Tomato and Bell Pepper

Our tomato plant started having many small tomatoes now, so I got a small plate of tomatoes for dinner. Every time when I saw tomatoes on the table, I would make bell pepper with plum powder, so bell pepper was part of our dinner dish, too.

Ha likes tomatoes very much, but Hee doesn't. Hee likes bell peppers very much, but Ha doesn't. Therefore, in order to be fair, and let them feel being honored, when I prepare for the meals, I will try to balance my choices. Being a mom of two is not an easy job!

I also made hamburger/cheese burger for dinner. The secret of marinating the ground beef is to add a little beer. We had some beer in the closet for a long time. A friend brought them to our house long time ago when they came to visit, but no one drinks the beer at our house, so they stayed in the closet until I saw the cooking program on TV in YMCA, and the lady used beer to marinate the ground beef.

I'll put my recipe for hamburger at http://happyfamilyandfriendskitchen.blogspot.com/

Roller Coaster

From last week, (or the week before), Ha's conditions changed many times a week. He started feeling ill last Sunday, went to emergency room on Monday, good as new on Wed. and Thurs, Throwing up and having diarrhea on Friday, feeling well on Saturday, having fever again on Sunday, and as good as new today.

It's just like a hymn said:

I don't know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day.
I don't borrow from its sunshine, for the sky may turn to grey.
I don't worry over the future, for I know what Jesus said,
and today, I'll walk beside Him, for He knows what is ahead.
Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hands.

In the photo was our newest haircut dress. It's the adult size raincoat, and it worked quite well.

Village Rhythms

This summer, our library has special programs every Wed. at 3pm for summer reading club; well, actually, every one can go and enjoy. This Wed., the program was Village Rhythms. It had different kinds of African instruments, African dances, and taught us how to make a beautiful music by just saying Oh-Ah or La together. We had great time there. It's a hands-on activity, so every kids got an instrument to play with during the program, and every one was invited to dance on stage. When he invited Moms, I went, but when he invited boys, Ha and Hee didn't want to go.

Here is the video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPBG-8V67IA

奧秘

最近忽然想到這首好久沒唱的歌<奧秘>

眼睛未曾看見
耳朵未曾聽見
神為愛祂的人所預備的 人心未曾想到
從日出到日落 從短暫到永遠
神的眼目眷顧敬畏祂的人永不停歇
誰知道主的心 誰能領會 神的事
藉著聖靈向人顯明 向人顯明誰
知道主的心 誰能領會 神的事
愛 神的人都要見證奇蹟 都要見證奇蹟

天韻專輯《歡唱》

Hee's Preschool Graduation

Today is Hee's preschool graduation, and we were not even sure if he would attend today. Well, not because of flu, but because he didn't want to be on stage and perform; and frankly, he wasn't happy at going to any form of school: Sunday school, AWANA, preschool......(but he was doing very well in those classes, and all the teachers liked him.) The only exception is VBS because I was the teacher.

Last night, I had a long talk with him, and I had shown him the photos of Ha's preschool graduation, played the video clips of Ha's preschool graduation and promised that if he would go to the graduation today, he would get a small gift. I gave an identical gift to Ha last night because he went to his preschool graduation, but I didn't give him the gift. Hee cried and cried, and as long as he thought about the graduation, he cried. I threw him a happy thought: If he graduates, he doesn't need to go to school until August; and it cheered him up a little bit.

As a mom, I could do only that much, so I put it in my prayer and let God do the rest of the work.

This morning, he didn't cry when he woke up, which was a good sign. I stayed at school with him and took few pictures of him, and he seemed to be fine. They practiced in their room, and he was fine, but as soon as the teacher tried to get them ready and walked to the sanctuary, he started crying. I let the teacher handle him and went to the sanctuary with Stephen who took a half day off for Hee's graduation. I couldn't how Hee would look like when he walked in.

Take a look by yourselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rihPF7rlGk he was still upset but could stay calmed, and after that, everything went smoothly. According to his teacher, he was fine when practicing in the classroom but cried every time when they practice in the sanctuary. Sometime, he cried during singing; sometimes, during counting; and sometimes, during playing the bells. Therefore, this was the first time for him to perform perfectly in this school year without crying. Praise the Lord for giving Hee the peace the strength.

There are more video clips, enjoy!
Pledge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b_YjcSPSoM
Hee's class 進場 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shLqxXAy02E
Fruit of Spirit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwLTczYUEW4
Bell-1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goIC5oAxJjQ
Bell-2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuECD2sRVFU
Singing-1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTkdQvsiAmQ
Singing-2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcJX_WKH0nI
畢業生再度進場 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2wG4GMzBJE
領畢業證書http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHJruk1f7SY

I couldn't believe that I lost the video clip of their counting in different languages!!!!!!

For photos, see slide show on the left of the blog entries.

Even my little boy is going to kindergarten now!

6/24/09 Ha and Hee's condition

Praise the Lord that Ha is back to normal now. He didn't vomit and had no fever last night. This morning, he acted normal, ate well and went to school. His teacher looks so young and nice; hopefully, he will like her and like his summer school class just like he liked his 1st grade teacher and class.

Hee didn't have the fever, either last night, but he coughed a lot at night. Besides that, he acted normal and was still a happy boy.

I knew that there are many people praying for their recovery, and God did listen to the prayers and healed them in the short period of time.

Little Update about sick Ha, sick Hee

Hee started taking the medication last night after dinner, and he was fine again this morning, so I couldn't tell if he gets better or not because he always "早上像個龍，晚上像條蟲“。 I should know if he is ok tonight.

Last night, Ha was back from the hospital at 10pm. Actually, the doctors didn't do much to him. With hint given by Stephen, they thought that Ha had stomach flu, and they gave the prescription for preventing vomiting. Yesterday, Ha vomited after everything he ate or drank, but today, he hasn't vomited at all. He had cereal for breakfast and fried rice for lunch, and he had honey and apple juice for drink. However, he's still not to energetic. Most of the time, he was taking a rest. he still had a fever of 100.9, but he's more talkative today. His summer school started yesterday, but he was unable to go. Hee's graduation will be on Thursday; and hopefully, he could go. (Even though he was ok in the morning, he has cough and running noses, and I don't want him to pass that to other children, so I kept him home.)

According to Stephen, Standford emergency room has good TV and computer, but doctors were pretty slow. There's no cell phone signal, so we communicated through email.

Sick Ha, Sick Hee

Friday night, Hee started having the fever, but on Sat. morning, he was fine again. Saturday night, he started having the fever, but on Sunday morning, he was fine again. Sunday night, he started having the fever, but on Monday morning, he was fine again. The fevers were all up to 102,103, so we brought him to the doctor today. The doctor said that it was caused by 氣管炎and 鼻竇炎。 He gave Hee the prescription; and hopefully, he will be fine soon.

Sunday afternoon, we came home from Sacramento, and then I went to the church. Stephen and kids were supposed to be there on 5pm, but until 5:15pm, I didn't see them, and I knew that something was wrong because last night was our shift to clean up the kitchen and cook the rice for dinner, and Stephen should have shown up early.

It's good that our house is very close to the church, so it only took me 3 minutes to go home. They were trying to go to the church to cook the rice, and Stephen planned to take them home after cooking the rice. Stephen was holding Ha's hands, but Ha could hardly walk, and Hee was sitting on the sofa. Since I came back, Stephen went to the church alone, and I took care of them. Both of them looked tired, and Ha was even worse than Hee. Hee ate some noodles, but Ha didn't eat anything. Both of them threw up the strawberries that they ate at noon time. At night, Ha was 102.9, and Hee was 103.2 degrees.

On Monday morning, Hee was fine again, and Ha looked better. He ate some cereal and cereal bars, but then, he threw them up. I made an appointment with the family doctor at 11:40, and they got in one by one. Ha was still weak and had the high fever, so the doctor suggested us to send him to emergency room. Stephen was working from home because of these 2 ill kids, so he brought Ha to the hospital while Hee and I stayed home because Hee wanted to eat lunch, and it's not good for him to go to the hospital anyways. Since our family doctor gave Ha some medication to reduce the fever, he "only" had 100 degree in the emergency room, so it's not really a top-priority emergency, so as far as I know, they are still waiting to be seen by the doctor.

不管已婚或未婚，一個很值得看的新加坡廣告 ~~~~~~~

I got this from an email:

新加坡用網路行銷來「促婚」，3分鐘寡婦廣告引發瘋狂討論
五月初，新加坡那邊出了一則很特別的廣告，在電視上播出後，引起極大的爭議，各位可以點上面參考一下。這則廣告是由新加坡國家級的「社區發展部」所拍攝（Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports ）它是一則 「 支持婚姻」（pro-marriage ）的廣告，據說兩年前新加坡曾有一場市調，顯示許多適婚的新加
坡年輕人仍在待婚中，因為找不到完美對象。
這則「促婚影片」只有3分鐘又2秒：主角是一位 印度裔 太太，悼念著她剛死去的華裔老公。她的悼詞和大家預期不同，她竟然當著全體親友描述著她老公在床上如何的「打鼾」和「放屁」，還當場模仿這些聲音！如果老公還活著，應該會窘得想找一個洞鑽吧。
這部影片的開始，司儀說：「 李 太太（即那位寡婦），妳應該有些話想說。」這位太太上台了，全場靜默。
「今天，我不是要來讚美的，我不會說他有多好，因為很多人都已經說了。今天我想和大家分享一些可能讓大家比較不自在的事。」她說，「我想先從他在床上的表現說起。」
台下觀眾眼神都是問號，看著她繼續說－－「你們都有碰過，早上啟動汽車引擎啟不動的狀況嗎？」 當場她學了發動引擎的聲音，但聽起來根本就是打鼾聲。這位寡婦學得嘴巴都歪了一邊了，這樣鼾了兩趟，然後幽幽的說：「well，大衛（她的老公）的打鼾，
完全像是這樣。」
大家開始笑了，鏡頭轉到她的女兒，表情顯然有點怪，大概是不解為何媽媽要說這件事？有些老夫妻也一邊笑一邊微皺眉頭，這場合好像說這種事不太對吧？「但，打鼾只是開始，」寡婦繼續說：「他，也會……放屁！」，好像好多人都有類似的經驗呢。「有些晚上，他放屁放得太大聲，還會被自己驚醒！」
全場更是會意的笑了，她說，「大衛會驚慌的問，那……那是什麼聲音？」「這時候我會說，親愛的，是隔壁的老狗在放屁啦，放心繼續睡吧！」鏡頭轉到好幾個太太笑得摀嘴，坐在旁邊的老公面露尷尬。 台上的寡婦，此時語氣一轉。「你會覺得，這很好笑是嗎？」她緩緩的說，「不過，當大衛真的病得很重時，這些聲音至少讓我知道，我的大衛『仍然活著』。」她轉頭望向大衛的遺照，哽咽了：「現在……我終於再也無法在睡前聽到這些聲音……。」全場有如冰凝。「 到生命的最後， 」鏡頭轉向這位寡婦孤單的身驅，看到她緩緩的說。「 總是這些小小的事情，讓我們永遠記得。 」（In the end, it ’ s these small things that you remember. ）「是這些小小的??不完美』，一起組成生命的『完美』。 」（It ’ s these little imperfections that make them perfect for you. ）
鏡頭轉向她的兒子和女兒，兒子大約高中年紀，女兒是初中年紀，他們看著台上的母親，專心聽著媽媽說話。
「所以我想告訴我的子女，有一天，你也能找到你們生命中的伴侶，他們會像你爸爸在我眼中一樣『不完美得很美』。」 （So, to my beautiful children: One day, you too find yourself life partners, who are as BEAUTIFULLY IMPERFECT as your father was to me. ）
她講完後，彷彿如釋重負，回到一個仍要照顧小孩的媽媽，收起悲傷，堅強起來，擁抱她的小孩。觀禮的全都沒有痛哭失聲，竟都看著前方，那是一種吃驚，這些文字的重量竟然這麼重的飄在空中、壓在心裡。這三分鐘的片也旋及走到尾聲，最後，這則廣告的結束詞是──「Family 」。中文版，則是一個──「家」字。
這則極震撼的廣告片，是由一位來自馬來西亞女導演Yasmin Ahmad所拍攝。在新加坡引發了很大的爭議。沒人是完美的，
所謂的真正的愛情就是接受你伴侶的不完美。在喪禮上，女主角講了一段話，明明是在講一則很平常的事，卻經過了音樂與台詞與鏡頭的鋪陳，導引出一連串看不見的「弦外之音」，最後它給了一個字「Family 」作結尾。 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx9ocubowMs&feature=player_embedded

SonRock Kids Camp- VBS 2009

This is our VBS week, and the theme of this VBS is SonRock Kids Camp~~~

Son: Son of God, Jesus; Rock: Peter.....So, in the VBS, we talked about the stories between Jesus and Peter and brought out the main points: We are accepted by God, protected by God, saved by God, forgiven by God and we are living for God.

I took turns with another teacher to teach Pre-K class. There were 3 groups of kids coming in every 30 minutes, and we had about 40 kids in total. I taught on Monday, Wed, and Friday.

Sunday afternoon, I felt something wrong with my voice, and it got worse and worse. I knew that VBS was not just a church event but a spiritual warfare, and satan was going to attack us in any way it could because it didn't want any kid to be saved by Jesus. I didn't have a lot voice, but it was too late to switch my teaching day with another teacher on Sunday night because she never taught VBS before, so she would be nervous if she needed to teach for the first day, and all the material for the first day was with me anyways. All I could do just to pray and have other brothers and sisters pray for me.

My voice got even worse on Monday morning, but I still believed that God could do something with it. Kids would get into my room at 9:30am. I tried out my voice, but I still had very broken voice at 9:20am. I knew that I was just a servant of the Lord, and He would take care of me, and I was waiting to experience His power.

At 9:30am, when I saw the kids and welcomed them into the room, my broken voice got much better. I got enough voice to get through 3 sections which were about one and half hours long in total. It was a miracle. All the helpers were supportive, all the kids were quiet and concentrated, and I could feel that Holy Spirit was there with us. Praise the Lord. 不是倚靠勢力，不是倚靠才能，唯有倚靠神的靈方能成事！

Guess what? When I went home on Monday, my voice was gone again, and it got even worse. How bad? Even Stephen couldn't understand me. When he's home from work, I said to him:"@@@@@@@@@@@@@", he started laughing and saying: "you don't have to talk because I couldn't understand you anyways." I tried my best and said again: "I need your help, could you get some green onion from the backyard for me?" He laughed and went to the backyard. That's how bad my voice was! And Jesus helped me to went through the story time in the morning. Some helpers were surprised that I could talk because they heard my voice during the prayer meeting in the morning.

There's one more thing that I wanted to mention. I sent out the prayer request on Monday morning, and a friend from our fellowship sent Honey Lemon drink to the church, and a friend from the 3rd worship service came to the church to see if I needed help. Also, many coworkers prayed for me and cared about me. I was surrounded by their love, and I could feel Jesus' love through them. They were just like angels sent by God. Because of love, when I saw the kids, I had a loving heart, too because God loved me first. It was a blessed voiceless day.

My voice got better and better each day, and Ha and Hee enjoyed the activities every day. Every night, I asked them about what they learned during the day, and they remembered most of the Bible stories and memorizing verses. They also loved the game time, snack time, singing time and craft time. When I asked how they liked their teacher and big brothers and sisters, Ha gave me the answer: Two Thumbs UP! and Hee agreed with him. They really loved those big brothers and sisters, and I thanked God for these helpers. They have even more love and patience toward the kids than we adults. I prayed with some of them in the prayer meeting, and I found that they were good at praying and their spiritual lives were good. Their parents should be very proud of them.

Both Ha and Hee told me that they wished that they could go to VBS every day. I thought: "I am already very tired when there are only 5 days. I can't imagine what will happen to me if we have VBS every day." However, even though I was tired physically, I was joyful spiritually to serve these kids and to serve with many good coworkers; especially when I saw many kids started to open up themselves in the classroom and at the singing time on the 5th day, and when I saw them raising the hands to accept Jesus as their savior.

These are some songs that they sang:

You will be saved: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqPap0xGE5g

I Keep my eyes on Jesus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMTHEJmUAnA

SonRock Kids Camp (Haha): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOG9paEuftc

SonRock Kids Camp (Heehee): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztlFonBaxwg

Ha's School Picnic

By the end of the school year, the 1st grade class had a picnic in the nearby park.Hee and I went to see Ha, and appearently, he had a lot of fun playing with his friends:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBgu2j-tmeA

At the beginning of the school year, I was worried that Ha would be alone all the time because he was not good at talking to other kids; however, I gradually learned that he had made some good friends, and they played together every day. They had less boys than girls in his class, and most of the boys got along very well.

I remembered when I was in Ha's age, I liked to go to school. It's not because I liked to learn, but because I liked to play with my friends: We played 跳格子 and played house (a mommy, a daddy, and a lot of children). However, at our school, we only had 10 minutes recess time between 2 periods, so after going to the restroom, we didn't have much time to play before the bell rang. At Ha's school, they had less recess time, but each recess time is long enough for kids to eat some snack, to go to the restroom and to play.

During school days, Ha played less with Hee because he stayed at school till 3pm. Now, he has more time home in the afternoon, and two of them played together better.

Hee's keyboard Recital-6/9

Hee had a classroom recital on 6/9. They have one every quarter.(Actually, Ha had a recital on 6/8, but he didn't tell me that there's a recital, so I didn't bring my camera.) So far, he's still interested in playing the keyboard, but he doesn't LOVE it. He only plays when I ask him to, and he doesn't want to practice when the song is hard. Ha was not very interested in playing, but he will practice after I asked him many times, and he only played few times a day.

In my point of view, Hee was better in terms of learning the piano, but Ha was more gifted in music. I don't expect that Ha will be a good piano player one day because he won't; however, I do expect Ha to serve the Lord in the music field. He's great at listening and singing, and he's interested in listening to the music, so learning the piano is just a way to let him know the notes and give him an opportunity to keep in touch with music.

Hee's finger and eye coordination is good, so, if he likes, he can continue to learn the piano as long as he wants.

Here is his recital clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxAE-jGN-kg

Birthday & Surprised Father's Day Party

Well, even though the ladies didn't get a Mother's Day Party, we thought about throwing gentlemen a Father's Day Party, and because Stephen's birthday is in June, I invited friends to our house for the birthday party and surprised Father's Day party on 6/13.

It was our small group's term to pass the gospel fliers, so we went to the church at 9:30am and then went to two different market to pass out the fliers. By the time we got home, it was about 11am. God helped us to slow down the time, so we had time to prepare for the lunch before friends came. It was a potluck style lunch, and we did get many yummy dishes from different families.

At this moment, Daddys didn't know about the Father's Day Party yet, but moms knew about it. We sang happy birthday to Stephen and then kids sang:

Daddy loves me this I know
And I love him as well
He cares for me as I grow
I am weak but he is strong
Yes, daddy loves me; yes, daddy loves me; yes, daddy loves me, and I love him as well.

Now, I announced that it's actual a Father's Day Party. Kids took out the cards that they prepared earlier to the daddys.

We then played games and let Dad take some quizzes, such as:
recognize your kids by touching the head only (without seeing); kids' birth date; kids' weight; their best friend's and teacher's name; what they don't like to eat........

And then, Moms learned to help Dads tie the tie, and we had a photo session for each family. Finally, we had 2 ice cream cakes for the birthday boy and Dads.

Later at 6pm, we had a dinner with Stephen's brother and sister-in-law. It was yummy, too.

For photos taken on 6/13, please go to the slide show on the right hand side of the blog.

Awana Last Day Party

Awana was ended by the end of May, and there's a party on that day. Hee didn't want to sing on stage, so he started crying before we left our house. He cried again when he got into the classroom, but he was doing well on stage. Ha was not very interested in singing on stage, either, but this time, he was doing well, too.

Hee's singing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZsBZ6jW1kw
Hee's award 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqNNvvPbQxE
Hee's award 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpIj8yywIk8
Ha's singing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Yd1WX3kRw
Ha's award: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_jBI8UTWL4

Hee is counting his days at preschool

Every Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I wake up Hee, he always says: "I don't want to go to school" or "I'm still tired", and when he goes to school, he will cry most of the time. It's getting better, now, he doesn't cry every time, but he still cry once in a few times. They are practicing bells and songs for graduation day, and he cries every time when they go to the kindergarten classroom to practice even though he only cries for 1 or 2 minutes each time.

He does good in terms of learning. He knows about spelling the words, he can read easy books, and he can do easy math; however, he doesn't like to go to school. Based on my observation, he does ok in terms of communicating with kids, and he seemed to be fine with teachers; however, he doesn't like to go to school. He seemed happy with his friends every time when I went to pick him up. but he still said that he doesn't like to go to school.

This morning, again, he said that he didn't want to go to school, and I told him that he only had 3 more school days ( he won't go to school next week because of VBS), and he couldn't wait for the last day to come.

Every child is so different! I'm glad that I don't have 4 or 5 children, so I only need to worry about two, and I'm glad that I have Jesus as my Lord, so I can cast my worries unto Him.

Ha loves his teacher

Last night, ha told me that he wished he could still be in the first grade class next year, so he could still be in his teacher, Mrs. Bartlett's class.

It was his teacher's first year of teaching life, and she is a very caring and creative teacher. Ha was a shy person and was slow at doing his work. For open ended question or projects, he could sit there for very long and didn't know how to start it because he didn't want to give the wrong answer even though we told him that there's no wrong answer. However, he did good at spelling test or math test when there are exact answers. He was not sharp at writing because he didn't know what to write about. He's different, but he is not a troublemaker at all. In kindergarten, he seldomly spoke to other kids, but fortunately, he had a good teacher, Mr. Watson, and she helped him to go through the kindergarten, and the school did a great job in terms of arranging the teacher for his first grade class.

The first day of first grade class, Ha went home happily because he told me that he knew his teacher. Mrs. Bartlett was helping out in his kindergarten class before. Ha was happy to go to the school every day and never complained anything at school even though it was not easy to get him to do his homework at home. Mrs. Bartlett noticed that Ha was happy when he was with Ben at the beginning of the semester, so she arranged for them to sit together, and they became good friends. They and the other 2 boys usually played together during recess time, and they cared for each other, too. Ha told me that Ben went to Mrs. Bartlett when Ha's second tooth waggled hard, and Ha went to Mrs. Bartlett when that tooth was pulled out.

His teacher has a high-tech background, and she had worked for Apple and HP before she became a teacher, so she was good at science projects or experiments, and Ha liked those, too. He really enjoyed his school days. His teacher also made good use of all the resources to help the kids being successful. Ha was not reading well at the beginning of the semester, and he needed to sound out every word before he could say them. Mrs. Bartlett let him go to the reading club, and now, his reading speed had improved a lot since then. I was surprised that a kid can change so big in a year. She also recommends Ha to go to the summer session for a month, so he can have a better foundation for the second grade. I prayed that God will prepare a good teacher for Ha in second grade!

Our Garlic

The whole story needed to go back to about 1 and a half years ago when I saw "elephant garlic" in the super market. I bought one and planted part of it in our backyard. Last year, we got some garlic. Then, Ha planted some of that garlic back, so we had few garlic plants now. One day, Ha saw one of the garlic plant's leaves turned yellow, so he digged in the soil and got this little garlic. This was not big, so we finished it in two days. (Note: I read from a book that when Potato's leaves are dying, we can dig for potatoes, and I told Ha that. I guessed that he applied that theory to garlics, too.)

Mother's Day Gifts

I haven't got time to post my Mother's Day gifts yet, but as Ha and Hee getting older, my gifts were getting more and more each year.They made some cards in different classes(school, Awana, Sunday school), and prepared some gifts by themselves. Ha gave me plants, and Hee gave me an egg with stickers, and I just found 2 more items (an egg and a picture keychain) that I forgot to put in the picture.

In the cards that they made at school, they wrote something very interesting:

Hee had a book called＂My Mother"

My mother likes tickle me.
My mother's name is Huang
My mother's favorite food is lots of thing
My mother's favorite sport is running
My mother's favorite color is pink
My mother is 38 years old
This is my mother I love you.

Ha had a big card:

Outside: My mom: caring, smart, pretty, loving, cool

Inside:

My mother taught me how to do math; My mother always says "Do your homework", My mother is never mean; My mother makes food; My mother looks great in a dress; My mother is crazy about me!

Their cards were very cute and very funny!

Stephen bought a clock that we can put pictures on and a house plant as gifts.

Must Go Places in Southern California

I'm planning for a trip to southern California by car this summer, and we will take Highway 5. Any suggestion or recommendation for the places along the way or in LA or in SD? (Note: I planned to go to Legoland and Sea World, and I didn't plan to go to Disneyland or Universal Studio)

Blood Drive at De Anza College

I've moved here for 2 years, and I almost drive pass De Anza College every day, but I've never got an opportunity to get in. Today, there's blood drive in De Anza College, so I made an appointment to donate the blood while both Ha and Hee were at school.

The blood drive was located at their Student Council Room which is the downstairs of the cafeteria. While I was waiting, I looked at how other people sitting around me were doing. Most of them were reading the books, of course, and it reminded me of the midterms, quizzes, finals and homework that I haven't seen for years. I'm just "few" years older than they are, but our lives are so different now. I started donating the blood when I was in college 10"+" years ago, and I believed that I was reading a book while waiting as well.

As these memories came bcak to me, another thought came right in: " in 10 years, Ha will be in college, too"! I looked at the boys passing by and thought that Ha will look so big like them in 10 years. How is it possible? He's only 45 lbs, and he needs to be 110 lbs in college in order to give blood, and that means that he needs to gain 65 lbs in 10 years. I did a little math: 45/7=6.4; 65/10=6.5. Yes, if he grows in the rate that he's growing now, he can be 110lbs when he's in college. He will look like a "man" not a "boy" in 10 years.

Well, anyways, those thoughts made my waiting time interesting and fun, but I definitely hoped that they won't grow up so fast.

Hee cut his own nails

Few weeks ago, Hee started asking for cutting his own nails. At the beginning, he only cut his left finger nails; then, he cut finger nails from both hands; then, this week, he cut all his finger nails toe nails. Seeing Hee doing that, Ha started cutting all his nails, too. Lucky me!

The clip was the first time that Hee cut his nails:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdPgWWPysIM

到底是要吃什麼？

Last night, when I was cooking dinner, Ha came to the kitchen and said that he wanted to eat "Sushi". I told him that I didn't prepare for making the sushi that night, and I could buy some cucumbers to make the sushi on Tuesday. However, I did have seaweeds at home, so I told him that he could use the seaweed to wrap the rice and other food if he wanted.

Ha： 可是那個sushi 沒有用海苔包。
Mom:　沒有海苔？那就是糯米團咯？那你就拿一堆飯，裡面包點菜，捏一捏吧！
Ｈａ：　可是那個sushi 也沒有飯，長長的一條。
Mom: 那個是burrito吧，我們freezer有。
Ｈａ：　也不是ｂｕｒｒｉｔｏ．
Ｍｏｍ：　那是什麼，我真的想不出來了。
（親愛的媽媽們，如果妳的孩子有以上的敘述，妳猜得出來他要吃的是什麼嗎？）

Mom: ( 聰明的媽媽終於想到了一個問法） 你在那裡吃到那種“sushi"的？
Ｈａ：　ＡＷＡＮＡ party.

幸好我那天有到廚房幫忙，完全清楚他們吃的是什麼，所以輕輕鬆鬆的猜出來了。答案是： 春捲！

Ha lost his 2nd tooth

Ha just lost his 2nd tooth today at school.

They have a teeth chart at school, and everyone needs to notify the teacher when he loses a tooth. When Ha lost his first tooth, he asked me to email his teacher because he's too shy to tell her. This time, he said that at school, he told the teacher that he lost his tooth. He's making a progress in terms of communicating!

Window Film

Hee's room has a big window door which is 西曬，so his room was pretty hot in summer. Window shades didn't make big differences in his room.

A month ago, Stephen ordered a Sun Setter online to block some heat from outside, and 2 weeks ago, he bought some window films from the store to block the sun from inside.

The films can stick to the window and block 60% heat of the Sun; and besides Hee's room, we also installed the films for Ha's room and our computer room. It works very well. Even it's hot outside, Hee's room was not as hot as before, and it did save us some money for air conditioning.