When Babies Shower

On Saturday, August 6, Aunty Lucy Kawate and Jackie Jenkins held a baby shower for me and baby Kishida.  About 17 people showed up for the big event.  We had a luxurious brunch catered by Grinds Cafe.  It included fruit plates, a vegetable tray, baskets of yummy pastries, and trays of breakfast sandwiches and wraps.  All of the food was great!  We played a couple very tame games.  The first game was to get to know everyone.  We each got a piece of paper with the alphabet written on it.  Then, we had to go around and meet each person at the shower and write their name next to the letter in the alphabet that their name started with.  If you met someone who's name started with a letter that you already had, then, they had to give you a boys name that started with that letter.  In the end, whoever had the most alphabet letters covered, was the winner.  Edith Sakai came in first place because she was creative enough to use people's first and last names.  The rest of use were just using first names.  The second game involved splitting up into two groups.  Each group had to sing a baby song to the other group.  Which ever group had the best performance was the winner.  My group sang "Rock a Bye Baby."  We lost.  The other group sang "The ABC's."  They added in some swinging side-to-side movements.  Who can compete with choreography?  All in all, it was a great time.  I got lots of useful gifts.  Most of it was baby stuff, but I got a few mommy gifts too:  some chocolates from a couple thoughtful people and a gift certificate for a massage!  I have eaten all of the chocolate already and I didn't share a single piece with Ryan.  Of course, he doesn't like nuts and most of it had nuts in it, so he didn't really try to eat any.  Can't wait to have that massage!

What Ryan Did During the Summer Other Than Fix Things

Yes, that was an elephant's butt in the other video.  That was our rendezvous point. 

Kilroy was a thing soldiers did during WWII.  They would try to be the first to put that graffiti tag where ever the army went.  It was engraved on the monument.

No one sang at JFK's grave since you're supposed to be quiet. 

Thor is out.  Too passe.  Now that the movie came out, everyone will be naming their kid that. We're thinking He-Man now.

What Ryan Did on His Summer Vacation

This was a busy summer for Ryan.  He started it off by travelling to Washington DC with 13 seventh and eighth graders and one other teacher.  Before he left, he was getting frustrated with the paper work and vowed to never do this again.  After the trip, he was talking about doing it every year.  Yes, it was that good!  He said it was much more education-oriented than he thought it would be.  Not your typical sight-seeing tour.  The thing that topped it off for him was that on a trip to Senator Inouye’s office, one of his students wanted to know how she could get a job working there.  That made it all worth it for him.  Of course, the all-you-can-eat bacon in the complimentary breakfast buffet didn’t hurt either.  

Don’t worry.   He did get to see the sights, too.  They went to the Smithsonian, the Holocaust Museum, The Library of Congress,  Union Station, The White House (at least the outside of it), all of the war memorials, The Lincoln Memorial, The Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, The Changing of the Guards, Washington Monument, and several malls.  This was a trip of firsts for a lot of his students.  Some of them had never been to the mainland before.  For most of them, it was the first trip without their parents.  For some it was the first time they got to use an escalator.  Many of them got to ride on a subway for the first time.  They got to meet kids from Texas, Chicago, New York, Ohio, and California.  Ryan learned that kids from New York walk really fast.  Kids from California walk really slowly.  Hawaii kids were in the middle of the pack with the mid-west kids.

Here are a few pictures.  Unfortunately, Ryan didn’t get any pictures with him in them.  You know that he was behind the camera, though, because of the bacon picture above.  Who else would take a picture of a huge pan of bacon?  We are also a little limited in what I can post because I don’t want to post pictures of his students on our blog.  So here are some beautiful and anonymous pictures of what Ryan saw on his trip.

The Smithsonian:

The National Archives:

Capitol Hill:

The White House:

Vietnam War Memorial:

Iwo Jima Memorial (US Marine Corps Memorial):

Arlington Cemetery:

Washington Monument:

A Big Mall:

But the fun did not stop there.  When he got home he delved into a number of home improvement projects.   Get, ready!  It is a long list.  He installed a recessed light in the shower stall of the laundry room shower.  It really lights up the space well. 

He repaired the table leg that was missing when we bought the table second-hand.  It came with the leg, but we needed to reattach it. 

He installed the baseboard trim and door trim in the hallway. 

We painted the baby’s room Celestial Blue. 

He replaced the missing screen clips in the clearstory and put weather stripping around those screens.  No more bugs or geckos can get in through those!  In case they don’t look high in the picture, the ceiling in the clearstory is 16 ft tall.  Ryan doesn’t like climbing the ladder that high, but he was a trooper. 

We potted some flowers in ornamental urns for our front entry way. 

He put weed cloth and mulch around all of the plants in our front flower bed and mowed our expansive lawn about a million times.

He re-potted our ever-growing Rosemary plant. 

He removed a lot of rubbish and took it to the dump.  We had two big rotting greenhouse tables in the corner of our backyard.  He dismantled them and took them to the dump.  In their place, he set up a composting bin system.  It is made up of three trash cans with holes drilled in the sides, and top.  We’re excited to see how it works.  Hopefully the neighbor’s wall won’t destroy it before we get some results.  No “black gold” yet. 

He added more gravel to the walkway of the side of the house.  While Elspeth was here helping us, we got gravel down most of that side of the house, but we ran out of steam and money part of the way down.  Ryan extended our efforts to go all the way down the side of the house and he added more gravel to what we had done to make it thicker.  It might still need a little bit of gravel, but it looks really nice. 

He finally got rid of the rolls of carpet and huge buckets of paint that were left at our house by the previous owner.  We had been talking about donating it to Habitat for Humanity from the day we moved in.  Now, one year later, it is finally gone.  Of course, it wasn't as easy as you might think.  Ryan called Habitat and was told that they would love the carpet and paint.  They would call him the next week when they were in the area.  No phone call.  So Ryan called them again.  They would pick it up that Friday between the hours of 10am and 2pm.  No one came.  Saturday morning at 7:15am, Ryan posted an add on Craig's list for free carpet and paint.  By 9am we had gotten rid of it and had three other callers.  If we had known it would be that easy, we might have started with Craig's list.

His last project of the summer was to replace the garage entry door frame.  We used the old door, but the frame was rotting, so he replaced that part.  It turned out to be much more difficult than expected.  None of the doors in our house were framed straight evidently.  That makes replacing them a big pain!  So far, no more rain has been sneaking in through that door since he fixed it! 

In his spare time, Ryan played his favorite video game, Dark Age of Camelot.  His highest level character is a druid named Eansainne.  His next favorite character is a champ named Hobble.  I’m sure the realm of Hibernia is missing his presence since he has reluctantly started back to school.  He wasn’t ready for the summer to end.  This week was the first week with kids.  So far, they are all on their best behavior.  He said that usually wears off by the second week. 

So, you may be thinking, what has Wendy been doing this summer?  Well, working is the short answer.  Last week was my last week of field work until after my maternity leave.  I will be stuck in the office for the next two months.  And, of course, I have been busy making a baby.  This is hard work in case you don’t already know that.  I am now looking very pregnant, but most people still think I am small for being seven months along.  It’s ok with me.  I can still see my toes.  Technically, I can still reach my toes, but that is very uncomfortable.  

Of course, I can’t forget to introduce the newest members of our family…the house plants!  They were my project this summer.  They add a feel of completion and warmness to the house.  At least, I think so. 

Since Emily Asked...

Here's a slide show of my DC trip with the kids.  It's in 2 parts.  First is the activities, second is the sites.  Not sure if I showed this to you or not.

Here's a video I made of the game I play when Wendy is sleeping.  It's the game I was trying to get Nick to play before he rebooted.  I'm the healer-type guy in the red cloak in the middle of the screen.


Since I've been working on my masters in curriculum studies, I haven't felt like writing for fun.  It has to do with all the writing I have to do for class.  However, Wendy said she was going to write something with updates on our house and our soon to be son named Thor.

It's a . . .

It has been a while since our last blog.  Ryan has been taking an on-line course to get his Master's degree in reading skills.  It requires a lot of writing, so he hasn't been too keen on writing in other venues like our blog.  In the mean time, our life has been changing in big ways.  That is why I have decided to step up to the plate and try adding some up-dates. 

Just to get everyone up to speed since the last blog, this is what's been going on.  Elspeth, my sister, moved back to Indiana.  I think she had a good time while she was here, but she was home sick.  Since being back in Indiana, she still hasn't gotten a job, but she has been pursuing her love of painting and is actively trying to sell her work.  To check her art out on etsy.com, search for "art by Elspeth."  The plumeria painting is of the flowers in our back yard.  The floss tree is something that she was working on while she was here.  We have an original orchid painting by Elspeth in our foyer.  Keep up the good work Elspeth!

On the house front, there is not much to add.  We have settled in and are just doing routine maintenance for now while we save up to re-shingle the roof.  Hopefully we can check that off the list this summer. 

Speaking of this summer, Ryan will venture to take twelve 7th and 8th graders to Washington DC (and back).  Many of these kids have never been off the island, so this is going to be a huge change for them.  Pray for him... he'll need it.

Now of course, the BIG news that everyone has already heard... we're having a baby!  The due date is September 30th.  I am showing, but not a lot yet.  The first trimester was terrible.  AND, what everyone wants to know...it's a BOY!  We had the ultra sound appointment today.  We haven't picked out any names yet, but we're leaning toward either Thor or Conan.

Generous Benefactor

Hey gang!  I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on what's been going on around here.

As usual, I'm spending my free time working on the house.  No surprise there, right?  In other news, due to some government idiocy, along with other union hate, the trust that handles teachers' health benefits will sunset.  Teachers will be forced back into the EUTF, which handles the benefits for state workers.  The EUTF is insolvent.  They have come on record in the past saying that they cannot handle taking in all the teachers.  Even Gov. Lingle, who hates teachers, have said the EUTF is insolvent.  So what's going on?  The high ranking idiots based their decisions on incomplete reports (but take it as gospel), and believe by adding the premiums from teachers to the EUTF, it will magically become solvent.

It gets better.  Teacher have until Nov. 24 to make any changes in their health coverage.  The EUTF provided a memo with some old premiums listed, along with a note saying it will change in January.  But if you ask them what the new premiums will be, they will tell you they won't know until January... but you have to make your decision in November.  Oh, and good luck getting in touch with the EUTF.  They have a memo that says don't email or call since they don't have the staff to answer questions.

On the bright side, we finished our path.

Still have to add more plants.

Jess sent us a big gift card for Home Depot.  We tried to refuse her money since she moved to the insanely expensive MN where it's so cold you have to have a furnace fired by the flames of Hell.  However, she persisted, and to keep refusing would be rude.  So we went ahead with some more home improvements.  (We also had a 10% off coupon for 1 receipt for up to $2000)

We bought the $10 ceiling fan electrical box to mount the craigslist fan in the Elspeth Suite.  I had to get a cordless drill to do the work too.

I figured out what the previous owners had done in the room.  There used to be a fluorescent light fixture on the ceiling.  There was a box in the ceiling for fixtures, and it was mounted really well to the joist.  I'm sure it could support the weight of a ceiling fan if... if the threaded holes for mounting stuff weren't broken off.  Looked like they broke the box when they changed the fixture, and instead of replacing the box, they shoved some drywall anchors into the broken holes and used drywall screws to mount the fan.  Yikes!

Now we have a prettier and better quality fan in the Elspeth Suite.  The only problem is that it is a 2 bulb light rather than the 3 bulb of the old fan. 

Next thing we tackled was the dining room door.  It was big and sturdy, being a solid wood slab, but it looked dirty and the old threshold broke off so I had a temporary one that stuck up real high.  Plus, the little lady wanted a white door.  We decided on w steel 9 lite door.

The old door didn't come out easily.  Instead of shimming the door evenly, it was flush to one side of the framing.  I couldn't get my reciprocating saw into the gap, so I had to pull the nails.  Glad the previous teacher that had my classroom left a nail puller in the closet.  Oh, and the slab was heavy, thanks for asking.

Here's Wendy cleaning the rough opening.  The tile grout used to be flush to the old, non-existent threshold.  It didn't match up flush with the new door.  We had to chisel it out.

After dealing with crappy screws that stripped faster than a horny teenager on prom night, we got the door in.  I finally got to use the brad nailer I got with my air compressor.  Notice how my choice of orange for the vestibule works well with the red of the dining room.

Much more inviting than a big, brown slab.  Now we realize we'll need a curtain hahahaha.  K-Mart had some magnetic mount curtains... guess we'll go there.  Also notice that the vestibule has carpet... sort of.  We installed carpet tile to soften things out.  We used it to help connect the Elspeth Suite to the main house.  Like a carpeted mini-hallway outside.

Now for the main attraction.  When Jess came over to see the house, one of the first things she pointed out was the ugly, faux-marble ceiling fan.  She actually said that her house warming gift to us would be a new fan.

It's not that ugly, right?

Well Jess, you'll be glad to know that you got us a new fan.

And you know what the best part of this story is?  Right after we got the new fan and door, we got another Home Depot gift card.  This time it's from Wendy's mom and dad.  Wonder what we'll do next?  Floor moulding?  Fix all the screens on the house?  New window treatment to replace the miniblinds in the living room?  Hmmmmm.