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| Facebook Fun with Carina |
Grandpa Gilbert's Memorial:
Matt and Sakura left yesterday to the U.S. so they could attend the memorial service for his grandpa that passed away recently. We were so glad that we got to see him last November! There was a bit of a scare because the weather in Oregon was horrendous and the snow storm was so severe that the town of Oakridge where his grandmother lives was without power for a couple of days. There were so many trees that had fallen on the highway to get there that no one was sure it would be cleared in time for the service. Luckily it only took a few days and all the cousins and family are going to be able to visit and pay tribute to the wonderful life of Grandpa Gilbert.
Office 365 Support is Useless:
While looking for a better cloud storage solution for home and business I was about to get Dropbox but then decided to check if Microsoft OneDrive would suit. The consultant convinced me Office 365 Business Premium would best suit my needs. She was wrong. I had to argue to get my previous Office 365 refunded (I was out of the timeframe by 12 days). I had issues setting up the business version only to discover it didn't do what I was told. I then cancelled my business subscription and had to reinstate my Home Office 365 - they offered no discount for my subscription. I was upset because upon "checking" for discounts she then got back on the line and told me none was available so she went ahead and renewed my subscription. A few days later it was cancelled for some reason so I had to call again. This time they game me a month free, but as no further discounts were offered I bought the Office 365 for $30 cheaper online. This was such a hassle that brought me to tears and what I learned is Office 365 support does not really care about the customers, constantly sends you to a different department, and is a waste of time to contact for any reason. I found out from my mom her business uses a 3rd party to deal with Office 365 support issues. At least I have had good experiences with Microsoft technical support so I know the entire company isn't useless.
Fun with Friends Peter & Paulina:
Friends from Sydney who now live in China were in Queensland and I drove to South Brisbane to visit with them. It was so awesome to spend time with them and little Frida. Sakura and Frida are so close in age so we had lots to talk about with the changes a toddler brings to your life. We went to a nearby thai restaurant for dinner and I think it was the best Thai food I had ever had! Afterwards we went to the store and the two girls happily pulled or pushed their shopping baskets around. We even did little races with them - so much fun! It was a bummer Matt had to work, but I'm glad we got to spend time together at all.
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| Rocking the pig tails! |
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| It turns out we have the same taste in Thai choices |
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| They had shopping basket races |
The Family Search App is Awesome:
There was a temple baptisms trip for recent converts and I went to help. I assumed they just needed endowed sisters to hand out towels or something so I had not intention of getting wet. It turns out they didn't really need me, but one of the members showed my that you can find out if you have temple names ready to be baptised on your phone via the Family Search app. In case you haven't done this either - Go to the Family Tree app, click on the top left corner with three lines, select Temple, then click Ordinances Ready, choose what ordinance and then see what pops up. It turns out I had four names available! We printed them out at the temple and for the first time in probably 15+ years I was baptised for my own family names. I had no idea you could do that. Now that I know how, I hope to check every time I go so that I can always do any family names if they are available. We also had a missionary from Japan who brought her family names as well. I took a few for future trips to help her get the endowments done.
I also learned from this experience that a few things had changed about the ordinance that I didn't remember - clothing related stuff to be specific. It led to some good laughs with some of the sisters. More evidence it had been too long since I had done baptisms.
Games Nights Still On:
Our weekly games night is still going strong. What's fun is we have rarely had the same group twice. We have only had two repeat couples and that's it. This has given us lots of opportunities to catch up with friends, play some fun games, and be social. I'm glad we can dedicate the time and place to do this because it has been such a blessing. I really need to get better at taking pictures though. One night I have lots of pictures because Sakura and Finley were just so happy playing together I took lots of pictures and videos.
We were playing Mysterium the next week where I was the ghost and because I am so bad at it I had to give a few hints to help people make the right choices. Another night we played Red Dragon Inn and we were pretty evenly matched for a long time.
Valentines Day:
I was feeling depressed early in the week so Matt gave me my valentine's stuffed animal early. This year was an adorable red dragon. On the actual day we didn't have a special date night, but after Sakura went to bed, we melted chocolate and dipped strawberries and bananas in it. Then we watched Harry Potter. This was the best Valentine's Day since being married that I can remember. Matt remembered in advance and we actually had a nice activity together with chocolate covered fruit.
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| Dragon for me, penguin for Sakura |
Unfortunately Matt had a week where he didn't have any jobs on. He had some work to do, but not much and he didn't have anything for our two recently hired employees - not good! One of the benefits to this though was that Matt got to take Sakura to her swim class while I stayed home for our quarterly inspection. This week just happened to be the week that they took professional photos including under water ones! It was such a rare occurrence that when I got to see them the following week I decided to get three photos because it was too hard to pick just one.
Another benefit was that Matt was around for this week's playgroup. He got us talking about flat earthers for a bit which was a pretty interesting topic. We also decided to play some Guitar Hero where we discovered Atticus may have a calling in life as a drummer or guitar player - his current dream is to be a rockstar. Lots of fun!
The Norovirus (WARNING: unpleasant symptoms to follow):
One morning Sakura started vomitting all of her smoothie I had given her that morning. I took her to the shower so we could both clean up and she continued to vomit on and off for about an hour. She didn't cry really just laid on me with the warm water on us in the shower and kept puking. After feeling more confident she wasn't going to puke everywhere I wrapped her in a towel, put a nappy on her, and laid her down to sleep. She slept on and off for hours still vomitting bile on occasion. I kept thinking it was something I had put in the smoothie since it was a little different from normal. She seemed better by the end of the day so put her to sleep early and had our games night as usual. At 4am I vomitted. I thought either what Sakura had was a virus that I got, or I'm pregnant. I'm not pregnant so we confirmed it was a virus. Apparently the norovirus was going around and Sakura got it at childcare. Unfortunately, some people at our games night got it as well. I only vomitted once and then was extremely week the rest of the day. Matt spent all of Sunday night vomitting and feeling crummy. Luckily for all of us, the worst was over in 24 hours.
Since then Sakura has had yellow frothy bowel movements that are horrendously smelly and leak everywhere. Not sure if this is an after effect or if something else is going on. It has been over a week. She doesn't seem upset by it though so we are just waiting it out for the moment. Now that she's in the U.S. seeing a doctor would be expensive.
Play Date with Friends:
We had another fun time with friends in Burpengary. Sakura was still a little under the weather and so she wasn't her chipper self. She had another blow out in her nappy so we made an earlier exit than usual. What made this one fun was that I carpooled with my friend Kate and so we got to chat while our kids snacked on almond crackers in the back. The best moment was when Kate tried one of the Almond Cheese Crackers I make for Sakura and she was like "Ughh what was that!" I just laughed. She wasn't too thrilled with the strong garlic taste either. Matt and I actually really like them, but perhaps that is because our taste buds have changed from not having normal foods in so long. We also really love garlic.
The reason we carpooled is so that we could go to Costco together afterwards. It was fun to have our two girls in the cart together. Group shopping can definitely be fun and they all did really well even though it was around nap time for the little ones.
Sewing Projects:
February was a good month for sewing. I got my bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding and I quickly realised it was over my head to do my own alterations. With a built-in bodice and a side zipper I had no idea how I would add a sleeve to it. I got the help of a local dressmaker who was willing to not just do the work, but help me be involved in the process. I unpicked a lot while at her house and we had a wonderful chat about religion and my beliefs. She is Russian and doesn't identify herself as a religious person. I could have found another cheaper dressmaker that spoke little English, but this way I get to feel a part of the process and I know I am getting what I want.
I also made my first circle skirt. It turned out really well. I bought some cheap fabric when it was 50% off to practice with and I think it was the perfect style for this skirt. I added pockets too and I think I'm finally getting the hang of how to do pockets.
Since Matt was leaving to Oregon and the cold weather I thought I would finally do his pajama pants I promised him. I did a pair of shorts for myself with some cheap fabric to practice. They turned out decent enough, but I need to pull them apart and use a better needle and thread for that fabric. And it definitely needs pockets.
Matt's pajama pants turned out all right but I tried to draft it from his favourite pair but that was too hard. So I picked the size closest and used a pattern I already had. They were too big. I adjusted them and Matt's happy, but I think I would need to do some more adjustments if I were going to do another pair. Still, it's all part of the learning experience. The one thing he said was that he felt the pockets could be bigger, which was funny because as far as pockets go, these were quite large for side seam pockets and a good 2-3 inches longer than his normal pajama pants.
Sakura's Developments:
Sakura loves helping with anything and everything. Cooking, taking things out of the laundry, putting toys away, making smoothies, vacuuming, mopping, etc.
She also learned how to sit on a bike properly and get around.
Her favourite thing though, is singing and dancing. She now participates in most of the songs and dances and she'll say things like Row, Row, Row or Shhh at the appropriate times.
March Plans:
My exciting week apart from Matt and Sakura was meant to be filled with organising the garage, cleaning the car, getting the car serviced, etc... Unfortunately, I got a cold on Monday that just refuses to go away. I have had to just sleep lots and focus on the few things I had to do. I guess I should just be glad I haven't had to watch Sakura while feeling sick.
Matt and Sakura arrived in the Oregon okay. Sakura slept about 4-5 hours on the long plane flight and was a champ during the customs process at LAX because she was so sleepy. The second flight to Oregon she was asleep before even boarding. When she woke up half way through a nearby passenger was surprised there was even a baby there. They got a nap as well, but her first night in Portland was a late one! I'm just hoping neither of them get sick. Poor Matt had to deal with her awful runny poo for the first time - he said it made him want to vomit.
As I mentioned before I will be going to Utah March 20th to be there for my sister's wedding in April. It will be three weeks of family time. When we bought flights we planned for Sakura to come back with Matt and go again with me, but my mom decided she would just drive to Oregon and pick her up. We decided this just the day before Matt left so luckily I had time to repack her things as well as confirm with airlines if we could make this work. We might lose about $100 in the process, but this way Sakura won't have to go through the time change so much. This also makes it easier on Matt and I where we only have to take her on the flight once.It already feels so empty without them. I'm not worried about Sakura at all, but I am going to miss her. My cat seems to be more interested in cuddling so at least I'm not completely alone. I find I talk to myself a lot...hehe. When Matt gets back on the 13th maybe we can go to the temple and do some fun things together since we won't have Sakura. March is definitely going to be an interesting month!
Just some fun photos:
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| While talking to Grandma... |
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| Just woke up... |
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