Christams Cards

Once again my friend Lin Yu Shan proves that a country does not have to celebrate Christmas to sell the coolest Christmas cards. Thanks Shan! I'm cooking the swun gan now and it smells delicious!

These are stickers. They are so cute. I would have died to have stickers like these for my sticker book in grade school.

Lily likes to put them on paper and give a sticker ribbon to the cutest. She says the third from the left won. But I voted for the one with the mail. So she let me be the ultimate judge. You can see his award on his ear.

Violet's card.

I love this one.

I love this one, too. It reminds me of my ornament where Santa is flying in a hot air ballon.

But this is my favorite. It's Lily's.

These are Chinese New Year cards. Is it year of the tiger again already??? It can't be. Rune was born in year of the tiger.

Xin Nian Kwai Le!

Showering is so annoying

I take 3-4 showers a week and I hate all of them. I hate taking my clothes off and freezing. I hate the parts of me that are not being directly contacted with water being freezing. And I especially hate that moment when I have to turn off the shower and open the curtain. FREEZING. I hate waiting for my hair to dry. I hate blow drying my hair. I can't stand that my only choices are having Violet in the bathroom with me and constantly fighting with her to not pull the curtain out of the shower or else I leave her out of the bathroom and find out later what mischief she has gotten into that I will have to clean. But she's too cute to really be angry at and I usually leave her out of the bathroom because it's too freezing to fight with her about the curtain. It baffles me that anyone can tolerate showering every day.

You know what else I hate. Winter and snow. I hate snow so much now that it actually ruins my Christmas.

Dear Grant,
Next time you are applying for jobs I am begging you to consider all localities that skip winter. Rain is okay. Scorching summers are okay. Chaiyi, Taiwan is more than okay. Snow and sub-freezing temperatures depress me and actually make me perpetually angry. I mean, I know you don't read my blog but in case you ever google 'vasectomy blues' and happen to run into it...
love . . . sally

Moved in

Sort of. There are boxes everywhere. The Christmas tree was slapped up yesterday only for the kids. It is supremely annoying to have to put up Christmas decorations the same week you are trying to move in. Especially when your husband is working six ten hour days in a location four hours away and only comes home for 24 hours on Sundays and is therefore completely unavailable for help. He may or may not be done by Dec. 18. His supervisor assures him that there is plenty of money to keep the project going in the event that they are unable to finish by the projected finish date of the 18th. Well thank goodness. Nobody needs their dad or husband around during the Christmas season or to help with the unpacking as long as the project keeps going. Priorities, you know.

On the bright side, I'm connected to the internet again. Which is good because I will have to do all Christmas shopping online due to the fact that there is no husband around to watch kids while Christmas shopping gets done. Luckily I can peruse the blogs of my friends and family members whose houses are not in Chaos and whose family members are all present for happy holiday fun. It will be vicarious Christmas cheer for me because I don't have much of it in my house this season!

And by the way, do plumbers and electricians not need work nowadays? Because I cannot get one to call me back. *shrill scream*

Violet is 1

365 days ago I gave birth to Violet. It was pretty easy and fun. Except for, you know, the last 30 mintues. Then my placenta was so attached to me it just couldn't bear to leave but my uterus was trying its darndest to evict the reluctant placenta. The result being that my impatient uterus was merely forcing voluminous amounts of blood through the tenacious placenta's open vessels. Since this experience I would never be afraid to bleed to death. Minus the painful uterine contractions bleeding to death would be a very tolerable way to die. Just a ringing in the ears and some tunnel vision then...nothing. The only really uncomfortable thing about it (again, minus the painful uterine contractions) was fighting to maintain consciousness. For Grant, who looked scared but stalwart, but mostly for my baby who'd just been born and who I wanted to meet and nurse and coo over. It was many hours (8 to be exact) after her birth before I really had the presence of mind to be her mother and I miss those hours immensly. She has been such a joy since those first moments when I finally got to be with her and I wish that I hadn't missed any of it. I wish I had been able to enjoy her from the first second when her outside body temperature was still the same as my inside body temperature. Here she is a year later with her hair constantly in her eyes and her brothers and sisters constantly adoring her.

I like Zumba

It's probably been around forever, but I've only recently discovered it. I'm sure I look like a complete dorkwad but it's the most fun I've had exercising in ages!

If you are wondering I will not be posting any videos of myself Zumba-ing on YouTube. Unless I'm wearing my wedding dress with a tube top. Then I will.

P.S. Violet is putting some serious consideration into walking soon.

Did I say we would get a credit card?

I lied. That's another thing you can't get with an N/A credit score. Unless you want the cards for bad credit that charge $200 annually in fees or the prepaid cards for such people as those who've declared bankruptcy or are 14 years old.

I wonder if Wal-mart will give us a card even?

I'm all for tightening up on passing out loans. Out of control, irresponsible lending is part of what landed us in our present economic depression. I remember back in the day when we bought our other houses and the car it was ridiculously easy to get a loan, too easy. Proving financial responsibility makes sense. However, it is frustrating that it is the credit sharks who control the whole system. If you haven't used their services then you are deemed unworthy of their loans. No other method of proving financial responsibility counts. Well, there's my soapbox. I return to my financially responsible but houseless life.

Did you know

That if you spent the last 6 years doing fiscally responsible things like staying completely out of debt and saving up to pay for purchases in cash instead of financing or using credit cards that your FICA score will be N/A and it will be next to impossible to get a home mortgage loan? I just found that out.

And all these years Grant and I thought we were being smart about money!

Oh well. I guess we'll go get ourselves a silly credit card and check out what's for rent.

Local ad in Nickel

FREE, BITING gerbil. Comes with ball, cage and very sharp teeth. Does not necessarily need a good home. Call 789-6942.

This made me laugh today. I thought about getting it because Alma needs some other creature to torture besides his baby sister and this one might teach him a lesson!

Pictures

We got to see Alvin/Justin/Lin Jye Ting recently. He hangs with the prophets and apostles whenever they need Chinese language services.

These are the orange countertops. Okay, this is just a crappy apartment kitchen, but this color scheme speaks to me. Way more than oak cabinets, neutral countertops and stainless steel appliances. I feel happy cooking in these colors.

The kids like to hot rod Violet around in this doll stroller. Luckily, she likes it, too. Um, don't ask why Alma is naked because I have no clue.

Violet sucking on the hose. Metallically refreshing.

The only thing that would make this picture better would be if Grant had a crack hanging out also.

+

Vernal, UT

That's where we are. And fortunately it is not where we will be staying. Nothing really personal against it, but it's just not my kind of place. I like places with lots of trees and greenery. A beach and plenty of humidity are also high up on my list of Perfect Place to Live. Also on the list are a good health food store and a nearby Asian Market. These are also lacking in Vernal. In it's defense the city has these fabulous planter boxes stuffed to overflowing with petunias completely lining the main street. My hat's off to Vernal's city gardener/beautifier.

We went to Church for the first time yesterday and one of the speakers gave a nice long talk about fellowshipping. Lots of quotes by prophets and apostles about the importance of befriending new members. Then sacrament meeting ended and not one person said hello to us or even gave us a second look. Grant and I giggled about it all the way home.

Oh! And the best thing about Vernal is the temple. I had a chance to go Saturday and it was lovely. It's an old tabernacle converted into a temple and very beautiful. And in reality, it's likely that when Grant gets a permanent job it will be in a place that is far worse than Vernal (like Tonapah, NV) and there will come a day when I will be saying to myself "I wish I lived in Vernal).

Stuff

We are temporarily situated in a two bedroom apartment for the next 3 or so months while Grant finishes up his temp job and looks for a permanent one. Since we are here so temporarily, the only stuff we have is what we could carry in the van and the truck. Everything else is in storage. We are sleeping on the floor, we eat sitting on the floor, we have a frying pan, a wok, a pot and a rice cooker to cook with. We have 8 bowls and 6 glasses, our clothes are in suitcases on the floor and we hang our clothes to dry. It seems that it would be terrible to live so bare bones, but in reality it is very liberating to live simply. The house is a cinch to clean and the dishes take no time at all since there are hardly any of them to begin with. I remember feeling this way in Taiwan also, that it is so nice not to have my life encumbered by a bunch of stuff. It's awesome to have such bare closets and cupboards--no more searching for a spare nook to stick another piece of kitchen gadgetry or a place to hide away some other piece of junk that gets used once in a blue moon. It's great to open up a drawer and not have that nagging feeling like you should really clean it out because at least half of the stuff in it is useless.

And this apartment has taught me one other very surprising thing about myself....I love orange countertops! When I first walked in I automatically cringed at them, but in a kitchen of white floor, white cupboards and white appliances they are the bright, happy accent that just works.

In summary, I will never again feel that I automatically have to pity people that don't have a lot of stuff or people with orange countertops.

P.S. When you have no TV and the barest minimum of toys your kids will suddenly be very interested and excited to go to the library.

Dear Grant

The kids are having fun. Here they are in their 4th shirts.

I thought you might enjoy a good snicker. This is me posing for senior pictures. In 1991. Those are orange tights, not my leg skin. Just so you know. And that big round circle on my head? That's a hat.

This is my new haircut. Sadly, it seems that even with my orange tights and hideous hat I looked WAY better in 1991.

Here is a picture of me juxtaposed by pictures of Violet in order to assess whether or not we look similar. At any rate we have the same stringy baby hair and long mullet thing in the back.



Look at her sweet feet poking out from her dress. I can't stand the cuteness! However, please ignore my foot ruining the picture.

Eliseo got a mohawk for the summer. It's coming off before school starts, even though he will be homeschooled.

Here is the promised video of Violet pulling herself up. I'm sorry you've had to miss so many cute changes in her.

We miss you.

Love, your family

Nothing to say

Just trying to get rid of the garbage post because it no longer applies since we are officialy houseless and no longer have the responsibility of a city garbage disposal container.

What to say. Hmmm.

My sister in law Krys said that she only types in one space after periods and that her college professor told her to do that. Is this the new thing? I have a difficult time implementing this but I will try hard if it is the new wave in word processing. I don't want to be the old fart that can't adapt to 21st century.

The other week we were watching the movie The Freedom Writers. I thought it was a great movie and was feeling very inspired and shocked by condition of some of the students lives. The kids were watching with us and Eliseo mentioned that he liked the movie. I asked why and he gave some typical boy answer about "because they fight in the classrom." I felt disappointed and angry about his answer and with my very serious 'mother' look on my face said "You think it's funny that people hate each other?" Rune gravely said "No, it would be funny if Earnest P. Whorl crashed through the middle of the ceiling on a bungee cord." (Obviously, the kids have been watching Earnest movies on Netflix) I haven't laughed so hard since my slook days of college. I'm sure you had to be there, but I found it so funny that I couldn't sleep because I kept laughing. It was so bad that I was snickering all through the prayer that Grant tried to say that night before bed which is funny because that is the exact thing that we are constanly getting angry at Elieso for doing. So Thanks to Rune for the great laugh.

Why do I always forget to put the garbage by the road?

Because I'm stupid.

For Grandma and Grandpa

This is just a collection of recent-ish photos that I thought the grandparents would enjoy.

Violet says, "I'm surrounded..and lacking the motor skills to extricate myself!"

Violet says, "You people are just.....rotten!"

I love this one of Violet grabbing Lily's hair. Everyone says they look alike. What do you think?

Violet says, "My sister extraordinaire, she lets me pull her hair."

Violet says, "Hey man, I think you're in my space."

Violet says, "Phhhhtttt."

Shen Bei Bei's Chicken

Shen Ye Ye sneaking Lily a cookie at church.

Numerous times people have asked for this recipe and I can never answer since I always just throw it together without measuring. But I'm not always fabulous at the 'ol eyeball method and while it usually turns out great, sometimes it...doesn't. So the past couple of times I've tried measuring and have come up with a recipe for:

Shen Bei Bei's chicken

6-7 lbs chicken thighs
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 T sugar
1 T pepper

Throw everything in a bowl (or two) the night before you want to cook it and let set in fridge until the next evening. Place on baking sheets skin side up. Pour over marinade. Bake at 300 for about two hours or until very tender.

Recipe notes:
1. If you find 6-7 lbs of chicken to be a ponderous amount, remember I have 5 kids.
2. Don't even think about using boneless skinless frozen chicken thighs. It would mock Shen Bei Bei's culinary genius. The Shen Bei Bei who makes pumpkin pie filling entirely on the stove top. The Shen Bei Bei who drinks a peanut butter jar of water and does 100 leg kicks every morning. The Shen Bei Bei who faithfully eats 7 pieces of fruit daily. The Shen Bei Bei who despite being nearly blind from macular degeneration, would every Tuesday and Thursday painstakingly cut up fresh fruit and put it in bags then bring it to the courtyard for my kids to eat while they played. The Shen Bei Bei who sings American Christmas songs from the '30s and '40s every ward Christmas party for at least a half hour wearing his purplish/plaidish suit and bowtie. The Shen Bei Bei who is, I believe, the one and only Chinese man of his generation who likes to cook and sew. You see where I am going. This is Shen Bei Bei's chicken. It's simple, yet brilliant and I can just see the look on his face if he was told someone were to use bonesless, skinless chicken in his recipe. So don't do it. Please. However, feel free to frig with the other ingredients as Shen Bei Bei doesn't have set amounts since he really is good at the 'ol eyeball method.
3. This recipe keeps on giving. Pour the chicken oil in a bowl and use it during the week for stir frying and egg frying or for frying whatever it is you like to fry. Scrape up the rest of the junk from the pans (except the stuff that is REALLY stuck), put it a bowl and away in the fridge. The next day heat it up in a pan with the leftover rice and eat it with a fried or soft boiled egg.
4. Soak your pan for at least an hour before you attempt to scrub it.

Shen Bei Bei, Shen Ai Yi, Lin Ma Ma (standing)

P.S. It's possible Eliseo has a booger on the end of his finger.

Feel free to be impressed...I made a quilt!

I decided if I was going to stay home and call myself a homemaker then I might as well do something homemaker-ish. So I made a quilt.

It looks sort of blue here, but in reality is a solid purple. If you are really impressed by the pattern I, sadly, cannot take the credit. Grant was the mastermind there.

Detail of the binding

I lied. I didn't make a quilt to elevate myself to talented homemaker status. I did it because a really talented person in my ward made the below quilt for Violet and gave it to me at my baby shower. I love it so much that I just had to have one for myself, in my favorite color..purple. And since I thought that my talented friend probably wouldn't super want to make one for me I figured I'd have to do it myself. My motives were purely selfish.

Isn't this quilt awesome? If it had a Hello Kitty on it somewhere it would be the pinnacle of my girlish dreams for Violet. And the binding! I would never think of something so clever.

Am I going to become.....A QUILTER???? I don't know. It was pretty fun, kind of tedious, fairly expensive (like $80!), all in all a good experience but I think I'll mostly stick to projects that can be done in an afternoon. Like this.

A dress for Violet made from the leftovers.

TV show vent

We don't have cable and generally don't miss it, although it does mean that we are horribly behind media-wise. I mostly have no idea what people are talking about when they discuss the latest shows. It's occasionally embarrassing.

Then we signed up for Netflix and have been having fun renting movies that everyone on the planet has seen except for us (because they came out at least 5 years ago) and watching fun things on instant play like Scooby Doo movies and old Dr. Who episodes. Then we had the brilliant idea that maybe we will watch one of those TV series that everyone seemed to love and we would no longer be the freaks that don't even know what is playing on TV. So we started watching Heroes. And to tell the honest, embarrassing truth, I didn't even know the show existed until a week ago. Four episodes later and I'm torn. The story line is very interesting....BUT here is a list of the character vices I've noticed so far:

1. Violence
2. Murder
3. Rape
4. Underage drinking
5. Purposeful drug abuse
6. Fornication
7. Adultery
8. Internet "soft" porn

Could they have packed any more sensationalistic depravity and debauchery into FOUR EPISODES??? It's bordering on ridiculous. I mean, has our culture slipped so far that an engaging plot of ordinary people discovering they have super powers is no longer sufficiently interesting? We need all of the above listed items to hold our attention? Apparently so. Good grief. I guess this is why I gave up TV in the first place and I'll have to go back to my old TV show inexperienced ways. Sigh.

FHE poetry

This was FHE tonight. We were attempting to pass off one of the talent portions in the Faith in God booklet. Here it is, unadulterated, all punctuation and spelling exactly as written.

Rune:

David slew a lion, with a little knife,
he was surprised with such a sight
with very little strife,
he went to war, to fight till sore,
but 'ol goliath stopped them,
so the army needed more,
David went right up and let that slingshot fly,
and then when the rock fell off, it was a red bullseye.

Eliseo: (spelling and punctuation are not his strong point)

The gold plats are so vary golde.
my eys wer rolen. I'v neve-
r sene plats of gold. I neve-
r sold the gold plat's. the ange-
l Maroni bared the gold pla-
ts. in the hill of camora.

Lily: (This poem was a collaboration. Lily gave me a line and then the rhyming word of the next line and I would provide the bulk of the second line. All Lily's contribution will be in red.)

They ate the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
They were no longer as dumb as weevils.
They were naked in the Garden of Eden,
It was a place that didn't need weedin'.
Satan told a lie.
We all know why.
He wanted them to die.
They went out of the Garden of Eden,
To a place that did need weedin'.

Winter etc.

I'm sure the whole of Internetdom knows by now how much I hate/loathe/abhor/detest/despise etc. etc. (my mental thesaurus ran out) winter, but it does make for some cute pictures of the kids. Don't get me wrong, I would trade cute winter pictures of the kids in a second for cute beach pictures, a tree ripened mango and some coconut water.

I don't know, I don't think I would trade even 80 degrees and a mango for this picture. Except, could someone please photoshop out the dried boogers?

Grant caught a 20 inch trout. We smoked it. He also likes to chew tuh-backer. Not really, it's sunflower seeds. He's addicted.

This is Violet nowadays. She defines adorable.

I'm just posting this picture because it will mortify Grant. I don't know why.

Better Late Than Never

is almost never my motto--except when it comes to finally posting Christmas morning pictures in January. Oh, and sending out Christmas cards--I still might do this under the guise of Happy New Year cards.

The Tree

The Stockings
(the reason they are so cute is because my mom made them)

The Morning...

Kung Fu Panda

Plastic Cowboys and Indians stocking stuffer

The DS

The Educational Computer Game
(or ECG for short)

The Omnitrix
(I don't know what it is either..something to do with aliens.)

The Rolling Monkey

The Carnage