My first attempt at editing video

Yang got me a video camera for Christmas, and I have recorded lots of wonderful video of XM. Unfortunately, the software that came with the video camera is very hard to work with. So, I have hours of unedited video stored somewhere on my hard drive in a random format not recognized by quick time or media player. This is my first attempt at saving the video in a usable format.

It is not edited too well, so I posted this long clip mostly for the benefit of my mother. She will think two and a half minutes of XM trying to crawl (in poor lighting with a shaky camera and annoying narration) is adorable. I need to remember to not talk so much next time I use the camera!

I recorded this last night. XM was very tired, but determined to try to crawl. She gets so frustrated when her legs and arms won't work the way she wants.

Family, Curmudgeons, and Flat Irons

My sister K and her daughter J came to meet Xiao Mei last weekend. We had such a great time catching up, and XM loved all the extra attention she received. K is very funny—she has a dry, witty sense of humor. She was fun to talk to, and she had some great insights about XM. J is 11 years old, going on 23. She is intelligent, kind, and independent. She kept XM very entertained.

July is the perfect time for visitors to Portland. The weather was great, even out at the coast. We went to the rose garden, and there were still plenty of blooming roses. I carried XM in a front carrier at the rose garden. She loved looking around at the big trees and flowers. She was happy as a clam, so she started talking. XM is not a quiet talker. She shrieks, squawks and makes all kinds of interesting noises. At first, I was a little embarrassed because so much noise was coming from such a little person. However, I figured we were outside, so XM was fine to make as much noise as she wanted. Happy baby noises are the best. Well, there was an older woman walking near us. She was clearly annoyed that XM was disturbing her contemplative walk through the roses. She commented about how loud my baby was, and I was tempted to respond with a comment about how old she looked. (I didn’t). Anyway, that was my first experience with someone expressing her annoyance with my child and/or parenting. I’m sure it won’t be the last.

K brought her flat iron with her. She has the deluxe version that heats up to approximately one million degrees. K ended up with wavy hair after her pregnancies, so she uses the iron to straighten her hair. Well, as genetics would have it, I have also developed a few kinks and curls in my hair after having XM. I tried K’s flat iron and it was awesome! I don’t know why I have not used one before now. After K and J left, I proceeded directly to my nearest Trade Secret and picked up a fancy-pants flat iron. It makes such a difference. Before I looked like the scarecrow, now my hair is nice and smooth. The down side: it nearly doubles the time it takes to get ready.

Random Survey

Zelophehad’s Daughters posted this random survey. I have never commented there, so I didn’t want to leave a comment with my answers. I thought it would be fun to answer here.

1. What’s your favorite movie soundtrack?

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with Lord of the Rings a close second.

2. What’s your favorite holiday?

Christmas

3. What’s your favorite planet?

Earth, though I do love the rings on Saturn.

4. What is the last book you read for fun?

The Host

5. What’s the craziest space doctrine you’ve ever learned in a Church context?

(I do realize this is a tricky one–if we can’t delimit our doctrine, we certainly can’t delimit our space doctrine either. One person’s cherished doctrinal wisdom is another’s cherished doctrinal hogwash. So just define “space doctrine” however you’d like, and try to be respectful of others.)

If you’re not Mormon, you are missing out on our lovely array of crazy space doctrine. If you are Mormon, did you ever hear the one about dinosaur bones? Yup, they came from a different planet.

6. What’s your dream job?

US Ambassador to China. Yang and I talked about joining the Foreign Service when we were newly married. We decided to go to law school instead.

7. What’s your favorite food group?

Dairy, because it encompasses ice cream and cheese.

8. What’s your favorite letter of the alphabet?

K, with Z as close second.

9. What’s your favorite musical instrument?

Guitar to play, piano to listen to.

10. Which of the Standard Works do you like best (counting OT and NT separately)?

NT

11. If you weren’t (or aren’t) Mormon, what religion would you be?

Wiccan, UCC, or maybe I would make up my own religion.

Garden Update

A few pictures to update the gardening. Total crop failure in the onions and bagio beans. Our volunteer strawberries are worth exactly what we paid for them- we maybe got 10 berries and now they're done for the year. We planted two rows of melons, each a different variety, and one of them only has one plant on the whole row. I have my doubts about whether either row will produce anything more than slugs.

On the plus side, the peas grew so tall they fell over, even with my climbing lines. There are more than the one or two corn stalks I thought we had. We will likely have enough squash for the whole block. The pumpkins, beans and zucchini appear as though they'll bear something.

I realize I'll never make a living making things grow, but its still somewhat disheartening to realize you can't grow onions when you grew up on an onion farm. I'm going to blame this year on the seed.

Speaking of onions reminds me of a time on the farm when I accidentally ran over some onions with some farm equipment. I was making a very sharp corner with a disc and a large roller, and no matter how I turned, it just wasn't going to make the corner, I should have gone another way. I was chewed out real good, and then told I wasn't old enough to drive the larger equipment. The uncle who replaced me at the wheel then proceeded to drive the equipment down the road along side the onion field towards the shop and instructed me to follow him in a pickup. About halfway down the road the uncle got distracted and on the straight-away ran over several hundred square feet of onions. I saw it happening, but I figured best to wait a bit before I started honking to bring it to his attention, because maybe he knew what he was doing.

That was 17 or 18 years ago, but I still laugh about that.

Here are some pictures of the garden and our favorite gardener.

Seriously, so funny!!!!!

Check out this new blog. If you are a typical Mormon girl blogger, be prepared to laugh at yourself. If you have time, start from the beginning.

My favorite bits:

• "Laman's terms"
• Excessive use of exclamation points!!!!! (I am guilty of this one.)
• Her super-busyness running errands and 'scrappin.
• The few commenters who do not realize the blog is satirical.
• Her explanatory parentheticals.
• Pal (Also guilty of this one. I vaycayed at Pal every summer of my life until age 20).
• Capitalizing WEATHER related terms. LOVE it. Seriously.
• The sidebar links to Stephenie Meyer's books. (Guilty - I did a blog post about the series).
• "Either by anonymous or Boyd K. Packer, I can't remember."
  

Twenty Year Tag

This is a long one.

I was tagged by Heidi.

20 years ago I:
1. Was nine years old
2. Lived in Sandy, Utah.
3. Enjoyed summer break after fourth grade.
4. Smashed my recorder to bits after my recorder recital and regretted it a few weeks later when I wanted to play it again.
5. Was my 15-year-old sister’s confidante and partner in crime.
6. Water-skied, jet-skied, and knee-boarded at Lake Powell.

10 years ago I:
1. Was 19 years old.
2. Was talking marriage with Yang—he proposed July 18.
3. Lived with my parents after my freshman year at BYU.
4. Managed a Metabolife cart at the mall.
5. Was packing for my study abroad to London.
6. Went to a Meeks family reunion in Kanab, Utah where everyone assumed Yang and I were already married.

5 years ago I:
1. Was 24 years old.
2. Lived in Portland, OR.
3. Just completed my first year of law school.
4. Clerked at a personal injury firm on Macadam Ave.
5. Lost my cat, Tigerlily.
6. Was about to move to a new apartment with a washer and dryer.

3 years ago I:
1. Was 26 years old.
2. Lived in Aloha, OR.
3. Had just graduated from law school.
4. Went to Barbri classes every day.
5. Studied for the bar.
6. Harassed Yang while he studied for the bar.

So far this year I:
1. Am living in Tigard, Oregon.
2. Had my first baby in February.
3. Significantly reduced my hours at work.
4. Am trying to figure out how to be a mom.
5. Set up a treadmill in the garage and thought about running on it.
6. Took our first family vacation with XM to Sun River.

Yesterday I:
1. Took XM swimming for the first time.
2. Billed an hour.
3. Paid the bills.
4. Ran on the treadmill!
5. Went on a wild goose chase with Yang to find a 10x12 rug I saw a Fred Meyer a year ago. (No luck)
6. Put XM to sleep in her crib (in her own room) for the first time.

Today I:
1. Bought Yang’s birthday present.
2. Worked on XM’s baby book.
3. Wrote an email to my parents.
4. Watched XM get up on her hands and knees.
5. Went grocery shopping.
6. Should have worked but drafted this tag instead.

Tomorrow I will:
1. Go to the office for a few hours.
2. Meet Yang at the Melting Pot for his birthday dinner (Thanks G and M!).

In the next year I will:
1. Celebrate XM’s first birthday.
2. Celebrate my tenth wedding anniversary.
3. Celebrate my first Christmas with a child.
4. Turn thirty.
5. Run a 5k or possibly a 10k.
6. Begin planning for baby number two.

I tag: Chelle, Shelley, Kim, M and/or G, Hailey, and Ashley.