Canada Trip

Hello! Well it's been ages. When the spring and summer seasons come, I always get more busy. There's just more stuff to do! We recently got back from a family trip to Vancouver, Canada. It was amazing! I have relatives in Coquitlam which is not too far away from Vancouver, so we were able to do a lot of things in Vancouver proper. Our trip was jam-packed with lots of sightseeing, eating, and shopping. I'm sure there is more to British Columbia (the province) than just Asian food, but all we ate was pretty much Asian. We had noodles, vietnamese, chinese, dim sum, korean bbq, sushi, and hotpot. I thought I was going to explode. There is a large Asian population in the area and there were signs everywhere in English and Chinese. It felt like being in Hong Kong again. And it felt good to use the old Canto with the parents. Caleb had a blast with that. My cousin had to do a double take when he heard Caleb speak Cantonese. He was so surprised!

Here's a day by day rundown of our activities:

Effective Communication

Back when I was in college, I started a blog for an assignment and I managed to pull up those old blog posts. Reading them now makes me a little embarrassed, but I thought this particular rant of mine on Communication was worth posting:

Root of all Problems

The spoken and written word are probably the most important ways of communication we have in this world. It is the fastest and most impactful way that we reach out and understand one another. Is it also ironic that this spawns some of the most difficult problems we face in our personal lives? The heated argument with the parent. The lack of expressing one’s feelings to a significant other. The refusal to apologize when you know you’ve done wrong. The predicament that somebody is mad at you, but they don’t want to talk to you. These problems and others happen to everybody; and it’s a cycle that people don’t seem to fix.

Communication is sometimes the problem, but it’s most definitely an answer.

I have been a huge advocate of effective communication. It has served me well and I wouldn’t be the person I am without loved ones teaching me how to do it. Over the years I have formulated some key principles about communication.

1.       Say something. If you have a problem or opinion, say it in a way that is not offensive and only say it when you are ready.

2.       Feel ready and don’t force others. Only communicate when you feel ready. Don’t force others to talk about their feelings when they’re not ready. If you push someone to talk when they don’t want to, only frustration will result.

3.       Cool off. If you recognize that you are angry, you are not in a position to say anything. Calm down and think carefully what you are feeling and why. Once you say something that you regret, you cannot take those words back.

4.       It’s not a one-way street. You can’t expect somebody to share their feelings and not share your own. That’s not fair to the other person. You also can’t talk about yourself and not be interested in what the other person has to say. If you want to have a meaningful conversation, make it one, by having both people contribute.

5.       Don’t make others feel stupid or odd. Just don’t do it. That won’t get you very far.

6.       Don’t be condescending. There’s nothing worse than when somebody makes you feel insignificant.

7.       Listen and give feedback. Please hear everything that the other person needs to say and try not to cut them off with some topic that is not related to what they’re talking about. The other person needs your attention and focus. This is also important in group settings.

8.       Do not kick a dead horse. If you can tell that the other person is bored of the topic even though you still want to talk about it, change to another unrelated topic. You’re practically having a conversation with yourself. Be receptive to the other person’s needs.

9.       Face to Face. Speaking directly to the person is always more meaningful than through any other route. There may be exceptions to this, but for the most part, this is a good way to go.

10.   Have fun. Enjoy the other person’s company and try not to overanalyze what they’re saying to you while you’re having the conversation.

I have never before written out the things that I’ve learned about communication, but it’s interesting to me that I have this much to say about it. I’m not perfect in these principles by any means; these are only based on my observations that I have been trying to reconcile in my mind. Communication may not solve everything, but it's worth trying first before anything else.

I hope this helps you in some way. Let me know if it does.

Recent Shenanigans

I love how I said at the end of my last post I would write about our Christmas, and then I dropped off the face of the planet. Well, that's how my journal looks like. I've been so busy I don't know what to do with myself! Well, let's get caught up, shall we?

Christmas happened. It was awesome. You can see pics from the last post. I ate a lot. And relaxed a lot. It was wonderful. I laid by the fire. I read a book. I got to spend time with Caleb. Caleb got to relax from school. Christmas is great as always.

We spent New Year's Eve back home in Michigan. Our neighbors invited us over for fondue. This was the first time I had ever had cheese and chocolate fondue in a home setting. It was mind-blowingly awesome.

Christmas 2014

Hello All! I know this is so late, but better late than never. How was your Christmas? Here are some highlights from ours:

Decorating the Christmas tree!

happy new year! now i can finally show you...

Hello everyone!

I started this post before Christmas, but for obvious reasons I couldn't post it until after Christmas. Since October, I started working on Christmas gifts that I had been brainstorming about pretty much all year long. I love giving a thoughtful gift. I know it takes a lot of effort, but for some reason I just enjoy thinking and thinking about good gift ideas for loved ones. It doesn't have to be handmade, but this year, most of my gifts on Caleb's side turned out to become diy projects. They took a lot of time and effort, but I'm pretty satisfied with the results. Next year I may not work so hard. We'll see.  

For my sister-in-law, Shannon, I designed four prints of quote art by Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (I can't quite remember if that's the full name of the school). Shannon is by far one of the biggest Harry Potter fans I know. She has a whole pinterest board dedicated to things "Harry Potter." I love Harry Potter as well, but I don't think you get initiated into the club until you've read each book in the series at least five times. I've got a long way to go. :) 

I got the idea from this etsy listing. I thought of hand lettering it myself, but I felt that designing on the computer would be cleaner and faster, and I would get to use more colors if needed. 

Anyway, so this project allowed me to explore the world of print design and the wonderful unending world of fonts and colors. There were so many different possibilities. I went through multiple drafts and mediums and I ended up with this:  

Did you recognize any of the quotes? Super fun project. I'm beginning to realize how much I enjoy design. The idea is to hang them on the wall together as a collage, but really you can put them anywhere.

As for Josh, we actually knew his gift way before anyone else. It all started with going to a moving sale, and we found some vintage fly fishing flies.

Looks pretty junky huh? Well, you just need to visualize. I could have done more with this, but since I'm working on a budget, we had to keep it simple.

I had to cut out all of them from the original cardboard if I wanted to keep the cork. It was tedious, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. Once again, I carefully chose the color, fonts, and paper. I have some leftover flies that were not used so I will give those to him in a separate bag. 

Now for their son, Phoenix, I had to be really thrifty since these two gifts took most of the budget. What better way to go than by making puppets! Felt is super cheap at the store, and puppets don't take that much material. I scavenged pinterest for ideas and was immediately drawn to the three little pigs. Classic story for any child! These took forever to make, but I really like how they turned out. I made another set for my other nephew, Deacon. 

He loved it!

How was your Christmas? I'll be blogging about ours next!

Hugs,

Jessie