My first Wordless Wednesday Post
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Female?
When we were picking names for Tai, I warned Yoshi that the name Taira would mean "girl" for most Americans. He said it would build "character" for Tai. Given the other options Yoshi liked, I agreed to Taira. After all, it is a nice name. Now that Tai is nearly a year old, I am beginning to question our choice.
Exhibit A:
Can you believe it? This was for Yoshi's company Christmas party. He wrote "male" on the form, but someone looked at the name and mentally adjusted it to "female."
My poor Tai! What kind of confusion awaits you in your life? Will you be assigned to female dorms in college? I hope you will not be scarred. Perhaps I should have argued a bit more for the English version of your name. Tyler would have been much easier, but I felt that the nickname "Tai" was a good alternative. I hope I was not wrong.
Exhibit A:
Can you believe it? This was for Yoshi's company Christmas party. He wrote "male" on the form, but someone looked at the name and mentally adjusted it to "female."My poor Tai! What kind of confusion awaits you in your life? Will you be assigned to female dorms in college? I hope you will not be scarred. Perhaps I should have argued a bit more for the English version of your name. Tyler would have been much easier, but I felt that the nickname "Tai" was a good alternative. I hope I was not wrong.
Visiting Santa
I neglected updating for so long that I'm posting Christmas pictures in mid-January! But hey, at least I'm posting something, right? I thought you all would like to see the kids visiting Santa.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Mad Skills
Yoshi's got mad skills in the gingerbread house department. Rather than buying a pre-made one this year, we looked up directions on the internet for making one out of graham crackers. Our results were not bad if I do say so myself. I say "our," but all I did was have the idea. Yoshi constructed it and Maia decorated it all by herself. We will repeat this next year. It was tons of fun and much less expensive than buying the prefabbed version!
Yoshi beginning the construction process. He has a real knack for these sorts of things.
Yummy...Maia cannot resist licking her fingers!
Tai mostly hung around waiting for candy to fall so he could eat it! Next year will be more fun for him.
Maia can never resist taking a break in the action to pose for the camera!
We did it! Yes, those are upside down ice cream cones decorated with green icing.
The partially completed project.
Yoshi beginning the construction process. He has a real knack for these sorts of things.
Yummy...Maia cannot resist licking her fingers!
Tai mostly hung around waiting for candy to fall so he could eat it! Next year will be more fun for him.
Maia can never resist taking a break in the action to pose for the camera!
We did it! Yes, those are upside down ice cream cones decorated with green icing.
The partially completed project.Sunday, January 17, 2010
Goals
As we start the new year, I'd like to set some goals. By doing this publicly, I hope to actually achieve most of them.
2010 Goals
1) Avoid addictive online activities. I've been playing on facebook and reading blogs entirely too much. I spend most of my evenings doing these things, and I definitely need a change. Of course, that does not include MY blog.
2) Update my blog at least a couple times a week. Most of the blogs I read have fun themes for certain days. One that I have enjoyed is Wordless Wednesday, where the blogger just posts a picture. I may try that! Maybe I need more readers to motivate me? I've been considering letting more people know about the blog, and perhaps that is the impetus I need to post more often? We shall see. I certainly have enough material to post more frequently than I do.
3) Organize my life. As I approach the 36th year of my life, being a procrastinator is getting old. I crave structure. I want my world to be peaceful and orderly. This extends to almost every aspect of my life, but the main categories I'm thinking of are: housekeeping, finances, menu planning, and professional life.
I've been working on this one for a while, and feel like I have improved a lot, but there's still a long way to go. Though I try to stay on top of cleaning and straightening, if I slack off for even one day, chaos begins to reign. This is such a difficult area for me, because I have a very laid-back personality when it comes to most things, so it's almost like I have to re-program myself. But it's something I really want to do, and I'm hoping this year will be a good one for my organization.
4) Begin a master's degree (again). Yes, I know... I did this already. I nearly completed my master's at Cleveland State in comparative literature. Unfortunately, we moved away before I finished my thesis, and I never completed it. I could try to do it now, but so many years have passed that I'm not even sure if I'd be allowed. Not to mention, my research is not exactly fresh. It seems very daunting.
In order to keep my teaching license current, I need to complete classes and eventually earn a master's degree. I've been seriously considering doing ESL for a variety of reasons. First of all, I truly enjoy working with kids and would love the opportunity to help them out more than just teaching them the material in my curriculum. At my previous job, I got along with the foreign exchange students very well and I really liked learning about their cultures. Marketability is another factor in my decision. There are not many ESL teachers in our area, so I would be able to find a job rather easily. (Fingers crossed.) In my perfect world, I could teach some introductory French classes and do ESL part-time. Or I could teach an English class or two plus do ESL. Both scenarios would be amazing.
In order to maintain my teaching license, I need to begin classes in March, so that doesn't leave a lot of time. In a way, I'm excited to get back into things and start taking courses. In another way, it's going to be tough to schedule everything and, of course, to leave the kids. We are living in our own little Utopia right now, and although I sometimes feel like I'm losing brain cells daily, I love spending my time with Maia and Tai. And yet...I'm really looking forward to it. It will only be a few hours a week, and will keep me in the swing of things professionally. I'm getting excited just thinking about it!
2010 Goals
1) Avoid addictive online activities. I've been playing on facebook and reading blogs entirely too much. I spend most of my evenings doing these things, and I definitely need a change. Of course, that does not include MY blog.
2) Update my blog at least a couple times a week. Most of the blogs I read have fun themes for certain days. One that I have enjoyed is Wordless Wednesday, where the blogger just posts a picture. I may try that! Maybe I need more readers to motivate me? I've been considering letting more people know about the blog, and perhaps that is the impetus I need to post more often? We shall see. I certainly have enough material to post more frequently than I do.
3) Organize my life. As I approach the 36th year of my life, being a procrastinator is getting old. I crave structure. I want my world to be peaceful and orderly. This extends to almost every aspect of my life, but the main categories I'm thinking of are: housekeeping, finances, menu planning, and professional life.
I've been working on this one for a while, and feel like I have improved a lot, but there's still a long way to go. Though I try to stay on top of cleaning and straightening, if I slack off for even one day, chaos begins to reign. This is such a difficult area for me, because I have a very laid-back personality when it comes to most things, so it's almost like I have to re-program myself. But it's something I really want to do, and I'm hoping this year will be a good one for my organization.
4) Begin a master's degree (again). Yes, I know... I did this already. I nearly completed my master's at Cleveland State in comparative literature. Unfortunately, we moved away before I finished my thesis, and I never completed it. I could try to do it now, but so many years have passed that I'm not even sure if I'd be allowed. Not to mention, my research is not exactly fresh. It seems very daunting.
In order to keep my teaching license current, I need to complete classes and eventually earn a master's degree. I've been seriously considering doing ESL for a variety of reasons. First of all, I truly enjoy working with kids and would love the opportunity to help them out more than just teaching them the material in my curriculum. At my previous job, I got along with the foreign exchange students very well and I really liked learning about their cultures. Marketability is another factor in my decision. There are not many ESL teachers in our area, so I would be able to find a job rather easily. (Fingers crossed.) In my perfect world, I could teach some introductory French classes and do ESL part-time. Or I could teach an English class or two plus do ESL. Both scenarios would be amazing.
In order to maintain my teaching license, I need to begin classes in March, so that doesn't leave a lot of time. In a way, I'm excited to get back into things and start taking courses. In another way, it's going to be tough to schedule everything and, of course, to leave the kids. We are living in our own little Utopia right now, and although I sometimes feel like I'm losing brain cells daily, I love spending my time with Maia and Tai. And yet...I'm really looking forward to it. It will only be a few hours a week, and will keep me in the swing of things professionally. I'm getting excited just thinking about it!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (a bit late)
Maia decorating the tree. The poor tree did not make it very long this year with Tai around.
Christmas morning!
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are on your way to a great new year!
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