Sunday Night Entertainment by Camryn

This is the culmination of two years of Preschool.

Watch out Juilliard!!

P.S.

Video/Producing credits go to Brynn

Good Sense of Humor

I saw this on a friends blog and laughed out loud. Apparently these two churches are directly across the street from each other. I wonder who gets more attendance?

Japan--good stuff!

In Tokyo space is at a premium. Most people do not have cars but if they do then they do NOT have a garage. If they are lucky enough to have a garage it looks something like this. (And I am not kidding!!) I have no idea how this guy gets in and out of his "garage" everyday without ruining his car. Amazing.

Our favorite place to eat. :) Dad took us here last year when we visited and we have been craving the gyoza ever since. Sooo yummy and truly authentic. (Do I even need to add that since we are in Japan, all food here is "authentic" Japanese food :)

We traveled all over the city each day. This town is a huge tourist trap. It is loaded with merchants trying to sell you all sorts of little trinkets.

Same place as above. They had a shinto temple you could visit and pray and then right down the path a huge shopping area.

We were on the lookout for a Japanese paper umbrella. We had to snap this photo of the sign that was posted. It says: "Please don't tuch at eating!" We were guessing they meant "Please do not touch if you are eating!" So many signs posted in the small shops were not translated correctly. Not even close.

Mom's favorite thing about Japan. :)

Dad and Mom took us up to a restaurant that was on the 42nd floor of a downtown building. The view was incredible! The food was delicious but way overpriced. The dessert was my favorite.

Megan showing off the dessert. It was presented in a chocolate "bag". It had layers of fruit and ice cream in it and I could have eaten one all to myself!

A view from the window by our table. It was smoggy that day but you can see how crowded the city is.

Conan, once again, navigated us successfully through the train stations. He is excellent at figuring out all the stops and we did not get lost once.

Japan 2011

Conan and I have been in Japan for a week now and today was the first day we have had the chance to sit and think through the last few days. We got back last night from a trip to Sendai where the earthquake and tsunami hit the hardest. My heart is very tender today. I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to have been able to go there with all the missionaries and serve for a day by working on some of the clean up. That is a post all of it's own. I want to be able to process my thoughts and feelings about the experience for a few days so that I can do it justice. Let me just say that you truly cannot believe the devastation. It is almost unbelievable even standing there and seeing it. The people we helped were extremely grateful and although we only made a small dent in the cleaning up process, we left it better than we found it.

Here is a small sample of photo's that we have taken this week. We have loved being here and are so grateful we were able to come back and visit one more time.

In the mission office the first morning we were there. (Mom, Dad, Devin, Megan, Us)

First Stop: the Dirty Dish Store! I loved this place the first time around and couldn't wait to get back. It is full of breakables and Conan even commented that he couldn't believe when we were here the year before that not one of our daughters broke anything. That comment was made about 3 min. before I heard a "crash" and a dish breaking. Without even looking up I knew it was Conan who had broken the dish. I was just hoping it was only one dish--it was. :)

We got to see Nikko again. This town was untouched by the earthquake. It is so beautiful and what I always picture in my mind when I think of what Japan looks like.

The ladies in Nikko. (Mom, Me, Megan)

Conan and I in front of a bridge in Nikko Japan.

Camryn

Camy: "Mom, what is there to do in unork."

Me: "What Honey?"

Camy: "You know, when you went to unork, what did you do?"

Me: "You mean when I went to New York with my sister's and Mom?"

Camy: "Yeah, New York."

P.S. When are we going to do the next Hansen Sister's Weekend?

Kathleen

Sister

Wife

Friend

Chef

Marmie

Cheerleader

Daughter

Artist

Kathleena

Listener

Helper

Nurse

Kacky

Supporter

Creative

Shoulder to cry on

Giver

Help Meet

Peacemaker

Follower of God

Love

Grandmother

Woman of Christ

Mother

She broke the bread into two fragments, and gave them to the children,

who ate with avidity. "She kept none for herself," grumbled the sergent.

"Because she is not hungry," said a soldier. "Because she is a mother,"

said the sergent.

-Victor Hugo

I love you Mom

Catching Up

Here are some glimpses of what we have been up to...

Everyone who could met up at Chad and Jenn's in Logan for a mini re-union. Mazey and I were stuck home because little Miss had croup. Blah. Of course Grandma and Grandpa A. were in Tokyo with all the missionaries.

A little blurry, but a darling self portrait by Lyndsie. :)

Camryn needed one as well. :)

As a 3rd grader, Emily was required to choose a person from history and do a report on them. She chose Julie Andrews. She then was to dress up like this person and make a poster of their life. She wanted to look like Maria from the "Sound of Music" and wanted an apron like the one that Julie Andrews wore in the opening song. I went to Walmart and bought some plain fabric and came up with this one. All the 3rd graders then set up their posters all around the gym and the rest of the grades came through as classes and looked at their reports. (Parents could come as well.) She was so excited and loved that she got to bring a guitar as well!

We went bowling at BYU for a family activity. Brynn is growing up too fast for my taste. She will be 14 next month and moving on to Miamaids. Crazy. I love Mazey's cheesy smile for the camera.

Camryn made this little blue wooden car (painted it and everything) and then gave it to Grandpa for his birthday. She was so excited and could not wait till he opened it! He was very sweet with her and made a big deal about it. :)

One Sunday we up to Temple Square and walked around for a little bit. We also went across the street and visited Great Grandma Hyde and Aunt Marlene. It was a wonderful day.

Mazey found this little American Girl doll chair and was trying it out for size!

Emily turned 9 yrs. old and requested a "double-decker" hamburger cake.

Emily's dear friends Lexi and Aydelyn. She misses them so much and was so excited for them to come the long way out here for her b-day party.

It won't happen again.

For those of you who couldn't get through the 'rant' below, here is a brief summary.

Facebook: Not Personal, insufficient.

Blogs: Personal, sufficient

Please know that this kind of interruption with not happen again. I changed the password. :)

Why I Prefer Blogs

After years of trying to like Facebook and Twitter, I'm giving up. Perhaps I'm just an old fogie when it comes to the web, but I prefer blogs and aggregators like Techmeme. In contrast to my readership of blogs, I find myself rarely using Facebook, Twitter, or other AOL follow-ons. I say AOL because that's what these networks seem like to me: modern-day, social AOLs.

I like blogs better because the typical blog entry represents an intentional, edited, thought piece. Blogs have been called "light publications" because they are, essentially, a published article on a private web site. Think about what it takes to put a decent blog entry together: to start with, a person needs an idea worth reading. The author normally thinks through the arguments for hours or days before writing about them. Then, blog authors open their "add post" editor and present their thought piece in a coherent, accessible way. Most authors read through their posts to make changes and other edits before publishing them to their blog. Blog posts usually have embedded links to other pages, graphics to illustrate points, and comments for direct discussion on the topic of the post.

In contrast, a "publication" on Facebook or Twitter comprises a sentence or two. It's more positioned as a quick "thought about something" or " what I'm doing right now" than as a full argument or contribution to knowledge. They take very little thought, and many like them for this reason. An "author" can tweet or post to a wall in just a few moments where a full blog post would take 30+ minutes. It's easy to post to a social network on the run from a cell phone. And that's the heart of it: the new social networking simply has less thought, less quality, and less time put into it. If blogs were a dumbed-down version of newsprint, social network posts are dumbed-down blogs. But where I appreciated the originality, freedom, and continuity of blogs as compared to newsprint, I do not appreciate the short, disjointed, low-quality posts to social networks.

There are very few things or people that I want to follow play-by-play. With my limited time, I'd rather read a summary of your position on something in a periodic blog post. Indeed, various posts to social networks are often seemingly-random thoughts, especially when they are threaded together with other single-sentence posts on a wall or Twitter feed. These posts are the technological equivalent of fast food. Instead of families planning and making a quality dinner together, then sitting at the dining room table and discussing life together, modern families order lower-quality fast food and eat it on the run.

Please understand that I'm not "against" Facebook. I have an account and use it occasionally to connect with others. It's the posting feature that I have a hard time with: if people want to contribute to the content of the web, I'd rather it be worth reading. That's why I call social networking sites the modern-day AOL: these sites are for people that don't want to spend the time: they want quick; they want short; they want convenient.

And yet Facebook/Twitter/etc. are so popular that they are taking over traditional blogs. I don't see this as a failing of the blog movement. I see it as a moving demographic who would rather post quick, lower-quality contributions. It's a sign of the modern youth that would rather text friends than have real conversations with a voice or in-person call. And yes, this worries me. While social networking has connected so many, it has overshadowed much better social alternatives like "mommy blogs" or friend blog networks. Wouldn't it be encouraging to see current high schoolers posting full, well-thought-out blog articles than single sentences at a time?

That's why I prefer blogs.

P.S. I realize that I'm generalizing here. Some blogs are terribly-written. Some Twitter feeds are high quality. Some Facebook pages are incredibly useful. But despite these specifics, I maintain that--on the whole--blog posts are of a much higher quality than social network posts. Blog posts simply take more time, more thought, and more involvement on the part of the author.

The Order of Things

I saw these Barbies sitting happily in the empty tub today. Ken's missing a leg, a Barbie is missing both hands, and all are essentially naked and have ratty hair. In any house with little kids and a dog, Barbies like this can be found. It seems to be the natural order of things in the Barbie world.

Best Friend

My Love