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.