We're moving across America! Right now I'm writing from a hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas. I've noticed a few things:
1. There are good people everywhere.
2. There are a lot of people who need serious dental work - A great hotel hostess needed front teeth when we stopped in Cortez, CO. She was incredibly friendly and gave us muffins. There were lots of toothless people at our rest stop in the Ozarks.
3. Eating fast food for a long time makes you feel like a piece of garbage.
4. I really like podcasts. This American Life has a lot of interesting insights into everyday life.
5. GPS units can be nice, but can be really confusing at the same time.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Stroodel
My sister, Ali and I have opened our own Etsy shop by the name of Stroodel. We both enjoy sewing and creating and we thought it would be a fun thing to do together. We did a craft show during the summer and that gave us the motivation to get things up and running on Etsy. For those of you not familiar with Etsy, it is a website where you can buy and sell handmade and vintage items. We are still in our beginning stages so stop by and have a look at www.stroodel.etsy.com.
We sell handmade bags, jewelry, vintage luggage and whatever else tickles our fancy.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Happy Halloween
Sophiebot stopping to greet a fellow "Robop."
Sophie has been a big fan of robots ever since she saw them on Sesame Street months ago. She can walk, dance and talk like a robot so her request to be a robop (as she calls them) was no surprise. Sophie thought Trick or Treating was the best and she said, "next house," after each house.
Sophie and her cousin, Ellie, were serious Trick or Treaters.
They had no time for pictures because there was candy to eat.
Soph had no qualms about reaching in her pumpkin and pulling out the guts.
I made a goal a few years back that I would dress up every year for Halloween. Since I found this splendid wig at DI, I had to be Julia Child and Jake was a trucker. We were going to all be robots but that didn't quite happen. Next year.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Our Little Big Girl
Our little Sophie turned 2 in September. She makes life wonderful and we love being her parents. Sophie loves singing, dancing, pretending, collecting sticks, playing outside, playing with her family, saying the ABC's, playing with toys, Sesame Street, fishy crackers, going to Home Depot and eating donuts with Dad. Sophie told me that she is not little anymore and she likes to dress herself, sit in a real chair and do what she wants. She also talks like crazy and can say the whole alphabet. We think she is quite spectacular. Happy Birthday little Sophers. We love you!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Girl's Weekend in Illinois
Ali and Vance moved to Illinois for Medical School in August and we miss them a bunch. Mom, Sophie and I decided to go out to see them at the end of August before Sophie turned 2 (so she could still fly free). We had a great time playing with Ali and seeing Vance when he wasn't studying. We played in Chicago and went to the Shedd Aquarium, walked all over downtown, went to H&M and had lunch with our dear cousin, Mimi. We met up with my good friend, Katie and played at a Children's Museum with our kids. We also had fun exploring Champaign with Ali and seeing their new place.
Sophie was a great traveler we had lots of fun together, as always.
Mom and Ali
The girls at Millenium Park
Vance and Sophers
Katie has been a dear friend since our Freshman year in the dorms at BYU and it was so fun to see her and her cute kids. She is the amazing mother of twins and it was so fun to see our kids together. Thanks for driving to see us and playing with us, Katie!
Ready for a day of playing
We had a great time in Illinois. We will miss you Ali and Vance!Sunday, September 13, 2009
Jake's Saturday in the park
I probably haven't been dedicating enough of my time to service lately. Balancing work, family, house repairs, and personal life hasn't been easy for me. Every month a new category seems neglected. But dedicating my time to service has been neglected for a while now.
Maybe that's why this Saturday was such a great experience for me. Or maybe it's because Kent was so good at checkers.
I took Sophie to the park on Saturday and while she was climbing and going down slides, an older man approached me in his motorized chair. He asked me if I would like to play checkers with him. Following tradition with most Americans, I was first surprised at this request, then felt a bit uncomfortable and suspicious of the unshaven man. Thoughts quickly went through my head - is he some weirdo? Maybe homeless? Handicapped? I thought I found a reasonable excuse by claiming that my two year old needed to be monitored very closely because you could never know when she was going to fall on her head. The man accepted my excuse and proceeded to ask the next adult he saw on the playground - I could tell that person went through a similar process while making his excuse.
After watching Sophie play on the playground for a few more minutes, I realized she was a pretty flexible girl and would have fun doing anything outside. I was also a little ashamed of my judgement of the older gentleman and my excuse. He couldn't find a checkers partner, but was still waiting patiently at the picnic table.
Sophie and I approached him and introduced ourselves saying I could find time for some checkers. He was noticeably happy, introduced himself as Kent. He laid down the rules - black goes first, and if you have a jump you have to take it. We chatted and got to know each other while playing what I thought was a simple game. He destroyed me the first game; he probably had 8 checkers left after jumping my last checker. I told him he needed to teach me some tricks - then his secret came out: he had written a book on checkers strategy.
He said he had difficulty finding people to play him (they probably aren't too different from me - a little apprehensive about Kent's request to play, passing unfair judgments and dealing with other responsibilities at the park). I told him that they probably recognize him as the author of the bestselling checkers strategy book, at which he laughed.
Kent was a game designer that lived in New York most of his life, developing ~250 games (most of them not getting farther than development - he claimed he wasn't much of a marketer). He never married and recently had a stroke.
The next two games of checkers went better. Kent taught me some strategy as we played and by the last game he only had 2 checkers left at the end. Kent explained how there is very complex strategy to checkers, but most never learn it because they get distracted by the complex pieces and moves in chess.
In case you are wondering what I did with Sophie, she was showing us somersaults, running on the grass, looking at bugs and running down the aisles of picnic tables at the pavillion we were playing at. Kent was impressed with her energy.
I am posting this because I think we should all take more time to do something random and make new friends. Yesterday I never would have guessed that I would be playing checkers in the park with a 75 yr. old man named Kent. That 1/2 hr. I made to play with him, was probably the best thing I've done for myself in the last 3 months.
Now I'm going to go roaming through parks looking for old people to play checkers with.
Maybe that's why this Saturday was such a great experience for me. Or maybe it's because Kent was so good at checkers.
I took Sophie to the park on Saturday and while she was climbing and going down slides, an older man approached me in his motorized chair. He asked me if I would like to play checkers with him. Following tradition with most Americans, I was first surprised at this request, then felt a bit uncomfortable and suspicious of the unshaven man. Thoughts quickly went through my head - is he some weirdo? Maybe homeless? Handicapped? I thought I found a reasonable excuse by claiming that my two year old needed to be monitored very closely because you could never know when she was going to fall on her head. The man accepted my excuse and proceeded to ask the next adult he saw on the playground - I could tell that person went through a similar process while making his excuse.
After watching Sophie play on the playground for a few more minutes, I realized she was a pretty flexible girl and would have fun doing anything outside. I was also a little ashamed of my judgement of the older gentleman and my excuse. He couldn't find a checkers partner, but was still waiting patiently at the picnic table.
Sophie and I approached him and introduced ourselves saying I could find time for some checkers. He was noticeably happy, introduced himself as Kent. He laid down the rules - black goes first, and if you have a jump you have to take it. We chatted and got to know each other while playing what I thought was a simple game. He destroyed me the first game; he probably had 8 checkers left after jumping my last checker. I told him he needed to teach me some tricks - then his secret came out: he had written a book on checkers strategy.
He said he had difficulty finding people to play him (they probably aren't too different from me - a little apprehensive about Kent's request to play, passing unfair judgments and dealing with other responsibilities at the park). I told him that they probably recognize him as the author of the bestselling checkers strategy book, at which he laughed.
Kent was a game designer that lived in New York most of his life, developing ~250 games (most of them not getting farther than development - he claimed he wasn't much of a marketer). He never married and recently had a stroke.
The next two games of checkers went better. Kent taught me some strategy as we played and by the last game he only had 2 checkers left at the end. Kent explained how there is very complex strategy to checkers, but most never learn it because they get distracted by the complex pieces and moves in chess.
In case you are wondering what I did with Sophie, she was showing us somersaults, running on the grass, looking at bugs and running down the aisles of picnic tables at the pavillion we were playing at. Kent was impressed with her energy.
I am posting this because I think we should all take more time to do something random and make new friends. Yesterday I never would have guessed that I would be playing checkers in the park with a 75 yr. old man named Kent. That 1/2 hr. I made to play with him, was probably the best thing I've done for myself in the last 3 months.
Now I'm going to go roaming through parks looking for old people to play checkers with.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Seattle
Sophie, Jake and I had the best Labor Day weekend. We had a fun road trip to Seattle and played with our good friends, Andrew, Janetta and Miles. Seattle is such a cool city and we had a great time exploring, eating fish and chips, visiting the locks, walking around Pike's Place Outdoor Market, and just hanging out with the Boone's. On our way home, we took a detour to the Oregon Coast and camped in a gorgeous spot by the mouth of the Columbia River. Sophie loves camping and she was so excited to sleep in a tent. That combined with playing in the ocean and she was one happy girl.
Janetta and I have been friends for yearsand it was so fun playing and having a sleep-over, just like old times.
You are the best, Janetta!
Sophie was a great camper and we loved camping on the Oregon coast.
Sophie loved the beach even though it was a little chilly.
She ran all over in the water and also had fun playing with her shadow.
We wanted a picture together with our cute kids but they didn't like that idea.
We all went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory for Sophie's birthday dinner and she was so happy when the waiters sang Happy Birthday to her.
Andrew, Miles and Janetta. You guys are wonderful!
Thanks for the fun weekend!
Miles and Sophie
Pike's Place Market
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