The Thing with Being an International Baby...

The thing with being an international baby is 

that there are always relatives living far away no matter where you live.

Sometimes that relative is your favorite Aunt on your mommy's side.

And that's pretty tragic because your favorite Aunt on your mommy side might be a real nice Aunt.

The right thing to do in that case would be to pick up mommy's phone

and to FaceTime your Aunt.

And to slobber all over the place.

Ideally on your mama's phone.

My mama said that she wished there were a scent function on FaceTime

so that daddy could smell how stinky my diapers are,
but that's just silly because then daddy would never want to come home!
Perhaps all my stinky diapers are making her stupid in the brain.

Have fun FaceTiming all ye international babies out there!

Happy Anniversary to Us

Four years ago I married the love of my life.  The love of my life has, unfortunately, been on a business trip  and won't be back until tomorrow morning so he missed it just by half a day and was not here to celebrate with me.  It was a yoyo kinda anniversary; you know, as in You're On Your Own.  I thought that I would be lonely and miserable but it turned out to be better than I had imagined.  The mini and I had a pretty good day.  He seemed to know that his mama needed some extra loving today so he was kissing me randomly all day long.  It sure was sweet.

Before you read any further, I would like you to humor me and click here to go to a youtube video and play this song called A Thousand Years by Christina Perri and then come back here to finish reading this post while you're listening to the song (Don't forget to skip the stupid ad!).  It will just make the rest of this post sound a little more romantic.  Thank you for your cooperation.

I know a lot of wives say that they have the best husband in the world, but I know that they are all lying because I know the best husband in the world and believe it or not he is married to me.  Do you believe in matches made in heaven?  I didn't.  Not until I met Jake anyway.  He is perfect for me in so many ways; he completes me.  We got more than two complete sets of encyclopedia full of marriage advice when we were engaged and a few pieces of them got stuck with me.  One of them was from our religion professor.  He said that other than loving our spouse, we have to love our marriage as well.  I didn't quite understand him at the time but I do now, and I do love our marriage.  Sometimes Jake is not my favorite person in the world.  It doesn't happen often, not very often at all, but it has happened before.  The love that I had for our marriage helped smooth things out.  We worked through the hard times and grew closer to each other.

I'm not sure how he still loves me after witnessing the ugliest, the most unpleasant, and the weakest part of me.  But he does.  And he cares for me like no one else: always putting my comfort in front of his own.  He strives to make me happy.  No one has ever done that for me and it makes me feel pretty darn special when all a person wants is for me to be happy.  Sometimes he makes me feel like the only reason for me to be created was to be his wife and to walk through life with him, to have and to hold from the day we were married, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish for eternity.

It was a little bit sad that Jake wasn't in town but at least I had Ethan with me, and he is one of the many highlights in Jake and my marriage so it wan't all bad.

Here is what we did, only if you're interested:

Just thought you wouldn't want to miss this.  

Ethan sleeping last night.  

He started in the middle of the bed and then rolled and rolled and finally rolled onto the pillow.

I had to sit in a chair right next to the bed because I was terrified that he would roll off.

We woke up and read lots and lots of books in bed.

Can you tell that I had pushed the crib right next to the bed 

AND 

put the bumper on the outside of the crib?

Yup, I'm that kind of mom.

And then I checked my email.

I opened one from Kate.  You might know her too.  Her last name is Spade.

And she said that she was holding a surprise sale.

So I texted my sweet husband and he told me to "make [my] pick" for our anniversary gift.

There are no sexier words than when your husband tells you to "make your pick".

So, it came down to these two:

They are both hot pink.

It took me all day but I finally picked the wallet.

I got realistic when I tried to imagine how many diapers I could stuff into the purse...

And then we picked out some more books to read and I demanded a kiss while we were at it.

We decided to go to the store and while I was getting the diaper bag ready,

I noticed that it was suspiciously quiet in the house

and found E on the kitchen floor stuffing ginger cookies into his mouth.

We went to Trader Joe's.

And I got me some pretty flowers.

It's a pink anniversary.  Can you tell yet?

I spy a sleeping baby.

Such an angel.  Handsome like his daddy.

p.s. Thank you Jake for giving me such a beautiful baby.

And then we had lunch, but not before we say our prayer.

Ethan learned to "pray" about a month ago and this is what he does:

he pulls a serious face, crosses his arms, and tilts his head back.

I'm thinking that maybe he was actually trying to bow his head?

Or maybe he's looking up at heaven.

Just a guess.

Have you ever had these tiny grapes?  They are SO sweet!

E loves them.

After a nap, we had snack:

crackers with tomato basil hummus, manchego, and pineapples.

And to end the day, we had dinner.

Ethan said the prayer for us.

Thank you for reading.

I hope you had a wonderful day too!

What's in My Travel Makeup Bag

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I Want to Teach Him

I have a very original excuse for not blogging the last couple days.  I lent my mouse and keyboard to someone who needed it for some very important work.  I bet you've never heard that one before, eh?

My in-laws were in town visiting.  We had so much fun together.  I love my in-laws--they are amazing people and I want to grow up to be like them.  My father-in-law is a doctor and a while ago he went to a third-world country to volunteer.  This was the first time for us to see him after his trip so he did a little slideshow one of the nights we were together and showed us what his trip was like.  He mentioned a couple of cases where the patients' mothers refused to let their children receive treatments, I think it was mostly because they didn't understand that even though what the doctors were suggesting might sound terrifying but it was indeed the best thing for their children.  I was heartbroken.  Every mother wants the best for their children, especially a mother who had travelled who knows how far and had sacrificed who knows how much to get her child seen by volunteering doctors from America.  But because of their lack of understanding, their children are going to keep suffering.

That night after looking at all the pictures my father-in-law showed us, I laid in bed feeling very guilty.  I feel like I can do SO MUCH MORE to make this a better world.  You know?  I felt selfish that I've been so consumed in my own little world: getting all worked up because I couldn't decide on a main color for the master bedroom in our new house and spending half an eternity looking for the perfect computer/mommy station and the perfect chair to go with it and the perfect rug and kitchen hutch and light fixture and whatever.

I started thinking hard on what I can do to help others.  I think I'm going to start with Ethan.  I want to teach him to be kind.  I want to teach him to have compassion and to care about others.  I want to teach him that nothing you can buy with money in this world will ever make you as happy as when you've helped someone in need.  I want to teach him that no one is perfect unless you stop looking for their imperfections and start forgiving.  I want to teach him that yes he is important and yes he is a child of God but so is the next guy.

In Case Our Roof Collapses Tonight

Originally, I wasn't going to blog tonight.

And then it started raining and I thought I had already taken a break yesterday.  I should really write something! so I was going to write the following:

Massive headache.  Going to bed.

What an awesome blogger I am.  The above sentence wouldn't even have been worth all the trouble you've taken to type in my blog address and to come to my blog.

But then Jake came into the room and exclaimed "Oh my gosh!"

I said "What?"

"It's leaking!"  He was staring at the ceiling while he said it.

It's leaking.  It's raining cats and dogs outside and our roof is leaking.

If our roof caves in and we die tonight, please know that I love you Mom and Dad and Leah and Charming.  Leah can have my wedding ring, all my jewelry, and that really pretty green dress I just bought in Hong Kong.  Other than that, we really don't have too many worldly possessions.

But if we live, I will blog again tomorrow night.  And maybe I'll let Leah borrow my green dress.

I think I have a fever...

Goodnight, gorilla.

Blessed

***Before you start reading, please be noted that I am NOT pregnant.  I would hate to give you a heart attack for nothing.

Anyway...

People have been asking me if I'm ready for baby number two yet.  The first time a friend asked me that it was like she had just splashed a very cold coke at my face, with ice no less.  Wha-, wha-, what's that you say?  Baby number TWO?!  I just had this one!  The thought was ringing in my head because I was too stunned to utter the words.

Baby number two...  I hadn't given it much thought because it just seemed like such a foreign idea!  Like we're talking about traveling to the planet Mars.  I feel like I had just been wheeled out of the delivery room yesterday!  But then again I guess it's not entirely true when I say that I haven't thought about baby number two at all because on days when Ethan is especially draining I do think to myself about number two--the fact that I'm never having a baby number two.

Baby number two...  I guess the words don't seem completely impossible.  After all, we have successfully landed a Wall-E-look-alike robot on Mars (which is very cool), right?  The thought of once again holding a brand new baby that belongs to me makes my heart flutter.  Besides, Jake and I have always known that we want more than one child.  Plus, Ethan loves kids and he's so good with them.  He will be a wonderful big brother.  My very own little sister is the best gift my parents have ever given me; I'm sure it will be the same with Ethan and I would hate to rob him of all the wonderful time he could've been spending with a sibling by waiting too long.

Jake is seriously going to have a heart attack when he reads this post.  My mother, too.

I'm not saying that I'm ready for baby number two right now but I'm not throwing up at the thought either.

I'm just grateful that we live in a free country and that we can decide for ourselves how many children we would like to invite into our family.  I don't think that enough of us think of this as a blessing when we really should be grateful for the opportunity.  

Korean Ground Beef

Do you know that ground beef is really hard to photograph?  It's very challenging to take a picture of it and have it not look like poop.  I assure you though that this tastes NOTHING like poop, not that I have ever tasted poop!  Gah, this is really not going the direction I had intended for it to go...

This is yet another Pinterest recipe.  It was super fast and easy, and surprisingly yummy as well!  The recipe was originally from this blog, and the blogger said that she used to make this all the time in college because of how easy and cheap this dish is.  I wish I had known about this when I was in college.

Note: DO NOT omit the green onion!

{ Korean Ground Beef }

From Lizzy Writes

1 tablespoon sesame oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound lean ground beef

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

1/2 - 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

salt and pepper

1 bunch green onions, diced

Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and ground beef.  Brown.  Drain most of the fat and add brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, and red pepper.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for a few minutes to blend the flavors. Serve over steamed rice and top with green onions.