So that's a broiler?

Funny thing the other day. Well maybe it's sad depending how you look at it. I am sure most of you all already know where the broiler is on your oven but if you don't you heard it here first. :) After so many years, I finally figured out where the broiler was on our oven. Maybe after I state my case it shouldn't surprise you that it took that long for me to figure it out. I didn't really cook until I was in college and minimally at that. My parents never used the boiler, in fact I don't think their oven model had a broiler. Karri had never used a boiler and neither did her parents. Karri and I do watch Food Network but they always had really new ovens or retro ones but not the average run of the mill kind that we have. I thought ours was a drawer that you put cooking trays in, or the access panel for maintenance on the gas oven. The broiler option to me was just setting our oven tray to the highest rack and then turning the knob to broiler. Well something finally clicked the other day and I realized that that useless drawer was really the broiler! That day we celebrated with me making some diced potatoes which were seasoned and broiled till they had a nice and crispy outside and soft and moist insides. If any of you have any good seasoning ideas for broiling diced potatoes feel free to drop us a line. I'm trying to get it like the ones at Olive Garden or better. -Brian

The Big 3 0

Karri says I should be freaking out because today is my birthday. She says she will be when she hits 30. I'm not bothered at all, when I hit 50 I'll maybe think I'm getting old. Why worry so much about things that are to some degree out of your control. No Carpe Diem here but more like Hakuna Matata. All and all I can't complain and I'm pretty happy with where I am in life right now.

So today we will be going to Todai to celebrate with my free meal. Yea! I will hopefully have time to getting the rest of our home security system installed and maybe even get a Wii today. :P

Lately everyone but Karri has been getting over their colds. Logan was the quickest to recover since he can sleep as much as he wants. Julia's cold became an ear infection so we have had to go to the doctors the last 3 days to get her antibiotic shots (Of course the grandparents don't know cause they would be freaking out). I on the other hand am still having lovely morning throat and nose clearing sessions. Happy Birthday to Me!-Brian

7 Years and Counting

Karri and I just celebrated our 7th year anniversary today. Kinda weird thinking we have been married that long and been together for over 9 years now. Aside from writing in a Journal that we keep with entries to each other we just celebrate with good food. Life is still in a whirlwind with busy schedules and lots of diapers. Julia is already changing a lot from the newborn look to more of a pudgy little baby.

Well that resolution of writing every week went to pot last week when the sprinkling manifold in the back yard sprung a big leak. Being in a panic i was in I forgot that there as a separate main for the garden on the side of the house. So aside from shutting down the water main that went to the entire house I spent most of the day trying to fix the sprinkler system. Karri and I definitely realized how important water was for emergency preparedness when we did not have water for even one night. Maybe I'll look into getting some 50 gallon drums sometime in the future. - Brian

Day of Rest

Family from both sides have now come and gone and some semblance of sanity is finally taking place in our home. Julia is finally getting into a better routine of sleep, eat, and awake time and is also getting longer and longer stretches of sleep during the night. We enjoy her sleeping in our room currently as it give us some sense of security knowing that she is safe. However some nights, which thankfully are becoming less and less, are still a bit crazy. Once she hits seven hours stretches consistently at night, we are planning on training her to sleep in her own room. We trained Logan with the help of a book called, "On Becoming Baby Wise," which we will use with Julia as well. It worked pretty well for us, but as with every bit of advice you need to consider it with a grain of salt.

Karri and I were looking at Logan's baby pictures the other day and in some shots she really looks like what Logan did at the same age. As for myself, I have come with new resolve to update this blog every Sunday. Some weeks will have more and some less but I guess some blog will be better than none at all. - Brian

Two Weeks Already.

Julia smiles a lot, we can already tell she is going to be a happy baby. We really doubt it is gas like some books or people say about babies at this age of development. The first time she smiled was when I ticked her nose at two days old. Karri can get her to smile now most of the time just by talking to her or tickling her chin. Julia also stirs we go in to check on her when she is sleeping, particularly when Karri checks. It is amazing the things little babies can do.


I posted some more pictures in the Flickr account that we have but I made them for friends and family that have logins. I will post more next month since I already maxed out today. Now Karri and I are off to bed at 7:30pm because it is the only way we can get enough sleep right now. - Brian

Julia

Well since Karri and I are still short on sleep I am going to make this short and sweet. Karri gave birth to Julia on Monday. Julia came out weighing 6lb 2 oz and we are glad to finally be home. - Brian

Sanrio Baby

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. The baby's room has been Hello Kitty accessorized while our garden is looking very blah due to an unusually cold winter that has killed mostly anything tropical.

Mary and my biao mei, Amelia, just got back from Japan and paid us a visit after helping my parents with the busy Valentine’s florist season. Mary supplied most of the Hello Kitty items to the baby’s room and much of it either does not exist or are hard to come by in the US. Amelia was the one who donated the ginormous Hello Kitty seen in the picture and how she got it would be a story for another time.

Logan was more than happy to have playmates for the last 4 days to play with and entertain him. He particularly seemed to enjoy torturing Mary by making her watch him play Lego Star Wars on the Gamecube everyday. On a side note, Logan seems to loves playing the villains in the game after they are unlocked. Maybe it is because he does not get to play them during the actual story part of the game, but I am hoping it is not any indication of which side of the force he would really choose. :P It’s really funny that Logan does not enunciate clearly when he speaks and the way he says Count Dooku is Countie Doodoo . :)

It is a sad time for me to see the state of the yard. I did some late planting last year and most of those plants will die. I might just have to replant a lot of it now in the spring so that there is more time for the plant to acclimate to the climate before winter hits again. I can't seem to stay still because I am still painting the rest of the living room and family room areas. However I hope to never pick up another paint roller for this house after this year.

Karri is pretty much on a lax bed rest order. She just needs to take it easy because the doctors say her fluid is really low. If drinking more water and resting do not help bring up the fluid levels they might need to admit her to the hospital. Nothing too serious really but just something we need to watch out for. I am really itching for Karri to give birth now, we always wanted to have a daughter and now we got our wish. And yes for personal selfish reasons taking some time off of work would be very nice. :) - Brian