Day 8

Started off frantically trying to get in touch with Shane. I hadn't heard from him in 2.5 days. And although I was very aware that he has been all along having trouble getting a signal, I still couldn't stop thinking about how lost and completely destroyed I would be if something happened to him and the kids. But after chatting with his mom on facebook and his brother's wife on the phone, I felt better and decided to just wait patiently for him to call.

And he called about three hours later! But, I was still a bit emotional and couldn't talk to Caleb because I started tearing up at the thought of hearing his voice. And then Ana woke up while we were on the phone and she was crying, so Shane put the phone up to her and I said "Ana! Ana! Ana! Stop crying baby!" And she immediately stopped. And Shane said she just stopped and smiled. And I started crying right there in Target. Ugh. Why do I have to be the kind of person that needs a break from my family? I think I'm ready to have them back.

I mailed a box of boy clothes to Joanna. Parcel post though so it won't be there for a week.

Then went to Michael's and got a frame for the drawing I posted the other day. I also got some drawing supplies because after talking to my mom about it, I really think I want to start drawing again. It would be so great if I could even take a class some day.

Remember how I said I was going to translate the recipe for Oi Kimchi? Well, I've forgotten so much and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I gave up. I did get so far as to translate the ingredient list, so I decided to wing it. The only problem is that I was a little confused by a few things on the list of ingredients. For example, why is salt listed three times??

1/2 cup coarse salt
1 Tbsp salt
2.5 Tbsp salt

That's a lot of salt. I decided to use 3 Tbsp of Hawaiian (really coarse) salt. Then my aunt sent me this recipe. After reading the instructions I realized what the Korean recipe was trying to tell me. What I had translated suddenly made a little more sense. I'm still not sure what the 2.5 Tbsp salt is for, but I'm pretty sure I should have put 1 Tbsp, not 3!

Also, I was supposed to use a 1/2 "Dol" of ginger. According to my Kor-Eng dictionary, "dol" means piece. Thank you, but not very helpful.

Well, I think I'll try the recipe my aunt sent the next time I am able to go to San Jose and get the pickling cucumbers and bechu.

Bechu is pictured below. The English name is garlic chives. If you taste it raw, it really does taste garlicky.




Oh well, at least the lamb was good :)

The last thing I did was a little sewing. I finally made this cushion for the highchair. There was previously no restraints, so Ana usually took her meals standing up with one leg dangling over the side. She would play a fun game with Shane (who feeds her dinner) where she sticks her leg over the arm rest, then Shane lightly smacks her leg, she laughs and pulls her leg back in and then 5 seconds later when he's not looking she puts it back over the arm rest. Shane is going to be so excited that I finally made this!

The black buckle is actually from a purchase of Snack Traps. They include a black strap to attach the Snack Trap to things so you won't lose it. I just cut it in half and sewed it into the sides. It really saved a lot of time to use a strap already put together.



I didn't want to spend too much time on it, so I just sewed some lace whatever this stuff is, and tied into bows to secure the cushion to the chair.



I guess I was in a rush to get this done because I had sewed the sides and bottom up and realized I hadn't planned for a closure. So, I put this zipper in. And I was so happy because it was the $0.50 zipper I bought at Goodwill last week. The exact right color and length I would have purchased anyway! Isn't that lucky? It was a bit of a pain since I'm not very good with zippers, I ripped it out once. And it's pretty messy as it is. But, I don't have to look at it, so I don't really care. It's functional and for now, that's good enough.