Family Pictures

LDS General Conference story: After two years as a POW, a man got to send one message to his family. He used his limited space for this message, "These things are important: temple marriage, mission, college. Press on, set goals, write history, take pictures twice a year."

2011 Zimmerman Family Photos

Courtesy of my brother-in-law, a superhero of a photographer. Check out his website.
He's particularly skilled at photos of kids since he is a fifth grade teacher by day.

What do you do with old notes?

Have you thought of a good way to keep old notes and scripture journals?

I have a bunch of spiral notebooks and journals that I've used to record my scripture study, general conference, institute lesson and religion class notes over the past 10 years. The information is valuable, but more precious are the thoughts, impressions, connections and epiphanies that were so meaningful to me at various times in my life.

However, stacked in the back of my closet, they aren't doing my any good. The information is not organized well enough to be helpful when I'm preparing a talk or lesson, and they take up a lot of space. I've thought about scanning them, but it would take hours and they still wouldn't be searchable.

Have you found a good way to keep your notes?

Googlicious

Tonight I was searching online for LDS dance cards to use for an upcoming stake dance.

I typed "LDS 'Dance Card'" into a Google image search and started scanning the results. I'm scrolling, scrolling, and then all of a sudden I see a familiar face.

My festive cousin Marie! I have no idea what she's got to do with dance cards, but for some reason, out of all the webpages in the world, out of 845 search results, Google suggested her twice.


Maybe Google just knew it would make me happy.

That's twice in one month, Google. I loved the FM tribute!

Smarter Than a Second Grader? Apparently Not.

I have always wanted a large wall clock for my apartment (I love clocks) but they're expensive, costing upwards of $50 even at Target.

I was thrilled when I found this clock at Century 21 for just $15.

Well, a couple weeks ago my friend's second grader pointed out why the clock was only $15. Can you tell?

Special Exhibition: "Wolf"

by a Nine Year Old (American, 2002-present)
Magnets on Fridge

A wolf, the word and a connecting arrow.

Yancy's reaction: "Her typography is fascinating."

Suggestions for a family project?

I need some suggestions. My family wants to find a project we can do together while we eat junk food and gab on our one-week vacation.

Although we're all creative, none of us have a craft hobby. My mom sews well and has a lot of beading/jewelry-making supplies. We've already tied quilts for everyone.

It would be neat if we all left with some sort of keepsake, but we're all very practical, so it would have to be something that isn't just decorative.

Last year, our project was taking pictures for my brother who is serving a mission for our church so that he would know we missed him. All the pictures included a cutout of his head.


What have you done that has been fun?

Unique Baby Gift and Service Ideas

I'm going to a shower this weekend for a friend who is having her second boy. She already has many of the things you'd typically give at a shower, so I've been thinking about non-traditional baby gifts -- things I've been using a lot since having the baby that aren't baby items.

Here are my best ideas:

• Handheld Shower Head with a long hose. So convenient for spraying off a messy baby, filling a baby bathtub or pressure washing soiled clothes.

Photo from here:
http://sharpieuncapped.com/default.aspx

• Sharpies. I use them to label pumped milk, frozen homemade baby food, opened containers of baby food, toys, and my maternity and baby clothes that I lend out. Besides, who doesn't get just a little excited about that sharpie rainbow pack?

• Paper and plastic plates, bowls and cutlery. Credit to Amy for this idea. For those first few weeks, it is so nice not to have to do dishes.

• Plastic bins for toys or baby clothes that the baby isn't currently using.

• Water bottles, preferably the non-spillable kind. You have to drink a ton of water when you're nursing and the thirst tends to hit you when you're in the middle of feeding the baby. A handy water bottle that doesn't spill when the baby kicks it over is so convenient.

I've also been thinking about ways to serve families with newborns. (I need to do a little less thinking and a little more serving!) Having people bring meals was so much more helpful than I ever realized, but that's not always convenient for the giver. Here are some other ways to serve:

• Returning containers. Those delicious meals people bring by usually come in a container. Offer to pick up the containers from that week and return them to the cooks. This is especially easy if you're going to see a bunch of those people at the same time (like a family gathering or at church). 

• Washing baby clothes. I feel a little weird having someone else wash my clothes, but baby laundry piles up quickly and is not embarrassing to have a friend clean. Offer to do a load of the baby's laundry when you do your own.

• Pre-washing baby clothes. You don't have to pre-wash your baby clothes, but new clothes do tend to shrink on the first wash. I've had some outfits that Baby Z only wore once because after a washing, they didn't fit.

• Sending the news. I loved it when people from my congregation at church would email me a quick update on what I missed at Sunday services.

• Taking over snacks. I couldn't believe how often I was hungry when I was first nursing and recovering from delivery. I loved having ready-to-eat healthy snacks that were easy to eat while I was feeding the baby or quickly available for a midnight snack. My favorites: clean pre-cut vegetables, hummus, Wheat Thins and cubed cheese. Oh, and Haagen Daz chocolate chocolate chip ice cream. Mmmm.

Other ideas?

My Gorgeous New York

See the full size photo here.

Walking through Times Square, you'll see vendors on nearly every corner who are selling beautiful photographs of New York City. They all carry the same shots of the same famous places -- a tourist's New York.

I was delighted when my brother in law posted some beautiful pictures of places in New York that are precious to me. You'll need to click on the picture or on this link to his post to see them full size.

See the full size photo here.

My favorites:

• #5 The Shop Around the Corner Street -- Used to walk home from work every day on this street.
• The leaves in Central Park -- Fall is the most wonderful time of year in NYC. Good bye humidity; hello holidays! And these pics are from a gray, rainy day -- the kind that only draws locals with a place to be into the park.
• #1 The floor in Yancy's office -- Many of NYC's buildings are old (for the United States) and the aging floors, doors, brick, etc. gives them so much character. (Makes up a little for the roaches.)

Also check out the beautiful doorway and rooftop shots in Soho from this post.

My GDP Is Declining

Yesterday, to cool off and encourage Baby Z to eat a
little solid food, we tried a baby prune-sicle.

I'm not sure if he actually swallowed any.

Two summers ago NPR aired a story that talked about how countries with low GDPs tend to be in hot places, while the more successful economies tend to be found in cooler climates. Years when a country's average summer temperature is high, GDPs tend to be lower than in other years.

I don't know about countries, but I can tell you this: My domestic productivity goes down when the temperature goes up.

Motivation to do things -- like writing a blog post every day for a week, for example -- melts away. All I want to do is lay in front of the fan and eat popsicles and ice cream sandwiches.

Yancy: If you want any homemade dinners this week, we better get the AC installed.

Erin's prayers are answered seven years too late

First time doing laundry on my own after Baby Z was born.
Baby in the bjorn; laundry in the stroller.

I've never been a slob, but I've never been a neat freak either (except maybe when there were finals to procrastinate). When I was working, Yancy and I kept the house (pretty) clean and (mostly) tidy.

Now that I am a homemaker, the mess bothers me so much more and the cleaning brings me so much more satisfaction because I'm staring at it all day long.

I love having my bed made. I hate having dishes in the sink. I love storage bins and neatly folded stacks of clean towels. Do these things always happen? Nope. I'm not my mom yet, but I'm getting closer.

Occasionally I have to remind myself that Yancy has not had the same perspective shift, and it's not fair for me to unilaterally change the standards that we developed together over the past couple years. He is not going to care as much as I do about keeping the house clean for the same reason I didn't care this much last June. And that's fine, especially when he notices and appreciates the work I'm doing.

As a reward for reading this post, I offer you a cleaning tip I read on Amy's blog that I've found to be golden the past few months. All her suggestions are good, but number six is my favorite.

Schedule regular chores and be spontaneous for deep cleaning

To prevent chore pile-ups, schedule a few regular chores every day. On Mondays, vacuum upstairs and clean the glass. Tuesdays are for dusting and mopping. Each day has its special chores. These regular tasks take such little time that you can complete them without much hassle. Scheduling baseboard scrubbings, on the other hand, can make for a depressing every-other-Monday. Plus, you might not have time for the task on that day. But if during a regular mopping you get motivated and scrub the baseboards, now that's something to be proud of! Deep cleaning is much more satisfying if done on the fly. 

Following this advice motivated me to clean our living room levelor blinds, which were installed by the previous tenants. You know a cleaning is over due anytime you discover something you thought was beige is actually white.

Six Months

Last week, I woke up with that awful feeling that I'd overslept -- the room was just too light -- and had the following conversation with my groggy self.

I need to be somewhere. Where do I need to be?

[Brain turning over like an old car, lots of racket but no ignition.]

Class. I need to be in class. Which class?High school . . . ? No, I remember graduating high school.* College . . . ? No, wait, I think I remember graduating from college too.

[Struggling.]

If it's not class, it must be work. Where do I work? [Blank.] Oh man, where do I work? . . . Hold on, I don't have a job.

No job? What?!? [Panic]


Wait. . . that's on purpose. I have a baby. 

Six months ago today Baby Z was born, bringing the most drastic, permanent change I've ever experienced. So, to appreciate every moment, I am going to try to post one observation each day this week about how my life is different.

First Observation: Regularity**
One awesome perk about being at home is that when nature calls, I never have to send her to voice mail.

No more heading to the ladies room with my fingers crossed that it's empty. No more wishing the person doing her makeup would find another mirror. No more sneaking into that bathroom on another floor where no one knows me.

It's my bathroom, I clean it, and I use it whenever I feel like it. Awesome.



* I thank heaven often that high school is over forever.
** Miya, I hope this doesn't qualify me for unfriending!

Can I blame this on offshoring?

I shipped a gift from Amazon to Yancy's sister who lives in Moscow, Idaho, but accidentally set my office as the ship-to location. Amazon's customer service rep changed the address for me without any hassle and I was impressed with the ease of the online chat help.

Until I logged in to check the order and found the price had gone up by $80 of international shipping.

I think the customer service rep must have thought that "Moscow, ID 83843" meant an ID number for a place in Moscow, rather than Idaho. Oops!



*And the title of the next post will not be a question. Promise.

Junior High, Anyone?

Last Saturday, I flipped over the chairs as part of cleaning and noticed someone had put their gum under the seat.


Who does that?

List of possible culprits: anyone who has ever visited our apartment. Yes, we suspect ALL of you.

The Count of Monte Who?

If you've read The Count of Monte Cristo (seeing the barely one-proof movie version does not count), you know almost every main character changes their name at least once. It's the 19th century version of all the mask pulling in Mission Impossible 2.

Yancy's coping mechanism:
Spoiler alert!

Treatment for Baby Z's Birthmark

Can't even tell he just got zapped, huh? He went back to sleep
almost as soon as he was back in his stroller.

We had a great appointment today with Dr. Milton Waner of the Vascular Birthmark Institute to determine how to treat the hemangioma on Baby Z's eyelid.

He recommended laser therapy and offered to do the first treatment then and there. I hope this option is able to completely remove it since it seemed to cause Baby Z less pain than his last round of immunizations.

I am so grateful to live in the city where VBI is run. Dr. Waner is famous for helping kids with birthmarks, though many are much more severe than Baby Z's. You can see several before and after pictures on the VBI website. He was kind, patient and explained thoroughly, all with a great South African accent!

One of the patients I waited with in the lobby was having a major lip deformation treated, though I could not tell because it had been removed so cleanly. For years doctors said his birthmark could not be treated without severe scarring, and it wasn't until he was in college that his family found Dr. Waner, who was willing and able to treat it.

His story, and those of the other patients I waited with who had come from all over the United States for treatment, is my motivation for posting about our visit. If you know someone who has a vascular birthmark they need or want to get rid of, let them know about Dr. Waner and VBI.

Had my baby

Our baby was born 1:05 a.m. Tuesday morning. He was 6 lbs 1 oz, two weeks early and too quick to give mom time for an epidural.

This video is from his first day.

And this we took while trying to wake him up for round two of feeding on Friday.