A Conversation During US vs Korean Volleyball

Husband: Would it be a crazy Korean drama if...

Me: (cutting him off) Nope. Done it. Flower Boy Ramen Shop.

Husband: What? You didn't even hear what I was going say.

Me: If there was a Korean drama with a semi professional volleyball player? Yes. Flower Boy Ramen Shop. The dude even fantisizes about her practicing setting.

Husband: That's ridiculous. You're ridiculous.

Me: I know.

How Children Help

Every child knows he was born to be slave labor to his parents. Yet only parents understand the relationship correctly. Observe the theorem:

Documented proof in dishwasher application:

Fancy Cake

Every since my sis-in-law's wedding, I wanted to try my hand at making a fancy cake. I borrowed the top tier cake pan from my mom and played with some fondant.

Seriously, fondant is just play dough for big kids. It has just as many tools you can buy, but a little more expensive. Both taste gross.  <---really funny comic.

Of course, I didn't really feel like eating this cake, so it became the inspiration for the group birthday party for my 10 year old girl church group. The left over batter magically filled 12 cupcakes too. Add in one rousing game of pin the tail on the donkey and you have 7 very happy little girls.

Double Spoon

Literally two spoons, not a reference to the cuddling habits of college students.

She always manages to impress me.

Oh Seattle

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1) It stays light until 10 pm.

2) It is cool enough to wear a Snuggie in July

3) There is greenery. And ducks.

4) They sometimes paint tree trunks blue.

5) There is a beach near by, with fog covered mountains in the background

6) They have never nudes

I don't want to do anything ever again ever

Am I the only one who feels that way after vacation? Or everyday between 3-5 pm in during the summertime? I can sometimes cure it with excessive amounts of popsicles but I just had trouble shaking it this last week. Thankfully, I'm back to my ambitious self so you all get some new blogs to read. Big thanks to Lauren and Angela for guest posting for me, especially on short notice. I adore what you fine ladies wrote.

This mentality goes along swimmingly with my Korean drama addiction. I am still enjoying it completely and am amazed at how much fun kdrama has added to my life beyond the screen. Take a look at some cell phone picture evidence.

I found a Korean Justin Bieber haircut. My husband also pointed out how his hair is as big as his face.

I found a movie company I can totally relate to.

While in Seattle we hit up the Asian market and had a ramen taste test. Pickled vegetable was the surprising winner, beating out curry and "spicy," These all came with two or three seasoning packets compared to our measly one. Although two surprised us by being instant sweet potato threads so we put them in a separate category.

Lil' Sis and I rocked like salary men doing legit Asian karaoke, as in the private room awesomeness found here. An hour goes by so quick. Even without alcohol.

 We went out to Korean bbq and tried all kinds of things from the baby octopus to pig intestines.

Seriously people, you have to give them a try. Not the baby octopus, you can skip that, but Kdramas. And korean bbq. Totally worth it.

Guest Post: Angela

Thankfully, our sick baby is back to her regular opinionated self and the car seat has never had this much attention to cleanliness. Today's guest post is from my very talented friend Angela. She is the designer of my amazing header and is raising her two boys out on the east coast while her genius husband attends MIT. They were another "teacher married to an engineer" couple from our college days. She blogs at Meet the Thomsons. Leave her some comment love!  




You know you really adore someone when you are willing to come out of a blogging hiatus to guest post for them… that, or you want a souvenir from Seattle.

It had been a good day at Swimming.

I only had to remind my son Caleb umpteen times to participate in class.

[This had been better than the previous thirty-something prompts from the day before and having to perch myself on the opposite side of the pool to discourage the kid from roaming away from the group. (Seriously, this is my life?!)]

Parenting really is about the small victories, isn’t it?

So after a courteous thank you to Mary, the lifeguard/swim instructor/candidate for sainthood, I decided to treat Caleb and myself to some Dairy Queen, the poor man’s Coldstone.

As we drove towards our reward I asked Caleb what type of ice cream he wanted. Understand, my kid isn’t a bad kid. He is four... going on eighty-three most days. He doesn’t like it when his food is too cold or too hot or well, it is easier to say he just doesn’t like too much of anything, ever. Especially spontaneity. Hence my inquiry.

He replied, “I think green, since gReEen is my favorite color, Mommy.”

How many green-hued ice cream flavors can you think of?! Off the top of my head I got two: mint and pistachio. I was doubtful DQ would have pistachio (that’s more of a Friendly’s fare), and I had a feeling mint was not going to tickle my preschooler’s palate, but we forged ahead anyways.

Caleb insisted I order a small mint M&M blizzard for him; I complied, and also ordered a small vanilla cherry-dipped cone for myself. I would scarf anything dipped in that red concoction, wouldn’t you?

Caleb pecked the end of the spoon of ice cream and screwed up his face in disgust. I offered my cone to him and he, of course, took it. We swapped. I am not fan of shrapcandy in ice cream, but hey, it had been a good day, why rock the dinghy?

This scenario plays out a lot more than I would like to admit. Same roles. Different players.

You see, my husband and I have recently been very tempted by a mint-M&M-blizzard of sorts. With the completion of his Masters degree next May, our family finds it very appetizing to put academia behind us and be a pseudo-normal family of four (pseudo is the best we can hope for, honestly). Keeping our little house, attending our small branch, chugging along in our church callings, staying close to friends in Massachusetts and having more time to spend together as a family. You know, all our favorite things. Things that rival Caleb’s devotion to the color green.

But no. No. No. No.

Along with swimming lessons, T-ball practice, and home projects, perusing PhD programs has become a pastime this summer.

What entering a PhD program means for our family: living off of a scanty stipend, selling our house, possibly relocating, and, just, brain freeze-like headaches.

That mint-M&M-blizzard option is looking pretty amazing right about now, huh?
Psst! (We think so too.)

But we know something, my husband and I, and Caleb just learned it from an end of a long red spoon. Sometimes our favorite choice isn’t the best choice.

In the words of a four-year-old as they poured from a sticky vanilla-ringed mouth, “Mommy, I think red is my new favorite.”

Sometimes the unknown leads to a discovery of unimagined bliss. There’s a hope for something better, like, cherry-coated kind of better.

Guest Blogger: Lauren

Hi friends! I'm up in Seattle having a lovely time with my Lil' Sis and cleaning up a never ending stream of J's vomit. Seriously, the carseat has never received this much cleaning. On multiple days too. Meanwhile, a couple friends were willing to write some guest posts for me this week. I happily introduce my friend Lauren from My Dot Calm. She is an adventurous mother of three with a lovely sense of humor. Her blog reminds me to enjoy even some of the terrible motherhood moments (like when your child pukes 3 times on the way back from Mt. Ranier, but at least you can make lots of jokes about her being naked under pink peacoat). I'm so happy to have Lauren here so leave her some comment love!


This is the first time I've ever been asked to guest blog. I have to admit it kind of makes me feel like I've made it. Ya know, guest blogging = total big time. But I really am honored that Geneva would ask me to write a post for her blog. I started reading her blog back before it was Hazardous Undertakings and laughed myself silly at the funny things her junior high students said. Now I just read in awe at her ability to make a crap load of fabric flowers for weddings. I do not think my fingers are capable of such feats!

 Anyways, she told me to write about anything I wanted. Which really stumped me at first. I really have no clue why anyone reads my blog, but I hear from people all the time that they love reading it, and I absolutely love writing it - so I do. But writing for someone else's blog? What can I say?

 I once gave birth in a kiddie pool in my apartment. I could write about that, but I write about that a lot. And besides if I told you that then you might think I don't wash my hair and Occupy places.

 I started running barefoot. Like actually barefoot. No "barefoot shoes" or anything and I LOVE it. I finally love running and have run miles the past few weeks. I could write about that, but then you would definitely think I don't wash my hair and spend my time Occupying space.

 So what to write, what to write. Well I have been wanting to write about blogging. So I think that it was what I shall do. A blog about blogging, if you will.

 I have kept my current blog since 2007, and it contains 526 posts. Before that I had a livejournal which I also updated almost daily. Before that I was part of this awesome site made by some tech savy friends called Digital Goulash. We all posted occasionally, updating each other on our lives as we each left for college. And even before that, I'm talking circa 2000-2001 here, I had an online diary on a website called Diaryland. So basically I could say I've been blogging for over ten years. Oh yeah, so before it was cool. I just love to write. It literally keeps me sane. Well I guess that's debatable - the whole me being sane thing.

 I have several friends who have blogs but they rarely update them. They usually say they don't have the time, or don't know what to say. The truth is - if you really want to do it you will find time. I think this is true with anything in life. We don't have time for things we don't really enjoy. But we still have time to check Facebook, or make a quilt, or paint a picture, or whatever it is. Because you enjoy it. If you don't like writing, you probably won't update your blog very often. Not because you don't have time, but let's be real, because you don't enjoy it. So don't beat yourself up over it. That gets you no where.

 However, if one day you find yourself wanting to write, write. Don't let the fact that you haven't written anything in the past 6 months stop you. You don't need to catch up on every single thing your child has done since your last post. Just start where you are.

 I love writing. I always looked forward to writing papers in school. It was never hard for me to write. Occasionally I'd have some writer's block, but once I started writing the words would come easily. Same with my blog. It is quite literally my therapy. When I feel totally crazy and like I'm losing my mind, I sit down and let my fingers start typing. The words seem to appear on the screen and I read them as I'm typing out the insane scenes that had just unfolded in my life.

 I have three kids who wake up each morning and compete with each other to see who's going to make mommy go crazy first. I'm convinced this is true. The best part of having a blog is when they are all doing their best to make me nuts, all I can think about is what great material they are giving me for my blog. Sometimes right in the middle of their craziness I will open my laptop and start typing away.

 I love capturing moments this way. They are there, seemingly forever. Moments that would be otherwise forgotten get to live on forever in cyber space. I recently changed my blog title and merged my old blog with my new blog. During this transition I read a lot of my old posts. It is so fun to go back and relive those moments I had completely forgotten about. 


 Perhaps you don't write because you feel like you don't have anything to say that anyone will care about. Allow me to let you in a little secret. As much I love to write I love to read other peoples blogs. I love to read whatever random ramblings they have going on. If someone links to you from their blog that I read I promise you I have read your blog. I am constantly reading blogs. It is probably an addiction and I should look into therapy. But I know I am not alone in this. People love you. They want to know what's going on in your head. So don't let that thought of thinking no one cares about what you have to say stop you from writing. Even if no one reads it - write it for you. 


 My blog doesn't have hundreds of followers, or tons of comments on every post, and I've never made money from my writing. That's not why I write. I write because I enjoy it. I write because it's cheaper than therapy. I write because I like making people laugh. I write because I want to remember every thing I can about this stage of life with all my little children. The fact that people read it and tell me that they enjoy it, is only icing on the cake to me. Of course icing is the best part of the cake... so ya know feel free to comment on this post, or email me. Ya know whatever, just sayin'. Now stop reading this blog and go write a post of your own!

Happy 4th of July!