Lovin October

I know it's a pagan holiday and all that stuff- but man do i love halloween! We have been having a blast this month doing all this halloweeny stuff. Jeehon and I even went to Borders bookstore with the kids on Saturday for a costume contest and won! It helps that our kids were wearing home-made costumes, and they were a 'set', or a 'package deal' if you will. They got a halloween book and a $5 gift card. Very exciting stuff. Anyway, here are some pics from our adventures this month... but no pics of the kids in their costumes yet because we have a SERIOUS contest on Friday with our Small Group and no one can know what we are going as just yet...


Here we are at Schneps Farm in the Pumpkin Patch. We were all very tired, dirty, and hot by this point in the day. It's amazing that we were even able to get the kids to sit still enough for this shot.

Lily loving the little pumpkins. Just her size!

Sungu and a sheep. Neither of them really know which way to look.

We went to Schnpf Farms with a serious caravan of folks- Lindsay and Gabe, Paige and Morgan and Mary Beth, Barb, Barb's sister Susie and her hubs Glenn, and their daughter Katie, and her hubs Joey, and their daughter Brooklyn, and of course Jeehon, Sungu, Lils and the Toph. A great day!

Topher at Barktober with our lovely friend Lanie and her two dogs. They made it into the top 5 for the costume contest! So cute.

Karaoke Night

I know I complain a whole lot when I am blogging, and I would just like to take a moment and apologize for that. There is a lot to complain about, but there is also so much to be thankful for. I am thankful that our kids just love music. Sungu really really loves music. When we are being stereotypical (which is very very often) we say it is because he is 1/4 african american.
Anyhow, tonight we went to another high school football game to watch Chris' step-brother kick. Though the game was fun, the ride to the game was even funner still. It started off pretty rough- Topher was crying. The car used to be Lily's automatic mouth-shutter. She might be upset about something in the world, but once she was in her car seat and the car was a rolling down the street, all her troubles and fears would disappear. Not so much for Topher. In fact, the opposite seems true more often than not.
So we decided to blast the radio to see if Topher would stop. Bette Midler's "The Rose" was on, so I decided to sing that as loudly as I could to entertain the non-crying kids, and hopefully quiet down the one that was crying. And it worked! So then we decided to make a game out of this singing-along-with-the-radio business: Karaoke Funtimes!
The next song was for Chris and it was John Mayer's "Say What You Need to Say". Easy enough because most of the words to the song are in the title. Only Chris thought it was "say what you mean to say" and sang that for the entirety of the song, and that was pretty hilarious. But it was made all the more ridiculous cause Chris is a very intense singer. When he gets into a song, he puts his hand up close to his face, not so much pretending that he is holding up a mike, but more like he is just trying to caress his own face. He also kinda closes his eyes, which is superdangerous when he is driving.
Then it was Jeehon's turn. Blondie's "Heart of Glass" came on. We've all heard that song a million times before. But not one of us had any idea what any of the words were. I only know the name of the song because we have a little screen that tells us the time, the radio station, the singer and the song that is being sung. Needless to say, Jeehon was the big loser for Karaoke Night, and Chris was the big winner. And I know I complain a lot about our kids not being very smart. But at least they are happy and they live in a house (and drive in a car) that is full of laughs. And very poor singing.

Jinxed

I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus and that He came and died for our sins. I know that things happen for a reason (for His glory) and that superstition and all that is counter-thought to my religious beliefs. HOWEVER, I am superstitous by accident, as I believe lots of people tend to be without realizing it. This 'accident' occurs most frequently during the months of November and April. That's right- the regular season of the NBA. Things only get worse if we (The Suns) make it into the post-season.
Anyhoo, as of late, my superstition has been kicked into full swing because of my kids. About a week or two ago, Lily really seemed to turn the corner with her crying/tantrums. She was a positive angel! I even dropped her off at the nursery at chuch and she did not cry! She always stops crying within about five minutes of my dropping her off, but I always feel so bad for the ladies at church when I drop her off and she just bursts into tears as they tear her off of me. But last week she was a totally different girl. It was amazing. She also went down for her naps with a smile. So glorious. Then I had the audacity to mention it to my sister. I think my exact words were: "I think Lily is growing up. I hope those were her terrible twos and now they are over." Next day- lots of tears, especially before her nap, and even before bed at night. BOO for bragging.
Then last night Chris and I were doing our nightly devotional. It talked about the Proverbs 31 woman and how she does it all, but how she also needs help from her spouse in the midst of child rearing, home cleaning, etc. Chris was asking how he could help out more (good boy!) I told him that things have been so great lately because I have been getting more sleep. Lily had been sleeping for about 12 to 13 hours a night, and Topher was only getting up at about 4 or 5, and still going back down easily till about 8. Not bad at all! And as certain as death and taxes, Topher woke up at 1:30, then 5:30, and would NOT go back to sleep. Which means I did not go back to sleep.
So am I jinxed? Is this all random coincidence? Or should I just stop bragging about my kids and let others brag about them first. I believe there's something about that in the Bible. I better go look it up. And then maybe squeeze in a nap or two...

A Little Introspection

i just had an interesting and depleting evening. here is an e-mail i just sent to one of my dearest friends in the whole wide world. the friend is a lovely lady named Jenn. we met in high school, went to university together, and then our paths took seriously different ways. i went to korea, then got married, and had kids, etc. jenn kept on with the schooling stuff. she was in architecture at the university of toronto (where i went to school with her). then she applied to M.I.T. for her masters in architecture, and GOT IN. she just graduated from there in the spring and is now in beijing working at an architectural firm. hello? amazing. she is vietnamese-canadian, and her parents love her dearly, but are waiting for her to leave beijing and go to harvard for law school. why? because ALL asian parents want their kids to go to harvard for law school. (side note, jenn and i have a beautiful african-canadian friend who also went to high school and university with us. she is presently in law school at harvard. my parents know nothing of this for so many different reasons...)

"as i was logging on to my e-mail, i was thinking about you and how i was going to write you a meaningful e-mail since all the kids are asleep and i haven't written to you in so long, and i just had a pretty poopy night. LITERALLY. jeehon is at bible study and it's chris' late night working night, so i am alone with the three kids every monday night. usually it's not bad at all.
but tonight sucked.
my nephew sungu is slowly saying more and more stuff. not necessarily words, but he is trying to repeat what other people (namely jeehon and i) are saying. lily... not so much. i cannot tell you how much it vexes me that lily is older and not necessarily smarter than sungu. sometimes she is better behaved, but that's cause she is a girl. BUT she is not always better behaved. i need her to either ALWAYS be better behaved and dumber, or just smarter and occassionally well behaved. who the crap am i kidding?? it kills me that she is not better behaved all the time and smarter than sungu! there. it's all out there. jeehon doesn't rub it in my face or anything. but just the fact that she knows that sungu is starting to get more words than lily makes her kinda happy. the way it makes her kinda happy when i am pregnant, cause it means i weigh more than her. it's petty stuff. but the stuff that makes women happy. very happy. me included.
anyhoo, so we were all hanging out, having a gay old time. i put on a korean dvd of kids singing and dancing. lily and sungu LOVE IT. it's so cute cause they often dance about too. topher was also loving watching everything and everyone. he's such a sweet little guy.
the kids were also playing with stacking blocks and rings to promote motor skill development whilst watching this dvd that was supposed to be making them better singers, dancers, and korean speakers.
then i gave them their milk which is a sign that it is almost time for bed. lily and sungu were getting milk all over the dang place which always happens, but today it was killing me. and of course there was more milk spilled than usual. and no one likes milk in the carpet or on the furniture. it makes stuff smell bad. and so i kinda yelled. mostly at lily. partly cause of the milk. but mostly cause she is not smarter and better behaved than sungu. am i a crap mother or what?!!?
so then i cooled down and took lily and sungu upstairs for their bath. that went off without a glitch. i got them out and brought them into sungu's room. i opened the drawer that has diapers in it, and of course there is only one left. so as i was trying to decide who i should put it on first, i look at lily and she is peeing on the carpet. not a whole lot, but still, it's pee. in the carpet. no one likes pee in the carpet. it really smells.
so i decided that lily should get the diaper since it didn't look like she finished peeing. so rational, right? after i got her sealed up, i grabbed some pjs for sungu, opened the door, getting ready to move the party into lily's room where more diapers were to be found. but i stepped in something. it kinda looked like avocado, and it felt like avocado on my foot, but let me tell you honey- it was not avocado. at least, not JUST avocado. so sungu dropped a deuce in his room, and i stepped in it, so now it's REALLY in the carpet. and NO ONE LIKES POO IN THE CARPET.
so now the kids are all asleep. somehow they are also all alive and well. and i just wanted to write to you and say hi and tell you that i missed you too and i cannot tell you how amazing it is that you wrote to me at just the time that i needed to hear from you.
the sucky thing about your timing is that i was going to reply to what you were saying about your family waiting for you to go to law school and i think that is so absurd considering you graduated from MIT. hello??? ridiculous expectations asian parents! but as i was writing/venting about lily, i thought that maybe i am a ridiculous asian parent myself.
boo introspection!..."

Best Vacation Ever!

Sunday night, Chris was talking to his mommy in Oregon on the phone. Tuesday was the day he, his bro Robert, and sister Andi were supposed to fly out to get their mom and bring her HOME to Arizona! But, as Barb was packing, she discovered she had A LOT OF STUFF and had to get another moving truck, and therefore needed two more drivers to come and make the trek. So they enlisted myself and a fine young gentleman names Jesse to join the caravan.

Fortunately, I have the best sister in the world, so she offered to (willingly, not on drugs or anything) watch both Lily and Topher for the next two or three days (however long this journey was going to take.)

We left on Tuesday morning at about 5:30am. We were on two seperate flights, which worked out just fine for me cause I was able to read the Bible and sleep and just be BY MYSELF! It was awesome. Don't get me wrong folks, I missed the poop right outta my kids. As soon as I landed in Oregon, I busted out my phone just so I could look at the pics of my babies in my album. It was nice to get an opportunity to miss the little boogers! Anyhoo, we got into Portland at abour 11am, and proceeded to eat lunch, and say bye to a lot of very sad friends of Barb's. It finally occured to me that moving to Arizona wasn't just a huge blessing for our family, but a sad occassion for everyone she was leaving behind in Oregon. And even a sad occassion for Barb herself. I was once again reminded that my mother-in-law is amazing. (And my step-father-in-law too! We love you Jerry and can't wait for you to be out here with us!)

It was very nice meeting Barb's friends (and my three Blog-reading fans! ok... so two of the three are Barb and Jerry. and I have technically met them before...) and seeing where she worked and just being in Oregon again. Chris and I were last in Oregon four Christmases ago and we had a blast. Until Chris got food poisoning and we almost broke up (again) at the airport. Loooooong story. I'll get back to it some other day. But part of me wanted to come back to Oregon for the amazing weather (read: anything lower than 90 degrees) and to say Hi and Bye to Jerry and to see if my relationship with Chris was stronger now than it was four years ago... just joking. But it is!

Anyhoo, we left Oregon at 8pm on Tuesday night and did not make it back home till 10pm on Wednesday night. The trip was full of driving, bathroom breaks (for us, and the two english bulldogs), junk food, bad coffee, and great fellowship! Sure there were times of excruciating pain (sitting and driving and trying to stay awake on long stretches of boring road is not as fun as it sounds) but there were times of funfunfun. And quite frankly, as the mother of two young babies, this was the best vacation I've had in a long time! I'd do it again in a heartbeat!