Laughing Gas

I don't know what it was, but Avery was on one tonight. I was feeding her peas (yum) and all of the sudden she started laughing (and spat peas all over my face!). It was so funny! Everything I did would make her laugh. I'm glad someone thinks I'm funny. :)



You know, I think everyone with low self-esteem should get a baby. It's a sure way to feel better about yourself.

Say aahhh!

Hello, my fellow mothers and fathers out there! This post is dedicated to you: the parents who spend countless hours trying to get a baby to open his or her mouth during feeding time.

I took this video of Nathan last night because I noticed that when he feeds Avery, he provides some great non-verbal encouragement for her to open her mouth. Just watch (Nathan didn't know I was filming):


I love how he not only opens his mouth, but he even sticks his tongue out!

I actually had to sneakily cough while turning on the camera (because it has a loud "power on" jingle) and then stay out of his direct eyesight while I recorded him. I felt like James Bond.

He initially didn't notice that he opened his mouth, so I tried everything to get him to notice when he did. He even told me to yell "FREEZE!" right when I notice that he opens his mouth, so he would notice it when it happened. We tried that many, many, times, but to no avail. So he told me to sneakily record him doing it so he could watch it. So I did. :)

The funny thing is is that I noticed that I actually do it, too!

It's so funny! So now I just have to know, do any of you do the same thing? If not, that's ok. We can still be friends. :)

Websites are easy things to mess up

We have been really busy which means we have lots of fun updates!!

Family History Expos and Fairs
This has been the week filled with Richardson Design events. We went to St. George last weekend and to Bountiful this past weekend to man our booth at some Family History Expos:

They are so fun! I love getting things ready for our booth: finding a matching tablecloth, a flower arrangement that matches the colors and style, and finding some nice-looking floor and table easels. However, after being away for two weekends in a row at the expo and the fair, I am more than ready to slow down again.


It was much less rushed than last year because we already had the posters, flyers, and business cards printed. But because I had more time to prepare, I started to dabble in things I probably shouldn't have; namely, PHP.

My Piece of Humble Pie
I had one of the scariest moments in my life last week before the expo. It was one of those moments where I tried to be helpful, but instead made a big mess at a very inconvenient time.

We were getting Nathan's new website prepped for the expo and I was having fun adding new widgets to make it look really snazzy. Nathan told me the day before, "Just make sure you don't mess with the php (complicated website code stuff) because that can really mess the website up." I told him I had been doing little things here and there, and nothing had happened. So I told him that I'd be really careful anyway.

The widget I was working on wasn't functioning correctly, so I decided to edit the php template, like I had done before. I pasted, and then deleted the little line of code, and clicked "Update Site." For some reason, the site didn't like that I had inserted, then immediately removed the code. I got an error message saying that a "fatal error" had occurred. That word "fatal" made my heart drop into my stomach. I tried to go back on my browser so that I could "undo" my edit, but all of the sudden, none of the website worked. I couldn't even log in to edit the site. I even tried going to my browser history and going to my previous pages, but to no avail.

Every time I typed in http://richardsondesign.org in the browser, the same "fatal error" message came up (in fact, if you add the "www." in front of richardsondesign.org, you'll see the error message I got...currently it only works if you skip the www. and just put in http://richardsondesign.org). I called Nathan at work and left a message on his voicemail telling him to call me ASAP. I spent the next 4 hours trying to fix my mistake before Nathan called back. I was dreading having to tell Nathan that I had done precisely what he had warned me NOT to do. Luckily, one of Nathan's old roomies answered his phone and he helped me get the website restored to almost normal-working order (thanks, Mike!).

When Nathan got home, I approached him like a little puppy with my tail between my legs. I told him what had happened. He didn't do anything except just hug me and tell me that the site would be fine (which it was). No scolding, even though I deserved it. Not that Nathan ever scolds me, but I thought for sure that'd be the only way any normal human would handle such a bad mistake.

Basically, it was a very fun week with lots of scary moments, and a nice husband to share them with. :)

We still can't actually log in to the site to make changes, but hopefully that will get resolved soon. I just won't be the one playing with php trying to fix it!

Hosting an Interfaith Dialogue
Yesterday Nathan and I were able to host an interfaith dialogue at our house with a dozen evangelical students from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois and a dozen BYU students.
It was really fun to talk with them. Evey time we have the dialogues, we always wish we had more time discuss and ask questions. Time always flies! It was actually the first time we have held them at our house. We barely had enough seating, so my assignment for this week is to go purchase more folding chairs for the next time we host a dialogue. :)

Avery's Love of Splashing
Avery update: We realized we've never take pics of Avery at bath time, so here they are!


Avery loves to splash. :)

Geekfest

We had a fun and interesting weekend. BYU holds an annual sci-fi and fantasy symposium called "Life, the Universe, and Everything."
It's a three-day event with classes from morning until evening about every topic under the sun: creating realistic monsters, how to write a strong female character in a medieval setting, incorporating romance into your plot, how to build a culture, etc.
Some of the past presenters have been Orson Scott Card and Brandon Sanderson (author of the final book in the Wheel of Time series). So it's pretty much every sci-fi/fantasy fan's dream: three days of swapping ideas and learning ways to improve your writing from people who really know what they are talking about.

For the past four years, Nathan has taught a class entitled "How to create a realistic fictional language." This year he taught two one-hour classes with a linguistics professor, Dirk Elzinga.

Caption: "How many of you have ever wanted to kiss Galadriel or Arwen?"

Every year we go, I feel a little out-of-place for two reasons: (1) I have never read a sci-fi or fantasy book (let's be honest—I've never even seen Star Wars), and (2) I don't wear capes. There were lots of ... interesting (that's the most diplomatic word I can think of) people attending, as there have been every year we've gone.

When we broke up into groups during Nathan's class to fill out a worksheet together, I got a pic of the group I worked with. The guy wearing the hat in the picture below had memorized the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), filled our the worksheet in the characters of the IPA, and had already made up most of his own language. He said it sounded like Tolkein's elvish. Wow.

What does the International Phonetic Alphabet look like? Glad you asked. I wasn't sure myself, so I had to Google it. It's basically a way of writing every sound your mouth can make. Each distinctive sound has its own character. Here's a sample of what it looks like (click on it to see it in its full glory):


We asked Avery what she thought of of all the people dressed in their costumes (heck, maybe they're not costumes; maybe they wear it every day). Here was her non-verbal reply:


Speaking of Avery, for a couple weeks she did this funny thing with her leg. When she was in her car seat, her leg would inevitably lift up. And stay there ... for the entire time she would be in the car seat!! It was so funny, so of course we couldn't resist taking a pic.
Important update: I never did win the Valentine's Day drawing. Bummer. I really thought I felt some good chi, or karma, or whatever. :) Oh well, that won't stop me from entering more drawings! Our next project is getting Nathan's website finished so we can go man a booth at the St. George Family History Expo in a couple of weeks!

Oh, and Nathan just reminded me that I have read two sci-fi/fantasy books: Twilight and Ender's Game. Oops. *Blush*

I learned so much at the symposium this past weekend that I've decided that my next post will be written in my new fictional language. I was thinking of writing about spincy wouncers, but I might not because snorgle glakket chumble spuzz.

Poo

Dear Huggies,
We really, really, REALLY appreciate you. You make parenting much less gross than it sometimes already is.
Much admiration,
Nathan and Jelaire

This made us laugh, so I had to post it and share it with the world.

I picked Avery up and she felt strangely warm. Here's what I saw when I laid her down on her changing table:

I have no idea how she did it. What a talented girl!
As I was washing her pants off in the toilet, I was counting my blessings that our generation has access to disposable diapers. And that they work...most of the time. Thank you, Huggies.

Prophetic Counsel Rough Draft

My Recipe-Sharing Experiment

I enjoy making yummy dinners, but the part that I don't enjoy as much is the finding! All I have are recipes that aren't too healthy, so my New Year's resolution was to cook healthier. I want to try a little experiment that will help out not just me, but everyone who reads my blog!

Go ahead and paste one of your tried and true dinner recipes in the comments below. The only requirement is that it be a healthy one! (If you can't find one, that's ok, too!) Let's see if we can share enough recipes with each other on this particular post to have us set for the rest of February! I'll add them to this post when I get enough!

To start us off, I'll offer two recipes. One quick breakfast-for-dinner idea, and one not-so-quick, not very healthy, but reallly delicious dinner recipe.

Scarce Eggs

• 6 eggs

• 2 cups milk

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 2 cups flour

• 1 tsp. salt

• 2 T. oil

Put eggs, milk, sugar, and salt in blender. Blend well. Add flour. Blend. Add oil and bake on hot griddle. (Batter will be thin.) This serves about 4 adults.

I got this recipe from a site called myinnerchef.com. I tried it and absolutely love it! It's a cross between pancakes and crepes, but more eggs; thus more protein. You can serve it with fruit, yogurt, peanut butter, syrup, or anything else you normally put on crepes or pancakes. I love it because it's super easy, quick, and I always have the ingredients on hand!

Chiang Mai Curry Noodle Soup
I got this recipe from cooking.com, but I have simplified it and added ginger.

• Peanut or corn oil (I used vegetable oil)

• 1 lb. thin/regular Chinese egg noodles

• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  

• 2 Tbs +/- freshly grated ginger
  

• 2 cans coconut milk, unashaken

• 2 Tbs. red curry paste, or to taste

• 1 1/2 tsp. curry powder

• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
  

• 1 grated carrot

• 3/4 lb. chopped chicken meat

• 4 cups chicken stock

• 3 Tbs Thai fish sauce (I used regular fish sauce, and it tasted fine)

• 1 tsp palm sugar or brown sugar

• 1/4 cup shredded green cabbage

• Juice of 1 lemon (I just used about a Tbs of lemon juice and it worked fine)

Garnishes:
Fresh cilantro, chopped
2 green onions, sliced

Directions:
Boil noodles following the directions on package. Set aside.

Measure out 2 tablespoons of oil and place in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté until browned, about 1 minute. Do not shake the cans of coconut milk before opening. There should be a thick layer of cream on top of each. Spoon off 1/2 cup of the thick cream from the top of each can and add it to the garlic. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently, until the cream boils gently. Add the red curry paste, curry powder and turmeric and stir until smooth. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the mixture is thick and the oil begins to separate around the edges and rises to the surface, about 5 minutes.

Add the chicken, breaking it up into small pieces. (I actually just cooked my chicken beforehand in my crockpot, and then shredded it for the soup.) Cook until the chicken becomes white, about 2 minutes. Raise the heat to high. Add the remaining coconut milk, the chicken stock, fish sauce, palm or brown sugar and cabbage and stir well. When the mixture begins to boil, adjust the heat to maintain a gentle boil and continue cooking for 8 minutes longer.

Add lemon juice and cooked noodles. Garnish with the cilantro and green onions.

Thank you for your help -- I can't wait to try your recipes!
Let the cooking begin!