08.07.08
Posted in Misc at 10:01 pm by tina
I was in the bathroom with the girls helping them with their bath and dealing with Livy’s usual demands. Daddy opened a binder and sat on the floor right outside of the bathroom:
Daddy: Oh look. You want to hear something you wrote to me on Aug 4th 1994? That’s 14 years ago.
Daddy: Oh hey.. here. This one you wrote it the day after we started to go out. (started reading).. blah blah blah.. I hope I will always live dangerously even after I get married, and I hope my future husband will join me in ..
Me: Honey, your sitting there reading emails from 10 years back and leaving me with the girls in the bathroom is not helping me achieve living dangerously at all…
Note: To daddy’s sad defense, the reason he was not doing ‘anything’ was that both girls had rejected his help.
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07.12.08
Posted in Misc at 9:00 am by tina
We’ve been having some major events since the beginning of June:
1) Renter changes - ran into some unfortunate issues but thankfully all are resolved
2) Maddy graduated from preschool - enjoyed their wonderful ceremony
3) Closed on the new townhome
4) Help ahgoon/ahma move from TN to NC for good.
5) Went to auntie Betty’s wedding in Baltimore (and me getting sick on the trip)
6) Livy started wearing underwear
7) Lost auntie Betty’s dog Tanner and found him the next day at a neighbor’s
8 ) Uncle Dave’s family and grandma/grandpa Junneck’s visit
9) Maddy’s first day of school in kindergarten
10) Our short trip to Great Wolf Lodge with the grandparents and cousins - realized that I got chickenpox so we had to cut our trip short
I think I am actually looking forward to have some mundane routines!!
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04.30.08
Posted in Misc at 8:46 pm by tina
A dear friend wrote a short poem for my birthday. Usually, I only write my mothering journey on this blog, but it is so sweet (and by far the best poem I’ve ever gotten) I thought it is worthy for me to remember:
T wenty-six mile race — a walk in the park
I ndependence wrapped in a big heart
N otes on a page — effortlessly played
A consistent faith in our Saviour and Maker
Happy Birthday, Tina!
Thanks S!!
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04.13.08
Posted in Misc at 2:52 pm by tina
I had to be a playground policemon TWICE this weekend, but one incident today left me feeling disturbed to the core.
Playground A:
A girl was playing in the sand pit. After she filled her shovel out, she threw the sand backwards it hit a boy in the face. At first I thought she didn’t know there was a child behind her and thought that maybe her parent would soon say something, but realized soon that she did know there is someone behind her and she repeated a few times on purpose
Me: Excuse me [I walked over and tapped on her shoulder]
Girl: Hi, my name is X, that’s my big brother Y, and I have another brother Z.
Me: Hi X, it’s nice to meet you. Can you not throw the sand at other people because it hurts his eyes when you do it.
Girl: Ok. I’m digging a hole.
Me: Ok. Thank you very much.
We chitchatted some more and she went on to dig her hole without bothering the shy little boy again. That was it. It’s a normal “grown up reminds little manner to kids” conversation, and everyone was happy and safe at the end.
Playground B:
Livy was climbing up the playset. Two girls ran over wanting to get up the same way. They pushed Livy (nearly knocked her over to the ground) while screaming “Get out of the Way! Get out of the Way!”
Me: Hey girls, It’s not ok to push little babies like that. You need to let babies go up first because she was there first.
Girl 1: I wanted her to get out of the way.
Me: Well, It’s not ok.. [didn’t even finish my sentence]
Gril 2: (screamed in my face, btw), We don’t like you.
Me: You don’t have to like me, but it’s still not ok for you two to push little kids.
They ran up to the top of the playset, to my shock, started the shooting motion with their hands at me.
Me: What do you two think you’re doing?
That was only half of the story. Girl 2 came back as a ‘lion’ wanted to ‘eat me up’ shortly.
I don’t think I’ve ever met any 3-4 year olds who are that mean spirited. It was definitely a very sad eye opener to say the least.
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11.25.07
Posted in Misc at 10:49 pm by tina
Since we all went back to TN for Thanksgiving, I thought the least we could do is help my parents get a few things done. I sent the two guys (Joe, the husband and Andy, the brother) out with a clear instruction: Can you two go to Home Depot/Sears to order whatever mom/dad need and make arrangement for the delivery/setup?
I smell trouble when the two came back with the stove range in hand, and the husband annouced that all will be done within one to two hours. Of couse, they had picked out a model which did not quite fit right in the counter space, not to mention the extra backing the husband did not notice of having. Of course, the shower fixture did not fit althought it resemables closely to the original one according to uncle Andy.
Fast forward a few hours with lots of busy work but no real productivity done, auntie Betty decided that it is time to take the matter into the right hands. They went back to the store(with another story of the husband, again, almost ordered another wrong stove range, one without a backing but has a incorrect depth). Auntie Betty, the nice sister-in-law, made a kind comment saying “at least he is moving towards the right direction this time”
We called the professionals, and they came early afternoon to fix the major damage. There is still some mess to be cleaned up and the new stove won’t come in until next week.
Ah-ma tried to comfort the husband “Don’t worry Joe. You tried your best”, (which is just about the feedback you don’t ever want to get in any profession in my opinion).
So the golden rule still stands: The husband is still banned from fixing anything in the house, although I will continue to love the man he is not. 
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10.29.07
Posted in Misc at 10:40 pm by tina
Two good friends from CA visited us this past weekend. We had served on the worship team together, and they were the couple we can always count on for last minute “lets-go-out-to-eat” ventures. And I admit, I shamelessly stole the name “Livy” from their adorable daughter Livy.
We did the typical “tour” of RTP (thank goodness they weren’t here too long because we had exhausted everything we can show them in hmm.. a few hours), but had wonderful conversations over just about everything. And we know we’re amongst good friends when we can carry on our usual acitivites at night with them:
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10.09.07
Posted in Misc at 3:56 pm by tina
The man of the household is going through some pre-midlife crisis lately, complaining about how his volleyball is just not like what it used to be and how other players would ask if he is injured in any way. He even made a passing comment about the vball picture I posted on my last entry since his spike was blocked instead of feared.
And being as awesome as a wife as I am (as I reserve the right to say anything I want on my blog): Instead of rolling my eyes and laugh it off like I would usually have done, I decided to dig out an old picture taken when we were in Taxas and compared to another one last night.
You can so not tell that he has aged
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10.04.07
Posted in Misc at 11:53 pm by tina
It really doesn’t affect us the fact that SCHIP got veto-ed this week. We are the lucky ones. Our girls are covered well under health insurance. They even get to go to fancy pediatric dentists regularly.
But I know how it is not having health insurance. I didn’t have one until I started working, and I remember bearing toothaches and insisting on just staying in the dorm when I first found out my food allergies simply because it will cost too much money to go to the doctors. Still, I was ok. When you’re in your 20’s and in general a healthy person, you can ‘tough it out’ in many cases.
But I was mad when I first heard about the Veto. I haven’t even cared that much about wasting the HUNDRED BILLIONS of my tax money in the war on, right, finding MWoD. A fraction of that amount to care for young children is simply a RIGHT thing to do, regardless if the care is socialized medicine or privatized care.
I can’t imagine not able to take Maddy to the doctors when she had her seizures and I thought I was going to lose her.
I can’t imagine not being able to give Livy special infant care when she came out 6 weeks too early and needed 24-hour monitoring and extra oxygen to help her survive.
I can’t imagine any mother not able to take their children to the doctors because they don’t have money.
For 10 million American children and their families, it is about to become the harsh reality. I might not know any of them personally due to our demographics, but I don’t need to know them. I AM a mother of two young children. That is enough to break anyone’s heart!
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07.28.07
Posted in Misc at 1:44 pm by tina
A few girls decided to get our pedicures done today because
1) Everyone knows that you have to have BEAUTIFUL toes when you give birth (J’s due date is in two weeks)
2) We need to use J as an excuse to pamper ourselves.
I thought about just ‘leave’ and have daddy handle everything, but ended up getting their lunch ready so daddy doesn’t have to worry about entertaining two hungry girls after their swimming. Part of me still think that one day I should just let daddy do everything once so he knows what he puts me through.
I had a good time with the gals. How can you complain after a good french pedicure and a vanila frappi from Star Bucks and some wonderful company.
To top my day, I came home hearing the special gift Livy left daddy in the bathtub and two sleeping cutie pies. Life can’t get any better than this!
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07.22.07
Posted in Misc at 8:02 pm by tina
I never take granted to call this girl and these two MY family, but when I saw this picture this afternoon, my first thought was quite self-indulging:
“Joseph Chen, you are one LUCKY man!!”
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06.01.07
Posted in Misc at 12:42 pm by tina
Shopping in Target.. daddy paced back and forth and finally put one tissue box in the cart. Ten minutes later he got another box of tissue box:
Mommy: I guess you finally broke down and have to get another one
Daddy: No. I usually get the pack of three boxes, but they don’t have it today.
Mommy: Why don’t you get three boxess then?
Daddy: No. They don’t have the right ones.
Mommy: What’s wrong with these?
Daddy: They are out of the green ones.
Mommy: They’re out of green tissue boxes? That is how you decide on your tissues? The BOXES have to be green?
Daddy: I don’t ask for much. Can’t a man have tissue boxes of the right color? Maddy can have the blue one I just got.
They say you learn something new about your marriage every day.
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05.18.07
Posted in Misc at 9:08 pm by tina
I did one of the nicest things for myself today: got my Lasik (left eye) and Lasek (right eye) at Duke
Dr Carlson said that I was the best patient of the day. I did put up a great front. The truth is….The feeling of my left eye being sucked up and the imagery of my right eye being burned and scraped nearly freaked me out. If the whole procedure lasted any longer than what it took (probably less than 5 minutes total, including me being transferred to another room since I was doing two different surgeries), I would have jumped up and screamed.
Then everything was too bright and I was tearing and I couldn’t open my eyes… Daddy was such a darling and he had to drive to three pharmacies before finding the specific perscriptions for me.
I crashed in bed and practically passed out. I could still feel the way the doctor scraped in my eyes and squirted cold medicine and my eye ball being sucked out of its comfortable spot.
Then I woke up two hours later, and I can SEE.
The right eye will still take weeks before it gets totally healed, but I CAN SEE without my glasses/contact lens… and that’s something I haven’t been able to do for most of my life!
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