Come On Over!

I miss you! It seems I'm missing a whole bunch of you over at my new blog! Join me over at my new blog to see Monday Funnies, Stamping Techniques, recipes, and other musings about my life! See you soon!

Do You See This?

If you're viewing this in a feedreader, you are still linked to my old blog. For new content, please head over to http://papercrank.blogspot.com/. If you have linked to my blog on your blog, please take a moment to change the url in your sidebar to http://papercrank.blogspot.com/. Thanks!

I'm blogging about stamping/scrapbooking techniques and Monday Funnies, as well as the usual goings-on of our life and family over at PaperCrank. See you over there!

February Resolution Update

Just a reminder: all of my posts these days can be found over at www.PaperCrank.blogspot.com. Hope to see you there too!

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I realize it is nearing the end of March... here's the update on February.

This exercising thing seriously needs to get back on track. The goal of exercising four times per week sounds very do-able. It really should be do-able. The fact of the matter is, it's difficult for me. I keep putting off exercising due to school, chores, and timing. I'm not going to beat myself up over it; I'm going to start over. The rest of the month really must go better.

As far as the scrapbooking resolution, the layouts are done, the pictures are taken. Journaling and photos need to be adhered, but here's the layout. I'm planning on putting a photo of all four of us in the large square on the left side of the right page and individual pictures of each of us along the right side and bottom of the layout, and my journaling in the green square.

Choice

Just a reminder: all of my posts these days can be found over at www.PaperCrank.blogspot.com. Hope to see you there too!

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Hat tip to Owlhaven. I have heard bits and pieces about this, but hearing about it from this view is distressing, indeed.

I Spy...

Just a reminder: all of my posts these days can be found over at www.PaperCrank.blogspot.com. Hope to see you there too!

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Our boys love this game. I'm not sure if it's because I refuse to buy portable DVD players or if it's just a fun game to pass the time. The boys have taken to playing this game almost everywhere ... at the table, in the bank drive-through lane, at the grocery store, at restaurants, and every car ride lasting longer than 3 minutes, which is almost every car ride as most everywhere we go is 10 minutes to 45 minutes away.

How do you play when what you spy is passing quickly? One of my boys spied something blue. As we came closer to it, he quickly blurted, "Hurry!! It's blue! HURRY!!! It's BLLUUUEEEEE!!!" The rest of us quickly named things that were blue and it was guessed just before we passed it by. He chuckled at how fun it was to pick something that might not be guessed in time.

Then, my Dearest spied something that was yellow. "Now I don't. Now I do. Now I don't. Now I do."

Rediscover a classic! I spy with my little eye something...

Moving!

This time it's not my fish who have moved... I'm moving this blog.

THANK YOU to the (half-) dozens of people who read my blog! It's fun to write and post my PAPER creations so you can see what I'm up to, along with my ramblings and musings about life.

I'm moving my blog over to PaperCrank if you would like to continue following along on my adventure through life. If not, I bid you a fond adieu and hope to meet up with you on the other side.

I'll post snippets here and direct you to the new blog for a little while, but this blog will be dormant soon. All of my blog posts are over there, even now. See you over there soon!

Lots of Movies!

This past weekend, I watched several movies. Jaws, Napolean Dynamite,Casablanca, Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Carribean 1 and 2, It's a Wonderful Life, and more! I did this all in the span of about... four minutes!

My Dearest introduced me to Angry Alien Productions - where movies are re-enacted by animated bunnies and are all 30 seconds long! Go watch a movie or two. :-)

Wedding Ivy

When I got married, I had ivy in my wedding bouquet. After my wedding, I hoped to grow it into a nice wreath shape as one of my friends had done with her wedding ivy. I took cuttings from it with high hopes. My sister also took some ivy and grew it in her college dorm room.

A month or so after my wedding, my ivy died. My sister cut some off of her ivy, grew roots in water, and brought it home for me at Thanksgiving. I was so excited to have it. Until I killed it.

Again, I requested some more ivy from my sister. Again, she was gracious enough to cut some ivy off of hers, grow roots, and bring it to me. Again, I was excited to have it. Until I killed it.

I don't remember how many times this ivy killing-requesting-it-from-my-sister-bring-it-back cycle happened, but I'm very glad that this isn't an indication of my marriage!

This past Sunday, I was offered an ivy plant. Very hesitantly, I agreed to bring it home. Now, let's see if I can keep it alive.

By the way, this fall will be ten years I'll be married. And my wedding ivy is still alive with my sister.

Free Online Piper Books!

Desiring God offers many books on line for FREE -- go check them out!!

Crayons

Hat tip to Clint for sharing this.

I wonder how many crayons were needed to create this piece of artwork? Art really can be in everything. Sometimes, I just don't see it. This time, I get it.

Ah, if only the crayons in my home looked like this, even for a week! Now that we're half-way done with school, my boys' crayons are two-inch long stubs with no wrappers. I look forward to new crayons, even if only for a week they look new.

Embrace It!

I am Korean. Did you know that about me?

I am also very un-Korean. I joke that my Dearest is more Korean than I am (even though he is a mix of a smidge of Lebanese and Northern European heritages). I am not fond of overly Asian-looking decor. I am not fond of Korean food -- about once every two months is my limit for Korean food. I can understand the language better than I can speak it. I can read it very s-l-o-w-l-y. My mom gave me a poster of Korean "letters" to hang in our classroom so that I can teach my boys the language. Ummm... they're learning German.

This past Saturday, I was at a meeting for my CTMH Unit and one consultant showed me a new layout using some Asian stamps. It was very pretty, but I told her that the stamps were "too Asian for me." A British spit-fire of a gal looked up and said, "Did you just say 'too Asian for you'? Embrace your heritage!" Little did I know what her words would bring!

After the Unit Meeting, I received a phone call from the chair of the Foreign Missions committee at my church. She asked me about inexpensive snacks to serve during Mission Sunday as we will have a missionary for Korea coming to speak. I called my Mom and she suggested we make egg rolls (mondu) and a sweetened sticky rice ball with chestnuts, pine nuts, and raisins (yak shik) to serve as refreshments.

On Sunday night, I received an email from a friend whose son is teaching English in Korea. She had forwarded a link to his "girls' new hit." Reluctantly, I clicked on it and now I think I'm hooked on Korean pop music.

I guess it's time to face the music - no pun intended. I am Korean and I guess it's time to embrace my heritage in small steps, mind you.

My Dearest just heard some of the song and asked if it was by "my Koreans." Yes, Dearest, it is.

Here's the video of the song I was sent:




Here's the same song with English subtitles:

Skype Adventures

This evening, as I was on the phone with my mom, I heard my dad in the background muttering, "Why isn't she answering? Why not?" I asked my mom what was going on and she responded that he was trying to call me. I listened for my cell phone and didn't hear anything. Then, I heard my dad say, "Why isn't she answering me on Skype? I want to be a part of the conversation, too!"

As soon as I quickly logged on and answered my "ringing" laptop, my dad said, "Thanks for letting me in on the conversation!" which just made me laugh.

Sidenote: I've noticed that my dad is much more outgoing and social-butterfly-ish than he was when he was younger. By the way, my dad is in his early seventies. He built our first computer in the early 1980s, encouraged us to learn how to type using Typing Tutor, and is very computer-savvy, just not entirely up to date on modern computer applications.

We discussed what needed discussing and I wondered if my sister was logged on. I talked my dad through where the "Add Callers" tab was and how it worked. He said, "Everything is in Korean!" I told him what the tab should look like and after my mom wondered why everything was in Korean, I suggested that he change his language. So I talked my dad through where the language selector was located. The exclamation of joy when everything changed from Korean to English! I wish you all could have heard it - it was a combination of joy, relief, and surprise and my dad's Korean "AH!" if you know what I mean. Incidentally, my sister wasn't logged in on Skype.

My video stream froze and the infamous "Can you hear me now?" turned into "Can you see me now?" "How about now?" "Now?"

After we took care of language and video issues, I started to have some speaker issues (still not sure what happened), so I ended the call and IMed him a quick note to let him know what was going on. He tried to Skype me, we talked for a brief time, then my speaker issues happened again. I ended the call again and IMed him another note.

He called me on the phone to answer my IMs, as he didn't know how to answer my messages. So I helped him understand the IM section of Skype, which he found to be lacking in intuitiveness.

Fun adventures with Skype and my parents. I'm having a blast, although my laptop seems to be having some issues.

Do you Facebook?

I've been on Facebook for awhile now and am having a grand time. I've reconnected with a friend from 15 years ago, stayed in touch with a friend from middle school (or junior high, if you prefer), and I enjoy using it to keep in touch with friends, both local and out-of-state; it's great fun!

I recently came across some interesting articles regarding Facebook --

Stanford is offering classes for parents to learn how to use Facebook
Ten signs you're addicted to Facebook

Are you Facebooking?

Natural Foods

I have many friends who are die-hard diet-food consumers. That includes diet pop (or soda, depending on where you live) and sugar-free foods.

I am more of a natural sugar (table sugar) kind of gal. My view point on sugar is that my body knows how to process regular sugar, plus we don't use it too often. All of the sweeteners that have zero calories scare me. How can it have zero or nearly zero calories? What does your body do with the chemicals? How does your body process them?

Anyhow, I found this very helpful in the great sugar debate.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Have a great day today -- whether you are getting married, going on a date, planning a romantic dinner, or not celebrating Valentine's Day at all.

January Resolution Update

I was bold enough to make some resolutions this year. Since one of my resolutions is a monthly one, I think I'll post my success as I go.


1. Scrapbooking two pages each month - January is DONE! Here it is:


The darker purple (Pansy Purple) and lighter purple piece with the arrow slides up and down and has journaling on it.


2. I think I've been exercising consistently... I haven't really been keeping track, but I know I have been exercising at least three times per week, if I haven't made it to four times per week, which has happened twice.

Pepper? Really?

My Dearest and I went on a date Saturday evening. We didn't really know where to go or what to do. Dinner? Movie? Coffee? Shopping? Run errands? Thankfully, our date night did not include running errands, but that's a post for another week.

We decided to go out for pizza. We very rarely ever go out for pizza, since my Dearest makes the best home-made pizza.

We went to a nearby college town's popular pizza place that we haven't gone to in a long time. After we were seated, ordered our drinks and food, I sprinkled salt on my beverage napkin to prevent my napkin from sticking to my drink. I noticed that there were pepper specks in the salt shaker.

During the meal (good salad and even better pizza!) for some reason, I rotated the salt shaker and noticed that against the shaker glass was a dead bug. I was grossed out, but part of me laughed since my Dearest and I both worked in restaurants and have seen nearly everything.

My Dearest decided to ask for a manager instead of just bringing it to the attention of our server since our server could just brush it off. We knew that if this came to the attention of the manager, every shaker would be scrutinized that evening before the restaurant closed.

The manager took the salt shaker, gazed at it, and declared it to be pepper. My Dearest told him that it has wings and legs.

The manager then told us that they "uh, empty out all of the salt shakers every week on, uh, Thursday." My Dearest was relieved it had only been in the salt since Thursday, as we were there on Saturday. The manager took the shaker into the kitchen.

He returned moments later and confirmed that it was indeed a bug, a barfly, which may have been attracted to the lemons, limes, and other fruit in the nearby bar area. My Dearest asked if they got many of those, and the manager pointed towards the bar and said that they hang around there. My Dearest and I looked at each other as we both knew he meant to say "fruit fly," and he did not mean to say that a person who frequents bars was dead in our salt shaker.

Incidentally, there is a Barfly film.

Just so you know, I don't usually salt my food. Now, I will be especially cautious in restaurants.

Dropped Ball

I totally dropped the ball. The 26th arrived and left with no post from me.

I didn't budget enough time and energy for everything in my life in addition to putting something up for my Bloggy Give Away. I'll plan better for next quarter's Give Away.

Bloggy Giveaways Coming Soon!

Bloggy Giveaways is next week!

I have a couple of things in mind to give away... I've given away this, this, and this in the past. Check back on the 26th to see what I decide to give away!

Lost!

Lost returns tonight! I'm excited to see the season premier, but not sure how "sucked in" I am anymore. The first two seasons were absolutely-cannot-miss seasons for me, as the passengers of Oceanic 815 found a way to survive, searched for clues as to where they were, and flash-backs into who they are and how they ended up on the flight, as well as how they tried to find a way back home.

The third (oops, fourth) season with it's many flash-forwards raised more questions than questions answered and it left me frustrated.

I hope this fourth (oops, fifth) season answers more questions than it raises, especially as the show has an end date of 2010.

So Deceiving.

Isn't it lovely here? We have clear blue skies and bright white snow on the ground. So deceiving. The current temperature is 2 degrees and the windchill ("feels like temperature") is -16 degrees. I can't wait for the "warm-up" to 20 degrees tomorrow.

Cranking music, finishing my chores, and playing with some paper is just what I need. The boys don't know that all local schools were canceled today, but they are almost finished with school anyhow. I should be SneakyMom, not ScrappyMom. ;-)

Lost

Lost's second to final season starts one week from tonight!

Resolutions

Are you embracing or avoiding the "R" word? By that, I mean resolutions.

Some people 1) are gung-ho R-word embracers, 2) just smile politely when that word is even mentioned, then steer the conversation to something else. Others still 3), declare that any time of year is a good time to start (or end) something and why must one start (or end) something in January? Do you fit in any of these categories?

If you have made Resolutions in the past, have you had success? What made you successful? Did you have a cheering section? Were they big Resolutions or small ones? What was your mind set for the year? Did you keep up with them after the year was over or go back to pre-Resolution mode?

Conversely, did you not have success? Why? Why not? What kept you from keeping your Resolution? What can you do differently to try again and gain victory over your Resolution?

Here is a website that has some great ideas on how you can stick to your Resolutions.

Oh, did you want to know about my own Resolutions? Yes, I'm making some this year.

During 2009, I am resolving to:
1. Create one - two page layout for each month this year, complete with pictures and journaling. January is almost done already - I think I'm off to a good start. I will post as I complete or near completion.

2. Exercise (or "move") four times per week. I like this better than "I must lose x pounds by some month this year." This encourages me to do something positive instead of setting a goal that seems intimidating and doomed for disaster. I plan on walking most mornings, but I also found some free yoga videos that do not expire. Yay!

May you keep your Resolutions this year - if you are bold to make them!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!

We opted for a busy last day of the year and a quiet evening at home.

We went to the science museum during the day, played with all sorts of gadgets that help demonstrate different science concepts, sat in on a States of Matter demonstration using dry ice, listened to a little nanotechnology talk, played with K'nex and Keva Planks, and had a fun time.

We went to a book store afterwards and thought that Chuck Season 1 and Enchanted (both on sale, too - YAY!) should come home with us.

We did some grocery shopping to finish out our outing.

After some homemade pizza (yum!), a lesson in choices (our boys decided that playing with couch pillows near glasses of apple cider was a good choice... can you imagine what happened?), and the usual bedtime routines, we put our boys to bed.

My Dearest and I relaxed, enjoyed some ice cream, and watched some Chuck to ring in the New Year.