Birthday

Christian took the day off to spend with me on my birthday. Caitlyn had a melt down in the morning over some absurd thing about her socks. Christian had to take her to school because she wouldn't get on the bus. We had a lazy morning after, trying to recover from the kids' nonsense.

We spent most of the day running errands together...mostly stuff for the kids. But also, my sewing machine died the previous week, so Christian and his dad decided to get me a new sewing machine for my birthday. He took me to JoAnn's to pick one out. The one I thought I wanted, didn't turn out to be so great so we took a while trying to figure out what to get. I finally settled on one, but it so happens that it was on back-order. So we purchased it but I am still waiting to receive it. It's fancier than I wanted but I'm excited about some of the new features now. We barely got home in time to pick up the kids from the bus stop. It was really nice spending some time with just Christian though.

Emily had a tantrum relating to having to do her homework. Meanwhile Christian was trying to make me a nice dinner in spite of it all. He bbq'd up some beef, made some fresh bread (naan, a really tasty flatbread) and smothered cabbage...yummy, even the kids ate it.

As we were trying to finish up for the night, the girls were fighting about wrapping little gifts for me...mostly because Emily did not listen to instructions her dad gave her (apparently 3 times) about what she was to do. So she thought she was being cheated and wanted to encroach upon Caitlyn's project. Caitlyn wanted to do hers a very specific way and didn't want her sister to mess it up.

Aaah, what a day. Happy Birthday to me...I'm beginning to dislike my birthday. Not only because I'm getting older (which doesn't help) but it is increasingly frustrating and just sets you up for disappointment. You never expect anything really special but you can't help but want to be a little selfish, to get just a little peace...a little thoughtfulness from the kids. But apparently it is too much to ask.

At the end of the week, Christian's dad drove up with Mark and Danielle for my birthday. We decided on a simple menu so that we don't stress ourselves out too much. As part of my present, Emily wanted to make eclairs for me with her dad. There was still a lot going on. We were trying to tidy the place up a bit. Emily was pestering her dad. I wanted to clean the bathrooms a bit. The bathroom sinks (which are kind of connected through the wall since our bathrooms sit back to back) were draining a little slowly which was worrying us but we did not have time to look into it yet. It decided to stop draining as soon as I started scrubbing. Christian was in the middle of making the eclairs but we decided that having working sinks was far more important than the eclairs and went to go fix it. Evidently, an ingredient was left out of the eclair dough. I tried to pick up where he left off and finish it but it did not look right. Anyway, I piped them out and baked them but they did not rise. They were like dense little cookies.

Luckily, Christian was able to clean out the "clean out" for the sinks and get them working just as our guests arrived. We tried to salvage the afternoon and forget about all our frustrations. We had a nice lunch (no dessert...which is probably just as well since we were all stuffed) and relaxed with a movie afterwards.

So, that was my eventful, somewhat stressful birthday celebration.

A couple of days later (since it was bugging me), I figured out what the missing ingredient was (water) in the eclair dough and decided to make it again myself. It turned out this time. It was tasty and we ate too many. We were going to bring some over to a friend's house but it was kind of late so we just ended up sharing with our neighbor and ate the rest. I better start exercising again...it's been a while!

A baby shower, a funeral and 3 birthdays...

It was a busy weekend. It's taken me a while to get my posts up...I guess I have been a bit out of sorts lately.

I started off the weekend with a baby shower for a friend. I made french macarons for the first time. I was excited to finally try it out. It didn't come out perfect as a third of them were not presentable enough for me to bring. I guess it was just as well as my family loved them.

I think that I know what happened though, so I think I can do a better job next time. I will definitely be making them again. They were yummy!

We were supposed to visit with my family for birthday celebrations the next day but found ourselves unexpectedly going to a memorial service instead. Apparently my cousin's wife, Adele, passed away the week before and they were going to have a memorial service for her at Angel's stadium...which we thought pretty unusual, but then they wanted everyone to wear red...which really goes against the grain of any chinese person. I think they only got away with it because most of the older generation have passed on. In chinese culture, red symbolizes happiness. So even though this was not the actual funeral (they kept that with just the immediate family and close friends), and they wanted to call it a "celebration" of her life, it would have been highly impudent for a chinese family (had my aunt or grandmother had still been alive).

I think that I abstain on a lot of chinese traditions (much to the vexation of my parents), but I would not have even dared to do such a thing!

Adele had been battling cancer for the last 15 years. Adele and most of my cousins are much older than I am, so they seemed more like aunts and uncles to me than cousins. I am the youngest in my family and my mother and father were the youngest in theirs. So I can't say that we were close. In the last 10 or 15 years, I think we only saw each other at weddings and funerals. In fact, the last time we got together was something like 6 years ago since I was pregnant with Caitlyn still at the time.

But I would like to say this much for Adele...every time we got together, it was as if no time had passed between (although, their kids grew up and got married themselves and started having her grandbabies). She and her husband are so genuinely friendly and kind that you felt right at home around them. You never felt a awkward around her. I wish I had known her better so that I could have learned to be more like her. She was just "good people," you know? I guess that's why there were some 400 odd friends and family at her memorial service...I don't even know that many people!

She used to work for the Anaheim Angels...in the ticketing office, I believe. Her husband kept stats for games a lot. So I guess they were part of the Angels "family." It seemed weird to have it there at first, but when you consider the amount of people showing up and after you sit in back of home plate and hear the hush around the empty stadium, you felt like it was the most suitable place to have her memorial.

We took a quick snapshot together of just my family before we left.

We headed back to my family's house afterwards. We hung out with my brother's family for a while so that the kids could play and get their wiggles out. We had dinner at my mom's house to celebrate my birthday, my sister-in-law's birthday, and my father's birthday.

Although, I did not see my father once the entire day...but that's entirely another story.

Labor Day Weekend

We didn't go anywhere for Labor Day weekend. It was hot. There was too much work to be done (plus I'm fighting a horrible summer cold). The girls decided to go camping.

Camp Caldwell encompass many wonderful amenities, complete with picnic area and "lake". Emily set up their tents almost all by herself (her little sister gave her a little assistance). It was a hot and humid weekend, so the only thing missing from their little camp was a campfire. But it was way too hot and uncomfortable for that. But since the sun was behind clouds half the time, the girls could not stay in the pool "lake" very long before they were shivering. But they would get hot again in short time and jump right back in.

Back to School!

Today was the first day back to the school for the girls. I wanted to sigh with relief but I can't help but feel a little anxious for them. We got them off on the bus (which actually came on time today). Then we followed shortly after in the car.

There was very little change actually for the girls to get used to. Emily has the same teacher as last year. He generally likes to loop his classes for two years. Only maybe 25% of the class changed. Most of the kids stayed the same. She did get a new math teacher though so we went to meet her and introduce her to Emily so that Emily knows where she will be going. We found out that the kids she went to math with last year stayed all together in this class as well, so she knows most of them already too. Only the teacher changed because their teacher is not "teaching" this year. She has some special assignment I'll get into more later.

Caitlyn's teacher this year is her 1st grade math teacher from last year. So she already knows her. She also knows at least 25% of the kids in the class already so it was not so different and scary. Her math teacher is the teacher I was originally hoping Caitlyn would get this year but I found out she is teaching 2nd grade this year. I was a little disappointed because I had heard such amazing things about her but at least she still gets to take math with her. And I know her current teacher is very similar to previous teachers. They don't just leave well enough alone. They try to push their kids to excel in whatever areas they can so I know she won't just ignore Caitlyn because she doesn't need help and let her stagnate in the class. So I guess everything worked out for the best.

I thought I would just relax on their first day at school (just because I could) but it didn't work out that way. I had to run a bunch of errands because I couldn't go out last week. We went swimming at a friend's house and Emily jumped off the diving board and landed wrong in the pool or something and re-injured her foot (at least we think it is the same foot she hurt during the last school year). So I mostly ran around picking up little odds and ends for the kids and re-stocking up on bread and milk and stuff! It was still nice not to have to drag the kids around!

There's always tomorrow!

Dentist

We took the kids to the dentists for their checkups to get ready for school. Caitlyn came out with no cavities. This is actually her first time to the dentists (I know, it's a little late). They had a dentist go in and check the kids out in preschool though...more of a quick checkup but she didn't have any problems. We were supposed to go last summer but we were sick the whole time. We did try to get a hold of the dentist during the year a couple of times but was never able to get a hold of them for some reason or another. I do think that I need to find a new dentist for her though in the next 6 months because this dentist is not very good with kids (or people, really...but Christian likes her because she is straight forward and honest).

Emily, however, did not fare as well. She got her first cavity. Actually, she has a mouthful of cavities. She had a couple filled already but she still has to go back to do a few more. It's going to cost a pretty penny and we are not happy. I thought they would be in pretty good shape as they floss and do mouthwash as well as brush their teeth on a regular basis, but alas, it was not good enough. We obviously need to get her to brush better (especially in the back).

We have also had a lot of problems this past year with her and candy. She's been obsessed with candy. And I can't blame her entirely as there is candy every where we turn. At school (even though it is forbidden, she's been getting it from her teacher and possibly friends), at church (even though we are also told that we aren't supposed to give the kids snacks or candy unless it is incorporated into the lesson), and again at the activity girl things.

She has a whole basket of candy that rotates from Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, Easter and parties or whatever. I have thrown out handfuls of it and it keeps coming into the house. I usually make them forfeit all the candy into their basket and if they eat all their food (and it has to be a well balanced meal), I'll let them pick something out to have as a treat. But because they are getting it all over the place (and not necessarily forfeiting all of it all the time), they are getting too many sweets and something has to change. It got to the point where I practically had to frisk Emily for candy when she got home each day.

Hopefully the experience with the cavities will help Emily not sneak extra sweets any more, but I think we are going to save the candy for special occasions and occasions where they eat something especially difficult for them...like spinach or something...at least until she learns how to brush a heck of a lot better so that she doesn't get any more cavities.

I haven't even done as much baking this past year as I normally do (or I stick to bread and stuff) because I am too afraid of how much sugar and junk they are already getting outside of the home. And it's not fair because I know that I demand a lot from my children and I like to be able to surprise them with treats now and then too.

San Diego

The kids did the summer reading program again at the library. But when they finished it and got their free pass to Castle Park, we decided to offer them a choice. We have an annual pass that we got from their Grandpa for Christmas this past year...but the price of gas being what it is, it's really not that cheap to go to and when you add the price of parking along with it, well, it's anything but free. However, since I would have to pay for admission into Castle Park...along with parking as well, we figure that in the end, the price would be almost the same. So we gave them a choice...Castle Park or Sea World.

Of course, they picked Sea World. We also offered them Sea World as a choice because Emily is always begging to go on the water rides and it is always too cold normally to ride them. She did convince her dad to take her on the Shipwreck Rapids once but they paid for it dearly afterwards as they were soaking wet and freezing. We thought this would be their best chance to do something like this because their passes will expire at the end of the year and we probably won't be going back any time soon.

When we got there, we figured that we made a huge mistake trying to go to Sea World in August. The parking lot was packed! But after we finally made it in, we found that it really wasn't that bad. It was more crowded in December, I think, when we first got the tickets.

But of course, can you believe it? I forgot my camera. Christian didn't bring his either! I was very upset. All weekend, I kept wishing for my camera.

Anyway, we spent most of the time going to some of the new exhibits and things we haven't been to yet. Like the Turtle Reef, the Skytower, the Bayside Skyride, Shipwreck Rapids and Journey to Atlantis. They also had a pretty nice fireworks show at the end.

We spent the night at Christian's brother's house. We didn't get there until after midnight as we left the park later than we had intended and then we still had to stop off somewhere to grab a late dinner. We were all pretty exhausted.

Early in the morning (very early), Christian and his brother helped out with an Eagle project for our nephew. They cut off after noon and we had lunch at the pool and the girls got to do a bit of swimming. Christian's dad joined us for  an early dinner before we headed back to Riverside. Our car was acting kind of funny when we arrived at Mark's house the night before and again that afternoon when we headed out again so we were a little worried and wanted to get home as quickly as possible.

Swim Lessons Part Deux

A friend encouraged me to apply for Operations Splash, a scholarship offered by Kaiser to keep people active and healthy. We ended up qualifying for deeply discounted swim lessons for the kids and so I enrolled them in another session of swim lessons at the local pool.

It's a good thing because the kids have gotten so lazy that if it were not for the swim lessons, I don't think we would get out of the house most of the time. So, no, they have not been doing quite as well as I had hoped this summer on their chores. It's been insanely frustrating. They don't even make it out to their pool in the back that often anymore. They seem to prefer doing nothing, lying around in their own filth and giggling.

But I digress, the girls did pretty well in their swim lessons again. Emily will move up to level 4 next time. She is swimming really well. She learned to do the breast stroke this time. Plus they worked on perfecting their free style swimming and backstroke. They also introduced them to diving.

Emily's dive is more like a froggy leap! It's so funny. They really only introduced them to it and let them try it once though. They will work on their form on the next level. Her jump off the diving board is still a  funny crouching leap as well, but I think letting them go off of the diving board at the end of the lessons is just mostly for fun.

Emily's swim class was considerably bigger this time, which is frustrating because each student gets very little time with the teacher since lessons are only 30 minutes but I think her teacher was much better at not letting the students distract her in chatting or playing and was really good at giving each student the individual instruction they needed, so in the end, I was pretty happy with her lessons.

Caitlyn, on the other hand, only had one other person in her class, so things were great for her. And the kids on that level, really need more help. She was able to move up a level again after her lesson as well. So, she will be starting level 3 next time. I kind of question whether she is ready for that though but apparently, her instructor said that she is able to do the bare minimum of what is needed to pass. However, she is no where near the level Emily was at when she moved up. Then again, Emily has always been the best swimmer in all her classes.

After some more thought and observation, I think Emily really should have started at level 3 instead of two.  Oh well, she's really enjoyed her swim lessons. And considering that we only managed to come back only once (again) to practice swimming during their open hours, they did pretty good!

The other great thing about their swim lessons is that RUSD offers free lunch just outside of the pool every day, so that after working up an appetite swimming, they towel off and grab lunch. I must say that it is very convenient!