The Elsa

Introducing the Elsa. The Elsa entered our life around 3 years ago.

I guess we consider her our first daughter, even though she's an old girl by dog standards.

She's half beagle and half jack russell. Which results in a relatively relaxed yet remarkably intelligent canine.

When we first adopted her, she was very quiet and for the first couple of weeks didn't seem happy, her tail rarely wagged and she seemed to miss her old family.

However over time she warmed to us and now we can't think of life before her.

Our Patio Garden

This summer, rather than trying to grow a bunch of herbs and veggies, we stuck with just two plants.  A basil plant and a orange cherry tomato plant.  It was a good thing we didn't buy more than one tomato plant because it grew so much and ended up taking over our patio!  Despite the cooler summer this year, we did get some tomatoes and basil : )

Asami (麻未)

So Asami is to be Kaitlyn's middle name. The Kanji for Asami (麻未) come's in two parts. Asa (麻) and mi (未)

Asa
is either a type of Japanese linen or is the name for the japanese symbol/pattern for protection against evil/bad luck (asa no ha). The image in this post is an example of the asa no ha pattern.

Actually the two meanings are a little more related. Asa is actually japanese hemp... yep hemp. Asa as in linen, is typically made from Asa (as in hemp). The Asa no ha pattern is actually a representation of a hemp leaf. It should be probably be noted that hemp doesn't have the same stigma in japan as it does in western countries.

Mi
the kanji that hitomi's mum has chosen for mi means future. Though with a different kanji it can also mean beautiful (that's the kanji that hitomi has in her name)

So together Asami as we've chosen it, means protector of future evil. Well that's how I'm choosing to interpret it. Unlike chinese names the characters in japanese names are not always combined together to create a meaning and can be read seperately.

I'll have to thank hitomi's mum for Kaitlyn's middle name. It was totally her doing. She originally suggested it, and she was the one who came up with the unique kanji for it.

Very Late Spring Cleaning

So we've been spending the last couple of weekends cleaning out all of the excessive material parts of our lives. This is generally good practice to do every spring, however this year we've waited until the late summer, pressured by the oncoming Kaitlyn.

Through this rushed exodus of useless items we've come to realise a few things

• Most of the crap is mine and is either a computer related item or toy related
  
• It is absolutely amazing how long you can live without previously thought of as essential items
• Rooms echo when they have less stuff in them.
• Boxes, why do I keep them? Really do i need to keep that old box that our router came in?
• It feels good to streamline your stuff. Less clutter is an awesome thing
• You cannot donate old computer monitors... you can only send them off for recycling
• Computer stuff becomes obsolete so quickly. What am I meant to do with a 20 GB HDD when something 10 times the capacity now average?

So Kaitlyn's room is pretty much functional now. It's not real kiddy like yet, but we can now say we are ready for her. A good feeling. So come on Kaitlyn, I can't wait to meet you... and now we are ready.

Welcome to our Blog

Hi There and welcome to the Chantani family blog. Our family is small right now, just the two of us, but we have a surprise on the way :)