"OH-OH-OH, who's that kid with the oreo cookie?"

My favorite b-day present

2008-11-16T21:14:00.008-07:00

On my birthday, Erik took Kimball to the dollar store and told him to pick anything in the whole store to give mommy for a birthday present. He also told him to pick a card that he wanted to give to mommy...any card. And this is what was in the bag, oh, and he picked the bag too, it had a kitty on it. A spiderman keychain flotation device! yeah!!! complimented by this card...

I knew Kimball was smart but wow, already grasping the concept that we're all brothers and sisters?? ;)

Who knew my favorite b-day present would cost a whopping $2 and involve superheros!

Dragon boy

2008-11-14T21:56:00.007-07:00

Our little dragon picked his costume out a month before Halloween and when he tried it on he wouldn't take it off. He went parading through the mall roaring as loud as he could at everyone and has asked to wear it every day since. Now he's asking for a dinosaur costume.

Mia Hae-Soon Oh

2008-11-08T13:05:00.026-07:00

On Sunday morning the 26th of October, our sweet little Mia was born. She weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs, 13 oz. and was 20 inches long. She has more hair than most may have ever seen and many may wonder how this little girl is mine. Surprisingly, I was born with a full head of dark hair much the same. She has been such a sweet little angel, we are very in love. There is something about a little girl...I forgot how much this newborn stage melts my heart. And now at her 2 week mark, we've still heard nothing but the sweet sounds of a babe. Taking after her big brother, we may have lucked out with with another mellow yellow baby.

And sorry I have been slow in posting as it was so easy to just load all the pics at once onto facebook but I can't neglect the blog for my own documenting purposes. And since there are a lot of pics, I figured no captions were needed. Her cuteness tells the story.

And while we were adjusting to the new babe and enjoying each minute of her cuteness, Kimball was off in very good hands...nothing can be better than hanging with the cousins

Crazy baby week

2008-10-25T23:24:00.005-06:00

I'm off to get some rest for the big day. Tomorrow will be my daughter's birthday, and how crazy that I will hopefully be holding her in about 10 hours! Stay tuned for pics later this week. As for now, I'd like to introduce some of our daughter's girlfriends that were born this week.

Meet Sidney Rose Hatcher. Welcome little one!

And welcome little Mazzi Deann Wood. Still shocked that a girl popped out but glad nonetheless! And to little Logan Child, we look forward to meeting you very soon!!!

Make that 3!

2008-10-22T08:39:00.001-06:00

Okay, Sarah's water broke at midnight last night. Did 3 of my friend's water seriously break within 24 hours? This is out of control! And my question still stands....whose water freakin breaks on its own? I thought the chances were 10%! This is crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pregnant bellies popping everywhere

2008-10-21T21:37:00.007-06:00

Here are some pics of us crazy pregos last Saturday. 4 of us are due with our babes within a couple weeks of each other. Then there are more to come every month thereafter. But as for now, Sarah (pictured below) was due yesterday and still no signs of labor. I am scheduled for Sunday so pretty much we figured the 2 of us were gonners this week. Kellie (pictured above) and Tiffany are due early November and what happens? Kellie's water broke last night and her baby came around noon today, the delivery was smooth as glass. And as for Tiff, her water broke a few hours ago and I presume is laboring at this very moment.
A- Whose water actually breaks? seriously...
B - Looks like the deliveries are playing out backwards
C- Sarah is PISSED!!!!!!!!!! ;)

Who knew what 23 cents could do?

2008-10-18T09:31:00.004-06:00

I was seriously thrilled to find out the other day that there is actually a tiny cabbage patch sized (proportionately speaking) soft serve ice cream cone at McDonalds available and it only costs 23 cents. I had to go see if this was really true and sure enough, I asked for a kids soft serve at the drive thru and this tiny little cone was handed to me. It was so cute! Kimball was so excited for his ice cream and didn't even ask why it wasn't bigger. I guess that means I've been pretty good in not buying these often enough for him to know what else is out there. But the point is, it made him SO happy and it was not messy and it was probably 1/100th of the normal sugar intake! If they were smart they would charge more than the regular cone, moms would still buy it for the less mess and less sugar factor. Am I the only one who didn't ever know about these?

Also: I have been lazy about posting to the blog lately but I did just post a bunch of pics to facebook last night as I have been taking pics like crazy the last couple of weeks.

Weekend Highlights

2008-10-07T00:05:00.020-06:00

For Erik and me:
-relaxing with Dad & Connie at their home in St. George
-enjoying the plethora of conference talks coupled with several rounds of minutemaid cherry limeaid

-Connie's meals are always delicious, that was no surprise. But Dad on the other hand, cooked us a fabulous Sunday morning breakfast with his secret ingredient pancakes, fluffy eggs, and crisp bacon. I was utterly impressed!For Kimball:
-enjoying a serious overdose of Dora and the like while we watched the conference

-chasing around Bailey and throwing her ball in the pool only where she'd have to swim to get it
-searching for bats in a cave in Snow Canyon

-building dams in the shower with daddy. For the sake of the blog, I found it best that the other party involved not be included in the picture ;)
-helping Papa fish out the rock that so mysteriously landed in the pool... ;)

I left my heart in Seattle

2008-09-25T15:33:00.030-06:00

We spent the last week up in Seattle visiting Erik's mom and dad, his sis Rachel was able to come up as well. Kimball had such a fun time getting all the special treatment from Halmoni and Hadaboji, his favorite being sleeping in between them at night. Don't ask me how I let that one slide. We enjoyed way too much food, Mommy's homemade kimchi ji gae always being a favorite of Eriks and mine. And no matter how much one can argue the rain is an issue, there is just something about Seattle that always captures my heart leaving me with a yearning to live there, at least for a season of life anyway.

A visit to the aquarium

"Tiger" and "Lion" wrestling - aka, Kimo and Hadaboji

We went to the Pacific Science Center, similar to a children's museum. I had to laugh at this particular exhibit, it was this huge machine where you had to slowly pull up this lever to form a large screen of soap film. Kimball so patiently waited his turn in line with kids twice his size who repeatedly could not get the hang of this thing. Then Kimball did it perfectly and got all these bubbles out of it and people actually started clapping, it was really funny.
This was the insect world, Kimo got to touch some creepy crawlers

Here are a couple of the many butterflies that we saw in the buttefly atrium. I hadn't been to one of these since I was kid but they really are fascinating.

One even fluttered right down onto Kimball's elbow

And this is what it looks like when we go out to Korean food. My camera couldn't fit all of it but that's about 3/4 of the spread. And when we eat at their home, it pretty much looks the same. I so married into the right family.

Even Kimball was going to town! What's funny is, one morning we woke up and Erik's mom had made this seafood soup the night before. Erik can eat it for breakfast, I at least had to wait until noon before my palate would understand. But I had been trying to get Kimball to eat some yogurt and cereal all morning and he wouldn't. He told Erik he wanted some soup so Erik gave him a bite of octapus. Kimball chewed it up and said, "more octapus daddy" - are you kidding me?

It's always fun to go see Erik's buddies from H.S. and their wives and kids. This is Maz and his son Noah.

We were also able to meet up for a playdate in the park with Joie (a friend of mine from college) and her little girl Jezelle. I forgot my camera but this was a darling park on Lake Washington and Kimball was VERY busy chasing the geese down to the water, I think it was the one day he napped.

"No more pictures Mommy!!!!"

A great seafood restaurant on the water where I devoured Seattle's best clam chowder

And there's my little family

Sarah's baby shower

2008-09-17T23:11:00.018-06:00

We threw a supa fun shower for Sarah last Friday night. Her little gender in question babe is due late October, I can't wait to see what it is, my guess is in for a boy.

We had some delish Indian food catered, Sarah's fave. Is it just me or is she seriously Katie Holmes?

5 of us that are prego in order of due dates from right to left. The first 4 of us are all due within 2 weeks of each other, last January must have had some serious love in the air. Well what else do you do when it's freezing cold outside? ha ha ha

Looks like Rochelle and Mary got stuck going for the big win trying to down koolaid from a bottle

Laughing at themselves and the disgusting words they came up with for the mad lib although it was a little bit cleaner this time than it was at her bridal shower 5 years ago....

Sarah's cute mom Deann covers her mouth laughing in shame, the truth is, she's the one who made it disgusting this time, we had great laughs

more candid smiles...

and cute lil linzey loo came all the way from LA

babes...and Jen and Ang who are on the left and the right are both single! Too bad only girls read my blog, the guys don't know what they're missing

"But what is this blue line???" Oh, the laughs that come with the last generation trying to take a picture with a digital camera. note to self: loose fitting blousy shirt not the way to go when you are pregnant and taking pictures, I'll keep it for church ;)

And last but not least, I would not dare post a bare belly pic of Sarah if it were in any way going to embarrass her but seriously, how cute is this??? It is a darling belly and I am INCREDIBLY jealous of her beautiful skin color. My stomach is translucent. seriously.

Our mini Yang Wei

2008-09-08T21:42:00.015-06:00

The little guy finished his last week of gymnastics for a season or two. He was in classes at Gymcats all summer and it was the highlight of his Tuesdays! If the kids are 2, the parents are required to be with them during the class to help out. With me getting bigger and more lopsided, imbalanced, or whatever you wanna call it, I kept getting stuck in the foam pit among other difficulties on the various apparatus. So, Erik has been taking him to class the last month and they've had a lot of fun together. The only fear Kimo has yet to overcome is the rings, he only did them very hesitantly a couple of times but then again, it was a pretty high climb to get up there and once you were swinging it was a nice long drop. I plan to put him back in when he turns 3 in the spring, let me know if any of you want to join in with him.

The foam pit was clearly more exciting with daddy in it

Paris

2008-08-29T16:02:00.032-06:00

Oh, the lovely Paris. My husband was kind enough to grant my wish of going to visit a very dear friend of mine and her husband, Leslie and Dave Arnold, who live in Paris. Leslie joined Dave to live in Paris one year ago when they were married and I knew if I wanted to make this trip, it had to be before baby #2 came, even if it meant being 7 months pregnant. It was such a wonderful trip, spending quality time with a great friend of 12 years and touring this charming city that was only something I had seen in movies. I must include several pictures for my own benefit, so enjoy what you see until you get tired of me and that's just fine.

A few pleasant surprises about Paris:

1) It is INCREDIBLY clean. Trash cans readily available on every street and they never fill up.

2) Clean drinking water readily available, even on the streets! They have nice little statues that you would think are just pretty fountains with a thin stream of running water. It is actually for you to fill up your water bottle and it tastes great! Those alone must have saved us 50 euros!

3) No bumbs, no crime. Everyone out and about that city is respectable seeming. I wouldn't have been scared wandering a strange street at midnight by myself, everything is just charming.

4) The city is not very big. I didn't realize how close in proximity all of the fabulous sites were. Dave took me on a little vespa tour of the city my first night and I think I saw it all in less than 25 minutes and we were back at his front door. I had no clue.

5) Everything about this city is charming. I guess that wasn't so much a surprise. The Arc de Triomphe. This is where I took the bus into from the airport. Les was here to meet me as they live only a few blocks away from this gargantuan landmark.

Les and me after my first marvelous dinner in Paris. Yes, all the streets are this cute.

That dashing cute couple, Dave and Les.

Notredame at night, so beautiful.

A woman I tutor frequents Paris and suggested I must go to this place for ice cream. It is over on the little island Saint-Louis. Dave was able to translate all the flavors but the one I wanted. It looked like "gold medal ribbon" from baskin robbins and I said I wanted it anyway. This pic was before I took the venomous bite I will never forget. Immediately upon swallowing my throat was in flames. All I could do was run to get a bite of Leslie's to tame the sting as I blurted out "this has liquor in it!" Well, we decided to google this flavor when we got home and it was a type of brandy swirled with prunes! Could you imagine anything more gross!!!?? Trust me.

A lamborghini with Saudi plates, just chillin on the side of the road.

View off of Dave and Les's balcony
We took a little ride on the metro just outside the city to St. Germain and enjoyed an afternoon of lots of cute little streets and shops and plenty of beautiful things to look at.

There's that lovely couple again...

Too many beautiful things in Paris, even down to my cone of gelato being shaped into a flower

Le Louvre. It was just so freakin big, this picture does not do justice, a panorama shot would be much cooler. DaVinci Code was on TV the day after I came home, it was definitely kind of fun to watch since I'd been there 2 days prior.

Okay, totally lame pic of the Mona Lisa. I have a new camera with a different software and I can't seem to find the "crop" feature to get this dude's head out of the way. What's funny is, does anyone really care that I have a picture of the Mona Lisa? Frankly, I don't really care but for some reason I felt pressure to take a picture when there were 100 gazillion people pushing and shoving to get their stupid picture of it. I stood there wondering what in the world ever made this the most famous painting when as I looked around the room there were so many beautiful paintings 10 times the size and 10 times more beautiful, I don't get it. Art history majors - any thoughts??
My fabulous tour guide ;) I think we had just as much fun people watching in this place as we did "art watching" ;)

I thought this pic was pretty sweet. It was actually taken through a glass window from inside the louvre but you can't even tell.

Hotel de Ville, Paris' city hall.

side shot of Notredame in the daytime.

Doors at the entrance of Notredame. All of the intricate carvings and fine details throughout the design of this chapel are just so unbelievable on both inside and out.

This gives a decent view of the inside of chapel but I could have done a whole post dedicated only to the massive windows of the incredibly beautiful stained glass.

Beauty in Paris definitely goes beyond the architecture...

An author was doing a poetry reading of some sort in front of this favorite bookstore of Dave and Leslie's "Shakespeare & Company" - but what I want you to notice is this FABULOUS fountain with pure drinking water, my bottle got some great use! This is what I was talking about at the beginning of my post
Routine had it that Dave would call to find our whereabouts at the end of a work day and come cruising up on the scooter to meet us for a lovely dinner. Here we dined in a hip little crepery to enjoy some fabulous crepes.
Sacre Coeur was definitely my favorite place to visit. It is located on the highest point of the city and is a beautiful Roman Catholic church or "basilica" dedicated to "the sacred heart of Jesus". When we walked around inside there happened to be a religious session going on with people in attendance. Of course it was all in French but it made it a fun experience all the more.

It was fun to walk right around sacre coeur. It was a cool little atmosphere with this place called "painters square" where all these painters had their artwork on display and you essentially walk around this big square to view and buy the art.
How cute is this little truck? It was visibly clear by the textures that this pic was hand painted.

This was in the Jewish district. Leslie had been telling me we had to go get fallafels at this particular place and they were spectacular! We enjoyed them on a bench in a park and I now wish I lived there just so I could come order from this place every single day for lunch!

The bikes in Paris are free to use, you just have to slide in your bank card when checking it out (so they can charge you if it doesn't get returned) and then there are all these places around the city you can check out and return bikes. Easy access and so much fun, we biked over to the eiffel along the river and I took lots of video footage. I cannot show the video footage b/c you would think I was endangering my unborn child. I promise I wasn't, I learned the art of dodging scooters on a bike in Taiwan and I never had one accident.
Seine River
Goodbye to lovely Paris, thanks for treating me well and thanks to the Arnolds for being the host extraordinares!

Holla for Challah!

2008-08-20T02:22:00.019-06:00

I belong to a gourmet club that gets together every other month for a gourmet feast and socializing. The intent behind g.c. is for people to learn how to cook/host/entertain for special and not so special occasions. Our group is very casual compared to some, we mostly like to get together to catch up with everyone's crazy lives. It was Courtney and my turn to host this month so we did a "breakfast at tiffanys" theme on Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun and we had fantastic food if I do say so myself. I wanted to share my favorite which was Challah french toast and buttermilk syrup....mm..mm..good! Challah (Hallah) is a Jewish bread that is thick, braided, and divine. Here is a pic of the bread as is, but the french toast is a recipe masterpiece. You can find it in a number of places but we got ours at Leslie's bakery in Holladay, highly recommended.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/challah-french-toast-recipe/index.html

They suggest a different syrup but the buttermilk syrup we used which is delish can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Buttermilk-Syrup/Detail.aspx

Courtney was in the kitchen just working away like a madwoman

......as I was busy getting the table set

Well apparently Jen sensed my disappointment that our 2 most Audrey Hepburn look-alikish friends Dree and Mikell were not able to make it, so she brought me my own full size Audrey to make me feel better, she added a great touch ;)

Thanks for a great time girls!

So frank and innocent...

2008-08-12T14:38:00.003-06:00

Well I knew the day was coming. You hear those stories and get the e-mail forwards of kids making embarrassing comments in public and you are found helpless in trying to delete what was really just said. There are those comments that are made at the cost of your own pride, and those that so viciously attack strangers though the intent is purely innocent. I experienced both in the last week. While picking up groceries a few days ago, my tummy was feeling a little unsettled. And well, I accidentally let one go. Or maybe not so accidentally I don't remember. Anyhow, Kimball's acute hearing did not bow in my favor. Next I knew, he let out a big darling smile while giggling, "mommy farted, ewww". I couldn't help but kind of laugh too because he was just so cute when he said it and who really cares about the one lady that might have heard, she was probably laughing too. But he really embarrassed me today at the checkout line when he had to go and attack a stranger. The man was definitely not just large, but extremely large. Unfortunately Kimball had to notice right as he was ringing up my items and just candidly stated, "this man has big tummy mommy" --wow!! What do you do in those instances? We both clearly heard it and we both ignored it. How awkward, I just didn't want to make it more awkward for the man by acknowledging the comment and reprimanding Kimball so I pretended it never happened and then tried to explain to Kimo in the parking lot that some things are not nice to say. Poor man. Feel free to share your own embarrassing "toddler funnies"

Davis: a charming rarity

2008-08-07T17:57:00.010-06:00

With a population of 65,000 residents and an additional 30,000 UCD students, Davis still pulls off a seeming small town atmosphere. The Davis theme song should come straight from "Cheers" - our favorite 80's sitcom. It's all so familiar and it just feels like home. Living in a predominately conservative population (myself included) I often tend to forget about my good time granola roots. Davis is a university-oriented city with a progressive, vigorous community noted for its small-town style, energy conservation, environmental programs, social innovation, parks, preservation of trees, red double-decker London buses, bicycles, and the quality of its educational institutions. Davis residents boast the highest level of education in the state of California with more than 80% of Davis' adult population completing a minimum of one year of college training and more than 60% having attained at least a four-year college degree. And let's just say that when all my friend's parents asked where I was going to college, a state university was anything but impressive or worthy of conversation. But I bet I had a whole hell of a lot more fun than they did! ha ha. I find all this recent emphasis of "going green" funny because, Davis went green long before I was born. In fact, I even remember as a kid people watching us in disgust as we'd pack our car with paper/plastic grocery bags when they'd walk away hauling their canvas totes, though I really didn't get it at the time. Unique to it's own, Davis features more than 50 miles of bicycle paths and more bicycles per capita than any other city in the nation. It's a Northern California Mecca for artists of many media, featuring dozens of public and private galleries all within a few blocks of this quaint and homey town. No matter what direction you turn, the stroke of a local artist is evident. Truly a rarity, Davis is just Davis and there is nowhere else like it. I have received a few of these email forwards in the last year and I thought it would be fun to share. It's just a good summation of those crazy Davis idiosyncrasies… and a place I'm proud to call my hometown

…your family owns more bicycles than there are people in your family.
...the highest crime rate is bike theft
...you have a whole section of town devoted to Lord of the Rings...you don't find it odd that we have a whole section of town devoted to Lord of the Rings

...THE place to hang out, is Borders

...you find nothing odd that there's a whole grocery store that caters to vegetarians and vegans.
...you see a vegetarian homeless person
...you see a BUSH04 sticker and realize there are other political parties.
...your neighbor's house sold for a million dollars when, in any other town, it'd be worth four hundred thousand.
...your water is heated by solar panels.
...you have picnic in the park and Dinner at the Dump.
...you know of people getting a noise violation for snoring
...you know 5 different routes to the same location because all the roads in Davis are connected
... a city ordinance was passed to dim the streetlights so that you could see the stars better at night.
...all directions anywhere start with "you know where Baskin Robbins is?"
...we have 2 holidays over spring break: Easter, and Picnic Day
...you always buy Mother's Day gifts at the Whole Earth Festival.
...in high school you bought your clothes at the Salvation Army and were cool for it

...and you were even cooler if you bought them on Telegraph Street in Berkeley (consignment shops of course)
...you get pissed off in a line of 3 cars.
...Gay Pride Day gets proclamations from the City Council and County Board of Supervisors and a straight city council member shows up in drag.
...anything, and everything you say, can be twisted into something community leaders will consider to be offensive to any group imaginable in the entire human gene pool, including but not limited to one-armed bald eastern European midgets who talk with lisps. The city council would then instill courses into the curriculum to raise awareness that such groups even exist, and remove anything valuable from the curriculum to make place for the new courses.

...you didn't bat an eye when the Holmes Jr. High mascot was changed from "minutemen" to "minutemen & minutewomen" - much more p.c. of course
...any kind of a controversial issue instantaneously spawns town-wide panic, protests, marches, emergency city council meetings, candle light vigils, TV news stories, apocalyptic hysteria and other bullshit, all to establish some moronic politically correct status quo for something that never was a real issue in the first place
...nobody thinks its strange that a 60,000 population town is a "nuclear free zone."
...a corporate record business (Tower) goes out of business before a private business (Armadillo).
...the city council votes in favor of and builds a tunnel for toads.
...the postmaster's father builds a town for and writes a book about the tunnel for toads.
...you get really nervous when someone goes to put a plastic/aluminum bottle in the trash can.
...everyone you know got their braces from Dr. Chin
...Wednesday night means Farmers Market
...the police let the homeless guy keep a garden down by the railroad tracks.
...You don't know how to get to your friend's house by car because you have only ever gone by bike
...you call it Murder Burger [note: The name was changed to Redrum Burger because some folks thought that "Murder Burger" seemed too violent -- yes we have city council debates about such things!]
...you understand the archaeological significance of potholes
......you see nothing unusual about a Nutcracker whose cast of characters includes teddy bears, gnomes, country line dancers, swing dancers, bugs, bees, and insects.
...You met a Republican once. It happened in Sacramento. You screamed and ran away

....You think you're better than people from Woodland

....You have at least one friend with dreadlocks

....You have been pulled over by a police officer... while riding your bike

....It has a population of over 60,000, but you still consider Davis a small town

....You say you're from Sacramento because no one outside of Northern California has heard of Davis. Then you correct yourself, because you can't stand the thought of people thinking you're from Sacramento

....You will forever be part of the 'bubble' no matter where you end up.

A first for everything

2008-07-31T13:05:00.008-06:00

including the ice cream man! A few weeks ago we all of a sudden heard some music playing outside (funny that it was "rudolph the red nosed reindeer") when Kimball asked what that was. I told him to hurry and get ready to run as I grabbed my camera and some $. Kimball Nantou and I ran out the front door to chase him down but he'd already headed down the neighborhood. We just kept walking and walking hoping he wasn't far and Kimball was so excited when I told him we were going after the "ice cream man." Sure enough, we heard the music getting closer and there he was, heading down our way, Kimball gave him a good taxi wave and there you have it. His first transaction with the good ole ice cream man.

Who Petty?

2008-07-28T21:42:00.004-06:00

I used to just sing whatever songs to Kimball at night before bed and he would gladly listen to anything. Lately I have been the singing subject of his requests as he now loves to sing along with me. Last night he cut me off in the middle of "twinkle star" and said "no mommy, sun sun sun." I thought he meant "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" so I started singing that and he got very irritated. "No Mommy, sun sun sun song!" Clueless at this point, I broke into "Here Comes the Sun" by Tom Petty. He intently listened and then excitedly asked,
"What's that Mommy?"
"Tom Petty," I replied.
"More sun petty, more sun petty!"
-okay I had this song in my head again this morning and not sure why I said Tom Petty? Beatles, Tom Petty, you know, just a couple eras off, wow, that's something my mom would have said. Well now I wonder if Kimball is in fact a Beatles fan, I better brush up on their music!

Pregnancy comments from strangers

2008-07-26T16:51:00.004-06:00

It was only fair for me to accompany a dear friend in her baby registry this morning as it can be such a daunting task to a new mother. Not to mention she accompanied me for mine since Erik knew that it would be a nightmare and I would most likely not consider his opinion of products anyway. Although that day nearly 3 years ago was more like the blind leading the blind, not to mention we kept thinking we must have looked like a lesbian couple registering, just glad the bump proved that I at least played the girl ;) just kidding. Anyhow, Sarah is also not finding out what she is having just like we did with Kimball, the good ole "surprise" method. As we were considering product "A" over product "B" taking into account the unisex aspect, I was reminded of the #1 comment people gave me ALL through my last pregnancy and it got so dang old. And though I found out this time about our little girl, I will always have sympathy for those "surprise" parents who have to deal with the stupid comments. Here goes:

Stranger: "When are you due?"..... "Wow, so what are you having?"

Me: "Actually we didn't find out"

Stranger: "OH MY GOSH YOU ARE CRAZY, I COULD NEVER DO THAT, I AM SUCH THE TYPE OF PERSON THAT HAS TO BE SO PREPARED I JUST COULDN'T HANDLE IT.

Me: "Well yeah, we're excited, and actually it doesn't really eliminate much prep work ;)"

What the person meant to say was, I have to have a whole closet full of gender specific baby clothes and very girl or very boy bedding that co-coordinates with the curtains and rug.

Newsflash: your newborn lives in onesies and layettes for the first couple weeks of it's life unless you seriously want to undo full blown (no pun intended) outfits every hour to change the diaper. Heaven forbid you have white onesies (which babies are cutest in anyway no matter the sex). 2 weeks after Kimball was born I went out and in one afternoon got his entire summer wardrobe and it was a lot better being able to choose what he wore than receiving random whinnie the pooh outfits (if someone would so dare). And say you are a first time mom having a girl, it's not like you buy a pink stroller, a pink pack and play and a pink carseat and if you do, well, I just hope that when you do have a boy he turns out alright.

So listen stupid comment makers, next time re-think what you are saying, I promise the surprise parents have prepared just as much as you have, they just have a few less outfits in the closet and a few more dollars in their pockets. So cheers to all you "surprise" parents, it is so much fun!

And my #1 stranger comment this time around?

"Oh my, I don't know how you do it in the summer! Aren't you just so miserable?"

Honestly, I appreciate their sympathy and realize that there just probably isn't a whole lot more to say so this becomes the default comment to pregnant women in the summer but I haven't been bothered any moreso by the heat than I would be if I weren't pregnant. I guess I can't speak for all and I'm sure there are those that do get miserable when it's hot but I actually prefer pregnancy in the summer over the winter and here's why:

I slip on my flip flops in the morning and go. Enough said. There was nothing more annoying and dreadful to me in the winter of 2006 than bending over every morning to put on socks and then tie shoes or pull boots on and off when you can't even see over your belly much less trying to reach all the way down to your feet and get something accomplished. Not to mention the several layers of clothing you have to pack and shed each day. Such a nuisance. There's my 2 cents.

Happy pregnancy to all you others out there along with me and just remember to not pay any attention to any other stupid stranger comments you may receive but if they make a good story, feel free to share...

Should man eat corn?

2008-07-20T21:22:00.006-06:00

I haven't been able to get enough corn on the cob recently. It just seems to go with every dinner. I just wish the prices weren't so shifty. What's up with 5 ears for $1.00 one day and then 60 cents an ear the next? Anyhow, my friend Reelika has her brother visiting from Estonia right now. They came over for dinner tonight and he didn't grab an ear of corn for his plate. I told him to help himself and he just smiled and said, "No I do not eat that." Reelika and her bro exchanged this understood smile with a quick mumble in Estonian and then I had to inquire. She laughed and said, "In Estonia cows eat corn, not people." Who knew?All done! I knew Kimball was catching on to this sharing thing, he just wanted to save a snack for the cows ;)

Catching Up

2008-07-19T09:39:00.015-06:00

Last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of visiting here with the Winter family. Dad and Connie were up in Park City last week for their grand daughter Calista's softball tournament and my mom was in town staying with us this week. She brought my nieces Kaitlyn and Mikelle with her who stayed with their friends in Midway but luckily we got a tad bit of quality time with them, Kimball adores all his cousins. It was good for Kimo and Grandma to have quality time alone together without the distraction of other cousins though, this was the first time in over a year! Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of Grandma and Kimo cause the first night Mom was here I left my camera in the grass (after running to pick up Kimball from a bad collision with another kid) and didn't find it until 2 days later, after the sprinklers had run of course. Luckily my memory card did save what I already had taken but my camera is no longer alive, it was on it's last leg anyway as you can see my picture quality has been slowly digressing.Papa and Kimo bug hunting. Notice Kimball's very important tool tightly clutched; behold, the magnifying glass. You carry lip gloss and a compact in your purse? I carry plastic dinosaurs, cars, magnifying glasses, you know, the usual.Papa teaching Kimo a little sum'n about baseball...
We went up to the Olympic Park to watch the U.S. ski team practice their freestyle aerials, this was very impressive and looked way too fun. Kimball's little buddy is Connie's daughter Heather's little boy who is also named Kimball. Yes, I know, we are both apparently proud of this family name though Heather and I come from separate Kimball lines.

This is crazy cool. Too bad that the only thing that could come out of my mouth in a moment of awe was "oh wow, holy cow" - I just sound so stupidI always thought that Kimo's first chairlift ride would be with mommy over beautiful snow covered ground with a pair of some sweet little toddler rossi's slapped on his feet but heading up with Papa to cruise down the mountain on the alpine slide is still pretty cool I suppose...Dad said Kimball had a great time flying down. And as much as life has no good room for lies, pretending Kimball was 3 years of age was so worth it, if only I could have pretended that was just a pillow under my shirt too.

A stroll down Main St. after a dip in the pool. Kimo wore floaties for his first time (since the public pools don't allow them) and he was so cute trying to swim with them all by himself, I wish we could practice with them more often. I think Connie got pics of it.
Treats from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. And whoever said women were the ones so crazy for chocolate, they all look pretty concentrated on that bite if you ask me.Who better to share your chocolate with than Papa?
First night Grandma was in town, wish we could have captured more on camera but so it goes...

Kimo's T*ball debut

2008-07-07T15:55:00.011-06:00

While browsing Walmart's toy section for lake/water toys over the weekend, we came across a toy that would supersede all else. T-ball baby.

Setting up his home plate and all about business

Ball mounted, checkin out left field, yep, looking pretty promising...

mid swing, a successful contact...(even though the plate AND his grip are backwards:)

A base hit indeed...
off to the bases in my onesie and muddy sweats!!!

And a 4 sec. clip of my son's studliness

How cute is that? I think he nailed it every time but once, I'd like to attribute his mad skills to his mother but Erik's sis informed me that baseball was Erik's first love so I guess I can't take all the credit. Either way, I wish he'd hurry and grow up, I can't wait to see him in a little uniform up to bat for the first time, I'm sure I will cry.

Happy 4th!

2008-07-06T23:35:00.014-06:00

A fun mellow 4th of July spent with friends and our little family. It's always a good time hangin with the Woods and the Parrys, after a little BBQ at Sarah & Trev's we walked down to Sugar House Park for the firework show. Kimball was cracking up everybody around us with his creative and LOUD commentary after every firework. Examples: "Ohhhh, kitty!" "Ewwww tiger!" "Ahhhhhh pink stingray!" and so on and so forth, it was hilarious.
We also enjoyed a nice day boating with the Tim & Krista out at Yuba Lake which is south of Nephi, the drive was a little long but definitely worth it. Next time we want to camp on the beaches there.

Enjoying the show.
Tim & KristaSarah & Trev
Us girlies

I think Kimball must have been stumped right here, he wasn't sure if he should announce these fireworks looked more like worms or snakes.

Kimball and daddy spent ages excavating these huge rocks from beneath the shoreand then off on a joy ride of tubing, though Kimball looked pretty concerned and this was before we had a wake so you can imagine how the face got more and more terrified as the moments passed...I think he was actually less scared last summer!
and those darn life vests are just so unforgiving on the cheeks!D and K-roAnd....Kimo passed out and callin' it a day

Aloha Pres. & Sis. Kim!

2008-07-01T14:49:00.016-06:00

So President and Sister Kim (who I served under) in Taiwan, were out from Hawaii this past week so we had a mini mission reunion/mtg Sunday night to get together with those who are in the area and start spreading the word and building a committee for our big 10 year reunion that will take place in April of 2010. At Christmas time of 2000 our whole mission had a 2 day retreat in an amazingly beautiful tropic area of Taiwan called Xitou. President Kim had then asked us to all contribute our personal goals and future goals for the mission itself and bury them in a time capsule where we would then open it 10 years later. I think we put a bunch of other stuff with it too but I don't remember what. So anyhow, he will open our cute little time capsule at that reunion and wants to have as many missionaries as possible there so for those of you I served with who read the blog, start planning on attending and spread the word. Above is a picture we took of some of the group on Sunday night: Amy, Dallas and Jeannelle: maybe you will recognize some of these people, a lot of them served in Pres. Kim's early days so I wasn't as familiar with those who showed. Not to mention it seemed like everyone had like 3 kids which was totally crazy to me, my basement was a total war zone!!!

So this was my first time meeting one of President Kim's daughters, Lorinda. She and her husband live here in Utah so they came along to be with the fam. She is a Korean/Hawaiian/Chinese mix and her husband is a whitey like me. Her 3 year old Kai was just an older version of Kimball in every sense of the word and it was totally freaking us out. They were instantly best friends and Kimball was even sharing all of his toys with him so he must have REALLY liked him!!!

So this was hilarious. Sister Kim was trying to get a family picture of her daughter and everyone agreed their family just wasn't complete without Kimball. They even joked about sending it out as a Christmas card this year to see what people would say. So sad that my little boy looks like he fits in another family all too well!!

We thought we didn't look too bad with 2 boys ourselves, we may have to double check that ultrasound! (I think their little guy had already squirmed away by this point).
Anyhow, good times, looking forward to reuniting with more elders and sisters in 2010!

A visit from Halmoni & Hadaboji

2008-07-01T01:31:00.001-06:00

Erik's parents came to town this weekend and first things first, we drove right to Myung-Ga, our favorite Korean joint in the greater Salt Lake Area. The food is a little more authentic than others we've tried and absolutely delicious, located in West Salt Lake. Spicy pork & bulgolgi are my favorites dishes there.
Alas, Halmoni and Hadaboji thrilled to be with their little man once again, Kimball was equally delighted as he'd been waiting all week for their arrival.

Okay so I know it looks very un-appetizing but I took the pic after we'd finished. Man, did we devour enough or what??
These are 2 of the darling family members that own the restaurant. They also live in our neighborhood in Draper and happen to be Kimball's nursery leaders, he LOVES them!!!

Kimo and Hadaboji love to read books together. We often found them in the family room reading, jumping, playing with toys, watching cartoons together, and last but not least, Kimball showing off his "kung fu panda" moves as seen below.
Saturday night we went to get boba drinks, my favorite! I lived off these things in the summers in Taiwan. The only problem was, we usually get them at joints in Salt Lake that are actually owned and operated by Asians. The Yogurt Stop in Sandy was a little bit of a let down as everything was made from a powder and not fresh, blah.

Showered with love to no end! So cute!
Kimball didn't seem to think this drink was all too shabby!

Wheeler Farm

2008-06-25T14:59:00.009-06:00

Reelika and I took Kimball and baby Max to Wheeler Farm this morning. Kimball had such a blast feeding the ducks and making commentary on the other farm animals such as, "Look Mommy, cows sharing!" (when they were both drinking water out of the same trough) If only he could follow the cow's example ;) These pics of me are really comical, I had no clue how pregnant I really looked until today, and I still have 4 months to go???

Ryan Seacrest tears up the Wasatch Back

2008-06-22T21:47:00.027-06:00

No, not the American Idol host, the team "Ryan Seacrest." I don't know, I didn't even ask. Anyway, months ago when Erik and I were propositioned by some family members to join a team in the Wasatch Back relay this year, we considered it but then declined for one reason or another. About a month ago, Erik's buddy in California called him up and asked him to jump on board their team and wouldn't take no for an answer. Erik decided out of the goodness of his heart he would do it for his friend. He really does not enjoy running, he loves sports and competition as most of you know but not just plain running. For those of you unfamiliar with the Wasatch Back, it's a relay race consisting of 12 individuals (mens, womens, and mixed) that run from Logan to Park City, Utah. 180.5 miles. It took them just over a full day and night. I believe there were 580 teams and they finished somewhere in the upper half. Each runner had 3 legs to run, some longer than others and some ranked higher in difficulty. They ran through beautiful country in and out of the mountains at all hours, Friday mid-day, into the night, and through the next morning and afternoon. They had 2 vans to follow course throughout the relay and would pitch their sleeping bags in parks or wherever along the way to catch a few zzz's. Now this is not really Erik's idea of fun but I think he enjoyed himself nonetheless. Being out there and seeing the teams come through the finish was so much fun and definitely gave me the buzz for the desire to do it next year when I'm not pregnant. Then I realized that with a 6 month old child, having to stop and "pump" every couple of hours sounds very un-fun. Either that or everyone would think I just "sweat" in really random places ;) So I guess I'll have to look forward to 2010! Anyhow, Erik's friend Erik Manning, who reeled my husband into doing this was kind enough to take a plethora of pictures so I could get a visual of their adventures, hence, I will post them even though I don't know much about what was going on. If any of you were out there racing please let me know how your experiences were, it seemed like such a fun adventure race!

Waiting for the hand off on his first (shortest distance and easiest) leg Friday evening

Embarking on second leg, roughly around 5:00am Saturday, 6 and a half miles at a moderate incline

Erik and some teammates crash who knows where in the middle of the day Saturday after running instead of sleeping the night before

I find this pic incredibly cute

Saturday afternoon, waiting/mentally preparing for his third and final leg. A grueling 3.6 miles. In the leg description it reads: "severe uphill climb through Wasatch Mountain State Park (gravel road)." He went from 5700 ft. elevation to 7300 ft. elevation. That's over a 1500 ft. gain in less than 4 miles? Sick!

That's my baby pushing up the hill and coming off strong. Though extremely tough, I'm sure he loved this one because there was a great element of challenge. Last year on his birthday I challenged him to run up to the "Y" with me and back down in less than 33 minutes in honor of his new age. We did it! And we had so much fun because somehow when you push yourself through hell and back, the reward seems much greater!

180.5 miles later....posing beyond the finish

Check out my daddy's medal!!!

The Prayer of a Toddler

2008-06-19T09:45:00.003-06:00

Kimball has been cracking us up lately. We always go in his room and say prayers after his bath at night and about every other night he decides he wants to say the prayer. It is so funny and cute that I must quote a couple of the most recent before I forget them:

verbatim:
"Heavenly Father, thank you nice day, thank you mommy, kimo, daddy, nantou, milk?, fishy. Blessings broken kitty cat tail. Dragons, dinosaurs - GO AWAY!!! Amen"
(The kitty cat thing is so random, he had accidentally torn the tail off of a cat sticker earlier that morning and apparently the well being of this cat had been concerning him all day!)

"Heavenly Father, thank you Jesus, milk, books, Nantou. Blessings cows, pigs, farmers. Amen."
The greatest part of this is that we hadn't been to any petting zoos that day or anything of the sort and quite frankly I didn't realize he knew that a farmer was associated with these animals! so cute!

And while they were off camping...

2008-06-17T23:47:00.018-06:00

I hit the lake with friends for old times sake. Though the 5 month pregnant me wasn't about to whiplash myself out there on the water, I had so much fun just chillin in the sun with some funny peeps. I cannot reveal the secret lake name or I may get in trouble with the Don but if you recognize it on your own, party on. I must mention how very cute and very single Angela is. Seriously.

See what I mean? cute, fun loving, brave in cold water...

Rob, also single. And might I mention I don't remember him having these big guns...

Mark, also single...at least I think he is anyway

And of course the Don, the captain, the single captain. Is it just me or did I put a plug in for these same guys on one of my posts like last October? From the Brady's wedding maybe??

And the Bradys may not be single anymore but they are a sickly cute couple, Scott definitely scored in the cool wife category

Father/Son Campout

2008-06-16T13:54:00.023-06:00

Erik and Kimball thoroughly enjoyed their bonding time in the woods this weekend as they went with our ward to the father/son camp out. It's so weird how Kimball is just an independent little boy nowadays. Looks like they had so much fun.

Erik and his friend Brad drove up together, this is Kimo's little buddy Kasch.

When Kimball came home on Saturday I took him to get a buzz cut as an early Fathers Day surprise. Erik has been begging me forever to buzz all his hair off and I was so stubborn about it because I just love his long hair! So here he was getting ready to jump in the hot seat.

And here you have my handsome little boy with his new do, or lack thereof I should say. Erik loved it! And of course he couldn't go without getting to pick out a balloon.
And to top the weekend off, we went with my brother and sister in law and their kids to the demolition derby Saturday night. Sunny and I agreed it didn't compare to the ones they used to have in Logan with the bigger track and more contestants. Sunny actually knew someone who used to compete up in Logan, I always wonder where these people come from!

In the garden

2008-06-12T23:22:00.015-06:00

A couple of weekends ago Kimball and I buddied up to get our annuals planted. Every year I try new flowers and with the unseasonably cool weather/rain/lack of sun ever since, they've not held up to perfection, although still fighting for life. Kimball was so much fun, he was working so hard with his tools and had a blast finding all the big yucky worms. My neighbor Jacqui came bouncing out her front door with the camera and went crazy taking pics. Her kids came out to join the fun and it ended up being such an enjoyable day of gardening.

Kimo takes a break from shoveling dirt and soil to take his first guitar lesson.

Kimball rocks out on the guitar with his little man rake

Erik you just keep sippin' on that drink, you're making a great supervisor!

Caroline and Ethan learning from their wise old neighbor how to plant flowers.

The Furminator!

2008-06-09T17:30:00.005-06:00

Simply the best invention known to any dog/cat owner with shedding hair. This product is absolutely amazing. I went to give Nantou a doggie bath at a local doggy boutique and I just had to invest in this tool they call a shedding "rake" - it is a total RAKE! Nantou has such a tight coat that his shedding is nowhere near the amount an average lab will shed and within only a few minutes, I received delightful results! I'm pretty sure they also carry them at Petco and possibly even cheaper online. They are SO worth the money and it is so satisfying collecting all the hair, happy "raking!"

My terrifying fascinating high (drug free)

2008-06-06T14:22:00.006-06:00

Quiet, swift, and camouflauge. Simultaneously alluring and repelling. Fascinating and terrifying. An irony of sorts. For me, that of the snake has got to be one of the strangest creatures to inhabit Earth. So sinuous and unpredictable, they really send shivers up my spine. I've never pet one. I always curiously take a step closer only to find myself making awkward bouncy steps backward in the same direction while displaying an uncontrolled "post sour lemon" face. I then feel a dramatic speed increase in my blood flow, I guess one could call it....."a snake high"
Just when I think I'm more far than near to these slithery friends, my neighbor kids knocked on the door this afternoon to show off their great catch. He was just cruising through their front yard! Sick! There is a creek that runs behind the houses on a street perpendicular to us a few blocks away, right where our old house is and so I thought I was in the clear being on this end of the neighborhood. I guess tons of our neighbors have been spotting them in their yards over the past couple weeks and one kid accidentally mowed one into a hundred pieces! The funniest part of all about this little fellow though, was that Caroline had 3 brothers out there with her and somehow she was the bravest one to make the catch! That's Kimball's babysitter for ya, I know how to pick'em! After she'd been holding him awhile his jaw opened big and we all jumped back, he then barfed up a bunch of baby slugs, no joke, it was VERY nauseating! We were hoping Kimball would wake up from his nap to come take a look but the snake and his slug barf were beginning to gross us out. Needless to say we let him go, right back into the bridge by our house!

Our cute little alien exposes its gender!

2008-06-02T13:12:00.005-06:00

Kimball's baby sister has us quite excited, due date measuring at Oct 29th, we can't wait!

2 year pics

2008-05-21T00:10:00.010-06:00

When I tried a couple of months ago, Kimball ran out of the studio several times until I gave up. This time around I brought the Elmo chair and all was well. Duh Mom!

May Gray in the O.C.

2008-05-09T22:20:00.051-06:00

Though Southern California had a 90 degree heat wave recently, we didn't quite catch the wave. Our little family just returned from a week down in Newport Beach, Kimball and I tagged along this time as daddy has spent a great deal of time with work down there. We snagged a great deal through priceline for the Hyatt Regency on Jamboree, very comfy and accommodating. Erik's sister Rachel lives just a couple of miles away while Miriam is up in LA, luckily we were able to see both of them quite a bit in addition to a quick visit with their parents who were in town on Saturday. As much as we were yearning for more fun in the sun, it turned out quite alright.

A nice afternoon in the park with Auntie Rachel, why can't the park by our house have these wood chip bottoms, is it so much to ask?

Back for a visit to H.B, Erik's favorite surf spot and where he feels at home. Not sure I lived there long enough to call it home but it's always fun to visit. Apparently the man taking this picture did not feel Kimball was of much importance. sad.

We couldn't pass up the opportunity for lunch at Wahoos, who gets sick of Wahoos? I think we ate there 4-5 times throughout the stay. Maybe it's the same as Utah outsiders being obsessed with Cafe Rio. Then again, you just can't compare the two.

The Newport temple, around the corner and down the street from Rachel!

A Saturday morning stroll through Balboa island with ma and pa.

So this was crazy funny. Miriam had been on the PR team for putting together this stake fashion show up in LA. It was a modest clothing fashion show and all the models were beautiful along with their outfits. The show was very impressive, definitely above my expectations, especially for a church event! I was so excited to see one of the first models that walked out happened to be one of my roommates JANE, from my sophomore year of college over 10 years ago! It was so fun to catch up with her afterwards and finally meet her husband.

We attended church with Rachel on Sunday. This is her swanky apartment building, the Newport Bluffs.
We had gotten a bunch of both Erik's and my friends together on Sunday for a Cinco de Mayo carnita BBQ in Newport Beach but it was so cold outside I forgot to take pictures. The girls mostly huddled around the grill. Ridiculous, I know. So some pics of a few of the kiddies INDOORS afterwards will have to do!

Kimball kissing baby Sophie Stephenson, our friends Lindsay and Mike's baby. He was way into her, go Kimball!! Check out her hand up on his face too, looks like she didn't think it was so bad herself, we'll have to teach her to close her eyes next time ;)

Kimball still workin it with Sophie and Cambria Mangrum, Ty & Nicole's daughter. What's crazy is Sophie and Cambria are the exact same age to the day, they just met that day!

Kimball with his buddies Asher and Fin Bradshaw, Jeff & Brittany's boys.

Rachel spent Monday afternoon and evening watching the little guy so Erik and I could go enjoy the simple things in life that are more peacefully accomplished without children. We played 9 holes on a par 3 golf course behind our hotel, a perfect fit for us amateurs. We make a pretty good pair out on the green, we had a lot of fun even when we were searching for our balls.

We headed back to Huntington to follow up the golf with a leisurely bike ride. Just cruisin around so carefree, nothing could have been more relaxing. We parked our bikes and enjoyed a nice dinner at Savannahs below the pier.And then there was Disneyland.....
Is that Buzz Lightyear I see? Oh wait, no, it's a flower. Yes, it's true, this simple flower gave Kimball more joy than most anything else at Disneyland, that and his pineapple whip. He'd unfortunately suffered a horrible ear ache the night before that kept him up until 4 am. So with the combination of sick recovery and being a little on the young side, it might not have been his most memorable day ever but still enjoyable nonetheless. Well, why don't you be the judge, let me post below the expression on his first ride.

ha ha ha ha ha, exciting huh?

While we were still in California adventure we took him to the bugs life 3-D movie. That's nice and innocent, right? Well, I'd never been, but he and pretty much every other toddler in the room started crying. Luckily it was just more of a scared whimper and a couple of tears, some kids were coming out of there bawling their eyes out, Miriam and I couldn't help but laugh, so sad but kinda funny.

Happy smiley Kimball with higher hopes for this next ride!

Up, actually feeling quite tired after all, is this stupid caterpillar ride almost over?

Brittany brought Asher & Fin to join up with us for a few hours, I think this is Monsters Inc ride

So do kids even know who these characters are anymore? Kimball was clueless. When we spotted the dog we were like, "Look Kimball there's Goofy!" And after we said it like 3x this lady that worked there finally whispers, "actually it's Pluto!" Oops!

Mmmm, what a fine Dole whip this is!

Miriam and I had to steal away for our agreed upon favorite ride, Indiana Jones. Though we did get the front row of the jeep, we were saddened to notice the random lone lady sitting in the driver seat did not take full advantage of her lucky spot, she barely touched the steering wheel.

And off we ventured to Toontown when our fate took over. Man down, jail was definitely intended to be more fun.And since he wouldn't rise from the dead, we thought it would be kinda funny to just pose him on all of the attractions where he would have had so much fun if he'd only stayed awake. After the second picture we realized it wasn't so funny anymore, and in fact rather cruel. And with a completely anti-climactic end to the day, there you have Disneyland!

When Erik finished up work on Thursday we had a couple hours to spare before heading back to the airport and what do you know, the sun finally came out! So off we jammed down to the nearest beach to play around.

Corona del Mar
After pointing out small mussels and little anemones, Kimball was still on the hunt for bigger and better since he's used to all the crazy stuff at the aquarium. We weren't sure how we could beat that. But Erik spotted a crab in a crevice and poked and prodded to coax him out. After accidentally breaking a couple of legs (which he assured Kimball that they will grow back) we got our Mr. pet crab. Kimball was fascinated until he realized it wasn't behind glass and he started whimpering "crab get you, crab get you"

Mommy with her best little buddy

The hallway catwalk

2008-05-02T00:25:00.002-06:00

The truth is, when Daddy is out of town, Kimball throws hallway football out the window and finds himself thoroughly enjoying what I'd like to call "the hallway catwalk" - it's quite a show no matter the shoe.

Baby Maxim

2008-05-02T00:12:00.003-06:00

Our good friends Reelika and John had their baby boy on Tuesday night, a perfectly flawless sweet little guy. The visit to see baby Maxim was so much fun. Kimball insisted on holding him the whole time and wanted to comment over and over on each feature. He was incredibly gentle and concerned for the little guy. It got me so thrilled to think of him as a big brother to be! Congrats to John & Reelika on one beautiful baby boy!

Guinea Pig Love

2008-04-29T23:04:00.004-06:00

Now that it's getting warm again, looks like I'm in for my share of visits to the neighbors, Kimball's just gotta get his daily dose of the piggies!!

A shout out for Samoas

2008-04-28T08:15:00.002-06:00

For not even being much of a coconut lover, it's funny I've been craving those "Samoa" Girl Scout cookies for about a month now. Ever since I heard someone say they picked up a bunch of GS cookies I've been on the hunt. Where are the Girl Scouts? Are they done selling? I seriously go to the grocery store every other day amongst plenty of other errands and activities and evidently I'm the only one who never saw them around. Of course every kid in the neighborhood knocks on my door and sells me cookie dough and entertainment books to help fund their band trips, football teams and choir dresses and now that I actually WANT the product, can't seem to find it. I know they sell in spring but not sure if they are done, if anyone knows a sweet little brownie or girl scout trying to sell up her stock, PLEASE let me know. I'm craving those Samoas and thin mints!!!!!

A supreme lunch date

2008-04-25T13:36:00.002-06:00

I wish I'd had my camera with me today to show the maximum cuteness of the tiny hands and mouth gorging on this thing but this pic I grabbed from google will have to suffice. Seriously, lunch dates with friends is a staple for me, a habit I will never give up because it's just one of my favorite things to do. But I have to say, lunch dates with Kimball are increasingly more fun all the time, if I take him to the right place of course. We took a routine trip to Costco today and I promised Kimball that afterward we'd get a BIG hot dog. BIG was the key word that excited him. Now most of us know, that even if hot dogs gross you out (which is just weird to me) EVERYONE loves the Costco hot dog. And if you don't, you're missing out and you need to double check your taste buds. Not to mention the fact that the hot dog and drink total a whopping $1.50. But this is all beside the point, my point is, my 2 year old is my most hilarious and entertaining friend. We had so much fun eating our hot dogs today, he had to comment on everyone and everything around him while happily chomping away and occasionally sipping on his lemonade. He was making everyone around him laugh by flirting with them and then started fake burping so that he could say "excuse me" over and over and then start laughing. I should have stopped him, and sort of tried, but it was really funny. He's just such a little boy now, I love being able to have conversations with him and laugh with him, if anyone wants to join us for a fun lunch date at Costco, I'm sure we'll have many more to come!

Sizin' up the gorilla

2008-04-19T18:11:00.008-06:00

Wow Kimo, you're almost the size of that crazy gorilla! Well I figure our first family trip to the zoo is quite the epitome of a cute little family blog post, the kind that makes single people bored out of their mind, so here it is ;) Kimball was fascinated with everything from the giraffes and elephants to the tiny cricket that escaped the tortoise habitat.

Kimball's great big tiger "ROAR!"

A funny story about this rare white alligator, the ghost of the bayou. As we were waiting in line in this super hot and sticky atrium to see this guy (who appears more green in the pic) there were two little boys behind us in line. They were observing "the ghost" that was not moving an inch the whole time and finally said to their dad, "He's just a statue dad, he's not even real." The dad replied, "We wouldn't wait in line to see a statue, I promise he's real." "Well fine, then he's DEAD," confirmed the little boy. So I was reading Kimball a book last night that had an alligator in it which in the past he's always narrated correctly but what did he say this time? "Mommy look, (pointing to the alligator) DEAD!"

Evidently I'm cool, but not cool enough

2008-04-13T22:36:00.005-06:00

We've all had those days where we waited in the most insane long line for something and the whole time we keep thinking, "should I just get out of the line, is it really worth it?" But the more time you invest in that line, the more you feel it more of a waste to not proceed forward. And there's always that satisfaction of looking behind you and seeing the line build, as there's nothing worse than being last. So there I was, in the parking lot of RC Wiley at 8:30 am on Saturday waiting in line among several thousand crazies like myself for a ridiculous shot at becoming a contestant on my favorite game show, Deal or no Deal. One of those totally weird days where you end up becoming friends by default with the most random people that you've zigzagged past 30 times in line and after a few hours you just can't ignore them anymore and you feel like you're in some weird twilight zone episode of survivor cause you never would have chosen to spend your entire Saturday with these people. And believe me, I could do a whole segment of posts just describing some of the most bizarre (and excruciatingly painful, at times) conversations I got roped into. I always think I'm such a people person until I walk away from an experience like that completely drained. I have confirmed that I have a stamp on my forehead (that just doesn't show up in the mirror) that says "please tell me your life story, I'm dying to hear it."

So after 6 and a half hours of purely delightful line waiting, there I was, ready to go blurt out my 20 seconds of "selling myself" to the casting directors. They put us in groups of 10 around a table and then after each person did a 20 second "pick me pick me" pitch they just said, "you, you and you please stay, everyone else can head out that door." Luckily I was one of those "yous" and then I went to wait in another line to go in a room where the supposed "higher up" casting directors sat waiting for us. I got thrown in another group of 10 to go and do the same thing. Well since my somewhat creative pitch worked the first time I figured I would spatter off the same thing since it was a different person judging me. Lo and behold, he sent away everyone from the table except for this dude from Wyoming, and me. He sat there looking over my application and scanning my answers to the questions and asked me what seemed like 101 questions. He seemed very intrigued and was laughing at nearly anything I said. I was thinking "holy crap I totally nailed this I'm so awesome" and then he shot me a big smile and shook my hand and said, "thanks so much Denise" and that was it. WHAT???!!!? I'm so confused! Where's my yellow slip? Rumor had it there are call backs on Tuesday night and the "yellow slip" is the golden ticket. I'm so bummed, the dude was loving me and we were totally jiving and then all of a sudden, bam, no slip for Denise. I saw him taking notes on my app as I walked out and now all I can do is wonder what in the crap this was all about. I'm still somewhat hopeful that NBC may just send a call my way sometime before January, cross your fingers!

Please leave comments if you have friends/family who had similar experiences, I'd especially like to know what callbacks was like for any of you who know someone that attends on Tuesday night.

In awe of young talent

2008-04-11T12:41:00.002-06:00

After being released from my call in the Young Women program at church last month, I will be honest to say that after 2+ years, I was able to take a small breather and relax from the job that had demanded so much energy, time, and attention from my life. This is not to say I haven't sorely missed spending time with the girls at least 2x a week but I am so grateful for the relationships I was able to develop with them and what bright and beautiful young girls they were/are. I am fortunate to have one as my neighbor who keeps me in the loop so I still get to see the girls quite often, going to their games, performances, etc.
This neighbor of mine is one person that I look up to so much. She has an incredibly fun energy about her. She has 5 brothers, all of whom are just as fantastic as her. Their family is from England, so their British accents and funny words are enough alone to entertain. But my friend Caroline has quite the singing talent for a 13 year old girl. I didn't realize her brother Talley who is just one year older (in the 9th grade) had it in him as well, we all just know he's a soccer stud. She and her bro were performing at a school awards assembly this morning and they did the song "Cinderella under my Umbrella" by Rihanna & Chris Brown. It was so unbelievable, I just don't understand how an 8th and 9th grader can exude so much confidence in front of such a massive crowd of peers. Had I known it would be so impressive, I would have taped it but luckily their mom did. I begged her to post it on youtube and she said she would so stay tuned for the cute performance, I will post it as soon as I get word...

Weekend in Mendocino

2008-04-01T21:15:00.018-06:00

After my sisters and I took our Mom to Vegas for her 65th birthday last year we decided this would become a yearly spring break tradition for the 4 of us girls. Except every year go somewhere new to retreat. This year my mom made the great choice of Mendocino, we stayed at a darling hotel called the Little River Inn right there on the northern Cal coast. A little cold and a little windy as expected, but beautiful and relaxing all the while. I also got to spend one super fun night out to dinner with some old high school friends but stupid me didn't take any pics, the memory will have to do!

A homemade seasaw! This thing was so much fun, it doesn't look all that tough but we were seriously launching each other, Lynette always seems to seek out the fun anywhere!

My 2 cute sisters, Deanna & Lynette

Dee & me

I thought this was a cute pic of my sisters helping Mom carefully walk down to the restaurant from the hotel. She crashed on her bike the first day when we had a little mishap on the Davis bike trail (long story involving aimless children selling magazines and big purple flowers) and consequently she really messed up her knee. She was a great sport to still even go to Mendocino because her knee was in a lot of pain. Good thing there was a fireplace in our room, she enjoyed getting her r&r from the warmth of the fire and a fabulous view of the ocean.

And to top off the trip, the handsome pilot on my Delta Skywest flight was Jess Hatcher! He is a friend from college who ended up marrying my friend Keri, what a small world!!! I felt like a lucky little kid with special privileges being invited into the cockpit!

Oh yeah, and April fools on the last post, duh! I wish I were April fools'ing about the size of my stomach but that is the truth, the cat is now officially out of the bag and I've got a long way to go!!!

Things come in 3s!

2008-04-01T10:48:00.004-06:00

Well, I kind of wondered how my belly was already getting so huge at only 9 weeks along. This morning one little ultrasound answered it all. Anyone up for a nanny position?

Another birthday milestone for Kimo!

2008-03-26T22:40:00.020-06:00

Yes, it's true, my little Kimo is growing up fast, he turned 2 on Sat. It was an eventful day, some great events, some not so great. He sliced his finger open with the blade of a pencil sharpener on our way out the door to the greatly awaited Easter egg hunt/"eggstravaganza" at Thanksgiving Point. Well, I'm glad daddy spent the time to play doctor and get him bandaged up cause we missed out on NOTHING! I forgot the battery from my camera and wasn't all that sad other than the fact that Kimball's cousins were there with him and they all looked so cute with their Easter baskets. For a venue of that size, the whole thing was pretty disappointing as there were roughly 4,000 people and like 5 things to do, each boasting a 2 hour line.
But we made the best of it and spent a nice afternoon in the park utilizing Kimball's new gifts and playing with Nantou and the bunny rabbit (that belongs to our friends) who Kimball got to take out on a leash. That night we met up with 3 of Kimball's Aunts and his cousins (his favorite playmates) at this indoor bouncy house type place that has a bunch of inflatable slides and whatnot. It was a little ghetto but we all had so much fun in there. I decided to just keep it family this year as we are still recovering from his "Tol" celebration last March when our house was packed with 100+ people. Simple is good :) Here are some pics of my darling Kimball on his special day.

Thank you Nantou! Let's go play ball!!

Thanks Aunt dd! You always seem to know just what I'll love

Thanks Mommy and Daddy for my first set of wheels!

When we got to the park, one of Kimball's best friends Halle was there. The moment he saw her, he spontaneously ran up to her and give her a kiss on the side of her face. It was the most precious thing ever (because he did it on his own) that I asked if he would do it again so I could get a picture. Such a little lady killer.

HAPPY EASTER!
Since the Saturday hunt had been such a flop (I think Kimball got 2 eggs), we decided to conduct our own little hunt for Kimball Sunday morning. Miriam had gone to grab plastic eggs for me that night and 3 stores later, no luck. So, she ended up dyeing my eggs and it turned out very cute, plus no candy inside to rot Kimball's teeth! It was so fun watching him and I got so excited thinking about the many fun years we have ahead to watch our kids get excited over all the simple things in life.

And I just couldn't help but to include this picture of Kimball running into church on Easter Sunday. It's funny how he gets so excited for church each week. I'm so grateful to be the Mother of this amazing little boy whose brought more joy to Erik and my life than we could have ever dreamed possible. We love you Kimo!!!

The Greatest $50 Investment

2008-03-21T14:23:00.019-06:00

A birthday wish goes out to my first boy. This boy was born 3 years ago at a little farm house in Heber City, Utah. Your daddy and I saw your ad in the paper and knew we had to drive out to come meet you. And to think those crazy farm fools would put a price of only $50.00 on you? Yeah yeah, they didn't have your mommy's hip x-rays and your grandpa wasn't a world class show dog and your uncle didn't win first place in some bird hunt contest. Who cares. So you may have a little hip displasia but nothin a little medication can't take care of. We LOVE you SO SO SO much and seriously cannot imagine our life without our first best friend that Erik and I made together. Not to mention Kimball's first best friend. Thanks for bringing so much joy and countless great memories to our family! You have been worth every hair that clogs up my Dyson and even the occasional ones that I have picked out of Kimball's diaper or off his butt ;) Happy Birthday Nanters!

A Holla to my Momma

2008-03-11T12:05:00.003-06:00

Mom, I would have loved to produce an entire video to go along with this but in the interest of time I had to settle with simplicity. Have a FABULOUS birthday today! We love you and miss you.
Make sure your sound is turned on!!! Enjoy ;)

Teethbrushing 101

2008-03-07T08:33:00.003-07:00

So I took this video a couple of months ago but I just found it and can't stand how cute it is. A) because Kimball loves brushing his teeth, and B) because he's obsessed with his Daddy and wants to do everything exactly like him!

A Richards Hall Classic 96-97

2008-03-04T12:31:00.004-07:00

Okay, for the 15 or so people viewed in this picture, I totally know that you are having as massive a flood of memories as I did when Kevin just sent me this via e-mail. I was dying!!! How can one forget Stone and his famous postal jeep that cruised the campus? We even took this jeep up skiing in the middle of the night! This picture was taken 12 years ago and it seems like just yesterday!!! I had to laugh at my many observations. First, I had to give Kev a hard time for the tie dye shirt, seriously, since when was he a hippie? And my yellow hair? Awesome! Or could it be the fact that half of us were barefoot and the other half in boxer shorts! I'm really hoping this was taken on a sat. morning when some were still in pj's. I know it's Utah State so anything goes, but I promise we did wear shoes to class, then again, probably not Scott. Cheers to the Richards Crew from 96-97 and to the memories of Stone and his postal jeep!

T.O. like you've never seen it

2008-02-28T21:57:00.011-07:00

A one year old boy who respectfully honors his timeouts has become quite the talk among both Erik's and my family as they've witnessed several accounts of this comical phenomenon. I know timeout is not meant to be funny, nor toyed with. But if you could only see! When Kimball was about 15 months old, I started putting him in timeout when he was doing something I asked him not to. For me, what works is to just sit him down facing the wall with his feet flat against the wall, in any room, or even in the outdoors on occasion, as you will notice from Erik's soccer game below. And for some TOTALLY odd reason, whether he'd been totally hyper, crying, or whatever just seconds before, the moment he sits in timeout he is dead quiet and 100% STILL. He doesn't move a muscle and it is HYSTERICAL! This is something that I never thought of taking pictures of until Erik's sister Miriam couldn't stop snapping when we were vacationing in Cambria this summer. Miriam and Rachel kept begging me to put him in t.o. due to any slight misbehavior but I reserved them only for when they were due. Now my own family begs for the same sight, it is seriously unbelievable and hilarious. Just last week Erik and I let him out of the cart at the grocery store and he went sprinting down the frozen food aisle so I yelled down the aisle, "Kimball, stop running away or you will sit in time out!" He IMMEDIATELY dove into timeout position and was sitting dead still with his feet against the freezer! We were laughing so hard!

These pictures I'm attaching are a collection from the past 6 months and don't worry, I always turn off the flash so he doesn't know that he's being mocked. Hopefully you can capture the "stillness" as you view these pics ;)

Scone me baby

2008-02-26T23:48:00.002-07:00

There is just something about messy baby faces that never gets old, at least when it's your own kid. I think Kimball gave his first scone two thumbs up, thanks Aunt dd!

I'm a pug-like ambassador, who knew?

2008-02-25T23:38:00.007-07:00

What's Your Dream Job?

My Result: Ambassador

Sales representative? No way. Chemical engineer? Not you. With a big heart and a natural knack for smooth-talking, there's no doubt that you could go head-to-head with Angelina Jolie for best humanitarian. Whether you're smoothing over a fight between feuding friends or solving the stickiest of situations, you somehow manage to keep even-keeled under the heaviest of pressures. That's why the perfect job for you would be making sure that people all over the world are happy, healthy, and safe.

And while there may be a lot of competition on the international stage, this world could still use all the caretakers it can get. So make sure to take your heart wherever you go! Believe it — no matter where you work, your coworkers will be glad you're there.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=jobdreamogt&c=50652

What Breed of Dog Are You?

My Result: Pug

No bones about it, you're an intelligent, playful Pug. Witty and charming, you're a lot of dog wrapped in a small package. People just love you — a wonderful approachability and sense of humor put you at the top of everyone's list. And because you're smart and quick-witted, you attract a crowd wherever you go. (Have you ever considered running for office or starting a company? You've got the charisma for either.) But that doesn't mean you can't be a little naughty or mischievous when opportunity knocks — you've definitely got a nose for fun! A happy, optimistic breed, you're admired and respected by all. Woof!

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=dogogt&c=50652

Okay, seriously I'm way too obsessed with this website and I've been taking these silly quizzes for the last hour and a half. I think I've taken every quiz out of every magazine and could probably write better quizzes than these yahoos. Anyhow, I chose to post these 2 as they were the ones that caught me most off guard. I was kind of more hoping for something along the lines of game show host and Labrador retriever! Being an ambassador is way too serious/intense of a job for me nor would I want to be compared to Angelina in any way. And, I didn't respond to any question that would indicate having a flat face nor did it question any asthmatic history, whatever.

p.s. I just came back to add this note, I saw on the blog the text of the explanation isn't showing up dang it, I'm not sure why. Sorry, that kinda makes this post really lame but I'm too lazy to look back into how to fix it.

What's your Easter vice?

2008-02-23T13:55:00.006-07:00

Yep, that's them, you know the ones. Those darn Cadbury chocolate mini eggs. If for some horribly under privileged and really sad reason you have never tried these, DON'T!! They will take you under by the mouthful. Something about that candy shell, and the chocolate they use, the way it kind of crunches open and then melts in your mouth, I swear it's better than Swiss chocolate! And it's so weird that the very same company is still selling those Cadbury yolk eggs which I practically barf at the sight of, they sting my throat. Anyhow, it totally infuriates me that these are sold everywhere over a month away from Easter. I know that's how it always is but with how often I go to the grocery store, that is putting myself up against serious torture. In past years, I'd just buy 'em up, no problem. In fact I'd buy several extra bags and freeze them so I could continue to gorge on them after Easter when they were no longer being sold. That was the high metabolic me. I've noticed in my 30th year of life, I can't get away with this "hording sweets" practice as easily anymore. I don't think that mouthwatering sugar cookie bouquet from Cookies by Design that Kimball gave me for Valentines Day did anything good for this body. So, here I go again, trying to recreate the wheel at the gym. I've been getting back into a regular workout routine and what I hate most about it is watching on the machine how SLOWLY those calories burn away. You feel like you are going do die as you work so hard running, elliptical'ing, cycling, whatever, and then you just slowly watch it count, 5.........6.........7 calories and so forth. So my whole point to this is, now that I'm conscious of how hard I work to burn it, I can't help but just look at the calorie content for kicks on the back of this bag. Which I honestly NEVER normally do nor have I ever cared. Drum roll.... 190 calories = 12 mini eggs. Okay, any normal person could eat 12 of those things in less than a couple of minutes. They are addicting and before you know it, they are gone. 13 servings in a bag. 13 x 190.....2,470! There's a little thing to remember when you go to grab the bag. If you do grab, good for you and eat a few for me! As for me, I'll scurry past the seasonal aisle until it's Easter egg hunt prep time, then I'm a dead man!

Hodge Podge trip to the desert

2008-02-22T13:09:00.006-07:00

Since Erik had to go see a client in Vegas this week, we decided to drive down as a family and hang at my dad's in St. George for a couple of days before heading to L.V. I had my first experience attending a Parade of Homes and am not sure why I haven't done it sooner. It was so much fun to see some of the homes that were being showed, the ones we went to all had the very authentic southwest adobe style look. Much similar to the home Dad and Connie are building now, we got to go see it and we are SO EXCITED for it to finally be done in another couple months! So now I guess I'm hooked on the parade of homes and will definitely be attending the next one that comes to Salt Lake!
Vegas wasn't quite warm enough to lay out or soak up the sun so while Erik had his appt. on Tues Kimball and I went to check out the secret garden and dolphin habitat at the Mirage. It is a pretty fantastic set up they have, a very impressive mini zoo. Lions, tigers, cheetahs, panthers, llamas and the awesome dolphin habitat. Kimball must have stood against that little wall for an hour calling out to the dolphins chatting with them. They kept coming up right next to him and resting their head on the platform like they were just smiling at him, it was so CUTE!
One thing we did learn on this trip though was that Kimball is starting to get a little more difficult to travel with. He's still pretty much the easiest kid ever but he doesn't like going to sleep when he's not in his own room so it was sort of a battle every night, not to mention his recent boycott of restaurant highchairs or booster seats, he wants to be just like the adults. And he will be really good until all of a sudden he gets bored and dumps a whole drink upside down to remind us that he's just a playful little 2 year old.

A night at the Ohs

2008-02-15T23:04:00.009-07:00

Whenever I'm cooking dinner Erik and Kimball always seem to create some very entertaining games around the house, usually involving pillows, blankets, laundry baskets, ropes or bagstraps, and dragging. Erik says they're "helping sweep the dog hair". Take a look, it is pertinent that you view all 3 in sequence and notice the added details with each clip. Sorry about my boisterous laugh, Kimball's is much cuter.

Wedding Collage

2008-02-15T15:43:00.001-07:00

4 years today!

2008-02-14T14:50:00.015-07:00

Cheers to 4 years! 4 years ago today, there was snow on the ground, much like today. The temple never seemed so beautiful and peaceful. I was surrounded by my wonderful friends and family. I shared so many hugs, kisses, and smiles. I danced with friends til I was sick. I watched my new husband bust out some serious break dancing skills, never knew about them before and have never seen them since! I married an incredible man. Happy Anniversary baby! Here are a few pics to take us down memory lane of that entirely perfect day...I wanted to build these nice little collages in Picasa so I could include a ton of pictures but when I clicked on collage, it auto-piloted some weird collage and randomly selected pics to go on top of the 411 that were taken but it actually ended up looking kinda cool as you'll see in the next post.

Husband Tag

2008-02-14T11:26:00.004-07:00

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
Thanks for the tag Becky, here goes:
What is his name? Erik Seung-man Oh
How long have you been married? 4 years today!
How long did you date? 5 months?
How old is he? 33
Who eats more? When he's on his health kicks, maybe me
Who said "I love you" first? Erik
Who sings better? He can carry a tune but it's not his interest. It used to bug me that he doesn't sing much in church until I realized you just gotta pick your battles.
Who is smarter? Seriously? what kind of a question is that? He's smart, I'm wise :)
Whose temper is worse? Neither.
Who does the laundry? Me.
Who does the dishes? He creates dishes, I wash them.
Who pays the bills? Sadly, me. Though I would love a financial secretary since this is my absolute LEAST favorite job!
Who mows the lawn? Also me. I love it!
Who cooks dinner? me
Who drives when you are together? Erik
Who is more stubborn? Erik
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Erik
Whose parents do you see the most? Never thought about it. I would guess half and half.
Who proposed? Erik. One of life's greatest moments.
Who has more friends? He would say me but I would say him.
Who has more siblings? me
Who wears the pants? Kimball and Nantou :)

I tag Les, Joie, and Amber. And for my most recent (5 things you might not know about me) post, I tag Amanda, Barbie and Dree.

Tiggity Tagged

2008-02-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

I better catch up with this tagging thing while I can. Becky, I'll save your husband one for this week in honor of Valentine's Day and Les, I'll do yours now.
5 things you may not know about me....hmmmm.....well, I have a lot of stories and experiences, many of which I've told. Depending on how well you know me, which section, chapter, subtitle, bullet point would you like? To share just 5 things brings great pressure.....

1) If there is one disorder that I may questionably have been cited as a victim of, I would have to say it's narcolepsy. As most of you know narcoleptics fall asleep, anytime, anywhere, with anyone. It just happens. I've somehow gained a better handle on it over the years but it used to happen often in my childhood. Some of the places where I've spontaneously fallen asleep:
- Driving Eastbound on the I80 from Davis to Sacramento (approx 15 minute drive), at least 10 times!
- chairlift at Squaw Valley
- chemistry class (a given)
- Logan Golf & Country Club, on the job
- 75% of theatre movies, 95% of movie rentals
I'm just glad I'm not like the dog on Oprah a few years back who went running across the room and then fell to the ground mid-stride like he'd been shot.

2) I'm very obsessed with foreign languages. I can wholeheartedly sing a full song in many of them. I've lost count but let's add them up, Hebrew, Italian, Africaans, Spanish, German, French, Swahili, Chinese, Japanese, and one other African language, origin of which I've not yet determined but I swear it's legit. I can also do accents pretty well so I like to pretend that I speak all these languages. I will ask people to test me and then I will just talk out the words of the song(respective accent included) as though I'm rambling on in thought. It works EVERY time and I leave people stunned. That is unless of course they actually speak that language, but do you think I would be silly enough to make myself that vulnerable? I just quickly skip over the tongue they actually speak, to a language far more impressive of course.

3) I once was in a high speed chase with the cops. yep. Right after my friend Jesse got his drivers license, he and these kids named Calvin and Tommy came by my house and wanted to go to a movie. We ended up not getting there in time and were bored teenagers looking for some adventure. What else but to go pick oranges off of Tommy's aunt's tree in her front yard and drive around throwing them at cars. Not my idea but of course I thought it would be fun after all those years of watching my brothers putting black cardboard kitties in the road and hiding in the bushes. Driving along, laughing as we're nailing cars, I went to chuck my first orange out the window when my friend yelled, "NO, it's a co.....(my arm proceeds to throw) p car!" The cop flips a U and turns on the sirens. What does my friend Jesse do? Speeds up and starts taking a left, then a right, then a left, trying to ditch him at 40 mph in a small downtown neighborhood. Meanwhile, everytime we lose him around the corner for a second, I'm chucking the remaining oranges to eliminate evidence. We finally hit a dead end and contemplated getting out and running down the greenbelt which wouldn't have done my friend much good whose car would still be remaining. That's about the first half of the story. In the end I ended up with a misdemeanor for littering. I'll tell you about the outrageously crazy and fun activity I did for community service another day, I guarantee it would hold a candle to anyone who's ever done community service. Could have something to do with the fact that my mom had dated the chief of police and I had a little in.

4) Though I can't turn down a gourmet meal or international cuisines, I'm a straight shootin junk food junkie. I love cheetoes, frosted sugar cookies, slurpies, keeblerhouse fudgesticks, donuts (except the nasty filled kind), rice krispy treats, scotcharoos, and so on. I also can't pass up a hit the spot Taco Bell crunchwrap or Carls Junior Famous Star. yum yum.

5) Okay so for the last one I was going to tell the story of what happened when I took the worm pills but I decided it may not be fully appropriate. Well it's not really that, it's more that I just tell the story so dang well in person that I wouldn't want the written version to not fulfill justice. So I’ll play it safe and tell you that in 2005 I went to LA to compete in Bejing China's version of American Idol. It was one of the silliest and weirdest things I've ever done. It was designed for American people who speak Mandarin that could perform Chinese talents. I sang this Chinese pop song that the producer more or less "made" me sing by aggressive suggestion and for fear of losing my spot as a contestant, I concurred. They had these Chinese judges set up, just the same as American Idol. And these 2 MC's not nearly as cool as Ryan Seacrest. I can confidently say I didn't do so well. I was EXTREMELY nervous, not sure why cause the audience was so random. I just sang a "hai-hao" performance at best. I had quite a bit of friends and family there to support me and think I got the loudest screams and claps due to my biased audience member section which really threw off the judges. i think they were way confused as to why people were cheering. Stacie held up this sign that said, "Way to follow your dreams, Denise!" and I was completely mortified to think that people thought I was actually serious about it. The whole competition was released on one of the most widely viewed television stations in Beijing China, over tens of millions of viewers. Nice! To this day I've always wondered if that actual pop star saw me and thought to herself, "that's the American's sad attempted version of me?" Needless to say, I wasn't one of the 3 finalists that got sent to Beijing for further competition, dang it!!!

A prophet of the Lord, A man whom I love

2008-01-31T23:07:00.000-07:00

Just a few years ago, President Gordon B. Hinckley was the first LDS President to visit mainland China. This picture tells me he was received well, not unlike any of the other hundreds of grand entrances he's been given in countless countries around the globe.

For those of you who share my faith, I don't need convince you of all the wonderful ways this man has truly made history and changed mankind forever. You know as well as I. For those who are not of my faith, well, surely you've heard of him and at the least, you've caught a Larry King Live Interview to have felt but a glimpse of the goodness and charm this sweet man carried. At 97, he has now passed.

Today I speak on behalf of my other self, my yellow self, if you will. As I've smiled and cried over the last week reading several heartwarming tributes to Gordon B. Hinckley, I've begun to reflect on my own feelings for this man. I believe it was the 3rd lesson of the old missionary discussions, we taught about prophets. It was my opportunity to live among the wonderful people of Taiwan and to share with them the truth about God having a living prophet on the Earth, just as he did in times of old. Each time I would then ask if they would like to see a picture of the man who today serves as the Lord's mouthpiece to lead and guide us. As I would pull out a picture of sweet President Hinckley, without fail, I would have tears in my eyes. The example of his countenance, humility, and love would soar through me. The greatest reward to me, was after these sweet brothers and sisters of mine had prayed to know the truth, they too had a great love for him. They would stand and bear testimony that he was called of God, and again I would experience that surging feeling of the Spirit. President Hinckley had such a love for God's children all around the world. I can confidently say he had a tender spot in his heart for the Saints in Asia. In the Quorum of the Sevenety and as an Apostle, he served for decades often presiding in many capacities over the Asia area. He dedicated 5 of the 6 temples in Asia, there is a 7th now under construction. Last night I read online a few of these dedicatory prayers which he gave, the blessings that he gave to the people of these lands, just incredible. Spencer J. Palmer, a BYU professor of religion and later Seoul Temple president, said in recalling his days with Elder Hinckley in Korea: "He is the father of the church in the Orient" and says Korean Saints joke that President Hinckley will be resurrected as a Korean. Ha ha ha!. Could you imagine? A Hinckley/Erik Oh combo? I love it!

In the summer of 2005, we were able to go to Seoul, Korea, and see Pres. Hickley give a beautiful address at the 50 year reunion celebration of the church in Korea. My father in law was one of the first members of the church in Korea, taught and baptized by an American G.I. - 2 years before the church had officially opened in Korea. So not only was this meeting emotional and wonderful for my in laws as they recalled on the early days of the church in their homeland, but to see over 10,000 Korean saints gathered in this olympic arena to honor President Hinckley and listen to his words was so moving. He walked in the arena across the stage to the pulpit and everyone spontaneously stood and sang, "We Thank Thee Oh God For a Prophet" in Korean, of course! There was no dry eye. He is so dearly loved all over the world. President Hinckley had a way of making each of us feel so special and so loved while always testifying of the divinity of our Savior. Here is an excerpt of the tender address that he gave to the Korean people that day:

”I love you,” he said. “I have a special love for the Saints in Korea. When I see all these old friends (he looked back and pointed at the leaders sitting behind him) who have been faithful all these years, what wonderful people you are. You know the gospel is true and what the Lord expects of you.
“This may be the last time you hear my voice in Korea,” he said. “I’m an old man now, so old I don’t eat kimchee, (a very spicy Korean dish made of cabbage and other vegetables). I may never come to Korea again. I want you all to know that God our Eternal Father lives, He is the great Governor of the universe. We are His children; He hears and answers the prayers of His children. I want you to know Jesus Christ is the Son, that He left His royal home on high and came among men and was hated and abused, but went about doing good. He was crucified and rose the third day, the first fruits of them that slept. I want you to know that the Father and Son appeared to the boy Joseph Smith and ushered in this dispensation, the greatest of all dispensations. The Book of Mormon is a second witness of Jesus Christ and has come forth to testify of Jesus Christ. I want you to know that the Holy Priesthood is on the earth. God bless you.”
“I feel in my heart a great emotional tie, feeling the love of this vast congregation. God bless you and be with you till we meet again. May Heaven smile upon you, and may your lives be filled with gladness. There is nothing greater I could ask for.” What a great man.

I'd like to add one final memory I have from that day that will put a smile on your face in remembering the great spunk and whit this old man carried. Elder In Sang Han, a member of the sevenety translated for him that day. When President Hinckley finished his remarks, he thanked Elder Han for the translation and highly complimented him. They both had tears, displaying evidence of a great friendship that had been shared over many years. Elder Han bowed at Pres. Hinckley in response to his kind words, and President Hickley bowed back. So Elder Han bowed again....and Pres. Hinckley bowed again. They had this sort of an exchange go on for what seemed like several bows, and it left the crowd in laughs. I love him!

So long, Pres. Hinckley, and God be with YOU until we meet again.

Enough already on the hair!

2008-01-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

Okay so because many of you that haven't seen me yet are hounding me about the hair, here you have it. I'm glad I took the plunge. It's nice to have a change. I ran into a girl yesterday that used to live in our neighborhood and no matter what I said she was not registering who I was until I practically spelled it out for her, so funny. I've tried to be extra cognisant of various strangers' dealings with me, like whether or not being a brunette grants certain rights of credibility or maybe on the flipside, people would be more rude to me. But to my disappointment for the likes of a good story, people seem the same. But maybe now I can more easily get away with being a little absent minded at times, I could use a few freebies.

Seattle G'pas

2008-01-30T14:46:00.001-07:00

"hal-moni, hal-moni, hada-boji, hada-boji!" Imagine Kimball's cute little scratchy voice and a perfect Korean accent shouting these words all weekend. AKA, grandma and grandpa. These 2 are the new hot items in Kimball's book.
Since Erik's sister Rachel was going to be up in Seattle with their parents last weekend, a special request was sent to have Kimball come up and pay a visit too.
If you notice in the picture above, Kimball's every whit is being coddled. That's pretty much how it is with these grandparents. They absolutely adore every little thing about Kimball and he is equally obsessed with them. So much so that Rachel and I didn't get all that much attention from the little guy. He just wanted to be with them 24/7 and they loved it. We went out to the movies at night and both nights we came back, all 3 of them were asleep with Kimball nestled perfectly in the middle. It was so precious I should have taken a picture.

For the Sake of It

2008-01-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

Hi, it's been awhile, so I'm just going to post for the sake of the post so you don't have to keep looking at my dumb hairstyles. It seems as though any free time I've had on the Internet lately has been swallowed up on cnn.com, thus detracting me from blogging. I can be found lurking in the politics section due to some weird unexplainable craving I've recently had to keep abreast on this whole presidential campaign. I don't think I've ever followed the preliminaries too much in the past and now I just can't get enough of it. It's not that I've ever really hated politics, but more so that I've been too lazy to follow it. Now I just can't seem to get enough articles to read, candidate video clips to watch, and am even tuning in to all these political analysts that love to hear themselves talk and "tell it like it is." I don't want to share my opinions on the candidates just yet, if ever, as I am still trying to formulate where I stand and why I would elect or be confident in whom I think would be the best fit. So that's that.

Thanks by the way, to all those who participated in the silly hair poll. The majority pick was a great color. I have until Wednesday to decide if I'm going to go for it. My only lasting hesitation is the long and hard road back to blonde. We shall see...

To go, or not to go, DARK

2008-01-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

So I have been thinking about dying my hair dark for a couple of years now but the thought frightens me. I have friends like Brook, Lindsay, Becky and so on, that can change their hair color on what seems like a monthly basis and look amazing no matter what, even when it's drastic. Though my curiosity is ever stirring, I just don't know that I can pull it off. Everyone says, "No biggie, you can always change it back." If I understand correctly, it's not that easy. In fact, okay, I actually have had dark hair my sophomore year of college. Oh boy was that bad, and it took forever to become semi-presentable. I'm sure that brought on the foundation of my fears. But I also went to a pretty ghetto place and asked them to die it back to my normal color (after straight up bleaching it all) and it turned to a deep ashy gray. Plus, it was short. I don't do short very well. I'm actually surprised my boyfriend at that time didn't break up with me, I was really pretty hideous looking. He probably just cheated. Kidding. Anyhow, I think I'm getting closer to just sucking it up and going for it. I have recently been thinking maybe there was a hairstyle/color website and when I finally decided to look, I found this website within seconds. Ladies, you are going to have so much fun messing with this stupid thing. It's from instyle.com so it has all these celebrities hairstyles, kinda cheesy but whatever. I just chose some styles that covered up most of the hair on my face and then played around with their colorcharts, so the colors are not necessarily true to star. Anyhow, I have included a poll at the top of my blog for you all to vote on which color you think suits me well. And if none, leave a comment telling me not to do anything, leave as is, and then threaten to post a picture of that one horrible "gray" year. Oh, we didn't have digital then, phew! Have fun! And yes, it is late, and I am sacrificing precious sleep for a ridiculous vanity driven hair poll. You'll end up doing the same!

The Stasher

2008-01-08T12:49:00.001-07:00

So Kimball has a new found obsession with gum and/or chapstick. I don't recall how he got that first piece of gum in his mouth but somehow, somewhere, he did. Erik and I both have random packs of gum and chapsticks in our nightstand drawers and lately whenever I hear stillness in my house for more than 1 minute, I know Kimball is up to something fishy. So I go quietly down the hall and peek into my room, just in time to find Kimball snooping through my drawer. The second he hears me he turns around and hurriedly shuts the drawer and then looks back at me with an innocent smile, as if I haven't just seen him doing this. Then I walk over to him and he will throw his clenched fist behind his back and continue to smile. Inevitably there is a chapstick or gum that was on it's way to being unwrapped. This whole scenario is a daily occurence. The chapstick isn't that big of a deal other than the fact that I will find these little nail marks where he has dug it out and who knows where it has been wiped. But the gum, it just seems weird to see my 1 year old chomping on gum, especially when the child has taken a personal interest in dental hygeine and cannot brush his teeth enough times in a day. He keeps tabs on the toothbrush drawer as well. Anyhow, the reason I share this with you as that I found some humor in his latest operations. Of course I confiscated all the gum within toddler reach and thought the issue had been resolved. Well lately, Kimball will just show up out of nowhere happily chomping on some gum. The first couple of times I thought daddy had given in to his child's pleadings and I let it go. However, it has been occuring more and more frequently and the gum is always green, even though I'm not consistent with which flavors I really buy. I have now realized that little Mr. cunning has made a secret stash of gum somewhere in this house, location unbeknown to Erik or me. It's probably in the same place that he disappears to when he has to get the job done if you know what I mean. Kimball is very particular about hiding in corners and other mysterious places when he has to fill his pants. Anyhow, I guess there could be worse things than gum, I find this whole thing kind of cute but yet a little scary that he's already hiding things from me at age 1!!

"Rockin" New Years

2008-01-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

As most of us know, Krista and Tim's karaoke fetish never dies so of course their recent purchase of rockband (because guitar hero clearly just wasn't cutting it) led them to the hosting of a great New Year's Eve party. Theme? No question, rockband. Some were dressed in their favorite rocker outfit from head to toe, others were just along for the ride. And then there was Sarah and Trev and we're still not sure who they were dressed up as, mumus and dreadlocks and such, I think they got New Years mixed up with Halloween. ha ha, you are welcome to rip on me since we didn't dress up at all but then again they'll most likely never read this cause they don't blog. But no matter how you look at it, all had a great time. The bandanna color that we were given designated who our other band members were as this was a competition of course. All I know is that my night was made when I got to be the singer for "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, that was actually a dream come true. It's so fun to sing your heart out to that even though I felt like a man. I'll never forget at the winter dance in 7th grade that song came on and I remember thinking the DJ was so awesome for playing it. I was actually pretty into metal back in junior high when I rode the coattails of my brothers' music taste. Nikki D still reminds us of when Mike would blast Pantera in the car all the way to seminary in the morning! ha ha ha, such funny memories.

Meet Krista and Tim, the hosts. Yes, that is Tim on the right in case you were wondering. As much as you wouldn't want to miss his ripped AC/DC tank top, I just didn't want to take away from these legs. Need I explain why I love Tim?

Linz, Sarah, Krista

If you notice this dude's arm in the upper corner, he is singing "Sabotage" and going nuts on it. He had a rough start so we gave it another go and he nailed it and was having so much fun. Another great nostalgic song that took me back to the Beastie Boys days.......

Here you can appreciate Tim in full uni, minus the heels which I already pointed out.

No clue who this girl on the mic is, but she rocked. Definitely the best female vocalist, so props to the pink bandanna chic.

A fantastic Christmas!

2007-12-29T23:04:00.000-07:00

We went to spend Christmas with a portion of my family in Reno this year. Deanna went with us and Mom came up from Davis and met us at Lynette & Keith's for the holiday festivities. Kimball was oh so happy to be playing with his greatly missed cousins and Grandma for a few days. As for us, well we ate a lot, watched movies, and just played. I came home a "wii" bit sore in the upper body from wii'ing til the late hours of the night. The Wills got their family one of these for Christmas and it is so addicting. Sports competition from the couch! Golf is my favorite of all but I could play any of the games for hours, the boxing was what gave my back and shoulders all kinds of funky knots. Oh, and my Mom got all of us girls pretty intensely involved with some knitting projects gone bad. Seriously, Linda would just whip something up and the 3 of us would all be wondering why our 30 stitches on the needle had turned into 45 after only like 3 rows. Ridiculous. Good thing my mom was there to save and repair, I just don't understand how she is literally perfect at everything she does. It's sick. Anyhow, we were so glad we went, thanks to the Wills for being such great hosts as always!!!

An ideal day

2007-12-23T00:26:00.000-07:00

For me, few things could comprise a more ideal day than to enjoy skiing great powder with a great friend. We got close to 2 ft. in the mtns thursday night and Krista and I had a fabulous day testing it out on friday at PCMR. I love skiing with Krista at Park City b/c she knows the perfect spots to go and due to the demographics that PC attracts, few skiiers are up on the top third of the mountain, where all the good stuff lies. I would take about 8 turns and literally have to stop for a breather b/c my quads were burning, like, on fire. But it felt so good, I just can't think of a better way to enjoy myself while getting a crazy workout all the while. Skiing, wall-sits, skiing, wall-sits. I choose skiing. On our last run my muscles were truly shaking from the burn and I hit a powder-caked mogul that I so didn't see coming...I totally faceplanted. It was awesome. Face first, I think I felt my head literally bounce off the ground and my neck was just the spring to keep it attached. It was so funny cause it just happened out of nowhere and it's not like we were on a steep or anything, I think it was toward the base of the mountain. Either way, I woke up today with horrifying whiplash neck, so stiff and sore. Though nothing a little ibu couldn't help. Looking to ski as much as possible this winter so if any local momma's wanna trade with babysitting let me know. Thanks again Krista for a fabulous day! Lunch was great too.

2 hotties

2007-12-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

Well some of you have mentioned that you love it when we spike up Kimball's thick black hair, I do think it's pretty studly myself. But it wasn't til this last weekend when Erik's friend Cormac came to town that I realized where we got the inspiration for the do. Talk about 2 studly looking dudes, and their both single! Cormac, you can pay me later.

Tea, anyone?

2007-12-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

Just in search of a really good, satisfying tea. Sometimes before bed, I don't really feel like dessert, maybe because I have been gorging on all the crap my neighbors have been bringing by. But I just want a nice, solid tea that I can always count on and just haven't really found that one flavor or concoction that just hits the spot. In Taiwan all we ever drank was barley tea and flower tea, and oftentimes plain hot water. Even in the summer when the heat was blazing and humidity high, seemed like that was when people would serve it to you the most. As you had sweat dripping down your forehead and your limbs were all sticky, there would always be someone quick to help you "relax" with a fired up cup of something. Anyhow, I'm ready to get back in the swing of tea and I would love to get people's feedback on their personal favorites. And of course I need stay in the "herbal" genre I suppose. So please, share with me! Oh, and I thought these little pictures I found on google images were really funny. Do you ever just get so bored that you search totally random things in google images. I guess you have to be careful of distasteful stuff that can pop up but seriously, the most random teapots ever exist in this world. A toilet teapot, who knew? I may just have to look into the price on that for a chance at giving the world's best white elephant gift ever.

A tad odd

2007-12-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

As Erik and I were driving home from the gym today, this truck pulled right along beside us. Now though I'm pushing 10 years in Utah, this 4 legged sight still just seemed so odd...is that normal? Surely people go hunting and that's fine but it's just that it seemed so awkward and......fresh. It's just creepy how the legs are vertically jetting up in the air.

Saturday Snow

2007-12-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

The last 2 Saturdays have dumped on us and it's been so much fun. We intended to take Kimball sledding with his cousins but he fell asleep, hopefully this Saturday we'll get a third dumparoo. A kid in a snowsuit is so funny to pick up. They don't mold to your body or wrap their legs around you, it's just one stiff brick.

The snow sat halfway up Kimball's back!

Kimball pushing the snowblower, Erik had started with the driveway, then plowed the sidewalks and by the time he got back to the driveway this thin blanket of snow had fallen again!

Jolly Young St.Nic

2007-12-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

Another great neighborhood Christmas party last night. Santa just couldn't work the magic on Kimball this year, I don't think he had enough wrinkles to be worthy of such a title as Santa, in fact, he looked almost identical to our friend Ben Hawkins ;)

Kimball last year at 8 months old, calm and curious.

For all you SoCal'ers

2007-12-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

So this was the view from our kitchen window the other night. You may have the beach, but we have a white Christmas!!! Okay, maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better for the other 11 months out of the year I'm jealous I don't live there!

Holiday weekend pics

2007-12-03T23:41:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots of our family members posing with little Oh.His Grandpa was holding a bowl of water and I think Kimball was just putting his face in it and cracking up. Somehow Daddy Oh doesn't look all that amused but he must have been doing something to egg on Kimball's drunken laughing.Just checkin out Target sales in my elmo suitKimo chillin with Aunt Miriam in his p.j.s "P.J. - what is a p.j.?" That's for you Krista :)

This is Erik's cousin Yeoungmee grubbin away in the corner, we got really creative with seating. She and her son Sean came out from New Jersey and it was the first time I'd seen them since our wedding, they were so much fun to hang with.And here is cute Sean. It's too bad he had to go back home, Kimball is still looking around for him.And here are our cute cute neighbors, the Park family. Erik made them their own little table out of a box I think. So resourceful, they loved it! And by the way, anyone in the greater Salt Lake area who wants to go eat some fantastic Korean food, they own the best Korean restaurant in Utah and I'm not just saying that, I'm pretty sure they don't blog.

Mommy Oh and KimoDaddy workin away at those leavesInterrupted snuggles with Aunt Rachel

23 Koreans and 1 blonde

2007-11-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

So the anxiously awaited day has come and gone. Thanksgiving at the E&D Oh household was quite a treat this year. We had Rachel and Miriam come in from LA, Mom and Dad Oh from Seattle and Yeoungmee and Sean from N.J. - they all stayed in the basement and hopefully had a grand ole time. What was first going to be a nice Thanksgiving meal for the 9 of us turned into 23 people lickity split. I asked for it. Not that we are partial toward Koreans or anything, but somehow my house was full of them and it was fantastic! Of course the jello salad, sweet potatoes, marshmallow fruit salad, pies, and cookies are all continuing to go stale as they were a little more afraid of the sugary items. Asians aren't so fond of sweets from what I've gathered. So basically they prefer all the opposite to the Winter family households. I wasn't offended in the least as I was well prepared for the rejection. They still joyously ate from the other 67 dishes we had to offer:) Anyhow, Erik's cousin Sean is 15 and has attempted twice in the last year to test the so-called Utopian Utah snow, our mountains have not adequately provided. Therefore, he sat around a little bored, staring at all his gear in our garage every time we got into the car. Hopefully he and Erik had fun playing football and being boys.

Daddy Oh, Rachel and Miriam helped me with some pretty extensive leaf raking on Saturday. I think we all thought we were engaging in a fun simple activity which took a hard turn for the worse. We discovered more dog poop than you could ever imagine. Yes, this is not a duty Erik is really on top of. In all fairness to him, we have never really established whose job it is. You'd think that naturally would fall in the man's shoes but I tend to be the one found in the yard. Either way, it was nasty and Rachel had a little too close for comfort incident. As much as I love stories that involve...well....you know....I will leave it to your imagination to save the disgust of any prissy people who may be reading this. As my mother in law would say, "poop not dirty, come from body you know." Anyhow, so yeah, we had a lot of leaves to rake, filled 2 garbage bins full after mashing and mashing them down about 8 times a minute. It felt like we were dragging bins full of dirt they were so heavy!

Saturday we got family pictures taken with all of the Ohs up in Little Cottonwood Canyon. This was their first time taking a family pic outside of a studio. I insisted their serious and formal look had gotten a little outdated and that maybe we should ruffle the feathers a little and take a chance in the mountains. My friend Rima did Mommy Oh's makeup which was fun to watch. We took before and after pictures and decided that she turned my mother in law into Connie Chung herself! Seriously! It was hilarious! She looked fabulous. The pics turned out really nice although I still have to laugh. We were posed in some very nature-esque settings that were absolutely beautiful. There we were on all these rugged rocks with twigs and reeds all over the place, men in slacks, women in Christmas party type outfits. I'm not dogging the choice of our apparel by the way, cause we looked good, it just made for a unique but pleasing contrast.

Okay so the sad part of this whole post is that I have lots of great pics from Thanksgiving to paint the visual but unfortunately my camera or my cord is having some temporary issues and I've been unable to download pics for some time now. Still in process of resolving. So until then I will continue to blab.

p.s. loved August Rush, all should go see it.

Serious Vocab Frustration

2007-11-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

So who here belongs to "word of the day" with dictionary.com and am I the only one so bothered and deflated? I've been made out to feel nothing but worthless in my attempt to be an average American citizen by joining the word of the day e-mail list. It was a simple effort to perk up my vocabulary gone wrong. Not just today, but day after day after day. It's just that today I finally decided to let it start bothering me enough to waste time writing about it. One would think this website would cater to the average citizen as I'm sure Harvard Law grads are not the only ones clicking on this site and yet these were today's examples to explain the meaning of perfervid?

"Good movies evaporate, while the market is flooded with inanity. Critics can't do much to stop this, but when you read perfervid reviews of the latest commercial offerings it's plain that they do little to cool things down." (mmmmm.....inanity........it'll get'cha every time)

"Years ago Philip Roth published a perspicacious essay on the pitfalls of writing satire, the gist of which was that the daily absurdities in our morning newspapers too often outdid even a novelist's most perfervid imaginings." (ooooooooh, I hate reading perspicacious essays)

Seriously. I just don't believe that using other vocabulary words that I have never heard of is really going to help me remember the initial vocab word. It does nothing but clutter my brain and aggravate me. And this isn't to suggest that today's examples were especially awful, oftentimes there will be 3 or 4 new words in a sentence and I won't even comprehend the gist of the sentence. Okay, so I just looked up inanity and perspicacious and after reading their simple definitions, I am realizing maybe you all already knew those words. Maybe I'm just plain dumb. Freakin Utah State, dang it! Will someone please validate me so I'm not on this bus all alone? I think my next step is to google S.A.T. practice word lists. Maybe I can form an after school study group with some of the tweens in the neighborhood.
p.s. I usually win Balderdash, would that redeem me in any way???

Crossbows & Catapults

2007-11-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

"They say" you can tell a difference between a boy and a man by the price of his toys. Well clearly, Erik is a young buck. He has been telling me about Crossbows & Catapults (which has been given a new name titled "Battleground") since we met. It was a childhood favorite of his. Apparently he has been looking for it for like 15 years or something and this game quest has been a bigger deal than I realized. We were wandering around Toys R Us on Saturday night trying to find some cool toys for Kimball and as we were leaving, Erik started running to a display across the room. There on this bottom shelf lay 2 boxes of good ole C&C. He had to buy both (as one was the accessory kit where you could add even cooler weapons) and ensured me that this would be the best investment yet in our marriage if I would only trust him. I looked at the box and felt so unexcited but agreed he should buy it. Well, let's just say we've played it every night since and are really getting into it. We don't even talk the whole time, we just make noises of excitement or disappointment depending on whether or not we are killing off our opponent's battlefield. Yeah, we are pretty much like 2 seven year old boys. The boys across the street are already begging their mom to get it for them for Christmas and looks like my brother and cousin will soon be making the purchase themselves, 3 groups of knights and 3 groups of orcs would make quite a battlground! In all consideration I view this as incredible broken ground. I LIVE for boardgames and Erik despises them and always cheats or tweeks the game to make the other guys laugh and get the girls frustrated. So finally, we have found a boardgame other than chess that we both love! If you play, you too will be addicted!

1 point for SLC

2007-11-03T23:56:00.000-06:00

Guess what? We have a Cheesecake Factory here in SLC now! Next to Nordi's at Fashion Place for any locals who may be wondering. So when Erik asked where I wanted to go to dinner for my birthday, I thought it would be fun to go there since it was their opening day. The doors opened at 5pm and I figured there would probably be a line outside. So, we got there about 4:15 or so and were laughing that the line was already around the side of the building. Erik encouraged me to go cruise the mall while he waited, the selfish side of me agreed that would be a great idea. When I came back, I was just laughing so hard b/c he really was quite embarrassed to be "that guy" that's waiting in line for a restaurant grand opening. Apparently this lady a few people in front of him in line was going off for 20 minutes "educating" everyone on all the right cheesecakes and entrees b/c she frequents the CF all the time in Cali or Vegas or wherever. She was driving him nuts as it reminded him how silly it was to be waiting in the cold amongst all these restaurant die hards. Anyhow, he was so cute and patient I just had to take a picture to embarrass him a little. If you squint he's right there in the middle.

We had a great time and topped it off with Dulce de Leche cheesecake, a definite great pick, and it didn't come recommended from the annoying lady in the fuzzy boots.

And this, you just can't afford not to click on.

Could anything be sweeter? Seriously. I cannot believe my not so baby anymore baby is talking, time indeed flies...

Chewy and Yoda

2007-11-02T12:31:00.000-06:00

Ladies and Gentleman, introducing....our great furry friend Chewbacca and his sidekick Yoda! It just wouldn't have been a complete Halloween if Nantou didn't join in on the fun. Over the past week, Kimball had a handful of opportunites to dress up in his little Chewy uni at the trunk or treat, Coop's party, Lola's birthday and the big night. I thought I'd switch it up a little for his girlfriend Lola (the skunk)'s birthday and dress him as Adam. I faux'd his hair and he was lookin pretty studly in those 'fig leaves', unfortunately it lasted roughly 15 secs. before he unglued each leaf one by one.

If you are ever so interested in a plethora of the fun Hallo pics that I took over the past week, go to my little Halloween video montage on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrq1f5rq-Jc

Oh wait, and one more thing. I would like to announce my personal favorite for the year. Please tell me this is not for real. You may just have to know my niece Mikelle (she lives in Reno and is 10 years old) but this is by far the most incredibly uncanny and quite hilarious impersonation I have ever seen. I could not stop dying laughing, I love her!

Our very own, MISS NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE!!!

"Mok, Set, Go!"

2007-10-29T21:59:00.000-06:00

Erik and Kimball have been having way too much fun with this racing thing lately. Every time I turn around they are "on their marks" and ready to race to the next destination. Kimball usually laughs the entire way to the finish line as you can see in the video, it's just that sometimes there's a more fun detour than the actual finish line, like Mommy's legs!

The Pedi Phenomenon

2007-10-24T22:07:00.000-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsWrY77o77o

Can every female who has ever had a pedicure somewhere other than a day spa PLEASE click on the link above, it is so worth 4 minutes of your life, especially the end so you must hold out til the end........................okay, are you done? please tell me you are laughing with me. Because this Anjelah chic is so on, it's scary. I mean, this truly is the typical experience we all have when getting a pedi. I live in Utah, Anjelah lives who knows where but assuming somewhere in Cali, UNREAL how a culture just breeds uniformity, including how to run a nail salon.
Let me tell you a little bit about my fight a couple of months back with, let's call her, Trinh. Despite my obsession with Asians, yes, I can still get angry with them. And some of you have mentioned in the past how great it must be that my Mandarin can aid in spying on them at these nail salons...Newsbreak, they are all Vietnamese! So I sit down and before I can tell "Trinh" that my water is too hot, she has chucked a photo book in my lap filled with pages of her most acclaimed work. "You wan flou-wuh? You pick which flou-wuh you lie, los of kine; reh, ping, oring, brow, I do any kuh-luh." "No flowers, just plain color, thanks." "You shoe-uh? I have los diffin kine." "No really, that's okay." Feeling rejected, she hurriedly files and trims away, I turn the magazine page, and before I know it, she is already painting my second foot and I HATE the color. I realize I just can't get away with light blue like I could at 19. I get Sunny's attention (my sis in law who's across the room being pedi'd) and give her a scared look while mouthing "what should I do?" She motions with an insistent look of telling the lady I don't like it. So I very timidly and apologetically let her know that I've decided that won't be the best color. This is when all hell breaks loose. She looks at me, "this nah my kuh-luh, this yo kuh-luh." Well, no, I didn't bring this color, it's yours but I realize I've made a mistake in my choice of color." "Fie, you go pick nutha kuh-luh, nes time you tell me aftuh one toe, nah on secun foot!" At this point I am so scared I just grab the first decent looking red I see on the shelf and run back to my seat. I look down and her veins in her neck had bulged and surfaced toward the skin, not to mention the one splitting up her forehead. My pits began sweating out of total discomfort. She started rubbing off the blue polish and suddenly the Vietnamese came flowing, and it came fast. Then the other workers started piping in like windchimes in a storm and I just couldn't take it. I saw Sunny kind of snickering and trying to hold in the laughter. In an effort to relieve myself and make Sunny break composure, I yelled at the lady to stop talking about me. Without heed to my request, they continuted to yap away. I didn't even care, I felt invigorated for calling her on it and the fact that Sunny was dying laughing made it all worth it!

You make fun now...

2007-10-18T13:06:00.000-06:00

but it will be seconds before you'll be buying one yourself! These things are AWESOME! So my mother in law called me the other day and said,"Denise, Daddy and I very worried Kimball running so fast, if we buy him a line, will you use?" "What kind of line?" I ask. "You know, you put something on the baby and then that kind of line, you hold." "OH, I say, "like a leash?" "Yeah, that." "Sure, I might use that, if we took him to the fair or somewhere in public with lots of people, we wouldn't want him to get lost." "Yes, we are very afraid, he is running fast and you must keep him close."

So sure enough, Kimball's new teddly leash showed up in the mail today. He was so excited when he saw the bear and then when I strapped it around his chest his face lit up. I unclicked the leash so he could just run around and he got very upset, he wanted the leash attached and he wanted me to hold it. We walked around and collected a bunch of leaves in the grass and I have to say I was at total ease, usually I get a little anxious in the yard with all the cars that go by. I can only imagine what the neighbors are saying. Maybe this afternoon I'll take Kimball and Nantou for a walk to the park with no stroller, dog leash in left hand, human leash in right, ha ha ha!

World Senior Games

2007-10-17T13:23:00.000-06:00

Kimball and Bailey, kisses and laughs...

Dad coached Kimball all the way up this crevace encouraging him to do it without reaching out for Mommy's hand. Kimball was a great little mountain climber.

On Sunday morning we hiked around on some beautiful red rocks, there were all sorts of little holes and caves that fascinated Kimball. He walked around for an hour saying, "BIG...ROCK, BIG...ROCK!"

Kimball and Grandma Connie posing on the playground bridge. Connie took us all to this really cool park like nothing I'd ever seen. The kids absolutely loved it. If only they knew how it was to have one seasaw, a couple of swings and a hot metal slide that burned your thighs the whole way down, kids these days have it made.

We wish all of the siblings and spouses could have been there but for those who came we had a lot of fun.

Who are those spectators? Is that Papa and Kimball? I almost mistook them for twins! :)

Rounding to the finish line, lookin like it ain't no thang!

Welcome, Senior Games Participants! aka, Grandma!!!

We drove down to St. George last weekend to root Mom on in the World Senior Games. She participated in the triathlon and she did amazing! She had a cold for 2 weeks leading up to the event in addition to a heel spur, but of course nothing ever stops Mom. Nearing her 66th year, she is still coming strong across the finish line, a nice yellow ribbon was given her for placing 4th in her age group. As far as I'm concerned, she should have gotten the 3rd place medal, but some stupid lady had to come zooming past her less than a hundred yards from the finish, whatever!

It was also really fun to be down there because we got to spend some time with Dad and Connie who now live in St. George. Their dog Bailey provided quite the show all weekend, all she had to do was sit in the back of "Papa's truck" and we'd chuck all the toddlers in there for some good laughs. Kimball just couldn't get enough of "biddy" - I have a couple of short videos I will try to throw on here if I can remember how.

Old McDonald Scary Farm

2007-10-11T22:11:00.000-06:00

Still not so sure about these witches, real, fake? real, fake?

Nora, Avery, Ellie, Sammy & Kimball

Keeping his distance in case she's real

This was my favorite witch, I just wish Toto would have been in the basket

"I didn't know cows moo'd mommy, I thought they said baaaaa"

A hug for dear life!

Sunny, Becky and I were excited to take all the kids to see the amazing witch displays that they put on at Gardener Village every fall in addition to the great petting zoo! One would think that considering Kimball's entire world revolves around his large dog Nantou, he chases our friend's cats, is obsessed with the sharks at the aquarium, and loves the guineau pigs across the street, that he would take naturally to the chance at petting a few harmless wandering goats, sheep and baby cows. All he did was hug my leg for dear life and whimper with furled eyebrows. Of course his little cousins (who have NO pets I may add) were practically throwing themselves on the animals...

Peekaboo fence and Cablebox Drums

2007-10-10T11:33:00.000-06:00

"And last but not least guys, meet Nantou, he's my best friend."

Until Next Time!
Love Kimball

"Oh, and that's not all Mommy, have you seen what an amazing drummer I am?"

"Peekaboo!"

"Oh, I'm almost up mommy, if I can just get that foot up on there.."

"Look Mom! A mini person's fence, these legs are for climin aren't they?"

Every morning when I go to feed Nantou breakfast, I have to distract Kimball somehow so I can quickly sneak outside, pour the food, and get back in without him knowing. Otherwise, I end up on another bug hunting adventure in the freezing cold wee morning hours. Well, I wasn't quick enough today so I ended up on another pajama yard exploration. The truth is, I always enjoy it once we're out there so it's hard to say no.

Pumpkins vs. Tractors

2007-10-09T12:31:00.000-06:00

Kimball's cousins invited him to the pumpkin patch last night. He had fun tripping over the pumpkins and checking them out but the funny orange ball excitement didn't compare to the big bad tractors. He sat up on every tractor they had and wouldn't stop making these deepthroated noises that were a mix between his lion, car, truck, dinosaur, and tiger noises. (He still hasn't learned the tractor noise, probably cause I'm not sure I know it, what does a tractor sound like anyway?)

"What's in the Backpack?" you ask

2007-10-08T12:45:00.000-06:00

Erik, Rob, and Don at Scott Brady's wedding last friday. Rob and Don are lookin pretty good, single ladies - anyone, anyone? And if I do say so myself, my husband looks strikingly handsome in this pic with little Kimball. The wedding was a fun blast from the past, Erik and I both ran into a lot of people from the single days and it was fun to catch up. I wish I would have snapped a shot of Scott and his wife Colette, they make a beautiful couple.

On the dancefloor all by himself

Some of you have apparently been getting as much entertainment as we have on the backpack. We bought it for 5 bucks when we were on vacation and had Kimball wear it to tote around his snacks and now he doesn't like going anywhere without it. He has recently attended a couple of weddings sporting his new conversation piece and he is quite the talk of the town, I'm glad Erik chose Superman after all, I was pushing for Elmo only b/c it's not like Kimball has any idea who Superman is.

Roller-rama

2007-10-07T21:54:00.000-06:00

And what's a roller rink without an 18 month old testing out the trusty ole fisherprice plastic training skates??? He wasn't sure what to think, he pretty much stared at his feet the whole time absolutely expressionless and quiet, which made it all the more funny. The bouncy house had apparently drilled him pretty hard.

Alas! The birthday girl! Look how beautiful princess Jenny looks in her new tiara!

It reminded me of those freefall waterslides

So we finally asked where the private party was and found out we were 2 hours early. It ended up being the most hilarious night ever. They had like 10 of those huge blow up bouncy houses and you would not believe how slick and fast these slides were, Kimball had the time of his life and was bouncing around all over the place!

and still no Jen....dang he's such a little hottie

So it was my friend Jen's birthday last week and she and her sister had rented out classic skating roller rink for a couple of hours on tuesday night. We figured Kimball couldn't miss this one, a chance to not only crown his favorite princess Jen with a tiara he picked out himself, but also to check out these things they call rollerskates. When we got there, Kimball was looking all over for Jen...

Rookie Blogger

2007-10-07T00:57:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I am a total rookie at blogging and it's blatantly clear. In order to read my past few posts, you have to read from the bottom up, and sometimes fish for the text's corresponding picture. I'm also not sure how I got that video of Kimball's seagull chase to end up where it did. Oh well, I was having some troubles. It's actually quite indicative of my life anyway, being organized is so overrated.

Trip to SoCal Part III: Cambria w/ the Ohs

2007-10-06T23:54:00.000-06:00

Smiles all around

Sand Dollar Beach...Three Generations

Neptune's pool, Miriam was tempted to jump in but I told her not to push her luck, she got in trouble with our tourguide at least 6 times. Flash going off indoors, stepping off the "blue carpet", and who knows what else, such a trouble maker.

We took a tour of Hearst Castle. It was beautiful and quite fascinating, although depends who you ask. Kimball was passed out and Erik was jealous.

Daddy Oh and Kimball just feelin that central coast breeze

Erik's parents flew down from Seattle and we all headed about 4 hours up the coast to chill in a Cambria beach house and celebrate Rachel's birthday.

Trip to SoCal Part II: Jer's Malibu Wedding

2007-10-06T23:25:00.000-06:00

Dad and Pat (Rene's Mother) dancing, don't they look so cute?

Jer's Aunt Cheryl and husband Richard. Erica getting her groove on

Kimball and cousin Andrew were dancing and sweating the night away!

Her darling bridesmaids...

Jer and Heather laughing...

Despite the pouring rain, Jeremy and Heather had a beautiful beach wedding. You will see in the pics that the sun did pop through the clouds to send little kisses from heaven. Here is the gorgeous bride Heather and her cute dad coming down the isle

Trip to SoCal Part I: HB, Santa Monica

2007-10-06T22:47:00.000-06:00

Notice Kimball hesitantly looking up at the street performer. "My mommy hasn't taught me about silver people yet."

Strolling the promenade...

Headed up to Santa Monica and met up with high school friend Liz Verutti and her boyfriend Luke

Kimball still in a daze after eating his first Balboa bar, many more to come now that Aunty Rachel has moved to Newport, yippee! And look! It's Nantou, only....he's white!

Here Kimball gets his first surfing lesson after watching his daddy and friend Erik Manning get their surf on

As tempted as I am to recap our whole summer, I will only take a couple of steps back to the vacation we recently returned from. My bro Jer got married in Malibu on Sept.21st so we planned a little family vacation around it which started off in Huntington Beach, the old stomping grounds.

TOP 10 REASONS WHY I AM STARTING A BLOG

2007-10-05T00:16:00.000-06:00

10. In case I die young, heaven forbid, when Erik is asked for the details
of our family's life together he can say, "Refer to the blog!"

9. So now I have even all the more reason not to do one of those "Christmas Letters"

8. To satisfy a certain Parisian friend who checks my unposted blog on a
daily basis to see if I've begun yet!

7. To talk all I want about this, that, and the other and if people want to
read on, then great! If not, I don't give a crap.

6. I'm guessing one of those "this, that, and the other" topics would be
something like "Kimball and my new favorite lunch addiction: fried
bologna sandwiches" Just practicing.

5. So that I can expand beyond the realm of my close friends and family
by educating many of you random bloggers who are clicking on my
site that there are some times in life when no one can put it better than
the Chinese. Can you say, "Hai Hao?" (Hi-how). Definition? asi-asi
with a lot more UMPH

4. So I can document my unremitting thoughts on this unique and
lovely land in which I live, UTAH.

3. So that I can share stories about Kimball that make me smile. For
instance, today he had a total meltdown when we went to get the mail
b/c he wanted to go across the street and pet the Wilsher's guinea pigs
that go "meow." Just another practice run, but glad nonetheless it's
now documented.

2. So I can start posting youtube clips of my mother and father in law
for all to enjoy. Maybe these clips of "Daddy Oh" could be a form of
market research to see what you all think, my sister in law Miriam has
considered following him around with a camera for a reality show,
that's it, just following him around. She's a billionaire in the making.

1. To perhaps put a smile on the faces of those that I love and remind
them frequently why they love me so much. Have you noticed my line
average on the TOP 10 list was at least 7 or 8? I'm not a woman of few words, and that's why you love me. Right honey? :)