Occasionally, Keira will want to take pictures with our cameras so last night I let her have free reign. It all started with a hummingbird she found out in our backyard:
which led to 50, maybe 60 more pictures, most of which are on the blurry side.
(Mike just built this outdoor bar, and installed that outlet.)
We may have to get her a digital camera to use so she can do more exploring...
I got an email from Typepad recently about resolving to blog in 2015. I've let this thing go silent one too many times, and I hoping to get myself back to it at least twice a month. Back in 2013, I aimed to hit the gym at least once a week and 2 years later, I'm still at it with 2 or 3 visits per week. So if I can do that, then I can certainly blog a few times a month!
2014 ended much the way 2015 started: quiet and uneventful. I had to work New Year's Day, so there wasn't going to be any staying up until midnight for me. We celebrated East Coast New Year's with our neighbors, had cake and champagne and then hit the sack.
We renewed our Disney passes for yet another year, and have made 2 visits so far. With Keira being in "real" school now, we don't have the luxury of going mid-week like we used to.
It's a good thing we have health insurance because Keira has already taken advantage of it! The cold that she had before winter break (which involved a trip to the nurse's office, a call to 911 and a firetruck and EMTs!) never resolved itself when she returned to school 2 weeks later. I gave her another week and the cough never went away and was sounding pretty wet (how's that for medical terms) which called for a Saturday morning visit to urgent care and amoxicillin for 10 days. This girl can't seem to a break in the sickness department.
We started a bit of a home project that involves us being without our washer and dryer for a few weeks. If I said that it was all starting off very smoothly, I'd be lying. I realize that there is no construction project that doesn't have its hiccups, but when a major one occurs 2 days in, it makes for some really pissed off homeowners (that would be Mike and I if you couldn't figure it out).
This little bugger is turning 6 in a matter of weeks. In keeping with the theme of her party, we have $32.40 worth of rubber bouncy balls. We managed to get both carts to the car and fill up my trunk with them. I had other favors in mind, but that would've involved spending a minimum $150, and I wasn't down for that. Besides, what kid doesn't love a ball?
Back in June, Mike had a cardiac ablation done that would hopefully take care of his arrhythmias. He told me recently that it doesn't race anymore, in particular, after he has coffee or alcohol. Which is a great thing!! I guess it was a common occurrence, and was the main reason why he stopped drinking both at one point (not that he was an alcoholic or caffeine addict to begin with). His doctor took him off the blood thinner a month or 2 ago, and he couldn't have been more excited about that. He had just started playing hockey when the doctor started him on the warfarin, and he was told he couldn't do contact sports while he was on it. He has another check up in a few months, and may be able to discontinue his other heart medication for good!
So that's that from our little corner of the world. Let's hope I'll be back before long!
It's a shame how long I've left this space blank. Our lives aren't THAT busy that I can't update here at least once a month, but I lack drive to get myself here. But currently...
Keira is 7 weeks into her first year of Kindergarten! Just this week she earned herself 10 compliment slips for positive behavior in school and got to take home a Mighty Mustang for one night. She has made a lot of friends (and has no problem doing so) and seems to be enjoying school. I had our first parent-teacher conference on Tuesday and Miss Muranaka says she is doing well. Overall, she is above average (woo hoo!) and her nightly assignment is to read for 10 minutes. Up until this week, Mike and i were doing all the reading. Now, Keira is reading to us! I'll admit it's not the easiest 10 minutes of my day, and sometimes 10 minutes becomes 30, but she is trying hard to sound out the words and will look at us when she needs help.
Keira started formal swimming lessons a few weeks ago, and is swimming surprisingly well for never having had lessons before. She's learned both the freestyle and the backstroke and can swim from one end to the other nonstop. Maybe swimming (instead of hockey) is her thing!
Mike had a cardiac ablation done back in June, that would hopefully help with the atrial fibrillation he's had for a few years. It was a long procedure, and an even longer day for the both of us but he is doing well, and hasn't experienced any episodes since. He's got to go back in a month to wear a heart monitor and then follow up with the cardiologist. We definitely want him around for a long, long time!
With Keira in school now, Mike and I are hoping to get ourselves to Disneyland while we still have our passes. Just the 2 of us went last Friday (shh, don't tell Keira!) for a little date day, and managed 6 rides in 3.5 hours. And they were all the "big" rides, ones we haven't been on in some time.
As for me, not much has changed. Still working, still working out, still helping to take care of things on the homefront. I've started cross stitching again, and spend a lot of my downtime working on projects (I've got Keira's teacher's gift done and am working on Keira's Christmas gift too!) I've got to make more of an effort to keep this thing updated, because I can't let memories go unnoticed.
I'm beginning to wonder if there is anything Mike cannot do.
This past weekend, he embarked on another home project, this time in our master bedroom. And I have to say I like it very much :)
we had seen this idea done in a few model homes we visited, and it's essentially wood flooring on the wall. We bought some wood flooring from Ikea and chose a pattern and color that was as natural as we could get it without looking too artificial.
a few weekends prior to this one, he painted 3 of the 4 walls a nice, relaxing gray. I always wanted a gray room when we moved in, but opted for a light blue instead. After seeing model homes, we felt the kick to change things up a bit. I really like the gray.
it took Mike most of Sunday to do the wall, and A LOT of sweat and stair climbing. The saw and wood were all in the garage, so you can say his legs got quite the workout. There is still a small strip along the bottom that needs to be finished, but Mike needed a table saw to make cutting a lot easier. Home Depot could've done it for him in the blink of an eye, but their saw was broken.
ta-da! I think it looks great! gives the room more depth, more dimension and not to mention some character! We are thinking of mounting a giant moose head above our bed (which now has no headboard) or a gallery of photos in frames.
Nice job Mike!
and to reward him for his hard work, Keira and I took him out for dinner Sunday night. I let Keira choose where we went, and she said Red Robin. We must've all been hungry because there was not one crumb of food left on any of our plates. We were both surprised Keira ate EVERYTHING.
I love easy breezey weekends :)
I wish I had blogged about this sooner, but that's just how it goes.
So, after the Kings' first ever Stanley Cup Win, our next thoughts turned to the victory parade. When would it be and would we be able to go. The parade ended up being on Thursday, June 14th and tickets were going to be available for the rally inside Staples Center. And they were free!! The only downer was how they were being issued (first come, first serve and to season ticket holders first, then everyone else) and whether or not Mike would be able to reschedule a work conference call. Lucky for me, with a schedule change at work, I was off and ready to go :)
Long story short, we had to buy our rally tickets and Mike's conference call was reschedule for another day...woohoo!! We wrestled with whether or not to bring Keira with us, and figuring that we weren't sure what the bathroom and food situation would be like in addition to having to wait a few hours for the parade to start, we sent her to school and arranged to have my brother pick her up. We avoided having to sit in traffic and worry about parking by taking the train up to LA. That was a good choice on our part :)
Mike bought his championship hat the night before the parade and we wore both our jersies and our championship tshirts that day. At every stop between Tustin and LA, more and more Kings fans boarded the train and we realized it was going to be quite the party once we got there.
We decided to watch the parade itself from the ticket-only area at Staples Center and LA Live. We could've watched along the parade route (and maybe gotten a better viewpoint) but I didn't want to have to fight crowds to get down to Staples Center for the rally later on. We waited about 2 hours for the parade to start but it was totally worth it.
here comes the parade!
what we've all been waiting to see...the Stanley Cup itself!
the head coach Darryl Sutter. Mr. Fist Pump himself.
confetti and streamers.
more of the sand sculpture.
inside Staples Center.
we brought home a few Stanley Cup Champion rally towels as souvenirs and lots of pictures and videos as well. I'm glad we both made it out to the celebration because this is something we may never see again. It was a nice day for just the two of us, like a date that we don't get to do very often.
I haven't really mentioned much of this on here, but there is a lot of excitement going on in our house. Why? well because....
the Kings are in the Stanley Cup Finals!!
it's safe to say there are a lot of people in shock that the Kings are where they are, Mike included. Throughout the playoffs, he tried to keep things in perspective, careful to not get overly excited about each game of the Western Conference playoffs. He knew better because, in his words, it's the Kings we are talking about. The Kings beat the #1 seed in the West, the Vancouver Canucks, then went on to beat seed #2, the St. Louis Blues. They played against the Phoenix Coyotes in the Western Conference Finals and found themselves in the Stanley Cup Finals. The first time in almost 20 years (they were in the 1993 Finals)!!
I told Mike, that no matter the cost and how superstitious he may be, he MUST go to a game if possible. It's a once in a lifetime thing, and I really wanted him to be a part of it. He's been a fan for so long, that I know it would mean so much for him to witness his favorite team play for the Stanley Cup.
And he did.
His BFF Vince managed to get some tickets to last night's game 3 at Staples Center. Vince also happens to be a huge New Jersey Devils fan...the Kings opponent for the Finals. Talk about rivalry, huh? Two best friends sitting next to each other as they watch their favorite teams battle it out.
I had to work so unfortunately I didn't get to go, but I did listen to the game on my phone (love the NHL phone app!). Mike said the energy was ridiculous inside Staples Center and it was so loud his head started to throb. At some point, he said he was starting to lose his voice and his arms got tired from celebrating. Sounds like an awesome time, doesn't it?!
(all pictures above taken by Mike on his phone)
The Kings went on to win Game 3 4-0...a complete shutout! I was in total disbelief as I listened from working, not believing they had scored goals 3 and 4. I thought I was hearing things! As much as I hate putting my thoughts into words in case I jinx them, but I could almost feel a win in Game 4. And I was already devising weekend plans in case there was a parade we needed to go to. I'll admit I don't totally understand the game of hockey, but being married to Mike and witnessing his love for the game, I am certainly willing to learn.
(pictures courtesy of Mike's friend Albert, on the right)
Mike is looking into tickets for Game 4 tomorrow night and goodness, I feel it in my blood. As excited as I was for Mike to be there, I was feeling sick to my stomach with nerves too. I swear vomiting would've made me feel better. I'm working tomorrow night so if Mike goes, I won't be but I know the experience for him alone is one to remember. I'm glad he has this life experience under his belt and I know he won't even forget it.
Keeping our fingers crossed and wearing our Kings purple and black....
Mike got busy this weekend, planting our vegetables:
the larger bushes are cherry tomatoes, which are already coming in! And it's not a new plant that we went out and bought, it sprouted from the dirt on its own and has been growing ever since! There are some garlic (or onions, I can't remember) bulbs sprouting to the left of it too. I think Mike is planning on making a potted herb garden with the herbs sitting to the right of the cherry tomatoes.
I'm not exactly sure what one would do with daikon leaves, but my dad gave the seeds to us. We have daikon growing too, so I'll have to learn to make the chinese-style daikon cakes. Bok choy is something we enjoy, especially with mushrooms and oyster sauce.
Cauliflower and bacon is a family recipe, something my mom's mom made when she was a kid. Broccoli beef made by Mike? yum!!
the strawberries are starting to flower. Can't wait until we actually have some to eat! Need to figure out how to keep the critters away from them though.
and last but not least, we have peas. I still remember as a kid, picking peas from the vine in my parents' backyard. My dad was always the green thumb when it came to the vegetable garden, and I'm so glad that he is sharing his knowledge with Mike so he can grow his own. Our hope is that Keira will show some interest in helping us pick what we grow. Her school has an on-site garden, and I know the kids get to help take care of it.
here is a random thought....how do people gather carrot seeds? Carrots don't flower or have seeds in them to harvest like peas or tomatoes do, so where do carrot seeds come from??
my dad also gave us some squash plants, and I think we are giving eggplants and carrots another go. The weather is getting nicer, so I'm looking forward to spending more time outside!
I got a little baking done on Sunday, and used some strawberries that Mike's coworker gave us. I was going to use a vanilla cake recipe I got from my brother's pastry chef friend but I almost lost my marbles when I saw it asked for 3 sticks of butter. THREE!! Lucky for me, the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens came in the mail and I used the vanilla cake recipe from there.
Eunice (my brother's friend) said that I could add the strawberries into any standard vanilla cake recipe. If I wanted the strawberries to simply be in the cake, to add it once the batter was made. If I wanted the cake to be a strawberry cake, then the strawberries need to be macerated and mixed with sugar so that the juices come out and flavor the cake batter. I opted to have the fruit in the cake.
Boy, was it good. Lightly sweet and not too heavy. Eunice gave me a simple cream cheese frosting recipe to try, but I think I'll save that for another time.