Not Very Exciting Pictures From Taiwan

Cool building eh? This was my work place for the week I was there. It was originally built by a German Architech (we bought the 1/2 of the company from a bankrupt German company).

Notice the size of those silver pillars vs. the cars.

I thought this was a funny sign, it was in all the Elevators.  There were 6 Elevators, 3 on each side. However, each side only went to selected floors. I thought that was sort of funny. Side 1 went to 1-4,6,8,10. Side 2 went through 1,3,5,7,9.

we all had to wear those blue booties to get inside.

This was my plane. Very large.

Me and my balding spot outside the company.

This was a park just out front. I'm on the 9th floor balconey.

this was my hotel room. VERY nice, the chaise lounge was quite the bonus.

Nice bathroom as well.  I didn't even have to use an outlet adapter while I was there either.

This is in the middle of the work areas. It goes for 3 stories. The German Architech strikes again.

Engineers

I work at a company that employs many engineers (of which I am one). There are a few things I find interesting about this. #1 is the sense of humor. When you make a joke about Pi, Silicon, Star Trek, Star Wars etc. you get a lot of laughs. #2 Is the social norms that engineers exhibit. Most of the hallways here are about 8-10 feet wide. It is VERY rare to find another person walking towards you who will look you in the eye and say hi (unless you know them of course). I can't tell you how often I've looked over at someone at the same time they looked at me, I nod at them and they continue on as if nothing occurred. Usually everyone just tries to avoid looking at incoming people.
#3 Is the dress. No one complains, nor notices what anyone else is wearing (nor cares). I like this, since it means no one really cares if I have stains on my shirt (somewhat common occurrence), or if I match etc. Since I often get ready without a Mirror (Jace has been sleeping in our bathroom, so I just get dressed in the Closet and leave) this lack of caring about appearance just helps me to fit in even better.

I admit, I'm a typical engineering geek, but there are perks.

"Santa Paws"

Yesterday, Suzy was in the Christmas spirit and rented a nice, innocuous Christmas movie for the kiddies (The Search For Santa Paws).



I was in the computer room, when I heard some pretty intense sobbing coming from the living room. Yup, it was the song and step-touch dance routine by a group of orphan girls and Suzy just couldn't hold back.

Okay, I jest. It was Kate, who REALLLLLLLY gets into movies. This one must have been a very emotional film, since I heard her crying (bawling) at least 3 separate times (luckily Suzy was there to comfort her, although I did come out once just to make sure she was okay).

About 10-15 minutes after the movie (which had quite he happy ending of course, sorry if I spoiled it for you since you'll probably be running out to redbox after this post), Kate came into the computer room. She was alternating between her "about to breakdown and cry face" and a smile. I asked her if she was okay, and in one of those "Fast Sunday" I'm about to cry voices she replied:
"These a-a-are happy tears".

It is a really fun experience watching a movie with Kate. She really gets into them. Faith seems to enjoy them, but in a much more stoic "thumb in her mouth, finger making knots in her hair" kind of way.

Worst Rendition of "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer ever"

Soap

A few days ago, Suzy discovered that I'd put the hand soap dispenser refills on the floor of the pantry. In doing so, I'd set them on their side, and one had a cap loose, so of course it spilled on the floor. 

A recent email from Suzy,
Kate just emerged from the pantry with a disgusted look on her face.
I could tell she had just eaten something.
She led me inside and pointed to the puddle of liquid soap.
what?!
How have I raised children that will eat unknown dried goo off a floor??

One more Katism from Suzy
I just looked at the clock in the kitchen and said, "Where did the day go?!"
Kate replied, "Maybe to Mexico?"

Taiwan

Well, I'm in Taiwan for this post.  I just wanted to jot down some observations before I left.  Maybe I'll even take some pictures.

Taiwan is the second most population dense country, next only to Bangladesh (spelling?) I was informed by my hosts.  Apparently a lot of the land on this small Island is not livable, they have about 24 million people or so.  I'm here during the winter time, so its been in the 60s, no rain so far. It cools off to about 50 or so at night. 

I'm assuming because of the high population density, most people here don't have a sense of personal space. They're also mostly short.  Every day I come into the site for work and go up the elevator. Every day I'm surrounded by people who come up to my shoulder. By surrounded I mean everyone stands WAY to close to me. I try to lean back and forth and squash people just to teach them to give me some space.  It hasn't worked so far. 

The food here is interesting. I've been out to eat at two places. One they ordered for me, and I had to eat some weird stuff which I normally wouldn't do.  Surprisingly enough, the food tasted pretty terrible.  I keep hearing from other people that I need to try new things, cause I could be missing out on so much. Apparently I'm not missing out.  Jellied pig tendons really do taste as gross as that sounds.  Seafood dumplings (what they call pot-stickers) just don't taste good.  The chicken noodle soup had some type of spice in it that added a savory 409 or Windex flavor. Their "Taiwanese hamburgers" as I was told they were called (rice tortilla with ham, some veggies and some sweet potatoes) were at least palatable.  I had two of those to show how much I liked them, and to avoid having to eat some of the other weird stuff on the table.  For dessert they brought out a bowl of jet black yummy sesame seed mush.  I was being sarcastic when I said yummy.  They're also not into cooking their meat "too much". By too much I mean cooking their meat. 

Breakfast is interesting, I eat it at the Hotel. They usually have a little row of American food, including "Intestinal meats" as they call sausage.  I do like their french toast, although their pancakes taste weird. How do you make pancakes taste weird? You got me, but they figured out how.  They also have sushi, shrimp, grilled fish, something they call "congee". I've been afraid to open that pot to see what's inside.  Never name a food congee.  Seafood lovers would love breakfast here. The mussels are to die for.

The other place I went out to eat was excellent! I ordered for myself, and got a nice salad and a "stewed beef short rib".  It had mostly fat on it, but the meat was VERY good.  The rolls were delicious as well.

Travel is by taxi here, or if one of the other folks who are stationed here gives me a ride. I'd say there are 3 scooters for every car.  People drive pretty crazy here.  The guy whose office I'm in just totaled his car, the other three guys I know here have either hit a scooter or also totaled their car.  I think the company should just pay for everyone to have drivers.  Scooters will often pass on the right or left, in all sorts of situations.  Intersections are always fun, usually it's a game of whoever goes first, wins.  Americans could learn one thing though, there is almost no road rage here. People accept getting cut off as a way of life here. 

I'm listening to some girl sing "Yesterday" by the Beatles over the loud speaker right now.  They play light music at 1pm to wake everyone up (they're allowed to sleep from 12-1pm, which many people do at their desks).

The hotel I'm staying in is very nice and posh. I was complaining to Suzy though, I saw they had ESPN on the channels and got excited, until I realized that it was in Chinese. CNN is the only English channel. 

Anyway, I've enjoyed the trip, it hasn't been as weird as I thought it'd be.  I wish Suzy were here so she could see all this stuff too.  I realized (a while ago) that traveling for me is mostly fun if I share it with someone.  Otherwise, I'm not into seeing new stuff much.

Telephone by pictures

We were recently introduced to a new game (thanks SIL (Sister in Law) Laurie!). It turned out to be a lot better than I thought it would.  I would even say I flat out like it.  It's sort of like the game telephone, but with pictures.  Someone starts by writing a sentence. The next person draws a picture of the sentence. Then you fold over the words and hand it to a thrid person. That person writes down what they think the picture is trying to say. Then the fourth is a sentence again and so on.  I scanned in a few of them just so you can get an idea of what it can be like.

I hurt my side

Common occurrence:

We hear Faith crying upstairs. I go get her from the stairs (she had started to come down).

"Faith, what happened, are you okay"

Faith still crying, "I hurt my side."

"How did you hurt your side?"

"I go into a baffroom"

"How did you hurt it in the bathroom?"

"I run into a wall."

I think we'll look back on these experiences and laugh, she definitely seems like the one of the two girls who will be more interested (and probably better) at sports. She's more aggressive, which usually translates well on the "court".

Resurrected

We went to a flag retirement ceremony with the kids on Thursday night. It was a really cool experience. As part of it, they had a slide show of pictures from military veterans and current military members. Kate had a litany of questions (they showed things such as jet planes, aircraft carriers, families communicating by webcam and lots of cemeteries). Kate asked a question that really made me think.

"Dad, do people always get buried with their clothes on?"

"Well Kate, I think they usually do, why do you ask?"

"Itsa cause I don't want to be resurrected naked. That would be embarrassing."

I'm pretty sure we can somehow take care of that as needed despite our cloths having dissolved, since large portions of our bodies have also dissolved. I didn't go any further into it than that.

Barginning

Kate and I were having a short one on one interview this afternoon. I suggesting starting with a prayer, Kate responded back, "how about a song, then we can have THREE prayers at the end." At the end, as she was wanting to rush out the door, I reminded her of those prayers. She responded, "Well, how about we can say FIFTEEN prayers later."

Hmm....I wonder what it will escalate to when it's time to say those 15 prayers?

Driving

I'm fairly laid back about most things, but there are a few areas of my life where I'm pretty uptight. One of these is driving. I like to leave the line as soon as the light turns green. I get pretty annoyed when those ahead of me don't. I like to drive at least 5 over, especially when the speed limit is ridiculous, like 35 on a 5 lane road (2 lanes each way and a middle lane).

The other year, we were stopped at a light. If there's an open lane, I normally take it even if I have to turn the opposite direction soon thereafter. I figure If I can't beat them off the line, they'll be going fast enough that there will be separation between them and the car behind them and I can squeeze on in. I was with Suzy, and I was looking out the driver side window in an attempt to watch the light so I could tell when it would turn Red in anticipation of mine turning green.

I was successful in my endeavorer, but Suzy made a comment about at least being discrete about it when checking out other women. It was then I realized that while I had been staring steadfastly out my window, a car had pulled up with a woman in it. Suzy and I had a good laugh after I explained what had really been going on.

Bad Habits

One of my bad habits is to always try to seem like I'm listening even when I'm really not. The evidence of this bad habit is found in my responses. One of my common responses when I didn't hear what Suzy says is "I Love you". I guess I've figured out over the years that that response is relatively safe.

Well, this morning I was upstairs giving the kids a bath as Suzy was headed out the door to a meeting. The kids were of course noisy. I heard her go out the door, then come back in and yell something up the steps. My response? " I love you, bye!".

When Suzy got home, she said, "So, you didn't hear me when I was headed out the door, did you?"

I fessed up at this point. She then let me know that she wasn't coming back in just to say goodbye.

I had been in her purse last night looking for something, and had moved her keys from her purse to the counter in my efforts (something I've done in the past). She got out to the car and realized that she didn't have her keys.

What had she yelled up the stairs? In an exasperated tone, it was apparently, "When you take my keys out of my purse, will you PLEASE put them back!"

Quick Quips

Faith will often say as she's getting ready to go to the bathroom, "Please get out, I need my private seat (privacy)".

Kate and Faith recently watched some type of fairy movie where someone must have said "Faith Trust and Pixie Dust". They've been repeating this for the last few days. During Lunch time, I was in the kitchen while Kate and Faith were talking. They had just been saying it again, when Faith said, "Hey, that's me!" ("Faith").

Kate, in quite the supercilious manner, "No Faith, Faith means to believe in Jesus. So, it means Believe in Jesus, and trust in Pixie dust."

Some Statistics

I've been working on my upcoming lesson (Enlarge the place of thy tent - Isaiah 54–56; 63–65). Because of the reference to Stakes, I thought I'd do a little research on Church growth and the growth of stakes (and Temples). I found some interesting trends.

The blue in this graph is the number of Stakes. The red the Number of members per Stakes (actually I put stakes and districts together). I find it interesting that there seems to have been a policy change at some point to allow a larger number of people per stake, and you can see the up-tick in the red line, and the slower growth of the # of stakes in the blue line.

Church membership growth has been mostly linear over the past 30 years or so.

Its cool to see the huge growth in the number of temples in such a short period of time.

I will go, I will do

I was asking the girls some questions the other day. You can tell that Faith has been listening to the things we teach, but she hasn't quite put everything together in its proper place yet. I'll see if I can get the video up this weekend, but a couple of highlights:

Me, "Faith, who's your favorite prophet?"

Faith, "Jesus Moroni"

Suzy, "Faith, what's your favorite story in the Book of Mormon"

Faith, "Ammon goes and gets the plates"

Squeezable

Inscription from the Top package of Charmin.

Inscription from the bottom package of Charmin.

We've had the bottom package of Charmin sitting in our garage for quite a while. We recently purchased the top package of Charmin. I ended up putting one on top of the other for no particular reason. Well, a few days ago as I was walking by, I noticed something interesting. They both claimed to have "30 Jumbo rolls" of toilet paper. Yet one package was significantly smaller than the other.

If you'll notice, the Top package says "Equal to 83 regular rolls". The bottom says "Equal to 75 regular rolls"

Now that would be okay if the package with more toilet paper was equal to the 83 rolls. Such is not the case! The top package has 866sq ft of TP. The bottom, 937sq ft.

Either someone randomly assigns the "equal too X number of rolls", or else Charmin regular rolls went through a drastic size shrink. You probably already did the math in your head, but that amounts to a 17% shrink of the regular roll size, and an 8% shrink of the Jumbo rolls.

The Human Fly

We have been besieged with flies of late. It seems they've been proliferating all over Boise. One of our "favorite" activities is to kill the few that find their way into our home.

Faith was sitting by Suzy, twirling Suzy's hair as she often does when she's tired. Well, Suzy jokingly said...hmm....I feel a fly in my hair! Faith just looked askance at her. A minute later, she moved to Suzy's back and Suzy, hoping she'd catch on, said, "Now the fly is on my back!".

Faith promptly jumped up and ran out of the room. She came back holding a book. With which she proceeded to use to hit Suzy on the back, killing the "fly". Suzy burst out laughing as she realized what had just happened.

bobbing for apples

Various and Sundry

Something we commonly say to Faith,

"Faith, don't fall out of your chair."

Why you may ask? Because Faith will sometimes fall out of her chair. Like the other night. Twice.
She also runs into walls sometimes. Just the other day, she was pouting in my closet, I went in there, and she attempted to run around me. Unfortunately, around me was the wall, which she promptly ran right into.

Kate wanted to go into the backyard, but Faith was standing with her back to the door and wouldn't move. They started arguing and pushing, and Suzy stopped them and said "Let's redo this nicely instead".
Kate obliges, runs back out of the room, then back to the door and sweetly asks, "Faith, can you please move?" Faith says NO twice (They tried it this way twice). Then Suzy says, Faith, why don't you play Kate's part. Faith immediately says "Okay!". So she runs out the room, with Kate's back to the door and asks sweetly, "Kate, can you please open the door." Kate nicely opens the door and they both go outside.

I think we're going to have to remember that technique for other times.

Kate and Suzy were talking.
Kate, "I wish Papa didn't have to work, then he could stay home all day."
Suzy, "Well, he has to get work in order to get Money."
Kate, "I wish Money just fell from the sky, then Papa wouldn't have to work at that golf job."
Suzy, "What golf job?"
Kate, "You know, where he has to golfing all the time."

Suzy politely informed her that he actually did that for fun.

Boys are like Dogs

Kate keeps asking hard to answer questions about why Jace is "different" as she sees his diaper changed. Suzy was talking to her about it, saying that's what makes boys boys and yes, girls are different. Then after a short pause, Kate pops out with "Boys are kinda like dogs."

Suzy attempts to clarify, "Yes, boy dogs also have (insert name for man parts here), like boys do."

Kate, looking a bit perplexed, "No, they just both try to chase you if you scream and run."

How to clean a toothbrush

1) Give your baby boy a bath on the bathroom counter

2) Don't completely cover his man parts with water

3) Urination ensues.

4) Thoroughly clean toothbrush. Don't tell husband until after he's used aforementioned toothbrush.

Bad Guys

In Kate's prayer this evening "And please help everyone in the WHOLE world to be safe...except bad guys."

The other day, "Please bless this food to make us healthy, even the unhealthy food to make us healthy."

I wish I would have thought of that one much earlier in life.

Mommy knows all

Kate again learned how much Mommies really know. Kate seems to struggle with washing her hands. The other day she was just finishing up, and Suzy heard the water turn on, and then turn off a second later.

Kate came out, and Suzy immediately said "go back and use soap". Kate, again in awe "HOW DID YOU KNOW!". I think this may be a repeating theme for quite a while (years). How do I know this?

We were eating dinner at a friend's house. The kids were outside eating. One of her sons (8yrs old) came in and asked for some more apple juice. She said "you haven't eaten your vegatables yet". Again the "in awe" look as the child is in wonderment at his mom's all-knowningness.

There was a plate glass window with a clear view of the kids table.

Dough Ray Me

Everyone who's heard me sing knows that concepts such as "on tune" and "rhythm" are only pit stops in my racetrack of song. I'm sort of like a stopped clock, I'm probably on tune or rhythm (maybe even on tune AND rhythm) twice a song. Or maybe it's every two songs. Regardless.

Suzy recently read or heard somewhere that a child's sense of tone, and all that jazz is determined by the time they're some insanely young age. Ever since then, I think she's been pretty worried about our children (see, I used to sing them to sleep, or to comfort them).

Well, worry no longer. Now, whenever I'm in the car and start singing (you know, I just break out in song all the time), the kids immediately say "Can you please put on Safety Kids"? The first few times, I thought it was coincidence. Eventually though, I caught onto the pattern. At least now we know our kids aren't musically scarred for life.

Rainbows, Pirates and Goblins.

Games Kate (and Faith) like to play currently:
1) Princess, Princess, Hero, Bad guy: This usually involves a princess being captured by a bad guy. It used to have a hero come and rescue her, now the two variations are the bad guy turns nice and they fall in love or one of the princesses has super powers and escapes on her own. Sometimes the princess is sold to goblins and then rescued.
2) Mermaid Pirate: A mermaid is captured by a pirate who falls madly in love with the mermaid. At some point another memeber of the crew throws the mermaid overboard because he thinks the pirate captian doesn't like her. Then the pirate rescues her and makes the pirate who threw her overboard walk the plank. Sometimes the mermaid is sold to goblins. Of course, the mermaid escapes.
3) Rainbow flying unicorn (recently Kate watched rainbow brite, now everything is rainbowed). Someone sees a "horse" who is really a unicorn, but guys can't see the horn. The horse is captured and then does lots of amazing things (like winning races, saving a village by purifying the water with her horn etc.) Sometimes the horse is sold to goblins, but escapes.

Just wanted to capture some of these before you guys move on to other games. Also, we get very bored with these games, since there seems to be an endless capacity to repeat these games with only slight variations for hours on end.

Sneakery

Suzy and Kate were playing the kids game "bed bugs". You have to try to get more bugs than the other person. For a while, baby Jace was awake and Suzy was trying to move him to different positions to keep him happy. Kate was winning quite easily at this point. Jace fell asleep and Suzy started to gain back some ground.

Kate (very nonchalantly), "Hey Mom, don't you want to keep Jace awake so he'll sleep better at night?"
Suzy, "You just want Jace awake so I'll be distracted and you can win the game."
Kate (extremely shocked and surprised), "HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT!"

Mommies really are omnipotent.

A Child's Prayer

A couple of experiences:
Suzy put Faith in time out. Usually Faith's prayers are very short and contain the same two phrases (bless the family, help us to sleep well, amen). However, Suzy heard Faith give one of the most sincere and heartfelt prayers ever. "Heavenly Father, please help me get out of time out". Her prayer was answered...eventually.

Suzy was feeding Jace and Kate wanted to watch a movie. The remote wasn't working and Suzy told Kate that maybe she could watch one after she was done feeding Jace. Kate closed her eyes for a while, looking very intent.

Just after that, Suzy had the idea to move the batteries around a bit. Low and behold, it worked! Later, in the car, we were talking about this experience and Kate shared with us that she was praying when she had closed her eyes that it would work, and then it did.

Changing babies at night

The first night we were at home (we spent some time at Suzy's mom's house), Suzy asked me to change Jace's diaper. I don't know what time it was, maybe 1am or so. I don't remember much, apparently I said no. To which Suzy, in a shocked voice replied "Really?". I guess my subconsious kicked in, cause I got out of bed.

At that point, I started going in circles in the middle of the room, mumbling "I can't find it" over and over.

Exasperated, Suzy finally said "fine, I'll do it!", at which point I climbed back in bed, apologizing for my inability to find the diaper.

Suzy told me about this in the morning, and expressed some deep concern about our baby's safety with me at night. It's been much better since then (I think I just needed a little bit of practice).

Six and a half

Conversation with Suzy today
Faith "I Tinkerbelle, I don't have any babies"
A few minutes later
"I have lots of babies"
Suzy "How many do you have?"
Faith "Six and a half"
Suzy "Are they girl babies or boy babies"
Faith "girl babies, I have lotsa cribs"
Suzy "What about the half baby, does she only get half a crib"
Faith "yeah...wait...whole crib"

At least that poor half a baby gets a full crib.

Last night, I was attempting to brush Faith's teeth. She wanted to do it "Not you daddy, me!". I told her she wasn't old enough. Her response?
"I not two and half, I four and a half, no I SIX AND A HALF!"

Apparently, Six and a half is her favorite number.

What'll they think of next

Aunt Landa sent us this amazing book (along with some cool pictures of a long time ago). The girls love it, and I, quite frankly am amazed at what they can do with 3-D technology these days (or in this case, without the technology part).






(Here's one of the pictures that Aunt Landa sent - Mike blocking Uncle Mike's shot)

Baby Dogs

Jace got a cute little dog as a gift a little while back. The girls immediately co-opted it, and then promptly turned him into "Princess baby puppy". Amazing how many things can be changed into a princess somehow.

Puppy before amazing transformation


Puppy after transformation (and a picture of Jace of course)

The color Blue

Faith was having a bit of a sad moment. She only got 4 plum slices on her plate, and wanted more. When she gets in these moods, it usually takes her a little while to snap out of it, and nothing will satisfy her (not even cottage cheese). At one point during this most recent episode the following conversation ensues.

Faith "I not want this blue" (Pointing to a flower on her pants)
Me "You don't want flowers on your pants?"
Faith "NO! I not want this blue on my pants."
Me "Okay, so you want to change your pants?"
Faith (even more exasperated now) "NO! I not want this Blue on my pants"
Me (Slightly perplexed) "You mean you want a different color blue flower on your pants?"
Faith nods her head yes as she puts her thumb in her mouth.

Boys, look out, 'cause I don't know if they ever get more reasonable...

Picture of the Faith (in a better mood) still wearing the pants with the wrong color of blue flowers.

Princesses

We were all standing in the Kitchen talking, when we looked over and saw Kate picking up baby Jace. Of course, we panicked and ran over, took Jace away. Kate and I had a little discussion about when its appropriate to hold the baby. During the course of the discussion, she mentioned why she was picking up the baby

Through her tears, "I just wanted him to wake up so he could see the princesses"

At least her motives were pure.

Where's Waldo

Its that time. Time to figure out what Jace will look like when he's older. This day comes in the life of every baby, usually about day one. Jace is a little behind the time, as this is day 6.


Here's Kate at 7 days old.


Here's a picture of Baby Jace - 6 days old. I wonder who he's going to look like?



One more of Kate


And one more of Jace

More Baby Pics

At the request of some family, Here are some more pictures, including some close ups. We had a fun night last night, little Jace did sleep from 1:30am to 4am! And Suzy got an hour and a half nap this afternoon!

JAG

http://saintalphonsus.netreturns.biz/nursery/
Passcode is 23974. This has the picture that the Nurse took, along with all the stats.


IT HAPPENED! FINALLY! A boy was born to the Garrett household at 7:12am August 11th 2010. Jace Allen Garrett.

Suzy was due to be induced at 7am, but she REALLY didn't want to be induced. She went through induction with Faith, and the labor wasn't very pleasant. Luckily, we appear to have an obedient child, because labor started at 3:10 this morning. Contractions were at 3:10, 3:30, 3:50 (20 minutes apart), then at 4am. I woke up at this point, and Suzy mentioned to me that the contractions were coming about 10 minutes apart. Then 7 minutes, at which point I got pretty anxious and jumped out of bed.

I called our sister in law Laurie at about 4:10 or so. I was so glad when she answered.

She jetted on over, I ran around frantically loading up the car, especially since the contractions when from 20 minutes to 10 minutes to 7 minutes to 5 to 4 to 3. I was getting VERY anxious. I normally drive somewhat fast, poor Suzy (who I thought should be encouraging me at this point) was having to tell me to slow down about every minute or so.

We made it to the hospital about 4:40am, I calmly mentioned on the phone by the door that my wife was having a baby. I didn't yell at the nice nurse or any such thing. They got her into the delivery room, the nurse checked and immediately validated my sense of urgency. She was at an 8 with a "very bulgy bag". She called the Doctor right away (it was about 5am or so at this point).

She got her started on the antibiotics immediately and called the Epidural Nurse as soon as the IV bag was down to about 2/3rds full (apparently they're supposed to get about half way gone). We REALLY liked our nurse (Heidi). She was competent, nice and exibhited a concerned quickness that I very much appreciated. In some of our previous experiences (all two of them), the nurses didn't seem to expect Suzy to go as fast as she did.

Transition labor started about 6-6:15am. It took a LONG time. The epidural only numbed the left side, but Suzy said that was good enough (until about 45 minutes later when she was still pushing). I thought it was taking a while, and it did. Jace was face up, which delayed things a quite a bit (according to the Doctor and the Nurses, face up usually takes longer since its hard to get the head out in that position).

Finally though, he was born! Because he's such a large baby (9 lbs, 1oz 21 inches) he has been getting his blood sugar checked every hour. So far okay. He seems to be a good eater.

The kids have been by to see him, I'm not sure they know what to think yet. I asked them what they thought, and they both said "pretty good". I think Kate may be coming around to the name Jace, although she's really disappointed that Mushu Peter Mike was not the final choice. Yesterday she did suggest Popsicle, and Neil Diamond Sparkle Rose is another favorite.

Yesterday, Faith said she "I not like the baby" yesterday, but I think that's just because she was having a contrary day. After a few "timeouts" attempting to get her to say Sorry for hitting among other things, she finally said sorry. Immediately afterwards though, she said "I not sorry! I not say Sorry". Too late, she said it!

I'm really excited. I already love the little guy, as does everyone. I think he's not too bad looking, especially for a baby.

Mom came by, and mentioned that he seems to have a lot of Kate's baby manerisms.

WE GOT A BOY!

Michael Jackson and Baptism

Kate and Suzy were watching an old Michael Jackson video. Kate asked Suzy if Michael Jackson was still alive, she replied that he wasn't. Later in the day, Suzy and Kate were talking about baptisms for the dead (see 1 Corinthians 15:29 and here

Later still, Kate asked if Michael Jackson had been baptized. Suzy told her "probably not", at which point Kate excitedly exclaimed, "I Can get baptized for him!"

She's a little thinker, that girl!

Hormones

Kate notices some red bumps on Suzy's legs.
Kate, "Mom, what are those red bumps on your legs"
Suzy, "I don't know, I wish they would go away"
Kate, " Maybe they're there because of those things that make girls grow mustaches"
Suzy, "Do you mean hormones?"
Kate, "Yeah! Those 'hings" (she often doesn't pronounce the T on things).

Pelicans

We have a house being built next to us. The kids love watching the work out the window. Kate got really excited, and ran and told Suzy "Mom, they have a Cherry Picker!" Suzy explained that it looks like a Cherry picker, but its called a Crane, and its used to put things in high places (in this case, it was being used to attach the roof). I don't know where she learned about a cherry picker.

When I came home, Kate was very excited to tell me all about the construction. A brief excerpt "...Daddy, they put up the roof today using a Pelican!"

Luckily I was in the kitchen and she was in the dining room, thus when I started snorting as I tried to hold in my laughter she didn't hear it.

Immediacy of memory

I think I often view the world much as my children do (whatever has recently happened is how it always is and has been). Here's an example: Suzy often makes dinners that the kids love. Mac and cheese, waffles, lots of types of pasta's, corn on the cob, things with Chicken.

The other day I made "chicken stuff", which is basically cream of chicken soup with a few extras over pasta. Kate could not get enough of it, but just kept saying how much she loved it.

The next day in the car, Kate says, "Mommy, I don't know why, but my body just likes things that daddy makes". She was trying to be nice about it, and said, "but don't worry, I like some things you make to, but its just my body likes things daddy makes." (I cook about once every 4-6 months).

Nacho Night

We were having a Nacho night with some friends. As I was talking to one of them in the kitchen, I heard the sound of glass breaking and looked over to see that Faith had dropped the new pencil holder (a mug) on the ground. I had just finished cleaning it up and sat down on the couch, when I hear my oldest daughter yell out from the backyard "Faith peed her pants". Sure enough, on our back porch was a little puddle. After getting her in a diaper and hosing down the patio, Suzy walked back into the room (It had been maybe 5 minutes since she'd left). I think she shouldn't trust me with our kids.

A few minutes later, Grandma English brought by a beautiful new dress she had just finished sewing for Faith. She left, and we had smoothies soon thereafter. Faith somehow dumped out her entire cup on the floor and her new dress (luckily the smoothie was white, so the dress is easily cleaned), then managed to track it onto the rug. I love that girl (she's the same one who continues to turn and run into walls, chairs, people, you name it). She takes after her daddy.

Also, there is a small alien in my wifes belly. Its pretty cool to track his elbow's (foots?) progress across her stomach. We think he's trying to get a good foothold to propell himself out. Hopefully on Sunday.

Pioneer Day

Yesterday was Pioneer day. We worked very hard all day to talk about the Pioneers and all the hardships they suffered. While we were getting done with the Zoo, and the kids were complaining about walking, we used the very effective technique of telling them to instead imagine the pioneer children and how far they had to walk (has that ever worked?).

Anyway, Kate's prayer last night "...and thank you that we're not pioneers".

At least we know they listen sometimes, even if the lesson they learn isn't always the intended one.

Peeps

Yesterday, we went to the Zoo. It was pretty busy, but for my first time we got to go around lunch time. Apparently this is also lunch time for the animals. We were looking at a bobcat, when the zoo attendant opened up the back door and tossed in some dinner. Which happened to be some little baby chicks (already dead). The bobcat started to immediately tear into this delicious feast. Unfortunately, I was also holding Kate at this time, who saw the whole show. I was thinking it would be very interesting, she however was very distraught about the poor little "peeps". We tried to convince her that they were marshmallow peeps, but she wasn't having any of that, she knows a dead chick when she sees one. This did present an opportunity for us to tell her about the circle of life. We also got to see an Ocelot eating a rat, and some penguins eating some fish. I thought it was pretty cool. I'll try to post the video of the Bobcat later.

Ringtones

Today, we were playing a game with the favored "Uncle Marshall". His phone was on vibrate, and sitting on the table. He received a text while we were all sitting around the table (the girls eating watermelon, us playing "Ticket to Ride"). Faith immediately looked up in surprise and said:
"You Tooted!"
Then:
"Say 'Scuse me"
Uncle Marshall obediently made his phone say "Excuse me".

Cinco de Mayo

Fairy eating flowers

In the ongoing Rosetta and Jonathan series (the story of two amazing fairies), they recently fought an evil witch who had turned some other fairies into...FAIRY EATING FLOWERS. Each time one of these flowers ate a fairy, they produced another fairy eating flower. Of course, this happened as Rosetta and Jonathan were explorying a jungle for new plants.

Kate drew the above picture as a representation of a Fairy eating flower. Notice the beautiful vines (representing a jungle) and the sharp teeth on the top of the flower. She is an ARTEEST.

Interesting affects

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100713/sc_livescience/invisiblegorillatestshowshowlittlewenotice

Dancing Queens (princesses really...)

I think my favorite part comes at the 1 minute mark...

Raisins

Yesterday, while on the phone with Suzy she told me about a fun little experience. We had just purchased a large, Costco sized box of raisins. She walked into the kitchen, after a 2-3 minute absence to find a large pile of raisins on the floor, and the kids nowhere to be found. She subsequently found them. In our bathroom. With another large pile of raisins (the other half of the box emptied) on our bathroom floor.

Luckily, she'd just mopped our kitchen floor so those raisins are good to go.

Kate kindly informed us that it was Faith who did all the raisin dumping. Which begs the question of what Kate was doing during this time...laughing? encouraging? who knows. I think I'm going to buy one of those security camera systems for the inside of our house.

ps - Faith went Poo in the Potty yesterday! All by herself! She came and told Suzy, who went and checked. Since its one of those portable step stool/potty devices, and not flushable, it was easily verified! Go Faith. She was very excited to tell me when she came home that if she goes poo 3 times, she gets a toy from Grandma!

Interesting article

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/07/the-rout-of-obamanomics/

kateanddade

Kate loves to do surprises for us. Today, she vacuumed the floor, cleaned up the upstairs and made her bed. I had my laptop open, and she is just learning to write/type/read. She wanted to type a surprise for me, and only needed help a couple of times finding some letters and the backspace button (she had the screen turned away from me. Her masterpiece?

kateanddade

Kate and Daddy. For some odd reason, I may be biased, but I thought it was cute.

Uncle Marshall Mustache

Faith, who is learning new words every day, pointed at my goatee and said "mustache!" (Faith seems to have one and only one volume, and that volume is usually turned all the way up).

I of course am very appreciative of my Faith's vocabulary advancement and smiled and let her know that yes, that was a mustache (She's known that word for a while, since we distinguish one of the Grandpas with the moniker of "Papa Mustache").

She then told me what kind of mustache I had...excitedly exclaiming "Uncle Marsho mustache!" . Suzy was there as well, and we both busted up at this. Faith has only known me to have a goatee. Marshall has not always had a goatee, but probably for the last year or so.

I guess we know who the favorite Uncle is.

Bones vs Cartilage

Kate and Suzy were sitting on the couch. Suzy stood up, as she did Kate's ear got squashed and bent against her shoulder. Kate states, "Its a good thing my ear is made out of Cartilage mommy, cause you would have broken it". Needless to say, they had just finished reading about the human skeleton.

Suzy heard Kate vacuuming this morning. Later, when she got in Grandma's car, Kate said, "I like doing surprise cleanings." Grandma says "I know, I've heard about it." Kate finished, "I like cleaning our house because our house is always messy."

Suzy's comment on this, "Oh yeah, and whose mess is it!"

This evening, Suzy and I were in the computer room when we realized that its been awhile since we've heard from Faith.

As Suzy walks into our bathroom where Faith has her feet in the sink..."Faith what are you doing?"
Faith: "I not doing anything"


Yeah, Right.

The sink is filled with water. Which is now very dirty because of her feet. And also, our toothbrushes are in there.

Suzy rinsed them off, so we're good to go.

Have Faith

From Suzy
"This morning while reading books, I kept reminding Faith not to suck her thumb. She remembered quite well and kept saying , "Please? Please I suck my thumb, mommmy?" Finally, she said she wanted to get behind my back. I looked at her, and she said, "Don't look at me, mommy, look at book" and turned my head with her hands. Does she really think she's sneaky??

Haha Faith just climbed behind my back here at the computer, and I said, "Faith, you can't suck your thumb back there" to which Kate added, "She looks pretty buspicious..." hee hee!"

Katism

Kate was really excited to show me something out on the front porch. We went out there, and she gushed about 2 grasshoppers ("Dad, you've gotta see dis")!

My first thought was that it would be odd for the grasshoppers to still be there. I looked at them and asked her if they were dead.

"Oh no daddy, they're not dead. They just don't move very much. One of them just looks like the skin part"

Basketball with Christopher and Mike - 2007 video

Difference between a short sale and bank owned home.

This is from an email I sent to a friend of the family. I get these questions a lot, some of you may know all this stuff already:

Short Sales:
1) They usually take a long time
2) You can get a good deal.
Description: A Short Sale is where the bank has agreed with the seller to take less than is owed on the loan. If an appraisal or BPO (Broker Price Opinion) has been done, the listing price is usually close to what the bank will accept. In my experience, the agents are very upfront with what price the bank is looking for. I just had one recently, it was listed at 410k, I called the agent, and he let me know the bank would accept 390k based on the recent BPO.

I’ve sold a couple of short sales, and I also do the same thing. After the appraisal is done, the bank wants somewhere close to 85% of the appraised value. Multiply the BPO by about .85, then add the “Appraised Price * .08” (for closing costs for the seller, including the real estate fees) and that’s the bottom line price.
Example:
BPO or Appraisal = $100,000.
Net the bank wants = $100,000*.85 = $85,000
Seller closing costs = $100,000*.08 = $8,000
Lowest price you can offer and have it be accepted = $85,000+8000 = $93,000.

I usually ask the agent what it appraised for, and also what the bottom line price is. If he tells me what it appraises for, I can usually come close to the bottom line price as well.

It will often take about 4-6 months if the appraisal isn’t done. Some banks will wait until the first offer is submitted before starting the appraisal etc. Some will do an appraisal up front.

The MLS (Multiple Listing Service – where agents list homes) has various “status” types.
Active = home is for sale.
Pending = home is under contract.
Sold = home already sold.
You usually don’t have access to the pending/sold homes in the MLS searches available on the most websites. Other status types are:
Contingent Short Sale and Contingent Other = The contingent short sale status in Boise means that the home has an offer (or more) on it but is waiting for the bank’s final acceptance. That should mean other people can still submit offers.

That’s one of the draw backs of a short sale (until the bank finally accepts the offer, which can take months, other people can offer as well). Once the status is contingent though, the chances of other offers coming in are much reduced.

Bank owned properties have already been through the foreclosure process and are now owned by the bank directly. They are also known as REO (Real Estate Owned). They’re usually priced at the very bottom of the market (or below market).

Bank owned property transactions generally go very smoothly. Its very similar to working with a homeowner. There is usually extra paperwork (if its Government owned, then LOTS of extra paperwork). However, they’re easy to deal with, usually a great price and closing times are very similar to a non-short sale owned home.

Another Katism

"Mommy, I only like blond boys the best. But I still like Daddy, gray haired ones are okay too". I think I need to get her checked for color blindness.

Father's Day

I had a wonderful father's day. My kids got me the above tie.

The last few weeks, I've been wearing sweater vests. After I put on the tie, Kate said, Daddy, don't wear that gray thing okay (gray = the color of my sweater vest). Of course I told her I wouldn't.

At church, an interesting phenomen insued. People were very happy to see me all over the place! After the first few times people got these big smiles when they saw me, and then proceeded to say "nice tie", I realized that they weren't really that excited to see me. But it sure was an ego boost for those first few seconds.

I have the best family ever (Thanks Suzy!)