Reminds me of The Far Side

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Miku reads colors

Miku Rides Her Bike

A series of videos from our most successful session yet. This was our 3rd time at the park without training wheels.







These last two don't show much but are pretty short.

Happy Birthday to Yuzuru

I forgot that I'd recorded this one.

Family Picture

I think we are all leaning in the original picture anyway....
So yeah...this is the one that we can use...

Let's all comment on how it works to have a family picture taken and then the family "changes"?

I can just say I am thankful it was easy to change this one...

And by the way...I haven't seen Taylor in months and Josh brought her to an event today. It was very awkward and I can tell that he shit-talked me enough that she felt REALLY weird seeing me. That is just so wonderful. Way to make today just splendid.

Oh and PS - does anyone think Emma's face looks similar to mine in the family pic we got when I was little???

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_DSC0163, originally uploaded by Jerrod Hansen.

_DSC0165

_DSC0165, originally uploaded by Jerrod Hansen.

_DSC0208

_DSC0208, originally uploaded by Jerrod Hansen.

_DSC0219

_DSC0219, originally uploaded by Jerrod Hansen.

_DSC0226

_DSC0226, originally uploaded by Jerrod Hansen.

Two videos

In this skit, the naughty monkeys are hungry. They trade some bread for a rice ball from the crabs at the beginning. However, later on, when..In this skit, the naughty monkeys are hungry. They trade some bread for a rice ball from the crabs at the beginning. However, later on, when the crabs (who can't climb trees) ask for help in getting the persimmons, the monkeys don't share and throw fruit at the crabs, killing (according to Miku) the crab's mother!! After this terrible behavior, the Bees, the Chestnuts and the "usu" (a pestle used to pound rice to make mochi), got together and decided punish the monkeys. They tricked the monkeys, first burning their butts, then stinging them when the monkeys ran to the water to cool their bums, and finally capturing them by the entrance. They scolded the monkeys and the monkeys apologized, promising never to be so selfish again.

The overall theme of the recital was country related. There were Chinese, Hawaiian, Brazilian, etc. Miku's group represented Spain and did some songs from Carmen, including syncopation. The best part in my opinion is the bullfight and the way their feet paw the ground.

New pictures.

Three new sets of photos on my Flickr page.

Miku's Kindermusic Recital

Miku's Kindergarten Music Recital

A Day in the Neighborhood with Miku

Do you remember....???

So Mom and I were chatting the other day, and I had a li'l memory of something silly she did. We were thinking that it would be a good idea to get down ALL the MJ memories we can...since there are so many funny ones. Also, to pass along to Tiggs if we need to.

It actually sparked cuz Tiggs told me she had her first ever "If we weren't in public I woulda smacked you" moment with Mom recently. I had to laugh, I remember pretty much getting to the car and getting the verbal smackdown...haha.

Of course none of us will forget "Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk"
I imagine if we get all the memories possible down, we could easily print it as a paperback book sometime. =)

-Mom always barked or called out to dogs in passing vehicles - but calling them "Phaedra" or "Josh" - get back in this car!!!!
-No one should EVER forget our shrub Christmas tree in Minnesota.
-How about when she wore ski goggles on the drive home to Idaho one year?
-OR when Tips got out of the car on one of the road trips? I don't really remember that but Mom reminds me occasionally...

The Return of Phys-Ed at pre-school

Parents are invited to attend this phys-ed day where the kids show off all the work they've been doing. The teacher explains some of the strength and coordination exercises and improvements the kids have made. Great fun.




For reference, here is a clip from last year:

Nico Nico Land aka Smile! Smile! Land

Some short clips from the playland at the mall across from the movie theater. It's becoming a tradition to go kill time there after a movie.

Miku on the piano

She's getting pretty good. The first one is of her by herself practicing before lessons and the second is of Mayu teaching her the song used in the AFLAC insurance commercial here. Mayu figured out how to play the song herself and then taught it to Miku.

PhotoBooth Video: Bulge

Just like Hollywood, we're pumping out sequels like there's no tomorrow!

For entertainment uses only.

"I wanna touch your uvula!"

M: *peers into my mouth as I yawn* "I see something, something hanging down in your mouth!"
Me: Yeah, that's my uvula. You have one too.
M: I wanna touch your uvula!!

Pics from when I was home

Tigs, I don't even want to ask!!!!!



Cute Smile!!!



Monkey on a box, should be a Dr. Suess book!!!

Warm memories

Some vids of Miku playing in her pool last summer.

You think Penda would do this?

Penda is the ROOMBA! No he would run and attack it --- he is the ALPH DOG!

Or maybe I should be asking if Penda COULD do this!

Hula Hooping: ur doonit rong

OK, I admit, I do NOT know how to Hula Hoop. In the first video, we are trying to hula hoop with the new hoop, based mostly on WiiFit hula hooping. After the problems, I did a little research and we gave it a second shot (the second video).

What's white and you eat it every day?

Miku and I were reading a "colors" book, learning the words for colors and thinking about other examples of things that are such-and-such color. For example, for things that are purple, she came up with "shirt" and "colored pencils." But the best one was for white. We had snow and carpets and shirts and your eyeball and all that stuff but I hinted to her "it's something you eat every day" and she immediately replied with "MARSHMALLOWS!!"

Players!!!!

Thats us!!!!!!!!!!!

 

A broken zipper?

"Cassius broke it"

Rub your belly and pat your head

Ambitious Spider

Opened the door to the balcony this morning to hang out some laundry and found this guy with a web spread across the doorway. He almost got me, but I was too nimble.

More lolcats

These are making want to get a cat, actually.

Ice skating

Miku and I went to Lotte World, Korea's largest indoor amusement park, while Yuzuru was at her conference. They had an ice rink and Miku and I went ice skating for the first time. She was great!

Happy Birthday to us!!

Babba Jo gave Me and Miku a set of remote controlled cars for our birthday.

Time for the parents to step up

Last night Miku informed us that she had a few new rules for us:

• We need to keep the house cleaner
  
• If we take something, we have to put it back when we are finished
  
• If the window is open and she says that she is cold, I have to close it immediately
  

This was all delivered in the bath. I didn't get in in time to hear Yuzuru's list, but it was seven points, I believe.

The best part of it was the tone she delivered it in. She sounded just like a teacher, with this really cute emphasis at the end.

Our house does get pretty messy, especially during the week. She doesn't like it because we don't let her friends play inside when its messy. I would clean more on weekends but she always wants to go play outside immediately, so we go outside. Yuzuru is working on her dissertation still and I'd rather she work on that while we're not distracting her. I suggested that a mutual rule for me and Miku is to get up, get dressed, eat, vacuum, and put out the laundry before we do anything else.

If those cat pictures make you laugh...

check out Failblog. I almost lost control of myself.

Update on my life

Josh and I decided we couldn't make our relationship work, so we are in the mix of parting ways. I am deciding what I am going to do about a living situation [hardy har har - moving again!] and because of Taylor being such a great kid, we are going to keep the family in her life.
I'm sure once Josh moves on and finds a new lady, we may change it a bit, but she will still be friends with everyone. Hopefully it can be forever - but we'll see.

So - there you go.

=)

How long did Chris and Jim live behind us?

I clearly remember them living there, but I have a strange lack of memories of us playing with them. I remember Chris riding his bike over a jump without jumping, but I have many memories of them. When did they live there and for how long?

Lets Start a Fire in this Place, Sheesh!!

Ok to try and start some activity in here why don't we talk about our favorite memories while driving back and forth from ID to MN. Here are a few of mine:

1. Flickertail Inn
2. "TALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALKTALK"
3. Jerrod getting to drive the Honda part of the trip when we moved in '89. Then 5-6 miles down the road seeing the Honda pulled over on the side of the road and seeing him change back to the passenger seat.

For obvious reasons

had to be posted:





Since I'm posting, here's a bonus:


more

Standing on the swings

Miku cooks!

A few short clips of Miku preparing and cooking dinner. These are a few months old.

Phys-ed day at pre-school

They have phys-ed regularly at pre-school but this day was special because parents were invited to come and watch. This series of videos show you the warm up, the activities, and the final ending.

The Coyote Trap

I believe Miku is the most wonderful five year old granddaughter any "Baba" could have. I am sure Yoko would say the very same thing - only in Japanese of course...watching Miku play in her fort must be a generational creation by a wizard child! I know I have never told you my first and only venture into the construction business.

Our summer vacations were filled with many different creative projects.......One was the coyote trap. Yes - I know you may not believe it but at one time your mother - Baba Jo aka Jo or Mary Jo or Olive Oil or Madusa Joe, with the help of her brothers, Uncle John, Uncle Dan set about to build a "coyote trap. To understand this picture fully you would have to be about 5years old standing on the hillside above the slough? swamp? moat? water at the foot of the east side of the hill at the mission. There would be very little foliage or trees, shrubs and no green growth to cover the floor of the flats. As far as you could see there were only a few little trees, a few bushes, lots of sand and a few coyotes. The trees and growing specimens were visible at all times - the coyotes only in the early morning hours. Sometimes the momma coyote would be there with her pups - and they would all be rolling around - biting at each other - doing little yips and growls - which on a clear morning you could hear the sounds easily as you sat watching.

I had a weakness for little things - puppies, kittens, coyotes....and I talked John and Dan into helping me build a coyote trap. I am not sure who the project architect was - but since I am writing this story and I think that player in this story is important I am going to say it was me! We collected the scrap lumber from any number of lumber piles around the place and since 2x4's seemed to be the most abundant that is what we started to assemble. Now this coyote trap soon - very soon - became a coyote mansion - this was huge - or at least in the eyes and reach of a five year old... We hammered and lined up all of those 2x4's and soon realized the trap was a little more heavy than we had anticipated. The engineer of the project (self appointed Mary Jo again) decided the trap was going to have to stay where we were building because no way was Grandpa White going to let us use his tractor to pull the trap out onto the flat land via the swamp/moat/slough HOWEVER we would have to entice the coyotes to come up off the flats, swim through the swamp/moat/slough up the hillside and get into the trap. (This project is easily into the third week by now - with daily assembly!)

I am thinking all of you are wondering about this time what all of this has to do with Miku's fort? Stay tuned - don't get bored just yet...Thinking if we did catch a coyote pup or two coyote pups - they might want to look out the trap so at some time we got a hand saw and cut through the back wall of our monstrous 2x4x8' trap a nice little window. Somewhere along the line we hung a little curtain over the window and put a little shelf on the wall. In retrospect I think the shelf was actually a board not quite level or symmetrical with the other walls and probably jutted out making a very nice ledge or shelf for any coyote pup. Before long the project was beginning to lose site of its mission statement "To trap and keep a coyote pup" and the carpenter builders (now down to one person - want to guess who?)had decided that the mansion was too fine of a structure to use as a trap for stinkin old coyotes - instead LET'S MAKE IT A PLAYHOUSE - AFTER ALL IT HAD A CURTAIN OVER THE WINDOW! DON'T FORGET THE SHELF! The architectural dream failed... and in the days afterward - I think it had to be years afterward the coyote trap had quite a few tenants as house guests...you only had to be shorter than four feet tall or a good squatter and you could spend all day in the coyote trap.

I remember many days laying in the trap looking out the window. We even became innovative and learned if several of us put some big boards underneath it we could lift it and eventually "roll" the coyote trap to any spot we wanted. I have often thought someone else copied our design and put wheels on it with a motor and now we see all of these coyote traps driving down the freeway every single day. Now you can see why I think Miku is a direct descendant of Baba Jo - I certainly would never let a coyote go into Miku's fort would you?

Wonders of a 5 year old: take 2

So this morning, the first day after Miku turned 5, I come downstairs as Yuzuru is prepping breakfast and Miku is getting dressed. Miku didn't seem to be in a grouchy mood at all and I reminded her to keep getting dressed (she'd stalled out in the process). I walked into the other room and as I sat down, I caught a glimpse of her sticking her tongue out at Yuzuru, and then she turned and stuck her tongue out at me.

Of course, she was a little bit surprised to find me watching her and the switch on her face showed that she knew she was wrong. I immediately remembered the time Mom caught me flipping Dad off when he'd had me carry those big metal tubs from the garage in Cataldo back to the rental property sheds. I didn't beat Miku like I got beat for that, but she did get in pretty big trouble.

She couldn't explain why she did it, so Yuzuru and I explained to her that she was already in trouble for it, but if she didn't know why she did it, she'd be in more trouble. Lately she's had trouble explaining herself when she does something bad or boneheaded and we're trying to get her to think before acting (a character flaw her father still struggles with regularly).

She understood and explained that she was angry that we'd put her new globe up on a shelf, slightly out of reach. We hadn't done it on purpose; Yuzuru had just moved the globe off the coffee table. So we explained to Miku the importance of using words rather than secretly being angry or sticking out our tongue.

It was strange, though, to see that kind of behavior from her. I'd never seen anything like it at all. The only thing even close also happened recently, at the park.

Miku and Hina were swinging on the swings (only 2 seats on the set) before deciding to harvest acorns nearby. A few minutes later and a brother/sister team came running over for the swings. The brother is maybe 6 or 7 and the sister was probably 3, maybe 4. As soon as Miku saw them running, she got up and dashed to the swings and got on them before the little girl could.

As you would expect, I didn't take kindly to that. I made her give it back and tried to get her to apologize but she wouldn't, at least not audibly. So we had to go home, in big trouble. I think the hardest part for her was the associated embarrassment of having Hina there too. We had to walk by the swings on the way home and I gave her another chance to apologize, which she took, which improved her disciplinary status.

Kids don't stay little forever.

The wonders of a 5 year old: take 1

So we had a great birthday for Miku yesterday (pics coming soon, I SWEAR). We went out for sushi (her pick, of course), then came home and opened presents and had cake. She got an AquaBeads set (pictured here).

It was close to bathtime as she was helping me (or was I helping her) put the little bags of beads into the star shaped case, so Yuzuru asked her if she wanted to go get in the bath with her. Miku, politely but very fact-of-the-matter replied with "Momma, if you were working on your dissertation and I asked you to get in the bath, would you like it very much?"

I did eventually stop laughing, but it took some time.

To MIKU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAREST MIKU-ROOOOOSKIE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!

Hope you get this girl!

LOVE YOU BUNCHES!!
Hope you had a great birthday! I can't believe you are 5 now!

-Love PDOG

Taylor is back!

We got Taylor back on Thursday! Little bit of drama at the school, she was taken to CPS for about 2 hours, and we got her back!
Things are going to be interesting the next couple months I bet, but we should get Miku & Tay on the webcam sometime.
She would like that I think.

Miku's Fort

Astute readers/viewers of this blog have glimpsed a little bit of the fort we built in the "Drama Queen" video, but here's a better tour.

Auntigone and Miku painting

America Woman

Miku and I were listening to Lenny Kravitz's "American Woman" in the car last night. She contemplates the chorus and then asks me if this song is about Babba Jo (who is an American woman!). I said that it could be about her, sure. The next time the chorus comes around, I'm singing "American Woman!" and in the back seat she blurts out, in tune and rhythm, "Bab-ba JO!"

Anyone still reading this?

I've got some stories and will try to start posting again (it's easier for me once I'm back at school, oddly), but if no one checks this, there's no point.

Can you see...

Can you see the similarities? I think they are amazingly alike...

One of these reminds me of our family....actually...

Drinking champagne in the morning

I'd chilled it for the evening but we got home too late and too tired to open it up, so this morning Miku and I blew the cork on a bottle Moët and we toasted Yuzuru's successful dissertation defense. She did it!

There are still some revisions to due by the October deadline, but we've got Dr. Mom in da' house!

Miku's bilingualism leads to amazing Spanish abilities

This morning we were talking about a friend who lived in San Diego. Miku heard this and brought up Dora, who's cousin's name is Diego. Yuzuru and I were trying to figure out what "San" means in Spanish. At first I thought it was "city of" but then realized that "Los" means that. Yuzuru suggested "Saint" but that's "Santa", I think.

We were explaining to Miku that many cities have Spanish names and begin with San: San Diego, San Francisco ("I've been to San Francisco!" she exclaims), San Antonio.

Then we mentioned that some cities also have "Santa" names: Santa Fe, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Santa Cruz.

And of course, Miku adds "Santa Claus."

Cat Fud -->

This reminded me of the Far Side cartoon where the dog tried to get the cat into the drier.


more cat pictures

Dreams of old

Today Miku had a bit of a fever so I laid down with her for a nap. Of course I fell asleep too. I dreamt of the Cataldo Post Office. In the dream, I was walking by as they were unloading/loading the truck. I just stood by and watched it, thinking about how magical and mysterious the truck was. I used to ride my BigWheel™ around the loading dock and broke one once jumping it off the loading dock. I got a CHiPs branded one as a replacement. I remember dragging my broken one home in tears, crying at my friends (Aaron Wilson and one other boy I don't remember offhand) about how I could never play with them again, ever, because it had broken. Not that I was going to be in trouble, but that it was broken beyond repair.

Somehow in the dream I was also suddenly unloading a few personal items from the truck (a jar of pickles, what?) I finished taking my items out, stacking them on the sidewalk next to the post office, and the driver (always faceless and mysterious) came out, got in the truck and drove away.

So Old he Pooped Pretrified

Jrod, you remember telling me there was a dog so old when he pooped it was petrified poop? Not sure why I remember that so vividly but I do. I'm sure there were many other theories you had while we were growing up that would be cool to hear.

Remember the earthquake story?

Emma is just like her family

On Fathers Day Emma demonstrated how much she is like her Aunt Antigone. We were getting ready to leave the house to go see Baba and eat Ben-Yays. We were doing good, only about 15 minutes behind schedule when we headed for the door. I realized right before we walked out that we didn't have a stinky. I asked Emma to go upstairs and get the one next to the bed. I should have known better to send a 23 month old upstairs to get a stinky. I figured while she was on her way upstairs I would look for the one that I had seen downstairs earlier that morning. After a minute or two and now sound from Emma I thought I better head upstairs to see what she was up too. Rather than grabbing her stinky that was on the night stand she took advantage of the bathroom door being open.

First thing she grabbed was a bottle of finger nail polish. What's interesting about that is no one in this house uses finger nail polish. Grandma Lori always paints Emma's fingers and her house and Steph has someone do her nails for her. Anyhow Emma found a full bottle in what had to be the first minute she was upstairs because no only had she tried painting her finger nails she also had her toenails painted on one foot and the rest of the bottle on the bathroom floor. When I walked into the bathroom the first word out of Emma's mouth was "Preeetty". Very similar to someone about the same age (antigone) getting into finger nail polish and getting it all over the bedroom floor. Getting it on the carpet rather than the linolium and saying "beautiful" rather than "pretty" is the only differences.

I think this next story is an all time classic and solidifies Baba's theory that Emma is a clone of her Dad.

A few nights ago we took a family trip to Coldstone Creamery downtown. Emma was ecstatic about going to the ice cream store to pick out her own flavor of ice cream. When we walked into the store there were a few people sitting down enjoying their treats. There was one little boy probably 3 years old sitting with his mom chowing down on his own cup of ice cream. Emma immediately locked on this his enjoyment and didn't look away while she continued farther into the store. The further she walked the more her head turned to the left until she was walking forward and looking backward. Away she went, face first into the pole in the middle of the store where everybody could see. She hit it hard enough to make her cry. It probably scared her more than it hurt her but everyone, employees included got a good laugh out of it. I felt like it happened in slow motion. I saw her looking at the boy and I saw the pole coming but for some reason I didn't stop her. I guess I wanted to see if it would end like the story I have heard so many times from both of my own parents.

The allure of egg cartons

I admit I haven't watched this video recently and don't really know what is in it, other than that they are playing with some egg cartons.

Emma on the importance of using your own phone

Emma demonstrates her particularness and extreme displeasure with the notion of Stephanie using someone else's phone.

Tiggs writes: Grandma Dew comes again

Last Thursday night during voice lessons I was working on the Amazing Grace song. This song always reminds me of Grandma Dew. The last few times I was singing it I got about half way through and I felt this sudden feeling like courage/energy burst and I felt like someone was standing next to me and at first I thought it was a draft of air, but it didn't go away and then I just knew it was Grandma Dew. Right then my voice got stronger and more confident. It was a really weird experience but sort of cool. :)



~tigs

Why? Cause!

Emma's vocabulary has really exploded over the last two or three weeks. She is now to the point where she will attempt to say whatever it is that we ask her too. Sometimes she catches phrases that we don't really want her too as well. Like when Stephanie can't get the shades in the bedroom down and says "F%&* Me" Emma picks up on the new word and walks around the bedroom telling the dogs "F%&* Me, F%&* Me".

Yesterday Emma had her Elmo Nammies on when she woke up. I had just got home from work when she headed down the stairs. I'm not sure how it came up but she decided that she needed to find her Dora top to put on. She took off around the corner and a few seconds later returned with the top. She smelled the jammies and said "Yuk, sink (stink), Cashy, poop, wash, soap" The jammies didn't really stink but they did a few days before. I don't know where she got the poop and cashy part but she had it in her head that Cassius somehow put poop on her jammies and that is why they stunk. Half jokingly I told her she should ask Cassius why he put poop on her jammies. "Yea!!!" off she went up the stairs and into the computer room where the dogs where sleeping in their kennels. She walked over to Cassius and held the Dora top up to the kennel door. "Why Cashy?, Why?"

Im going to do a better job of adding to the blog in the upcoming weeks. Emma does stuff everyday that I believe are worthy of writing down. When it comes time to type it out I usually don't remember what it was that I was going to type.

Miku and Barkley in the snow

Back at work

So obviously I'm surfing the internet.

Here's how Miku feels about me being gone:

Off to DC

I'm leaving for a week in DC tomorrow so there might not be so much content updated during that time. Here are a couple videos to amuse you until I get back, at least.

Part 1


Part 2

Me and Emma

There are so many problems with this photo but I really like it. One of the best parts of our last trip home was befriending Emma.

Simple pleasures: Sledding in BabbaJo's backyard

Here's a matching pair of videos from last March.

The Playgroung Gang of Girls

A Lion in my Entryway

When snowangels attack

Movie Recommendations

I've recently watched Cloverfield and Michael Clayton and recommend both of them. Clovefield is a monster movie but its very well done, kind of like Godzilla from the street. It's filmed with a home camera and it can be kind of shaky at times; I've heard some people complain about motion sickness. But its a lot of fun.

Michael Clayton is a much slower paced drama but its very good. I enjoyed it, but there isn't any action and I'd advise against it if you are feeling sleepy

What a sight...

Oh the sight of the girls..they all had such a good time with each other. Taylor really misses Miku, and when she came up for her spring break, we got to play with Emma one night. She said that was one of her favorite parts of her visit.
I can't wait for her to come live with us.
This picture makes me laugh...with little Emma in Miku's sweater that is too big for her..trying to keep up.

J-Rod...how are your pictures coming along? I would really like to see them. =)

A Grim Commute

Yesterday my train hit somebody, undoubtedly a suicide. I sit in the front of the train and clearly heard (and kind of felt) the impact. The train didn't stop as fast as I would have expected but thinking back on it, it doesn't make sense to slam on the brakes. The person is already dead and no reason to risk injuring passengers or damaging the train.

I was close enough that I was able to go up to the front of the train and eavesdrop on the conductor giving reports. They were pretty fast in announcing to us what had happened, and people not in the first car probably didn't hear it. We were delayed for about 20 minutes while they settled things.

When I got off the train I couldn't resist looking at the front. There wasn't any gore. There were some broken headlights and the windshield was cracked pretty bad. The person had stood right between the tracks and hit the train right in the middle. There were some panels broken and caved in and I think they may have been designed that way. There is a cattle guard and the break-away panels would reduce gore and maybe even bounce the body off. They didn't end up under the train and oncoming trains weren't stopped, so the body was thrown clear.

It was a strange incident. The sound was very clear, kind of a deep metallic "SNAP!", kind of like a rock that hits a window but doesn't break it. It was clear that we'd hit something and the mind races, first think we hit a rock (but then we aren't derailed) or a car (but that would have been louder and there would have been a bigger crash/screeching metal), a bird or rock on the window (too small of a sound). I didn't feel bad, really, as I wasn't responsible or anything, but I felt a little more involved than if I'd just witnessed it. I suppose witnessing it would maybe be even harder to deal with; I didn't see anything.

Anyway, just a weird event that marked my day.

I hav teh powr

Home improvement

We were very fortunate to discover that a friend of Yuzuru's family was getting rid of their old piano and were willing to give (that's right, GIVE) it to us. We had to pay for delivering and tuning/cleaning, but it's a nice machine. Miku loves to play the piano at her grandparents' houses and she play s it every day. I even was playing it the other night, reading from some music I printed out. Not concert quality, surely, but we had a good time.

This weekend is was in the mid-70s, just beautiful. Lots of chalk, barbecue, and fingerpaints int he Dora house. Yuzuru has given me 6 of 7 chapters, of which I'll proof this week. She hopefully will be done next weekend then. YAY!

"Do You Love....."

Emma was in the bath tonight playing with the green bubbles, not her favorite but better than nothing. We like to laugh and sing in the bath. One of Emma's favorite games is "Do You Love" we ask her if she loves someone and she always whispers back "yea"

This is how it went tonight in the bath.

"Do you love Daddy" instantly she responded with a soft "yea".

"Do you love Mommy" same thing "Yeeaa"

"Do you love Cassius", "Yea"

"Do you love Lewis" "Yea"

"Do you love Tigs" "Yea"

"Do you love Miku" "Yea" with a smile

"Do you love Uncle Jerrod" ".............."

"Do you love Uncle Jerrod" head down with no expression "mmmmyyea"

"Do you love Yuzuru" immediately "Yea"

and so on with everyone else that we know. I thought it was kind of funny.

Future partner at Chiro Health?

edit: There are so many funny lolcat pictures and I'm resisting putting more up, but this one has obvious relevance:


see more crazy cat pics

You all suck

Actually I include myself there too. We suck for not posting!

We're home and getting back into the swing of things. Miku had her first day of preschool yesterday. She was stoked to find that her first year teacher is also teaching her second year class. We marked her height on the wall before she left for school and she grew over 3 inches between the first day of first year and second year. 3 inches isn't all that much overall, I suppose, but when you are only 36 inches tall, it's pretty big!

I'm at school today, writing and printing syllabi and getting my office cleaned up. Yuzuru interviewed a new teacher for the Japanese school and is very close to finishing her dissertation.

The trail mix is all gone. I should have bought an extra box of those little packages. Sure glad I got those pistachios though. I fell asleep on the couch last night reading a back issue of Harper's and snacking on nuts after working all day.

We miss you all and are looking forward to getting back to see you as soon as we can.

I'll let you know when I get around to posting pictures and videos. In the meantime, you can post too. Tiggs, this means you!

Less than 48 hours...

What's up with the lack of posting?

March 21-April 2

I don't know the specific times but they are likely in line with the past, which means we'll arrive at GEG on the evening of March 21 and have to be back there early early on April 2. That's a Friday to Wednesday, giving us two weekends. Should be fun, eh!

Japan Fam coming home...

I know Yuzuru is in the middle of her work and all that, so I am waiting patiently to find out your visiting dates.
Does anyone have an idea of stuff to do? The weather isn't going to be as nice as it was the day we came over to RiverFront Park, but maybe we can do something as a family in Spokane. I talk about my nieces enough, my co-workers really want to see them again!
I would love to do something fun on the days I have off work. I understand if we end up not doing anything but hanging out at mom's, though.

I am hoping to take a couple days off to spend with the family, I already have March 24th off to take my Josh's daughter back to Tri-Cities after Easter. We'll be doing driving on the Saturday before and the Monday after...so not sure if you guys will be here then. =)

How do you know you've been away from family for a long time?

Today, at lunch, without provacation:

"I don't remember what Tiggs' face looks like."

'Nuff said

Snitch

I thought she may have got hurt at the end but her reaction to the fall proved me wrong.

What A Night

Emma and I decided that it was time for the dogs to have a bath tonight. We got the towels together, found the dog "Oap" under the sink and headed upstairs. The two of us have never given the dogs a bath before, usually its the whole family. One dog at a time while the other waits impatiently outside the bathroom door.

Cassius was nominated to go first because he's got a rash under his neck and inside of his legpits. Cassius likes taking baths once he is in the tub, getting him in the tub is the hardest part because he is so damn heavy. I got him lifted in and set the temperature for the water. While I was doing that Emma took the initiative to flush the toilet next to the tub. We usually don't let her flush unless she actually goes to the bathroom in the toilet so while I had my back turned she took advantage of the opportunity while she could.

Emma was delighted to see Cassius get rinsed just like she does when she is taking a bath. She thought that it was important that she help pour the water as well. If I could get her to fill the jug up completely she would only dump 1/2 of it on Cassius then start refilling the jug turning the quick rinse job into a long process. About two minutes into the ordeal Emma lost interest in the rinsing and found it more entertaining to stick her hand into the faucet spraying water in every direction.

We eventually got Cassius rinsed and ready to be sudsed (is that a word?). I started scrubbing his face while Emma went and flushed the toilet again. I had to give her some dog shampoo to get her back over to the tub. She worked on Cassius's chest while I did the rest of his body. In the middle of the scrubbing Cassius thought it would be cool to shake with all the soap on his body. Emma was extremely impressed with the water and soap all over both of us. It was time start rinsing again.

I did my best to make sure that Emma didn't see how to turn the faucet on. Its different than the tub that she takes a bath in so she was very intrigued about how I could get the water to start and stop so quickly. As soon as I started rinsing Emma realized the toilet wasn't running anymore so she went back and flushed it again. If there was anything in that toilet when we started it surely wasn't there anymore. After a few seconds of Emma spraying water all over the place she learned that she could stick her fingers into the faucet and push the shower stick up blocking the water and forcing it up the water pipes and thru the shower head, Cassius wasn't impressed by the water coming from a different place at all and tried jumping out of the tub while I was working on getting the shower off. It would have been a good picture. Me leaning over Emma trying to get the shower turned off while trying to block a soaked 75 lb dog from leaping out of the tub. While I was getting Cassius contained in the tub Emma again took the liberty of flushing the toilet one more time.

Eventually all the soap was gone and we started drying Cassius off. He gracefully jumped out of the tub landing on his wet feet causing him to crash across the linoleum. Emma missed the show because she was trying to put the dog shampoo in her own hair. We kicked Cassius out of the bathroom and brought "Min" in.

Min is quite the opposite of Cassius as he doesn't like taking baths at all. When I lifted him up he did his best to stay out of the tub by stretching his back legs out straight towards the floor, catching them on the edge of the tub which then scared him even more than what he already was. He started flopping like a fish out of water kicking the tub with all four legs as I got him in. It was loud and pretty frightening for Emma, she started crying and had to give him a hug and a kiss before we got started.

Everything was pretty much the same for Min's bath. Water spraying, fights over who got to pour the water, two more toilet flushes, and one shower head demonstration. I had to lift Min out of the bathtub. For some reason he is too scared to jump, just like I have to lift him out of the truck when he goes for a ride because he is too much of a wimp to jump two feet onto the ground.

Emma didn't get as wet as I thought she would. Her sleeves were soaked from rinsing her hands in the faucet and her face was wet from the dogs shaking during and after the bath.

We headed downstairs and found Stephanie making cookies. While we were gone Steph went to Ron's house to borrow some butter for the cookies. When we were done cleaning the dogs Steph realized that we needed two sticks of butter rather than one so she loaded Emma up in the truck and headed back to Ron's house.
Emma has really enjoyed helping us cook lately and over the last week or two we have made a few batches of cookies. She likes snitches the most, what kid doesn't? On the counter where we make the cookies we have a spice rack sitting next to the stove. We made the mistake a few weeks back of letting Emma entertain herself by making a spice potion (Phaedra?)while we finished dinner. Now every time she gets to cook she thinks we need to add some spices. I was in the living room resting after the workout I had wrestling with the dogs and heard "EEMMMMAAAA GRAAAAACE" I knew right away what had happened. It was kind of like the toilet flushing upstairs. While Steph wasn't looking Emma grabbed a jar of Dill Weed and added a teaspoon to the cookie dough.

What makes the entire story worthy is the amount of effort that took place to get the butter to make the cookies only to have dill weed added to the mix. Steph ended up scraping out the weed and using the little bit of butter we had in the fridge to finish making the cookies. Emma was happy, she got her snitches and a beater from the mixer. Video coming.

Something to pass the time

While we wait for me to get my pictures and videos in order, here's something that is sure to amuse you.

A week without posts!!

What's going on with everyone?!?!

I've got a few videos incoming. I think I've become addicted to Call of Duty on the XBox: I don't really want to keep playing it but I keep doing so, just trying to improve. THat's how I'm spending my days off, mostly. Take Miku to school, drop Yuzuru off at work, then I've got a few hours of open time till school's out. Lame, I know.

We haven't locked in our travel but it will fall sometime in the window of March 20-April 6. It might be just me and Miku depending on a few things over here. Yuzuru is almost done with her dissertation draft: I've got to read it for her as she finishes it up over the next month and submits it to her advisor. Assuming it is g good enough, she'll defend in July.

That's the update for now. Peas!

The Valentine's Day Package

Huge thanks to Babba Jo for the wonderful package.






BEST KEYCHAIN EVER.

Duckfooted Stiltwalker

One of Miku's take-home prizes from her sports day was these stilts.

From the frontlines of 4 years old

hf ueu utrhbbmkkgymvm virov 8vh itkrrkmm


miku

EDIT by J-rod: After the first entry, written all by her, she wanted to add some pictures. So we have one of a lasagna elf (btw I made that lasagna) and the second of a demon, made in honor of setsubun, a ritual observance bringing good luck in the house and banishing the evil spirits (demons!) outside.

Clean that Room

Its hard for me to do anything anymore without Emma wanting to help. It usually takes my twice as long to get the dishes done, make a make a cake or vacuum the floor but I don't really mind. Hopefully she catches on to it and someday will do it all on her own. Then I can play xbox 360 more.

The absurd reversal associated with a consistent stance

I realized today the source of a point of confusion for me. You see, I was against the war in Iraq but now I'm against the withdrawal of US troops. But I realize that these apparently contradictory positions are entirely consistent with a single moral premise: The state of Iraqi society and the life of its citizens.

I was against the war because I thought it would make them worse off (and sadly I was correct). However I firmly believe, based on the same sort of evidence and consideration I used to be against the war in the beginning, that a withdrawal would make them worse off, again. So by considering the effect of our national decisions on the people who actually pay the price for them, I've gone from peacenik to hawk.

Funny world we live in.

(PS: I'm sorry if anyone thinks I'm spoiling the blog by bringing up this kind of topic. I hope that we all feel free to talk about anything here, but you are also free to ignore me.

Making Christmas cookies

Here's one from a few months back.

Current reasons to visit America

"I want to go to Babba Jo's house. Because I want to take Penda for a walk."

"and see Emma."

We got snow too.

We got the most snow in a decade the other day and rushed out to build a snowman and play before the rain washed it all away. We really were blanketed with about 3 inches but it was so wet that we rolled up everything down to the grass when we made the snowman. Miku loved it.

Did you see all the videos?

Not trying to pimp my own posts here, but I'd uploaded videos of Miku playing the Wii Fit, dancing on the Wii, singing and dancing in her sheep outfit, and then at the sports day. I saw comments for the first two but not the middle two and just wasn't sure if they go lost in the shuffle.

I'm working to keep more videos coming on a regular basis.

more snow in North Idaho

I believe I have found one of the most profound spots on earth. This view taken right before you get to the mission looks up the river from the freeway - I always drive slow and look at this site - most days you see the mountains or the sky reflected in the water - today it just says a lot.

Grandma White is staying close at home. I delivered her a few requested items - eggs, milk and a disposable camera....Stopped at the fork in the road on the way to the mission and took this picture. Cracker is out runing around and having a good time in the snow. Sad to say - Cracker has a tumor growing in her jaw/tongue and even though GM has had it removed twice and one chemotherapy - it continues to grow. It might be her demise soon. Sad - but in the meantime she eats, sleeps and seems to be okay......

This is a great shot of the Grandma house from the road down below. Do you remember when the story of when Grandpa's mail car dropped out of gear, rolled down the bank and went into the slough? Those were exciting times for us -

Just a house on the side of the hill as we came back home. This is the lake with little dock and dock house - lots of footprints going out onto the ice.

The mission - I love this picture because it shows some of the trees to the left and don't orget to look at the sky and the clouds -

I can't wait for you guys to come so we can barbecue on this deck.....after the snow leaves of course!

More snow - is predicted. I did get my emergency supplies in order - which I always do every winter but this one ---

One might never notice the state highway buildings directly at the foot of the 4th of July Pass - eastside. They store sand and some snow removal equipment there. Each summer they spend a lot of time filling up the sand building... Didn't the snow make these trees profoundly beautiful?

Yesterday when we were in Kellogg we took these pictures of the new "Wellness Center" formerly known as the Hansen estate....Notice the snow almost to the windows -

When you open my patio door and go to the right of the deck is where you will see all of this snow. Barkly loves it! - he rolls in it and jumps around. Even better yet - the terrorist squirrels are back - a little harder to jump through the snow but he keeps them up in the tree....

A slow start on sports day

Here we see the Peach class of the pre-school make their entrance and then they run their first event. Miku is in the first row, red pants and white shirt. One of the boys in the third row bumps a boy in the second row who bumps Miku right before the starting gun, which explains what you'll see.

Personally this video just makes me tear up with joy. My little girl out there, running the event as best she can. I love it.



I also like the little half-jog she does afterwards.

A singing sheep does the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dance.

Miku was one of the 4 girls in her class selected to be a sheep in the Christmas pageant this year. She has her costume on and sings some of the songs they sang as they did christmas caroling around the downtown. She also shows the choreography for Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. I'll work on getting the video of the pageant up sometime as well.

Dancing Fool

This speaks for itself, really.