The Lee Family

AZ Weekend Cont.

2012-02-06T21:35:00.000-08:00

I think every time I'm in Arizona I have fondue. I'm impressed at the kids since they know exactly what to do and even eat the food. It was quite the fancy dinner!

Sunday morning we helped get the kids ready and then played games with them until church. Look at these big boys playing with such cute girls! Maren really liked this game we brought down but sadly it is discontinued and we've had a hard time figuring out where to buy more copies.

Here's the entire scene with Parker and Caleb playing a different game by themselves.

Do you notice Maren's pretty pink toes? Yeah, we're wearing the same color now!

Scott painting toe nails for the very first time. Caleb also wanted his painted but we finally talked him out of it... Silly boy!

Scott and I took the kids on a walk while Eric and Jenny stayed home for a bit.

This was the lesson on NOT touching cacti. They're actually really good at knowing what will hurt but it's just so tempting to touch!

Isn't she so cute!?

Treasure seeking in the ravine.

This is how Macey goes on walks... I think she only walked about 10 steps and we carried her the rest of the way.

Maren was very good at balance.

When we got back Macey decided to help Scott take a nap. She got him a pillow and some blankets..

Thanks Macey!

In my next post you can see what a beautiful ballerina Maren is!

AZ Weekend

2012-01-30T20:20:00.000-08:00

Because Southwest is awesome and we missed our connecting flight I have time to do this blog post in the airport. (No offense, I love Southwest but the other plane seriously couldn't wait SEVEN minutes?!?)

Because we missed a lot of the family time last summer Scott and I decided to make a special trip to Arizona and see my brother's family. We had such an awesome time! I have about 500 pictures I'd love to share but my blog will only let me upload a few at a time so I'll make this trip 2 posts!

Scott and his cuties! They haven't really been a fan of him in the past but this weekend they LOVED him. Macey, the youngest, even wanted him to hold her and play with her quite a few times. I was really surprised. Maren was also a fan.

This is how we got from one place to the other. If Maren wasn't sleeping then Macey was.

On Saturday we went minature golfing and it was really fun to see how they did. 9 holes would have been plenty but we played 18 anyway... Macey was really cute because she was very intent on playing correctly. She really did try to put the ball into the hole.

Maren on the other hand didn't have much use for the putter. She much preferred to just place the ball in the hole. Good thing she's so cute!

Both Caleb and Parker did a great job! Parker even got a Hole in One!!!

Showing their tough faces. "Is it going to be this noisy the entire time?" - Caleb

More tough faces.

Racing past the speed of sound.

Trying to catch flies in their mouths.

(Don't you love their faces?!)

With our coupon we got to golf AND pick an activity so the boys did race cars and the girls went with the water tubes. We had a great time except for some punk pre-teens who had a tough time directing their spray AWAY from us.

Maren and Macey had a great time directing our sprays towards the boys.

Sleeping proof that we had a great day!

Exploratorium

2012-01-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

Friday night we got a last minute invite to be Young Makers at the Exploratorium. We weren't exactly in the target age group but for free admission we were happy to look a bit creepy. (It's hard to look natural at a kid's activity when you don't have kids...)

It took tremendous concentration for Scott to make the biggest bubbles around. He beat out all the other kids!

Scott and Rush worked very well together.

Stepping into the bubble proved to be a bit difficult.

Just 2 boys workin' together.

The future Dr. Spurlock.

Hailey just chilled the whole time and was happy. She's such a good baby!

Scott made an awesome drawing to put up near his desk at school.

And Rushton helped me with mine. I tried to explain about putting your pen in the hole and going around the circle but he had bigger plans.

Working together.

Scott and Melissa were very proud of their arch.

What better way to end the afternoon then soaking yourself in bubbly water!

Thanks Spurlocks for inviting us! I guess this is going on once a month until April so if you have Young Makers and want to have fun then come check it out.

Wooden Wheel

2012-01-11T21:52:00.000-08:00

My friend Joel is a certified arborist. For his day job, he works for a tree care company and manages several crews. When they cut down a tree that Joel likes, he takes the wood home and makes them into really cool bowls. This gives him access to many types of woods and gives him a way to recycle. I have joined him a few times to try making a bowl myself. The past few times I have gone to his shop, he has been trying to fix the flat tire from his wheelbarrow. He has tried a handful of solutions from tire repair kits to filling the tire with foam. These solutions never worked too well, so he resorted to what he knows best: spinning wood on his lathe. He started with a very thick piece of plywood and cut it into a circle with his trusty band saw. He then put it on his lathe and lathed away.

As you can see, it always ends up with a huge pile of woodshavings. You can really see them flying off.

The wheel is almost finished. We then drilled a hole in it and put the axle back in...

and voila! The wheelbarrow is as good as new with a wheel that won't be going flat anytime soon.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

My memories of Christmas stockings are running out one year only to find them still empty. They were just left off the mantle the following years. Scott's family still has them though and his mom outfitted us with cute new stockings and the filling too! (Speaking of his mom, she came out just after Scott's surgery and was a HUGE help. She brought Christmas gifts and all kinds of treats. Thanks Kay!)

Here's Laura with her fancy new iPad.

Dad with his steal-of-a-deal headlight.

My fancy new heating pad that I love.

Mom and her fancy new camera.

Scott and his fancy new camera! He decided on it this summer but I told him that it was too expensive and I didn't want to buy one. He was pretty bummed but I promised to think about it for his birthday. We had many conversations and I sufficiently dashed all his hopes. However, I had purchased it in August and was just trying to throw him off. He was sufficiently surprised with Christmas!

Someone's crazy house.

Here is the first picture with Scott's camera. It's Joel and Julie and they spent Christmas with us. We're so excited for Baby Girl to come in March!

I am documenting the exciting game of cards Christmas night.

We met Melissa's family at the Chabot Space and Science Center. Hailey could hardly wait to see the displays and watch a show in the planetarium.

My dad however, was more excited for the kids room. Luckily we brought Rushton so we could go in under the pretense of keeping an eye on him.

OK, so he really did need double supervision. He would look at each station for about 30 seconds before running onto another thing. He was one sad boy when we had to go!

A great picture of my parents.

Catchin' Up

2012-01-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I'll save the excuses for another time but I am way behind on keeping our thousands of followers updated on our awesome lives. (Not to mention the fact that besides the holidays we've just been working and studying.)

I've always wanted to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge so we finally went in November.

Since we rented a tandam bike this was my view...

However, Scott not know if I was pedaling was also a treat.

Now you see us, the bridge, and the coats we bought in China!

And on a random note this is Scott getting around in Costco. He tore his ACL in Sept but waited until Dec to get it fixed so his mobility has been limited. When he showed up with crutches the door lady offered him a scooter. Let's just say that no future trip to Costco will be able to top his enjoyment.

We spent Thanksgiving down in LA with Scott's family and had such a good time that we didn't take any pictures! We played games, ate good food, and lounged around. We also went to the La Brea Tar Pits and saw where the dinosaurs roamed. It was a fun trip from beginning to end since we car pooled down there with some friends. Scott got a fancy new camera for Christmas so I'll post soon with pictures!

Sous Vide New Years!

2012-01-01T19:05:00.000-08:00

For all of you negative people out there who hate emergency preparedness post (I'm talking to Melissa and Laura specifically), here is something else.

Jake Spurlock and I have been experimenting with sous vide cooking this year. We made a temperature controller box based on a design from Make magazine. We have made a number of things from eggs to steak to fish to chicken. One of my favorites was a mahi mahi with a delicious buttery mango sauce. I take pictures occasionally but I have always wanted to do a better job taking pictures. Here are some details on a chuck roast that I cooked for 2 days.

First, we season the meat by coating it with delicious ingredients from my inlaws cupboard including Montreal steak seasoning, garlic salt, and cracked black peppercorns.

Next, I put it in the sous vide bags from ziploc. They are really cool vacuum bags where you pump out the air with a little vacuum pump. The whole kit with bags and a pump only costs a few bucks.

With the bag all set, we now place it in the sous vide bath. We hit a debate about whether to go medium-rare (55C) or medium(60C) so we split the difference and set the controller to 57.5C. The temperature controller we made is in the right of the picture. It is really flexible because you just plug in whatever heat source you are interested in and then you control it.

In fact, it is so flexible that we needed to use the slow cooker for something else so we switched to a hotplate and a metal pot halfway through cooking the meat.

Here is the meat after cooking it for about 35 hours. There is juicy goodness coming out of it. We probably should have gone for the medium rare temperature so that more of the juice would stay in the meat.

We then took the meat out to a super hot grill and pan seared the outside.

This is the finished product. So delicious.

Here is the cross section of the deliciousness. The pan searing wasn't too important for this one. All those yummy spices were really infused into the meat.

Those pieces of meat disappeared pretty quickly.

Week 52: wheat

2011-12-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

50 pounds wheat

Congratulations if you kept up with the food storage (I know I didn't)! If you did then here's a reminder of all you have:

500 pounds of wheat

180 pounds of sugar

40 pounds of powdered milk

12 pounds of salt

10 pounds of honey

5 pounds of peanut butter

45 cans of tomato soup

15 cans of cream of mushroom soup

15 cans of cream of chicken soup

24 cans of tuna

21 boxes of macaroni and cheese

500 aspirin

1000 multi-vitamins

6 pounds of yeast

6 pounds of shortening

12 pounds of macaroni

Enough for 2 for a year!

Week 51: tomato soup

2011-12-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

8 cans tomato soup

Week 50: sugar

2011-12-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

20 pounds sugar

Week 49: honey

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

5 pounds honey

Week 48: cream of mushroom soup

2011-11-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

5 cans cream of mushroom soup

Week 47: sugar

2011-11-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

20 pounds sugar

Week 46: macaroni

2011-11-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

6 pounds macaroni

Week 45: wheat

2011-11-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

50 pounds wheat

Week 44: tuna

2011-10-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

8 cans tuna

Week 43: multivitamins

2011-10-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

1 bottle 500 multivitamins

Week 42: sugar

2011-10-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

20 pounds sugar

Chores

2011-10-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend Scott went camping with the Boy Scouts and over the campfire they started talking about chores. After listening to the complaints Scott interjected with "Just wait until you get married, your wife will give you chores every Saturday!" He thought he had won the discussion until a 12 year old said "You mean that Sunday through Friday she doesn't make you do ANYTHING?!?"

I'd like to thank that boy for reminding Scott of how good he has it.

Backyard Garden

2011-10-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

This year we planted a garden both at Stanford and in our backyard. My dad's kind of gardening was more high tech and involved more 'Y' connectors then you could imagine so it was nice to just turn on the hose in the backyard and water for a few minutes. Since I had to drive to the Stanford garden Scott and our friends took more care of it than myself... I'll include pictures of that in another post.

We actually shared the garden space with some neighbors so everything from the bricks to the sidewalk is ours. From sidewalk to the fence we had: wild flowers, basil, lettuce, broccoli, watermelon, jalapenos, tomatoes, zucchini.

Here's a more developed shot from the summer. Yes, the watermelon plan originated near the tomatoes but branches migrated all over the garden. I still haven't tried it yet but I'm afraid that it might taste like jalapenos since they are very close together...

Some of our harvest!

Week 41: cream of chicken soup

2011-10-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

5 cans cream of chicken soup

'Up' House

2011-10-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot to mention that while in Utah we visited the 'Up' house. These designers got permission to replicate the home and it's super cute. There were droves of people there but very much worth the wait.

The front room. They gave all the workers a little device that would play portions of the movie where a particular part of the home was depicted so the replica could be as accurate as possible.

I didn't get a picture but they even had an older man and chubby Asian kid sitting in front of the house to greet everyone.

Since there was more house then what was shown in the movie the builders took some creative license. In the basement they made a 'Toy Story' room and another one decked out in princess stuff. It was a totally cute house.

The builders did a great job and we LOVED another house they designed. Seriously, if we ever move to Utah (or have enough money to fly them wherever we live) I'd love to have this home: http://www.saltlakeparade.com/archives/2432 We loved the inclusive design and how cozy it felt. We spent quite a bit of time talking to one of the partners about the 'Up' house and the one that we actually want to live in, someday...

Week 40: wheat

2011-10-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

50 pounds wheat

Dynamic Duo: The Saga Continues

2011-10-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

I know you've all been wondering how my dad and Scott are doing so I'd be happy to fill you in:

Dad: He had surgery on Sept 14 and 4 screws were placed. The doctor said it was a nice fix. On Monday, Sept 26 he was going downstairs on crutches and his computer bag shifted, causing him to lose his balance and fall. He now has a compression fracture on his right arm. In case you're wondering about the ramifications of that: his right arm is in an immobilizing sling for 3 weeks and then they'll start physical therapy. Yeah, he's not moving very fast anymore. Poor guy.

Scott: He hurt his knee on Sept 10 and sued crutches for about a week but made steady improvements. Since he was walking pretty well and riding his bike to school I thought his lingering limp was just a plea for sympathy. Well, this week he finally got the MRI taken and will be seeing the orthopedic surgeon about his torn ACL, torn lateral meniscus, and lateropostero tibialplateu fracture. Yeah, that's right: he was limping from pain, not for sympathy. Usually you can't walk with this fracture (in fact that's what my dad did 6 years ago) but it's so lateral and posterior that it's not bothering him that much. They were going to make Scott go back on crutches with a leg brace but since he's doing pretty well they'll save that for post-surgery. However, we won't be having surgery until after the Boy Scouts go canoeing next weekend....

If you're wondering how I spend my freetime you can just visit me at the 'Fremont Infirmary' (aka my parent's house).

Yosemite

2011-09-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

We went to Yosemite last weekend with some friends and it was so fun. Scott's knee was still sore so we didn't do any vigorous hiking but that was my style for sure. We hung out, played games, and went on short easy hikes. It was awesome.

Scott and Westin with John Muir.

What's left of Bridalveil Falls. A few years ago when I went in June we would have been soaked standing where we are in this picture. The falls were beautiful still but we'll have to go back in early spring when they're roaring.

A pretty stream off the falls.

A view from Glacier Point. You can see Half Dome on the left and Nevada and Vernal Falls on the right. I'd never been up here and next time I'd love to do the Panorama Trail and see everything.

Another view of Half Dome with Tuolumne Meadows on the left.

Proof that we went to Glacier Point and Scott was sporting crutches.

An ENORMOUS tree in Mariposa Grove. I was excited to go here but they had a fire in the past few years and it wasn't that exciting to walk through a dead forest. Bummer deal.

As you can see, Scott's crutches were handy in so many ways...

We saw so many tree roots interwoven with rocks. It was really neat.

Scott's dream home.

We never did get a group picture but it was fun to be there with friends. We look forward to going back again soon!

Obsessed

2011-09-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

For a while now Scott has told me that I don't necessarily eat candy but I do buy a lot. I kept telling him how rediculous that is but the other day I cleaned out the cupboard and found this:

Do you notice the holiday candy? Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Summer... And that's not the worst of it:

I still have another dish of opened candy!

And I even had to throw away some candy!

Good thing I'm too embarrassed to take a picture of the candy bag I have under my nightstand...

Week 39: tomato soup

2011-09-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

8 cans tomato soup

Mt Bikes

2011-09-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

We are borrowing some mt bikes from my sister and it's been really fun to ride together. We'd both like to be more daring but the other week we found a good starter trail so we could work up to being more daring.

Scott showing off his moves.

I was contemplating a hill that I had to go up and then back down. Perhaps I did more walking than biking...

Week 38: sugar

2011-09-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

20 pounds sugar

Dynamic Duo

2011-09-12T17:30:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted about redoing my parent's roof or getting mountain bikes but here's the result of both activities:

The other night Scott had a Boy Scout court of honor and they both had to gimp around.

My dad broke his heel falling off a ladder (ok, it actually split open on him but who puts the legs of a ladder on two different elevations when there isn't a chain to prevent it from splitting?!?!) and will have surgery Wednesday. It was the one night I couldn't stay to help and my mom wasn't home either. Luckily he was near the garage and could crawl in to where the crutches from his previously broken leg were. He then changed out of his dirty clothes and waited for my mom to come home and take him to the ER. He is one determined dude...

Scott tweeked his knee falling off his bike. He went mountain biking with some guys this weekend and went off the trail within the first 100 yards. Luckily he was able to get up and finish the 10 mile trail before limping upstairs. Needless to say the 'honey do' list I was compiling became my own 'to do' list. I sort of teased him the entire weekend thinking he was being dramatic but since the swelling isn't going down I'm starting to think he might be hurt. I guess we'll know when he visits the doctor tomorrow...

Until then they are quite the dynamic duo and I will continue to love saying "He fell off a ladder and he fell off his bike!"

Bob the Builder

2011-09-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Rushton LOVES tools. My mom has a 'junk drawer' with a variety of tools and Rushton will stand at the counter for hours with the hammer and screwdriver, workin' away. Earlier this summer Melissa asked Scott to fix their electric swiffer. Rushton raced over there with a screwdriver to 'help'. It was seriously so cute.

Week 37: salt

2011-09-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

6 pounds salt

Bain Family Vacation, Part 2

2011-09-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

Cute best friends playing on the trampoline.

Caleb being helpful with Hailey.

Double trouble at Fenton's.

On Monday Dad, Scott and I worked until 3 and then tried to catch up with everyone else. They had left earlier to get lunch at Fenton's, play at the park and then meet us at the Maker Lab (where Jake works).

Rushton eating his fries and ketchup as fast as he can.

Macey Mae.

Rushton.

Caleb and Parker.

Rushton feeding the ducks. Check out that windup!

Laura and the boys feeding the geese.

A circuit board of some sort. At the Maker Lab we made little flashing lapel pins. The boys (young and old) loved it because you had to solder the wires. It was hard to keep the kiddos safe with so many things to touch and see. I wish we had more pictures but this is all I got...

Caleb somehow convinced Parker to push him in the stroller.

Tuesday was spent relaxing and then Wednesday everyone ventured into the City. (Sadly, I had to work until 7pm this night. Woof.)

Grandma getting some much needed help from everyone.

Rushton spying on his lunch with Grandpa's bincolulars.

Parker and Caleb on the submarine.

Jenny, Maren and Macey.

Maren.

Parker.

The Bain Family!

Cute Parker and Caleb in front of the Golden Gate Bridge on a true San Francisco summer day!

Week 36: macaroni & cheese

2011-09-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

7 boxes macaroni & cheese

Bain Family Vacation, Part 1

2011-08-30T16:45:00.000-07:00

In mid-July my sister Laura (living in GA) and brother Eric (living in AZ) came to visit. The beauty of living close to my parents is that I didn't really have to pack up and travel for this vacation but the downer is that I had to work the entire week and could only hang out in the afternoon/evenings. Next summer I vow to get at least a few days off, if not the entire week. I don't have all the pictures yet so this will be a series of installments.

On Saturday Scott took Laura and I out sailing. I've been sailing with Scott before and while I'm not really afraid I just DON'T want to get wet. Seriously. I don't like the water splashing on me and I don't like the feeling that we might tip every time we change directions. Perhaps we always pick cold days or I just think the Bay is dirty. I like to think I love sailing but perhaps I just need a different location to really love it.

Anyway, a few minutes into being on the water Laura couldn't stop laughing at me. I'd yell and throw myself onto the highest side of the boat whenever it rocked (which is basically the entire experience). She thought I was being overly-dramatic and ridiculous. While I can see her point I still didn't want to get wet. I guess in the end Scott was glad to have Laura telling me to be quite instead of him having to. (I swear, I'm usually more calm and collected; I just don't like getting wet!)

Sisters! (Laura & Cecilie)

Laura came Friday morning, Melissa & fam came Friday night and Eric's fam showed up Saturday. How cute is this picture?! Rushton was so glad to have a friend and Maren loves being with kids younger than her. They had such a great week playing together.

This is how my mom takes care of the kids before church. The kids loved it.

Parker and Caleb squeezing their own lemonade. Last year they tried to sell it and only made about $2 legitimately (family donations were larger...). This year they abandoned that idea and drank it all themselves.

Trampoline fun! The older boys loved to be jumped by adults and the younger kids liked to jump themselves. I liked playing with the boys but lets just say I could play longer with the little kids...

Macey Mae!

Eric and Parker dutifully working on robots. Now that Jake is working at O'Reilly Media he always has a project in mind. The boys (of all ages) were thrilled to have their robots move.

Parker loved holding his newest cousin: Hailey Mae. He always wanted to help feed her and cuddle. He's a great big brother and cousin. Parker, you can hold my kids all you want some day.

How can a day possibly be complete without a long game on the iPad?

Stay tuned for what happened during the week!

Week 35: wheat

2011-08-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

50 pounds wheat

Week 34: cream of chicken soup

2011-08-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

5 cans cream of chicken soup

Curtis & Jamie Lee

2011-08-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

We went to Utah for Scott's brother's wedding. Curtis and Jamie were happily married on July 28, same time, same place as Scott and I. This is the only picture I got so it doesn't really do justice to how beautiful and happy they were. The lucky ducks went to Hawaii on their honeymoon.

On Friday we went to Snowbird with the rest of the Lee's and did a bunch of different activities. Here's Scott doing a flip.

Yes the harness rode a bit high...

There were 4 trampolines and Scott and I were out of breath much faster than the 2 kids we were jumping by. We blamed it on the altitude change but I think it's more accurately attributed to our age and lack of fitness.

Scott's mom went all out on the trampoline. It was awesome.

We went on this obstacle course that was about 30 feet above the ground. Looking up we thought it looked sorta lame and easy but once up there we were a bit nervous about falling off. I asked a kid up there if he was nervous and he just shrugged and said he'd done it before.

The one I'm doing was easily the scariest. You have 2 thin ropes to balance on and then have to keep letting go of the ropes above your head to get to the next one. Later on Scott's sister did it without holding onto the ropes.

Scott trying to stay balanced.

Scott's mom even went rodeo and rode a bucking bull with her hat on!

On Saturday morning we went on a little hike and crossed this very pretty stream. The water was rushing by so fast.

And we made it to the meadow!

Week 33: aspirin

2011-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

1 bottle aspirin

Lee's 4th of July Visit

2011-08-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

Scott's parents came to visit over the 4th of July weekend and we had so much fun. We picked them up from the airport on Friday night and went to a delicious Chinese restaurant and then Fenton's. That place is delicious. Sadly we were too full from dinner to get our own Sundaes but sharing was still awesome. It's a good thing we don't live closer because I'd be there a LOT more often...

On Saturday we went to the Conservatory in Golden Gate Park. (Although my purse looks like the main attraction in this picture you're actually supposed to be admiring the building behind us.)

A cool zebra plant.

So maybe I predominantly took pictures of leafy plants instead of flowers. I like the green shades though!

Saturday night we went to a soccer game with fireworks for the after show.

Scott and his dad.

Me and Scott's mom.

We spent some time in our garden and Scott's dad is an excellent berry picker. He picked enough that I could make us a berry pie for Sunday dessert. My prior attempt was a failure but I'm happy to say that this time was much more successful. The pie was so good!

We had a great time with the Lee's and hope they'll come out again!

Week 32: powdered milk

2011-08-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

10 pounds powdered milk

Week 31: macaroni & cheese

2011-08-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

7 boxes macaroni and cheese

Week 30: wheat

2011-07-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

50 pounds wheat

Week 29: peanut butter

2011-07-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

5 pounds peanut butter

Poster and Swimming

2011-07-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

Here I am representing my poster at the conference. I ordered the poster and looked at it before I left California. I thought it all seemed okay until I presented it to the first person that asked me to see my poster. As I started explaining it, I realized that 3 of my 4 plots were missing a very important line. I probably should have just drawn it in with a marker, but I hated marking up my nice poster with a marker.

This picture is with Daesung who worked on the project with me quite a bit.

The second night of the conference, Tom Kenny invited the Stanford affiliates to a wonderful dinner of ultra spicy Szechuan food. Since I don't drink alcohol, they gave me green bean puree which tasted 'very healthy' if you know what I mean. It did become sweeter as my mouth became hotter.

The quarter before I went to China, I took a swimming class. I heard it was possible to go swimming there and so I went to work trying to make it happen. I stopped by the Cube at night (so beautiful) and the prices were in normal numbers but all the text around it was in Chinese. I took a picture of the prices so a friend of mine could translate it for me.

Getting into the water cube was quite the adventure. They had the prices listed in regular numbers and the description next to it in Chinese. Most places like restaurants had pictures on the menu so you could point to order. Anyways, I saw one lady translating the sign into English for her friend. I told them that I wanted to swim and they were planning on doing that too (the other options were just to go inside or go to the water park). Apparently, the one translating had a membership or something. They helped me get to the pool. To swim in the deep end, I needed to take a swim test but you were supposed to pay to take the swim test. I hadn't paid so my new friend talked the lady into taking the money at the pool. I doubt the money made it to the swim test money fund, but I got to swim so I was happy.

The picture above is just a nice Olympic panorama in the Aquatics Center.

This was me in the actual competition area (they only let you swim in the warm up pool). I was happy I got this shot cause my camera battery was out for the count but I coaxed it into giving me one more shot.

Week 28: sugar

2011-07-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

20 pounds sugar

Conference in China

2011-07-10T17:45:00.001-07:00

After sending Cecilie off to the airport, my cohorts and I jumped in a cab and headed towards the Olympic plaza for the conference. We ended up staying in a Holiday Inn Express which was pretty much a glorified hostel. Sure, we got our own rooms, but it was pretty basic. (The bathroom used a single door for the shower and the bathroom - it was an amazing feat of architecture.) This was another nearby hotel called the Pangu, which is a famous 7-star hotel. I only later found out that the buildings are supposed to be in the shape of a dragon so I unfortunately don't have a picture with the whole dragon).

Continuing our exploration, we saw more sights such as the Bird's Nest and took a picture in front of it. I was surprised at the level of security they keep up. We had to pass through metal detectors and they scanned our bags.

Jae and I also wanted to take a picture together with our posters. It was our first international conference, and we were excited to be there (note the excitement in our picture).

The National Aquatics Center (or the Cube) was located across the street. I have some more pics that I will blog about soon - I was able to get my Michael Phelps on and swim there.

Continuing our walk, we finally made it to the convention center. We registered for the conference, set up our posters, and went back to our hotel. That night they had an evening reception. The location was supposed to be the Science and Technology Museum. Little did we know that there were 2 of them in opposite directions, and you better believe that we took a taxi to the wrong one.

China: Sunday

2011-07-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

On my last morning we went to the Temple of Heaven. It's where the emperor would go to pray each year. It sounds like they had quite the procession from the Forbidden City to here.

Old people were out in droves to play games

and dance.

Meanwhile, the little people just peed on the sidewalk. Seriously, that is what the kid is doing.

My vigilant taxi driver with his hand on the horn. I went alone to the airport and it was actually relatively uneventful after all the generalized craziness of this trip.

A very, very, VERY delicious meal before getting on the plane. I love you Pizza Hut Beijing!

China: Saturday

2011-07-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we finally got smart and joined a tour group. Instead of only doing 1 site like most other days we saw 5 sites! It was no surprise when we got back to the hotel totally beat from so much touring. However, it was awesome and I loved it.

Our first stop was the Great Wall. We went to the most popular site, Badaling, and there were tons of people but it turned out alright. Apparently Chinese aren't that into hiking so it was very crowded to get up to the nearest tower but then the crowds quickly dispersed as we walked past that.

The Great Wall either has very uneven steps (a step can be anywhere from 1 to 3 bricks apart and there isn't an obvious pattern) or a sharp slope. Although we did 'hike' the Wall we didn't get very far because you always had to watch your step.

The crowds leading up to the tower.

Can you find Scott? He loved taking pictures with Chinese as much as they loved taking pictures with him.

Almost no crowds after the tower.

We went to a jade factory for lunch and they can make beautiful things. Cutting jade is not taught in schools, it is passed down through families.This is a typical workstation.

The object that's being worked on is a jade ball that symbolizes family. It has two smaller balls inside that symbolize 2 following generations. All 3 balls are cut from the same piece and you cannot separate them. I really liked these pieces; they must be so difficult to make since you have to make the smaller balls after making the larger one.

We toured the Ming Tombs where 13 very important people are buried. They opened one tomb but the stuff decayed rapidly after so they're waiting for better technology before opening more.

Tea tasting. We didn't try any but it was fun to watch the art of tea time.

Our last stop was a silk factory and it was neat. This machine was still going to unravel the cocoons. These tours really wear you down because by the time we got here it was hard NOT to buy a silk quilt. I mean, it's such a great deal! Luckily we held our sanity and came out empty handed.

What a day! The boys went out again but Scott and I just hung out at the hotel tonight. We were so tired from the day and Scott was coming down with a cold. Around 9pm we wanted to order some pizza from a local place so we went down to the desk for help. The girl first picked up the phone to call them, said a few things, and then hung up to tell us that the place was open. We took some time to explain the concept of delivery and after a while she called back only to find out that the hotel was too far for delivery. Dang it! During the conversation a Pizza Hut was mentioned so we decided to have them deliver, we'd give in to American food as long as we got something for dinner. Once we settled on Pizza Hut she pulled out a map and told us how to walk there. Seriously?! Perhaps she thought that we really did want to go outside in our pajamas. We weren't exactly dressed up... We finally just ordered room service. It was a rough ending and I was so glad to finally be going home. Poor Scott!

Week 27: powdered milk

2011-07-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

10 pounds powdered milk

China: Friday

2011-07-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here we are looking for breakfast. We were trying to be cheap by not paying for it at the hotel but instead we ended up walking around for over an hour. Our first place was closed and we got sort of lost going to the next place. We finally settled on Japanese noodles. (In America we have very different foods for each meal: cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and meat for dinner. In Asia they have the same thing for every meal.)

Chairman Mao's body is here in Tiananmen Square. He actually wanted to be cremated but they decided to embalm adn display his body instead. You can see it from 8-12, M-F.

We're pretty sure they just use Google translator for their signs. Someone who speaks English and Chinese could make a killing by providing a correct translation. Anyone know what 'speeling' means?

The view of the Forbidden City from Tiananmen Square.

How about this for security in Tiananmen Square? They had cameras and military people everywhere. I guess they also have undercover people as well so that no uprising can happen. I wouldn't mess around in China.

The Forbidden City. It's where the royal family lived. The center walkway was only for the royals, anyone else would be killed.

One of the many buildings in the Forbidden City.

Beautiful decoration on a slope next to stairs.

After walking all over for breakfast and then through Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City the boys dragged me up a hill to see the rooftops.

And the rooftops of the Forbidden City. It was huge.

We tried to take a taxi to lunch after but everyone refused so we walked to what looked like a close place. Not only was it pretty far away but we also got lost. I was so exhausted by the time we arrived. These boys made me WORK.

For dinner we went to a North Korean restaurant that had a show as entertainment. It was an interesting but even more foreign experience than China.

Dog meat. No thanks.

A study recently came out from North Korea though. It said that the #1 happiest place to live is North Korea. #2 is China. Something tells me it might have been rigged...

China: Thursday

2011-07-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

Most of Wednesday was spent at the Summer Palace. It's a place where the royals went to get away from the Forbidden City during the summer. An empress in the early 1900s really liked it so most of the audio guide spoke about her.

Here is our group: Igor, Scott, Robert & Cecilie

All the ceilings in China are so beautifully painted. I guess they used to paint them black to prevent the wood from rotting and then they decided to decorate them and it really became an art.

Here we are climbing the Temple of Buddha in the hope of peace, tranquility and breakfast.

Scott eating my snacks at the top of the Temple of Buddha. (He made fun of me for packing so many snacks but then started eating them almost as soon as we landed.)

A beautiful building.

Scott and I with a random mad who wouldn't smile for his picture but also took about 100 takes to get just the right one. Seriously, he wouldn't move.

Seriously, they eat this for breakfast?

We rented a paddle boat to take around the lake. It was so fun and beautiful to see the entire place from afar.

You can see the Temple of Buddha in teh background. I thought it would be a short hill to the top; nope, it was a steep hike.

Another view of the Temple.

I give them empress a lot of credit for the beautiful architecture and stuff but she loses a lot of credibility with this stone boat. Did she really think it could float?

This hutong (aka neighborhood) was about a 5 minute walk from Tiananmen Square. I was so surprised by all the poverty in China. It's much more third world than I expected.

Another picture of the hutongs.

And this is the inside of a hutong where we ate Peking Duck; seriously. Scott's guide book talked about a local place to get great duck. It took us a while to find the place and as much as I was hoping we'd just give up I was the one who inadvertently found it. Woof.

We were the first dinner patrons, they were still de-boning something on a table.

They show you the cooked duck before cutting it up for you.

Then they give you the 'meat' that's left. Scott really enjoyed the ambiance and food. It was quite an evening!

Oh wait, our evening wasn't done. After dinner we met up with the last grad student to arrive early: Jay Lee. He's Korean and was a huge help since he could take an educated guess at some of the Chinese words. Chinese people would ask him where we were all from but since he doesn't speak Chinese it was pretty funny.

Jay was hungry so we decided to check out a night market. I thought it would just be a normal thing but I should have known better after being in China for a few days. They served such delicacies as scorpion, shark, snake, sheep genitalia, and other not so delicious items. Most items were already dead, just waiting to be fried and salted before enjoying, but the small scorpions were still alive on a stick. You could watch their little legs wiggle.

Robert and Scott tried the little scorpions. They're crazy!

How delicious!

My favorite part of the evening was that we ended up going to KFC to get Jay dinner. There was no way he was touching anything at the night market. Smart boy.

China: Wednesday

2011-06-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

Sadly enough we really don't have pictures from Wednesday. Scott and I were so glad to get off the train that we spent quite a while napping and cleaning up in our hotel. We had a tough time navigating through Beijing so it took quite a while to find lunch and a market where name brand stuff is sold for a pittance. In the afternoon 2 of Scott's co-students came in: Igor and Robert. It took a while to find dinner with them but finally got some delicious dumplings before crashing at the hotel.

This picture is of some Tibetian dumplings that Scott had for lunch. They apparently tasted like play-dough dipped in some sort of sugar. Even he didn't care for them.

Week 26: honey

2011-06-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

5 pounds honey

Happy Anniversary!

2011-06-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

We can't believe it's been a year since we got married! We've had a blast and can't wait for many more years to come. Scott talked me into saving part of our cake so it's been using precious freezer space until today.

Here's the necessary smiling picture. (We actually ate most of the cake last year so that it wouldn't take up so much room. Our freezer is pathetically small.)

This is how we really felt about eating year old cake.

And it actually wasn't that bad. We smothered it in raspberry freezer jam and quite enjoyed it.

Happy anniversary Scott. I love you!

Grandma Bain's Funeral

2011-06-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

Here's my family: Eric, Rushton (belongs to Melissa), Uncle Charlie, Dad, Mom, me, Laura, Melissa

*I didn't realize this didn't post a few weeks ago. Woops!*

Just before leaving for Atlanta my Grandma Bain passed away. While I was growing up she lived in Sacramento and we loved going to visit and swim. She would make us delicious zambozi (a beef and noddle casserole), always had gum, and sometimes even took us to an afternoon movie. She also made us numerous quilts that still keep us warm at night. During high school she came to Fremont to live with us and stayed there until a few years ago when she moved into a care home. She had Alzheimer's for the last 10 years. On the evening of April 17 my parents got a call that she had labored breathing and might be passing. Scott and I met my parents that evening to give my Grandma a sweet blessing and say goodbye. She stayed until Tuesday evening but passed away peacefully. She is missed.

The following Tuesday we had a nice service in Fremont for her and then went up near Sacramento to bury her near my Grandpa Bain. It was especially nice since my brother Eric from AZ and sister Laura from GA came out for the services. We had a great time being together again.

Rushton trying to see what's inside.

My mom giving a very nice eulogy.

My dad and Uncle Charlie, my grandma's only children.

My mom trying to coax Rushton out of the truck.

Oh wait, she was helping him up there. Silly Grandma!

Week 25: wheat

2011-06-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

50 pounds wheat

China: Tuesday

2011-06-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

This was our second, and last, day in Xi'an so we looked for all the other tourist attractions.

Scott was a huge hit with the locals and LOVED it. Numerous times daily he was asked in take pictures with Chinese kids; and if he wasn't asked he decided to jump in anyway. Even though I was always with him they didn't really care for my picture, only Scott. It was super funny and Scott felt like a celebrity. I'm just afraid that now when I tell him to do something he'll remind me of how much Chinese people loved him and that I should treat him with equal respect. Oh brother!

So Monday night we saw the water/music show in front of the Big Goose Pagoda and Tuesday we took a tour.

(I'd love to tell you all about the Pagoda and it's significance but I seriously have no idea what it was for. The sights in China all blended together and we never got a tour guide until Beijing so I'll just leave you as clueless as I was.)

I thought this was a very ornate elephant.

Scott loved all the Buddah's. His favorite was an enormous one in Beijing.

After the Pagoda we packed up and found a taxi to go back to the train station. Quite a few taxis rejected us before we finally got a ride. I guess it was a long trip and I don't think they liked dealing with people who didn't speak Chinese. It was harder than we thought to catch a taxi. At the train station it took us a while to communicate that we wanted to leave our luggage at a storage place so we could look around for the afternoon. The luggage ladies were really confused but we finally pulled out some money and convinced them we'd be back to pick it up. We should have listened to Mandarin for Dummies more closely...

After abandoning our luggage we caught a bus in the direction of the city wall. It turned off just before so we had to walk back quite a ways, We really mastered the art of taking the slowest way possible anywhere. Once at the wall we rented bikes on the top to ride around. It was super fun except the fact that we forgot sunblock.

We got a tandem bike and Scott rode in front. He pedaled hard and I pedaled. We tried to switch places once but his legs were too long to fit in the back so he stayed in front. This ride made me really want a tandem bike, it was so fun.

After returning our bikes we walked to the Bell Tower in the middle of the city. Each city seems to have a Bell and Drum Tower and since I don't know the significance I'll again leave us both wondering about it. (We really should have either done more research about stuff or gone with a tour group...)

Scott's awesome burn about an hour after the wall. As we tried to sleep that night we could feel heat radiating off our bodies.

Scott climbing the wall.

Cecilie climbing the wall.

A delicious spaghetti soup dinner. Scott just wanted some noodles and sauce but it somehow always turned into a soup.

On the Sat/Sun post I alluded to an awful ride back and this was it. We bought tickets down to Xi'an before leaving for China but we couldn't buy tickets back until 10 days before departure. A lady from Scott's Dad's work was helping us and didn't know if the tickets would arrive in time so we decided to wait. After getting to the hotel in Xi'an we asked if they could help us get train tickets. Their English was spotty but we finally communicated our request and they had a bell hop help us. He looked like the bell hop manager so I was expecting quality help. At the ticket counter he said there were no sleeper spaces available, proceeded to buy his own ticket for the weekend and then got out of line. I think he thought we'd just stay in Xi'an longer but we wanted to leave Tuesday night. We convinced him to buy us seats, thinking they'd be sort of like what Amtrak has, and we got back in line. They were NOT like Amtrak, it was basically a dining car with over 120 people. Luckily we got the 2-seater bench, I would not have wanted a 3-seater and shared it. Leading up to this Scott and I both anticipated semi-desirable conditions but we had no clue it would be so bad. Before the train pulled out Scott suggested we should get off a buy plane tickets back. No, no I was going to be a good trooper so we stayed. It was miserable. They played Chinese sitcoms until very late, had Chinese music also playing, and people talked so loud. To top it off, this train stopped along the way so we had an additional hour. I feel like my description is mild compared to the misery of that night. We tried to sleep but the seats were at a 90 degree angle and so uncomfortable and cramped. It was rough.

This is the little boy across the dining table, he wouldn't talk to us but liked watching us.

China: Monday

2011-06-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

After arriving in Xi'an and showering at the hotel we were ready to see the Terra-cotta Warriors! They were discovered about 40 years ago when some men were digging a well. A piece of a warrior came up with some dirt and the well was forgotten. Since then 3 'pits' have been discovered. Each pit has a different set up. I'd love to explain more but we didn't have a tour guide and most explanations were either in Chinese or it was too crowded to stand and read. A roof and walls have been built around each pit to preserve them and so tourists can come while they're still being excavated. It was interesting.

This is Pit 1 and the most famous one. You can see all the warriors lined up in rows. You can also see some of the building. This one looked like the Superdome.

Since we went on a Monday there were excavators there. You can see the planks they walk on and lights they use. It looks like tedious work to piece the soldiers back together. In the back of the building there were quite a few statues lined up that were still missing pieces. I can't believe how well preserved they were in general though.

Here we are standing with some of the warriors. (We're such tourists!)

Xi'an was hosting the world horticulture expo and this was the mascot. (You should have seen all the Chinese people watching Scott take this silly picture. He loved it!) Scott really wanted to go but we couldn't figure out how to get there, and no one understood what we wanted, until we took the wrong bus to the train station on our way back to Beijing. The bus dropped us off nearby but we had to hustle to the train. Bummer deal.

We already forgot what this place was but it was a tomb where it is hypothesized that some guy built an entire city to be buried in. The Chinese seem very worried about life after death. They're not quite sure what to do with is so they build huge tombs and have everyone buried with them. Luckily sometimes their concubines are allowed a forced suicide instead of being buried alive...

That night we went to a water show in front of the Big Goose Pagoda. It was pretty cool. They had the water and lights set to music and it lasted about 30 minutes. You could stand in the middle of the walkways and not get wet. Scott was in heaven.

By the end of the night we were so tired and beat. I'm not sure that we ever ate breakfast or lunch and dinner was hard to comeby. We went into a few resturants for dinner but they all smelled disgusting so that wasn't fun. Scott got a sandwich from a street vendor that was supposed to be beef but he thought it was liver. I'd never seen him throw away food until that night. After the water show we stopped by a fast food looking place but the meat was so spicy I gave up. We also tried the vanilla ice cream but whatever flavor it was wasn't vanilla!

China: Saturday/Sunday

2011-06-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

I'd love to call this day 1 but since it only took 16 hours to leave San Francisco at 7am Saturday and land in Beijing at 2pm Sunday I'm not sure how to really define this day.

We had a layover in Vancouver, BC and it was so fun to see so many stores from my mission. I loved serving in Edmonton and Olds, AB and seeing Tim Horton's reminded me of so many fond memories. I just had to buy some TimBits. (I'm sure there are more Tim Horton's in Canada then Starbuck's in the US.)

I also got to introduce Scott to poutin: French fries covered in gravy and cheese. It is a delicious heart attack.

Once we got to Beijing it took us a few tries to find the right bus to the train station. Apparently there are multiple train stations in Beijing and you also have to buy a ticket to board the bus. We finally made it on...

The bus ride was nail-biting. They drive like maniacs! I wrote down all the things I saw on that hour bus ride in my little notebook (aka spy book according to Scott):

- a car backing up on the on-ramp

- multiple cars parked along the freeway side

- a lady driving on the wrong side of the road

- people walking along the freeway and even dodging traffic

- rediculous merging and continuous honking

- multiple taxis stopping in the middle of traffic to let out passengers

- hundreds of mopeds and bikes

OK, so it doesn't sound that bad but I'm telling you, it was crazy! I was on edge the entire ride.

We were the last people off the bus and Scott was having a hard time managing both suitcases. There were a bunch of people at the door trying to grab a piece but he kept refusing. At first I thought he was being a bit rude since they just wanted to help but once I got outside I realized they were trying to give us a 'ride' to the station. They followed us for a ways and kept yelling in Chinese. I still laugh at my naivety of that moment.

Our first job at the train station was to buy tickets back from Xi'an, you could only buy tickets 10 days in advance so we weren't sure we could get them to the States before we left. It took us a lot of walking and many confused pauses to finally find the English line. We waited for almost an hour in the hot humidity to finally learn that the teller didn't really speak English and you had to buy your tickets in Xi'an. What a start...

We had an awesome overnight ride to Xi'an. We shared this comfy abode with a nice Russian couple; they didn't speak English and we didn't know Russian. The poor conductor came by with an announcement but neither of us could understand. I hope it wasn't important! We had an awesome night's sleep on the ride to Xi'an. (Remember how awesome this was and contrast it to our ride back.)

We totally went to China!

2011-06-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true: we actually went to China. I was there for a week and Scott for two. It was quite the experience! Although I still don't know any Chinese Scott can at least recognize these characters as meaning Beijing. Thank goodness he was there to be the tour guide.

Stay tuned because I'll be posting about each day individually and then Scott will wrap it up with his additional week!

Week 24: shortening

2011-06-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

6 pounds shortening

Week 23: tuna

2011-06-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

8 cans tuna

Maker Faire

2011-05-31T16:15:00.000-07:00

I've referred to my sister's family moving out to CA a few times before so now the explanation: Jake got a job with O'Reilly Media and they are based in Sebastopol, CA. It's basically his dream job. (The rockets we made at Thanksgiving were actually from their magazine.) Anyway, the other weekend they had a huge DIY exhibition with all kinds of crazy things.

Here we are as part of the cover; yes, we are a bit large for this magazine box and there was a larger box but we saw it too late...

We went with some friends and the boys were in HEAVEN. They could touch everything, play with the items, and even climb on big bikes. It was awesome. Scott and Joel were overstimulated.

Even Julie and I got in on the action a bit. This bike swing was fun but after feeling like it would tip a few times I told them that I was done. People make all sorts of crazy things.

Do you see how happy my Dad's face is? This bike contraption would swing them in a circle. After a few minutes of that Scott had to walk next to him while a worker followed my Dad out of the ride. He was a bit tipsy...

It was a really fun faire. My Dad brought his former boss and my Mom eventually showed up with Melissa and Rushton. We made quite the scene with Melissa in a wheelchair (remember, she's going to have a baby June 1) and Rushton trying to escape his stroller. We were a site.

The faire comes highly recommended so if you're in the Bay Area next May put it on your calendars!

Week 22: sugar

2011-05-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

20 pounds sugar

California Academy of Sciences

2011-05-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

My sister's family moved to Santa Rosa last month so a few weeks ago Scott and I met them in San Francisco to go to the California Academy of Sciences. I'd been there once before but since it was with 'another man' Scott wanted me to replace those memories with him. It was a really fun and educational day. For instance, I learned with certainty that I will never take a young toddler/child to a museum that I pay for their entrance.

Jake, Melissa & Rushton (Melissa is scheduled to have a little girl on Wednesday so she was quite the trooper to walk around all morning.)

Rushton loved the aquarium part and wanted to see all the hands-on stations but he wasn't into the hands-on part. He liked to put his hands in the water but touching the fish was not on his agenda. They have a planetarium there but kids under 8 can't go so I volunteered to stay out with Rush since I'd seen it before. Rush wanted to run around with his shoes off and we had a good time for a while but things got a bit tense when I wouldn't let him run through the gift shop. Luckily at that moment I noticed a coloring station next door. Even better is that behind the coloring station was a play area with a huge ship. Jackpot. After that I stayed with him while everyone else rushed through the rest of the museum so we could get lunch. It was awesome.

The day was polished off by Fenton's. Seriously, delicious.

Week 21: tomato soup

2011-05-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

8 cans tomato soup

Week 20: wheat

2011-05-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

50 pounds wheat

Fashion Faux Pas

2011-05-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

Today in church we were practicing a song to sing on Father's Day. The first line of the song is: 'My daddy is my favorite pal, and I help him everyday. It's plain to see I want to be like him in every way.' As we sing that the girl next to me, she's 7, starts to shake her head and say, "No way! No way! There's no way I want to be like my dad, he has NO sense of style!' I tried to tell her how wonderful her dad was and that he had other great qualities but she reiterated his lack of style and said he wears weird pants and mismatched shirts. Kids these days...

A love affair with dip.

2011-05-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

Rushton LOVES dip. The only use he has for chips, fries, or veggies is to get dip from the container to his mouth. We went to a Mexican restaurant and he attacked the sour cream. He also loves guacamole and ketchup; both fairly adult tastes.

Have at it kiddo.

Week 19: cream of mushroom soup

2011-05-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

5 cans cream of mushroom soup

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

We have both been blessed with wonderful mothers and mothers-in-law. We're so thankful for our family.

(We know we got married almost a year ago but we still really only have wedding pictures of our families.)

Atlanta

2011-05-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

My mom and I went to visit my sister Laura in Atlanta and we had an awesome time. She went out there for a dietitian internship and loved it so I went to see what she liked. Everyone there is so nice and it's beautiful with all the foliage. This may be my first visit but it certainly won't be my last! Thanks WaWa!

The Atlanta temple had been remodeled so we went through the open house and it was beautiful with it's simplicity and elegance. It's 20 minutes from Laura's place so she's lucky to be able to go often.

Laura at least looks good in this picture...

The Carrolls, a couple from my mission drove up from Florida to visit me. They're are awesome and it was so good to see them again. (Laura will probably visit them over Memorial Day weekend. Lucky.) I served by them in a remote area and loved every minute of it.

We went to the World of Coke museum and it was interesting. Who knew that a soft drink was so important! They had tons of Coke bottles decorated. Can you see me standing by my favorite one? I learned that the shape/feel of a Coke bottle is patented. Interesting.

At the end of the tour you can try different Coke products from all over the world. Word to the wise, if you're going to Africa avoid the pinenut flavor. It's way too sweet! However, the pineapple is delicious and whatever they serve in Greece isn't so bad.

Laura in her office.

And Laura pretending to work.

Thanks for such a fun weekend Laura. I can't wait to come visit again!

Week 18: powdered milk

2011-05-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

10 pounds powdered milk

Settlers & Smoothies

2011-05-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend we lived Scott's dream: we had delicious pizza for dinner and then came home to make fruit smoothies and play Settlers of Catan. Unlucky for him, he didn't win. All of it was fun but my favorite was the smoothies. We had a bunch of fresh fruit and it made everything so good.

Week 17: multivitamins

2011-04-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

1 bottle 500 multivitamins

You know you live in Palo Alto when...

2011-04-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

At church we teach a Sunday School class for 7 year olds and went on a short walk around the building today. As we're walking by a girl says "Look! There's my dad's Porsche!" When we turned the corner she saw another Porsche and actually couldn't decide which one belonged to her dad. When we walked by the second Porsche another kid told us about his dad's Porsche that was like that one except "it's a convertible and has comfy back seats." Seriously? To top it off the other cars in the parking lot were BMWs, Acuras, and others of the middle class variety.

In other news our weekends have been less than exciting lately. We changed the oil one weekend and moved my sister's family into their new house this weekend. We are hoping to have more exciting weekends in the near future though...

Week 16: cream of chicken soup

2011-04-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

5 cans cream of chicken soup

Week 15: wheat

2011-04-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

50 pounds wheat

Week 14: macaroni & cheese

2011-04-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

7 boxes macaroni & cheese

Week 13: powdered milk

2011-03-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

10 pounds powdered milk

Our Hands His Hands, Our Hearts His Heart

2011-03-26T15:55:00.000-07:00

This winter some friends at Church produced a film showcasing the service a friend receives as she lives with cerebral palsy and it has been selected as a finalist in the International Video Contest for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! It was an awesome and humbling experience and I want to share that video with you.

1.) Go to http://classic.lds.org/visitorschoice

2.) Then click onto "Amateur - US & Canada (10 videos)"

3.) Click "Next" on the bottom right

4.) Then find our video, entitled "Our Hands His Hands, Our Hearts His Heart" somewhere in the mix. The video has a picture of a girl with curled brown hair.

5.) Click directly on top of the video (it should have a play button) to watch.

TO VOTE:

1.) Make sure the box to the left side of our video is checked, and everything else is unchecked.

2.) Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, and click "Next" on the bottom right hand corner.

Thanks for watching it and especially thanks if you voted for it!

Birthday Weekend in Monterey

2011-03-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

Our birthday weekend was so fun. We left Friday evening and didn't even hit much traffic! We ate dinner at Serevino's Grill in Aptos. They were a competetor at the Clam Chowder Cook-Off but the line was too long and we didn't want to wait. Scott had a delicious bowl of clam chowder and I got equally delicious salmon. The dinner was really nice.

I took this picture at the restaurant (yes, it is in a Best Western) and didn't realize my flash was on. The map was made out of license plates so I thought it was really cool. I like how the map is so bright from the flash.

From there we drove down to Monterey and stayed at a very nice hotel. We never really go anywhere so it was funny to drive some where so close and stay in a hotel. Scott got a good deal and it was our birthdays that week so I couldn't really refuse. Also, we had an awesome time.

We are early risers and woke up long before the Aquarium opened so we went to see the sights of Monterey.

Here is Scott posing in front of the lighthouse. (He actually didn't know I was talking a picture but I think it's funny so I kept it.)

Here I am texting.

We finally got the automatic timer to work so we could take a picture together!

The post-tsunami surf. (Japan's earthquake was the day before so there were still tsunami warning signs up. Scott wanted to go ocean kayaking but I refused. Maybe another weekend...)

Scott trying to talk me into getting close to the water.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Monterey.

Notice there is nothing to touch in the pool. Sting rays live there but they must have been tired of the kids because they were all hanging out in a corner away from everyone. It was sorta funny.

Feeding time!

We're just happy as a clam!

Tiny seahorses.

The Aquarium was beautiful.

To finish our birthday weekend we rushed home to rotatil the garden and then I beat Scott and the Smith's at Settlers of Catan; much to everyone's shock and dismay.

Week 12: sugar

2011-03-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

20 pounds sugar

Clam Chowder Cook-Off

2011-03-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

At the end of February there was a Clam Chowder Cook-Off on the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. It was perfect because Scott's friend Kori was visiting a mutual friend in San Francisco so they came down to meet us. The weather ended up being really nice and we had an awesome time. We had no idea there were so many ways to make clam chowder! We decided that we don't like Manhattan style and we want our soup thick and creamy! However, when we went to Myrtle Beach last year we went to a restaurant in Carolina Beach that had the best clam chowder ever. Michael's Seafood Restaurant is worth the drive.

Mike, Kori & Scott

Scott & Cecilie

Week 11: tomato soup

2011-03-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

8 cans tomato soup

Happy Birthday!

2011-03-13T12:30:00.001-07:00

This week we both turned 27; Scott on Tuesday and me on Wednesday. Since we had a fun weekend away planned we just made dinner for each other at home and hung out on our birthday night. We think it's genius that our birthdays are so close together. Our kids can just have one celebration for the both of us. Scott especially enjoyed it when we first started dating. Since we weren't 'official' on our 25th birthdays he could gauge his gift to me by what I gave him. Also, it's hard to forget my birthday when it immediately follows his. He's got it so easy...

My New Truck

2011-03-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

First of all, I want to dedicate this to our wonderful readers in Sri Lanka. You guys are great! (FYI - I looked up viewing stats and we had more people from Sri Lanka looking at our blog than anywhere else outside the US.)

After chasing many false leads on Craigslist, I finally found this one over in Fremont on Ebay classified ads. It was great to buy it the old fashioned way - meet with the seller, test drive it, take it to my mechanic. It's a 2004 truck with a bunch of miles on it and a V6 engine (it has a nice kick to it when you step on the gas.) I really enjoy it and yes I am willing to help you move if you buy me a sandwich at Ike's.

Week 10: wheat

2011-03-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

50 pounds wheat

Cleaner Endorsement

2011-03-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

So I'm not really one to endorse a product but I can't help myself with this one. We hang out pans above the stove and after 8 months of use they look like we don't clean them, although I swear we do. Anyway, my friend told me about Bar Keepers Friend and it's seriously amazing.

I've been using steel wool to clean the tough stains but to not much avail. 5 minutes with this stuff and my pans were sparking. My friend did a mini demo for me so I expected big things but I was more than impressed with the final results. Although my camera isn't exactly super I took before and after pictures that give you some insight into what I'm talking about.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I told you it was awesome.

In case you want some, it's about $4 in basically any store. I bought it at Safeway. Let me know if you need any advice or feedback. (I swear they're not paying me for this post.)

MaeLynn Kartchner Harris

2011-02-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a month since MaeLynn passed away. Although we were originally planning to spend the weekend just with the Lee's I'm grateful that we were able to be there for MaeLynn's funeral. Being there made me think of all the memories we made. When I was about 12 I went to Utah for a few days and stayed with her family. Jamie, her sister, MaeLynn and I went to an art class, the library, played on the trampoline, and talked about everything. I loved every minute of it. For a few years after that MaeLynn and I would write consistently and she would keep me posted on the uber-cool life of a high schooler. She was my idol. She would spend time with me and still listened to me talk about my much less cool life in junior high. We also spent many summers with MaeLynn and Jamie in Idaho at our grandparents. It's hard for me to sum up my thoughts on MaeLynn, so many of the feelings I have can't be put into words. She was expected to pass a year ago and when she was feeling well enough to come to our wedding I was so glad.

Not only was it nice for me to see her but it was also nice for all the family to be together. I had so many cousins come and she stayed almost the entire night with her family. The next day there was another family gathering and she saw lots of cousins again. I'm so glad she was healthy enough to be there.

Until we meet again MaeLynn, we love and miss you!

Here's her obituary from the Logan Herald Journal:

MaeLynn (Kartchner) Harris (1980 – 2011)

MaeLynn Kartchner Harris, beloved wife, mother, daughter and friend, passed away quietly at home Jan. 31, 2011, from neuroendocrine cancer. MaeLynn was born April 11, 1980, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is the daughter of Jerry Charles Kartchner and Marie Hanks Kartchner. She attended school in Salt Lake City and graduated from Brighton High School in 1998. In 2002 she graduated from Utah State University with a major in public relations. MaeLynn married Andrew Lee Harris of North Logan, Utah, on June 22, 2001, in the Jordan River LDS Temple. They made their home in Logan. They are the parents of five children: Kendall (8), Ellie (6), Triston (4), Sawyer (4), and Abigail (3). MaeLynn was an amazingly sweet person who brought joy to whomever she met. She loved painting, being outdoors, and socializing. She will be remembered as a happy, fun-loving, kind, beautiful woman who loved life. She served faithfully in multiple callings in the LDS Church and had a firm and abiding testimony. Her children were her joy and happiness and she was an excellent mother. As a family we would like to thank all of those who cared so lovingly for MaeLynn and her family during her illness. The kindness, effort, and generosity extended in her behalf were without limit and were greatly appreciated. MaeLynn is survived by her husband and children, her parents, her sister, Jamie, and her maternal grandmother, Mae Hanks, for whom she was named. She is also survived by her in-laws, Lee and Pamela Harris, and her biological family, Andy and Lori Reese, Devan, Jaide and Tonia. Funeral services will be held Saturday, Feb. 5, 2011, at 1 p.m. at the Logan 10th Ward chapel located at 792 N. 500 East, Logan, Utah. A viewing will be held Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Nelson Funeral Home located at 162 E. 400 North, Logan, and Saturday at the church, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. prior to the funeral service. Interment will be at the North Logan City Cemetery, 2000 E. 2500 North, North Logan. Online guest book at nelsonfuneralhome.com. Published in Logan Herald Journal from February 2 to February 16, 2011

Week 9: yeast

2011-02-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

6 pounds yeast

Dilemma

2011-02-27T21:26:00.000-08:00

Scott is sitting next to me right now and can't decide what to do. Since he had to use some tools this afternoon they were left on the table. I've asked him to put them away the next time he gets up. He wants to read a book but it's too far away to get without standing up. Instead he keeps starting to stand up, remembers about the tools, and sits back down. Really Scott?

China, here we come!

2011-02-21T09:20:00.000-08:00

I'll keep this one short and sweet. I found out this morning that my paper was accepted for a conference in Beijing so Cecilie and I will be going. The paper notification date was Feb. 21. I started getting anxious to hear the result yesterday afternoon. My phone was on vibrate during the night. I woke up a little after 4am and saw that I had the email. I saw that my paper was accepted on my phone, but I wanted to double check with the real computer. Cecilie followed me out to the cold living room and we confirmed its acceptance together.

I'm pretty excited. Not only is this a fun excuse to travel, but it also marks my first paper as first author which is a big milestone in my field.

Week 8: tuna

2011-02-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

8 cans tuna fish

Utah Weekend

2011-02-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

The other weekend we went out to Utah to visit Scott's family. In October there was a killer deal on Southwest and since we weren't sure how long we'd be there for Christmas we decided to plan another trip out. This weekend was really nice. Scott flew out on Thursday so he could get another ski day in. Scott and Jake had an awesome day and you can even see where they skied!:

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=955598

Saturday we were going to snowmobile but my cousin passed away earlier in the week and the funeral happened to be during our visit. The services were nice and we'll miss MaeLynn very much. (I'll write about that more when I feel like I can.)

On Sunday we tried to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir preform but they were traveling so instead we saw the broadcast from the week before. I guess we'll have to try it again next visit... Scott's sister and husband came over for dinner and we finally got to play Settlers of Catan. Scott has been dying to play the game but I won't let him usually. He used to play it all the time with a core group of friends but the game never ended friendly so I'm not a huge fan. He and Fred were good sports and let us just play to end the game instead of play to win.

Monday morning we drove Scott's dad to the airport and then went to lunch with his mom. We had enough time before we flew out to look around downtown so we wandered through a jewelery shop and went on top of a skyscraper. It was such a fun visit and we look forward to seeing them again!

Week 7: sugar

2011-02-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

20 pounds sugar

Peppermint Crunch Cake

2011-02-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

What it was supposed to look like:

What it actually looked like:

So I've become obsessed with peppermint. I'll eat almost anything if it tastes like mint. I saw this cake in the Williams Sonoma magazine and knew I MUST try it. I worked really hard to make it beautiful but luckily it tasted better than it looked. Because of the angle you can't see how lopsided the cake was but this picture will give you a good idea of what I was working with.

**Word to the wise: if you're making a layered cake cut the bottom layer flat so everything lays flat and the frosting won't just slide off.**

Week 6: maccroni

2011-02-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

6 pounds macaroni

Beceley

2011-02-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

I'm always amused at how difficult it is to understand my name. I understand that it's difficult but I'm not sure it's really as difficult as people make it. At the mall the other day I left a bag and when I called the store the girl said she'd save it for me. When asked my name I started to spell it and she repeated back "B-E-C". I tried to correct her but she obviously didn't get it. This is one of the more creative spellings/pronunciations I've come across. I always wonder what people think when they know me as something besides my actual name.