May 12: April in review

May is almost half over and I’m finally, finally posting my summary of April 2013.

Special days I celebrated this month and how:

• Lots of friends and family members had birthdays, but there wasn’t any excessive celebrating.
• On April 1, which actually had nothing to do with the fact that it was April Fool’s Day, we toured the Queen Mary and the Princess Diana exhibit before flying home from our mostly-Disney vacation. The Diana thing was fascinating—lots of royal family history, handwritten items, gifts, and clothing Diana wore. They didn’t allow photography or I would’ve filled my memory card with pictures and showed ‘em to ya.
• Jack’s class celebrated Arbor Day with a tree planting near the school. It involved a lot of mud and eating of worms and I’m oh-so-glad I wasn’t a chaperone that day.

Books I read this month:

• I LOVED Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris. BUT THEN! Then I also got to SEE him! Val and I went to the Portland stop on his current tour. His storytelling is nothing short of genius. I loves me those belly laughs.
• I re-started reading Falling Together, by Marisa de los Santos. I like her writing style, but I’m having a tough time not falling asleep whenever I start reading this book. It’s just not even a little bit entertaining to me. I’ll read another few chapters but if it’s still blah, I’ll give up.
• We had a Moms’ Book Exchange party as part of the reading incentive program we ran at school. I came home with a grocery bag full of new reading material! Such potential!

Movies and TV shows worth mentioning:

• Victor and I started re-watching the entire Arrested Development series so we can be prepared for the new Netflix episodes on May 26. That show has so much funny. So much.
• I feel like Smash has been trying to make me stop watching all season. I tell ya, casting Kathie Lee Gifford for a guest spot is on the right path to a boycott! I cannot abide that woman. The episode made me gag. No joke.
• It’s looking like several shows I’ve been watching this seasons may be cancelled. Keeping my fingers crossed, but just for some of the best ones…
• We rented Iron Man and Iron Man 2 because I thought the trailer for Iron Man 3 looked really good. I liked the first two movies, and hope to see the newest one soon.
• I thought Argo was very well done.
• This wasn’t a TV show, but we hosted Presto the Magician for a family night at the school in April. He was a huge hit, of course. My favorite part *might* have been when I asked him beforehand if he would come out to “The Final Countdown” and he totally knew what I meant! Bonus points if you know too.
  
• Also not a movie or TV show, Victor and I saw Rain, a Beatles tribute show. Very fun.

This month’s disappointments:

• More dental work. Pfffft.
• I’m seeing the light at the end of the PTO tunnel; my presidential term ends June 30. There’s a solid board in place for next year, and I know they’ll do an amazing job, and it almost bums me out because I won’t be working with them. I’ll get over it, I’m sure. It’ll be good to get my life back. Still, I get the sad face sometimes.
  
• Jack started football again. If you’ve been paying attention, you know how that makes me feel.
• I slipped and fell on the stairs, messed up my back, and felt like I was 90 for a few days. Another day my toe got stuck while putting on my pants and I fell over; landed hard on my knee. Injuries to 90-year-olds do not heal quickly. I’m very limp-y.
• A dear friend got a cancer diagnosis. Cancer sucks so much.
  

My accomplishments:

• Thanks to recent weekends of good weather, we started working in the front yard. So many weeds! It’s lovely to see the new blooms, the perennials coming back to life, and the color from newly-planted annuals, though, and Vic and I love working out there together. There’s one thing we disagree on, though: I love ground cover and he is wrong.
• Add something else to my “Things I Saw on Pinterest That I Actually Did” list! I painted our mantle and fireplace surround. I took a “before” picture but the “after” picture needs a little work before I’m ready to show it off. Y’know, the corralling of cords and cables, that prettying-up sort of thing.

Anything else:

This is a weird optical illusion. Follow the directions (I promise it’s not one of those images you stare at forever and then it screams at you).

1. Stare at the red dot on the girl’s nose for 30 seconds
2. Turn your eyes towards the wall/roof or somewhere else on a plain surface
3. Keep blinking your eyes quickly

 

And a chuckle:

Have a good (rest of) May!

May 10: Hidden Falls

There’s construction going on a few streets over from us. Over the past 15 years there have been a variety of signs in the field that advertised planned development, but it wasn’t until this year that any activity actually started. There are now several large signs that state the area is called “Hidden Falls,” with maps of the houses and a planned park. (For you locals, here’s the park proposal, if you’re interested.)

All of this excites me so much, I can only say meh. I mean, it’s just a new neighborhood.

Then last week my dear friend, Stephanie, who lives a bit south of the new construction, asked if I’d seen the hidden falls in our neighborhood. I was all WHUH? (Cuz she be cray-cray.)

Apparently this new neighborhood, Hidden Falls, was named so for a reason. I know, right?

Stephanie said to take a walk through the new construction, ignore “no trespassing” signs along the grass road (she be cray-cray AND a rule-breaker), wind your way down the canyon, and here’s what you’ll find:

So, again, I say, I know, right?

I took that picture when Victor and I went there a week ago. From above, the view doesn’t quite do the falls justice, so I stole a pic Val put on FB after her visit there, because she and her fam weaved their way down to the very bottom of the canyon:

That waterfall is friggin’ HUGE! And it’s been in my backyard (kinda) for forever (or so). For some perspective:

The next-door neighbor kid is pissed that so many people have found out about the falls because it’s not “his” anymore. Who knew I lived next door to Christopher Columbus?!

MORAL OF THE STORY: If we just keep our eyes open, and trespass through abandoned property, and endanger our lives and safety, beautiful things can be found—even in our boring ol’ neighborhood.

Apr. 30: Month in summary

I know the month is over, but I’m not done writing my summary. Sorry.

Soon, my loyal followers Mom. Soon.

Apr. 23: Apps that work

If you don’t have an iPhone and/or iPad and/or iPod, then scroll to the bottom because I have something special for you there.

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So, I’ve hesitated sharing this info because my brother-in-law makes fun of my blog posts that have to do with iPhone apps, but I just can’t help it. I am in looooove with things that make my life easier. Ted, mock away.

But first, a little background. From the time I first purchased an iPhone, I’ve worked hard to make sure my iPhone calendar, contacts, notes, and email always match what’s on Outlook on my PC; Outlook has always run my life. Keeping it sync-ed with my phone was easy-ish until Victor got an iPhone, and then I had to get his sync-ed even though he had a different Apple ID and that might be when I started getting super curse-y. Add in a couple iPads, upgraded phones, and WiFi syncing, and you’ve got yourself one very stressed-out Jen.

A few weeks ago I gave up trying to get all our devices to have accurate information; it was seriously affecting my blood pressure. Giving up was kinda cool, actually, because I could get yell-y at Victor when he “forgot” about something on our calendar. I could be all IF YOU BROUGHT YOUR DEVICES TO ME TO SYNC REGULARLY MAYBE THIS WOULD NOT HAPPEN AND ALSO THIS IS NOT SCREECHING THIS IS QUIET GENTLE REMINDING AND WHATEVER JUST GO SIT IN THE SHAME CORNER RIGHT NOW.

So I went about finding another way to get the important info that we both need regularly to always be accurate. It took more missteps than I care to admit, so I’m just gonna tell you what I landed on.

OUTLOOK.COM. It has email (POP and IMAP for my manullang.com address—yay!), contacts, and calendar. Changes made on either the iDevices or outlook.com are fed almost immediately to all linked devices. I love that part. There’s really no need to plug our devices into my laptop anymore, and that was my goal. Happy Jen. My only complaint is that delivery times for my test messages have a significant delay; of course, with real messages I don’t notice.

Is outlook.com better than Google or Yahoo mail? It is for me. Your results may vary.

Finding the right app for notes was trickier. Our notes contain important but random things like lists of our physicians, the kids’ school IDs, exterior and interior house paint colors, account number, login IDs, recipes, gift ideas, etc. What I ended up using to handle our notes is Evernote. Here are several reasons that I love love love Evernote:

1. There’s a web version, which I can sync to all our devices. If I have a lot of typing to do, it’s much easier to do on my laptop than tapping out on my phone or tablet.
2. Notes can contain photos, links, and formatting. They’re pretty.
3. Notes can be organized into notebooks, which means Vic doesn’t have to scroll through my jewelry design ideas to find the login info for Comcast.
4. They’re perfect for recipes, and I love having those recipes handy when I’m at the grocery store and forgot to bring my shopping list.
5. Evernote notes can be used a bit like Pinterest, but-cept I can add detail, put several pictures in one note, etc. I like that I don’t have to dig through my Pinterest boards to find stuff I vaguely remember pinning. I especially like the way Evernote looks on the iPad:

Here’s the same page on the iPhone:

Verdict: Evernote is fab.you.luss.

Flipboard. Jim M. told me about this “social magazine” and I immediately downloaded it, but haven’t completely committed yet. It’s definitely better on a tablet, IMO, but no matter the size of the device, here are things I like a lot:

1. The interface is really slick.
2. Google Reader feeds can be added. I like the way you scroll through the items, almost more than I like Feedly (which I am still adjusting to and am not yet in love with).
3. Twitter feeds can be added too. I have a tough time remembering to read Twitter because I haven’t been using it much, and I like the idea of my feed appearing with other stuff I am in the habit of reading. A Facebook news feed can be added too, but I haven’t tried that.
4. It’s very swipe-y. That’s fun.
5. My favorite part is how important my friends sometimes look on the front page:

That’s a pic Sherilee posted of her golden beets, which is not a euphemism for anything of which I’m aware.

Can I share one of my many not-even-slightly-related pet peeves? I bet some of you share it too, and I bet others of you are guilty of committing this pet peeve of mine, which I’m pretty sure you do just to peeve me. That’s a thing, right? Peeving?

Email addresses. Why do people gotta make them weird? Like, don’t make them all cryptic or cutesy, or put weird characters in them, or stuff like that… it’s just confusing. Make your email address some form of your name (or nickname) and BE DONE WITH IT. Sheesh.

Sorry for getting’ screechy there. To make up for it, well, I got nothin’.

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Oh, and for you non-iDevice users, here’s a cute bunny to disguise my disappointment in you and the 20th century in which you apparently still live:

Lovies!

Apr. 17: Spreading more joy

Wherever there is a human in need, there is an opportunity for kindness and to make a difference.

I wrote the other day about spreading joy to others. In light of the bombing in Boston this week, I’m feeling even more that spreading joy needs to become a much bigger focus of my life. I’ve found a gazillion web sites dedicated to this, and I’ll share just a few of the ideas that I think could be totally do-able for me.

• Smile at people. I have no problem making eye contact and smiling at strangers, but when I’m on the receiving end of a stranger’s smile I sometimes feel kinda creeped out. Proceed with caution—that’s all I’m saying.
• Give genuine compliments
• Be thoughtful
• Donate to worthy causes that align with your values. This is more of a good deed thing than spreading joy—it is to me, anyway; I think of spreading joy as being more immediate and personal than making a donation to Goodwill or American Cancer Society. Still, donating is good good good.
• Give a handwritten note of encouragement or appreciation
• Pick flowers from your garden and give them away
• Seek out a store manager and let them know when a clerk has been particularly helpful
• Comment on a blog. Facebook comments are delightful to receive, but the ones left directly on the blog are really special.
• Let your kids pick out your clothes for work one day (yikes!)
• Invite a friend out for coffee
• Text a friend you haven’t contacted in a while, just to let them know they’re on your mind
• Surprise your spouse and kids with a COOKED breakfast on a busy weekday
• Write a note to your kids to tell them you’re proud they belong to you
• Help your kids spread joy too!
• Make up “care bags” and give them to homeless people (fill a large Zip-loc bag with things like a bar of soap, shampoo, sunscreen, toothbrush, flossers, toothpaste, razor, comb, Band-aids, Chapstick, emery boards, hand sanitizer, deodorant, pack of wet wipes, Kleenex, gum, mints, nuts, energy bars, socks)
• “Like” a small business on Facebook
• Leave a dollar in a library book
• Put a birdfeeder on the ground, just for the squirrels (I bet they’ll be suspicious)
• Tape change to a vending machine
• Tip 100%
• Hand out free popsicles to the neighborhood kids

The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion and compassion and humor and style and generosity and kindness. ~Maya Angelou

Now, go be nice. Let’s make the goodness in the world bigger than the evil.

Apr. 14: Chuckles

My “save this crap to share on blog” folder is overflowing. Here ya go.

 

 

This really, really makes me throw up a little:

 

 

I showed this to Jack and now he won’t stop asking when we’re going to do it to our kitchen.
If we ever make a secret hide-out, it’s gonna be secret from the kids. Why else would we have one???

 

This might be the funniest photo re-creation I’ve seen:

 

Every. Single. Day.

 

 

 

 

 

Just ignore these last ones if you know nothing about Les Mis…

 

Have a good week, friends.

Apr. 13: Is this racism? I don’t know.

On my way out of the school yesterday, the principal pulled me aside to tell me about an incident with which Jack was involved. I immediately started to apologize—it’s a habit—but this time it wasn’t Jack’s fault… because he can’t help his ethnicity.

Seems one of the instructional assistants heard another fifth grade boy calling Jack “Asian.” Not referring to him as Asian, but actually calling him “Asian,” like a name. I was kinda “meh” about it until the principal said the same boy calls another kid “Little Mexican.” Together, these things made me super-prickly. I was glad the IA reported it and the principal gave this situation the attention it deserved: the kid was reminded of the rules about name-calling at school and asked to apologize. (For those of you familiar with our PBIS program, I don’t know if he was given a warning or referral, or spoken to only.)

I don’t know if I should be angry or sad or mama-bear-protective. My boy knows his ethnicity doesn’t make him better or worse than anyone else, so I’m not worried he’ll be scarred by this incident (it helps that he doesn’t like the kid much anyway). I think the whole thing mostly just makes me sad. What makes me prickly about it is that a kid—any kid in 2013—thinks it’s OK to talk to others this way. Have these racist attitudes been taught at home? Or could it be that the school staff and I are all overreacting because it’s typical at this age to be unintentionally insensitive?

When my nephews were in high school, I remember my sister being shocked to hear them and their friends call each other the n-word. To them, though, that was just a silly name that meant “friend.” It seems like many of the racist attitudes we were exposed to while growing up in the 70’s are mostly history, at least in this part of the world. This makes me very happy. The idea that people who grew up then might not only still be hanging on to those attitudes, but teaching them to their kids, makes me very unhappy.

We all have biases, some so much a part of us that we don’t even remember where they came from. I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that I am biased against ignorant and/or mean people, bad drivers, and jackasses who walk slowly in crowds. But when it comes to the biggies—gender, race, religion, age, sexual orientation, etc.—it is so, so important that we point our children in the right direction, discrimination-wise. 

Stepping off my soapbox now.

Apr. 6: “We must try”

Wow. I just wrote a very long and totally depressing post about cancer, prompted by the recent death of Roger Ebert. I walked away from it for several hours and then came back, read it over several times, edited it heavily, and finally decided it was best to delete the whole thing. Instead, I will share these Ebert-related items:

Fans admired his courage, but Ebert told The Associated Press that bravery had “little to do with it.” … “You play the cards you’re dealt,” Ebert wrote in an email in January 2011. “What’s your choice? I have no pain. I enjoy life, and why should I complain?”

I love that, rather than accepting credit for a courageous fight (which, of course, he has the right to do), he says anyone else would do the same thing under the same circumstances. And yet, there are people who would complain, spread their misery, and bum everybody out… which is part of the reason I deleted my original post.

Here’s the thing:

We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

I am inspired to find new ways to contribute joy, even in the toughest times. That’s really all that I’m trying to say.

Mar. 31: My summary of March

Wow, that month went kinda fast. Yikes.

Special days I celebrated this month and how:

There were no major holidays for us this month, but we did go on vacation for the first time in eleventy years, so that was a pretty big celebration.

We spent six days in Southern California, three of them at the Disneyland Resort. Katie and Jack hadn’t been there since 2006, so this was a completely different vacation than we’d had with them before. There were new attractions to experience, and both kids were older/taller, allowing them to try rides they hadn’t been able to in earlier visits.

One HUGE step was that Victor and I actually separated from the kids a couple times and went off to do the too-scary-for-our-weeeener-kids rides (Tower of Terror and California Screamin’) ourselves. We were proud of them for being conscientious—they quickly responded when we texted them—and for Jack allowing Katie to be in charge for brief moments. However, we’re still a long way from leaving them on their own OUTSIDE a Disney park.

Cars Land, the newest area of California Adventure, definitely lived up to the hype—it was like walking through a set of the movie! The refurb of it’s a small world was very cute. Vic and Katie loved World of Color (Jack and I napped at the hotel instead). I’ll write up a more thorough trip report when I get the chance, but for now I’ll just say that *almost* start-to-finish, this was one of the best vacations we’ve ever been on.

Books I read this month:

• Disney travel books, mostly.
• The new book by my favorite Crappy Blogger, Parenting: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures. Very funny.
• My attention span is still frustratingly short and although I’ve started reading several books, I haven’t finished much. During April we run a reading incentive program at school, and I plan to participate along with the kids, so hopefully April’s month-in-review post will be more book-y.

Movies and TV shows worth mentioning:

• Wreck-It Ralph was way cuter than I expected.
• United 93. You forget about the intense emotions of that day in 2001 until you watch this kind of movie, this very dramatic, incredibly sad story, and then everything comes flooding back. It took a Disney vacation to get me out of the funk—I don’t mean to make light of it at all, but for me, it requires a complete removal from normal life to get 9/11 out of the very front of my mind.
• I know I watched other movies and TV shows in March, but the fact that I can’t remember them now probably means they weren’t worth mentioning.

New recipes or restaurants I tried:

• I’ve eaten at In-N-Out Burger in the past, but we tried it again on vacation and I had forgotten how tasty those burgers are! Yum. Why the company prints Bible verses on all their paper goods, though, I do not know.
• California Adventure has a new beverage that we thought was surprisingly delicious: Red’s Apple Freeze. It’s apple-flavored with a hint of toasted marshmallow and fruity foamy topping. Sounds gross, but it wasn’t.

Special or unusual purchases I made:

• A cape. Yes, this was an unusual purchase. Do you buy a cape every month? Katie needed one for Super Hero Day at school, and we’ll all need them for Relay for Life this summer, which is super hero-themed, so I’ll be ordering a bunch more soon. Yay!
• This phone case for Vic, possibly one of my favorite etsy finds ever:

• A dog bowl. I know, super exciting, huh? Lucy tends to inhale her food, and sometimes that makes her sick but mostly it makes her want MORE FOOD RIGHT NOW I MEAN IT, and that’s annoying. I found these fancy dog bowls with big raised sections in the bottom that supposedly make dogs eat more slowly, but I knew they wouldn’t work for Lucy because they are plastic and she thinks plastic equals chew toy. Fortunately, I was able to find a stainless steel bowl that promises the same slow-eating effect. It was ridiculously expensive, but Lucy is eating more slowly now and not being quite so demanding. S’good.

This month’s disappointments:

• I found out that I didn’t actually have all the dental work I needed done last month. I could have SWORN they said “You need a root canal. [blah blah blah…] We’ll do that for you today if you’d like.” Apparently they just did the prep, so I go in next week to have the actual root canal done. Grrr…
• We saw Nicole Richie and Joel Madden with their kids in California Adventure. Here’s the disappointing part: why no Lionel?
• I was absolutely exhausted just two days into our trip. At home I feel like my energy level has improved so much since going through my zapping chemo regimen, but trips like this—the go-go-go kind—remind me that I’m still not back to normal. Or maybe I’m just old and feeble. Either way, bummer.
• I came home with several blisters on my feet and a bad sunburn. (And yet, totally worth it.)
• Still no pony.

My accomplishments:

• I take no credit for this myself, but the kids had dental exams and OMG, no cavities! Considering the fact that Jack’s dental hygiene techniques are typical of an 11-year-old boy (when he says that YES, he brushed his teeth, we have to ask a follow-up: “TODAY???”), this is very good news and an accomplishment to be celebrated. With Pixy sticks and cotton candy, obvy.
• Another accomplishment I cannot take credit for is the fundraising we did for a new baseball field at the school, inspired by a sweet first grade boy who died on Dec. 31. We raised $2,000 easily—having a great cause certainly made all the difference.
• I always try to clean thoroughly before we leave home for any length of time because it’s so nice to come home to a neat house. In the end, though, the rush to get packed and out the door means lots of cleaning tasks are often left undone. Not this time! We managed to do all the laundry in the house, scrub the floors, straighten bedrooms, clean the kitchen, and leave the house virtually spotless. Coming home from vacation has rarely been so lovely.

Anything else noteworthy:

Just a few things that gave me chuckles…

That’s all I got. Later, doods.

I’m not even gonna try to pretend this month-in-review was on time. I changed the post date so it would stay in March where it belongs, but I actually wrote it on April 3. I know this matters to no one.