June Birthday and Father's Day Party

Stephen's birthday is in June and just few days away from Father's Day; however, we always have the separate celebration and separate gifts for these 2 special days.

On his birthday, we invited brother and sister-in-law to have a dinner with us, and we went to Costco to get a cake because last time, when we ordered the cake for the fellowship's farewell party, kids and I didn't eat it, and Stephen said that it tasted good. June is a graduation month, and all the cakes were written " congratulation on your graduation" except for few "happy birthday, princess". I had no choice, so I asked the Costco bakery staff adding some words for me and made it like: "Stephen, congratulation on your graduation from 4x).

經過千辛萬苦，終於把蛋糕搞定，但回家一看，慘劇發生了：

這張照片是已經清理過案發現場之後照的，原來的場景更要恐怖10倍！

原兇是大西瓜一個，在車上搖啊晃啊，居然壓到了蛋糕上。我下車一開trunk， 看了被壓爛的蛋糕差點沒昏倒，Ha and Hee 趕快叫 Stephen 來處理。他比較細心，慢慢處理後，還有一大半可以吃的。可惜我當時太過驚慌，忘了拍照存證。

晚上，當然還是要點蠟燭，吹蠟燭，把它當作正常的蛋糕一樣。

A week later, we went to Jennifer's house to have another birthday + Fathers' Day party.

Yes, this is the Father's Day gift that I bought for Stephen! Ripstick! He tried to ride it when we had the small group outing on the Memorial Weekend, and Target was on sale with almost $20 cheaper than the original price, so I decided to get him one.

This video was taken when he rode it the second time. He got better and better and became an expert later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDNJ9trdvk

He also helped Ha to ride on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWHH1sOI750

and helped Hee to ride on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljZGp5O9kzg

 

看，Stephen 看到完整無缺的蛋糕是何等興奮！

清除漏油大挑戰 獎300萬

利人利己，動動腦吧！

X Prize基金會28日宣布，該基金會正在研擬獎金達數百萬元的「清除漏油X挑戰」(oil spill cleanup X challenge)計畫，以清理英國石油公司(BP)的鑽油平台爆炸後，遭到漏油污染的墨西哥灣海岸和水域。



在華府舉行的TEDx漏油視訊會議上，X Prize基金會副會長貝蘭德(Frances Beland)向與會者提出挑戰。貝蘭德說，與清理漏油有關的建議，獎金可能為300萬元左右。X Prize基金會因提供1000萬元的挑戰獎金，用來開發私人太空梭而受到廣泛關注。這家非營利的基金會還設立了其他獎勵挑戰的計畫。



貝蘭德說，基金會希望通過獎勵方式，找到封死漏油油井的解決辦法，但是迄今，設計出封死油井挑戰的資料不足，因此，基金會只好把重點放在清理漏油的污染上，同時向公眾徵詢如何舉行相關比賽的建議，而且要為獎金募款。



貝蘭德說：「我們將推出清理漏油獎金。」他說，BP公司、政府和各界組織收到了3萬5000個解決墨灣漏油危機的建議，其中包括X Prize 基金會的建議。




他說：「每當我們遇到挑戰時，你知道最終誰能取勝？勝者不是業界人士，而是特立獨行者，是自由思考人士。」







Read more: 世界新聞網

VBS: 6/14-6/18/10

This year, the VBS was from 6/14 to 6/18, and the theme was "Sonquest Rainforest". I was busy this year; therefore, I didn't get the opportunity to take more photos for Ha and Hee. Thank God that the weather was really nice, and it was around 80 degrees; sunny but not too hot. I had the chance to work with many people that I never met in the church before, but they were all faithful coworkers. I also had the chance to work with some teenagers; some of them were very good, and their parents should be proud of them, but others didn't have good self-control, and they were not very helpful.

Ha and Hee liked their group leaders very much, and Hee even made cards for two of his group leaders on the last day of VBS. When they came home every day, they talked about the Bible stories, snacks, crafts, games, and they sang and danced the songs, and they were always looking forward to the next day. This year, there were 10+ preschoolers and kindergartners accepting Jesus as their Savior, and it's the best reward for all the coworkers.

On the last day of VBS, Ha and Hee told me that they wished that VBS lasts 10 days instead of 5, and I told them that I believed that all the adults hoped that they were 5 days only because there were too much work involved. They just came and had fun, but there were so much preparation behind the scene. Praise the Lord because with Him, all things are possible. When we had the first coworker meeting in May, the numbers of enrollments were very low, and coworkers were worrying about that, but few days later, 1st to 6th grade classes were full. Preschool class was also full on the 3rd day of VBS. Kindergarten class only had less than 10 spots left. God did His own work.God leads the way!

Kid to Work Day- Twist and Twist

Today is Kid to Work Day, and in my previous entry, I was looking forward to having a relaxing day by myself since both kids would go with Stephen to work. Even though I didn't have any specific plan in mind, just thinking of being alone without the kids for 8 hours excited me.

However, at the last minute, Hee changed his mind and wished to stay home with me. Well, what can I say? I will get a lot of alone time when they grow up, and when they are still young, I should cherish the time that they want to spend with me. My Mom bought a Toy Story 3 T-shirt for Hee, and Hee wanted to watch the movie, but Ha didn't want to go. Since Ha would go with Stephen, it's a good opportunity to bring Hee to the movie.

It was a great movie, and we watched 3D version. It's cheaper to watch before noon. It was about Andy's toys. Since he's going to the college, his toys would be either moved to the new place with him, be put in the attic, or be thrown away. The toys helped each other to get through all kinds of dangerous situation; and finally, they found a good home for themselves. At the last part of the movie, Andy was packing for the college, and he had to leave those toys that he played dearly at young age behind. Ha had his yellow blanket, and Hee had his white and blue blankets, and they brought the blankets everywhere. The blankets were dear to them, but few years from now, they may not need the blankets anymore; few years from now, they may not play Legos anymore, may not play with their stuffed animals anymore. Ten years from now, Ha will go to the college, just like Andy. Hee was concentrated on the movie, and I was glad that I was sitting beside him.

When we got home, we got the phone from Stephen that Ha had a good time in his office, and he was asking if Hee wanted to go, too. Hee said ok, so I packed him a bread to eat in the car and drove to Stephen's company right away. Hee didn't want to go to the classes alone like Ha, so we went to the talent show together. One of the kids sang beautifully, and one of the kids did hula hoops well, but others were just ok. Most of them were 印度小孩。After the show, we met Ha, and he enjoyed the day in Daddy's office so much. Stephen's company had "Mad Science" organize the scientific activities and classes for kids and played two movies; also, kids could spend time in the museum, so they wouldn't get bored.

Original plan: Stephen brought two kids to work
Twist 1: Hee stayed home with me
Twist 2: It became our "whole family" to work day

Conclusion: I am a very flexible person, and I take easy with changes. No matter how many twists in a day, I'm still happy.

Last Day of School: 6/10/10

6/10 was the last day for Ha's 2nd grade class and Hee's kindergarten. This year, Ha made good progress in terms of finishing his homework without my 三催四請五拖六拉，and his math was usually in the challenge group in class. However, he still needs some improvement on writing because he's not good at finding the sentences to write. When I was at his age, writing was one of my strong subjects, I had good imagination, so I could make up my stories easily.Ha didn't know how to make up the stories, so writing was hard for him.

Hee was doing well in class, and he enjoyed his kindergarten life; however, he still had seperation anxiety even in the last month of the school year. He cried few time a week when I was leaving, but he would stop crying as soon as he couldn't see me. It happened not only at school, but at Sunday School, AWANA, too. It worried me because VBS was coming, and I couldn't concentrate on my work if he's not coorperative. 

I signed up for VBS fasting prayer every Tuesday, and on 6/1 (Tuesday), he still cried in the morning at school. During my fasting prayer time, I asked God to help him to be strong, and God answered my prayer. From that day on, he never cried at school, at Sunday School, at living water summer kids program. and he never cried at VBS. It's a miracle, and I thank God for that. When we did the work for God, He also took care of what we concerned.

In August, my kids will be on the first and 3rd grade, Wow, sounds "big"!

Hello, blog, I'm back!

VBS is over, from now on, my summer officially starts. Kids were upset on Friday that VBS was over, but now, they are happy because there are many things that they are still looking forward to in summer.

1.Kids to work day with Daddy on 6/24. Stephen's company has many activities for kids on that day, and I can relax for one long day. ( It may be the longest day that I spend alone since Ha was born!!!!) 2 years ago, Ha went to make a battery music card in Stephen's company, so he liked that company because it's "high-tech".

2. We are going camping with fellowship families (more than 60 people) on July 4th weekend in Clear Lake. Our family may also go for a side trip on the way there or on the way home to avoid 3 hours straight driving. Just a thought, haven't planned yet.

3. Ha will join two summer camps that he selected: Awesome engineer and construction camp from 7/12 to 7/16 and Pro Builders: advanced Legos and game design camp from 8/2 to 8/6.

4. We will go to HOC summer retreat from 8/6 to 8/8. We went there on 2008, and Ha was still excited about sleeping in the dorm and eating the buffet for 3 days. However, since Ha's camp will be over at 3pm, we will miss one session or two on Friday. We know few families will go, too, so we will get some companies; hopefully, more families can come, so Ha and Hee can have more friends to play with.

5. Obviously, we will go to Grandma's house or Sophia's house for short stay if possible to play with the cousins, and we will play table tennis, go swimming as often as we can. I also hope that they can learn more chinese, piano, math during the summer.

For today, we will clean up their rooms (this task may last few days) and go for a big grocery shopping because my fridge was almost empty.

Hee's fieldtrip to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo

Today was Hee's fieldtrip to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. I wasn't plan on going, but yesterday, when I picked up Hee, his teacher said that she still needed chaperon, so I went. I went there once when Ha was in kindergarten. At that time, Hee was too young to ride on the school bus, so I needed to drive. This time, I was able to ride on the bus. Each chaperon took care of 4 to 5 kids, and my group had 5 kids. It's a big challenge to be in the open space with 5 kindergarten kids.

We went to the zoo first because animals were more active and alert in the early morning. In Happy Hollow Zoo, we didn't see those "regular animals" that we will see in the bigger zoo; instead, we saw more farm or small sized animals. The only words that kids used to describe the animals was "so cute". They just repeatedly said "so cute, so cute". Another word that they often said was "hungry". As soon as they got off the bus, they started saying hungry and kept asking me when would be the time for lunch. Hee had his breakfast, so he didn't say hungry.

The playground is so big and looked so fun. If I didn't need to take care of the bunch of kids, I might go and play myself.

We took some rides, and Hee and his friend said that they wanted to take the Frog Hopping. Hee still remembered that he took the similar ride when he was in Taiwan 2 years ago with a 女大人（懿真）, so he said that he's not afraid of this ride. (video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6PZ_vykLpk )They asked me to play, too, but I told them that I'm scared of it. Also, the other 2 kids in my group went for a roller coaster ride, and another kid went to playground, so I needed to run between these 3 places. I'm capable of having 5 kids! ( but I don't want to have 5 kids.)

Finally, it's 1pm, and I was so happy to be on the bus. Their summer vacation is going to begin, and I don't need to be on the fieldtrip for at least 2 months. Hooray!

Ha is doing better

Ha was absent from school for 4 days (Wed-Mon), and finally, his fever was gone. He's still coughing with some whizzing sounds, but he seemed to be better now. I took some video to show my parents that he's better now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwK__4FhhvI

He's not 100% like what he was before he got sick, but he's getting better and better each day. If he still coughes hard, I will bring him to the doctor again.

Our New Neighbor

About two weeks ago, we started hearing strange noises from the roof or attic at night, but we were not sure where it came from or who made it. It was like "whoo,whoo, whoo...", and also, we could hear walking steps.

By checking the roof, we saw this....a lot of "Golds" on our roof. It should be the way that our new tenant paid for the rent. We didn't want anyone to take away our gold, so we buried it under a fruit tree.

Few days later, we were sure that the noise was from our attic instead of the roof, so Stephen decided to visit our new tenant. The attic was so narrow on the top of our bedroom, so Stephen had to crawl like a worm. I poked my head out to the attic, and both of us saw him: a raccoon! He was hiding on the edge of the roof, and it's too narrow for Stephen to get to, so we couldn't do anything about it.

We called the animal removal service , and a trapper came on Saturday afternoon. He found raccoon's footprints on one of the poles in the backyard.

And he found the hole that might be the door for the raccoon to get into our attic. He set up 2 traps in our backyard, but nothing happened.3 days later, he set up a trap on the roof, but still, nothing happened. We didn't hear the noises in attic anymore, and we believed that our tenant had moved out.

I heard his voice this afternoon, and it didn't seem to come from the attic. I went to the window and found that he's outside of our living room. Ha and I went out, but we missed him. An hour later, he's here again, Hee and I went out and found that he's hiding under the cottage. Tonight, he's here again, Stephen went out, and he ran away. I guessed that we will still see each other very often these days.

Now, It's Ha's turn

Hee is completely recovered from his illness and is as good as new now: happy, energetic and has good appetite.
Ha is now sleeping in the car: just coming back from the doctor, and is going to pick up Hee from school. He didn't want to move because he's afraid that he might throw up again.

Tuesday afternoon, when Ha was back from school, he was ok, but few hours later, he said that he was tired and wanted to take a nap. It's very unusual because as far as I know, both of them didn't like the nap. I knew that something was wrong, and I found that Ha's about 101 degrees. Here we go again!

He ate little but threw up few times, and the fever was always between 100 to 102, so I brought him to the doctor. The doctor said that it might be stomach flu, and he should eat small amount of porridge or chicken soup. 少量多餐。

The similar situation happened last year, too. Thanks to my blog, I easily found the entry "Sick Ha, Sick Hee: http://happyfamilyhuang.blogspot.com/2009/06/sick-ha-sick-hee.html ; http://happyfamilyhuang.blogspot.com/2009/06/little-update-about-sick-ha-sick-hee.html
in June last year. 日光之下真的沒有新事啊！

乒乓球明日之星

We bought a Ping-Pong table from a garage sale last year; however, we were only able to play few times before the raining season started. This year, the rain was on and off  until May, which is very unusual; as a result, we are not able to play Ping-Pong in the backyard.

From the forecast, we don't see the rain return in the near future, so we finally took out our Ping-Pong table on Sat. after we came back from the group picnic.

I didn't even get the turn to play because Ha and Hee surprisingly loved to play Ping-Pong, and I was not good enough to play with them. I seriously guessed that they are better players than I am. My job was to pick up the balls from the floor.(撿球員）

When I was young, I heard the names of best Ping-Pong players were 紀金龍 and 紀金水； 10 years from now, the best Ping-Pong players may be 黃哈哈 and 黃嘻嘻。

This was the first time that they played Ping-Pong this year, and maybe the 3rd or 4th time that they played in their lifetime as of now:

Heehee:　http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF1cUeqSAGw
Haha: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmICxbqdR64