Feed Your IKEA addiction

Feed your IKEA addiction, without spending ANY money.

Check out this great link my friend Wade (WÄDD, a kitchen chair) sent me.

If you're a friend, I've probably already typed in your name to try it, but feel free to comment and share the fun with all of us.

HEYDDI (I'm a double bed)

Camps

Last week was Gymnastics Camp for Sarah and Camp Funtastic for Alden and Zion. Alden made this neat thing as a science activity and is having a challenging time keeping Zion from eating it. They also had cricket races (Alden's cricket won). Zion said the bugs were nasty and scary and she cried. I can only imagine her teacher's thoughts on that day.



This week is Jesus Camp for Sarah and Alden, and Karate camp for Zion. I think the camp has a different name than Jesus Camp, but since watching the documentary by that name, it sticks in my head. The older kids packed today for what will be Alden's first overnight camp. Sarah found a new technique for organizing her clothes in her new American Girl magazine. She tried to teach Alden, but with slightly different results that matched something I read about boys not "awakening" to organization until late teen years.

Swag

Alden heard me ask David if he'd gotten any good swag in Vegas. He then asked Sarah, "what is swag?"
Sarah told him she didn't think there was such a thing.

Well, David brought home a carry on full.

Sarah loved her pen and pocket protector combo set,


and Alden was happy with his tape measure.


But I'm wondering if I should be concerned about the choices David made for Zion - and just how "into" them she got.

A shot glass.
Marti Gras party beads.
and a black ball cap.

Sarah's Loft

David has done an amazing job of designing a loft bedroom for Sarah using stuff we have lying around, and a space in the living room we never used. My favorite part so far are the ladders set up as a "wall" at the front and back of the loft.


So, while he's gone, I decided we'd try to get some of the room painted, since painting is not David's thing.

One wall is made of OSB, so it takes a lot of paint, but has wonderful texture. We found a great soft yellow mistint for $5, and were going to use it just as a primer coat, but Sarah and I both like the color so much, it doubled as primer and paint for the wall around her desk. The rest of that wall is blue, and we still need one more coat on the upper half.


Today I sprayed the stairs until I ran out of black paint. The stairs are made from 2 sets of old stage stairs the guys at the shop no longer use. David welded them together, and they fit EXACTLY in the space we have. I found a nice yoga mat for a buck at last week's yard sales. It perfectly matches the blue walls, and cut it into strips to fit each tread.

Blog Talk Radio

So, my friend Michelle, who works with my dad, is going to be on blog talk radio this Friday at 12:30. You can call in with questions on this number: 347.945.5139

Here is Michelle's blog. I recently shot one of her talks, hope to get a bit of that up soon.

Understanding human capability, the way they define it based on work done by Elliot Jacques, literally changed my view of business, and the world, and showed me how to work, utilizing my full potential. Sounds cheesy, but it's true.

If you like Michelle's posts, check out Peoplefit, my dad's site.

I think I'm being mocked

I commented that maybe I wouldn't use as many pillows in the summer since we don't use the air, and it is hot. And this is what greeted me.


I guess when I make the bed, I arrange them so it isn't so obvious.

In other news, Father's Day was nice. Relaxing. The kids made cards. They wanted to make BIG cards, so we used colored file folders.


Then, we put some water in the pool for the first time since Zion arrived in the family. People seem happy about it.


This week is filled with gym camp for Sarah, camp Funtastic for Alden and Zion, and a trip to Vegas tomorrow for David, who says he will play in at least one poker tournament. My hope is to get ahead on some work and get the first haircut I've had in at least six months.

Family visit

On their way home from Florida, David's sister Debbie and her son David stopped at the house for a few days. Young David is Alden's favorite cousin, and he could hardly wait to see him, and managed to stay awake until they arrived at 11:45 pm - 15 minutes ahead of the schedule Deb had sent me 3 months prior. David gave his sister a hard time for her time calculating skills, and said she was getting a tad rusty. She explained that they had been canoeing in Florida earlier in the day and the canoe overturned in the everglades somewhere and they were soaked and then it rained and somehow that was to blame for their early arrival.

We were back on schedule the next day, with everyone waking up before noon. Highlight of the day was a trip to the river where we braved the current under a bridge to sit and talk with our feet in the water, and then splashed around some rocks and skipped stones. At night the kids played Star Wars Monopoly with David.



The next day we all said we would get up at 7:45 and make it to the zoo by 9. Well, I woke up at 8:35 (alarm late somehow) and we still made it by 9:01. The zoo was great and the kids had a blast feeding a giraffe and lorikeets. Alden declared meercats his new favorite animal and Sarah decided her next report for school will be on koalas. Zion pointed out the "daddy" and "baby" in every habitat and went nuts chasing a fish in the aquarium. I'm convinced the fish was into the game or was just taunting her from the opposite side of the glass.






All in all a wonderful visit - hope we can do it again soon.

Studying in the heat

In light of prices for EVERYthing going through the roof, we've been trying not to turn on the AC.

As a result, our living room reached 96 degrees one day last week. I felt like we'd been transported back to the Dominican Republic. Yesterday we went for a four mile walk with Alden's Sensei and went to a bookstore afterwards just to cool down before coming home.

Today I decided we needed to work at a cooler 85, since we are doing school and it is hard to concentrate when sweat is dripping on the paperwork. So, we turned on the AC and then discovered it is leaking under the carpet. So, we turned it back off.


But, the kids still had a productive day. Alden made a store, with products alphabetized on every shelf. He would not let me pay with a credit card, so we ended up doing quite a bit of math. He did let Sarah pay with a check, though, as long as she showed id.

Sarah finished up her mini report on clipper ships - including a nice painting of an early clipper.

And Zion, well, Zion stayed busy as only Zion can. She drew faces on paper plates and took over a few shelves at Alden's Grocery Store.

Airline Luggage and Sony Camcorders

Can I just say that this airline luggage mystery fee for the second bag thing is annoying? I say mystery because the airline employees seem mystified by the new proceedures. Are the fees per bag per leg or per direction or per total trip? Apparently, the true answer is a tightly held secret that will probably be revealed when the carriers realize how much they can get away with before mutiny occurs.

According to my friend Allison B, the airlines are punishing women who exercise and must carry multiple bags so they have enough clothes and shoes to dress for business and exercise.

My take is that they are punishing the people who take donations to poor countries and the tourists who come here to shop.

In other travel related news, I'm annoyed that Sony's new EX HD camera has this monster battery charger with it. It is the biggest honking battery charger and power supply I've ever seen on a small camera. What on earth were they thinking? Not only that, it has an attached cord on it, which makes it yet harder to pack. Small is beautiful, guys! Check it out in this photo next to the what-I-used-to-think was oversized Panasonic charger. Those nifty "lights" telling you how much charge? It's a sticker. Just like Lighting McQueen's headlights, folks.

And why is the back of this camera so much bigger than the Sony PD150 - the most ergonomically perfect prosumer camera made - when it doesn't even use a tape? So much for those tiny memory cards that had my heart pounding in anticipation of a small, yet stunning, camera.

My perfect camera does not exist as long as I have to depend on an airline to deliver my luggage. And now, even if I did ship gear, I'd need to pay some astronomical fee to do it. I wonder if you get reimbursed the extra bag fee if your checked gear doesn't show up in time for your shoot? To be safe, it all has to fit in the backpack, which means SMALL IS BETTER.

Isn't the point of having a small, high quality camera so you can TRAVEL WITH IT?

My guess is that Sony engineers and airline fund-raising geniuses are men.

It is a nice camera, though. Adjustable iris rings rock.

Camping

Sarah, our journalist, wrote today's post.

For my mom’s b-day we went camping at Dreher Island. It took us an hour to get there.
First we set up our tents and put our sheets and bed stuff out. Lydia (my friend) and I slept in a small tent. We used water floats for our mattresses. My mom my brother and my sister slept in the big tent. My dad slept in the van. We all used fans because it was hot. The first night it was sorta hard to go to sleep because we kept hearing these weird noises and a raccoon came to visit our garbage.



During our camping trip we took a hike in the woods and played hide in seek. At nighttime we made smorz.



We went swimming a lot! Where we went swimming was very fun it was very shallow and then it got deeper. We skipped stones and I skipped some four times! My record.



At the edge of the water we found clay that the Indians used and made pinch pots out of them. My mom found a crystal in the water while we were there. My favorite thing that we did was making the pinch pots, swimming, skipping rocks, and taking showers in the bathroom (it felt good). My favorite meal was the dinner and breakfast.



I hope we go camping there again some time!
-Sarah

How does my garden grow?

Mom was here last week on her way to pick up my brother Daniel at college.

Mom has more than a green thumb, she has an entire green hand.

To the elbow.

So, I took her out to show her our garden and asked her about the beans. See, the beans are taking over. And, they keep growing taller and taller and taller. And they really don't look very beanlike, which was my concern. Seems like they'd have some tendrilly things and some little flowers by now, maybe even a tiny bean pod. I mean, they are more than 2 feet tall already, I'd like to see my future side dish happening.


Mom saw them and said something disturbing. My hyper healthy wunda-plants are not beans . . . they are sunflowers.

I did not plant sunflowers.

I planted beans.

And carrots. Of which there are 4.

And lettuce, which apparently likes the shade of the beans . . . er, sunflowers. Or, did, until we went out of town camping this weekend and it shriveled into nothingness from two days sans water.

The big, TALL question is, why are there sunflowers taking over the garden?

I think the answer is sitting in a cage under our carport. The real force behind all the work that has gone into our garden is furry, and is making sure that she benefits from the use of her fertilizer.

And, Bunny likes sunflower seeds.

Though, apparently, she doesn't digest them too well!

Empathy kills racism

I'm thinking more and more on this and asking myself why this article about this new study upset me.

1. the writing slant - why writers and/or editors always pick some slant and try to generate buzz without all the facts clearly displayed.

2. the long term goals we have as a nation to combat racism.

I am NOT AGAINST training for parents. All parents. All adoptive parents parenting kids from different cultures, too, as I KNOW we face great challenges.

But, if we are going to combat racism, we have to have EMPATHY. You can not gain empathy, true, honest empathy, when you can lump people into groups, like "the black race."

Okay, I'm going to step off this and write about my garden, which was my plan when I hit the "new post" button.

Two steps backward

I wonder what Martin Luther King, Jr would say about this AP article?

The title is, "Do Whites Need Training Before Parenting Black Children?"

Try to swallow that with an open mind, and then dig into some bigoted thought patterns revealed in the article. On first read, it sounds like a one-sided, uneducated, 20 year old, sad commentary by empathy-free people who believe they have the right to subjectively judge whether I'm "good enough" to parent a child that desperately needs a mom. Then, when I took a deep breath and went back through it, though I agree with education in general, I still oppose throwing out the "color blind" policy currently in place for US adoptions.

The word choice by adoption professionals saddens me. The idea of "race" instead of "culture" says that your color determines something deep about you.

It is like my friend saying "I have two REAL children and one ADOPTED child." I believe we choose to give up certain vocabulary to move forward. I don't tell my kids they aren't my REAL kids because they didn't come out of my body, and I don't tell them their race determines who they will become.

Their culture is a part of who they are. The color of their skin is part of the tapestry that makes up our world, but it does not define what they are inside. I'm sad to see adoption foundations use this language.

My guess is that MOST PEOPLE who don't mind having someone of another "race" in their immediate family have a smidgen of sensitivity to other cultures.

There are some good quotes in the article. Some truth, like this, "All children deserve to be raised in families that respect their cultural heritage." Yes. That is one of the enjoyable side benefits of adopting a child born in a different culture.

And, "child welfare agencies should strive to find permanent homes for black [i'd say ANY rather than black] children among their extended families before placing them in foster care." Duh. If social workers can't figure that out, then why do they think these same people can determine if I'll bring enough black culture into my daughter's life?

I'm sick of people spewing out of one side of their mouths that society needs to integrate - which I believe it is doing and has been doing and will continue to do - while at the SAME TIME setting up these scenarios where an enlightened few determine proper racial boundaries. Isn't that racism?

We need to look forward as a country. We are a melting pot of cultures and I think our kids are getting that concept, and they are seeing people as individuals who embrace the cutures they love. I respect my white friend Lee Ann, who embraces west African drumming and the culture around it. I accept that my friend Laura embraces some of India's yoga culture and has integrated it into her life. I respect the black woman who embraces hair straightening or Latin Catholicism. It's all integration. It's not necessary to divorce individual dignity from culture.

I think the main thing that burns me about this article is NOT that adoptive parents need training. All parents need training. It is that the article makes it a "black" thing. Adoptive training should - and from my experience does - include cultural awareness training on many levels, for all parents. Let's promote education across the board and get over the need to define people by groups.

Chinese Food

I should be sleeping as it is 2am. But, I actually took a nap today. I was driving home with the kids from the Chinese school end of year party at Dreher Island. Then, when I woke up, I opened all the windows and turned up the music. I don't know why I was so tired, and it was probably a one second nap, but it scared me enough that when I got home, I went to bed. And, I couldn't get up an hour later for dinner. I didn't wake up until midnight, and I laid there until now when I decided it was good blog time.

We enjoyed Dreher Island enough that we are thinking of going camping there in the near future. There are these nice villas I would like to rent, but we will probably go with the cement pad by the water instead.


We had a good bit of time to look around because we arrived at the lunch party at noon and could not find it. We drove around the state park forEVER, looking for Chinese people at all 14 pavilions. Then, we went to the visitors center and the lady told us pavilion #4 was reserved by someone named Li. We drove the road that said pavilions #3 and #4, parked, and saw that one was empty, so we walked down into the woods to the other one, where Chinese people were cooking all sorts of delicious smelling things right on the tables. We commented on the great smells and said we were sorry to be late and looked for a place to sit while Zion began grabbing whatever food she could reach.

Then, I realized there were no other kids.

And then, I realized I didn't recognize anyone.

And then I realized these people didn't look exactly Chinese.

Turns out they were Korean.

And they were very confused.

And their last name was Lee.

And our party was at 2:30 (though the food didn't show up until 3:30), over at the next pavilion, reserved by Li.

We were VERY hungry by then, as evidenced by the photo above.

Jennifer Malone's Birthday

Today I got to see our Kenya friends, Marigold and Jane. Their stories made me hold my breath a few times, so I will fill you in more later.

But, what I really want to do today (besides get the tiny thorns out of my fingers from digging up blackberry bushes we found by the off ramp of I-77 and Shop Road and then transplanted into the back yard), is shout out a very Happy Birthday to my best friend Jennifer!

Jennifer is working for T.E.A.R.S in the Dominican Republic, and you may have followed the story of her baby's birth on this blog. If not, check it out. Her dad was a bit shocked that I posted actual photos of Mia exiting Jen's stomach, but, it was SO cool, I had to share.

I wish I could have made it to your surprise party today, Jenny (so you could glare at me in person for calling you JennEE), but Luis didn't invite me! I miss you terribly and can't wait to see you. Here is a photo of baby Mia, in her oh-so-stylish IKEA play thingie. Mia on Ikea.

I love you guys. Even Luis.

Starving

Dr. Ruth has been telling me about the starvation rampant in her area of Ethiopia. She has been working too hard, exhausting herself, so she slept all day yesterday. I hope she can find a balance and a way to renew as she works more often with the poorest people in the country.

This photo was taken by Anita Powell. I saw it in this AP article


The video grab below it is of my friend Laura's son, Max.


I met Max soon after he was delivered to the orphanage. He was obviously malnourished. Today, he is an amazing young man, robust and so full of life and you would never connect him with this scrawny little boy above. Check out Laura's blog for updated photos. Laura has determined that my Zion and Max will marry someday, and since they constantly talk about each other, and she calls Laura "mommy" and her husband "daddy" I don't doubt the possibility.

Anyway, when I met Max, he was maybe four months old. The girl in Anita's photo is about THREE YEARS OLD, and weighs less than 10 pounds.

I'm rethinking how our family eats, and I'm looking for ways for us to give more. Please post any ideas that have worked for your families. I bet we can start a good dialogue about how we can free up more resources to help address this situation.

Working, working, and playing, too

The pace has not slowed much. Saturday, Lee Ann hired me to help her shoot a living history project in Little Mountain. Projects like that are the best, listening to people tell stories of working farms and what they did for fun and what they ate (and how they made make molasses). People talked about segregation and how things have changed since those times. It was good to record people's memories.

Yesterday I worked some on photos for the Connections Magazine article, and today I again work with Lee Ann on the Heathwood School video. I can't tell you how much I want my kids to go to High School there. It is just an amazing school. I told David we should plan to work there so we can get a tuition break. But, it is still the price of college. Here, Alden and Zion practice their computer skills (in preparation for college, of course).


Sunday we celebrated Alden's Forever Day. Each of our kids has a Forever Day. It is the anniversary of the day we met for the first time as a family. This was Alden's first, and we had a blast playing games and riding water shooting boats at Frankie's Fun Park. Lydia joined us, and we went out for Rush's fast food afterwards. I took this shot off David's phone to post.

All Done

The last two days of class were tougher, as we were all fairly drained. But, they handed in nice looking resumes, lit and shot a scene on the set they built and gave presentations using cardboard mock ups/animated drawings and sketches to our client. The presention experience was slightly more "real world" than I had anticpated, but I think that was good.

We also had a rather competitive final exam in the form of a game show, where I was accused of treating Team One like the press allegedly treats Hillary, and Team Two like the press allegedly treats Obama. Team Two had both the girls in the class, but I'm positive I didn't play favorites.

GO GIRLS!!!!

I'm going to miss these students. They are all incredibly talented, so I'm sure I'll see them again - probably while I'm watching the Oscars.

Class Adventures

Great classes this week so far. Monday we went to Columbia, to the Marionette Theater, where Lyon and Kimi enthusiastically shared puppet making and set design secrets with us. Then, we measured the studio at Media that Matters for a project we are designing for them. They just bought a RED camera, so the students drooled on that for a bit.

Dennis, of Media that Matters, took us to meet an eccentric set designer at his eclectic home. He has an amazing collection of movie stills and art, and while showing us one of his projects, he shot fire out of his finger tips. And no, I'm not making this up.

We also popped into the F-stop, my friend Aaron's new business, after eating some good food at El Burrito. Later, we took a tour of the production offices of the movie Nailed, some good advice from a set dresser and a tour of their art warehouse. We also learned about casting from Tona, and got great input from Lauren in the production office (thanks Lauren, for lining everything up at Nailed - you ROCK).




Drooling continued today with food stylist Cynthia, who showed us how to make fake ice cream. Anthony enjoyed mixing it by hand, and Taylor envied Jon's waffles with melted butter. They look toasted, but are actually just painted to look that way! This class was GREAT.

Wine in the Dishwasher

My friend Jonathan has graciously opened his home to me while I teach in Charleston. I love spending time with Jonathan, Jenny and Georgia (say those names three times fast), eating and watching bad tv to Jonathan's smart ass (and exceptionally funny) commentary.

One night last week Jenny brought home pizza, which she served with wine. When Jonathan opened the wine "cabinet" I cracked up. I honestly think they had no idea why I was laughing until I got my camera and demanded a photo.

Mathari Valley Project

The photos came in, and we managed to get them up in time for our May push to raise money for the street kid dorms, outside the Mathari Valley slums in Nairobi. The first weekend, we raised $3500 toward the project, and this past weekend looked similar. I'm looking forward to seeing our friends from Kenya in a few weeks when they come to speak. These shots are of Debbie, my travel partner to Nairobi, and David, attaching the photos to the triangle pillars that volunteers built. David rigged a tv in one of the pillars that shows a video I shot about the project. Sarah grabbed this photo of me touching up paint on one of the pillars.


Debbie works on all the overseas outreach projects at church, and has terrific ideas of how to motivate people and raise money. For this project, she is "selling" these neat little cinderblocks in exchange for any $100 donation. And, she is organizing a church cookbook. David submitted a recipe for dinner when your wife is out of town. It involves bread, crushed peanut spread and jelly, a paper plate and cup of water.

Mom's day

Alden woke me up this morning, "Mom, come quick! Close your eyes!" I tripped my way to the kitchen, holding his hands, and was greeted with a lovely breakfast of raman noodle soup and garlic bread, and MANY beautiful presents. I was a bit too tired to get the photos in focus, but you get the idea. I feel blessed.

Camille, who has been watching the kids all week while I've been out of town working, volunteered to host a spend-the-night at her house on Friday, so David and I could go on a date. We missed the kids, honestly, but it was nice to have the house to ourselves - and to sleep through the night.

I asked Camille's husband David if keeping kids overnight was a new method of birth control, and he just laughed. They are truly a wonderful couple!