A Question of Love

A friend from Academy days, Tami Zane Kizziar, sent me the following video of Keith Olbermann's response to Prop 8's passing, and I feel it is so compelling that I want to share it with those I love. I hope it speaks to your heart as it did to mine.

A New Beginning for America

Last night was a historic night - and President Elect Obama delivered a powerful speech that was thoughtful, inspiring, and deeply moving. I have rarely experienced the sensation that I am witnessing something of historical significance, but last night as I listened I felt sure that this was a defining moment for our country. His speech had a magical, uplifting and timeless quality that gave me goosepimples and made me weep with solemn joy (perhaps it was just euphoria about having a president who can put two coherent sentences together for a change!).

After hearing this speech, I believe that as President, Barack Obama has the capability to unite our divided people and to regain for our nation the respect of the world. For those of you who may have missed this "Camelot" experience, here it is:

Hands as Art

A friend sent me this video today and I thought it very creative and inspiring, so I'm sharing it with you. :)

Punny

Emmy: "What are you doing, Mommy?"
Me: "I'm putting mascara on, Honey"
Peter: "It's called mascara because it 'masks' the 'scara' parts!"

Sound Bites from a Three Year Old

Emmy's increasing verbal skills are a source of wonder, amusement, astonishment, and, rarely, embarrassment and/or frustration. Most of the time we're just in awe at how fast her mind works - how quickly she picks up language and modifies things she hears to suit her own purposes.

Here's a small sampling of what we're hearing lately:

1) "I don't WANT to!" (heard entirely too frequently for Mommy's and Daddy's taste)

2) After time out in the "naughty chair" and an explanation of why she was put there:

Emmy: "I want to say I'm sorry to Mommy, Mommy."

Mommy: "OK, sweetheart."

Emmy: *gently pats Mommy's shoulder and says in woeful voice* "Sorry, Mommy!"

3) "Mommy, I'm scared of the scratchy monster!" (stalling technique used at bedtime)

4) "I miss you SOOOOOO much!" (how adorable is that? Mommy can't resist that kind of thing)

5) Given the chance to talk to Grandma on the phone tonight - spoken all in one breath: "Grandma, I have ouchy toes! I took a bath with Daddy, Grandma! I drew pictures on the bathtub, Grandma! Mommy has an itch! I make Mommy laugh, Grandma!"

Favorite word mispronunciations:

1) con-CU-ber (computer)

2) um-DUM-bra (umbrella)

3) tel-uh-BIH-jun (television)

4) be-MEM-ber (remember)

5) kuh-SPLORE (explore)

Lately she's displayed a real affinity for silliness (those are pants on her head in the photo above). She loves to make up silly rhymes and modify the words to well-known songs. On one of her favorite shows, a character was having a hard time remembering the word "star" while performing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and substituted other words and made up verses to rhyme as follows:

"Twinkle, twinkle, little . . . little . . . ants! I've got purple underpants!"

"Twinkle, twinkle, little . . . little . . . hippopotamus! How I love your big gray bottomus!"

She thought that was HILARIOUS. Now she's taken to inserting a random word in place of the rhyming words at the end of each phrase. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Sigh" ("How I wonder what you sigh" etc.) is her current favorite - God only knows why.

You probably had to be there, but we just about died laughing the other night when at a critical point in the song "Jesus Loves Me" she inserted the word "poop." I don't want her to encourage her to continue to sing it that way, but the unexpectedness of it caught us completely off-guard, and we couldn't help the hysterical laughter that burst forth. We'll try to control ourselves next time.

Emmy delights in making us laugh. Here are a few of her favorite jokes:

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Cargo.

Cargo who?

Car go "Beep, beep!"

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Dwayne.

Dwayne who?

Dwayne the bathtub, I'm dwowning!

(Peter taught her that one - I love it!)

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Orange.

Orange who?

Orange you glad I didn't say banana again?

(an oldie but goodie)

I know I'm forgetting some priceless things she's said - I'll try to be better at writing them down from here on out.

Our Olympian

Emmy's reaction to watching Nastia Liukin perform her floor exercise routine in the all-around competition this week:

I wonder if I ought to get her enrolled in a dance or gymnastics class?

Only God in Heaven Can Make a Butterfly

Emmy came home from day care last week singing this song, and since this is the first thing I've been able to get her to sing upon request in FOREVER, I thought I'd better capture it on video for posterity. In case you can't understand the words, they're as follows:

Little caterpillar, he climbed up in a tree
He wiggled long, he wiggled short, he wiggled right at me
I put him in a little box, "Don't go away" I said
But when I looked inside it was a butterfly (instead)
I never could have made it, not even if I tried
'Cause only God in Heaven can make a butterfly!

Note the graceful bow at the end - she's already quite the performer!

Aye Waukin-O and Allelujah

I just stumbled across a beautiful voice, and wanted to share her with you. Eddi Reader is her name, and she's blessed with an incredible vocal gift. The lyrics to the first lovely song are by the famed Scottish poet Robert Burns. The fearless abandon with which she sings the second song (live, mind you!) reminds me a little of one of my favorite artists, Joni Mitchell. Who have you discovered lately?

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Emmy is at the most adorable age - there's a lot of whining (it seems every time she opens her mouth, it's to say "I want . . . "), but we love that she's able to express herself so well, and seeing her little personality emerge is unbelievably fun. Although her pronunciation is pretty good, she still struggles with some of the multi-syllable words - but I'm not sure I ever want her to stop saying "umdumbra" instead of umbrella. Now that her speech has progressed so far, we adults are having to be much more circumspect about what we say - she got in trouble at day care a few weeks ago for dramatically exclaiming "Oh . . . my . . . God!" so I've had to nip that one in the bud (yes, that was Mommy's fault). Every now and then she says something priceless, and I always think to myself, "That's so cute - I'll never forget that!" . . . and then I forget. So for posterity, here are a few of the more endearing things she's said lately:

Playing peekaboo: "Keepaboo!"

Upon being informed that nose oysters are yucky: "Tiggers don't like boogers!"

Imitating Piglet: "Oh D-d-d-d-d-dear, dear, dear!" and "Oh my goodness!"

In a voice filled with awe, while watching the garbage truck empty our trashcan: "How beeeyouuuuuuuuuuuutiful!"

Observing Daddy sleeping in: "Daddy's sleeping! It's so morning!"

Whenever Mommy and Daddy don't do exactly what she wants: "I want to go to Grandma's house!"

While crying about something unbelievably trivial: "I . . . *sob* . . . want . . . to be . . . *hic* . . . happy!" (for some sick reason that one made me laugh)

Here are a few recent photos - playing catch after Sabbath School last weekend looking like Alice in Wonderland in a beautiful dress from my cousin Janel, and horsing around at Uncle Ryan and Aunt Shari's house.

A Memorable Memorial Day

On Memorial Day, Peter had his heart set on taking Emmy to the 93rd annual Orange Show in San Bernardino - so in spite of Emmy's bad mood (she was fighting a cold) we went, hoping for the best. It turned out to be a fun couple of hours for all of us - Emmy got to ride an elephant AND a pony (both very exciting firsts!), pet animals in the petting zoo, and watch a few circus acts (that was a bit loud and weird for her - we left before it was over). Here are a few pics from the day (click to embiggen).

None Too Bright

This entertaining video of a homemade fireworks experiment demonstrates the importance of knowing what you're doing when it comes to handling explosives . . .

Before He Speaks

I got a kick out of this parody made by the pastors' wives at Florida Hospital SDA Church for entertainment at their church retreat - enjoy!

Praying for Time

I was moved by this performance of a beautiful song I'd forgotten, and wanted to share the experience. The song is Praying for Time by George Michael. This performance by Carrie Underwood was aired on American Idol's recent "Idol Gives Back" broadcast. I find the lyrics to be profound and deeply moving:

These are the days of the open hand
They will not be the last
Look around now
These are the days of the beggars and the choosers
This is the year of the hungry man
Whose place is in the past
Hand in hand with ignorance and legitimate excuses
The rich declare themselves poor
And most of us are not sure if we have too much
But we'll take our chances
'Cause God's stopped keeping score
I guess somewhere along the way
He must have let us all out to play
Turned His back and all God's children
Crept out the back door
And it's hard to love
There's so much to hate
Hanging on to hope
When there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above say it's much too late
Well maybe we should all be praying for time
This is the year of the empty hand
When you hold on to what you can
And charity is a coat you wear twice a year
These are the days of the guilty man
Your television takes a stand
And you find that what was over there is over here
So you scream from behind your door
Say "What's mine is mine and not yours!"
"I may have too much, but I'll take my chances
'Cause God's stopped keeping score."
And you cling to the things they sold you
Did you cover your eyes when they told you
That He can't come back
'Cause He has no children to come back for?
And it's hard to love
There's so much to hate
Hanging on to hope
When there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above say it's much too late
Well maybe we should all be praying for time

Fun in Fallbrook

Last weekend I was running an event in Fallbrook, and Peter brought Emmy down on Sabbath afternoon for a visit. We found a playground on site and Emmy had a ball climbing the ladder, chasing a kitty who did not want to be caught, throwing acorns down a covered slide, and most of all, swinging in a "big girl" swing. Here are a few pics (click to embiggen) . . .

Happy Birthday, Dear Daddy

Saturday was Peter's 38th birthday, so after Sabbath School we headed down to Dos Lagos and hung out in the conveniently located Barnes and Noble bookstore and then outside (it was a gorgeous day) by the beautiful, enormous fountain while we waited for Shari, Joel, Mom and Stanton to arrive for a celebratory birthday lunch at Rosine's. Emmy took the opportunity to divest us of every penny we owned (in favor of the fountain, of course), and Shari took the opportunity to try on Emmy's hat.

After we were seated, Peter opened his present from Emmy & Mommy - a new t-shirt emblazoned with a cute pic of Emmy and the text "Some bunny loves me!" (is that gag-me cutesy or what?!). Although our alfresco dining experience was a trifle chilly, the stimulating company and terrific mediterranean cuisine more than made up for the windchill factor.

After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed back to Mom and Stan's place for some homemade banana cream pie. Mom & Stan had just recently received the toy piano they'd ordered for Emmy's birthday, which Joel and Mom put together the day before, so Emmy had the delight of playing it for the first time that afternoon. It was a huge hit. Then Peter opened his gift from Mom & Stan - a Krups cappuccino maker - and Peter made delicious cappucinos for everyone, which turned out to be a perfect accompaniment to my mom's to-die-for banana cream pie.

It was a lovely, relaxing day, but the highlight was definitely Emmy's rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" later that evening, which she played and sang for her daddy with gusto. We think she may be a child prodigy, akin to Mozart. In addition to the forceful playing and heartfelt singing (in this case she decided she wanted to sing in her "kitty voice"), we were very impressed with her fancy pedal work. Enjoy the performance!

Hoppy Easter

Since I spend most of each Easter Sunday singing at a Catholic church gig in LA, we did Easter brunch with my family on Saturday instead. We gathered at my mom and stepdad's house for our traditional feast of goldenrod eggs, tender asparagus, savory vegelinks, fresh out of the oven melt-in-your-mouth scones with clotted cream and preserves, and a refreshing fruit salad of fresh oranges and berries. Stuffed to the gills, we then stepped out into the beautiful garden for an Easter egg hunt. It was a lovely afternoon, unseasonably warm (in the mid-80's) - we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. As the only child present, Emmy had a field day hunting for the dozens of eggs we'd hidden, her every move shadowed by the family papparazzi. She ate up all the attention, looking adorable in a Janie and Jack outfit from Grandma Jean and bunny ears from Mommy. After finding all of the eggs she immediately asked us to hide them again . . .

Lunching with the girls at Grapevine

On Friday I had the rare opportunity to have lunch with my dear friends Brenda and Rachael at Grapevine restaurant in La Verne - and to meet Rachael's adorable 3-month-old baby boy, Kieran. We had a lovely time chowing down on delicious Middle Eastern cuisine, kissing Kieran's irresistably chubby cheeks, trying to prevent Emmy from drowning herself in the ornamental pool near our table on the patio, and generally catching up on what's been happening in each other's lives.

I really enjoyed spending some quality time with these amazing friends - and it was a lovely respite from the seemingly neverending flood of activity that goes along with being a (somewhat) responsible parent, spouse, employee, homemaker and member of society.

It was especially wonderful to see how happy Rachael is as a new mommy, and what a terrific job she's doing with Kieran. Holding her darling little butterball made my ovaries hurt (to borrow a phrase from my cousin Janel )!

Me and my cholecyst

For anyone who's interested, here's the heartrending saga of how my gall bladder and I recently parted company.

For the past 8 months I've suffered from pain and pressure under my sternum and bloating, which I'd been told was reflux. After being diagnosed by an urgent care physician, I took every over the counter medicine available for these symptoms with absolutely no benefit.

On the night of January 20, the typical pain and pressure under my sternum turned into severe pain and cramping accompanied by nausea and vomiting. I waited until I couldn't stand it anymore, then drove myself to the local ER and of course, waited a couple more hours in complete agony ("Would anyone mind hitting me over the head with a sledgehammer?") before being seen. They gave me an IV with morphine (highly recommended), did some lab work and sent me home with "abdominal pain, uncertain cause."

I spoke with my physician father, who was convinced that I had gall bladder disease - he had the very same symptoms, both his brothers had it, and so did my mom's mother and brother. I saw my doctor two days later and she suggested that it could be a hiatal hernia, but allowed that my father could be right, and scheduled an upper GI and abdominal ultrasound in 2 and 4 weeks, respectively (which my father called "ridiculous"). She said that in the meantime to reduce the risk of experiencing the same symptoms, I should not eat any fat (do you have any idea how hard that is?!) and wrote me a prescription for Vicodin in case the pain returned, admitting that it would only "take the edge off" the pain.

While in New Mexico for a conference the last week of January, the cold I'd had for several days turned into bronchitis - and as I sat waiting to board the plane home, I developed a fever and abdominal pain. When Peter arrived to pick me up at the airport, I had him drive me straight to our urgent care center.

After hearing what had been happening, the urgent care physician offered to send me to the local ER that night for a full abdominal workup, and I wound up taking my first ambulance ride (they wouldn't let my husband drive me thanks to fear of litigation if something went wrong between the urgent care center and the ER). Although my pain was not severe and my symptoms did not seem to warrant any emergency action, the ER doc took pity on me and offered to do a cursory ultrasound to check for stones. He found enough to warrant a more thorough ultrasound, and the results were troubling - one large stone had completely blocked off the mouth of the gall bladder, and as a result it was severely inflamed. The ER doc said that since I was running a fever he wanted to double-check with a surgeon and see whether I needed surgery right away or could wait. The surgeon responded that I needed emergency surgery that day (it was now early Saturday a.m.). So late that afternoon they arrived to take me into surgery.

The anaesthesiologist made small talk with me while reviewing my medical history, and then gave me an injection which he said would make me start to feel drowsy. The nurse shared that thanks to the inflammation of the gall bladder, the surgeon was probably not going to be able to do the operation laparoscopically, and I expressed my sincere hope that he still could. I remember being wheeled into the OR and seeing the surgeon and nurses preparing the instruments, and then . . . nothing. No countdown, nothing - until I woke up with an oxygen mask on. The first thing I said when they removed it was "You gotta love the massage!" My lower legs were hooked up to some pneumatic devices which stimulte blood flow and prevent clotting by alternately inflating and deflating. Between that and my blood pressure cuff doing the same thing to my arm, I felt like I was getting a full-body massage. Apparently I wasn't breathing deeply enough, 'cause the nurse kept getting on my case about it. Once I was awake enough to be a little more sensible of how I actually felt, I became very nauseous, and began to perpire profusely. The nurses changed shifts while I was in recovery, and the next nurse on duty was kind enough to let me sleep for 45 minutes or so (instead of waking me and exhorting me to "Breathe!" every 5 minutes), which made a world of difference. They changed my soaking sheets and hospital "gown" and soon wheeled me back to my room, where my rather anxious family had been waiting for some time since hearing I was out of surgery.

Peter and Emmy, Mom and Stan, Joel, David and Renee were all there. Dave & Renee had gone the extra mile and brought cards and a huge, gorgeous flower arrangement that made my room smell absolutely divine.

Fortunately, the surgeon was able to do the surgery laparoscopically after all, thus shortening my recovery time considerably. Since I had absolutely no vacation time available, this was very good news to me - it meant one week without pay instead of two or three.

They released me the next day (Sunday afternoon) and I packed my bags and headed to my mom's so that she could help me take care of Emmy while I was recovering. This turned out to be a very wise decision, as between the aftereffects of the general anaesthesia and the effects of the Vicodin, I was pretty much comatose for the first several days. I was running a fever thanks to the cold/flu bug as well, so didn't mind being unconscious most of the time. The fourth day I finally gave up the Vicodin, 'cause I literally couldn't keep my eyes open for more than five minutes at a time . . . and I discovered that although the Vicodin had been responsible for my sleepiness, it wasn't responsible for the fact that I felt dizzy and likely to pass out at any moment. It wasn't until Saturday (a week after the surgery) that the faintness dissipated and I started feeling somewhat "normal" again.

Me and "Frankentummy" (as I've dubbed it) are doing much better now. My dang cold is still hanging in there (don't make me laugh or I'll cough for 10 minutes and share my nasty germs with you), but I'm slowly getting my strength back. Thanks to all of you who prayed for my recovery and who've had the sheer force of will (or lack of anything better to do) to read all the way through this incredibly long post. I love you guys!

Hallelujah!

It's finally happened! Peter interviewed with a company called Romac in Commerce on Monday, 1/28, was offered a position as a junior estimator and accepted. The salary is not as high as he'd hoped, but for a first job straight out of college, it's not bad - and it definitely beats flipping burgers (which he was beginning to consider!). He likes that it's a small company and was happy to discover that many of his fellow employees share similar interests. It's a stepping stone to something bigger and better, and a serious answer to many prayers - so we're naturally very excited and very grateful.

Now if we can just work out the transportation (with only one car between us) and child care issues, we'll be all set . . .

Emmy's birthday tea

As we were discussing how to celebrate Emmy's third birthday, my mother, who had kindly offered ot host the party, suggested a birthday tea. Having considered the bewildering array of party themes built solely around an animated Disney character or TV show and wanting something less expensive and more unique, we thought a tea party would fit the bill admirably.

We invited three other toddler-age children to attend (following the rule of thumb that one should invite no more than one guest per year of your child's age), and asked them to bring any items they owned to play dress-up. I purchased some inexpensive feather boas and straw and crochet hats at a craft store and decorated them with fancy ribbon and silk flowers for the girls to wear.

A child-sized table and chairs on the back patio were set with a pretty floral tablecloth, enameled tea cups, saucers and spoons for tea, clear plastic tumblers for juice, pink paper plates and napkins, with a potted pink mini rose as the centerpiece. Knowing all this would be lost on 3- and 4-year-olds, I still folded the napkins like fans and placed them in the tumblers.

When the girls arrived, they played dress-up for a while, and then participated in a treasure hunt Peter had organized using digital photos of objects around the house as clues. In the last location of the hunt, each girl found a goody bag filled with inexpensive favors - little bottles of bubble solution with a wand, a plastic tiara and necklace, a plastic "camera" with pictures that change as you click the button, stickers, lollipops, horns, etc. After the treasure hunt, it was time to don the hats and have tea.

My mom and I had gleefully prepared a beautiful toddler feast - heart-shaped peanut butter & honey (Emmy's favorite) and scalloped open-face cucumber/dilled cream cheese sandwiches (not as popular with the toddler set, but the adults loved them!) on a rose glass platter, mini vegetarian corn dogs (sans sticks) served from a cut glass basket with mini bottles of ketchup, artfully arranged fresh berries, grapes and tangerine slices on a footed glass plate, a cheese dome filled with colby and mozzarella cheeses cut into stars, flowers and hearts, and a glass plate of fresh veggies including flower-shaped carrot slices, rings of sweet mini bell peppers and cherry tomatoes. Since the table was small and the serving pieces were fragile, Mom and I waited on the girls, allowing them to select what they liked from the serving pieces and offering to pour the (lukewarm) berry tea and apple juice. The tea and sugar cubes were especially popular, but more as an activity than as a source of sustenance.

For dessert, each child was given a plate with a frosted cupcake in the center with several kinds of sprinkles in piles around the edge that they could use to decorate it. Once they were decorated, we lit the candles on Emmy's and sang "Happy Birthday to You!" Emmy beamed as we sang, and blew out the candles beautifully (and immediately asked if she could do it again!). Then it was time for presents, which she received a lot of help in opening from her enthusiastic guests.

Amazingly, we finished up in just under two hours, which was the time we had allotted for the party. The girls all had a blast, and so did we. Emmy loved all of her gifts, but was especially enamored of her birthday balloons, a new doll from Grandma Jean and Gramps, and the most beautiful pink tricycle in the world from Uncle Joel, Uncle David & Aunt Renee.

This birthday tea was such a success that we may make it a tradition!

Christmas in Crisis Mode

Christmas was kind of a blur this year - so much going on that I simply couldn't keep up this blog the way I wanted to. Here's a quick recap: I spent my spare time in December seeing friends and family, decorating the house and making jewelry and beaded snowflakes to give as Christmas gifts. It was great fun to involve Emmy this year in trimming the tree, setting up the nativity and decorating (and of course eating) gingerbread boys.

I will spare you the details, but something awful happened over the holiday that pretty much robbed us of any real sense of vacation - but the circumstances reinforced how very blessed we are in our family and friends, and we're deeply grateful for the many ways they've gone out of their way to help us through this difficult time. We're praying that God will turn this experience into something good, and draw us closer to Him in the bargain.

Emmy, on the other hand, missed out on much of the trauma and had a great Christmas. She loved the beautiful decorations, and enjoys playing with all of her many gifts - especially the hat and mittens she got from Gramps and Grandma Jean, her "very own kitchen" as she calls it (generously donated by prior owner Annika Kong) stocked with pots, pans utensils and food from Mommy and Daddy, and the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls Uncle Dave and Aunt Renee got her at FAO Schwartz in New York.

Please keep us in your prayers - our circumstances are likely to be challenging for quite some time to come.

Late as usual

I know, I know - I should have had this done eons ago. Things have been unusually busy for us this holiday season, so I hope the saying "better late then never" still applies here. :)

Some of you will receive a printed version by mail, but for those of you not on our snail mail list, click here to read our 2007 Christmas newsletter.

Hoping all of you had a blessed Christmas and wishing you a happy New Year!