Christmas 2008

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was very nice. Three days of three kids by myself again. Please pray for me.

I just wanted to show off the girls' gingerbread princesses. Yes, that's right, everything becomes royalty when touched by my girlie girls. Joey and Elysha were using cookie cutters to cut out their people. Next thing I know, crowns have been placed on top of the heads, and one cookie had long, luxurious hair. I also made some pieces to make a gingerbread house. Unfortunately, my roof wouldn't stay intact, so it is more like a shack. Oh well.

The girls woke us up at an ungodly hour because Elysha had to pee. But once they saw that "santa" had eaten their cookies, there was no way they were going back to sleep. My cute little idea to make cookies for Santa is what screwed me out of a couple more hours of sleep. Oh wait, I think I did go back to sleep, but Chang stayed up with the kids. He he...

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all enjoying time with family this weekend.

The girls and I made gingerbread cookies and a gingerbread house. They are decorating the cookies as I type and I can hear them whispering to each other, "Eat the m&ms. Are you eating the marshmellows too?"

From our family to yours...Merry Christmas!

More Activity Ideas

Day Two: The natives are getting restless but so is their fearless (and highly caffeinated) leader. Fortunately, my SOS was answered and reinforcements came in the form of my aunt. Looks like we will survive one more day.

In between the last minute errands before the holidays, doing stuff for my mom, and general housekeeping, I want to figure out some activities for the girls. The weather outside makes it an indoor day, but the girls can only stay inside for some time without bouncing off the walls and making me feel like I was in a padded cell.

I looked through the family fun website and just thought it was so-so. I just discovered that one of my many employers has a great activities website--Savvy Source activities.

Joey and Elysha are really into math right now so the M&M math seems like a great idea. And the crayon resist painting would be a good activity while Sam is napping.

Yesterday, we made New Year's chains. I had the girls cut out strips of paper. I showed Joey a December calendar and told her to write the remaining days on each strip of paper (i.e. 23 on one strip, 24 on the next, and so on). Joey made dots on Elysha's paper strips so that Elysha could practice writing her numbers too. Then I folded each paper strip into an interlocking ring, letting the girls staple each ring together. I also saved the empty wrapping paper tubes so that the girls could make magic wands.

These activities lasted about two seconds, so the other 43,198 seconds of the day, I was hurting. I was relieved when I spoke to two other moms who were also suffering as much as I was. Not that I want other moms to suffer, but it just helped me to feel like I wasn't alone. Though I'm sure they didn't pound on the locked doors of their preschool, wailing, "Why, God, why?" The saga to continue tomorrow...

The Happiest Place on Earth (for me at least)

I really wanted to go to Lawry's this Christmas. It has been a while since we have seen the carolers (a quartet of singers dressed up in Dickensian costumes that go from table to table and sing Christmas songs by request). We haven't taken the kids with us to Lawry's since Elysha was born. I guess out of fear that the kids would misbehave, and not being sure if they would like the food.

Well, they definitely are my kids...all three of them gobbled up the prime rib, creamed corn, yorkshire pudding and baked potato. I am alone, however, in my love for the creamed spinach and baked potato with all the fixings and extra sour cream. Yum, yum! Either the kids ate a lot of my meat, or I was really hungry because I finished my entire Lawry's cut and sides (minus the baked potato which I like to take home and eat later). We then feasted on the C.C. Hot Fudge Sundae for dessert.

It is a good thing I was treated to my favorite meal last weekend. The warm memories of the happiest place on earth will have to carry me through these next two weeks of having all three kids home with me. So far, they have been behaving well. I have also brought out some arts and crafts stuff to get me through this time. A friend told me about Family Fun Magazine website. I'm going to try to be a good mom and figure out some craft ideas for the girls and just pray that Sam doesn't eat too many glue sticks.

Request for Recipes--1st Interactive Post

I am asking for your help! I got this idea from Nina.

A favor por favor...please post or link some recipes! I am so tired of making the same foods over and over. I experimented with sun-dried tomatoes, shrimp and angel hair pasta the other day with favorable results. But this just got me in the mood to try and expand my repertoire of dinner meals.

If there is a recipe that you like and isn't overly time consuming, I would love to try it out. No fish (sorry, I have a major phobia) but I am open to everything else. I can usually tweak things a little so that the kids will eat it too so don't worry about it being too kid-friendly either.

We can all benefit from the sharing of recipes, so please don't be shy and contribute!

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins

I am posting this per request of Hawaii 5-Ohana.

Pumpkin Muffins (slightly tweaked version of a recipe from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
1 3/4 cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Put paper cups or grease into muffin pan.
2) In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and white and brown sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into cups until 2/3 full.
3) Bake for about 25 minutes in the preheated oven. Done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I have made this recipe with applesauce in place of the oil and it turns out okay. But the oil is better (of course). Also, be sure to not overmix once you combine the wet and dry ingredients to ensure light and fluffy muffins. This recipe yields about 28 muffins.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Chang and I had a date night tonight. It feels like it has been a long time since we have been able to get out on our own so it was fun.

We (he) wanted to watch Transporter 3, which I hear is gunning for academy awards. But we weren't able to get to the theatre in time. So we watched The Day the Earth Stood Still. It was just okay, though Keanu Reeves was great as a stoic and laconic non-human. I couldn't help but feel, however, that the message of the movie was very timely. The human race is in a crisis state and we arrived here by our own doing. We all bit off more than we can chew and the world's economy is going to pieces. We invented all these modern conveniences and it is destroying our environment. It makes me think about the line repeated in one of my favorite movies Heathers, "What a waste, oh the humanity."

However, a big theme in The Day the Earth Stood Still was that we, the human race, are capable of changing for the better. And I really believe this is true. It is in the moments when we hit rock bottom, when we are faced with the reality and limitations of our humanity, that we can shine. We let go and give it up to God...like when I was told I would miscarry Sam...like when the ER doctors were freaking out as I was lying on the gurney, bleeding out...like when my mom told me she had cancer.

Our children are our biggest ways of declaring our hope for the future and staking our trust in tomorrow. There are many reasons why I love my children, but one of them, is because I see love and joy, so pure and unadulterated in them.

Whoa!...as Keanu would say...all this from watching one of his movies.

First Post is Live--Yipee!

My first post is live on the Being Savvy website. I am still waiting for my bio and pic to be up but that is okay...millions of people (give or take a million) will be reading my thoughtfully written, astute post about Christmas trees.

I have always wanted to be a writer or be involved in a publication. I tried to do the whole publishing career route but my few feeble attempts to get my foot in the door were squashed. I was one of two finalist to be an editorial assistant for Stanford magazine--a job with a meager wage and a ton of grunt work. I was lost it to a Stanford Law graduate. One of the guys who interviewed me loved me so much he tried to get me a different job very distantly related to the magazine. But it was too late. I became so embittered by the whole experience, I went 180 degree different route with my career and went to school in the evenings to become a systems administrator. I sold myself out for the money and shelved my dreams of writing.

Flash forward nine years later, I am going back to my first love. And it feels good.

Who's Naughty or Nice?

I'm tired. My face shows it with pimples and bags under my eyes. I'm trying to do too many things. But at the same time, I get excited when I start new projects. Sustaining them is a different story...

Even amidst my extreme fatigue, I have been making a concerted effort to be nicer to my kids. I still growl at them like Cujo when they are being insolent, foam dripping from my mouth because my fuse is short when I am this tired. But at the same time, I am trying to be a little bit more fun. Sometimes I feel like I am like Captain von Trapp from Sound of Music, before the singing nun came into the picture. No humor, all business...but these days, I hear singing and music!

Or maybe it is because I have been getting a break from them every weekend while I work my high-powered job at PB. I come home, exhausted, but more willing to deal with the kids again. And because I haven't been around, I try to make up for the hugs I haven't been able to give them all day. When I get up to the front door, I can hear Joey and Elysha scratching on the other side, so excited that they are about to see me again. It is nice to be missed and feel loved. I am really loving my PB job, for so many reasons! And I thought I was just doing it for the discount...

Teacher's (and Mommy's) Pet

It's funny to see how much Joey is my little mini-me. Aside from the whining and complaining which I never do (ehem), she resembles me in so many ways.

Joey's Sunday school teacher called us to tell us how wonderful she was in class the other day. She was telling us that when she asked the class to help her clean up, all the other kids said they didn't want to, but Joey got up and helped put away the art supplies. Awww!!! Elysha's teacher tells me that she is her little helper too. I am so proud of them. I guess, despite all my best efforts, my children may not be turning out so bad after all.

The girls were doodling yesterday while I was getting dinner ready and they wanted their scissors. I was only able to find Elysha's and I asked Joey where her scissors were. She told me that I had taken them away from her a long time ago. She then proceeded to tell me exactly where I had put them. High up on top of the bookcase, completely out of sight from her. Joey's memory is just amazing. I took her scissors away from her during the summer because she was cutting her shirt. I completely forgot that I had done that. My BFF always calls me her elephant friend because of my amazing memory...which has all gone to pot now that I have three kids. But back in the day, I never forgot a name, I never wrote down my schedule, and if I wrote down an address once, I could recall it from memory. I hardly even used speed dialing because I had all my friends' phone numbers memorized. Unfortunately, now, I have to write notes on my forehead backwards so that when I look in the mirror, I am reminded to brush my teeth. Elysha essentially resembles me today. I don't know if it is that she doesn't listen, doesn't understand, or just doesn't care. Whatever it is, she doesn't remember a thing.

I made steaks, broccoli and mashed potato for dinner the other night, and Joey was elated that we were eating mashed potatoes. She declared it was her favorite (just as it was mine when I was a child). She was very excited and when I put it on her plate, she ate a few bites. She then proceeded to eat her meat and broccoli, and took little forkfuls of her potatoes in between bites. I asked her why she wasn't eating her potatoes. She said she was saving it for the end. I do the same thing! It must be genetic. When Chang and I started dating, we were eating something together (of course I don't remember anymore), and I was saving my favorite bite for the very end. Assuming I didn't want it, he popped it into his mouth, without even asking. I started screaming at him and completely lost it. Needless to say, he NEVER made that mistake again.

Is it nature or nurture that causes a child to be so much like his or her parent? Seeing that Joey is so much like me, Elysha must get her personality from Chang. I see a lot of her in him...aside from her tenacity (aka stubbornness), which we like to argue comes from the other parent, she is generally easy-going and happy. I guess Chang can write about her similarities to him sometime. It is funny because Elysha looks like Chang and Joey looks like me. I wonder what Sam is going to be like...

Stripping Away My Identity

I have been spending the evening removing any traces of my complete identity from this site. It is a little strange...I started blogging in February of this year. I just removed my profile from this site but the last hit count was almost 250. 250 random and not-so-random people. And now, even more random people when I get up and running with Savvy Source. So now, hopefully, there is no more evidence of our real last name.

I am excited about the opportunity but wonder how I will deal with the paparazzi and constantly being bombarded by strangers telling me how much they adore me. I hope I don't let it get to my head. If it gets too big, then my tiara won't fit anymore.

Another Part-time Job

Well, it looks like I will become a City Editor for The Savvy Source blogsite. I'm very excited but nervous about how I am going to juggle yet another ball. I just got off a five hour shift at PB and boy, oh boy, the holiday spirit was NOT oozing out of the customers today.

In any case, I fancy being able to call myself a professional blogger now. Yup, I'm moving up in the blogging world.

Just wanted to share the good news...though this will definitely cut into my personal blogging time. Sorry folks, but it is nice that I can get paid (a meager wage) for something that was/is a hobby. Besides, I need another job to support my PB habit.

Oh, and also shameless self-promotion (he he), please click on the link for Savvy Source DAILY for local activities ideas and information on preschools all over the country. There should be new posts coming soon for the West LA site.

Can Obama Fix It?

No, I'm not talking about the economy, the nonexistent job market, or the War in Iraq. I'm talking about Health Care.

I have been dealing with all the bills related to my mom's cancer. It has been overwhelming! I heard on NPR that there is a business on health care advocacy. It just seems wrong that while a person is dealing with a potentially terminal illness, s/he has to deal with all the run around you get from the insurance company, the doctor's office, etc. I think it is ridiculous that doctors charge a premium for cash patients to make up for the shortfall in payments received by insurance companies and the government. I hate that I have to call people multiple times and still not get my questions answered.

It makes me think about all the people who can't speak English well or don't put up a fight. What happens to them? Taking care of these things can take up a good part of my free time (aka Sam's nap time). What do people do when they work jobs like my Pottery Barn job in which you don't have the luxury of making personal phone calls during business hours? These are the people working close to, if not at, minimum wage, uninsured or under-insured...it just makes me think. I wonder if there is something I can do in the future when I, hypothetically, will have more free time. Maybe one day, it won't be this difficult.

To inject some humor into my gripe session...guess what my brother and I bought my mom for Christmas? A boob. Her prosthetic boob wasn't going to be covered by insurance so my mom didn't want it. I talked to my brother and we split the cost. My mom called me today and said thanks again. She sounded so happy to finally be even again. Worth every penny...

What a Difference a Year Makes

I wanted to post a picture of the three rugrats--about 1 year ago and today. They're pretty cute little buggers, aren't they?







I love this last picture. Joey is cracking herself up, Sam's expression says, get off me!, and Elysha is being her silly self.

Current Soundtrack for My Life

Jaws...the music from this movie is very fitting for what is going on in my life. Small foreboding signs of the imminent danger. I feel like we are on the verge...of insanity (though some may argue that I have gone over that point a LONG time ago).

Sam took two steps today. It is hard not to be excited for him. Whenever he stands, he claps for himself and has the biggest smile on his face. Sometimes I think it is the force of his laughter that causes him to tumble down in a heap. I think I might still have a few more weeks before he is walking full time. And I promise that I won't swipe his feet when he is standing to hinder his progress. Even I would not stoop to such lows just to un-complicate my life.

Joey is able to read small books on her own and can spell words too. Today, she read the Dora sippy cup she has been using for years. It finally occurred to her that she can read the words, "Let's go!" The other day as I was packing for Thanksgiving, I was asking Chang whether or not I should pack a fancy D-R-E-S-S for the girls. Joey was in the other room, eavesdropping on our conversation, and suddenly yelled out, "Dress!" Great. I mean, wohoo, I am really excited that she has reached this incredible milestone. However, I am soon going to have to alter the manner in which I exchange top secret information with Chang (or other literate adults). Like, "can you go to See's and get me some C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E?" I guess we can speak Korean around each other but I don't know how to say dessert in Korean, and chocolate and ice cream is essentially pronounced the same way.

Elysha is also learning the sounds of the alphabet so she is well on her way to ending my sneaky sweet consumption completely. I never give the girl enough credit. I assumed she didn't know any sounds and that she wouldn't want to be quizzed by me. After our parent-teacher conference, the teacher encouraged Chang and me to go through the sounds with Elysha. Sam got these dinosaur flash cards for his birthday and we started using them with Elysha. We've created a monster (or two). Now, every night, the girls have been begging me to quiz them. Damn my nerd gene! It appears to have been passed down to both girls.

It is the beginning of the end for me. I am probably going to get all skinny now because I will be chasing after my walking son and I can no longer sneak in See's behind the girls' back.