Monthly Archives: April 2008

Five Things

I took this from Holly McCaig’s Blog and thought it might be a fun little distraction from work project.

What was I doing 5 years ago?
Kei and I had just moved to the US. I believe we may have been on a Hawaiian cruise in May – finishing up our 7 months of living there – are were about to embark on a 6 month long trip across the United States. We drove from LA to Ohio and then Ohio to Portland basically carrying all of our possessions in a small station wagon. In one year we went to Universal studios, Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree National Park, The Painted Desert, Memphis, a Chicago Cubs baseball game, Niagara Falls, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rushmore, AND we visited the actual baseball field from the movie Field of dreams. Oh, we also saw a LOT of very flat, prairie country (South Dakota is a very big state when you are trying to drive accross it in one day). It was a big year.

Five things on my to-do list today ( or things I did today):

  1. Work (ugh!)
  2. Scrap
  3. Check Blogs
  4. Spend a little time with my family
  5. Go to bed early (I have come down with a cold)

Five snacks i love:

  1. Chocolate
  2. Chocolate
  3. Anything to do with Chocolate
  4. Potato chips (I really miss chicken flavoured chips from Australia)
  5. Oh, and Chocolate

Five things i would do if i were a billionaire:

  1. Pay off my house – actually I guess I could just move to a new one. 🙂
  2. Get a housecleaner
  3. Work only part time – at something I LOVE.
  4. Have a year round summer – May to September in Portland and the rest of the year in Australia.
  5. Travel the world (may have to quit my job though)

Five bad habits I have:

  1. Eat too much chocolate
  2. Watch too much TV
  3. Addicted to my computer
  4. Don’t excercise enough (or at all lately)
  5. Don’t clean my house nearly enough

Five places I have lived:

  1. Sydney, Australia (although only for a couple of years after i was born)
  2. Melbourne, Australia
  3. Fukushima, Japan
  4. Honolulu, Hawaii
  5. Portland, Oregon

Five jobs I’ve had:

  1. Checkout Chick at Safeway (What’s the politically correct term now?)
  2. Teacher in Japan
  3. Human Resources in Australia
  4. Human Resources in Hawaii
  5. Internal Communications – Now

Well that’s probably more than you ever wanted to know so there you have it. Let me know if you do you own “Five things” list so I can learn more about YOU.

Nicole

P365 Day 113 – April 22nd 2008

A little green in honour of Earth Day and a little message for Mother Earth. We’ve been good haven’t we? We’re trying very hard to reduce our impact on the planet – We use canvas bags to carry our groceries almost every time we visit the store, we plan to plant a tree in the backyard as soon as our construction is finished and we buy organic…

…so for the love of all things warm and sunny… PLEASE MAKE THE RAIN STOP!!!

Happy Earth Day

In case you haven’t heard (or seen, or sensed), today is EARTH DAY.

It is around this time of the year when we are bombarded with messages about being “green” and how the whole planet will be under water in 50 years. OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration but it is a little scary. Here are some things the Ishida’s are doing to be green.

  • Recycle as much as we can – Thankfully we live in a city that is very supportive of recycling.
  • Compost (Although not as much as we should)
  • We only have one car – and plan to keep it that way for as long as possible. AND it’s a very small car. But we will soon to discover how cozy it will be with two car seats. Hmmm.
  • Kei rides his bike to work most days (about 5 miles) or catches the bus – largely owing to the fact that we only have one car. Unfotunately I have to drive a little further to work but I am trying to work from home a lot more to save gas (and time).
  • We are trying to use sustainable materials with our house renovation as much as our funds will allow – using reclaimed gym floors for the “new” hardwoods and seriously considering a new tankless water heater that uses less energy. It will be more expensive now but will save money in the long run – another bonus.
  • We drink from water bottles A LOT – no plastic bottles for us. And of course now we use stainless steel bottles thanks to the scary news about plastic leeching. We spent about $70 to replace our Nalgene bottles with stainless steel alternatives.
  • We have organic, locally grown fruit and veg food delivered every two weeks. I just love that we are supporting local farmers and the fruit and veg they send is the stuff in season which helps keep the price down.
  • We have switched all of our lightbulbs over so we are using less energy to light the house. And I am very good at turning lights off when I am not in the room (my Dad drilled that into me as I was growing up).

A couple of things that I struggle with and wish I could do differently:

  • Disposable diapers – for a full time working mum the alternative is just too difficult to contemplate. Instead I will focus on potty training to get my kids out of diapers as soon as I can. (wish me luck!)
  • Facial Tissues – I just HATE handkerchiefs. They are so disgusting and I can’t get past the gross factor to use them. Just can’t.

So I feel like I am reducing my footprint a little and they say it’s the small things right?

And because a post isn’t a post without a picture – I leave you with a little bit of nature that has been preserved in the heart of the Portland. This is one of favourite places to hike – mainly because it’s flat and easy and there’s a lot of wildlife to observe.

Happy Earth Day. 

P365 Day 112 – April 21st 2008

This is how Kei kept Thomas occupied while I was out yesterday. Ok – this could be more Kei than Thomas. The Japanese characters in the middle say “Ishida” – and that right there is pretty much the extent of my knowledge of the Japanese language.

P365 Day 111 – April 20th 2008

A couple of my good friends threw me a baby shower. It was very low key event – just seven of us – but a lot of fun. We basically sat around and shared birth stories which I realise might sound like a day in hell to some.

Seems the baby bug is going around – I have four close friends who are pregnant and about 5 who have had babies in the past 6 months. All but one are on their second child. It’s crazy! So this means a lot of baby showers, a lot of gifts and a lot of post-baby meal deliveries. Good thing I’m next because I am running out of meal ideas. 🙂

I got some lovely gifts for the baby and a VERY nice spa gift certificate for me. The best part – they have short-term childcare at the spa so I can go while I’m on maternity leave. Somehow I think I’ll need it. Part of me is looking forward to being in the hospital for a few days for a “break”. Is that bad?

Just four weeks to go…

P365 Day 110 – April 19th 2008

Today was errand day. We started with a trip to the optometrist for Kei. Thomas and I kept ourselves occupied by visiting a children’s bookstore nearby. As soon as we walked in – a full display of books about dinosaurs and then a full display of books about Pirates. These people know their target audience. We even found a book about Pirate Dinosaurs – Genius!

Next up – Babies R Us and Seagals Baby store for a few essentials followed by a stop at Beaverton Bakery for a cannoli (yum!). I bought half an apple pie and then left it there. Unfortunately the apple pie craving I had at 11:00pm when we realized we had forgotten the pie did not justify the 30 minute drive back to pick it up. Sigh!

Then off to a hardware store to choose doorknobs and REI for new non-leeching stainless steel water bottles. Kei has been doing research and now we are afraid of all things plastic.

We got home at about 5pm and were pretty exhausted. I’m not sure how we found the energy to watch Into the Wild. The movie was close to three hours but very good. Kei and I both read the book a long time ago and it was interesting to see it brought to life. And also very depressing. Don’t want to spoil it for you but it doesn’t end well. Not the sort of movie you want to watch right before you go to bed. Speaking from experience.

Oh, and I put Thomas’ backpack through the dryer with a crayon in the pocket. Let’s just say that we now have one very crusty backpack. I feel terrible aout it because he loves that bag so I’m definitely going to have to buy him a new one.

So a very long, but productive day. And a VERY long post. Sorry about that.

P365 Day 109 – April 18th 2008

A new friend. Kei’s work colleagues threw us a happy hour baby shower on Friday after work. It was really fun to get to know the people Kei works with and they were so generous with the gifts. The best part is that they bought a little package of presents for Thomas so he wouldn’t feel left out – VERY smart. His favourite? This little white dog which instantly became his best friend. I feel a little sorry for George though.

P365 Day 108 – April 17th 2008

Time Out and time for a new strategy. The Time Out chair is no longer working – he likes looking around too much and spends most of his time looking at us, asking questions or laughing. This is Kei’s solution – standing facing the door with his hands behind his back (even the door can become a toy if you are allowed to touch it). Two minuted of this and Thomas is incredibly cooperative. Most of the time we don’t even get to Time Out stage. Just the threat of it is enough. How am I going to deal with it when Thomas finally works out that there is nothing holding him there and that he could just walk away. I am a little afraid.

A Milestone…

I have reached 1000 hits. Now I know that is small potatoes for some but I can’t believe that I have had so many people show even a teeny tiny interest in what I have to say. I mean seriously – you don’t have anything better to do? hahaha.

And to fittingly mark this incredible milestone, I am unable to post anything of great interest today. I left the house this morning without my computer AND without my phone. Sheesh! So no P365 pics today but I will hopefully get about 5 days worth uploaded tonight so come back tomorrow for more than you ever cared to know about the past five days of my life. 🙂

Oh the other thing – I am using a loaner laptop at work so I am not able to check in on my favourite blogs and I don’t have the link to my CT forums so I may as well have dropped off the face of the earth.

I do have one LO I can share thanks to that magical internet capability called linking. I have been sitting on this one for a while just waiting for the big LDD anniversary sale.

Is he too cute? Using some new stuff from Lauren Reid available at Little Dreamer Designs right now at 35% off.

So that’s about it for now. Back later with some pics.

At The Hip

I scrapped last night. I wanted to include a lot of journaling on this page and that usually comes at the expense of embelishments so my page is pretty “clean”. Thank goodness for this gorgeous canvas “paper” from Nancy Comelab that I found in my stash.

Click on the image to read journaling and credits.

At The Hip

I have not been feeling very creative lately. I am really enjoying my photo a day posts and telling stories on my blog – more than scrapping right now. I think that while this baby takes up more room he is reducing the size of my scrapping mojo along with the size of my stomach and lungs.

Oh, and today marks four weeks until my last day at work before maternity leave. Not that I am keeping track (much!).