July 1, 2013

(Last night's Lai Chee "fruit snack")

I have so many thoughts swirling around my head today. Yesterday was (oddly) hot, and (even more weird for Seattle) REALLY humid. Baby Ying Ying didn't nap well, but passed out hard around 6:30 pm. When I woke her up to get her ready for bed, hoping to get her onto her normal schedule for the night time, she did not want to go back to sleep. She was up, partying with the big people, until 10pm. She woke up at 3:30 for a snack, and didn't finish until 4:30. At 5:30, she was up again. This time, when I lay her back in her crib, she popped awake for good. At 6 am, her big brother joined us. At 6:50, big sister joined the party. No idea when Daddy woke up. I was trying to be nice and let him sleep in. Hindsight is always 20/20, yeah? Guess I should have just let her sleep last night. (Guys? Not a WORD from the "never wake a sleeping baby" camp. I'm just not in the mood. We cool?) 

I'm tired, yo. 

Also floating around in the soup are thoughts of Prescott, AZ and Paradiso, in George, WA. Yesterday, I heard that an entire firefighting company was killed fighting a huge fire in Prescott. The whole company. It is completely unfathomable. This morning, there were stories about a concert this weekend (where my baby sister was in attendance). Paradiso is a huge music festival. Multiple stages, tents full of campers, friends, and, unfortunately, drugs in the wings. 100 festival-goers were hospitalized after they overdosed. Again, unfathomable. It overwhelmed the local hospital. Such scary stuff. Patients ranged from 18-26.

One last thing, and this is really cool. Yesterday, I got to help out in Primary at church, with the music. I got to pull out my Evil Piano Teacher persona. I taught the big kids a new song. It was three lines. When I asked them to sing it, I didn't hear a single voice singing the words. Maybe three kids hummed, and a handful of others just chatted their way through it. That's when I turned to them and said, "Dude, that was TERRIBLE. Do it again." I earned a snicker from some of the more experienced teachers for that one, and the kids did much better the second time. Don't mess with a music teacher! 

When it came time for the group lesson, my friend Anne had an awesome lesson about repentance. She used to be a high school science teacher, so she really brought her A game. (Heh.) I'm sharing it here in case anybody (read: ME) wants to try and recreate this for a lesson at home. 

She held up a jar of clear liquid, and said it was like us when we are born, or after we are baptized. Pure. Clean. Not one single mistake to our name. She pulled out a bottle of another clear liquid, and said it was like a mistake or a sin. It doesn't look like much, and nobody else knows what you've done. When she poured a little of the bottle's contents into the jar, the jar's liquid turned bright pink! "That is like sins. They are like scarlet." Then she pulled out a second bottle of clear liquid, and said it was like repentance. When she poured some of that bottle into the pink liquid, the jar's contents turned clear again. Just like us, after we repent - as pure and as clean as if the mistake had never happened. 

Just for fun, afterwards, she explained the "magic" behind her model. The jar contained a solution of rubbing alcohol and Phenolphthalein (which she obtained by crushing up some Ex-Lax pills that had phenolphthalein as an active ingredient, which is a basic indicator - it turns pink in the presence of a base). In Bottle A, she had pure ammonia, which is extremely basic with a pH of 2. In Bottle B, she had pure white vinegar, which is very acidic. When the ammonia was added to the phenolphthalein solution, the solution turned pink. When the vinegar was added, the solution turned clear again as the vinegar neutralized the basic ammonia. 

Pretty cool, eh? 

And now - it's time for Monday. Zumba. Swim lessons for the kiddos. An "annual exam" for me, following up on an "abnormal exam" a few months ago. (PSA - Ladies? Just make sure you keep up on your annuals, ok? Ok.) Hanging with the in-laws. Same ol', same ol'. 

Read? Go! *yawn*