I remember school teachers who were "stationed" to the tiny little town would say, "Children, you live in a beautiful place! Your town is surrounded by mountains in the back and a beautiful view of ocean. How lucky you are!"

Well, I didn't think so, at least back then. It was small. I had never saw a horizon except over the ocean. Because of it is such a small town, everyone knew everyone else's business (this part, I guess I don't really miss). I was just ready to get out of there.

And I did, ended up being here almost as far as I could possibly could.

No regret. I'm happy where I am. But now I am just very thankful for the place I grew up in.

It's just simply beautiful. Just like those teachers told us years ago. I just didn't know it.

Now I know it. 

And I can smell the air from the photo my brother posted - the food, the ocean, and even the splash of the sea water.

When I was in high school, a friend of mine told me that she could smell the ocean when she visited my home town. I didn't understand what she was talking about back then. Because I lived in it.

It's been 6 years since I breathed the air and ate the fresh seafood. I think I'm having a bit of homesick.

A lost tooth at school playground

September 12, 2012
Dear Toothfairy,
My daughter M lost her second tooth at school playground today. She was crying when she came out of school bus today because her lost tooth is really "lost", and she would have no tooth for Toothfairy to come for. Please accept this fake tooth (made of mini-marshmallow) as replacement. She did really lose a tooth today and is looking forward to your visit again. By the way, thank you for your visit the first time around. She was very excited.
Thank you,
M's mom


September 13, 2012
Dear Toothfairy,
Thank you for your generosity and understanding. M was thrilled to see that you visited last night. She screamed in joy "It worked! The fake tooth worked!"  Was it the shape of fake tooth (flattened mini-marshmallow with zig-zag in the bottom, which was M's idea) that helped you, or was it the letter her mom wrote to beg your visit in desperate? Either way, in behalf of M, I wanted to thank you. She does not have any wiggly tooth right now, so you can have a little break.
Sincerely,
M's mom
p.s. Those coins (2 of each coin - 2 pennies, 2 nickels, 2 dimes, and 2 quoters - total 82 cents) were very educational. It was a good practice for her big brother to count.
p.s.s. How do you come up with how many coins for a tooth? Is it like, "first tooth for this much" kind of charts going on there?


September 14, 2012
Dear Toothfairy,
Yes, I know I said you can have a break, but I just wanted to give you a little heads-up. Now M got coins out of fake tooth (no, seriously, she really did lose her tooth and really needed a replacement that time), today she told me that she lost another tooth. Well, it was really not another tooth, it was a piece from double chocolate rice crispy treat. Yes, it was dark brown. It would not have been a very healthy tooth...
So, just to warn you, you may see some fake tooth popping out. I will try and keep you posted though. And I will sure write you a letter if she ever has to use a fake tooth again for a replacement.
Thank you,
M's mom
p.s. Do you count the number of teeth per child?
p.s.s. What do you do with those teeth? Just curious. Thanks!

Blessings of the rain

It's raining. It's been raining all day. So I decided to count the blessings of the rain.

What got me start thinking was....Let's face it, I had no excuse today NOT to clean my house. It was raining and cold outside. K and M were taking naps. J was on my computer playing a game. Yes, I could have read a book or done something else. But all the housekeeping neglect may have caught up on me and they were staring at me...

So, I decided to do some housework, which is a blessing for my family, I'm sure, even some basic ones.

Then, I started cleaning areas that I hadn't done in A LONG time, like washing window and trimming by the kitchen sink, wiping kitchen cupboards and kitchen door (something about our over 90 lb. dog's tail smearing dirt...), etc.

Then, things started more noticeable, like things needs to be put back to where they belong...(again, because of all the neglect this summer)

Of course, some of the thing didn't have places to go back, so I had to make some places for them to belong. While I was doing that, I found things that I thought I had lost long ago, like a special ice cube (stick?) tray for water bottles.

But I didn't have any space to put that in my freezer (of course, the freezer was a mess), so that lead me to clean the freezer.....

The list goes on and on....

So, here it is, the blessings of the rain;
1. keeping me inside, instead of outside playing, inspired (is that appropriate use for this?) me to do some housework, and made me think that I probably should start thinking about kids going back to school organizing things to make things run smoothly.
2. while mommy was busy cleaning, kids enjoyed their freedom of watching movies and drinking Lemonade as much as they want (blessing for them in their account). They got along, and that's a good thing.
3. my thriving garden is loving the rain and tomato plants are growing like crazy, so are the weeds....
4. used to be brown, scorched lawn are now back in lush green
5. the lawn is back in green and needs to be mowed, but it's too bad, I can't mow because of rain (that counts as a blessing, right?)
6. cool weather gave us a break from the heat and AC use
7. and I'm just plain happy for farmers! Or anyone/anything in need of water.

Well, if it rains again tomorrow, I might do more of organizimacation thingy. If it's nice, we may head out to a park! We shall see...