Ode to Triple A

Quinn and I are always super careful about making sure we have our keys in hand before shutting and locking the door to our house or car. I seriously check like three times before I shut the door just because getting locked out of the house or the car with Caitlyn--or worse, locking Caitlyn inside the car--would be a total disaster. However...last Saturday I ran to the store with Caitlyn to get a few last ingredients for a BBQ and Easter egg hunt with some friends. When we drove up to our apartment I threw the keys in the diaper bag and then decided it would be easier to get Caitlyn out (we have a 2-door car, so between that and a growing belly, that in and itself can be quite a task) and then go around to the passenger side to get the diaper bag and groceries out rather than reaching all the way across to pull them out while also holding Caitlyn. So I got Caitlyn out and walked around with her to the passenger side...which, I discovered was locked. No problem, I'll just go back around to the driver's side and unlock it. Except the driver's side is locked too. Oh. Crap.
It was a really hot day, so my first thought was how incredibly grateful I was that I had gotten Caitlyn out of the car before shutting the door. Legend has it that our retired-cop next door neighbor is a pro at getting into locked doors. So I ran down to his apartment and explained what had happened. He grabbed some tools and came up with us to the car, took one look at it and said, "I can open just about any house door, but I'm afraid I'm going to do some damage to your car if I try this." Since we just spent $500 getting the electronic car window fixed, that didn't appeal to me so much. Visions of flushing $90 away on a locksmith while the sirloin, bacon, asparagus, and Faje yogurt rotted in the hot car began to float through my head. "Do you happen to have any recommendations for a locksmith in the area?" I asked our neighbor sadly. "Hmmmm....do you belong to Triple A?" He asked. Ding!! Why yes! Yes, we do! We joined just before driving across the country to Virginia last summer and have never had to use it for anything car-related, so it didn't even cross my mind! Bless our neighbor for being inspired to remind me!
So we called them up and a guy came about 10 minutes later, unlocked the car (for free!), and drove away about 20 seconds later. Yippeeeeeeeee!!!! Dear Triple A, I love you!
And I am still so, so thankful Caitlyn wasn't in the car when I locked it. The End.

Things to Do, Part III

It takes me forever to get around to doing posts that require me to get videos off Quinn's phone. But the other night when I finally found a minute to do it, it only took me about 3 minutes. I'll try and remember how easy it is so next time it doesn't take me a month to do a post with videos that are 3 months old...
Anyway, when I went to the Hypnobirthing Certification one of the women there mentioned a book they use at her preschool called "I Love You Rituals" and couldn't say enough about how much it helped with the children's behavior.

When I heard another woman talking about the book about a week later I decided to get it. I LOVE it. The author, a Ph.D in Early Childhood Education and Developmental Psychology, has changed the words of nursery rhymes from negative or scary to positive and nurturing. She also has interactive actions you do with the child(ren) while saying the words. Her theory is that these rhymes as well as the other interactive finger plays and games in her book prime a child's brain for learning, enhance attention, cooperation, and self-esteem, help children cope with change, help busy families stay close, and affirm the parent-child bond that insulates children from violence, peer pressure, drugs, etc. (That's what it says on the back of the book.) I loved reading the first part of the book, which expounds on her theories and the effectiveness of the "I Love You" rituals. Her perspective on discipline and power struggles, meeting a child's emotional needs etc. really rang true to me.
Caitlyn loves doing these with us, too. I often do them with her when she's cranky and it really is amazing the effect they have. The author says that these moments of unconditional love invite cooperation into your home, and I usually find that to be true!
Here is a video of just a couple of the rhymes. We did other videos but accidentally made them too long to post. :(

Again, I'm not getting anything for sharing this book on my blog. I've just really loved this book and thought some of you might be interested in it. (Not that there's anything wrong with commissions for advertising good products on your blog, I just felt like I should clarify.)
p.s. Anyone who has or gets this book will see that I'm doing the actions to Mary Had a Little Lamb a different way--Caitlyn didn't like it when I tried to follow her hand around with my hand so I had to adjust. I think the actions in the book on this one might work a little better with an older child.

Things to Do, Part II

One week at playgroup at the church, they decorated enormous cardboard boxes and then played in them. I needed to go to the store that morning, so we got there for the second hour and missed that part. But when I saw what they had done, I commented on what a good idea it was. The lady who had been in charge of the activity started telling me about what a good activity it is for a child's development, as well. She said putting stickers on and coloring on it with crayons develops their fine motor skills, and if you use a smaller box and pull them around in it it develops their balance and larger motor skills as they use the necessary muscles to stay upright in the box. Cool! So on an evening soon afterward, Caitlyn and I busted out another cardboard box, her Disney Princess Collection book that was filled with sticker pages in the back, crayons, and a piece of large ribbon. We colored all over the box and then I let her peel the stickers off the page and put them on the box, as many as she wanted, wherever she wanted to put them.

This kept her fascinated for a good 30 minutes (anyone who's ever had an 18 month old knows that's a pretty big deal). Finally, I poked a couple of holes in the front, strung the ribbon through, and tied it together. She loved sitting in it, riding in it, and putting her toys in it and pulling them around.


And I loved having a fun, easy, and developmentally stimulating activity that took up most of the evening while Quinn was at class. (Note, there isn't any sound on these videos because I took them with our camera instead of Quinn's phone.)

Things to Do

So these videos are a couple months old now because, well, that's how long it takes me to get around to posting on the blog. But I've been meaning to post about a few things we've done that turned out to be fun. And since we were cooped up inside most of the day for several months straight (minus trips to the mall, store, library -- anywhere to just get out of the house for a bit), I was on a mission to find some fun indoor activities. Nothing spectacular, just simple but fun.
By way of introduction to this first activity, some of my favorite memories of growing up are of Family Home Evening. My mom was a superstar about not only getting us all together every week for FHE, but also coming up with really fun activities and refreshments. I remember obstacle courses, team races, treasure hunts (with the refreshments as the treasure), other fun and funny games, crafts, service activities, etc. One of the refreshments I've never forgotten was that she made "hamburgers" with Nilla Wafers as the buns, grasshopper cookies as the hamburger patty, coconut with green food coloring as the lettuce, and I can't remember what else. But I can still remember how excited I was about my little "hamburger". These are the kinds of memories and bonds I hope to help create for my own family now.
I bought a book online that looked promising, "Family Fun Nights:140 Activities the Whole Family Will Enjoy".


A lot of the activities I'll have to save for a few years down the road because they're a little beyond Caitlyn's age right now. But there were some ideas that I thought would be fun for her, like this "Family Band" idea. So we gave it a try. Although the book suggested using your kitchen pans and dishes, I opted for cardboard boxes in an effort to avoid giving Caitlyn the idea that pulling all my pots and pans out on the floor for a band performance everyday would be fun. She actually got really into it for the first little while and played a mean drum and spoon, but by the time I decided to get it on camera she had mellowed out a little in spite of Quinn's best efforts to get her going again.

And another one, just cause I know a little girl whose grandparents like to see videos of her.:)


Anyway, here's one idea for FHE or just something fun to do sometime if you have little ones. Before Caitlyn came along Quinn and I usually focused on the lesson more, reading talks and scriptures together and taking as long as we wanted talking about it. Now we're working on short but meaningful lessons (like acting out scripture stories or showing a picture and telling the story the picture is about with a time limit of about 30 seconds), and fun activities. We haven't actually ventured into the refreshments much yet, but I'm sure when Caitlyn and new baby boy are a little older that will climb itself a little higher onto the priority list.
More activities soon!
(Oh and p.s. in case you're wondering this is not a paid advertisement and none of the other family activities I post about will be either. I wouldn't even know where to begin doing paid stuff on this blog -- it's just a regular old blog for our far-away-family and friends to see what we're up to these days.)

Of Kidnappers, Korean treats, and Kake

Ok, so it's actually about cake, not kake, but the other things started with a K so I thought I'd just keep going.

Last week we had just finished family home evening when there was a knock at the door. I looked like crap so I asked Quinn if he'd get it. He had a funny smile on his face, but he went and looked out the peep hole and then said, "I think it's for you, hon!" So I opened the door and there stood some of my close friends from our last ward. "Hi!! Um...what are you guys doing??" was all I could think of to say. They had come to kidnap me for an early birthday night out with just the girls (they planned to come late so everyone's husbands could just put the kids to bed). Wow, how nice and how fun! They took me to Shilla, a Korean bakery and we had Korean shaved ice and Boba smoothies. Yuuumm! That's something I really love about living out here, is that there's just about every kind of food from every country you can think of, right at your finger tips. Anyway, it was so fun and relaxing to just hang out and talk and laugh together about our lives. I love my friends so much.


On my actual birthday we had a bunch of friends over for cake and ice cream. Quinn and a couple of our friends had tried doing something as a surprise for me but I kept ruining their plans by asking too many questions (it's hard surprising somebody with OCD who has to try and plan every detail of her life a week or so in advance). Martha Stewart (aka Minsun) made a Boston Cream Pie cake, Tiffany brought brownies, and Pauline's mother-in-law who is here from Texas for when their baby comes, made a yummy Philippino dessert (the name of which I can't remember). I made a chocolate cake recipe from a family friend, the Bishoffs, that I'd been craving. I tried a new frosting recipe and it turned out gross -- it tasted like a mouthful of butter with every bite of cake. Oh well, good thing there were other treats to enjoy! And I had fun making the chocolate shavings on the top, so...that's always good.


It was a fun night and a memorable birthday.






The best part of my birthday was that Quinn and Caitlyn love me. :)

Success!!

I officially threw Quinn a surprise 30th birthday party, and he was officially surprised!
It all started with our friends, the Hwangs. Quinn and Yushik were both RAs at BYU-Hawaii years back. When we moved into our new ward, we discovered that Yushik and his wife Jennifer are in our ward, and the two guys had a happy reunion. And then...Jennifer invited us to a surprise party for Yushik. All I can say is, it was awesome. She and her sister had prepared an amazing spread of finger food, and Yushik (who goes by Caleb so I'm going to start calling him Caleb now) was totally surprised! I thought how special it must have made him feel that Jennifer had gone to so much effort just to surprise him and bring his friends together to celebrate his birthday. I was inspired. I had already asked Quinn a couple weeks earlier if he wanted to have a party with other people or just do something as a family for his birthday, and he'd said he'd be fine with just hangin' out with the family. So I knew he wouldn't be expecting a party.
My first rule in the planning was that I wanted everything on the table to be food that Quinn could eat. This meant everything would need to be homemade from scratch and would take some time. So I made a spreadsheet (I'm in love with Excel. I make a spreadsheet for everything.) of all the food I wanted to make and when each step of preparation would need to be completed in terms of the times Quinn would be out of the house at class. It was utterly exhausting, but the food plan worked out and everything turned out pretty well! That's kind of a big deal for me because there was a period of time when we were trying to figure out Quinn's food sensitivity in which I had a food-breakdown (something similar to a nervous breakdown, only food instead of nerves), went on cooking strike, and vowed never to cook for guests again.
Caleb and Jennifer, having served as my inspiration, also facilitated the surprise. Our Stake Relief Society conference was conveniently on the same day, so some of the food that I had to make when Quinn was home I took over to Jen's and told Quinn it was for the Conference. Muah-ha-ha! Then, I didn't want Quinn to think he was going to be away from his studies for too long, so we decided Caleb would get him out of the house for an hour and half. Caleb concocted a brilliant plan. He asked Quinn to help him go to his in-laws' house to pick up a crib (they're expecting a month before we are). About a half hour into the drive, Jen's dad would call and say so sorry but they needed to reschedule, so they'd turn around and come home. Caleb threw in an incredibly nice touch where he told Quinn that his mother-in-law loved Japanese food and they happened to be near a great Asian food market. So they went there and he had Quinn pick out all his favorite Japanese foods so Caleb could "give them to his mother-in-law", but then Caleb gave it to Quinn as a birthday gift.
There were a few little bloopers in the day or two leading up to the party, so I was sure Quinn had started to suspect, but when he walked in the door and everyone said, "Surprise!" he told me he was so surprised that he felt like he was in the twilight zone for a few minutes--but a good sort of twilight zone. There were 3 couples from our last ward 4 couples from our current ward, plus all their kids, so we had a full house (meaning full little apartment). It was so much fun to have everybody there chatting and eating and enjoying each others' company! The kids were all happy and played together so well, which always makes things more pleasant for the parents.
Minsun made an A-MAZING chocolate angel food birthday cake, and we had plenty of food. (I was really worried about having enough because I threw a baby shower for a close friend once and there wasn't enough food and it scarred me for life.)
Here's Quinn blowing out his candles (well, faking it because I was too slow with the camera when he was really doing it).

And here's some of the food -- the rest we hadn't set out yet when I took the picture. Jennifer and her sister had made cute little labels for the food at Caleb's party and I thought it was adorable so I totally copied her.

And here's a "30" poster I made using pictures of Quinn's life. I really just thought of the idea to try and cover a bare wall since we didn't bring much out with us for this temporary stay in DC. But it turned out to be a fun thing to have up. Thanks for emailing me the pics Tanya!


All in all it was an incredibly fun night, and I was so happy that Quinn was so surprised and happy! He told me later it was the best birthday he's ever had! Can't beat that!

I love Valentines Day

I know this is a little late, but I just have to say...I love Valentines Day! I haven't always loved the day (because when I was younger I just felt sorry for myself on that day if the guy I liked didn't suddenly realize that I was the girl of his dreams). But I've always, always loved the treats! Who doesn't love cinnamon hearts and cinnamon lips and juju hearts and big, soft, heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting and all kinds of chocolate? Who?? Ok, maybe my hips and thighs, but they're not technically a person so they don't count as a "who".
Anyway, I think I started to like the day and not just the treats one year in college when I broke up with a boyfriend like 2 days before Valentines so I wasn't really feelin' the love. My two roommates and I decided to watch the looooong version of Pride and Prejudice all night long, and invited some ice cream and chips and dip to join the party. When we finished the movie at 5am it was snowing outside, so we put on our shoes and went for a jog in the snow! It was so fun! After that my attitude sort of changed and I started to think of Valentines as a day about ALL the people we love and appreciate (like good friends) and not just a day that's only good if someone considers you the girl (or boy) of his (or her) dreams.
In accordance with that new perspective on Valentines day, Quinn and I have a tradition (though I confess we dropped the ball this year) of making or buying V-day treats, leaving them with hearts taped to the door, and doing knock-and-runs on Valentines to a few people who might need a little reminder that they are loved. We have had some serious adventures with that one!
Another great V-day memory for me is that Quinn and I spontaneously got engaged on Valentines Day (the decision to get engaged wasn't spontaneous, just the fact that it happened on Valentines day). Here is a picture of us on the Y Mountain in Provo right after getting engaged.

Here's the surprise at my carrel at the law school he left for me earlier that day.

Those are some great V-day memories.

This year I invited some of my beloved girlfriends over for a Valentines Day lunch a few days before V-day. I made red velvet cake balls and--my favorite--sugar cookies with pink frosting for dessert, complemented with lots of my favorite valentines candy. (I forgot to take a picture of the actual meal. Oh well, dessert is the most important anyway.:) )




It was so fun to get together!

On Valentines Day Quinn and Caitlyn and I went to a Lebanese restaurant and had an A-MAZING meal. It was even more pleasant for the fact that Caitlyn very happily sat on my lap the whole time and totally loved the food, too!
So Happy (late) Valentines Day everybody! Don't forget to share the love far and wide next year (and next year we won't drop the ball on that).