Do Over!

Have you ever had one of those days that just needs to be a Do Over?

12:15pm. It sounded like an easy thing to do. I was taking the kids to have pho with Sarah and Jeffy. It was pouring outside while I was trying to find parking at Marina Supermarket. I circled the parking lot I don't know how many times. Then Jeffy kindly came out to take the kids inside while I parked. Finally, I scored good parking in a non-compact space close to the plaza.

I decided to also take the time to drop some mail in the mailbox right in front. Then the feeling came. Right when the letters left my fingers and the mailbox door closed on me, I felt like I got punched in the stomach. There was a check that I was supposed to deposit at the bank in that stack of letters. I had tucked it under the letters when I picked up Lauryn from preschool so that no one would spy it in the passenger seat. It was a BIG check.

After lunch, I got ready to wait for the mailman. The pickup time was at 1:45 and we finished lunch at 1:15. Not too bad, 30 minutes. I can totally handle that. So I popped in Toy Story for the kids. Sarah and Jeffy bought Sydney some milk and me and Lauryn some water and a bag of shrimp chips to help us pass the time in peace.

At 1:30, I noticed that a mailtruck had drove out of the parking lot. Oh no! Did I miss it?! I decided that I can't wait in the car, it's too distracting. Lauryn was mesmerized by the movie and the shrimp chips. Sydney was on her second cup of milk, so I took the umbrella and waited next to the mailbox in the rain in view of the van. 1:45. No mailman. 1:50 no mailman. Then I noticed 2 mailmen sitting outside of ShenKee Bakery. I asked them if they were picking up from the box. They said no. I explained my dilemma and they told me that it's up to the carrier if she'll give me my check back. But all she's supposed to do it to empty the box and take everything back to the station.

1:55, a mail truck drives into the parking lot. I had been going back and forth between the van and the mailbox. I run to the mailbox to wait, but the truck goes straight to the back of the plaza. It finally drives around the back, but back out to the street and turns away.

I go back to the van. Sydney's thrown her milk on the floor and tossed her glasses somewhere under the seat. She's in the throws of a meltdown. She missed her morning nap and is not happy at all. Lauryn's thirsty from half a bag of shrimp chips. But not wanting to have to take her potty, I only allowed her 1 sip of water.

2:05, another mail truck drives by, but doesn't come into the parking lot. I don't know if I can take much more. It crossed my mind that the mailmen are just messing with me now.

2:20, another mail truck pulls into the parking lot. It's finally the one! I haven't been this happy in a long time. I run to meet the mail truck. The mail lady felt really badly that she was late, so I think that helped my cause. She checked my ID and promptly handed me my check back! PTL!

We made it home right as Toy Story was ending. Then straight to bed!

Project Runway

John and I couldn't wait until Wednesday night to watch one of our favorite shows: Project Runway on Bravo. Ever since 2 weeks ago when they announced the final 3 designers, we were just so excited to see who would win. And on Wednesday night after the kids were in bed, we found ourselves glued to the tv and clapping nonstop at the end when our pick for the show, Chloe Dao actually won! I think it was the fact that she was this tiny little Asian woman from Houston that made us cheer for her throughout the show.

I don't remember how the show crept into our lives, but we found ourselves watching since Season 1 last year as we were flipping channels. We'd catch it in bits and pieces early in the season, both of us not willing to admit that we liked it, and then towards the end of the season we'd watch it kinda in hiding, secretly obsessed. Then when Season 2 started, I figured, what the heck, let's just come clean and TIVO it. And what a great descision that has been! It was a liberating experience.

We loved Chloe's designs throughout most of the show. We got really nervous when we saw her collection for the finale. It was very different for her. I didn't like the shiny poofy sleeves and skirts. I actually liked Santino's collection the best out of the three. But I guess the judges were on our side! Yay Chloe! John was so proud. He wanted to email her to tell her that we were behind her all the way. =)

Shop Talk

An interesting conversation we had with our friends got me to think about my passions in life. What's the one thing you'd like to do if you didn't have to work to make a living, but you could just do something you'd enjoy?

Our friends Sarah and Jeffy dream of owning a plaza where we could each have our own shops.
Jeff's would be a bicycle store, selling and building high-end bicycles.
Sarah's would be a book store where you can hang out and meet up with friends.
John said he'd love to own a gourmet coffee shop.

Then I started to think about me. What kind of shop would I have? What are my passions? What excites me...besides being able to sleep in? They suggested things like owning a flower shop. A baby store. A Pottery Barn. Nope. I don't think I'd be passionate about any of those shops.

I've been thinking about it for a while - mostly just in the back of my subconscious. Am I just passion-less? Is that a bad thing? But then I thought about what I've enjoyed in the past few years of my life and I discovered my passion. Well, optimistically, I'll say it's ONE of my passions. (The others are yet to be discovered.) I really enjoyed designing and building our house. I would love to build another house. Or even rebuild the one we haven't even finished! I know that sounds crazy, but I've even thought of ways to expand our current floorplan and sketched it on a spare copy of our house plans. My shop would be just an office with lots of house remodeling/building ideas. John suggested that I go into architecture. I'm fairly sure that I don't have the talent or patience to go back to school. But I do think that would be very interesting. Then I can draw up my own plans!

What would your "shop" be?

Halle's Birthday Party

Lauryn's friend Halle turned 5 recently with an all out art party. There was a real art teacher there to teach the girls through a complete art project. This also happened to be the first party Lauryn's attended where I could just drop her off and not stay. I stayed long enough to help Halle's mom with lunch and most of the art project. I must admit that it felt a little strange to realize that Lauryn's at the age where I can actually just drop her off to parties. I was actually a little sad. But since I wasn't feeling very well that day and had taken some medicine, it was great to be able to go home and take a nap while Lauryn partied away! I didn't stay sad for long obviously. =)

Chinese New Year

We celebrated with my Auntie Rose at her house with yet another yummy dinner. The girls got to play with their cousin, Piper. And with lots of Red Envelopes and yummy desserts, what's not to like?

I tried and tried to get a nice picture of the girls in their Chinese New Year outfits, but always by the time I either remembered they were too hot and wanted to take off the jackets, or they just didn't want to sit still long enough.

Marsha's Retirement Dinner

One of my dearest friends, Marsha, retired a few weeks ago from the non-profit organization she's worked for for about 20 years. Marsha and I met at New Bridge Foundation in Berkeley. She interviewed me for a part-time admin position while I was in my freshman year studying at Berkeley. She was the Director of Administration at the time. I liked her immediately. She was my supervisor, my sister, my mother, my friend, my bridesmaid, and my role model. She taught me so much about life by sharing her past with me, her mistakes, her joys. She's honest and fair and loyal, full of compassion and love for people. Ok....I just realized that this is starting to sound like her eulogy or something depressing. She's not dead or anything! She's a lady who loves her life and BOY does she live it. She doesn't travel much, she's scared to death of flying. But she has a way of going through each and every day of her life finding something to laugh about and finding some way to give to someone. She is seriously the funniest person I know. And she doesn't care if no one else finds it funny, she'll laugh all by herself.

So last night, New Bridge threw her a retirement dinner at Jade Villa on Broadway in Oakland. I hadn't seen most of the people there since I left New Bridge myself right before Lauryn was born. Being out of an office setting for so long, it was so refreshing to be amongst ex-coworkers and managers and laughing about old times. New Bridge itself was like a second home to me for over 9 years. It was so much more than a job. It was for me a place where I felt more alive and aware of my own senses and feelings. A lot of it had to do with the nature of the work they did. Helping people recover from their addictions took alot of counseling and that's what they did best. Everyone was open to talking and constantly working on themselves and each other. Not in a deliberate way, but it just overflowed from what they lived everyday. I loved going to work everyday. And Marsha was one of the main reasons. She made work fun. She made us all laugh at each other and at ourselves and at her. Some days I think we did more laughing and eating than working. Come to think of it, there were a lot of those days. Marsha, Pam (the controller) and I became close friends. The three of us couldn't be more different if you looked at us. We were all different colors and shapes and ages. But something clicked right away and we worked really well together. We talked about everything together as we worked. We even talked about our faith, and found out that we were also true sisters in the Lord, which made it all the sweeter.

Even as our department grew from the 3 of us into 5, 6 and then to 8, the 3 of us stayed close. We had some bumps along the way as we each grew and changed and the department changed and as New Bridge itself grew larger and changed. About a year or so before I left, Marsha was sent to start a new program in Oakland, and I took over for her. Pam left briefly and started her own business, but eventually came back as a consultant (which she still is to this day - although she moved to Vegas a couple of years ago, she flies back every other week to keep things running smoothly.). Despite those bumps, we still laugh like mad when we get together. And it feels so good. Marsha and I never go more than a few months without checking in on each other. Whenever I'm shopping at Vacaville, we'll try to get together for a meal and catch-up. (She lived in Fairfield until recently.) Lauryn thinks Auntie Marsha is loads of fun and giggles everytime they're together.

Everyone at the dinner last night has been touched forever by Marsha's humor and realness and her gift to each one of us. To each she's given something different, but from their words last night, it was so obvious that she made each one of us feel like we were valued and important and that we each taught her something. It's kinda amazing to me that as I think about her career that she's retiring from, I think only about her as a person. She's had her share of professional accomplishments, but at the end of it all, none of it compares to her impact on the people she touched. She said last night that she's looking forward to just sitting for a while. I'm so glad that she has her wonderful husband, Rosevelt, to grow old with, and a beautiful daughter and 3 talented grandsons to keep her young forever.

I love you Marsha and congratulations on your retirement. You deserve it.

From left to right: April (Marsha's daughter's best friend), Sylvia (Clinical Director), Nancy (admin), Kosta (CEO), Marsha, Me, Crystal (Program Director).

John's Lasik - Day Two

John's seeing 20/15 today. He drove himself to his postop appointment, so he must be seeing ok. He says it's still a little hazy, as if he's wearing dirty glasses. Man, that must be annoying! There are a lot of eye drops every few hours. Otherwise, he seems to be ok. We went to the mall to look at sunglasses. It's a little strange to see him without his glasses all the time. I notice how long his eyelashes are. I guess it's good our daughters inherited that quality from their dad.

John said the worst part of the day yesterday was that he couldn't use his eyes and so he couldn't really do anything. He was totally bored out of his mind. If you know anything about John, it's that he gets bored easily. I had to go to a dinner in Oakland last night so I asked our friends Sarah and Jeffy to come over and help with the kids in case he couldn't see very well. Thanks for taking care of my family guys!

Can it be that time already?

I can't believe that it's time for us to enroll Lauryn in Kindergarten already. Her preschool started handing out information sheets about Kindergarten before the holidays, and I kinda threw it in a pile on my desk thinking that it's still quite a few months away. Well, not anymore! Registration starts in less than 1 week!

I went to visit 3 schools last week and this week during their Kindergarten Visitation Days. Our neighborhood school, Laurel Elementary, is about 2 blocks away. Most of Lauryn's classmates from preschool live in Foster City, and I was hoping that her transition to Kindergarten would be a bit easier if she knew a couple of the kids in her class. I perused the San Mateo Foster City School District website for info on different schools and our options for transferring. I found out today at Brewer Island (which is a year round school) that an intradistrict transfer from a San Mateo school has probably a 0% chance of getting in. And the admin staff said to me, "But you never know. It doesn't hurt to submit an application." If the chance is 1%, I'd think there's some sliver of hope. But it's 0%.

And although I didn't have time to check out Baywood Elementary, I have heard the same for trying to get a transfer there also. These 2 schools barely have enough slots available to their own neighborhood children and siblings, let alone accept a transfer. Last year, one of the news stations did a story showing the parents of new Kindergarten students camping out overnight in front of Baywood so they would be able to enroll their son/daughter in the morning. And these are parents who actually live in that school's attendance area!

Foster City Elementary has a much larger student population with over 800 students and 7 Kindergarten classes vs. 4 at both Brewer Island and Baywood. But when I asked about transfers there, the staff told me they won't know until after school starts.

So I'm glad that I attended the info meeting and tour for Laurel as it's most likely Lauryn will be joining the Laurel Eagles in the fall. There's something to be said for a school being within walking distance. Although, if I don't even walk to the mall most times, how likely will it be for me to walk Lauryn to school at 8am?

John's Lasik

John got Lasik eye surgery today! He went in for his appointment this morning at Pacific Vision Institute and I picked him up at around 12:30pm. After reading Frank's lasik adventures, we felt a little less scared, but still very nervous. Well, I think that was just me. Hehe...

After we got home, John had a sandwich for lunch (so I wouldn't have to feed him). I got him a side of horseradish dressing, and he did a pretty good job dipping his sandwich in, but still managed to make a small mess.

He slept for a few hours and I just woke him up to do his eye drops. So now that the bandages are off, he says it's all a blur. This is where I would start to freak out myself, which is why I'm not the one getting lasik right now. Maybe next year... or maybe not. Ok, maybe.... not.

Love That Smile!

Here's our little Sydney sitting at the table in the nursery at our church. Don't you just love that smile?!

Video Explanation

I have to put the two videos below of Lauryn singing into context.

We stopped by the Kim's beautifully remodeled house one night and while Emily was serving us her delicious homemade cherry pie, Lauryn took Auntie Jen into the family room to sing some songs and dance around. Auntie Jen decided to video tape them, or was that Lauryn's idea too??

In the Jesus Loves Me video, a few seconds into the video, Lauryn runs head first into the large black cabinet. You'll notice the camera shaking a bit while Auntie Jen was trying hard not to laugh out loud.

The posing at the end of the video....well, I have no idea where she got that from.

This is a warning to future parents and to adults in general:
DO NOT FEED THE CHILDREN SUGAR!
(I think Lauryn had some of that pie and ice cream before the video.)

Lauryn Sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

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Lauryn Sings Jesus Loves Me

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YouTube vs. DropShots Video

DropShots is very user friendly. Quickly drop your video into the upload screen and then copy the code over to your post. However, I like YouTube's larger playback screen and the cleaner look. It takes a few more steps to actually get the video to your blog though. I don't always want to have to name and tag my pictures or videos. I prefer to just drag and drop. I also like how with DropShots you can go directly to a specific section of the video, kinda like a fast forward or backward. I don't know. I guess I'm still more partial to DropShots, at least for now, until something better comes along. Just my 2 cents worth on something techie. Well, not even techie. I probably just lost all my faithful readers, all 4 of you. But never fear...these random tech ramblings will be few and far between.

Here's a video of my cousin Yo and my nephew Ethan.



Update: I couldn't figure out why my screen started showing a separate small vertical white box to the right of the main posting box after I blogged this video. I finally realized that the YouTube default screen size was too big and messed it up. So I made the screen smaller and all is well again! Am I techie or what?! =)

Minivan Update

I'm glad to be able to say that Sydney is no longer scared of the minivan. Yay!! No more crying whenever I opened the door to the garage!

At the Lego Store

Our most recent visit to the mall included a stop at the Lego Store. I got some fun shots of Lauryn:

Christmas Brunch

The Wang Christmas celebration was a brunch at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame. Here's Sydney with her YeYe.

The Kids and Uncle David

It was nearly impossible to get a decent picture with all the kiddies at Christmas, but it was worth a shot.

We also got one with everyone's favorite Uncle David!

Christmas Traditions

Our annual Lin Christmas Eve dinner was a lot of fun this year. My brother, Andy, and his wife, Michaeline, and their 14 month old son, Ethan (aka E2 - since we also have another cousin in the family named Ethan, aka E1) joined us from Wisconsin this year making our numbers at about 30 for the evening, a record I think.

There was the usual spread of yummy food and desserts to start, followed by a few rounds of poker ending with the now annual "Screw Your Neighbor" championship playoff. Yes, the game sounds very unfriendly, and actually, it may be, but it's definitely a riot and tons of fun, especially if you're the winner! This year's game had a record 14 players each contributing 4 stacks of one dollar each. Each player gets dealt one card face down. If anyone has a King, they flip their card and everyone else has to flip theirs and the one with the lowest card (which is the Ace) loses the turn and has to throw one of their stacks of $1 into the pot. If no one has a King, then the person to the left of the dealer starts the round. He/She can choose to keep their card or trade with the person to their left. That next person must give up their card. Then, he/she can choose to trade with the person to their left, and so on. Finally, the dealer can either keep his/her card or take a card from the top of the deck. Loser puts in one stack of $1. Then the deck gets passed to the next person to the left and cards are dealt again. The last person with at least one stack of $1 wins the game and the pot. Sounds easy enough, right? Try it. It's hilarious!

The championship game also is spiced up by the reigning champion from last year who is in charge of also buying a gift basket of goodies to be passed to the winner. Last year's winner was my cousin Min's wife, Cindy. In her basket of goodies this year, she put a $40 gift card to Nordstrom, a $20 gift card to I forgot where, and a $10 gift card to Starbucks. This year, the battle came down to my cousin Pin's wife, Patricia, and my cousin Christine (aka Yo). In the end, Yo came away with the win. Here she is with her winnings:

Honda Odyssey, Here We Come!

On the darkest and rainy-est night of the recent week (last Sunday), we finally gave in and decided to go to Capitol Honda. We had called Kevin Loi, the fleet manager we bought my Accord from 7 years ago, and he gave us an unbelieveable deal. $200 over invoice! The Szetos came by the house after church and graciously offered to take our kids to play with theirs so we could concentrate on the purchase. We accepted their kind offer and drove down to San Jose in the pouring rain. By the time we got there, it was dark. Ummm, not the best time to look at colors for a car.

We had asked them to show us the black 2006 Odyssey, and after test driving and everything else, we parked it under the flourescent lights and saw that the black isn't really a black, but a dark, dark blue. The interior was an ivory leather (not ideal with young kids). My original thinking was that if we are going to get a minivan, we can at least try our darndest to have it not look like a minivan, and so black would've been a nice choice. But dark blue just didn't cut it. So we drove around the lot looking at other colors (yes, still in the dark). We finally settled on the EXL Slate Green Metallic with a dark grey leather. The slate green, didn't look green at all, but more of a silvery light blue. I don't know who comes up with these color names, but obviously not women.

Anyways, the papers were signed and they even said we could buy any accessories from them at cost. We're going back soon to get the all season floor mats. You hear about nightmarish car buying transactions and all the pressure. But I have to say that our experience was extremely pleasant and actually a lot of fun!

This is kinda silly, but I actually feel like a better mom. I LOVE it! I love the space, the convenience, how easily the seats move around. I love the way it drives, the heated seats, all the storage. We got the DVD, but no NAV. My cousin David bought us a portable Nav that I actually like better. I can take it in the house and program addresses ahead of time (especially useful when I need to show houses to clients). John actually likes the minivan a lot too. Lauryn's thrilled with it. She asked if she could bring it to school for show and tell. uh....probably not gonna happen. The only one who doesn't like it right now is Sydney. For some reason, every time we put her in her car seat in the new van, she cries bloody murder. And when we close the doors, she screams even louder. It seems she's scared of the new car. Not sure where that came from. She's never cried even when we've taken her in other people's vans. Now, she starts to cry when we even get close to the van. When the van is moving, she's fine. But when we stop at a stop light for more than a few seconds, she starts to cry again. It's definitely interesting riding with us right now. Hopefully she'll come around and get used to it soon. Otherwise, she's totally breaking mommy's heart....=(