The Spare Tire

Rachel's at that really fun age where she does a lot of talking and pretty much says things like she sees it. Sometimes it's funny...sometimes it's not. Sometimes when you don't acknowledge her right away she keeps repeating until you do.

In the car the other day:

Rachel: Hey Dad, look at that car (pointing at an SUV with a spare tire on the back)
Me: What is it?
Rachel: It's a car and it has a spare tire...
Me: Oh really? That's nice...
Rachel: Hey Dad...
Me: Yeah?
Rachel: You have a spare tire too!
Me: . . . . .
Rachel: I said, you have a spare tire too!
Me: uh...yeah...ha ha
Rachel: What's so funny?
Me: . . Nevermind
Rachel: If you say so...

Apparently, after a few more follow up questions I found out she was referring to the spare tire that was kept in the trunk of my work car. Phew...

Distressed

When buying furniture, some people opt to pay a little more and go for a "distressed pine" finish. Knowing what I know now, I don't think we'd ever pay more for "distressed pine" again. It turns out a 2 year old with a fork can produce the EXACT same results on any wood finish. Somewhere out there, there's a factory full of beautiful furniture traveling past an assembly line of toddlers with forks.

If you look closely around our house we have "distressed" walls, floors, tables, and parents. We even have a very "distressed" window pane in our living room that was on the receiving end of a split fingered fastball (the investigation is ongoing to determine who the suspect was...we have two candidates and one possible "person of interest" in mind).

You be the judge...one photo is the real thing and the other was "custom made" at home:


If you are interested, the Hsiung Kids distressed pine services can be contracted out at a very reasonable price. Forks not included. Disclaimer: Customer understands that this is a "use at your own risk" service. Not responsible for damage to other items in household.

Wagon King Part II

We shot this video last January where we got a good laugh watching Daniel pushing Nathan around in a red wagon. Well, 8 months later, it looks like some things haven't changed. Nathan is still sitting in the wagon like a king and Daniel is still providing the horsepower...

If you're gonna be the king...you gotta have the cool "bling bling" shades to complete the look:

Got Rice?

We love these shirts...

Feeding the Kids

This photo of the inside of our fridge says a lot. For starters, this is not our primary refrigerator. This is our backup storage refrigerator we keep in the garage. The main one in the kitchen has yet another gallon of milk, a couple gallons of different juices, a few tubs of ice cream (for those long days) and all the other essentials.

We bought this refrigerator from our neighbor last year when they were moving. Little did we know it would get so much use so soon. Pictured here is FIVE gallons of milk, two cartons of OJ, and two Costco 3 packs of soy milk. The really scary part is that all of the milk and most of the juice and soy milk will be gone within a week. The really REALLY scary part is this is only the beginning. Within a few years we'll have one more boy to add to the pack of hungry hyenas to feed. I don't even want to think about the teenage years.

If any of you have connections, I'm in the market for a few cows. Grazing in our front and back yards may present an issue but I'll cross that bridge later.

I probably should have taken a photo of our backup pantry too. It's in the garage next to our backup fridge and it could pass for a Costco snack food aisle.