Jon had the brilliant idea to play with cornstartch and water after we had finished our dinner last night. Ethan loved it. He couldn't stop saying "Ooooo" and "Woooowww".
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The best FHE activity ever
My mom reprimanded for my comment about California at the end of my last post. I guess I should say that I have a love-hate relationship with the state. I'm not a fan of the ridiculous cost of living, the traffic, the politics, and the high crime rate. But I am in love with the beach, the weather, the farmer's market, the fact that Jon has a good job, and the people. If California and I had a facebook relationship it would be labeled as "It's Complicated". :)
Jon had the brilliant idea to play with cornstartch and water after we had finished our dinner last night. Ethan loved it. He couldn't stop saying "Ooooo" and "Woooowww".
Jon had the brilliant idea to play with cornstartch and water after we had finished our dinner last night. Ethan loved it. He couldn't stop saying "Ooooo" and "Woooowww".
Monday, August 30, 2010
Thoughts as of late
So after Ethan was born I could no longer watch "A Baby Story" on TLC or any other show of that genre. It would just bring back the baby blues I struggled with or make me feel scared that I would fall into that dark world of emotion again. But now that I'm 8 months along I'm starting to face my fears and read and watch other people's birthing stories again. Ethan was born in Utah, where my doctor was LDS and most of the nurses on staff were LDS as well. Being LDS doesn't mean you're a cut above the rest but it did help me relax and I felt loved and cared for in the hospital. Now that we're hear in LA, I haven't heard very many positive things about the hospital and staff I plan on delivering with.... rude, non-supportive, and not very receptive to a patient's concerns. This is making me nervous. The question is: How do I get over the fact that the nurses are not going to comfort me and may even be cold and still have a positive hospital experience? I really feel like in order to keep myself from falling into that lonely pit of emotions I had when Ethan was born, it's got to start with a positive outlook from day one... and unfortunately that's at the hospital. Any suggestions on how to get a staff to warm up to me?
In other news, I am having family galore come and visit in the days proceeding Corryn's arrival! Well, it's just my mom and Aunt Ranee, but they are both making two trips down here. Out of the 50 days left until my due date, 17 of them will be graced with the presence of either my mom or Aunt Ranee. This means that there is a 34% chance that one of them will be here when I go into labor or deliver!
My time here in LA has strengthened my testimony in the "Zion" aspect of a ward and the need for a strong Relief Society bond. I cannot tell you how many rides we've received to places, how many free babysitting jobs we've given and received, how many invites we've had for dinner or a visit, and how much free stuff we've been given. It started with the bishop, who loaned a cooler to us our first day, then followed by the Goldstein's who gave us that beautiful hutch that is not my beloved craft nook, and most recently we've added the Stone's to our enormous list of blessings as they gave us a toddler crib, money to purchase a mattress, baby blankets, a double stroller, and a high chair. The toddler bed, double stroller and high chair were all things that we knew we were going to need to purchase sometime in the future but were dreading because there was no way we could afford them. I absolutely love the sisters I've made friends with in the ward and know that I'll cherish them for years to come, even after we leave this awful state. California, I love your mormons but could do without the rest of you. :)
In other news, I am having family galore come and visit in the days proceeding Corryn's arrival! Well, it's just my mom and Aunt Ranee, but they are both making two trips down here. Out of the 50 days left until my due date, 17 of them will be graced with the presence of either my mom or Aunt Ranee. This means that there is a 34% chance that one of them will be here when I go into labor or deliver!
My time here in LA has strengthened my testimony in the "Zion" aspect of a ward and the need for a strong Relief Society bond. I cannot tell you how many rides we've received to places, how many free babysitting jobs we've given and received, how many invites we've had for dinner or a visit, and how much free stuff we've been given. It started with the bishop, who loaned a cooler to us our first day, then followed by the Goldstein's who gave us that beautiful hutch that is not my beloved craft nook, and most recently we've added the Stone's to our enormous list of blessings as they gave us a toddler crib, money to purchase a mattress, baby blankets, a double stroller, and a high chair. The toddler bed, double stroller and high chair were all things that we knew we were going to need to purchase sometime in the future but were dreading because there was no way we could afford them. I absolutely love the sisters I've made friends with in the ward and know that I'll cherish them for years to come, even after we leave this awful state. California, I love your mormons but could do without the rest of you. :)
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Our New Place
This last weekend we moved! Just three buildings down the road, but still it was quite the production. I'm happy to say that we moved all of our stuff over in one day! We got the keys to our new place on Friday afternoon and by Monday night the last box was unpacked, wahoo!
Reasons why I love this apartment more than the former:
1. No stairs! No more baby gates and constantly lugging the baby and necessary items up and down the stairs everyday.
2. Most of our windows face the ocean, we have a really good breeze going through our house everyday. I've only had to turn on our fan once since moving in, it stay nice a cool in here!
3. The kitchen is bigger and there's an actual dining room so we don't have to choose between eating in front of the TV or in the kitchen.
4. The rent is almost 200 cheaper a month.
5. Since Ethan's room is now on the same floor as the living room, all of his toys are in there and not littering the living room. He plays in his room and loves it.
So we used to live in a D unit, as pictured, but now we live up these stairs in an E unit.
Our porch is still pretty big and it's gated so I can send Ethan outside to play when he's a little older. I also love all the light that floods our apartment through the windows.
Inside the front door looking to your left.
The picture wall! And also I've made good use of the cool trunks my mom gave us as some toy storage.
Here's where the hallway is, we'll go there in a sec... continue panning to the right and there's our tv...
On it's new tv stand! Hooray for splurging at IKEA and finally saying goodbye to the free tv stand Jon found on the side of the road while we were still single. We also said goodbye to the cardboard cover Jon made for it when Ethan was first starting to get around ans was constantly banging his head on things. You'll see later what we did with Jon's cardboard creation.
Entrance to the kitchen and dining area.
Dining area. We've had a lot of meals already here and I love how light it is, I'm totally going to be painting here. Especially because of.......
The addition of the hutch! Which now houses all of my art and craft stuff! It's perfect and fits great. Yes, that's the old tv stand sitting in the corner. Jon is so attached he doesn't want to throw it out so I'm forced to look at it... sitting there... everyday.
Our kitchen is huge! I finally have enough counter space to display all my containers and still have plenty of cutting and prep space. The cupboards go all the way up to the ceiling, giving me more storage than I know what to do with... or can reach for that matter.
Alright, we're now going down the hall. First door on your right is our bathroom. It's pretty big and also has a fan, which the last place didn't.
Here's what the hall looks like, lot of built in storage for linens and cleaning supplies.
The door on the left side of the hallway is our bedroom (excuse the mess and unhung pictures). This window also faces the ocean so it's always cool in our bedroom.
There's enough room in our bedroom for the hope chest and an entire wall of closet.
Now for the last room, Ethan's! His room is straight ahead down the hall. Again, I'm giddy with the fact that his ball pit and such are not adorning our living room anymore and he can play with them whenever he wants.
Jon's lovely cardboard creation is now Ethan's playhouse! :)
Had to snap a picture of Ethan who was napping at the time. :)
That's our new place! We love it and can't wait for visitors!
Reasons why I love this apartment more than the former:
1. No stairs! No more baby gates and constantly lugging the baby and necessary items up and down the stairs everyday.
2. Most of our windows face the ocean, we have a really good breeze going through our house everyday. I've only had to turn on our fan once since moving in, it stay nice a cool in here!
3. The kitchen is bigger and there's an actual dining room so we don't have to choose between eating in front of the TV or in the kitchen.
4. The rent is almost 200 cheaper a month.
5. Since Ethan's room is now on the same floor as the living room, all of his toys are in there and not littering the living room. He plays in his room and loves it.
That's our new place! We love it and can't wait for visitors!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
How long is a china man?... No, it's a statement, Hoa Long is a China man.
Does anyone remember that joke? :)
Anyway, this post has two purposes, to tell a funny story that happened to us this weekend and also to show up Ethan's mad walking skills! First, the funny story.
Saturday 1:15am, Evans family is fast asleep when the doorbell rings. Two seconds later, it rings again... and again... not exaggerating, it was rung about twenty times in a 15 second span of time. Whoever is ringing our doorbell is crazy! I sit up in bed with the first ring, I'm a light sleeper thanks to Ethan, and these are the thoughts that go through my head within the next 15 seconds. "Grrrr, they're going to wake up Ethan and I don't want to have to stay up with him." "Okay, they must REALLY have some urgent news to be ringing like that." "Well if someone died or is in the hospital, why wouldn't people just call us, why show up at our door?" "Maybe it's our nice neighbor Francisco, maybe he's locked out and really needs to use the bathroom." "GAH, will they just stop! They're going to wake up the baby!" "Okay, I obviously don't have time to get decent to answer the door because this lunatic will not stop ringing until I answer the door."
All within 15 seconds mind you.... I then grab the blanket off our bed and wrap it around me and rush downstairs and outside. I get to the gate and open it to a clearly drunk or sick Asian man. He's leaned up against the wall and is sweating profusely. In the poor light he tries to focus his eyesight on me and I say "You must be looking for someone else." He then realizes that we're not the house he was looking for and starts to apologize over and over. He's bowing himself to me over and over and I just keep saying "It's okay, don't worry about it, have a good night." He then sees someone down the alleyway of our complex and recognizes them as his friend and says "Oh, there you are" and starts to stagger off. It was all very surreal, but I'm glad that although I was rudely awaken and very angry at the possibility of having to stay up with a baby and scared because here was this drunk man at our front door... I was still able to respond politely and assure him that it's okay and to have a good night. Way to not freak out and call the cops or yell at him, Tara. Wait, am I just being nice and stupidly not realizing the very possible fact that we could have been killed? Heh, anyway, Ethan did not wake up, thank goodness, and we all went back to sleep and sort of forgot about the whole thing in the morning....
Until this afternoon. Ethan was napping and I was scrubbing away at dishes and Jon was watching TV, or surfing the internet, one of the two, I can't remember. He then starts to talk to me about the fact that if someone DID attack us, we are completely defenseless. No guns or baseball bats in this house. Jon then stated "And I don't even have the skill to fight someone either!" He then sits at his laptop and the next thing I here is a video clip playing. I look into the living room and Jon is standing there with his fists raised punching the air. He's watching a youtube video to learn how to fight someone!!! HA! I laughed so hard I peed my pants a little. He watched this video for like 10 minutes learning the proper way to stand a deliver a punch. I could have died laughing. It was so cute. Well, if another china man comes ringing our doorbell in the middle of the night, watch out. The infamous youtube-self-taught fighter Jon Evans is going to kick some butt. :)
In other news, Ethan is now walking. 13 months on the dot, pretty good for a first kid eh? I'm just glad this is happening before Corryn arrives.... which I only have 9 weeks left, by the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKaeRk6vnp4
Anyway, this post has two purposes, to tell a funny story that happened to us this weekend and also to show up Ethan's mad walking skills! First, the funny story.
Saturday 1:15am, Evans family is fast asleep when the doorbell rings. Two seconds later, it rings again... and again... not exaggerating, it was rung about twenty times in a 15 second span of time. Whoever is ringing our doorbell is crazy! I sit up in bed with the first ring, I'm a light sleeper thanks to Ethan, and these are the thoughts that go through my head within the next 15 seconds. "Grrrr, they're going to wake up Ethan and I don't want to have to stay up with him." "Okay, they must REALLY have some urgent news to be ringing like that." "Well if someone died or is in the hospital, why wouldn't people just call us, why show up at our door?" "Maybe it's our nice neighbor Francisco, maybe he's locked out and really needs to use the bathroom." "GAH, will they just stop! They're going to wake up the baby!" "Okay, I obviously don't have time to get decent to answer the door because this lunatic will not stop ringing until I answer the door."
All within 15 seconds mind you.... I then grab the blanket off our bed and wrap it around me and rush downstairs and outside. I get to the gate and open it to a clearly drunk or sick Asian man. He's leaned up against the wall and is sweating profusely. In the poor light he tries to focus his eyesight on me and I say "You must be looking for someone else." He then realizes that we're not the house he was looking for and starts to apologize over and over. He's bowing himself to me over and over and I just keep saying "It's okay, don't worry about it, have a good night." He then sees someone down the alleyway of our complex and recognizes them as his friend and says "Oh, there you are" and starts to stagger off. It was all very surreal, but I'm glad that although I was rudely awaken and very angry at the possibility of having to stay up with a baby and scared because here was this drunk man at our front door... I was still able to respond politely and assure him that it's okay and to have a good night. Way to not freak out and call the cops or yell at him, Tara. Wait, am I just being nice and stupidly not realizing the very possible fact that we could have been killed? Heh, anyway, Ethan did not wake up, thank goodness, and we all went back to sleep and sort of forgot about the whole thing in the morning....
Until this afternoon. Ethan was napping and I was scrubbing away at dishes and Jon was watching TV, or surfing the internet, one of the two, I can't remember. He then starts to talk to me about the fact that if someone DID attack us, we are completely defenseless. No guns or baseball bats in this house. Jon then stated "And I don't even have the skill to fight someone either!" He then sits at his laptop and the next thing I here is a video clip playing. I look into the living room and Jon is standing there with his fists raised punching the air. He's watching a youtube video to learn how to fight someone!!! HA! I laughed so hard I peed my pants a little. He watched this video for like 10 minutes learning the proper way to stand a deliver a punch. I could have died laughing. It was so cute. Well, if another china man comes ringing our doorbell in the middle of the night, watch out. The infamous youtube-self-taught fighter Jon Evans is going to kick some butt. :)
In other news, Ethan is now walking. 13 months on the dot, pretty good for a first kid eh? I'm just glad this is happening before Corryn arrives.... which I only have 9 weeks left, by the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKaeRk6vnp4
Thursday, August 12, 2010
A week without my sweetheart
http://www.tarrytownhouseestate.com/
But while he's gone, I'm going to keep up on the blog and also get a couple of projects done. (This was typed Sunday and now it's Thursday... so much for keeping up with the blog.)
I have gotten a lot done so far, it's been nice. But it's still not nearly as much as I'd hoped to get done. I mean, we're moving in one week and nothing is really packed... granted it's only two buildings down... but still...
So far this week Ethan and I have had dinner at a friend's house, helped another friend put together some IKEA furniture, spent a day at the beach, and gone to the farmer's market. I tell you what, it is SO nice to have the car during the day. Not that I go out all the time, we only make one trip a day it seems but I feel so enabled to visit friends or go to the beach or get an errand done whenever I want, instead of being limited to walking during the day and then spending all my night time hours at the grocery store or running errands.
1 box devil’s food cake mix
2 eggs
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1/2 Cup melted butter (1 stick)
3 Hershey’s Chocolate bars, cut into rectangles
1 1/2 Cups mini marshmallows
1 1/2 Cups graham crackers, cut up into small pieces
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl mix the cake mix, eggs, brown sugar and butter until combined. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Press cookies into little discs to flatten slightly. On each cookie press a chocolate bar, a couple marshmallows and a couple graham cracker pieces. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until cooked through.
2. Remove and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Serve with milk and enjoy!
about 3 dozen cookies
OH yes, and I did relabel my spice rack this week... my sister in law made the wise comment that maybe I should have labeled them right the first time... HA! Well, we got a spice rack from Costco as a wedding present. It came pre-filled with nasty bland and old spices... which I disposed of. So I also decided to make cute homemade labels so I wasn't limited to what they had pre-printed on there. Anyway, so yeah, that's why I relabeled my spice rack this week.
Here's a little bit of what Jon has done this week: He flew Virgin Airlines to NYC, which was his first time flying Virgin. He liked it. He sent me a picture of the interior of the plane explaining that he liked "the colors"... I think I'm rubbing off on him... or maybe he's being exposed to too much HGTV. :) Steve Buscemi was on his flight, so cool.
Jon had been told that a limo service would be picking him up from the airport and taking him to his hotel.... Jon was REALLY looking forward to this. He has never been in a limo and the last time he had an opportunity he got stood up and had to take a cab instead. Anyway, turns out it was not a limo but a "luxury" sedan. Sounds cool but really the only cool thing about it was the stale mints and old bottled water that were stocked for him and the 2 other people and all accompanying luggage... not cool. Cramped and stingy. Plus the driver needed a break so he stopped off to Dunkin' Donuts with him in the car... really professional. Tisk. One day we'll take a limo somewhere special... I'll have to look into it for an anniversary or something.
Other than that, Jon has been enjoying the AMAZING food being served him and swimming in the pools and walking around the beautiful gardens of the hotel/castle thing. He likes to send me pictures of his meals and some of the rooms in this hotel/castle thing. He especially loves the panoramic feature on his cool Samsung Galaxy phone. :) I just love Jon.
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