eva is eight

So many great memories in those short eight years.  So much to celebrate with this little girl...

eva's last day of being 7

the less waste home

We found a home to rent today.  Moved most of our stuff.

  

Now I will take a few minutes to relax by blogging.  

I actually got in the pool today.  I am proud of myself.  Since we have a place to live tomorrow, I didn't sit with my laptop and scour Craigslist while my kids enjoyed the pool.  I went down the water slide.  The same water slide that I had noticed only kids and dads went down.  Wahoo!  Look at me reeeeelax!

When we decided to move to Hawaii I immediately started thinking about my stuff.  After purging most of what we owned in our garage sale, I was left with stuff that I really cared about.  All stacked to the ceiling in bins in my parents' basement.  How will I get it all to Hawaii?  

One day we were driving somewhere and Karl tells me about an article in Sunset Magazine about a family that has no waste. My first thought?  (And please don't judge my judgmental self)  It was, "Ew, I bet they stink."  I was imagining people that threw away nothing.  

A few weeks later, I was checking out a few of my favorite blogs (aka relaxing) and my friend had a link to her sister's blog who is rely into healthy food.  Since I am into that (most of the time) I clicked (aka blog stalked).  She had this photo up:

The most beautiful cupboard of food that I have ever seen.  Well, except for that old tin.  While charming in the photo, I have to admit it grosses me out.  I would love to be one of those cool people that loves old rusty bumpy stuff.  But I am not.  Oh, hi!  We were talking about beautiful cupboards, weren't we?

I saw the photo and the part of me that loves organization met up with part of me that likes to be less wasteful and I swear I heard heaven music playing in the background.  And then part of me that loves to buy stuff was the loudest in my head and it wanted to know where she got those awesome jars.  You know, so I can be less wasteful, right?

Turns out this is the cupboard of the family in the article that husband was telling me about.  And THAT does NOT look like the cupboard of stinky every thing saver people.  That is just lovely.  

I read the article, I read her blog, and when I have more time to relax, I will read about it more.  

But this was my answer.  I will go to Hawaii and have less stuff.  Um, and still miss the stuff that I have on the mainland, but I won't go crazy trying to attain everything that I lived with before.  

So, why less waste?  Because, for me zero is just not realistic.  So, say I was at about a ninety before.  I am now shooting for fifty two.  It's not all the way, but for sure a big improvement.

I won't be taking my cute jars (that I don't have yet because I can't find them) to the bulk section at the grocery store to save plastic bags.  It sounds too heavy, I don't plan ahead that well, and to be honest I would be embarrassed (unless I had a friend with me that was doing the same thing.  I am a wimp that way).  I will make changes where I can.  I have always tried to use my own grocery bags.  I happened to come to an island where it is actually illegal for stores to give plastic bags.  When we went to the store, I didn't buy plastic baggies.  I actually love plastic baggies.  I can totally admit that.  I buy them in all sizes.  Even special tiny sizes from the craft store.  I packed the kids bento boxes a few days and I prevented a boat load of baggie usage.  


I need a solution for water bottles.  I get grossed out by reusable plastic water bottles and I don't like drinking out of the metal bottles.  I have tried a few a I swear I can taste the metal.  

I am sure I can do more.  I don't have any concrete goals, it is more a way of thinking.  I keep thinking of things that I should have brought because it is such a waste to rebuy stuff that I already have.  Things like a needle and thread  because the airlines ripped the umbrella on my stroller.    

And tomorrow when we leave this hotel and I throw away (when my dad isn't looking, he hates waste) the half eaten Costco roasted chicken because I was too lazy to take the meat off the small parts, I will feel bad.  Okay, I would have felt bad before but now that I am shooting for fifty two, I will feel even worse.  And maybe next time, I will remember to not buy the chicken because I wasted half of it the last time I bought it. 

By sharing this, I risk not doing it and having people see me fail but I will say it anyway... I want to see if I can go the next six months without buying clothes for me AND for my kids.  Yes, so maybe I had isolate myself on an island where my choices are severely limited to try this out but there is always the internet and there was the year that it seemed like all my clothes came from Costco. Okay, this may not happen, my shoulders just got tense as I was typing this last paragraph and I just remembered that I only brought like two things to wear to church.  Okay, my point is, I am going to buy less.  

As I try to set up my home, I will try to buy more things second hand (except beds, and sheets, and towels, my cootie phobia is getting worse as I age).  That means less packaging, less stuff that ends up in the land fills, and since I won't have as many options, I am sure that it means I will buy less. 

Wish me luck in this next silly endeavor.  

Seems like when life gets a little comfortable, I have up and move, or take on a new challenge, I guess. 

...then I will relax

Long ago, husband was in school.  I thought, I will work now, then have a baby and then I will relax.

Baby came, and I thought, when husband is done with school and we have a house, I will relax.

Husband finished school, we bought a house, and I thought, when this house is remodeled, I will relax.

This was our mud room.  I loved that mud room. It was my favorite part of the house.

This was our kitchen.  It was a great kitchen.  Open, clean, heated floors for those cold winters...  It was my second favorite part of the house.  

Six years passed, house wasn't done, I was sick of the house, and I thought, when we sell this house, I will relax.

House sold (in 10 days), thought Hawaii sounded like a fun place to live, decided to move in with my parents until baby was old enough to travel, and I thought, once we get moved, and I have baby #3, I will relax.

Moved in with my parents, had the baby, relaxed for about a week and then thought, once I get packed to move to Kauai, I will relax.

This is all of our stuff.  We are vagabonds.  A guy was laughing at all our stuff.  He thought we were on vacation.  Then we told him we were moving here.  Then he said we didn't have very much stuff. 

Packed our stuff, said some super sad goodbyes, put everything we needed into 9 suitcases, hopped on the plane (Maximus rode in my arms and was an angel so I did relax for a minute), and thought, once we get there, I will relax.

Got to our resort, unpacked a little, went to the pool, and thought, once we have a permanent place to live and buy a car and put the kids in school and have furniture and all the other stuff that goes in a house, I will relax.

This is Saimin, a Hawaiian noodle dish.  It's a fusion of all the Asian cultures and was our first meal here.  Kauai isn't known for the food, I hope I survive.  

And so, I realize, I may never relax.  And maybe the sooner I realize and accept that, the better off I will be. I think that is because when I have the choice between comfort and adventure, I choose adventure.  When I have the choice of buying it or making it, I like to make.  Some days I think it keeps me young.  Some days I think it ages me exponentially.  Some days I think my kids are better for it.  Some days I think I need to start saving up for all the therapy they are going to need from having adventurous (aka chaotic) parents.  And so, you see, I still haven't relaxed.  

the family (minus maximus): snowboarding

Karl has been taking the kids up snowboarding and I finally joined them.  The last time I went was about a year ago and I didn't know that I was pregnant yet.  Whoops.  I have been dying to see the progress that they have made.  

New Years Eve, I wake up and Karl says, "Let's go snowboarding."  By the time Karl finishes work, we all get dressed, the baby fed, the boards, gear and everything ready, it is already 2:30.  So we decide we to do night skiing.  We get to the place where we get discount lift tickets to find out that they don't have night skiing on New Years Eve.  Boo.  So we went to a park with a big hill and made the best of it.  

But yesterday, we actually made it up the ski resort.  And it was open.  What an accomplishment.  Seriously.

This is actually where Karl and I met for the first time.  I never ever would have thought that one day we would be bringing our kids here.

I tried to take videos and my snowboarding skills aren't good enough that I can move and video at the same time.  Karl shot these after it got dark.  So, even though it is hard to see in places, it is still fun for me to watch.  The video is 2 min and 30 seconds (which for me is long because I have about a 30 second attention span).  The first part is Eva and then Samuel starts at about 1 min and 50 seconds.  

Both of them are most comfortable riding their heel edges.  We took them over to the bunny heel to practice their toe edges and this is how Samuel handled it:

It was making me laugh so hard.  He would bend over and look through his legs to see where he was going.

Karl and I were getting so tired but our kids had so much energy.  We got off the lift and before we knew it, Samuel and Eva are climbing in the snow.  With their snowboards hooked on and all.

Riding with Eva and Samuel was seriously so much fun.  They look so tiny on the hill and it seems like people are always yelling down at Samuel from the lifts about being a little guy.  I had a hard time keeping up with Samuel and Eva and I were just perfect for each other.  

Oh, and it also happened to be Eva's lucky day.  We were getting on the lifts and look who we saw:

David Archuleta, who happens to be Eva's crush.  On the way up Eva said, "I just had one of those things happen, you know, the thing that you wanted your whole life."  I said, "Your dream come true?"  She said her dream had come true to see David Archuleta in real life.  So, when we got to the top we waited for him, he boarded past us, Karl stopped him and he was so nice and let us take a picture.   

On the way home Eva whispered, "Mom, it's not every day that you get to see the person of your dreams."  She is right.  What a charmed life she lives.  And, well, as parents it seems like we are happy to go out of our way to make all of our kids wildest dreams come true.

starting off the new year

Be more patient with my family, clean more, spend more one on one time with the kids...

I had some great ideas. Then I got out of bed.

I was already bugged that everything that I was cleaning up was not mine. I fell asleep on the couch while holding Maximus (I don't regret that part) for longer than I should have. The kids fended for themselves which translates into getting all their toys out and moving them to random spots in the house. Basically everything that I resolved to do, went to pot.

And the worst part? The very very worst part of my first day of 2011?

See this sweet kid?

His fingernails were getting a little long and it makes me so sad to see those little scratches on baby faces. I bet where you can guess where this story is going.

This trusting little boy. Sigh.

And look what I did. I cringe as I type. I was so flustered. It bled. I had to cut a bandaid in half, his hands are still so tiny. Add to that being all flustered and then my kids want to hold him and instead of helping husband is taking pictures. I was a mess.

I think I may have lost my job as the nail trimmer in this family.

But look, he is still a happy kid, modeling his wound.

The day wasn't all bad. It's just that my resolutions only lasted for about 7 minutes. But that's okay. Lot's of great things happened too. I had an amazing meal with my family. And Maximus slept through the whole thing (maybe because he was exhausted from crying after having his finger clipped).

And from the look of this picture. It looks like he has forgiven me.

Happy 1-1-11! It's all up from here.