Merry Christmas! (part 2)

More Christmas fun!

Merry Christmas!

Just for Fun: Toy Hall of Fame

http://www.museumofplay.org/NTHoF/

The National Toy Hall of Fame® at Strong National Museum of Play recognizes toys that have engaged and delighted multiple generations, inspiring them to learn, create, and discover through play. Criteria for induction include: Icon-status (the toy is widely recognized, respected, and remembered); Longevity (the toy is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over multiple generations); Discovery (the toy fosters learning, creativity, or discovery through play); and Innovation (the toy profoundly changed play or toy design).

To date, the following 44 toys have made it into the National Toy Hall of Fame:
Alphabet Blocks
Atari® 2600 Game System
Ball
Barbie®
Baby Doll
Bicycle
Big Wheel®
Candy Land®
Cardboard Box
Checkers
Crayola® Crayons
Duncan® Yo-Yo
Easy-Bake® Oven
Erector® Set
Etch A Sketch®
Frisbee®
G.I. Joe™
Hula Hoop®
Jack-in-the-Box
Jacks
Jigsaw Puzzle
Jump Rope
Kite
LEGO®
Lincoln Logs®
Lionel® Trains
Marbles
Monopoly®
Mr. Potato Head®
Nintendo Game Boy®
Play-Doh®
Radio Flyer® Wagon
Raggedy Ann & Andy™
Rocking Horse
Roller Skates
Scrabble®
Silly Putty®
Skateboard
Slinky®
Stick
Teddy Bear
Tinkertoy®
Tonka® Trucks
View-Master®


my only complaint: scrabble is NOT a toy! :) hehe

It's all done

After waiting for 3 long weeks, the final pieces of our kitchen remodeling project arrived, the oven and dishwasher. They came on Saturday, October 11, a little before 11:30a.m. We emailed our contractor, Allen, that they have arrived. Allen agreed to come early next week to install. Tuesday came and he found a problem. he could not get an adaptor fitting for the dishwasher. He spent Tuesday afternoon in pouring rain to try to find that part. Finally, he called me to order it on line because no place has a stock of it. It is too new. So, daddy order it and it arrived next day. Problem solved. On Wednesday, Allen put the final touches on the windows. They look really good. On Friday, the front door was installed. I love it. Allen brought a dumpster and cleaned up. We tried to throw away things but not too successfully. Today, we paid the rest of the payments for the remodeling. The kitchen project is officially completed. We hope you will come back and see. But, not too soon, we still have a lot to organize. I wish I can put a picture here but I can't.

weekend with family

hot pot with the fam from Gar on Vimeo.

It was a busy, but fun weekend... thanks for visiting Jaime, BeeJ, Valene, and Dustin!

 

It's Almost There!

Wow, we have not written since Friday, 9/18. On Saturday morning 9/19, we went to get more floor tiles for the workers. When we came back, Tony tried to put up the range hood and he said that there was no electrical power and it did not work. I was not very happy about this. So, we took the hood and went to the Sunnyvale store and see what we could do while Tony finised the floor. When we got to the store, the lady said that tightened the screw and it would be okay. So, we took the hood back home and told Tony to tighten the screw and it still did not work. At this time, we did not want to ruin the hood so we decided that we will call the Oakland store and ask for service. The service man did not come until this last Monday. It was the screw. It was not long enough to make contact. So, now it is working and awaiting for the range to come.

In the meantime, Allen, our contractor, wanted to us to look for the windows. He gave us the name of the place, Bay City Windows, and the person, Gina, and the kind of windows we should get (Tuschany). So, on Monday, I tried to call Gina. She was one busy woman. I left messages for 2 days and she never called me back. I was a little annoyed. But, on Tuesday, our faucet came in. I was excited and called Allen and told him. So, he came to put in the faucet on Wednesday morning and asked Daddy how was the windows searching going. I wanted Daddy to be there while he put on the faucet. So, Daddy told him that we could not get in touch with Gina. Right the way, he called Gina on the phone and we had an appointment in the afternoon at 2p.m. So, off we went to Fremont. The windows are simple and energy efficient and they look nice. So, we paid and left. They will be here on oct 6. After the window, we decided to go to Home Depot to get our knobs. They are simple ceramic knobs. This kitchen will be finished when the stove and dishwasher come in on 10/10. We cannot wait to see this whole project finished. Oh, remember we told you that Allen was not sure about us ordering an unusual faucet online. After he put the faucet in, I asked how he liked our faucet. He said that he liked it and he might even buy one for himself. It is cool. I have to leave for my annual checkup. So, I will talk to you later. Have a great time this weekend. We wish we could be with you all in Seattle................

Sunday

In the midst of the remodeling, we forgot to mention our new English Pastor Moa. He was born in India and he came here to study. He is married with 2 children, a boy and a girl. He is very nice and we hope that he will work out.

Sunday was an easy day. After service, we went to (again) wine tasting at Santa Clara University. It was a fundraiser for the alumni. There were a lot of people and a lot of food. We invited Gail and Jim to come along. Daddy had a great day. He got 6 bottles of Bell Cab from the silent auction and he had the wine maker signed a couple of bottles. Daddy will tell you more when he sees you. On the other hand, I did not get anything. But, that was a blessing. When we got home, Allen called and gave a progress report. He needed two gallons of paint before he will put up the cabinets and floor. So, off we went to OSH because there was still no tax. My goodness, do you know how many shades of paint you can get????? It was so hard to decide because I cannot really see the color. But, finally, we bite the bullot and got two gallons. I thought it was good.

Monday, the workers finalized the drywall seams and prepared the floor. Allen came by and took our cabinet receipt for pickup. On Tuesday they started to paint. Oh, by the way, we had dinner at L & L Monday and Round Table Pizza on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. So, we decided for me to take a couple more hours off to go to Oakland to pick out the granite. We got there around noon. Some guy showed us the batch of granite and told us to choose. We just looked at each other and smile because there was no way that we could see the differences. Somehow, we managed to pick out 7 of them. We prayed that they will be the same color. If not, c'est la vie. By this time, I was hungry. We went to eat at this small Chinese restaurent. Daddy had spare ribs with bitter melon with rice and I had cod with vegetable with rice. We had a lot of rice left so we boxed them up for dinner. After lunch, we went to my doctor's appointment. Everything is fine. But my white blood count was low. So my doctor told me not to be near any sick people and washed my hands frequently. We had a little time before my appointment. I asked Daddy if he would mind to the store which had the touch handle faucet. Daddy said okay to just look. So, we went. When we got to the store, the sales person was happy to show us the faucet which he had installed. It was nice looking and very handy. I liked it. I thought Daddy liked it, too, until he told us the price $525. Wow, it was a little expensive and that was that. After the appointment, we went to downtown Campbell because Daddy wanted to buy his comic books. Along the way, we checked out a couple of hardware store to look for our cabinets handles. I wished I could put pictures here. We found one that was really cool looking but again it was too expensive. It's okay. I don't really need expensive handles which will break eventually. Then we went to buy broccoli beef at Tsing Tao for dinner with the rice leftovers. When we got home, there were cabinets all over in the garage. That looked good. That night, Daddy was surfing the net and he found the FAUCET at Amazon.com and it costs $339 with free shipping and no tax. Guess what, we are now a proud owner of the Delta Touch 2O faucet. It will be here on Tuesday. My contractor, Allen was a little concerned. We'll see.

When I got home on Thursday, the cabinets were all up. Allen was there talking to the workers and was a little concerned on the spacing of the stove. Once again, I stressed out Allen with the new kind of stove with no backing. We hoped everything will be okay when the stove comes on 10/10. Please pray for the stove comes earlier. Then we went to dinner at Taco Bell. I was a little full so we decided to go to Home Depot to get the cabinet knobs. We decided to buy the regular round porcelain knobs in bisque color. They only cost $1.89 each. We loved them.

On Friday, Daddy went to pick up the range hood in the morning just in case that they wanted to put it up. They did not have time to do that because they laid the floor tiles. We were short so tomorrow we had to go get some more. They floor looked very nice. My goodness, the kitchen is coming together real fast. We are very excited to see the finished kitchen. But, we are looking forward to cook again......no more fast food. Tonight, we had pho............

It has been exciting!!!!

Hi, I have not blog for a few days. There are a lot of things happened. On Saturday morning, we went to Orchard Supply Hardware to buy our stove and dishwasher because we didn't have to pay sales tax and we got 20% off....not bad huh?! The only glitch is that we won't get them until October 10. It is because of the bisque color that I want. That means we will have to eat out for the next 4 weeks. After that, we went straight to KZ Cabinets to pay off the balance so that our contractor, Allen, can pick them up. Then, we drove up to Oakland to buy our granite. The color that we picked out was Ice Blue. When we placed the order, we found out that they were out of stock....so SAD. Now we had to pick out another color. Do you know how hard it is to pick among 20 some odd choices???? Finally, we picked their newest addition "New Blue". After paying, we had to go to the warehouse to choose 7 slabs to be sure they matched. Before that, we went to Pacific store to buy our self cleaning, powerful, bisque color range hood. Apparently, this week they had a promotion.......a box of moon cake, an electric thermos and a $38 gift certificate. I was in heaven. I quickly used the gift certificate for a leather traveling mug with a tea leave strainer insert. It looked awesome. While we were buying, there were 2 more persons waiting to purchase. You know how we attract people in the store. Now, we went to pick our granite. But we were a little time restrained. We needed to pick up some home tour tickets for Jaime and deliver them to Jaime in SF. In short, we did not pick the granite yet and we needed to come back. So, off we went to the printing store, the person could not find the box. While we were waiting, daddy noticed that there were some flyers advertising George Lopez show. It was taking too long. So, we helped look for the box. The funny thing was that I found it and it was on top of the George Lopez boxes. No time to waste, we drove across the Bay Bridge. It was traffic before the toll booths. There was a SUV which would not allow daddy to merge into their lane. I got a little upset and pointed at the woman on the passenger side to see if she would let us it. No, she pointed to the front also. And I found out that that was a funeral procession.....sorry. Okay, we got to Jaime's place and mission accomplished. Before we went back to Oakland, Mimi wanted to look for a clothe steamer which was on sale at Macy's from 9 to 1. I told I would try. Since were near downtown, we rushed to Macy's. Daddy found a white zone parking right in front of Macy's. I told Daddy, "give me 10 minutes and i will be right back." So, I ran downstairs, found the steamer, ran back upstairs and paid at the cosmetic register. Downstaris was a mad house. I made the time......I was proud of myself.

Take a deep breath. Oakland here we come. By the time we got back to the warehouse, it was raining. The sales person told us not to choose the granite because the color would change when they were wet. So, with such disappointment, we decided to come back another time. As we walked back to our car, a meter maid was giving a ticket to the car parked behind us on the street. We looked up and saw a sign that said no parking, street cleaning between 12:30 and 3:30p.m. Wow, what luck, we would have gotten a ticket if we were choosing our granite. So, that was a good thing, I guess. Then, we went to Restoration Hardware at Valley Fair. I found some knobs that I like for our cabinets but daddy thinks they were too expensive. So, we left and look for some more. We then went to Home Depot and saw their hardware. I think there were no comparison. I agreed that we should looked for some more. I was too tired and so we went home. Jaime called and told us that there is a new kitchen faucet which you can just touch it and water will come out and stop when you touch it again. Jaime thought it was neat and we thought it would be expensive. But, we said that we would check it out.....not today........ I will let you know more about that later. Stay tuned. There are more to come.

things cc, dust, and i have in common

our cars: mazda protege


our phones: eV2/3


our jr. high backpacks: eddie bauer lifetime warranty (this is my model... but you know your model)


our parents: mom and dad


happy belated anniversary! :)

The Destruction Begins

Hi, Family!

This morning promptly at 8am, two dimiinutive Chinese men appeared at my front door. They were to take away all the old kitchen cabinets, strip off the tiles from the floor, and remove all the built-in appliances. One was Tony. He was the foreman and spoke English very haltingly. I took them over to the kitchen and told them all I wanted to keep was the light fixture over the dining table and the garbage disposal. Everything else is fair game. They proceeded to work and work they did. I stayed only for a few minutes before I left for work. I gave Joey my work phone number just in case there was a problem. I did not receive any calls. I guess "No news is good news." Arriving at home after work, I expected a dumpster filled with the old stuff from our kitchen. Instead I saw Tony's Honda sedan parked in our driveway. No big hunking American truck. Just a regular sedan. Going into the house the two men were still working to strip the old wallpaper from the dining area walls. The kitchen was already stripped bare. They had piled the debris neatly in the back yard in front of my brick barbeque grill. They were basically done. I couldn't believe it.

I knew going in that the floor under the dishwasher and kitchen sink needs major work. The dishwaher was broken and had leaked. The garbage disposal that I had installed to replace the original one had also leaked. My fears were realized. Five planks need to be replaced. Tony wasn't too worried about it. He said that they will order the wood and hopefully get the planks replaced before putting on the floors tiles. He was more interested in the overhead lighting. He asked if I had done the lighting in the kitchen. I said that the previous owner had put them in. Tony just shook his head and said that it was not good. The previous owner had cut through the 2X4's to mount the lighting fixture panel. Now he has to replace all those 2X4's in the ceiling. Hopefully he will be able to do that tomorrow.

These two Chinese workers reminded me of the industrious workers that laid the railroad tracks for the Union Pacific Railroad back in the 1850's. They even had to tunnel through the mountains to make way for these tracks. Their Americans counterparts doubted that these tiny Chinese cannot do the task. They will fail. But they proved them wrong. Sometimes we need to be reminded how our tireless and hardworking pioneers pathed the way for us. And it was because of them that we enjoy the life that we have now.

Until tomorrow,

Dad

p.s. our first dinner without the kitchen is Mimi's Cafe...buy one get one free.

What a bummer!

Hi Family,

last night we worked really hard to put all the stuff from the kitchen into ten plastic 66 qts containers thinking that Allen will start today. No, he did not make it. His foreman, Tony, will do the demolition tomorrow morning at 8a.m. So, tonight we will have our last supper in our old kitchen with paper plates and plastic forks.

It was not easy to do the packing. I cannot imagine if we have to move and pack the whole house. But, yesterday, if I have my way (mommy talking), I will throw away most of the stuff. But, it is not just me. I have found your baby plates, cups and thermos (carebears, gobots and ballerina). They still look fairy new and they don't smell. I wish I know how to put the pictures in this blog so that I can show them to you. All and all, it was a fun night but very tiring. I started out singing while we worked and then turned into grumpy. Joey was a big help to move the table to the TV room, the big butcher table to the garage and chairs to Jaime's room.

Util tomorrow, have a great evening.............love, mom & dad

New adventure for Mom and Dad - Part 2

Hi, I am back...... Where was I? Oh, yes, after granite, we went to look for the hood over the stove. I wanted a strongest fan that they had. We found one which is 750 cubic feet per minute. They told me it is the strongest and the best feature is.....it is self cleaning. We will show you when you come home later. By this time, I am very hungry. We got some water and a ham and egg bow and off we went to Airport Home Applicance in Hayward. We did not like what we saw so we are skipping this place. The next thing we had to shop was the kitchen floor. We wanted to go with tiles. So, with Allen's recommendation, we went to Uni-tiles in Hayward. We were overwhelmed. There were a lot of people and lots of tiles. We did not know where to start so I asked the sales lady. She told us to look along the side of the wharehouse. We looked and looked and looked and we could not decided. Finally, a man came over and asked if we needed help. We must have looked pathetic. With his help, we found what we needed. So, we went over to the front and wait for our tiles. When the crate came, I almost felt down. It was a full pallet. How are we going to put all these tiles in our little Corolla? The man laughed at me and said, "they are not all for you." I said, "thank goodness!" It was only 9 little boxes....oh well. By this time, I am tired and hungry (did not finish the bow) and I want to go home. But, we have to go back to KZ Cabinets to put a deposit on the order so that they could give us a plan to give to Allen. We have 1/2 hour to go back to Milpitas. We made it and our salesman Wei told us that he could give us another 5% discount......not bad huh. To finish the day, Daddy took me to dinner at Left Bank Steak House in Santana Row which used to be Tanglewood.

Sunday was an easy going day. It is always good to slow down and focus on worshipping God. It was Sunday School promotion day. Our new Associate Pastor, Moa, started his first day with us. So, that was good. Even though the Bay Bridge was closed, Maria and Raymond came over and treated us to a great lunch with Jaime and Reiko.

Monday was the CUMC softball playoff: Team Orange (old guys) vs. Team Nathan (young guys). we did not not go because we went shopping for stove and dishwasher and other things. We went to orchard Supply, Sears, and Best Buy. We found a drop in range with a smooth cook top and a convection oven at Orchard Supply. The salesperson told us to come back on Saturday because there will be no sales tax.....YAY. Then we went to Restoration Hardward to find knobs. They are beautiful. They are a little expensive but I think I am going with them later. The last place we went was Home Depot where we bought the sink and faucet. Another full day, we needed to go home because Allen was coming to see the plan. Allen looked at the plan and requested a few remodifications namely order more stuff. Then, he said that everything looked good and asked when we would like to start. I said, "when can you start? And he said, "how about this Wednesday 9/9?" And we said, "OKAY!" So, now we are going to pack everything and see what happens tomorrow............ part 3 will be coming soon!!!!!!

New adventure for Mom and Dad

It is funny that I was thinking of all your first days of school when I was talking to my co-workers who have young kids in the beginning of this school year. I don't remember the actual day but I have the pictures in my mind of all your first days to kindergarten. You all were so cute dressed in your new clothes carrying your new lunch boxes. All of you looked so eager to go to school or I was proud to see you going to school. But, anyway, CC, I know you will be great help to your anxious students.

Okay, We were going to surprise you all except Jaime because she knew what is happening in our house. Did she tell you? If not, here it goes. We are remodeling our kitchen. On 8/26, I finally calledthe contractor, Allen Shao, from a mutual friend. He came two days later and did some measurements and gave us an estimate on that Sunday 8/30. We liked the figures and accepted the quote. He came by last Friday, 9/4, and gave us 3 stores and told us to go shopping on Labor Day weekend. And so we did. Daddy had a hair appointment on Sat morning. We had a late start. The first stop is KZ Cabinet in Milpitas. Allen told us that they have good quality cabinets in very reasonable prices. They are from China. The guy told us to look around and let him know which one we liked. They all looked very nice and beautiful. Finally, we found one style we liked. It is Canadian Maple, light color. So, he sat down put our meansurements into the computer, pushed a key here and there, and he have our new kitchen on the screen. It looked pretty good. We had a lazy susan in the corner bottom cabinet and a spice rack right next to the stove. we are going to take away the oven and buy a drop in range so that we have more counter space. When he gave us the quote, we almost had a heart attack because the quote was $3100 including the tax. It was 1/2 what I expected. But, this is our first store so we took the quote and head on to the other store named Sincere Hardware in Oakland. It looked bigger, busier and had more stuff. The cabinets did not really catch our eyes but we waited for a quote anyway. We picked the cabinets came from back East and the quote was $8800. We could not believe the big difference. They also had cabinets from China but we did not them. Allen did tell us to get granite from this store and we did. They were less than $1000. Daddy said it is time to eat............. I will continue after dinner. Bye.

First day of school

Good morning, family,

It is the first day of school for Garrett and I. It is both exciting and also stressful all at the same time.

I remember how much I did not like the first day of school. I love staying home during the summer. I was and am such a home-body. I do not have any specific memories about the first day of school but I do remember the feelings that would start to grow in me. I did not know what to expect, so I was nervous for the classroom expectations. I was nervous in meeting new classmates and not knowing who would be a new friend.

Looking back at the memories and the feelings of anticipation, I still feel that way when it is the first day of school. I hope and pray that I can help those students who feel the same way that I did when I was younger, but also to encourage the excitement as well.

This year will be different. I am looping with my kids from last year, so I know about 20 of the families. I also lost some kids so I have new kids on my class roster, all boys. I am at sixteen boys and eight girls and I think there will be a new boy added to my roster this morning. I will truly need to understand the mind of a boy quickly if I am able to survive the chaos. =)

I will post again after the first few days of school. Take care, love, cc

Leaving Korea soon...

Hello family!

I have been out of the blogging loop for a while. It has been busy here in Korea. The English camp ended last Friday, Aug 14th. Now I am teaching at the other English camp, 3 hours every day in the afternoon. It is more difficult with this schedule because it doesn't allow for us to go out to shop or do last minute sight seeing. I cannot believe that the four weeks have flown by so quickly. It has been a fantastic experience here in Korea, teaching English and communicating with other Korean elementary teachers, but I am ready to go home.

When Garrett visited last week, it was fun having a traveling buddy and the excuse to leave the campus to sightsee. I also believe that he triggered some feelings of homesickness when he departed. It is challenging traveling with people who may not think like you or enjoy the same things. It is quite taxing on the mind and the body.

I will leave some last pictures of karaoking. Garrett's one wish was to go to a karaoke place and sing his heart out. We did. Garrett and I are singing our favorite song, "Daydream believer" by the Monkees. The second picture is just a cute picture of us.

Take care and I will talk to you all soon, very soon...

love, cc

2009 Retreat

Hi all my children:

I promise Jaime that I will write today right after the retreat. Summer had been long every year for the last 3 or 4 years. It is because Daddy had basketball practice every Saturday and games during the weeks in July. So, going to the retreat every year is almost like our vacation every year. I and Daddy just came back this afternoon from Redwood Christian Camp. As usual the only adults there from the English service are me and Daddy, Dianne and Stephen and Mary. I always felt that we have to be there but I just realized that we had not been to the retreat for 3 years.....2006 CC and Garrett's wedding...2007 Valene and Dustin's wedding......2008 our family China trip. So, we really don't have to be there. They can do it without us. But I found out that at the retreat I talked to more people from all three congregations that I would never have the chance on Sundays. It is really a relationship building time, although this years was a little too long.....Sunday through Thursday.

Initially, we went to the retreat because we want to support Pastor Louis Lee who was our speaker. But, it turned out that he hurt his back and could not come. He was hoping that he would be healed in 2 weeks and finally he had to call Mary on the Monday before the retreat. As you can tell, we were all a little concerned and panicky. We all prayed hard and asked God to heal Pastor Louis. In the mean time, Pastor William was trying to find someone to fill his place. So, by Friday, Mary emailed us that Pastor Louis had a really bad back but our Chinese reatreat speaker had found someone to come. Pastor Fung called up the youth misinter who was in a youth camp and would finish on Saturday. God really tested our faith before the retreat for our theme was "Faith". God had another plan for us. Pastor Mark turned out to be a little younger and better fit for our campers.

I did a workshop on "How to grow in Faith". At the end, I have them made an origami frog which stands for FullyRelyOnGod.....frog. Daddy, as usual, have us doing skits. He gave the beginning of a skit entitled "The Case of a Zuchini" and we have to finish it. Melanie, yes little Melanie, gave a workshop on "Encouragement"...simple and yet has substance. Stephen took us outside to meditate on John 3:16-18. The kids took care of all the worship sets and the campfire. I would say half of them shared about their struggles in their walk with Christ, their education, their career, their love and hate of their parents' demands, and just a lot of heartfelt sharing. I was so happy and proud of them. I knew them when they were just little kids. And now, they are all growing up. The next generation is coming up. Jaime, in God's time, you WILL have someone to work with you. I can see the closeness between them and their serving hearts. After that, Daddy presented the love feast and of course the night ended with roasting marshmellows, s'mores and smokies. Oh, as we were doing all these things, there was a wild fire burning 10 miles away from us. Praise the Lord, it was burning away from us. It is still burning right now and I pray that it will be okay for the people who have to be evacuated and the fire will be ended soon.

I want to write some more about Pastor Mark's messages or I should say stories. But I think I am writing too much. Anyway, there is one illustration Pastor Mark made really stuck in my mind is "what is the difference between committed and involved?" You see a bacon and an egg on a plate. The bacon is committed and the egg is involved. That really spoke to me that serving the Lord is costly. We need to make sacrifices. Pastor Mark told a story about her mother. I will write about her later. The story really tells us about God's sovereignty. God is love and He is in control.

I pray that you all will be safe in wherever you are and whatever you do wll bring glory to God.

I love you and take care,
Mom

p.s. Valene, I know the person whose class you took over after she retired. She is Gayle Kong. She asked me if I am Dustin's mom. She forgot your name. That was so surreal. We had a very good talk.

CC, it was so nice to know you are safe and hope Garrett and you have a good time together at Korea.

my thoughts ... on paper

something you may not know about me... i write in journals, and i have been since 6th grade.

so i realize that when i'm going through a very hard time in my life, i like to write. it's the only thing that will calm me down. and i mean write, using a pen and paper. not blogging. it's not the same. i think i relate blogging with writing essays for school. but writing, reminds me of being a little kid just writing/drawing/doodling anything i want to. for me, it's more... freeing.

this post is an ode to my journals over the years. most of my 6th grade through 12th grade journals are in my home-home (the parental unit's home) at the moment. but i have a couple from high school and all my college years until today journals are with me here at my place. and i thought i'd share....

*note, not all of these journals are totally filled, i've used a couple of the journals at the same time in my life, and i'm missing a very important journal which i know is at home from the summer of 2004 when i was in chicago on the urban missions trip.

journals from high school to now.

from left to right:

• 1- small sliver of a journal (you can barely see it) = june 2002 it's from my first mexico missions trip the summer after my sophomore year of high school
• 2- spiral = my quote book, given to me by my friend tiffany on my 17th birthday, and i've added to it over the years
• 3+4- these 2 journals are actually the same exact journal (i probably got a 2 for 1 deal!) = 3-jan 2002 to nov 2002, 4-nov 2002 to june 2003
• 5- this is actually my day planner for 2003
• 6- next spiral = march 2003 to nov 2003
• 7- nov 2003 to dec 2004
• 8- mar 2004 to may 2004
• 9- sept 2004 to nov 2004
• 10- feb 2005 to oct 2005
• 11- june 2005 to nov 2005
• 12- sept 2005 to nov 2005
• 13- dec 2005 to aug 2006
• 14- aug 2006 to june 2007
• 15- may 2007 to jan 2008 (this one was just for notes here and there)
• 16- feb 2008 to feb 2009
• last one is a new journal... to be filled!

[edit: after writing this blog i was looking at all the dates, i realize that all of the times of my life--from 6th grade until now--are recorded on paper, except for dec 2004 and january 2005 (when grandma passed away) -- i guess it's true, there are no words when someone close to you goes away...]

journals i am currently writing in.

from left to right || tan/red = the journal i've been using to prep/teach for the high school group i've been leading || brown suede = personal journal, i write my thoughts, quotes, life questions that have no answers, ideas... my everything. || blue/tan = captivating journal- my senior year of college i led a small group (ashley y. and becky p.) and we went through the book 'captivating' by john and stasi eldredge... this is the journal i used then, and it's the same one i am using now since i'm reading it again with my friend lydia. full circle... actually, comparing my notes from then and now i'm realizing the same parts of the book still hits my heart the same way... interesting...

journals that i carry with me always.

from left to right || moleskine city notebook san francisco = this is a small pocketbook with maps of san francisco, of public transit, of the bart system, and places for me to write my favorite spots and places to be. i've been writing all the places i've been in the city, my favorite places, and places i've been with my favorite people. :) || moleskine pocket squared notebook = this is just a regular graph-paper pocketbook. contains notes, doodles, stickers, and just random stuff that i accumulate. || moleskine red cahier journal = this is a thin lined pocketbook with perforated pages for easy tearing out to pass along notes! i love this pocket book-- it came in a pack of 3! :)

my favorite journal:

i've had this bible since 8th grade. i've written in it since i've had it. i like to date the passages i've read. when i read the passage again, i'll write the next date. if i've written notes in the margins, i'll read them and reflect on my previous thoughts/insights, and sometimes i add to it too. this is by far my favorite place to journal.

dad, i probably got my love for books and writing from you. but mom, i totally got writing in my bible from you (i think i've always liked looking in your precious moments bible with the little pencil writings in the margins)! :)

English camp

Good morning to you all!

It is morning for me, 7am and I am getting ready to start my day. I believe that jetlag is over and I am on a regular schedule.

I get up early because the sun rises into our dormitory earlier than usual. I like to also prepare myself mentally before going to the English camp or seeing kids in the hallways. There are two camps going on at the same time. There is a three week overnight English camp where students learn English during the daytime and stay over in the dormitories in the evenings. I support this camp but I am not the leader in this camp. I got an easier job. I even volunteered for this position. There is another English camp happening right now. When we arrived it was the first week, so I just started teaching during the second and third week of camp. It is a half day camp. Students get dropped off in the morning and leave before lunch time. It starts at 910 and ends at 1250pm. I teach four periods, four different classrooms, four different sets of kids. Each period is 45 minutes long. I walk in, do my teaching thing for 45 minutes and then leave.

I have been learning a lot about Korean education and public school teachers. We are hosting a seminar with 10 Korean public school elementary teachers who teach English at their school. We talk about similarities and differences. Mostly they are interested in how we teach English Language Learners in America. There is a big movementn for students to learn English starting as soon as kindergarten. Many students who are attending the camp have various levels of conversational English. Some try hard and some do not try at all.

Well, that is what my days have been filled with. We can't wait for the weekend so we can go out and explore Busan more. Plus Garrett is coming on Monday! I am very excited to show him what I have seen about Korea and what we will explore together.

Take care family, I miss you lots.

love, cc

Readjusting Home

Hello family! =)

It's about 7 am and I'm up and running (not that I have to do anything in particular, but that my body told me it was time to get up). Ever since we came back from Uganda I've been on this early to bed, early to rise schedule - which I guess is a good thing because Dustin goes to work about the time I wake up so I can say goodbye to him, instead of my normal sleepy mumblings of "G...bye...Love...See you."

I've loved reading the entries so far and decided it was my turn to write a little something. The readjustment home after our trip has been interesting for me. After spending 2 1/2 weeks surrounded by people every minute of the day it feels really weird to spend all of this time alone at home. I've found myself starting up conversations with random people as I run my errands, which is very uncanny for me.

I had a funny cross-cultural experience at church the Sunday we came back too. In Uganda everytime we would meet someone we would either shake his/her hand or hug that person. There was always a physical connection made. I got really used to that and I guess lost the need to keep my personal space as we do here in America. So we're at church on Sunday (about 3 days after coming back) and it's time to greet one another. I turn to greet the guy next to me (who's in our young adult group) and he doesn't move - not to face me, not to shake my hand. He just stands where he is facing foward and says hello to me. It was sooooo weird! I had this need to at least shake his hand but I couldn't. Then what was even stranger was when I was walking around hugging and greeting other people I ended up hugging one of the older men in our church (like in his 40's or 50's). I had never hugged him before in the 2 years we've been at this church. Haha. oops. I realized how awkward it was to hug him after I did it. It was like a jolt back into America.

So I guess I have to think a little bit before I do things now as I adjust back to the States. I have to ask myself, "Is this what we do in America?" =P

Eating in Busan

Hello family,

This post is dedicated to the food that I have been tasting and experiencing. We didn't have much expectations for the dormitory food but it has been delicious so far. There is always a soup that comes with the meal. I love soup. I haven't taken as many pictures as I want of the food because usually I am hungry and I forget. =) No surprise there.

Below is a picture of lunch from the faculty cafeteria. The dorm cafeteria doesn't serve lunch on the weekdays, only weekends. Starting with the soup and working clockwise, seaweed miso soup, white rice, pickled beansprouts, kimchi, omelette with vegetables and bulgogi with onions, carrots and squid.

We left to visit the Guinness world record 2009 largest mall, shinganse (I think). It was gigantic. There are no pictures of it from my camera because our host said that you can't take pictures inside. I think there might be some pictures online. While walking all those square feet, we got hungry so off to korean bbq.





Then in honor of our first full day in Busan, our host graciously poured us some spirited beverage called soju. The soju was poured to each person according to age, the oldest receives the first, the second oldest receives the second and so on. I was in the top 6. =) It reminded me of Buddy and our China trip.



Cheers to you!

safe arrival!

Dear Family,

I have arrived safely in Korea and enjoying the lovely free wifi. i can't believe how many people have laptops or some sort of pda. I just woke up on Wednesday morning, 7am Korean time. We arrived late last night and didn't really have dinner. The director was kind enough and bought us some cups of noodle to eat. Here are a couple of pictures: one of the room and one of the showerhead. The room is kind of cozy, reminiscent of dormitory days at university of washington. The showerhead is right next to the toilet, no doors, no curtains, just tiles and a drain.

Mom and dad, i watched a movie with andy lau called look at a star, a romantic comedy. it was great!

jaime, there are so many funny engrish phrases!

dust and val, they have korean breakfasts, soups, rice, fish and daikon, kimchi and coffee milk.

gar, i am loving pride and prejudice and zombies. here is a favorite quote. "Elizabeth lifted her skirt, disregarding modesty, and delivered a swift kick to the creature's head."

miss you all!

book books

Hello... it's my first post.

While we wait for CC to post about her adventures in the Land of the Morning Calm, I thought I'd talk about... books! We seem to be a family of book lovers, and I think that's a great thing.

One of my favorite blogs on the internet, LifeHacker, recently had a post all about books. There's a lot of useful information in it, I suggest you read it - free books online, how to publish a book from a blog (like this one!), even turning an old book into a secret hiding place for cash. Or candy. Or even cash AND candy! :)

Also, in the Seattle Times, there was a nice article about popular books in Seattle right now. The compiled the list by using public library records. Here's the top 5 fiction and top 5 non-fiction:

1. "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See. The story of two sisters who flee war-torn Shanghai to make a new life in America. 558 patrons are waiting in line for 79 copies of this book.

2. "Finger Lickin' Fifteen" by Janet Evanovich. The latest installment in the series starring Jersey Girl/bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. 476/69 copies.

3. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame Smith. Elizabeth Bennett battles zombies. 439 holds/65 copies. (Fans will be happy to know that a follow-up is planned: "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.")

4. "The Scarecrow" by Michael Connelly. About-to-be-laid-off newspaperman fights identity thief/serial killer. 409 holds/69 copies.

5. "The Angel's Game" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Barcelona writer makes deal with the devil and spends the rest of the book regretting it. 413 holds/68 copies.

On to nonfiction:

1. "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. What are the ingredients for success? 649 holds/146 copies.

2. "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite" by David Kessler. The ballooning of the American appetite, and steps to take to rein it in. 516 holds/64 copies.

3. "The Girl Who Played with Fire" by Stieg Larsson. The library lists this as nonfiction, but trust me, it's fiction; at least I hope it is, because it's a very scary Scandinavian thriller, the follow-up to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." 348 holds/59 copies.

4. "A Homemade Life" by Molly Wizenberg. A food writer/blogger's memoir. 344 holds/64 copies.

5. "I'm Down" by Mishna Wolff. Memoir of growing up white in 1970s Seattle's Central District, with a white dad who longed to be black. 335 holds/64 copies.

Interesting, huh?

One last note: I bought CC a copy of Pride & Prejudice and Zombies for her trip. Heh heh.

my memory of mom's dream car

Well, I thought that I should start and get the ball rolling on making a post. I was going to write this post sooner but the California roadtrip arrived sooner than expected. Thanks Jaime for getting us started on a family blog. It will be exciting to read other's perspectives on the same memory too! I hope to post in Korea but we will see if I find cheap internet. =)

The picture should already speak for itself. I don't know when this memory was made, but I have a distinct memory of the family talking about dream cars: model, make, color, etc. Since mom's favorite color is yellow, she said that she would want a yellow car. She also said that she would want a Jeep wrangler because it looked sporty. She was not too keen about the open doors and the roll over factor. I guess she just liked the idea of driving along the rough terrain with a vehicle that could take anything that comes its way. As I was telling this story to Garrett as we were driving back home, he pointed at this yellow jeep wrangler that was decorated for the fourth of July. Garrett said that it was a sign for me to make a post.

Enjoy the picture and someone else can continue with another memory!

a little about j.me

Your favorite thing to do?
+ chillaxing and spending time with friends

Your dream last night?
+ i'm so bad at remembering dreams!-- i'm not even lying!

Your favorite drink?
+ refreshing- ice tea, clubbing- gin and tonic, healthy- orange juice w/ pulp! yum!

Your dream/goal?
+ have a family and be a mom

Your fear?
+ not being able to see, or hear, or walk--

Where do you want to be in 6 years?
+ to be happy

What you're not?
+ fake

One of your wish list items?
+ 20/20 vision

What are you wearing?
+ jeans, favorite flats, black long sleeve (i'm in sf!), and a purple/army green scarf

Your TV?
+ the tv my brother used to play video games on in high school

Your computer?
+ home-macbook, work-dell

Your life?
+ is not done being lived.

Favorite piece of jewelry?
+ diamond ring-- http://www.elsewares.com/commerce/Silver-Diamond-Ring_MPD1004.html

Your car?
+ mazda protege silver, named simba

Something you're not wearing?
+ underwear! j/k! a hat?

Favorite Store?
+ target for sure. if i could only shop at one store for the rest of my life, it would be target, they have everything! :)

When is the last time you laughed?
+ today! but the last REAL, side-hurting, tearing up laugh... would be in phoenix last weekend, with mikey, carmen, and neil... hahhaah :)

Favorite foods?
+ french fries, anything japanese, coffee

Place you'd rather be right now?
+ seattle, arizona, ohio, new york (any place where my favorite people are!)

j'aime notre famille | i love our family

dad
mom
cc
gar
dust
val
j.me

that's us.

we are a family.

it is our family.

it is a one of a kind family.

i love our family.

and here are the stories and thoughts of us.