Leave of Absence

Disclaimer update (4/22/2011):  So, the other day, the embedding was working for the videos. Apparently, embedding hasn't even been released, so if you were able to watch the embedded clips, you got lucky. So, I have now included a link to open a new tab or window so you can view the videos on Socialcam.

Flower Girl Dress Preview

Kristen's wedding is sneaking up on us. I need to kick it into high gear and get things done! I swear, it seems like whenever we get one thing crossed off the list, two more things get added onto it.

I've got good news though! The flower girl dresses are coming along nicely. I've got one of them done, so I'd like to show it off.

Here's the before:

I could not believe how difficult it was to find a modest flower girl dress, at a reasonable price, in the color that we wanted. So, we ended up with a dress that we liked, at a reasonable price, but it was all white, which is not what we wanted. However, the style was something I could totally work with and alter a bit without ruining the dress.

So, I found some silver-gray organza and did this:

 

I stitched a layer of organza in under the tulle layers and simply added a couple flower to the sash. It turned out better than I expected, thankfully.

I've still got a ton of work to do for the wedding, but I'm really pleased with how the dresses turned out. Well... how this dress turned out. I've got to do the other one now. I'm also going to make a white satin headband with an organza flower for their hair. It'll look so simple and nice, I think.

Honor Roll

Let it be known that Akiko has made the "'A' Honor Roll" in her class for winter term.

So, yeah, it's only kindergarten. I mean, I remember I had straight A's in kindergarten, too. But still, we're really proud of her and all her hard work.

So, being on the honor roll means that she's excelling in both reading and math. Some kids got certificates for just reading or just math. Some got certificates for "special recognition," whatever that is. Some got certificates for perfect attendance.

Everyone is different. No two people are not on fire.

Tee hee. That last paragraph I wrote reminded me of good ol' Strongbad.

Anyway, Akiko was the only one in her class to get honor roll.

Remember a few weeks ago she was having a hard time at school? Well, it was one of those times that steam needed to be let off because at the time it was so hard to watch Akiko have such a hard time and not want to go to school.

So, what had happened was her teacher was out of town for a while and was sick the first day she was supposed to be back. That day, the kids had a bad substitute. Then, a couple days later, I left to go to Utah for a week and a half and left her home with her daddy. She missed her brothers and me terribly.

So, I think it was just that her routine was thrown off. Things are great now and she looks forward to school every morning.

Spirit Week - Crazy Hair/Hat Day

And to end, I got my new phone this morning! Number's the same.

Cellphone's Dead

It's both exciting and frustrating at the same time.

Exciting because I've often found myself wishing I had Joseph's Droid with me on multiple occasions for various reasons and now I can get one. Frustrating because I'm not eligible for a discounted upgrade for four more months and being without a phone is kinda freaky.

You see, my phone was the free phone that came with the package when we purchased Joseph's phone, so it was nothing fancy at all. It did the basics: calling, texting, crappy camera, etc. However, when I've been out and about, and, well, any time I've gone into San Francisco, I've often found myself in situations thinking, "Ugh! I should've traded phones with Joseph today." It got to the point where I pretty much told Joseph that me having a smartphone was no longer an option, it was a necessity.

I could blame the death of the phone on the baby. It was fine this morning, then, unbeknown to me, Asher had snatched it, and after that it got really wonky. However, for a few months, even before Asher was old enough to grasp things, it would have days where it would totally wig out, then go back to normal after resetting it. So, I've got a feeling that this was going to happen anyway. Asher just expedited the process.

So, this is really just a public service announcement. Thanks for listening to me complain about my dead phone. If you need to get a hold of me in the next few days, Facebook or email me, or call Joseph's phone. I've got some cellphone shopping to do!

This picture makes me giggle because I totally used to have this phone when I was 18!

I Will Survive

Hey everybody,

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been too exhausted to really post anything lately. I feel like I haven't really recovered from the Utah trip yet. And Asher still doesn't sleep through the night, though we are sleeping better now that he's not teething anymore... for now.

So, besides being sleep deprived, I just have what seems like a million projects going on. I finally finished the Christmas cottages, that you can read about here at the bottom of the post, however, right before I finished them, I was at the craft store when Christmas was on clearance and scored two more cottages for $1.50 each. Yep, 50 cents cheaper than the thrift store! Sweet!

It's a school and a church. I've got the school nearly done and I've let Akiko paint the church. I'll get pictures of her finished church before I clean it up. Akiko's doing such a great job with it. You can see she had already started it by the time I got the camera out. And if you're wondering about that beauty/donut shop...

It took me forever to finally finish this. There are, like, a gazillion little details. When I was done with it, I got that feeling like, "Great! Now what do I do with all this extra time?"

Never fear! Kristen to the rescue!

My dear, beautiful little sister, Kristen, is getting married this spring. So, even though she and the wedding are going to be in Utah, I'm doing everything I can to help her from California, since she's got a ton on her plate already. I helped her pick out cardstock and design her invitations and brought it all home with me. I did everything that I could from here and sent them back to her to finish them. (Shout out to Chelsie for the template!)

So, now all I have left to do is: alter the flower girl dresses so that they're not all white, make a ring-bearer pillow (because we didn't like anything we saw in the store, besides the fact that they want to charge you way too much for something so simple), and make the flower girl baskets (for the same reason we chose not to purchase the pillow). That way I can also match everything and make them into something that we like... well, that I like and I hope Kristen likes it, too.

Besides all the wedding stuff, I've got a few girlfriends that are having babies, so I've been working on gifts for them. I'm not going to go into detail here, but crocheting and knitting is something I can do while I watch tv/the kids playing video games. They're my veg-out projects.

Then, of course, there are all the little house projects, which are getting knocked off the list one by one. You know, the things that sit and fester for ages till you can't stand it anymore; burned out lights, hanging a coat rack that the kids can reach and hang their own jackets on... things like that.

Then there's the new calling at church. I got released as a Primary teacher and called as a counselor. It's more demanding than any other calling that I've ever had... well, except that time they called me to be a pianist in Relief Society. That was truly the hardest calling I've ever encountered. I'm not a pianist. I mean, I can play the piano and read music, but not very well at all. However, I am a little better at playing and sight reading than I used to be, but I was so relieved when I got released from that calling. Now that I've gone off on a tangent, I'll get back to the post.

There is always a learning curve with any new calling, and this one was bigger than I expected. Now that we're a couple months into it, I think we're getting the hang of it and things are running a bit more smoothly. I'm in charge of the Nursery and Sunbeams, which have 23 (27 by the end of next month) and 14 children in them, respectively.

So, yeah, all that on top of the daily grind. So, sorry it's been a couple weeks and it's already mid-March. The kids are doing great. Joseph's busy with his job, but he's great, too.

To end, I'd like to mention that my family and friends in Japan and Maui are all safe. Please keep them in your prayers as things will be hard for them for a while. If you'd like to help out, you can write "Japan Relief" in the Humanitarian Aid section of a tithing slip.

Thanks!

Tooth!!

Asher's first tooth is here! Now he's only half as miserable. I cannot wait till #2 pokes through. Hopefully it'll be within the week. You may or may not be ambivalent about this news. I haven't complained much about it online. Home, on the other hand, is a different story. I'm so excited to get my happy baby back soon!

Asher Update

Well, I turned 30 last week. It didn't end up being as big a deal as I thought it would be. But this post isn't about me. I promise I'll get that post written someday. I just don't feel like it right now.

Asher, on the other hand, needs a quick update. This kid... boy, he has a ton of stuff going on. If you remember, he started scooting across the floor at the tender age of five and a half months. Early.

Well, here we are, two months later, so here's what's happened, especially in the last two weeks:

Crawling

Asher's scooting quickly developed into an army crawl which he got really, really good and fast at. About four weeks ago, he started getting up on all four, but he wouldn't move forward, just rock back and forth. In the last three or four days, he has really started moving on all four, but just slowly and only a couple steps, for lack of a better word, at a time. Yesterday and today, he's been practicing a lot and only gets down for his army crawl when he wants to get somewhere quickly or if he gets really excited about something.

Making friends with... himself

Sitting

For as fast and far as Asher's been able to move around the house, the kid has had very little interest in staying put. If we sat him down, he would immediately lunge forward towards an object of desire. Recently, I've caught him crawling and stopping and then sitting, so that he can look around, then going back to crawling. The kid does not want to sit still. He is always on the move. Is this going to be a problem later on? Anyway, the boy can sit. He just doesn't want to.

Crawled on top of the box so he could play with the plant.

Pulling and Standing

Yes, seven and a half months old and already pulling himself up to stand against objects. And already on his way to cruising. I'll call it pre-cruising. If we had a staircase in our house, I'm sure he would be practicing going up them all the time. Favorite places to pull and climb: the fireplace and the DVD shelf. I smell trouble...

Talking

Asher's not terribly vocal, but he is loud. I can't tell you what his favorite thing to say is because his vocalizations are all over the place. The other day, however, he did say, "Mmmbop," and then I had that stinkin' Hanson song stuck in my head all day.

Teeth

Well, I went to Utah with Asher and Moses at the beginning of the month, which there ought to be a post about, but I took hardly any pictures, and it was not much more than visiting family and wedding planning and shopping. I got very little sleep, and of course the trip threw off the sleep schedules of the boys as well. So, a few days after we got back, Asher's not very scheduled sleep schedule was more or less back on track... for a few short nights, anyway.

Then, our happy little Asher turned into a grumpy, needy little gremlin with a gloriously wet nose and mouth. This is the first time I've dealt with a teether like this one. With Akiko and Moses, you hardly knew they were teething until about a day or two before their teeth came. Asher is a different story, but of course, he's also a different child than his siblings.

Sleepless nights. Hungry baby, but doesn't want to eat anything. Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. Clingy beyond belief. Loads of facial moisture oozing out constantly. Yeah, it's been tons of fun! =P

There is an end in sight, though. Hallelujah! I can see his first tooth is a day or two from erupting and the other one is close behind! I hope his teething pattern is like it was with his siblings: 2-2-4-4-8. Yeah, that was eight molars all at the same time. But then they were done by 18 months.

It had been a long night for both of them.

Eczema

I know you're all dying to know, because I've had several people ask me how it's going.

Well, back in mid-November I outlined a regimen that we'd been using to try and control his terrible eczema. It ended up not working. At his six month checkup, we decided to try something stronger. I knew that if we could somehow could control what was itching poor Asher, his sores would become more manageable. Our doctor concurred. Lucky for me, she has another little patient, just older than Asher, who is going through the exact same thing, so she put Asher on the same medication as this other little girl.

Asher gets an oral antihistamine a couple times a day and topical steroids for his patches. It's not totally gone, but it's better and I feel like it's more under control. His face patch is touchy though. If we're not persistent with the cream, it'll flare up bad. So, for now, it's okay. I'm really hoping he'll start to grow out of it soon, but at least he's not actively trying to scratch himself all over anymore.


So, there you have it. That's all I can think of. I'll let you know when the teeth finally come through. You'll probably know because I'll start posting more regularly again.