My new home...

Here is a link to my new home http://mayaroad.typepad.com/deb/ - check me out there when you get a chance! TypePad has some really cool functionality and I will be updating and testing it out in the next few weeks.

We are moving....

Well, okay, so technically not "we" and not really physically. Caroline and I have been debating it for quite awhile now, and we finally decided to move to TypePad Blogs once and for all. It has been a tough choice since Blogger has been great (and free!), but we want to be able to use some more the functionality including better images for showing off projects and new products. It will happen over the next few weeks, so you will probably not notice anything for a bit. But we cannot wait to see you there! When you get a chance, please check out the auctions to benefit Jen G's family. Her son recently passed away, and bunch of 2Peas and companies got together to help raise money for her. Click here to see the new items: Jen Gallacher Benefit Auctions

I am 11 months old!

• I am 11 months old!
• I learned how to walk - though I still prefer to crawl
• I visited North Carolina and Georgia for the first time
• I am eating mostly table food
• I love yogurt, rice, bread and of course, CHEERIOS!
• I hate changing my clothes and prefer to be in my birthday suit
• I learned how to stand up in my crib and it keeps me from sleeping because I just walk around and around and around
• I like to crawl off my changing table and had a few close calls recently
• I love to walk aroundand around the table pushing everything off
• I still do not feed myself which drives my mom and dad crazy!
• I am 29.5 in and 20 lbs 10 oz - about the same size as cousin Noah
• I dance by shaking my tooshy when Daddy plays praise songs on his guitar
• I love computers and will crawl, walk, push to get to any keyboard
• Barnyard Dance is my favorite book! I will drop everything to listen to mommy read it
• My Aunt Karen gave me sort of a funky haircut and daddy thinks I look like a Romulan (not pictured here)
• I learned how to clap so I do it all the time! Especially when daddy is trying to feed me

Until next month! Can you believe I am turning 1 year old so soon? Feels like yesterday I was still in mommy's tummy...

It's official - we have a walker in the house!

Jonathan has been on the verge of walking for sometime. And now he has done it. It is not elegant or really dramatic (as his daddy would like), but it is walking. He is like a kiddo with training wheels on his bike. If you hold his arms, he will walk. But if he senses you are gone, he sits down and crawls away. For a few seconds, you can let go without him sensing and he will keep on running for a few steps. Then he notices and leaps for the nearest piece of furniture and throws himself down. If D brings out the computer, he will trip to walk over to it and throw himself on top of it. It is quite cute... :)

An afternoon at the park...

Here are a few photos from our visit to downtown Los Gatos, a cute little town a bit west of San Jose. Jonathan played in the grass, enjoyed a dip of his hand in the fountain and enjoyed the pretty June day! And Jonathan sort of walked today! I say sort of because we were in the church infant room, and he pushed away from me, took a full step backwards and then stepped forward and into my lap. Does that count? I tried to get him to do it again, but he is a bit tentative about pushing off for too long, and he is always grasping for a hand or table. It has been super busy as we work on the next release. There is so much going on, but it will be awesome! We have some creative fun things coming out and our samples are coming in each week. And tomorrow a bunch of new stuff is arriving for us to review. I cannot wait!

What makes you - You?

David and I were watching Face Off a few years ago. And off and on, David and I chat about it. If you have not seen the movie, Nicolas Cage and John Travolta switch faces, one in order to infiltrate a criminal organization and the other to get back his own face. The truly unbelievable thing is that the way you look is only a very very small part of what you are. I mean, even if someone else looked like David (at least by face), there is no way he would not know the little crazy things that are just between him and me. Each couple has their own little language, and their marriage is a dance that they have choreographed over the years. There are a million little things that are unique to us. Being fromt he south, I like Jeff Foxworthy's "You know you are rednec if..." skits, so here is a list of "You know your husband has been replaced by a maniac if..."

• he puts the toilet seat down! (self explanatory :)
• he grabs the red pieces when we play Settlers (David HATES the red pieces because he says it makes him look too obvious)
• he grabs raw chicken with his barehands and starts to chop it without whincing first (Hates raw chicken)
• he listens to a Pairie Home Companion without making fun of it
• he throws away a tea bag after making a cup of tea (Gasp! What a waste!)
• he wears socks to bed
• he wears anything but old t-shirts around the house
• he doesn't stand at Jonathan's crib to stare at him at least 10 mins a day
• he puts on the Duke jacket I gave him without asking why he cannot have a UNC jacket instead
• he brushes Jonathan's teeth - ever!
• he complains about changing dirty diapers (David is a saint with those stinky ones!)

Anyhow, here are a few photos of J on our trip last week... he is still a bit under the weather, and so am I. So not a lot of new pics. I will post more tomorrow.

J and me in front of his grandparent's house

J with his grandpa

J on the long car trip around the South munching on his sock

J with his grandparents

Congrats to winners of the RAK!

I love all of the ideas!! They were really fun, and you will not believe it... Let me just say that we have set our line for Summer, and some of your wishes will come true sooner than you think! LOL! Our samples just arrived today though it went to C's house, so I have not seen it yet! DH picked two numbers from the list, and the winners are... DRUM ROLL PLEASE?

Wendy and Sheetal

Congrats to you! Email info @ mayaroad.com with your address, and I will get you something out in the mail! We are busy busy with the Summer products while also getting some new fun things in the works. One of our coolest ideas is not a product, but something you can love! We are collaborating with some of your favorite fellow manufacturers on something new. I cannot wait! Until then check out the new projects the Maya Road Design Team Blog... There are some cool projects there! And this is one of my favorite blogs... A Journey So Far. For some reason, I lost the link to it, but it reappeared today in my google toolbar. Andrea is a wonderful inspiration and she did something really cool with her MR ribbon scraps on May 11th.

Coming together...

Keep your ideas coming! The RAK drawing will be held tomorrow, so you still have time. Just post your comment on yesterday's blog entry with what you would products you like and what you want to see... The power of the internet is an amazing thing. I was surfing the 2Peas boards today, and I saw the eBay fundraiser for Jen's family. For those of you who are not familiar with the story, Jen's little boy passed away recently from cancer after a multi-year struggle with the disease. And the scrapbooking community has really come together to help her family though this time including cards, scrapbook pages and financial support. If you are inclined, please take a look at the auctions and bid. I hear they will be adding more soon as more donations come in. Auctions to Benefit Jen Gallacher's family As I write this, my little one is sleeping soundly in his crib. And I cannot imagine the pain of losing someone who is a part of you like that. David does not even let me talk to him about it because it is so hard to bear. So please please as you hug your children tonight, keep Jen and her family in your thoughts and prayers. To read more about the fundraising efforts, click here for the fundraising blog.

Some good reading... (RAK)

I have been reading Harry Potter. Last week, we were in Atlanta, and I was without reading material. So my friend lent me a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcorer's Stone. I had read about 4 chapters during a CapitalOne job interview just out of B-school, and I had forgotten all about it. Now I am on book 3 and bought the rest including the pre-order of book 7. LOL! They do have a nice discount on a box set and the preorder. So I figured, why not? It is a well-written, interesting series for young adults. I particularly like how it really spears the Law of Unintended Consequences. Sometimes when you do something wrong for the right reasons, strange things happen. And sometimes when you do the right thing, the results are not what you anticipate. It has a lot of morally subtlety, and it is just a fun ride. :) Right now things are a bit hectic. I am working like crazy on the final items for CHA Summer. We are going in some new and fun directions and it will be so much fun. But we are also going back to our roots in some ways too. It is all about keep it fresh, fun and usable. You ain't seen nothing yet! In honor of this week's fun, I am hosting a RAK! I will send an assortment of MR items from my stash. Just post a comment with what you would love to see more of from us! You have until Wednesday midnight to write something. And my DH will pick someone...

A new Maya Road ad...

Here is a peak at our new Maya Road ad! I spent hours working on this over the weekend, and I got the inspiration from a layout I recently did for Jonathan. :) Speaking of the little guy, Jonathan was a little under the weather, so we hung out together with him playing in his play pen next to me as I worked on this. One thing about Jonathan. He has been a great sleeper. Slept through the night at 2 months, rarely wakes up in the middle of the night, etc. But recently, he has learned to stand up in his crib. So instead of crying for 3 to 5 mins and then falling asleep, he now stands up in the crib and cries and cries. And we have to go in there and pay him down since he does not know how to sit back down yet. Ugh! So now, naptime and bedtime are much more of an ordeal. I hope this passes soon...

I am 10 months old!

Wow! Can you believe that it has been 10 months? I have been outside of mommy's tummy longer than I have been in there.

• I learned how to clap - and I love to do it! It makes me smile. :)
• I lost a lot of weight so I am on a yogurt, butter and olive oil diet. Mommy and Daddy force feed me all day and night to fatten me up like the doctor said. It is messy.
• I am a carbaholic. There is always room for bread, rice and cheerios even when I clamp my mouth shut for regular food.
• I love to cruise around the room on any type of furniture. I once even grabbed a leaf to hold me up and almost took a tumble. I can now run if I am holding the hands of my mommy and daddy.
• I hate to sit down. When I fuss, Daddy or Mommy stand me up and tell me to "walk it off".
• I still refuse to feed myself. No matter what anyone tries, I will not pick up food and put it in my mouth. I will pick up the food, but I will drop it purposely once I get close.
• I learned to use my palm against my Mommy's mouth and make Indian call noises. I laugh hard about it.
• I love to throw things off the coffee table and tear magazines. I especially like scrapbook magazines because they are colorful.
• I visited NC, SC and GA for the first time!
• I can only say "dada dadadada". It drives "mama mamame" crazy!
• I have no inside voice. I shout "DA DA DA!" in restaurants and airplanes and other places.
• I prefer my Daddy to hold me. I lean over to his arms whenever I can. He is a lot of fun because he lifts me up high, rolls me around and lets him sit on his shoulders.
• I no longer have a Spock Ear. Mommy taped it back down and it looks much better now. (see below) Mom has the same Stahl's ear just like me, and Grandma took care of hers for her!

BEFORE / AFTER

See you next month!

Crazy trip

Here are some photos of our trip. I am totally swamped getting things done, so not much time to blog. It was so great to go back to the Southeast. There are some things i really miss about life there. Let's see... we hung out with several friends - and their houses! The smallest one we saw was 3100 sq ft in the middle of Atlanta. The largest was about 5000 sq ft on the outskirts. And there was the brand new one in Raleigh at 3600 sq ft. All less expensive than our tiny 60 year old house. It was eye opening...

• Saturday, 5th - Flew from home to Dallas - stopped to see little Caroline and family and a special treat, we saw Lisa and Heather from the DT - then onto Raleigh to hang with the in-laws
• Tuesday - Drove from Raleigh to Augusta to see the parental figures
• Friday - Drove to Atlanta to see friends
• Saturday - Drove from Atlanta back to Augusta
• Sunday - Spent part of Mother's Day in Augusta and then drove to Raleigh
• Tuesday - Flew through Dallas to see Caroline and then back here

Jonathan took it all quite well. He is quite the world traveller. He has been on 8 flights, 2 continents, 5 states and more. Here are some nice pics...

Jonathan with his Grandpa and his Daddy.

Jonathan with us

Jonathan with his Grandparents

Jonathan at Shelley Lake

Until tomorrow!

We are back!

We just got back in town after 10 days of vacation visiting Jonathan's two sets of grandparents. It was impossible to blog because our parents have dial-up, really slow dial-up... It was nearly unbearable to be without the internet, but then again, we spent 10 days with Jonathan and our parents without interruption. I need to run to bed. I will add photos of our trip tomorrow. The 2GB digi card is still downloading...

Mirror Mirror on the wall...

This is for his grandparents. We had large glass doors put onto our bedroom closet just before Jonathan was born. Sometimes we take J inside, and he visits his friend that lives behind the glass. He wonders who that cutie is.

And sometimes he even gives the other baby a little kiss... :) J is growing up so much. You can see the little ear tape. His ear is looking good though it does need a bit more work. So back to the tape it is.

I only have a few minutes since it is so crazy. Designing like a madwoman. :)

Great deals on photos and babies

My favorite gift idea are photos in a collage frame. I do this for a lot of special occasions, and it is a fun way to give something that your friend may not get to do on her own. I take photos and select a few I like, buy a nice frame and viola, at the next birthday, baby shower, christmas, I have the perfect gift. I usually get frames that match the personality of the friend. So someone with a modern sleek decor would get a silver metal frame, and someone with a traditional home would get a more formal oak one.

• 11x14 photos for $1.99 at Adoramapix - I got the $2.99 metallic paper ones since those got fabulous reviews. You can pay with PayPal (see promo below)
• Get 100 free prints at Winkflash - Use this code VP32WE54
• Buy frames for 55% off at Kohl's - They have nice frames for 55% off this week plus get a $10 coupon for each $50 you spend. And shipping is free above $75.
• Get $5 off $20 PayPal purchase - Check here and see if you can get $5 off $20 purchases with PayPal - they only sent these to some folks, so you need to enter your email address to check

One more really great deal -

• 25% Amazon baby stuff - Sign up for a baby registry and just at least 15 items in it by May 31s. Then they will send you a 25% coupon in June. And you can use it on any baby item. I plan to buy A LOT of diapers with that coupon. :)

Just a few thoughts...

I took Jonathan to the doctor for his 9 month appointment this week, and he lost 1 lb in the last 4 weeks! I am a bit worried since he seemed to have just gone through the stomach flu and teething and is losing weight. All of this is not good for a developing baby... :( He also just started to crawl and cruise, so I bet he is burning a lot of calories. And the whole not eating as much thing due to the teething and sickness is bad. I was SO sure I would stop nursing this week after the appointment, but the doctor asked me to continue until 1 year for his sake. So back to the pump I go... David has taken to feeding him constantly stuff like yogurt, cheese and such. The doctor suggested adding butter and olive oil to all of his food, but we are not huge fans. We did add a little olive oil onto the bread, but that is about it. I also found out that Jonathan has Stahl's ear. (love how the article says "Orientals"). I had the same Spock ear syndrome when I was born, and my mom rolled it back. My dad used to say that I had it because she watched too much Star Trek... :) (since David is such as sci-fi fan, I guess the same could be said for J) Mom rolled it back for me, butI have been sort of slow getting on fixing J's ear. So I started taping it down to roll it back forward. Here is a few cute photos of J as he is crawling about. He will crawl only for cords (Xbox controllers, a digial scale cord), electronics (cell phones, blackberries) and paper (especially scrapbooking magazines and taxes). Never for toys. Who knows why? I took a couple of shots of J watching for Daddy to come home... He likes looking out the window to see the cars go by. I am deep into finalizing the summer products. My friend Susan's hubby named our newest item, and he is a tech geek. So there is a hint for you. I cannot wait to show you all! It matches a lot of what we have now so you can coordinate... Time flies so quickly! We have such awesome things happening at MR. Some of it is product and some of it is different. But all of it will make your scrapping easier and more fun. Promise!

Falling in Love...

eHarmony

I am 9 months old...

• I learned to crawl at exactly 9 months old, but daddy thinks I do it like the Terminator 3 or army guy
• I have a 3rd tooth coming in from the top right
• I have a few words in my arsenal, "da da da", "di di di", "nai nai nai"
• I love cords, especially on mommy and daddy's xBox
• I hate feeding myself and I refuse to put my hands near my face when I am in my eating chair
• I have lost some weight since I started crawling because I like to move about more than I like to eat
• I had the stomach flu
• I like to crawl in circles looking for something cool to play with
• I like to play with paper and magazines especially those pretty, colorful scrapbooking magazines
• I can walk along the wall of my playpen to make it to my little piano table
• I love electronic equipment especially cell phones and blackberries
• I like to spit and blow raspberries
• I love sitting on daddy's shoulders to move around, but I have hit a head a couple of times
• I am a carboholic - I can always eat bread and cereal even if I refuse all other food and milk
• I love to look at my hands, and I can sit there and admire them for hours and hours...

A couple good deals - including a great one on scrapping stuff!

I have been so busy lately, but I found a few deals that I wanted to share. I am so busy, so I only have a few minutes to stop by...

• EK Success Scrapbooking Kit - This Amazon tool kit is only $19.99! It was originally $75 and includes a cool organization bag, Cutter Bee Scissors (I got mine at Wal-Mart for $8), a Cutterpede paper cutter, Zig pens / glue, Herma glue, corner punch some embellishements and more! Add something that is $5 to get free shipping...
• Carter's Store - $5 off coupon. Not sure if this works, but I saw this one on a message board I frequent.
• Pampers - I was telling my sister about how I found this weird powder substance on my changing table and sometimes on J. She said it was the absorbent gel from Pampers Cruisers. So I called them and asked them about it to make sure it was not dangerous. They wrote back with a link explaining it was safe, and then a few days later, I got a bunch of coupons for diapers with an apology. That is really great customer service.

Here is a pic to share with you! :) J is teething so he has been crying a lot recently. I was holding him bouncing up and down on the exercise ball, and I started to hiccup. He cried, I hiccuped, he laughed. Then he would cry again. And I would hiccup, and he would laugh. C pulled out my camera and took a few cute photos...

C and I have been discussing whether to leave blogger for another service. It is annoying to post images one at a time and there are weird things about this site. Any suggestions for where to go for a good blog service?

A scrapbook page...

We were asked to email a "memory book" page for the 5th reunion of my GSB biz school class. I was just going to do the usual thing. Stick on a couple pics and write a few words. I was 50% done, when I thought, wait... I am a scrapbooker. Why not actually make a layout instead? So I did. I took a basic outline from LO I did for HOF, and I adapted it to make a digital page. While it was interesting to do a digi-page, it was somehow just not as satisfying as playing with paper and products. In fact, most of the ideas I used were straight from my paper pages. I guess I do what I know. :) For some reason, it feels less "real" to me. I still like this page, but if you look at it next to the paper one which inspired it, I just feel more attachment to the physical one. Perhaps it is because I have the x-acto knife scars to go with it! LOL! I put the LO at the bottom of this entry just to tease you... We are working on our taxes. It is SO hard to do with our jobs and business. TurboTax is a miracle product, by the way. It is amazing they are able to distill the crazy tax code into a relatively easy to use piece of software. Anyhow, back to the taxes before David catches me typing in my blog. I have about more than a dozen windows open right now including:

• 3 important powerpoint presentations for work
• a conversation with my China agent for the shipment going out this week
• the packing list for the shipment arriving this week
• the super secret final list of summer products (shh...)
• the designs for 2 new products
• the CHA winter order form
• NPR - On the Media streaming radio program
• Turbo Tax Home and Business
• a list of everything we donated in 2006
• this blog page
• 2peas forum about scrapbooking
• a few photos for my next layout
• Picassa to organize my photos

Anyhow, need to run. Here is my LO. :)

A weekend with C and N

Man, we are tired. Noah and Jonathan had a crazy ole time together. I got the Lil Playzone on eBay from a store called Happy Go Lucky Toys so that we could keep J and N from going nuts all over the non-childproof house. I got 4 sets for about $100 each including shipping and tax (2 were for my friend) which is much less than anywhere else. Tax is only in CA. It is better if you get 2 sets and combine them since the extensions are more expensive and with getting a whole set you get an extra door and activity wall (with music and toys). It was fun to see Jonathan and Noah playing with the baby music keys built in on the walls. I looked at a ton of play yards and most looked like baby jails, but this one was less cage like and more fun. Caroline kept saying "They can have a cage fight in there! Are you ready to rumble?" J loves it. He can roll around and play in there all day.

David told me a funny story. So when we left him with N and J to go to The Scrapbook Nook and Picture Me Perfect, he went to the library with the two of them. J was strapped on his chest on the Baby Bjorn, and N was in his stroller. He said that a lot of people asked if they were twins. And he said that laughed since they do not even look like they are the same race. So he said he thought of the funniest response. Next time someone asks if the two of them are twins, he would say, "Well, they have different mothers!" LOL! I guess technically that is true, but well, anyhow... :) Lots of other funny stories and pictures, but I need to go to bed. I am taking C and N to the airport tomorrow morning. We spent the weekend finalizing the Summer product line. We are bursting with ideas since Jan, and it is time to pare down for the new release.

Technorati Profile

Funny comment - a bunch of the stuff from my desk

Caroline has in her blog that she is a "critical optimist", and I asked her what that makes me. She said "overextended multitasking optimist". LOL! That is true. If you look at my desk here is what you will see:

1. All of the 2006 shipping statements for MR as I do the end of year review for accounting
2. A bunch of product samples - some we made and some we did not
3. A wrist support for my carpel tunnel
4. An Easter card from my cousin for Jonathan
5. Some flex spending receipts from 2006 I need to file
6. A shoelace - I had David buy it the night before my HOF entry had to be sent out because I could not get my crafty combo to work - I used one of the shoelaces on that LO, the other is well, here.
7. Some packing tape - 2 rolls, one for USPS and one for non USPS packages
8. Coupons for free pantyhose
9. 2 MM grommets I wanted to use on a HOF LO, but I went to 3 Michael's and could not find a grommet setter, so I had to digitally put it into the LO by scanning it
10. 2 digital CF cards
11. A scrunchie a friend left that I keep wanting to send to her
12. A yard of San Francisco In the Park City Ribbon
13. 1 little yellow velvet blossom
14. My DH's favorite CD - Rich Mullins's "Legacy, Litergy, and a Ragamuffin Band"
15. A gift certificate to BabyAge from a friend that I have not figured out how to spend
16. A nearly empty much-used 200 count container of antacid
17. 2 bill I need to pay
18. The manual to my new cell phone
19. Some Canon lens cleaner and lens tissue
20. A bottle of Desitin someone left from play group 2 weeks ago that I have been meaning to return
21. My secure ID key for VPN
22. $20 my nanny found in my pocket when she was going through my jeans to wash them
23. A sample roll of Fresh Ribbon that I used to measure my son's length the other day
24. A Colorbox Chalk eye ink
25. Some thank you notes I have been meaning to write

I could go on, but you get the picture. :) This weekend our church is having our 3-day experiment. I decided to write at least 3 notes to people who have made a difference in my life. I really wish I told many people many things along the way, so I will take the time to do this now. C is coming on Wednesday and I cannot wait! It will be fun just to hang with C and little Noah for a few days. We will be working on finalizing all of our CHA Summer products! I cannot wait!

Pet Peeve...

I am kind of annoyed right now. C and I work hard to come up with new ideas to launch each show, and we have brought some new and fun ideas to market. We toil for weeks to come up with cool stuff with a Maya Road twist. And it is great fun. But recently someone stared copying our stuff. I do not mean like imitation, I mean like copy. And it irritates me. Go ahead and be "inspired" by us. I mean, if you think of a cool new idea for a chipboard book shape, great!! I might even buy one or two. But there is one company just outright ripping off our designs. At first it was a few things. Now they are adding to their list. They even brazenly come to our booth at the shows and study our products. Then they not only try to make the same thing, they do it in a cheapo sort of way. So it is of inferior quality, but they are of the same design and dimensions. We are not the only company they are doing this to, and it annoys the heck out of me. It takes time and money to develop new products, so they are trying to save money by stealing. We try to keep our prices low for customers by focusing on the products and doing almost everything ourselves, but stuff like this makes it harder for us and other manufacturers to make the products you know and love. Anyhow, enough of the rant. Jonathan had a great weekend with us. We hung out and played and just did family stuff. Here are few photos for you. I know I post a lot of J photos on my blog, but it is mainly because his grandparents and other relatives like to come here and see what he is up to. Jonathan and a book from his friend, Hannah. It is his favorite book.

This is J and me at playgroup at Elijah's house. He hated napping in Elijah's bed (hard as a rock), so I brought him back down and hang with me as we ate. And he was so tired, he sort of just fell asleep there.

And our future computer geek in the making...

Until later... Have a great week!

A little happy news...

I won CK Hall of Fame Honorable Mention! Just wanted to share the happy news. You know, this is my 4th year entering, and honestly the 44 pages (used to be 12 and now it is 10) I have made for the contest are my best work. In fact, they are pretty much my only work. LOL! Caroine is the Queen of the 15 min layout, and I am the one who takes 2 days to even finish. And that is like working 5 or 6 hours on it. :) I do love scrapbooking, but with Jonathan, Maya Road and work, I have not had much time. In fact, I decided to enter while we were at CHA at the end of January. I saw Jeri, Monica and CD, and they really convinced me. Jeri and Monica also got HMs (yeah!) and well, you know CD is the world's best scrapbooker (that is the unofficial title I think... :). I basically had 9 days to put together the whole entry, and I barely slept. I am glad I did it now, but at the time, I was ready to quit. I am definitely not a great scrapbooker like the other HOFers and HMers. No false modesty here. I am just not in that league. But my pages are emotive, the photos are solid, and the journaling is good. And man, I am great at the final assembly. Consider me the Sanjaya of scrapboooking - j/k... I cannot wait to see my LO in the final book. I hope they pick the one I did of David and Jonathan together called "Daddy and me". That is my favorite! There is so much going on, and I have much more to do. And I need more sleep. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me through that last stretch, especially DH, Caroline and Jess. And the 2006 HMers. And my mentor, Leah!

Some random thoughts...

I got up this morning at 4:45 am after going to bed at midnight for a quick jaunt to LA. Talk about burning the candles at both ends. But I am so excited. C is coming to visit with Noah next week, so we are going to paint the town. Well as much as you can paint the town with two babies. :) I have been meaning to scrapbook, but there is so little time. We have so much going on with MR that is it hard to keep up with everything, so I just give up on the little things like cleaning house. (if C's DH comes, he will be appalled) It is not neat, but it is clean. That is my philosophy. Because J has started to roll around and around (mental note: clear glass coffee table + babies = not so great things), we decided that instead of childproofing the whole house, we would get a large play yard for him. So it is sort of a fence for babies with 50 sq ft of space. I am ordering one from eBay now, so I will let you know if it works out. This is J in his play area. He has a lot of toys, but his favorite is his old Zantac medicine bottle (back right). Go figure... And the quilt is byJessica. He loves it! I have so many great scrapbook page ideas in my head, but I just need to get it down. I put myself on a buying diet. No more buying of scrapbook supplies until I get 2 more pages done! That will take like 2 weeks... haha! Here is J with some of his friends. The one in the middle was crying in most of the photos, and J was just kicking back on the right. The little one on the right is still wearing his "crash helmet" head shaper, but as you can see above, his head is a perfect little Charlie Brown crown now. :) Congrats to all of the brand new Hall of Fame winners and HMers! It was exciting seeing you gals post your calls. I cannot wait to get the book...

Being American

I remember when I was a kid in South Carolina. People would come up with me and say "So where are you from." At first I would say, "New York". And they would say, "No, really. Where are you from?" I sort of played along, but it always annoyed me a bit because I was from New York, at least in my mind. I mean, it was not like I was from Asia just because my parents came from there many years before I was born. So later, I was thinking about whether or not I wanted to marry an Asian guy. It was not like they were thick on the ground in the Deep South. But then I decided I wanted someone who would partner with me to raise our children as Americans with Chinese accents (figuratively, not literally LOL) . And when I got to college, I met David and the rest is history. Now we have our little All-American Boy. Okay, so most people may not look at him and say that, but I totally see that when I look at him. And now I would like to see him on the cover of a scrapbook magazine with that title. :) I quickly went through my 2006 and 2007 issues of one of my scrapping mags and there are no minorities on the cover. I only looked at one because they are organized on my shelf and most of my other mags (I subscribe to 5) are hanging all over the house, but it is a decent representative sample. Is it because there are no great ethnic minority scrappers? Or because these covers sell better? I am pretty sure it is a business decision either way, and as a business person, I get it. But it does make me sad as a mommy. After all, for every one of those all-American towheaded little kiddos on the cover, there is a little one like mine who probably never will be. I hope that our industry can lead the way in reflecting our society as it is. And I cannot wait until July 4th someday when they have a little non-Caucasian kiddo hold a sparkler with the words "All-American". Jonathan agrees. :)

More good deals...

ETA - Found a new potty. I know J is only 8 months old, but I have been eyeing this potty for awhile. This is the best price I have ever seen for this highly rated Baby Bjorn Potty. It is 20% off the regular price and with free shipping, this is a great deal. And no tax is many states. I know that in America many parents wait until 2 or 3 to potty train, but in other countries they potty train earlier so I asked my pediatrician. She said conspiratorially, "Well, none of the other pediatricians will tell you this, and I would not believe it myself had I not seen it, but my nanny potty trained my son at less than 1 year." Her son is now 13 months old, and she said it would not hurt to try as long as J was not pressured into it. Her nanny is Indian, and the person who helps me out is Chinese. And she says it is common in Asia to start training leading up to 1 year. I was pretty shocked by all of this. I figured, I can leave the potty out so that he is used to seeing it around the house. If he shows curiosity, then we will see. Otherwise, it will sit there for a few months until he is ready. Or not.

---

I hate shopping offline. I am such an online shopping junkie that I rarely, if ever, go into a store. D and I cannot stand not to get a good deal on something even if it is completely and utterly trivial. So here are some random deals for the week I found as I was shopping around this week. :)

• Rebel XT- I have been looking for an XT for a friend. The XTi is not much of an upgrade from the XT. It is better to save the moolah for a faster digi card or extra batteries Amazon has the best price right now, with the second place finisher as Dell.com. I am not sure why the XT prices have not gone down more, but alas, it is what it is. That said, Amazon does have a 30-day price guarentee. So you can always go back and get some money back if the price drops.
• Extra batteries for Rebel - You should definitely pick up some extra batteries from here. It is an awesome buy. I got 2 extra batteries and an extra charger. I met the three guys who own this eBay store at eBay Live, and they are awesome! You can count on getting the best deal from them.
• Amazon 30-day Price Guarentee - This is a cool tool. You put in an item you bought and this tool will email you if the price goes down. Neat eh?
• Office Supplies - Office Depot has another $10 off $25 coupon this week (exp 3/17). You can print and use this at Staples and Office Max as well. I used it at Staples last time because OD did not have the ink I wanted in stock. The ink for my Epson 2200 is crazy expensive, but with the coupon, it makes is a little more palatable.
• Formula - And for you mommies, sign up at http://www2.blogger.com/www.enfamil.com and http://www2.blogger.com/www.similac.com to get free formula checks ranging from $1.00 to $7.00 off. I do not currently formula feed J, so I gave some to my friend. She buys $30 in formula a week, so every dollar saved is one more she can save for a house.

Personally, I am saving up for J's college fund, so every penny counts!!! LOL!

Ugh...

It has been a busy weekend.

1. Hmmm... So I was having a good evening, hanging with Jonathan, and getting some work done. Then suddenly, bllahhh.... And I spent most of the rest of the evening cleaning up baby vomit. Poor kiddo has tummy trouble. DH is convinced it is caused by the Gerber Chicken and Veggies, but the advice nurse said it was the stomach flu. I am not sure... I wish babies came with StarTrek-like universal translators. And our Pottery Barn rug? Well, it is not pretty. But armed with some Oxyclean, I was at least able to get out most of the stains and smell. I will have to see how it all dries tomorrow. It is a good thing we had the foresight to buy a colorful knit rug and dark couch. Just a hint for those of you future parents. LOL! :)
2. I hosted our church mommy and me group on Friday. It was fun, but crazy having like 8 moms and 9 kiddos here. And my little guy got roughed up by some of the bigger, badder kiddos. They are all under 1, and I am not sure they all understand "sharing" yet. I am not sure I am going to volunteer again for a bit. Jonathan is pretty sedate, so he yields his toys to other folks a lot. Even his cousin, Noah, roughs him up a bit. And Jonathan sort of just sits there and goes, "Um, are you hitting me?"
3. Our washing machine broke on Thursday, and we asked someone to come out and fix on Friday. He said that we were better off buying a new one than fixing it. So I was hunting for a new machine. But David had a brillant idea to test the broken part, and after some time on the internet, I figured out it was the lid switch. So we spent the afternoon with a completely dismantled washing machine, struggling to put in a new lid switch. And of course, we ended up with one extra piece that we could not fit back. But it works. :)
4. We went to Stanford to visit my friend who fell from 25 ft. It was so great seeing him. I mean, this is someone who fell and shattered his face, but amazingly, he is doing well well. I felt a little anxious going there, but it was so wonderful seeing him. I hope I did not sound inane, but it is hard to hold a one-sided conversation without sounding at least a little silly. I brought Jonathan to meet him, and the little dude behaved so properly in the hospital room.
5. We borrowed an Xbox (ours has trouble reading Ubisoft games) and played Splinter Cell: Double Agent which I got for my birthday from my friend, Andrew. I love first person shooters best, but I guess stealth games like this are a great second. A lot of guys tell me that I do not look like a gamer, but it is nice to shoot something virtual to get out some aggression. David and I take turns when it is the solo play, but we like to play in split screen co-op mode more.
6. I got a new cell phone. Yeah! My sis and I had the same old Nokia from like 3 years ago. And we both got new Sanyo Katana's. At this point, anything is better than the stupid Nokia. The charge lasted only like 12 hours (if you did not talk) and like 6 if you did. It was annoying. I am glad to finally have a new phone so I can even hear anyone. I used to have to put it on speakphone just to be able to hear someone talk.

That is about it for now. We are closing the books for MR in 2006, so it has been busy. Another container arrives on Tuesday or so with more CHA Winter goodies! Yeah! These containers come about every 4 to 6 weeks now like clockwork, so we are always restocking.

I am 8 months old

• I am 8-months old
• I have been sick off and on this past month with a cold
• My favorite food is sweet potatoes
• I hate peas - they are nasty
• I refuse to pick up my cereal by myself and instead make mommy feed me
• I weight 19.6 lbs and I am not really gaining weight
• I like to play with my friends in play group each Friday
• I sleep like an army crawler with my head down and butt up
• I am still afraid of baths and make little "eek eek" noises when I get in
• I hate having my face wiped and cry out when someone tries to clean me off
• My favorite mode of transport is sitting Daddy's shoulders and pulling on his hair
• I sleep from 9:30pm to 8am every night
• I like to play with my Fisher Price piggy bank
• I like to embarrass my parents by burping loudly at church service
• I can sit by myself for nearly an hour with my toys and play quietly.
• I can stand up while holding on to something.

My friend, Connor and me, watching our daddies having Chinese milk tea. Yummy! My asleep on Daddy during Bible study. It runs late, so I get tired. I will be back next month!

On turning 31...

Today, I turned 31... I used to wonder what it would be like to be on this side of 31, and today, I am here. When I was a child, I really hated where I grew up. (Sorry, Shirley, but it really was terrible in SC!) I hated how everyone dissatisfied with everything. I wanted more and more. It was always the next challenge, the next goal... I was never happy with who I was, how I looked, or where I was in life. But becoming a mother had changed all that. It is as if overnight, I went from an ambitious, ever-striving person to someone who is much more grateful and content. And I am happier than I could ever have imagined. A great husband, a happy baby boy, a job I enjoy, a company I am passionate about, and a family who loves me. What more could I want? I was sleeping, and David brought J over to the bed to take a few birthday photos. Here are a couple. And a couple of J at church today. He is playing in the infant room. Thanks to his Yee-Ma (C) for his cute sweater and khakis.

Sleepy J...

I told David the story of how my mom used to yell at me when I fell asleep at the table. I would get SOOOO sleepy, I would fall asleep and knock my rice bowl all over the floor. I believe I got a good spanking for that one at least once... So here is Jonathan. For some reason, he was so sleepy, he started to nod off at the dinner table during the apples and prunes course. Apparently, it was very tiring after the peas and finger cereal. He was eating and eating and then zzzz.... We tried to wake him up by lightly tapping him and then sitting him up. And then this happened - David picked him up, and here they are in the kitchen. In the background is the wall hanging of us dancing our first dance at our wedding. David had the words to the song he wrote for me (and sang at our ceremony) printed on it. And thanks to the Coconut Goddess, Ana, for finding a Blossom Book project which was lost at SA for a long time. Her persistence, despite the odds, was like looking for the lost sheep in the Bible. She never gave up, and now this little lamb will be returned home to Andrea!

Life is precious

I have been thinking about a lot of things the past few days. Someone I worked closely with and respect a lot, was seriously injured in a terrible 25 ft fall. I cannot stop thinking about how much he means to those around him and how in a second, life has changed so much for him and those around him. His prognosis is good, but I am of the belief that you can never ever pray too much or appreciate others enough. And this just hit home on Friday when I heard about the incident, and when we had meetings and he was just not there. We hope to stop by and see him in a few days when he is past some of the major surgeries. Until then, your positive thoughts and prayers are appreciated. Life is fragile and too brief, so that is why I take lots of photos, journal like crazy and scrapbook. Should anything ever happen, I do not want any doubt in David and J's mind that I love them with all my heart. My scrapbooks would certainly not win awards, but they are precious to me and one day, (I hope) my children. There is so much focus on competition and the "art" part of scrapbooking sometimes, and I admit, I get caught up in it. There is a place for that , but recently, I have been thinking. I do not want J to one day look at a beautiful photo of him and some pretty paper and not know what I was thinking deep inside. I want him to read about the dreams I have for him, and who I hope he will one day be. Sure the photo will be pretty, and the embellishments will be nice (we do make them after all :)), but it is the sentiment and my wishes for him that will count more than anything. Or the memories of the fun times we had together. Even if it is a few words, I always try to put something down on paper and tuck it into a page. Here are a few photos from tonight. He accidentally pooped all over the floor (long story, don't ask), and it was a messy mess. So we had to bathe him early tonight. But he got to try out this cute new outfit from his Auntie Caroline. This is J in his eBay beanbag. It is the perfect size for his little body, and he enjoys sitting there for a bit watching me work. This is how I envision Jonathan when he is in his terrible twos. *gasp* He was grumpy because he was tired, so he was alternating between laughing and crying. He is usually a happy kiddo, but when he is tired, there is no stopping the grumpy faces... One last one. J hates tummy time and does not at all crawl. He just hates it with a vengence and instead has taken to rolling around back and forth. He also likes to stand. So here he is, after David propped him up on the futon. He also likes to pretend to walk between our feet. But no crawling for this little stubborn bao bao ("precious" in chinese). He looks like my little Carter's model, well, except for the drool... :)

A cute photo

No time to write tonight, but wanted to add a cute photo of the little guy on our postal scale...

Packaging...

I have been spending a lot of time thinking of packaging. Everything we have comes with so much of it, especially stuff for babies. We end up with so much left over "stuff" whenever we get anything. We bought Fisher Price pigs for our friend's babies (and our own) for Christmas, and there was more packaging that pig! Even if we recycle it all, there is a still a lot of energy used and trees killed to make the stuff that just holds the gift. We buy J baby food, and not only does it come in little plastic containers, those containers are wrapped with paper. What is the point of that? We wash out and save some of those containers for future use, but we have 3 new ones a day! So soon we will run out of space. Part of it is that one of my pet peeves is those crazy plastic packaging that is sealed on the side. And you have to take scissors to cut them out. I have cut myself on those sharp plastic a couple times as I am trying to tear into the packs. Ugh! Sometimes people ask me why we have metal tins for packaging. Yes, it is just a bit more than the plastic, but you can actually use it for storage. I use my extra tins to store my embellishments and organize stuff like my cut out rubons. I have a great idea for organization coming for CHA Summer. So if you are a MR fan, hang on to your hats! Here is a photo of J with his new friend. We played Texas Hold 'Em with his parents for babysitting for a date night. And lo and behold, D and I won! Yeah! :) J lent his little urchin hat (right) to his friend for a few weeks until he can stop wearing the head shaping helmet. And for my mother in law (who called to thank me for the last photo) here is one with all of his friends from church ranging in age from 4 months to 1 year old. Babies galore!

On scrapbooking...

It is nice to be scrapbooking again. I have tons and tons of photos stacking up in my Picasa, and I am just not getting any closer to finishing many pages. Tomorrow night our Bible Study group is cropping together. Most of the ladies are new to this hobby, so I have been debating whether to bring along some of my magazines. But honestly, I think that sometimes the MMM, CK and and BHG mags really scare new scrappers. It is sort of intimidating to see the beautiful pages made by the creative teams. I remember my first day of art class in college. My professor was a wonderful artist and teacher (his daughter is the Jane from the JANE magazine). And the first day, he showed us a slideshow of some of the greatest art works of all time. And then he asked us to sketch a still life. Um, okay. That was HARD since we were totally overwhelmed by our lack of talent relative to those great masters. I found out later that my professor was killed in a hit and run doing what he loved -- biking on the backroads. But today, I still think fondly of how he really challenged me to think about art differently. I am a decent sketcher, a terrible painter, and just generally an okay visual artist. But he really taught me to look at life as art. It is not about a pretty picture, but something that is meaningful to you. I remember reading All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulgham when I was in high school. And one story struck me. He said when you ask a room full of children, "Who can sing? Who can dance? Who can draw?" They all say "Me! Me! Me!" But ask a group of adults, and a few may tentatively raise their hands. He says this points to how we lose our sense of wonder and faith as adults. We learn to judge ourselves harshly. I say that we should be the same way with our scrapbooks. Our scrapbooks are not meant for others to judge. They are meant for our families to love. Everyone can scrapbook! I was scrapbooking with my mother for the first time a few weeks ago. I sat with her for the day and showed her how to make a mini album with our 6x6 binder. My mother is a talented painter, but she never took the time to scrapbook. In fact, she was not sure how to use an adhesive runner. :) But it was wonderful to spend the day with her. We chatted and I helped her make a cute book of her grandbabies for my father. She used just paper, stickers, and adhesive, but it was perfect. You do not need a lot of "doodads" (that is what David joking calls embellishments) to make a treasured memory book. Jonathan has been sort of grumpy due to teething and the related fever it has been causing, so we do not have a ton of photos from this week. But since I know my mother in law reads my blog religiously to catch glimpses of her precious grandbaby, here he is! At 19.5 lbs, he is a whopper. A killer on our backs as we lift him up and down. He has his bangs trimmed this week so he can see. Like it?

Happy Chinese New Year!

We had a laid back Chinese New Year. My parents had all sorts of traditions, but now that we are parents, we are not nearly as adherent to them. So for J's first Chinese New Year, we took some photos using my new tripod (Christmas present from David) as a family. Here is one of them... Jonathan got some red envelopes from his grandparents and from our friends. He is not really sure what to do with them, and we just try to keep him from eating them. LOL! You know, since J was born, a lot of people ask me when I am going to quit my job. And I do not think ANYONE asks David that question. Part of me is happy that I have the option since I always imagined I would be a stay-at-home mom, and part of me feels that it is unfair that a mother working outside the home is asked these questions. I am really torn. When I was in grad school, the women in my class used to discuss this a lot. We called it "stopping out". We were supposed to graduate, get out there and change the world, but as our 5 year reunion is coming up, a number of us are leaving or contemplating leaving the workforce to raise families. Is it because corporate America is not friendly to women? Or that enough women are not sticking it out to make corporate America change? I am not sure if it is the chicken or the egg. And I am not sure if my own choices are helping or hurting the situation. When C and I started MR, we always expected that our business would be supportive of women in all stages of their lives. Over the past few years, we have had a few stay-at-home moms who help us out from time to time on special projects. I like knowing that we are helping them, and they are helping us. Happy Chinese New Year, folks! It is now the Year of the Boar.

Good deal, eh?

Most of you who know me know that I love a good deal. D and I are such bargain hunters that one friend told me her husband said to run any major purchases by us to make sure they pass the "Dave and Deb" test. We are really frugal because we figure anything we save can be put away for J's college or for a good cause. Here are a few interesting deals I have seen lately... - Diapers - J is an Pampers baby, so go to Amazon and get $25 off $99 this month on all Pampers stuff. Coupon code is PAMPERS2, so it is much cheaper than getting it elsewhere. - General Stuff (scrapbooking!) - PayPal has a promo where if you sign up here, you can get $15 off $30 at any site which accepts PayPal. This is great because a lot of online scrapbooking sites accept PayPal! - Office Supplies - I get my ink for my Epson 2200 photo printer from office supply companies like Staples or Office Depot. Click here for the $10 off $25 Office Depot coupon which was included in their last email mailing. We hope to make J a good bargain hunter too! Here is a cute little photo from today... We call him our One Sock Wonder. No matter what we do, he just seems to lose his socks. Sometimes we find them in his mouth, sometimes on the floor, and many times not at all. He has at least 6 single socks without mates due to his constant sock hi-jinks. He often wakes up with one sock on because he kicks and kicks them off. :)

Behind the scenes...

C and I were joking about how she is the "face" of Maya Road. That is SO true. At the tradeshows, everyone comes to ask for C, and that is totally fine with me :) . Not that I do not like to meet folks, but she is definitely more out there in front. C and I are good complements. Yin and yang so to speak. It is funny because a lot of folks are not sure who is the big sis and who is the little one. Since we were young (and exactly the same height and weight most of our lives), that has always been the case. We are similar is some ways and so far apart in others. It is sort of weird how we ended up both marrying guys named David, having weddings 1 week apart and pregnant nearly at the same time. I almost went to my sister's college, but she talked me out of it at the last second. C had some questions asked on her blog, so I thought I would answer a few that fall into my area of the biz. I will answer the questions from Shirley and Dale Anne. Shirley: what are the approximate steps in getting a product to market? out of all the ideas that you come up with for a show, how many never make it for one reason or another? 1. Come up with an idea for a line of products. There are always a lot of "ooh, wouldn't it be great if we did xyz?" emails flying back and forth between C and me. 2. Design the heck of out it. An idea might be, "Wouldn't it be cool to make an album to fit into our chipboard tins? That way after you are done with the tin, you can make a book to go inside." But, what size? How would it work? How many pages? What price point? How will it be used? 3. I pull out a ruler, some paper, and Illustrator and get to work. 4. Send the designs in to get the prototypes made. 5. Get prototypes back. 6. Adjust and fix, getting feedback from DT, customers, etc. 7. Decide on price, quantity, packaging for order. 8. Get final samples. 9. Put into catalog. 10. Arrange to get them to our warehouse 11. Get them on retailer shelves for you to enjoy! Multiply that process by 70 to 100x and you have our line for each release! :) I skipped over a lot of to gory details like arguing with our factory at 1 am when there is a problem or trying to wrestle a shipment out of the hands of customs. But you get the picture. Dale Ann: How far in advance do you have to think of a product & get it into production? For an example, the NEW FABULOUS stuff you had at CHA - when did you have to work on that? Ah... this is a good question. Our product life cycle is about 6 months. That is what makes CHA Summer and Memory Trends hard. They are only 2 months apart (and this year like 6 weeks!!). And then MT to CHA Winter is only 3 or 4 months. You can see the details above. Right now, we are reviewing our list of what to make for CHA Summer. I am bursting with ideas, and I am sure it will be hard to narrow down... This is my favorite time of the year. We are done with the last show and had a great reception, and the next show is in the idea phase. It gives us a breather for a bit, and some time to get our creative juices flowing. BONUS: I saw this question and I laughed. Anam_Kihaku: is being family with your business partner tough? I would say yes and no. I would say no because there is no one else in the world I trust more than my sister (other than my DH, of course). I mean, I know she not only cares about the business, but also David, Jonathan and me. I know some folks say you should not work with your family, but I disagree. As long as you have a good relationship and are honest (brutally so sometimes) with each other, then you will be okay. On the yes, it is hard part, it is different being business partners than being sisters. We started our first business together when we in elementary school, so I guess we are used to it. But we tend to spend a lot of time talking about our business and not our lives. We probably talk more than most sisters, but mostly about Maya Road. It would be nice just to spend a weekend hanging out and being together without that every once in awhile. I finally scrapbooked again! Thanks to everyone who inspired me to do so... Our crazy awesome Design Team (when I saw their stuff in the booth, I just knew I had to scrap again), Monica, CD, and Jeri. It was nice to finally make something... though my house looks like a hurricane went through it...

I am 7 months old

• I turned 7 months old as of last Friday
• My favorite place is on my Daddy's shoulders. I like to hold on by his mane (I mean, hair!)
• I like to stick both thumbs in my mouth at the same time - like dual wielding in Halo
• My socks always fall off my feet - but I do not know why - maybe cuz I kick and kick until they fall off OR because they somehow end up in my mouth
• I am a tummy sleeper
• I play on my favorite blanket made by Auntie Jessica everyday
• My favorite part of the bath is getting neekid before I get into the water
• I learned my first baby sign "milk milk" at 6 months
• I like Chinese baby songs
• I smile when Mommy and Daddy laugh like my little froggy "he he he he"
• I cry whenever I get my clothes changed
• I think my hands are the most fascinating things I have ever seen - I can stare at them for hours and hours
• I am a TV addict even though Daddy and Mommy never let me watch it - I can see a TV in a mirror at a restaurant and stare and stare
• I look like my Mommy, and Daddy wishes I look more like him!

For Valentine's Day...

In honor of Valentine's Day, here is a small tribute to the love of my life -

50 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT YOU

1. Getting lost all the time and depending on your “Deb Deb” to get you home
2. Blowing raspberries on Jonathan’s tummy to make him laugh uncontrollably
3. Pursing your lips out in a kissy face when you want me to give you a peck
4. Driving really fast on interstates and saying “I am going with the flow of traffic”
5. Wanting to buy a used $2300 Ford Escort because it is such a “great deal”
6. Bouncing with Jonathan on the big bouncy ball when he is fussing up a storm
7. Hating being beaten by me in Halo, but secretly telling your friends I am better
8. Obsessing about every little thing about Jonathan from baby bumpers to baby TV
9. Calling me from the hallway of the hotel when you are away for work obligations
10. Insisting “sci-fi” be called “speculative fiction” that is more befitting the genre
11. Napping on the couch after work with Jonathan totally asleep on your tummy
12. Insisting Jonathan is the greatest baby in the world and that you are not biased
13. Complaining about silly things like how hard flossing and taking out the trash is
14. Buying dozens of Hong Kong VCDs about triads, vampires and sappy love stories
15. Picking my scrapbooking paper and accents for my photos and giving feedback
16. Calling Jonathan “Lu’cutest’” after Picard’s Borg character on Star Trek shows
17. Looking for your glasses only to find them on your face or on top of your head
18. Waking up at 3am for a month straight to feed when Jonathan is hungry
19. Sneaking to read your sci-fi novels in the bathroom when I am not looking
20. Writing silly non-rhyming songs to lull our baby to sleep or make him laugh
21. Telling me all the time that “this would make a great scrapbook page”
22. Lying on two dozen couches before finding the one you wanted to buy
23. Falling asleep in a bath after a hard day and waking up to cold water
24. Begging me for baby number two right after we had number one
25. Knowing all of the easter eggs hidden in genre referential sci-fi
26. Hating any newspaper, magazine or news that is not brand new
27. Asking me for 10 more minutes every time you take a nappy nap
28. Working hard all day and coming home early to help with the baby
29. Searching for the absolutely best deal on everything we buy
30. Forgetting entire conversations we have when you are tired
31. Hemming and hawing about learning Cantonese after 11 years
32. Falling into “screensaver” mode with the remote and television
33. Playing the guitar and singing praise songs slightly off-key
34. Enjoying your 45 min bathroom time each and every night
35. Losing your wedding ring twice in 6 years of marriage
36. Laughing at everything and anything not matter how silly
37. Refusing to eat medicine even when you are sick as a dog
38. Growling at me in frustration when the house is a mess
39. Doodling maniacal bunnies on the bulletin handouts in church
40. Standing over Jonathan’s crib at night just to stare at him
41. Lugging my huge and heavy camera around everywhere we go
42. Pouting cutely when I tell you that any other guy is cute at all
43. Humming the theme to Civilization III while getting ready for bed
44. Forgetting all about every anniversary and birthday and occasion
45. Lying to me in your sleep just so you can have 5 more minutes
46. Hiding your face under the pillow when you do not want to get up
47. Believing that divorce is never an option no matter what happens
48. Limiting me to NPR, Christian and Country stations on the car radio
49. Repeating things I told you about back to me later as new information
50. Loving me with all your heart, no matter what!

We really do not spend much on our Valentine's Day presents and such. Above everything, we just enjoy each other's company. It is nice to be comfortable and content and still passionately in love. I would not trade it for anything!

RAK Winners and Some Pics

Congrats to Anna Sigga, tautchia, and Mel Nunn on the Win It Before You Can Buy It RAK! Sorry for being so late to pick you, but in the run up to the show, I was totally swamped and then after the show Jonathan got sick... :( Totally my fault. Email me at mayaroad@ gmail.com and send me your addresses. And I will have something popped into the mail soon. Jonathan's daddy picked you by selecting times and I searched for the person who posted closest to those times. The show was just fabulous! About 2 months ago, we decided to double the size of our booth (from a 2 square to 4 square) and it was a leap of faith on our part. But boy, am I glad we did that. It would have been packed wall to wall without the extra space. It was so wonderful to hear that people are actually asking their LSS to pick up our products. We have really focused all of our time and investment on keeping great products out there, and it is so nice to hear that we have fans. :) To support our LSS and their customers, we have some great new things planned. I cannot wait to see how it all pans out, but it is hush hush for now...

What a show!

CHA is in full swing. And wow, it has been so amazing... We went from a 10 x 20 booth to a 20 x 20 booth to give ourselves more space, and we totally changed around things. Caroline is a totally wing it sort of gal, and I am a planner. But in the end, we played it by ear and ended up with a great booth to showcase our designer's work and new products. We made a few other changes for this show. We redid our catalogs to focus on our new lines and freshen up the look. We added a make and take area and asked our talented DT members (Kim, Suzy and Lisa) to join us for M&Ts so you can touch and use MR products hands on. We did the Maya Roadie stickers and giveaways (so much fun) on the show floor and so much more! Our DT did some amazing work for this show! I cannot wait to post the pics. Honestly, I have only taken a few pics since it is so busy we barely have time to eat. But it is all so much fun seeing everyone face to face again. I love it! It is a grueling, crazy, difficult and WONDERFUL tradeshow. And I am excited to be here! Please stop by and say hello... :) Will post something soon.

Maya Road Catalog is posted!!!

Finally... I am happy to introduce the:

2007 CHA Winter Catalog (click here)

I went to bed at 6:30am, but it is done! And on its way to the tradeshow. It has been a crazy week. Poor little Jonathan and his daddy are under the weather, and tomorrow is the big drive down. I have about 15 boxes in my house to drive with, so there is much packing left to do. But I wanted to thank all of you for your support all of these years. Please stop by the booth and pick up the "Maya Roadie" sticker... If you pick one up and we catch you wearing it, we will give you a small RAK of our cool stuff. The Davids, Caroline and I always joke about Maya Road in silly puns. So when we are at the show, we call ourselves the Maya Roadies. Then when the guys get all grumpy because the set up is taking forever and C & I are trying to get the booth just right, we say they have Maya Road Rage. And after the show when we are dead tired after cleaning up, we call ourselves Maya Roadkill. :) The puns are endless. It was our own private joke for a long time, but we decided to share. So pick up a sticker and keep it on for the duration of the show. And if one of our team on the prowl catches you with the sticker on, you will win something from us! You know, they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and in some ways I would have to agree. I know C blogged about how someone stole our coffee break book (it goes with our tin for heaven's sake) and some of our other products and made their own. We are a small company, but we are full of heart. This is our passion and our business. As a designer, I am flattered, and I am a bit miffed. But hey, such is life. So my goal? Make new things and bring new ideas to market. Keep changing and growing, and no one can catch you. Before we started MR, I was speaking to the head of one of the biggest companies in this industry (love their stuff!) about a possible job there. I was out of B-school and looking for an interesting challenge. So I told him that I was thinking of starting something as well. He said, "To be honest, we can outcompete any small company. If there is a great idea out there that we like, we can always make something like it and outcompete them since we are so much bigger and have better economies of scale." I guess business is like that. I never really told anyone that story until now (it happened 4 years ago) because he was just being honest with me. And I understand the business reality. I still use their products, but in the back of my mind, I still remember his words. That inspires me to keep moving. That is why C and I run a tight ship. We reinvest in products and keep it all fresh and fun! Well, enough reflection for the night. I am so tired. But still need to pack. See you all soon!

Man... too much to do!

This is how I feel... I am finalizing the catalogs and we are down the wire. We have been working on this release for nearly 4 months, but it always seems I am sending the files to the printers at the last second. But so it goes... I am always nervous before a show. Will folks like our products? Will they be well received? I mean you work so hard and put your heart and soul into everything, and you put it all out there to be judged. Sometimes I go to shows and hear people say "So and so has a terrible release." and "I cannot believe anyone would buy that silly thing from so and so." And I wonder if anyone says that about our stuff just around the corner. But I have faith that we made the right calls. We tried something totally new this time. And we redid our catalogs completely (at least 100 hours of work sitting in front of this computer). Here is a small sneak peek of our new sheers... There is more to come... Check out our design team blog for our new CLEAR ACRYLIC STAMPS! We really debated it, and we just had so many designs bursting out that we could not keep it to 4 sets, so we went to 8. I had enough designs for at least 16... but that can wait until Summer. :) I will post more tomorrow. I have only 48 hours to finish everything, so I need to get back to work.

Can someone invent the 36 hour day???

Wow! Time is flying so fast! Yesterday I worked for 15 hours straight, and I am so exhausted. I went to bed at 2:30 am and was up by 7:45 am this morning. I was on a conference call and trying to calm my sick baby at the same time. He is growing up everyday, with or without me. Today, when I got home, the nanny said, "He is so smart! When I put him on his tummy from tummy time, he has learned to flip himself right back over." And she showed me. Lo and behold, flip and Jonathan (formerly known as 'upside down turtle') was back on his back and laughing. He hates tummy time, so I guess he is learning how to avoid it. Smart kid. Look who was 7 days old - 6 months ago? He looks SO tiny! I was flipping through my Picasa and saw this photo of my mini boy. So cute! This was from his hospital stay for jaundice when he was just a week old. Something funny also happened at dinner. David picked up my new glasses (I only wear glasses when I drive). So I tried them on as I was feeding Jonathan. And once I put them on, he looked at me and at his daddy and then he started to cry and cry and cry. I took off the glasses and he kept crying. I was not sure why he did that, so later as we were playing together on the couch, I asked David to bring over my glasses. David put on my glasses as he walked towards us, and Jonathan looked over and laughed with his daddy. Then David handed me the glasses. I put them on, and suddenly, he started to cry. I took them off again, and I think he still wondered what happened to his mommy. The funny thing is that his grandmother (my MIL) and the nanny both wear glasses. And David wear glasses at night and in the early morning when he has not managed to get his contacts in. I am behind on my sneak peeks, so here I am... I am happy to share two new sneaks... I am so busy that I barely have time to sleep. I will be back to my old self after the show I hope! I have had this book in my computer for about 2 shows, and I finally turned it into reality. :) It is part of our Mementos collection.

A week of firsts....

Since coming back from Hong Kong, Jonathan has reached so many new milestones. He has learned so many new things each day that it is hard to keep up. Let's see. He has learned to sit up all by himself, started saying "milk milk" in baby sign language, and eat solids! Above is a photo of his first few bites of rice cereal from a spoon. He really took to being fed with a spoon despite it being totally new. He also has so much curiosity. He was sitting on his daddy's lap during dinner, and he leaned forward to have a bite of his daddy's spaghetti from the bowl. So funny... I am mostly better other than this terrible cough. I was taking codeine and that made Jonathan pretty sleepy, so I have been trying really hard not to take very much or to take it after I pump. David joked that we should save some of the codeine milk for our next airplane trip. :) Our new nanny started, and she is great. It is like hiring my mother or mother-in-law to take care of Jonathan. And she loves him a lot. He really took to her immediately even though he is usually a bit nervous around strangers. I think it is because she sort of looks like my MIL. So here is a bit of a sneak peek. This is the COOLEST book. It is shaped like an arrow and totally cute. I love it! This was Caroline's idea, and it is SO easy to use. There are many other additions to our binder collection, so stay tuned... One of my favorite pastimes is to photograph Jonathan napping with his daddy. Here is one from this weekend. Jonathan woke up when I was taking photos. And he started to laugh hysterically... He loves my SLR and starts to giggle when he sees it. :) Until 2 days from now... I need some sleep and some codeine. P.S. To the gals who posted comments on the last sneak, yup! I used a mix of Chinese knotting and Celtic inspiration. In fact, the original design had several other knots which did not translate well to chipboard. But these are SO cool... I have some here to RAK for those who posted on Jonathan's Christmas post. And I will host one more RAK during the show, so stay tuned!

CHA Sneak Peek...

I am SO behind. I have been sick for the past 2 weeks with the flu, and it has really put me off schedule. I have a million things to do before the show, and each is critical to getting us there. From getting the booth panels and shelves to getting the catalogs to the printers and samples to the designers, I am just on the go go go. Add on top of that the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day AND that I am sick as Jonathan's little blue Daniel dog, it is not pretty here at our house. I am working on my sneaks. And here is one little one. Jonathan was playing with one of these the other day (see post below), and here is the full collection. This chipboard is something I really love. Check it out here! This is inspired by Chinese knotting, a hobby I loved as a child. You will love this! They came out even cooler than I imagined... I still have a ton to do, so back to work. I am trying to get to bed by 1:30am, so I can get well enough tomorrow to attend church. We shall see if a slightly feverish baby who just had his 6 month shots and a still sort of sick mommy can feel well enough to sit quietly in the back of the church tomorrow. The daddy is already napping on the couch to save his strength and immune system to deal with the two of us! Until the next sneak (see you in two days)... bye!