jonathan’s blog

The first part of our return road trip was spent in Las Vegas with Ben and Eunice.  The room, pool, hotel was so nice we decided to stay an extra night.  A huge highlight for the kids was the hotel swimming pool…a pool that looked really small and boring from their website photos.  As it turned out, the pool was small, but far from boring.  There was this huge shallow “shelf” of the pool, that was PERFECT for the kids.  Here we are, in full swimming gear, nice water, hot sun.

Lounging on the “shelf”…don’t know what else to call it.  We even had our own private cabana!…you can see it in the background.

This was a HUGE moment for Kay.  She swam across the entire width of the pool.  We had to do in in little increments, with me standing 1/2 way, then a little farther, so on and so forth.  Eunice was both coach and photographer…and Kay finally made it!

Ben, having watched too many John Woo films…

It’s okay…Bekah got him back…

The kids weren’t the only ones to enjoy the “shelf”.

After Vegas, Salt Lake City.  The drive through Utah was purported to be a really beautiful and scenic route.  No doubt, there were some really amazing spots in Utah…

BUT MOST of our trip looked like this!

…and this!  Can you believe it?  Right smack in the middle of the desert of southern Utah..traffic!  It took us 2 hours to drive 7 miles.  Going that slow, with outside temperatures at 102 degrees…the air condition stops working.  Cold air only comes in when you are driving!  So there we sat, windows open, sun glaring.  Desperate for an alternate route, I called Benny to get him to google what in the world was going wrong with the I-15.  He pointed out an access road that runs parallel to the interstate.  Sure enough, 300 feet to my right was an open, lightly used access road…with no access to us!  No exits/onramps…just a huge temptation to go 300 feet offroad to get to the access road.  Nope…barbed wire keeping us on the interstate, the whole 7 miles!

So…we past MOST of the anticipated beautiful scenery of Utah, in the dark!

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This past week we had visitors from the Exodus…15 people all in our home!!!  It was great fun, with lot’s of snacks, and very little sleep.  We met the 1st wave of Exodus visitors at the airport.  Here we are at Hertz handing off some extra car seats for the Chang’s.  That’s Benny in the middle, loading up the luggage.  Dennis is no where to be seen…probably psychologically preparing himself to drive a minivan.  Minivan owners don’t be offended, it’s just Dennis is used to driving a huge king of the road i-Force V8 Toyota Sequoia!

Our first stop after the airport, literally just a couple of exits away…Cracker Barrel!  Yum…nothing like some good old country cooking.  It was great weather all week, warm enough to hang out outside on the rocking chairs.

Warm enough to go on our neighborhood nature trail!  Here’s Dennis and Wendy enjoying the warm weather.

The 2nd wave of Exodus visitors included Timmy, Judy, and Stephenie.  Here we are at Longview Lake.

Everyone helped out plowing snow during the winter.  Now, with the change of seasons, Exodus Snow Removal has become Exodus Lawn Care.  Benny is getting the hang of the new ride-on mower.  We did the lawn twice during their stay, that’s how fast the lawn grows out here!  And there was marked improvement, the wiggly lines got straighter, no more ‘too close shaves’, and edging is starting to look great.  I wish I had more pics to show…gotta get some of Timmy’s pics.

Speaking of Timmy.  I really don’t have many pics of him…maybe because he’s the one that is usually taking the pictures?  I do have this one…not the most flattering of pictures…but that never stopped Timmy from posting pics of other people.  Let’s call it…Kung Fu Camera Man.  And that’s a duck between his legs…

Days were filled with yummy food.  Cracker Barrel, Chick-Fil-A, Jason’s Deli, Cinzetti’s, Waldo’s Pizza, Cho-Ga Korean, Buffalo Wild Wings, Bob Evans, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Arby’s, Fritz Railroad Restaurant, First Watch, Brunch at the Yap’s, and Krispy Kreme…but the nights and the snacks, wow…that really did us in.  Check out the spread of potato chips!  Thank God for Insanity.

Noah and Nicole played a lot together.  I didn’t expect this…Noah is usually trying to tag along with the older kids and just making a complete mess of things.  But I think he found a little friend in Nicole.  Here they are playing Ice Cream stand with Noah as the customer.

In addition to the prayer room and awakening services, we also attended the Malachi 4:6 prayer meeting for the children.  Here’s Nicole going up to pray on the mic!  “God, please raise up your House of Prayer in Arcadia.”  Pray on, girl!

And finally this…

…a field of dandelions.  Spring time, everywhere there are flowers budding.  It’s amazing and beautiful.  Just a few short weeks ago, everything still seemed so dead!  This record breaking winter, followed by heavy showers, has led to record breaking pollen!  WOW!  Enough with the records!  I would get mild allergies when the Santa Ana’s would blow back on LA…but NOTHING like this last week.  I was a wreck…and if it wasn’t for Dennis calling in a steady stream of antihistamines, steroids, antibiotics (because I rubbed my eyes too much!), an anti-inflammatory, and inhalers, I’m not sure how I would have made it!  Eyes almost swollen shut, runny nose, itchy throat, coughing…and then I could barely breathe!  After 34 years of life, I’ve never experienced what all my friends with asthma suffer from.  Now I get it…shortness of breath, tightness of chest, wheezing, and coughing.  One night it got so bad, I had to borrow Timmy’s inhaler.  I didn’t even know how to work the thing!  Suck in and press at the same time, hold for a few seconds and then do it a second time.  Goodness…instant relief!  It felt like I got a pair of new lungs in 2 seconds!  I think it was more shocking than going from no glasses to glasses.  I was amazed.  Who knew these things worked so well?!  Thanks Timmy!  And thanks Dennis for helping me get my own!

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With three kids, it’s not easy getting out of the house…especially with the cold!  Besides the usual checklist, now we have to bundle each one up.  As we get ready, the kids usually take advantage of the open garage and zip out to poke around in the snow.  It’s not even real playing in the snow…no sleding, no snowman making, no snow angels.  Literally, they just poke around…but they LOVE it!

Not wanting to waste her time in the mass confusion of jacket, scarf, gloves, hat…Kay must have just grabbed whatever gloves were in reach.  Well…at least she grabbed one waterproof one, and at least its on her throwing arm.  Here is Bekah demonstrating the “perfect snowball maker”.  It’s actually a really ingenious (did i spell that right, Jeff?) contraption that makes perfect snowballs really fast.  Thanks Timmy and Judy!

Noah still hates the cold…so the only way for him to enjoy the snow (and he does like it) is to get really bundled up.  I’m not sure how much he can move when he’s bundled like this, but at least he can tolerate the cold.

It’s been especially cold at night these last couple of days.  And Noah seems to find himself sneaking into our bed, which isn’t that hard, considering we don’t have a bedframe just yet.  We have a mattress on the floor, the perfect height for naoh to groggily come crash/crawl into.  It doesn’t help that our room, is also the coldest room in the house.  So, I thought I’d give these PJ’s a test…flannel/fleecy material, complete with foot coverings, just in case he makes it into our room and emily or I aren’t awake enough to cover him.

This next picture…is partly cute, and partly frustrating.  Noah, Noah, Noah…used to be the easiest one to put down to sleep.  With Kay, we had no idea, and so often stayed with her UNTIL she fell asleep!  Rookie parents!  It got better with Bekah, and by the time Noah came around…we almost didn’t even use the baby monitor!…a little crying never hurt anyone!  He learned to put himself down early on…which in parent talk means easy going down, and longer staying down, because when he wakes up in the middle of the night (like we all do, whether we know it or not) he is able to put himself back to sleep.  We moved out to Kansas City, and transitioned him into a bed.  Not sure if that gave him too much freedom too early on?…because now it’s just a mess.  Moving into our new home, with a new room, we stayed with him a couple of times to make sure he went to sleep without getting out of bed.  It was just faster…rather than spend the time telling him to repeatedly get back into bed, we just stayed with him for awhile until he fell asleep.  Then we had visitors, Emily’s family, my parents, Exodus…and disciplining him would be too traumatic on everyone…so we continued to reinforce this bad habit of staying with him until he was out.

Oh…we are paying for it now.  Emily and I have been step by step releasing ourselves from staying with him.  We’ve reached an agreement, he stays in bed and the door stays open.  He stays lying down, and Emily or I will sit next to his door, outside his room.  I know!…sounds ridiculous, but at least we aren’t stuck in bed with him.  At least we can read, check email, etc…  Tonight, Emily and I both hung out in the hallway near his bedroom.  We checked email, talked about the day, and when we thought for sure he had gone to sleep, we went downstairs.  20 minutes later, he’s made his way down the stairs, clutching his polar bear and his boo (cloth diaper that he sleeps with).  Cute and frustrating…

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Our condo is for sale!  I realize this is a horrible time to sell a property…and yes, we are going to take a sizeable hit.  We bought this condo for $685k just a few years ago (all easily accessible public knowledge).  We dumped at least $50k to upgrade and remodel it, thinking it would raise the value of the unit and come back as equity.  Definitely did NOT expect the economy to go the way it has.  Oh well…it is what it is…so here it is…

Please check out our condo, and if you, or if you know of someone who is looking to purchase something on the Westside, PLEASE pass this info on!  If you want…you can get a .pdf file of the flyer here!

We are currently doing it ‘for sale by owner’ and showing the condo by appointments only.

Here’s the grand tour…

Downstairs:

That’s the Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, and Guest Bathroom.  All new Pergo hardwood flooring in Dining Room and Living Room.  New recessed lighting in the kitchen.  The Kitchen also has floor tiles, granite countertops, and a built in microwave over the gas range.  The guest bathroom is completely remodeled with all new vanity, tiles, toilet, hardware/fixtures, and a wider entrance door.  This whole area is really large and open.  It’s not pictured, but the living room opens to a balcony that has a gas hookup for a BBQ grill…you’ll never run out of propane!

Alright, moving on upstairs:

The master suite is also completely new and remodeled.  We blew out a closet and did some major work in expanding the master bathroom.  These pics don’t do the master bathroom justice…it’s really nice!  New vanities, tiles, hardware/fixtures, new toilet…the separate shower and Jacuzzi tub are really spacious.  There are still 2 large closets in the master bedroom.  We also enlarged all the doorways.  When we bought the condo, all the doorways were really narrow.  I guess that just how they made them in the ’70s.  Anyways…we got all the proper permits for the remodel.

Two more bedrooms and a bathroom.  New carpets and wider doorways.  The bathroom is also totally redone, new vanities, fixtures/hardware, tiles, toilet…the shower has floor tiles made of something called ‘tumbled marble’…they have a rugged grayish/blue hue…really beautiful and NOT captured in this photo.

Here is the washer/Dryer room.  It’s a good sized room, that we double up as a makeshift library.  Not pictured is a private 2 car garage that is attached and has a personal entry into this washroom.  There is also a community swimming pool.

Anyways…if you are interested, and/or if you know people that are or might be…get them our flyer!  The flyer has all the contact info they’ll need to make an appointment to see the place.  Get it here!

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Happy 4th Birthday Rebekah!!!!

For weeks now, Rebekah has been asking on a daily basis if it was her birthday yet or not…well, finally, the time has come! Celebration actually started the night BEFORE her actual Bday, with a trip to Tokyo Lobby. Here is Bekah and Kay after they had finished stabbing the raspberry mousse cake with the various umbrellas they had collected.

Bekah with a nice spread of pre-birthday gifts. Yup…that’s a crate of Mango. Rebekah’s A-Ma knows she loves Mangoes, so went out and got a whole box of them! Rebekah’s face was BEAMING as she received the Mango-Gift.

Foam Bowling!…what a great gift from Ayi-4, Ayi-3 and soon to be Uncle 3. Bekah tagged along with Kay to one of Kay’s schoolmates birthday party and experienced Bowling for the first time. Bekah LOVED it.

Now the actual DAY!!! We spent the day at Griffith Park with the Ko’s, the Chang’s, and the Chen’s.

For lunch we had Porto’s Bakery in Glendale. Yummy stuff!…too much for Noah to resist. That’s his grubby little hand in the lower right, reaching for a meat pie.

Getting inline for the train ride was quite an endeavor! You try getting inline with 8 kids! Here the girls are starting their own train while still in line.

All aboard!

Bekah was such a happy camper all day. Even when everyone else had put there arms down…here she was, “weeeeing” along.

Pony time!

Happy Birthday Bekah!

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Happy Birthday Kay!!!!!! Kay turned six years old yesterday…but her celebrations encompassed the entire weekend, starting with a trip to Souplantation, one of Kay’s favorite eats. That was a mad house, as we attempted to do the Arcadia location on a Sunday noon with all of Kay’s ayi’s, Grandpa, A-kong and A-ma, Uncle 2 and Lina, and Uncle Ben (soon to be Uncle 3)…they split us into 2 tables and seated us next to another family with 4 small kids…wow, that was quite a lunch. No pictures to post…maybe leener has some?

Then it was tea time at the American Girl Place…where Kay got together with all her girlfriends.

Sammie and Nikki had there own special chocolate thing going…

I can’t say that I’m an afternoon tea person…but that was really fun watching the girls have a good time. And while the mini (really, really tiny) sandwiches, scones, jell-o, and desserts were surprising filling, after a couple hours at the Grove, I was ready to load up on some Brazilian BBQ at the Farmer’s Market! Yum! Okay…back to Kay’s Birthday…

Sunday became a Disneyland trip…one that we didn’t tell the girls about until Saturday morning, and wow were they excited.  Here they are beaming, waiting for the parking tram to take us to the main entrance.

It just so happened that the Chang’s were going to be at Disneyland that exact same day!  Perfect…the girls got to hang out and go on a It’s a Small World together.

This was Noah’s first time to Disneyland…and he thoroughly enjoyed himself.  While we were talking and waiting in line for It’s a Small World…he began to help himself to the popcorn Emily was holding.  He ate so much popcorn.  Every time he saw the bucket he would yelp and reach out for it.

Happy Birthday Kay!  What a weekend.

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It’s hard to believe, but Noah is turning ONE today! What a blur it has been! Here he is, jamming on his guitar, sporting his first haircut ever!

As a special treat for TODAY…Emily thought it would be nice if we let him get a little tasting of ICE CREAM. He LOVED it…and was very vocal about getting more! It was very nice of Bekah to share some of her vanilla with her little brother.

I love this pic. It has that cheezy superhero quality to it, with 2 trusty sidekicks! POW!

We had a birthday party bash for Noah on Sunday…but I’ll post pictures from those at another time. For now…

Happy Birthday Little Guy!

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Wow! We are just about mid-way through FEB09, can you believe it? Anyways…here are some recent pics of the kids.

On a recent trip to the park, we were surprised to find a TON of snow! Not that it snowed in LA…but someone must have driven up to the mountains, trucked down, and dumped all this snow for people to play with! Here is Kay and Bekah, pleasantly surprised by this brief winter wonderland.

Happy Chinese New Year! Being Chinese in LA, it’s always ‘kind of’ a big deal…but for some reason, Kay’s LAUSD school really went all out to celebrate!? They had a WEEK long celebration, culminating in a Dragon Parade around the school. Emily and I decided to check out the parade and wow!…sounded pretty authentic. They had all 5 kindergarten classes just march up and down, room to room, pounding away at whatever instruments that had. Here is Kay, part of the actual Dragon. She drew the “number 1″ slot, so actually could have been the head, but decided that looked too silly and opted for just being a part of the tail.

While Kay is off busy at school…Bekah and Noah get a lot of time together. Here they are snacking on some apples. Noah’s grown a lot…but his cheeks really aren’t THIS huge, he just has his mouth stuffed with apples. You might be thinking, “wow!…noah can eat apples?” No, he can’t. He just stuffs his mouth full of them, gnaws all the juices out of them, and then deposits the remains WHEREVER he sees fit.

Here is Noah reaching for the door handle. This is actually pretty amazing when you see it…he’s on the VERY tip of the tips of his toes! Why the drive to reach so high? He LOVES the bathroom. For some reason, all the drawers and storage…it’s one of his favorite spots to just stop and pull everything out…not to also mention his fascination with toilet water.

Since we are on the topic of Noah, I’ll follow up with the landmark announcement that he’s taking his first steps! Here he is being adventurous with Emily.

One final pic of the boy, the morning-hair rockstar…

Kay in a princess hat…seems fitting.

Bekah in a Jester’s Hat…somehow equally fitting.

It’s funny to them now, because they still have good eyesight. But here they are making a pair of glasses out of some weird bendy stuff from P.F. Changs. And NO…Emily and don’t frequent P.F. Changs. It just happened to be one of the few restaurants still opened at the hotel we were staying at.

Here is Bekah and Emily, both testing out our new baby carrier…trying to get a feel for which one Noah might be more comfortable in.

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Yesterday, in the wee hours of the morning, Liz came by to be with our girls (thanks Liz…and Leonard for watching Lina!)…so that Emily and I could take Noah to get his surgery. A circumcision-REDO. Yep…if it wasn’t bad enough the first time, Noah got to do it again! I guess every so often, as a baby boy grows, the skin of “that part” can grow a bit too much, requiring a REDO.

We checked into the Cedar Sinai outpatient surgery center, and despite the early hours, Noah was in a really good mood. Smiling, exploring his new crib/bed, meeting the nurses…poor dude had no idea what was about to transpire! We were given a grape mixture to give to him, and within a few minutes, right before our eyes, Noah got really really drowsy…then it was off to the OR.

One hour later, he was brought to recovery. Here he is before waking up, and before the nurse told me no pics in recovery!

Here we are just a day after, and Noah has really bounced back! For a large chunk of the day, he needed no painkillers at all, and was in a really fun active mood all morning. Let’s hope he has ZERO recollection of all of this!

Anyways…on a lighter note, here’s the monster (who we affectionately refer to as “Godzilla”) sneaking himself into a box of German Chocolates. I have no idea how many bites he downed before we caught him…but as you can see, his mouth is VERY full.

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Here is a recent picture of our 8 month old boy who is growing WAY TOO FAST! He’s got “Ma-Ma” down…and “Da-Da” some of the time. When he wants more crackers he says “more”…and we think he might have a version of “bao bao” (carry me) down…but we’ll have to see about consistency. Here he is cruisin’ around the coffee table, on the search for stray cookies and whatever else he can put in his mouth!

A couple of weekends ago, we took a trip down to the OC. Emily’s cousin Charles was getting married…and Kay and Bekah were both flower girls. Congrats Charles and Angela! We decided to make a weekend trip out of it, and ended up staying the weekend in Laguna Niguel. There is a HUGE park in Irvine that has pony rides and train rides. The kids were SO excited. Here is Bekah on Corky.

Here is Kay on Sky.

Here they are trying their first “Big Stick Popsicle”.

And here they are on the tail end of the train. When Kay and Bekah boarded, they were so excited to be at the end. They kept talking about how they were going to ‘drive’ the train. Then when the train actually started…they both looked at each other with shock and surprise. I guess they thought they were at the front of the train, and really were planning on “driving” the train.

And here they are as flower girls. Kay is a pro…but this was Bekah’s first time! By the end of the night, Kay’s boquet-ball was as beautiful as when she started…but Bekah’s boquet-ball looked like a morning star ball and chain weapon, straight out of braveheart. I have no idea how she destroyed her flowers so thoroughly.

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