hasta luego

i'm off to argentina today; i'm getting picked up to go to the airport in a couple of hours. super excited, to say the least.

maya has no idea what's in store for the next 12 days (and neither does rupert!) but i think ian is a little lonely that i'm leaving without him. i'm sure i'll miss the kids too, but i intend to enjoy every moment i'm away. i must admit, though, i printed out a recent photo of the kids + rupert in case i get a little homesick.

i have no idea if i'll have time to post along the way, but if i do, i'll try. there's lots of picture taking planned so i'm sure my flickr account will be overflowing with argentina pics after i get back. stay tuned!

future anarchists of america

i cracked up when my friend sent us this shirt. he was at an anarchists convention in san francisco (not because he's an anarchist but because he was looking for a book) and he said he had to get the shirt for maya when he saw it.

i love that he knows our daughter so well, despite living far away. i think it's really funny, but when maya wore it the first day no one else seemed to find it very amusing. i wonder why ...

[click on picture for details about materials.]

faux shaved ice

i still have to do a bit of journaling for this layout but i think i like where i'm going with this one.

this is from our last night in waikiki in may. my sister's graduation dinner was down the block from waiola bakery + shave ice II, which is where we were intending to take ian for a snack ... and a real taste of shave ice. but it was closed by the time we got there. it being our last night and late already, we headed to a cafe near our hotel.

we knew it wasn't going to be hawaiian-style shave ice, but my sister recommended it because of the sheer size of the serving. sure enough, it was huge and it was more like a sno-cone. if you've had hawaiian style shave ice like matsumoto's or japanese kakigouri (the hand-shaved kind, not store-bought) you know there's a difference between sno-cones and shave ice. the texture of shave ice is almost fluffy (before the syrup goes on) because it's so finely shaved. the sno-cone -- and this shave ice we had -- has an almost grittier texture in comparison; the ice is chunky as opposed to flaky.

ian, however, did not care one bit about the finer points of hawaiian shave ice. he was thrilled with the sugary iciness that we bought for him. we spilled/dropped quite a bit of it and we still didn't manage to finish it all.

[click on picture for details about materials.]

rie babies are ...

maya attends a class called RIE, which ian also went to as a baby. we've been going every week for over a year, and it's basically been the same group of babies so they are all very comfortable with each other.

i love this picture because it reminds me of both the parallel playing and the group playing with the plastic rings, which are very popular during class.

the only other detail i have to add to this layout is the date; i'll probably either stamp it or write it on the tab at the bottom of the picture. i scrapped this at around 1am the other night even though i was dead tired; some spark of inspiration + motivation hit me and i finished it fairly quickly.

[click on picture for details about materials.]

buzz cut

i still have to do the journaling on this one and find out when the pictures were taken (i think it was 2003). it was scraplifted from creating keepsakes magazine (june 07 issue, pg. 59)

it was the first time ian got his hair cut really short. until then i'd only trimmed his hair so he perpetually looked like a little (brunette) dutch boy. he wasn't as afraid of the hair trimmer as he was of scissors so for a few years after this he only got his hair buzzed.

[click on picture for details about materials.]

year 6

i'm really happy with the way this one turned out. i scraplifted the idea from elsie flannigan's 52 scrapbooking challenges (pg. 47). i'm trying to learn how to layer more without looking too cluttered.

there's no journaling on this, but it's a family picture taken at our local park on our sixth wedding anniversary (the title would've been better as "6 years" now that i think about it). rupert and i totally forgot it was our anniversary and instead of going out we went for a walk to hit baseballs with ian at the park.

i remember :: maya fussing after awhile because she didn't want to be strapped into her stroller; gnats flying all over the place (hate that!); ian was so proud of the "best attitude" baseball he earned at baseball camp; i sat on orange graffiti on the park bench and got my butt graffited second-hand; and rupert took a picture of it!

[click on picture for details about materials.]

deal of the day

i dropped by office depot today because i needed to get a plug adaptor for my trip to argentina next week. as i was wandering the aisles i found a small tripod for my camera. it was the last one and there was no price tag.

when i got up to the register, guess how much it was? one cent. yup, the little tripod cost me a penny. what a deal! (it must be discontinued because on amazon it's going for $1.95 instead of its original $24.95 price.)

what's better on a hot day?

it's been hot this week ... where was this heat when i needed it last week during maya's swim lessons?!

i hate that our house traps heat and i can't open the windows very much because of two huge construction sites nearby (the dust has been horrible lately). i was in a foul mood today because i don't deal well with the mugginess. all i wanted to do was lie around naked under the ceiling fan and pretend i didn't have any kids. thankfully, maya and ian took turns taking naps this afternoon so i didn't have both of them around at the same time.

it hadn't cooled down very much after dinner so i pulled out trusty ol' kyoro-chan, our shaved ice machine (actually, it's my parents'). we've had this thing since i was a little girl and it never ceases to delight me. when you turn the handle on top of the hat, kyoro-chan's eyes move back and forth. it also shaves the ice pretty finely, so the ice is almost fluffy unlike sno-cone ice, which is almost gritty in comparison. i prefer the clear mizore syrup; it's just sugar water, basically.

ian had a huge bowlful before bed. i would've too, except that our ice tastes kinda funky ... spoiled the fun for me.

it did, however, remind me of the ice shop in my grandparents' neighborhood in japan. every time i walked by it during the summer i felt the cold seeping through the clear rubber curtains. when you peeked in you saw huge blocks of clear, clear ice, and you could hear the distinct sound of an old fashioned ice shaver making kakigori.

p.s. that little watermelon in the background was grown in the planter on our front porch.

montana is a hard place to get to

remember how maya and i didn't get to montana last christmas? it's not as bad as that, but ian is experiencing something similar today. he should've been in montana by now, but he's spent the day with his great-grandparents at the beach instead.

seems delta cancelled their flight this morning to salt lake city due to mechanical issues. since it's friday in the middle of summer there was no way they could get to their destination today. so they're flying first class tomorrow morning instead. sadly, it was a short trip to begin with (just until monday) and now it's even shorter.

thankfully ian has taken it all in stride and is enjoying his day away from mom and maya, being spoiled by his great-grandparents.

grody to the max

i have been a superbad housekeeper as of late, letting the dishes stack up, the toys clutter the living room, and the laundry go unwashed. but something was clearly not right with the smell stench in the kitchen. rupert did the dishes, which seemed to help but the laundry area off of the kitchen (which is where we come into the house and take off our shoes) continued to smell very odd, like something was rotting.

after a week of not knowing what the cause of the smell was, i finally figured it out. there was a huge bag of potatoes at the bottom of the pantry closet i forgot about. when i pulled it out a small swarm of fruit flies escaped and the bag was covered in little maggots. ewwwwwww!

unfortunately, the garbage had just been picked up so i double-bagged the rotten, infested mess and threw it in to our garbage bin praying i had contained it enough until pick up next week.

since then i've been swatting and squishing the fruit flies that have now made the kitchen their home.

you'd think this would motivate me to clean up a bit more but you'd be wrong.

happiness is

cardstock :: bazzill basics
patterned paper :: my mind's eye
"happiness is ____" stamp :: purple onion designs
letter stamps :: martha stewart
letter stickers :: provo craft
orange heart sticker :: martha stewart
blue heart sticker :: threadless.com
arrow punch :: fiskars
tab punch :: mcgill
corner slot punch :: ek success
other :: date stamp, foam tape

this was such a great afternoon i had to document it. threw this layout together really quickly (quick by my standards) this evening. i'm not even sure i like it that much visually, but i needed to write down and show how ian and i were linked that afternoon by mutual interests :: the simpsons, harry potter, and lounging around in bed.

sometimes i get really wrapped up in the artistic energy required to scrapbook and i forget that it's all about telling the story about my family. so, here's to throwing something down on paper and not caring how it looks. hip, hip, hooray!

21 months.

maya @ 21 months :: august 4, 2007

• new favorite books :: chicka chicka boom boom (which she calls "boom boom boom") and go, dog, go! she'll "read" go, dog, go! in two languages: "go, wan wan, go!" ... and upside down.
• finally saying japanese words :: hai --> yes; dakko --> carry me :: although sometimes it sounds like gakkou (school), which is where i wish she would go.
• first trip back east to connecticut and new york city. that is the last time i get on a plane with maya without getting her her own seat.
• swimming "lessons" at the local pool :: sort of blowing bubbles in the water, although i suspect more often than not she's drinking the water rather than blowing out air. one day it was freezing and she said "cold cold cold" for the first time, so she must've been pretty miserable in the water.
• getting close to throwing tantrums in public. at the market the other day she almost threw herself down on the floor to start kicking + screaming, but when i turned away to ignore her she stopped immediately. what can i say? she's a moody, violent, hysterical girl ... just like the women on mama's side of the family.
• she finally did it ... after three months she can now say each sound in her brother's name :: ian!
• she's been spending a lot of time pants-less lately (with a diaper, of course ... although she's quite capable of taking it off).
• each morning i get her (which isn't often, to be honest) she asks me, "where ian? where dada?" and after i change her diaper she demands to "eat! eat! eat!"
• did i ever mention she cracks up when she watches teletubbies? this started a couple of months back but she laughs hysterically at certain parts of the show. i don't get it but it's funny to watch. she is a complete tv-nut, which is definitely my fault since i allow her to watch it a lot. am i using the tv as a babysitter? you bet!
• she's still wearing 12~18 months (and smaller) clothes.
• likes to do somersaults on the bed and couch. will attempt them on hard surfaces but she's not as successful.
• starting to recognize letters in the alphabet ... i should get working on the japanese alphabet too.
• her current favorite lunch is hummus ("mush") and pita bread. current favorite fruit :: grapes.
• gets into the game cabinet, pulls out boxes and just dumps the contents all over the living room. we're constantly picking up cards and game pieces off the floor.
• besides snoopy she's taken up daisy as her second favorite stuffed animal; she calls her "kack kack". the real reason this is cute is because this particular daisy was ian's favorite stuffed animal when he was two.
• thankfully she willingly goes down for her nap after lunch, as long as she has her favorite blankies (with the dogs on them), a stuffed animal (or two) and a kiss on the nose.