Thursday, February 7, 2008

nap would do

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Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Year of the Rat...
My wish for you all is that you won't see any rats or mice. (Hi Riikka...) :)
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www.gypsyandtwink.etsy.com
Made of wood and paper. Cute!
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www.lifeshopcollection.com
Love these! Good book/magazines, chocolate... Or just a plain old nap would do as well. :)
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Sienna and I get to go to Kindermusic's "Imagine That!" class today. New thing for us that starts today. I'm excited. Hopefully Sienna will get a good nap before we go so she'll be able to enjoy it. The class is for 3 years and up but they said we could try and see how it goes. The date and time for the class was just perfect for us.
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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

video clip


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I love this bunny one! The bunny needs a friend though.
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I'd like the mobile better without the white stuff on them. Cute stuff on Etsy!
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And in case you think I spend my whole day searching Etsy - I found these via Decor8 blog. ;)
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Sienna slept through the night again. Yey! Party on!
Talia posted some "before party" pictures of the ballerina party on her blog and there's a video as well. The video shows Sienna sitting on the background while the other girls danced. It happened before the sugar rush when she got really tired. :)
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Tuesday, February 5, 2008

not the brightest


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I visited the www.worth1000.com website again. First one is called Latin Manga. If people looked like Manga drawings. :) The second one is a demotivation poster. Looking at it would cheer me up every day. :)
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We just got an awesome surprise in the mail: extra $900+ bonus from the government for taking care of Robin. Totally unexpected money. Pays for my dental fees. Yey!!! :) Blessings...
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Monday, February 4, 2008

not the best of days

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We got to know this cutie really well last month. He was "Mister January" in our Natural Geographic "Really Weird Animals" calendar.
"The warty, bright orange hairy frogfish is a master of disguise. It lives mainly in warm waters among orange sponges at the bottom of the sea and walks very slowly on its fins. Bigger fish, looking for a meal, think the frogfish is a sponge and pass it by. Dangling what looks like a fishing lure above its mouth, the frogfish gobbles up a tasty meal."
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Well, we are $808 poorer. :( I just came from the dentist who replaced three of my really old fillings plus I got two new small fillings. I hadn't had cavities for years & years so this came as a real shock that I had new ones. My whole lower face feels numb and it's starting to tingle a bit. They wanted to do the work in two visits but I asked them to do it all today (I hadn't realized that they were going to replace three of the fillings as well, I thought it was only two fillings). Lots of dental work in one day but hey - now it's over with. I sure hate spending money on stuff like this though. Especially when this has been a rough year for us financially since we opened up another store again. Life's annoying "gotta do it" thing.
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Jay and Sienna went to the mall for a bit of daddy & daughter time (Sienna will get to play at the playground). I need to go freeze hamburger, chicken breasts and salmon. Bagging the meat is not my favorite chore but it's gotta get done.
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Not the most wonderful day today for me, I have to admit.
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(Later) ...And the day just kept on giving. The salmon turned out to be trout with the skin still on that my dull knife couldn't get off. I need to pay better attention when I'm grocery shopping. Does anyone know if the skin comes off when you cook it? I ended up freezing it with the skin on. I don't have a clue about trout. I guess I can fry it just as well as salmon. But it was another "this day sucks" moment.
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The numbing wore off and my jaw & cheeks were so sore! I could barely open my mouth well enough to eat. Thank goodness for pain killers. I love them painkillers. :) That's what I get for wanting to get the work done quickly. Over an hour of dental work is bound to wreck havoc on your face muscles.
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Oh and to top it all off... Sienna is going through one of those "I can't sleep" periods. Every once in awhile sleep gets impossible for her. She wakes up many times a night (please don't tell me about sleep training, we've tried it all, she will NOT go back to sleep unless she sees us, it's a separation anxiety thing). Even naps are a struggle. If I don't cuddle with her after her first sleep cycle, she won't go back to sleep = she only gets a 40 minute nap. She has a hard time even relaxing to go to sleep. Arrrgh! She had been sleeping so good lately and now this again. I give up trying to figure out why she sometimes sleeps so good and other times it's pulling hair kind of a thing. I think it's her over active imagination. Tonight she kept saying "someone come to my room". She seems worried and anxious. I've read that sometimes kids her age have a hard time with sleep because they start to imagine things. I think that must be it. But on the other hand, this has been an ongoing thing for her, not something new. She has improved but then we have periods like this again. Neeeeeeed sleeeeeep! She does too! She (like the rest of us) gets cranky when tired. Cranky pranky house is no fun.
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ps for Karly: I had a dream last night in which you were there when I got the dental work done. And we were in Helsinki for some reason. I remember thinking "I can't have Karly work on my teeth. Too weird." :) Hope your day was better than mine.
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My dear Jay has been busy finishing up the bathroom tiling. He keeps working and working. Even when he's sooooo tired. He's done a really good job. I'm waiting for him to be finished and hopefully we'll have tiny bit of energy left to cuddle to make the day better. I usually insist on my long bedtime cuddle but even I have been too tired for it lately. Now THAT's tired! :)
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Sunday, February 3, 2008

paleltu on



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No niin, tassa nyt sitten muutama kuva naytille miten kylmaa on ollut. Ekassa kuvassa Sienna auttaa daddy:a laittamaan muovikelmua alakerran lasioviin jottei jaadyttaisi telkkua katsoessa (se pitaa kuumentaa foonilla tiukaksi, sitten sita tuskin edes huomaa ikkunoissa). Keskimmainen kuva: keittion yksipaneelinen (!!!) ikkuna oisen lumimyrskyn jalkeen. Viimeinen kuva: Sienna kaarittyna peittoon yhtena paivana kun lammitin meni rikki ja kotona oli enaa vaan +16C lamminta (tuntui tosi kylmalta). Jay tuli toista ja sai lammittimen korjattua. Meidan sankari!
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Some pictures to show how cold it's been here. Sienna helping daddy put on a window draft barrier film on the downstairs glass doors so we wouldn't freeze while watching tv. Our kitchen window after a snowstormy night. Sienna wrapped up in a blanket when our furnice broke and it got to only +16C in the house. Jay came from work and fixed it (he had to go buy a part that had broken). Our hero!
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Nyt on enaa -20C ja onpa "lauhkeaa". Kaikki on suhteellista.
Now it's only -20C and it's "nice". Everything is relative, isn't it. :)
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ps. Kuka tulisi meille ostamaan paremmat ikkunat...? :)
ps. We are accepting donations so that we can go buy better quality windows for our house. :)

special people




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I have been eating yummy clementines from Morocco so today's pictures celebrate beautiful Moroccan things.
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Jay didn't have to work yesterday so we went to a bookstore together in the afternoon. We took turns browsing/watching Sienna play. It was nice to flip through design magazines. I love it that the bookstores have playareas for kids. I'm amazed I only bought a little notebook this time. ;) We visited Jay's mom quickly when we had to pick up Robin from there. Robin went swimming with the "other kids" and spent the night there. Jay's dad was napping so Sienna said to her gramma "It's just you and me."
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Today Sienna was in her nursery class ALL BY HERSELF (=without daddy) THE WHOLE TIME!! Sienna has always had some major separation anxiety issues so this was a big deal today. Hope this will last. Jay will be able to go to his own class. :)
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Something really touched me at church today. I know I've mentioned religion related stuff lately and that's never been the plan for this blog. But I know that many of my readers have Christian values so I know many will appreciate this. The young kids were having their singing time and singing the song I'll share with you in a minute. There's a family in our ward who have a Down's Syndrome little boy and it's often a struggle for them as "he has many needs". I was sitting beside this mom today and she started to cry when we sang this song. I gave her a big hug. Here's the song:
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If you don't walk as most people do,
Some people walk away from you,
But I won't! I won't!
If you don't talk as most people do,
Some people talk and laugh at you,
But I won't! I won't!
I'll walk with you.
I'll talk with you.
That's how I'll show my love for you.
Jesus walked away from none.
He gave his love to everyone.
So I will! I will!
Jesus blessed all he could see,
Then turned and said,
"Come, follow me."
And I will! I will!
I will! I will!
I'll walk with you.
I'll talk with you.
That's how I'll show my love for you.
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At times I get so frustrated with Robin. Only people who have taken care of these special needs people for a long period of time, day in day out, can really understand what it's like and how trying it can be at times. I love Robin so much but he does drive me absolutely boinkers at times too. But today I was so grateful that we have him living with us. I'm so glad that I know how to relate to people who are a bit different. I don't feel ackward around them. Jay's parents have five of these special people in their home. They are all real characters and yes, sometimes it's a struggle to love them the way they are (sometimes we are all hard to love, I think). Sometimes they eat raw meat, sometimes they soil themselves and you have to help clean up, sometimes they just get so stubborn and won't listen, sometimes you get tired of saying the same things for the millionth time, sometimes it's so hard to wait around for them to catch up with everyone else... But at the end of the day, I love each and every one of these special people. Yes, even Dan. Those who know him, know why I say that. He especially tries your patience to the limit. Awhile back, one of these special people passed away (one that lives with Jay's aunt) and the funeral was amazing! There were so many people who's lives this person had touched. The tears and laughs we all had as people talked about memories they had had with this person. The love was so tangible in the chapel that day. I know that God gives these people this special challenge for a special reason. Maybe it is actually for the good of the people around them. But I also know, without any kind of doubt in my mind, that as they each leave this eartly life, they will be made whole again and they won't have the limitations that they do here on earth. Sometimes I can't wait to see Robin in the next life! It'll be so exciting! I'm going to tell him how nuts he drove me at times. :) I will tell him how grateful I am that he has been part of my life.
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Sienna sure loves her "Uncie Robin" too!
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Let's celebrate the people among us who are a bit different (and at the end of the day - aren't we all a bit "different"). They just want to be treated like all the rest of us. Not any different. Get to know one if you don't already. It will enrich your life. I promise.
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ps. I don't have time now (and this posting is long enough already!) but soon I'll share with you some of my fun "Robin memories".
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Friday, February 1, 2008

etsy finds

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www.palomasnest.etsy.com
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Today I've been busy preparing "sharing times" (=teaching 3 to 11-year-olds for 30 minutes at church, kind of like Sunday school). I'm in charge of that for three Sundays this month. The challenge is to be so organized and prepared so that I won't need any kind of notes. It's also a challenge to teach a subject to kids of various ages. Thank goodness the Primary is split into two groups during sharing time: younger & older ones. Atleast it's easy to find good ideas as our church produces an excellent kids' magazine with tons of ideas. I enjoy teaching. It's a bit more nerve wrecking with so many people (even though they're kids). I've taught bigger classes before though and I know it'll be okay. Sufficient preparation & variety in teaching methods is the key. And keeping the students involved (no matter what their age).
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