2009年2月27日 星期五

Tax Credit for First Time Home Buyers

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorizes a tax credit of up to $8,000 for qualified first-time home buyers purchasing a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009.

Here is the summary and Q&A
http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/2009/faq.php#1

Taiwan Trip#4:交通

太方便!在臺北,一張捷運圖在手,去哪都簡單!http://www.trtc.com.tw/c/service.asp?catid=%E4%B9%98%E8%BB%8A%E6%8C%87%E5%8D%97&small=%E8%B7%AF%E7%B7%9A%E5%9C%96%E6%9A%A8%E8%BB%8A%E7%AB%99%E8%B3%87%E8%A8%8A

一開始,碰到親戚朋友,問他家住哪裡,答案都是捷運站旁邊,幾天下來,我真的發現,要去哪裡,坐捷運就搞定,最多,再坐個短短的公車就行。公車站牌都有地圖,車上也會寫到哪一站了,所以我們出門都不用先計劃怎麼走,一張悠遊卡,知道坐哪一條捷運路線,上了車再說。太方便!

2/14 到新竹,10:15 坐上門口的shuttle到海山捷運,捷運坐到板橋,換高鐵到新竹,11:20就到了。出門前,我們沒看地圖也沒看時刻表,(Stephen是屬於隨性型的,我本來不是,現在也差不多是了)居然“一路順風”,時間銜接的完美。姐夫載我們到宜蘭,有了雪隧,也快得多。記得4年前回宜蘭,要走好久的山路,哈哈暈車,吐在別人車上;這次他舒服的一睡到底,差太多了!

只是停車還是個問題,每次坐別人車,人家說要去停車,都要去好久,可能很難找車位。不過也沒辦法,臺灣地小車多,幸好有好的大眾交通系統,可以多一個選擇。

桃園機場裡也很漂亮,還有Hello Kitty候機室,可惜照片在哈哈相機已經沒了,只好等下次回去再照了.

2009年2月26日 星期四

Taiwan Trip#4:中正紀念堂衛兵交接

One day, 小姑姑told us that 中正紀念堂 has many big fish and some birds, and his grandson likes to go there to feed the fish and birds, so we thought that Ha and Hee will like it, too.

There are really many big fishes, and we bought fish food to feed them. Ha and Hee liked it, but the thing that made them really excited was中正紀念堂衛兵交接.

When I was in high school, we usually went to 中正紀念堂 after school to run up and down the stairs in order to prepare for the 學校運動會大隊接力, and every time, we would leave after watching 衛兵交接. I thought that it will be a brand new experience for Ha and Hee.

It has the ceremony every hour, so we walked around the museum, and it was more fun than I thought. When it's approaching the time, we went upstairs and got the best spot to see the 衛兵交接.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRNZvpH67Ss

2009年2月25日 星期三

Taiwan Trip #3: 人情味

This trip was not a sightseeing or traveling trip, but was a reunion trip. We only had one day to go to 中正紀念堂 and bought children's clothes by ourselves (4 of us) and spent all other days with the family.

Most of the time, we were in my in-law's house or neighborhood. We were in the traditional market once, and Ha and Hee were excited and surprised to see so many chicken in the cages. We also went to 新竹 to attend a wedding and spent one night with the relatives from my mom's side. 臺灣爸媽每天陪伴我們;姐夫接送我們很多次,讓我換了新身份證,遷了戶籍,目前“寄居”在Stephen家(還沒辦結婚,因要在美國先認證我們的marriage license); Stephen 的朋友炎山到高鐵接我們,請我們吃午飯,之後去他家坐坐,還送我們去婚禮;我表妹懿真和先生到婚禮地點接我們去家族旅行的旅館;舅媽策劃了家族旅行, 使我們和爸媽妹妹舅舅舅媽阿姨表弟表妹和他們的另一半,下一代有相處的機會。We had a great time there!可惜我們回臺時間太短,只能參加一天;我表妹佳穎陪我們坐車回臺北並帶我們走到捷運站;小姑姑姑丈和姐姐幾乎每天到爸媽家看我們並都作了一大桌菜請我們去吃;嬸嬸和堂弟弟媳也豐盛的作菜招待我們;舅舅舅媽遠從新店開到土城來看我們;我朋友斯嘉工作忙碌,但還在去開會前抽空和我見面;兄姐及姑姑的孩子們陪哈嘻玩;兩次和爸媽回宜蘭,媽的朋友和鄰居都割一大堆菜讓她帶回臺北;哈只說了一句“不知道燈籠在哪買”,表妹夫其霖就偷偷去找了好幾家店,買回來兩個燈籠;我覺得絲瓜布很好洗碗,跟Stephen說我要買幾塊回美國(我不知道這沒有在賣,是自己做的), 臺北的小姑姑就打電話給宜蘭的四姑,幫我準備了3根大絲瓜,媽媽再幫我敲成絲瓜布。臺北人都很熱心,一問路都非常仔細的講清楚,帶著小孩上車,大家也會讓座。(有沒有漏掉忘了寫的?一定有!)I'm very proud to be a 臺灣人。

這次回臺灣沒什麼時間去shopping,只買了一些零食回來給親朋好友和一堆哈嘻大一點的衣服,我只買了一個碗夾和一個放菜瓜布的container 給我自己,因為臺灣的東西和美國的價錢其實差不多.However, 我很滿足,因為我帶回來滿滿一大箱臺灣的人情味。

2009年2月24日 星期二

Taiwan Trip #2: Photos

Our Taiwan Trip Photos have been uploaded to http://picasaweb.google.com/happyfamily.huang/2110922209TaiwanTrip

Please take a look!

Note: We brought 2 cameras to Taiwan; however, the memory card of Ha's camera was damaged after we came back to the US, so all the photos in his camera were lost. I'll try to download some photos from other relatives to minimize the loss. My camera was out of battery for a period of time, (even though I bought some batteries, most of them were installed in Ha's camera when it's out of battery.) so I was unable to have complete records of all the places we went.

Taiwan Trip #1 : Weather

It's February, but it's warm in Taiwan. 2/12-2/15, the temperatures were about 28C, and from 2/16-2/22, they were about 22-24C. We wore either thin long sleeves or short sleeves when we were in Taiwan during the daytime; however, I found that many Taiwanese wore thicker clothes than we did. The reason might be that we came from the US, the colder place, so when we were in Taiwan, we felt warm. I remembered that when I was in high school in Taiwan, I used to wear a lot of clothes to school~about 3 or 4 layers~, so in my mind, Taiwan was very cold in winter. It seemed not to be true anymore. We didn't go to southern part of Taiwan this time, so we haven't experienced the "hot" winter yet; hopefully, next time.

2009年2月23日 星期一

We are back!

We were back from our Taiwan Trip yesterday afternoon. 每個人都睡到早上8點以後,看來沒什麼時差問題。其實,對付時差的2個重點就是:1. 飛機上至少睡一下,保持體力。 2. 下飛機後維持正常作息,不要一累了立刻在任何時間睡。這需要self-control。

There are many things that I can write and many pictures needed to be uploaded; however, 洗衣服,清箱子,買菜 are my priorities now, so, I will write my blog entries after I finish all those things.

2009年2月8日 星期日

Ice Skating

I couldn't believe that I would go to ice skating again in my life!

I only went ice skating once when I was in college, and I didn't like it at all. I could hardly move on the ice, and my leg and feet hurt, and I just couldn't think of any fun that it brought.

Friday night, Ha told us that he wanted to go skating. He went to roller skating once when he was in preschool, and he wanted to go again; however, we didn't know any roller skating center near us. A friend told us that there's a ice center close to our house.

Ha was very stubborn, and he didn't want to go ice skating, so we told him that we only went to the Ice Center to see what the ice skating is, and if he likes to, we can go next time.

Ha changed fast, and as soon as he saw the Ice Center, he wanted to skate, and Hee wanted to go, too. Both of them didn't have any ice skating experience, and it's not easy for Stephen to take care of two of them on the slippery ice, so I had no choice but to go in with them.

Hee was with Stephen, and Ha was with me. Stephen was holding Hee, and Ha wanted me to hold him, too. However, as soon as I stepped on the ice, I knew immediately that I wouldn't be able to be any kind of help to Ha because I could hardly help myself. I told Ha that he would be on his own because I was struggling, too. He was very willing to obey this time because he could see that I was in big trouble. Ha and I started by leaning on the wall and then freeing our hands little by little. Ha did much better than I was, and he could walk freely on the ice. Hee was walking fast, too, and he even walked too fast and made Stephen fall twice because they were holding together. Then, Hee learned to walk on his own, and he seemed to be better than I was. I was the slowest one among them. Even though Stephen also only went ice skating once before, he skated very well. Well, although I didn't do very well, I felt better than last time, and I felt a little fun. Ha seemed to have a lot of fun, and he said that he wanted to go again, again, and again!

Ha's First Fallen Tooth




On Friday, Ha told me that one of his teeth started moving, and he was very excited about it. He was looking forward to it because many kids in his class started changing the teeth.

Saturday morning, he told me that he wanted to eat something soft because his tooth was shaking. I gave him a piece of soft cake and went to take care of Hee. Few minutes later, Ha called me and showed me his fallen tooth. He was very calm and happy. I found him a small box to collect his teeth and promised him that when he has more fallen teeth, I will show him my children teeth and we can compare the sizes of his and my teeth. I kept my teeth also in a small box and brought them to the U.S. Now, they are on the top shelf in our garage. Besides the teeth, I also brought many things from my childhood to the U.S, and I'll show Ha and Hee one by one as they grow up.

2009年2月6日 星期五

我闖禍了

Yesterday afternoon, I loaded many books and videos in the car and planned to return them to the library, and Hee was with me. It was about 2pm,so after we go to the library, we can go & pick up Ha from his school. What a perfect plan!

I was in my car and opened the garage door with the remote, and I backup my car...Bang! I backed up too early and hit the garage door!


I went out and checked the 災情:
Left hand side: out of track, 兩個輪軸掉了,一個固定輪軸的鐵片彎了
Right hand side: 一個固定輪軸的鐵片彎了.

At first, hee didn't want to get out of the car, and he asked me to fixed the door because he wanted to go to the library, and he was not happy when I told him that I was not able to fix it. Then I told him, if he didn't get out of the car, if the garage door dropped, he would get injured. 他一聽,跑得比誰都快,立刻跳下車。

一看時間,2:30 pm了,車庫又不能關,車子也出不去,怎麼接哈哈?可以用走的,可是我不會走比較近的小路;如果走大路,還要帶個Heehee,不知道什麼時候才能到? 該不該找人來修?I didn't want to bother Stephen when he was at work, but I had no choice. When I called him, my heart was shouting: pick up the phone, pick up the phone, pick up the phone。。。, and when I heard his voice, 我就安心了!

He went to pick up Ha and came back to 視察災情。 The door looked bad, so he asked me to call for repair, but I called many numbers, and yet, no one was available except for one company which would come between 9pm to 11pm, and would charge $150 for service call. At the meantime, Stephen also started trying to fix it because he said: 如果修理的人來了,發現我們什麼都不懂,就會亂charge 一通, 所以我們要先搞清楚大概的問題。 I went back to the house and continued to call, and finally, a company said that they would be here in 20 minutes. About 10 minutes later, they called me and said that they would be here at 5pm (40 minutes later)because there were still something needed to be checked in the previous garage in Sunnyvale. Stephen was still fixing, and he fixed the problem on the right hand side. He said that he would need 10 minutes to see if he could fix the more complicated problem on the left hand side. If he could, the repair guy didn't need to come. And he fixed the left hand side, too! Stephen fixed the door! Hero!

However, during the process of fixing the door, he noticed that 右邊的捲軸有磨損(he said that it had nothing to do with the accident today, just because it's old. ), so for our safety in the future, we called the garage door company to replace the drum and the cable. The total replacement cost plus the service call was $165. If Stephen didn't fix the door, the price should be $300-400.

It felt good to know that my husband can cover the boo-boo that I made.








































































2009年2月5日 星期四

豆腐皮包肉

上次我爸做了豆腐皮包肉,全家大小讚不絕口,要我學著做,所以這次趁Ha,Hee 生日,我爸過來,便開班授徒。我本來要作筆記,但Stephen說用video 比較快,so, here you go!
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGpR7MbHbgI
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkaxtgfMi0U
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdMKfM7J1CM
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MYUoa0hfdY
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9USPY2DYcc

等冷了可以freeze起來以後吃。要吃的時候, 和大白菜, chicken broth 一起煮大約 one hour.

2009年2月4日 星期三

Magnet Fun

It's not hard to make children happy. Even just few magnets, they could play happily for a long time.

2009年2月2日 星期一

Hee and Ha Birthday Party Video Clips

For photos, please see the slides on the side bar.



1. Balloon Game: Ha played this game in AWANA before, and he decided to play this game at the party. Players needed to keep the balloon in the air. Whoever dropped the balloon needed to sing a song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Cl_kgIiaU another balloon game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34qoNicrKIE



2. Magic Show: Uncle Hsitung brought his cards to perform two magic shows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIhIgbPeolQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW9N2YHSev0



3. Another Magic Show: Roro performed a magic show, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pF7v7pTWkI



4. Losers of the balloon game were singing.

Stephen: Amazing Grace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLLOQR5tgPM

Uncle Hsitung and Aunt Fay: 我的心,你要稱頌耶和華 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__kZFb2V3MU



5. 現場直播 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPpeliDdMJU



6. Winners of the game wanted to sing, too.

Kuo family: 小小的夢想 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gzG1BGzGfw

Lele: 只要我長大http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66ryJ7Ow0cg (sorry, too short!)

大合唱:野地的花 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxziUxD_980

7. Group Pictures: We took quite a lot of group pictures, and each family got one framed as a party favor. Ha was our photographer. He set up the wire and connection to the TV, so we could see ourselves on TV while the picture was being taken. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyl3_uAzdy0


~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~

Brithday Party

天啊,經過2個星期的閉關工作,沒來照顧我的blog,現在相機裡已經存了90幾張相片和影片,讓我慢慢出清吧!

The past 2 weeks are my busiest weeks in the whole year. Besides my work, I also needed to plan for Ha and Hee's birthday party and to get their presents, cakes, and favors. The good thing was that Ha told me that it's their birthday party, and he would help me to plan for the games and other activities during the party, so I didn't need to worry about the entertainment .

Our guests were all family members: Grandparents, Kuo Yeye & Kuo Nai Nai, Uncle Hsitung& Aunt Fay, Uncle Phil, Aunt Jen and Roro, Lele, and we had a great time together to celebrate Ha and hee's birthday. I'm uploading the videos to Youtube right now; and hopefully, I can show them on my blog tonight.

Thank God that Ha and Hee's birthday are only one day apart, so I only need to plan for one birthday party every year. It really saves me a lot of time and energy.