July 30, 2008

What is this? Only the most amazing device to come into our home in months. It's a CD repair kit. One week ago, I didn't even know such a thing existed. I'd noticed the boys were playing only one PS-2 game (Grand Theft Auto) so I asked why. "All the others are scratched and won't play, we need a CD repair machine like Ian has" was the answer. The next day, I found Gary online buying one -- not because he knew about the game issue, just because he'd seen the ever -growing collection of scratched CDs. We spent an hour rehabbing all our CDs and DVDs and we are SO happy!!

July 27, 2008

Andy's Japanese middle name -- Kenji -- in traditional kanji.

Dan's middle name -Matsu - in kanji

A few years ago, when Gary's parents arrived for a visit, they brought along these two beautiful hand-painted prints of the boys' Japanese names. Dad arranged to have them framed at local shop and they are among the most beautiful things in our home. And as fortune would have it, they fit exactly in the wall space between the interior windows.

If you noticed the names look quite similar, that's because in the traditional way, our surname appears at the top.

Like Gary, our younger boys have Japanese middle names. When we were expecting Andy, even before we chose Andrew for his first name, we chose his Japanese name. Gary's middle name is Ken, and doesn't sound Japanese enough for his liking. The character his parents used signifies strength of character. We chose to use Gary's name for Andy's middle name and personalized it by adding the 'ji' suffix to denote second son, to Gary's character. Success -- it sounds more Japanese, and acknowledges Will's place as Gary's first son (Gary adopted Will when we married). And, it fits him so well!

In choosing Dan's name, we asked Gary's parents for ideas. Mom really didn't have one right away, so she consulted her sisters. Aunty Sachi suggested using their father's name, Matsu. I was surprised to find no one else had already used his name since Gary comes from a large family. I especially liked the idea of naming Dan after a great-grandparent, since I'm named after my maternal great-grandparents (yes, both of them). We love that his name means longevity. When you live life as full-on as Dan does, a blessing for longevity is a good thing!

July 28, 2008

Detail from the picture below. It's another of my favorite things decorating our home.

This kimono was given to me by my mother-in-law. It was part of her hope chest, handmade by her mother more than 50 yrs ago! There were several kimono, a couple of hapi coats (small vests, really) several blankets (when Dan was a boy, I sent the never used pink one to Gary's cousin for her daughter). Our boys wore the less-fancy items, but I saved these as art. I just remembered Andy's much-beloved blanky came from that box! It started its life as a mint green flannel blanket with little red-hatted children. Now, the remnants of it are saved in a ziplok bag for 'someday.' When these came to me, they'd been in a box for 35 years. I love seeing them every day - such tangible gifts of love for children not even born when they were made.

This is the smaller of the two -- both ceremonial and somewhere, I'm sure, I'll find a picture of Gary in at least one of them as a tiny child. My mother in law, for all her organizational skills has boxes of unsorted pictures (who doesn't, tho?).

Friday, July 25

Last fall, I transplanted my strawberries, feeling they'd look and do better in a bed next to the house. Over the winter, thru a series of mishaps (dogs, too little cover, etc) I lost all but three strawberry plants. It appears this plant is determined to help me re-populate the strawberry bed. No berries this spring, but it put out runners, which means I now have 6 plants, with runners reaching out to new spots -- by this time next week, this plant will have gone from one to eight!

The other two are doing well, but without runners.

I hope to have real strawberries next spring.

Sunday, July 20

When did he get so big?

July 19, 2008

A snippet of today's birthday party for one of the boys in our tribe. The family actually moved last week -- about a 3 hr drive away -- but returned to celebrate Miles' birthday with us. We're hoping they'll return next month for his brother's birthday.

Lined up for a turn at the pinata -- where are all those unschooled kids who'll never learn to stand in line?

July 16, 2008

Sylvia:

Feverfew flowering in my herb garden.

Gary:

Dan, mid-wheelie

A new pleasure -- Dan looking at the camera.

July 15, 2008

First, an all-too-rare self-portrait.

It's taken me most of my 45 years to become comfortable being photographed. Recently, it's occurred to me there's a reason Gary and the boys want to take my picture -- they see someone in me don't let myself see often enough.

Two of my favorite faces....

My sweet wonderful Andy,

We recently got Guitar Hero, and aren't at all surprised to find Dan is a rock star.