the difference

Me: Where did you get so many silly bands?

Toki: I've been finding them on the floor......finders keepers losers weepers.

Me: Where are your silly bands?

Vy: I've been giving them away to my friends who don't have any. I gave Eliza 2 bracelets for free. She said she loves them....and they make half her room glow. She's my best friend (with a sigh). And I gave Jared some since he lost and broke all of his.

Lolo: Mom, you can have my bracelets. Do you want to wear them?

Friends and Photography

I'm pleased, but I never know....what looks good to me might not look good to you. Let me know what you think.

Chris went to Tokyo....and I

brought this canvas painting home....

And made some pillows for our lovely vintage couches that I have fallen in love with over the years. And since I can't get rid of them....

I redid my kitchen chairs in this crazy, vintage, orange fabric.

and also made curtains.

Now I'm dreaming of making this .

And if you're wondering how his trip went....it was productive. He met with the people he needed to and found out good and bad news. He found out that they don't need him right now.....which was sort of bad news....and we wished they would have told us over the phone or by email instead of after spending all our points on a round trip ticket to Japan. However, because of the visit, he had a very honest and needed meeting with the head guy. After he got the truth about Chris and his mad skills, he decided that he would commit to getting us over there by May/June. We'll see....

He visited a few International schools and was taken on a tour for housing, by an agent. My main criteria for schooling is a music and Japanese language program....and also close proximity to Chris' work.

Chris was able to attend his cousin's wedding and see his parents who were there as well. He got lots of bonding time with his cousins, pulling a couple of late nights, ate good food, and traveled to Northern Japan with his parents to visit their old mission area. He also got to see what it's like to travel by train during rush hour in Tokyo and went to a Japanese bath house. Such a brave man...I'm much too shy for that.

Fishing

You are so loved, kiddo. You did such a great job fishing today....such focus, patience, perseverance. We were amazed.

uh oh

So sad...I thought I had lost these photos....

glad I found them! They turned out great.




haha. I just noticed this......Chris and Vy's funny faces are the same.....they are soooo alike in too many ways!

the 4x4

Back in the first grade, Toki learned how to solve the 3x3 Rubik cube. Remember the video?:http://mi-familia-linda.blogspot.com/2009/05/some-things-that-make-me-smile.html

Soon after, Chris ordered the 4x4 for him. Toki worked on it through the summer and got to the point where he could solve it some of the time. He got bored of it and put it aside until yesterday when he spent 4-5 hours reading, watching tutorials on how to solve it, and solving it.

He solved all but one row and was working on that a few minutes before I came back down to see how he was doing. This is when I discovered the broken 4x4. It got jammed and getting frustrated, he threw it against the wall. Just to give you an idea of what it looked like, I got the following image of a dissembled 4x4 off the internet. It has exponentially more pieces than a 3x3. You may think that the following image is of several cubes...but it's not....it's just one 4x4 cube.

He spent 5-6 hours putting it back together today, stopping only to do his homework and to have dinner.

Personally, I think it's harder to put it back together than it is to solve it. It has an insane amount of pieces and it takes technique, steadiness, and time.

During the process, it was knocked over and dissembled several times, on accident and on purpose, by his brothers. To which we all heard phrases such as, "I wish you were never born," "I'm going to kill you," and "I hate myself for breaking it." All are phrases that make me cringe.

At one point he assembled it only to discover that internally something was misaligned, causing one of the rows to be stuck. He took it apart and started over.

Where he gets his focus is beyond me. It will come in handy in his future for sure.

I meant to put up his video last week......Just 2 weeks ago, after practicing for a year, maybe two, he finally learned how to do the "Rainbow." This is just another example of how he gets fixated on something until he finally gets it. Of course, after he learns it, he moves on and forgets how. The other video is of some random high school kid doing the Rainbow at an actual game....once again...something I found off the good old internet.