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January 31, 2008

email from Britta's preschool teacher

Well Jana~ Shame on you for "letting" Andy's car run out of gas :>) I laughed so hard this morning when he was telling the other Moms how he was trying to figure out a way to blame it on you....what a character!!!!! Britta was sure all Tuesday morning that she was going to have to walk home!!!!!!!

Posted by jana at 8:18 PM

January 29, 2008

The preschool commute

Convo with the hubby after he ran out of gas today:

Him: You must have driven the Subaru after I did.

Me: No, I haven't driven it since December.

Him: Maybe one of the neighbor kids is siphoning gas out of the tank.

Me: Maybe because when I got in the Lexus it had no gas yesterday. I was afraid I'd run out of gas on the way to work.

Him: No, that was me. I left the car without any gas.

Me: You are a risk taker and that applies to how much gas you have in the tank too. If you run your car on hardly any gas you might run out.

Fortunately he stopped blaming me for running out of gas. If anything he needs to thank me for the times I do fill up the tank.

Posted by jana at 12:15 PM | Comments (1)

January 27, 2008

Experiments in parenting

I am not sure where I read this but recently I saw something about "Success Coaches use visualization to help their clients achieve their goals." So when Andy told me that at Karsten's tumbling class he told the teacher "I have a stomach ache" when the teacher wanted him to do a backbend I had an idea to try my own version of this on Karsten.

"Karsten, close your eyes." Good, he closed his eyes. "I am imagining you in a tall field of grass. Now you are running, running, running. You spring forward with your hands in the air... now you tuck your chin and then flip, flip, flip, backward filp...then spring up in the air with your hands up. All of your friends are there clapping and applauding."

Next up, reading. Karsten thinks he can't read but I know that he has memorized every letter in the alphabet and all the sounds. He knows a gazillion "sight words." I am sure he can read but he just thinks he can't. I told him "I see you going through a secret door into a dungeon of books. You pick a stack of all of your favorites... find a hiding spot and read. You read about blah, blah, blah... all by yourself!" He really liked the dungeon of books idea.

Next I found him a book to read (on the bookshelf, not in our dungeon), and wouldn't you know it, he read the whole thing by himself. He can read!

So either this visualization thing might be working... or the lure of computer video games he can play once he's done reading works. I guess my experiment is flawed. We have yet to see if the gymnastics technique will work but I'm hopeful. Either way, having a guinea pig kid is fun.

Posted by jana at 11:56 AM

January 24, 2008

killing two resolutions with one stone

I didn't want to take a photo today. I forgot to put the camera in my purse today and the kids were almost in bed. I started thinking of what weird thing I would take my photo of before midnight. Light bulb! I'll use this new year's resolution to take a photo of my other new year's resolution: floss the kid's teeth every day.

I have been failing in the flossing every day part but at least the kids are flossing more often. I've been taking a photo (for good or bad) every day. I've managed to eat less sugar -- although today I had a ginormous cookie at work and then followed it up with another cookie (from Australia so I couldn't pass it up). Today was probably a low point for all of my new year's resolutions but I'm seeing results on all fronts so I'm going to try to keep them up.

Posted by jana at 9:09 PM | Comments (3)

January 23, 2008

On the agenda tonight: Nothing

I blew off the PTSA meeting (bad mom!), the kids are in bed and I'm thinking of doing nothing. Yeah, nothing. Sounds quite nice. One of these days I'll get those Christmas thank you cards in the mail too. Tomorrow.... after I do nothing.

Posted by jana at 8:46 PM

January 22, 2008

A new book

Friend and former AIGA board member with me, Steffanie Lorig (and husband Rick) have just published a new book, Such a Silly Baby.

I wrote an email to her, "Yay! This looks amazing Steffanie. Can't wait to get my hands on your book. Big congrats. You continue to inspire."

Because in addition to writing this book she has also built Art With Heart into wonderful charity focusing on healing children in crisis through creativity. Steffanie is indeed a huge inspiration.

Posted by jana at 2:50 PM | Comments (1)

January 21, 2008

What's going on here?

I'm happily back from the place that has to forecast the weather with two sets of temperature: the real temperature and the windchill temperature. I wish I never learned what windchill feels like. I love you, tropical Seattle!.

Anyway, I forayed into Chicago for a "design conference" but oddly enough I only met one other designer. The conference was put on by 3 designers: Jason Fried of 37 Signals, James Coudal of Coudal Partnerships, and Carlos Segura of T26. The audience seemed to consist of business-minded people. I have never before witnessed business people attending a design conference.

And on the flight home I was working on some mockups the person sitting next to me asked me what I do. When I told him my role as a designer he said, "Oh, so you are really a business consultant?" I told him that it is my role to know a company's business and then create an interface so the consumer can understand it. "So really I am the bridge between the business and the customer," I told him.

I am thinking perhaps the time has really come that businesses are realizing "Design Does Matter." Designers are the last stop between the customer and the business and it looks like people are finally starting to realize that. I'll try and write up my conference notes soon. Those of you looking for the inside scoop on Karsten and Britta can skip that post.

________________
Post Script: I was also one of the only women at this conference. Which reminds me, "Where are all the women?"

Posted by jana at 12:27 PM

January 16, 2008

Leaving

I'm leaving for Chicago tomorrow morning. Andy will be on Dad Duty until my return on Sunday. I feel as if I'm leaving a whole appendage behind. I really don't like leaving the family for so long even though I know they'll all be fine. A little greasier and possibly not as rested, but fine. My secret hope is that they will really appreciate me when I return.

And what was I thinking? Chicago in January? If I'm going to a conference in January I should have looked for one closer to the equator.

Posted by jana at 10:17 PM | Comments (2)

January 15, 2008

Flickr is the new blog.

My posting a photo a day is like a little mini-blog post with a wider range of topics than I would usually write about. I probably wouldn't write about any of the stuff going on at work but here you see my exciting day on the shuttle.

I'll try and return to more mommy posts. Karsten told me tonight he's packing his bag and moving to London. He said he's calling a taxi. It almost seemed believable too -- although I don't think he knows where I hide his passport and he doesn't have a credit card yet. All this hoppla because I wouldn't pour him a glass of milk before bed.

Posted by jana at 9:20 PM | Comments (4)

January 10, 2008

Merry Christmas!

The best Christmas present may have just arrived today: a child who may eventually recover from 3 weeks of illness. Britta and Andy caught colds on Christmas day and have been sick ever since. Britta finished her first dose of antibiotics last week to cure her ear infection... just as she developed two ear infections, pink eye and the nastiest cough. Now she's taking another form of medicine that finally seems to be working. Andy really needs to get himself to the doctor.

Britta's a trooper though. Instead of screaming and crying all day and night when the ear puss raged she remained stoic. Only a little whimper in her sleep interspersed with convulsing coughs let us know, "man, she must be sick." The doctor himself was amazed at such ear nastiness that didn't even cause Britta tears or complaining. She should do just fine one day in producing me grandchildren.

Other more pleasurable Christmas highlights:

Karsten received a Star Wars Imperial something-or-other Lego thingy that should have taken a month to assemble but only took 3 straight days. It could have been Andy's "help" that expedited the ship building but I think both father and son enjoyed their lego building.

Santa heard Britta's request for "a doll that talks, like Abbie's." The doll that talks also drinks a ba ba and pees (and we're out of the disposable diapers.) Britta has named her pink shirted, anatomically female correct doll "Hermie" and she refers to the doll as "him" and "her son." I told Andy that Britta is really smart and that "Hermie" is just short for hermaphrodite.

Andy got a nice new head gasket for the Subaru for Christmas and an extension on his time allotted to get funding for his start up.

Me? I got some great new additions for my kitchen: a Martha Stewart cast iron oven for baking my bread; Talavera pottery; Polish Pottery; and a Whirly Pop Popcorn maker. I also got a break from hosting the holiday meal at my house. My mother-in-law really out did herself though: homemade lefse, rommegrut, and a beautifully decorated Norwegian lodge. Life is good.

The pluses of creating handmade Christmas cards is that I made handmade Christmas cards. The bad part about creating handmade Christmas cards is that I didn't send out as many as I wanted to send out. So click here all you readers and know that I designed this holiday card just for you. I just didn't mail it.

Now I just need to finish assembling the handmade thank you cards and mail them out.

Posted by jana at 6:20 PM

January 8, 2008

Project 365 : 2008 Progress

I was wandering around the market on this not-so-nice evening and snapped a photo because, well, I HAVE TO. But I like how it turned out so I'm happy with my resolution so far. Today was a tough choice between the photo (right) and this one.

I find some days I have multiple shots I like and some days I don't have any.

Posted by jana at 11:08 PM | Comments (3)

January 4, 2008

Resolutions..schmezlutions

I hate resolutions because I see it as setting myself up for failure. I don't want to make my life any more complicated than it already is but every year I reluctantly take on a few...but then try not to sweat it when I blow them all by January 15.

Que the drum roll

The biggie: Take a photo every day of this year.

Here is today's photo. I know I already take a gazillion photos but I think this is what it is that is going to take me to really learn how to use my camera. Just today I discovered an "indoor setting" and ya know, my indoor photo looked oodles better (see above). I'm embarrassed to even post my so far quite lame photos but public humiliation could be the key to success here. If anything I'll have a little document of 2008. If you're interested in learning more about this project here's the link I found: http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

The smaller goals: have my kids floss every day. So far I bought them some mini-flossers. Woo!

Eat less sugar (but not less cheese).
Some how I agreed to Buster's Health Month on Facebook and because I don't want to spend 30 minutes trying to figure out how to un-enroll myself on Facebook I'm still listed as participating. But no way. What would I eat? Have you seen the block of cheese in my fridge? Here is the list of rules so you can see why I would decline this torture:

Part A. The banned list.

No Alcohol
No Smoking
No Caffeine
No Drugs - doctor-prescribed stuff is ok, as is Advil or whatever for those 'week 2 headaches,' but nothing else.
No "Big Bread" - this basically means no bread/bagels/muffins/etc. But, a pita is ok, and so is a tortilla.
No Red Meat or Pork - giving up bacon really sucks.
No Pasta
No Cheese
No Sugar
No Chips / Crackers
No Cream / Cream Sauces
No Artificial Sweeteners (aspartame, saccharin, etc.)
No Fried Foods
No Butter / Margarine
No Fast Food
No added salt - you can cook with salt, but no dumping table salt on you food after it hits the plate.

Part B. The allowances.
Light salad dressing is allowed on salad - hey, if i'm going to eat a freaking salad...
Small portions of Rice are allowed - for things like sushi, or a wrap can be "light on the rice"
Only enough Oil to cook with is allowed. About 1/2 tbsp per serving (less if possible)

Part C. Amnesty Day.
We are human, and sometimes we mess up. With health month, this is built in. You get one 'Amnesty Day' for the month. This means that for one day, you can have One of the things on the banned list. So, if there's a party you want to go to during HM, you can use your amnesty day then and have a drink. Or if you have a crazy sweet tooth, you can have a piece of cake at the end of week 2, as a halfway point reward.

And that's all folks.

Posted by jana at 10:39 PM | Comments (2)

January 1, 2008

The "look sexy" shot but I must have heard "look dorky"

But what I really want to blog about is my outfit.

1. the necklace: $1 at a garage sale. Love it.
2. The purple silky shirt was $17 at the teeny bopper store Forever 21.
3. The pants that are long enough: priceless.

I went into yet another teeny bopper store because I'd heard rumors of long inseams. I found a pair of "long" jeans but the sales lady said, "you probably want the extra long jeans that we keep in the back of the store."

"Yes, yes", I told her, "I will follow you."

"No, I mean the way back of the store. I will bring the jeans out to you."

So out from the depths of the warehouse area she brings me three pairs of jeans and this pair fit. Without looking at the price tag I said, "I'll take them." When I find a pair of 36 inch inseam, I buy. I now know not to even bother trying on jeans for normal people. And I will pay whatever price tag is on the jeans

'08 is off to a good start with this new "going out" uni.

Posted by jana at 9:28 PM

happy new year!

This was the view from our deck as the hogs took their annual new year's day ride by our place. 15 minutes later the crazy polar bears took their dip.
Wishing everyone the best in 08!

Posted by jana at 8:25 PM