can't wait

I can't wait to wear THIS shirt!

Go GIANTS!!

toots

When I lived with my lovely, girly roommates, one of them (I think it was Joanna) described me as "the little boy of the apartment."

If the fact that I laughed so hard tears streamed down my face at this article doesn't prove my little-boy sense of humor, I don't know what will.  This is just too funny not to share.

The Fart That Almost Altered My Destiny

Gosh, I sure hope we have sons.

Sideburns & Such

Yes, my Facebook status is true.  The other night, I did remove part of Ben's right sideburn.  Ben gets his haircut every so often at SuperCuts or wherever, but in between when he still likes the top but feels sheepish about the back and the sides, he has me give him a little trim.  This is not the first time something has gone wrong.  Once, I cut what looked like an elf ear shape into his hair over just one ear.  Unfortunately, it would have just been worse if I did it to the other side.

This time, I was doing a great job.  I was feeling proud and confident . . but those feelings always come before the fall, don't they . . ?  When I got to the last part, his right sideburn, I got a little "loose" with my handling of the clippers and I slashed a horizontal space in the middle of his sideburn.  We then had to shorten it; it was just too bad to let it be and hope no one would notice.  Fortunately, this time we could fix the other side to match and it's not horrible.  Buutttt . . it was pretty bad.  I'm not sure I'll be trimming his hair anymore.

In other news . . 

Mom came up last weekend.  Have I mentioned that I love living 2 hours away from my family?  It rocks!

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The other day I was just filled with the joy that living the Gospel brings.  So much so that I wanted to blog about it!  I don't normally blog about things like that . . but the Church has been making a big push in the last few years about sharing the Gospel and our testimonies using technology and social media, so I guess I should.  Except that I'm pretty sure that the only people who read my blog are already LDS . . 

&

I think THIS is pretty awesome:

Do you think I could get matching pointe shoes?

forever & ever

Yesterday at work we were playing balloon volleyball.  One lady just couldn't figure out the game and she kept asking things like "Well, what's the point?" and "What do I do with the balloon now?"

Then she asked "How long is this gonna go on for, anyways?"

I said "Foreevvvver and eevvvver."

Another resident then said "Aahhmen."

Haha!

Ben & I just had a fabulous week with his parents, Randy and Sandra.  We love them!  We had some good adventures, some good eats, and lots of good conversation.  ;)

Thursday, Ben took his parents to Muir Woods to hike, and we dined at Back Forty Texas BBQ that night.  Back Forty is right next to our apartment building and our parking garage always smells heavenly.  It was nice to finally satiate our sense of smell with our sense of taste.

On Friday, Ben, Sandra, and Randy went to the Oakland Temple in the morning and explored Berkeley and the delightful Cheeseboard in the afternoon.  They came and visited me at work and then I was ready for vacation - no more work!  We ate in downtown Walnut Creek that night and had dessert at our ever-favorite San Francisco Creamery.  Randy even bought Sandra and me Creamery t-shirts.

On Saturday, the four of us explorerd Chinatown for a couple of hours.  Ben was an excellent tour guide as he gave us information from our Frommer's guidebook and from his personal Chinese experiences.  Isn't this tour group so cute?  We had a dim sum lunch at Great Eastern in Chinatown - a restaurant we have heard rave reviews about and have wanted to try for a long time.  The wait was long (but that turned into a theme for our entire week) and the fare didn't disappoint!

Then, we did the one of the most fun things I have ever done!  I repeat - most fun ever!  The four of us rented GoCars and toured around San Fran for a couple of hours.  These itty bitty cars have a GPS in them that connects to a guided audio tour as your drive.  It was awesome.  We loved it, and everyone around us loved it; we got so many smiles and waves and we just waved right back.  I even saw one man take a picture of us.

 I couldn't decide which picture was better, so we have the far-away and the close-up with my finger.  Either way, these two were so cute!

They were even cuter when it was discovered that their car was a little baby and couldn't make it up the hills.  Every time we went up a hill Ben and I would look behind us and see Sandra in her pink sweatshirt running beside the car or pushing the car up the hill with Randy and his sunglasses in the driver's seat.  It was hysterical.

Their car eventually went ka-put when we got to the Golden Gate Bridge (and, of course, it had dropped about 20 degrees).  Ben and I went back in our GoCar and met them back at the drop-off place.  We dined that night at Il Pollaio in North Beach.

On Sunday we did the normal Sabbath Day things . . oh except I taught Relief Society when my mother-in-law was there.  Talk about pressure.  :) 

Monday was another great day!  We went into the city for breakfast which was more like lunch because we had to wait for 1 1/2 hours.  But let me tell you, it was so worth it.  It was, hands down, the best breakfast I have ever had!  Dottie's True Blue Cafe.  Next time you are in SF, you've got to check it out.  Order "The Open Road" - orange juice, two eggs, bacon, the best home fries to ever enter my mouth, and pancakes - wholewheat buttermilk pancakes spiced with ginger and cinnamon, served with pure maple syrup.  Mmm-hmmm!

After break-lunch, we went to the Giants game.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day and the Giants pulled out a win in the bottom of the 10th.  We couldn't have asked for more!

For dinner, we took Randy and Sandra to one of our favorite pizza places in East Bay - Zachary's - deep dish Chicago-style pizza.

On Tuesday we had lunch at another place we have heard all about - Bakesale Betty's in Oakland.  It came with another long line, but that is just a sign that the food is yummy.  I was cranky this day, but we had fun biking around Golden Gate Park in the afternoon.  We had our last dinner at P.F. Chang's and that just never seems to disappoint!

Thank you Randy & Sandra for making such an effort to come visit us and for treating us to a spectacular week!  We love you!

What I Do at Work

I am loving work.  I love what I do!

Each week I work two full days and two half days planning and doing activities with "ma peeps."  Ma peeps = my old people/my favorite seniors/the residents. The first activity each day is called "Wake Up With Karin."  For 30-45 minutes in the morning I greet each resident, ask how they are doing, and do some quiet activity to stimulate their minds like looking at pictures of old movie stars, arranging Dominoes in a line to knock down, or batting a balloon back-and-forth.

*Funny - One morning, one of my favorite ladies and I were flipping through some pictures of old-timey actresses.  We came to this picture and she said "Ohhh . . she must have a headache."  Haha!

After we wake up, we exercise.  On Wednesdays we do Tai Chi (sitting down, of course) and on Thursdays we do Totally Chair Yoga.  It's a blast.  Especially the "Wind Relief Pose" when the lady on the DVD says "This is called the Wind Relief Pose so it's okay if you relieve some wind."  Haha!  It gets me every time.  While we exercise, I walk around and strongly encourage all of the residents to join us.  Sometimes they hate me.  Haha.

To finish up the morning with often have outside entertainment come in.  This could be a lady who plays the guitar and sings, a man that sings karaoke-style, or a man that plays the accordion.  All provide a good time. There is one resident that just loves to dance.  Whenever there is any kind of musical entertainment, she can be counted on to be dancing around the front of the room while holding on to her really heavy purse.  It's awesome.

After lunch, any number of activities could be going on.  

One day each week, a lady comes in to do some dancing with the residents sitting on the couches.  

We play BINGO.  

We do "chores" - washing dishes and folding laundry.  It's fake, but its good for residents to feel useful . . so hey, why not.  

We have sing-a-longs which put me way out of my comfort zone because I have to sing really loud . . but I am learning a lot of new songs!  Songs like Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Ballin' the Jack, My Wild Irish Rose, Shine On Harvest Moon . . etc., etc.  It's a good time.

We do arts and crafts.

We have Book Club - I read them stories from Chicken Soup For the Golden Soul and they love it.  Me too, actually - those are good stories.

We have Cooking Club - basically I do a cooking show for them and then whatever we make, we have for our snack later in the day.  After the first one I did, the residents gave me a hearty round of applause!  If that's not good for my ego, I don't know what is.

We do crossword puzzles as a group.

We play table bowling.

I give hand massages with lavender scented lotion.

There are several outside entertainers that come, usually to play the piano.

Basically, we have a great time!

Two funny things that happened this week:

*We were doing a crossword puzzle and the word was "rear."  I gave them the clue by putting my hand on my rear and saying it's a name for this.  After they guessed it, one resident told me that I have a big rear.  Anything but, thank you very much!

*When I got to work this afternoon the Little League World Series was just beginning.  I turned the volume down, put on some music, and left the room.  When I came back one resident was messing with the TV and the rest of the residents were all up in arms.  Apparently, one lady was trying to tell everyone to leave the volume down and everyone else disagreed.  They wanted to watch (and hear) the game!  I told them I would turn the volume back up, but that in 10 minutes I was going to turn the TV off and it was time for BINGO.  Big mistake on my part.  That sent the room into a commotion and one lady called the lady that wanted the volume to remain down a b*&^%!  I could see in about 10 seconds that we were not going to be playing BINGO this afternoon.  So, I popped a whole bunch of popcorn, passed it out, and we all enjoyed the game! 

Soo . . basically, I love what I do.  It wears me out - that is for sure!!  But it makes me happy and (most of the time) I have so much fun!  What a dream.  :)

hawaii revisited

When summer gets too hot and work hours get too long, it's nice to take a break and remember paradise.

Awesome video, Dad.

I love my family!