My Two Munchkins

It can happen

You know what?  Sometime we live in a society that keep saying "that won't happen to me".  Well, reality hit me really close today.  One of my best friend who used to live here but now moved up to Northern California to live.  She went because her husband had a great promotion and a dream was promised to him - a managing position was waiting for him at this new place.  You know the catch, a new car, a new home (company help of course), a big bonus, etc.  She was living in a "dream world".

Last week, she called and told me, her husband who was wooed to go up there lost his job, the house they were living is in foreclosure, and now everything they had will be gone.  They are now in the process of finding a rental home, the fun "perks" they had are gone and he has found a job but with less pay (he lost his "partnership" status in his new firm) and on top of this - her father nearly had a major heart attack. 

I am really feeling her pains because we all did not even think these financial things can happen to us 5 years ago.  I am just so bless that hubby is keeping track of what is going on.  I have slowly start re-evaluating all the things we will buy for Christmas and really thinking "do we need them".  With my girlfriend dreams come crashing down on her, she is really trying her best to hang on.  I don't know what I would be like but I can tell you, don't ever believe that financial trouble will never happen to you.

Remember them in your prayers and hopefully everything will turn around for them.

annual flu shot

I know a lot of you are saying - why?  I won't catch it.  Well, since K was a babe, our pediatrician has told us because she has asthma, it is recommended everyone in our family to get one.  If anyone of us catchs the flu and she gets it, it will affect K a lot longer.  So every year, I check the pediatrician's office and they gives me the dated they are opened on Saturday just for flu shots.

Today is the first Saturday that is available.  When we turn the corner, OMG, the whole population of munchkins were in the hallway.  Well, I was going to go home but when I went into the office, the nurse told me to just get one because she would not guarantee the following Saturday will not be busy also. 

I had taken the girls to the library first so they can get their supplies of book to take with them to the doctors office.  (Wrong - they did not think we will be there that long so they only bought one book).  Anyway, the wait was maybe a half hour.

When we finally got into a room, I ask K if she was okay with having a shot (I had well prepare them ahead of time where we were going and why we were going there).  She told me she is a big girl and she will just be brave about this.  She also told me she will sit on the doctor's bed and take her shot.  Well as soon as the nurse came in, the "little" girl in her cave in and she was starting to tear.  I told her to come and sit on my lap.  That's where she had her shot.  I told her she was being really brave by sitting on the bed by herself and I was very proud of her.  Well, that didn't help because the big alligator tears started already. 

To make matters worst, J just told the nurse she is brave and just give her shot.  No crying, no kicking but just looking forward to her lollipop.  I told J can she give little of her bravery to her sister. 

So the flu shot is good for another year but can we do it next year where K can take it without crying? Nope.

so sad

The other day I was reading a blog about a family that went to China to bring home a special need child.  The father was mentioning they had made a side trip to stay at the White Swan hotel to get the traditional "red couch" picture.  Also on Shamien Island, most of the shops that were around the White Swan and the American Consulate are either boarded up or the remaining vendors that are still there will be folding up and moving soon.

That is so sad because when we went to pick up our girls (respectively 2000 and 2002), the island was our favorite place to finally get to eat American food and getting the girls ready for what to look forward when they got home.  I went to almost all the vendors - ie., Sherry, Benjamins, etc. and I really had a good time shopping.  And most of all, taking our laundry to sherry and when I got them back, they were bagged and freshly laundered.  I will miss them and hopefully they all found a new place to start over.

teachers

Finally we got a picture of the girls' teachers (the one on the left and middle - husband and wife) and their private teacher.  We have been really lucky to have them teaching the girls all the fundamental of the hula and Tahitian dances.  As long as the girls still like dancing, we will continue to support them.  But once they tell me they are done, we are out of the there.

Hello there

Wow it has been awhile - someday i just wish there is a fairy god mother who can just give me a stick so I can just go "hocks pocus, etc and done"  Well that won't happen so here goes.

My SIL was in town - I had a great time being with her.  We basically had a fun time just talking from A to Z.  I really miss her.  She is like a sister I never have.  And our favorite subject is - yes my MIL and her Mom.  My SIL cannot believe the things she is doing to me.  I told her, I just shake it off and go on.  I can't dwell on things that will constantly hurt me. 

Right after she left, the girls performed at the PIFA - HB here in our city.  Hubby couldn't go because he was taking his sister to the airport.  Also again my in-laws were at their finest - too long a story to write.  I am only glad I wasn't around them that day or else I would have really lose it.

Then last week we drove to San Diego and the girls performed at that city PIFA.  It was really tiring but all came out well.  The girls didn't get to do all their numbers due to time constrain but hey, at least they got to perform.

Then this week, I was stressed out because I had volunteered to make dinner for the girls teacher family.  She was going into the hospital for female surgery.  Because Mom is not there to cook, some of the women in the class volunteer to make dinner for the family.  I was stressed because I didn't know what to make and then wondering if they like what I made.  I will know more when I see them.

Then next week I have to go for an x-ray of my chest.  I volunteer for the school and one of their requirement is a TB test.  I am allergic to the stuff they administered for the test, I was told to skip this part and go directly to the hospital and get an X-ray.  So that's what I will be doing next week. 

Also the girls are now into their classes, Mom can start to relax a little.  But my little J still will test me on some of her homework.  Like last week, she had to write a sentence with the word CUBE.  This is what she wrote.  "I can't think of a sentence using cube, so I am using this word here."  Okay I told her she can use it this way today but don't try this again on other spelling words. 

The weather here in HB has been really crazy.  For the last couple of days, we have been having summer hot and humid temperature.  I finally felt today Fall is coming.  I don't know about you, but I cannot wait for Winter.  I am so done with the hot and humid weather.

really bad week this week

You know how the saying goes, when things are done in 3s or you can sense things are not right.  Well I had them this week.

1-I was manhandled in Costco.  An old person grab me in the arm saying I was not following the order when I went to get my flu shot this week.  I had gone around him because he was standing in another line when the other line was moving.  He didn't like that - not following the rules. 

2-I got yelled at Costco again by an old person because she accused me of cutting in line.  I wasnt cutting in line because I had stepped out (my foot was still in line) to get a form to fill out for my flu shot.  She told me I got out of line and was taking a cut to get back in.  I look at her like what planet is she from.  Her husband just told me not to mind her. 

3-could not figure out why the hula teacher have been at class.  Also she was disappearing whenever she does come to class.  Found out she is going in for major surgery.  My Mother intuition was there because I was sensing something wasn't right.

All this week here in So. California we been having a major heatwave.  This is the 3rd time this month we have been having this kind of heat.

So I am waiting for the calm before the storm.  Please no earthquake please!!!

we go forward

School has started and the girls are now settled into their daily routine - get home, eat snack and start homework.  As my little J would say isn't schooling done at school and now we have to do our work at home.  I just tell J - stop fussing and just do it.

This coming Thursday is "back to school night" so Mom here will get to see what they have been doing and meeting the girls' teachers.  K just loves her 5th grade teacher so much.  Her enthusiasm is all there when she speaks about her.  I just love teacher who encourage all her students to learn.  So this will interesting to meet her. J teacher is a stickler for following rules.  I found this out when she send home reminders and what rules we all mom need to follow.

Also my sister-in-law is coming into town.  She has a meeting here in town and she is staying over until the weekend to be with her favorite nieces.  This will be fun.  I love my SIL.  She and I can do the Mother-in-law bashing.  She has always be there when I need to vent about my MIL.  She too only can stay with her Mom for only a couple of hours and she said she has to leave.

My left eye has been healing really well and now I can occasionally see my "floater".  It will take time and I am not frustrated as before when I keep seeing it.  

What a week and Happy Belated Labor Day!!

First I wanted to say - I am okay.  Last week I noticed something was wrong with my left eye.  I noticing like a string inside my left eye and when I am in the dark, I see lights or stars.  I did not think too much of this because I was going to see my optometrist this week anyway.  When I saw him I told what was going on and he told basically as we get older, the gel inside of our eye slowly shrink.  This is a normal occurrence.  With people that are near sighted, the gel sometimes can caused a tear in our eye.  If this is not corrected, we can have a detached retina.  Well, my floater (that is the string in my left eye) was my first sign.  Anyway to make a long story short, my eye doctor was not too concern but he is sending me to a specialist to make sure everything is okay.  Well while I was at the doctor office, they were faxing the information to the specialist.  When I got home I got this phone call message to call them ASAP.  I call back and they wanted me to come to their office ASAP.  When I got there, the doctor did a couple of tests and he told me the truth.  I can wait (many people do because of insurance issues or other reason) and their retina is detached.  That is where he come on and fix it.  Or I can have a quick out patient fix - a laser surgery right there. Well you know me I hate to wait so I had it done.  It was quick - only took 5 minutes and I was sent home.  I will still see the "floater" in my eye - it will take 1 day to a year to go away.  I do not see lights in back of my left eye anymore. 

Now I have to go back for a follow-up next week.  I am so amazed at what is available to help us fix thing.  I am sure a couple of years ago this procedure was not available and alto of people of detached retina. 

So I am go until I have the same problem with my right eye.  I am not looking forward to this.

weather finally cooling down

Yes, yes, the weather is finally cooling down.  For a week now, the temperature have been in the 90's and 80's.  And on top of that, the humidity was there.  So basically every morning after you take a shower, you are sticky again.  Good gracious, we are not in the East or down South, that is their kind of weather but here in Southern California, the weather is dry heat with fog in there. 

So today, after my shower, I was expecting to get back into the stall and take another shower after drying my hair.  Wrong!!  The weather has been cooling down.  As I am typing right now, I have a sweatshirt on. Now a couple of days ago, the temperature was still in the high 70 here at 9:50 in the evening. So hopefully this kind of cool weather continues for awhile.

Her hair stinks

As you noticed, both my girls have really long hair.  They have the hair long for a reason.  They both do hula dances and one thing you noticed when you see Tahitian dancers, it is their long hair.  And both my girls love to keep their hair long.

(that's K with her friend from the same hula troop).

So because the hair is so long, you have to wash you hair every night - good hygiene.  Well my girls do except lately I keep smelling this musty odor coming from their hair.  I ask them both if they washes their hair every night.  And both of them give me the "yes, we do Mom look".  So I went into their bathroom and start checking on their shampoo bottles.  Yesterday, I finally ask J and she told me "well because I was in a hurry, I just pour water over my hair".  Wrong, I took her shampoo bottle and gave her a really good shampooing of her smelly hair.  While I was pouring the shampoo, I noticed the shampoo was really watered down.  She told me she accidentally put water in with her shampoo.  Ahaa, that's her hair was smelly, she was not using full strength shampoo to wash her hair.  I threw away her water down shampoo and gave her a new bottle.

Tonight, as I was blow driving K's hair, I noticed that same smell on her hair.  I ask if she was washing her hair really good.  She too told me yes.  I ask her to show me her shampoo bottle and yes, apparently one day she was running out of her shampoo, she ask if she can have J's shampoo bottle.  Yes, you guess right, the shampoo had been water down by J.  I threw that bottle away and gave her a new bottle.

I told both of them never to water down the shampoo because it doesn't have the full strength to wash all the yucky smell.  Lately we have been having a heatwave here so the hair does get smelly.

Oh the fun of being a Mom

1st day of school

Yes!!!  Today is the day all parents look forward to at the beginning of September - school started for my two munchkins and I swear start of school is such nice words!!  Here they are:

 

Yes, everything they have on are brand new - from the top of their head to the bottom of their feet.  I always look at the end of the year to see if they still have any of these items.  I know the backpack will still be there others, I am not sure others.

J had a rough night so I know she will be cranky when she gets home.  She is one who hates any kind of bugs and last night a moth flew into her bedroom.  She couldn't sleep so she and her Dad spent over an hour first trying to find it and then killing it.  If they didn't kill it, she won't go to sleep in that room.

So in a couple of minutes they will be coming home from their first day of school.  I can't wait to hear who they saw, they they did and etc.

School is starting tomorrow

Yes these two munchkins are starting school tomorrow (yeah).  They really had a great summer but now is the time for them to go back to a structured environment.  Mom also need a place at home where "peace" is lovely. 

Yesterday we did our last shopping - clothes, school supplies, and anything that is related to school.  I can now coast until tomorrow.

I will also start charging the batteries for my camera because K is starting 5th grade and J is starting 3rd.  I can't believe they are going back to school.  For me this is really affecting me emotionally because K is finishing her elementary school and next year will be middle school.  I remembered the day I had started Preschool and how I didn't know what to do with myself because my baby is at school.  Now as the term gets closer, I know I will really get emotional because I will be filling in her application for middle school.

Here is a picture of them last year getting ready... 

and they are off to school -

interesting

Yesterday I was reading an article (LA Times-World Page A22) about a boy who was adopted when he was 7 years old (he is now 18) and going home to China to see his real parents.  The parents feels really weird meeting a child they had lost but now Americanized.  This is a true story - the adopted single parent name is Julie Norris and boy is Christian Norris. 

I really had to think this over carefully because my two munchkins

Yes the two above, what are the chances of these two ever meeting each other than when we adopted them.  One lives in Dapu and the other in YiYang.  They are two provinces apart.  Now these two have spoken about wanting to go back to China one day to see their orphanages. But they never said anything about meeting their birth parents.  (we have told them early on about adopting them).  They both told hubby and me that we are their parents and they are stuck with us - gee thanks. 

I am keeping this article about Christian Norris and see when they are older if they still want to meet their birth parents.

Below is the article about Christian Norris if you care to read it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-adopt30-2009aug30,0,5935166.story

Turn off the oven

I live near the beach - actually 5 miles from the Pacific Ocean.  We get the morning fog and then the ocean breeze blowing in.  I love it.  Well today the temperature here was 91 degrees.  That is pretty hot here. Inland the temperature was reaching in the high 100. 

Last week when I went to my girlfriends place, we were mentioning that this summer has been really nice and cool.  The following day, I guess God must have heard our complaints because the temperature has been going up.  You know I love the warm weather but this is ridicules.  I am waiting for that ocean breeze to come blowing in.  And the night is awful because there is no breeze at all.

One more week

Yes, I have only one more week with the girls at home and then school starts.  I am so ready for them to go back to a structure environment.  Don't get me wrong, there is structure here at home but I am the Mom and they need someone else to tell them what to do.

Today, I went to work with the girls.  J would not do as she was told to do.  She kept doing things she wanted to do.  I was ready to give her a time out at my work place.  But I think when I gave her "the stink eye" she finally got what I wanted her to do.

Also today was her day to go to the studio for practice.  I told her to get ready but she kept trying to negotiate with me.  Finally I just told her, see what your Dad say.  When hubby came home I told him what J had said.  Well, all he did was yelled at her name and told her to get ready to go to the studio.  She ask when can she make her own decision.  He told her when she is 52 years old (that's how old hubby is).

So I am counting the days....