Author Archives: Nicole

Good News Friday

I am generally a fan of Fridays. I mean, what’s not to like?

But today is a GREAT Friday filled with lots of fabulous news for the Ishidas. Here’s a sampling:

  • Tax return has been submitted and refund is on its way and I DID NOT HAVE TO DO IT! I would give up food before giving up the luxury of having an accountant take care of my taxes.
  • Work review time means my job is officially shifting to something filled with creativity and new things to learn.
  • We have a massive pile of mulch in our front yard. OK, Kei is not as excited about this as I am because it was supposed to be delivered to our back yard, but it does mean that project “Ishida outdoor sanctuary” is in full swing.
  • I am heading out on a girls weekend away.
  • Repeat. I am heading out on a girls weekend away.
  • Daylight saving starts this weekend (which means one less hour for the girls weekend. Hmmmm…)
  • Potluck on Sunday with friends we haven’t seen in months. A sure sign that everyone is emerging from winter hibernation.
  • I bought tickets for Thomas and me to see a Children’s Theatre production of “Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus”.
  • I am way more excited about the pigeon than an adult should be.
  • The sun is finally shining after days of rain.
  • Girls weekend.

Weekend starts in 30 minutes. Bring it on!

For Grandpa

My Dad left a comment on the last post with a couple of questions/requests and, being the dutiful daughter that I am, I will respond immediately.

First, that chalk drawing by Kei was of the Millennium Falcon, otherwise known as Han Solo’s ship. Grandpa, I suggest you begin brushing up on your Star Wars trivia because you WILL be tested by a four year in a couple of weeks. I would begin with a viewing of all three original movies because, although your grandson has never actually seen them, he is somehow in the know about every plot point and can name characters that I had never heard of.

Once you have made it through the first three films, then move onto the prequels. Oh, and don’t be alarmed if you find yourself in a conversation about the medical and technological wonders of reattaching an arm after your evil Dark Lord father manages to chop it off during a father/son light sabre battle.

Second – here is the mini van, although I am yet to get a full body shot. It’s a lot bigger than our little Mazda and I am still learning to parallel park, but other than that Thomas and I have enjoying driving it to school each day. The only problem is that the size of the vehicle has caused Thomas to suggest we have three more babies to fill out the back seat. I told him those seats were reserved for his friends… or his grandparents when they next come to visit.

P365: Sugar Rush

On Friday night we picked Samuel up from daycare and then Thomas from school so we could all head out to grab a little sushi. It had been a tough week last week with everyone being sick, so we decided to get out of the house and share our germs with the rest of Portland. Ha – kidding Portland (Really!).

I love that my kids love to eat sushi, even if it is the messiest meal on the planet. Samuel insisted on eating with chopsticks which meant he kept stabbing large pieces of california roll and managed to get about three grains of rice in his mouth at a time. That kid is stubborn and takes a REALLY long time to eat a meal.

After dinner we headed to Ben and Jerry’s for ice cream – which was Kei’s idea, and a good one until we got home and the kids were all hopped up on sugar. Thomas chose chocolate ice cream of course.

For my next photo, I couldn’t choose just one… Samuel’s facial expressions definitely deserve a series.

Saturday was busy with two birthday parties for Thomas to attend – one right after the other. The first one was at a jumping castle indoor playground where Thomas enjoyed the sensation of bumping into things without getting hurt. He spent most of his time with his friend Grant who he insists on calling by his full name – first and last – every time he talks to him, refers to him or yells to him across a crowded playground. I think he’s found a new best friend at school in Grant and it seems the feeling is mutual. Thomas was telling us today that Grant just wants to play with him all the time but that sometimes he just wants to be alone and he has to ask Grant to go away (nicely, of course). Not a bad problem to have.

I picked Samuel up to join us for the second part, this time at an indoor kids gym. He enjoyed watching the big kids run and jump, but most of all he loved the cupcakes.

After getting them both hopped up on sugar, I took them home where they both passed out and I left for 3 hours of shopping ON MY OWN. Yes, it is a rare occurrence and I enjoyed it immensely, mainly because I found three dresses to choose from for the upcoming wedding (yay!).

Sunday was sunny and warm enough that Kei and Thomas enjoyed a little sidewalk chalk while I lay inside and tried to finally recover from my cold. I am assuming this piece of artwork is Kei’s.

Sunday night was Mummy’s superbowl, otherwise known as The Oscars. I LOVE watching it but the downside is that it starts way too early on the West Coast so I have to try and pay attention between desperate cries to “watch soooomeeethinggg”. During all of this, Kei left to pick up our new car and make us the proud owners of a (drumroll) mini van! Yes, I am now officially a driver in the pre-school mini van convoy.

And, finally, Monday night was a quiet one where we tried to recover from the weekend and look forward to the next one. It can’t come soon enough.

Monday Mosaic: A Splash of Colour

For the past few days I have been contributing my own splash of colour to a Flickr pool started by Maine Momma. If you haven’t checked out her blog then you should definitely do yourself a favour and take a look. Her photographs are simply stunning and a great source of inspiration.

The Flickr pool is highlighting a different colour each day and today’s mosaic shares some of the photos that I have contributed to the pool. Go here to see some more dazzling colour – and great photography.

Jump!

The new challenge for I Heart Faces is jump for joy. I will probably be disqualified because this is technically more than one image, but I just couldn’t resist. This was the first image that immediately came to mind and she is clearly jumping for joy in that puddle.

Note: adorable child on loan from a neighbor. There is no way you would see that much pink on one of my boys.

Feeling Poorly

We had all been doing so well and seemed to have avoided many of the illnesses that have been rampant over the past couple of months. Sadly, though, this new epidemic has hit three out of the four of us so Thomas, Samuel and I have been home today. Of course, given that I am sick I haven’t been the best caretaker. We went to the doctor this morning and have one confirmed ear infection. The rest of the day has been spent trying to track down our prescription (still don’t have it), napping and watching a lot of TV.

I am also behind in posting my P365 photos so I have quite a few to share from the past week.

Taking advantage of the warm weather with a walk to the park on the weekend.

And what’s a weekend without a visit to Ikea? This time we picked up a run and some cushions for a little reading area we have planned for our freshly painted landing upstairs.

And Kei is clearly happy about the purchases – or his cheap Ikea lunch.

My three (hilarious) children.

The kids have been taking showers while our downstairs bathroom is being painted a beautiful shade of chocolate brown. OK, it doesn’t sound beautiful but trust me, it is very spa-like and sophisticated – and much more attractive than the lavender walls and pale yellow ceiling than the previous tenants decided to bestow on us. It only took us four years to change it…

I’m not sure why I like this photo so much. It’s clearly out of focus and the framing is all wrong, but there’s something about the way Samuel is covering his face and Thomas’ smile in the background that I just love.

I’m not sure how many Star Wars figures Thomas now owns but it feels like they are taking over the house and he keeps asking for more. I guess he just needs enough to make a conga line.

I took the day off today to look after my sick children and my sick self – although every mother reading this will know how impossible that is. First thing in the morning we headed to a clinic for an ear infection diagnosis and a couple of prescriptions. That was the quick part. It then took us another couple of hours to find out that we couldn’t get the prescriptions – 30 minutes of which we spent hanging out in the toy section of Fred Meyer while Thomas picked out the things he MUST have for his birthday. Of course September means nothing to a four year old.

As for Samuel, he saw the ball aisle and it took everything in my power to prevent him from picking up every single one and announcing “ball!”.

Kei finally picked up the prescription at about 5:30pm after another 30 minute wait and about three more phone calls but, after Thomas asked for a second dose of ear drops, I realize that the wait was probably worth it to ensure a pain-free sleep for my babies.

Here’s hoping everyone is able to go back to daycare and school tomorrow and that we’re fully recovered by the weekend so we can really relax and enjoy it.

Giddy

Today’s I Heart Faces challenge is “Outtakes”. Pity I didn’t see it before I posted my project 365 post late last week because I’m pretty sure this would have qualified.

So I went back into the archives and discovered that I have many outtakes to choose from. That’s what comes from having two silly boys who love to make faces for the camera (or even not for the camera – who needs a reason?).


We had a great weekend, although it was busy which seems to be our normal state these days. Samuel and Thomas played well together and I can really see a bond forming between them. I love that they can now “talk” to each other and play games to make the other one laugh. Samuel has become Thomas’ little shadow and follows him around endlessly yelling “Toma!” (his way of saying Thomas) and then copies everything he does. The downside to this is that we have had to talk to Thomas about the fact that Samuel likes to do everything he does, but with less balance and control. It can be a recipe for disaster, especially given one of Thomas’ favourite activities is to walk along the top of retaining walls while we are out in the neighborhood.

I just love coming off a weekend when everyone was in a relatively good mood. In fact I don’t think we implemented even one time out the whole weekend. That must be a new record.

Oh, and my bathroom is getting painted today. Almost makes up for the fact that I was scrubbing down bathroom walls at 9pm last night. The end result will be worth it.

Looking forward to a week ahead that promises much productivity, a new episode of Lost, more early spring days and a few days closer to my girls weekend and an Aussie vacation. I think I may be sleep deprived – I feel almost giddy at the prospects.

Happy Monday!

We’ve Entered The Silly Season

Spring continues to bloom in Portland. Now that I pick Thomas up from school every day, I see many more of the back streets of the city, rather than just experiencing the freeway. This is especially true on nights like tonight when I am forced to take the back streets to avoid wet weather traffic – it took me two hours to get home!

Where was I? Oh yes, enjoying the spring flowers that are blooming in the back streets of Portland. I had never noticed how many cherry blossoms lined the streets until I was forced to look at them over and over again during my marathon drive home. Happy place. Happy place. Spring Flowers…

With spring also comes the fast growth of my oldest child. He has entered the silly season when a simple photo request comes with a funny face and and even funnier (nonsensical) story. I was thinking the other day about how I have so many more P365 photos of Samuel than I do of Thomas. This impromptu photo session reminded me of why that is the case.

Walking through the halls of Thomas’ school today and I spotted this rather tidy display of gumboots – evidence of rainy days and, thanks to a school veggie growing program, time spent digging and planting.