No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the Dr. and the Dr. said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."
~The Learning Station~



There must be nothing good enough to play in the house.... we found our monkey swinging on the monkey bar while Jeannie watched with amusement! This is a futon bunk bed we put in Jady's room. I sure am happy about not calling for a Dr. :D

Bird House

I totally forgot about this little bird house Evan made back in Nov. The church had an excellent scout program for boys ages eight through nineteen. This is one of the projects the troop was working on for about a month with the help of two dedicated scout leaders, Ken M. and Dede V. They are SUPER! Evan has enjoyed his time there and looked forward to learn new skills every week.

My son was a little concerned about the hole being too small for the birds and refused to put seeds inside the bird house. So... he ended up "decorating" - glueing seasame craker treat.... (yes, don't know where he came up with the idea) on top of the bird house. To my suprise, the "treats" were totally gone in just a couple of days!

Caught Snoozzzzzzzing...

We had to be at the church an hour early this morning since I was to help the choir practice for next week's Sunday performance. My little brain must be "asleep" when I promised the chorister to help.... I totally forgot about Johnny's weekly meeting at 6:30am. Neither one of us will be available to commute back and forth to pick up the kids and help them get ready to church by 9:00am, so I took the kids with me.

This is what I saw from the mirror when I checked on them halfway to the chapel.... I couldn't help to take a picture of them with my cell phone. They are just soooooo CUTE! Thank goodness that they are not caught sleeping at the church! :)

Eleven More Days Before Christmas!

This week has sure gone by fast. We only have 11 more days before Christmas.

I've always enjoy Christmas; but this year is a little different. Christmas is the biggest holiday in the US with people packed in the stores shopping for gifts, but I have not seen it happened this year. I was driving to a craft store last week, but was sad to find out so MANY stores/businesses are closing down. It's sad to see people losing their job and families being affected by this recession. My only wish for this New Year is that everyone will have a job.

Silly Old Me/Couch

I told the Relief Society some time ago that our family had a couch to donate, but never heard back from them. So, I decided to post this ad. on craiglist's.com

Clean, beautiful couch - $60 (PA)
Date: 2008-12-08, 4:56PM EST
Our family just bought a new sectional couch and we are looking for a home for this clean, beautiful couch. We live in a smoke free, pet free home. Dimension: W83"xD35"xH30" Please call 610-XXX-XXXX any question! Cash and carry!
Location: PA


I still can't believe we've sold our couch. Two people called between 5 - 6 to make an appointment, and one actually showed up for the pick up. I thought it will take awhile to sell it but to my surprise, the couch was gone by 8:30pm the same day ! It was a success and a quick trade.

To be honest, I had some mixed feelings about the selling of this couch. It's the first brand new couch we've bought. I remembered Evan was just borned, and our family moved to Dallas, TX upon graduation from Texas Tech U. Johnny started a new job, and we were living in a two bedroom apartment up on the third floor. There was no elevator in the apartment complex, and the guys told us that they should have charged us extra for the delivery. :) It's a nice couch that served our family for the past 9 years, and survived from four big moves. It's retiring today from it's "glorious" service because we need a bigger couch for our growing family - Salute to "you"!

The guy and his family felt in love with it. Well... we got it for about $400, and there is no stain, smell and tears! The couple was willing to pay in full without further negotiation. We are all happy.

Be the Best of Yourself!

Evan came home last Tuesday announcing proudly about his advancement to Jr. teenis three. He was so happy about his job well done and asked me to frame his evaluation/advancement paper from his couch.

On the other hand, Jeannie started her try-out for basketball since Monday. It was a three day long process and I am just proud that she sustained to the end. Everyday since Monday, she had been staying at school until fivish, came home, had dinner, worked on her homework and stayed late for test if there was any. Of course, seminary at 6:00am the next morning. It would take some determination to do that.

The first two days gone by, and she was very pleased with her performance. She even told me once that she made two shots out of three while the rest of the candidates either made one or total missed. Just as we thought Jeannie would make it to the team, the disappointing news came in the email Wed. night after we came back from caroling (YM/YW church activity), that my daughter was not selected.

I was doing the dishes when Jeannie told me the news. My first instant was why, then almost the same time... How would my child feel? Would she be able to handle the disappointment and try again the next time? I was very concerned about this because she had the same disappointment wtih the badminton tournament at the beginning of the school year. So we talked and I asked Jeannie if she had tried her best? Her replied was "yes". I asked again if she enjoyed the try-out? She gave me the same response... "Yes". "That's all it matters!" I said. She still has hard feelings about the decision, but had learned to respect the choices made by the coaches.

The growing process is not always rosy, but we can choose to think positive and learn from each experience. We can either be harsh and deminished ourselves, or be a warrior and battle until the end. In fact, one of the most valuable lessons in life is to learn to fail. That's when we recongnize our potential, make strong or weak.

Our potential is unlimited as predetermined by the Lord. He wants us to be happy, reach our full potential, and be helpful to others. He doesn't worry about us failing, all it matters is whether we try our best. It's just one simple concept!

Thanksgiving Day

Trying to catch up about my last week in Nov...


Our family went to a trip in Virgina to meet with the Martins, the Cheungs, the Chois and Christine's friends, the Cornwells (might have spelled it wrong, just know their names are Shannon, Brendan, Collin, and Miles). We all had a great time catching up with each other, and enjoying the yummy delicious Thanksgiving feast. The kids spent most of the time playing Wii in the basement, and the grown up were able to enjoy ourselves with a hot pot dinner on Friday night. I felt like gaining five pounds coming home. :)


Highlights of the trip:


Shannon, Christine's friend who not only a good cook, but also an excellent photographer. She joined us on Thanksgiving, and bought with her ham, mashed potatoes and some pumpkin bread. Oh my world, her food was delicious with the perfect taste and texture, and all made from scratch! I love the ham sauce and Shannon was generous enough to share her secret recipe with us. It was actually a recipe her dad accidentally made up with baby food! :) The ingredients: 1 can apricot, 1 can peach, two cans pineapple and brown sugar. Blend everything in the blender and simmer until thicken. We ate all day that day.

Then on Black Friday... My dear friends, Tracy and Christine dragged me to go shopping with them.... well, not dragged... I went just becuase Jeannie and the kids (Aaron, Liz and Lourissa) decided to go. So, we planned on leaving the house at 5:00am but for some reason, Christine's alram was off so we started two hours late. These poor ladies spent hours the night before looking at the ad. for the things they wanted to get, but to find out most of the items(except Christine's GPS) were gone by the time got there. It did not affect me much since there was nothing I wanted to get anyway.

The shopping was extremely LONG and I got dizzy when we were at Kohl's (our second stop). Then, the "real" shopping started when the kids hit the mall... they very much stopped at every single teenage stores! It seemed like we were in line for hours before we got to the next one. Will I do it again next year? May be... if Ms. Kwan wants to and "my battery" was charged the night before. Thank goodness it's only once a year thing! :)

Anyway, we were done shopping at 11:30am and the dads joined us at CiCi's Pizza. After that, we went back to the Martin's house. Shannon came back from her shopping and was nice enough to take family portraits for us and the Cheungs. I am sooooo looking forward to frame those pictures.

Then, we had hot pot dinner and headed home about 9:30pm. We all had a really good time!


***(Added on Dec 16) Oh, I almost forgot about my sweet husband throwing me a surprise belated birthday party with all the friends and kids. There's nothing more I need to ask for! :)