the grass is greener

Wrote Anna's nine month letter just TWO DAYS late. This has to be a record. You can find it here
or just read it on Facebook like everyone else does.

1. Ross is SO awkward.

2. We went to Best Buy to pick up a case for my new iPod. I spent about 45 minutes staring at the 45 options. Then I went home and found one on eBay. (Incidentally, on eBay, I found a listing for an iPod accessories "bundle," which included several cases, chargers, an a pair of earbuds all for the low price of $16.99, free shipping. Below the long list of all that is included was the following (paraphrased): "BEWARE OF VENDORS SELLING IPOD ACCESSORIES AT INCREDIBLY LOW PRICES!" i.e., beware of us.

3. Paul is watching the Scipps National Spelling Bee right now and just two seconds of it gave me the shivers.

4. Anna spends half the day yelling (just because she can). My head has not stopped hurting since she developed this ability.

5. We are splitting a share in a CSA program this year with the Smiths. We picked up our first box of veggies on Tuesday, which included radishes, beets, arugula, mixed greens, asparagus, and alfalfa sprouts. I had the asparagus for breakfast yesterday (I just couldn't wait), some of the radishes for lunch, and the alfalfa sprouts for supper (amongst other things, of course). While part of me is tempted to just put the CSA money towards more user-friendly veggies at the farmers' market, it is kind of fun to HAVE to experiment with new vegetables. The beets and arugula, however, will be a challenge!*

Oh, bonus! 6. I ate a baggie full of alfalfa sprouts and then immediately read this.

*Edit: I have since fallen in love with arugula, pear, walnut, and honey salads. Thanks, Rachel!

My beloved PowerBook G4 finally died a few months ago.

Friday night: Julia's bachelorette party (my introduction to the State College nightlife)
Saturday morning: church work day (sanitizing ALL the nursery toys--big job!)
Saturday afternoon: lunch with Hiram, AAUW booksale
Saturday evening: supper with Mom and Dad Shaffner at Damon's
Sunday morning: potato pancakes for Mothers' Day breakfast, church/Gloria's dedication at the Mennonite church in town
Sunday afternoon: soup and sandwiches at home and walk with Mom and Dad, wonderful concert with clarinet soloist at local high school, Dunkin' Donuts (my request), Target
Sunday evening: more potato pancakes!

Not bad.

I uploaded new pics on Facebook. Here is the link to the album for those of you have resisted its sinister forces (thus far).

NPR is running a series this week on meals for four under $10, created by top chefs around the world.

Tonight's was Moorish-Style Chickpea and Spinach Stew by Chef Jose Andres.

I tried it and it was delicious.

HOWEVER, due to the fact that I didn't want to have to buy a bunch of new ingredients in order to make dinner:
1) I used a bit of mirin instead of sherry
2) I used regular paprika
3) I used 2/3 of a clove of elephant garlic
4) I used 2 cans of chickpeas (plus water and some chickpea juice)
5) I omitted the saffron
6) I omitted the pepper (not for any reason except that I was too lazy to reach for the pepper shaker when the food was almost done)

Ok, it sounds like I didn't follow the recipe at all, but really those were minor changes. We added a fried egg to each serving and it was quite delicious. Ours came out less watery than how it appears in the picture on the website, but I like my stews to be thick.

This also came out to be much cheaper than $10 because we already had so many of the ingredients on hand.

Oh, the final caveat: this only served three (Paul and me, plus one serving for tomorrow). I did, however, feel sick from eating too much for about three hours after the meal.

Try it!

(Sorry, no pic because the one I took of the leftovers came out so poorly that it would probably be incentive NOT to make it.)

I frosted a cake for Noel and Paul's late birthday celebration and painstakingly wrote, "better late than never" with icing. Unfortunately, I did such a terrible job that I was too embarrassed to bring the cake to the picnic and brought cupcakes instead.

One day later:

Paul: Look how perfectly I cut the cake!
Me: Wow, it looks perfect. You cut it much better than I wrote on it.
Paul: Next time I'll write on my own cake.
Me: (indignantly) Next time you'll MAKE your own--oh, wait. You did.

Yep, Paul baked his own cake. The only contribution I made was the ugly frosting/writing.

Anna and I are supposed to be on the airplane right now.

Last night around suppertime, we noticed that Anna felt a little warm and was starting to sniffle a bit but didn't think much of it. We put her to bed and then hung out with Noel for a while. At 11:15 or so, I woke Anna up to feed her and felt right away that Anna was feverish. We took her temperature and she had a fever of 102.4. The pediatrician on call told us that we needed to take her to the ER immediately, especially since we were planning on leaving the house at 3:30 AM to head to Pittsburgh for our first flight.

After a couple of hours of tests and waiting (the ER was full of inebriated college students), the doctor arrived and said that she couldn't figure out what was wrong with Anna and that it was probably just fine to fly. Almost as an afterthought, she decided to have Anna tested for RSV (a respiratory virus) and influenza. Another hour later, we were shocked to find out she tested positive for both. The doctor said that she's never seen a case of a baby with both, but that neither really can be treated except with lots of rest and fluids.

Anna was a trooper through it all, smiling at the doctors and pleasant as ever (although subdued and pathetic-looking). The doctor gave Anna one of the biggest--and funniest--compliments we've heard: "I think she's cuter than my own baby!"

I called the airlines to postpone our ticket, thinking we'd fly out with Paul next Saturday, but the only flights available in the next 10 days was for this coming Wednesday, which is the absolute soonest the doctors said we'd be able to leave. If Anna isn't better by then, we're going to postpone our trip indefinitely.

We're bummed, of course.

Please pray that Anna gets better. And that we'll be able to make it out on Wednesday.

Anna and I are heading to Taiwan and the Philippines for a month-long visit with my family! Paul will be joining us next Saturday and will spend two weeks with us in the Philippines.
Wish me luck as I will be flying alone with a 5 month old baby...

that are fun.

1. I need to come up with better headings for these "five things" entries, since it looks like this is the only way I blog anymore (try it, for some reason blogging about five little things is much less intimidating than blogging about one big theme).

2. Have I mentioned that I am heading to Asia for a month? I will spend a week in Taiwan, two weeks in the Philippines, and then another week in Taiwan during March. Paul will join Anna and me for the time in the Philippines. This is super, super exciting.

3. We met a guy at church who is a 5th generation Central Pennsylvanian. He is passionate about "going local." So much so that he published a book about it! Check it out.

4. Here are two sermons that have stuck out to me in the past couple of months.

5. Walking around the bakery section at Wegman's gave me a craving for scones. I was too cheap to buy a box so I made some myself. Here is a ridiculously easy recipe.

1.  We have become public radio family.  Our car radio is almost always tuned in to WPSU (even during daytime classical music hours) and I am currently sitting in the house with my hand-crank world band radio listening to The World.  My daughter may LOOK like my dad, but I am BECOMING my dad*.  The fact that I am listening to a radio I have to crank myself instead of just streaming it from the internet just underscores this fact.

1. One morning in December, after roughly three and a half months living in State College, I woke up and suddenly felt ready to make friends. We got plugged into the E Free church nearby and have found ourselves a warm, welcoming community. Since then, my weekly schedule has gotten busier and busier. (It is still strange that "playdate" is now part of my vocabulary.)

2. I cannot get enough of the rooibos/jasmine tea blend we received from Rachel. In fact, I am having a cup right now.



3. It's cold outside, we keep our thermostat set between 58 - 62, but my feet are toasty thanks to one of my Christmas presents: down slippers.



4. I met a coworker of Paul's for coffee today and had a very enjoyable time discussing everything from religion to our mutual lack of artistic talent. While I have loved the aforementioned playdates, it is quite refreshing to have a friend who is not a mom. I was a bit mortified, however, when she asked me what I do during the day. I could barely manage to muster an answer beyond "wash the dishes and make the bed." Paul assures me that what I'm REALLY doing is "sustaining a life," but it is still quite perplexing that although I can barely quantify the actual tasks I accomplish, each day goes by so quickly.

5. We visited relatives in NJ over the weekend* and we stopped by Baja Fresh for lunch on the way back. Paul and I spent the entire meal waxing eloquent about how very much in love we are with the Baja burrito and the fish tacos. If you have a Baja Fresh nearby, go eat there and make us jealous.

*We had a really, really good time.

Myths debunked. The one about hats has caused great disillusionment in this household.
(via Paul)

This year's Thanksgiving has been lovely. We went up to Mom and Dad Shaffner's house for Thanksgiving day and had a huge Thanksgiving feast. Grandma Rensel (Anna's great-grandma) and Susan (a Chinese woman living in Clearfield) were also there to celebrate with us. I got quite the mental workout, spending the majority of the day conversing (or trying to converse!) with Susan in Chinese. We spent the afternoon eating, sledding, riding the snowmobile, and eating some more.


Eying Great-Grandma Rensel


Hanging out with Grandpa and Chai the cat

The next day, we avoided the Black Friday insanity. The only shopping we did was shopping for a Christmas tree. It was my first Christmas-tree-cutting experience, and it was great fun, although the actual cutting took about two seconds as Paul used a chainsaw.


We had a real tree in TZ, too, but this was my first experience picking it out and cutting it down. Or at least, observing a tree being picked and cut down!

As per Lao family tradition, we decorated the tree on Friday. Paul's parents passed on Paul's yearly ornaments, a Lionel train set, and a beautiful nativity set from Bethlehem, and I put up our few ornaments from TZ, as well as my handmade Danish paper stars (we were short on ornaments last Christmas, so I had to make some!). Sean Read came over to spend the afternoon with us, then he and Kara Sunday came back in the evening. It was like college again, drinking hot drinks and talking late into the night. (Although "late" is relative!)


Paul, Sean, and sleepy Anna


Bonding with Uncle Sean

The next day, Dr. Arensen and Lisa came over from Houghton for an overnight visit. We caught up and shared stories, ate Korean food, and looked through Dr. A's photos from the South Pacific.

Now it is Sunday morning and we're sitting in front of the tree, having had a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, coffee, and mandarin oranges. We're listening to Christmas music and slowly thinking about getting ready for church.


Our tree!

We have much to be thankful for this year.

(Posting Anna photos here since Nablopomo blogging has fizzled out.)

Watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Why in the world is Franklin sitting all by himself on one side of the table, while there are FOUR on the other side?