Family Superlatives....

Out of the blue the other day, Benji says to me, "Dad, I'm stupendous."

"Really? You are? How do you know?"

"I just am," he replies matter-of-factly.

"Ok," I pursue, "so if you are stupendous, what am I?"

"Hm," he thinks for a second. "You are just normal."

"Oh, so what about Maia? Is she stupendous, too."

"No," he declares with authority. "She is fantastic."

"I see. So you are stupendous, Maia is fantastic and I am 'just normal'."

"Yeah."

"What about Mommy? What is she?"

For this one he takes a long time to consider his options. "She is... stinky balls!"

Honestly, I have no idea where he gets this stuff, but just for the sake of those who are keeping track, here's the breakdown:

Benji = stupendous
Maia = fantastic
Dad = just normal
Mom = stinky balls

Noted...

Racial Identity...

Racial identity is a funny thing. In 2014 there was a study that found millions of American change their racial identity on occasions, particularly many hispanic individuals began reporting themselves as white. And we can't forget NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal who was quite genealogically white, yet identified as black (and fooled others to believe she was black for quite some time as well).

In our family, race is understandably a bit less...er, black and white. I guess you could say we put the "asian" in "caucasian." While I know that I am as white as sunscreen on cream cheese, I can't help but feel that we are a predominantly Asian family. My wife is Vietnamese, and our kids are 50/50, so we as a family unit are as caucasian as we are Asian. But in our family traditions, diet, and other ways we align with the Asian culture more than our neighbors. I still have difficulty keeping my shoes on when I visit the homes of friends.

What got me thinking about this subject today was something I observed in my three-year-old, Benji. Anna has been endeavoring to keep the apps on his hand-me-down iPad educational rather than solely for entertainment. So, when adding and inspecting an app for Benji, she chose an avatar for him. This app has a set number of choices. Anna chose the young asian boy avatar for Benji, since that is the closest approximation she could see.

Then later, I was watching Benji play with that app. He found the settings and when browsing the avatar choices, changed his likeness to a boy of the same age, but white. It was clear to me, that Benji currently sees himself more like that boy than the one Anna had selected for him. It's interesting to know how your children see themselves. I wonder if we had stayed in Guam with a more diverse culture if he would see himself more like the Asian avatar or still as the white one.

I have yet to ask Maia how she sees herself. I'm sure this is an issue that will come into play more as our children grow up.

Although I am spending time to blog about this, I don't really understand the big issue with racial identity. It used to frustrate me how much we hear about and debate on race issues in our media and culture, and now I'm just burned out on the subject.

I miss Guam in that way; we were all of a different (and often mixed) race. That consistent diversity kept us all feeling a bit more equal in a way. Sure we acknowledge cultural differences and would have some racial clicks, but our forced proximity and volume of diversity make the subject a non-issue. I remember someone visiting me at work one day and observing that I was the only white guy in my office. I hadn't even noticed it until that point. I was. And it didn't matter. And it was great.

Now back in the racially heated contiguous 48, I feel like there is no escape from the constant onslaught of these biases and issues.  I'm not pointing fingers or blaming anyone. It is the way it is. And I wish it could be different.

I wish we could all just see that we are all of some mixed-race of some kind and we all come from diverse backgrounds. At some point in our past we all share common ancestors. I would like to think we could keep that in mind when we interact with each other, but I'm not naive enough to think that will happen any time soon.

At any rate, my point is that this is all a matter of perspective. If we could be more empathetic and identify with some aspect of other ethnicities, we could be more understanding of each other. That's not to say I support the deception of Rachel Dolezal. We should also be true to who we really are. But if we could learn to identify with other races, in some way, we could let the little unintentional gafs go and start the healing.

I'm not an Asian, and no, I don't play one on TV. But after the experiences I've had over the past decade of my life, I can understand how one would start to feel as if their cultural, and even racial, identity can drift. Our little blended family can't even agree on our race. But we still do now and always will love each other for who we are. And that is enough.

First Pic with New Camera...

I got a new "Adventure Proof" camera in preparation for our trip to Korea. It's a Ricoh (formerly known as Pentax) WG-4 GPS. Waterproof, Freeze Proof, Crush Proof, and Shock Proof with GPS, compass and a bevy of other cool features. A bit thick and heavy, but one that Maia and even Benji will have a hard time breaking. And they will try....

First picture I took with the new camera. This is Maia in the car on the way to school.

Halloween 2013...

Maia as Snow White

Anna as Little Red Riding Hood and Benji as The Big Bad Wolf

The Littlest Giant...

My favorite band, They Might Be Giants, recently did a revamp of their children's song "The Alphabet of Nations." They called for pictures of kids from these different countries. Naturally, I submitted pictures of Maia. And she made the cut!

Ah, fame. For a signed photo of Maia, please send $1,000 dollars and a pre-paid stamped envelope to us. No refunds...

Maia University...

Green Eggs and Spam...

Today is the 108th Birthday of Dr. Seuss. Our local library (and the only public library left in Guam) had a bit of a celebration. It was mostly organized chaos, but still good fun. Maia was pretty excited when she saw the Cat in Hat, a celebrity she has gotten to know in the past year. He would keep pointing to Mr. Hat and tap her head saying, "Hat. Hat."

At the conclusion of the program, there was plenty of food. And what kind of Dr. Seuss party would it be without Green Eggs and Ham? Well, it would be a Chomorro one, I guess. When you mix Island culture in you get Green Eggs and Spam. Close enough...

He passed on years ago, but he will always have a lasting impact on the world as long it contains children. Happy Birthday,  Theodor Seuss Geisel!

The Pink Fairy of Guam...

Mommy says that one day Maia saw this clothes in the house and just had to wear it. So, they donned the duds and did an impromptu photo shoot. Considering this was done with a simple point and shoot, some of these pics came out pretty darn good. Here's my favorite.

 

And I saved my favorite for last:

Another Milestone for Maia...

Today our 20 month old potty training toddler had an accident-free day. It's always a proud day when your child exceeds you...

Halloween 2011...

Last year for Halloween, we dressed up Maia as R2-D2, but she didn't know the difference and we didn't get many miles out of that outfit. This year, Maia is still a bit young to really understand the holiday, but we did another costume. At this age, she'll pull off any costume that she feels restricts her, so we went with the easy "Little Red Ridding Hood."

This year we also did a jack-o-lantern. Because Maia wouldn't be very helpful with a knife, we decided to only do a drawing. Mom later went ahead and cut it as well.

Maia Vs the Shoe...

A Hair-loom from Daddy...

It's a foregone conclusion that when a Caucasian and an Asian have a child that the child in question will have predominately "Asian" hair. At the least, a dark auburn if not totally black. But somehow, the Bodine blood must be pretty strong, because Maia's hair is all from Daddy's side of the family. Not only is it red, but also quite curly. Interestingly, though, it's soft and straight in the front. I don't know how she got hair that is both straight and curly at the same time, but she did.

This was not a very good hair day for Maia.

Maia: Shoes by Prada, Hair by Slinky...

At least she has her mother's eyes...with a ring of blue in them...

Maia: A Day in the Life...

Sometimes Maia does things that look like only an adult should do, like read the newspaper, text, Yoga and so on. So, I filmed some and put this fun little video together. Enjoy!

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Regurgitated (aka Payback is a B...aby)...

Poor baby Maia is sick. Despite the odds, she's barely been sick at all in her first year. She's trying to make up for lost time now. Last night she was having trouble sleeping, likely due to the fever and stuffy nose. So we took her onto our bed for a short time.

While crawling around and just as she was half over me, she had a hiccup, which then accompanied a fountain of partially digested baby food spewing forth from her mouth. I thought the stuff was nasty looking before she ate it. To be fair to Maia, I should have seen it coming. When her head did a full 360 degree turn I had my first warning.

The vomit not only landed on me, but also all over my side of the bed. Somehow, inexplicably, my parents 6 thousand miles away started laughing uncontrollably. Naturally, Anna's side of the bed was as pristine as a showroom display.

Tonight her fever has continued. As we put her down for bed, we thought we might fare better this time. She stood up in her crib and starting bawling. We usually give her a few minutes to cry so she can calm down on her own and go to sleep. But we could tell from this cry it wasn't going to be one of those passing sobs. Anna walking in to check on her and found that she had left a projectile war path of sputum. It was all over her chest, the floor, her crib, toys, dresser and I believe the ceiling. It looked as if someone had hooked her up to one of those garden hose toys that randomly shoots out in all directions.

Anna and I tried to clean the mess before contacting an old priest and young priest who were familiar with exorcism. I got the fun task of hand washing the sick off the linen before we put it into the washing machine. I nearly added more of my own in the process.

I know I donated my fair share of throw-up when I was a child. And I know that I wasn't the one that cleaned it up. So, I suppose its only fair that I am now on the other side. I was just thinking the other day that being a father isn't so bad. But after tonight I found myself thinking that I don't want to be a dad right now. My parents would have gotten a kick out of seeing me deal with this tonight.

These moments pass and before I know it, I'll be reading Maia's blog one day about how she is cleaning up her first child's vomit...

How did this topic get me onto The Circle of Life?

Christmas 2010...

Now that all the dust (and snow) has settled from my hectic Christmas trip, it's time to blog all about it.

The worst part about living in Guam is how inconvenient it is to visit anywhere but the Philippines, Japan or Chuuk. This trip to Arizona would take 24 hours from our house to my parents'. We've never traveled with a baby before, so we were unsure of how the trip would fare.




Maia was remarkably well behaved the whole time. I'd be spoiled if I complained about her during this trip. I've seen people with kids on planes before. Heads spinning, crawling on the celling, opening the windows, riding on the wings... This was much better than I'd expected. I even discovered that the tray tables on the seat in front of you make great makeshift beds. But I recommend you remove the baby before you are served the culinary experiment they call an "in-flight service."

We were only at my parents' house for a couple days before we headed north to visit my Grandma on my mom's side. It will likely be Maia's only chance to meet her. Then, back to Mesa. We visited the Mesa Temple to see the lights.





Then we met up and head north to a cabin. By "we" I mean the whole family. My parents, all my siblings, all their children, casual acquaintances, well-wishers, and we may have even picked up some transients along the way. My mom's excitement was at the boiling point as this was the first time we had all of us together at once in over a decade. We had to take a census just to make sure everyone made it to the cabin.

This cabin was reserved online, so none of us knew what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. With about 10 bedrooms and plenty of living space, we all fit in much better than anticipated. Having a large kitchen was a necessity due to the amount of food my mom brought. We had enough food to nourish an entire battleship crew at sea for a month.

What I was most looking forward to on this trip was finally feeling cold. Living in Hawaii for several years and now in Guam for 5 years, I miss having my winters. There was some snow, but nothing to blog about...excepting that I'm currently blogging about it...

Me, Maia, Anna, Kris (brother), Sarah (his baby) and Jam (his wife) out for a walk in the snow.

A short drive away there was enough snow to do some sledding. We spent plenty of time there. I bet you expect great footage of this from me. Well, not so much. But I got one cool pic.



At night the kids mostly wanted to run around like wild savages or watch TV...while acting like wild savages. One night we were able to formalize an activity by playing "Minute to Win It." The "Stack Attack" game was popular. This is a game where you start with a stack of cups and need to arrange them into a pyramid. Then, you must collapse the cups back into a single stack in 60 seconds. My nephew Parker thought of a great way to win.

Why bother with the pyramid in the middle? It's so simple, why didn't I think of that?

I participated in "Face the cookie." This is where you place a cookie on your forehead and have to get it into your mouth with use of gravity and your facial muscles. Unfortunately, you also have to use up any ounce of pride you may have left as well. Naturally, I was able to complete the task.



The night before we planed on leaving, we heard there was a storm coming. So, we did the smart thing and preloaded up our cars with the food that we would need on hand should we get snowed in. As it started to snow, we had a snowball fight.





We went to bed to this:


And woke up to this:


The roads were all closed and our cars were buried. We had no choice but to stay. The landscape changed a lot in a short time. Take a look at these two pics. If Al Gore were with us, I'd throw a ball of global warming in his face.

Before
After

I figured we might as well make the most of it, so we played.


Meanwhile, my teenage nieces moaned that they had to be stuck in a multi-million dollar cabin with all the luxuries of home and then some. We all felt for them.

We did have a bit of a scare. Mom decided to start rationing the food. She was rightly concerned we might not have enough to survive the blizzard. Some people a few cabins over came to us food shopping as they had run completely out. After we gave them cereal, a dozen eggs, a couple pounds of russet potatoes, a honey glazed ham, and half slab of beef, our supply of food had depleted to the point that we could see parts of the kitchen counter.

The next morning we were advised of a break in the storm that we could use to make our escape. The cars were about half dug out when a few drove carefully to civilization to purchase snow chains for our vehicles. I completed the digging process.





It was ironic that all I wanted for Christmas break was to be cold. At this point, I was knee deep in snow shoveling my Christmas miracle. And due to the exercise, I wasn't cold at all.

When all the vehicles were chained up, free of snow and loaded to the brim with our meager five year food supply, we took our last group shots.









The ride back was pretty treacherous. At some points all we could see was a white haze ahead of us. We attempted to get out before the storm came back with a vengeance. Due to snow chains eating the surrounding wheel well of my sister's Suburban, we couldn't go more than 20 mph. Even then, with every revolution of the wheel, I could see my sister cringe at the thought of the damage being caused. I don't know what the big deal is. Once the snow thaws in the spring, someone will easily identify her bumper and, thanks to the licence plate, track her down to return it.

One of the vehicles may or may not have been lost in the caravan back, but my wife, child and I made it back to Mesa safely, so no regrets. Well, my mom did have one. Due to being snowed in, we missed our appointment with the photographer. I'm sure we'll get another chance to take pictures with the entire family next decade when we get together. Anna decided to have an impromptu photo shoot of our own in lieu.







New Year's Eve was surprisingly uneventful. But we did learn that if you keep Martinelli's on the shelf long enough, that sparking apple cider starts to blur the line between Mormon-safe and a phone call to your Bishop. It may have been 2011, but we were partying like we were drinking bottles from 1999...because apparently, we were.

The rest of the time I spent visiting friends and browsing in stores that are larger than the entire island of Guam. Another favorite pastime was taking walks. Arizona has so many citrus trees open for the plucking. Anna made sure to get more than her fair share. On one outing my mother was concerned that Maia would have cold hands, so she donated some gloves.

Something about this picture just does not look right.

All other free time was spent being my family's personal technical support. I reinstalled Windows on 3 computers, repaired 2 machines and built 1 from scratch. I wonder if surgeons have to perform free appendectomies and hysterectomies when they visit their families.

Anna and I had just enough time for her to get a patriarchal blessing and we were able to visit the Mesa Temple the day before we left. From Heaven on Earth it was off to Dante's seventh layer of Hell, known as "TSA airport screening" to laymen.

So now we are back. It was a great holiday season. Now comes the price of the trip. My lawn has grown over so much while I was away I found an entire tribe of indigenous people living there when I attempted to mow it today. Work piled up so high I had to get a second desk and declare my first one a loss. As much as I enjoyed the vacation, I'm glad to be home. Now, off to Vietnam to do it all over again for Tet, but this time, in a foreign language...

The Barrigada Guam Stake...

If you are not familiar with the structure of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, than telling you that we now have a stake in Guam means nothing.

Let me break it down. We have two types of congregations, Branches and Wards. A group of Branches makes a District. A group of Wards makes a Stake. It's like the difference between a high school football team and the NFL. A high school team (District) has the same rules and basic game play as the NFL (Stake). But high schools have smaller fields, bleachers, and crowds. And the players are a bit less experienced; not quite ready for the big leagues.

After years of trying, the Guam District has been "upgraded" to the level of a Stake. One key difference is that a District is run by outside counsel, often from mainland US. In a Stake, the leadership is all locals. There are other blessings that come with the change, such as High Priests and Patriarchs, but I think you get the idea.

To make the transition from District to Stake, we had one of the 12 Apostles, Elder L. Tom Perry come to Guam. Some TV stations felt his visit was worth reporting. The best coverage is here:



Part of Elder Perry's visit included choosing the first Stake President. To help him choose the right person within a short time frame, a pre-screened list was prepared. On this list was all of the current local Branch and District leaders. I was on that list.

When my interview came I was a bit less nervous than I would have expected. Partly because I had already met Elder Perry. The day before, he was having connectivity issues with his iPad and cell phone. I was asked to fix both.

During my interview Friday night, Elder Perry saw on my biographical information sheet that I was serving as clerk. He expressed how valuable that position was. He didn't say in so many words, but he seemed to recommend I continue on as Stake Clerk to ease into the transition. I expected that.

The next morning (Saturday) I got a call just before noon. I was about to put Maia down for a nap and grab lunch with Anna when my phone rang. It was the mission president asking me to go to the mission office immediately. I figured they wanted to extend the call as Clerk to me in person. I wasn't expecting that, but was ok with it. They also asked me to bring Anna and Maia.

When we got there we all sat down together. Elder Perry, Elder Stevenson (of the Seventy) and the new soon-to-be-called Stake President. Elder Perry asked Anna if I was nice to her. She hesitated for a second and then answered in the affirmative. Then I was asked if I would accept my new stake calling. Of course, I accepted the call.

After the short meeting, Anna asked if she could get a picture with Elder Perry. We got two. One where Elder Perry is looking down at Maia. One where Anna is blinking. And on both, Maia is on the verge of crying. She missed her nap - I don't think she was afraid of Elder Perry.




After this we were whisked away to a meeting with Elder Perry. He gave us great advice for starting up a new Stake. After that, we had only a couple hours free. It would take us 45 minutes to an hour round trip to go home and come back, so we stayed at the chapel. I set up for the Stake Conference Adult Session that night. Then we had dinner together as a group. Despite skipping lunch, I strangely had no appetite. Then we attended the night session of conference. I got home after 10pm and was exhausted.

The next morning (Sunday) I again went to the chapel early to set things up. When the time came, Elder Stevenson had asked for a sustaining vote to create the new Barrigada Guam Stake. I had no idea it was put to vote. It was unanimous. Then he asked for the sustaining of Arthur Clark as Stake President. He'd been the previous District President and did a great job. No surprises there. Then it was time to sustain Tom Clark as 1st Counselor. He was also in the last District Presidency and not a surprise. Then they called for the 2nd Counselor...Jared W Bodine. It was like in the movies when someone says something audacious in a courtroom. There was a small flurry of quite whispers. Clearly, I was the dark horse.

So now, Guam begins its journey as the Church's newest Stake. When I spoke on Sunday, I related it to a time I was a Boy Scout in Arizona. We hiked into the Grand Canyon to a place called Havasupai. It was a brutal summer hike down. The first thing I did was get into my swimsuit and relax in the cool Colorado river at the bottom. It wasn't long before I realized that despite my victorious triumph at making camp, I was still at the bottom of the world's largest canyon. The true work of getting out lay ahead of me. We have become a Stake and now we must take our new small stake and develop it into a strength in the community.

I'm grateful for the opportunity we have here in Guam. I'm looking forward to the coming months and am grateful that I get to be here for this historic event. Everyone in Guam will have their role to play and I'm grateful for mine. Basically, I'm just grateful all around.

Here's to the Barrigada Guam Stake, the first of hopefully many in Guam.

Special Formula...

Now that I have a baby, I find myself in isles of the grocery store I never visited before. On my last visit I found a special kind of baby formula.



We have a phrase here for things like this, "O-I-G!" That stands for "Only In Guam" and is quite apropos here.

Thanksgiving 2010...

This was Maia's first Thanksgiving. Neither Anna nor I have family in Guam, so we spent most of the day at home, just the three of us. In the evening we went to some friend's house where we got to have traditional turkey and mashed potatoes (as well as all the other fixings). I failed to take pictures during the feast.

The next morning, since I still had work off, we went to the beach for a do-it-yourself photo shoot. Despite being an island girl, Maia has never been to the beach. Well, when she was one month old, we did go to a beach park, but didn't even get on the sand. Maia turned 6 months old the day before Thanksgiving, so we felt it was time to take some pics to remind ourselves that we do live on an island.

This is the result of us trying to make Maia look at the camera. It was a lot of work!

And now we are sitting at home, enjoying being together and feeling thankful for it.