mommapao

Dress up time!

2009-10-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

Here's youngest "In costume"

no title

2009-04-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

When some friends of ours decided to attend another church another friend made the comment that she was staying put at her current church until she died. I found out today that she will be leaving at the end of the church year to attend the same church that the first friends attend.
I briefly reminded her of this today, but told her where the Lord leads her to go, she has to follow. Also told her that it has been on my heart to seek out another place of worship, but leaving a place so familiar to me is so hard. She agreed. That's all.

Britney spears - UGH!!

2009-04-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

Two of my co workers went to the Britney SPears concert on Monday. I made fun of them. One is a 37 year old guy and the other is a single gal in her late 20s. One of my friends asked me if told me she would go the concert if she could. She has never been to a concert. likes some of her music, and would like to see someone famous. I told her I wouldn't go under any circumstance. We got into a heated discussion about why I wouldn't go. One, I don't care for her. My friend asked me why I dont like her and I ranted off several reasons. Still she didn't see why I wouldn't go. Two, I don't like her music. So she asked me what kind of music I like. I told her I don't care for today's pop music and that I mostly listen to Christian music. Then she proceeded to criticize my choice in music. She was like all that Hallelujah doesn't appeal to me. I was like That's not what I listen to and why is it okay for you to bash what I listen to but I can't say that I don't like B Spears?
She asked me if I would go if it were free. Again, I told her no. She didn't get it. I proceeded to tell her that if I can avoid it, I won't support people, places, things, that I object to. She thought I would be the only person at work who wouldn't go. We polled some people. No one would pay or go out of their way to go and one would have to be paid a good chunk of money to go. I felt good expressing my principles and what I would do to back them up.
Would you go?

What people will buy!

2009-03-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of buying second hand clothing for my kids. And an even bigger fan of selling what my kids used to others. I have had much success on Craigslist and even ebay. But a garage sale - wow! I remember the first garage sale we had at my parents' house when I was in college. You KNOW how much stuff my parents have so we had a ton of things to sell. My mom told me I could keep half of what we made. We put signs out a couple of days before informing drive bys that it would start at 8am. I vividly remember my dad calling me to get up at 7am bc people were already waiting on our driveway to see what we had. "Jennifer get up! They already coming!!"
I had a "multi-famlly" garage sale with one of my friends and her sister in law last weekend. He mom passed away last year and they are needing to clean out the house to get it ready to put it on the market. So she had a lot of furniture to sell. Her sister in law just had a lot of random stuff. She had a book titled "CHYNA" which was about some wrestler. I brought all the toys that the kids don't play with anymore, some clothes I didn't pass on, our motorcycle helmets, rollerblades, and stereo equipment we upgrade from.
I priced everything what I thouht was reasonable. The helmets orginally were $400 each -I priced them at $20. I got offers for $5 and $10. I did sell them for the marked $. I had speakers orignally $150 each price at $15 each. Some guy offered me $5 each -I didn't sell them to him. While standing around we talked about how people just want you to pretty much give stuff to them. Which from a tax point of view I would rather do then sell them for an unreasonable amount!
BUT down to what strange things people will buy - at least I think they're strange:
Shoes
Free shampoo and soap from hotels
UGLY and I mean ugly "chachkies"
socks
and underwear.

Yes I said underwear.
Would you wear someone else's underwear?

this is for you too from long ago request....

2009-03-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

a dream COME true

2009-03-11T19:53:00.001-07:00

For the past few years I have been considering looking for a new church, but taking the kids into consideration it has been hard to make the move. WHY the change you may ask? I know you aren't to be expecting your church to meet your needs, but I think the church shouldn't constantly disappoint you either. I get so frustrated with the "old"way people think that it affects my outlook on the church as a whole - specifically this church I am currently attending. The majority of the people aren't open to ANY change at all, bc tehy like it the way it is. I guess they figure if it ain't broke don't fix it??? What they don't see is that it IS broken.
Also the location is FAR. Not as far as my work, but far enough where it gets to be a hassle to drive there.

So I have been looking at churches close to home AGAIN. I googled churches in the area and have "narrowed" it down to 2 -Crossbridge Church and Sugar Land Family Church. Both non denominational. Now if any of you know of some others I should check out, be my guest and let me know. You may also wonder how I picked these. After googling, I looked for the Children's Ministry info. Although I think my growth greatly influences my children's, I don't want them to be somewhere they can't be happy as children.

IF i ever get around to looking I think it'd be hard to leave. Last week in SS we talked about burden's God has put on our hearts. I think I have a burden to work with the children, but don't know how it would be in a new setting. And I have been going to my current church for 28 YEARS! They really my family. But like others who have left, they have managed to stay in touch with people they left behind. There is a group of students who will be graduating next year that I am really attached to. For some reason I feel the need to see them off into adulthood. I was really hoping to find a Chinese church to visit, but mostof the ones I looked up were too chinese-y. I want my kids to hang on to their heritage, so I guess I might have to find a new way to do that.
I'll just keep praying about all of this and wait for God's revelation.

2008-09-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

The positive side of Ike
-we had absolutely no damage done to the house other than a leaves and twigs in the yard. We have a part of our fence that about to fall over but even it survived the storm. I have to say I feel EXTREMELY lucky and covered by God's grace that nothing happened to us. I did wake up from the rain and wind the morning Ike moved in and moved to the closet to finish my sleep (it is on the opposite side if the house where the rain and wind were coming from). And my sweet husband even let me sleep there until 8:45!!! Which in my house is a luxury considering that the boys wake up about 6:30 EVERY morning.
We ventured out Sat afternoon to see if our roof had any damage and I found a single shingle on the driveway and informed John. He went out and surveyed the house and didn't see any missing tiles at first glance so he stepped into the street to look at the house. On his way back in he glanced at the houses down the street. One poor house had a huge section of it's roof gone. Not gone gone like a hole in it - but gone as in no shingles. So we figured the shingle I found belonged to them.
-I went to work on Friday on Monday and was compensated triple time for working while the school was closed. I almost made more in 2 days than I normally do in 2 weeks!
-John ad I went out to get milk for the kids. We had to wait for them to unload the truck with the 2% milk. While waiting we met a couple to have been attending the 5:30 service at Ecclessia. We asked if they new our friends there and they do! And they had dinner with y'all last time you were here. I don't remember their names.
-The cooler weather is perfect for running!

The negative side of Ike
-Most of the people we know who live in town do not have power - this includes both of out parents. John's parents are at the previously mentioned brother in Katy and my parents, well there are at my house. Now don't get me wrong, I do love my parents are are grateful that they are here to watch the kids while John and I go back to work, but I have my way of doing things and they just don't do them that way. For a lot of things. At first they had water but no power. WHen they went back to check on the house today now they have no water. We have been hearing on the news that it could take 2 weeks for some people to get power back - I think I'll go crazy by then.
-They have canceled school thru Wednesday. So not only do I have my parents here but all 3 kids as well. Again it's not that I don't love all of them, but the kids tend to misbehave when my parents are here thinking they can get away with more - uh uh no sir no way. So they get in trouble whuch in turn gets me mad which in turn gets me upset with my parents. I know this yet I cannot control my part of it.
-On Saturday afternoon after a slight sense of cabin fever (remember 3 kids) we decided to venture out to look for some place to eat. What's the first place we go? OF COURSE Bellaire. Oh we were SO disappointed. no power. drove down to Hong Kong market - no power. We knew that Katy had power since a friend and John's brother live out there so we drove over there. The 4 places we saw that were open had people waiting to get into the parking lot so we ended up at my brother in laws.
-gas lines are ridiculous! and grocery stores are closing at 7 or 9pm
-one of my friend's husband went to Bellaire to get some lunch. a few places were open to eat. While he was waiting for his food he ate some of the dim sum food he ordered. It was bad as in rotten. He told the person at the counter who refunded his money and also asked him not to say anything to the rest of the customers! Apparently they were cooking food that had been in their non powered fridge over the weekend.
-since my lab has been closed I have been bringing work home. no further explaination needed.

Here's hoping that we fare as lucky after the next hurricane.

Code word: GALAXY

2008-08-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

So the other night i wasn't feeling so well so I excused myself. I was gone for a while and when I came back John asked if I felt better. Long story short - H asked if I had "galaxy." Yea, I was just as confused.
"What?"
"Did you have galaxy?" very adamantly.
"H what do you mean did I have galaxy? John do you know what he's talking about?" He shakes his head.
"You know it's when you have pee poop." Trying not laugh.
Now for the weak at heart you may want to stop here.
He continues. "It's like you're peeing, but it's coming out of the place that you poop. You're poop is like pee - pee poop - galaxy." C looks on like "yea that's right"
"H that's called diarrhea."
"Oh."
Cut to 2 days later.
H stops playing. " I have to go to the bathroom."
"Do you have galaxy?"
both of us laugh.
So from now on when I used the word "galaxy" in public and it makes no sense at all, you will know what I mean.

per request

2008-08-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

So one of my friends asked why I haven't blogged in awhile. I don't really have an answer. I do know that with each successive child I have had I have become less and less social. It's not that I don't want to talk to my friends, but I as you know and I hope agree with me, it takes a lot of work to keep up with friends! And a lot of times I have very little to share that I think will be of interest to them. I don't want to be constantly talking to them about my kids bc I know that can be annoying, but my kids take up the majority of my time and energy. Which is another reason I probably don't blog often. I don't have the energy to think about what to write. BUT you're in luck! Here are the things that have been on my mind/going on these past few days.

1) I don't get why people "reply all" to some emails. Sure if "all" absolutely need to know your response then a reply all is okay. But say your rsvping for an event in which 50 people were invited. I don't need to know if you're coming. I once got emails bt a husband and wife who were discussing which way something would be better. No kidding 4 emails from each spouse each email less than 2 sentences. I have learned to just delete all re: emails except for the first and last ones.

2) One of my friends and I took swimming lessons last week. My parents never took me for lessons so I never learned to float, tread water, or doggie paddle. And for some reason as I got older I became more and more afraid of the water. My friend was the same way. We decided to take the class figuring it couldn't do us any harm. Well I learned how to breathe and how to tread water in a matter of 4 days. I won't be setting any records any time soon, but I'm hoping I can survive if thrown overboard. It has been particularly interesting watching the Olympics and relating what the coach taught us to what I see in the games.

3)I didn't catch anyof the opening cermonies of the Olympics. My co teacher did and said it made him proud to be Asian. I'm hoping he didn't mean that he wasn't proud before. Also later the news was showing a group of Asian people watching the China vs US basketball team. They interviewed a woman who definitly wasn't ABC to see who she was rooting for. Her reply was very "asian" if you know what I mean. John laughed and told me to tape that then show my co teacher if that made him proud to be asian.

that's all for now. I have to pick up my kids....

Awww...

2008-05-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

So on my way home today
Carter asks, "Are we going home Mommy?"
Me: "Yes."
Carter: "Good, then I will be safe."
In my mind I was a bit concerned at first, then I heard
Harrison, "Carter you are always safe, because God is always with you. Even when you are lonely He is there."
I got a little choked up.

old man in gym

2008-02-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

for those of you who may still remember and are wondering about the old man in the gym story and what I did...when I got home I took a shower and scrubbed my arm A LOT. A few weeks later I was taking the boys to swim lessons and i bumped into one of the girls who works in the child care center. She asked me where Riley and I had been and I told her about the old guy. We were standing at the front desk and another employee told me I should have reported him. I haven't been to the Y in quite some time.

2007-10-29T20:08:00.001-07:00

my mom fwded this to me.....just another reason among the many not to go there...my only question is did they take it the party without looking at it or take it as is for a good laugh

From: the “Well, that’s what you said”…..Department

We had a "going away" party yesterday. One of the supervisors called a Wal-Mart and ordered the cake. He told them to write:

"Best Wishes Suzanne" and underneath that write "We will miss you".

Jesus and Poker

2007-10-26T13:22:00.001-07:00

So I admit it, John likes to play Hold 'em...for real money. He also likes to watch it on TV which to me is like the equivilent of my dad watching bowling (he still does). There's this Asian guy on the poker circiut who every hand "prays" to Jesus to let him win the hand. His wife also is in the stands giving God the glory for his winning. What do you think of this?

The cowboys can stay away

2007-10-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

There used to be a song titled "Where have all the Cowboys Gone" which talked about a lady/girl/woman who I guess used to get a lot of attention from guys and now that she's older doesn't. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want guys "hitting" on me (not that it happpend a lot before or even now) AND I never have considered my self a real beauty. Given that, let me tell you about these 2 encounters I experienced.
During the summer I joined the YMCA so I could work out and have babysitting for Riley (most gyms won't sit for children under 6 months). The demographics of those there were mostly people in their 40's and on with a few younger ones. When I go to the gym 99% of the time I have on my headphones and music playing fairly loud. I am not there to socialize and the music helps to block out a lot of grunting going on elsewhere. I say hi to those who I see on a regular basis, but my conversations are never more than 2 sentences long. I pretty much wake up brush my teeth, wash my face, put on deodorant, pull my hair back then go. So I had been going to the Y for about a month when I walk in to a bench and get out my headphones when an man in at least his 60's walks up to me. He says something like "Miss I just wanted to let you know that you have lovely legs, just lovely" Me being the polite person I am, says thanks and puts on my headphones. I check to see that he has left before going on with my routine. That evening I tell John that some old man creeped me out and why.
Fast forward 4 months.
Going into gym as usual. Haven't seen the old creepy guy since last time. I'm sitting down doing a set when I look in the mirror and here he comes. I'm hoping he just coming my direction to get some weights, but alas he stops. He kneels down beside me and starts talking. Mind you I have my headphones on and am in the middle of a set. Politely I ask him to wait for me to finish. I finish and take of my headphones. He tells me he's thinks he has talked to me before. I pretend I don't remember. NO KIDDING he asks me if I am a model. I'm thinking "What are you on? Have you ever seen a 5 foot 2 model? And what kind of lame line is this?" I laugh the polite haha laugh and tell him, "No I'm not." Creepy old guy. "Well I just think you should be bc you are absolutely lovely, just lovely" (Again with the lovely, who uses that word?) Then...HE TOUCHES MY ARM!!! Politely I say "Thank you." then put on my headphones and go on with another set. Creepy old guy gets up and walks away. A few minutes later he comes my way, but I see him and I pick up my towel and head elsewere.
If this happened to you, what would you do? After the whole thing there were several things I thought about doing. 1. Telling the staff about him. 2.Asking the people next to me, if they heard it and what they thought. 3. Biting his head off and telling him if he touched me again he would painfully regret it. 4. Never returning.
I'll tell you what I did end up doing later.

one hit wonders

2007-10-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

In John's car we listen to JACK FM, 103.something. They play used to play a lot of music from the 60's and 70's but now they play a 80's early 90's. There are no DJs so they don't tell you the name of the song or the artist. In our short car rides we notice they play a lot of songs we grew up with and a lot of them were one hit wonders. John and I listended to totally different music when we were in High School. He listened to your typical white boy stuff - Van Halen, GnR. I of course was your typical Asian - the Cure, the Smiths, Erasure. What's my point? Don't really know. Music can bring back a lot of memories, some good and some really bad. I can remember going to parties in college and dancing to "Bizarre Love Triangle" and "Just Like Heaven". Now I dance like a fool around my living room with my kids to children's versions of "Open the Eyes of My Heart," VBS theme songs and ABBA. Still don't think I have a point. Life sure is different now.

HERE I AM!!!

2007-08-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

so here i am at my new blog/vent page...my old one was SO popular that i had to get away...ha ha. maybe a stranger will leave a comment here, although I'm okay with just putting my thoughts out there just to get them out of my head.

i originally found this blog site when I was looking for some info on DOOL. that soap has really gotten odd, yetfor some reason I still want to know what's going on. Now within the past few weeks 2 people I know have moved their blog to here. Maybe now I'm up current with the trends, sorta.

I was over at someone's house on Tuesday watching Oprah and Dr. Oz. He commented that a healthy 30 year old female should be able to do 45 "girl" push ups. And for every 10 years more she the number decreases by 5. I consider myself somewhat healthy...I could only do 36 - but I'm NOT 30. So by his standards I have the health of just under a 50 year old??? Hmm. FYI a 30 year old man is supposed to be able to do 35 regular push ups. I'm pretty sure hubby can do more than that.

Another note. Baby girl has been refusing to drink from a bottle. I tried the 4th bottle today and with a little trickery and a dark room she drank 3 whole ounces. I consider it a small victory.

do you know anyone looking for baby boy clothes? trying to sell mine before resorting to a garage sale. Everything's a dollar or less! Hubby tells me to just donate it, but I rather see who is getting my stuff than put it in a bag, give it to a stranger than have no idea where it goes from there. Plus the cash in my hand seems better than the deduction on taxes (which I never see).

went to Target the other day to return something. Mother and daughter were looking at clothes. As they were flipping through the rack 3 shirts dropped on the floor. they looked at them and walked off. I guess neither of them has worked in retail.