Feeling Crabby

Lucy wasn't feeling too crabby - she actually did really well on our flight. She was a pretty seasoned air traveler; trips to and from  Boston, Japan, Phoenix, California, Buffalo, California, Mexico, and Boston again have comprised her first two years of life. But she hasn't flown the past year and she is much more aware now so it was really cute to build up to this trip and have her be so excited about flying. And she was great on the plane. We didn't have a layover but it wasn't a direct flight either. We had a stopover in Baltimore and had to stay on the plane while new passengers boarded so it was a pretty long trip for a toddler. I almost feel like it is easier when they are infants and you can just nurse them and they don't move around much anyway. But Lucy colored and ate snacks and we talked. Lucy did fall asleep in my lap on the leg from Baltimore to Manchester and was so sweaty that she left a huge wet mark on my jeans when she woke up. It looks like she (or I) had wet my pants or spilled something on them. Fortunately, it dried fasts.

The cutest part of the trip so far has been when we were waiting on the curb outside the airport, and we saw Uncle Chris and Baba walking towards us, and I pointed out my mom to Lucy. Lucy just started running to her and threw her arms around her neck - like this was the whole reason she had come to visit. We had been talking about seeing Baba for weeks but I was a little surprised how affectionate and loving Lucy was toward her Baba considering how long it has been since she saw her last. Thank goodness for Skype now!

We arrived in Manchester, NH at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, but once we picked up our baggage and made the trip to my childhood home in Methuen, it was well past 8 pm. And of course, we ate and chatted and unpacked and showered and bathed so we didn't even get in bed until well past midnight and Lucy and I didn't fall asleep until close to 1 am! We slept in quite late the next day and then spent the entire first day shopping because my brother Chris (who lives and takes care of my parent's home while they are living in Japan taking care of my mom's dad) has NO food in his house! Just Diet Coke, cold cuts, and junk and expired food. Such the bachelor. So we headed out to Whole Foods to pick up some vegetables and fruit and real food. And then my mom really wanted to go to the Asian food store way out in Somerville so we headed south even though we knew we would hit Boston rush hour traffic on the way home.

Since my mom has been living in Japan for the past several years, she has been driving on the left side of the road so she doesn't feel completely comfortable driving here in the states. She also left her driver's license in Japan so I will end up doing all the driving. Even though I have been to the Asian market in Somerville several times before, it's been well over a year and driving in cities in Massachusetts is not quite as easy as driving in Utah because it is so densely populated, there are so many more cars, the streets are narrower and not as well marked and winding all over the place, and I was driving my brother's truck which I'm not use to. But we made it there okay despite some audible gasps from my mom.

Lucy fell asleep on the way since it was a longer drive but woke up once we arrived at the store. When we went inside, she was intrigued by the lobster tank but then my mom noticed a huge bucket of live crabs. Without the glass to protect her, Lucy was absolutely petrified of the crabs and clung to me with dear life. If I got too close, she would literally scream out in absolute terror. Then it didn't help when my mom decided she wanted to buy a couple to eat for dinner that night.

So here we are, with our crabby friends and Lucy observing apprehensively in the background:

Chris was trying to get Lucy to not be so afraid but I'm afraid he made it worse. He put the crabs down on the kitchen floor and antagonized them with a pair of tongs, trying to get them to fight. (If any of you know my brother, this is so Chris - terrorizing some poor, helpless creature).

The crabs were pretty vicious (although who could blame them for feeling so threatened - we were going to boil them to death and eat them in a few minutes). My mom got cut pretty bad by their pincers in a moment of carelessness. This was even before Chris got them all worked up.

Chris was mostly trying to get the crabs fight each other but then he added a Twizzler to the mix to test their pincer power. 

Ahhh - the things we do for entertainment in the Sturgis household. It was all in the name of exposing Lucy to new things though, right? Those pincers were really sharp though! Lucy was justified in being really scared because they cut up that Twizzler with no trouble at all. But even after they crabs were all boiled and dead, she still wouldn't touch them until long after my mom started tearing them apart. She did try some of the crab meat and she really liked it. Poor Brandon - he loves crab and yet, his wife who is not so interested in crustaceans had them for dinner (along with yummy salad, roasted vegetables, grilled salmon and rice - I LOVE my mom's cooking!).

I'm sure that this will just be for first of many new adventures for Lucy. She'll never look at little Sebastian from the Little Mermaid the same again.

Source

Eastward Bound

This summer will be very interesting for our little family because Lucy and I will be spending a month and a half on the east coast - specifically in Massachusetts and Washington DC! The biggest downside is that most, if not all of that time will be spent without Brandon.

I have two high school friends that are getting married - Tracy on May 19th and Jamie on June 30th. I was both honored and flattered to be asked by both brides to sing at their respective weddings. Instead of making two trips out to Massachusetts (where my brother, Chris lives) in a relatively short period of time, I decided to stay out east for the whole time in between weddings. Fortunately, I found some great deals on my flights and we had points to apply to our tickets so the actual cost of traveling was quite low. And since I had so much time in between weddings, I'm taking a little trip down to DC to visit my sister Elaine for a week!

One of the very best parts of all this is that my mom decided to come out to visit from Japan(!) since I was going to be out here for so long AND my other sister, Emily (& daughter, Olive) decided to come out to visit too after Em found some great deals on airline tickets. And of course, the flight is so short from DC that oldest sister, Elaine and her family (hubby, Mike & daughter, Maya) are coming up to Massachusetts before we go down to visit them in DC.

So here are all the travel plans in case you couldn't keep track:

Tuesday, May 16th: Mom arrives in Boston from Japan
Wednesday, May 17th: Annie and Lucy arrive in Massachusetts from Utah
Friday, May 18th: Brother, Chris, who lives in Mass, flies to Aruba for long weekend (Boo!)
Saturday, May 19th: Elaine, Mike, & Maya arrive from DC
Monday, May 21st: Emily and Olive arrive from Utah
Tuesday, May 22nd - Chris returns from Aruba
Saturday, May 26th: Elaine, Mike, & Maya fly back to DC
Thursday, May 31st: Emily and Olive fly back to Utah
Friday, June 1st: Annie, Lucy & Mom fly to DC
Saturday, June 9th: Annie, Lucy & Mom return to Massachusetts from DC
Wednesday, June 13th: Mom flies back to Japan :(
Wednesday, July 4th: Annie & Lucy fly back to Utah
Monday, July 23rd: Dad arrives in Boston from Japan
Sunday, August 19th: Dad returns to Japan

Phew! Is your head spinning? That is going to be a lot of trips to the airport. I feel like I am the most fortunate because I get to spend the most time (almost an entire month) with my mom. And it's been a year and a half since we all saw her last. We usually only get to see her when one of us girls has a baby. But lucky for all of us, she'll be out to visit sooner rather than later because both Emily AND Elaine are pregnant (and hopefully, I will be joining their ranks soon)!

The only thing that is missing from the schedule above is that I am hoping to find some cheap airline tickets for Brandon to come to visit us. The original plan was for him to take time off of work to visit us in DC while we were there but now that he has been laid off from his job, our financial situation is less certain even though he has plenty of time. We thought we would just deal with the extended period being away from each other but after just a few days, we realize we should probably make plans for him to come out because it is just too long to be away from each other and Lucy already really misses him even though she is currently loving the attention from her Baba and Uncle Chris.

Also, even though my Dad will be missing out on the impromptu family reunion, he will visiting us Utah folks while he is stateside so there are a couple more trips to the airport for my brother (thanks for hosting and chauffeuring us around, Chris!). My dad couldn't make it out with my mom because he is working in Japan and doesn't have vacation until July/August.

Since the Sturgis family is so spread out, it's not often that we get the chance to have so many of us (though not all) be together at once. It will be really cute to have all the siblings together and all the grandchildren together as well as beloved Baba. The last time all of us siblings and the grandkids were together, we got family pictures done. I'm wondering if we should do that again...

I'm sure we will have a plethora of our own pictures of the three granddaughters all together as well as with their Baba. Hopefully, we can give plenty of blog posts to the hubbies and daddies that couldn't be here all together with us; Grandpa Mark, Brandon, & Jared.

Dishwasher and Island

I've been meaning to post pictures of our remodel forever but there is always some other catching up to do on other posts. But one of our latest additions has me very excited.

We finally have a dishwasher!!

Actually, we have had a dishwasher since last July when we bought it with our new fridge.

Ta Da! It's a little big for the space but we will redo the kitchen...someday.

But back to the dishwasher - we went on vacation and moved out for 7 months so it was just sitting in our garage all that time. I can't even explain how much time it took me to wash our dishes and how much space those dishes took up (whether dirty or clean) and how I struggled to make dinner because I was low on counter space because the dishes were taking up valuable real estate or how if I got behind on one meal, the kitchen looked like a disaster with all the dirty dishes and we would go out to eat because I couldn't make dinner with no room and in such a mess. So yeah, the dishwasher has been a huge blessing. And to top it off, it's such a pretty dishwasher without a million buttons on front for tiny hands to press and cancel the wash. I specifically wanted a dishwasher where the buttons were on the top and it just happened that this was in the same set as my fridge (which I also love) and very reasonably priced. So the nice thing about buying such a crappy house with crap appliances is replacing them with ones that you really love.

We did have to be a little, ahem, creative with the installation. Because there was no dishwasher in the kitchen before, we had to make a space for it. And it didn't fit as well as we had hoped into the space we chose so we had to chisel out some tile floor and base molding and remove a bunch of drawers and cut away some of the cabinet with the sawzall. So it's not the prettiest thing (we'll remodel our kitchen some day), but people, I have a freaking dishwasher, FINALLY! You totally take for granted these things until you don't have them. And I swear, I thank Brandon almost daily for installing it (we did have a plumber come and do the hook-ups for us though but Brandon did a great job on the actual installation and getting it to fit). And seriously, it wasn't as expensive as I thought. And so worth it.

The only problem was what to do with all those drawers filled with things we needed like cutlery and utensils? Well, for a while (like weeks), we just piled them on top of our kitchen table.

Not the most ideal place, but hey, I had a dishwasher so I could deal with anything.

But Brandon couldn't. So he bought us one of these:

A nice little island to put all that stuff in. And it gives us a little extra prep space.

It does block off some lower cabinet space but since the island has wheels, the stuff is still somewhat accessible.

And we just removed the cabinet door to make it even more accessible. Not the perfect solution but the best one we can come up with without completely remodeling our kitchen.

But at least I got rid of this stupid thing:

Next up, new matching stove and microwave...someday. The ones we currently have are still working, unlike our old fridge which we had to keep shut with tape. Ahh, the joys of remodeling an old house!

Sick Week

Just a week after Brandon got laid off from EA (April 29th), Lucy got sick on a Sunday after coming home from church. This is not an uncommon occurrence - it seems like every once in a while, Lucy comes down with a stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhea and lasts about 24 hours. The only difference with this latest one is that it lasted almost all week.

While there was a time when this might have been very stressful for me, it actually was kinda a nice break. Lucy is pretty mellow when she is sick and fortunately, this particular incidence only included a couple episodes of vomiting that very first day. Other than that (and some very soft stools), she mostly just slept and watched movies.

As sad and pathetic as a sick child can be, I tried to look on the bright side and capitalize on all the free time I had to clean up and organize around the house and get some cooking done. Like this orzo pasta salad with roasted vegetables, feta cheese, and pine nuts from Barefoot Contessa - YUM! Lucy would only eat the little orzo pasta, thinking it was rice and wouldn't touch anything else in there, except maybe the pine nuts.

Thanks for the recipe, Kim!

I sorely missed the gym this week because I couldn't bring a sick child to the daycare there. So that was a big downside. The other huge downside was that we had Lucy's first physical therapy appointment that was her initial evaluation about her toe walking and tight heel cords that her pediatrician was worried about from her three year doctor appointment. I really should have cancelled the appointment but I didn't realize how sick Lucy was. It wasn't the most productive appointment but the physical therapist told me she got all the information she needed and we made two more follow-up appointments for Lucy to receive more physical therapy.

By Wednesday, I was getting a little concerned that Lucy hadn't bounced back yet and had barely eaten going on four days so we made an appointment to see her pediatrician. Turns out she was just really dehydrated in addition to the stomach bug that she had and I was just too dim to realize it (one of my "duh!" moments). The doctor recommended that I make her drinks a little more palatable and pick up whatever she would drink just to keep her hydrated like juice, sports drinks, and even soda (we don't really drink anything besides water and milk in our house). It might have killed me just a little inside to pick up those things without any good sales and coupons but hey, we do what we need to do.

Lucy was ecstatic to have "pink drink" (Gatorade) and soda (7Up) and seemed to perk right up. In addition to the "treat" drinks, the doctor also recommended that I give Lucy really easily digestible foods that would bind her stool like white bread, white crackers, and bananas and avoid dairy so I had to pick up almond milk and coconut milk for her try (neither of which she liked). And it ended up that even though the white bread was quite a novelty because we only get wheat bread, she wasn't super interested in eating it. I however, ended up eating just about the whole bag of white bread in just a few days time - that stuff is so addicting! But on the bright side of our doctor/shopping excursion, Lucy seemed to be back to herself by that evening.

Just why is it that as soon as you bring your kid to the doctor, they get better immediately even when the doctor didn't really do anything? And why is it that I, as a parent, can't seem to recall this common sense information about keeping your child hydrated when she is vomiting and having diarrhea and giving her simple things to eat? I guess it's been a while since she was that sick. And I didn't really pay attention to how much (or how little) she was drinking because I just assumed that if she was thirsty, she would just ask for something to drink. I suppose this will not be the last time I feel like a foolish mother. At least now, my pantry is fully stocked with Gatorade should the need arise again.

Side Work on Orc Wars!

While Lucy and I played at the Church History Museum with Emily and Olive, Brandon worked...and fulfilled his life-long dream of being an elf in a movie! Just kidding!! It really wasn't work for him. No, I'm really kidding that it was a life-long dream of his.

Brandon actually was just helping his friend, Kohl Glass, by being an elf extra in his first feature length film that he wrote and directed - Orc Wars. Kohl is a friend from the film program at BYU and just needed an elf extra on short notice. So since Brandon didn't have work (and he kinda fits the look), he made the long drive down to the shoot for two days to make a little extra money but more, as a favor for his friend.

Lucy barely got to see the ears but the rubbery make-up took days to fully come off. Just glad he was an elf instead of an orc - the make-up must have taken ridiculously long to put on and take off. You can see some of the orcs in the link above.

But here is my hubby in full costume. I just can't help but giggle a little bit.

Legolas, eat your heart out. You ain't got nothin' on this elf. And girls - notice the ring - he's taken.

Go on honey - kill some orcs!

Church History Museum 4/27

After a crazy beginning of the week, it was nice to get out of the house for some free activities with Lucy, Emily, and Olive to take our mind off things. I skipped out on the gym and headed to the LDS Church History Museum. Even though it is only 10 minutes away from our house in the heart of downtown, I had never really heard of it, much less visited there. But Brandon heard from some friends that there is a cute kids area and more importantly, it is free!

On the second floor coming up from the escalators, we were greeted by some lions. Our attempts to take the girls picture together was not successful and this was the best I could come up with.

On our way to the children's area, there were two interactive computer stations where the girls could digitally paint.

I am so amazed at touch screen technology and how far it has come.

In the actual children's area, one of the best parts is the dress up clothes and area that you can dance to. There is a very Latino flavor to the whole area with Latin dancers on the televisions. But I guess those types of skirts are pretty fun to dance in.

The place reminded me a little bit of Discovery Gateway - just smaller. Mini cars are always a big hit.

Some of the other activities weren't as cool. This was a little station where you could copy ancient scriptures on this special pad that didn't really work.

There was a huge boat that I originally thought was supposed to be Noah's Ark but was actually Nephi's ship.

Lucy enjoyed looking out those windows very much.

And more interactive computer games. These ones weren't nearly as cool or easy to use as the ones out front. I'm guessing many little hands may have made it a little less sensitive on the touch screen.

There were lots of dolls and they looked like they were in great condition. Even though there was a decent amount of people there when we were there. I am assuming that not many people know about this place (like I didn't) because everything is in such great shape considering that it is open to the public.

There was even a little kitchen to play in...

Complete with a "vegetable" garden.

And some chickens.

Emily busy on her phone. I love places where you can ignore your children and still feel good about your parenting that day.

Fortunately, since it wasn't super busy, Lucy didn't have to worry about sharing too much. It's something she struggles with a bit.

I think we hit just about every station the kids area had. Here is the last one - a little art station where you can stamp paper and use hole punches and make necklaces out of ribbon or something. I wasn't really paying much attention but the girls seemed to enjoy it.

After the museum, we headed down the street to City Creek to eat lunch and let the girls play on the dinosaurs in the food court. I didn't get any pictures of them because I was too busy eating and clipping coupons.

We rounded out the day with a trip to City Creek to eat lunch and let the girls play in the dinosaur play area of the food court but I didn't get any pictures. Thanks goodness for free kids entertainment!

On April 24th...

After over four years of working for Electronic Arts, Brandon got laid off from his job. Even though I always knew this would be a possibility, especially after Brandon warned me that there was more of a possibility after the game he was working on (Risk Factions on Faceboook) wasn't doing so well, I was still totally stunned. I was walking out of the gym with Lucy when Brandon called me to break the news and it felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under me. I guess with these things, you can't expect a ton of warning, but it just felt so sudden.

Lay-offs were company wide and the Salt Lake studio suffered four lay-offs. Brandon was immediately escorted from the building (which is standard protocol for the company) and I met him at the City Creek Harmons since I was headed there anyway to do some food shopping. Needless to say, it wasn't my most productive shopping trip since it was my first time at the store and I couldn't concentrate at all on getting groceries. And even though I was trying to stay calm for Brandon and be supportive, I was kinda freaking out on the inside.

Brandon actually took all of this much better than me. He had actually been itching to move on to something new and had previously applied for a Storyboard Artist position at Pixar but never heard back. What he would really like to do is work from home and try to find a publisher for his comic book, Green Monk, and work on that full time. But we had decided to hold off on that until we replenished our savings from our remodel and had another baby (so we could enjoy health benefits and the one month of paid paternity leave he got and obviously, be in a better financial situation).

Fortunately, EA doesn't leave its laid-off employees high and dry. Though neither Brandon nor I have ever been laid off before, it seems like the severance package is pretty generous. We get our health benefits through the end of June after which, we are eligible for COBRA. And I've heard that even though COBRA is quite expensive, it is subsidized through the government now? We'll have to check on that. Brandon also received pay through May 8th (even though he was let go on April 24th) and receives an additional 7 weeks of pay on top of that as well as a pay-out for all of his unused sick and vacation time. He also still receives his annual bonus and his stock options. On top of all that, he will be getting unemployment. So Brandon reminds me that the situation isn't that bad - it is actually better than if he were to have quit or switched jobs.

But what is so difficult for me right now is the uncertainty. Brandon is very talented and I have full faith in him being able to support our family financially. But I am just not sure how long it will take him to find another job, if he will find another job or go the freelance direction, and if we will have to move if he finds another job. We have put so much work into our home and the housing market is still so sucky and I really love our neighborhood and area.

I know that this layoff could potentially be a blessing in disguise and could lead to bigger and better things. But it is still stressful nonetheless and I am trying to get used to this new normal. I all of a sudden feel like I should return any little thing that still has a price tag on it that we don't absolutely need (even though you all know from my previous posts what I frugal shopper I already am). And I'm scared to spend any money at all besides the essentials. It's not like we were living in the lap of luxury before but we definitely enjoyed our date nights and going out to eat (probably where we splurged the most).

Though the timing on this whole thing hasn't been perfect, it's still pretty good. We are at least moved back into our house and have completed all the home repair that we have wanted up to this point. We have lots of nice things like brand new windows, electrical, water heater, furnace, central air, fridge, and dishwasher along with refinished floors & walls, new doors & molding. Our savings isn't quite as robust as it used to be but it's not depleted. And we are all in good health with wonderful family and friends.

It has just been a couple of weeks since the lay-off and I am feeling calmer about it (though still a bit stressed). Brandon seems to be loving working on his own thing and he has actually been working like crazy on his comic and some other projects. So I guess we will see where this all leads.

First Haircut

Most kids get their first hair cut at least by one years old if not two. For Brandon's family, they had a tradition not to cut their hair until they were two so Brandon and his brothers sported some very long locks for their first two years of life. That is not the case with Lucy. She was so bald for the longest time and at three years old, she still doesn't have much hair.  What she does have, as illustrated in the pictures below, is a mullet. Although people don't realize it is a mullet because it is usually a giant, frizzy rat's nest with how it looks in the morning after she sleeps on it.

When it is combed out and dry (it is wet above), it actually looks really pretty with these soft curls. But it is rare that I ever do her hair. So Emily decided it was time to give Lucy a hair cut and I gave in. Brandon used to call that rat's nest "Lucy's glory" but there was really nothing glorious about it so it wasn't too hard to convince him that it was finally time for a hair cut.

Emily is no wizard with scissors (although she did a pretty decent job cutting Olive's hair) but I am too cheap and lazy to bring Lucy somewhere professional when she doesn't care so I let Emily have at it.

Lucy was really good but she did manage to move around enough for Emily to cut her neck twice! Ouch!! Fortunately, because she couldn't see it, she got over it fast. I think it is worse when she can see the blood or scrape.

It ended up turning out really cute. Emily did a good job and Lucy was very excited about it.

Lucy's mom may not be able to rock the Carey Mulligan hairstyle so well but Lucy certainly can.

Or maybe it is more of an Emma Watson look:

Or maybe channeling Julie Andrews from the Sound of Music like her cousin Maya does:

Anyway, it is a great look for her. Who knew that cutting off a little hair would make such a big difference.

Kinda wish I saved a little lock but then I remembered how I am not sentimental at all.

She still has the rat's nest but it is much shorter now and easier to comb out. I did find a comb and water sprayer at my house finally so maybe I will be able to stay on top of doing her hair now...or at least for church and special occasions.