qirien

Pet Peeves of Unrealistic Media
1) "Jungle" scenes that show animals together that are from totally different jungles of the world (e.g, tigers and capybaras, or gorillas and macaws)
2) Dinosaur scenes with dinosaurs from totally different time periods (Don't show a Cretaceous Tyrannosaurus eating a Jurassic Stegosaurus!)
3) Otherwise realistic animals that don't eat what they're supposed to (Sorry, a seal and a penguin wouldn't be "friends"; seals eat penguins!)
4) The absence of children in video games where children would be present (is this a fantasy world where people pop into existence as teenagers? Better explain it if it is!)

I realize some of these things are done in the name of making things easier or more fun, but especially in programming that purports to be "educational" or "realistic", I expect more!

Happy birthday, Quartz! 4 years old . . . sometimes it seems like I've been a mom forever. Other times it seems like it's gone by fast.

Lately Quartz has been really into Diego, and likes to play animal rescuer and things. It's pretty good, even though the voice acting on the show is so annoying. (They say everything as if It is SOO Important And You Aren't Very Smart So I'll Talk REALLY Slowly!). You should hear his "Diego voice" where he tries to do a sort of accent. Very funny.

I have found the Perfect Pet for small kids. Pill bugs, also known as roly polys, are easy to find, can live in a small container (I recommend the small plastic "pet carriers" from the pet store), live on food that is easy to get in the backyard (dirt, dead leaves, maybe a vegetable or two), don't escape, don't make noise, don't mind being held, are easily and cheaply replaceable, and are fun to watch because they can climb sticks and hide and curl up. And when your kids are tired of them, you just put them back in the backyard!

Onyx likes Diego too, and is adding lots of great words to his vocabulary. You will often hear him say, "No, thank you" -- it's how he says no, which is very cute. Quartz will be taking away a toy and Onyx will be screaming, "No, thank you!". His current favorite words and pronounciations:
"Dee-go!" - Diego
"No Gank Ooo" - No Thank You
"Mama Coco" - Motorcycle
"Keee-ecks" - Kleenex (usually said after a series of sneezes -- I think he has allergies)
"Fa fift" - forklift (he is obsessed with forklifts)
"Wee it!" - Read it (upon handing you a book)

Looks like we'll be having a girl! I'm excited -- I love my two boys, but we've been thinking that our family is missing a girl. :-)

Onyx's favorite thing to do is get a screwdriver ("Tool! Tool!") and walk around the backyard with it. There's a 2x4 the boys can use tools on, but he doesn't really use it for that -- he just kind of carries it around.

Quartz has enjoyed the mud the past few days, though I'm hoping it's dried up today. There's got to be some kind of mom's award for letting your kid play in the mud (and get their clothes all dirty) twice in one day. :-)

Quartz just said, "I love you, Onyx" with no prompting or anything. I had to write it down because I think I might forget it. :-) They're getting better at sharing, but still need help using words instead of snatching things and saying "Mine!" all the time.

Onyx is developing quite the vehicle vocabulary -- grader, crane, pickup truck, motorcycle, tractor, and forklift are some of his favorite words. But whenever he sees a vehicle, he always has to point out the steering wheel and the driver's seat. "Wheel! Seat!" He will continue to point them out until you acknowledge that he is right.

I was pleasantly surprised that our NWN module, Time Becomes a Loop, won the Best Multiplayer Module award at the 2007 Academy for Modding Excellence Golden Dragon Awards. Pretty cool!




My friend Sharon had this on her blog and I thought it would be fun. Here is how you play:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. :)

Oh yeah, I forgot to post back in April when I finished this wall quilt. The thing I am most proud of about this quilt is that I did the design myself, from scratch, and it's my first big quilt. The workmanship is actually pretty shoddy -- I'm not very good at making seams even, and I didn't stretch it right, and I took some shortcuts -- but I still like it.


Also, there's this cool script that will take your Last.fm username and calculate your "open-mind index" based on the genres of music you listen to. Kind of fun to see:





At our house, the word "doom" has a very different meaning. For some reason, Wes started asking the boys if they want "hugs of DOOM", which are like normal hugs, but with a little more oomph. Well, the boys loved this. So, whenever it's time to gave dad a hug, the boys say "Doom!" in very cute, excited voices and run to dad for a hug. Sometimes they even ask me for hugs of "doom".

As we've gone through the car buying process these past few months, I have two recommendations:
1) Don't buy a new car without going through Costco's Auto Program (no haggling, good discounts, prices online).
2) Don't buy a used car without checking out Carmax (no haggling, great website, good selection).

I can't believe we're buying a minivan -- that sounds so . . . my mom. Like, I'm too young to drive a minivan (at least ours will be red)! But, actually, if you want to seat a lot of people and don't plan to go off-roading, they're really the best option. Now, will somebody please make a hybrid minivan?

I put a song I wrote recently online. The lyrics are from Eliza R. Snow's "Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses". I always thought the tune in the LDS hymnbook wasn't very good for that song, but I really like her poetry. So here's my version, called Truth Reflects.

We watched two good "family" movies lately. Well, they'd probably be pretty boring for anyone under eight or so, but they both have good themes without objectionable material. The first is "The Twilight Samurai", a Japanese movie about a samurai whose wife dies and he really focuses in on his family, despite forces that want to draw his attention elsewhere. It sounds pretty boring that way, but the acting was great and the script was really like poetry -- maximum effectiveness with minimum of words. And the swordfighting seemed pretty realistic (no jumping wires here).

The second movie was "Akeelah and the Bee", about a girl from downtown LA with a gift for spelling that decides to enter the national spelling bee. Now, that sounds pretty boring, too, but the movie sets up several interesting conflicts and slowly and organically resolves them, and there's something here everyone can relate to. Plus, you'll get to find out how people learn to spell words they've never seen before. :-)

Ah, yes, the kid update -- well, Quartz is in swimming lessons right now, but he's pretty scared. He'll inch around the edge of the pool, but doesn't want to use a kickboard or swim while someone holds him or anything. But he's slowly getting more comfortable in the water.

Onyx is learning lots of words ("hoop" is one of his latest favorites, as in basketball hoop), and he likes bugs and riding toys and raisins. He also likes to copy Quartz, whether it's making obnoxious noises or sitting on the potty or driving cars around. The other day he got out the dress-up box and dressed himself up with a pirate necklace, backwards train engineer hat, and a tape measure. Not sure how those all relate, but it was pretty cute. :-)

And here's a picture of all of us on a recent trip to Colorado Springs:

First, big news! We're expecting a baby in November! Yay! The due date is November 24th. So far it appears human, but we don't have any other information on "what it is". :-)

So, whenever the phone rings at our house, Onyx picks up his toy phone and says hello and talks into it while I talk on the phone. I started playing phone with him, and I put his phone up to my ear and said, "Hello? Who's there?" He just gave me a blank look. "Is this grandma?" "Noo," he says, in a Mom's-so-silly-voice. "Is this Onyx?" "No." "Well then, who is it?" "It's just a phone," he says matter-of-factly (though with his pronounciation it's more like "Jussa foh"). I guess he doesn't get that when mom talks on the phone, she's talking to someone else . . .

So, I've been taking a nap almost every day, but instead of feeling lazy about it, I decided I'm just following the standard Southwestern Siesta Schedule, so that I can stay up until 10:30 instead of falling asleep at 9. I'm quite the narcoleptic, actually -- once my body decides it's time to sleep, I just fall asleep. It's kind of annoying, actually -- I fall asleep at movie theatres in the middle of a $10 movie, at home fighting a boss in a video game, folding laundry, reading to the kids, or reading the climax of a novel. And forgetting driving long distances unless it's early morning or there's incredibly engaging conversation. Even chocolate doesn't help -- it just makes me fall asleep faster once the rush wears off. The only thing that will keep me awake when I want to stay awake is physical action (jogging in place, cracking peanuts in the shell, situps, etc). But I'm usually too tired to think of that when the sleep wave hits. I know a lot of people have the opposite problem of insomnia, so I feel kind of bad -- I wish we could just even out some of the sleepiness, and then we'd all feel better. :-)

I had a request to show the sleep routine posted I made, so here it is:


The steps are go upstairs, brush teeth, use toilet/change diaper and put on pajamas, say prayers, read 2 books, sing a song, read by yourself, go to sleep. If I made it again, I'd probably put "get a hug" instead of "sing a song", because I think that's more important to them. Anyway, the drawing's pretty lame, but my kids understand it (although I think Onyx might think that we always read a book about trains, because he always brings me a train book, and he points to the poster and says "train!").

We got back from a vacation, so the kids had to test and see if we still did the same routine, so it's taken about 40 minutes the past two nights. Still, not that bad.

If you are ever looking for quality hair accessories that don't break, that actually keep your hair and stay in place, and look really awesome, I recommend LongHairGirl.com. I ordered a clip and a claw and both are solid metal, with sturdy springs and pretty designs. The clip even is adjustable for various amounts of hair, so I can use the same clip to hold half my hair or all my hair. And don't worry, they're not all as expensive as the ones on the first page!

Well, after my last post, I was just so fed up with the sleep situation I decided to take initiative and change it. Before I had always been reacting to my kids ("Why won't they just go to sleep?! Go to bed now!"), but I decided to be proactive. I researched various ideas on the internet, but didn't find any one thing that sounded promising. I prayed about it, a LOT. I want bedtime to be a positive time where we can all unwind together and where the kids can be independent within the boundaries we parents have set. After praying, I took a shower (my only "alone time" in the morning) and talked about it to God some more. Then, He prompted me to this plan of action.

I made a "Bedtime Routine" posted, drawing each step of the routine and posting it upstairs by the bedroom. I made a "Good Sleepers" chart with stickers for when the boys stayed in their room when we were done with the routine. Most importantly, I made a commitment not to raise my voice, but to gently and silently lead out-of-bed kids back to bed. Now, none of this sounds very revolutionary, but I had tried the "quietly lead kids back to bed" many times before, and it failed, because I would get impatient and start yelling or picking kids up and putting them back in bed physically. So, I had to agree that I would keep being silent and gentle NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TOOK! To help me do that, I decided that while I was upstairs, waiting outside the kids' room for the next time they got out of bed so I could lead them back to it, I would exercise. This would help get out aggression and frustration so I wouldn't feel like yelling, and would give me something to do so I didn't get bored, and would be something positive that I would be accomplishing in the meantime.

The first day, I showed the kids the routine poster, pointed to each step as we did it, and then said goodnight. I let them read with the light on for about half an hour, and then it's time to stay in bed with the light off. It took 90 minutes of silently and gently putting Onyx back in his bed before he stayed there and went to sleep. The good thing was, since I didn't do anything exciting, Quartz stayed in bed, too. And I got a good workout, jogging in place and doing psuedo-Tae Kwon Do punches and kicks and dancing and stretching. The next naptime, it also took 90 minutes for Onyx to settle down. The next time, 30 minutes, and the last few naps and nights he has not gotten out of bed at all. This has helped me to enjoy our bedtime routine more, to really get into the bedtime stories and hugs and everything, and I feel like God has helped me to become a more patient person through this experience. I needed His help, and He was there with the inspiration I needed to be a better mom.

Here's a Mother's Day song I wrote for church. Like all Mother's Day songs, it's kind of cheesy:
http://qirien.icecavern.net/music/songs/Religious-Hymns/A%20Mother%27s%20Love.pdf

Lately, we've been trying to have the kids share a room. It worked well at first, but now the kids (mainly Onyx) just keep getting out of bed over and over again. Bleh . . . I usually end up yelling and getting really upset, which isn't good, but the "just put them back in bed calmly" approach doesn't usually work . . . maybe I just need to be more patient. Seems like they miss the one-on-one time with mom, too.

We went to the Grand Canyon a few weeks ago; actually, we mainly hung out at our cabin, which was really nice. We went to the local petting zoo, went geocaching, and explored the woods. It was nice to stay in a cabin instead of camping, as it was rather windy, and the kids could have their own room. The kids really liked the Railroad Cafe in Flagstaff -- they have model trains running around the walls. At the Grand Canyon, they liked the Watchtower, though they were sad that they couldn't go out on the very top. The whole Grand Canyon is kind of unreal, but, hey, there it is. :-)

Here we are roasting marshmallows at the cabin:

Hooray! It's here! My project for the last six months or so is finished!

Boxed Set

Boxed Set is a mystery party set in 1900 aboard a clipper ship sailing from San Francisco to Shanghai. We invited some friends over a week ago and had them each be a character, and it worked out very well. I was really nervous -- I wasn't sure if everything would work out, if it would be fun, if I made some egregious plot hole or inconsistency -- but it was really good! My brother Lance helped me edit it and gave me some great ideas in the early stages -- it was great to have his help, because I wanted all the plot to be a surprise for Wes.

Anyway, it was great fun -- if you have some friends who like to roleplay (or who would like to but don't know it), I really recommend it. And if you try it, let me know how it works out! :-)

Onyx's talking has made great progress these past few weeks. I love how he says "Haaaaa" for "hug" whenever giving or receiving a hug. And if he sees a school bus or dump truck or airplane, he'll say "Da Baaa" or "Da Daaaa" or "A Paaaa" over and over until someone acknowledges, yes, that is the vehicle you are naming.

Quartz said to Wes this morning, "Bye dad. I'll miss you. But we'll have fun anyway." And he says he wants to vote so he can help choose the President.

I've had great music in my house these past few weeks, thanks to Pandora. You give it an artist or song, and it plays music like that. You tell it whether you like or dislike the songs, and it plays more that are similar. In case you want different kinds of music, you can save different stations -- I have one for "Soothing, not Sleepy" and another for more upbeat songs, and one for kids' songs. Works with any kind of music (even some foreign stuff has been on there, though they don't have everything). Oh, and it's free.

I'm trying to read Dune -- it's been hard for me to get into it, since he kind of throws you into this world with a lot of new terminology and mythos, but I think I'm starting to care about the story, so that's good. Though, for some reason, the names make me laugh. Jessica and Paul? That's so . . . 80's, or something. :-)

marriage is
sweet chocolate pie

chicken and beef can't trust pork

plump anatomy
reviled rump morass
creamy slurping mouth
vain lachrymose caterwauling
greasy naked hurricane
embrace magnificent beautiful baby
never eschew adventure

( More Magnetic Poetry )

Four jobs I've had:
- Piano teacher
- IT Assistant
- Computer programmer
- Composer (haven't ever got paid for this one yet)

Four movies I can watch over and over:
- Star Wars (original trilogy)
- Kiki's Delivery Service
- The Italian Job
- Wallace & Grommit in The Wrong Trousers

Four video games I can play over and over:
- Deus Ex
- Final Fantasy X
- Final Fantasy VII
- DDR

Four places I have lived:
- El Sobrante, CA
- Provo, UT
- Orem, UT
- Albuquerque, NM

Four television shows I love to watch:
- Buffy: the Vampire Slayer / Angel
- Battlestar Galactica
- LOST
- Alias

Four places I have been on vacation:
- Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan
- Hawaii
- Baja, Mexico
- Washington, DC

Four of my favorite dishes:
- Scallops wrapped in bacon
- Dragon Sesame Chicken at Chow's
- sauteed asparagus
- Spinach lasagna from Trader Joe's

Four websites I visit daily:
- www.livejournal.com
- my.yahoo.com
- www.girlgeniusonline.com
- www.google.com

Four places I would rather be right now:
- ice skating
- scuba diving somewhere tropical
- going to a movie w/ hubby
- my mom's house

Just finished the (hopefully) final draft of my new mystery party/LARP "Boxed Set". Now I just need to package it to distribute online, for anyone else that wants to play it. Hopefully it's cool . . . I think it's fun. :-)

The other day Onyx didn't want to sit still in church, so I took him out to the hall. While I was gone, Quartz asked his dad, "Why didn't Onyx want to sit still?" Dad said, "I don't know." Quartz replied, "I think he doesn't want to go to nursery with the babies. He just wants to go to Primary and sit with me and Nathan." We thought this was pretty funny, since Quartz has been having a little bit of a hard time going from playing in the nursery during Sunday School to going to his little Sunday School class for 3 year olds.

I was feeling underappreciated and upset the other day, so I turned to the scriptures, almost as a challenge. (Kind of like "All right, I'll turn to the scriptures -- maybe I'll find something that can help me in Isaiah!"). So I read 2 Nephi 24:2 (same as Isaiah 14:2), "the land of the Lord shall be for servants and handmaids". I know this is actually talking about something else, but for me it meant that God appreciates my service, that spending all day helping my kids really is the right thing for me to do right now, and it's worth it. So, now I feel a little foolish about my challenge, but I feel a lot better about what I was sad about. :-)

And now, a picture of Onyx in the adorable hat he got for Christmas, knitted by his aunt Susan:

Onyx's favorite words: "tractor", "thank you", "dump truck", "there's dad", "train"
Quartz's favorite phrases: "Mom, will you please play with me?", "Soy milk, please!", "But he was wrecking my train!"
Mom's favorite phrases: "Please tell me in a quieter voice", "Would you like to ask me nicely?", "I will read this Tails book one more time, and then I need to do the laundry"
Dad's favorite phrases: "When you're calm, you can get down", "I must be sick; even sausage doesn't sound good", "Who didn't get a hug today?"

Today was Onyx's first day going to the nursery at church by himself. He ran in through the door and never looked back. I think he was just really happy to be able to play with toys and not have to sit quietly anymore.

We're finally all healthy again, for the first time in a few weeks -- I say that, but it feels like it won't be true for very long. There's so many illnesses going around -- we gotta take advantage of all the healthy days we can find!

Lately, Onyx only wants to eat dried fruit. Craisins, raisins, dates, dried apricots -- I finally got him to branch out to grapes, but it was tricky. Sadly, my gauge of a "healthy" meal for Onyx consists of whether the fruit is balanced by enough starch to make diapers not completely gross. He hasn't been eating many "healthy" meals by that definition lately! :-)

And, here's our Christmas photo:

Here are two stories 3-year-old Quartz dictated to me (with a small amount of "What happened next?" prompting), word for word:

One time when Emily train was going through the crossing gates, the crossing gates opened and Sir Topham Hat drove through. Then they went down, Thomas puffed through, and all the engines puffed through.

Salty was a Dockyard Diesel. Gordon and Thomas were working hard at the docks so they could make sure the animals were safe inside the Docks museum. Then all the engines puffed through the crossing gates. Salty stayed at the docks. Then, when Salty was all done, he went to see some freight cars. Naughty Diesel said, "I'm going to have some fun with those freight cars." Salty said, "Get away from those freight cars!" Naughty Diesel said, "Hay is for horses!"

Wheel of Time fans will be interested to know that Brandon Sanderson has been chosen to finish the series (article here). I've mentioned Sanderson's works on this site; I am really excited about this news and know he will do a great job! If you haven't heard of him, I recommend you check out his Mistborn series. Or, you can download the great book Warbreaker for free on his website. I knew they would have to find someone who is both published author and avid fan, and Sanderson fits that perfectly. While his plots (so far) haven't been quite as epic or twisted as Jordans, I think he does a much better job writing female characters, so I'm looking forward to that.

Quartz has a great imagination and loves to pretend to be various people (or animals, or trains, etc). The funniest is when he acts like he's reading a book. The other day he was pretending to be Arthur (from the Arthur series), and he said, "Francine, can we have some lunch now, says Arthur?". He's already writing fanfiction, and he doesn't even know how to write! :-)

Mom: Good night, Quartz ::closes door::
Quartz: I don't want to be alone!
Quartz (in deep gravelly voice): It's okay; Gordon the Excavator's here.
Quartz (in normal voice): Oh, okay.

Onyx loves to give things to people. While Wes is playing video games or working on the laptop, Onyx will get every stuffed animal one at a time and bring them to Wes, saying "Here you go! Thank you!". He also loves to play hide and seek and ring-around-the-rosies. When he wants to play hide and seek he will grunt as if he is counting, "Ah, uh, eh, ah, uh, eh, ah, uh, hewa go!"

And here's a photo of Onyx for ya:

According to Quartz, our family is not Mom, Dad, Quartz, and Onyx, but Superhero Mom, Superhero Dad, Dash, and Superhero Baby. So here's some superhero quotes from our family:

"We're going to superhero church!" --Quartz
"Why does everybody love my knees so much?" --Andrea
"You just made my day." --stranger, upon seeing Onyx pushing a mini-cart at Wild Oats
"Superheroes always follow the rules." --Wes
"How did God make ducks?" --Quartz
"I just love his fluffy, spiky hair!" --stranger, about Onyx
"Is it allowed to jump on the furniture like this?" --Quartz
"Okay, time to be superhero reverent and quiet." --Wes
"Blane oo" --Onyx, learning to say "thank you"
"Can everyone just not pee for one day?" --Andrea
"God didn't make toys. People in a factory make toys." --Quartz
"I feel like a zombie." --Wes
"Wow wow wow wow wow wow" --Onyx, copying Grandma L at the furniture store
"You mean Dash." --Quartz, when someone calls him Quartz instead of Dash (from The Incredibles)