Saturday Somethings - "Pictures"

Friday Finds: A Link Round-up

12 Reasons Wives Refuse to Respect Husbands, The Lylah Blog.  I know I'm often guilty of not respecting my husband as much as I should.   I'm trying to do a lot better about it, and I think that my husband has been noticing.  And it's not as hard as I once thought it was.  And reading through this list, I found many reasons I used unconsciously.  And they're all debunked.  If this list is interesting to you, I also recommend reading the book, Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs.  It's an eye opener!

Dressing for Your Man, the Fascinating Woman.  Thought this was cute and I absolutely LOVE Gilmore Girls!

Chunky Book Tutorial, Memory Makers. I think I'll be making 3, or 4, or 10 of these!!!


This commercial cracked me up!

Swine Flu Wary Weiners?, Tokyo Times.  This was funny to me because I know how interesting things get in Korea (I assume things are similar in Japan?) when something big and scary happens.

From the Cute Farmer's Almanac, Cute Overload.  I love kittens.  End of story.

American Flag Controversy

I read this article on foxnews.com today.  It struck me as *funny* in that odd way, in a couple of ways.  First, who cares about someone hanging an American flag in an office in America?  And second, I could tell the journalist who wrote this article chose their words very carefully to hint that the controversy came from an anti-American immigrant

Texan Woman Told to Remove 'Offensive' American Flag From Office - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

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Thankful Thursday - My Dentist

A few days ago, one side of my permanent retainer came loose.  I'm not sure how it popped off.  It's held for 10 years, and I haven't been eating anything especially hard.  It was pretty annoying.  It was a bit uncomfortable to eat any food that I had to bite into, so I called my dentist--who also happens to be my Bishop, Dr. Bishop Mooso :)--to see if there was anything he could do or if I needed to make an appointment with an orthodontist.  He assured me he could fix it and that I should call his office the next day to make an appointment.

The next day I called and was able to get an appointment for the day after that.  When I asked about the cost of the procedure--we don't have dental insurance--the receptionist wasn't sure because it wasn't a "regular" thing for them to do but it shouldn't be too much.  Dr. Mooso would have to set the price.  She also mentioned that they could give me a discount for paying in full at the time of service.  Sounded decent enough to me, and my stupid retainer was enough of a problem that I had to get it fixed.

I got to the dentist's office right on time, filled out all the paperwork, and they sat me down.  The dentist was running a bit behind, but that was okay because they had cable T.V. in the ceiling!  The actual procedure only took about 15 minutes.  It was completely painless.  The only problem I had was water ricocheting off my teeth and into my face.  That wasn't so cool, but I survived.

And the best part?  My dentist is awesome!  He only charged me the base rate for the office visit, $50! Thank you Dr. Mooso!

Way Back When Wednesday - Our First Kitten(s)

Just a couple months after Derek and I got married, I got a hankering for a pet.  At first I thought a rabbit would be great because we were living in Derek's parent's basement apartment.  I thought maybe a rabbit would have minimal mess?  Probably not.

One afternoon before an evening of my sister-in-law's bookgroup, Derek and I went to a pet store to check out the rabbits.  We didn't make it all the way to the rabbits because there was a cute little kitten that totally distracted us.

Since we lived in Derek's parent's basement (they didn't live there yet, they were still in VA), I told Derek that we should probably call them and ask if it was alright to have a kitten.  We guessed it probably would be okay because Derek grew up with a cat.  But it was time for me to go to the bookgroup so Derek was going to call and ask while I was gone.

And what a surprise I got when my sister-in-law and I got back to her house.  Derek had called and asked about getting a kitten, got a yes answer, and then bought the kitten!  He and his brother were sitting on the kitchen floor playing with her!  Fun times!

We named her Chloe and after a few weeks realized that she was lonely and got another kitten named Zoe.  Then we got another and named him George.  Unfortunately when we moved to Korea in '06, we weren't able to take them with us, and no one else was able to take care of them for us while we were gone.  We had to give them up for adoption at Lost Paws.  They're great!  But we were sure sad!

Me and Chloe just after we got her

Top Ten Tuesday - Being Woken up in the Night

Last night around 2:45am I was rudely awoken by my cute furry animal. That in turn inspired this week's top ten list...

Top 10 Things I Hate to Be Awoken By

1. Willow getting stuck behind our bed.  This is what woke me up early this morning.  We have a massive bed and headboard with an empty space behind it.  When we set it up, we didn't get it completely against the wall so Willow can jump behind it, but can't always get out.  Lately, she has been so when she jumped back there just as we were going to sleep, I didn't worry too much about it.  She would figure it out.  NOT SO!  About 4 hours later (2:45am), I woke up to loud thumping and scratching sounds.  She was stuck.  The only problem we have with our bed is that it's too heavy to move.  But if you move the mattress out a bit, there is an opening to the space behind the headboard.  Problem solved!  But we both had to get up, get out of bed, and move the mattress.  It's a good thing Willow's so cute.  When we moved the mattress, she just sort of looked at us like, "what took you so long?" and then took her time getting out!
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Getting elbowed in the head.  Sometimes, when I roll over in bed, I smack my forehead on Derek's elbow.  He often sleeps with his arms behind his head.  Luckily for me, it doesn't usually hurt.  I don't do too many sudden movements in my sleep.  It just wakes me up.
   
   
3. The extreme need to pee.  I've gone through cycles in my life where I've woken up at 3am every morning needing to pee.  I always go back to sleep easily, and those cycles are usually only a couple of weeks or so and come and go.  Since being pregnant, that cycle has returned although it's not quite as regular.  But there's nothing worse than waking up and having to BOLT out of bed to make it in time! :D
   
   
4. The doorbell rings.  Not the front door doorbell, a battery operated one we had for my mom when she needed us and we weren't in the room.  It's not usually a problem... just when she rings it over and over again at 1 o'clock in the morning!
   
   
5. A cat puking.  I've posted about this before.  It's disgusting and you have to be fully awake to take care of it.  Yuck!
   
   
6. The broken alarm going off.  We sort of moved to my parents' house in in stages.  So we didn't have all our stuff from the beginning.  One of the things it took a couple of days to get was our alarm clock.  In the mean time, we used one of my parents' old ones.  It had some weird sort of short in it making the horrible, obnoxious, beeping alarm sound every night at midnight whether it was set to be on or not!  Gahh!
   
   
7. Willow sniffing my eye.  It's fairly disconcerting to wake up to an odd, tickling, blowing sensation on one of your eyelids!  It's even more disconcerting to then open your eyes and have a big, blurry kitten nose in your eye!
   
   
8. Having no blankets or no sheets.  I'm just as guilty as Derek is on this one.  It's no fun to wake up cold without blankets, or for me it's even worse to wake up with blankets but no sheet!  There's definitely a texture difference between the two!
   
   
9. Being too hot, or too cold.  Similar to #8, but this is when you have both your sheets and/or blanket and you're still waking up feeling uncomfortable.  It's especially bad when you have all the covers on and you're too hot.  You take them off, fall back asleep, and then wake up again, but this time you're too cold!
   
   
10. Sleep talking... in a foreign language.  This one is more funny than annoying.  I actually kind of like it when Derek sleep talks because usually I make a mental note of what he says and I tell him what funny things he said the next morning.  Unless he's sleep talking in Korean or Japanese.  I know enough of each to tell the difference and just maybe at the time be able to tell what he's saying, but in my stupor of sleep I can't remember for the life of me the next morning.
    
    

Monday Morning Musings - Memorial Day Fun!

Derek and I have had all kinds of fun today!  We tried to sleep in because it was a holiday, but that didn't work too well.  We both woke up by 9am.  Oh well, I guess waking up early means that we can start the fun sooner!

Then we went over to the mall in Boise.  I've been in severe need of some clothes that actually fit my body!  I have a few things in maternity sizes, but I've been noticing things not fitting quite right!  Derek was really nice and supportive about the whole trip.  Usually he complains a bit about going shopping for clothes, but this time he was really great.  I found a couple shirts, a skirt, and a new bra (**hooray**)!  I'm set!  I was hoping to find another white undershirt, but the Downeast Outfitters store didn't have any!  Darn!

After the mall, we went to Lowes to get some 2x4s and paint to make our CORNHOLE GAME!!!  Derek's brother and sister-in-law introduced us to it a few years ago, and ever since we've been wanting a set and now we've finally making it!! 

Here's a picture of one of the boards.  Derek wanted orange, but this turned out a little more CONSTRUCTION than we hoped.  Oh well, we won't miss it on the grass!  The other one is a nice yellow color.  I'm hoping that the boards will dry soon so we can play this evening!  I tried to take one of Derek working on it, but he's become a little over sensitive about how he looks when he's dirty.

And in other news, my flowers that I planted a few weeks ago and then thought were dead... AREN'T! They're so pretty!

Friday Finds: A Link Round-up

This video is about a monkey who adopted a stuffed animal as it's surrogate mother. I didn't understand much of what it said, but I thought the monkey was cute carrying around a stuffed animal, and the schoolkids were cute with their yellow hats!

Wolfram|Alpha.   Found this on my friend Miriam's blog.  It's pretty entertaining.  You can type in almost anything and it will give you all kinds of info.  Check out the examples page.

And in other news, I put my pants on backwards this morning.  I blame the ease in doing so on maternity pants.  There are no buttons or zippers.  But you can still laugh at me if you want! :)

Thankful Thursday - Humor

I have been especially thankful for humor lately.  No particular reason or funny story, but can you imagine a world without humor?  How would we get through the day?  I love to laugh and I love to make other people laugh.  Even if it's at my own expense!  ^_^

What are you thankful for today?

Way Back When Wednesday - Shooting

So it's not WAY Back Wednesday now, but someday it will be.  It was only last week...

Last Wednesday, PJ, Rachel, Derek and I went shooting.  I don't remember the name of the place we went, but it was two or three exits past Sand Hollow.  It was great weather, nice and sunny but not too hot with a nice breeze.  Nevertheless, I still got an odd shaped sunburn!  It was only in one spot on my right arm, just above my elbow.  Odd, huh?

We brought my dad's three guns, a .22, a 30/30, and a 9mm.  I'm not all that into guns so I probably wrote those out wrong, but two are rifles and one is a pistol.  My brother also brought his 9mm and his BB gun (heh, heh).  And between the four of us, we had plenty of targets to shoot at.  We'd been saving all the juice bottles and such for weeks!

I was pretty proud of myself, I shot the .22 and my dad's 9mm!  AND I think I even hit one of the targets!!  About half-way through, I sort of laughed to myself and told Derek how funny it was to me that I was shooting a gun for the first time while 5 months pregnant! :D  And being pregnant, I pooped out a bit early and just took pictures.  Shooting was fun, but taking pictures was much more fun for me.

Sorry there are no pictures of me.  Wait... no, I'm not sorry.  I did that on purpose! :)

Top Ten Tuesday - Things I'd do in the Mornings

The weather is so nice and cool right now!  It's been a bit hot the last couple of days, so I'm really loving it.  Today's list is the 10 things I'd like to do in the cool morning IF I got up early enough...

1. Take a walk around the neighborhood. This on is self-explanatory.  It's too hot during the day to enjoy a walk, so mornings are best.
   
   
2. Read a book outside. I saw a commercial for Werthers when I was a kid.  There was a lady sitting outside on her porch with a bowl of Werthers candy and a book.  For some reason that was really appealing to me even as a kid (The book part, not the big bowl of Werthers.  I could never understand why one woman would have a huge bowl of Werthers!).  I remember even thinking that that was what I wanted to do when I was grown up!
   
   
3. Mow the lawn.  So this one is not so much me, but my husband.  But it does seem like something I would do in the morning... if I did it.
   
   
4. Do yoga on the back patio.  I have a nice, covered patio in our backyard, and it's fairly private.  This one could be fun!
   
   
5. Gardening.  I'm not sure how into gardening I'll ever get, but I'm trying to get my flowers to grow right.  The next step is planting vegetables or even fruits.  Someday!
   
   
6. Grocery shopping.  This one seems weird because it's not actually outside, but I really HATE loading up the car when it's hot!
   
   
7. Meditate.  I've never actually tried, unless you count when my mind wanders off during my personal prayers... oops!  But I've heard really good things about it.  Supposedly it relieves stress.  Couple that with the relaxing outdoors, and I've got a winner!
   
   
8. Have a breakfast cookout.  My favorite part of camping is cooking; either over a fire or on a portable stove.  Either way, it's outside when it's not too hot.  The only downside of camping for me is the sleeping outdoors and the sub-par bathrooms/showers (if the campground has any).  Maybe I should invest in an RV?
   
   
9. Open all the windows to let the house air out.  This one I usually get to because our house has great shade over the front window and the back window.  The air coming in stays cool for a lot longer once the sun comes up.
   
   
10. Yard Sale-ing!!.  I've been a yard sale junkie this season... a picky yard sale junkie.  Our house is already stuffed with stuff, but we still need some baby things, and they are so CHEAP at yard sales!
    

Monday Morning Musings - Trash

er... maybe it's more afternoon?  But I was thinking of this this morning.

Last Wednesday evening, we forgot to take the trash out to the curb, and none of us were awake or dressed enough to run out there Thursday morning when the trash men came.  Therefore, our cans were still full and trash built up around the house because we couldn't take it out. 

All weekend, we were lamenting over our predicament.  It would be another week before the trash men came again so it was either wait it out (not really our first choice), or go to the dump (we didn't really like that option either because you have to pay to dump stuff). 

Then I remembered how much trouble trash was in Korea.  There were no large trash bags.  The largest they had were shopping bag sized which was convienent in a way because you could buy them at almost any grocery/department store check-out and use them for shopping bags as well. 

But the Korean trash system is very specific.  You must separate food and throw it away in very small yellow bags (BTW egg shells aren't food, they go in with the regular trash).  Recyling is big in Korea, but it's not easy.  You have to separate paper, cans, glass, plastic, and cardboard; all in their own bags or boxes.

So you didn't just have one or two bags to take out.  You had at least six!  And it wasn't always easy to take out the trash.  Most large apartment complexes had a designated trash "area" with organized piles of bags within the parking lot, but smaller apartment buildings and individual homes didn't.  For us--we lived in a small apartment building--there was a place down the road where we could leave our trash bags.  It wasn't too far away, but it was far enough that we would try and coordinate taking out the trash with other errands we had to run.

There were also trash "police."  These guys would check the trash bags to make sure that people were disposing things properly.  If there was a problem, they would watch for the person who was doing it wrong and then fine them.  This was scary for us because no one told us about the trash system until we had lived there for almost a year!  We could have gotten in big trouble.

They also had specific rules for businesses.  I'm not quite sure what they were, but somehow they were so strict that cities don't put out public trash cans because they're afraid that buisnesses will break the rules and throw their trash out in the public cans.  From what we saw, businesses throw their trash out on the far side of the sidewalk in front of their shops.  Gross, huh.  Especially since we knew you can't flush T.P. down the toilet in Korea, and the trashmen don't come regularly.  Eww! 

So after thinking about that, I can't complain too much about our current trash problem.

Friday Finds: A Link Round-up

Heart-Shaped Watermelons, Japan Probe.  Cute fruit!  But I don't think I'll be spending $160 on it.  But it doesn't surprise me that much.  We saw a very normal looking cantelope with a pretty ribbon around its middle and floral tape wrapping its stem in Korea for $37.

Wow, lame week.  I really did find interesting things this week, but I guess I didn't get them on the post today...

Thankful Thursday - Respite

This week, I've been especially thankful for a hospice benefit called respite care.  It's so when we feel overwhelmed taking care of my mom, Heart and Home will set up a place in a nursing home for my mom for a week.  Believe me, it's a life saver!  Especially this week!

My dad suddenly started feeling really sick Monday morning with some vertigo.  It eventually got so bad, he couldn't sit up or stand up without puking.  Not so much fun for him!  Or for me for that matter because that meant that I had two ailing adults to care for, and I'm not equipt to take care of everything for my mom.  There are somethings that I just can't do because I'm pregnant, and can't do because I just can't.  And I knew eventually some of those things would come up. 

So after a huge melt-down on my part Tuesday morning, a doctor's appointment for my dad that afternoon, we started to get a respite care set up for this week.  Thankfully, they were able to get her in Wednesday morning.  It has been such a relief!  I know that she'll get all the care she needs, and I'm not completely, 100% overwhelmed!

Heart and Home has been so great to us!  They were so attentive to our needs, and expedited a lot of the work to get my mom set up at the Nampa Care Center.  It almost seems like they're just as much our nurses and aides as they are my moms!

And I'm also very grateful for my friend and lifesaver, Tanya, who rescued me Tuesday afternoon.  My dad needed some soda to calm his stomach.  I couldn't really leave the two of them by themselves--plus I was all ugly and puffy from crying--so I called for help.  Tanya brought a huge sprite for my dad and a huge lime slushie to share.  She also distracted me from life at that moment with great conversation.  Thanks Tanya!!!

So what are you thankful for today?

Way Back When Wednesday - Oh what do you do in the summer time?

When I was a kid, I used to run through the sprinklers as soon as it got warm enough.  Looking back on it, I don't really see why I loved it so much.  I didn't really like getting water in my face, I hardly got wet, and I usually got grass all over myself.  But I remember really liking it.  

One year we had a Mickey Mouse sprinkler that hooked up to a hose.  Water sprayed straight up through the plastic umbrella Mickey held.  I would "sit" on it and pretend that the pressure was building up, and then jump off real quick.  That same year, we filled up a big trash can with water and played in it.  Seems odd looking back on it.  It was big enough for one person to get in.  I think it came up just above my waist.  But the problem was getting in.  It was too hard to climb in!  So my brother and I just splashed it around.

We also usually had some sort of kiddie pool that we set up in the back yard every year.  My mom had a rule for swimming.  It had to be at least 85 degrees before we were allowed to swim.  I remember one summer calling "Time and Temperature" multiple times a day to find out if it were warm enough yet.  I hope that number wasn't like 4-1-1 with a charge.  My parents never complained about it though, so maybe not. 

So what do you do (or did you do) in the summer time?

Top Ten Tuesday - Blogs I Love

 

Today's Top Ten is...

Ten blogs I look forward to reading

1. 5 Minutes for Books.  All of the "5 Minutes for..." are great blogs but I especially like find new books to read. 
   
   
2. Cake Wrecks.  It cracks me up to see how shoddy of a job some people do, don't get fired, and still get paid for it!  Totally against my work ethic--I think I'd curl up in a hole and die if I ever did something like some of those wrecks--but it's funny to see all the same!
   
   
3. Scribbit. Michelle is awesome!  Her blog is great and she's really good about e-mailing you back when you ask her a question.
   
   
4. The Pioneer Woman.  I think this blog is on everyone's list of favorite blogs.  I think I'm addicted to her "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels Story."
   
   
5. The American Bedu. I am a Cultural Geographer.  Okay, so I sort of made that title up, but in Geography you can do that!  I love to learn about where people live and why they do what they do.  The American Bedu is an American woman married to a Saudi man, living in Saudi Arabia.  She writes very positively about the cultural differences between the two countries.  I love it!
   
   
6. The Remodeling Guy.  I don't remember how I found this blog, but I really like it!  It's fun to see the remodeling projects that he features on his blog.
   
   
7. Overheard in the Ward.  This site may not be funny to you if you're not LDS or at least familiar with the LDS Church.  It cracks me up!  Funny what kids (and grown-ups) say!
   
   
8. Scrapping with Ikea Goddess.  This girl is good!  She makes it so easy to find free digi-scrapping stuff!
   
   
9. Overstuffed. I don't remember how I found Lara's blog either, but her writing style made me feel like we were best friends already.  She's also great about commenting on my blog! :)
   
   
10. Any and all of my friends' blogs.  Yes reader, that means you! 
    
    
    

Monday Morning Musings - Mother's Day "Fun"

I had an interesting Mother's Day yesterday.  Not bad, just interesting.  One of those days that you look back on and say, "That wasn't so bad.  Actually, that was kind of funny!"

It started at 2:00am.  I woke up to a nasty gurgling sounds, and once I really woke up, I realized that Willow was puking on our bed!  I have no idea what caused it, she's never puked before, but here she was at 2:00am PUKING ON MY BED!  Not fun.  I knew I had to clean it up so I turned the lamp on, got a wet rag and started scrubbing it off.  In the mean time, Derek didn't wake up.

Normally after being so rudely awoken in the middle of the night, I would have tried to sleep in a little, but I couldn't yesterday because I'm the ward bulletin person.  I had to make 80 copies of the bulletin I made at midnight the night before (I know, I should have made the program earlier so I could have gotten to bed earlier so that the puking thing didn't mess up my sleep that much.  But we were having fun playing Wii with our friends Nathan and Shauna Saturday night!).  So I got up at 7:00am to get ready for church and to make the copies before church at 9:00am.

After getting home from church, I figured I had better do something about the nasty spot on our bedspread before it got smelly and permanently stained.  My dad and I thought maybe it would fit in the washer, which it did, just barely.  But we decided to give it a go anyways.  About 10 minutes into the wash cycle, we start to hear this steady clang, clang clang!  My bedspread was so big and poofy that it was pushing the washer lid open as the washer agitated (is that the right word?)!  My dad pushed it down, and it started to work better.

When the washer finished, we went to put the bedspread in the dryer.  It definitely wouldn't fit.  Well, it would fit in, but wouldn't actually get dry so we chose to hang it over some chairs on the patio. We also noticed that because of it's synthetic poofy-ness, most of the bedspread didn't get throughly wet, meaning it didn't wash very well.  It was about at that time that we noticed a bunch of water on the floor!  The bedspread didn't fit in the washer that well after all...  I guess that's what we get for doing laundry on Sunday!

So looking back on it, I learned three important lessons.
1.  If it doesn't look like it's going to fit in the washer, DON'T PUT IT IN THERE!
2.  Don't do laundry on Sundays
3.  Things are always funny the next day.

Mother's Day Fun

Found this picture from Japan Probe.  Classic Engrish!

Well, I know I'm thankful for her, I'm glad someone else is too! :D

Saturday Somethings

My aunt and uncle are awesome! They sent me a card for Mother's Day! Here it is, isn't it cute?!

 

... Have a wonderful Mother's Day!

I also happen to have the best grandparents who have already sent me a pack of onesies, socks and a cute pink bear outfit!

And I have an amazing friend Tanya who yard saled for me last weekend and found a great bouncy chair!  She even washed it for me! 

Friday Finds: A Link Round-up

Babette Blanket, The Purl Bee.  Maybe with my recent success with crocheting a baby blanket, I'm gaining a little too much confidence in my "skills."  Nevertheless, this will be a project in my future!  I hope that Sister Nelson can help me again! :)





Maidswap, American Bedu.  I love to learn about differences in culture!  Especially when something that would be normal or acceptable in one culture is so opposite in another that just the idea is preposterously funny. 

Kasou Taisho (Costume Grand Prix) Videos, Japan Probe.  These are so funny! Wouldn't they be great at a ward party or talent show?

Thankful Thursday - Online Recipes

I love online recipes!  I don't think I'll ever need a cookbook again!  This week, I found recipes for our favorite Chinese dishes: Orange Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and General Tso's Chicken. 

And after making Orange Chicken one night, I had a genius moment...  Frying chicken isn't fun.  It's most of the work of making Orange Chicken.  The sauce is easy!  So why not just fry up a bunch of chicken cubes all at once and freeze them.  Then all I have to do is make the rice, sauce, and vegetables.  Genius I tell you!

So the next day, I got Derek to do the frying.  Don't worry, he was happy to do it.  He loves Orange Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken AND General Tso's Chicken.  Frying things in an open pot always scares me.  The oil always pops on to me, burning me and ruining my shirts (even with an apron).

That night we ate Sweet and Sour Chicken.  My dad enjoyed it so much that he went online and ordered us a fryer!  Frying up big batches--and I mean BIG bags of Costco chicken batches--will be that much easier!  :)

So there you are.  I love online recipes.

And here's the breading for the ~6 lbs of chicken that comes in a big Costco bag of Chicken.

2 C Cornstarch
2 C Flour
1 1/2 Tbs Salt
Pepper to taste

3 eggs
1 Tbs oil (I prefer sesame oil)

Way Back Wednesday - Bust Size

A couple of weeks before Christmas of '07, I decided to go Christmas shopping by myself.  Pretty brave for me because we lived in Korea at the time, and I was planning on going to Seoul, about 3 hours away.

Derek and I had gone together plenty of times so I knew the routine, and I knew exactly where I wanted to go--the COEX Mall--and how to get there on the subway.

I left Sokcho early-ish in the morning and got to Seoul with no problems.  Once I got to COEX, I decided I'd be a little adventurous and do some clothes shopping for myself.  That's a big deal for a foreigner like me in Korea because it's tough for us to find clothes that fit.  Koreans are just built differently. AND hardly any shopkeepers speak enough English to make conversing pleasant.

After walking past a couple stores, I found one that looked promising.  There was a cute sweatshirt hanging out front and I stopped to look at it making myself a magnet for shopkeepers.  And sure enough, the shopkeeper immediately came out and tried to help me.  She didn't speak much English, so I sort of pantomimed that I wanted to try on the sweatshirt.

She vigorously shook her head no.  When I asked why, she said, "One size," as she took the sweatshirt off the hanger.  She then grabbed it on either side under the sleeves, and stretched it several times like a rubber band chanting "Bust size! Bust size!"  I got the point and left quickly.  Evidently, she thought I would stretch it out!

What I couldn't figure out though was why my bust size prevented me from trying on the sweatshirt, but she saw no problem with stretching it out herself!

Does this seem ridiculous to you, too?

I've heard about this "NYC flyover" (Foxnews.com) for the last couple of weeks.  It seemed a bit odd when the news first broke, but as more and more info comes out, it seems more and more fishy.  Now they're keeping the pictures "under wraps?!" (CBS News)

What do you think?

Top Ten Tuesday

Top ten things I did this morning...

1. Didn't take a shower:  I know,  it sounds bad but it's actually good.  Showering makes my skin extra dry so when I can get away with it I just wash my hair.  My skin feels so soft!
   
   
2. Ate a doughnut for breakfast!:  Possibly the best thing this morning.  My brother surprised us with a box of doughnuts yesterday.  How much better of a breakfast could you get?!
   
   
3. Changed the sheets on the bed:  I finally put our nice, deep-pocketed sheets on the bed.  Our mattress is extra thick, so some of our sheets pop off the corners.  It is not pleasant to wake up directly on the mattress!
   
   
4. Watched the Price is Right:  My favorite show in the morning.  Derek and I like to make fun of the people who look stupid being all excited, guess wrong, or get confused.  We also cheer for the winners.  We're not totally negative! :)
   
   
5. Vacuumed the floor:  It's starting to get warmer which means Willow is starting to shed.  She only does it once or twice a year, thankfully.  But that once or twice a year is a doozy!  It's like we've got little tumbleweeds blowing around here!
   
   
6. Swept and mopped the kitchen:  Whenever I actually make something (with more than three ingredients), there's always a mess on the floor the next day.  I made orange chicken yesterday, and today there were multi-colored spots on the floor.  Funny how I didn't really notice it yesterday...
   
   
7. Cleaned the kitchen counters:  I woke up this morning worried about chicken drippings on the kitchen counters, so I made sure to disinfect them with those great Chlorox wipes.
   
   
8. Rotated laundry:  We're on day two of laundry here.  Hopefully it's just this one load left...  hopefully.
   
   
9. Fed the cat:  As I went to hang some pants outside to dry, I noticed Willow's food bowl was completely empty.  I don't think she had noticed yet.  She still hasn't, too interested in the open windows.
   
   
10. Did some online shopping for better maternity shirts!:  Have you noticed that all maternity shirts--that aren't crew neck t-shirts--are ridiculously low cut?  It's not like we need any more emphasis in that area!  (Rocks in my Dryer wrote a post similar to this mini-rant about the industry conspiring to make us buy two shirts instead of one.  Read it!  It's great!)  So I'm left to buy undershirts.  But maternity undershirts are ridiculously expensive everywhere.  Everywhere except DownEast Basics.  So I'm browsing some shirts that can double as a regular shirt and undershirts.  They have them for $10! 
    

Monday Morning Musings - Random Thoughts

I think I'm feeling more fetal movement.  It's either that or some weird sort of gas on an intestinal circuit.  But since nothing comes out, I'm leaning more towards fetal movement.  Is that too graphic?  I didn't use the word "fart."  Until now...  oops!

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Derek and I had a great, relaxing weekend together.  He worked really hard last week.  I felt like I hardly ever saw him!  He was doing all of the moving (THANK YOU DEREK!!!) and working on finishing up some projects for clients.

I think he was pretty stressed, so starting Friday evening, we did whatever he wanted!  We went to an Elders Quorum activity on budgeting taught by our friend and home teacher, Nathan.

Saturday, we went to the Parade of Homes.  We had a lot of fun even though it was raining off and on throughout the afternoon.  Half-way through we even went out to eat at Panda express!  And then after we got home that evening, we watched a movie together.

We did our regular thing on Sunday morning with church and church prep, but then in the afternoon we went to Dave and Penny's house for dinner and fun!  It's always way fun to hang out with the Ortons and the Ortons!

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And I had a fun photo shoot with my cat.  She was being unusually co-operative.

 

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So that's what I've been thinking about lately.  How about you?

Saturday Somethings

So I must really be pregnant.  I've started to cry over nothing.  Here's the list so far...

• Got rain on my globes while moving:  In my defence, I collect globes--world globes, not snow globes--and most my globes are different ages.  I wouldn't be able to just go out and easily find replacements.  The weird irrational part of this story is I was sobbing uncontrollably for 10 minutes holding a towel and a hair dryer.  In reality, my globes are fine.  No damage done.
  
  
• My dad folded my laundry:  I didn't cry because he did it wrong, I cried because I felt so bad that I forgot that I had left laundry in the washer AND dryer and that my dad had done the work for me, making me the biggest loser on the planet.  Again, unreasonable but at least I held it together until he left the room. :)
   
• The cell-phone bill:  We went a teensy bit over our minutes last month.  Well, probably more than a teensy bit.  Our bill was about twice our average, but nothing to cry about!  But that combined with the laundry thing did it for me last night and I was a gonner!
  

Friday Finds: A Link Round-up

Eskimo Olympics, Scribbit.  Someday, I'd like to see these in real life!  They seem sort of like the highland games, nobody really gets them except the people doing them, but interesting none the less!  I think I'll get Derek to try to do some of these things.  He's always looking for new ways to exercise...

Little Learners Preschool, The Hamilton Family.  My friend Hannah does an excellent preschool out of her home.  She's got a summer camp planned and is also enrolling for next year.  If you're in the area and have preschool age kids, she's the best!

Our Latest Gaming Obsession: Quatro, Scribbit.  Two Scribbit posts in a week!  She's on a roll!  This Quatro game is definitely something I'm putting on Derek's honey do list!

Chocolate-Covered Strawberries, flipflops and applesauce.  Mmm!  That is all I have to say!

As Written, Overstuffed.  I love this analogy!   If it's alright with Lara, I'll probably be using it in a talk, lesson, FHE, or choir practice!