Beetlejuice

I've never seen the movie Beetlejuice,(1988), starring Michael Keaton and Alec Baldwin. I never thought of it much.

Today we took Annika to the dermatologist to get some answers to a skin infection and/or rash on the inside of her elbow. Two months and several OTC and prescription products later, we were no where near a resolution. So we made the leap to the specialist.

Annika was in her dreams when she arrived and found a bigger and better fish tank than her dentist's tank. This one had a truly beautiful lion fish, as well as several other salt water fish and living coral. All encased in a beautiful white wood tank - serviced by professionals according to the label. Over the top for derm, but whatever.

We met first with a PA-C who was great at interviewing and examining Annika. Annika had lunch with us before we went so she was in good form talking about school and sushi and golf practice.

The diagnosis came much quicker than with the pediatrician. The course of treatment was to blister the sores, and get the cores out. For this, she brought in beetlejuice. Say what????? Beetlejuice from South America to be exact. It looks like someone left a gluestick out in the heat and then bottled it up into a very expensive prescription. Luckily, we were using the office supply for Annika's small arm. We were to wash it off in two hours. Annika was bandaged and we were on our way.

Golf practice came, and after 2 hours and 45 minutes we were home to unwrap and wash. The beetle juice had liquified some of Annika's skin. She was horrified, no actually, petrified, when we removed the bandages and looked underneath. It was more painful than she expected. Whoa. Brave Annika still cried and cried. She decidedly does not like anything to do with beetle juice. Now we are waiting for a little while to begin removing the cores. This first evening we got one. It's going to take awhile and I don't blame Annika for being upset. But atleast this won't spread.

Slightly Painful Goodbye

Can a goodbye to an item be painful? I suppose if the loss was unexpected such as fire damage or theft? But really, material attachment can be benign to painful. It all depends on the sentiment.

That's how I felt about our family piano. This piano was from my dad's family. It stayed with my dad as an adult and always had a place at our home. Many, many, many years of piano lessons later (and I still consider myself mediocre) and after a long dry spell where no one played it, the piano was shipped to Arizona.

While enjoyable, it was woefully out of tune. I found a tuning specialist who said the piano was badly damaged from the years, with little value. He tuned it to within a half tune of correct. The sound board was cracked and any more tuning will certainly spell its death. A year and a half later, we had it checked. It could no longer be tuned and a few keys were lost - hammers stricking sagging strings. We still kept it for another two years.

I told my dad, reluctantly, that the monetary value of the piano had sunk to zero, which had a indirect correlation to its sentimental value. We were conflicted. Now we are getting ready for major remodel work on the house (flooring painting, and bath remodels) and we knew it may be time. I checked with local thrift stores and a store that deals with piano parts. None were willing to take the 60 year old piano. I was saddened.

Painfully, we packed it in today. We played it in the AM and took pictures. A friend of Woody's came over to help with the final goodbye and removal.

The last tune. Goodbye old friend.

Old Photo Friday

Grocery Shopping

This week has been one of lackluster planning, especially when it comes to meal planning. We've eaten out a couple days this week, we've made items from the back of the freezer, and we went grocery shopping without a list. Not something I like to do. A friend of mine plans her meals every Monday and shops accordingly. I'd like to aspire to her standards. She posts her family's eating plans and I admit to "borrowing" a few of her meals, complete with the linked recipe.

It is very easy to shop for big meals, little meals, or stock up based on the store you visits. Ads are plentiful. We have five different grocery stores within a three mile radius out here. An additional five miles gets us to two different warehouse stores. Choices are always plentiful. And fifteen miles away is a Korean grocery store to satisfy Woody's need for spicy foods and memorable foods and treats from his childhood.

What would happen if that went away and you were left with one store and very few choices? What if they told you this was all you could buy, no matter how much money you have? My mom is old enough (barely, barely) to have been a part of that kind of grocery shopping, specifically, ration books. I don't know much about the process, or how they decided how much was the "right" amount to ration each month, but it must have been slightly frustrating to be told you have used your allotment and can't buy anymore.

For today's old photo, I've included a couple scans from my mom's ration book. On the inside, some coupons remained. Her book was issued so close to the end of the war, it may have become unnecessary and therefore, unused coupons remained. I scanned the rules on the back, too. I never thought to ask my grandparents much about this part of war life. It would be interesting to hear someone's first hand account about using war ration books and how the experience compared with the ample choices of today. Maybe we have too many choices.

Perhaps the War Department had it right when they printed this advise on the back of the ration book:

Remember: If you don't need it, DON'T BUY IT.

Tonight's Reading

It was a rare treat to eat lunch alone with Woody. I had a doctor's appointment and Woody was running errands on a day off. When I called Woody around noon, I realized we were within a mile of each other. We made lunch plans at our favorite sushi restaurant and had a relaxing lunch.

Dinner was fun, since it was made in the crockpot and therefore complete when we got home. The conversation was funny. Annika made an Earth Day notebook/notepad at school utilizing scrap paper and a cover from trash. Annika used a doritos bag for her cover that had been cleaned with paper stapled to the inside. Their assignment was to journal in the new notebook. The journal entry was to be about Earth Day and going green. This may make you green - Annika's response for going green was to write and draw, "I like to eat fish eye bolls". Now that'll make you green!

Tonight, after the girls went to bed, I got an opportunity to review in detail our newly published 2008 Happenings book, which is a complete download of our blog made into a book. The past year's blog book ended up a whopping 288 pages. After more than 80 hours of editing text and photo placement, we are very pleased with the results. Extra copies were ordered for the grandparents and for the kids when they are older. Here's a sample from the book.

Power Outage

What do three girls do during an unexpected power outage?

First, they scream, understandably, but nonetheless loudly. Second, they think it only affects where they are, which in this case was the bathtub. After we get out of the bath, can we watch T.V.? Finally, when they accept the fact that electricity controls a lot of their daily conveniences, they get creative.

The girls were taking their evening bath togheter when the electricity went out. I was in the kitchen at the time. Woody was out getting gas. The girls screamed. Our emergency flashlights are in the kitchen, but I still had to feel for the right cabinet. Running in to the dark bathroom, the girls were huddled together. I placed a flashlight on the counter and said we would be finishing the baths in quick fashion. The girls dressed by flashlight, and then carried their own flashlight into the living room. Woody returned with McDonalds and reported that everything west of Alma School Road appeared to be out, including the traffic lights. We ate with the oil lamps and flashlights. The girls made shadow puppets from their chicken nuggets. Very low on the nutrition scale, but high on the entertainment scale. I'm glad we weren't in the middle of cooking dinner. Soon, we began to hear noises outside. It seemed others were passing the time of the outage with an evening stroll.

We finished eating and ventured outside. We made plans for reading by oil lamp and getting to bed. Morgan immediately wondered how her night music was going to work. Annika thought it'd be fun to go to school with no electricity - we can have P.E. class all day. That doesn't need electricity. Woody and I were thinking about today's trip to Costco and the full refrigerator and freezer. I began making plans about where to transfer our food and where to get ice should this last. We don't have power outages that often.

About an hour later, while we were outside talking with the neighbor under a starlit sky, we saw the street lights come back on and houselights reset. Outage over, we returned home to attempt to get the girls calmed for bed. It took until past nine, very late for a school night, but eventually they settled into their sleep mode.

I was enjoying the lack of electricity in one sense. Woody thought everything was eerily quiet and the dinner conversation was more enlightening. There was a lot to discuss. If it had been earlier in the evening, I pointed to the board games that may have been pulled down for use. Instead, I was mentaly blogging about the event in hopes I could recall everything from our non use of electricity.

P.E. class all day long - that's Annika's idea of making the best of a power outage.

Pima Air and Space Museum

The intended idea was to get up and see one travelling B-17 on display at Chandler Municipal Airport this weekend. I thought it'd be nice to see a WWII aircraft up close.

Woody thought so, too. Only not one. If we want to see aircraft, let's take the girls to Tucson. Over 250 aircraft on display at their museum. One of the largest displays in the world. I quickly agreed, but asked if there was a P-38. No such luck. A P-38 Lightning is the plane my great uncle flew in New Guinea during WWII. I've always wanted to see and touch this type of aircraft. We settled on a road trip and made haste to get ready.

On our way by 10:00 AM, we headed to Tucson and stopped for lunch. After lunch it was off to the museum. Wow, is all I can say when I saw it - it's huge. To give away the ending - after 3 hours (including one break for water, gatorade, and apple juice and air conditioning), we still didn't look in all of the hangers.

Some great highlights include seeing a presidential aircraft (Air Force One) from John F. Kennedy.

Ingrid loved the Navy's "Red" Helicopter:

The B-17 "Flying Fortress" was very impressive, especially from the belly of the plane.

Inside the main hanger we saw a B-18B bomber. The B-18 was replaced during WWII with the B-17, but these remained for their ability to spot submarines with radar. More noticeable to me was the squadron insignia painted on the side of the plane. It's the same as Great Uncle Chuck's, seen here on a picture of him with his leather jacket.

Back outside, we ventured into a WWII era barracks. Woody was very impressed with this - he stayed in one in Georgia during basic training. All new for Gramps and Uncle Chuck; very worn out by the 1980's when Woody was housed in one. This one was full of model airplanes, include a small, but impressive P-38.

Of course, to house 275 planes, you need a lot of space, which creates a lot of running room. The girls were all over but equally tuckered at the end of our visit. One would think our car ride home was one of silence. Not so. Annika must have sucked in some of those fantom jet fumes - the name "motor mouth" comes to mind.

Aebelskivers and Surfing

It's been awhile since we made Aebelskiver for breakfast (filled pancake balls). We're expecting a nice warm day. The windows are all open and the air is fresh. A good morning for a Danish breakfast. We altered the recipe somewhat to combine cultures. Some of the aebelskiver were filled with Korean red bean paste instead of the traditional lingoberry jam. Both taste wonderful. Annika was the "keeper" of the aebelskiver as they came off the pan and did a great job of dusting the powdered sugar.




What does Aebelskiver have to do with surfing? Nothing really. I took out Annika's backpack from Friday to sort through her papers and put away her lunchbox for the weekend. Annika is writing daily stories as part of her morning journal in Kindergarten. Here is Friday's unedited journal entry:

"He is srfen. He is swmen. A gro is srfen and a gro is my P.E. tehr."


Accompanying the entry is a picture of a boy on a surfboard crashed in the water and a girl riding the waves. Surfing???? Where do they come up with these ideas?

We're off for an adventure today. We'll write when we get back.

Old Photo Friday

A Girl and Her Doll.

It's timeless. Five generations between the photos below, but the activity is the same. Girls playing with dolls on a blanket in the yard. As recently as last month, Morgan was playing with her American Girl doll and teepee on a blanket in the backyard. Ingrid pushes her doll in a stroller around the cul-de-sac singing to her doll.

So here's today's photo(s). The first picture is my great grandmother Eva posing for a professional picture with her doll. I wonder what the doll composition was - porcelain?

Also included is a a picture of my grandmother, her sister Helen, and her cousin Eleanor playing with dolls in the yard.

Finally, I included a picture of Morgan and Annika playing dolls in Grandma's front yard in Rochester. Morgan's doll looks so realistic, it's fooled some observers.




Eva (Stolp) Springer and her doll.




L to R: Irene (Danewick) Springer; Helen (Danewick) Snider and Eleanor (Rolstead) Litzen playing dolls.


Morgan and Annika Chung (Summer 2004).

Tonight's Reading

Late this afternoon, Woody and I went to east Mesa to look at a new chair that will end up in the family room. I like the idea of a swivel glider or a swivel rocker. We found one, but hated the fabric choices (we wanted a small leather one). We left without success and made our way west to get Ingrid from preschool.


Before we left home for the furniture store we stopped at the house on the corner that is getting a complete facelift inside. Woody had previously struck up a conversation with the contractor and they invited us in to see some of the progress. Of particular interest is the floor tiling. They are using a porous 18 inch tile that will be fully grouted and sealed. While we don't like the chosen tile, the work quality was outstanding.



When we returned home with the girls, we went across the street to see if our neighbor went through with her scheduled surgery. Her daughter answered the door and said yes. Not wanting to bother our neighbor while she was recovering, we quickly left and noted that we wanted to get some cards made and maybe make some waffles with strawberries on Saturday for her.



About ten minutes later, they came over. It was Joann's first walk outside of the house. She said she was feeling great and we spent quite a bit of time discussing tile and home improvement projects. The conversation moved to our bathroom to discuss our (lack) of progress and some ideas to finish our master bath remodel. Joann has great ideas and had a super contractor and tile layer. We'll be getting his number.



We looked up and realized it was nearly 7 pm. Our girls were playing in Morgan's room but dinner and baths now needed to be completed in 30 minutes. Did we make it? Very, very close. Woody stopped at Paradise bakery for fruit and sandwiches and I bathed three girls in quick succession.

Annika really, really wanted to read to me so I let her read the Dr. Seuss beginner book, "Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman. What was neat about the reading is the newly found confidence and fluency in Annika's voice as more and more words are sounded out and familiarized. Even better was Ingrid by her side, repeating each word with a clarity we had yet to hear from her. It was if Annika was saying the word twice! Way to go Ingrid.

2nd Cousins

Our older girls are in countdown mode. They are starting to look at the calendar and realize that it's a mere 9 weeks before they go to Minnesota with Grandma and Grandpa. One of the highlights of the trip is the 2nd cousin party. Annika keeps asking to look at the picture from last year's party to see all of her cousins.

The same now holds true (in a much smaller number) to her second cousins in Korea. When Emo (great Aunt) visited last month, she brought pictures of the girls' second cousins. We all enjoyed viewing the pictures and talking about meeting someday. Emo is returning for a visit to L.A. this summer and for sure, she will make the trip over to Arizona. The girls are again excited and asked to look at the pictures of cousins Chong He, Han Bin and Ty Young. The younger two are girls and have enjoyed the packages of clothes we've sent them. Ty Young is wearing some of the sweaters Mom made for the girls. Their favorite sweater was one of Ingrids that we featured on the blog last year [Click Here].

So here are some pictures of Chong He (age 5.5), his sister Han Bin (age 3) and cousin Ty Young (age 2).

Ty Young

Chong He and Han Bin at a Christmas play place.

How an Easter Egg Hunt Can Go Wrong

I thought I knew what I was doing. As soon as we got home from brunch, I came up with the plan. The girls arrived home thinking the Easter bunny hid the eggs for their hunt. Finding none in the front or back yard, they were resettled inside for afternoon naps. Morgan only lasted an hour and then came out abruptly again looking for the eggs. Only I was outside and at the neighbor's house. How was I going to get back inside our house? Morgan kept looking around the corner. Enough time for me to sneak into the neighbor's open garage and duck behind the car. Then out the other side of the garage, around the neighbor's tree and I was back on the sidewalk - looking like a stroll down the street. I came around and caught Morgan by the fountain before she took too many steps. "I was just out walking to check the mail," I slyly answered.

Back inside we waited for another hour for Ingrid and Annika (and Woody) to wake up. When they did wake up, Morgan informed her sisters that she had been watching and the Easter bunny hadn't come yet for the egg hunt. I let them know, indeed, the Easter bunny checked in with lightning speed, but kept finding Morgan looking outside and thus, decided not to leave eggs in order to avoid detection. The eggs were hidden in the neighbor's front yard along with their baskets waiting for the hunt.

The girls couldn't get their shoes on fast enough before heading outside and around the fountain to Joann's house. AND THERE WAS MY BIG MISTAKE! I made arrangements with them for the use of their yard. What I forgot to ask, and it's very, very important, was THE SPRINKLER SCHEDULE. We arrived and immediately found the baskets in the yard, soaked from the sprinklers. Also soaked was most of the plastic and cloth eggs, some of which were placed right on the sprinkler heads. So what's a bit of sprinkler water, right? It's a bit more complicated here. The lawn water is effluent - not potable, not drinkable, not fully treated. You don't go running through the sprinklers on sunny afternoons here. In fact, it's best to stay away. Now the girls nonetheless decided to search for the eggs and then wash their hands. They were more interested in the money hidden in some of the eggs (which stayed protected) in double plastic eggs and the dry eggs hung on the bougainvillea. "The grass wet, mommy, the eggs wet. All wet, mommy."

Ready for Easter - Time for Reflection and Celebration.

The Chung family is celebrating Easter today. Here are some photos of our day.

The Easter Bunny Visited.

Waiting for the girls to see their baskets...









More later. We're getting ready to celebrate. The Lord Has Risen! Hallelujah!

Good Friday Painting Fun

The girls decided they wanted to use some package paper to make Easter posters. I set them loose in the backyard with their dad's t-shirts and tempra paints. They are hard at work with Morgan pouring out paint on little plates for her sisters.

For me, it's passing the time on a partly cloudy Friday morning. Baths are planned for the afternoon and fish dinner before church.

Old Photo Friday

Good Friday Traditions.

Have any Good Friday traditions? Our family did when I was little. We would go to church in the afternoon for a puppet show version of the Christ story while eating Hot Cross buns. I loved the puppet show.

I also loved coloring easter eggs and reading stories. Here's a picture of me holding my absolute favorite book by Richard Scary - I am a Bunny. I loved the simple poem and memorized it early. As an adult I found another copy of the book on Ebay and enjoy it with the girls. We will read it tonight after coloring eggs.

Ladies Golf Night

With Annika feeling better today, I planned to take her to Ladies Night at Golf Galaxy in South Tempe. Golf Galaxy is one of the bigger golf stores in the valley, with three indoor driving nets, a large putting green and lots and lots of clubs and accessories.

This evening's gathering included drawings, giveaways, club demos, putting contests and other fun. Here's the cool thing. They really didn't advertise too well. About 25 people showed up - that's it. While we didn't win any of the $100 gift certificates, Annika was the favorite for the putting contest. Without youth sized clubs, she still made a great attempt at the far hole and was rewarded with a Ping visor. She thought it was cool and kept high-fiving Chris, the Callaway representative with whom she formed a good bond. She then sat and watched all of the other ladies participate in the three round putting contest.

Annika enjoyed watching others try out various drivers at the indoor nets which included filming and pro tips. We didn't bring her clubs to the event so there were no drivers or hybrids small enough for her. They gave her a great spot to watch and she readily clapped for the ladies saying, "good job" to each of them. She had her eye on a set of Ping Pals junior set and Ping Maxies junior set but for $255.00, I think she'll be looking at them for a little longer. Plus she needs to grow some more before the next junior set.

She came home with her visor, goodie bag, and a new kids book on golfing. The rest of the drawings for a new Ping and other sets will come via e-mail. We got her ready for bed and she can't wait to call her Harmony to tell her about her golf evening.

Every Breath Counts

Annika woke up sick on Monday after coughing for a good part of the night. She looked uncomfortable enough that school might not be a good idea. Plus, she had very little sleep. She quietly asked me if she should go to KidCare - the sick day care at our hospital. Yes, I agreed, she needed rest, liquids and some cough and runny nose medicine for comfort. I had meetings and Woody was already at work.

Our kids like KidCare so much that I had to tell Annika not to mention outloud to Ingrid where she was going. KidCare has been around for more than 15 years at our hospital. I was part of the planning way back then and never figured I would ever use it as a parent.

Annika enjoyed her day at KidCare and was a bit sad when Woody picked her up. I sent him a text message that she was not in class and was not feeling well.

The evening routine of baths and reading was followed by a breathing treatment for Annika, with Ingrid watching the process. Both girls enjoyed the fifteen minutes of barbie.com while the SVN worked its magic. A good night sleep and Annika should be good to go in the morning.

It's Here Mom! It's Here!

Morgan was very excited this evening. The AIMS standardized testing is done. Her class had an afternoon party. She watched a movie on a big screen in after school care. And then she came home to the box.

As I mentioned earlier this week, Morgan has saved every cent of her money from birthdays, Christmas, chores, etc. for the last 14 months. She also exchanged a birthday gift card from Target for cash, all in an effort to save the money for her favorite American Girl Doll, Kirsten. As she got close to the amount, American Girl raised the prices of many of its items, including the dolls by $5.00. Morgan was not deterred and continued to save beyond the required amount for the doll so she could order the book and accessories.

While Grandma was here two weeks ago, Morgan got on the phone (I was on the other line) and placed the order for the doll. She did a great job ordering and answering all of the required questions.

We saw Morgan open the doll while I got dinner ready. That was the last we saw her of the evening after dinner. Morgan was happily content in her room with her new doll. We congratulated Morgan on her tenacity in savings and hope she enjoys her reward.

Old Photo Friday

Summer of '76.

That's the summer the tramp moved to its next location. My mom's slides showed the ground digging and frame placement and the first jumps of the summer.

Enjoy.


Steve, Chuck on tractor, Chris, Denny, Todd, Bob

Michelle

Todd

Susan

Aaron

Jeff

L to R: Sally, Steve (behind), Denny, Todd, Chris, Rick, Chuck.