Carnival 2014

I'd be remiss if I didn't jot down a few thoughts on today's CS Carnival. 

The idea came to me on a Sunday afternoon when I came back from my alma mater's Open House which had a bounce house / slide and facepainting.  My kids loved it... so I thought, I should do something my kids love!!  The Carnival... despite all the thanks and praises... was actually very self-serving. 


One of the best part of my day... was when I had a chance to sit down and speak with an elderly Caucasian couple.  They brought their grand-daughter there... was the only non-Asian... and was a little bit out of place.  But we were engaged in a fine 15 minute conversation.  From parenting... to history of San Jose... to practicing our faith. 

Then the other best part of my day... I chatted with their granddaughter and her friend.  Her friend was the one who invited them.  He was a shy kid... and he burned his feet on the hot pavement.  And he didn't want to go back out to play.  He simply refused.  I wanted to cheer up the boy and give him some encouragement.  So we chatted and laughed.  I told a few jokes and stories.... but he still didn't want to go.  I ended up saying, "Ok buddy... I'll see you out there!!"  That wasn't the good part.  About an hour later.... I saw him out there and his mom came up to me and said, "I think it was your little talk with him.  Thank you."

There were highs and lows, ups and downs.... but finally... one of the best thing that happened, was seeing one of my sister spending almost the entire time welcoming people to our Alpha dinner.  Most of the other b&s were either working or having a good time.  But Miranda... she was tirelessly handing out flyers. 

At the end of the night... she was, "It was a very successful event. We got a lot of people to register for Alpha."

And isn't that what this Carnival event was all about....? Shame on me for being self-serving. 

Journaling

During the summer, we've been giving Nui-nui some "homework assignments" while she's home - the days she's not at Summer School.

She practices her addition, subtraction and multiplication.  I give her a few Chinese Characters to practice.  But the best part about the homework assignment is her journal.  Twice a week, I ask her to draw a picture and write 1-2 sentences about that picture.

I look forward to those days when I come home...and flip through her notebook to unveil what is the latest image going through her 5 year old mind.

As the summer comes to a close, I flip back and is astounded!!  Almost all her journals are about Happy Moments!!  Disneyland, Happy Hallow, Levi's Stadium (WOOT!!), Christmas Eve from last year, going to Mui-mui's birthday party.  If I was a clincial psychiatrist, I would say, "You have a happy girl!"

Of note... there are two journal entries that are not happy. 

1) An entry where she complained bout doing math... and wanted to do easy math.  HA!
2) The second one having to do with me  yelling at her... .and she feeling sorry and sad.  Awwwww....

I might fail... but I'm going to try hard as heck to keep these journal entries for when she goes off to college. 

Sunday Night Ritual

It's Sunday night... and what do I find myself doing?? I'm going through the fridge, throwing away week (or 2 week old) leftovers.  What a waste.  America is such a wasteful nation... I feel sick to the stomach just thinking about it, let alone doing it.

The leftover dim sum from last Sunday? TOSS!
The left over veggies from Tuesday...that we've microwaved twice for dinner... GONE!
The mysterious bag of whatever.... SEE YA!!

Not all is lost.  I find a few drummettes from Wednesday's dinner.  And also from pork from Monday's dinner.  They all sat in their down dish... under their own plastic wrap.  So I consolidated the few biteful of meat along with Friday's leftover ribs and make a new plate of leftovers.

It's a pure feeling of victory whenever we wipe clean all the food!! Sometimes.... on a Saturday evening, we decide to stay in and we make one of those special "Leung's smorgas bord", throw everything in a pot and add some chicken soup.  Voila!!  Dinner!! 

But those rarely happen... but happens more often.... the Sunday Night Ritual.

Breasts....

As of late... my son has taken on a new liking.  A liking of breasts. Not sure if it's normal though. 

He's 3... but he's obsessed with breasts.  He plays with mommy's breasts.  He plays with daddy's breasts.  At Target, we walk by a poster of a woman in a swimsuit and he points and yells, "奶奶!"  We pass by Victoria's Secrets and his eyes light up... "奶奶!" But he doesn't discriminate... he says the same things when we walk by Abercrombie.  He screams, "奶奶!" when he sees those male models.

I guess there's nothing wrong with it...  90% of the guys I know have an affinity for breasts. The other 10%....they have their own breasts, aka man-boobs. 

What gets a little alarming is...when we're praying and say, "in Jesus' name...." instead of "Amen" he says, "奶奶!"