last week i got a call from my mom asking me if i had called my dad that day. i said no, cause i hadn't, and i asked her why. she said it was my dad's birthday and that my sister was a terrible person for not telling me since she had already called that morning and Sungu had already sung happy birthday to his grandfather. advantage: Malloy. i was very surprised to hear all of this because my mom had told me a couple weeks earlier that my dad's birthday was in november this year. so i was very unprepared for the bomb she dropped on me.
now, i know what you are thinking- what kind of terrible daughter doesn't know it's her own father's birthday? and what kind of terrible sister doesn't call around to make sure all of her siblings who live in arizona know that it's their dad's birthday? i know. my excuse is that my parents celebrate their birthdays on the lunar calendar. i don't know what my sister's excuse is...
anyhoo, i never know when my parents' birthdays are. it is the responsibility of the spouse to inform the children a few weeks in advance that the other spouse's birthday is coming up. this is just how my family has been rolling since the beginning of time. and my excuse for not being responsible myself is that i do not understand what the heck the lunar calendar is all about.
so after 29+ years, i've decided to look it up. this is what i've found:
"Most lunar calendars are, in fact, lunisolar; such as the Chinese, Hebrew, and Hindu calendars, and most calendar systems used in antiquity.
All these calendars have a variable number of months in a year. The reason for this is that a year is not evenly divisible by an exact number of lunations, so without the addition of intercalary months the seasons would drift each year. This results in a thirteen-month year every two or three years.
Lunar calendars differ as to which day is the first day of the month. For some lunar calendars, such as the Chinese calendar, the first day of a month is the day when an astronomical new moon appears in a particular time zone. For others, such as some Hindu calendars, each month begins at full moon. Others were based in the past on the first sighting of a lunar crescent such as the Hebrew calendar.
The length of a month orbit/cycle is difficult to predict and varies from its average value. Because observations are subject to uncertainty and weather conditions, and astronomical methods are highly complex, there have been attempts to create fixed arithmetical rules.
The average length of the synodic month is 29.530589 days. This requires the length of a month to be alternately 29 and 30 days (termed respectively hollow and full)."
interesting...
and more interesting facts:
"There are many different reasons to have a lunar calendar. There are many people who perform rituals that require the moon to be in certain stages to be effective if at all possible. Many women like to believe that their menstrual cycles have something to do with how the moon interacts with gravity and everything around them to rely on conceiving their children. Although these and many other moon specific events do occur and many people use lunar calendars for specific reasons such as these there are plenty of different advantages of having a lunar calendar."
also interesting...
but since my parents are non-ritualistic, and my mom has been menopausing for the last decade, the question that begs to be asked is- why bother with this lunar calendar business?!?!?
and the answer is- i don't know. and did i actually learn anything from the two articles i straight-up plagiarized from and didn't cite? no.
when i lived in korea, it was a bit easier keeping up with this lunar calendar lunacy because many calendars had the 'Solar/Gregorian/Christian/Western dates' on them, with the 'Lunar date' written on there as well, in smaller script.
so the best way i can explain birthday celebrating on the lunar calendar is that my mom was born in the third month on the 14th day on the lunar calendar. on the western calendar, that is March 14th, which i believe is what it says on her canadian drivers license. i don't know exactly what it says on her birth certificate, i don't know if paper was even invented that long ago... (haha. just joking. had to make a joke about my mom's age cause the opportunity presented itself, and cause my mom has been celebrating her '29th' birthday for the last 35 years...) anyhoo, so depending on when the beginning of the lunar new year is, will determine when the 14th day of the third month decides to appear in conjunction with the 'westernized' calendar.
this all sounds so complicated, which is why i don't keep up with the lunar calendar at all. i just thought about designing an 'app' for it, but wouldn't you know there already is one. (i just checked. i thought i was on the cusp of being a millionaire!!!) i actually have not spent a single cent on an 'app' yet, even though i've had my itouch for about a month now. i guess spending $1.99 is a small cost for actually being able to know when my parents' birthdays are. ah, if only the price to pay for being a good daughter was only $1.99...
Friday, October 8, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
the world according to lily and topher
- topher says: "dolphins are girls. sharks are boys." i don't know if he means that dolphins are for girls and sharks are for boys, or that dolpins and sharks are the same but they just look a little different because of their gender.
- lily has one sweetheart in this world. his name is hobey. last week he had some serious diaper rash and she would come over while i was changing his diaper and slathering his bottom with desitin and bag balm and she would say: "oh sweetheart. your bum is so red."
- after watching UP for the millionth time, the kids have started to look up in the sky, when there are clouds, which doesn't happen everyday here in the desert, and have started to see shapes in the clouds. yesterday they saw a puppy and topher was saying that he wanted to go up and play with the puppy.
- two days ago, while the kids were supposed to be napping, they were playing a game in their room instead. topher would get hurt and call out for 'mama', which ended up being lily, not me. it was pretty hilarious. and then later that afternoon, they were still in 'playmode' and lily was calling me 'grandma'... not as cute, but definitely hilarious.
- topher loves peeing in cups in the car. as in disposable cups. and even if they weren't disposable, i would dispose of them after urine got into them. anyhoo, i usually have one cup floating around, and the other day we ran around a ton and i forgot to stop for a potty break. so we were in the van and topher needed to pee. yeah mc donalds cup under the seat. he peed, smiled at me, and said: "can i drink it?" boys are so adorable. and disgusting.
- lily can write her name all by herself!!!!!! the other day we were playing with sidewalk chalk and she said: "want me to write my name?" so she did it! AMAZING!!!! all the letters were perfect! down the explosion of chalk to dot the 'i'. the onyl thing is that there was a stray 'y' in the middle of her name, and i had to remind her there was a 'y' at the end of her name, so we ended up with 'Lyily'. but still! it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo great! i didn't have to show her how to write any of the letters or anything. i love watching the thoughts in her brain materialize onto paper. before she would show me that she had drawn a heart, a star, and a homeless person, and all that was on the paper were three identical circles.
- topher can write his name with 'veggie straws' (chips that look like fries that come in spinach, sweet potato, and regular potato flavors.) i'm lying, he can write 'T'. which is still good. so lily decided to write topher's name. she doesn't know how to spell it yet, so it's different every time. one day it was 'oioi'. today it was "TITI" hahahahahhahahahahaha.......
- lily has one sweetheart in this world. his name is hobey. last week he had some serious diaper rash and she would come over while i was changing his diaper and slathering his bottom with desitin and bag balm and she would say: "oh sweetheart. your bum is so red."
- after watching UP for the millionth time, the kids have started to look up in the sky, when there are clouds, which doesn't happen everyday here in the desert, and have started to see shapes in the clouds. yesterday they saw a puppy and topher was saying that he wanted to go up and play with the puppy.
- two days ago, while the kids were supposed to be napping, they were playing a game in their room instead. topher would get hurt and call out for 'mama', which ended up being lily, not me. it was pretty hilarious. and then later that afternoon, they were still in 'playmode' and lily was calling me 'grandma'... not as cute, but definitely hilarious.
- topher loves peeing in cups in the car. as in disposable cups. and even if they weren't disposable, i would dispose of them after urine got into them. anyhoo, i usually have one cup floating around, and the other day we ran around a ton and i forgot to stop for a potty break. so we were in the van and topher needed to pee. yeah mc donalds cup under the seat. he peed, smiled at me, and said: "can i drink it?" boys are so adorable. and disgusting.
- lily can write her name all by herself!!!!!! the other day we were playing with sidewalk chalk and she said: "want me to write my name?" so she did it! AMAZING!!!! all the letters were perfect! down the explosion of chalk to dot the 'i'. the onyl thing is that there was a stray 'y' in the middle of her name, and i had to remind her there was a 'y' at the end of her name, so we ended up with 'Lyily'. but still! it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo great! i didn't have to show her how to write any of the letters or anything. i love watching the thoughts in her brain materialize onto paper. before she would show me that she had drawn a heart, a star, and a homeless person, and all that was on the paper were three identical circles.
- topher can write his name with 'veggie straws' (chips that look like fries that come in spinach, sweet potato, and regular potato flavors.) i'm lying, he can write 'T'. which is still good. so lily decided to write topher's name. she doesn't know how to spell it yet, so it's different every time. one day it was 'oioi'. today it was "TITI" hahahahahhahahahahaha.......
Monday, October 4, 2010
cheerful? really?
chris is back. he had a wonderful mancation. did i tell you some of the details to his trip yet? chris' buddy jeff turned 40 last month, so his present to himself was a man-trip to yellowstone national park with his brother and two of his best friends. of which chris fit the bill. jeff's brother and other bff flew in from new jersey on saturday and the boys took off on sunday. they took off in a prius. cause jeff is the most frugal man alive. so these 4 burly men, each weighing over 180lbs, jammed into a prius, and managed to spend $140 in gas for a round trip to wyoming and back. that's pretty impressive. there was lots of inadvertent snuggling in the car, as well as in the double beds that were slept in. so special...
anyhoo, chris came back in one piece, and still attracted to women, and we were so very very happy to see him. then came the 'task' of getting back into our routine, which really means very little to the kids and i, cause we don't have much of a routine. but for chris there was basketball (for the league he's in and payed money for)to be played, and much homework to be done. being a master's student is no walk in the park people.
so, i have these battles in my brain about how i can and should support my husband. though i was missing my hubby for many reasons while he was gone, i was happy he was able to go away to a beautiful place like yellowstone, and hike every day, and even catch 3 fish, and just RELAX and enjoy the glory of God in nature. which is something chris actually appreciates very much. one year chris and his brother were out on christmas watching the sunset and the sky was a mutitude of incredible colors, and chris was recounting the scene to me on the phone and he said: "Jesus really showed up on his birthday today." i thought it was lovely.
but, as much as i knew chris needed this trip, and i was happy he was able to go away, for so long, and it costing us so little (thanks again cheap jefff), with really hilarious guys, i was a bit... bitter? resentful? i don't know.
and then he came back. and i was so glad he was back. but then he had readings, and assignments, etc. etc. and so i was so glad for him to be back, but i found myself once again feeling a bit... annoyed? vexed?
and i am trying to be a really good and supportive wife. especially when the things chris does is good for our family's future. like his schooling, and when he works overtime (another source of bittersweetness for me), or even just goes to work at all! i nmy unrealistic perfect world, we would all just sit around, every day, eating, making merry, visiting with friends and family, and money would fall from the sky and no one would ever have to go to work... lame. i know. so yeah, chris does a lot for our family. and i know that right now, he just needs support. so i give it to him by doing stuff with the kids, and telling him that i support him with words. but my attitude is not reflecctive of the words i speak. and it sucks. chris asked me about 3 times this weekend if i was mad at him. and of course i said no. cause i wasn't. or was i? i don't know...
so then i was reminded of a verse that i sent to a friend of mine who was visiting a very sick friend. the verse is in 2 corinthians 9:8 and it goes like this:
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."
so i reread that verse, cause i felt like it was appplicable to me, in the midst of my trying to do the 'good work' of being a supportive wife. but then i read the verse before it: (verse 7)
"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
eww. really? cheerful? i definitely displayed zero ounces of cheerfulness in my sad attempts to support my husband this week. or even the last couple of weeks. i've already apologized to him, and of course he tells me that he appreciates me so much and i know that's true, and i absolutely do feel appreciated by him. i told him in our wedding vows that i would always stand by him, i told him (and his bosses) that our family supports his job and his need to be 'on call at all times' kind of thing. it's easy to support him when things are easy and going 'my way'. but once he is actually busy doing a million things at once, or getting called out while I (yeah, i capitalized that one) am busy doing something, then that support gets harder to muster. and to add cheerfulness on top of that? near impossible.
so that's been my struggle of late. and i am trying to deal with it. with some cheerfulness. and what a difference that little ingredient makes!
anyhoo, chris came back in one piece, and still attracted to women, and we were so very very happy to see him. then came the 'task' of getting back into our routine, which really means very little to the kids and i, cause we don't have much of a routine. but for chris there was basketball (for the league he's in and payed money for)to be played, and much homework to be done. being a master's student is no walk in the park people.
so, i have these battles in my brain about how i can and should support my husband. though i was missing my hubby for many reasons while he was gone, i was happy he was able to go away to a beautiful place like yellowstone, and hike every day, and even catch 3 fish, and just RELAX and enjoy the glory of God in nature. which is something chris actually appreciates very much. one year chris and his brother were out on christmas watching the sunset and the sky was a mutitude of incredible colors, and chris was recounting the scene to me on the phone and he said: "Jesus really showed up on his birthday today." i thought it was lovely.
but, as much as i knew chris needed this trip, and i was happy he was able to go away, for so long, and it costing us so little (thanks again cheap jefff), with really hilarious guys, i was a bit... bitter? resentful? i don't know.
and then he came back. and i was so glad he was back. but then he had readings, and assignments, etc. etc. and so i was so glad for him to be back, but i found myself once again feeling a bit... annoyed? vexed?
and i am trying to be a really good and supportive wife. especially when the things chris does is good for our family's future. like his schooling, and when he works overtime (another source of bittersweetness for me), or even just goes to work at all! i nmy unrealistic perfect world, we would all just sit around, every day, eating, making merry, visiting with friends and family, and money would fall from the sky and no one would ever have to go to work... lame. i know. so yeah, chris does a lot for our family. and i know that right now, he just needs support. so i give it to him by doing stuff with the kids, and telling him that i support him with words. but my attitude is not reflecctive of the words i speak. and it sucks. chris asked me about 3 times this weekend if i was mad at him. and of course i said no. cause i wasn't. or was i? i don't know...
so then i was reminded of a verse that i sent to a friend of mine who was visiting a very sick friend. the verse is in 2 corinthians 9:8 and it goes like this:
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."
so i reread that verse, cause i felt like it was appplicable to me, in the midst of my trying to do the 'good work' of being a supportive wife. but then i read the verse before it: (verse 7)
"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
eww. really? cheerful? i definitely displayed zero ounces of cheerfulness in my sad attempts to support my husband this week. or even the last couple of weeks. i've already apologized to him, and of course he tells me that he appreciates me so much and i know that's true, and i absolutely do feel appreciated by him. i told him in our wedding vows that i would always stand by him, i told him (and his bosses) that our family supports his job and his need to be 'on call at all times' kind of thing. it's easy to support him when things are easy and going 'my way'. but once he is actually busy doing a million things at once, or getting called out while I (yeah, i capitalized that one) am busy doing something, then that support gets harder to muster. and to add cheerfulness on top of that? near impossible.
so that's been my struggle of late. and i am trying to deal with it. with some cheerfulness. and what a difference that little ingredient makes!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
5 days. not bad
so chris has been in wyoming for 5 days now. and i have not complained about it. until now- i am ready for you to be home already christopher joel! (seriousness. i used the middle name.) lily and gravity were not friends tonight, so lots of tears were shed, and tears are not my friends. tears kind of make my skin crawl, especially if they are accompanied by their even-more-annoying counterpart, whining.
now, i don't want to sound like a heartless mother, even though that's what i sound like, but lily used to cry ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so i just need to still get over that portion of our lives and not get angry everytime she cries. especially when it's very legit. but more often than not, it's still not. if she gets hurt from doing something that i expressly told her not to do- SHOULD i express deep sympathy for her? i don't know. you tell me. i tell her that i am sorry she got hurt, but that i am not sorry that she didn't listen to me. i guess no one at any age likes to hear "i told you so", no matter how you mask it.
but i have had a great five days with the kids, and i know chris has missed us terribly, but has also had a really really great trip. so i am very thankful for that. our timing of living with the in-laws has actually been kind of perfect. for me at least. it's definitely hard hanging out with kids 24/7 as the solo adult. but if there is at least one other adult around, even if they were sitting in a chair, strapped down, and all they could do was talk to me and not even lend a hand- that would be ok! i just need another adult to talk to. but fortunately for me, barb and jerry are not incapacitated and help out with the kids quite a bit. so i get conversation, lattes, and help with the monkeys. a great deal to be sure.
today the kids did not nap. that probably also made the day a bit longer. BUT i did wake up in my own bed at 6:05am, and that was a miracle! no one called out for me in the middle of the night, not even once. so great. i was definitely praising Jesus like crazy for that blessing.
anyhoo, i have one and a half more days till the wilderness man gets back from his voyage. fortunately tomorrow night i will be out on a date with mary beth (she set up a babysitter for us! genius woman!!!!!) and the kids will have their second sleepover of their lives, in the same week. at the same house no less.
again, i am too blessed to have the family and friends that i do.
now, i don't want to sound like a heartless mother, even though that's what i sound like, but lily used to cry ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so i just need to still get over that portion of our lives and not get angry everytime she cries. especially when it's very legit. but more often than not, it's still not. if she gets hurt from doing something that i expressly told her not to do- SHOULD i express deep sympathy for her? i don't know. you tell me. i tell her that i am sorry she got hurt, but that i am not sorry that she didn't listen to me. i guess no one at any age likes to hear "i told you so", no matter how you mask it.
but i have had a great five days with the kids, and i know chris has missed us terribly, but has also had a really really great trip. so i am very thankful for that. our timing of living with the in-laws has actually been kind of perfect. for me at least. it's definitely hard hanging out with kids 24/7 as the solo adult. but if there is at least one other adult around, even if they were sitting in a chair, strapped down, and all they could do was talk to me and not even lend a hand- that would be ok! i just need another adult to talk to. but fortunately for me, barb and jerry are not incapacitated and help out with the kids quite a bit. so i get conversation, lattes, and help with the monkeys. a great deal to be sure.
today the kids did not nap. that probably also made the day a bit longer. BUT i did wake up in my own bed at 6:05am, and that was a miracle! no one called out for me in the middle of the night, not even once. so great. i was definitely praising Jesus like crazy for that blessing.
anyhoo, i have one and a half more days till the wilderness man gets back from his voyage. fortunately tomorrow night i will be out on a date with mary beth (she set up a babysitter for us! genius woman!!!!!) and the kids will have their second sleepover of their lives, in the same week. at the same house no less.
again, i am too blessed to have the family and friends that i do.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
still kickin
hey peeps.
i'm here! and i am not depressed!
i got quite a few concerned texts this weekend from concerned friends who read my last post. this is my blog. my pity party are open to the public. no cover charge.
anyhoo, i have been meaning to write an uplifting post, but alas, it's getting pretty close to my bedtime. which is crazy since i have been sitting here, alone, in my room, for the last 2.5 hours.
chris is in wyoming, hanging out at yellowstone national park, with a friend of his who turned 40 this month. and that was his birthday wish- to go to yellowstone with his brother and 2 of his bffs. at small group yesterday we talked about what we would like to do for milestone birthdays. apparently a lot of men have this ridiculous desire to go out to the woods, or at least into nature, and just BE. and BE often included hunting bears. weird.
my thing is, and for no particular birthday, to go to toronto and have coffee at every single independently owned coffee shop. i imagine this would take about a year (or one severely sleep-deprived month) to do as there are tons and tons of coffee shops. i have a dream...
anyhoo, between learning how to set up my new ipod (my first ever ipod actually. i think i need help. i still don't know what i'm doing.) and playing bejeweled blast, and sending out e-mails, and trying to read my book for my high school small group tomorrow, i am running out of time to blog!
i have a ton of cute pics of the kids from this week though. i might just post them all on facebook and you will have to check them out there. but living 'abroad' has brought out the adventurous side of us. or at least the not-lazy part of us. we went to the zoo (not the best idea since it was still 100+ degrees out) rode on the camels, went to a splash pad, had our first sleep-over at a friend's, and we have been playing in the backyard a ton! nice to have 'cooler' evening weather at long last! and having a pimpin backyard to play in doesn't hurt either.
anyway, the last few days have been riddled with other peoples' ups and downs. this morning my girlfriend's sister, who had been trying to have a baby for over 4 years, gave birth to a healthy and wonderful baby girl. praise Jesus! and then we also found out that my sister-in-law Lindsay is pregnant with a little girl! also wonderful. but then i also found out that a friend's daughter, who just had a baby a month and a half ago, is suddenly getting divorced cause her husband announced that he "doesn't love her anymore". what!?!???!?!?!?!?... and then i had the scare of my life when i heard that the little boy i watch on thursdays and fridays wouldn't wake up from his nap. for hours and hours and hours and hours on end. many tests- CTScans, spinal taps, etc have been done. i don't know if they know anything just yet besides the fact that he has a double ear infection. but ear infections make kids cranky, and a little tired i'm sure. but not comatose! the little man is doing better, but please pray for him if you think about it. and for 'k' and her new baby as they begin this ugly divorce process.
life is full of ups and downs. i am thankful my downs have nothing to do with health or love and my ups have lots to do with them. very very thankful. i am so thankful for my new roommates who make me soy lattes (hot in the morning, iced in the afternoon. jerry! you're my favorite barista!!!!!!!) and make yummy dinner, and clean after i make dinner, and provide awesome conversation, and lots and lots of love and laughs for my lily and topher.
this sounds pretty cheesy, but i am thankful for you readers, who for whatever reason, read my blog, even when i'm not writing anything new for days at a time, and occassionally call me to make sure i haven't completely lost it. thanks a lot. i'm still here. and i'm still kickin it.
i'm here! and i am not depressed!
i got quite a few concerned texts this weekend from concerned friends who read my last post. this is my blog. my pity party are open to the public. no cover charge.
anyhoo, i have been meaning to write an uplifting post, but alas, it's getting pretty close to my bedtime. which is crazy since i have been sitting here, alone, in my room, for the last 2.5 hours.
chris is in wyoming, hanging out at yellowstone national park, with a friend of his who turned 40 this month. and that was his birthday wish- to go to yellowstone with his brother and 2 of his bffs. at small group yesterday we talked about what we would like to do for milestone birthdays. apparently a lot of men have this ridiculous desire to go out to the woods, or at least into nature, and just BE. and BE often included hunting bears. weird.
my thing is, and for no particular birthday, to go to toronto and have coffee at every single independently owned coffee shop. i imagine this would take about a year (or one severely sleep-deprived month) to do as there are tons and tons of coffee shops. i have a dream...
anyhoo, between learning how to set up my new ipod (my first ever ipod actually. i think i need help. i still don't know what i'm doing.) and playing bejeweled blast, and sending out e-mails, and trying to read my book for my high school small group tomorrow, i am running out of time to blog!
i have a ton of cute pics of the kids from this week though. i might just post them all on facebook and you will have to check them out there. but living 'abroad' has brought out the adventurous side of us. or at least the not-lazy part of us. we went to the zoo (not the best idea since it was still 100+ degrees out) rode on the camels, went to a splash pad, had our first sleep-over at a friend's, and we have been playing in the backyard a ton! nice to have 'cooler' evening weather at long last! and having a pimpin backyard to play in doesn't hurt either.
anyway, the last few days have been riddled with other peoples' ups and downs. this morning my girlfriend's sister, who had been trying to have a baby for over 4 years, gave birth to a healthy and wonderful baby girl. praise Jesus! and then we also found out that my sister-in-law Lindsay is pregnant with a little girl! also wonderful. but then i also found out that a friend's daughter, who just had a baby a month and a half ago, is suddenly getting divorced cause her husband announced that he "doesn't love her anymore". what!?!???!?!?!?!?... and then i had the scare of my life when i heard that the little boy i watch on thursdays and fridays wouldn't wake up from his nap. for hours and hours and hours and hours on end. many tests- CTScans, spinal taps, etc have been done. i don't know if they know anything just yet besides the fact that he has a double ear infection. but ear infections make kids cranky, and a little tired i'm sure. but not comatose! the little man is doing better, but please pray for him if you think about it. and for 'k' and her new baby as they begin this ugly divorce process.
life is full of ups and downs. i am thankful my downs have nothing to do with health or love and my ups have lots to do with them. very very thankful. i am so thankful for my new roommates who make me soy lattes (hot in the morning, iced in the afternoon. jerry! you're my favorite barista!!!!!!!) and make yummy dinner, and clean after i make dinner, and provide awesome conversation, and lots and lots of love and laughs for my lily and topher.
this sounds pretty cheesy, but i am thankful for you readers, who for whatever reason, read my blog, even when i'm not writing anything new for days at a time, and occassionally call me to make sure i haven't completely lost it. thanks a lot. i'm still here. and i'm still kickin it.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
report card on life: C+
we have moved!
and that's why i haven't been around much.
sunday was dooms day, but every day before that felt pretty 'doomy' if you ask me. i really take for granted the fact that they say moving is one of the top 3 stressors in life. the way that chris and i have been moving of late, has not necessarily been 'easier'. the frequency of the moves doesn't help either. but why do we do it? cause all these different opportunities arise for us to buy houses, so we jump on em. meanwhile we have to land on different family members' hospitality mid-jump to make the most of said opportunities.
right now we are flat out taking advantage of the wonderful barb and jerry osborne pad. we have gone swimming almost everyday. we all could have our own rooms, but we choose to share. i don't have to make dinner to night, which is awesome, cause barb said she wanted to make spaghetti. AND i haven't even asked the crazy woman to do it-but barb has packed chris' sandwich for lunch for the last two days! (she says it's easy cause she makes a sandwich for jerry everyday anyway. great wife. great mom.) man, we might never leave!...
and at the rate the banks are working on our contracts, it kinda looks like we might actually have to stay here forever...
here's where we are at with our future housing-
house 1. we put an offer on it in APRIL. yeah, like five and a half months ago. we just signed something that said we will not close faster than 45 days. but 45 days from when!?!?... sounds like things are moving... but at the same pace my children come running to me when i tell them we are eating broccoli and horse poop for dinner.
house 2. we put an offer on this house a little over a month ago. or maybe it's been two months now. i don't know. this house is definitely moving faster than the other house (since the other house had a 3 month head start!!!) but we're not entirely sure where we are at in the process.
so, we are getting pretty comfortable here, and trying to be on our bestest behavior. i have been trying to pump these people up with korean dinners, to give the impression that we are wonderful house guests...
anyhoo, sunday was moving day and it was a record high hot day in arizona for september. awesome. even when i wasn't moving anything- i was sweating. 111 degrees. boo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and we asked our friends to help us move our crap from our apartment to our storage unit- but strangely enough, we didn't have many takers. shocking, i know. but everyone had a legitamitely good excuse. people couldn't get babysitters, it was their birthday, they were at church for almost 10 hours speaking or singing, etc etc. i don't know why we keep moving on sundays and in the summer, but whatever. we did sucker two of our friends from our small group to come and help us and we are forever indebted to Jay and Shelley. they don't read my blog, but i'm giving them a shout out anyway cause i am in love with their hearts and strong muscles. my girlfriend mary beth also watched lily and topher for me, so i continue to be indebted to her as well.
the move went well enough. we were not as well-packed as we should have been, nor were we as well-prepared as we should have been. basically, we are getting worse with every move we make, not better. i think it's a sign we should STOP. chris started the moving process at about 11 am. we were out of the apartment completely by 9pm. but not without some idiotically ridiculous stuff happening to us first:
i don't know if i mentioned our 'vinegar terror' story from when we moved into the apartment, but last year when we moved into the apartment, there was a bottle of vinegar in a box, and it spilled in our car. nasty. the car stunk. needless to say it made selling that car VERY DIFFICULT a few weeks later. so i pretty much hate vinegar. and the worst part is, we still had that same bottle of vinegar when we were getting ready to move out. i learned from our previous mistake, so i dumped the remainder of the bottle down the drain and then threw out the bottle in a big black trash bag. well, of course, as i am taking the trash out to the dumpster, the bag rips a bit and disgusting garbage juice spills on my legs. yes, it's vinegar. ugh. how i loathe vinegar. and then i had some balsamic vinegar spill onto some stuff in a bin in the front seat in the van. i was fortunately driving by the dumpster when i noticed the rancid reek, so i threw out anything the balsamic vinegar had touched. it was dark so i don't know what i was throwing out. but i didn't care. vinegar and i are not friends.
in the year that we lived in our fairly gross apartment, i had never seen a scorpion. as chris and i were really getting ready to leave, the last item that needed to be brought out was his big ol' gun safe. chris, in all his buff glory, goes to pick the thing up from underneath, and he gets stung by a giant scorpion. really??!?! are you frickin kidding me scorpion?!?!? on chris' middle finger no less. and it, and a good portion of chris' arm went numb soon after. that kinda just stamped and sealed our whole moving process. a scorpion bite on the middle finger. nice touch...
anyway, the next day chris and i found ourselves in a serious funk. i went to work for a few hours. as i drove to work i found myself in the perfect pathetic fallacy. it was a hot sunny day, the mark of a bright new day and start for our family. but it suddenly started raining, though the sky maintained it sunny appearance. ah! perfection. i was definitely trying to keep up a sunny and cheerful front but i was definitely crying inside! i was so physically tired. i was so tired of moving. i was so disappointed we weren't in a house yet. i was kinda just pissed at life and doubting a lot of decisions that chris and i had made that had brought us to the place where we were at. did we make a wrong turn somewhere? were we being greedy and selfish and a ton of other unflattering things?
when it comes down to it, we keep moving because we are trying to secure our financial future. i know it sounds crazy to still think real estate can be part of anyone's financial future, but God has really blessed us with our 1.5 homes (jeehon owns half of one) that are being rented out right now and this next house (should we ever get to officially purchase it...) is going to be a real steal of a deal. what would you sacrifice for your family's future? our sacrifice is our comfort about 1 week a year. (my in-laws unfortunately have to sacrifice a bit too...)
anyhoo... this is a pretty long post so i should probably wrap it up now. but my kids are still napping so i will add this one verse that i was reminded of while driving in the sunshiny rain in the midst of my joys and woes:
"Let us acknowledge the Lord;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth."
- hosea 6:3
so as always, God is good. He and nothing else. definitely not me. i started off this week on sunday with an 'F' attitude (as in failing. not anything else. well...) anyway, it's thursday and i am doing better. i'm no all-star so i haven't been able to pull myself up to an A+ attitude just yet. i have not had a ton of internet access, which is good cause it makes me waste my time a lot less. and makes me have quiet time more. i am living in a beautiful, very well-decorated home, that belongs to two people who really love the crap out of me and my family. and they also happen to love Glee, so we had a great time watching the season premiere of that on Tuesday all together. i could not be more blessed. though you wouldn't always know it from my attitude. but i'm working on it!
and that's why i haven't been around much.
sunday was dooms day, but every day before that felt pretty 'doomy' if you ask me. i really take for granted the fact that they say moving is one of the top 3 stressors in life. the way that chris and i have been moving of late, has not necessarily been 'easier'. the frequency of the moves doesn't help either. but why do we do it? cause all these different opportunities arise for us to buy houses, so we jump on em. meanwhile we have to land on different family members' hospitality mid-jump to make the most of said opportunities.
right now we are flat out taking advantage of the wonderful barb and jerry osborne pad. we have gone swimming almost everyday. we all could have our own rooms, but we choose to share. i don't have to make dinner to night, which is awesome, cause barb said she wanted to make spaghetti. AND i haven't even asked the crazy woman to do it-but barb has packed chris' sandwich for lunch for the last two days! (she says it's easy cause she makes a sandwich for jerry everyday anyway. great wife. great mom.) man, we might never leave!...
and at the rate the banks are working on our contracts, it kinda looks like we might actually have to stay here forever...
here's where we are at with our future housing-
house 1. we put an offer on it in APRIL. yeah, like five and a half months ago. we just signed something that said we will not close faster than 45 days. but 45 days from when!?!?... sounds like things are moving... but at the same pace my children come running to me when i tell them we are eating broccoli and horse poop for dinner.
house 2. we put an offer on this house a little over a month ago. or maybe it's been two months now. i don't know. this house is definitely moving faster than the other house (since the other house had a 3 month head start!!!) but we're not entirely sure where we are at in the process.
so, we are getting pretty comfortable here, and trying to be on our bestest behavior. i have been trying to pump these people up with korean dinners, to give the impression that we are wonderful house guests...
anyhoo, sunday was moving day and it was a record high hot day in arizona for september. awesome. even when i wasn't moving anything- i was sweating. 111 degrees. boo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and we asked our friends to help us move our crap from our apartment to our storage unit- but strangely enough, we didn't have many takers. shocking, i know. but everyone had a legitamitely good excuse. people couldn't get babysitters, it was their birthday, they were at church for almost 10 hours speaking or singing, etc etc. i don't know why we keep moving on sundays and in the summer, but whatever. we did sucker two of our friends from our small group to come and help us and we are forever indebted to Jay and Shelley. they don't read my blog, but i'm giving them a shout out anyway cause i am in love with their hearts and strong muscles. my girlfriend mary beth also watched lily and topher for me, so i continue to be indebted to her as well.
the move went well enough. we were not as well-packed as we should have been, nor were we as well-prepared as we should have been. basically, we are getting worse with every move we make, not better. i think it's a sign we should STOP. chris started the moving process at about 11 am. we were out of the apartment completely by 9pm. but not without some idiotically ridiculous stuff happening to us first:
i don't know if i mentioned our 'vinegar terror' story from when we moved into the apartment, but last year when we moved into the apartment, there was a bottle of vinegar in a box, and it spilled in our car. nasty. the car stunk. needless to say it made selling that car VERY DIFFICULT a few weeks later. so i pretty much hate vinegar. and the worst part is, we still had that same bottle of vinegar when we were getting ready to move out. i learned from our previous mistake, so i dumped the remainder of the bottle down the drain and then threw out the bottle in a big black trash bag. well, of course, as i am taking the trash out to the dumpster, the bag rips a bit and disgusting garbage juice spills on my legs. yes, it's vinegar. ugh. how i loathe vinegar. and then i had some balsamic vinegar spill onto some stuff in a bin in the front seat in the van. i was fortunately driving by the dumpster when i noticed the rancid reek, so i threw out anything the balsamic vinegar had touched. it was dark so i don't know what i was throwing out. but i didn't care. vinegar and i are not friends.
in the year that we lived in our fairly gross apartment, i had never seen a scorpion. as chris and i were really getting ready to leave, the last item that needed to be brought out was his big ol' gun safe. chris, in all his buff glory, goes to pick the thing up from underneath, and he gets stung by a giant scorpion. really??!?! are you frickin kidding me scorpion?!?!? on chris' middle finger no less. and it, and a good portion of chris' arm went numb soon after. that kinda just stamped and sealed our whole moving process. a scorpion bite on the middle finger. nice touch...
anyway, the next day chris and i found ourselves in a serious funk. i went to work for a few hours. as i drove to work i found myself in the perfect pathetic fallacy. it was a hot sunny day, the mark of a bright new day and start for our family. but it suddenly started raining, though the sky maintained it sunny appearance. ah! perfection. i was definitely trying to keep up a sunny and cheerful front but i was definitely crying inside! i was so physically tired. i was so tired of moving. i was so disappointed we weren't in a house yet. i was kinda just pissed at life and doubting a lot of decisions that chris and i had made that had brought us to the place where we were at. did we make a wrong turn somewhere? were we being greedy and selfish and a ton of other unflattering things?
when it comes down to it, we keep moving because we are trying to secure our financial future. i know it sounds crazy to still think real estate can be part of anyone's financial future, but God has really blessed us with our 1.5 homes (jeehon owns half of one) that are being rented out right now and this next house (should we ever get to officially purchase it...) is going to be a real steal of a deal. what would you sacrifice for your family's future? our sacrifice is our comfort about 1 week a year. (my in-laws unfortunately have to sacrifice a bit too...)
anyhoo... this is a pretty long post so i should probably wrap it up now. but my kids are still napping so i will add this one verse that i was reminded of while driving in the sunshiny rain in the midst of my joys and woes:
"Let us acknowledge the Lord;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth."
- hosea 6:3
so as always, God is good. He and nothing else. definitely not me. i started off this week on sunday with an 'F' attitude (as in failing. not anything else. well...) anyway, it's thursday and i am doing better. i'm no all-star so i haven't been able to pull myself up to an A+ attitude just yet. i have not had a ton of internet access, which is good cause it makes me waste my time a lot less. and makes me have quiet time more. i am living in a beautiful, very well-decorated home, that belongs to two people who really love the crap out of me and my family. and they also happen to love Glee, so we had a great time watching the season premiere of that on Tuesday all together. i could not be more blessed. though you wouldn't always know it from my attitude. but i'm working on it!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
crazy hair days. fun for everyone
i really really really should finish up packing (aka throwing the leftover stuff that hasn't been put in boxes yet into trash bags and declutter my life!)
but i really wanted to write this post before we put the computer away tomorrow.
this month at lily's preschool is 'color circus'. the kids dress up in a certain color everyday. then on tueday they also added an extra element of fun- crazy hair. lily's back to her old habit of undoing my hair-dos while she sits in the car, which a little bit drives me nuts, but she's 3. what can you do? and actually, the day before crazy hair day, we were just running around town and she pulled out her hair elastics while i was driving, and she said: "look at me mom! i pulled out my hair fings!" ("fings"="things") i was not happy to see all of my hard work of brushing, then parting, then elasticizing her hair go to waste. i asked her why she did thaet in my not happy voice. i realized it wasn't a big deal and i felt bad for using my not happy voice. but of course, i was made to feel a million times worse when lily looked up at me and said: "i'm sorry. do you forgive me?"
sucky mother moment.
anyway, this is supposed to be a post about crazy hair, not crazy mom.
so here is a pic of lily- while we are still at home. getting ready for school (and of course, the hair style did not make it through the car ride! which is ok! don't sweat the small stuff.. don't sweat the small stuff...)
when i was teaching at taht crazy school in korea 7 years ago, we had a 'crazy hair day' too. but ours was way more serious than this little thing at lily's school. why? cause the people i worked with were crazy, which is why i LOVED going to work. i showed up looking kind of crazy, but when i noticed the wig one of my friends was wearing, and the awesome checker pattern another friend had shaed into his head, i decided to step it up a notch. i needed a hair cut anyway, so i started chopping off random chunks of my hair. the guys i worked with took some of my hair, taped it up, and used it for mustaches. gross. i know. but so funny. i guess you had to be there.
so here is a pic of two awesome guys i worked with, who have since turned into missionaries in africa and the middle east. what a blessing to have friends who are believers, and are also a little bit nuts:
we named the 'little guy' on jono's elbow. i can't remember his name. but his locks of love came from me!
but i really wanted to write this post before we put the computer away tomorrow.
this month at lily's preschool is 'color circus'. the kids dress up in a certain color everyday. then on tueday they also added an extra element of fun- crazy hair. lily's back to her old habit of undoing my hair-dos while she sits in the car, which a little bit drives me nuts, but she's 3. what can you do? and actually, the day before crazy hair day, we were just running around town and she pulled out her hair elastics while i was driving, and she said: "look at me mom! i pulled out my hair fings!" ("fings"="things") i was not happy to see all of my hard work of brushing, then parting, then elasticizing her hair go to waste. i asked her why she did thaet in my not happy voice. i realized it wasn't a big deal and i felt bad for using my not happy voice. but of course, i was made to feel a million times worse when lily looked up at me and said: "i'm sorry. do you forgive me?"
sucky mother moment.
anyway, this is supposed to be a post about crazy hair, not crazy mom.
so here is a pic of lily- while we are still at home. getting ready for school (and of course, the hair style did not make it through the car ride! which is ok! don't sweat the small stuff.. don't sweat the small stuff...)
when i was teaching at taht crazy school in korea 7 years ago, we had a 'crazy hair day' too. but ours was way more serious than this little thing at lily's school. why? cause the people i worked with were crazy, which is why i LOVED going to work. i showed up looking kind of crazy, but when i noticed the wig one of my friends was wearing, and the awesome checker pattern another friend had shaed into his head, i decided to step it up a notch. i needed a hair cut anyway, so i started chopping off random chunks of my hair. the guys i worked with took some of my hair, taped it up, and used it for mustaches. gross. i know. but so funny. i guess you had to be there.
so here is a pic of two awesome guys i worked with, who have since turned into missionaries in africa and the middle east. what a blessing to have friends who are believers, and are also a little bit nuts:
we named the 'little guy' on jono's elbow. i can't remember his name. but his locks of love came from me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)