Daniel Speaks

Some daniel-ism from today.

1.
D: "Hotel for dogs is playing at the dollar theater"
M: "Did Mark say that"
D: "No, it kind of intrigues me"

Really did daniel just tell me he wants to go watch hotel for dogs?

2.
D: "What's this weird vegetable on the windowsill?"
M: "It's called a potato"

3.
Not so much words but for some reason he decided to keep on listening to the weird middle of the night talk show where the guy was talking about how he thinks it's dumb for people to wait for everyone to be served to eat. It was why should someone eat cold food for being cursed with serving food. We should tell people not to wait. No the courtesy is to prevent people from staring at the first served. Blah blah blah. And the host even went as far as to ask what he called "ethics" to call in and see if it was a cultural thing. Seriously we listened to this for at least 15 minutes.

Last few fun times with Lanna before she ditched us


I'm a Genie in a Bottle


I will grow up to be the evil guy that ties people to the railroad tracks

The Count Down

It's been a busy, hectic, stressful weekend. Mike and crew were supposed to leave on Saturday but as is somewhat typical Tira and my parents still aren't here. They said they were in St. George an hour or so ago but that may not mean much. We're at least assuming that they should all get here tonight. Tanya and Lanna slept on our couch last night since we took our spare mattress to their new apartment expecting that the rest of them would be here yesterday.

I've got lots of pictures of our goings on but I thought I should keep everyone posted before I get to photo editing. They will all be here soon. We all have plenty to do but we're mostly just waiting, Tanya took the day off which seems to be kinda wasted but oh well hopefully they'll get here in the next couple of hours.

Happy Late Saint Patti's Day
 

The amazing bottle drinking leprechaun hopes you had a good St. Patrick's Day.

Catch Baby

Last week was exhaustingly full of fun. The Arizona crew was up with all the boys (all four boys) and we played a lot (with them and others) while actually trying to get work done. I've got a bunch of pictures but it's too late to take the time to edit them so I'll just share this video for now. I think this was my favorite part of the week watching Grant chuck the ball in Lanna's face saying "catch baby" and having her not mind a stitch. It's hard to hear him at first but he was saying it pretty forcefully (which the end of the video catches) it was awesome! It was great seeing all the boys and just hanging out with everyone.

Sticking in There
 
(watching Lawrence Welk, Daniel's Sunday routine, me not so much a fan but Daniel likes to watch the dancing)

It's been busy busy. Daniel and I have Lanna all day and thank goodness she's taken the bottle. He started his first official week of private support coordination (i.e. new job). The beginning of April we should see the first paycheck and we'll be able to start the new health insurance. I think it looks like a good start. He's on the phone a bunch and has moved in his files.

Tanya is planning on signing a work contract tomorrow, but then again they said it would happen last Monday too. But we're hoping that tomorrow really turns out so that we can get my parents and Tira on their way.

I've got a pile of tests to grade, a dissertation that has been ignored and a list of orders to fill. But I've gotten quite good at cooking and doing stuff with Lanna in the sling. I've put pictures of that here.

Everyone is healthy blah blah blah.

Just another one of those blogs...

Those ones that just show the babies. Well that's what happens when she's around ALL the time. Come on don't tell me you miss my pictures of my bread because I won't believe you. This was taken when Lanna was still a nice baby since then she has become naughty cranky baby because she's stuck starving with us all day and she's discovered face planting. She likes to lurch herself down into everything, hard toys, the edge of the bed, off someone's lap anything. It's driving me bonkers. She hasn't fallen onto anything besides her toys but she's seriously fast. I mean she knows how to sit up so I'm not sure what her deal is but I've told her she better snap out of it or I'll stop catching her.

Baby's First Snow and the Power of Boobahs



So it's been a week and tomorrow is Daniel and my first day alone with Baby Lanna. Things have been mostly good except for the fact that she won't eat without the boob. Luckily I bought a fancy booster chair and shoved a couple spoonfuls down here throat today. We'll see if it's good enough tomorrow when Tanya goes to her temporary job. I've got more pictures of the cuddle monster but here's her first snow for Auntie Annie and a video of how she loved boobahs the first instant she saw them.


Daniel definitely likes her even though he asked her where the nice baby that came 5 days ago was when she was freaking out. He always goes and looks at her when she's sleeping and does funny dances for her.

Sighting 

I can't believe I forgot to post this, or am I repeating, well if I am I couldn't find it. So after seeing a bunch of dragon cakes on cake wrecks at Heidi and Daniel's I remembered that I had this picture to share. Yup it was parked in our parking lot for a couple of days. I think it is a satellite dish, an awesome satellite dish.

Every Day Tidbit


just a typical conversation after feeding daniel a huge empanada and side salad.

Me: You stuffed?
Daniel: Yea
Me: Me too, but I want someone to taste the bread.
Daniel: Bring me the bread with butter on it I'll eat anything.

So he's got a small slice and I cut a teeny bit just to taste it. The goal was to knock of the dark bread from cheesecake factory. I think it's yummy but not quite there yet. I did molasses instead of honey because I wanted it to be vegan and I wanted it to be a dark brown, I think honey would have been sweeter so maybe a bit of sugar. Yeah I know you guys care so much. Don't worry next week I should have pictures of baby Lanna to share so no more boring bread posts or news rants.

Also if you don't know about our twitter bar to the right, I update it with short little goings on and funny quotes and actions from Daniel. I post the little sentence like things there many times a week.

What's going on here and a few requests for the praying people

There's been a whole lot going on here. There are some big things happening and I wanted to share them just to keep you guys posted on our happenings and to ask those of you who pray if you would keep some of these things in mind.

1. Daniel is finally going privatized. Some of you know more about this but in short he's putting in his two weeks notice TODAY and he will be starting a new job. Besides the normal transition anxiety, the state is in control of the transition. This is a kind of new thing for them so we are hoping that they will do their part really fast. Also Daniel will be soliciting cases. Basically he needs to convince the people he's already working with to chose him as their case worker (no change for them but since it's with a different company that's how it goes). It should basically be the exact same job, but on his schedule and for quite a bit more pay (we've got to pay for insurance but with the increase of pay we should still even out as more if it all works out right).
2. My car needs a new engine and probably a new transmission. We're pretty sure that we're not going to fix it (for 3200$) and just go 1 car it for a while since we don't want to buy anything during the transition time and being Dave Ramsey people we really don't want to go into debt for something new. We know that most people do that but we don't want to be most people. So we're hoping his car will last for a while.
3. Daniel and Ebay are finally sending out Julio Child stuff. They'll be doing a round of radio stations first but you know hopefully the stations actually play songs and someone important hears it. I really think this is the best and most marketable of Daniel's projects so...
4. And probably most exciting, my sister, the babies, and my parents are planning to move out here (soon as in like 2 weeks). Tanya's been looking for accounting jobs in Salt Lake and apartments for the group of them.

And this is besides my normal dissertation brain freeze, RaeGun getting a huge influx of orders, and the rest of it. So as you can see there are some big things going on. We'd appreciate any prayer.

Rotten Musicians In a Real Magazine

 

So there is the teeniest mention of Rotten Musicians in the Salt Lake Magazine. It's an actual magazine that you can buy a subscription for and that they sell on news stands. Pretty cool eh? See an online version here.

Compean and Ramos


All I can say is finally. It has made me sick for so long that these poor guys got screwed over for doing their job. They acted out of self defense and to defend the rest of us in their country. There was so much crap withheld at there trial and so much shady dealing on the freaking government's part with this whole thing. There are SO many facts for why it was flat out wrong to throw those guys in prison. And it's kind of gross and obnoxious that Bush waited until the last moment to make things right but at least it's fixed kind of (commuting their sentences is not the same as the pardon they deserve, they still have 3 years of probation and fines) . I hope their families can recover from the terrible thing that has been done to them.

Needle Fun for Daniel

So you know how Daniel has been having fun times fainting with needles this year and needing an IV and ER trip to recover? Well he found out that he had to get a TB test and has been putting it off and being anxious about it. So out of the blue he decided to go this Wednesday. And as most of you know when you get a TB test you're supposed to return to the doctors to get it checked. Well today with a group of his friends he remembered out loud that he forgot to go back in to as he put it "get his results". Well the rest of us just stared at him and started laughing hysterically since apparently he didn't understand that the results must be read off of his arm and being that Monday is more than 48-72 hours technically they'd probably have to do the test again. His arm is fine and hopefully he can convince the doctor guy that he doesn't have TB but it was one of the funniest things when he realized that he would probably have to take the test again.

(I was going to add a picture of a needle but daniel squealed saying "ahhh get rid of it" yeah we'll see how TB test number 2 goes)

The Peanut butter filled Chocolate Challenge
 

Hershey's was the unanimous winner. That's what happens when we go to the market and see 5 candy bars for 5$.

What 28 Looks Like
 
...well not this exactly but today in yoga I just sat there thinking this used to not be so hard. My king of dancer was wobbly with my foot no where near my head. Sitting in pigeon with my foot bent up reaching over my head towards, but no where near, my toes stretched way more than I thought it should. And there's my split. I once was able to stick my foot on the couch and get that split to the floor, now I'm in the gym yoga class hovering over the ground. Oh well.

And speaking of yoga I'm so sick of Angie reading the Tao Te Ching # 44 at the end of class, and now that I look it up to whine about it I realize that she hasn't been reading the last paragraph (and sometimes not even the second paragraph)...even more weird. Anyways this is what's she's been reading to us

Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success of failure: which is more destructive?

If you look to others for fulfillment,
you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money,
you will never be happy with yourself.

I don't know I just think the first part is totally retarded. You don't have to chose between fame and integrity, or money or happiness, or success or failure. And really doesn't it really matter what the content of the success or failure is that makes it destructive or not? okay end rant.

We been up to some relaxing, cinnamon roll making, lots of delicious food eating and harry potter playing which by the way is one of the worst games on earth. But my love for all things harry potter keeps us going in spite of daniel's constant yelling from legitimately frustration control issues and mindlessly silly tasks in the game. We also did some fun dancing with Mark and Kelli on New Years eve. Oh and recipes for my families traditional Christmas wontons and my new favorite roasted garlic and potato bread are up on the raegun blog.

We'll be playing with Hot Parents one of my new favorite acts in Utah. Here's a clip from their silly show from last time we played with them. Note their perfectly Utah County lyrics of "look at these mother effing arms these mother effing arms wide open" and "stop don't tough me there this is my no no square" -my type of humor. Come by the show if you're around. And yes that is a shadow screen that they invite concert goers to dance behind. Come to the show for them or for Rotten Musicians between the two (and I hear purr bats are too bad either) you'll have fun craziness overload.

A Year in Review

So, I've got a pile of Christmas cards to mail off (late I know) that promise a year in review slide show here. I've been (mostly) good about keeping the blog up so if you haven't been keeping up and want to know more of what's been going on just scroll down.

Let's see what are the big things that have happened?
1-2. Daniel cut 2 new albums this year. One for Rotten Musicians and one for his Fisch Loops project. Yes that is my Ba Gee (lovely aunt that passed away when I was little) on the cover of the new Fisch Loops. Daniel and I both really loved that picture of her.
3-4. We took a trip to Vegas, stopping at thrift stores looking for records for daniel, and quilt stores looking for fabric for me. See this blog post for more pictures of that trip.
5-6. I became obsessed with making bread from scratch. I've got a tupperware full of dough in the fridge even now.
7-9. We made a music video. Let me teach you a new word "larp" live action role player. Well, they are basically people that dress up like characters and act out dungeons and dragons games with swords and "spells" and shields and all that. If you haven't watched the music video, either click here or on the right hand column to see it.
10-13.5. My RaeGun store has really taken off, so much so that I've purposely limited the number of orders I take so I can work on the dissertation properly. I still love making the baby clothes for sure but I know I need to get this dissertation done. I do update that blog A LOT if you want to check that and I've sold a bunch of stuff through one of the local boutiques and a good number of them around the country and even in Singapore. It was really hard to find the balance between this and school but I think I did it.
14-19. This year Daniel added me and Kelli (Mark's girlfriend) to the Rotten Musician show. It's loads of fun for all of us. In addition to the normal music we've got sesame street style spell-a-longs, dancing and even bubbles. Practices have been in Josh's garage -good times.
20. I entered a dress (commissioned by a friend) into the state fair and won second place. I'm excited to really work hard on something for next year.
21. Daniel has had some fun times with needles this year, putting us in the ER twice and giving him a fun 24 hour EEG (yeah that freaked out the boys at the pizza place). He's fine but for some reason his body just can't recover on it's own after he faints. The doctor's say this kind of thing just happens so hopefully laying down and hydrating before doing needle stuff will prevent any more ER visits in the next year. Although I believe Daniel intends to do everything to avoid needles, I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be getting a TB test.
22. I've had the absolute best class (teaching-wise) ever. They were all so pleasant, smart, eager and well prepared. I think I'm spoiled for any future students, they were that great.
23-24. Daniel has gotten some press in the local papers. Here's the link for the web version of one, another, another, a podcast interview, a write up about Julio Child project (my personal fav) those are all of them that I can remember.
25-28. We watched Tanya's Tiraya grow into the spitting image of her mother -sadly through Tanya's blog and not in person.
29-32. We welcomed a new baby niece Lanna (another from Tanya) into the family. We're hoping she and the rest of them will be living close by very very soon.
33-35. We'll that's about all we've got for you. Hope you all had a good year too.