LABAS

Devin's Art Gallery

2010-01-11T19:28:00.001-08:00

She has been so much into drawing, painting, coloring, cutting out shapes and all other artsy stuff in the last 6 months or so. She constantly asks me to draw something and I am so not good at it. But at least I can color with her for hours; that I can do and that is about all when comes to arts :). I think we need some arts and crafts classes soon.

100% Kissable

2010-01-11T13:03:00.000-08:00

Baby Love. LOVE, LOVE babies! And especially this one.

The smelly fruit Durian

2010-01-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

Durians at the Asian Market

Daiva and I smelling the fruit.
See, the seeds on the side? They are edible if you roast/boil them.

Finally I got to try fresh Durian fruit. It looked cool. The spikes were sharp and you already could smell the fruit without even opening it yet. Once we opened the smell was strong, some people would say kind of stinky :) The fruit meat was sweet but strange flavor. After eating a little bit I could not eat more. My taste buds were so not used to such a strange flavor, consistency and smell. I friezed up most of the fruit. I heard they make great smoothies. The fruit comes from Indonesia and you could find them in Asian Markets. I highly recommend to try it just for such a uniqueness of it. Thanks Daiva for my Christmas present!

Lithuanian Sauerkraut

2010-01-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

Using food processor to shred the cabbage. We make a mess but have fun!

Putting shreded cabage in HARSCH stone fermentation pot

We got half of it full.

5 days later we are eating it

The recipe:

4 heads of hard winter cabbage

4 carrots

1 apple

A handfull of fresh cranberries

A spoonful of fennel seeds

Salt to taste

Shred the cabbage and carrots, apple with the food processor. I alternate a couple of blades: half of it make it with one that makes long stripes and half of it that makes short ones. Mix it all with fennel seeds, cranberries and salt. Than you need to press it all untill you get some juice. If you do not get enough juice add some water. Put some cabbage leaves on the top and add the stone weight that comes with the pot. The water(cabagge juice) has to go above the weighting stones-very important!! Close pot with the lid and pour some water in the groove. Leave pot in your kitchen and listen for bubbling sound. Your sauerkrout will be ready in about 5 days. Take it all out, put in glass jars and keep in the refrigirator for a long time if you want. We eaty it pretty quickly..

Raw Cranberry Jelly

2010-01-10T19:25:00.001-08:00

If you live in Southern California you know that is hard to find fresh cranberries here (not a right climate to grow them here). I tried buying it online but because the berries are pretty heavy it is costly to ship them. But every year around Thanksgiving Trader Joe's gets pretty good fresh cranberries. I like juicing them with pineapple or apples or making raw cranberry jelly. Here is the most simple recipe to make it. I like simple, quick and healthy recipes.
24 ounces of fresh cranberries
1 to 2 sweet apples
1/2 cup of water
honey to taste
Blend it all with Vitamix or your blender and pour it in the jar. It can sty in the refrigerator for days. I like to put it on the toast. Toast with cream cheese and cranberry jelly goes nicely with it too.

Devin's Hanukkah Celebration 2009

2009-12-29T19:37:00.000-08:00

This is the second year Devin got to celebrate Hanukkah with our friend. She came home all happy and chatty.. that she is looking forward to the next year Hanukkah celebration. Ok, Roberta, the tradition has been created :)

Gold Nugget Squash Soup

2009-12-29T16:19:00.000-08:00

Gold Nugget Squash

During the winter season I use a lot of squash. I had this squash(Gold Nugget is a winter squash) in my kitchen for the last 4 months sitting on the top of the refrigerator and having no time to get to it (It looked kind of pretty too:). I thought it might be bad by now, but once we open it up it was perfectly fine to use it! Tonight we baked it and made the soup out of it. I tried putting some cinnamon, ground cloves, raw apple puree, brown sugar and yogurt in the soup, but at the end the best taste was when I added nothing to it. I used Vita Mix to make the puree.
Topped it with goat yogurt.

Gold Nugget Squash Soup

The Seeds-let me know if anybody needs any.

This squash beat all the other squashes I ever ate! Even my favorite acorn squash...It was so delicious!! Highly recommend to try it!

What do you think about this?

2009-12-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

This is that Devin did yesterday: we were getting ready to go out and while I was talking to grandmother she took my car keys, unlocked the car, turn on the engine, sit in her carseat and put her seatbelts on.

Church

2009-12-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

Mariners Church

We took Thomas to the church for the first time. He did great, but on the other hand his big sisiter got bored and just wanted to run around.

I know my mom would love to see this picture with all of us in the church.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-12-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

We did not stay home like we thought we were going to do. We went to see the family and it was fun. Devin had a blast! Got to take the first family photo.

Boths grandmothers.

Cousins-what an age difference..

Cousins.

With auntie.

Our House Remodal-The Manager

2009-11-23T16:55:00.000-08:00

We finished remodaling the outside of our house. Devin did a good job supervising everything.

It was so funny: she would take her chair and go sit outside and look at the man working for a longest time. She would talk to them and ask questions. She made a lot of new buddies and learned some spanish words. Than she would go back inside the house and ask me to make her burrito for lunch.

BIG Bear

2009-11-23T15:51:00.001-08:00

Devin with Grandpa and Big Bear 08.06. Was easy to take that pic..

Devin with Grandpa and Big Bear in 11.09. She did not wanted to take that pic at all. I had to bribe her quite a bit..

McDaniels

2009-11-23T15:41:00.000-08:00

All three McDaniel men.

Love this photo.

Family in Town

2009-11-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

With greatgrandmother and Nancy and Hello Kitty of course. Oops, forgat Devin's baby!

Long Beach Aquarium

New Pics of Thomas

2009-11-23T15:24:00.001-08:00

He is a calm boy..

I love this outfit! Thanks Missy!

When I was getting ready to take a picture of Thomas, Devin decided that I should take a picture of her baby too! She is all about babies now. She calls herself mommy.

Halloween

2009-11-23T14:52:00.000-08:00

I see that I do about one post every year... Again, I am thinking about improving in that department..

Here is a picture of Devin's halloween costume. She was a snowhite as you can see and went trick or treeting with her friend who was a snowhite too. Two walking around snowhites looked adorable! That day Devin and Luke went to halloween store to see if she could pick some other costume, something more like a character but they came back with the snowhite shoes and tiara. She was so sure whe wanted to be a snowhite!

Welcome our Baby Boy Thomas

2009-11-09T15:16:00.000-08:00

Thomas and his bigger sister Devin. She already loves her brother! And her all babies..

I am back again!

2008-10-26T06:23:00.000-07:00

Rural Lithuania-next door to my parent's house..

I take long breaks, but I always come back to this blog. I keep thinking I need to do this for Ruta. I do not track down her little experiences, except for my memory and she is growing so fast. Changing so fast! Gosh, I wish she would really know how much I love her.. maybe she does. Kids feel things better than adults do.
Anyway, we are back from our 6 weeks trip back to Lithuania. I brought back a lot of pictures and I hope I'll get to post them soon.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2008!

2007-12-31T15:09:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas Card 2007 photo.

A Visit From Santa

2007-12-31T14:54:00.001-08:00

We had a Christmas party at our house for Lithuanian/American kids (part of our OC Lithuanian Sunday School program). Luke got to be the Santa! When he walked in through the door and said the first words, Ruta pointed at him and said "Dadda"...I think she recognized the voice, but the whole costume thing confused her. As you can see she was not very excited to take a picture with Santa...

Ginger Bread House

2007-12-31T14:40:00.000-08:00

This is the first time ever I got to put together a real Ginger Bread house with Ruta's help. We both enjoyed it a lot! I was suprised to see how carefull Ruta was with the house. She did not broke/eat a one peace.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-30T13:36:00.000-08:00

Lots of fun in the country side up North California. Family, good food and lot of dogs!

Letas Sokis

2007-11-26T14:34:00.000-08:00

Si eilerasti parase veziu serganti paaugle.

Letas sokis

Ar kada nors stebejote vaikus, Skriejancius ratu?
Ar klausetes,kaip lietusTyska i zeme?
Ar kada nors grozejotes drugelio sokiu?
Ar ziurejote i saule, besislepiancia uz horizonto?

Sustokite.
Nesokite taip greitai.
Laikas nelaukia.Muzika negros be galo.

Ar kasdien lekiate visa savo diena Nesustodami?
Ar paklausiate: "Kaip gyveni?", Ar girdite atsaka?
Kai prabega diena, Ar gulite lovoje, Ir jusu galvoje skrieja Dar kitas simtas laukianciu darbu?

Sustokite.
Nesokite taip greitai.
Laikas nelaukia.Muzika negros be galo.

Ar nesakydavote vaikui:"Padarysime tai rytoj?"
Ir skubedami nepastebejote jo skausmo?
Ar nenutraukete rysiu, Leidote graziai draugystei uzgesti, Nes niekada neturejote laiko Paskambinti ir pasakyti:"Sveikas!"

Sustokite.
Nesokite taip greitai.
Laikas nelaukia.
Muzika negros be galo.

Kai begate taip greitai,Kad kazkur suspetumete,
Prarandate puse to kelio dziaugsmo,
Kai pergyvenate ir skubate gyventi savo diena,
Tai - kaip neispakuota dovana...Ismesta.
Gyvenimas - ne lenktynes.

Sustokite,
Isgirskite muzika,
Kol nesibaige daina.

They are best buddies!

2007-11-20T15:37:00.001-08:00

Before we got married we got a boxer puppy and named her Maddie. Oh, boy how much attention she used to get, how many pictures we took of her. All that changed when we had a baby. We still LOVE Maddie but now Ruta got the center of our attention. Pretty normal, right?...

When Ruta was a newborn I worried about Maddie accidentally hurting her.

Now they are just really good buddies.

My Niece Laura

2007-11-20T15:20:00.000-08:00

This is my niece Laura. She, her sister and her parents has been living in US for the last 5 years. From my trip to Lithuania I brought back her baby jacket. It made me to realise even more how much she grew up over those last years in here. She is not my little niece anymore, she is a teenager who is taller than me now.

Words

2007-11-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ruta's first words (all in Lithuanian language so far):

tete (daddy)

mama (only when she really, really needs mama)

pupa (means little bean, I call her "Pupa")

kaka (potty)

au, au (for the dog)

she used to say fish before we left for Lithuania too..

Pupa babbles a lot and we hope she will start talking in both languages at the same time.

Halloween 2007

2007-11-01T14:37:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Ruta was a Strawberry Fairy this year and we went to her first reall trick or treat around the neighborhood. Looks that she loved it all: going from door to door, carrying pumkin basket, all the kids running around and even her outfit. It was funny watching how she did not know what to do once the people at the door would offer to take some candy from the basket. At the end she figured it out...

At Daddy's Work

2007-10-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

It is always fun to see dad in the middle of the day and get to play with his pens.

Love,

Ruta

2007-10-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

Powerful Life Lessons From this Inspiring Professor -- Who is Dying of Cancer

This morning I went on Wall Street Journal website to find out the narrative of the last video lecture of the professor Randy Carnegie. This lecture really touched me.
Universities across the United States are increasingly asking their professors to think deeply about what really matters in life -- and give hypothetical “last lectures.”But for Professor Randy Pausch of Carnegie-Mellon University, the lecture is not hypothetical, it’s reality.At the time of this video, Pausch was battling pancreatic cancer, and expected to only live for another few weeks. Yet his words on how to achieve your childhood dreams sound as though they’re coming from someone who is on top of the world."If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be," said Pausch, "Sorry to disappoint you."The video that follows is filled with some of Pausch’s most poignant reminders of how to live out your dreams to the fullest.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid452319854/bctid1199157902

My favorite quotes from the video:
"Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things. They are there to stop other people."
"If the kids want to paint their bedroom let it do it. Do not worry about resale value of your house."
And my very favorite one: " IT IS NOT HOW YOU ACHIVE YOUR DREAMS IT IS HOW YOU LEAD YOUR LIFE. IF YOU LEAD YOUR LIFE THE RIGHT WAY THE DREAMS WILL COME TO YOU."

MOPS at Mariners Church

2007-10-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

Today we got to go to the program for the mothers called the MOPS at Mariners Church. It was great: a group of very warm welcoming moms, great breakfast buffet and a great, great speaker Sandy Spurgeon McDaniel. I got her books and CD. Also, would advice any parent to check it out. Some very usefull advices on many diferrent situations that we encounter as beeing a parent. It was one of the best letures I heard on how to rise a warm, loving child. She has two websites: http://www.parentingsos.com/ and http://www.sandymcdaniel.com/

Here are 12 Sandy's Parenting Truths:

TRUTH 1: The most important job you will ever do in your life is to successfully parent your children. You can trash a business, co-trash a marriage and live with yourself; but as the architect of a human being’s life you want to do the very soundest, the best job you can do. You will watch your children the rest of your life. Isn’t living with the knowledge that you did the best you could do worthy of an investment right now......of your time, your heart and your soul?
TRUTH 2: Children are asking two primary questions: (A) “How does the world work? How can I be successful here? How can I be safe here? How can I love and be loved, here? ”I don’t know about you, but at close to 60 years of age, I’m still asking myself some of these questions--and that is the job--teaching your child how to live successfully.
(B) What is power and how do I use it? When you have chased a young child around all day, or had a series of confrontations with an older child where your authority was constantly challenged--the question you tend to ask yourself is, “Why is he/she trying to drive my crazy?” Notice your body language when you ask this question--you are in your “get even” stance. Most likely, you have built up so much anger that the next tiny incident will turn you into an erupting volcano. Instead: Think, “Boy, he/she is asking a lot of questions about power today, isn’t he/she?” Power. A child is CONSTANTLY asking, “Is this how I use power? By virtue of your actions, you are constantly answering that question, yes or no. A child who is whining sees that the parent is getting increasingly angry. Why doesn’t the child stop? It is very powerful to blow an adult off of being calm, cool and collected. The small child can’t think these thoughts, but somehow understands that “I won this power struggle, didn’t I?” Power. A child is constantly asking, “Is this how I use power?”

TRUTH 3: You teach most by what you model. You can talk forever about telling the truth, but if your child’s discrepancy detector (and they all have them!) picks up a lie, that child decides that lying is ok. If you drink alcohol to “chill out”, when your child becomes an adolescent and needs to chill out, who will he/she follow? If you make a nasty comment about someone, your child is listening. You teach everything by what you model. You teach a child how to use power by the way you use power. Model love, truth, being respectful, integrity--- your children are following--you!

TRUTH 4: When you scream and yell at children, they cannot hear you. We all have a primal fear of sudden loud noises. If a parent runs into a room screaming at his/her children, each child immediately forms a small smile on his/her face and each child’s eyes get glassy. The parent increases the volume, yelling at the child to reveal what he/she was doing a minute ago. A second element has now set in--fear. Fear cuts off one’s ability to think and reason. Therefore, the child, who knows that he/she was doing something a minute ago, can’t access that information. As the child’s fear increases, access to the answer that will calm the parent down is denied. When you scream and yell at children they cannot hear you.

TRUTH 5: Your children are constantly asking, “Do you mean it?” Say what you mean, mean what you say and follow though --consistency is a key to successful parenting.

TRUTH 6: Spanking is un-necessary. When I teach parenting seminars, I invariably get into a discussion with a parent about whether it is appropriate to spank a child as a means of discipline. My parenting style precludes spanking. I do not advocate spanking. Why? Children watch enormous amounts of television; the primary theme on TV is hitting. Children decide that hitting means intending to harm. I think it hurts the child’s spirit to think that their parent intends to harm them. If you’re not into the spirit of the child idea, what does it teach? Deviousness and lying. Your home becomes a conspiracy of children vs parents as the children tell endless lies to stay out of trouble. In order to be safe, the children no longer tell the truth. The third thing spanking teaches is that if you are bigger than someone else and don’t like what they are doing, you have a right to hit them. You teach most by what you model. I have a problem with this teaching. There is way too much violence in our world. We can significantly decrease the amount of violence in the world by stopping the violence and excessive anger in our homes. A parent who is angry about something other than the fact that the child just spilled the milk will hit their child too hard; being harmed does not teach a child a lesson--except to be afraid of that parent. Children can learn lessons that have love and kindness wrapped around them. Be a part of the solution by choosing not to spank your children. If you choose to use the parenting strategies in this website, spanking is un-necessary!!

TRUTH 7: Treat children the way you would want to be treated. Yes, I’m talking about the Golden Rule, and how many of us live it? “Put your napkin in your lap! Stand up straight! Don’t pick your nose! He’s not very good in school. She isn’t pretty but she’s so smart!” Are these things you would say to your friend--and still have a friendship? Children who are treated with respect learn to be respectful of themselves and others.

TRUTH 8: Teach your children that they are responsible for their choices. Having spent several years working with at-risk students in junior high and high schools, I am certain that teaching your child to take responsibility for his/her choices is vital to that child’s success as a human being. Instead of ranting and raving when a child makes a poor choice ask, “Tell me about your choice to steal something from the store.” Listen! If the child says, “They dared me to do it!”, respond with, “And you chose to steal. You stole something. You got caught and you will serve the consequence.” Learning to live in a more responsible way comes from receiving rational consequences, not from punishment. Give children choices: “You are at choice right now, Scott. Either go and wash the car right now as we agreed, or you will not be driving the car this weekend.” (Teen starts to walk out of room in middle of your talk) “You are at choice right now, Kathleen. Stop and finish this conversation with me or meet me at 8:00 tonight.” (Why 8:00? That is when their favorite TV shows begin.) “Would you like a grilled cheese sandwich or a tuna sandwich for lunch?” (When the child gives a third choice, whining, repeat your choice over and over and over. The rational consequence in this example is that the child gets to hear your boring diatribe until the child chooses to choose one of your choices!)

TRUTH 9: Teach children how to think for themselves. It is important that children are invited to think through their own problems. Your child comes to you saying, “I told Todd I’d play with him on Saturday and Matt just asked me to go to a baseball game with he and his father. What shall I do?” Instead of laying the judgment/guilt trip that was laid on you by your parents, ask, “What are your choices?” When the child states the possible choices, write them on a piece of paper. Then list the positives and negatives of each choice. The child can make a rational decision when all the facts are on the table. The difficult thing to do is to let the child make what you perceive to be the “wrong” choice and suffer the consequences of that choice. The child may not lie, cheat or steal in order to have his/her way; in matters of integrity, the parent may need to intervene.

TRUTH 10: Come to terms with the fact that there is no such thing as a perfect parent and more than once, you will be totally off base in your choice of how to handle a problem. A perfect parent does not exist. If you could be perfect, who would model how to make a mistake and redeem yourself, how to fail and go on, how to say the thing that hurts someone and go back and clean it up, and how to totally lose it? Being human is the great gift to give your children. A human being who is humble, willing to learn from mistakes, and who is loving, is the person your children will learn to be if you model those qualities. Get used to the idea, you will totally mess up more than one of your parenting moments. If you are in the learning game and choose to tell the truth, your children will respect you and learn from you that which they need to know in our imperfect world.

TRUTH 11: No two children are the same. There is no “them” (the boys) or “they” (the girls); there is an individual child who is different from any other human being that has ever existed or will ever be born. Unique! Therefore, it is important to remember that the thing that “works” for one child may not “work” for the other child. Don’t walk in YOUR moccasins when you look at your child, walk in his or her moccasins--look at the child through the child’s eyes. Some children need more attention than other children. Some children need more help than other children. Some children need more nurturing that other children. Some children totally break the mold in terms of being like the rest of the family; we call these children “black sheep”. It is often the “black sheep” child who helps to change the world in a more positive way. Honor differences. Celebrate uniqueness. Cherish each child.

TRUTH 12: Love your children every single second they are alive. In my parenting seminars I always say, “If I were mature enough to say one thing and go home, it would be this: Never, ever take your love away as a way of motivating or controlling your child.” When I’ve worked with at-risk students, the commonality they share is that they were raised with conditional love, “Mom/Dad loves you when you are a good girl/boy.” Whether spoken or not, the child assumes that to be “bad” is stop being loved. “Yes, I am upset that you let your bicycle roll off the cliff. Yes, there will be a consequence.” Love is ever-present. Angry, irritated, frustrated, super-annoyed--you still love your child. This love becomes the emotional armor with which the child protects him/herself through the increasingly difficult process of growing up. Unconditional love. Never, ever take your love away from a child for any reason.

I AM FINALLY BACK!!!

2007-10-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

After MORE THAN TWO YEARS since I posted my first entries I am back to my blog! It took me only two years! I hope I'll get to sit down by my computer and write something at least once a month. I have to! I have way to many cute pictures of my daughter to share with my family and friends!

London

2005-07-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

Our vacation started June 29th leaving from LAX to London. Virgin Airlines were great: very comfortable and got to watch the most new movies that came out on the market all the way to London.

London met us in its cloudy and gloomy air. Every time it felt that it is going to rain and it did sprinkle quote a lot. The only time we saw the sun coming out from the clouds was the last day when we were leaving for Lithuania. No wonder now why people have such the great skin there…

We spent three days in London. We got to see most of the historical places such as London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, The Tower of London, Trafalgar Squire, The Big Ben and etc. The old and new buildings architecture was great!

First time when we stepped into English Pubs it refreshed our memory how great is no smoking in restaurants law in California! Otherwise English Pubs are a lot of fun and always crowded with the people.

Food in London was really not good, but we already knew about that before we got there. So, that was not a big surprise… Fresh Cadbury chocolate compensated the bad food…and fish with chips were good...

Fish and chips and of course the green peas..

We stayed at K and K Hotel George in London. And we can highly recommend this hotel to anyone. It is in the great location, the backyard is beautiful, the inside is modern, they have high speed internet service, the hotel staff service was great and the price is very reasonable. London is expensive city, so you have to be ready to spend there…

If you planning to visit London for the first time anytime soon get Rick Steves’ guide book on London it will be very useful.

We are here with our guide for a day Asta.
Thanks Asta!

The backyard of our K and K Hotel George.
Very, very green...

Inside the hotel is very modern.

The Big Ben.

I loved this cute little old building left in the middle of the new ones..

Small cars in London are very popular.

One of the behind the house gardens. A lot of potted plants everywhere.

A great sunset...

Lithuania

2005-07-26T16:16:00.000-07:00

From London we flew to Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Vilnius is the biggest town in country and has the only airport with one terminal. First thing that you notice when you get off the plane at the airport that it is so quiet around you: no rush, no airplane noises.

We spent three days in the capital and absolutely loved every day there. The city was very alive, young and cheerful.

We even got the opportunity to celebrate July 4th with American Chamber of Commerce in Vilnius.

Vilnius is very green as you can see.

Shopping from local artists selling they stuff on the streets of Vilnius.